About a week ago, I was on top of the Com Center building on Shingle with my camping couch and Baur. But oh no! A squad had capped Columns and was running up on the roof of Columns and running towards the ramp to Com.
"Haha!" I thought. "Shooting gallery!"
I sight in, single shot, aim, fire.
First target drops easily, thinking that assault rifle fire must be coming from somewhere nearby. The second stays still too long and is dispatched by a headshot and bodyshot. After a short reload, I come back up to see three people running across the top of the roof. Fire at the first, he notices me. Drops to a knee, switches to rockets, fires them. I kill him and run a few seconds before the rockets arrive. For the next ten minutes, I fire repeatedly and kill a few people below me because they rely on their rockets to kill a target 80 or so metres away.
This presents an interesting case which I am sure has been encountered by many TGers.
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AVOIDING ROCKETS
On Movement
The first instinct when you see a rocket flying towards you is to run.
Running towards or away from a rocketeer forces the rocketeer to have to adjust range in order to have the rockets explode at correct ranges.
Running sideways to a rocketeer forces the rocketeer to lead you to compensate for the slow speed of the rockets while having to adjust rocket burst range in order to avoid firing in a cone pattern. Confused? Have a visual aid.
Imagine that your enemy is at the small end of the pie, and that you are in the centre of the fat end. If imaginary you runs perpendicular to the foul-breathed enemy, simply leading the target would only cause his/her rockets to explode at the same range that was set when aiming for your initial location. Thus, a fan-like pattern of rocket explosions that fail to hit the target. The rocketeer need to adjust the range of the rocket bursts so that the burst pattern looks like this:
Which is extremely hard.
In the vast majority of cases, running is the correct response. However, the rockets in 2142 are slow in comparison to bullets: at ranges of about 60 or more metres, you will have a small window of opportunity where you can fire at a stationary, vulnerable target and then run away before the rockets hit and kill you. Of course, this is extremely situational, but there are a few things you can do to maximize this time.
On Cover
Cover stands between you and bullets. That is extremely important. Remember that. However, cover is also a great attractor of rockets. A crate provides a range reference point with which a rocketeer can fire rockets so that they explode BEHIND the crate, where you are.
Solutions
-The obvious method to defeating this is simply to stand outside of cover. I find that Chris Hooper does this quite a bit, but elevation allows a rocketeer to use the ground as a surface for rockets to explode against, while small arms fire will encounter no impediment, rendering this method to be of questionable effectiveness.
-Distance is another countermeasure. Most assaults will be unable or unwilling to use their regular rifles at long distances due to inaccuracy, instead preferring to use rockets. Luckily for you, when rocketing from long ranges (60-80+ metres), rockets can take two or more seconds to travel from the firer to the target, providing plenty of time for an alert sniper to track the obvious trail of the rocket to its source and headshot/damage the rocketeer before vacating the area where the rocket will impact. However, this is difficult or even impossible on extremely close or small maps such as tiny Verdun.
-However, probably the best way to defeat rockets is psychological and also extremely conditional. Hiding directly behind cover leaves one vulnerable to rockets that airburst 1 to 2 metres behind said cover, which is what occurs with most rockets fired by TGers. Hiding a metre or two behind cover, on the other hand, drastically mitigates damage; rockets are explosive weapons, and while they deal excellent damage, increased distance from a rocket blast causes damage taken to drop off significantly. The additional metre or so can give increased time to evade rockets or even provide complete immunity from rocket blasts in some situations. Smart rocketeers may aim for the cover behind you than bother to estimate your range, but you will still have more time to leave, as the rockets are now exploding farther from where they would if you were standing directly behind cover
Nevertheless, rockets and grenades remain an easy simple ways to cause someone to vacate a location or die at close or medium ranges.
USAGE OF ROCKETS
-Try to find cover before rocketing. While you fire rockets, you must remain relatively still to have your rockets not deviate wildly to and fro, or be able to compensate for such deviation but still be forced to walk slowly and predictably while sighted in. Thus, you can be easily shot in the open unless you dance and thereby reduce your accuracy. Cover allows you to rocket in relative protection, but remember that you are still extremely vulnerable to snipers and counter-rockets.
-Don't always use your rockets. When your target is extremely far away (100+ metres), you will probably have little effect when you fire your rockets, as your target would probably just fire until the rockets arrive, leave, then return to his/her previous position and resume firing. Bullets do not have a travel time, even if they cannot deal splash damage.
-Switch ranges. Fire two rockets 2 metres behind cover, then fire another two set to 4 metres behind cover. If you are unsure about how far your enemy is from cover, this choice is excellent.
-Skip the first two rockets and set all of your rockets to airburst 3 to 4 metres behind cover. If your target tries to run away, the rockets will follow, making this best used when aiming at elevated positions such as roofs.
-Fire en masse. Just like commanders with musket-wielding armies ordered their men to stick together and fire together, firing rockets with more than one person saturates more ground with rockets, increases previously minimal damage, and can increase the total rate of fire of rockets.
-Range off of your target. My experiences tell me that one can actually sight in on a soldier and use that range as a reference point than the cover nearby. Thus, distance from explosions decreases, making damage increase. Thus, your enemy thinks you are ranging off of the cover in front of or behind him/her, while the rockets explode much closer than expected.
-Compensate for range. The farther your rockets travel, the more they drop, and the higher above your target you must aim. The farther above the target you aim, the more you must increase your burst range to compensate for the increased travel distance of an extended parabolic trajectory path.
By the way, don't listen to anything I say above. I'm just writing this guide for my own notes and if you follow it, you might pwn more I MEAN NO DON'T LISTEN TO IT YOU WILL GET CANCER IF YOU DO A:LDSKFJSD.
On the Avoidance and Efficient Usage of Rockets
Oh...and smoke used while you capture a flag is one of the worst times to use it. The advantage of smoke is a piece of cover, of sorts (hides visibility but doesn't stop projectiles), is that you can take it with you and use it where there is no cover.
