So does a weapon that has a .3 spread mean it will miss over long ranges 30% of the time or how do the mechanics of spread work? I couldn't find any detailed info on the wikis or anywhere.

Spread is a deviation of the bullet.
Imagine it like a http://www.mtadl.com/uploads/Image/Shared/flags/dartboard.jpg. If you have zero spread, your bullet would go straight to the center. Let's say you have 1.0 spread, then your bullet could land anywhere within the first ring(including the center of course if you're lucky).
Let's say your spread is 2.0, now your bullet could hit anywhere that's within the 2nd circle...

So basically with 0 spread, your bullet would leave your gun in a "straight line" towards your target reticule. As soon as you have spread there is possibly a deviation and your bullet will leave the barrel at an angle.

I too had messed around with spread but found myself scratching my head as to how it actually worked. For example, on my grenade launcher when I fire one 'nade it would fly pretty straight to the target but the next one fired always veers down and to the left the following one would up and to the right. Makes for a very difficult time for lining up a target. I think in my mod I had the spread at 5? I can't quite remember. But your description of how it works helps out a lot. Thanks.

From the looks of the GECK wiki, the "Spread" value is a big mystery. The data left by the gamesas crew after they handed it over makes it look like it does nothing, but there's investigations into the gun spread formula that are creating more questions than answers it seems.

Spread is affected by movement rate, weapon condition, player skill, stance, and iron-sight usage. Perks can also affect spread via entry points, like the laser sight or autofire hidden perks for WMK.

I would say that there are two kinds of spread:

1. How much you sway your gun about, and that is governed by the http://geck.gamesas.com/index.php/Gun_Spread_Formula.
2. How true the bullet flies to the barrel, as explained by Kai Hohiro. This is determined by the "Min Spread" value.

So, if the Gun Spread Formula dictates that your are swaying your automatic rifle around whilst firing, the bullets will fly in the direction that the gun is pointing, plus some extra inaccuracy courtesy of the "Min Spread" value.

And then, the auto-aim assist helps out, by guiding your bullets towards the target, if your aiming reticule is close enough. And how close is must be, is propably defined by another grand formula.

The "Spread" value is believed to do absolutely diddly-squat.

Or something like that. :blink:

Well, I went and experimented pretty early when playing FO3 to figure it out. I took Lincoln's Repeater (zero spread) and a hunting rilfe (.3 spread) out to Minefield and did target practice with mines. With LR I can always hit a mine because it hits where the crosshair aims. With the hunting rifle it's a lot trickier because where the crosshair aims is not where the bullet hits (usually). My conclusion was this. Zero spread weapons will be much more accurate and I will be able to hit things much more accurately with a zero spread weapon. That conslusion has held up very well. It's unclear to me how much of a difference in makes in VATS, since you are always shooting with a percentage chance to miss anyway, but out of VATS the difference between shooting with an extremely accurate weapon (zero spread) and one that is less accurate if very obvious and I use weapons based on their spread, with the DB shotty from PL at the other end of the spectrum.


Edit: for clarity

In VATS I think it's the Base VATS To-Hit Chance and yet another formula that determines your chance to hit. Ofcourse, your skill level is a factor in all of these calculations.

When playing on the PS3 when I actually used VATS, at max skills and level 30 when VATS claimed "95%" and at similar ranges I noticed the Lincoln's Repeater had a much greater chance of hitting than the CAR. So I'd personally say it makes a difference in VATS.

Right, with VATS the issue of your character's skills and perks plays into what is going on with your accuracy. When you are shooting out of VATS that doesn't happen. So a weapon's accuracy becomes more important. So, for instance, I can come straight out of the Vault and with a pathetic SG skill of say, 17, and no perks at all to help me because I'm at Level 2 or 3, and I will not be able to hit much of anything with a hunting rifle in VATS, but out of VATS I will be able to tag a Raider in the head in Super Duper Mart.


@GARY


Ya, I think that's true too, but I don't know what all of the factors involved are so I don't know how much it affects VATS or how significantly. There are other things that affect VATS' accuracy as well.

Your skill level still matters, seeing as it is used in the Gun Spread Formula, but the hit may not be as critical as in VATS.

Well, the impact on gameplay doesn't seem too substantial out of VATS, but then how exacting is a headshot on a Raider from across the SuperDuper Mart? The answer to that is: not exacting, well except that the hunting rifle is ususally in horrible condition too. Maybe I'll go conjure up LR in the console with a brand new character and test that out right now since it has a spread of zero. You've got me curious. What is the Gun Spread Formula, btw?