1. Enemies Speed.
2. Enemies Direction.
3. Your Speed.
4. Your Direction.
5. Your Weapon Of Choice.
6. The Angle.
7. Enertia.
8. The Ping, Latency, or Lag.
1. Enemies speed will determine whether or not you hit because if your enemy is moving to slow you will shoot too far ahead of him. Also if your enemy is moving too fast he will where you are shooting and gone before your bullets get there, and I seriously doubt that he will hang around for your bullets. So watch your enemy, study them, and see if they use any patterns that you can use to predict what speed they will be going and when they will be going that speed. A little trick that might help is the targeting computer puts the target so far ahead of the enemy depending on the speed they are going.
2. Enemies direction will determine whether you will hit them simply as in if they are heading at an angle towards you or away from you and you aim where they should be at a 90 degree angle, then of course you are gonna miss. So watch the enemy to see what angle they are heading. This becomes extremely important when one of you is in the air, look at the enemy, watch the direction they are heading and shoot where they will be in 300 ms (give or take depending on their lag).
3. Your speed, this has more to do with enertia then anything else, but because there are distinct differences, I have included them both. Your speed will affect your shot in that have you ever tried to shoot a tin can off a fence post while traveling 100 kph in a pick up truck. Nearly impossible. The same is true for Mechwarrior 3. Practicing with different speeds will hopefully help with this.
4. Your direction affects your shot simply because if you aren't facing your enemy, you won't hit. =) Also if you are running parallel to your opponent while torso twisted towards him, then it is a little easier to hit them, as opposed to running in different directions while torso twisted while circling around eachother in a dance. Both people are changing speed and direction to get a better shot off their enemy while they try to move to make the enemies shot more difficult.
5. Your weapon of choice affects you shot as in UAC20's take a little bit to get to your target while lasers are an instant shot, so if your enemy gets there before your bullets do, again he is not gonna wait there. Also if your laser beam gets there too fast, you are gonna miss. So practice with many weapons to find out where each one should be shot.
6. The angle at which you approach your enemy will determine whether or not you hit because the angle can sometimes throw your targeting computer off. Especially when one of you are in the air. I have noticed that most people in the zone don't even bother to shoot you while you are in the air, rather they set up to shoot you the second your mech hits the ground, so if you can master shooting and flooring the enemies while you are in the air, you will notice that the amount of games you will will greatly increase. Also, on the other side of the coin if you master shooting your mechs while they are in the air, you will again improve your game. This is a skill that I myself am mastering now. I manage to at least tear the enemies arms off if I don't make them do a 100 foot lip stand.
7. Enertia is a biggy, it affects your shot because your bullets take on the speed of your mech, Enertia itself is the theroy that anything traveling in a certain direction will take time to stop travelling in that direction. In essence this means that if you are travelling at the speed of a bullet, and you are torso twisted at a full 90 degrees. When you shoot your gunns the bullets will travel in the same direction as you, also the will travel in the direction you fired them, so in essence they will travel at a 45 degree angle from your direction to the direction you fired them. Now your mech cannot travel the same sped as your bullets, so the angle will be less then 45 degrees, but the angle will still be enough that it will effect whether you hit or not. So practice with different weapons, traveling at different speeds, and shooting while at different torso twists.
8. The Ping, Latency, and Lag are different words for the same thing. I have enclosed some canned text I stole from the Warriors and Raiders clan homepage so I wouldn't have to re-write it all.... =)
LAG SHOOTING: The questions everyone ask are "What is Ping?" and "What is Lag?". They are the same, but the answer as to "What?" isn't so simple. There are a lot of variables to be considered like your connection type and speed (that little color bar beside peoples handles shows how well the connection is you and every other individual), relative computer strength and capabilities, the distance the signal has to actually physically travel, network congestion, solar conditions, nuclear war... get the idea. There is a lot of stuff that determines LAG. So for simplicity's sake, lag is lag. Now to explain the "What?". What you think you see happening, may not be what's actually happening at all. Hits you see on the target are actually misses and what appears to be complete misses are actually hits. I recommend when you hit the planet's surface that you press "dd" to bring up your bar graph damage display in the bottom right corner, then target an enemy (or friend by pressing "w") and press "Ctrl dd" to bring up the targeted units bar graph damage display in the bottom left corner. You are now able to view specific amounts of damage in specific locations. So when you engage the enemy, try leading the target further and further away from where your target computer says you will make a hit (You do use a Targeting Computer right?). As you are doing this, make a mental note when the target takes damage and where. Try to remember how much you had to lead them and where you hit, then adjust to zero them in. It may look like a miss, but when they fall down and die you get to see the end result. When a target is stationary there a zero lag potential (i.e. hits are actually hits). When a target is moving directly towards or away from you, there is a relatively low lag potential as well. So it stands to reason that if you don't want the enemy to get your lag and kill you, don't stop moving, don't run directly towards or away from them, and keep changing speed and direction. Try practicing with a friend and have them tell you when you are leading them too much or too little. People with "1 Red Pings" may require as much as a 2 to 3 inch lead to kill them. People with "4 Green Pings" still may required an inch or more. Many people accuse others of cheating when in actuality, they don't understand the concept of Lag. What they see as an invincable adversary, may actually be their relative inability to "GET" their adversary's lag point to do any damage. It is also my opinion that when a engagement starts to spit, spudder and kack to the point it isn't worth continuing, it is generally not the fault of the weapons or the map being used in the engagement. Rather, it is one or more individuals involved whose computers are barely able to navigate the internet, much less able to display the complex calculations, graphics and sounds that MechWarrior 3 requires and has to offer. So again, don't blame flamers for lag as I have used them in countless encounters with no bad affects. Blame the slacker with the 486CPU 75Mhz. he has kept from fossilizing through some ancient ritualistic cermonial labor of love for the klunker.
Below find some pictures that I tediously edited so that you would have some visual aids to help you understand all I have just told you. Notice the colours of the targets, and notice the index on the right. These pictures were made with UAC20 in mind, so it will be different with different weapons. Thanx go out to IMP_Dracula for being my guniea pig in taking these pics.
Where he actually is at 100 - 300ms
Where he actually is at
300 - 600ms
Where he actuall is at 600 - 800ms
800+ (Not Shown) Bail on the game, your not gonna hit him.
Where he actually is at 100 - 300ms
Where he actually is at
300 - 600ms
Where he actuall is at 600 - 800ms
800+ (Not Shown) Bail on the game, your not gonna hit him.
