Can't Hit a Thing

[mtnman]

without tracers, it forces you to aim, shoot, observe, correct - repeat until the target goes boom.

it also gives you an advantage in shooting at someone with the tracers not giving you away

With tracers, you're forced to do the exact same things.  The only difference is that you know where your shots missed, instead of guessing.  If I had you take a test at school, and told you you'd scored a 50%, would you do better on your next test by knowing which errors you needed to correct?  Or would you do better by just guessing?

Advantage?  Last night I lived through three different fights/gangbangs purely because my opponent had his tracers off. 

Personally, I like it when my opponents have their tracers off; but it almost seems unfair since it gives me an obvious advantage...

[Krusty]

Tracers give no benefit in a fight. You line up a shot before you fire. Tracers only show up after you fire.

Either way you adjust your aim and fire again (assuming you miss).


"Tracers on" only serves to clutter the screen, distract the pilot (who's looking at white fuzzy vapor trails on a 2D screen with no depth perception rather than where his gunsight should be), and alert the enemy that he needs to break, reverse, or get out of there.

[Lusche]

Tracers give no benefit in a fight. You line up a shot before you fire. Tracers only show up after you fire.

They can give a benefit, because they are indicating how much and where you missed. Did you shoot to high? Too low? Not enough lead? How do you know without tracers?

That's why whenever I disable tracers, I shoot fine for the first few hours. Then I begin to lose my aim gradually, because I can't update my virtual sight picture anymore. After a week my hit % has gone down by at least 50%.

Oh and there's another benefit of tracers - making your enemy junk& turn to evade your rounds at long ranges, allowing you to catch up

[crutch]

I find with tracers on I tend to aim by tracer rather than by the gunsight.

tactically, tracers can be used to make bandits break off attacks on friendlies even though you dont have a real chance of hitting.

I do wish you could turn tracers on while viewing films. that would be a good tool for analyzing your fights.

[mtnman]

Tracers give no benefit in a fight.

Sure they do.  When I miss, I know where I missed, and how to correct for my next attempt.

When I hit, they don't matter one way or the other.

I was doing quite a bit of snickering at the guy emptying his clip on me from D200 last night.  Never even touched me...  I'm glad he had his tracers disabled, or I'd have been in trouble!

[Ghosth]

Tracers are a personal preference. Some do better with them, some without.
If your struggling, and have been doing it one way, try it the other.

[Agent360]

No tracers force you to THINK about your lead and setup. You are not worried about the trace and fixating on the bullet stream.
I think that in the accomplished pilot scenario it is a chapter that one should go throgh.

Once you figure out the angles and lead for the setup then tracers help you fine tune your angle at the last second. This is very different from using them to actually track a target.

Tracers are old news. By the time you can detect the lead of trace the target is way past this point. Trace only serves to refine or give one a visual clue as to the amount of lead or neg lead necessary.

Most times when I fire at a target that I  maneuvered into a crossing shot, I am firing way ahead so that tracers dont even matter. They don't help me make the shot...only to show me HOW i missed.

I can say that no tracers really gives you an edge on dead six shots because the target never knows when you are firing. When tracers are on they can maneuver based on your tracers.

[ink]

  I think with tracers off its harder to avoid the nme shots, I have gotten good at avoiding the nme fire by ruddering around the tracers, I have had people get pissed cause they missed me, Talking to the nme after, a few have exclaimed "...cant believe I missed', I always tell them, "you did not miss I just avoided..."  and that is something you cant do if there tracers are off.
  I personally fly with them on, to help me judge my tracking shouts.

[The Fugitive]

I like to fly with them on. It's that extra immersion I get seeing all that lead flying at/near a target. My aim sucks with it on or off, so I might as well have pretty pictures !   

[mtnman]

No tracers force you to THINK about your lead and setup. You are not worried about the trace and fixating on the bullet stream.
I think that in the accomplished pilot scenario it is a chapter that one should go throgh.

Once you figure out the angles and lead for the setup then tracers help you fine tune your angle at the last second. This is very different from using them to actually track a target.

Tracers are old news. By the time you can detect the lead of trace the target is way past this point. Trace only serves to refine or give one a visual clue as to the amount of lead or neg lead necessary.

Most times when I fire at a target that I  maneuvered into a crossing shot, I am firing way ahead so that tracers dont even matter. They don't help me make the shot...only to show me HOW i missed.

I can say that no tracers really gives you an edge on dead six shots because the target never knows when you are firing. When tracers are on they can maneuver based on your tracers.

To hit your target, you need to think about lead and set-up.  Tracers doesn't effect that one way or the other.  I'm not talking about "walking" them onto a target.  I don't pay any attention to them when I shoot, but I still notice them peripherally.  They tell me in an instant where I misjudged my aim.  If I don't misjudge my aim, they matter not one bit.

Turning tracers off forces you to do one thing, and one thing only.  They force you to guess.  If you think real hard after a miss with no tracers, you're still guessing; you have no factual way to know where those misses went.

Tracers only tell you what the error you made in aiming was.  And that information is only valid if you thought about/paid attention to lead and aim.   

But, without that information, it's really tough to logically correct for it next time that situation pops up.  Without the information tracers give you, what option do you have but to guess where your shots went, and guess how to correct for it.  Considering how much space your target doesn't take up, that's actually leaving a lot up to guesswork.

Tracers= I aimed one plane length in front of that guy, and missed him behind and high.  I can correct for that next time by...

No tracers= I aimed one plane length in front of that guy, and missed him.  I have no idea where, but I think maybe I aimed too low.  Or too high.  Er, maybe I lead him too much?  Well, maybe my lead was perfect, but I shot under him?  Could I have possibly shot over him?  I don't see how...  No, no way I shot over him.  No way in heck!  Next time, I'll aim higher, and maybe lead the same, or a little more?

I've flown with them both ways.  I see absolutely zero value in having them off, and tons of value in having them on.  Speaking for myself, I've figured out how to shoot, so I really don't need them anymore.  Tracers have little value for me anymore. That doesn't mean they never did... 

Of course, I'd still like to shoot better than I do (roughly 12% against fighters), so keeping them on will continue to give me much more factual information then just guessing would.

[Steve]

Tracers give no benefit in a fight.

I find tracers especially useful against buffs because I begin firing from farther out than when I shoot at fighters and from a different angle usually.