how do you see enemy tanks?

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

i keep coming back to this game because i love the selection of tanks, but the gameplay frustrates me.
i keep getting killed by enemies that i cant see.
yesterday i played for a few hours and out of all of my deaths, i only died to a player i could see three times.
two of them i came around a corner thinking they were looking the other way but they wernt, fair enough. the other time i saw two tanks out in the open, shot one, then before i could get back into cover the other turned and shot me, again fair enough.

whats far more common is that im looking in the direction of an enemy, i dont see anything, and then i suddenly get jump scared and die.
a few times i had it where my driver died but i was still alive to look around at where i was getting shot from and i couldent see anything until i saw a shell flying directly into my camera from right where i was looking.

i did have two instances where i think i saw the enemy tank, im not really sure because it was such a tiny mass of pixels that it was about a quarter of the size of my mouse cursor.

i dont understand how i can poke out and get shot within 3-5 seconds by someone when they are so far away that i visually cannot discern their existence due to the limitations of my screen resolution.

is there a way to zoom in while aiming?
i know the binoculars exist and i do use them, but you cant shoot while using them.
ive tried using the binoculars to aim, go back into my tank, then fire, but usually i die before i can shoot because the enemy just gets their shot off faster.

i dont know if this is skill issue, bad eyesight, hardware limitation, or if the other players know some setting that i dont, but my inability to see enemy tanks even when looking directly at them is by far the biggest thing that gets me mad when trying to play this game.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

just play ab and try and learn the maps or at least memorize where the good spots are at

you can learn this in rb but as a newbie, it's going to be a uphill battle

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

see i have the same issue even with ab.
i saw an enemy name and i was looking directly at him but could not see him at all, either aiming at him or through the binoculars. i thought he was behind a rock because i simply saw nothing, even though i saw the name moving around, but then he shot and killed me.

i dont understand how people can see me when i cant see them while looking directly at them. i dont know whats going wrong for me to try and get better

[Khergit Horse Archer]

idk do you have a username i can lookup your previous plays so i can identify whats actually going on? or a replay id

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

my username should be Cornlander.
ill say this, i get tilted rather easily and just end up in these loops where i start out trying, but then i just get mad and play 3-4 matches where im not playing as well as i could.

[Shyue Chou]

I'm just wondering. What tanks are you playing? And what rank and battle rating? That way, I can assess what kind of opponents you are fighting? And see if there is anything I can do to help.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

aite ive watched your last 3 replays and generally you seem to be very inexperienced and impatient

i only have a few pointers for you:

1) play russian t34 and kv1 loadout at 3.7/4.0, these tonks are fairly tonky for their br and will very easily bounce if the opponent does not know how to shoot properly, or if you start wiggling in cqc

2) you need to understand that spotting in ab is quite a bit more complicated beyond just everyone sees everyone. your total crew spotting level increases the auto spot distance, and i think your tonk visibility has something to do with it as well. that means no one spotted, doesn't mean no one is there, could just be your crew levels.

3) just because the name labels turn bright red into dull red doesn't mean they can't shoot at you and you need to make sure to fire and then scoot, or you will get shot at and die. arcade is pretty much peek-a-boo gameplay at long/mid range. either you shoot and scoot or you find hard cover, never ever sit in the open or expose anything unless you are firing at one single target.

4) if you find yourself raging hard, play one tonk only loadout but play it well, make sure you don't die and try and secure at least 2-3 kills before even dying once.

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

american, 5.3-6br.
my lineup is m4a3e2, m18gmc, m36gmc, and m42

[Shyue Chou]

Originally posted by ^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~:

american, 5.3-6br.
my lineup is m4a3e2, m18gmc, m36gmc, and m42

Oh dear. I am absolutely rotten with the M4A3E2, and M18. My record for them are abysmal. Likewise, my record for the M36 and M42 are not stellar either. Any advice I give would not be good. I probably can learn from you and the others here with regards to those tanks.

My record with other American tanks are better however. T95E1, T34, T54E1, XM1 (GM).

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

Originally posted by Khergit Horse Archer:

aite ive watched your last 3 replays and generally you seem to be very inexperienced and impatient

4) if you find yourself raging hard, play one tonk only loadout but play it well, make sure you don't die and try and secure at least 2-3 kills before even dying once.

yeah i want to get better at the game so i can enjoy it, but i am struggling to learn the basics of how to actually play. if you look at the first three replays that i have you can see my decent from slow play, to getting tilted, to just throwing myself into the wall.


i do like the idea of just having one tank in my lineup though, ill give that a go and see how it turns out.

Originally posted by Shyue Chou:

Originally posted by ^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~:

american, 5.3-6br.
my lineup is m4a3e2, m18gmc, m36gmc, and m42

Oh dear. I am absolutely rotten with the M4A3E2, and M18. My record for them are abysmal. Likewise, my record for the M36 and M42 are not stellar either. Any advice I give would not be good. I probably can learn from you and the others here with regards to those tanks.

My record with other American tanks are better however. T95E1, T34, T54E1, XM1 (GM).

i mean really im bad enough that any general help would be appreciated.

like id love to play with someone more experienced even if your not good at these specific tanks

[Kornpatch]

Dude I struggle with this too. As a German main its extremely difficult to see the other tanks because they all have colours that blend in with the terrain and being slightly colour blind I have to play extremely slowly to see what is happening.

My advice is dont play Germany, you will struggle and the German grey sticks out like a sore thumb in every single map.

[Khergit Horse Archer]

Originally posted by ^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~:

...

there are many ways to play but it comes down to a variation of:

1. camping corners/angle, usually you only want to do this with a tonk that is either slow, stock or has a massive cannon but open top

2. holding w and bum rushing, it can work but i suggest you only do this with tonks that are exceptional in armor like t34,kv1,m4 105 and some others

3. hulldown slope abusers, literally use a vehicle that has exceptional depression and find slopes then do the same thing as camping corners/angle but you reverse down the slope after firing and only expose very tiny bits of your hull/turret

now that i think about it, the british gun carrier and churchill i are also very tonky and have very good depression and can do 2+3, and they have subpar shell, so you really have to learn to aim well.

[Robby]

Have you set key bind to "Sight distance control"?

If you're not sure if its a tank or fly's ♥♥♥♥ on your screen use rangefinder tank crew will tell you if its a tank or not.

[Chaoslink]

Spotting tanks most of the time comes down to knowing the map and knowing where a tank is likely going to be and just looking there. Half the time I get a kill on someone its because I looked in the most obvious place and sure enough, there they are. There's a few spots I use that work really well because they subvert expectations, meaning that no matter how obviously in plain sight I am, I might as well be invisible because 99% of players simply wouldn't look there to find me. Seriously, some of my best spots can be seen from like 12 different angles and offer me next to no cover, visual or otherwise, yet I'll get like 8 kills just sitting there. Sometimes people drive right up next to me and even past me without seeing the tank literally 8 feet away.

[^4Steel ^1Jackal^2~FYANB~]

Originally posted by Robby:

Have you set key bind to "Sight distance control"?

If you're not sure if its a tank or fly's ♥♥♥♥ on your screen use rangefinder tank crew will tell you if its a tank or not.

i had been doing this in rb to help me aim, but thats super useful to know that it tells you what your looking at in ab as well

[Akagi]

I can't talk about arcade but I can try giving some advice I collected through playing realistic:

1. Learn the maps. Look at your team and watch where they go. Then try looking where the enemy usually likes to go. If you can figure out common spots you can expect that in future matches a good bunch of the players will go to to those exact same spots.

2. Not only use your eyes but your ears as well. Especially on city maps this is a vital skill. You'll be able to not only hear the enemy but figure out from where it will attack (from what side of the building) and if you are really experienced you can even make out the tank model by engine noise (liken an Abram's jet engine).

3. This combines with Nr.2 but if you can't tell what side a tank around the corner is facing, do you use C + mouse to look around? If you hold down C and move your mouse you can look around without using your turret. Perfect to look around a building's corner.

4. Binoculars. Usually if you use your binculars you will use the from a higher perspective (the commanders view) than through your gunner's sight.

5. Look for smoke clouds. A firing gun can create a dust cloud around itself. Might help you finding a tank in the bushes.

6. Go in the settings and disable grass while in gunner sight. It gives such an u fair advantage when peeking over a hill that's covered in grass vs peeking over the same hill and only seeing the flat surface. 10/10 Gaijin design choice btw.

(7) Apparently when you don't have your crew voices disabled like me, pressing range finder on a tank will make your crew yell its name, if the tank is there at least.
Can't confirm though, I have the crew voice disabled for 3 years now