Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: Ardy123 on March 23, 2011, 03:29:03 PM
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This thread may not apply to a select few but most people, myself included, are totally inconsistent in their flying, esp their aim. Why?
I mean once you have shot your cartoon gun millions of times, you'd think you'd have it down like clockwork..... You don't miss your mouth when you eat, almost never misstep when you walk, or rarely miss the ball when you try and kick it, so why can't we make our shots reliably etc....
I know people make mistakes and even pro athletes miss their shots in sports, but try this.. go off line and shoot at drones, you will find some days you can't miss and other days you miss all the time, wtf! :headscratch:
Are humans that inconsistent? It's amazing we made it this far (missing drones is one thing, imagine if missing with your stone tipped spear meant no food for tribe :uhoh).
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Yep I know the feeling...every now and then my consistency in aiming is ruined when a round or two hits the plane in front of me...very annoying it is hahaha :D
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Yep I know the feeling...every now and then my consistency in aiming is ruined when a round or two hits the plane in front of me...very annoying it is hahaha :D
:lol
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Gunnery is like ACM, it something that you need to always practice to become proficient in. I consider myself to be a good shot but there are just some days where I can't hit the broadside of a mountain.
ack-ack
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I feel the same and I am starting to wonder if the subtle nuances of the computer world can conspire to change the dynamic of the game day to day. Some days my 51B feels light as a feather and super agile and others like a brick that never gets fast enough or holds enough E. What I mean is can the little things like number of players logged in, lag, what mood the servers are in, what mood my puter is in, affect the dynamics of the simulated flight or aim on a day to day basis? I have literaly been unable to miss one day and then the next empty the 50 cals on a Jug while on a cons dead six and not even get a hit!
I really do suspect computer intangibles can affect aim and flight characteristics.
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Some days my gunnery is pretty sharp. Other days it is just simply horrible. I don't fly enough each week to really be proficient in it. I fly whenever I can, which usually equates to about once a week or so.
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I believe one of the causes of this is flying different aircraft. Even if you set your convergent the same the guns are still diffident. This is an extreme example but should explain it; after flying a P47 for a few month you switch to a K4 and set your convergent the same, you wont be able to hit a thing.
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"Anecdotally", over the years since 2002, I've noticed that about the time I get my gunnery consistent in one patch or version release, the next one changes the gunnery sweet spot of the previous version. I also see this happen between different maps and different arenas. Furball Lake has one of the most consistent gunnery environments of all the arenas and maps. But, then it stays static, is never rotated and receives few changes other than the game version or major terrain coad changes that all maps receive.
Since about 2005, offline with every new update I spend time with the F4U-1, P47, P51D, spit16, La7, Yak9T/U and K4 as a gunnery benchmark tool. I look for changes in perceptual accuracy, time on target to kill, and effective convergence ranges. Ardy maybe we both are loosing our minds. After all this is just anectdotal black box observations of someone elses program.
Just before the release of our current new version 2.23, I was able to set the P51D 6-50's at 500, 400 and 300 and destroy cons very well offline and in the MA with 1-sec bursts, point blank to 600. I had the spits, La, Yak and K4 at 400. With 2.23 and subsiquent patches I've finally returned my P51D and spits all to 300 again. The La and Yak to 350 and the K4 to 250.
The benchmark is the amount of time it takes for a drone to explode between 400 and 200 yards under fire from these aircraft while at full gunsight zoom.
In the new version I needed more time on target or a more concentrated burst of fire on target opposed to the convergence settings from the pre-2.23 version. As usual that ment pulling the convergence in and concentrating all of the guns to a single point. With motor mounted cannon it means setting the convergence number in the hanger to a smaller number. I still cannot find those adjustment bolts and shims for the motorkanon in the Bf109 manuals. I'm sure if I keep looking I'll find a special addendum from Rechlin Erprobungsstelle or Rheinmetall-Borsig explaining how it's implemented. But, we have to accept records from that far back were destroyed sometimes in the confusion of the Allied push through germany... ;)
An explanation about the Mk108 and NS-37.
Offline you can successfully fire a single 30mm round and hit a drone at 200 yards with the MK108 2 out of 3 times. My criterion was when the number of times I had to tap the trigger before a single round hit at 200 yards increased past 3. Then it was time to change the convergence. Previously 400 was perfict. Now it's back to 250 and I changed nothing but installing the new game versions.
For you Yak9T fans, always use a triple tap when shooting at air to air targets. I get my highest percentage of drone hits from 200 yards that way during offline testing. Single rounds with the NS-37, regardless of how fast, flat and narrow it's dispersion modle is programmed in this game, just has a low hit probability unless you send a minimum of 3 rounds. I watched hours of slow motion AH video compairing the two guns and our NS-37 rounds are allergic to aluminum. The MK108 is an aluminum seeking missle in comparison. :headscratch:
So Ardy do we need to start drinking a different brand of KoolAid.....:D :cheers:
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Just a tip. If you don't mind marking up your computer screen, take a pencil and mark your piper. Then move your head position up and save it, this works great in the P51. also you can make a "look forward button that causes your pilot to kind of hunch over and closer to the gun sight. Also a "zoom toggle" button helps as well.
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I believe the Average Hit% of a WW2 pilot was 4%.......it is just not a easy thing to do, and having varying lag doesn't make it easier.
some days I cant miss, most days I can barely hit anything...except the ground....im always perfect at that :rock
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I think the lack of physical feedback and the artificial view via screen have a lot to do with it. I wouldn't say gunnery here is easier or harder than, say, skeet or target shooting, but with the latter, I notice that my consistency is more directly related to how much I've been practicing recently. When you're shooting steel at 300 yards, you often know whether you've hit or not before you hear the clang (or don't), you can feel it when a shot feels right or off. In this game, if I'm missing, I usually have no idea why except what I can see from the tracers.
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Oh those days can be fun. There are some days I will pick off an enemy fighter that is making a pass from any angle on my bombers, and others, doesn't matter HOW close he gets, I can't hit him worth spit....from dead six. :o :bhead
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Some days I'm just "on" and will make every shot. Some days not so much, and I find myself missing the easiest of shots. Everyone goes through it from time to time.
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I believe the Average Hit% of a WW2 pilot was 4%.......it is just not a easy thing to do, and having varying lag doesn't make it easier.
some days I cant miss, most days I can barely hit anything...except the ground....im always perfect at that :rock
i seriously doubt it was that high
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In order to be a good shot you have to have a good memory. If you fly with tracers that takes some of the memory out of the shot since you can see where the bullets are going, and then correct them (1 second or 2 later.) Unfortunately, that second or two is often too late. If you fly without tracers you memorize where the bullets will land without having to see them. You point, pull the trigger a few times, and boom.Before you pull the trigger you know what will happen. Recently, I've gotten rid of my gunsight in order to increase my aim. Now, instead of aiming with a dot, I know by instinct how my cockpit of oriented, and where I need to aim the whole plane.
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I have terrible aim in most planes. Only planes I can shoot are tater planes because shooting a tater is so closely tied to the acms before the shot, and I can always control that even on an off day.
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one day 600 yds tater headshot
next day
miss and spray 65 taters while kicking cute puppy.
my FPS is barely 20 most of the time...I'd like to shoot with 60 one day :aok
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my aim is always consistent - it's my flying that sucks.
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I believe the Average Hit% of a WW2 pilot was 4%.......it is just not a easy thing to do, and having varying lag doesn't make it easier.
lag should have no influence on aim and hit%, as all aiming, shooting & hitting is done on your computer locally. The relative positions on your opponent's screen do not matter.
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Snailman, I am going to have to disagree with you here.
There ARE definitely misses due to loss packets. I know that the term lag was used. Since we don't really know how HTC performs his magic to get smooth realtime play, I will "guess" that is what "we" are calling lag, that wonky business of packets being sent and received on my computer screen, that either are not registering or are completely "NERFED".
I will stop short here and let the flames heat up a bit........ :devil
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Try this experiment. Turn on all the graphic details and sliders to the left for quality, use the ground detail view Shift + F4. Then try and shoot ANYTHING. Unless TillDeath built your system, I will bet money that the term "nerf" will come to mind.
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my aim is always consistent - it's my flying that sucks.
:lol
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lag should have no influence on aim and hit%, as all aiming, shooting & hitting is done on your computer locally. The relative positions on your opponent's screen do not matter.
seriously I absolutely know do to internet lag....shots will not be the same, I used to have comcast, and any time I hit with a tater they exploded, now that I am on wireless most often it takes at least 3 solid hits to make a con go down.....so actually.....I think I may be getting something screwed up....lag wont change my aim, but due to packet loss my damage is not always consistent.
so you are right, (which you most often are)
i seriously doubt it was that high
I am no "expert" but I will bet you....it was right around 4% :aok
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It may be :noid, but I have also long been a believer that small ephemeral differences from day to day on your PC affect gunnery. As complex as air to air gunnery is, small differences in frame rate, slight warps as you're firing, and soforth can add up to a miss. I think it's just a fact of life with online gaming.
Theoretically, lag should do nothing if you see sprites hit on your end, but I'm not going to dismiss the anecdotes out of hand either. I've seen quite a few guys who don't have egos talk about the rubber bullet phenomenon.
I also think tiny differences in how we're doing physically affects it as well. Just being that few milliseconds slow on the trigger, or pulling the stick slightly differently, or some small difference in how we're seeing at that moment or how our brain is processing the angles and views... Not enough of a change for us to actually realize we're a bit 'off' from normal, but it's enough to affect the gunnery just the same.
I think this game has some similarities to golf or billiards, in that it's the tiny little differences in repetitive tasks that make the difference between great and craptacular performance.
Either that, or maybe the game's just chock full of cheaters who have hax that make me miss. ;)
Wiley.
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Something I just started really paying attention to was how to set my plane so I can aim alot easier.(Too bad I leave in lik 3 day for a year BAH)
Aiming becomes easy once you sit that plane in the right spot behind your opponent....
I like putting my enemy above my gun sight because adjusting up is easier theen adjusting down(neg G)
Also I use my rudder while shooting so I dont ever put the enemy plane in a blind spot under the nose...
short burts I think are almost over rated, sometimes you just have to pour thee big load into them...not saying they aren't a good thing...just not as important as some make it sound .
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short burts I think are almost over rated,
Depends on where you aim and what plane you're shooting at. I almost always only fire in short bursts and usually my first hit ends with something catastrophic happening to the target plane because I am aiming and hitting critical areas in the plane where I don't need to fire a steady long burst to achieve a critical hit. The only time I fire long steady bursts is if I'm attacking bombers.
ack-ack
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looking at all of the responses...i'm happy to say i'm consistently inconsistent. :D :joystick:
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Depends on where you aim and what plane you're shooting at. I almost always only fire in short bursts and usually my first hit ends with something catastrophic happening to the target plane because I am aiming and hitting critical areas in the plane where I don't need to fire a steady long burst to achieve a critical hit. The only time I fire long steady bursts is if I'm attacking bombers.
ack-ack
True.....You use 50cals mainly and I use Tators so there is definately a big difference in the aiming and bursts
Mainly I was getting at are the people who talk about walking the rounds in on target with bursts...yes it is the right answer but that enemy plane isn't staying still most of the time for you to walk them in.
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For me it's switching between 20mm and 30mm. For years and years I've always flown 190s so I got the german 20mm down really well. As soon as I adapt to the 30mm, my 20mm aiming is all off=/
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before i pull the trigger i close my eyes push my stick forward then hold down the trigger until i hit the ground then re-up and do it again...i never miss (the ground that is).
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The benchmark is the amount of time it takes for a drone to explode between 400 and 200 yards under fire from these aircraft while at full gunsight zoom.
Offline take up your primary ride and perform the above task. If the plane goes boom with a 1-2sec burst then your convergence is good for this version of the game. The P51D is a good benchmark because how you set the 3 pairs of guns convergence correlates directly to a known weight of fire for 1sec in a general area between 200 to 400 yards.
Once you are in the MA, if at the same ranges with relatively easy angles shots you cannot destroy a con with a 1-2sec burst, something else is up. Possibly even the urban legend Internet gaming cryptid "Rubber Bullets"........... :noid
Over the years with the P51D based on this benchmark I've had to set my convergence down to 250 with all 6 guns with some game patches or releases to have consistant kills in the MA. Other times combinations as varied as 650, 550, and 450 worked perfectly well. But, the next patch or release screws that pooch.
Some players right now may be facing the higher usage of the Internet during a series of world wide issues along with the long stormy winter here in the United States.