Gorman wrote:Predictable and stochastic are different things. Predictability relies on the observer, as you said.
As you said, it is "an average soldier can hit the target only 50 percent of the time". So it is USER BASED, not weapon based. Otherwise we would have a gun on a computer controlled turret to derive the effective range.
In other words, a large portion (I would say the greater portion) of the effective range of the gun is derived from the user's handling of the weapon.
Part of the reason why sniper rifles are so accurate is the way they are held, supported, the way that recoil is absorbed, etc. That is why two snipers both have different effective engagement distances.
Luck in real life is an abstraction of a multitude of factors, it is not truly random.
The greater component is user skill, and that is what we should strive to emulate, not luck. A good player should not be penalized for a bad dice roll.
Sorry, I recalled my "50% effective range" statements because I didn't have a much credible resource.
Hrm, Anyway I didn't say that the scales were more tipped towards luck, of course there is always skill in this game. Reflexes and alertness still make up the game, not just 360-noscopes. Since we cannot have a physics engine that could emulate what goes on inside and outside the gun in real-time to simulate such factors, we could simply chose some sort of randomization that is tight, predictable, and reliable.
It is not truly random, but then we could all agree that all test and trials never come out exactly the same.
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