Need help/suggestions

[mtnman]

I'm not much for the whole score thing BaldEagl, but here's what works for me-

One- I never take less than 100% fuel in the hogs, and that includes the -4.  With the -1D, -4, and -1C I always also take 1 DT.

Taking off from rear base doesn't matter, neither does climbing to a fairly safe altitude.  My normal routine is to take off from one base back, and climb to 12-14K.  The climb and RTB time will count against your K/T, so minimize the RTB frequency by taking enough fuel.  I always run out of fuel before ammo.  I ditch the DT when I get serious about killing someone.

Hunt the furballs, but hunt the edges.  Make sure you're not wasting your time where there aren't enough targets, or where you need to share targets with others.  I'll lift if the dar appears "equal" between my country and my opponents, but won't if my country looks dominant.  I need at least a 50% full dar.  Try to seperate out just one or two bad guys at a time.  Fly smart, but also be aggressive.  Being too timid won't help K/T.  Neither will flying back to the fight because you got careless and died.

IMO, the number one factor that will help your score/stats/success rate or whatever is hit%.  That's because hitting what you're shooting at kills what your shooting at.  Quickly.  With minimal ammo.  That's huge...  If I was going to concentrate on any one aspect of my "score", it's hit percentage.  And I'm not talking about "cheating" yourself by falsely elevating it by being selective with your targets.  Don't kid yourself, be honest, and appraise your faults.  Don't worry about what someone else thinks when they look at your score.

Hit percentage does this- finishes the fight quickly, with minimal E-loss, SA loss, and ammo loss.  This means you don't need to RTB for ammo as soon, you don't have to dive out and escape (since your fight is quick, you have much less chance of being disturbed).  Finishing the fight quickly helps K/T, as does minimizing RTB's.  Less time spent in any one fight also means you're looking for your next target sooner.  High hit% equals more kills- instead of missing and possibly getting killed by your opponent, or dragging the fight out too long and having unwelcome guests arrive...  This will also drag your K/D and K/S up.  The F4U's carry enough ammo for an easy dozen fighter kills, or an easy 8 or so bomber kills- if you hit what your shooting at...  This is where having enough fuel plays in...

I've found that by working on my Hit%, everything else improves as well.  But focusing on any other single aspect doesn't do that, at least for me.

[BaldEagl]

My hit% is 9-10+% only fighting fighters.  It jumps to 12-13% with buffs included.  Mostly I'd say I'm already on the high side as far as that goes but I suppose I could jump it another point or two.

[moot]

You should do 15-20% if you really want to kill consistently everything you fight and be able to go that much deeper into furballs.. Wetrat used to avg as high as 30%.  I'm not extraordinary at aiming either, but I can do about 18% avg if I shoot only the shots I know I'll hit on; i.e. not dump ammo for weight, or shoot anything but planes in fighter mode, etc.  I'm doing +-10% now and I do the latter.

[mtnman]

My hit% is 9-10+% only fighting fighters.  It jumps to 12-13% with buffs included.  Mostly I'd say I'm already on the high side as far as that goes but I suppose I could jump it another point or two.

That's pretty good actually, mine isn't much better.  I guess we both stand to improve, eh?

If you're able to hit decent, are you getting kills quickly?  Or are you finding you need to shoot the other guy repeatedly to knock him down?  Another thing I'd look at is how long it takes you to actually score a kill once you find your victim.  Are you making the fights drag out too long?

If you're able to locate bad guys quickly, dispatch them quickly, and still have Energy, ammo, and SA left over so you can find/survive a few more, you should be able to have a fairly decent K/T without much effort.

I honestly make zero effort to improve my score at all.  If there's one thing I pay attention to it's my hit%.  I'm generally reading a book as I fly around too, so it's not like I'm in any rush to find the next guy.  My K/T happens more or less by "accident".  I consider any flight I don't land to be a failure of sorts, so it's not like I'm not wasting time RTBing too.

I wonder where we differ in style.

[Lusche]

Beyond a certain point hit % doesn't tell the whole story. One guy with 10% can be a much more effective a2a killer than a 15% player that doesn't take any shot he isn't absolutely sure to hit it's mark. While the  10% shoots more, misses more but overall kills more targets.
And as we all know, fighting style, type of targets (buffs!), preferred plane all play a substantial role.

But all in all, only a very small minority of players is being able to get >10% in hit percentages. Getting constantly more than 20% in LW without shooting buffs exclusively is absolute extraordinary.

(In my statistical survey 20 tours ago, I found less than 4% of all players ending their tour with 10 or more percent hits)

[moot]

Maybe he can post one or two typical sorties of his.

[stodd]

/

[Sincraft]

Bald I hear you.  Did you ever think of looking for the big battle and trying to 'figure out the map'?

You know what I mean.  Look for intercept routes or to intercept those trying to down ords if you don't mind harassing bombers.

If you see a rook b26, i would suggest you stay away from me...I've only had all 3 bombers shot down a handful of times.