Easy examples
The dead enemy is just a hair (half an angle) in front of
1/3rd screen distance. In 0 wind that's 74, 1.9 bars.
There's no elevation to worry about.
Wind adjustment is a bit less than half of wind (wind
factor .45). So if you lowered 7 angles in 14 wind,
your should would be a half angle too far. Combine
that with the fact that the enemy is already half an angle
in front of the 1/3rd screen position... and the result
would be that lowering 7 angles would make the shot miss
by a full angle. So we're only going to lower 6 angles.
Power adjusting is pretty easy. In 11 wind I'd add .1 bars
to make the shot 2.0 bars. This is close enough. I got lucky
and sliced 1.98 bars instead of 2.0 so the shot opened
a bit closer to their face.
Final answer: 68, 1.97 bars
This distance is about 1/6th of a screen. From the tables I know
that the 0 wind angle and power for that distance is 82, 1.85.
There's no elevation difference really so I just need to adjust for wind.
This is close enough to straight up wind, so I'm going to lower by "1/5th of wind"
according to the halfscreen chart. For 20 wind I'd lower 4 angles. But this is less
than 20 wind, so that would fly too far. Also that adjustment is for half screen.
This is a closer shot, and the closer you are... the less adjustment is needed
for up and down wind. So I'm only going to lower 3 angles.
Power adjustment is .2 every 11 wind. That means .4 in 22 wind. This is only
19 wind, so I'm only going to lower .35 bars. Power goes from 1.85 to 1.5.
Final answer: 79, 1.5 bars
This distance is a bit in front of half screen. Remember that 1 Turtle width
is about 3 ss angles. This is a bit less than 1 Turtle width in front of half screen.
Half screen is 66, 2.0... so in 0 wind this would be 68.
There's not enough elevation to matter. For small elevation differences
like this you can just change your power by .05... So this power would be
about 1.9 in 0 wind (1.95 if they're level with me, but the target is below a bit)
The wind factor for directly opposite wind is "a bit less than half of wind"
(again the halfscreen chart is used). In 22 wind I'd lower 11 angles. But
in this wind I'm only going to lower 10, because the wind is downward
a bit. Downward wind requires more power change (and less angle change)
than opposite wind. A good rule of thumb that has helped me is this: in
maximum opposite wind, your angle shouldn't go below 54 for half screen.
This is 3 less than max wind, and about 2 angles in front of half screen.
So angle 58 should be good.
Power change is to add .1 every 11 wind. So in 22 wind I'd add .2 bars.
So power would be 2.1 if the wind were directly opposite. But remember that
this wind is a bit down, so I'm going to add a little more power.
Final answer: 58, 2.15 bars
Again this is a bit in front of half screen, by about 1/3rd of a Turtle width.
So this is 1 angle higher than the usual half screen angle.
I'd call this shot 67, 2.05 in 0 wind (2.05 because they're a hair above me)
Normal angle adjustment is a bit less than half of wind, but this wind is pointing
down a bit. This is where it comes in handy to know the smaller wind factors
on the advanced chart. The wind factor increases from .45 to .5 when wind
is pointing down a bit. So the math for the angle is very easy - 24/2 is 12.
Add 12 angles to go from 67 to 79. Power reduction is normally .1 for every
16 wind when dealing with tailwind. So in this wind I'd reduce .15 to 1.9 bars.
But because the wind is down a bit, I'm going to add a bit of power (just like
with the opposite wind example above). So...
Final answer: 79, 1.97 bars
When your bot and the enemy bot are 'kissing' (close
enough that their sprites barely touch) you use angle 87.
This enemy is a bit further than that, so I'd use 86.
Elevation is minor, I'd add .05 so the power would be 1.9
instead of 1.85.
Angle adjustment is easy. For wind pointing against
you it's a bit less than half of wind. But when wind is
against and a little bit upward, then just half of wind
is fine. So in 22 wind I'd lower 11 angles, from 86 to 75.
This is close enough.
Power adjustment is even easier because this is the
'no power change' point (when wind is roughly halfway
between up+back and straight back). So I still use 1.9
bars.
This kind of timebomb looks quite nice because it's a
boomer shot, it flew past the enemy then got
blown backwards and fell into the target at the last
second.
Final answer: 75, 1.9 bars
Target is 1 screen away - 48, 2.4 bars.
The 1 screen windchart says to reduce angle
by 40% of the wind. My mental shortcut for high
winds is think of it as reducing 4 angles for
every 10 wind. So in 20 wind I'd reduce
8 angles. You can also think of it as
reducing 2 angles for every 5 wind.
So if 20 wind means reducing 8 angles,
and 5 wind means reducing 2 angles,
then 25 wind = reduce 10 angles.
From the chart, power doesn't change.
Final answer: 38, 2.4 bars
Target is at 7/8 screen - 52, 2.3 bars.
No elevation.
The 1 screen windchart says to reduce angle
by 1/4th of wind. So in 20 wind I'd lower 5 angles.
This is 19 pointing up and a little bit back... close enough.
So I should have lowered 5 angles
and used a little less power to get a nice, 500+
damage ss. But I only lowered 4 and damage was
less than 400. The ss doesn't have a lot of room
for error but sometimes you get lucky when
you're 1 angle off.
Power was also incorrect, I should have reduced
.3 bars to end up with 2.0 or 2.05 power. But because
my angle wasn't low enough, I ended up using
a touch more power to get the shot to go far enough.
My power was 2.1. What this shot should have been:
Final answer: 47, 2.05 bars
Harder examples
The target's a bit past 3/8 screen. The basic angle and power for
that distance is 71, 1.9... this is about 2 angles past, so I'll call it
69, 1.95.
There's some elevation to deal with. Remember that at half screen
distance, you add 4 angles for 1/4 screen (200 pixels) of elevation.
This enemy is about half of that, and they're close enough to half screen,
so I'll add 2 angles for elevation. The new angle is 71, the new power
is a bit tricky because there's no set rule for elevation. A decent guideline
is this: When your original power is around 2 bars, add .05 for each angle
you raise, and reduce .05 for each angle you lower. So I'll call this 71,
2.05 in 0 wind.
Now for wind adjustment. This is tricky. If it were pointing straight down,
you'd add 4 angles (1/5th of 20 wind). If it were pointing between
back and down+back, you wouldn't change angle at all for a half screen shot.
This wind is kind of halfway between the "4 angle change" and "no change"
point. So I compromise by adding just 2 angles. Remember, the
goal of adding angles in downwind is to prevent the shot from flying
too far, but since this wind is pointing both down AND against a bit,
it's unlikely it will fly too far.
The power adjustment is pretty simple because the adjustment for
downwind and down+back wind is the same... add .2 bars for every 11
wind. So in 22 wind I'd add .4 bars, and in this wind I'd add a bit less, call it
.35 bars.
Note: You might be thinking a person would have to be crazy to
calculate all these things, especially with limited time. But for
this shot I actually skipped all that and just used a little shortcut. I
can see from the wind that I'll be using about 2.4 bars of power. I already
know how to aim 2.4 bar shots because I spent a very long time using
that formula. So I just aimed this like a typical 2.4 bar shot.
Final answer: 73, 2.4 bars
The target is a about 2/3 screen away: 61, 2.05.
There's no elevation to deal with.
If this wind were perfectly down+forward, I'd raise
my angle by a bit less than half of wind (45% of wind).
So in 20 wind I'd raise 9 angles. This is only 18 wind,
So I might think to raise 8 angles. But... it's not perfectly
down+forward, it's pointing a bit more down than
the factor shown on my chart. As before, when wind
is pointing a bit below some factors, you'll use
a little more power and adjust angle less. So... I'm
only going to raise 7 angles.
Power adjustment for this wind is to add .1 bars
for every 11 wind. So in 22 wind I'd add .2 bars. This
is a bit less so we'll call it .15 bars. My power
has jumped from 2.05 to 2.2. But... remember that
because the wind was a bit more downward, I
decided to add a bit of power. So...
Final answer: 68, 2.25 bars
The enemy is a hair past 1/3 screen distance.
The 0 wind shot would be 73, 1.9.
There's no elevation to worry about.
This wind direction is closest to the up+forward
factor, which is .2 for half screen. So in 20 wind
I normally would raise 5 angles. But this wind
is actually pointing up a bit. In the other examples,
when wind was pointing a bit below the chart's factor,
I'd compensate by adjusting angle
less. This is similar, I won't raise angle as much
(because the wind's not blowing as strongly 'forward'
as the up+forward wind factor on my chart). I'll
only raise 4 angles.
Power reduction for this wind direction
is .1 for every 11 wind. So in 22 wind I'd reduce
.4 bars. Power should drop from 1.9 to
about 1.5. The actual power used was
a hair more (1.54) but that was ok because
the enemy's distance was a bit past the
1/3rd screen mark, so my starting power
of 1.9 was a hair too low.
Final answer: 77, 1.54 bars
The enemy's at 3/8ths screen distance,
so the basic angle is 71, 1.9 bars.
There's elevation, about 50 pixels. I happen to know
that when an enemy is half a screen away, then
1/4 screen of elevation requires lowering 5 angles.
This enemy is a bit closer than that, so 1/4 screen
elevation would mean reducing 4 angles... roughly
1 angle every 50 pixels below you. This situation
has an enemy about 50 pixels below so I'm
going to lower 1 angle. My basic angle is
now 70 with a bit less power, maybe 1.85 bars.
Wind adjustment: The factor is .2, so I'm going to
raise 4 angles in 20 wind.
Power adjustment: .2 every 11 wind, so in 22
wind I'd reduce .4 bars. This is less so I'll
reduce .35 only.
Final answer: 74, 1.5 bars