Calculating Shooting Deflection

[Robotic Pope]

Originally Posted by dkwookie

In arcade and realistic you have a deflection guide in the HUD. This is the roving crosshair that tracks the AC you have target lock on. This is meant to give you your deflection target to shoot at but the problem is it's a bit off. If you aim your guns at this deflection target odds are you will miss.
What it is good for is guaging the target speed. I use that for guessing speed and use the target info onscreen for range then use an initial bust of fire to get the deflection zoned. I usually aim a plane and a half length ahead of the deflection crosshair then adjust visually using the first short burst to zone in.

After lots of practice it becomes second nature and before you realize it you will stop using the deflection guide and your first burst will be more accurate. If you head to sim mode where there is no HUD you will be adjusting your shots instinctively

Its only in arcade that you get the deflection hinter. This is just useless to practice deflection in arcade if you fly in realistic and sim as the deflection you need in arcade is huge and unrealistic due to the supersonic speeds the planes fly at.

Proper deflection shooting is knowing were and when to fire. This doesn't happen in arcade because everybody is firing non stop trigger spamming with unlimited ammo. This isn't calculation, this is fire & sweep.

If you really want to get good at deflection shooting, do training on realistic or sim with limited ammo.