Loadout tool: What would be a good belting?

[Artist]

As Gix has provided us with a working loadout managment (http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11555) and Continu0 with a nice tutorial of it, I started wondering what a good belting would be, i.e. for a Spit Ia? I seem to remember a hot discussion in th 1C-Forum indicating that the default beltings are of no worth and better ones could be made (but the forum search forms being what they are I am unable to locate it).

So: What would be a good belting?

[Baffin]

Prepare for a hundred or so opinions! Of course, here is mine, the finest by far:

Guns 1 and 8:
Incendiary white tracer on top of list, then.
Ball Mk VII
Armor Piercing
Incendiary "DeWilde"
Ball Mk VII
Armor Piercing (AP)
Incendiary "DeWilde"
This will produce a tracer from the outboard wings every seventh round.

Guns 2 through 7 (No Tracer)
Ball Mk VII
Armor Piercing
Incendiary "DeWilde"

Why? Outboard tracer "Outlines" the field of fire as well as making the crossing point (convergance) visible.
Ball expands for damage to soft targets like fuel tanks.
AP penetrates hard targets like engines and pilot's heads.
DeWilde sets fire to leaking fuel.

Vertical and horizontal convergance distances:

Ground Attack: 274-366 meters on the loadout screen. This equals 300-400 yards to be input to the gunsight.
Air to air combat: 274 meters, (300 yards) or less. (Recommend you Google and download UnitConverter.exe or similar)

Why? During strafing, the distance to the target changes rapidly at a generally constant rate. 400 yard convergance will allow you to open fire sooner and hold on the target longer while keeping all the bullets within the width of the target.

During aerial combat, the velocity and energy of a bullet drops off with distance. After 400 yards, accuracy is still good, but efficacy may be compromised. At closer ranges, energy and accuracy remain high with devastating effect, but you must fly closer to the target to take advantage of the closer tracer crossing point (convergance). The down side to short range convergance is poor bullet performance at longer range due to spread.

I wish I could take credit for this, but it comes from asking successful pilots what they use.

[ATAG_Dave]

opinion #2/100... :)

A variation on Fidgets guns 1&8 is to set the belt so that the first tracer round doesn't appear until bullet number 20 (& repeats every 20 bullets thereafter). The rationale for this is it allows you approximately a 1 second burst before alerting your target he is being fired upon - so if you manage to sneak up on someone, line him up and then promptly miss with your first burst, which I promise will happen sometimes lol, you get a second 'free' go before alerting him. Before you fire that first burst you have to aim - your traces are no help until you have started firing so you don't really lose much by having the tracers fire later is the theory. Many people don't use tracer at all.

[9./JG52 Mindle]

#3......

Guns 1-8 No tracers.

AP
AP
DW
DW
VII
VII
DW
DW

183m / 183m (200 yards)

Fot a tracer version, i replace the 8th round (DW) with a white tracer on guns 1 & 8

:thumbsup:

[Artist]

Great! Thanks for #1 through #3 of 100+, especially for the explanations!


Prepare for a hundred or so opinions!
That's what I hoped for!

[Baffin]

Good luck shooting with no tracer if your gunsight is out of business! You probably will also have other damage affecting your ability to maneuver in close to the target. No tracer = no bullet flight feedback.

GIX is great, but the version I saw had no provision for convergance management. May I recommend "RAF Fighter Loadout Utility", by "No401_StiC". There is a video tutorial on line for this excellent, stand-alone, free program which modifies, stores, and applies whatever loadouts, including convergance distances so you don't have to use the plodding in-game loadout system.

It's in these forums, somewhere...

[Artist]

GIX is great, but [...] May I recommend "RAF Fighter Loadout Utility", by "No401_StiC" [...] It's in these forums, somewhere...Yes, it's here: http://theairtacticalassaultgroup.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11427 Good tool, but as it's name says, for RAF aircraft only. But this is going off topic...

[Placid]

Hello,

This is what I am using in all Spitfire variants, it's the best set up I have found for aerial combats and dogfights:

I'm using historical loadouts for my ammo belt:

Gun 1 : Ball Mk VII
Gun 2 : Ball Mk VII
Gun 3 : De Wilde
Gun 4 : AP, AP, AP, AP, AP, AP, AP, Tracer Mk IV

Gun 5 : AP, AP, AP, AP, AP, AP, AP, Tracer Mk IV
Gun 6 : De Wilde
Gun 7 : Ball Mk VII
Gun 8 : Ball Mk VII

I'm puting my tracers in the two inners guns, because they are closer to the fuselage, and the stream of fire is more stable making it easyer to aim (that's my personnal feeling, you know, different strokes for different folks)

My convergence is set at 183 meters (200 yards) horizontal, 700 meters vertical, for all guns.
I love that setting, because it gives good results during deflection shots while still allowing you to fire accurate straight bursts when you are attacking someone from dead six. Plus you can successfully engage target form 400 to 10 yards and still cause an awfull lot of damage (providing your aim is good of course :D).

That was opinion #4, presented to you by Placid :D !