oom or No Zoom?

[Simaril]

Originally posted by Murdr
Have had a dedicated toggle zoom button programed on my joystick since my first tour in the game.

Yep. Me too.

I have a 17" LCD, and my vision isnt what it used to be> (I'm 45). I also do NOT have natural instincts in this or any other real time game -- I have to work and learn to improve.

I use zoom to:

 1) See the enemy's angle of flight at longer distance
2) Get the timing and placement just right for the kill shot. (I don't have any bounce problems at all, with all sliders at the absolute top of the scale and using an X52)

Downside -- Zoom also cuts your field of view, so when you're setting up a crossing shot you may need it off for the "peripheral vision" effects.


 

Now, while I have to work for every bit of improvement, guys like my son (15) and Biggles have both natural instincts (don't underestimate this factor!) and a childhood that included lots of gaming -- which means that generation's brains have learned a distinct wiring advantage over us "old" guys.

Biggle's 20% mark says much, much more about his innate talent and neural 3D estimation ablities, than it does about zoom's effectiveness.

BOTTOM LINE
YOU need to have the ability to estimate lead, timing and deflection from the information on your screen. If that were automatic for you, you wouldn't be posting here, and you wouldnt have a 3% hit rate.

Do what YOU need to do to develop those skills. For me, it's been a process that started with tracers on gennery against drones, then from "anything but behind" angles against drones.

Then I turned tracers off. For me, with tracers on I ended up watching the shiney streaks move onto the target, instead of actually SEEING the gunsight and judging lead. By having tracers off, my practice against drones got hardened into place with tracers off.

TRACERS OFF HAS A HUGE ADVANTAGE FOR THE GUNNERY IMPAIRED. It gives them time to get the shot right, without warning the enemy that he should break. For guys like Biggles and Batfink, it doesn't matter -- because by the time the target sees tracers, he's probably already lost important pieces! But for normal humans, tracers on ==>> lost kills and more frustration potential.

Once I hit a % plateau with them off, i turned them back on for a couple weeks to see where I was missing. (Almost always, that's from not having enough lead!) Then back off again.

Another MAJOR influence on hit percent is average firing distance. The closer you shoot, the more you hit. AND your convergence MUST be set for where you like to shoot -- that way you both concentrate bullets (meaning much more damage) and minimize stray rounds that drop your %.

My hit % started around 2%, and when I'm dsiciplined I can get over 9% now -- with the vast majority of my kills coming against the tiny little fighters, not the great big bombers.

[Major Biggles]

hmmm, interesting points simaril, very good post

as for my shooting, i think it's just a matter of patterning. i started out with a hit % of below 1, and only started getting above 10% a few months ago, it just takes practise. i also find that shooting with machine guns gives you a much higher hit % because you spend longer shooting at the guy, so you hit him with more bullets, giving you a higher average hit %


i also shoot clays in real life, which helps.


a few quick tips on leading your target:




get in opponent's plane of motion.

fire bursts, open up only when you are hitting well with bursts and are close. keep your lead the same and hold the trigger down. you can use 1 or 2 very quick bursts to test your lead before you open up (tracers help a lot here)

*push* for your lead. follow the guys in your sight first, then push your sight ahead of him once you have judged the speed and turnrate.

set your forward view high over the nose to give you a better view for shooting (i have my forward view set as high as possible, so when i want to shoot, i push hat forward, head rises quickly and i shoot


hope those help

[Dichotomy]

Originally posted by Major Biggles


i suck at AH mostly,  [/B]

allow me to disagree sir

[B@tfinkV]

Originally posted by TequilaChaser
you should also take into account who flys more of a machine gun type platform(plane) verses cannon type platform (plane) when trying to compare hit percentage.......

those with mostly cannon equipped plane sorties will most likely and should have the higher hit percentage verses the less lethal machine gun equipped flyers........

very good point TC.

and then there are people like me who could quite possibly get some high level of hit% if i tried really hard all tour, but instead prefers to spray at 800 yards for the lucky kill, to strafe down towns and GVs and farm houses and trees and anything else that i can find when theres no enemy, and best of all, landing with half your ammo left and just sitting on the runway blasting the mags dry over your team mates taking off.

oh wait, the best is killshootering deliberately on your squaddies.

or sending them a chk6 when you know they havnt seen you below them, then sending some tracers flying up infront of thier nose! works best is they have many kills to land. i once saw someone auger 5 kills with that one.




so basically condor, hit % of different pilots is useless to you.


what you need to do is convince Biggles to promise to do a whole tour without using the zoom, then compare it to 20.7% when he uses zoom.


this way we have a control in the experiment in that its the same person with the same skills using the two methods with the same situations and planes overall.

[Mugzeee]

oom...most definently oom.

[Condor]

I would swear I typed gunnery; Zoom or No Zoom.  Maybe this gives an indication of wht my hit % and kill rates are so low.   The point about inherent skill of various players making the biggest difference is probably true.  I never was any good at design of experiment.  

[Mugzeee]

hehehe I had to do it sir. But answering the question...usually i do at ranges beyond 300.

[Simaril]

I have noticed that as I improve at gunnery and flying, I do the opposite of what I would have expected -- I keep moving my convergence closer rather than farther away. That helps my hits be more likely to KILL -- which is the point, after all.

I don't want to put too much emphasis on the inner skill thing, though. While that makes a difference in where you start, like Biggles was saying it's practice that makes a difference.

[airspro]

Zoom is good .

I have three keys set for in on my hotta's .

zoom on and off

zoom bigger

zoom smaller

Most times I have the zoom set to about just under half way to full zoom . That makes it easy to see stuff farther away but you still can see your dash etc pretty good yet .

When I get saddled up I use the zoom bigger key to zoom in closer and then shoot , or if he breaks etc I then hit the zoom off again . First time I get a chance I put the zoom back to half way again .

I think I shoot pretty good , 16% most times . I do get in really close most times .

With zoom you can pick what part of the plane you want to shoot at also , I almost always shoot at the bombers wings .

[GooseAW]

No zoom.

But I might try turning tracers off. Never done that before.

[Major Biggles]

like spro says, zoom is very useful for aiming. instead of just shooting rounds off, you can actually place them on the enemy plane, so that you can deliberately aim for wingroots on bombers, stabs on fighters etc, for quicker kills.

[Benny Moore]

Both sides are correct.  Zoom does throw off your aim, but it can be a very useful tool and will improve your gunnery if you become used to it.  Like Trackir, it's supposed to simulate something which, in reality, your body does automatically, and it takes some getting used to.  But they're both worth the learning, because they beat handicapping yourself unrealistically by not using them.

[uberhun]

I always had zoom mapped to stick.

Turn off your tracers and bring convergence in 250-300.

Do not stagger your convergence (concentrated cone of fire creates most damage and brings up your hit ratio)

When you have the shotgun pattern on you are waisting ammo and lowering your hit percentage

When you go Jabo make sure you set your plane in attack mode

Ground hit in fighter mode wacks your hit percentage

I run double digits in this setting, mid to upper 30's in attack
teens to mid 20's in fighter

Fly planes with cowl guns for a while, this will help with your aim with tracers off

Fire at 200 even if your convergence is set for 300

I fly the 109 k4 with the potato gun 1 hit and the nme comes apart

Think sniper!:t