How do I aim static guns?

[Artrysa]

Will they always just shoot straight forward? Or will they aim at my ship's little crosshair? And if they only shoot forward, then how important is it for them to be close to the cockpit?

[Capt Fuzzy]

Static guns/missile launchers will only shoot in the direction that they are pointing.
Since they cannot rotate in any direction, you have to point your ship in the direction that you want them to shoot.
This can have some advantages such as the ability to strafe targets relatively accurately.
Of course, the level of accuracy while strafing is only as good as your piloting skills.
Placing them close to the cockpit generally allows for better point & shoot targeting and better accuracy during strafing runs, so this is usually why they are placed near the cockpit, but this is by no means an 'unbreakable rule'.
So long as you make sure that they are pointing in the direction of your intended target, they can be placed just about anywhere that you see fit.

Personally, I prefer to place mine near the cockpit, at the front of the ship, facing forward, and place a couple at the rear of my ship, facing backwards. This allows me to fire at anything directly in front or directly to the rear of my ship.
I add turrets in the midship areas, top and bottom, that can target in basically any direction and are generally AI controlled, unless I need to take over manually for some special case.

[Gorbadon]

Fixed guns only shoot straight forward.
This means the further apart the guns are placed the more spread out their fire will be.

Guns close to cockpit (or camera if you use one for targeting) will line up better with the crosshair.
Gatlings have some spray to begin with, so some small distance between guns usally doesn't matter much though.

[Jack Schitt]

Aren't there mods and scripts that at least make missiles seek targets?
With a bullet the only way to aim them if they're static is to aim the ship at the target. But for missiles and custom-made weapons I think there are scripts that exist that make them lock on and follow the target until they hit it.

[Quill]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Aren't there mods and scripts that at least make missiles seek targets?
With a bullet the only way to aim them if they're static is to aim the ship at the target. But for missiles and custom-made weapons I think there are scripts that exist that make them lock on and follow the target until they hit it.

There's mods to make missiles lock ok and track targets

Scripts will allow player made Missiles to track and seek targets. So the Missile can know where it is and where it isn't...

[Jack Schitt]

I thought so. So that's a way to do it without aiming the ship for missiles. I kind of doubt there's a way to do it for bullet shooting weapons like Gatling Guns. The only way to aim static guns that shoot bullets is to aim the ship at the target.

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

If you go back to WWII fighters, you'll notice that the guns are way away from the pilot. If they shot straight forward the pilot would miss. Every gun was set at an angle so the ammunition would converge at a fixed distance.

Space Engineers doesn't offer the ability to easily do that without a lot of engineering. The only way to be somewhat accurate is to place the guns really close to the cockpit. In WWI, the machine guns were right in front of pilot, so there was no need for that convergence as an example of the principle. The other thing that people will do in SE is mount a camera next to the weapon(s) and aim that way. But selecting a camera to view, backing out of it, selecting another camera in the middle of fighting can be pretty tricky. You might end up double pressing "F" and ejecting yourself right out of the cockpit.

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by Ronin Planetary Industries (RPI):

If you go back to WWII fighters, you'll notice that the guns are way away from the pilot.

Not all of them were.

[Ronin Planetary Industries]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Originally posted by Ronin Planetary Industries (RPI):

If you go back to WWII fighters, you'll notice that the guns are way away from the pilot.

Not all of them were.

Well the Mitsubishi Zero had a machine gun under the pilots nose as well as the Lightning and Mosquito (if you consider it a heavy fighter rather than light bomber). There are a few others. But if you want to be pedantic about the outliers rather than the majority... sure...

[Jack Schitt]

There were more than that. I'm not being "pedantic". Your statement was WRONG. I responded with 5 words that were 100% true and accurate. I didn't deserve being insulted. I don't agree any detail about the most popular and largest war in history is a "pedantic" (minor) subject. It changed billions of peoples lives forever. That's not a minor detail.

[Rotiart]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

I thought so. So that's a way to do it without aiming the ship for missiles. I kind of doubt there's a way to do it for bullet shooting weapons like Gatling Guns. The only way to aim static guns that shoot bullets is to aim the ship at the target.

Custom Turret Controllers

[Jack Schitt]

Originally posted by Rotiart:

Custom Turret Controllers

They're not static that way.

[Pembroke]

True, but I think it's still worth pointing out that you can make static guns to rotate and effectively turn them into turrets. Actually, this allows you to make turrets that have way more firepower than the standard turrets have.

To OP: The general idea with the custom turret controller block is to use rotors and hinges to create a "mount" that can turn into any direction, and then place static guns, usually lots of them, on top of that mount. Think of a turret that has like 6-12 gatling guns on top of it. Consumes loads of ammo when it shoots but that kind of fire will basically melt away any enemy ship...

[Rotiart]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Originally posted by Rotiart:

Custom Turret Controllers

They're not static that way.

They're the same static guns, they just rotate. Pound for Pound they're the best weapons in the game.

[Jack Schitt]

Do you know what Static means? It means stationary, not moving. They are not static if they are animated (moving).

[Rotiart]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

Do you know what Static means? It means stationary, not moving. They are not static if they are animated (moving).

I know what static means. However in Space Engineers there are two types of weapons; turrets and static. If you use a custom turret controller, you can use static weapons - and their superior stats over their turreted counterparts - as rotating ai-controlled weapons. Which is a superior weapon system, combining the strengths of both. You said the only way to aim static guns was by moving the ship, this is not the case if you use a custom turret controller.