Am playing through Medal of Honor: Allied Assault at the moment and it reminded me of something I had a problem with crosshair bloom: I would rather there be a crosshair that was simple and was there just to be a general direction to point at, because if a weapon is going to have spread anyway, best to just point and shoot and not worry about the crosshair expanding.

And there it is.

I would prefer guns to shoot straight, but I can understand why some spread would be desirable, like how in Soldier of Fortune II, I turned inaccuracy off so that recoil would be the main issue, and it kind of makes the micro uzis overpowered because it's an automatic weapon that barely has any recoil. Or maybe aiming is difficult so you need a window of spread so probability is increased by volume of fire.

Since I'm complaining about spread, I hate how games have been designed around iron sights for the longest time so your shots go wide when you're """hip firing""". I'm glad that standard has subsided with differing games now, but it will always be a sore spot for me.

Thoughts?

I prefer crosshair blooms as it gives me an indication of the gun's recoil but it really depends on the game. In general, yay.

I prefer to disable crosshairs whenever possible and just rely on weapon sights (or shoot blindly), so no opinion on the subject :)

I'm a sharpshooter, so a game begins for me when I have enough skills points invested to minimize recoil.

Crouching = good since it reduces spread.


Players who use a gamepad would stand no chance if every shot was 100% aimed at the point where their crosshair points to. Thank [insert deity here] for auto aim and/or spreading.

I tend not to play games that have any need for a crosshair.

Basically, games with guns that I actually play tend to fall into two categories:
1. The game is a 2D action game, and in 2D, it's easy to judge where a bullet is going to go without any sort of crosshair. OR:
2. Rather than controlling the aim directly, whenever you fire a gun, instead of aiming yourself, you choose a target. Then, once the character's turn comes around, the game rolls dice behind the scene, then decides, based on the dice roll and the stats of the attacker and the defender. whether the attack hits or misses.

(Note that 2 is the method used in RPGs with guns such as Wasteland and classic Fallout. while 1 is for games like Contra or (2D) Metroid.)

Yay.

If weapon recoil is part of the game then having the cursor change to reflect such a mechanic is handy. However, i would prefer it if they left a singular dot in the centre of the expanding (blooming) crosshair as a point of reference even though it's got nothing to do with the weapon's current accuracy state.

I rely on crosshairs not just for aiming but for camera direction to avoid major vestibular issues. So I always want a crosshair especially for FPP (and similar) camera perspectives.