Dynamic Crosshair Idea

[Captain Crit]

The crosshair is a very important piece of a player's HUD. It tells the player what they are aiming at, a necessary feature for a game like UT which has no sights or laser designators or other means of telling what one's shot will hit. Given fact.

Has it ever bothered you to see some new player try to use the wrong weapon for the job? Like trying to hit a guy across a wide midfield with a Flak Cannon. The goal of the Dynamic crosshair is to be a crosshair used to convey more than what you are aiming at, but to tell you what the gun is like, if it's a good idea to use that gun for that range, or to tell if that guy you are looking at is friendly.

First off, the dynamic crosshair would be used to tell the effective range of the equipped weapon. Simply put, if you are pointing at with the crosshair is within what is deemed "good range" to use the weapon, the crosshair will be brighter than while it's outside of the effective range. If the crosshair touches beyond the weapon's useful range (look at the skybox with a Bio Rifle, for example), the crosshair will darken, enough to be very distinctively different, yet not render it useless in dark areas. It tells the player in an easily understandable way, "Hey! Don't use me to kill that guy! It won't work!"

Second off, the dynamic crosshair would recognize the difference between enemy, ally, or neutral. If the crosshair changes color to green, it is telling the player, in an easily understandable way, "That's your buddy!" It will immediately reduce team firing, by telling players to not shoot. After all, lots of shooters have allies highlight the crosshair in green. Similarly, pointing the gun at an enemy will color it red. Another simple way of saying "He's a bad guy!" Finally, aiming at something neutral (vCTF neutral vehicles, most world geometry, or destroyables) will be a simple white color. After all, would it make sense to make people think that crate is a spy? Like before, the cross hair will darken beyond the weapon's effective range, to convey that weapon is not useful at this range.

I can already hear people yelling at me. But Captain Crit, the second part will make shock-tapping SOOO much easier! You want the Shock Rifle being OP!
I know that will be an issue. However, the ability to tell friend from foe will not work at long range. Doesn't matter if it's a Bio Rifle or Shock Rifle, the dynamic crosshair will not tell you if that Raptor in the distance is a friendly Raptor, or enemy. You need to shoot that guy to see that.

What do you think? Should this be in UT4? Is there any way to improve it? Or do you just want to say that all noob tools should not exist in UT? Let me know! If something seems wrong, it's open to improvement.

[PlayForGG]

On the first point, there's something similar in Splinter Cell with the hand guns : if you're at the right range to one shot an enemy in the head, the crosshair turns red. It's a bit extreme but it works really well at teaching the optimal range of the different weapons.
The dynamic crosshair in UT3 works quite well already at teaching ranges for each weapon from the experiences of a few people i introduced to the game. The larger the spread, the less precise was the crosshair, so you could tell if you had a chance to hit.
More experienced players tends to use a single crosshair, so it shouldn't bother them at all anyway.

On the second point i've no real stance. I'm still curious to see how it would perform while playing, but it could also easily help to much for aiming. Green for allies i'm totally for, but red for enemies not so much because of that. I'm ok for hit confirms though, if you can see the opponent.

[ecreif]

For beginners this option is useful but as a competetive I want to be able to change it into my beloved magenta or white dot.

I think it would be nice to add these hit indicators you know from Battlefield or CoD because I love that instant feedback of 'you hit' or 'you missed'.

You should also be able to add custom crosshairs (with animations) as .png files.

[GreatEmerald]

Unreal II had a similar dynamic crosshair system. The crosshairs there represent the approximate area where the weapon will hit (for the flamethrower, looking at a wall makes it larger, looking at a distance smaller; for hitscan weapons, constant size). Pointing the crosshair at something that is a target (whether bad or good) makes parts of it light up. And each is stylised after the weapon (Shock Lance is purple and jagged, Pistol is a small "+", Dispersion Pistol is round and becomes more red as it's getting charged etc.).