Post by Skevington on Jun 2, 2009 1:23:03 GMT -8
So enthused was I about reaching Grand-Master Gunning standing that it took little encouragement to put down my thoughts on the gunning puzzle by way of this Tips and Tricks post. I'll start with a little preamble.
When I first started playing the gunning puzzle, I hated it. I was no good at it. It baffled and frustrated me. The controls were awkward, the graphics even annoyed me. Along came a crew I joined that had very few serviceable gunners, not enough to meet the captain's needs. I was challenged to learn gunning, given a few tips, and set to practice the puzzle. With a bit of understanding the veil of dislike slowly lifted and I found myself actually enjoying the puzzle. Here follows my thoughts on the Gunning Puzzle. They are influenced by a number of sources. My former captain, random Ultimate Gunners sharing a kind word while puzzling on a Navy ship, in game tutorial et cetera. It's not gonna be perfect, or even useful to all levels of gunners, but here goes.
First, gunning is all about finding a good board, or making an acceptable board arrangement work for you.
Ideally, you will find a board when you first start the puzzle that allows for all the generated pieces to travel in a looping path that passes in front of all four cannons in a clockwise motion (since pieces attempt to change their vector 90 degrees clockwise when hitting an obstacle). This is rare, and depending on finding one can have you abandoning boards and reentering the puzzle until you aren't filling any cannons at all.
Toggle one arrow in front of the cannon you wish to load.
This toggling arrow can pluck pieces out of the group passing the cannons. Keep your mouse in front of the cannon, use the WASD keys to make the arrow face the cannon, or point pass the cannon (clockwise, left cannons up, right cannons down). Practice will give you a sense of when to do it exactly. I rarely have the precision to grab a piece out of the middle of a tight bunch.
Filling two cannons, if done easily, and then abandoning the puzzle to load another board is better than not filling any.
So, the first thing I do when I load a board, is assess whether or not I can create a loop passing the two bottom cannons using only two placed arrows. If I can't, or if they are already filled, I quickly look at the top half of the board and see if I can do it with those two. If not, I abandon the board and enter the puzzle again.
The middle ground is a board where two placed arrows, one above the two top cannons, one below the bottom two will create a path that passes all the cannons.
The above described board is perfectly serviceable and the bread and butter of my gunning style. You can place these two arrows and work on the cannons one at a time, refreshing them as you finish loading each cannon, then repeating ad infinitum. If the ship moves and lodges the distributing barrel against one side, don't fret. You can rearrange your two 'anchor arrows' such that your loop passes either the two bottom cannons or the two top cannons and switch as the path as you need.
(Appended some diagrams a few posts below that may help illustrate the above section)
Maybe I should reiterate to work on one cannon at a time.
Unless I get a perfect 'zero arrow' board, I take the time to replace the arrows to create my looping path between filling each cannon. Doing the cannons one at a time like this seems to be faster than trying to fill more at the same time, or is for me at least. The risk of mistakes far outweighs the questionable reward of finish loading two at the same time. If you can finish both at the same time faster than it takes to do two in sequence, more props to you.
And... things are a little different on ships with with more than four cannons.
The spent cannons are not necessarily gonna appear on your board as the cannons are fired. Finding workable boards, for filling two or even one cannon, quickly is all the more important when gunning on those ships, since you will likely have to hunt for the expended cannons.
What works for me may not work for you.
My suggestions will not make you an Ultimate Gunner. I think there's something fundamentally different about the way the really good gunners do it. They make a loop on the inside using two arrows and they have the reflexes of a mongoose, or use magic, or something. My tips may actually stunt your growth as a gunner, but they might make you as good as me. Or at least let you match my standing, which I'm not sure really effectively makes you 'better' at gunning. Standing and Duty Reports for some puzzles can be deceiving.
I guess the preceding thoughts fall in the category of strategy more so than specific tips... I'm not so good at those. But if you have any questions feel free to ask em. They might give us a jumping off point for more discussion or suggestions.
And remember to have fun.
Thanks for reading!
When I first started playing the gunning puzzle, I hated it. I was no good at it. It baffled and frustrated me. The controls were awkward, the graphics even annoyed me. Along came a crew I joined that had very few serviceable gunners, not enough to meet the captain's needs. I was challenged to learn gunning, given a few tips, and set to practice the puzzle. With a bit of understanding the veil of dislike slowly lifted and I found myself actually enjoying the puzzle. Here follows my thoughts on the Gunning Puzzle. They are influenced by a number of sources. My former captain, random Ultimate Gunners sharing a kind word while puzzling on a Navy ship, in game tutorial et cetera. It's not gonna be perfect, or even useful to all levels of gunners, but here goes.
First, gunning is all about finding a good board, or making an acceptable board arrangement work for you.
Ideally, you will find a board when you first start the puzzle that allows for all the generated pieces to travel in a looping path that passes in front of all four cannons in a clockwise motion (since pieces attempt to change their vector 90 degrees clockwise when hitting an obstacle). This is rare, and depending on finding one can have you abandoning boards and reentering the puzzle until you aren't filling any cannons at all.
Toggle one arrow in front of the cannon you wish to load.
This toggling arrow can pluck pieces out of the group passing the cannons. Keep your mouse in front of the cannon, use the WASD keys to make the arrow face the cannon, or point pass the cannon (clockwise, left cannons up, right cannons down). Practice will give you a sense of when to do it exactly. I rarely have the precision to grab a piece out of the middle of a tight bunch.
Filling two cannons, if done easily, and then abandoning the puzzle to load another board is better than not filling any.
So, the first thing I do when I load a board, is assess whether or not I can create a loop passing the two bottom cannons using only two placed arrows. If I can't, or if they are already filled, I quickly look at the top half of the board and see if I can do it with those two. If not, I abandon the board and enter the puzzle again.
The middle ground is a board where two placed arrows, one above the two top cannons, one below the bottom two will create a path that passes all the cannons.
The above described board is perfectly serviceable and the bread and butter of my gunning style. You can place these two arrows and work on the cannons one at a time, refreshing them as you finish loading each cannon, then repeating ad infinitum. If the ship moves and lodges the distributing barrel against one side, don't fret. You can rearrange your two 'anchor arrows' such that your loop passes either the two bottom cannons or the two top cannons and switch as the path as you need.
(Appended some diagrams a few posts below that may help illustrate the above section)
Maybe I should reiterate to work on one cannon at a time.
Unless I get a perfect 'zero arrow' board, I take the time to replace the arrows to create my looping path between filling each cannon. Doing the cannons one at a time like this seems to be faster than trying to fill more at the same time, or is for me at least. The risk of mistakes far outweighs the questionable reward of finish loading two at the same time. If you can finish both at the same time faster than it takes to do two in sequence, more props to you.
And... things are a little different on ships with with more than four cannons.
The spent cannons are not necessarily gonna appear on your board as the cannons are fired. Finding workable boards, for filling two or even one cannon, quickly is all the more important when gunning on those ships, since you will likely have to hunt for the expended cannons.
What works for me may not work for you.
My suggestions will not make you an Ultimate Gunner. I think there's something fundamentally different about the way the really good gunners do it. They make a loop on the inside using two arrows and they have the reflexes of a mongoose, or use magic, or something. My tips may actually stunt your growth as a gunner, but they might make you as good as me. Or at least let you match my standing, which I'm not sure really effectively makes you 'better' at gunning. Standing and Duty Reports for some puzzles can be deceiving.
I guess the preceding thoughts fall in the category of strategy more so than specific tips... I'm not so good at those. But if you have any questions feel free to ask em. They might give us a jumping off point for more discussion or suggestions.
And remember to have fun.
Thanks for reading!
