I recently was lucky enough to stumble upon the Mysterious Stranger .44mag. I was pretty psyched about it because I'm fairly certain it's supposed to be the most badass holdout weapon. I've been using it a bit, and I'm finding that it shoots horribly. Oddly enough, when I'm shooting one of the semis (9mm or 10mm), I shoot more effectively. But, with the revolvers (I also had a whirl with the .357), they just don't shoot as well. For example, with the 9mm, I didn't have a problem keeping a bead on a moving target, and could empty a clip with most (if not all) shots hitting their mark. With the MS, I'm lucky if I hit with half the shots.

Has anyone noticed anything similar?

The major game mechanic that governs whether you hit what you aim at is minimum spread. The .357 is at .5, Lucky is at .3, the .44 and 9mm are at .7 and the 10mm is at .8. The game mechanics suggest that the two revolvers should be *more* effective. It is quite possible that it's not game mechanics, but you simply get a better sight picture with the semi-auto pistols and feel more comfortable using them. There is also the firing animation, which tries to model the recoil associated with these weapons. Some firing animations have the barrel recoiling quite a bit, others barely at all. On top of this, since the firing animation is what is used to increase or decrease the rate of a weapon's fire, some are sped up and some are slowed down. So it is also possible that the higher recoil of the magnum rounds is causing you to lose your sight picture because of barrel rise and then you have trouble reaquiring. The lower powered auto-pistol rounds probably model a smaller recoil, so you stay on your sight picture better for the follow up shots.

-Gunny out.

That does make sense. I could see how that could contribute to the problem. However, I don't just have a problem staying on my target, I have a problem getting a target, period.

I don't know if this will make sense, but I have a similar problem with NPC dialogue and using the Pipboy. In either, the mouse has this sluggish effect that makes it difficult to more accurately (I use the keyboard whenever I can). This is kinda what happens when I use revolvers, but it doesn't happen with semis.

Sounds like it could be some kind of hardware problem. Have you messed with the mouse sensitivity? Try running the game at a lower graphics setting to test if the guns track better.

-gunny out.

Well, I adjusted it when I started the game, and haven't had a problem elsewise. As for running at a lower graphics setting, I don't think that's possible. I'm already running at super low, with the only thing cranked up is the actor fade (so I can snipe effectively).

I don't have a problem generally looking around, even in some graphics intensive areas. But, for some weapons, using the iron sights has this weird effect.

Dunno how you generally start fights, but with any pistol or revolver, it's best to sneak in fairly close and use ironsights for the first headshot or two, then immediately go to VATS for anything still coming at you after that. There is no way in heck you can be as effective and accurate as VATS is in near pistol range just using iron sights, even with no mouse issues. Well, there may be a few freak FPS twitch-gamers who eat sleep and breath freehand aiming who can do as well as VATS with a handgun, but most of us aren't that good. Both Lucky and the MM are far superior to the 9mm/10mm pistols IMO- for any fights that can be ended in six shots or less, anyway (most of them). Just don't try to freehand all of the fight, unless it's just one mob you can kill quickly with a sneak crit. Using VATS, the unique revolvers are much superior (especially with Cowboy, Gunslinger, and The Professional perks). With those, you can make handguns your primary weapons in most situations. You can even take on 1-2 deathclaws with a buffed revolver build and the Ranger Sequoia. Gotta have Hand Loader for it though, as most default handgun ammo has zilch for armor piercing.

Well, I do use VATS as much as I can with pistols, but for quite a few fights I've blown through my AP and would have to freehand it for cleanup. I used the MM for:



In both cases, I had to resort to free aiming to finish the job. In the first case, I even used all six shots for a single attacker and had to reload. It was very strange.

Yeah, sometimes VATS is glitchy, and can waste your AP without much gain. That's why I always hit quicksave before upcoming fights, at least when I know they're coming. Bless that quicksave button! I do so hate games that only use savepoints, and don't let you choose when and where to save. If something buggy and just plain wrong happens in a fight, that's the fault of the game engine and not me, I don't hesitate to call a do-over.

There are a lot of nuances to combat in NV, and one of them is the 'who gets the drop on who' factor. In fights like the ones you describe, where they get the initial drop on you, and you have no sneak advantage to start with, and you don't get to open it up with one or more sneak-crit kills, then yeah, those types of fights can be rough with a 6-shooter. That's why you keep something else handy to quickly swap to for those situations, like a good shotgun or SMG or assault carbine, etc. No one kind of weapon is always the right tool for the job.

Don't forget, when you run out of ammo with a weapon that has a slow-reload time, it's always faster to quick-switch to another weapon and keep on firing.

there is a bug where the round hits the target showing their health as though you hit them but no health is taken as though you missed.im getting this alot with the unique guasse at the moment.im also using mysterious and ive had this problem but only a few times.try using a normal magnum for a while and see if it continues,may need to mod it to get it as good as mysterious though.

With the semis, you're probably just spamming shots in the general direction and hoping most hit, and enough hit to do the job.

That's actually the point of high capacity autopistols...

With lower capacity, more power, and greater recoil, the revolvers are not designed this way, you're supposed to take carefully aimed shots.

Oh, I'm not spamming and I'm seeing the blood spray from most of my shots, so I know I'm hitting.

It's just weird. I think I'll stick with the semis.