1 reply to this topic

[Mawai]

Hi All,

No idea what forum this should be in these days so I will put it here.

Weapon convergence in MWO is instantaneous.

What does this mean? When you fire your weapons they are all aimed at the center of your reticle wherever this is aimed. This means that your reticle MUST be actually on the opposing mech as displayed on your client in order for your weapons fire to converge there.

I was playing around with this on training grounds.

When firing at a targets legs, my lasers would hit the leg when the reticle was on it. If I moved the targeting by a couple of pixels into the region between the legs then, in some cases, all of my shots would miss.

If I aimed at an arm, then when the reticle was on the model then the lasers would hit the model. If the aiming point was moved a coulple of pixels off the model to its right side then the right arm lasers on my mech would miss. The left side lasers might still hit somewhere on the opposing mech, but depending on the actual aiming point this could be anywhere from the right arm nearest the aiming point, various torso segments or even the left arm.

Convergence is instantaneous, so when you drag laser fire across a target, then for the time when the reticle is on the target then all your lasers may hit that section of the mech. However, this is dependent on lag and host state rewind.

In the case of ballistics, when you must lead your target to hit, then the weapons will rarely hit the same mech segment unless the terrain behind your actual reticle aiming point is close to the range of the mech you are firing at. In many cases, only some fraction of the shots fired will hit depending on target speed and convergence.

On the other hand, if you can line up a shot on a mech that is approaching or retreating from you (or is moving slowly enough that you can actually aim at it and still hit) then it is possible to get the group of weapons to hit the one mech section.

Based on this one gets the following aiming suggestions:
- try to keep lasers on the opposing mech - shots not actually on the target are far less effective
- try to time ballistics shots at mechs with low traversal (sideways) velocities
- if aiming ballistics at a mech running across your field of view, try to fire when there is terrain behind the mech that will make the weapon aim point similar to the distance to the mech. (e.g. Firing into the sky at a jumping mech has a much smaller chance to hit it unless your reticle is on the mech when you fire ... so aim for the top of its jump if possible).


Anyway, convergence is one of the reasons why large mechs with ballistic weapons (gauss/ppc) can have difficulty with fast mechs at close range.

[Victor Morson]

Lasers have a "burn time" of 1 second, in which their listed damage will distro over the beam to exactly where you're aiming it. Pulse Lasers generally have a .75 second time, which isn't enough to justify them.

But that's why you're seeing what you are and a big reason you want to match compatible weapon systems - burn time with burn time, lead time with lead time - thus why those 2 PPC 2 LL builds tend to be awful.