IRON NESTGuides

Firing diagnostic

Why don't my triangulation lines meet?

A large miss, a near-intersection, and a correct target followed by a bad shot usually point to different parts of the firing workflow.

Quick answer

Use three checks. If shots are far off, verify the current Nest marker and firing origin first. If bearing lines nearly meet, treat Liberation's ±0.5° Spotter-bearing statement as a finite-precision bound and add another independent observation when needed. If the target point looks right but the shell still misses, recheck firing origin, target range, loaded powder charge, and elevation.

Diagnose three error classes

  1. A — Large systematic miss

    Check the current Nest/firing origin first: whether the Nest moved, whether its map marker is stale, and whether the firing solution was calculated before movement. Preserve the existing patch warning rather than treating stale origin as the only current cause.

  2. B — Lines nearly meet or leave an ambiguous target

    Treat reported bearings as measurements with finite precision and verify the observation origin. A current Liberation mission instruction describes Spotter bearings as accurate to within ±0.5° and warns that near-parallel bearings or combined measurements can make that uncertainty important. If the geometry still leaves an uncertain point, add another independent bearing, range, or reconnaissance constraint instead of forcing the lines together.

  3. C — Target point looks correct but the shell lands wrong

    Check firing setup separately: calculate from the current Nest origin, copy the correct target range, confirm that the loaded powder charge matches the charge used for the calculation, and copy the resulting elevation correctly. If the loaded charge is wrong, use the loading-error recovery guide instead of restarting triangulation first.

Still stuck?

My shots are off by kilometres

Check the current Nest/firing origin first: did it move, is the map marker stale, or are you reusing a pre-move firing solution? Historical evidence supports stale origin as one cause of large misses, but Patch #3 fixed some turret position and movement reset problems, so it is not presented as the only current cause.

My bearing lines almost meet but do not cross exactly

Do not force them together. A current Liberation mission instruction describes Spotter bearings as accurate to within ±0.5° and warns that near-parallel bearings can magnify the practical uncertainty. Use the reported lines as finite-precision measurements and add another independent observation if the target remains ambiguous. As secondary historical context, one Demo-era case reconstructed about 93.8° where the report displayed 94°; that case does not establish a universal rounding rule.

Two distance circles give me two possible targets

That is not automatically a plotting mistake. Two circles can legitimately cross at two points, and both satisfy those two distances. Add another independent observation or reconnaissance constraint.

The target point looks correct but the shot still misses

Separate target-location geometry from firing-solution setup. Recheck the current firing origin, copied target range, loaded powder charge, and resulting elevation before assuming the triangulation is wrong. A wrong loaded charge has its own recovery workflow.

Current-version note: the ±0.5° value is scoped to Spotter bearings in the current Liberation mission instruction. It is not a universal correction or precision rule for every mission, Position Report, distance report, Scout Plane control, or firing system.

Avoid these diagnostic mistakes

  • Debugging small bearing precision before checking a clearly stale or wrong firing origin.
  • Treating the historical 93.8° to 94° case as a universal current rounding rule.
  • Generalizing Liberation's Spotter-bearing ±0.5° statement to every mission, report, coordinate, or firing system.
  • Adding or subtracting 0.5° as a correction instead of treating it as a scoped accuracy bound.
  • Assuming two range reports must always resolve to one unique target.
  • Blaming triangulation before checking whether the loaded powder charge matches the firing calculation.
  • Calling a near-intersection a game bug without separating precision, geometry, and setup errors.
Why these checks are separate

This diagnostic combines differently scoped evidence. Current structured Liberation instructions describe Spotter-bearing accuracy within ±0.5°, warn about near-parallel and compounded measurement uncertainty, and recommend additional intelligence when the solution remains uncertain. A separate Demo-era empirical case reconstructed about 93.8° where 94° was displayed. Deterministic geometry explains why two circles can leave two valid intersections, while stale firing origin and powder/elevation setup are separate diagnostics. These sources do not reconstruct the full current internal precision model.

Diagnostic model corroboratedCurrent-build limitsChecked Aug 14, 2026

The current Liberation mission instruction directly scopes Spotter bearings to within ±0.5° and warns about near-parallel and compounded uncertainty. Origin errors, ambiguous geometry, and firing-setup diagnostics remain differently sourced; the full current measurement model is not reconstructed.

Version context: Current Liberation structured Spotter-bearing precision plus historical and patch-aware diagnostics; broader version 1.0 precision model unresolved

Still uncertain

  • Whether the ±0.5° Spotter-bearing statement applies outside the named Liberation mission context
  • Exact display and rounding implementation
  • Exact current distance-report precision
  • Exact Position Report precision
  • Exact Nest-position and internal-coordinate precision
  • Current mission-specific causes of large systematic misses
  • Exact firing-solution internal behavior where still unresolved

Evidence and verification context

  • Current Liberation Spotter-bearing instruction: The independent current structured mission snapshot records an in-game Liberation instruction that Spotter bearings are accurate to within 0.5°, notes that near-parallel bearings and combined measurements can make the uncertainty important, and recommends additional intelligence when the solution remains uncertain. This evidence is scoped to the named Spotter-bearing context and is not generalized to all measurement systems.
  • Historical empirical bearing case: A Demo-era case reconstructed approximately 93.8° where the report displayed 94°. It supports limited displayed precision in that case, not a universal current rule.
  • Historical stale-origin reports and official Patch #3: Historical evidence supports stale origin as a cause of large misses; Patch #3 later fixed some turret position and movement reset problems, so older reports are not treated as the only 1618 cause.
  • Circle-intersection geometry: Two reported distances can mathematically leave two valid intersections; the current game-specific next observation is not hardcoded here.
  • June 6 Demo-era developer Unload/Reset answer: Historically supports recalculating with the powder charge actually loaded when diagnosing firing setup. It does not establish the complete current Ballistic Calculator or ammunition-physics contract.