Friday 2010-11-12 Dev. update and Discussion

[IceFire]

Originally Posted by Splitter

I'll have to go back and find it, but I do remember a report that some groups eliminated tracers completely and their effectiveness went up.

Think about it...on a longer deflection shot, tracers help. But when you a snuggled up on someone's six at close range, tracers don't matter at all. Flashes from hits tell you everything you need to know.

All AP and incendiary rounds would do more damage than replacing 20% of the ammo with less destructive tracer rounds.

Now I guess I have to go find the documents on groups eliminating tracers

Splitter

I remember reading the report as well. One of the USAAF fighter groups (or perhaps it was just a single squadron) decided to remove tracers from their loadouts. They found their overall scores were going up. Possibly because the enemy was not alerted by the tracers flying near their plane and possibly because it forced the pilots to not rely on tracers and instead do range/angle calculations completely in their head.

Depending on the virtual situation the lack of tracers may be or not be a useful feature. Either way I'd love to see customizable loadouts. If someone wants to not use tracers...great. If someone wants to load up a ton of tracers then ok.