oom or No Zoom?

[Condor]

I’ve been reading “In Pursuit” by Johan Kuylander.  It seems to be a pretty good guide to online combat.  In the chapter on gunnery he emphatically discourages the use of the zoom view for aiming and firing.  A very successful member of my squad uses zoom consistently for shooting and insists it’s the best way to go.  I have tried both zoom and the normal forward view but am undecided (largely because of inexperience; my ACM skills are so poor that I don’t get a lot of good shooting opportunities).  I do find the switching from normal to zoom and back to normal again to be one more thing for a newbie with already overtaxed SA to do.  If it’s worth it in the long run, however, I will try to learn to do it.  The zoomed view gives me a much better feeling that I’m going to score hits but Kuylander says the zoomed view is misleading.  I know at my present skill level it tends to mess up my SA.  Is this basically a personal preference thing or are there real advantages and/or disadvantages to zooming in?

[Major Biggles]

i have used the gun zoom since i started, and i have a hit % around 20 in fighters most of the time, which is very good.

do what you like, but i feel that using the zoom is much better, you can aim better and judge lead more easily.

[Lusche]

Given the much lower resolution of our screens compared to human antural vision, I see zoom as a necessity for me. I often shoot at ranges over 400yds, without zoom I could get no proper aim.
To get a real feel for distance and angles, however,  set you zoom to a specific level. If your shoot with varying levels, you wont get a feel for it. And of course, too much zoom is a bad thing too.
Also do not forget to "unzoom" often and look around. Using zoom excessively will harm your SA.

[Flame 2 the boy]

For me the zoom view greatly increases my accuracy...but in a rapid turning dogfight zooming can be a bad idead since you can lose sight of your opponent quickly. I find it best to only zoom in at the last second when u are on the other guys 6.

Flameboy

[B@tfinkV]

in fighters i would never adise the use of the zoom function for gunnery.

 i may zoom in at other times to get an idea of the direction a distant bogey is facing or turning to.

when actually shooting i find that zoom only makes things like nose bounce and poor lead alot more of a problem, obviously as the more you zoom the more a 'nose bounce' will disorientate you.



the single and only time i will use the zoom function for gunnery is when trying to ping a target beyond 1k away, and most often i will still fire this shot from normal view.



having a 21" analog screen might help me in this regard, and i feel the pain of 15-17" users as i used to have a 17" lcd and hated it.


its personal preference as has been said already, but i totaly agree with the author of 'in pursuit' on this subject.

[BaldEagl]

I use it sometimes and not others depending on circumstances.  Even with zoom, never at greater than 50% otherwise small movements become too distracting.

About the only time I use it is if I'm in pure pursuit of a reasonably straight moving opponent.  As soon as it turns into any type of turn fight the zoom goes off.

The other time I use it is at great distances to judge the direction of an enemy as someone already stated.

[Mustaine]

by now, my system is on the "lower end" running a GF Ti4800 128 MB video card and all, on a 17" CRT (non flat)

without gun zoom a bogie 200 yards in from of my gunsight is only 1/2" in size, and I can barely make out hit shape against the ground or water. up to the sky it is a bit better, as i can clearly see his outline then.

I won;t be upgrading my PC any time soon, as i don't have money to do so, and i will have to go ground up, MB processor, memory, video, power supply, all that.


add in looking through the "opaque" gunsight, I'm lucky i can see the enemy planes at all.

[Patches1]

Fly to your opponent's six and get close...very close....and you won't need a Zoom View.

Gunnery decides who outflew whom, nothing more.


Just some thoughts.




Patches

[Condor]

Major Biggles, thanks for sharing your hit %. It beats mine of about 3%.  20% is a pretty good argument for using zoom.  Perhaps some others who consistently use or don’t use zoom could post their hit %s.  It will be interesting to see if there is a correlation.  

and I agree, the bigger requirement is outflying your opponent.

[Murdr]

Have had a dedicated toggle zoom button programed on my joystick since my first tour in the game.

[Ack-Ack]

Originally posted by Murdr
Have had a dedicated toggle zoom button programed on my joystick since my first tour in the game.

Same here.


ack-ack

[Major Biggles]

same here, right under my thumb for easy access. it's definitely one of the most important controls in AH. some people like it, some don't, it's the same with tracers.

some people say that using tracers is bad, but i've always used em and i've been a good shot for a year or so, tracers and gun zoom. do what you feel most comfortable with. in the end, it doesn't matter, as you'll grow used to shooting like that and start doing it by instinct.


edit: just checked my stats page, hit % is currently 20.7 for fighter A2A

[TequilaChaser]

Originally posted by Condor
 Perhaps some others who consistently use or don’t use zoom could post their hit %s.  It will be interesting to see if there is a correlation.  
 

you should also take into account who flys more of a machine gun type platform(plane) verses cannon type platform (plane) when trying to compare hit percentage.......

those with mostly cannon equipped plane sorties will most likely and should have the higher hit percentage verses the less lethal machine gun equipped flyers........

[DamnedRen]

Ditto.

I zoom out for field of view and only zoom in when I''ve saddle up, licked my lips and let the guy suffer a little more before I send him back to the Tower.

I've had zoom mapped to my stick since day one of flying AH but I have it set to a specific distance to minimize any bounce yet easily see the target.

[Major Biggles]

Originally posted by TequilaChaser
you should also take into account who flys more of a machine gun type platform(plane) verses cannon type platform (plane) when trying to compare hit percentage.......

those with mostly cannon equipped plane sorties will most likely and should have the higher hit percentage verses the less lethal machine gun equipped flyers........

i find i get a higher hit % using mg's because to make a kill you need to concentrate more on gaining a tracking shot, and then you're letting loose with more rounds, which are mostly hitting properly. i'd say i get a 15% hit rate with cannons 30% with mg's (50 cal attacks on bombers, and TnB'in in a hurri 1 give uber hit %'s)

i've had my hit % just under 50 in fighters before early on in tours where i've been killing buffs with mg's. lost it soon after of course haha

i suck at AH mostly, but i'd like to think i'm a fairly good shot, it's the one thing i'm proud of