WHY?

[MADe]

hows come some can fly thru a base or town, taking down the ack, but whenever I get even in close proximity, I get nailed everytime?

In all the time I have played the game, I cannot recall ever making it thru a pass without losing an engine or a wing. This is a real question, not a rant. everytime without fail, I fail.........................

Hows come everytime someone pulls up in front of me, I get 600>400 yards out, put the pipper right on him and never get a hit?
again not a rant, a real question. without fail I fail.

These 2 things are what make me not want to play after a time. I end up going away till I really miss it.
yes I know how to lead a target, yes I practice gunnery offline. I just do not get it.

 

[Chalenge]

One thing about ack is you don't want to go near it. If you directly overfly ack it will not miss. Also, hug the ground on egress.

As to shooting and what causes you to miss; if you are using a twisty stick there's your problem. It is nearly impossbile to prevent unintended inputs, so when you think you are lined up and shooting straight the odds are that you are not.

If you still think that can't be it, then go into the training arena with a squaddie and shoot each other up. In the TA you cannot get shot down, so it's actually the best practice place.

[Crash Orange]

As to shooting and what causes you to miss; if you are using a twisty stick there's your problem. It is nearly impossbile to prevent unintended inputs, so when you think you are lined up and shooting straight the odds are that you are not.

Go into the advanced menu in the Map Controllers function and you can increase the dead band and/or scaling for the rudder and this stops being a problem.

[Bizman]

The Ack has some sort of AI, it can calculate the lead better than any of us. What it can't do is to guess our maneuvers in advance. So don't fly straight and start from the edges. Your chances to survive get even better if there's someone else on the opposite side of the field or town having all of the ack aiming at him - the role that you've been playing so far!

As for hitting a moving target, there's many variables to take into account. You know how to lead a target and that's a good start. But is it your pipper only? Is your entire plane in the correct angle for a hit? Is the ball centered? If not, you're moving sideways, you're drifting. Look at this drifting video for better understanding what I mean. Notice how the front wheels face in a different direction than the car's nose. Compare that to a plane, quadruplicating the speed. Your guns show in the direction of the driving lights, lined with the main frame. Your pipper is where the front wheels are rolling, showing the direction you're going to. At best this can be seen where the two cars drift side by side. Imagine the chaser had guns, where would he be shooting.

As for offline practice, it still takes me a huge amount of rounds to drop a single plane circling slow over the base. I know the theory but I end up drifting which both burns my energy and spoils my aim after these umpteen years.

I once read a story about some Senior Western Actor advising a Junior Movie Cowboy in shooting with a revolver. The Jr had spent numerous hours trying to shoot a can on the fence. No matter how he put the pipper on the target, he'd miss. The Sr didn't seem to aim at all and yet he hit the can with every shot. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? The trick? Instead of concentrating on the pipper Sr asked Jr to imagine the revolver being his index finger and shoot where the finger shows. Need I say that concerning planes the fuselage of your plane is the index finger in question?

[Easyscor]

DeAck? Cannons, cannons and a fast plane.

[JimmyC]

my experiences are far from the truth of the AH gods.. but
Duck and weave the ack..up..pause...down..rinse repeat..
gets you through it..
I know your pain of being 200..300 behind a target..
at that moment your almost too excited to think rationally...I know I am.. but the bullets lob..
so depending on your convergence you either have to aim high...or lower.. depending on the differences to what your convergence is set at..
obviously all planes have different ballistics... its just learning them each individually..(stick to same plane) and understanding if you should aim high or lower//
that said I am no ace..
I eat pies, drink beer and look at sheep in an inappropriate manner...
baaaaaaat ....these where my thoughts..
Im as upset as you that in the heat of the moment I dont control my thoughts in a calm manner...
Now release the sheeep.....
I cant hit sheet but I want to
<S>Jimmy  <clink>

[Max]

DeAck? Cannons, cannons and a fast plane.

THIS

I can deack a twn 95% of the time with a Fw190 A5 by zooming thru, taking 2-3 guns per pass, extending and coming back for more. Taking the fast acks (center twn) 1st helps...as does knowing the location of the guns in twn. As Chalenge states, stay LOW TO THE GROUND as you extend.

[waystin2]

Duck down.    Seriously, fast passes with accurate cannon fire.  Work from the outer edges in.  Do not fly right through the middle of a town or field that has all of it's ack guns up.  Also helps to have a friend alternate passes as it splits the amount of guns firing at you.  Sometimes you will get hit, sometimes you will come out without a scratch.  Practice practice practice.

[MADe]

ty all good stuff.

I figure I have the steadiest stick in the game, I built it. No twisty for me. I have put many photos of it in forum. My peddles are a little sensitive but I do use a scaling curve to deal. I scale all the axis but throttle. My scaling curve makes its own dead band area.

I understand the concept of not flying a predictable path. You have to straighten out to hit a target tho, that's when I get popped. Hell I use a 48" monitor and I still cannot see gun emplacements till its to late to line up. I suppose it would help to memorize a town/base layout but that's more time spent not playing, and I do not fly 8 hrs a day so who could actually remember all the different layouts. I see players flying thru it, shooting out gun emplacements, and never getting hit.

I'm fairly sure that my issues are what drive most peeps away after a time. I could careless about points or game prowess.

I also fly no squad, I just get in with a group that's doing something and try to help out. Less check 6 calls this way.....but I have not really hooked in with a group that matches my sched. Plus to be honest, many groups have a way of dealing when their plans going awry...he's a hacker, he's has shade accts, there's a spy, they cheat........... I 've come to understand that this is usually baloney and get tire of hearing it.

I have a quality rig, a full size stick, a good internet connect and yet.......................... .............I do stink of the impatience thing, I do get to sweating when setting myself up for the shot. I'm very good at seeing a distant plane, getting on his 6 and can stay there but no joy. Convergence is set at around 400, but I get more visible hits at 800 out, but the distance weakens the impacts....................

I will read all your posts a couple of times and see if I can apply them in game.
 

[Lazerr]

I change the position of my plane a lot when flying through ack,  seems to make me get hit less.  Same goes for puffy ack,  if you put it on auto or auto climb,  you are sure to get smoked.  Change your altitude and turn a little and it seems rare to take a hit.

[Wiley]

When going through the ack at a field, always be losing altitude, and always be jinking a bit.  You should be on a vector to be just skimming the treetops when you go out the other side.  When you go out the other side and are forced to go level or crash, then you need to jink more vigorously.  If I am level or climbing within range of the ack, it seems to hit me a lot more.

Wiley.

[Tumor]

Why are you flying through ack?  Learn to use rockets.

[Bino]

hows come some can fly thru a base or town, taking down the ack, but whenever I get even in close proximity, I get nailed everytime?
...

Keep some G on the plane while approaching or leaving. Personally, I use a bit of up/down elevator in order to "porpoise" along until I'm ready to line up on my target and fire.

YMMV

[DmonSlyr]

My advice is to ask Ruaml in game some of his strategies.

He is a notorious vulcher and de-acker who for some reason never gets hit by ack.

I'm sure he has some valid points for ways to be successful at it.

[The Fugitive]

The point with ack is to always keep moving. Fast is good, jinking around is good, exiting low and fast is good. Practice is what you need to spot the acks so you can stop jinking long enough to throw a burst into it, then get back to moving. Another clue I use is to watch where the ack is firing from as it shoots at others as well. This gives me a spot to dive in one and locate the gun to line up on it.

As for gunnery, you said, and I quote, "I get 600>400 yards out, put the pipper right on him and never get a hit?" If your putting the pipper right on him your going to miss. The only shot that is going to be close is a HO or a dead six shot and even then you need to aim ABOVE the target a bit due to bullet drop. From any crossing shot you have to have the pipper at least a full plane form/space in front of, to almost 2 plane forms/spaces in front of the target as well as a bit above. Add in the "convergence". You said, and I quote "Convergence is set at around 400, but I get more visible hits at 800 out". Your bullet stream has already converged and is split again, looks like an "X". So while yes your punch is weakened by distance, it is also weakened because your only hitting with half your guns, unless your flying a center line mounted plane.

Ryno did a great tutorial on gunnery and aim and how to practice. Vudu taped it and posted it on his site here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WoeZIX5TnAI&index=41&list=PL54E5CE4C59347B00 There are 6 parts so it takes some time, but it is well worth it.