Poodleberry needs help! PLEASE!

[Poodleberry]

It is obvious that, even after 4 CCG craning practice sessions, Pood and I still have some fundamental problems with craning in that we can't seem to get any hits! And so I now throw out a plea for help and advice from y'all cos Pood and I are getting REALLY frustrated by our inadequacies in this HQ.

Now, these training runs have taught us a lot about the crane - Pood and I can now pass safes to fellow craners quite happily, we don't have much of a problem targeting and picking up stunned goons and we have learnt a reasonable control over the 'wild swing'. We can line up our target easily and we can get ourselves a good swing going.

But try as we might we cannot throw either a goon or a safe far enough to do any real damage - the best we have managed to achieve is a -2. We have tried releasing at the epogee and earlier and inbetween and nothing seems to work for us. The training notes say something about not worrying if your goon flies over the top of his head - hello? - we don't seem able to even reach his chin!

So what is going on here? We have mastered the art of short range stunning of the VP albeit only from the rear (front stunning is still not that good but will improve with practice), we can pan at the CJ without a problem and we are showing considerable promise at being a good stunner, we adore the seltzers at the CEO and can manage short and long range shots without any problem. We are reasonable at golf and we fish fast! We are really really bad at karting (hate it with a vengeance!) and our goon stomping is, well.... just scary! But overall there is nothing that we cannot do - other than hit the CFO with a stunned goon or safe! And that is driving me NUTS!

Now believe me, I am not looking for excuses here - if y'all tell me that all I need is practice then I will accept that quietly and book up for the next 10 training runs. But someone posted a while ago - can't remember who - that when they CFO'd they had to change to their other PC/notebook because they could only crane from one of them and not from the other. Is this possible? Can craning be easier on one PC than it is from another? It doesn't seem feasible but I am grasping at straws here! I honestly cannot believe that after 4 training sessions I am not actually getting anywhere - if I was just getting in a good crunch a couple of times a session I would know that I just need more practice but I havn't managed even one yet!

Where am I going wrong guys? Help me please....

[Loopy Sandy Megamuffin]

Hmmm, Im not exactly sure whats going on but here is a guess. Right before you swing the goon/safe toward the cfo, is your crane motionless? Like do you wait for it to stop all the way before move it forward? If so, I think you need to give it more speed, like swing it a few times before releasing the goon/safe. That will send it farther toward the cfo. If you are already doing this and still have problems, I don't know what to tell you.

[Poodleberry]

Originally Posted by Loopy Sandy Megamuffin

Hmmm, Im not exactly sure whats going on but here is a guess. Right before you swing the goon/safe toward the cfo, is your crane motionless? Like do you wait for it to stop all the way before move it forward? If so, I think you need to give it more speed, like swing it a few times before releasing the goon/safe. That will send it farther toward the cfo. If you are already doing this and still have problems, I don't know what to tell you.

Thanks for your advice but no, my crane is never motionless - I have mastered a fairly fluent movement between grabbing a goon, lining up the crane and swinging for a hit. After 4 training sessions I estimate I have probably spent at least 2 hours on the crane and have therefore tried every which way to swing, aim and release. Thats why I'm so frustrated!

[Ethan Socrates]

hmmmm.... well, if you have a goon and are lined up and fully retracted for a forward throw you can give ALOT of speed to your goon by going forward perhaps 1/4 of the way, retract back, then forward again to release at CFO. This creates a great deal of back and forth swing and should help get those damage numbers up.

If this doesn't work then its a comp issue... my wife plays on a laptop and can crane but not as good as on the desktop. I don't think she has issues like that though.

[Poodleberry]

Originally Posted by Ethan Socrates

hmmmm.... well, if you have a goon and are lined up and fully retracted for a forward throw you can give ALOT of speed to your goon by going forward perhaps 1/4 of the way, retract back, then forward again to release at CFO. This creates a great deal of back and forth swing and should help get those damage numbers up.

If this doesn't work then its a comp issue... my wife plays on a laptop and can crane but not as good as on the desktop. I don't think she has issues like that though.

Thanks but tried that! How can it be a computer issue though? I really would like to hear from anyone else that thinks it might be PC related and could anybody explain why or how this could be? I really do not understand!

[LittleCuddlesTwinkletoes]

Hmm... I believe that if you have had several opportunities to crane and still can't manage to get a decent goon or safe shot in, it's probably the PC you're using. I had a similar situation happen when I went from playing primarily on my laptop to playing on my desktop. When I used the laptop during CFOs, I was able to crane very well and never had problems getting the goons or safes to hit. Since switching to the desktop, I've found that I can hit the CFO with goons, but hitting him with safes is difficult and sometimes nearly impossible. They seem to just fall short of getting close enough to do any damage... almost as if they're just bouncing off. One thing that you might try that has helped me is to try grabbing a safe and swinging forward until it's about mid-swing, then pulling back and then forward again quickly enough to give that extra momentum to aim your safe a bit higher. This takes some practice as well, but since doing it this way, I can manage to get safe hits usually in the mid-40s. Better than nothing. If you ever get the chance to try craning from another PC, be sure to let us know how it goes.

[PurplePenny]

Im thinking it might be puter related to. I was on sons laptop and was already lagging and what you describe is exactly what happened to me. I couldnt even get a -2 and could only reach his belly but no hit. I know I can crane better than that and could see I was def having issues with puter. I think in my situation its the video card on the laptop. Good luck to ya!