StrikeFear

Lagomorph, Xeil and I spent about 1.5 hours researching this bug last night on the private server. We figured out how to fix it reliably, and as it turns out, that fix matches the one posted on that same EA here:
http://forum.eagames.co.uk/viewtopic...ghlight=#47757
which was linked to in the "Cobra Minigun Bugged" thread:
We also managed to pretty well nail down the cause of the issue.

What it's definitely NOT:
1. Infantry
2. Infantry being prone

What OFTEN causes it:
1. Switching to TV-view and back while the chopper is in rotation (rudder, steering left or right).

We tried LOTS of different movements, but the only one that worked a significant percentage of the tries was the one I just described.

It is NOT just the Cobra, but any attack helo.

Summary:
Anytime you change back from TV view, I'd recommend doing a quick 4-corner sweep with your gun.

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Phelan Ward

Whats a four corner sweep?

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CymBa

He means just push the chain gun to the top-left, top-right, bottom-left, bottom-right with the chaingun.

Thanks StrikeFear, I was doing it today. As soon as I came out of TV mode I'd just wiggle the chaingun to all four corners and I was good to go.

Lagomorph

Wow, did this have me confused for a good hour. Every time we came up with a decent hypotheses it was broken next attempt. I recall early on seeing bullets from the turret landing all over Xeil (doing nothing) and over in the corner of my screen I see an explosive barrel go off. 0_o

Another thing I will mention: It seems that the property of being "mis-aligned" is attached to the helo not any of the people involved.
- As long as it is the same instance and no gunners have done the corner fix, it will be broken for anyone gunning. (Our very first "fix" for this bug was destroying the helo and getting it when it respawned...I'm sure you can see how this would be a bit impractical for every time you want to use a TV missile.) ;P


One final point of intrest:
There is often a sort of "stutter" when changing between the two weapons where it seems to switch your camera back to the previous weapon for a split second before resuming normal operation.
- I believe that this stutter is involved somehow. At the very least it is an indicator that your gun may now be mis-aligned because even in the "worst" conditions for switching weapons, every single time that the stutter did not occur the gun was not mis-aligned afterward.

There isn't much to be done about this last point, it's just interesting to know. ^^

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wushuhero

this seems like a major bug, I hope EA addresses it soon, I already am not a good gunner but know after all this I wont be abel to hit anything

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ingame name: Zuiquan1

Telorn

I was trying this last night myself...Xeil knows how good I can hit infantry when it works With the Cobra I was able to take infrantry out left and right, as if I was flying in the MEC grenade launcher.

All I did after coming out of TV view was move the gun all the way left and then all the way right. Seemed to work for me.

I was hoping to see you last night, Xeil, so I could have gunned for you. You provide me the steadiest/safest platform I've seen yet. You need to get on XFire so we can coordinate

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Telorn

StrikeFear

We confirmed that Left/Right maxing does NOT always work. Sometimes you MUST max vertically as well.
Because you CAN'T know the direction and distance of error in alignment, (without taking time to test it while the helo is still - not practical in combat) the safest thing to do is 4-corner sweep.

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"You live and learn. Or you don't live long."
- Lazarus Long

Telorn

And I would do it that way while not in a combat situation...but all four corners can take some time, time that I don't have in a heavy combat situation..and let me tell you..that is the worst air combat (hectic) I've ever seen on Dalian Plant last night! My pilot could never give me a steady platform because he's constantly being painted.

So in dire situations, a left to right typically seems to work well enough. Just move the gun a little up and down the target to be sure you actually 'hit' them. When not in a hectic situation, I'll do the 4-point.

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Telorn

StrikeFear

Sheesh. I forgot to mention this important item:

The "fix" for the problem is sometimes undermined if the helo is doing a hard rotation. (That's yaw, left-right, turning motion. Not rolling, not pitching.)
The same motion which is involved in causing the problem also appears to be an issue when fixing it.

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"You live and learn. Or you don't live long."
- Lazarus Long

Telorn

Thanks for checking it out.

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Telorn

perry

Hehe, were you guys able to duplicate that one video I linked? The Cobra on the ground firing at two guys 6 feet in front of him until the canon overheated, but not doing any damage at all. That was just amazing.

Anyone ever managed to rack up TK's due to the bug?

Telorn

Yeah. It seemed that whenever I'd fire on infantry, thinking they were enemies, the gun would hit just fine and kill them instantly..but when they were enemies, the gun would bug. Had quite a few that way

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Telorn

StrikeFear

Yes, we were able to pretty consistently "break" the gun. And 100% consistently "fix" it - if the helo is not spinning too much.

The behavior we witnessed was just like in the video. Aiming and firing, and everything looks right - but no damage. We were able to get the angles to be incorrect, but only slightly off, such that firing at a spot, say 10m to the right of a target would hit the target.

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"You live and learn. Or you don't live long."
- Lazarus Long

Joebar

Very interesting! Thanks for givin us the heads up -- I'll test this out myself later. Was going nuts the other night not being able to kill any infantry.

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StrikeFear

bump - some people still don't know this.

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"You live and learn. Or you don't live long."
- Lazarus Long