need a few tips

[SwS]

I've been playing for about 3 weeks now and getting a little better each time I log on except for my shooting.  I can't hit the broad side of a barn much less a moving target.  What kind of lead should I be taking?  I have tried every kind of lead from every kind of distance and nothing is helping.  I' ve gotten pretty good at falling in on someone's six and sticking there but I usually run out of ammo before I get the kill.  I've even set my convergance at different distances, still nothing.  This is really starting to frustrate me because I'm a crack shot on the skeet range but really suck in AH.  
Also wondering how you go about joining a squad, getting real tired of flying around by myself.

[Balsy]

First tip is quit smoking crack on the skeet range, you'll end up hunting with VP Cheney, and liable to get somebody shot.

Set all your convergences in the 200 range for start, dont spread them across different ranges. Alot of the time youre prolly getting hits.. just not accumlating enough damage.


best advice is go offline and come at those drones from every possible angle. You can set AMMO to 10000x or something like that so you dont have to keep upping a new bird.

Hope that helps, and heed my advice on the crack thing.

Balsy

[Max]

Welcome to Aces High SwS.

You didn't mention what you're flying. The NiK2 (Japanese fighter) carries up to 900 cannon rounds. Most USA planes carry 50 cal which in concentrated firepower will get the job done up close, which afirms Balsy's suggestion as per setting convergence in at 200 yds. Cannon round explode upon impact and tend to cause more damge. The Nik is a good turner, has great firepower, long legs with the add-on of drop tanks, and is pretty fast though slower than most planes you'll encounter. Grab some alt with your DT's and pick away at the fringes of a furball, or a lone enemy and you'll get kills.

Flying with a wingman or squad is essential. Sooner or later you'll be noticed and asked to sign up with a squad. Be patient, stick with one plane for awhile and your kills will begin to mount.

Holler back if you have more questions.

Btw, AH has trainers in the TA most evenings. Hook up with one, they're all top notch.

Good luck!

[Schatzi]

Max and Balsy are right. One important thing is the plane your flying. Or rather, the gun type your shooting. They all have different ballistics.

Best thing to do for starters is, stick to one gun type solely - ie fly only planes that have the same gun as armament (be aware that the different cannons, despite the same calibre have different ballistics - N1K and Spit both pack 20mm, but not the same gun type.

Also, if you have trouble judging lead, use the Lead Computed Gunsight (LCG - only enabled in the training arena). First press CTR TAB until "friendly lock enabled", then select "target" (=friendly plane) with TAB (repeatedly to toggle between different icons in view). The (two) green crosses you get is the point youll have to aim at to hit the designated target into the cockpit.

Also on gunnery: Never 'walk' your bullets on target. Aim, shoot a short (1 sec) burst. If you miss, aim again, shoot another small burst. Try to "memorize" the gunsight picture when you hit.

And last but certainly not least: Get up close and personal before shooting. Anything further out then 300 yards (ie icon says 200) can be considered a lucky shot.

[guttboy]

WELCOME!!!!

Well you asked the right question...LOL...gunnery in this game is just like the real thing and it takes practice to get good at it.

One suggestion that helped me out and my squaddies was to fly in offline mode and shoot at the drones.  It can be boring but will give you a good idea on a predictable target.  You can also shoot at the ground targets and see where your rounds go.

Remember there are different types of shots.  There are many technical explanations for them but here are some basics...

1)  Your rounds leave the plane and all concentrate their fire at the convergence setting.  This is where you will get the most bang for the buck.  http://www.netaces.org has a good primer on this stuff and is excellent reading.

2)  Assuming straight and level flight for both you and your target...shooting at a target that is directly in front of you...put the sight on the bad guy and when you are at your convergence the bullets will hit right on target.  If you are not at the convergence distance you either have to aim higher...if he is farther away...or perhaps a tad lower if he is way up close.  Remember the bullets fly in an arc to attempt to hit the target at the convergence setting.

3)  If you and the bandit are flying level but at different angles...it may appear as the target is flying from one side of your wind screen to the other.  In these cases you have to apply lead to hit him/her.  This is where it gets more complex.  You must take into consideration the speed of the target to take a shot...just like hunting lead the target.

4)  Any and all maneuvering you are doing affects the rounds.  This may be hard to grasp at first but once the round leaves the weapon it is on its path....so if you are pulling many G's and you have your sight on the bad guy and he is turning as well...chances are the rounds will fall behind the aircraft.  Remember you are both turning but the bullets only go from the point they were fired on the trajectory they were aimed at.  If you are closer to the target less lead may be necessary...if farther away...more may be.

Remember to keep practicing and keep your spirits up!!!!!  It will come with time and everyone here that plays the game will let you know that gunnery is a tough skill to master.

On another note....our squadron flies on Sunday Nights starting around 6-7pm Central time for our "official" nights.  We fly for the Rooks and have a breadth of pilots....Our oldest Hawk1 is reaching 80 and flew fighters in Korea and Vietnam...our squadron is named after his last command of the "Tiger Commando's" who flew F-5's in VietNam.  He and I both live in Texas. We have others that come from all walks of life and we have a great time!  You are more than welcome to check us out!!!  If you like you can hang with us and we will teach you all we know and if you decide you would like to fly elsewhere we have no problems with that at all....this game is about having fun!!!!

Take care and look us up!  Our VOX channel is 175.

Regards,

Mike
TG12

[OOZ662]

Originally posted by SwS
This is really starting to frustrate me because I'm a crack shot on the skeet range but really suck in AH.

You aren't going 200+ MPH on a moving platform shooting at another 200+ MPH moving platform with a gun that recoils like crazy in a turning, off-center dual at 200 YARDS or more away on the skeet range.

[Ack-Ack]

Before you poke fun at him for the skeet comment, do some research on how bomber crew gunners were trained in WW2.  You're dismissed.



ack-ack

[SAS_KID]

The great Ack-Ack speaks hehe I learned gunnery by using simple trial and error.
Plus, don't try to walk tracers into someone for it may work but you will waste a lot of ammo and aslo PLEASE don't spray and pray. My dang 38 will be crippled for life if people just riddle every inch of me up with 303's n 50's...  Also, if your like me and great with math you can "calculate" your lead hehehe. Also, if you want uberness without aving to worry about convergence grab a 38 hehe love em and just do what i do other 38's drop in behind em and wait till about D100 D50 and UNLEASH YOUR FIREPOWER! muahahaha. Ack-Ack if you ever come back and if you don't fly for Knights I hope I run into you on one of Genrl's 30k bombing runs hehe I fly escort.  I bet I will probably lose.

[OOZ662]

Originally posted by Ack-Ack
Before you poke fun at him for the skeet comment, do some research on how bomber crew gunners were trained in WW2.

Yeah, they were real effective for the amount of lead they dumped.

[TequilaChaser]

some good comments, just remember shooting skeet &/or Bird hunting you are using a shotgun which has no arc in its trajectory ......where as the 50cals/30's 7mm etc do have an arc as well as the cannon equipped planes just like most every rifle or carbine you may have used before/shot.......

if you are leading and are seeing the distance icon showing roughly 400+-, you should not be seeing your opponent's plane or just maybe the tip of his nose. If you are seeing more of his plane and are this close or closer in turning with him then you are shooting way behind him.......... the further out the more of his plane you will see...........now this does not take into effect a crossing deflection shot, or a belly shot or other off angled shots.....just refering to be saddled up on your opponent's "6" and turning while shooting at him.......

Balsy/ Max/ Schatzi and others gave some good advice..............most of your US WWII Buff Gunners came off the farm, because of their experience with bird/duck hunting etc.......

oops 1 more thing well 2 - if ya within 400 you should not even see the icon for it is below the enemy &  even though the P51D has 6 - 50cals vs the F4U-1 & 1D which has the same 6 - 50 cals, the gun platform  setup on each plane is different...........some find the P51 to be more stable gun platform where as others might find the F4U to have a more stable platform............Good Luck and hope we see ya for many years to come in this great community ~S~

[TexMurphy]

Here is a list of tips on how to improve aim. Its basicly what I did when I started to fly.

1. Fly a plane with relativly LOW ammo load. Do not fly P47s, F4Us, F6F or N1K they have have sooo much ammo that you will resort to "spray and pray" and hence learn nothing. You dont need to take this as far as I did (I flew the Yak9U which has 120 rounds in one cannon and two peeshoters.) but a SptiVIII should be a good start.

2. Never fire from outside 400. You want to fire at 200.

3. Set your convergence to about 300.

4. Dead on six shots are hard. Try to avoid shooting them.

5. 200d Lead turn shot is the first shot you wanan learn. Saddle up on your enemy and wait for him to turn. As he truns take a lead turn and shoot into the turn. When you aim here DOUBLE which ever lead distance you think is adequate. In this shot the enemy should be under your nose. Most rookies do think that they have to see the enemy, this is wrong. If you see him then you will miss.

6. Combine 4 and 5. When you have the dead six shot use your machine guns ONLY to scare the enemy into turning. Now use your cannons. The first shots in the dead six positions are there to make him manouver not to hit him.

7. Dont force the shots. If you pull too hard into a shot you loose tons of E and position. Often if you turn too hard the result is that the enemy will be on your six in just a few seconds.

8. Watch videos of pilots like Batfink and Leviathin. Look at how they aim and look at how they NEVER EVER pull extra hard on the stick before the shot. Either their flight path will take them into the shooting position or it wount. If it wount they dont force the plane into the shot but keep on manouvering to get into a better position.

9. Start using what you have here for other shots. What you still wana do is to shoot into manouvers. Try to read your enemy and position your self so tht you will shoot into his manouver. Say that your a bit higher then a fight. You see him initiating a climb. Position your self so that you will intercept him in his climb and shoot into it.

10. Gradually add shots to your repertuar.

11. When you can shoot into lead turns, take deflection shots from rear, top, bottom and front aspect (note not talking Head ons but deflection shots) then its time to turn off the tracers. This is the final and MOST IMPORTANT thing when it comes to learning good aim.

Tex

[Schutt]

Fly planes with hispano or cal .50 guns, set convergence to 250 and only shoot if range icon shows 200 yards.

Fire short (1s) bursts at a specific aim point, dont walk the tracers.

-fire at the point you think you will hit the plane
-look and check which side you missed
-fire at another point the next time

For starters, have your plane s wings parallel to the enemys wings

[Zaphod]

One other thing that I use...and it may have been mentioned and I missed it while reading.......

unload the plane in terms of g-load before firing if possible.  In other words, if you can keep from pulling g's while firing then do so, relax the stick, fire a short burst and then reposition for another shot.

Any g-load added to the plane changes the point at which your bullets will strike relative to your gunsight...and this is relative to the amt of g-load.  So if you know where the bullets will go at 1g (normal load) it is different for 1.5, 2, 2.5 g's etc.

Sometimes this is hard to do such as in a turn fight (although it can be done, you just have to pull a little extra lead then ease off and shoot).  If you must pull g-load while shooting try to make the g-load as consistent as possible.  In that way your firing under a constant rate of pull and even tho the aimpoint is different from a normal 1g load, it is consistent and can be more easily adjusted for.

At any rate try to calm the plane down in terms of wildly varying g-loads before actually pulling the trigger.  Get the other plane where it needs to be to make a shot, then shoot.....rather than trying to shoot WHILE getting the bad guy where he needs to be.

Zaphod

[slimey_J]

Get in close; uncomfortably close. Fill your crosshairs with the enemy plane… hard to miss then.

[SwS]

Thanks for taking the time to offer adivse.  I usually fly the La 7 or Yak  because if I have the ammo I spend it.  Last night I set my convergence to 225 and kept my finger off of the trigger until in range and had some success.  However I now know that my lead on a turn is not near enough, been trying to lead about a plane length on a turning lead, I guess it just takes lots of time and practice.  This game is a blast and I find myself playing for about 3-4 hrs a night and more on the weekends.  Of course my wife thinks I crazy.
Mike, I think I will take you up on your offer and come check you guys out, sucks playing alone. Thanks again.