Missile lock and laser accuracy.

[maaarcooose]

Back when I used to play Elite on the BBC, I used to have a technique for targeting ships and destroying them.

When a ship popped onto the scanner, I arm a missile, point at the ship that is just a dot on screen and when he missile locks, fire the lasers.
This would, with millitary lasers, end up with the ship in question being destroyed, but even with beam or pulse lasers, they would hit the ship.

With oolite, it seems like this isn't the case. The lasers don't seem as accurate as the missile lock at long range.
I just get the feel from the game that the point at which the laser is focused is not dead centre to the crosshairs.

Am I wrong? Is this intentional? Is it just I'm missing an upgrade of some sort? do the lasers have a fairly short range?

!m!

[Staer9]

The pulse and beam laser have very short range, for long range snipping the military laser is better

[maaarcooose]

Fair enough.

I'll see how I get on once I buy my military laser.

!m!

[Disembodied]

I just get the feel from the game that the point at which the laser is focused is not dead centre to the crosshairs.

The aiming point for the lasers isn't always dead centre, no – and there are variations from ship to ship, depending on the positioning of the cockpit and the laser mounting. It's definitely something you get better at, though. PLaying Elite on the Spectrum, I used to regularly destroy ships when they were just literally dots in the distance. Oolite is harder – although I can still dish out my fair share of long-range destruction, and have even on occasion managed to pick off a fleeing pirate after he's slipped out of target range ... very satisfying it is too.

[ADCK]

I remember or the Nintendo version of Elite, the cross hair was a little off, the actual laser would hit 1 pixel left and 1 down of the centre of the cross hair. But that was back in the days when pixels were fairly chunky things and the game was played on a PAL TV.

[Smivs]

– although I can still dish out my fair share of long-range destruction, and have even on occasion managed to pick off a fleeing pirate after he's slipped out of target range ... very satisfying it is too.

Yes, I've actually got quite good at that, and it is extremely smug-making.
As has been said, all ships are a bit different and learning where the 'sweet-spot' is on your ship is very useful.

[Commander McLane]

I just get the feel from the game that the point at which the laser is focused is not dead centre to the crosshairs.

Am I wrong? Is this intentional?

Indeed. It's the optical phenomenon known as [wp]parallax[/wp]. Your viewpoint is not the same as the origin of your laser. If your laser beam originates from the bottom of your screen, your position is obviously above the laser itself. How far above the laser you are depends on the size—especially the height—of your ship, it could be anything between a couple of meters and a couple of dozen meters.

You are looking strictly forward, and your laser is firing strictly forward. The crosshairs are related to your view position. So you have to expect you laser to hit your target exactly as many meters below the centre of your crosshairs as your viewpoint is located above your laser. Here's a very crude visualization:

Code: Select all

_______  Cockpit / View camera
       \
Your    \ ))+)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))
ship     \  Crosshairs / Angle of view
seen      |
from      |___
the           \ __________________________
side       ___/              Laser beam
__________/ Laser mount

So, where on your target is the point exactly x meters below your crosshairs? Obviously this depends on the distance to your target. If you're firing at a ship directly in front of you, the laser impact point may be halfway between the crosshairs and the bottom of your screen. If your target is very far away, even many meters translate to just one pixel below the dead centre of the crosshairs.

Whenever you aim at something, you have to take this effect of parallax into account if you don't want to miss.

[DaddyHoggy]

There was an oddity with the C64 version of Elite that when a ship was a very long way away it was drawn as a blob - specifically a 2x2 grid of pixels, when it reached the scanner edge the code started drawing it as polygons and the shape dropped back down to a single pixel making it harder to hit - so the trick was to bag it just before it reached the scanner edge!

[Commander McLane]

There was an oddity with the C64 version of Elite that when a ship was a very long way away it was drawn as a blob - specifically a 2x2 grid of pixels, when it reached the scanner edge the code started drawing it as polygons and the shape dropped back down to a single pixel making it harder to hit - so the trick was to bag it just before it reached the scanner edge!

Yep! I think this is the reason why I prefer long-range sniping to this very day.

[CommonSenseOTB]

If you all want adjustable crosshairs why don't you put a request in the animated gauges thread. That's what it's there for. I will personally follow up on all requests given time.

[Gimi]

There was an oddity with the C64 version of Elite that when a ship was a very long way away it was drawn as a blob - specifically a 2x2 grid of pixels, when it reached the scanner edge the code started drawing it as polygons and the shape dropped back down to a single pixel making it harder to hit - so the trick was to bag it just before it reached the scanner edge!

And on my C64 it would be a direct hit if it was 2 pixels left of dead centre of my military laser sights. Used to be able to snipe groups before they fired a single shot, hitting the other right away after the first one had blown up until my laser overheated. I seem to remember though, that the ships stayed as a "blob" for a wee bit after they came into scanner range.

Anyway, sniping is much harder in Oolite.

[CaptSolo]

I played Elite on the C64 and it was easy to blast those 2x pixel representations from long range. With Oolite, as I'm sure it is the same with most of you, I go by the sound of the laser hitting the hull of the target ship. It takes practice and patience so as not to overheat your weapon. My preferred method is sniping from long range usually with the aft laser. Big ships like the Python are easy but it takes more fine tuning with smaller ships, but then they are more easily dispatched.