That is correct. All weapons have a predefined zero, which means that you will have to aim bellow the target if you are closer than the zero range and above it if you are further away. Rifles typically have a longer zero distance than short range weapons like handguns.
Thank you very mutch for the replay and the explanation. So this is close to the reality. I think the rifles in GZ are set to about 300m which is quite far. Probably most players use them between 100-200 m. Do you think it is possible to adjust this zero distance to something like that if it is too complex to make it adjustable for the players?
Probably many players, including me, would be very thankful for this change.
I don’t think any weapon in the game should be zeroed to more than 200 m so if that is not the case we might have a bug. Making zero adjustable by the player is not trivial, but it is something that we might look into if we see that there is a lot of demand for it within the community.
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An adjustable zero is in my opinion not necessary. In other games like Battlefield this feature exists but very few players use it. It is probably better to have a fixed zero at a shorter range (like 50 m) and get used to it. So dont waste time into this.
Probably many players use rifles at ranges like Mat here at 9:56:
What would you say, what distance is this? 50-75 meters? It would be really good if you could adjust the zero that such good aimed shots from Mat do hit
theHunter: CotW has the zeroing and it’s working perfectly. Of course, this would need a proper rangefinder binoculars or scope to go with that.
Ehm… I just have to mention that you could freely adjust your zero in the game “Delta Force” back in 1998, so I’m sure you could work something out if you wanted. 
Or just do 3 preset zero ranges like in COTW.
Or just leave it. Works fine for me as it is. 
If they leave it as it is, I suggest to mention the zero range for each gun. For example it could get mentioned in the gun’s description text.
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Thanks for your addition to this report. I never felt that the ballistics were off in this game, but hearing that they are fully simulated and are preset to possibly really long range does confirm one of my hypothesis for this issue. I agree with your earlier statement that the zeroing for all rifles should probably be 50 meters and then everyone can get acquainted with the bullet drop from there.
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To those of you suggesting to zero a rifle at 50 m, look at this:
(This image has nothing to do with GZ, and sorry about the non-metric numbers.)
In this image you can see the bullet’s flight path begins at - 1,5 inches (- 3,5 cm) under the line of aim, this represents the height between the middle of the barrel and the middle of the scope’s reticle. So you see the bullet needs to fly above your line of aim in order to get as far as you want to set your zero, since gravity affects it right out of the muzzle. If the scope and barrel’s lines were perfectly parallel, you see what would happen, right?
A chart like this of course varies a lot, and how much depends on a lot of factors. Simply put, using a high velocity ammunition, and mounting your scope as low as possible, helps to reduce the bullet’s rise mid-way to zero.
In this example you can see that in order to get at 300 yd (275 m) zero, the bullet rise is almost + 5 inches (+ 25 cm) above the line of aim, at roughly 170 yd. Enough to miss a Runner’s fuel tank, wouldn’t you agree?
@Dantec @Vatruvius
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I am not doubting the precise nature of having to account for bullet drop when firing at long range targets. The bullet drop is the whole point. Zeroing the rifle simply adjusts the scope of your rifle to hit targets dead center of the cross hairs at that zeroing distance. Targets further away from the zero distance will fall below the cross hair and thus mil dots in the scope will have to be used. The problem arises when the rifle is zeroed at a long distance like say 300 meters. In this case any target you shoot at closer than 300 meters the shot will land high. Depending on the engagement distance the bullet could rise quite a bit. I would say my average engagement range for runners and hunters right now is about 50-75 meters as anything further than that the bullet “rise” is too drastic for me to consistently account for. It is far easier to adjust for a standard bullet drop than a rise above the cross hair, a drop towards the cross hair, and a drop below the cross hair. When the zeroing distance is at 50 meters, pretty standard for rifles, you only have to account for the bullet drop below the cross hair as the effects of gravity on the bullet in those 50 meters is pretty negligible when talking about rifle rounds.
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Yes that is how the bullet drop works as i understood. The image showes it pretty good.
I still think it would be better if rifles are zeroed to 50 m.
Hello everyone,
It has been a long while since I last played Generation Zero and I decided to try out some of the new additions and see what changes have been made. Unfortunately, I am still experiencing this infuriating bullet rise issue.
Whatever is the cause of the bullet rise, since there could be multiple causes as discussed earlier, this really frustrates the ever living **** out of me. Either the game needs to incorporate a zeroing feature for scopes or adjust all weapons to zero at 50 meters. This change should be simple enough to make and not take much time to adjust unless the issue is fundamental in how rifle ballistics work in-game.
I am curious how many people are still experiencing this issue. I get the feeling that this only effects a small portion of players and I do not understand why it is so repeatable for those of us that are effected. Restarting saves, downloading updates, and reinstalling the whole game never seems to effect this constant in rifle ballistics, at least for me. Aiming below your target is so unnatural to me and since the bullet rise is more significant at longer range it becomes hysterically difficult to compensate.
Let me know if you still experience this issue and how you think this problem should be addressed. I recently took the latest game survey and noticed one of the feature options we the players could ask the developers to focus on is ballistics so I am curious what that means. Will it fix this particular issue and/or add weapon zeroing? Write down what you think below, I want to see what all of you have to say on this possible new feature.
Vatruvius
I don’t think this is a good idea. Especially rifles and especially sniper rifles are made for targets further away then just 50m. In this case almost a Klaucke would be enough.
I use the rifles as my main weapon, usually the Älgstudsare although it can only carry four rounds. I’m adjusted to the zero of the weapon so that it’s no problem to aim at enemies really far away. But then I have the Marksman specialization active. With weapon sway it is really hard to aim at large distances.
Can’t say I have noticed this, but then again, I only use the Exp. PVG90 and none of the other rifles
A 100 meter zero would be fine too. Whatever zero prevents any perceived bullet rise will work for me. That or the ability to change the zeroing of my rifle/optic would be good too. The Älgstudsare is my preferred rifle as well when I have the ammo for it.
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Yeah, the .50 caliber rifle has almost no perceptible bullet rise so this discussion is really about the other two rifles.
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Is this a bug?
I thought it was how the game was now, it´s been that way almost a year I think?
I prefer the “old way”, feels stupid to aim lower, instead of higher.
I played Generation Zero since it was still in Early Access and I have never been able to aim normally with rifles. From my conversation with NJR87 up above, I believe the bullet drop works fine. It is just that the rifle and optic is zeroed at such a far distance that the majority of people will experience a bullet rise rather than a bullet drop due to the distances they engage machines. This is not technically a bug, but it does effect players negatively so the feature or issue could be redesigned or tweaked to better the player experience.
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You left out one key aspect: it only betters the experience for those players who are using .243 and .270 at distances they are not meant to be used, at roughly 50m mark.
Those players that are actually using .243 and .270 within their intended range, about 200m mark and more, would get their experience ruined, when the zero is set to 50m.
I’ve used both weapons as they are designed, 200+m range and i haven’t had no issues hitting my targets. For 50m mark, players are better off using SMGs, since these are intended for close-combat.
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I doubt that adjustable zero range will ever be implemented in Generation Zero.
That being said, what would be the ideal range to zero the rifles at?
If you saw the chart I posted in comment nr. 30, you’ll see that “bullet rise” is a very real thing when zeroing at very far ranges. In addition to that chart, let’s take an example of .270 Winchester ballistics:
000 m / - 4 cm, the scope’s height above the barrel
100 m / zero range
150 m / - 3 cm, bullet drop
200 m / - 12 cm, bullet drop
250 m / - 25 cm, bullet drop
300 m / - 42 cm, bullet drop
350 m / - 65 cm, bullet drop
400 m / - 95 cm, bullet drop
So GZ has simulated ballistics, but in-game they’re way too “flat” to be realistic…
And considering these numbers, what range should the .270 be zeroed at, if you could choose?
You can see that up to 150 meters, a caliber like that shoots very flat + - 4 or 5 cm is all you need to worry about, at most! Sorry, but having a zero range of 50 meters is simply ridiculous!
No matter how you look at it, short or long range zero, you have to compensate for either bullet rise or bullet drop if you can’t adjust your zero in a hurry, or at all…
If I could choose I’d pick a 150 meter zero range, and have the devs revamp the scopes with “mil dot” or similar reticles. This way the players could learn how to use their scopes to compensate for bullet drop at long ranges, and wouldn’t need to think much about it at short to medium ranges.
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