.303's

[Viper2000]

I'm also quite pleased with the 0.303s.

There are a few tricks:

1. Aim for vulnerable components like engine & pilot because you won't chop aircraft up as you might have done in IL2.
2. Be prepared to wait; it often takes a while for system damage to bring down an aeroplane; oil and cooling systems can leak for 5-10 minutes before running dry, and engines can then run on for another 5-10, followed by perhaps another 5-10 minutes of gliding.
3. If you want to score lots of kills, be prepared to cripple a target and move on to the next one whilst you wait for it to die.

Remember that the objective of the exercise is to remove the enemy's ability to fight, not to generate a TV-friendly spectacle.

If you want a real challenge, try scoring kills in the G50...

[Fragal]

I'm Loading quad AP with a sprinkling of Dewilde's and red tracer guns on the outer guns and inner guns with non tracer AP/incendiary in the rest.

so my spit Loadout looks a bit like this

gun1, AP AP AP AP, Dewilde Dewilde Red Tracer, incendiary Tracer
gun2 AP AP AP AP, Dewilde Dewilde, Ball Ball
gun3 AP AP AP AP, Dewilde Dewilde, Ball Ball
gun4 AP AP AP AP, Dewilde Red Tracer, incendiary Tracer
gun5, AP AP AP AP, Dewilde Red Tracer, incendiary Tracer
gun6 AP AP AP AP, Dewilde, Dewilde Ball Ball
gun7 AP AP AP AP, Dewilde, Dewilde, Ball Ball
gun8 AP AP AP AP, Dewilde Dewilde Red Tracer, incendiary Tracer

The tracers give a nice cone effect and you can easily see your convergence distance
convergence is the same across all guns set at 250 thinking of bringing it down to about 220 or staggering the convergence like badaim (great idea) though the closer you get the better the results.

And i love the 303's they feel right, you can spray all day and not hit anything vital from the rear but from an angle aiming at some vital component like a fuel tank or engine and you hit that part at convergence even a half second burst can be lethal and leave you with some spectacular moments you won't chop parts off unless you hit a fuel tank but you will leave your opponent crippled, on fire or smoking who's easy to finish or you can leave him to have an interesting flight back to base with the likely result he'll be ditching in the channel at some point.

Anyone else hoping for the 12 gun hurri to make a return

[reflected]

I know convergence and loadout is the key, but I can't select it in QMB!
The thing is broken, it's so stupid...

[stanford]

True, but to be honest editing the QMB missions in FMB is actually more fun, and you can change loadouts.

[reflected]

S ohow can I select those damn loadouts in QMB?

0:create my loadout under options and save it
1: open the quick missions in FMB
2: modify them so as to my plane carries my saved loadouts (?)

Is that right?

[Fragal]

pretty much slight change though adjust convergence in options save it to a new loadout then open the quick mission in FMB and change the loadout belting in there.

[Fragal]

yeh it's hit and mostly miss :p
i set the belts up in the FMB then go to plane options to adjust convergence select the belt save you've created in the FMB then adjust convergence then resave over the existing belt or create a new one making sure you hit OK or save as you go back through the menu's as hitting back won't save any changes you make, it doesn't seem to work for the quick missions and only a few of the single missions but MP will load the last loadout you used so it's fine there, if you want to try the loadout out easiest way is just make a quick test mission in the FMB with 2 planes flying around, as you can load belting and weaponsets directly from group properties in the object list.

Fingers crossed it'll get sorted soon though as it's a bit of a roundabout way just to change the loadout :p

[MD_Titus]

As it's one of the headlinr features, having it slightly broken is damn irritating. Be nise if the plane and pilot customising screens were added to mission selection screen as well tbh, so you can pick mission and fiddle with settings.

[Fragal]

+1 to that

this could be another of those "let's change history a bit" points IMHO.

303s didn't deliver the expected punch simply because a)they're small calibre and b)they weren't harmonised at a close distance, but used the (in)famous Dowding Spread, which was meant to create a "cloud" of bullets at 400 yards to defeat aiming inaccuracy and bring bombers down, but in reality it was simply a stupid idea, which only caused German bombers to come back with hundreds of holes in their fuselages.

The changes made by the 1st Sqn made the difference in fighting, with harmonisation to one point taken down to 250 yards, delivering a concentrated punch in one specific point by 8 machine guns.

The idea is to aim for the pilots fellas, you'll save a lot of ammo and shoot down a lot more enemies.. sad, but hey, war is hell!