Should pilots care if they're aiming for the cockpit or not?
>>23565018As a practical way to end a fight efficiently? They should care if their weapons are actually accurate enough. Or do you mean as a honor thing? Going by irl fighter pilots, during a fight it’s all fair game. The thing you don’t do is fire at bailed out pilots, but as long as the fight is still on, every part of the enemy is fair game.
Yes they should always shoot to disable and apologize profusely for fighting because killing and war is bad.
>>23565018In a heated battle I'm not sure I'd be conscious enough to really focus on it. I mean we made all the jokes about ZOE cockpits but when you get down to it putting the pilot's sit a bit out of the way of center of mass is probably the smartest move.
>>23565020usually the cockpit also happens to be in the center of the chest and you usually aim at center mass because that is the easiest part to aim for. maybe you'll clip the upper torso and that takes out the head but happen to avoid the cockpit. maybe you'll hit the waist if the rounds land lower. maybe you'll hit the arms and shoulders if the enemy MS was moving left or right.in most fights, I don't think it's possible to aim accurate enough to ONLY aim for the cockpit anyway, both the target being chased and the chaser are trying to move around at different speed and angle and direction, whether or not it hits the cockpit is more dumb luck than specific aim.the only time aiming at the cockpit is a viable option, would be when targets aren't really moving and if you're using a precise enough weapon, so that basically limits it to ambush and\or sniper type attacks.
>>23565018This is only a thing post CE because Jesus Yamato could some how magically disable all enemies by choice where as previous Gundam pilots were forced to kill their opponents even If they didn't mean to as part of the nature of war. Memes aside Bellri ' warning shot was right on point.
>>23565205>has never heard of wing and G or victory
>>23565207>Has never watched at of those
>>23565254Good, then I'll tell you now that those shows ALL feature extended arcs where they weren't allowed to kill enemies either by policy or by morals so they intentionally and successfully avoid attacking the cockpit over and over again
Aiming for the cockpit is only bad in colonies, because it tends to be right next to the reactor which is a good way to blow a hole through the side of it when it goes critical. Of course if you don't care about the colony then do whatever, but "most" of the time you aren't trying to sink the colony you are in.
>>23565273Eh, it's probably fine.
>>23565018The whole problem is that by and far weapons are far too inaccurate to go for specific hit locations, especially at long ranges where beams and missiles are involved. Most of the time it's a matter of hitting the target or not, because believe it or not but the guy you're shooting is doing everything in their power to not get hit. If you have clean shot you take it, and fuck whoever might be inside the MS you're blowing up because this is war, and "fair" means that you and your wingmen and all other crewmates get to go back home alive to their families.>>23565207The combat ranges in G and Wing were generally so close and involved melee more than anything, that selectively choosing to lop off limbs is comparatively quite easy. And in Victory, not hitting the reactor was mainly a thing on the surface of Earth, when they were out in space it didn't matter at all.
>>23565018If the opponent is a faceless grunt taking out the mech is the highest priority and the survival of the pilot can be up to your own personal sense of ethics.If the opponent is a named character you need to take them out because if they survive they'll be given an even better mech plated with plot armour because now they are a recurring named character.
>>23565303>If the opponent is a named character you need to take them out because if they survive they'll be given an even better mech plated with plot armour because now they are a recurring named character.Understood, I'll kick and punch every time I have a chance to kill!
>>23565020Thats gay. Kill the enemy. Show no mercy. Real life war is gay and sissy with all this empathy compassion bullshit.
>>23565358Well, if the honor argument does work for your, how about the legal argument? > Article 42 – Occupants of aircraft>No person parachuting from an aircraft in distress shall be made the object of attack during his descent.>Upon reaching the ground in territory controlled by an adverse Party, a person who has parachuted from an aircraft in distress shall be given an opportunity to surrender before being made the object of attack, unless it is apparent that he is engaging in a hostile act.
>>23565510>does work*doesn’t
>>23565510Fuck the law and fuck honor. Those laws are fucking retarded. The enemy is the enemy they should dir. Not be treated like they matter. It's a bunch of hippie faggot shit.
>>23565537And then the enemy will do the same to you. These laws are made with the assumption your side won't always be the one that comes out on top. Only an arrogant ass will assume they'll always win
>>23565207It even happens in Zeta a bit. It was just portrayed as sometihng only nutty pilots like Amuro could attempt to do.
>>23565595Oh yeah, that time that Amuro swoops in and detaches the backpack off of an enemy Hizack.
>>23565537>nooooo you can't love and respect people you never met people are awful and should be treated awfully Sorry nihilist, I acknowledge the potential of all peoples and grieve when they wallow in the miseries of modern society
>>23565510Wartime law only applies after the fact and only to the losers of a war. So just win. It's not a warcrime if you win. Conversely if you lose it doesn't matter if it was a warcrime or not because new ones will be invented regardless. Besides you have bigger issues to worry about if you lose.
>>23565537Are you 12?
>>23565546Oh well.>>23565613War should be about killing your enemies, not trying to get along. Modern society has nothing to do with any of this. The udea that humans all used to fet along is communist propaganda. Humans have always been a warring species.>>23565650Exactly. Dead men tell no tales.
>>23565510That's all well and good but during the heat of battle nobody's really gonna be stopping to sort this out. The best you can realistically hope for is them not gunning you down when you throw up a white flag or them blasting hospital shit.
>>23565779They do, all the time. There's also plenty of violations, both accidental and deliberate, but most armed forces do mostly hold to international or similar internal rules. There are damn good practical reasons to do so unless you are so arrogant you assume you cannot lose, care nothing for your own civilians or soldiers outside perfect victory, or are simply an idiot. You will, of course, be able to find people who are all three.
>>23565663Are you 92? Imagine you were on the ground underneath the boot of your enemy. You dropped you rifle miles back during your retreat. How would you like the enemy to treat you, the weaponless man now underneath another’s boot?
>>23566195That's my fucking fault, I get to deal with the consequencesis this really such a fucking hard concept to grasp?
>>23565207When it happened with Wing in EW, it caused the Gundams to take far more damage than if they were fighting lethally, but they were intentionally trying to not kill anyone in order to make a point. Like Quattre himself said, if they were fighting to kill then their mission would've been accomplished long ago, but it also would've meant there was no point to them returning to battle. The world can't just wait around every time for the Gundams to save them, eventually the people need to stand up for themselves so they won't always need Gundams.
>>23565358Question anon, why did nazi germany never use poison gas on the battlefield despite having stockpiles of it? It's because Hitler himself was the victim of a mustard gas attack in WW1, he knew what it does to people, and he realized that you using it gives the other side the excuse to use it, and he never wanted another German to have to experience that. If even WW2 had some lines everyone refused to cross, then clearly lines do actually exist. After all, why DIDN'T America just start dropping atomic bombs in China during the Korean War if that's not the mindset?
>>23565761You start a war because there's something you want, and it ends when you get it or get so beaten you give up ,not because you just want to fucking kill everyone in another country.
>>23565358Do keep in mind, anon, that mercilessness =/= combat effectiveness
What boggles me is that there is no escape pods for any of the ace pilot’s mobile suits. I think only in 00 was it ever used and only the villains used it. Surely you could have an insurance for your top mobile suit pilots?
>>23567012been a thing since the original
>>23567018>We call this mobile suit '-tank'
>>23566290This is true, it's more effective to wound and cripple enemies but let them live than it is to outright kill them. At least in longer conflicts and against enemies that aren't gonna just abandon their wounded to die. Injuries drain resources to treat and wound them bad enough and they are removed from being active combatants anyway.
>>23567031This sounds like fuddlore.
>>23567121It’s human nature. Armies that don’t help their own wounded do not last long, morale is nonexistent in such cases. And for each wounded, you need at least a single man to carry him off, more often two per wounded.
>>23567012They've been a thing ever since the 0079, Zeta, and beyond, what's tripping you up is how they are not necessarily frequently used. In Zeta, ZZ, and CCA all MS cockpits tend to be these ejectable red spheres, but only on occasion do pilots have a chance to actually use them because otherwise they're too busy exploding. Even as far as Victory Gundam you get escape pods.
>>23565196Video game cut scenes aren't Canon.
>>23565358See, you Want enemies to eject. If they know ejecting will get them killed they'll stop ejecting from their aircraft and start ramming their planes into your ground assets. Do you want thousands of pounds of JP-8 crashing into your infantry?
>>23567380>Armies that don’t help their own wounded do not last longExplain the Russian military then.
>>23567543Seems not to be lasting very well.
>>23565018Yes, pilots should aim at the cockpit if they want their side to win the war. The enemy will be forced to deploy inexperienced recruits rather than letting their aces get a new machine every time they're shot down. The characters that avoid killing their enemies are typically just fighting for fun and don't care about how many of their allies and civilians die as a result of their actions.
