Tactical Reload intermittently working... more common with drum mag.

Is TR supposed to always happen on command or is it random? It fails about 10% with a mag/ext. mag and about 80% on a drum mag. Which makes me wonder if we're really not supposed to be able to TR with drum mag and it may just be a bug when we successfully do it.

Are there certain conditions for TR to successfully work? Mainly when using a drum mag, I've been trying different conditions and I've yet been able to come across any consistent ones. ie. Doing TR immediately after firing a shot, slowly tapping "R", rapidly tapping, etc. I've even tried doing TR while making no other actions, while walking, crouching, proning, etc.

I know that sprinting, switching weapons mid-process and stuff can cancel our TR. But if we were just static, are we supposed to be able to TR whenever we wanted? Or is it supposed to be a "luck" type of thing? Either way I'm just looking for clarification. I haven't really come across any technical details with TR besides people side-tracking into realism and blah blah. Not much about Insurgency: Sandstorm Tactical Reload aside from the basic details of it.

Which weapons are allow TR? Is TR something that can be done regardless what mag option you're using? Is TR only available if we have a remaining bullet in the chamber or can it still be done with when fully empty?

I also want to state that I'm not complaining, ranting, voicing an opinion or doing anything that invites some off-track debate about reloading mechanics. I'm talking about a technical-issue for a PC game that we play when we aren't at work or living our real lives. Because this is a game and not real life.

Mad Monkey

@mad-monkey
TR, as far as I know, should work with every mag type as long as:

  1. The magazine is not full
  2. The magazine is not empty
  3. You tap “r” (or whatever your reload key is) once only
  4. You’re not performing an action that prevents reloading (ie. sprinting, vaulting, shooting)
  5. You have another mag that you can insert into the weapon (besides the one currently in it)

As long as these conditions are met, your character should remove the mag in your weapon, return the mag to your carrier (your mag count won’t change), and insert the most full mag into your weapon (not including the one you just removed iirc, so you might put in a mag less full than the one you removed if it is the most full other than the one you removed).

Here is what should happen if the above conditions are not met:

  1. If the magazine is full, you will not reload
  2. If the magazine is empty, the removed mag will not be returned to your carrier (mag count will decrease)
  3. If “r” is tapped twice or more, you will perform a fast reload (assuming the other conditions are met) and the removed mag will be dropped on the ground and all remaining ammo in that mag will be lost (mag count will decrease by 1)
  4. If you’re performing an action that prevents reload, you won’t reload obviously
  5. If your last mag is already in the weapon, you won’t reload obviously

How to read the ammo indicator in the bottom right of the HUD that appears when you perform a mag check (by holding “r”), switch weapons, or spawn (weapons with magazines/belts only, shotguns and sniper rifles are different):

Up to three mags will be displayed. The far right most is the one currently in your weapon. The next two are the two most full mags you have in reserve. If you have more than three mags total (so including the one in your weapon), a +4 or +5 will be displayed meaning you have 4 or 5 mags total. If the mag is full it will be solid white/grey. If the mag is partially full, it will be partially white/grey and the amount of white/grey represents how full the mag is. If the mag in your weapon is completely transparent (no white/grey), the mag is empty but you have one round in the chamber. If the mag in your weapon is red, your mag is empty and you do not have a round in the chamber (full reload required).

Maybe it’s failing because you’re not meeting one of the requirements? Also, I can’t remember if your character automatically performs a fast reload if the current mag is empty. I’ll do some testing when I get home from work and make any corrections to this post that i find.

I think I may have meant Fast Reload and not Tactical Reload. The one I'm referencing to is when you lose your mag entirely to reload quicker. This does not happen consistently and is very uncommon to do successfully when using a drum mag.

@mad-monkey said in Tactical Reload intermittently working... more common with drum mag.:

I think I may have meant Fast Reload and not Tactical Reload. The one I'm referencing to is when you lose your mag entirely to reload quicker. This does not happen consistently and is very uncommon to do successfully when using a drum mag.

I've always had it work. The thing is with drum mags, the animation is weird for the AK-74. You insert an invisible mag and then it just appears right after.

@mad-monkey
Ah okay. Here’s what I’ve found from my limited testing:

I was able to perform a fast reload every time I tried (by double tapping “r”) as long as I was capable of reloading (current mag not full, had an extra mag, was not performing an action that prevents reload) for all weapons with magazines with each kind of magazine (default, extended, and drum mag). A lot of the time, there’s not much time difference between a tactical reload and a fast reload; .25 to .5 seconds (was using the in-game timer to approximate so I could be off). On the uzi, the fast reload actually felt longer.

The tactical reload and fast reload animations for drum magazines look to be nearly identical and at a near 5 second reload, the time difference between the two is relatively insignificant. This is probably why you felt like you weren’t performing a fast reload even if you were. The way to tell for sure is by seeing if your mag count decreases.

Some weapons cannot perform a fast reload:
M24, Mosin, TOZ, M870, M249, and PKM

If your current mag is empty, the game does not automatically perform a fast reload, it will play the tactical reload animation, but your mag count will still decrease by one (it doesn’t save the empty mag, but it doesn’t drop it on the ground either). So if you start a reload and see that the mag is empty, I suggest tapping reload a second time to save a fraction of a second.

Some other curiosities I discovered:
Greased bolt doesn’t work on the mosin if it has a 7x scope attached. I think it’s related to the fact that the 7x scopes disable stripper clips by design, and a bug causes greased bolt to be disabled as well (despite being able to select it in the load out menu).
You can pump both shotguns significantly faster by double clicking. The first click fires, and the second starts the pump animation. This does not appear to work for the sniper rifles.
You can delay the pump and bolt animations by holding left click. Your character won’t perform the animation until you let go of left mouse.
You can fire after a reload with a drum mag before the animation is complete (the rounds shoot wherever your gun is pointing, usually the sky).

@eyeofhorus said in Tactical Reload intermittently working... more common with drum mag.:

Greased bolt doesn’t work on the mosin if it has a 7x scope attached. I think it’s related to the fact that the 7x scopes disable stripper clips by design, and a bug causes greased bolt to be disabled as well (despite being able to select it in the load out menu).
You can pump both shotguns significantly faster by double clicking. The first click fires, and the second starts the pump animation. This does not appear to work for the sniper rifles.
You can delay the pump and bolt animations by holding left click. Your character won’t perform the animation until you let go of left mouse.
You can fire after a reload with a drum mag before the animation is complete (the rounds shoot wherever your gun is pointing, usually the sky).

This is all real enlightening. Perhaps post them separately as bugs...

@thehappybub
That’s what I’m doing right now lol, I don’t think the “hold to delay chamber animation” is a bug though because it was featured in one of the trailers.