Platan0 regarding our gunnery discussion...

[TexMurphy]

Hey man,

On my way to work this morning I was thinkin about something you said.

You said that you dont have any problem what so ever outmanouvering your enemy and getting on their six, but then gunnery.

Ive had that same problem.

As you said you fly the Emil inorder to work your gunnery.. which is good lowering ammo total is best way to improve aim..

But you are creating a problem for your self.

The manouverability of the Emil makes you get on their six even easier.

The hardest shot in game is imho a straight six shot.

Two things that did wonders for my aim was a) stop using tracers and b) stop shooting dead six shots.

Inorder to not shoot dead six shots I had to adjust how I fly...

The shots Im looking for are deflection shots from either top or bottom... I always try to avoid shooting from within +- 5 degrees of the ho and +- 5 degrees of the dead six shot.

So instead of manouvering to get in behind I manouver to get good lead shot or deflection shot angles.

Since you have much bigger angle of attack you have much bigger target to hit. Compare the top view with the six view of a plane. Much much bigger target. While you do need to lead more you dont need to be nearly as accurate.

Another problem with the dead six shot is that the enemy pilot is usually in a mad defensive mode when you are locked on to his six. He is rolling, pitching up and down and doing all kind of stuff to make that hard shot harder.

If you set up the deflection shots he is usually busy trying to get on your six which so he is in a much more steady, constant and predictable flight path.

One reason to get rid of the tracers is that they alert your enemy. If you miss the first burst he knows your there and shooting and will go into a harder defensive. Without tracers you can take another shot without him knowing about it.

Tex

[Platano]

Thanks Tex I will Definitly try flying without Tracers.... Another thing do you suggest that I fly an aircraft a bit less manueverable?? How about a G6??

[TexMurphy]

Not really.

What Im saying is that you shouldnt saddle up on the enemies six. Since you tend to do this (and your good at manouvering your way there) the Emil increases that bad habbit.

You can use that manouverability to your advantage, to get better angles. Only thing the Emil really lacks to set up the angles Im talkin about is roll. Roll is a very good tool to use to setup the angles. But in the current finrus setup its not that big deal, just use the rudder to accellerate the roll when you need it.

So no dont change planes, change how you manouver it.

Another risk with ending up at the enemies six is that you can get towed. Suddenly when you end up on the enemies six you go from flying proactive to flying reactive. On your way to his six you are thinin, pushing it, manouvering it and you are quite hard to read for the wingmen of your enemy. Suddenly once you saddle up you relax. You follow your enemy. You become predictable and the his wingman can tell him "slightly left please".

Your enemy then turns left.. you follow.. expose a bigger profile to the wingman of your enemy... boom your dead...


Tex

[Platano]

you are so right...I never thought of it that way... I experienced that quite a bit last night with all the hurri's...


Thanx Tex

[Grits]

The best thing you can do to improve your gunnery is practice shooting drones offline EVERY time you play the game. Go offline and shoot drones for 5-10 minutes and "recalibrate" your mind to where your aim points are before you go online. I started doing that and my gunnery improved dramaticly, and I still do it now over a year later, I use that to "warm up" and it works. One of the reasons it helps is, especially going against the drones (head on) is you get many more shot chances in 5 min than you would get in 5 hours online.

I made a short film for the Hells Angels showing my routine, I'll link it here when I get home.

[Sakai]

This is all good advice, thanks all.

Sakai

[Grits]

OK, here are a couple of films for you to get the idea of what I do in my gunnery warmup.

Gunnery films

Its a zip file with three short films in it. I start headon, then try other shots. My favorites are the ones where I do a rolling scissor and try to hit as they pass the nose of the plane, which is a common shot I take when online. With a little creativity and work you can replicate any shot you might get in the arena using the drones offline. I will keep doing this until I feel that I have my head "calibrated". Sometimes I only do it for a minute or two, sometimes I do it for 10-15, it depends on how bad my aim is when I start.

Hope this might help, I know it helped me a great deal.

Oh, one last thing, use a very uncluttered gunsight, I use this one.

Gunsight