Changing reticle size to hamper accuracy is a questionable way to hamper accuracy. It would be better to do it via weapon sway. That is, your reticle "moves" when attempting to line up a shot. With a lower skill translating to more erratic or wider movements.
Well, I'm not really in disagreement here, a big circle at the center of the screen is dubious, but I would like to point out that the real "big" difference between that and sway is merely presentational one. You still have an area inside which the character aims rather erractically. But the caveat of showing that erraticness is that.... If you want it also matter in gameplay and have that satisfying progressive element to it (which as an RPG, it should have, and underlined to boot), it is really hard to pull it off visually without the barrel or the reticle looking like you're doing a Jackson Pollock painting with wide strokes. Plus, again, if you're doing it so that it actually matters in gameplay, putting a wildly moving object on the screen pulls your attention from the game and makes you stare and follow the reticle to pinpoint when exactly it is on top of the enemy/object you're aiming at. That might not be a problem to some players with good hand-eye coordination, and those people can cheese the mechanic even with lower skill levels. Others are not so lucky; to them it is basically a minigame of dexterity wihin the combat situation when you're supposed to be following your surroundings too.
And if you put the sway values on the gun at the bottom of the screen, it might look like holding a firehose the character can't control. Someone made a mod to Fallout 3 back in the day that tried to do that, and it looked exactly as I described.
It's already been done in previous games. It's been done very well in some of them.
I can't offhand recall any. And that's not me being stubbornly in denial or facetious. I really can't think of any game that has done it in a way that would've caught my attention (and believe me, it would have, had I encountered one).
Higher innate recoil, either in general or in between shots with a longer settle down period, would be better too. To reflect worse weapon handling and shot pacing.
That I agree with (and have suggested as much).
Your gun should not miss in a RPG with firearms, with a progression system backing them, because the RNG gods decided the bullet landed towards the right of your huge reticle instead of toward the left. It should feel harder to aim.
That's what happens in real life when you're pulling hip fire in situation in motion. And it
is hip fire when you're not looking through your sights and focusing. *shrug* That's what the cone of fire represents. It's not aim, it's pointing the gun towards a direction. And if you are skilled and focus for a bit, you can get steadier and more reliable results. If you look through the sights and have gun circle there a bit and disalign front and rear sights (based on character skill), no problem. Although, focusing is a key element there too. That's why I keep bringing up the Deus Ex style focusing crosshair.
Certain amount of erraticness and randomness is required so that the character is allowed to be worse than the player (initially, at least). And it does make aiming hard if you have to focus to pull off an accuracte shot (or, as accuracte as the character can be with the skill he has and the specific gun he's using). Archaic or not, it's a design that works. And it is fair to all players - just like to hit chances in turnbased games - in that it doesn't discriminate through player aptitude (which is at the heart of an RPG).
You can have a system where the player is in control but appropriately feels like their ability resembles the proficiency level of the character.
Would you describe one to me that puts all the players in the same kind of starting position (at least to a certain degree) regardless of their FPS skills?
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I think the best way would be to not give the player a reticle indicative of the center of aim or how wide the angle of accuracy is at all. Just a dot that representes the general direction the gun is pointed at. And the exception to that being the focus reticle that starts wide and closes in for a more accuracte shot (speed and wideness based on skill) and which might appear if you hold the gun on top of the target for a while. It also neatly mirrors the CP2020 rule where you can wait a turn to get a +1 to your aim (I think you could that twice there). Otherwise, you just shoot at the general direction with erractic accuracy (again, based on skill and the gun being used).
And if you pull up your sights to
actually aim, you can have the weapon sway like a snake in distress there and have the recoil throw it off, and possibly blur the areas outside the sights (perhaps clear out more as you get more skill).
I leave the smartguns out of this since I think they should have their own mechanics completely.