Cant hit the side of a barn

[RyanCS]

Im not sure what the deal is obviously I need help at leading and aiming targets...anyone know of any good links or resources ?

I know im a noob and im not going to get good in just 2 weeks, but it seems im doing something severely wrong with my aim. Im getting the hang of merging with targets, and getting behind my target and setting up for what would seem to be an easy kill.. But alas at times I'll unload my entire inventory of ammo at my target and not hit a thing (Thinking Im leading my target properly).

And eventually someone will lock on to me, I hear a quick burp of thier gun, and Im dead in .0023 seconds.. its really doing damage to my ego.

Can someone give me some tips on how to lead targets, is there a magical formula.? Even when Im dead center behind the target at 600M and hes not dodging me I still have a hard time hitting...do I aim a little high when Im directly behind a target thats not banking ?

Thanks for helping the UberNoob

[mussie]

The best thing I did was go offline, set my arena ammo setting to 10x normal and practice on the drones.

Do NOT use the lead calculating sight it will make you dependant on it.

Well maybe use it when you can't see why your missing but only for a second then turn it off

I am not the greatest pilot but I have been able to apply lead on a spitty at around D600 and kill him with a single round from the YAK-9T's 37mm

Infact I have killed quite a few bad guys with that spud cannon.

[ClevMan]

Welcome to Aces High!  I've been playing for right at a year, and the best site help I've found is netaces.org.  It has information on air-to-air, air-to-ground, etc.

As for leading, I would suggest you turn your tracers on, at least until you get the hang of it.  It allows you to "walk" your rounds up to your target.

Also, I would go to the hangar, and set your convergence (on the aircraft selection page in the Hangar, click on set convergence on upper corner of clipboard).  Since your new, I would set it for a little longer distance (400-550).  Once you can park yourself on an enemy's six closer and for longer periods of time, then you can make convergence closer.  You must do this for every new plane you fly, but once it's set for that plane, it's set.

Good luck, and I hope this new info doesn't get me killed!

[mussie]

I am at work at the moment so I cant tell you how to make those arena setting off the top of my head but if you see me in the MA and want some help I would be happy to have some practice sessions in the TA with you

[Schatzi]

OK, this is something i wrote a while ago on practicing gunnery:

The .target ### command brings up a floating target (that always stayy N of your plane) at a distance ### yards. To make it disappear, just use .taget 0 command.


While im not one that has good aim at all, this is what helped my gunnery.

* Stick to one gun type at a time for a while. This removes adapting to the "ballistics" part of the equation constantly and helps you get a better feel for the rest (judging speeds, angles, etc)

* dont fire different guns together, ie cannon and MG in Spit for example. Even if you fire at convergence distance - on a stationary target it would mean both cannon and MG would hit the same spot. But, a2a theres also the other planes speed (ie movement) to take into account. Now, MG has a lot faster muzzle speed then the Hispanos, meaning the MG rounds will get to target in less time - time in which the target moves a certain distance. Now, if you fire a Hispano round, due to the lower speed it will take more time to travel to target, read: The target will have more time to move, read: you will have to pull more lead in the same position/speed/angle then youd need with a MG. So, to make a long story short, unless youre VERY close, youll only hit with one of the guns - and - in my experience - thats usually the MG

* get up close and personal for shooting. Make getting on the six of the enemy for a tracking shot your main goal in a fight. Not pulling for a shot. Ive seen this numerous times in TA when people fought me. They kept giving up position and angles, just to pull for that one, low% snapshot theyd miss anyway. When i fought them "cold guns" and goal of the fight was to get 200 off my tail and stay there, theyd suddely have a 200% improvement in their "skill". By that i dont mean "dont take any snapshots" - i just mean that PATIENCE is a huge virtue and sometimes giving up one snapshot in favor of gaining angle/position and a higher% tracking shot gets you further then you may think

* set your convergences to your usual shooting distance. If you have the feeling that you hit a lot, but dont KILL, it might be you need to adjust your convergences. In a turnfighter, my usual conv is between 175 and 250 yards. For a more BnZ type of flying, you might want to have them a little further out. Play around on those and find out whats best for you.

* fire short (1/2 second) bursts only. Never "walk" your guns on the target. Shoot and hit, or shoot and miss, adjust aim, shoot again. Try to visually remember the "view" in your gunsights when you hit. Develop your gunner eye

* try turning tracers off for a bit. this will force you to judge your aim BEFORE hitting the fire button, and not depend on shooting first, then see where your tracers go and adjust your aim afterwards. If you turn them back on later or not is personal preference. I left mine off, mainly because when i tried turning them on again, all i did was watch those beautiful light effects in the air and not my aquired target (read: my hit% dropped from a solid 10% to 1-2%)

* shoot drones offline. get unlimited fuel/ammo, set yourself certain "rules". Make a game of it. Heres some suggestions, just be creative, im sure youll find more that suit your personal "problem zones" best - put on some loud, badazz music for the occasion
- tracers off, no LCG
- make fast passes from high 4-8 oclock, no shooting inside d400
- turn icons off
- fly the circle clockwise (opposite drone flying direction) - practice snapshots
- aim for certain parts, take the drones apart piece by piece. wingtip, wing, rudder, stab, tail.... If it blows before youre done, youve lost.

* ask Schatzi for a "date" in the TA and blast her full of bullets for suggesting all that BS

Ryan: d600 is a pretty far out shot. Try getting closer. I usually shoot at d200 or *closer*, 400 being my max distance. Anything further out is mostly desperation.

Now i know its possible to kill someone up untill 1000 yards, but IMHO thats low%, lots of experience and lots of luck.


If you have trouble judging how much lead you need to pull, practice a bit on the drones with the Lead Computed Gunsight.

You can switch that on in OPTIONS > ARENA SETUP > ENVIROMENT > Arena Settings. Select "FlightModeFlags" click on CHANGE and check the box that says Enable Lead Computed Gunsight.

You can select and toggle between the targets (visible icons) with TAB key. If you want to target friendlies, use CTRL TAB to Enable Friendly Lock.

But mussie is right. Dont grow dependent on the LCG, just use it to get a general idea of how much lead you need. You need to develop a "gun eye" - the memory of how the gunsight looks when you HIT. Its something that comes with practice.


Edit: I forgot to answer your question. If you need to aim a little high when going for a dead six shot very much depends on your convergence settings.

Ill explain. Yes, the bullets have a ballistic trajectory and drop once they leave the muzzle due to gravity. How MUCH they drop depends on muzzle speed, size, form and a whole bunch of other things. To compensate at least some of that drop, the guns arent mounted level, but shoot at a slight angle. And thats where convergence comes in.

Having the guns convergence at d400 does not only mean that the different guns converge HORIZONTALLY at that distance (when viewed from above) but also VERTICALLY (viewed from the side). That means the angle of the guns is adjusted such that when your plane flies level and you fire the guns, the drop  a d400 will be 0. Further out the bullets will go *below* target, closer in the bullets will be *above* target.

So, if you shoot at a target (both planes in level flight) at d600 and your convergence is set to closer, yes, you will have to aim a little higher.

[Dichotomy]

Hey Ryan as a relative noob myself let me recommend

A) what everybody above me said
B) be patient.  I've been playing for two months and, while my gunnery has improved SOME, it's still not anything to puff my chest out about.  I'm expecting to take years to be able to clip someone in half with a single burst.

Let me add.. work with a trainer... keep working with trainers... and even when you think you've got it figured out.  Work with a trainer.  

Takes Schatzi up on her offer.  I've seen her fly and she's VERY good.

If you need a flying target in the TA send me a pm and I'll be happy to come in there and fly a little defensively and let you light me up.  I'm not up to the point that I can teach you anything other than tell you when you got a killshot on me but if I can help I'll be happy to.  

Definately read read read read and read everything on netaces.  I got some three ring binders and print out almost everything including pms with advice for reference offline.

Good luck

[Simaril]

I feel your pain....look at my signature line below!



I've played for 2 1/2 years, and I feel like my gunnery is jsut starting to come around. On the other hand, my 13 year old kid (a veteran of first person shooters) picked up AH and had a 12-13% hit rate his second month.

Since neither you nor I have that gift, we have to work at it. Here's what I did....


1) Set your convergence right. Convergence affects where the bullets come together as a very small group. You'll do devastating damage if the enemy is right in that spot; but outside the spot you need to make mental adjustments to your targeting. Most important, realize that YOUR BULLETS WILL BE HIGHER THAN THE SIGHT SAYS INSIDE THAT RANGE, AND LOWER THAN THAT OUTSIDE THE RANGE.

YOu'll get lots of answers about convergence, but the one that makes most sense to me is to set convergence at the range you get most of your hits. Any other range, and you're reducing the damage your gunnery can do. Why spread out the bullets? Also, at ranges above 400 most guns lose damaging power, so even if you get hits you're robbing yourself of potential damage.

For me, I started at 325, and now I'm about 275. Yes, as I got to be a better shot I moved the convergence IN since thats the range I get my hits now... and now I dont ping them up as much as rip them apart (when I'm "on" at least).


2) Start with the drones, and make sure you're ok with hitting them from pretty mcuh the 6 position. Leave tracers on BRIEFLY, to get a feel for where you're going wrong. Then turn them off again.

Tracers can hypnotize you into watching the flashes, and completely ignoring the gunsight. What you WANT is the ability to judge angle and lead distance BEFORE you pull the trigger, since that ability lets you set up the shot by flying to the right position before shooting.

3) Once you can hit the drones pretty well from behind, start adding variety...cut across the circle and shot at the side angles, Dive in from above, snake  back and forth across the path, and even practice flying the circle in the opposite direction.

Each time you try something new, turn on tracers and/or the lead computing gunsight for jsut a little while, long enough to see why you're missing. Then turn them back off so you're forced to "read" the gunsight.

4) All along, keep trying what you've learned in other settings. The TA is great for this, because real people fly better than drones! Ask if its ok to shoot (most vets wont care, but newbs can get freaked out), then practice hitting them. If you need the help, you can target them for the green LCS cross by hitting tab till they're highlighted.


Here are a couple resources to check out:



Here an really good shot gives some advice

here's a thread with instructions for turning on the lead computing sight offline

[RyanCS]

Wow ... In just these few posts I've learned a great deal. You all are a great help.  Thanks again!

[Karnak]

To fly Spitfires and shoot down Bf109s and Fw190s.

Because I like the challenge of air-to-air combat using WWII fighters.  I have long been a fan of WWII aviation and the games have come so very, very far.  I remember looking at WWII flight "sims" as early as the early-mid '80s and what we have now would have simply blown us away back then.  I don't think I'd have believed this stuff was possible in 1983, even though I was only 11 years old.

[WilldCrd]

This may or may not help:
I found in my early days that while using the "default" site that when im on a con six and i mean ded on his 6 befor i fire i put the lil center dot just above whichever part of his plane im going to shoot.
start by just getting the dot slightly above his aircraft.  
as stated before your virtual bullets will "drop" the moment the leave the muzzel.
practice this on the drones ofline a bit. when you get the range your most comfy with and just how much to have the dot above the plane to score the hit THEN take what you ahve learned to the MA.
Also stick with 1 plane till you have mastered it. wether its the spits or american or lufftwables.

Mastering a plane is alot more than being able to just fly it and get on a cons 6 its also the gunnery. Each type is different in more ways than its flight model.
There are also different gunsites you can find on the net. If you use one of these use it for ALL the planes you fly.
Persoanlly i use 1 site for clean fighter configs and 1 site for jabbo.
i recommend getting your gunnery skills up first using the default site first tho.

[mussie]

Ryan, Dichotomy is 110% correct when he says be patient....

It took me for ever to get my first kill but it was a great feeling when I finally did it


One thing I would also suggest is dont rely on the UBER planes
LA-7
Nik-2
Spitfires
P51-D

Once you get good in planes like the
FM-2
Hurri-1
F4U-1

The Uber planes are easy mode.

Also avoid using cannons, Cannons are FAR easier to get kills with, but again once you Start getting kills with 50 cals and 30 cals, getting kills with cannons is Easy

In saying that I am flying the LA-7 a lot since the last tour simply because it means I can catch people who try to run, which seams to be happening a lot lately....

Also know that different planes are better at different types of flying
FM-2 - Good Turner - Good at slow speeds - Tough - Ok Guns
Hurri-1 - Excellent Turner - Great at slow speeds - Sorta tough- Weak guns
F4U-1  - Great at high speed - Good Guns - Tough - SLOW to acclerate

Later

EDIT: One last thing  Keep your SA (situational awareness) up Always watch your six (a check six is a privilage NOT a right)

[thrila]

My opinions on gunnery-

I agree with many things people have said- especially the practice gunnery on the drones.

600 yrds is far to out to expect a reasonable chance of shooting down a con.  I generally close to d200 and open fire.  With my convergence set at 250yrds i expect the con to go down with a short burst with all guns (unless secondary is .303 or 7.7mm).  This tour i've been flying the 109g14 and i've found that the single 20mm and 2 .50cals will down a fighter with a short burst at close range.  My hit % is above average, but not because i'm a crackshot by any means.  I simply get very close and open fire with with all of my guns converged at a single point.  This dispenses of any nonsense with compensating for bullet drop, fancy sights and  complicated convergences.  Basically i try to keep it simple as possible.  


One tip i can recommend is to lead your target twice as much as you think  you should.  When i've not flown for a while i'll often force myself to pull twice as much lead as i think i need, for me it works.

My own preference with tracers is to have them on.  There are several adv/disadv with having tracers, but i like to be able to correct my aim quickly if i miss.

Just keep flying and shooting, the more practice the better.

[RyanCS]

Again thanks for all the great replies...

The reason why originally posted this is I was totally humiliated 1 or 2 nights ago. I was made mince meat out of this particular player ( I think his call sign was B52G or something, whoever he was he was good) about 5 x in a row... when I finally got on his 6 and D400...I was manuevering with him for 5 minutes, taking shots, I even landed a couple and he was smoking... I started drooling thinking, wow im going to take this good player down! I could taste it...I mean I was basking in my own greatness!

Then he went vertical hammerheaded over and killed me litterally with one shot , poof , I didnt even spin out of control...I literally exploded in mid air...Next thing I knew I was sitting in the tower, about ready to cry... B52 whoever you are, your evil - jk...

[Dichotomy]

Originally posted by RyanCS
Again thanks for all the great replies...


Then he went vertical hammerheaded over and killed me litterally with one shot , poof , I didnt even spin out of control...I literally exploded in mid air...Next thing I knew I was sitting in the tower, about ready to cry... B52 whoever you are your evil - jk...

don't feel too bad he got me twice last night.  I swear B52 I did NOT kick your dog or steal your wallet

[Grayeagle]

I've always found that .. the better I shoot .. the less I have to manuever.

So I work on gunnery as much as I can. I try to shoot where they are goin to be when the bullets get there.

I've always used a fixed site, simple bead in the center an a coupla angle guides off of center.

It doesn't work well for 600 out or highly manuevering targets .. it does work well for 200-300 out tracking shots ..the ideal firing range for Air-to-Air WW2 style.

I have always begun by using tracers, and drawing a line right thru a target ..basically hosing them from tail to nose. After a bit of this kind of shooting you will develope an eye for where your nose has to be to hit the center of mass (cockpit-wingroot ...both your best probable kill zone)

It takes awhile to develop ..and it's different for each aircraft type-weapon loadout. It takes constant practice ..even a coupla days off will drop your proficiency.

..but .. when you get it .. happiness is a one pass kill

-GE