Berlancic

Well maybe it's just like an in-crowd. I know the pilum projectile is faster, but it does the same damage and isn't guided.
In close and medium range situations the pilum is great, usually you can hit before the driver can activate defense countermeasures. I also find it easier as a tanker to see the default engy missles and dodge them.
People have their opinions, but I believe that it is all dependant on situation, as usual.

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TheDarkPenguin

DING!! I never knew that!! Danke!


About TV missles, there is some lag, but all you need to know is that the farther your missile is going or has gone, the faster it goes, from slow to not really slow to sorta fast to fast to speed of thought to explosion..... . The other thing to always remember is to lead your missle. I have taken down a few gunships using this method. For transports and gunships, make sure (this is when voIP comes in handy) your pilot knows to be behind the gunship/transport, if at all possible. Then even if it turns, you can lead the missile into it. Actually, being at a "not quite" straight on angle to it works the best.

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Azura

The Pilum is quite accurate, there is no bullet drop, it just vanishes when it surpasses it's in-game limit. That baby will go as straight as it can until that point if fired correctly.

I've seen it a million times where people will fire the pilum from twenty meters and still miss the damn APC, then they fire a second shot as they try to account for target mobility, and again over shoot that baby horribly. I believe it is the primary the immobile reticule on the pilum that screws impatient players over.

Though the reticule is immobile, you still need to account for it. Running then diving prone and firing will not solve that problem, it'll make it worse. Try grabbing an assault rifle and go prone, but instead of tapping the prone button just hold it. Now look at your reticule, it will be as wide as it can possible get until you let loose the prone key. Why, I have no idea, but that's how it is, and like many things in the heat of the battlefield, some users just mash the button and don't realize they are still holding it down. Now your aim is jacked up seven ways to Sunday. Try firing the Pilum from the crouched position.

In these pictures, this is how holding the prone key affects your accuracy:
1. Prone
2. While prone, moving forward. See the little affect on the reticule.
3. Going to prone and still pressing the prone key, notice how spread my reticule is.
4. While the prone key is still held, look at the sporadic fire.

This is how you correctly line up your target to your reticule. I've noted peoples lack at hitting targets around 80-100 meters accurately.
1. Center mass on the reticule is the top of the inner circle. The outside ring is the horizontal and vertical limits of the actual pilum during it's flight, by using the sliders below and on the left side of the reticule (Discussed below)
2. Shot is fire, the Pilum is directly on course and lined up where the top of the inner circle was. Note: The reticule in the picture is offset because of the recoil.
3. Direct Hit.

The second mistake is not accounting for movement, either of the individual or target. In this next set of photos, you utilize the sliders to indicate where to place your shot. Again, 100 meters firing at a supply box this time.

This is moving to the left, notice the sliders position.

1. While moving to the right, I set up the box to be with in the outside circle. To account for the movement, I fire when the box is to the right of the inner circle. The center mass of my reticule is pushed up, so the top of the box is aligned to the bottom of the inner circle because of the left slider. The left slide says the pilum is going to go down on it's course, there fore I accounted for it by raising the reticule. (A bit of kentucky windage)
2. Direct hit

This is how the holding prone key affects your pilum shot, many of you will notice these results before on the battlefield and probably said "what the butt" because it was one of those really important one time shots.

1. Notice my sliders are perfectly settled though.
2. In this shot my round takes a major dive.
3. In this shot, my round goes to the left.
Now all of these shots were fired perfectly steady, but even though the cross hair is not the same as the rifle, it still is affected by that extreme spread. Now that should cover it all, the pilum is super easy to use once you get the feel and you utilize the sliders, you'll be picking infantry off from 100+meters.

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Zoraster

I believe that post needs its own thread, Azura. I did not know this information, I'm embarrassed to say. I think intuitively I've accounted for a lot of it, but never explicitly.

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|TG-Mth| Zoraster | .

Azura

Hah, it was nothing, something I whipped up out of the blue. I never actually thought about starting a "How to Properly Fire a Pilum" thread because, it dawned on me that maybe a lot of people don't know how to properly fire it until now.

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LordKelvin

I had no idea those little sliders actually DID something.

@Zoraster: Sometimes a reminder that we are all human stems from the world around us.

This is news to me. One thing though... Who has the time to inspect the position of those sliders when you are being fired at or the target is moving very fast? In those cases I think aiming ahead and slightly above your target works well enough that you dont need to use the sliders...

Or use a guided missile.

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Why MTG has lost any sense of balance:
Lotus Cobra

Azura

I suppose that is true, hence old fashioned kentucky windage, but it takes only a few moments to inspect the sliders. They are extremely sensitive, it's no different then quickly scanning the mini map. Pop up behind cover, cover down your target, align your shot and fire, then drop behind cover. One dead tank in 2 seconds with out being out in the open. If you know the exact location of the target, set up your shot from behind cover, pop up and let loose. It's no different than the assault rifle, timing, accuracy, and patience is all you need to be successful. (Oh and TG members) I rather have one carefully aimed shot rather than a million inaccurate shots. It's much more tense, challenging, and so much more rewarding when you and your weapon work together.

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YouHitMyKnife

whoa, I just found out that the Sudnik and Mitchell can be guided! It helped quite a bit, shooting walkers and tanks around corners. Just a quick question though, is it against rules to use them on infantry?
I mean, I have an engineer kit and it is prepared for use against armor, but seeing as how there is no armor around and I can't kill anyone from afar with the secondary gun, I instead use the Sudnik/Mitchell to target the infantry.

Mixa

Using it just to kill infantry is unrealistic and for that against TG primer = shouldn't be done. It isn't clearly in the rules, but over abusing it will get you a note.

On the other hand if you have it out you can take couple shots to nearby infantry, but even though Mitchell is great for long range sniping, you should keep in mind that it is there for the armor, not to kill people.

So if you have some one rather far, either throw frags, or stay in cover. 1-2 shots might not be that bad, but when you have no ammo for the armor in your main gun, then there is something wrong

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LogicalHarm

Since when?

If I have a mitchell, I'm gonna use it as a sniper. Granted, I'm not gonna bring it along on infantry only, but it's surely legit to use it on infantry.

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Reaperassault

it is legit, you just should not be hunting around looking for infantry to kill with an anti-vehicle weapon

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YouHitMyKnife

Well not exactly hunting around and looking for infantry. More like trying to get in position to take out armor that's somehow found it's way across the map but coming across an infantry at a distance and using it to dispose of them instead.

Another side note: This thing is great with APC's! Slow enough to let the shield go down (when you're at a long enough distance) and guiding the missile to the vents underneath.

jazy2

I'm a huge fun of the default guided rockets.

I love the pilum too but when you have an enemy tank staying waaaay back just sniping you it is nice to return the favour by ALWAYS hitting the target and making him use his shields. The ability to "track" his movements is just not there with the Pilum.

Pilum for sneaky kills, defaults for harrasment. I don't know any player that likes the sound of a lock-on tone.

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INTEL the newest political party.....Keep the IDS's up.....open your Battlefield eyes!

LordKelvin

I think I have lost at least 5 years off my lifespan from freaking at that sound going off.

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Why MTG has lost any sense of balance:
Lotus Cobra

MasterEditorInChief

I all boils down to style of play. The Pilum is suited for engies who don't want to have their shots detected, while the default missiles can be guided towards their targets. I prefer the Pilum on engie defense since you can fire it in the heat of an armor fight and it'll go straight to where you aimed it. Of course, it helps to aim straight. The missiles are better suited for attacking since armor defenses usually rely heavily on the active defense and recharging of those shields. People tend to flinch for the shields when they got someone locking onto them, so locking onto them is a good way to psych them out into wasting their shields before the true attack. Plus, guiding really helps on attack since armor, being valuable, is subject to retreating from the front for repairs. I snake the hell out of the APC when backing up for repairs as EU on Berlin. At least with the default, you stand a chance of hitting the target if it begins to move in a non-linear fashion.

I've never tried this, since this level of micromanagement is usually reserved for sports sims and RPGs, but maybe a tandem of engies with both the Pilum and defaults would be interesting to deploy. You can intimidate with the lock on, and set them up with Pilum when the shields go down. Of course, it'd take some radical experiment to test it out, but I think it'd be interesting seeing engies coordinate scaring a walker into thinking it's locked on while moving into place to attack it when it's shields recharge.

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