An FPS Without Hitscan: Could It Work?

[Tsar Butterfly]

Could an FPS work if it ONLY had projectiles with a travel time instead of the light speed hitscan bullets present in almost every shooter? I'm sure a game like this exists, but if it does it clearly hasn't gotten very big.

Ignoring issues like screwing over people with slow Internet (not a problem if it's a single player game) and making the game laggier, could an FPS be mechanically balanced around this? Shots would be harder to hit and would require a sense of prediction, and dodging and positioning would have a greater impact on the game. Due to the difficulty of landing such shots, they could deal high damage, or even be an instakill. Think of how Dark Souls requires timing when you swing your weapon and every enemy can be dodged and defeated without taking any damage provided you're good enough.

I understand a lot of arena shooters have projectile weapons, but none of them are free from hitscan entirely. Imagine a single player game where you have incredibly low health and aren't a bullet sponge like most modern shooters, but every projectile that enemies fire can be dodged with the right amount of skill. As the game goes on, projectiles could get faster or could be coming from multiple directions. Imagine a multiplayer game where success is not just dependent on reaction times and twitch aiming, but on working as a team to fire in unpredictable patterns. I think it would be really cool and could bring something fresh to such a bloated genre.

[628]

Dice: We've already made them since 2002.

[Mikasa Ackerman]

Tsar Butterfly eredeti hozzászólása:

Dominic eredeti hozzászólása:

seems interesting.

As a side thing though. I noticed projectile weapons in games mostly outdo the hitscan one in games if they are both present. Sub Machine Gun from Team Fortress 2 comes to mind. People can shrug off 20 or so shots from it while if they are shot with a rocket they are ether dead or almost dead.

The SMG from TF2 is a bad example. It's meant to be a low damage back-up weapon for killing weakened targets or people that are too close for you to reliably hit them with your rifle. Scout is a hitscan class and his Scattergun is one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

i know this is an old comment, but imo the smg is meant to fninish off enemies if you failed to kill them with the huntsman

[Manic Jorge]

Blockland

[aG| Wardog]

Solid necro lol.

Battlefield has had projectiles since Bad Company, if not before. I’m surprised this was even a topic in the first place lol.

[Sealith]

Also jumping on the necro wagon because I’m surprised to see Planetside only mentioned once. It’s been doing exactly this for years. Everything is projectile based. SMGs, AA towers, Snipers, all with their own variable bullseye drop, muzzle velocity, and damage drop off. It’s taxing as hell on systems but good luck finding another game where you get to see hundreds of players firing thousands of bullets, rockets, and shells at each other in a huge fireworks show. You have to lead your targets on everything depending how far they are and how fast your gun puts rounds down range, and bullet drop makes sniping a chore at >500m.

[green]

ADF-11F "Raven" eredeti hozzászólása:

Solid necro lol.

[Daxank]

As far as I remember, Battlefield uses projectiles, not hitscan

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

The Sniper series...?

[Incarnate]

With bullet time it could totally work. Like F.E.A.R. for example.

[TwinEdgedBastard]

ADF-11F "Raven" eredeti hozzászólása:

Solid necro lol.

Battlefield has had projectiles since Bad Company, if not before. I’m surprised this was even a topic in the first place lol.

I'm pretty sure we were talking about something more on the lines of Quake where there's an emphasis on movement and the projectiles moved slow enough that you can see them. And besides Battlefields projectiles only really matter at mid-long to long range since they move so fast anyway

[TheRandomGuy]

Battlefield and I think ARMA use projectile bullets. Both of them also use bullet drop as well, the further your target is the more you'd have to raise your aim to hit them, made sniping at long distance actually somewhat difficult IMO.

[Squggs]

You should look into Spellbreak, it existed in alpha since like 2018 when you made this post but it just got released as a FTP last week. Every primary attack is a projectile. It has some serious issues when trying to clean up kills and rather than attacks doing high damage since they are hard to hit most if not all the attacks are low damage. Frankly its a mess and convinces me a movement shooter cannot exist and be balanced with no hitscan weapons. Give it a try though since its free.

[Daxank]

Squggs eredeti hozzászólása:

You should look into Spellbreak, it existed in alpha since like 2018 when you made this post but it just got released as a FTP last week. Every primary attack is a projectile. It has some serious issues when trying to clean up kills and rather than attacks doing high damage since they are hard to hit most if not all the attacks are low damage. Frankly its a mess and convinces me a movement shooter cannot exist and be balanced with no hitscan weapons. Give it a try though since its free.

You really had to necro this thread just to talk about a trashy BR Epic exclusive free 2 play?

[Incarnate]

You mean like the original Quake?

With exception to the lighting gun and shotguns, all those weapons and enemy attacks could be dodged.

[Asparagus]

Incarnate eredeti hozzászólása:

You mean like the original Quake?

With exception to the lighting gun and shotguns, all those weapons and enemy attacks could be dodged.

Yea Unreal tournament 2004 came to my mind as well. Those games where almost only projectile weapons with very few exceptions. Both series have a recent entry with Quake Champions and Unreal Tournament (no subtitle).