Choose Which Guns Fire Tracers

[hammer]

A discussion in the Help & Training Forum made me think it would be nice to be able to select which guns fire tracers. In this specific case, the discussion was about 109s. It would certainly be nice to only have the 30mm tracers vice both the 30mm and 12.7. The same could be said about any other disparate gun setup. Selections could be all or one of the available sets.

Regards,

Hammer

[ian5440]

I dont get why you wouldnt want tracers, they seem like the only help?? 

[Rollins]

In so much as they may help you aim, they also help an enemy you're trying to get the drop on know that you're shooting at him.
As far as the 109 series for example, the trajectories of the two different caliber guns are significantly different.  Opting out of tracers for the MGs for example, because you know their flight path fairly well, might help unclutter the forward firing solution visually and allow you to concentrate on just the 20mm or 30mm you're tossing out there.

[VansCrew1]

I dont get why you wouldnt want tracers, they seem like the only help?? 

No tracers improve your hit rate.

[Nisky]

when i use big cannons like 30mm and 40mm i have my stick setup for primary fire and secondary fire so i use secondary fire button for cannon shots.

[hammer]

No tracers improve your hit rate.

This is not true. It might help your hit %, but it is not a blanket statement to be applied to everybody.

Rollins hits the nail on the head... the thread I was reading in the H&T forum was discussing whether it was better to fire just the main gun on a 109 or all of them. Like most things, different people have different oppinions. The discussion got me thinking it would be nice, for those who choose to use tracers, to just have the 30mm throwing tracers vice all the guns.

For the record, I've spent several years both with and without tracers. I leave them on now mainly for the effect.

Regards,

Hammer

[Motherland]

Random FYI, if you turn the tracers off in the Yak9T it still displays tracers on the 37mm, just not the UBS.

[spit16nooby]

LOL I just saw your post in mine and thought I would go and post on it when I saw this.

[NoBaddy]

This is not true. It might help your hit %, but it is not a blanket statement to be applied to everybody.

Actually, in my experience, turning them off will improve hit percentages. At least, it will if you are smart enough to figure out what you need to do to get hits.

Without tracers, most will learn to get closer before firing and they learn to aim and not just hose with the tracers.

[hammer]

Actually, in my experience, turning them off will improve hit percentages. At least, it will if you are smart enough to figure out what you need to do to get hits.

Without tracers, most will learn to get closer before firing and they learn to aim and not just hose with the tracers.

Just to be clear, being closer before taking shots and not using the spray & pray method of aiming will increase hit %. Not using tracers tends to force you into doing that. So does using planes with small ammo loads. However, the same thing can be accomplished with a little discipline if you want lots of ammo and tracers.

There are other advantages to having tracers off. I am not advocating one way or the other. Just want to make sure someone doesn't read this and think turning tracers off will increase his hit % by several points.

Regards,

Hammer

[SmokinLoon]

I like the idea.  Being able to only have tracers in certain guns would/could be beneficial.

The other thing is to label which guns are which in the convergence window.  IMO, there are too many planes to know which guns are where on every plane (inner/outer wing, cowl, etc).  AND.... some planes have only two calibers but a goofy set up of convergence bars.  The Mossi is prime example of this.  First off, I cant tell which color is which caliber. Secondly, there are three colors and only two calibers.  More kinks that needs to be worked out of the Mossi, I believe.     

[moot]

SmokingLoon it's pretty easy to see which guns each convergence line belongs to.  Just follow it to its source.. If you can't see it clearly, you can zoom in.   In the case of the mossie, three convergences for 2 calibers would mean either the 20mm or 303s are divided in two banks. Multi-gun banks are always divided symetricaly.  It's really not complicated.

[bongaroo]

I think that the 37mm is such a big tater that you can see it with tracers or without.  Could be wrong here but I think people were discussing this about the p39.

[RATTFINK]

Add color to the tracers when you are close to running out   It would be nice to see the enemy fire off a red or green tracer when they run out of ammo

I haven't used tracers in almost a year now.

[moot]

Yep.. Historical tracer colors, choice of placement/quantity in the ammo belts...