Sniping "Lock On" way off

[Iggy Wolf]

I'm a Sniper Elite veteran, and I've never had a problem in previous sniper elite games getting shots, especially on Sniper Elite difficulty. Aiming/compensating for wind, bullet drop and gravity was fairly simple but this game's mechanics seems to have changed it, and after practicing on the shooting range, I noticed something weird. Why is that in order to hit my target at ranges further than 50 M, I have to aim BELOW the target?

That makes no sense! Using the diamond marker, I noticed that simply aiming at the target or above it shows a miss. Apparently, I have to aim LOWER than the body, and it somehow instantly "locks on", showing a red square around the target to indicate that I'm now aiming at him. That makes no sense.

Shouldn't the shots be determined by the position of my reticle, REGARDLESS of the target's distance? Yes, obviously using the range adjuster means I simply don't have to aim as as high. Or at least, that should be the case in theory. Instead, it indicates that I have to aim LOWER and BELOW the head and body in order for the reticle to line up with the target.

That practically defies bullet physics, since bullets travel foward and DOWN, not up. It's basically telling me that aiming BELOW the head somehow magically makes the bullet aim at or ABOVE the head. If it matters, my controller is also plugged in. Is the Xbox controller possibly interferring with the aiming reticle?

[Rydall]

There is a major update out on the 18th , and there's new AI and updates to the game, so maybe some of these issues will be addressed with then new authentic plus mode?

[Arya]

A quick and dirty solution would be to fire from the shoulder at 50 metres and below, or use a different weapon. At 50 metres you're at the absolute ideal range for a Webley and just beyond perfect for a Luger or Tokarev.

[RedDoom]

A few things about the 'Lock on' you mentioned.

It's works like that to fix the problems people had with the aim diamond when moving the aim from an enemy to some distant piece of scenery next to them.
In that case the ballistics calculations the diamond used would travel a lot further and as a result, drop a lot too which made it jump around and harder for players to aim.

The lock on targeting system works like this:
When you aim the bullet or crosshair at an enemy it makes them your current target and the lock on HUD stuff gets rendered around them.
This then limits the range at which the aim diamond uses in it's calculations to the distance of the targeted enemy, so aiming around them doesn't make the diamond jump.

If you aim above the target and the bullet is going to go over the top of a target, it's possible that it'll still drop enough so that the diamond is rendered over the target even though the bullet is miles behind.
In this case the diamond will be rendered grey, and moving your aim downwards will cause the target to be locked on which might be what's happening in your case.

Or you might have the range adjustment turned on which means you have to aim below the reticle for targets closer than what you've got it set to.
For example if it's set to 100m and you're aiming at a 50m target you'll have to aim the centre of the scope below where you want to hit.

Something to remember though, the aim diamond DOES NOT affect the bullet ballistics in any way at all, it's purely an indicator of exactly where the bullet's going to go.

[Iggy Wolf]

Ahh, that makes more sense. I actually noticed that. Yeah, I understand it now cause the previous Sniper Elite games never had range adjustment, so we always had to compensate by simply aiming above the target and to the side for wind adjustment. The diamond thing I figured out, although it takes all the fun out of aiming.

Problem is, without it, it's bunch of trial and error even figuring out whether I'm aiming at the target or not and if my bullet won't simply go all the way off to the side. In previous Sniper Elites, I only had to worry about whether I'd get a headshot.

I was sure about body shots but they would require more than one bullet. At least the game's new melee kill system makes it so that you don't have to try to kill everybody with a sniper.