Introduction

I hope that you find the following information useful in your modding. Please, feel free to use the formula listed to create your own Ghost Recon weapons, or use the data that I’ve already calculated and listed. Just select the proper (or closest) caliber and barrel length for your weapon. I would like to ask, though, that you give me credit in your mod’s documentation if you use the data and/or formulae listed. I’ve researched and compiled all of the data and formulae listed on my own, consuming countless hours of my time, all for your benefit. I’d appreciate a little pat on the back for it…

If you have any questions, please make sure you’ve read through this entire tutorial, and e-mail me at Parabellum@ravenmouth.org, or visit the Weapon Mods forum on this site, and see if the answer you need is there. I do my best to answer each question that is asked of me, but please make sure that I haven’t answered that question already for someone else. Please note, though, that I will not calculate ‘custom guns’, as I’ve given you all of the tools and information necessary to make your own guns.

Good Luck!

Ghost Recon Velocity/Damage Chart
Index of Terms
Effective range of weapons
Velocity Formulae
Damage Formulae
Damage Table
Thoughts and issues

Ghost Recon Velocity/Damage Chart

Index of Terms:

Caliber: caliber of weapon and barrel length

Vc0: muzzle velocity, enter in Vc0 data field

Vc1: enter in Vc1 data field

Vc2: enter in Vc2 data field

Dc0: damage coefficient 1, enter in Dc0 field

Dc1: damage coefficient 2, enter in Dc1 field

Muzzle: percent chance of a wound in center-mass at the muzzle

25m: percent chance of a wound in center-mass at 25m

50m: percent chance of a wound in center-mass at 50m

100m: percent chance of a wound in center-mass at 100m

Issues: I have purposely inflated the rate of velocity loss in handguns, for two reasons:

• to illustrate the futility of using handguns at long-range
• to keep people from using their primary weapon to zoom in on a target at long range, then switch to a silenced secondary and shoot the target.

Effective range of weapons:

Sniper rifles (24" barrels): As far as you can see

Assault rifles (20" barrels): Varies. Effective to 400m+, accurate to 150m or more.

Sub-machine guns: 50m (max range: 100m – 150m)

Handguns: 25m (max range: 50m)

Magnum handguns: 50m (100m with a scope) max range: varies, not more than 150m

Velocity Formulae

Note: The following information is intended for advanced users only. You will need a good knowledge of algebra, and a scientific calculator to complete the required operations.

What you need:

Muzzle velocity, in Mp/S

Amount of velocity the weapon keeps at optimal range.

For example, 90% @ 50m

1. Find Vc0:

This one is easy. Vc0 is muzzle velocity in meters per second (Fp/S)

2. Find Vc1

Percent of velocity kept @ chosen range x muzzle velocity = A

Example: .9 x 366.52 = 329.868 (P x V=A)

Divide A by –1000. Answer is Vc1 (A/-1000=Vc1)

3. Find Vc2

Add muzzle velocity to (Vc1 x range at which you selected in the beginning) = B

Example: 366.52 + (-0.329868 x 50) = 350.027

B - .9* x muzzle velocity = C *Or whatever ratio you chose in the beginning

B – PM = C

Example: 350.027 – 329.868 = 20.159

Divide C by negative Range^2 C/-(R^2)=Vc2

Example: 20.159 / -(50^2) = -0.008 This is Vc2

Damage Formulae

Note: The following data is intended for advanced users only. You will need a good knowledge of algebra and a scientific calculator to perform the operations listed below.

You will need:

Muzzle velocity, in Feet Per Second (Fp/S)

Muzzle energy, in foot-pounds (ft/lbs)

1. Find Dc0

Divide energy by velocity. E/V = Dc0

Example: 200/1000 = .2 The result is Dc0

2. Find Dc1

Find appropriate damage on chart

Example: 90% = 1000

Damage = (Dc0 x V) + (Vc1 x V^2)

Example: 1000 = (.2 x 1000) + (Vc1 x 1000^2)

Simplify this operation:

Example: 1000 – (.2 x 1000) = E

1000 – 200 = 800

Divide E by Velocity^2

Example: 800/1000^2 = 0.0008 This is Dc1

Put these variables in the appropriate fields in the Gun Editor within IGOR.

Damage Table

Find the appropriate chance of wounding from a center-mass hit at the muzzle on the left, and look to the total damage value on the right. Use this in step 2 of the damage formula above.

99. 10000

97. 3300

95. 2000

93. 1425

90. 1000

87. 770

85. 665

83. 587

80. 500

77. 435

75. 400

73. 370

70. 333

What these numbers mean:

GR uses your velocity/damage values to find a total damage value, which it will then check against the appropriate body region in cmbtmodl.xml. For instance, an MP5, at point blank range, will cause 1000 points of damage to the torso. To calculate the chance of incapacitation, GR uses this formula:

1 – (x/D), where X is a value assigned a body region in cmbtmodl.xml, and D is the total damage done by your weapon. Our MP5’s damage to the torso would look like this:

1. (100/1000) = .900

This means our MP5 has a 90% chance of wounding our target.

For a headshot, the equation looks thus:

1 – (10/1000) = .99 So a headshot with our MP5 at point-blank range is pretty much guaranteed to stop our target.

Thoughts and issues:

Wound vs. Kill:

Ghost Recon’s damage system can be a little confusing. OK, a lot confusing. When you fire and strike your target, you have a certain percent chance of causing a wound to your target. By default, everyone can receive one wound. Your stamina increases the number of wounds you can receive before dying, according to the number of stamina points you can have. This is one reason people sometimes have to shoot an enemy several times, even with M16’s and L69A1’s; the target has a high stamina. If my understanding of GR’s combat system is correct, any excess energy remaining, after causing the wound, is contributed to another wound. Therefore, if you receive a 9mm round to the head, and the headshot requires, say, 500 points to cause a wound, and the 9mm does 750 points, you will die, as you have received more damage than you can take.

I’ve done my best to keep the velocity/damage done by weapons as realistic as possible, while at the same time balancing the weapons as best I can. Following are some issues/concerns that I’d like to address:

You’ll notice that handguns have a N/A in their 100m fields. This is because, in reality, a handgun is really only useful out to about 50m, at most. Most handgun battles take place within 7m, but the effective range of a handgun is about 25m. Therefore, the velocity/damage of handguns decreases gradually out to about 25m, then drops sharply until it reaches about 50m, after which point it becomes almost nil. Note that magnum handguns do have greater range than normal-caliber handguns, but their effectiveness beyond 50m, or even 25m is truly realized only with the use of a handgun scope. Even so, magnum handguns are of little or no use beyond 100m. Good luck hitting your target at that distance!

Sub-machine guns have a greater range than handguns, with their effective range being 50m, and their maximum effective range being about 100m. Most sub-machine guns do little or no damage beyond this point, and they aren’t very accurate at 100m+ either. You should also notice that, at close ranges, sub-machine guns do have a lot of stopping power, comparable to that of .223 caliber weapons. However, their stopping power diminishes very quickly beyond 50m, so if you’re expecting some medium- to long-range firefights, a sub-machine gun probably isn’t your best bet.

Carbines have a good combination of maneuverability and stopping power, with their total energy being just shy of full-length assault rifles. Their main drawback is lack of accuracy at long distances. Effective range for carbines is anywhere from 250m to 300m, though, in most cases, only snipers engage at that distance in Ghost Recon.

Assault rifles have good range, and will put a man down pretty much anywhere on the map, as long as you can see him. As with carbines, though, you probably won’t be engaging any targets beyond 75 to 100 meters.

Sniper rifles aren’t too much more powerful than their shorter-barreled kin, provided they are of the same caliber, though they are more accurate and have high-magnification scopes, making them very useful for long-range engagements in Ghost Recon. I’ve tested sniper rifles out to 500m on a custom shooting range I designed for Ghost Recon, and I’ve found that, while they are quite capable of putting down your target at that distance, even the most accurate sniper rifles are only accurate to maybe 200 meters in Ghost Recon. I’ve taken gameplay concerns into account while calculating this data, so some parameters (pistol velocity loss, for example) have been exaggerated, in order to better balance the game.

If you need a good source of ballistics information, I’d suggest going to www.hornady.com , or www.remington.com , as both sites have excellent databases of ballistics information. Remington has, by far, a larger selection of cartridges to choose from, but Hornady’s chart is more concise and easy to navigate.

Lastly, I make no claims of being the guru of gun-modding, nor do I claim that my data and/or methods are always right. Should someone from RSE correct any mistakes I’ve made, I’ll be more than happy to reflect those changes in this and other tutorials.

I do plan on releasing another tutorial covering the remaining aspects of weaopns modding in the coming weeks. I chose to do this one first, as it’s by far the hardest part to get right.

Cheers,

Para