Thursday, May 29, 2014

Entropia Universe: BAD? Battle Arena Deeds Announced...

Roughly about 3 years ago, I made a tiny post to comment about this groundbreaking "Citizenship System" that Mindark introduced, called the Calypso Land Deed or more commonly known as a CLD.

It was the very first brainchild of hers which focused upon the theme of "co-ownership", by numerous participants, of an "investment-class" item within this game we called Entropia Universe.

It featured the release of 60,000 of these so called CLDs, each costing about 1000 PEDs to acquire (or 100 USD, in real cash sense), for a total worth of 6 million USD, into the in-game auction system for the players to buy.

Lulled by the promise of a weekly payout, citizenship land grab as well as a comprehensive political voting system, its launch was pretty much a huge success...with even an "unknown" player acquiring as many as 25,000 of them in one shot, marking the highest point.

Now, a hundred and thirty weeks later, or approximately 2.5 years, the so-called "Citizenship Land Grab" and "Comprehensive Political Voting System" is still yet to be seen.

But luckily though, each standing CLD has kept its promise of delivering a weekly payout and produced an outstanding 561.35 PEDs to date, according to this player-made excel tracker (found here). And so its nearly paid for 60% of itself, producing an annual return of about 22.45%. (Though failing to hit its expected mark, but still impressive nonetheless.)

Markup-wise, the CLD's price within the game has seen marked ups and downs throughout the same period. Starting from its initial pricing of 1000 PEDs, it was seen to have climbed steadily up to the regions of 1400 PEDs (in player-to-player exchanges), but have also fallen down to the currently observed pricings of 1150 PEDs.

But all this? Its just me trying to bring you up to speed with things.
Its not the main purpose of my post to be honest.
However, I'm not quite done yet with my update...

Just two months ago, Planet Arkadia, a Planet Partner (PP) of Entropia Universe (exists as a planet within the game which players can visit, play and spend money there), recently launched its own version of this "investment-class", "co-ownership" thingy, termed as the "Arkadia Underground Deed" or AUD.

Quite unlike the CLD though, this AUD does not bestow a citizenship status to their owners, nor boast of including any political voting system. Instead, it involves a portion of the game world (upon the planet) being sold, in the form of 200,000 of these AUDs, at a pricing of 50 PEDs (or 5 USD) each, for a total worth of 1 million USD. And this portion of the game world was given the name of "Arkadia Underground".

Players visiting this Arkadia Underground, and spending money hunting, mining and perhaps crafting there, will be hit with a 5% tax, of which will be evenly split amongst the owners of AUDs...on a daily basis...if and when there's sufficient amount to pay out at least 0.01 PEDs (the smallest currency denomination within the game) to every owner.

Sad to say...performance of these AUDs, thus far, have been lack-lustrous (in comparison with the CLDs).

According to this tracker here, since its launch, each AUD has been noted to pay out a revenue of at least 0.01 PEDs to 0.03 PEDs on a daily basis. However, due to its reliance upon players physically visiting this area to generate that revenue, days whereby it had 0 payouts were also observed to be seen.

If these two months of tracked payouts are anything to go by with, then in terms of annual returns, the AUD's expected 9.04% performance is seriously eclipsed by the 22.45% from CLDs.

As a result of this, since its launch, the number of AUDs successfully sold have been unknown, but there is reason to believe that a good supply still exists in the hands of the NPC broker (found at the entrance of Arkadia Underground close to the teleporter within the game), at the original selling price of 50 PEDs.

However word is, out on the streets of Calypso, AUDs have been known to exchange hands at around 48 PEDs each, going as low as 46.50 PEDs even. (Which is way different in behavior compared to the CLD's markup when it was originally released.)

Nope, I'm not done yet...but nearly there...

So with things as they are, and the AUDs yet to be completely sold...Mindark now hits us with yet another of this "investment-class" item, coined the "Battle Arena Deed" (BAD).

With this, the plan is to release 200,000 of these BADs, at a pricing of 100 PEDs (or 10 USD) each, for a total worth of 2 million USD...together with some "Web-Based Battle Arena" feature.
Entropia Universe - Bee vs Cersumon
In this battle arena, players can acquire, upgrade and customize their pets for battles against the pets of other players. It is also mentioned, in the article, that there will be a wide range of offensive and defensive pet buffs and upgrades along with customizable attack and defense profiles. Furthermore, this feature is said to be multi-platformed and would allow for players to connect via the web and even on mobile devices, without having to install the actual EU game client.

However I must caution that all these are just talks on pen and paper, for the moment. It is only "Planned for Early 2015 Release". A lot of things are still fuzzy and details on it, yet unknown.

How will the battles be done? How will revenues from these battles be generated? How much of an attraction will it be for players to partake in these battles? None of these questions are clarified yet. And so I must urge caution and take things with a pinch of salt.

What's more? Will the EU economy be able to "stomach" all of these releases? Will there be even more of these new "investment-class" items in the future?

Only time will tell I guess...


Thursday, May 22, 2014

RIFT Online (Part Two)

Character Stats and Leveling Up
Now for this part, there really isn't much to talk about because the things that you can do to them are very limited.
RIFT Online - Character Stats NakedRIFT Online - Character Stats Fully Equipped
Apart from the measly little input that you gain from leveling up, most of your character stats are actually derived from the equipment that your wearing. If you strip them all off, you won't be left with much...apart from your health and mana.

And if you've remembered from the previous part, the stuff that you can wear is pretty much restricted by your chosen calling. Therefore, unless your a Warrior and can wear just about anything, there's no way that you can otherwise "gimp" your character on something like "I've allocated my stats wrongly" or stuffs like that.

(Just take extra note of the stats coded in cyan instead of white. Those are the ones deemed, by the devs, to be especially important for your calling.)

While we're at this, I do find it pretty interesting that RIFT Online offers something called "Mentoring".
RIFT Online - MentoringRIFT Online - Mentoring Activated
As far as I know, this feature unlocks itself when your character reaches level 15 and allows for you to actively lower your character's level down to the minimum of 10.

It can be accessed via right clicking on your portrait like as shown. And when activated, reduces the stats of your character down to the level of which you've designated...regardless of what your wearing or using. You do still keep the existing skills that you have though and can use them as per normal, albeit at a reduced potency I believe.

With this feature, you are now able to downgrade yourself and party with your friends of a lower level (who might have just started playing because of you). Pretty handy, right?

Souls and Soul Trees
Rather than the character stats, the variability of a character, in Rift Online, actually falls upon something called Souls.
RIFT Online - Mage Soul StormcallerRIFT Online - Mage Souls
Each calling has a variety of different souls. Some of them are meant for healing, some for support, some to tank while others are for offensive purposes. Your choice from these souls would ultimately form the roles that your character can take upon as well as how they would fight in a battle (the skills that they can use).

However, I would have to say beforehand that...things aren't quite that simple though.

Although you may have chosen certain souls (up to three) for your character, and can perform the said roles, it doesn't mean that you can do them well. There is still the matter of "climbing" up the soul tree, so as to speak, that you must concern yourself with.

The higher you climb up a particular one, the more skills (actives and passives) that you will gain access to, and the better you'll be able to play the role (that the soul's meant for).

Naturally, of course, you are free to diversify. But it is important to take note of the potential "synergy", to quote The Secret World's terminology, between the souls that you ought to be looking for. Without this synergy, then I suspect that your build might soon fall apart...faster than you would think.

How the Soul Tree Works
RIFT Online - Soul PointsRIFT Online - Storm Surge Spell
Basically, these soul trees here kindda resembles the ones I've encountered in SWTOR.

For every level that you gain, you'll acquire at least one to two soul points. You may then spend these points into any of the three soul trees that you've picked. And likewise, the more soul points you put into that tree, the higher you may "climb" up that tree.

However unlike SWTOR, there is an added dimension to this tree, that we get in RIFT Online, called the "Roots" of a soul tree. As you put in more and more soul points to develop the soul tree, its "roots" will start to "grow" and "flourish", thereby unlocking even more of its potential power.

Literally just like a tree, right?


Changing and/or Resetting Souls
So long as you've not yet allocated any soul points into the soul, you are pretty much free to take it out and swap it for another. Just click on the soul's icon and you will be given a list of souls that you can switch into.
RIFT Online - Cash-Only Souls
However, do note that if the soul that your looking for isn't found on that list, then chances are that its a cash-only soul. And I'm afraid that those can only be unlocked by buying the appropriate service packs like as shown ("Dream Soul Pack" and/or "Storm Legion Souls").
RIFT Online - Soul Reset
If unfortunately that you've already spent your soul points, then the only way to switch out the soul is to do a "Soul Reset" at your appropriate calling's trainer. But it will cost ya...and the more points that you've spent, the higher the costs to reset.

Same Character, Multiple Roles
Alternatively, you may also opt for something cheaper like for example, purchasing a new role. (Also done at the same NPC "trainer".)
RIFT Online - Purchasing Role SlotsRIFT Online - New Role Slot
When bought, it will bestow upon you an additional role slot for which you may activate, insert new souls and then reallocate your soul points. Its like having a brand new character, but without the pain of needing to re-level it.

With this, it now becomes possible to have your character play on multiple roles, with each having a different build.

For instance, you could make one for a tank, one as a damage dealer and one for supporting the group as a healer. And then depending on your team's needs, you can simply switch into the appropriate role there and then.

But mind you though, all of these roles will nonetheless have to be made up of souls from within the same calling (as you've originally chosen for your character during character creation). It is simply not possible for you to choose souls from any other callings.

(Afaik, each character can only acquire up to five role slots through this method I believe. No more, no less. Additionally, each progressive one is more costly to unlock as well.)

Previous: RIFT Online (Part One)Next: RIFT Online (Part Three)

Friday, May 16, 2014

RIFT Online (Part One)

RIFT Online
This next game that I'm covering on is actually a three years old game (pretty age-old by MMO terms), called RIFT. Developed and published by Trion Worlds, it was first released way back in March 2011.

But before I slice into the actual gameplay stuff, I'm gonna take you on a little bit of a history tour...as to why I've chosen to focus on this instead of all the other newer ones that are out there.

Anyway, back when I first founded this blog, my directions and intentions for the blog wasn't quite set yet. And so I was pretty much just dabbling around, trying out all sorts of stuff and fumbling along the way.

It was during then that I spotted RIFT and decided to do an article on it. And as you can see from it, the article was basically a ragtag, made from bits and pieces of information that I've obtained from various sources. But owing to the game being a P2P back then, I guess that was as far as I could have gotten with it.

Now that it has turned free-to-play, and by chance I've stumbled upon it once again, I've decided that I would redo my coverage. This time round, by playing it personally.

The Download
I'll have to say that the downloading experience I have with RIFT Online is way better than the one I had with War Thunder.

Things were simple enough that all I needed to do was to create an account with Trion, download the installer, install and then log in to kickstart the client downloading process. No hanky-panky issues of having to watch like a hawk, constantly open and close the client nor worries about getting your bandwidth clogged up by the launcher.
RIFT Online - Tutorial IslandRIFT Online - Downloading While Playing
And perhaps one particularly impressive feature I've found was that, much like Onigiri Online, this game also offers a "Play While Your Downloading" component to it.

So long as you've downloaded the minimum required portion of the client, you will be granted access to at least the "Tutorial Island" part of the game world. Or if you've had enough of the client downloaded, then perhaps even the main one.

Character Creation
The character creation in RIFT Online works just about the same like any other. Though some things might be named differently here, its really just the usual mumbo jumbo like choosing of sides, race, gender and job class for your toon.
  • Origin
    RIFT Online - Choosing Sides
    From what I could see, the so-called "Origin" merely forces you to take sides...in order to facilitate for some form of "senseless" Open World PVP later on within the game (much like Scarlet Blade's, DCUO's or SWTOR's).

    Depending on the shard (server) that your character is in, this threat of being PKed may be persistent (if in PVP shard) or it may be "Toggle On" (if in PVE shards).

    Apart from that, the choice you've made here doesn't quite affect anything else out of the ordinary other than the "Races" that you can choose in the later section of character creation.
  • Race
    GuardiansDefiants
    RIFT Online - Choosing Race GuardiansRIFT Online - Choosing Race Defiants
    Mathosian
    • Motivational Roar (Active)
      Increases movement speed of character and nearby group members by 30% for 10 seconds.
    • Legacy of the Shade (Passive)
      Death resistance increased by 20.
    Eth
    • Agility (Active)
      Increases movement speed by 50% for 15 seconds.
    • Desert Dweller's Birthright (Passive)
      Earth resistance increased by 20.
    High Elf
    • Angelic Flight (Active)
      Flies towards the selected area.
    • Grace of the Forest (Passive)
      Life resistance increased by 20.
    Kelari
    • Camouflage (Active)
      Decreases the aggro range of enemies, for 30 seconds, by transforming into a fox.
    • Legacy of the Fire Islands (Passive)
      Fire resistance increased by 20.
    Dwarf
    • Dwarven Breakfast (Active)
      Restores 8% Health and Mana each second over 13 seconds.
    • Miracle of Hammerknell (Passive)
      Water resistance increased by 20.
    Bahmi
    • Mighty Leap (Active)
      Leaps at the selected area.
    • Shalastir Heritage (Passive)
      Air resistance increased by 20.

    As mentioned earlier, if you've chosen to be a Guardian, you are basically limited to becoming a Mathosian, a High Elf or a Dwarf. If you've opted for Defiants, you will then only be allowed to choose either Eth, Kelari or Bahmi.

    Besides the visual differences, I do not think that there's anything in particular that would impact each of their combat abilities. And so, I do think that your pretty much given free reign to choose whichever race that you would prefer.

    In other words, I perceive no bias between the races. Although each race does have its own racial traits comprising of one active and one passive (as specified above), they are in no way "overpowering" or more powerful than the others.
  • Calling
    RIFT Online - Calling
    Now on first look, it may seem that this is just asking for you to select a job class/profession for your character. However, unless your already familiar with the game, I suspect that the mixture of "Tank", "Damage", "Support" and "Healer" tags (associated with each job class) would baffle you extremely. So much so that you would start to question your prior assumption.

    I mean...how can a "Warrior" class be playing all the roles of being a tank, a damage dealer as well as a support? And how can a "Cleric", that is "usually" playing the part of being a healer and/or support, be a tank?

    Well, let me first assure you that you aren't wrong in your original assumption. This "Calling" thingy is indeed functioning as some sort of job class selection for your character.

    As for the "Tank", "Damage", "Support" and "Healer" tags, those simply indicate the possible roles available for you to play as if you do select that "Calling". In fact, ever since Version 2.7 BINDING OF BLOOD, I believe that it is possible for you to play as any of the four roles (Tank, Damage, Support or Healer) regardless of whichever calling it is that you've taken. (Provided that you have the corresponding souls unlocked, that is...)

    Even so however, I must caution that you take extra time to decide which particular calling that you would want to play...as they are not all fundamentally the same. (And they cannot be played using the same way either.)
    RIFT Online - Equipment ArmorsRIFT Online - Equipment Weapons
    Pending on which calling you've chosen, the stuff that you can equip or use will be different. For instance, Plate Armors can only be used by Warriors whereas Chainmails can be used by both Warriors and Clerics. Leather Armors can be used by all callings except Mages while Cloth Armors can be donned by all. Well...stuff like that.

    Anyway, just note that while the roles are free for you to change at will, once your within the game, the Calling isn't. Should you dislike the Calling your playing, you must recreate another character and level it up all over again. So do take note of that.
  • Purpose
    RIFT Online - Purpose Sage
    Many a times, I've heard that new players to the game were often confused by this "Purpose" selection...especially for those that had read the forum guides and already have some particular "Soul Build" in mind. But since the names of the "Souls" that they knew (and had planned on choosing) aren't quite the same as that which is shown here, they are stumped and dare not move on.

    Now actually, what you are choosing here is just some sort of a template build for your character. These builds each have their own selection of souls already (and these souls determine the "roles" that your character can play), as well as a predetermined "route" or "path" in the allocation of the "Soul Points" (skill points in regular MMO terms).
    RIFT Online - Sage Souls
    For example, the "Sage" actually comprises of these three souls, Chloromancer (Healing), Necromancer (Damage) and Elementalist (Damage). And if you follow the template obediently, by simply clicking on the "Spend All" whenever you level up and gained some "Soul Points", your character will turn out as was described. (And will fulfill the roles of being either a Healer or a Damage Dealer. But in this case, its the Healer role, as the "Sage" template primarily focuses on leveling up the Chloromancer soul tree.)

    As far as I know, if your totally clueless about RIFT Online, then my suggestion would be to read each of the template's description, select the one which interests you the most and just follow it.

    But if you wish to explore on your own, then whichever choice you've made here does not matter. These templates are there to help ease newcomers into the game as soon as possible, not to "bind" you. You will be able to "switch out" the souls later on within the game...as long as you've not spent any "Soul Points" into it yet.

    As for those templates which are red out, they are likely locked due to usage of certain "cash-only" souls within their builds. To gain access to them, you will need to either pay cash to unlock those souls or acquire REX from other players using in-game money.
  • Avatar Customization
    RIFT Online - Avatar CustomizationRIFT Online - In-game HUD
    As for the avatar customization part, while it may not be spectacularly customizable, there's still plenty of options for you to knock yourself out, in my opinion. However, I must warn that the in-game HUD looks dastardly aged though. And so I do believe that no matter how much effort you put in here, there won't be much of an eye candy to look at once your in the game. (Or maybe its just my darn low-spec computer that's dragging the game through the mud, who knows?)


Next: RIFT Online (Part Two)

Thursday, May 8, 2014

War Thunder (Part Five)

Overall Impression
From my brief encounter with War Thunder, I'ld say that this game is one "sick" (in a good way) little WW2 flight sim.
War Thunder - Aerial CombatWar Thunder - Evading Fire
It can be as complex as requiring you to learn about all sorts of fancy air combat maneuvers (spins, turns and barrel rolls), theories on potential/kinetic energy, trading speed for altitude or vice versa and pursuit curves (lag/lead/pure).

And yet, it can also be as simple as merely observing these few pointers...
  • He who has the higher "energy", has the better advantage.
  • Always keep your speeds high as that will ensure that your "lead" indicator is far from your plane, which makes it harder to hit you.
  • Try to keep your "profile", to the enemy, as small as possible. This gives your enemy a smaller target to aim at.
  • Never show your "pilot" (cockpit) towards the enemy's guns, if possible.
  • Never engage your enemy head-on. (Surely it makes things easier to hit, but it also applies for the enemy as well, and increases the chances of an air collision.)
(* Disclaimer: Might be easier said than done. Hehehehe...)

All in all, if your an aviation fanatic, you will find it highly comfortable to play War Thunder. To fly all you want and as close to realism as you wish to.

However, if your not one, then you might find that War Thunder has a highly repetitive gameplay to it which may not be to your liking. Although I think that they're in the process of bringing tanks into the foray, "SoonTM" (^_^).


Previous: War Thunder (Part Four)

Thursday, May 1, 2014

War Thunder (Part Four)

Need to Knows (Continued)
Plane Settings
War Thunder - Plane Settings
Since the core of War Thunder is mostly focused upon the PVP aspects and lesser on the Single Missions and Dynamic Campaigns, you will undoubtedly come across some sort of interface, much like the one shown, prior to entering the field zone of a PVP match.

And if you did, then surely the option settings of "Ammo Belts", "Guns Targeting Distance" and "Fuel Amount" would have puzzled you (extremely) and raised a big, fat question mark in your mind right?

So what are they? Just what do they do?

Well apparently, at the very least, they appear to be some sort of settings for you to fine-tune your aircraft with...at the last minute, just before you head out to a battle (in your plane/next plane).

And depending on the settings you choose here, it will somewhat affect your position/ability to do certain things as well as your overall performance during the match. You can even call it the "make or break" settings if you wanna. (Hmmm...maybe that's a little bit over the top. Hahaha.)
  • Ammo Belts
    To understand "Ammo Belts", I want you to take a good, close look at the following two screenshots. They each represent the kinds of ammo belts that you can utilize, for machine guns and turrets, while flying British planes.
    War Thunder - Machine Gun Ammo StealthWar Thunder - Turret Ammo Default
    The first thing you'll need to note, right off the bat, is that unless you've researched the corresponding option in a plane's "Upgrade Tree", the only ammo belt that you can ever use on that plane will be the "Default" one. (Though still usable, it can hardly take out an enemy fast enough, so you should always make it a priority to unlock this first, in order to access the more useful belts.)

    Next, if you read the description on any of the ammo belts, what you should immediately grasp from it should be this...

    The Bullets Used On The Belt And Its Order

    For instance, the "Turret Ammo Default" has its belt filled with "Tracers" (T), "Armor-Piercing" (AP), "Ball" and "Incendiary" (I) bullets. The order in which they're fired off the belt is as shown, T/AP/Ball/Ball/I (first to last).

    The "Machine Gun Ammo Stealth", on the other hand, has its belt filled with "Armor-Piercing" (AP), "Armor-Piercing Incendiary" (AP-I) and "Incendiary" (I) bullets. The order in which they're fired off the belt is as shown, AP/AP/AP-I/AP-I/I (first to last).

    Essentially, what these information (combined) means is that, if you use these ammo belts in your turrets and machine guns, then a single burst from one of your turrets will contain 1 "Tracer", 1 "Armor-Piercing", 2 "Ball" and 1 "Incendiary", altogether 5 bullets. A single burst from your machine gun would have 2 "Armor-Piercing", 2 "Armor-Piercing Incendiary" and 1 "Incendiary", again 5 bullets per burst.

    On the surface, while these may mean nothing to a layman, they do convey a very important message. But first, you will need to roughly know what the purpose each bullet is built for.

    Ammo Type*Purpose
    Armor PiercingTo penetrate armor platings.
    High ExplosiveTo cause explosions.
    IncendiaryTo cause fires.
    TracerTo show the path of bullets.
    BallOmni-purpose.
    * As a general guideline and not meant to be exhaustive.

    So now, if we apply this information back into the examples, we can pretty much see that the "turret's ammo belt" would somewhat bear the effects of being able to leave a trail of its flight path (owing to the T bullet), penetrate armor platings (the AP bullet) and cause a fire to start (the I bullet).

    The "machine gun's ammo belt" would then bear the effects of being able to penetrate armor as well as to cause fires to start. However, because there isn't any "tracer" elements contained within these bullets, you won't be able to see any trails from these bullets (as well as the enemy).

    And while the exact damage and chances isn't known, it should generally be safe to assume that the more bullets of a certain kind that you have (in the ammo belt), the better is its ability to achieve that intended purpose. For example, the more "Incendiary" bullets you have, the better your chances of setting the target on fire. The more "Tracer" bullets you use, the more trails you would have to show you the path where your aiming. (Although that would potentially lower your effective damages. Not to mention giving away your position.)

    Additionally, the "purer" the bullet type, the more effective it should ought to be in performing its duty. For instance,
    -AP vs AP-I vs I
    While the AP and I (pure) bullets would each be 100% effective in its task (theoretically), the AP-I (hybrid) bullet would only be like 50% effective in both penetrating armor as well as causing fires (compared to the pure ones). However, this does not mean that the AP-I bullet is in any way inferior to the other two. Just that, pending on where you hit, the reaction from each bullet will be different.

    For instance, an armor-plated fuel tank. The AP bullet will simply cause a fuel leak, the I bullet...maybe a spark or something, while the AP-I might penetrate and set it on fire. If it was the wing of some cloth material bi-plane, then the AP and AP-I might have just penetrated it, dealing minimal damage, but the I bullet could have potentially set it aflame.
    -T vs IT
    Likewise, if we take the T bullet to be 100% visible whilst flying in the air, then in comparison, the IT bullet is likely to only leave a trail that is about 50% visible.
    -Ball
    Although the Ball is said to be "Omni-purpose" in its description, I'ld rather think that its a bullet with no specific purpose. It is the weakest of all bullets. You should seriously dump these as soon as possible. (As in, avoid using any ammo belts containing them.)
    Additional Reference: Aircraft Gunnery Ammo
  • Guns Targeting Distance
    To know what this setting does to the plane, you will first need to learn about something called the "Gun Convergence".
    War Thunder - Vertical Targeting
    But in order for the following discussion to bear any meaning, you might first have to change vertical targeting to "Yes" in the "Options Menu".

    (Basically, what that does is that it will automatically compensate for "bullet drop" due to gravity. And while it would work perfectly well when your shooting horizontally, and at the ideal distance, it might cause you to "overshoot" the target if its too close or when your diving down on the target.)

    Now then, what exactly is "Gun Convergence"? And what does it have to do with "Guns Targeting Distance"? Take a look at these next two screenshots and you'll get the idea.
    War Thunder - Guns Targeting 50mWar Thunder - Guns Targeting 800m
    In the screenshot on the left, I had set the "Guns Targeting Distance" to 50m, while the one on the right was set to 800m.

    Noticed where the bullets "converged" at?

    Precisely! The "Guns Targeting Distance" setting is just something you set, for the plane's guns, such that it "converges" at the designated distance. It allows you to calibrate all the different guns that you have onboard your plane so that they all meet at the same point.

    Without this, your faster-moving, lighter bullets would meet at point X, while your slower-moving, heavier ones would lag behind and converge somewhere else. (A terrible waste of firepower, don't ya think?)

    Anyway, leaving the logic behind (you can read more about it if you want to by googling "Gun Convergence" or something), I think that you would typically want to set this close if your into turn-fighting or are generally shooting at planes. Set this to very far or "no convergence" if your planning on shooting at ground targets or something that's very far away. If you wish to be flexible in picking your targets, then aim for mid-way...which in this case is 400m.

    Now just remember this general rule. For maximum effectiveness, only open fire when your target is at or about the convergence distance that you've set your guns to (+-25m to 50m). If your guns are set to 300m, then ideally, you should only start to fire when the target is within 250m to 350m. Do something like that and you should be relatively assured in hitting your targets. But don't forget to lead, your target, though...

    (Note that this gun convergence thingy applies more to weapons that are mounted onto the wings of a plane and less for those that are mounted to the nose of a plane.)
    Additional Reference: War Thunder Gun Convergence
  • Fuel Amount
    Needless to say, the fuel setting affects how long your plane can stay in the air. But there is also another more subtle meaning to it.

    If I'm not wrong, it also affects the weight of your plane and hence your "inertia". And owing to this, the more fuel that you've chosen to load into your plane, the more sluggish it would be to "move". Likewise, when your climbing, you will lose your speed/momentum faster, but will be able to dive way faster with your heavy load.

    Generally speaking, unless there's some special purpose to it, you shouldn't need to load too much fuel into your plane if your playing in "Arcade" mode. For "Realistic" and "Simulator" modes, then you should ought to put more thought into this.


Previous: War Thunder (Part Three)Next: War Thunder (Part Five)