How I more than doubled my hit% in 3 easy steps

[Simaril]

Last tour I spent working on accuracy since I felt it lagged behind my ACM. I also decided to not shoot at slow, big bombers -- and I was shocked to see that I was even less accurate than I thought, with a hit % of 4.9%. At that level, its hard to finish kills, which means more get away, more are around to shoot at ME, and I'm spending more time chasing and vulnerable to attack.

So I spent some time thinking about what I was doing, and came up with some ideas. They worked so well that I'm doing better than I have ever in the past, hovering around 11%!!!!

SO here's what helped.

1. Learn to see ONLY the angle between the target and the pipper. For me, that meant turn off tracers, and stop looking for hit sprites while I shot. Both of those tended to make me hold the trigger down, and maneuver the plane while spraying till I saw the hits. Because I wasnt really SEEING the angle, I wasnt paying attention enough to see when I was in the sweet spot...and by the time I saw those flashes, I had moved past the right place without enough bullets on target to kill. Last month, I spent time offline shooting drones...with tracers off, and with a NO 6 O'CLOCK rule. I cut across the circle and wove in and out of the drones flight path...helped a lot.


2. Learn to take the shots you can make, and FLY so you set THOSE SHOTS up. I've spent a lot of time in the F4U lately, and that big engine makes under the nose shots unreliable. Before, I was trying to learn them anyway -- but now I've decided to go for shots that work better for this plane. Instead of roaring in dead 6, I'm coming in 20 degrees off...and watching the target from one side of the nose. I end up with a clean deflection shot, which I'm finding is easier to judge than a dead 6 one -- maybe its the perspective makes it easier to adjust right. I'm avoiding flat turn fights, since my guns are hard to use under the nose -- even if flaps make the Corsair turn well, the guns are the whole point! So, pay attention to what shots you make the best, and fly to set those up!


3.(And this was the revelation) DON'T GET CLOSE!!

I know, that sounds weird. But here's why it works in AH:

AH uses "smoothing code" to even out internet lag when planes are farther than, oh, 300 out. In close, that code drops out so you see the position the enemy is at as soon as your computer gets it. That makes for more sudden position changes, and less reliable information about the angle the nose points, etc. What's worse, when you're really close to a target, you have to move the nose more to get it lined up...and by that time, he's done moved on ya!

I've been shooting at 275-400, instead of the 150-250 I was using before. I'm thinking about the shot sooner, and pulling the trigger sooner, at a target thats moving more slowly across my windscreen. Since I'm getting used to "seeing" the angles, I sense when and where to place my bursts.. and they are doing more damage, not just some stray pings. Since I'm shooting sooner, the enemy hasnt had as much time to react is is easier to track. Best of all, I'm NOT running up their rear ends, then yanking the nose all over to land some pings.


See how these work for you.

[Simaril]

OK, here's an image that shows a couple important things I've found useful in AH...and they were apparently good in real life too. (The image is from an actual fighter training manual.)





EDIT: 5/28/08 - looks like the image I had linked got deleted. I'll see if I have it on my own hard drive.


Notice how the idealized firing pass is set up:

1. The attacker is NOT coming from dead astern. When you're directly behind the tail, you're looking at a SMALL target. The wings are slivers, and the fuselage is a circle instead of a cylinder. The only thing that's good about dead 6 is low deflection, but if he's climbing or diving slightly you can get fooled into missing anyway.

A little lateral separation, like this cartoon pilot has, means that you get a better view of his movement (which means better judge of how to lead him). You also get a MUCH bigger target to shoot at, and you're more likely to land damage. As an added benefit, you are setting up to extend past him with smaller risk of collision, and a nice chance to repeat the attack by yo-yo'ing back down at him from the other side.

2. The attacker is NOT coming from the same altitude. Added to the lateral separation, you get more of everything we just talked about. Better judgement of angle and velocity...better gunnery at an even bigger target...and more ACM options to continue the fight.

3. The attacker is pointed to the place he wants to shoot long before the enemy gets there. Guard against what some people call "gunsight ACM" -- moving the stick to keep the pipper on the target. That wastes lots of energy, since what you're TRYING to do is put BULLETS on him, not keep your prop pointed at him. Using gunsight ACM, you can't really think about the proper deflection until you feel you have tracked him well...and then you have to pull the stick AGAIN to get the shot set up.

Instead, learn to use the skills you already have from playing catch. A football toss involves everything gunnery does: You have to judge the speed of the reciever, the angle he's moving, and the speed of the ball before you fire off a pass. When you see him break, let your mind judge where he'll be when you get to firing range...and point your nose there NOW. Bingo -- you get a snap shot. When he's making a climbing bank like in the image above, point to where he'll be when your fining angle crosses his flight path, and let em rip in time for the bullets to be there first.



Now to make this work best, you should get an idea for how BIG the fighter is going to look in your windscreen at the distance you use for convergence. Don't rely on the icon data...get a mental image. (I jiggered around offline, filmed, and edited gun sight files to make a circle sight the same size as a P-51 at 300 for some of my favorite planes. You have to do it plane by plane because the program stretches the sight across the armor glass, which is different on different planes. )



4. And the image makes another REALLY good point that works great, even though I forget it too often. When ready  for that final, full concentration firing pass, make a habit of doing a full 360 degree check for bad guys. The shot might start to look really good on purpose if the "target" is dragging for a buddy who knows his stuff!

See how that helps.

[Dichodog]

interesting and good stuff there sim

[Dichodog]

Sim,

What are you setting your convergences at to land good hits out that far?

[Kansas2]

Makes sense, I will try this. I'm also going to add more RAM. I have only 512.
20 FPS stinks.

[Simaril]

Well, time as shown that ....I wish it was this easy!

My gunnery is still a major struggle, and its by far the weakest part of my game. Seems like no matter how hard I try I can't get my brain to register the leads right.

Dicho --
The way I figure it, convergence should be set for WHERE YOU GET HITS. The whole idea is to make as many bullets arrive on target as possible, so whatever range you're successfully shooting at ought to be your convergence range. Convergence is important for every gun type, but for 50s and smaller its the difference between kills and assists.

So if I'm flying a Pony and working on BnZ stuff, I'll set it for 300 or a bit more. If I'm in a Wildcat, I'll pull it in. Another trick I've started to like came from Schatzi...I can't link to the image because the bulletin board is down. She suggested setting the most outside gun a 25 closer, the middle set right on, and the inner set 25 farther out than your standard. While you lose a little right AT convergence, it does give you a little range spread for targets just near convergence. What's best about it though is this -- as the inside guns spread out, and the outside guns cone in, there will be a "miniconvergence" spot where the bullets cross over on their way to final convergence range. That way those times when you see flashes both wings of the target you have a chance at getting bullets converging enough to do critical damage.



Funny this should resurface, because I've been thinking about updating this thread lately. I'm absoolutly terrible at high deflection shots, where the target is breaking strongly out of my geometric plane. I modified one of Baumer's missions to have 4 corsairs against 8 C202s, which makes a really nice gunnery practice mission. The poor little things can't keep up, and they can't do much damage when they do, so I get to concentrate on shooting at them! I've turned on the lead computing gunsight at times to get the feel for what deflection is needed for a given shot, then turned it off to practice. Hopefully it will help....

[Dichodog]

I usually have mine set to 300 unless it's a german bird then I set the cannons out 25 further.  Don't know if it makes any more difference than psychological but it seems to work in the offline missions.  The other day when I cleared that 109 off of you was an extremely high deflection under the nose shot but that's the only one I had.  Until I started flying Baumers missions I never would have thought I had the shot much less taken it. 

[Ghosth]

Sims right about deflection, set it where you shoot.
Cannons will work much better closer in than out at 500 is the only real caveat.

Too close can be as hard as too far out. Personally I have always had my best runs on bombers when I got inside 150.
Then quick bursts as things line up and down they fall.

Fighters are going to be tougher, and yes they will be more erratic inside 100.

Remember that in main when it switch's from 600 to 400, your most likely still  at 499 yards, and you'll close to 301 before it jumps to 200. That last range change from 400 to 200 is my signal that the bogey is 300 out and closing. Its time to kill him now!

For me I love the offline missions as gunnery practice. Be it Nik vs F4u, or D3a vs P40's.

Anticipate! Don't react, know what he can do to escape when your lining your shot up.
Be ready for it!
Watch their wings, wings show what they are going to do before they do it.
Before you can split S you need to roll 180, etc.

Don't aim for the Whole plane! Kinda like duck hunting. The guy who aims at the flock of ducks misses.
Pick the part you Want to kill in your head, cockpit, wing, engine.
Then MAKE your rounds hit there. With practice (and a bit of zen)(Use the force luke!) you can make your rounds go where you want them to go.  Fuselage is mostly empty space with few critcal systems. Wings are good, about half way out. If your coming in on a bit of an angle you might even get wings/cockpit or Wings/engine.

Pick your part, line up, and HIT it, and keep hitting it till it fails. Especially in the .50's you need to keep your fire concentrated in 1 spot for about .75 to 1.3 seconds total. The farther out he is the longer its going to be!!!!! .50's are pure kinetic energy, the longer they have to travel the less energy they have. This is the single biggest problem most people have with 6 machine guns. Either their fire walks all over, and never stays in one spot long enough. Or they are shooting so far out that it has very little punch, or both.

Spitfire 1 8 .303's if you shoot at 3 -400 they are like rain on the roof. Makes nose, and punches a few holes but they don't do much. Inside 150 yards those things chew wings like a buzz saw.

Dicho setting the cannons out further than the Mg's can be a good plan, esp for the german planes.
As your also setting the vertical convergence farther out, lifting the trajectory a bit.
Much more likely that your cannons & MG's will all hit together.
For 30mm you probably have to go 75 farther. Same for the Yak9T's big gun.

Great writeup sim!