Beren Hurin wrote:So I've complained in the past and have seen a few complaints about how 'rockets don't go where you aim them'. After doing a little physics in my head I have concluded that they probably do go where you aim them, we just aren't understanding what 'aiming' means. I personally am a mass driver user and if MD rounds went exactly where I pointed most rounds would be in space at the moment, or perhaps in perpetual orbit around the planet.
Tl;dr: If you want a tutorial for this sort of thing that takes less than ten seconds to read I'm not your guy. Read on at your own risk
Anyway, I am not in game so cannot figure out the crucial element to this (rocket speed), but I encourage people to respond with thier own tips and detail on how to use rocket turrets. I really think they could start to be used effectively enough to the point where people will want to nerf them. Perhaps we could stage a rocket gunner kill competition. SO here is what I am thinking.
First as a gunner you need to have in mind a few things:
1) How fast is my ship going (This is probably anywhere between 0 and 120ish m/s)
2) What direction are we moving in
3) How far is my target
4) How fast does a rocket fly (I think this stat is in game so if somebody could respond with it it'd be nice) Based on gameplay footage it seems like they are close to around 100 m/s. But dropships with afterburners can outrun rocket installations/swarm missiles.
Gathering Data:
1) Now an indicator for occupants of ship speed would be nice, but that could just be more or less intuitive based off of a sense of '% of max speed'.
2) This only matters relative to ground targets. You can orient yourself objects on the ground, but also once familiar with a map, I imagine pilots coming up with practical strafing runs and patterns.
3) When you aim at a target, the HUD will tell you this. VERY Important.
4) See above.
Applying information intuitively:
As a rocket door gunner, you want to be able to put damage on target as fluidly and consistently as possible. This is the reason that the targetting reticle exists. What you can use it to do, is this:
1) In your mind, draw an imaginary circle around the center of the targetting reticle. Then as you speed up and create distance between you and the target imagine the circle growing. I think, what you are effectively doing then is estimating your ships angular velocity relative to the target.
2) Next imagine a line, on the ground, infinitely going through the target you are aiming at that has the same trajectory your ship is currently moving.
3) Now imagine this line and circle from before, only intersecting.
4) Finally, if you are closing distance on an object, you would want to fire at the line and circle's crossing point that is closest to you. This is because the missile/rocket carries the same velocity forward as the dropship was moving when the rocket was fired. If you are moving away, you fire at the intersection furthest from you. The line will be the easiest part to get right in your mind, while the circle will be harder to estimate.
5) Eventually you will really want to project the circle onto the ground as an elipse (oval) created by the plane on the ground intersecting a cone coming out of your gun, but that is a little more complicated to think about.
Let me know your thoughts on this technique, and other tips you have. I'm going to test it out tonight.