My verdict
Both methods are not perfect, but both points have their merits and can be defended from a realism standpoint. Both offer something realistically that the other method does not, and trade in another part of realism.
What method you prefer based on realism will depend on what you find more important, seeing things at a 1:1 size at a realistic distance. Or not having changes in the imagery. This in the end is just a matter of taste, and not so much that one method is absolutely more realistic than the other.
Having the zoom gives us the ability to actually engage at realistic ranges. I think that says enough really.
Zoom got an advantage of being able to see things at a realistic size allowing you to fire and shoot enemies at a realistic distance at approximately double the distance without zoom. However when you are zoomed in due to limitations of your screen you trade in size for less fov, this brings the biggest issue for me with zoom.
You could just zoom back out again. I've played a lot of Arma 2, and I think the limited FOV is no problem. RO2's system of combining zoom and sprint however does make it unnecessarily clunky.
Because both you and the enemy can zoom this means that enemies will try to setup at a range where they can see targets when zoomed in, but are very difficult to see when not zoomed in (the difference between full zoom and no zoom is simply too big for that, DH and KF in a sense allow both fovs to be functional). This forces you as a player when you want to take that enemy down you need to zoom in yourself. When zoomed in your fov is severely limited meaning that its likely that not all potential treats fall within your 45 degree fov, requiring you to use your very slow arm muscles to move your mouse to look around, and cannot rely on your very fast eye muscles.
In order to take out the enemy you need to zoom in. You also must look through the sights. Generally when I look through sights I get a bit of tunnel vision IRL. There's also the whole closing one of your eyes thing. I think that justifies the narrower FOV when zooming in this case.
This makes me feel like playing with blinders on, and gives me the same sensation as in most games when you play as a sniper. Essentially a big part of your mobility comes from your abililty to see a relatively wide area, take that away and you become forced to act like a sniper. Whether realistic or not from a gameplay sense I don't like games where the sniper class is unlimited, and in hos with the zoom the gameplay becomes very similar to those sort of games.
You only feel like a sniper because the max ranges in default RO2 maps are all too close. When it comes to avoiding the "sniperishness", in Arma 2 I can quickly zoom in and out to check on areas of interest, both when moving and when stationary. This allows me to keep a more watchful eye, making camping less effective.
While with a lower fov enemies are more difficult to spot than they would be in reality, a counter for this is simply making enemies easier to spot in general. In Red Orchestra Ostfront, characters didn't have self shadowing making them stick out more than in reality. While an unrealistic effect, as a result even when enemies were smaller than in reality they sticked out more allowing you to see targets at close to realistic ranges.
I strongly disapprove of artificially making people stick out like a sore thumb. That's just blatantly unrealistic and bad for gameplay.
(
http://steamcommunity.com/id/zetsumei/stats/RedOrchestra/?tab=achievements I got the Marksman Gold award at 400 meters an enemy was roughly 1 pixel big at 1920x1080 but its possible to pull it off).
400m still isn't really far, and to see just 1 pixel at that range on such a high res monitor kinda proves my point. In Arma 2 (hate to bring it up all the time) you can engage a target at 600m with irons, provided the weapon is capable of that.
For general spotting...
...look around in realistic size.
So zoom is unrealistic and bad for gameplay, but using flaws in the way monitors work is good? Your sights are generally in the center of the screen, so it doesn't work when it comes to shooting anyway.
Judging distances with 1:1 fov goes better however, judging distances is not that important unless you need to know the actual distances. Since there is no map based navigation in RO you only need to know the distance for the bullet drop and how far you need to lead your target. The advantage or disadvantage of being essentially zoomed out say at 90 fov is that it feels as if your character moves twice as fast as in reality. (this is likely the reason why the movement speed in HOS actually seems too fast as when you sprint your fov becomes even wider).
Judging distances is useful the moment teamwork comes in. You want your team mates to be able to quickly engage, you want them to know where to look. It's vital if/when more longed range maps appear in RO2, and if people actually begin to work together.
Finally there is another point with the fov zoom which is specific to tripwire's implementation. You can only use the fov zoom when standing still and not while walking jogging or sprinting. When sprinting your head bobs in RO2 and the background changes quickly making it hard to focus on things just as in real life. Realistically the defenders have a huge advantage over the defenders, but being able to see things bigger isn't one of the defenders advantages. Which is why I think that like in other games utilizing zoom you should always be able to quickly go in an out of zoom and switch between the two states.
The best option is to make sprint and zoom independant and allow us to get some zoom when on the move (maybe not when sprinting).
Anyway this was my bit on zoom
Thanks for the reply.
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What the hell has RO 1 to do with this? If you'd look up some documentories you'd see that many variables (e.g. wind) can "change the course" of the bullet.
I don't mean dramatically, but in this game every bullet is spot on, even with the pistol you can shoot people at 150 meters..
Plus you say it as well: Most Likely
It's often overly nostalgic RO1 players that complain about the zoom.
"Most likely" as in if you don't suffer from sudden spasms. If you're not in a storm, wind has virtually no effect on a rifle bullet at such close ranges. We're talking about air vs supersonic lead here. It won't have a noticeable effect until you pass at least 300m. Even then wind would be very easily accounted for.
Oh, and the pistol thing is obvious nonsense. They're not that accurate in RO2.
