Opinions on manual gun cocking?

[OnlyRazor]

So I should mannualy reload a gun with my mouse? Yeah that is so realistic

Yeah, I know, right? In real life, I just press that handy 'R' key and the gun does the reloading for me.

[metalcraze]

They don't have to animate cocking for Community Alpha you know.
Just add it as a gameplay element and if community will truly like it - animate it later. There still will be like half of a year until the game is released and I doubt it will be released this year.
There is always a delay with major ArmA releases.

[Max Power]

I think it would be nice to differentiate a dry reload procedure from a tactical reload. Press-to-cock (lol) would be an option for doing this. I really liked the way reloads were done in Infiltration.

But there is another thing to consider. The soldier model's animations are not the same thing as the gun's animations, in the current way BIS does its proxy weapons. It's not like most FPS's where you have two hands and a gun to animate. The soldier's animation is done with rtms and the weapon's animations are done with cfgAnimations. Gun animations actually require a new animation class for every different movement in the animation. I think it would be very difficult to get the bolt animation, animated with lines of code, to match up with the rtm animation, captured with a motion capture set and then tuned in Maya (evidence strongly suggests). I think there would have to be a change in that system... but maybe there is already? BIS said something about a new way of animating.

I guess even a tool that translates animations in Maya into cfgAnimations classes would help.

[InstaGoat]

I think it would be nice to differentiate a dry reload procedure from a tactical reload. Press-to-cock (lol) would be an option for doing this. I really liked the way reloads were done in Infiltration.

But there is another thing to consider. The soldier model's animations are not the same thing as the gun's animations, in the current way BIS does its proxy weapons. It's not like most FPS's where you have two hands and a gun to animate. The soldier's animation is done with rtms and the weapon's animations are done with cfgAnimations. Gun animations actually require a new animation class for every different movement in the animation. I think it would be very difficult to get the bolt animation, animated with lines of code, to match up with the rtm animation, captured with a motion capture set and then tuned in Maya (evidence strongly suggests). I think there would have to be a change in that system... but maybe there is already? BIS said something about a new way of animating.

I guess even a tool that translates animations in Maya into cfgAnimations classes would help.

I hope so. Otherwise, the new reload animations will look as silly as they do in the E3 trailer (where they show a reload of an EBR, with the correct hand movements, but the magazine just teleports in and out, so the hands are actually empty). Which would be a shame, because the new reloading animations already look beautiful.

[kylania]

Yeah, I know, right? In real life, I just press that handy 'R' key and the gun does the reloading for me.

I was driving once and actually tried to press m to bring up the map to see which way I had to turn at an upcoming intersection. Just reached in front of the steering wheel and tried to press the 'm' button where the keyboard would have been. So embarrassing. My friend was like "Why'd you just poke the steeringwheel?"

[OnlyRazor]

I was driving once and actually tried to press m to bring up the map to see which way I had to turn at an upcoming intersection. Just reached in front of the steering wheel and tried to press the 'm' button where the keyboard would have been. So embarrassing. My friend was like "Why'd you just poke the steeringwheel?"

Usually, when I want to unload my bags, I always kneel down and expect a 'Gear' screen to pop up.

[JdB]

I mean, what benefit to gameplay is there in NOT cocking your weapon, for example?

There is one advantage that I can think of for not playing (part of) an animation(cycle) automatically but rather when the shooter wants to, and that is when operating a bolt action sniper rifle. Movement can give away the shooter's position so not reloading immediately after firing can be an advantage. In SP that's not much of an issue since the Ai can spot you anyway, but it could be an advantage in MP against other human opponents. Of course that's a very specific situation, and after a few minutes of thought I haven't come up with another example ... and it's questionable whether ArmA3 will even have any bolt-action weapons.

[Panda_pl]

when operating a bolt action sniper rifle. Movement can give away the shooter's position so not reloading immediately after firing can be an advantage.

I once asked somebody and was told in those situations you'd just reach under your rifle with your supporting hand and cover the bolt handle and your right hand before firing.

[Max Power]

I think more or less the gameplay benefit of having such a feature would be to differentiate between different modes of firing. I guess you're adding a click to the whole firing procedure. I don't think there's much decision making involved. Under most circumstances there would be little reason not to chamber another round unless you needed one or both of your hands for something else, or maybe your rifle was under water or mud and moving the action would risk fouling stuff, or maybe it would be unsafe to do so.

[Das Attorney]

There is one advantage that I can think of for not playing (part of) an animation(cycle) automatically but rather when the shooter wants to, and that is when operating a bolt action sniper rifle. Movement can give away the shooter's position so not reloading immediately after firing can be an advantage. In SP that's not much of an issue since the Ai can spot you anyway, but it could be an advantage in MP against other human opponents. Of course that's a very specific situation, and after a few minutes of thought I haven't come up with another example ... and it's questionable whether ArmA3 will even have any bolt-action weapons.

The only other thing I can think of is if it's a 'press and hold' until the bolt has chambered another round and locked down safely. If you let go too early and pull the trigger, it's a face full of bolt.

Not sure if people would like that as a gameplay thing, but it would weed out premature shooters lol.