Aiming from behind cover?

[Colchek 1]

This is something that has been bugging me for a while. So typical scenario:

 

I see an enemy at, say, a cap zone. I duck behind a hill or sand dune and try to ease my way out to line up and take a shot. Most of the time, they've spotted me. However, before I can clear the cover out of my gunner sight and get the crosshairs lined up, they've one-shotted me even though I'm still mostly behind cover, I didn't even get a chance to get my barrel on them. 

 

Similar situation, we're both behind cover... I can't see him, I would assume he can't see me, yet when I get the gunner sight over the cover just enough to see, I'm one-shotted. Somehow, they are able to see me, and shoot, even though I don't have a clear view of them. It's like they are shooting through the hill with x-ray vision. 

 

So my question, am I missing a camera view that gives you a better look when behind cover? Binoculars obviously, but you can't fire with those. I've tried the commander view on a couple tanks, but not all tanks have them from what I can tell. 

 

Any tips would be appreciated. 

[Gruminator 610]

you can rangefind with your binoculars and then set your range for that. which means a more precise shot in less time.

[Batwingsix 721]

Well a couple of scenarios. 

 

1: Just because you cant see them in your scope yet, doesnt mean there isnt a sizable portion of your tank exposed. Unless you are using the gunner sight position option, or in Sim Ground... your view is from your barrel. So although you see yourself "behind cover", it only means that at a minimum, your barrel is behind that cover. True gunner sight is different on each tank as well, so you may see you are behind cover and cant shoot but your barrel is clear of it and you could... but you just cant see because something is obstructing the sight itself.

 

2: Weapon type and velocity play heavily into shots. A low velocity short barrel gun (derp gun usually) has a very high arc on the shell, where as something like a 120 APFSDS is very flat in comparison. Knowing what you are facing, or what you can face is key to tactical decision making in a situation where you are both in defilade. They may very well have a high arc gun (Centurion AVRE is a good example) which can basically lob a shell over cover to hit you. 

Edited February 1, 2023 by Batwingsix

[Pope_Shizzle 4,180]

There's a trick where you can fire from binocular view.  If you hold down your fire main weapon button while in binoc view and while holding down the button you switch to gunner view, you will fire the weapon.  You can tell whether your gun will hit terrain or the target from binoc view because there will be a crosshair visible.  If the crosshair is visible, you will have cleared terrain.  If no crosshair, you'll hit the terrain.

 

Also, keep in mind that unless you're playing on ULQ, some maps will have a layer of terrain that you can shoot through.  This is most common on snow maps and sand maps.  There is a layer of sand/snow that is visible but doesn't have a hitbox.

[Colchek 1]

Thanks for the replies. I honestly did not know you could rangefind with the binoculars, that is a game changer for me. That's often the case where I'm trying to figure out the range but I had to basically expose myself to do it and by the time I had it I was history.

[T0NKA 95]

3 hours ago, Colchek said:

Thanks for the replies. I honestly did not know you could rangefind with the binoculars, that is a game changer for me. That's often the case where I'm trying to figure out the range but I had to basically expose myself to do it and by the time I had it I was history.

 

Best kept secret in Warthunder is the rangefinder in low tier matches, I think out of the box it is unmapped as well.

 

In Hightier the range finder works in about 1 second and auto adjusts the barrel. 

 

Keep in mind that range finding is also a crew skill so your crew skill determines the effective range, meaning a low crew skill has shorter ranging ability.  

 

You can also range find objects e.g. houses, cars, the ground etc. So you can range find a location to have an idea of where to aim when the enemy team shows up. You also dont need to wait for the range find bar to complete before moving your aim.

Edited February 1, 2023 by T0NKA

[SpankdaMonkey 708]

On 01/02/2023 at 05:48, Pope_Shizzle said:

There's a trick where you can fire from binocular view.  If you hold down your fire main weapon button while in binoc view and while holding down the button you switch to gunner view, you will fire the weapon.  You can tell whether your gun will hit terrain or the target from binoc view because there will be a crosshair visible.  If the crosshair is visible, you will have cleared terrain.  If no crosshair, you'll hit the terrain.

 

Also, keep in mind that unless you're playing on ULQ, some maps will have a layer of terrain that you can shoot through.  This is most common on snow maps and sand maps.  There is a layer of sand/snow that is visible but doesn't have a hitbox.

 

Yup, that's an exploit and I'm very guilty of using it every chance I get.