On July the 16th 1945, the USA tested their first atomic bomb. On some day, which you shouldn't expect me to remember, some years ago, but not many, I learned how to blindfire with the help of @Timmy. Those two almost completely unrelated events are not completely unrelated because they have one thing in common: their respective subjects were incomparably better at killing things after they had happened.
Yes. Blindfire is a powerful technique. Well, not really as much as an atomic bomb, but it will give you a good edge for your edgy battleship captain. The Valor is also a very powerful battleship, so much that you would actually have to try hard in order to be edgy while threatening your enemies. And it was even more powerful before. This is why I had been teaching Blindfire only to those who had a Dunkirk, and invested some effort into preventing its leak into Gallia. The members of the BRF and the BAF had to take a Holy Sacred Secret Ritualistic Illuminous Oath that they would not share it to any of the Muggles (contained in the perfectly inconspicuous word "ok"). I also only taught it to players who I believed would use it with responsibility. Then @Wesker got his name struck through (translation: he proved me wrong by getting himself banned for half a year). Before that, and after that, those players whom I had taught Blindfire also bought Valors, thus neutralizing my efforts. The BAF knew of this technique, the GRN practically did as well, but the LN didn't, which had a severe impact on their performance in battle against the prior, and thus a significant negative effect on their variable coefficient of the valued Disco currency, fun. I did not like this. I don't think they did either.
A bit more than a week ago, @Backo and @TheSauron complained, in the BAF| chat, that the Esoteric Circle of Capital Ship Prostitutes was too secretive -- believe it or not, even more than its snub counterpart! I don't know if they were right because if someone could call me a snubwhore, it would only be because I sucked in snubs. But it reminded me of this problem. So, a bit more than a week ago, I filed a roll call of Blindfire Monopoly Trustees, aka BRF/BAF|A. Those who answered were eligible to vote: do we share Blindfire with the Universe, or not?
The result was: 5 for, 1 against, 1 MIA. Well, technically more of them were MIA, but I only counted those who had responded to the roll call.
Blindfire. The technique that allows you to hit better if you fire blindly. What does that mean? Don't gauge your eyes out yet. It means that the purpose of this technique is to remove the crosshair (the little red cross you aim at when you shoot at an enemy). Why is this good? It allows you to aim where you think your target will be when the pews arrive, not where some stupid inflexible computer thinks. It works very good on battleships and somewhat on battlecruisers, but it works the best on heavy battleships against their lighter counterparts, because it diminishes their dodging advantage.
How to remove your crosshair, or how to adapt it? There are several ways.
I'm not very imaginative with names, so I'll call this first thing "Proto-Blindfire" because it is not really Blindfire, but resembles it a lot.
Ever got annoyed when your turret's infocard told you its range was 3000 meters, but when you tried to shoot at a Valor, you only got a crosshair at 2500 meters? I did. And then I used it to my advantage. In order to understand how to dirtily capitalize on this, we must understand why it happens.
The distance which your radar measures between you and your target, the number which you see above your selected target, is the distance between your ship's centre and the closest point of the target, under the condition that the target is a sphere wrapped around the outermost points of itself. However, the distance your guns take into their crosshair calculating equation is the distance between your two ships' centres. This way, the Valor's prow will be 2500 meters from you, but because the Valor is over a kilometer long, its centre will be a little further than 3000 meters, and thus your guns will register it as out of range. However, you can still fire them towards your target: they might not hit the centre, but they will hit its prow! Or stern, if you are chasing. This technique is usually a lot more effective if you are chasing than being chased, and in normal or cockpit view, than in turret view, because in turret view your guns won't shoot exactly where you point, especially if you've zoomed out. Also, its benefit is nullified if the target is close enough to be in range.
However, there is a way to remove your crosshair once and for all. And that is the true, pure blindfire. Blindfire
This is the technique that @Timmy taught me.
If you turn all of your turrets off, then you won't have range/crosshair at any distance. But, how to fire them then? There's several very useful controls.
1) Fire Weapon Number 1, 2, 3, etc. This one fires an individual weapon. It is good for those "one-shot" weapons like mortars. This turns your mortar into a forward gun that can turn.
2) Fire Weapon Group Number 1, 2, etc. On the click of a button, this control fires a whole weapon group of yours. For example, 4 primary turrets. Or 4 pulses. However, there are two flaws: firstly, your guns' focus will always be at the range the longest range gun you have turned on has. If you have none turned on, then there will be no focus. Your pews will "spray". You may hit your target with 1 or 2 out of 4 every time, but never 4. And secondly, the Fire Weapon Group command doesn't accept holding, only pressing. You have to press your chosen button every time you fire. But on the brighter side, your nearby mouse shop will really like you, if you have Fire Weapon Group Number 1 set on your mouse wheel. I haven't yet found a way to fix this. Maybe the devs could fix it, please? I don't care what that tech shop thinks about me. There is, however, a way to fix the "spraying".
Blindfire Advanced
This, and everything after, is my development of Blindfire.
So, your guns' focus will always be at the range the longest range gun you have selected has. So, if you select a secondary BS turret, whose range is 2000 meters, your guns will focus at 2000 meters (well, at a bit less, maybe 1800m, because of something I don't feel like explaining because it is complicated and unnecessary). And you won't have a crosshair unless your target approaches to about 1600 meters, if it is a BS. This technique is good against cruisers and battlecruisers, at least until you get a crosshair. It is also good against battleships that are about 2000 meters from you. However, it is not easy to use. It requires aim skill. And it is difficult to concentrate on aim while dodging like a Dodge Viper, or while trying to concentrate on monitoring the course of the battle and giving orders at the same time. There is a solution to this, and a certain quirk of Blindfire Advanced gets us closer to it.
A few years ago, I was pewing some Liberty Dreadnought in Connecticut with my Dunkirk. I was using this against him. However, I allowed him to approach as close as 1500 meters to me, probably by mistake. I got a crosshair. And I fired at it. And all my shots hit, while more than half of them would have missed if I used normal fire.
My secondaries travel at 1500m/s. This means that the crosshair they have moves a lot less. Battleships don't truly dodge by getting out of the way of the pew line of death, instead the crosshair curves that line too much, strays it off course. If you could shoot at a stationary crosshair, then you would hit a battleship that is strafing left-right or up-down or left-right-up-down (albeit not one that is strafing, for example, only to the left, and your shots would fly short of it. This is because your crosshair is for 1500m/s guns, but your primary turrets' shot speed is 800m/s). This had a problem: it was only effective when my secondary turrets were in range, but that range was too short to survive a fleet battle, or a duel with a Valor. So, how to get a 1500m/s crosshair at, let's say, 4000 meters?
Blindfire Mk II
I came up with this one day in conn. Then I showed it to @Wesker. Then he roflstomped me with it.
So, how does it work?
Back in the day, BS Cerberus turrets had 3500 meters range. If I grouped primaries with them, which had (and still have) 3000 meters range, I would somehow get a crosshair at over 3000 meters. This means that your crosshair will appear as soon as the target enters the range of your longest range guns. Pretty similar to what I said about focus in Blindfire Mk I. So, if you turn your secondaries on, and then group them with a mortar, you will get a secondary turret crosshair at mortar range (around 4500 meters). Well, somewhat. Your crosshair will be calculated for guns of the speed which is the average between your secondaries' and the mortar's. So, if you have 5 secondaries (1500m/s each) and 1 Heavy Mortar (800m/s), then your crosshair will be calculated for the speed of around 1383m/s, so almost secondary speed. But still pretty good. Even better if you have solarises. @Skorak, if you are bothering to read this Theodosian wall of text, this is the complicated reason why I asked for solarises to be mounted on the Chefornak.
However, this technique also has its specific problem, if we exclude the mouse-destroying annoyance. Imagine the target is turret steering. Its flank or bottom or top is turned towards you. Your pews go at 800m/s, but your crosshair is for 1383m/s guns. This means that, if the target is not long enough, or not close enough, your pews will fly short. If it is long enough or close enough, they will hit its engine. It is useful for targets that are TSing away from you, but not those that are showing you a flank. And not those that are short. This is why it is bad against cruisers, and limited against battlecruisers. If you have solarises, this effect will be even more severe. But it is not as bad as I make it look here: if you have solarises, you will be able to hit a Liberty dreadnought TSing with its side turned towards you, from about 2500 meters. Maybe just a bit less. But cruisers, no. Use BF Adv against those. In fact, BF Adv is, in a controlled conn duel at least, more effective than BF Mk 2, but it is a lot harder to use. On the other hand, Mk 2 is very simple. Just point and fire.
This is all, for now. Of course, each of these has its own quirks you can use. For example, I like, when I'm using BF Mk 2, to wait for my enemy to strafe, for example to the right, which I'd follow with a left strafe, and fire my right side mortar. Vice versa if he is strafing to the left, and similar if he is strafing downwards or upwards.
In the name of the Bretonian Royal Fleet and with thanks to @Timmy, I come from Mount Sinai to bestow you this powerful gift. Use it with responsibility, and customize it to your personal preference! And most importantly: have fun!
PS:
(04-11-2018, 09:03 PM)Thunderer Wrote: Use it with responsibility
What does this mean? It means that you are significantly stronger at PvP if you know this. Don't go gank some newbies with it. Don't complain when noobs gank you -- with this, you're worth several of them. Take your stronger skill into account when evaluating the fairness of the battle.
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Finally we're getting a solid cap tutorial. Great job, keep it up. You might also want to mention the "lazy blindfire" which is just de-selecting a target you're shooting to remove the crosshair size and blindfire without having to use specific weapon groups. Although it says that the guns are hovering over the crosshair, they will basically blindfire unless you aim -very- close to the center of the crosshair the game creates for you. Example here: https://youtu.be/wkejAtDjcSQ?t=3m8s (3:08)
I didn't want to mention it for one particular reason, but now that you have, I'll mention that particular reason.
If you use it on your target, your target won't see your pews coming. It will see your pews going some crazy direction, behind you, above you or whatever. But they will do damage. Kind of like the FG bug. I would not like if it was used.
Fortunately though, it only works on targets that are green or white to you. Those lose the cross if you deselect them. However, the red ones will keep it. You thought it worked on that video, but it would have done exactly the same had you kept the target selected, because you were shooting at the crosshair either way. I tested it in conn with @Timmy, @Xelon and Dii (the guy who played Kiriko Hidamari, can't remember his forum name) a few years ago.
I actually only found out about the basics of Blindfire about two weeks ago. I haven't had a chance to truly use it yet (mainly because I don't PvP much), but it feels like it's more valuable on my Bison than it is on my Pelican. Still, there are a few things within this guide that I wasn't aware of! Crazy how even after 11 years, I still have so much more to learn.
(04-11-2018, 09:26 PM)Titan* Wrote: Where is Turret Steer blindfire tutorial? @Spectre probably knows he should explain that he told me he know how to TS Blindfire
You reminded me, thanks. I forgot to mention it.
Blindfire is very, very hard to do while TSing. It requires a lot of practice. There isn't some catch that can make it easier for you, as far as I know, and it's pure aim skill.
Blindfire Mk 2, however, is somewhat useful and much easier. But both work a lot better while strafing.
@Sand_Spider Oh, no problem! I don't think it will work on a Bison, though. You don't need it against large transports, while you won't be able to use it against gunboats and smaller transports because they will be spinning all around you, requiring you to go to turret view. For fighters, you need direct gun focus, which BF doesn't have, so it's useless against those, too. Or you know something I don't? Would be fair that we both discover something new today!
its kinda hard to do TS blindfire these days. We dont have old long range cerberus turrets anymore and Hellbores are not good for that. Also it is completely useless vs strafing ships and don't forget this
Strafing is always better than Turret Steering on Battleships
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