Call of Duty 4: Modern WarfareWeapons Analysis

A Look At How Range and Player Health Affect Weapon Effectiveness

and Gameplay Balance

-=B2Z=- Scallion

Overview

• Assumptions• Arguments• Principles for Picking Adjustment• Graphical Analysis• Proposal

Assumptions

• All analysis is based on values found in COD4 %game path%\main\iw_11.iwd file

• Ranges are assumed to be in inches (assumption from IW Forums) and have been converted to yards

• Range considerations based on map scaling, .iwd files and gameplay needs; not based on real weapons

Assumptions (ctd)

• Damage values between min and max damage ranges are scaled by a percentile (available on request, found on IW Forums)

• No perks were used for adjustment of values– Juggernaught and Stopping Power cancel each other

out; adjustment based on these places one or the other at advantage to the expense of those not using these perks

• Analysis does not consider explosive weapons; may be included in future work

Arguments

• Normal mode requires an unrealistic number of hits to produce a kill

• Hardcore mode eliminates balance in weapons with (arbitrary?) health selection

• Weapon balance must be restored to make game more enjoyable to players

Adjustment Principles

• Headshots should typically result in a kill• Engagement beyond 40 yds is province of

snipers and allows relaxation of this point• Reasonable limitations for weapon type

should be considered• 2 or 3 shots to kill are reasonable, depending

on weapon type and range• Non-headshots should not typically result in

kill

Analysis

• Unless otherwise stated, graphs assume a non-headshot

• Root data available by request (contact Scallion at b2zclan.com)

• Drop-offs noted in second graph are fairly constant across all graphs; note classes

• Note: This appears to be case if all minimum and maximum damage ranges are equal. Useful for comparing weapon power.

2-D Plots

• These charts show the distribution of required shots at range

• Allows quick idea of number of rounds most guns require to kill

• These are normal (non-head) shots• Note top section in 30 and 42 health is

exclusively the two shotguns• Additional plots for other health levels may be

obtained by contacting -=B2Z=- Scallion (please specify health setting you require)

• The problems with this are immediately evident and led to development of hardcore mode.

• Hardcore mode allows a 1-shot kill for every weapon. Inherently, this skews favor towards a majority single-shot kills, reducing balance of weapons which do not provide this advantage.

• Restores balance to weapons. Single-shot weapons tend to be lower firing-rate, slower-reloading, less accurate, etc

The Fix

• By adjusting modded server player health to 42, a balance is restored to the game, without loss of hardcore elements

• Allows a quick fix, without adjustment of 26 weapon files; retains quality of well reasoned adjustment

Conveniently: