User:RotatcepS/AccuracyDiscussion
Currently, accuracy is mostly represented as spread ratio on weapons that have it. This ratio is e.g. 30:1 on a shotgun. Unlike what one would think, this is not a random spread probability or similar odds ratio, instead it means "from 30 hammer units away, there will be 1 hammer unit of spread."
User Gearhart in January 2021 edited the shotgun ratio to 15:1 stating "tested shotgun spread and found out that shotgun spread is actually 15:1, which is twice as much spread as the stated 30:1. And yes, I did go by spread radius instead of diameter."
On Reddit, this 2013 post exposes the constants used for spread of all weapons and the believed meaning that this value equals "sin (degrees/2)" where degrees defines the firing cone of the weapon.
In order to get a 30:1 ratio based on the shotgun's constant of 0.0675 the math is (1/tan( 0.0675 / 2)) = 29.6184 (rounding up to 30)... the division by 2 doesn't actually make sense, but is the only way to get the "right" value. This gives the pistol a 50:1 ratio where (1/tan( 0.04 / 2)) = 49.9933, the Minigun a 25:1 ratio where (1/tan( 0.08 / 2)) = 24.9867, and SMG and Revolver a 80:1 ratio where (1/tan ( 0.025 / 2)) = 79.9958
Specifically the trigonometry is tan( angle ) = "opposite side" / "adjacent side" therefore "adjacent side" = "opposite side" / tan( angle ) This would have "opposite side" as just the radius of the spread from the center. The division by 2 implies the constant provided is the full cone diameter angle.
Leaving out the division by 2 (treating the constant as just the radius angle of cone) gives 14.7923 (rounding up to 15), matching Gearhart's edit. That would also halve all the other ratios above.