Minigun effectiveness... or lack thereof......

[andqui]

So.... why does it take multiple rounds for the minigun to take out an infantry soldier?

 

I'm trying to play the "No Time to Drink" mission in the campaign. Rebels are attacking the outpost and I need to take out two groups.  The first I come in and obliterate, with the rockets, no problem. The second group, no rockets left, and I need to take out 3-4 infantry and a car. I just can't do it. I have the damage log up, when I fly, and each minigun bullet it is making infantry something like 9% damaged. It takes 7-8 direct hits to kill a single infantryman. With a 7.62mm minigun round.

 

That, combined with the fact that it's all in a dark canyon with NVG's make this mission pretty much impossible. The darkness and night vision that completely blinds you whenever you shoot is a fun challenge. The puny, feeble "miniguns" strapped onto the sides of my chopper that do pretty much 0 damage is another, and extremely frustrating when even scoring a hit because of the mission conditions is difficult. I can't imagine this is working as intended. It is exceedingly difficult to destroy anything of substance with the miniguns, even unarmored infantry in the open.

Edited April 24, 2021 by andqui

[3WA]

Hmm, I don't have this module, but one wonders if the problem is the same as in all the fps games.  That not all the bullets are actually being "spawned".

Say, your minigun shoots at 4000 rounds per minute.  That's around 66 to 67 bullets a second.  Now all those bullets have to be tracked by the game, at bullet speed, to the target, far away.

I know in a lot games, the miniguns are fake, and only a few of the bullets are actually spawned per second.

I did an experiment once in the old Unreal Tournament game by modding a shotgun in a heavy mod called Infiltration.  This game didn't cheat on anything.  I made the shotgun shoot 800 pellets at once just for a laugh.  Target was about 10 feet away.  When I shot, the whole game froze for about 3 seconds.  Gives you an idea of how much it takes to track bullets.

 

It would be nice to have an answer from ED on this, as a lot of Western planes carry the M61 minigun.  It's rate of fire is somewhere around 6000 to 6600 rounds per minute.

 

As for the 7.62mm round, it should kill infantry with one to two hits.  They may be wearing body armor, but it takes Level III++ to stop the least penetrating 7.62x51,54 and Level IV to stop 7.62 API.

Edited April 25, 2021 by 3WA

[MAXsenna]

So.... why does it take multiple rounds for the minigun to take out an infantry soldier?
 
I'm trying to play the "No Time to Drink" mission in the campaign. Rebels are attacking the outpost and I need to take out two groups.  The first I come in and obliterate, with the rockets, no problem. The second group, no rockets left, and I need to take out 3-4 infantry and a car. I just can't do it. I have the damage log up, when I fly, and each minigun bullet it is making infantry something like 9% damaged. It takes 7-8 direct hits to kill a single infantryman. With a 7.62mm minigun round.
 
That, combined with the fact that it's all in a dark canyon with NVG's make this mission pretty much impossible. The darkness and night vision that completely blinds you whenever you shoot is a fun challenge. The puny, feeble "miniguns" strapped onto the sides of my chopper that do pretty much 0 damage is another, and extremely frustrating when even scoring a hit because of the mission conditions is difficult. I can't imagine this is working as intended. It is exceedingly difficult to destroy anything of substance with the miniguns, even unarmored infantry in the open.

Just hover and let your companions do the dirty work.

Sent from my MAR-LX1A using Tapatalk

[Kang]

While the effectiveness of the miniguns has been drastically reduced in past updates, I believe the damage log window can add some further confusion here. At least in my experience hitting them for officially '9% damage' is in fact enough to end a paratrooper. This is similar to how different vehicles will be set on fire (and thus doomed) at different percentages of damage dealt to them.

[DishDoggie]

On 4/24/2021 at 6:18 PM, andqui said:

So.... why does it take multiple rounds for the minigun to take out an infantry soldier?

 

I'm trying to play the "No Time to Drink" mission in the campaign. Rebels are attacking the outpost and I need to take out two groups.  The first I come in and obliterate, with the rockets, no problem. The second group, no rockets left, and I need to take out 3-4 infantry and a car. I just can't do it. I have the damage log up, when I fly, and each minigun bullet it is making infantry something like 9% damaged. It takes 7-8 direct hits to kill a single infantryman. With a 7.62mm minigun round.

 

That, combined with the fact that it's all in a dark canyon with NVG's make this mission pretty much impossible. The darkness and night vision that completely blinds you whenever you shoot is a fun challenge. The puny, feeble "miniguns" strapped onto the sides of my chopper that do pretty much 0 damage is another, and extremely frustrating when even scoring a hit because of the mission conditions is difficult. I can't imagine this is working as intended. It is exceedingly difficult to destroy anything of substance with the miniguns, even unarmored infantry in the open.

 

 

Try a different way, I attack this same way in my missions.

get 1 or 2 hundred feet in the air, fly a oblong circle in a bank around the targets (men) on the ground. ***TIP*** on the ends when you turn add more collective then lower it as you come out of the turn and ride the glide slope to the next turn and repeat. (Glide Slope. dropping collective and slowly moving forward AND dropping in Altitude in a controlled slide to a point you set up in your mind.)

 Keeping the ships speed at the lowest you can without stalling OR putting it into a hoover. Your side gunner will wipe them out fast. This takes practice. You need to get in close (To Start this type of attack) and be at the 1 or 2 hundred feet height. You use a lot of rudder in the LOW SPEED turns. What I can't teach you is adding more collective or cutting it when needed throughout the entire egg like shape oblong circle. NEVER get below 1 hundred feet, Keep your ship in a BANK all the way around.

 

  In my mission I do this around 5 white smoke effects the 10 ground AK-47 men & 2 transport trucks have set off to help hide them as they attack ME and a truck I need to protect. I take them all out in just 2/3s rotation around the smoke effect. AI gunners can see through Smoke effect like its not even there. I can't see any of the 10 men just the 2 trucks parked at each end of the smoke effect. I am on the outside of the smoke NEVER inside it. keep it smooth not jerking it around. Gunners like smooth soft like movement to stay on target. IT TAKES PRATICE to get this down. YOU CAN DO IT!!!