The Bow. The Crysis 3 signature weapon. And yet, it might seem hard for some people with a controller to properly aim down the sights (ADS) with it.

Here's why:

The ADS sensitivity in both the SP Campaign and Multiplayer is broken.

(for reluctant readers, the first two videos have annotations that explain pretty much everything:)

Crytek acknowledged the issue with the Bow (at least for Multiplayer) during the Beta and repeatedly and specifically mentioned that the bow would get and did get a separate ADS change (again, only for Multiplayer). So the issue is indeed real.


Campaign:



As you can see and is explained in the neat annotations, the ADS sensitivity affects the speed with which your body turns.

For shooters, you are used to the ADS speed being consistent, meaning for a certain amount of stick-tilting you expect a certain amount of reticule movement on-screen.

This also means, that when a zoom-factor is applied (like the Bow in ADS), to maintain that same stick-tilt to reticule-movement ratio, your ADS sensitivity, the speed with which your body turns, has to be lower, since the zoom stretches the on-screen distance.

If it takes you one second to move your aim from one point to another point ten yards left with an unzoomed weapon, it should take you longer to do that turn with a zoomed weapon, since the zoom stretches the distance between those two points on your screen.

But as you can see in the video, it takes exactly the same time to do a full 360° turn with the zoomed Bow in ADS, than it does with any unzoomed weapon in ADS. And that's why it feels wrong.

You expect your reticule to move a certain distance on your screen for a certain tilt, but because the game doesn't take the zoom into account it moves much too fast and thus, too far. All weapons in all zoom stages should move the same on-screen distance for the same amount of input.

The Bow doesn't.


Multiplayer:

The Bow was supposed to get a reduction of ADS sensitivity independently of other weapons with Data-Patch A. It didn't.
...
Patch A changelist:[/b]
...
? Predator Bow ADS sensitivity reduced
...

Video of retail with online Data Patch, testing the time it takes to do a 360° turn in ADS with the (zoomed) Bow and an unzoomed pistol:



To compare, here's the same test done in the un-patched Beta (but without the fancy annotations...):



And the result: Nothing. Has. Changed.

If any kind of independent change of the Bow ADS had happened, there would HAVE to be a difference in Bow ADS speed between the pure Beta (the Xbox NEVER got the Data Patch back then) and the retail version WITH the Data Patch, specifically when compared to other weapons. But there isn't. The speed for a 360° turn in ADS with the Zoomed Bow and an Un-Zoomed weapon are still the same.



I do not know if there is a similar Data-Patch Update process for the Campaign, but unless there is, changes to the SP Bow's ADS will have to wait for a full-blown title-update. If they even put it in. The fact that they already allegedly integrated such a change into the MP Data-Patch suggest they are at least aware of the issue, but the Data Patch (as the videos conclusively proof) is not working as intended.

So, anyone on the 360 who asked himself why he seems to be having problems aiming accurately with the Bow in ADS, now you know.

Let's ask Crytek to fix it, please.

P4nch0 - You're absolutely right about this. It might explain why some people say they're getting owned by the Bow a lot. A Bow user can snap to targets just as fast as someone with a pistol or auto/semiauto weapon with - say - a Reflex sight. The Bow shouldn't be as magnified in ADS as it is - it's a Bow without a scope. (It's not like the Xbow in Battlefield 3 and the x7 scope.) If you ADS with your pistol, you should see more of the field in front of you. The same should be true for the Bow. When you ADS with an automatic weapon + Reflex sight, you should see LESS of the field in front of you because it's magnified. Bow users should have about the same view of the battlefield when they ADS as a pistol user or so.

It's all about your field of vision not matching your turn speed in ADS - just like you're saying.