| rdfs:comment | - Guns are incredibly psychologically powerful as symbols, let alone weapons. Aim, pull, kill. However, The Gunslinger knows that this isn't some holy trinity of death, and is the more lethal because of it. When gunning for a fast-moving or far-away target, he won't aim at the target (often shocking companions) and instead aim where they are going to be. Instead of a Hero-Tracking Failure he will get the target cleanly because they almost literally ran into the bullet. See Hero-Tracking Failure for when the villains fail to do this. Examples of Lead the Target include:
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| abstract | - Guns are incredibly psychologically powerful as symbols, let alone weapons. Aim, pull, kill. However, The Gunslinger knows that this isn't some holy trinity of death, and is the more lethal because of it. When gunning for a fast-moving or far-away target, he won't aim at the target (often shocking companions) and instead aim where they are going to be. Instead of a Hero-Tracking Failure he will get the target cleanly because they almost literally ran into the bullet. This is called Leading (Or windage), and is a Real Life tactic and training method. It's why you use clay pigeon traps for hunting practice, and is a key element in air-to-air gun combat. Video Games used to avert this trope with Hit Scan weapons, which were an Acceptable Break From Reality because of engine constraints; hitscan weapons didn't so much use "bullets" as simply hurt whatever was under the player's crosshairs at the time, regardless of distance. The alternative was the Painfully-Slow Projectile, where the player not only has to lead the target, but actually shoot the bullet past where the enemy is, so the enemy will indeed walk right into it. But today games are much more complex and realistic, and a more moderate form of leading the target has reasserted itself. Slower projectiles obviously need more lead time, and sniping can be a real nightmare. (The hitscan model is sometimes retained when energy, laser or other lightspeed weapons are available.) This is also relevant in sea and air combat with broadside weapons: even if the target isn't moving, the shooter usually is. This is the source of the "firing solution" you'll sometimes hear shouted about on the bridge of naval vessels. Lasers, due to moving at the speed of light, should not be expected to follow this rule. Regardless, plenty of space combat games ignore this. Perhaps they are taking account of very long ranges - 20,000 miles is a tenth of a light-second - and absurdly high speeds; a ship moving at Earth escape velocity covers a lot of ground in a tenth of a second. See Hero-Tracking Failure for when the villains fail to do this. Examples of Lead the Target include:
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