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Forums » List all forums » Forum: Tips & Tricks, Questions & Answers » Thread: Gunnery tutorial |
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Thread Status: Normal Total posts in this thread: 66
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Rastigi
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I haven't seen a gunnery tutorial here ever, and I did a search for one and didn't come up with it. There isn't one linked from the FAQ. So here goes (please escuse my less than great mspaint skills). A few people have told me that they just "don't get" gunning. I thought I'd show a few things that I have picked up, then I decided "why not take some screenshots and make a tutorial. And here we are. First, there is a trick that every good gunner needs to know. [size=16]This Trick is Now Obsolete! Place the arrows 1, 2, 3 as soon as you enter the puzzle, as such:  9 times out of 10, you end up with a loaded cannon with the first powder/wad/shot (the water will come out of the top, cannonball on the right, powder on the bottom, then wad on the left). Other than that, this map was pretty rugged and i loaded it as fast as i could and got distracted from screenshots. Lets go to a better one. First, we try the top left cannon trick:  Because of the obstruction at A, it doesn't quite work right.  We put the down arrow 3, but notice at B, the silly water bucket is in the way. We have to turn the arrow up after the powder and wad go in, then turn it right AS SOON as the water is safely past. The trick to this is: turn the arrow up, then click and hold on it. Drag your mouse to the right, and let go of the button as soon as the water is past. A little practice will make perfect (at least until you're on a war brig loading cannons for Min and the pieces are going so fast it makes you dizzy.) Now on to the 2 cannons on the right, which will both be loaded with the same technique.  Using arrow number 4, I put the pieces into a loop (illustrated in pretty blue arrows - DUN LAUGH!!) Then I twiddle arrows 5 and 6 to load the cannons. The important thing to remember is that if you overwrite an arrow, it doesn't make an older arrow go away, and it also makes that arrow the freshest one. Before you put down another arrow after these two, write over number 4 going the same direction, so that it will stay and maintain your loop. Now, the final cannon:  Oh, look - I didn't listen to my own advice, and when I put down arrow number 7, arrow number 4 dissappeared. Now I have a problem, at C. Easy enough to fix.  By putting down arrow number 8, I can send the pieces in a big loop, and twiddle arrow number 9 to keep them in place. (You can probably tell some of the arrows are faded in a different order than that - I actually did a lot of work to get the powder and wad in the previous screenshot back into the cannon before they got away. You will still do well if you just do the loop, the other is beyond the scope of this tutorial.) That didn't take me long at all, and the cannons are all loaded. One final tip:  I've set up a loop, and I want to fill this cannon. I want to do it as quickly and simply as possible. Note the group circled in red. It is already in order and very close together. I can stick it in the cannon with one arrow, which will break my loop by making me lose the first arrow in it. But that won't matter, because at the end all the cannons will be loaded ---------------------------------------- Bubbablue, SO of Bubba Gump Shrimpin' Co. Vote Bubba for President in '08, cause Shrimpin' is Great!
---------------------------------------- [Edit 2 times, last edit by Rastigi at Mar 16, 2004 9:58:20 AM] |
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FrankGrimes
Joined: Aug 11, 2003 Posts: 1682 Status: Offline |
Great work! I'm sure this will help a lot of people out, and will cause me to defend my Ultimate gunning a bit more. ---------------------------------------- Grimes: Retired Former badass |
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spuggy
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Har! Thanks Rast! I'll be eyeing this up to improve my horrendous gunning skills and pointing my mates in the same direction |
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cmdrzoom
Joined: Jul 25, 2003 Posts: 6826 Status: Offline |
As a Bad Gunner, you can bet I'll be studying this (and probably trying that first simple trick until I can get it right every time). Thanks so much for posting! ---------------------------------------- Starhawk of Mad Mutineers, Azure Catalina of Twilight's Sabre, Cobalt |
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Rastigi
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I learned how to do most puzzles from the tutorials. I couldn't believe I couldn't find one for gunning, so I shared. ---------------------------------------- Bubbablue, SO of Bubba Gump Shrimpin' Co. Vote Bubba for President in '08, cause Shrimpin' is Great!
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pikax
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I was close to posting one for 2 guns once but then they changed it (dam you bundy! (another all aussie joke)). ---------------------------------------- Pikaxs - Fleet Officer in Piece o' Rum, Member of Lunar Bin |
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xagoloth
Joined: Jul 15, 2003 Posts: 3756 Status: Offline |
Fantastic tutorial and it has helped a lot. Another idea for you to use to write a tutorial with would be to take individual screenshots of all the items and do a run through step by step by manipulating the pieces in photoshop. ---------------------------------------- JackSparrow www.mashrur.com |
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Rastigi
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That would require me to have phontoshop, neh? ---------------------------------------- Bubbablue, SO of Bubba Gump Shrimpin' Co. Vote Bubba for President in '08, cause Shrimpin' is Great!
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atteSmythe
Joined: Jul 28, 2003 Posts: 8052 Status: Offline |
...or the graphics editing program of your choice. atteSmythe, seeing the forest, despite the trees ----------------------------------------
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LongJohnGrey
Joined: Mar 6, 2004 Posts: 2203 Status: Offline |
[size=18]THANK YOU! ---------------------------------------- Re: Market on Scurvy Reef:
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Rastigi
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There is also the fact that taking individual screenshots of my 'manupliations' would have to be done at several FPS, unless I slowed the puzzle down by booching a lot. And as I stated at the beginning, my graphical editor of choice was mspaint, cause i'm lazy and its already installed. Anyway, maybe I'll do more sometime if I get an insteresting map or something. ---------------------------------------- Bubbablue, SO of Bubba Gump Shrimpin' Co. Vote Bubba for President in '08, cause Shrimpin' is Great!
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Tributary
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I read this, and I'm still lousy at gunning. However, I've been assured that it's okay if I can't load guns, because that's not my job. I fire the guns. Case in point:
Keep training those gunners for me, though! Nothing more satisfying than listening to that boom! when the cannon hits. ---------------------------------------- Min Mostly Retired, Midnight |
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Rastigi
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That is an incredibly cute avatar. ---------------------------------------- Bubbablue, SO of Bubba Gump Shrimpin' Co. Vote Bubba for President in '08, cause Shrimpin' is Great!
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miave
Joined: Feb 1, 2004 Posts: 23 Status: Offline |
so nice to finally see a tutorial that i can actually access, rather than all the broken links and fancy program needing movies great job! |
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DaCheat
Joined: Jul 29, 2003 Posts: 177 Status: Offline |
arr. this has already helped me a great deal :) up to leg today thanks ---------------------------------------- Kassia says, "Not surprisingly, the foul miscreants are terrified of Dacheat - Scourge of the Ocean!" Aphrodite says, "And now I must go smack down a thief." |
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Slummock
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you could just use an able alt (start a greenie account if you dont have room). nice tutorial anyway. tips: when setting up loops (which is the easiest way to fill cannons, but not always the quickest) try to have to peices going clockwise as this is the way the peices will go naturaly when they hit an obstacle. experiment with how soon you can change the direction of an arrow without changing the direction of the peice thats going past it. you may be suprised at how soon a peice is officaly past the arrow. ---------------------------------------- Glub (again) |
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Rastigi
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I focus on loops because it makes life much easier during battle, especially if you have a board where the barrel can't roll into the path of the loop. There is another good tip: Your rating doesn't go down if you sit in the puzzle with the cannons loaded, but the pieces stay at the same speed they were before when another cannon is fired. This significantly decreases the time it takes to load a cannon. Don't leave the puzzle during battle unless: The cannons are full and you think you can load significantly faster than they are being fired. The map is too difficult for you at your present speed. The pieces are going so fast relative to your internet connection/computer that you can't separate them. Your CO tells you to. You need to do something else for the betterment of the ship. ---------------------------------------- Bubbablue, SO of Bubba Gump Shrimpin' Co. Vote Bubba for President in '08, cause Shrimpin' is Great!
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Crystallina
Joined: Sep 17, 2003 Posts: 2596 Status: Offline |
Really? I leave the gunnery puzzle all the time. My method of gunning during sea battle is to clean all the guns first, *then* load the board. I can almost always load an empty board in under a minute- my fastest is 18 seconds. And I don't use loops. ---------------------------------------- Rapmasta26, in a surprisingly accurate assessment of many posters' attitude towards things:
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damienroc
Joined: Sep 10, 2003 Posts: 1104 Status: Offline |
/me cries. ----------------------------------------
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LongJohnGrey
Joined: Mar 6, 2004 Posts: 2203 Status: Offline |
I'm all ears, please tell me how. Heck, for an 20-30 second video, you can afford to do a regular mpeg file. I'm serious; not only do I wind up with stuff looping all over, but they find loops in the board that I never told them to go into. ---------------------------------------- Re: Market on Scurvy Reef:
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dr4b
Joined: Sep 20, 2003 Posts: 544 Status: Offline |
I totally agree with Crystallina, the only reason I ever feel guilty about leaving is all the "Janthina abandoned a duty station." messages that pop up on the ship. Infact, I even do the exact same thing she does -- I clean 'em out and then load 'em, makes it easier to get a cycle started. The other problem is that after I load two guns it becomes so fast and choppy on my computer that I'm ready to pull my hair out. Of course, when I lag out and drop down to Legendary occasionally, I complain that they're going too slow :) But yeah, I see no reason not to leave the gunnery puzzle. Unlike the other puzzles, it doesn't tank your rating at all to do so. ---------------------------------------- Janthina, proprietor of Turban Outfitters on Jorvik. Deadly, when I gather materials Never engage any less than Imperials. |
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54x
Joined: Jul 28, 2003 Posts: 7142 Status: Offline |
I do such things at elemental... but it's kinda hard to do a gunnery tut. I'm gonna have to make proper graphics for partially loaded cannons before I can get such good examples up, but this is at least a good tutorial for the basics. :) ---------------------------------------- Diamondblade, Cartographer, Crimson Tide. from Midnight. Dear sir or madam can you read my book, it took me years to write, will you take a look? |
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Lizzie
Joined: Aug 6, 2003 Posts: 4412 Status: Offline |
When you're loading for Kuibbles, you have to do it so fast that the puzzle warps to mega speed and you have no choice but to leave the puzzle. *sighs* ---------------------------------------- Ravine Black Death, Midnight |
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Telastyn
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eh? I had the honor of gunning for kuibbles the other day and didn't have a problem. I actually found it alot easier to gun for someone like kuibbles that empties the cannons regularly enough that I didn't have to alter my congo line or exit the puzzle much. Just pick the pieces out of the line [very quickly] Probably would've been even easier if I used the keyboard shortcuts. |
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Dorel
Joined: Jul 27, 2003 Posts: 2727 Status: Offline |
Sheesh. I used to be ther gunner of the crew. Now guns make me curse like a sailor (which is actually quite appropriate). ----------------------------------------
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CaptKidd
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Thanks for the help!! That tip got me to #7 in the Diamond Arch just behind Onyx. Thanks again!! |
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CaptKidd
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and back off the list just as fast.... /me laughs heartily |
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54x
Joined: Jul 28, 2003 Posts: 7142 Status: Offline |
The Top Ten is like that ;) ---------------------------------------- Diamondblade, Cartographer, Crimson Tide. from Midnight. Dear sir or madam can you read my book, it took me years to write, will you take a look? |
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Arcady
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Someone mentioned internet connection speed ... so gunnery isn't all client side? That might explain why I have so much trouble separating pieces when they're going flat chat. Any port in a storm :p Also, are pieces meant to be able to bounce through arrows? It's got to be the most frustrating part of gunnery for me, as you just can't trust in a cordon until everything is smoothed out. Which can take a while! |
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54x
Joined: Jul 28, 2003 Posts: 7142 Status: Offline |
Ideally your pieces shouldn't be all bunched together to the point where they can "bust through" the arrows, anyway. I think the idea is to stop you from penning off a ridiculous amount of pieces. ---------------------------------------- Diamondblade, Cartographer, Crimson Tide. from Midnight. Dear sir or madam can you read my book, it took me years to write, will you take a look? |
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