Originally posted by x0847Marine
Here..
My convergance is set to 1000 on all guns 51B
The bottom line, however you figure it out on yer own, is use the ".target" command to fine tune your gunsights. Some people even place a pinsalamander size Sharpie dots on the screen to better calibrate.
Hi x0847Marine,
That's an interesting approach.
The reason the guns shoot high at 400yds when set for 1000yd convergence is that in order to converge at the aim point 1000yds out, the gun line is set high to compensate for gravity drop. You can see how that works in this diagram:
It has always been true, that the secret to good shooting with fixed gun sights involves a guns solution involving low aspect, low angle off, and most importantly, close range... Combined with the discipline required to hold your fire until you satisfy those parameters.
Of course guns are an all aspect weapon, you can shoot from any position relative to the target, the thing that will lead to the greatest leap forward in success is shooting from close range. No matter how good or bad your gunnery may be, that will make it better. Also, with your convergence set to the same distance you shoot from, you get the highest concentration of hits on the target.
However, if you also make the effort to drive for low aspect and low angle off as well as close range, you gunnery will improve dramatically. Why, well here is the secret...
Good gunnery isn't about estimating the lead required to allow for target motion and gravity drop... It is about learning to recognize a mental image, a guns solution, that you can reproduce consistently. If you watch the film from some of the best shots in the game, you will notice that all the shots they take have some things in common. All they do is shoot when they recognize a familiar guns solution, and not before.
So an approach that I think can lead to greater success for most people is to set convergence at a much closer range and then simply drive to that position before shooting. To begin with I recommend setting a convergence at a range of 300yds maximum and never shooting outside of that. That way, you not only minimise the amount of estimation required for target motion and gravity drop, you standardize it, so that your gun sight image is more consistent and that of course makes it easier to recognize. When you can recognize it, and shoot when you see it, you will have developed a high level of gunnery skill.
There are other factors to consider, for example I set a closer convergence for duelling, and 1v1 engagements but increase it as a compromise for the greater number of situations encountered in the MA, and of course it all needs to be tweaked slightly depending on the aircraft/guns package you prefer to use.
However, the important thing is that it isn't based on mental estimates of gun trajectory, that is notoriously difficult and very few gifted people can do that well, it is based on learning a small number of mental images of successful gun solution parameters and shooting when you recognize it during an engagement. Then when you are hitting almost every time you shoot, you can begin to build on your stock of mental images so that you can shoot from a wider variety of positions and ranges with much greater probability of a kill.
Hope that helps...
Badboy