The q key is for manual mode and is default. The shift+q is for land mode (which is what you were trying to do). Cntrl+q is for sea mode (like firing at another CV or other objects but manually moving the gun. The W, S, A and D keys will move the gun. If you say are going to use land mode on a town, Left click your mouse on the town dot on the map and hold it down. Use the insert or delete key to zoom the map all the way in so you just see the town dot (which is the map room in the town), then release the held down left click. This will keep the dot in your view of the map, but it will move because the CV or BB are moving. Left click on a spot around the dot and that will position the gun so it's rounds will hit around that selected spot. If you don't left click again but fire the gun again, the new rounds will still hit around the same spot as before The town buildings are not on the dot, but are situated like the maps I sent you around the dot. The towns are situated like the maps on most arena maps. Sometimes the map builder will change the orientation of the town. I think Oceana and Buzzsaw? are the two maps where the builder changed the orientations of some of the towns. Anyways, if you click NE or NW or N of the town dot, you should hit the buildings in town. Most towns run SW to NE with the map room on the south side. It is important to zoom in on the dot, because otherwise you will be shooting less accurately. A good way to see where the town perimeter may be when zoomed in on the dot, go offline and drive a jeep to a close town and park on the edge of a town block. Zoom the map all the way in and see where your jeep icon sits away from the town dot. That gives you an idea of the town buildings around the town dot when your shelling from a CV or BB. If you would like some more help, holler at me in game and I would happily sit with you and give some helpful tips. I fly as a ROOK.
This is an old post that you may find helpful:
http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/index.php/topic,385349.0.html By the way, the 16" guns will kill a hanger, shore battery or some of the ships with one hit. If you are shooting the 5" guns, you can shoot HE rounds or AA rounds. AA rounds have proximity fuzes and blow up near a plane, etc. when they are close. Use the HE rounds when firing on objects on the ground or water. The range I find effective for the HE is 13.5 or less. That is just my experience. You can toggle between HE or AA rounds by using your backspace key.
Goodluck One-eye