Rational for aim assist

@sammyr0cks said in Rational for aim assist:

I'm curious as to the rational for putting in aim assist for controller players. Safer Seas is coming soon, so for those who don't want to fight, they have a safe haven. We have split servers now, so if controller players don't want to run into PC players, they can opt out of that. Considering those two factors, what is the reason for aim assist? Is it to force more naval and less hand to hand? That's the only reasonable excuse I can come up with.

There are plenty of controller players on PC, like me, who don't have the option to join controller only servers.

@needsmokes Xbox controller player here and unfortunately not been able to test it yet because I can't find the right area in the settings to configure it as on the release notes:

Players using Aim Assist have access to a range of settings to refine the sensitivity of both Hip Fire and Aim Down Sights independently, and can also choose whether this applies to members of an Alliance to better configure the experience to their liking.

@sammyr0cks so those who want to fight need to continue to be disadvantaged? Sorry no. PC player ego feeling a bit damaged today?

@squoozles same place you adjust your settings for controller, not the input section. (Can’t remember what it’s called sorry)

@tesiccl I’m a controller player. Please don’t try to turn this into something it’s not. I’m trying to have a rational conversation about a major change to the game.

@tesiccl I've been all through the settings so many times and can't find a single thing relating to aim assist or the adjustments for it. Might be going a bit mad.

@squoozles go to “input” under settings, and scroll down

@squoozles sorry, Sammy is right, I couldn’t remember exactly where it was.

Lol they added aim assist huh?

Makes more sense in other fps games with faster movement and locational damage, when you have a mixed pool of controller and pc players. In SoT, it doesn't matter whether you shoot someone center-of-mass, in the head, or in the toes. Or even miss sometimes.

On that note, have there been any improvements to hitreg recently? Wonder if it'll be more noticeable now when folks hit their shots that do no damage.

Imo, don't think it's necessary for SoT, not surprised they added it.

-Controller, PC player.

@sammyr0cks @Tesiccl Ok, it's not me. Just watched a YT vid of someone playing with the aim assist settings and they are actually not on my screen, they just don't exist. My input options end at Analogue Sticks. Xbox Series S with supplied wireless controller, so that's weird. Raised a ticket. Feeling slightly less mad. Cheers pals.

So, I played SoT for the first time in months last night...

It was a chill sesh, just some FoTD stacking (I guess for the CoF?), minimal PvP.

Until I was reminded of this thread, when one of the lantern skellies strafed around me and my POV zoomed out of my control to snap onto it, I thought I was missing shots because I was just washed. I am lol. But not that washed.

After messing around with the aim assist on (~10-15 min), I decided to turn it off. And then I started hitting my shots.

SoT doesn't use hitscan. We have bullet projectiles. A bullet's velocity and drop off has to be taken into account, in addition to, not just where the target is, but where they are moving to.

With aim assist, I was finding that when I'd aim to where I needed to aim, the game would "correct" my aim (incorrectly ofc), directly onto the target. Not accounting for the target's movement/trajectory or bullet velocity. And when dealing with multiple targets in front of me, the game wouldn't know which skelly I intended to aim at, and would often snap onto the wrong one.

This resulted in a very stuttery experience with my POV jittering onto skellies. After turning the setting off, I was able to actually pick my targets and lead my shots. It felt much smoother.

Or as smooth as it could feel with all the new hard-coded set backs to sprinting during combat. Wasn't even trying to quick swap. Felt delays in simply ADSing a weapon immediately out of a sprint. Which brings me to my closing thoughts.

I've seen folks go back and forth on the idea of SoT being an FPS game. Some folks latch onto the fundamental "FP" aspect of the game, along with the fact that we do "S"at things. While some folks neglect that outright, and latch onto the nuances that make it the cringey term the devs have coined: "SWAG".

I'm saying it's probably a good thing that SoT was never taken seriously as an FPS. Despite the fact that it birthed a comp-PvP community (which made more sense when we had a PvP mode, R.I.P Arena), the game was always plagued with bad hit registration, bugs and exploits, with an anticheat that's as useful as a drunk doorman at a nightclub. It shouldn't come as a surprise that "aim assist" was just one more thing on the long list of things that Rare has fumbled over the years in this FPS SWAG.

@theblackbellamy

I agree that the default aim assist settings are far too strong, even for anyone semi-experienced with using a controller to aim.

It might be good for folks who actually struggle with aiming in the game (talking about super casual gamers and those with difficulties), but I expect most experienced controller players are going to turn the settings right down or off - especially the rotational aim assist. A tiny bit of ADS aim assist to slow the camera, but not snap, is helpful for controller deadzone compensation, but otherwise I don't see the appeal myself.

I think any concerns that KBM players have that this gives controller players godlike powers in combat, don't have any real merit and are quite naive to how aim assist actually works.

@tallbread759057

Absolutely rotational assists are the more annoying thing for experienced players, yeah. The ADS aim assist will seem okay at first, but the more you encounter groups of enemies and try to pick out, say, a gunpowder skelly among them, the more you'll want to turn that down as well. A little bit is fine for that slow down, and can be helpful, but I found the default more of hindrance than a help in those scenarios.

But everyone is going to be different and will find their own balance for whatever guns they use. I have everything off except ADS aim assist on 3, I think, which helps when I'm fine tuning EoR shots after scoping.