What Will the Bullet Effects Be in Game?

[RoyalAce]

I know from an earlier post you are probably going to add particle effects but what will entail if a soldier is gutshot by a minié ball? Will he fall screaming to the ground and lay there for a while before dying? (I know in the civil war surgeons rarely operated on gutshot soldiers as they died more than amputees) Will a 12lb cannonball take off a soldiers leg? Or will you be more reserved with gore and injuries and have everything except leg and arm shots be 1 hit kills.

Sorry for the morbidity, just wanted to get my point across :)

[Dipington]

hmmm. i'm sure they wouldnt fall over screaming, seeing that the devs might not know how to make that work and tell the difference from a cannon ball or shrapnel. They would probably be hit but im guessing it would be more of a grunt and seeing red on the outlines of your eyes. It could affect the movement and the accuracy when you get shot since it would hurt and sting like a s.o.b.

[BloodBeag]

There's being realistic and then there's being too realistic and making the game good for sociopaths. In the NaS mod for mount & blade, sometimes soldiers will scream for a minute before dying and sometimes you could hear them drowning in their own blood. This is pretty dodgy but not that bad, the opposite end of te spectrum which i'm sure some of the circle jerkers on this forum would like to see is soldiers taking realistic periods of time to die so if they got shot in the stomach they just lay there crouched over for hours before dying or they have their legs blown off by an artillary shell and limbs get thrown into the air if a cannon ball goes through a column of men.
I think you just need to remember that these battles actually happened and I would have thought you were lacking in some empathy if you thought it would be "kewl" to have some 19 year old soldier caling out for his momma and clutching a photo while he dies painfully because that stuff actually happened.

[Dipington]

They are trying to make it historical as possible, so i wouldnt be surprised if it looked like hell on earth when it comes out. If people are way too easy to puke when they see gore then they have their options.

[AwkwardPandabear]

Honestly I would be fine having them grunt and fall over. It doesn't make a huge difference whether they slowly die and scream, or if they are just killed instantly. It would be cool though if at most a rare amount of soldiers would stay alive for a max of ten seconds, giving people the horror they need, but not overdoing it.

[LTC Philip A. Work]

There's being realistic and then there's being too realistic and making the game good for sociopaths.

What's more sociopathic, showing accurate gore in a game depicting the worst war to ever take place on US soil or playing said game for entertainment, gore or not?

While I agree that the player shouldn't have to lay wounded on the field, having ambient writhing wounded NPCs or bodies would add to the overall historical accuracy. It would probably be impossible to implement accurate damage to the player model (both first person and third) and have a decent player count but I would like to see some form of media get close to depicting the horror of that war. Who knows, maybe HBO will get around to doing a decent miniseries on the war that depicts what is was like instead of just using squibs (ala Gettysburg, Gods and Generals)

[Tomten]

I think having the process of dying take some time is actually a good thing, Red Orchestra 2 does this very good, as sometimes soldiers don't die like in the movies, but instead lies on the ground twitching and screaming. Makes you feel bad and think for a bit. It also conveys the message that war and killing is rather horrible. Action movies and games that have instant death don't convey that message in my opinion.

[TrustyJam]

It's something we've been actively talking about for a while and certainly wants to explore the possibilities at some point.

- Trusty

[Soulfly]

I think having the process of dying take some time is actually a good thing, Red Orchestra 2 does this very good, as sometimes soldiers don't die like in the movies, but instead lies on the ground twitching and screaming. Makes you feel bad and think for a bit. It also conveys the message that war and killing is rather horrible. Action movies and games that have instant death don't convey that message in my opinion.

Killing instantly is indeed unlikely to happen, even a bullet to head is not necessarily lethal. But since you mentioned "death animations" like soldiers lying screaming on the floor....though i dont need such things it would bring some immersion to the game.