Tracer Bullets

[futurenhler]

lyke doz greEn lzrs
just jokes but
what is the real point of tracer bullets? is it like to aim with the windage or whatever or what? i have alwas wondered
i always thinks in any of the darker maps it gives away the MG position

[anaesthetics]

It also pinpoints for the rest of the squad where the enemy is, the MG is a support weapon after all.

[Kirq]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracer_ammunition <- This will answer all Your questions about tracer ammunition.

[takadi]

I always wondered...do tracers really look like that in real life? They seem more like lasers to me than illuminated bullets.

[Cluase Von Wittybrain]

There should be an option for you to not use tracer rounds i beleive.

Like it sez in the Wikpedia..it works both ways...directing fire and drawing fire.

I doubt if all Mg had Tracer..due to war resource constraints prehaps?

[Tyr]

If you watch old WWII footage of airplane dogfights, you will see tracers a lot of times, those are what they look like, although sometimes the infantry and tank tracers are slightly different because they don't have as much motion from the plane and air but whatever

[Druidor]

It is normally around 1 tracer round to 4 live rounds fired to give a point of reference to target, varies on what sort of weapon is being used though.

[Aether]

Tracers are used to give the shooter a reference to where his shots are going, usually they fall on every 5th shot. They are just bullets with a bit of magnesium on the end so when they are shot the magnesium ignites and you see a streak of light. And yes, in real life it looks almost like a laser because of how fast it is moving.

[Dokteur Kill]

Except for the fact that real lasers don't look like that at all... if anything it's "Star Wars"-style lasers/"blasters" that look like wwII tracers.

And as has been mentioned in the wikipedia article, tracers are not made with "a bit of magnesium at the end" (that would give a white flame, and probably wouldn't have the right incendiary qualities). They're made a hollow base filled with a mix of some metal fuel (magnesium perclorate is mentioned, but I'm sure there are other possibilities) and different salts. This is the same technique that is used in fireworks. Depending on which salts you're using, you get different coloured flames. Strontium for red tracers, barium for green. I'm not sure what the yellow tracers used by the germans used, but I'd hazard a guess at sodium.

In real life, gunners would often take the time to mix tracers and common rounds in their ammo belts for their personal preferences, so there's no point in saying "one tracers in x rounds is the correct amount", because it varies with availability of tracers, and the mission for which the gun is intended. RO uses a figure of 1 in 5 rounds, which is quite okay in my opinion for infantry combat.

[Kirq]

Personaly i love the view of MG tracers flying over battlefield. This is one of many RO aspects that make this game very special.

[Kuruchev]

Do RO's tracers have a different trajectory than the normal bullets?

[abel29a]

I would assume the trajectory is different. Certainly the riqouchets(sp???) are behaving in different ways. The bullet has little weight after all the "tracer fuel" has been expended, and that is quite accurately portrayed in the way the bullets seem to fly of in all sorts of directions once they hit something.

[Reznor]

Originally Posted by abel29a

riqouchets(sp???)

I'm not english myself, but that spelling made my day

btw, its Riochets :>

[Witzig]

Originally Posted by Reznor

I'm not english myself, but that spelling made my day

btw, its Riochets :>

Ricochets no ? :P

[Kirq]

Accordind to Wikipedia the trajectory of tracers is a bit different than regular rounds. It is result of the different and also inconstant weight of the tracer bullet.

[futurenhler]

Originally Posted by Reznor

I'm not english myself, but that spelling made my day

btw, its Riochets :>

no
its not its Ricochets

[Bikewer]

The tracer element (as noted, a small amount of magnesium) is pretty small, and the projectile still has a hefty lead core. Only slightly less than the regular "ball" ammo, however. Point of impact at most battlefield ranges is pretty much the same. They are quite visible in daylight, though not as bright as the ones modelled in game.
The pretty-accurate ricochet effect is due to the bullet giving up much of it's energy on impact, and also distorting. In any live-fire situation, you can see a certain percentage of slugs going every which way.

There's a show that makes the rounds on the Military channel called "Gun Camera". Shows gun-camera footage from all sorts of aircraft from several wars. On WWII strafing runs at German ground targets, you can clearly see the .50 tracers enter the ground and pop back out again, whizzing off in odd directions.

[smokeythebear]

too me the Ricochets seem a bit too...bouncy, i wouldnt expect a bullet to ricochet off dirt...twice

[Hans_klempner]

I like the Tracers in RO they bounce.
But the best tracer animation ive seen are in AMericas Army, but they don't bounce

BTW Here is a video you guys will like. Tracers in action.
NO GORE!

http://media.putfile.com/traceraction

[[CH]_Psilo]

Having fired a vehicle-mounted Cal.50 in real life, I find the tracers ricochets quite ok. Most ricochets I saw were tracers going sky high or laterally, but haven't seen any bouncing to or three times on the ground. For those that go really high, usually they stop burning before they come back down...