Targetting question in vanilla

[necro55]

General question for the marksman type players here.
My daily driver is a Nightstar with twin Gauss.
In general i can brain most everything, sure at time ill hit a atlas or banshee, see the slugs hit the head, head turns black, and the target readout shows i hit center torso…. ok just slightly off on the hitbox, ok. But most of the time i can do it without a problem.
I have one mech i have a hell of a time braining one specific mech. Does anyone have a specific tips for braining a Stalker? Yes i have done it a couple times, and i call it pure luck. I brain a lot of heavy and assaults very often it is a practiced skill and i know i can but with the Stalkers i usually just end up coring them, which if i got my quad uac kcg thats easy but twin gauss is not the best setup for that.

So is the canopy not where it seems? If thats the case you got a zoomed in pic to point out why/how im doing it wrong?
Is the hit box THAT small?
Some other reason?
Am I the only one who cant brain Stalkers regularly?
Currently if i see a stalker i usually brain the rest of the lance and F1F1 the Stalker, as i can kill the other 3 in the time it takes me to beat through the armor with Gauss.

Anyone got any advice?

[Bovril Brigadier]

Stalkers are really hard to headshot cause you have to essentially aim slightly above where you think it should be and that is where you can miss your shots. I've had some luck splatting its head with SRM's but that involves hitting it head on running up to its face and not something you realistically want to do. Stalkers are one of the most threatening Mechs in the game as it's guaranteed to do some damage to you at any range before going down.

[necro55]

Thanks for the quick and no BS reply😃

Oh yeah stalkers are tough for sure, i agree.
So the cockpit is a little higher than it appears. OK, high enough that it becomes likely to shoot over its head then, keep in mind im mainly doing this at minimum 500m and well over 1km usually with Gauss.

Is this something i could find in the editor so i could KNOW where it is exactly? If so you know where in the editor?

[Bovril Brigadier]

Stalker_PHY will give you a rough idea what you need to hit.

[themovingfinger]

hmmm. just a thought, but -- I was having trouble getting some shots to land where I was aiming, so I turned on aim-assist to see where the AI wanted to hit if I targeted a torso or a leg. Caveat: You can get some truly bizarre physics with aim-assist if the target goes in to defilade around a building corner or terrain feature before the shot arrives. If that happens, try not to laugh too hard -- but you can get a good idea of the size/location of the hit box you want by watching where the AI is putting the shot on your behalf.

[necro55]

Hmm, interesting idea, i never touched aim assist. Does it actually focus for headshots or just coring mechs?

[necro55]

Changed the groups and i can say for sure my banshee fired a lot more. Only had time for 2 missions this evening, both defense so not the best use of the ai help, i do those for love of sniping from a hill, but getting in and around the base was less than ideal for them but overall they did better, utterly mauled a banshee and an awesome so that was good.
So test successful.

[Blue]

just to clarify btw, the "head" of the Atlas is actually specifically it's left eye, or your right if looking at it head on.

since people have already covered the Stalker, figured I'd clarify on the part of the Atlas why you hit the head and the CT is what takes the damage. Unless you hit the left eye where the pilot is actually sitting it won't count as a head hit

[Clever Name]

Originally posted by Blue:

just to clarify btw, the "head" of the Atlas is actually specifically it's left eye, or your right if looking at it head on.

since people have already covered the Stalker, figured I'd clarify on the part of the Atlas why you hit the head and the CT is what takes the damage. Unless you hit the left eye where the pilot is actually sitting it won't count as a head hit

Good point, for anyone not aware.

Given the size of the Atlas, I think it's fair (and more plausible) to protect the pilot by positioning them behind only one of the eyes.

Unlike the Cataphract, the canopy of which is about 400 square feet. You know a mech's bad when you headshot it regularly without even trying.

[Clever Name]

Originally posted by necro55:

So is the canopy not where it seems? If thats the case you got a zoomed in pic to point out why/how im doing it wrong?
Is the hit box THAT small?
Some other reason?
Am I the only one who cant brain Stalkers regularly?
Currently if i see a stalker i usually brain the rest of the lance and F1F1 the Stalker, as i can kill the other 3 in the time it takes me to beat through the armor with Gauss.

Anyone got any advice?

I don't have much advice, aside from 'try to shoot down into the canopy from a significant height.'

When you're on the same level as the Stalker, the position of its canopy along with it being embedded in the bullet-shaped body, means you're going to almost always hit the body first.

Only way I take down Stalkers is by flanking them and destroying one of their side-torsos as quickly as possible. Even from directly behind I find they're difficult to perfectly backstab in their rear center torso; compared to most mechs, anyway.

When you focus fire on a side-T and don't even bother trying to go for the center, you can take it down pretty fast.