What is a hitscan weapon in first person shooters

[Tonec]

Someone recently asked me this and I couldn't give them an exact answer. Anyone know what this means and what kind of weapon would be classified as hitscan.

 

[DO97]

A hitscan weapon is a weapon, usually a machinegun of some sort, that hits it's target the instant you pull the trigger. The railgun from Quake 2 and Quake 3 is a perfect example. Compare it to a rocket launcher where it takes a certain amount of time for the rocket to get to it's target. That's called a "projectile" weapon.

dave

 

[Descend492]

The sniper rifle in UT is definitely not hitscan, because you need to freaking lead those freaking people a whole freaking lot. It's impossible to hit moving targets with that crap. What a pain. (you can tell I just logged off UT, and was semi-unsuccessful)

 

[DO97]

It is hitscan. It might not seem like when you got lots of latency. I"ve played UT plenty of times on a LAN with 0-20 pings. I can tell.

dave

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I think a lot of the charm of Counter-Strike is that ALL the firearms are hitscan. I pretty well hate Q3A because all the weapons have a certain amount of delay built in (or at least they feel like they do).

 

[piku]

I hate how all the rockets are so damn slow in the newer games. In Quake 1 it was so fricken fast and so awesome. Then it was met with suckitude and blows ass in UT and Q3A. Though in Quake 3 its not as bad...

 

[Pretender]

Descend: It is hitscan. Just because a weapon is hitscan doesn't mean if your crosshairs are on the target it's a guaranteed hit. There are still things like latency to deal with. In single player games though, those kills you were cheated of due to lag would probably have been yours.

 

[ApacheXMD]

piku: that's called weapons balancing..
in q1, if you had a rocket and your opponent had a db shotgun, your ass was toast.
in q3, a shotgun is a very formidable weapon to have.

-patchy

 

[Pretender]

Piku:
in UT rockets don't suck...especially if you use them in the newbie way (load up 5 rockets at once). As for them going slow...you can't exactly have a weapon which would kill you in 1 hit being a hitscan type weapon.

 

[Stosh]

In UT, the Sniper Rifle and the Minigun are Hitscan weapons. They don't actually travel from source to target. They are instantly there. (It is online latentcy that causes you to have to lead your target) The Rocket Laucher is very effective in UT, if you know how to use it.

You can load up to 6 rockets, fire them in a spread or tight formation. You can also get a "lock on" with the Rocket Launcher.

If you feel it's too slow, you can also enable "Instant Fire" where you can fire single rockets at a quicker pace, (This disables the ability to "load up" multiple rockets.)

Alt-Fire with the Rocket Launcher gives you the ability to fire grenades. The same rules apply. You can launch up to 6 grenades in either a spread or tight formation.

Please do not underestimate the weapons of UT. I believe they are the most balanced weapons in any first person shooter.

Pretender, I am sorry, but the Sniper rifle is a hitscan weapon and I've gotten MANY one shot kills with it. You aim right at their throat. HEADSHOT!!! INSTANT KILL!!!!!!

 

[Descend492]

I know the sniper rifle is a hitscan weapon and that online latency is what causes me to have to lead the target. I just needed a way to whine and complain after getting slaughtered that day.

 

[Pretender]

Stosh: 2 things:
a) Rocket launcher can only load 5 rockets/grenades. If ya don't believe me, watch the ammo count as you load them.
b) It was descend, not me, who said sniper rifle wasn't hitscan.

 

[Stosh]

Pretender, Sorry for the error

Regarding # of rockets, now that I think about it, I don't think I ever actually counted them. However I contacted my sources at http://forums.planetunreal.com and they assured me that the number is 6.

These people are some of the best UT players I've seen. You can be sure the information is accurate.

In the original Unreal, the number was 5.

 

[Pretender]

Holy crap I just realized it is 6! In the beginning I would count how many I see, and it looks like 5, so I instinctually would release fire when 5 were completed to save a few milliseconds. But if you count at the moment they launch it turns out to be 6...and if you hold on to fire they'll launch at intervals of 6 ammo. Damn, and to think for all these months I was counting wrong.

 

[Descend492]

Stosh - I take it you know a bit about the UT forums. Would it be bad if I registered myself as over 21? I'm 18, but that whole parent/guardian schtuff is a pain in the ass.

 

[Stosh]

It's funny. I've been lurking at the PU forums for the last month or so. My gameplay has improved tremendously. I mostly play CTF on the Kentucky Fried UT server. I usually kick a$$ on that one. What else has helped me is playing against a lot of clan members. Very humbling experience. I pretty much get slaughtered, but I'm learning a lot. I can translocate pretty damn fast now. On Hydro16, I can get to the enemy flag room within 15 seconds. (From my flag room)

Some Clan servers I play on.

SwineOnline - Don't know the IP
Roosters Roost - 208.7.42.3

 

[Descend492]

How would I go about getting to the kentucky fried UT server?

 

[Stosh]

I found it in the ingame browser, then saved it to my favorites list. I'm at work now, but when I get home I could look up the IP address and post it here. Another place to find servers is IRC #planetunreal.

It's the ingame chat for UT.

 

[Descend492]

haha - so you're hard at work, eh?

 

[Stosh]

Cush gig, can't complain. Saw one person today at work. Talked to a couple others on the phone. Here's that address for KFried UT. (209.96.160.26) To access it, just go to multiplayer/open location

I connect to an ISP located in Newport News VA, but dial into Wash D.C. I'm not sure what kind of pings you'll get, but it works pretty well for me.

This server use some custom maps, any maps that you don't have you can get at http://www.planetunreal.com/nalicity or http://www.fileleech.com You should make sure you have the bonus pack installed.

If you have any questions, come back here or go to http://forums.planetunreal.com before 2:30pm on weekdays. I'm usually lurking in UT or Offtopic.