Ballistics

## Introduction

Shot ballistics were in the game very early on, based on the following:

* The model implemented is based on proper real life physics. External factors such as gravity, wind and air density are taken into account. Gravity pulls the projectile down, wind pushes it in the direction of the wind and air density slows it down.
* Ammunition specific variables such as projectile drag coefficient and silhouette area are used. The effect of these variables is that a large non-aerodynamic projectile such as an arrow is more affected by wind and air resistance than a small aerodynamic one such as a .243 bullet.
* Another ballistics feature is weapon zeroing. The bullet will first rise above where you aim and then pass through the corsair at the exact distance at which the rifle is zeroed. This means that if the scope is zeroed at 100m and your target is 100m away, you will hit exactly where you aim. Bellow 100m you will hit high and above 100m you will hit low. Just like in real life.

## First Major Update

A first major update was made October 5, 2011.

* See more details here

## Second Major Update

A second major update was added with  this game update on July 29, 2014.

The following information was published by EW.

### Kinetic Energy

The primary change for all these weapons is that they now use kinetic energy derived from our advanced trajectory system as the basis for their damage & penetration calculations instead of the old legacy system of linearly reducing velocity that did not take into account things like air resistance, bullet shape and weight.

This system has been applied to most new weapons since the release of the  9.3x62 Rifle, but until now there has not been enough time to convert the old weapons, as a lot of research and experimentation was needed to make sure we got things right.

### Air Resistance

While this change mostly affects damage & penetration due to the fact that all weapons already use the advanced trajectory system for things like bullet drop, there have been some additional minor tweaks, primarily involving adding more precision to how air resistance is calculated. We expect that it will be mostly noticeable for large caliber weapons such as  Handguns,  Shotguns using  Slug and the  Muzzleloaders, although as zeroing has been updated to compensate for the changes in bullet drop it may only be noticeable at very long distances.

### Rifles

Penetration and base damage mostly remain the same as before for most rifles as they worked fairly well with the linear system, however, you can expect somewhat more base damage from  .300 &  .270 rifles, which in turn means quicker deaths at the cost of  Trophy Integrity (better reflecting caliber & bullet weight).

### Handguns, Muzzleloader Round Ball, Slug & Buckshot

Previously these weapons had very high base damage and very low penetration. This has now been reversed to reflect how they commonly work in real life. The result is that poorly placed shots become less lethal while well-placed shoots are more likely to result in things like double-lung shots vs.  permitted species. It also means that it should be easier to get good  Trophy Integrity values using these weapons as this number is dependent on base damage.

### Legacy Weapons

So, are all weapons now converted to this new glorious system? Sadly no, all arrow based weapons still use the old linear system as well as both  12 GA Birdshot and  20 GA Birdshot. But, the good news is that we are currently looking into converting these weapons as well and that by doing so we may finally be able to address some of the realism problems that have been plaguing these weapons since they were first introduced to the game.

## Minor Update to Arrows

Another update was added with  this game update on September 4, 2014.

Release notes:

Note that there is still a notable effect (to arrows) during bad weather conditions (rain / overcast) but offset is now decimeters rather than meters at normal shooting distances (< 40 m). To increase your chances during these conditions it's advisable to avoid shooting in crosswind, especially if using a low velocity bow such as a longbow / recurve which are more affected by wind than compounds & crossbows.