NOTICE : This mod REQUIRES Fontaine's REALISM MOD as a dependency.

This mod is an overhaul of the visual language of how your character handles his weapon inside the game. The changes are as much aesthetic as they also completely change gameplay. The spirit of the mod is to elevate SPT's 'realism' -- realism in the specific sense that more realistic small arms tactics work better with the mod. For this reason, the Weapons Handling Mod (WHM) is downstream of SPT's indispensable jewel, Realism mod by Fontaine.

The mod has three general goals:

1) Make weapons feel very different depending on their size and ergo, thus encouraging the player to select specific weapons for specific tasks. Larger and/or more modded weapons are going to feel squishy, so you really have to think about how to set up your kit.

2) Make aiming harder generally, with a weapon deadzone, with added weapon sway, with my 'parallax' (aiming mis-alignment) feature, and with various visual effects which impede the player's ability to aim depending on the condition of his character.*

3) Generally improve the aesthetic fidelity of how the player's character handles the weapons, to what I imagine is more authentic.

* (Enter long screed about how recoil is the only lever BSG had to pull to change the dynamic of firefights, because aiming is too easy.)

The overarching theme of this and any future mods to be released under my 'TarkovIRL' moniker is generally to slow down Tarkov gameplay; more survival shooter, less deathmatch-with-extra-steps.

KNOWN ISSUES:

• A nasty bug currently exists in the mod which causes your weapon to disappear and your character to essentially be useless, forcing an F4 exit. I am currently researching it. For now: try not to discard a weapon that you have currently equipped, or swap it (if you have the UI Fixes mod). Something associated with this action is causing it. For example, if you have a weapon equipped and you want to replace it with another one, manually transition to another weapon you have equipped, then replace the slot, then go back to it. This bug is rough, it WILL ruin your entire raid.
• There may be conflicts with the Increased Look Direction mod (there is also increased look range in my mod, so you don't need both).

Important mods I use (see last tab for full list) :

- Path to Tarkov

- Fontaine Realism
- SAIN with Realistic Combat Overhaul preset
- Looting bots
- Questing bots
- Backdoor Bandit
- Amands's gfx
- That's Lit
- BatterySystem

https://youtu.be/_xJj70wJgQ4

https://youtu.be/QtjNAezlqTI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq_aMIwKIUQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIRsBAB6QYg

EFT's weapon mechanics are very detailed. There is an impressive range of IRL functions that can be performed on all Tarkov weapons. But the mechanics of how the player handles the weapon in the in-game 3d space is, I have always thought, lacking and not at all on par with the other aspects of its weapon manipulation.

The TarkovIRL Weapons Handling Mod seeks to remedy this deficiency. For years playing Live Tarkov, I imagined improving how different weapons feel and handle. I have long had a criticism of Tarkov that aiming is simply too easy, and that ergonomics matters very little. For all of the complicated weapon mechanics, in terms of how the Live game feels to play, it's just CS with extra steps as far as I'm concerned.

The game Squad inspired a lot of my changes, as did the Gary's Mod Realism videos. Bodycam is another source of inspiration. I have also taken a lot of inspiration from T-Rex Arms' 'review' of Tarkov's realism factor, a true resource, and have tried to implement features addressing as many of their criticisms as possible:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUXjP9q3zmM

Weapons Handling Mod mechanics in detail:

The Efficiency System is the heart of the Weapons Handling Mod. The system monitors how stable and healthy your character is, in order to present a stable firing potential. This score affects almost all other systems in the WHM.

Your efficiency score is always changing depending on what your character is doing and how healthy he is. What follows is a list of all the inputs and their weight in the System (higher = more efficient):

- current walk speed : up to +50% at slowest

- current vertical stance : up to +50% at lowest

- if prone : +50%

- current Realism stances:

--- high ready : +15%

--- low ready : -10%

--- shortstock : +30%

--- active aim : -5%

--- mounted : +50%

--- left shouldered : -10%

- amount of carried weight after Yellow status : up to -80% at Red overweight status

- character health : up to -40%

- hand stam : up to -20%

- stam : up to -20%

- sprinting : -50%

- hunger & thirst : up to -5% each

- status effects and injuries including (all of the following are further multiplied by 0.5 [half] by default):

--- heavy bleeds : -10% each

--- light bleeds : -5% each

--- breaks : -10% each

--- fresh wounds : -5% each

--- tremors : -5%

--- pain : -5% each

--- fatigue : -5%

--- intoxication (Realism): -5%

--- overdose (Realism) : -10%

Another factor to consider with the efficiency system is its rate of change. Changes in your efficiency score take time to reflect in your character. The rate of change ITSELF also depends on the base efficiency score.

Sprinting is the easiest example. When you exit a sprint, the negative impact to your efficiency will dissipate. If you are very heavy, it will take longer for that negative impact to dissipate; if you're light, it will take less time to return to better efficiency. On the other side, when you enter a sprint, you suffer a reduced efficiency; if you are very heavy, it will take LESS time for that negative impact to reflect in your score, and if you're very light, it will instead take a longer amount of time to reflect in your score.

It is important to keep in mind this rate of change when you're considering an engagement.

There is a debug option to display your efficiency information in the Bepinex debug console.

In Live Tarkov, like in any shooter, your weapon is almost always perfectly lined up straight ahead. Because a mouse lives only in 2-D, so does aiming in shooters.

I have tried to add complexity to this classic FPS limitation by making the aiming alignment less than perfect. When you rotate your character, the alignment of your weapon will be disturbed -- if you're looking through ironsights you will see it more clearly.

It takes time to realign the sites, and it is possible to learn how to manipulate your mouse in order to speed the realignment. Smaller mouse movements misalign the sights slightly MORE than larger ones, to emulate the challenge of precise aiming. It is also possible to learn visually where the real aimpoint is when you are moving (everything is procedural, nothing is RNG here). For optics, the optic's eyebox size becomes more important.

When in ADS with a stocked weapon (and the stock is not retracted), misalignment is reduced to 30% of the full effect by default (configurable.)

Pistols have their own misalignment profile: they are more sensitive to misalignment per mouse movements, but they have a smaller overall range of misalignment than primary weapons.

Most importantly, the effect is tied to weapon weight/ergo and efficiency. You will notice this effect most when you are wounded; it will not be simple to aim. Lasers find a new importance.

There is an additional subfeature of the Misalignment mechanic. When you fire a stocked weapon in ADS, there is a momentary window in which the weapon returns to full misalignment. If you are not rotating while firing, there can no misalignment, so the less you rotate while firing the better.

The effect is based on the force of the caliber you are firing. Generally, it is very hard to notice the effect unless you are injured and have low efficiency. This is another factor to consider when choosing your kit for a raid.

Weapon sway has been completely rewritten from scratch and completely replaces BSG's (Realism's sway, which is excellent, functions as a layer underneath WHM's). Generally, whereas BSG weapon sway follows the player's point of aim, my sway instead leads it. I find this to be anecdotally more authentic as a behavior. I also find, and I hope you do too, this sway to be far more aesthetically pleasing than the vanilla one.

Weapons with no stock (including pistols) have a different sway pattern than those with a stock. It remains generally more centered while also a bit more volatile; more controllable yet less precise. This is intended most of all to give larger weapons with collapsible stocks a more viable option in close quarters (like if you bring a huge SCAR-H into a building). This different also goes for ADS, unstocked weapons will get a leading sway profile when in ADS.

There are many cases in which the sway intensity is more or less, depending on stock/no stock, ADS, Realism stance, etc. Use your intuition.

Weight and ergo play a huge role in this system: lighter weapons with better ergo will have less sway.

This effect stacks with efficiency.

WHM has a deadzone effect inspired by Bodycam, where the camera lags behind your aimpoint. The intensity of the effect depends on weapon weight and ergo, as well as your current efficiency level. In addition, each Realism stance also has its own multiplier for the deadzone:

Normal BSG view: 0.65 multiplier

Short stock: 0.35 multiplier

Active aim: 0.5 multiplier

High ready: 0.35 multiplier

Low ready: 0.75 multiplier

ADS: 0.2 multiplier

Reloading in WHM has been overhauled. In general, reload speeds in WHM depend on your Efficiency stat, with higher efficiency = faster reload speeds. There are also two submechanics of the new system:

Reload animations in EFT are too fast. They conspicuously lack the part of the reload when your character is replacing one mag and searching for a new one. Even the most juiced guntubers can't do this.

I have fixed this: In WHM the reload animation slows down in the middle, substantially increasing your time to reload. By the same token, using EFT's Fast Reload command bypasses this slower reload, making it more important.

Reloading should not be a trivial thing, it should be something you have to think about as it renders you defenseless and possibly dead.

A sub-mechanic of slower reloads, reloading while sprinting reduces your reload speed by 50% (default). In practice it is even more than that, because your Efficiency is reduced when sprinting considerably.

Augmented Reloads allow the player to slightly increase (default 30%) reload speed. When pressing the Reload key again after a reload has already begun, your character will look down at the reloading operation and do it faster. You can press the same button again to look back up. The only 'cost' of this operation is your personal loss of situational awareness, and the cost of having to do another operation as the player.

Obviously, this mechanic goes nicely with the Slower Reloads feature in general.

It should be noted that Realism's reload speed mechanics are incorporated into mine, not bypassed!

Weapon transitions have been overhauled, again paying homage to T-Rex Arms' criticisms. In their opinion, primary to shoulder transitions were far too fast, while sling to pistol transitions were far too slow.

WHM makes sling to pistol (and back) transitions faster, including the quickdraw transition. Sling to shoulder transitions, and back, are now much slower.

All transition speeds are also weighted for weapon weight, ergo, and efficiency. Transition speeds while prone are reduced 3x (because that's not easy).

I have also slightly altered the positioning of the transitions, so that the sling transition will return to a place more near the player's chest, and the shoulder will return kind of further to the right as if trying to get it back on your shoulder. Pistol draws now project out more from the body, rather than raise up from below.

WHM includes a completely new breathing visual effect. The intensity of the effect depends on your current stamina and Efficiency stat.

WHM also includes a completely new hold-breath mechanic: When holding the hold-breath key, the breathing visual effect will reduce to 25% speed during the exhale portion of the animation. During this window, the player gets negative stamina regen, but also gets a 50% efficiency buff which helps dissipate mis-alignment and sway.

There is a constant arm shake visual effect in WHM, that is bound to the player's arm stam, as well as the ergo + weight of the current weapon, and the player's efficiency.

There are some additional details of the player's hand movements.

• When rotating, the player's weapon both drops and pulls-in a little, to emulate the physical effort of holding a weapon while moving around.
• If the player ADSes with an unstocked weapon (not a pistol) while moving
  around, the weapon will drop further. This is a personal interpretation of how CQB would go, it provides a cleaner sight picture in tight spaces.
• When the player changes his vertical stance position at any point, there
  will be a visual effect of the character's hands and weapon as he makes the effort to reposition. The feature is mostly aesthetic, but not entirely: if you change stances while in ADS, it does momentarily disturb your sight picture.

WHM includes a custom footstep effect. This effect is weighted to player efficiency, and current speed. So when you are walking faster you will see the effect quite strong, and it will interfere with your ability to aim while moving, as will being heavy or injured or in any other way inefficient. It also looks much better than BSG's.

I have integrated several new mechanics which aim to complicate the vertical plane. This is another response to the T-Rex Arms video cited above.

When lean-peaking, the player's weapon points slightly up/down depending on a which side he's peaking on (right = up, unless the weapon is shouldered on the left in which case it's reversed). Not active during ADS.

When lean-stepping, instead, there is no vertical rotation but instead a very slight drop in the weapon in the ADS; also the player gets a 50% efficiency nerf while in the lean-step.

When rotating up or down, the Emulated Gravity effect will cause the weapon to rotate up in a lagging way, and rotate back down in an accelerated way. The severity of the effect depends on weapon weight and ergo, and efficiency.

+50% freelook range. That's it.

This table identifies which version of Realism each version of WHM is compiled with. Any given version of WHM may work with a version of Realism not specified in the table, but it's just an accident if it does!

WHM v0.8.1/2 | Realism v1.5.3

WHM v0.8 | Realism v1.5.1/2

WHM v0.7.5 | Realism v1.5.0

WHM v0.6.6 -- v0.7.4.x | Realism v1.4.8

A complete list of all the mods I currently use (as requested):

[3.10.x]

-------

i Unity Toolkit

i Borkel's NVGs

i EFT SCOPE AND RED DOT SIGHT OVERHAUL (ACOG4LIFE)

i Backdoor Bandit

i Drakia BigBrain (req for SAIN + others)

i Drakia Waypoints (req for SAIN)

i Amands's gfx

i Looting bots

i Questing bots

i Fontaine Realism

i Fontaine FOV fix

i SAIN

i DisableScavMode egboggied

i That's Lit

i MoreCheckmarks

i? Louder Suppressors

i Use Loose Loot

i Path to Tarkov

i? Realistic Combat Overhaul

i Shadow Flicker Fix

i Dad Gamer

i Epic's All in One

i De-Clutterer

i Weapon Customizer

i UI Fixes

i Loot Radius

i MOAR

i Multiply ALL

i Better Bullet Cracks

i Get Concussed

i Borkel's Bloody Bullet Wounds + Particles + Splatters

i Pack 'n' Strap

i Simple Season Selector

i Devilflippy Realism compat

i Skills Extended

i Tactical Gear Component

i painter

i Custom Interactions

i ref friendly quests

i Virtual's Custom Quest Loader

i Interactable Exfils API

i Friendly PMC

i Performance Improvements

i Dynamic Maps

i Better Zeroing

i Ref - SPT Friendly Quests

i Realistic Thermal Scopes

i Skipper

i HollywoodFX

i HandsAreNotBusy

i SVM

i TMS

modify raid times in SPT\Aki_Data\Server\database\locations (EscapeTimeLimit)