Gears of War 4's developers have worked out why the Gnasher sometimes misses point blank
Muzzle flash.
It turns out Gears of War 4's Gnasher had a strange problem that meant players would sometimes miss when it looked like the should kill.
The Gnasher is Gears' famous shotgun. It's super powerful at close range, firing bullets in a spread. If you hit an enemy up close, it should be an instant kill.
But after Gears of War 4 came out last year, players noticed it was inconsistent at point blank range. Sometimes you'd kill your opponent, but sometimes some of the pellets would miss - even when it looked like they should all hit.
What was going on? The developers at The Coalition investigated, and it turns out the Gnasher's bullets weren't leaving the gun from the muzzle, as you'd expect, but a little farther back.
In the video, below, multiplayer design director Ryan Cleven explains that the developers actually make the Gnasher fire from further back the weapon to prevent players from being able to shoot through walls.
As anyone who plays shooters know, sometimes games have clipping issues where a weapon will bleed through a wall. Sometimes this lets you shoot through walls if the muzzle can stick through far enough, but we've come to expect in-game geometry to prevent it.
As for the Gnasher, because the bullet spread would originate not from the muzzle but from farther back, sometimes some of the pellets would miss, therefore you wouldn't score a kill, even though it looks like a point blank shot.
Anyway, The Coalition is now fixing the Gnasher, making mechanical changes to improve its close-range consistency. It's moving the pellets a little farther forward to create a tighter spread, while still checking for wall collision, so hopefully the problem will be solved and players won't suffer the frustration of inconsistency.
The change is part of Gears of War 4's March update, which adds new maps to the game and a new Ranked Lobby system.