I know it's an elusive issue. I don't experience it that often so it's not a game breaker for me (I tend to think of it as dud rounds), but it seems almost everyone has similar stories. I fail to see how they can claim it never happens to them, unless they are just not playing very much.
Well see for me, I never experienced this problem before, and I've been playing a lot since Beta.... so it's difficult for me to try and reproduce what you guys are experiencing.
I do have the odd AT Rifle shoot what seems to be nothing (no impacts, no hits) but I think that's a different issue and it doesn't happen all the time.
I did have a couple of games where it seems as though I couldn't hit crap at close range, but I chalked that up to the resolution and video settings I had that lagged my display and killed my FPS more than normal.... when I switched to something better, hitting people at close range wasn't an issue again.
I believe you and many others are having this problem.... I truly believe it does exist, but there is simply no useful information for tripwire, myself or anybody else to even attempt to reproduce your problem..... that's why I was suggesting to get some friends together to test these problems on a map and record it on video so we can see what's going on..... and if you post your video settings/effects, I'm guessing that would help a lot as well.
If it doesn't happen to me, if it doesn't happen to the people at Tripwire and it doesn't happen to many other players, whether they play often or play very little..... it's not going to suddenly start happening to us out of nowhere.
I've been following many of the complaints about this issue since the beta release and while many players, such as myself, never report having this problem, I know many others do have this problem...... but none of us who aren't experiencing this problem can reproduce it, because nobody knows what's causing it and there simply isn't enough information to know when and how it occurs.
That's not to say the problem doesn't exist or that nobody is interested in trying to fix it.
It's just nobody knows where to start to reproduce this problem.... that's all I was saying, and I have never once saw any post or comment from Tripwire stating that they don't give a damn about this problem or have no interest in fixing it....... they simply don't have enough information to figure out what's causing it.
I was providing a possible solution by creating a few random gameplay videos with your friends at different distances and with different weapons.... upload the clips that show this problem occuring and tell everybody what your resolution is, what effects your have on/off, etc.....
I say that, because I'm thinking it's more of an issue with your display not quite showing you what the gameplay physics is doing and could be slightly off centre of the screen, kind of like how the iron sights don't always align on the screen sometimes..... again, this is just a guess on my part, because I don't experience this issue.... but it is a start towards providing some decent information on the issue.
Difference is:
Bohemia didn't sellout their old audience for the mainstream like Tripwire have done.........
Fight the Power, meh Brotha..... Stick it to da Man!