Ships equipped with rangefinders and gun directors should feature three distinct types of sights:
Spotter/binoculars
Rangefinder/Gun Director
Comanding decki view (would be nice, but not necessary)
Targeting sequence could work as follows:
- Initial spotting – You use binoculars to locate targets. When you press the “Lock on Target” key, the rangefinders and main guns will start tracking the selected target. You can still freely use your binoculars to observe the battlefield.
The selected target would not be highlighted in any artificial way — the only indicator would be the rangefinder’s focus on it.
- Rangefinding – Switching to the rangefinder view allows you to see your target (unless it’s obscured by a smokescreen, an island, or other ships).
Gun director would consist of smaller binocular view, rangefinder scope (placed above binocular view), course and speed indicator (upper right corner, it’s in game right now), screen showing target path and fall of the shells, similar to irl Dreyer table (upper left corner).
Rangefinder would move freely on x and y axis, so player could pick favorable measuring point.
Example view: https://images.app.goo.gl/iNZti
Use the mouse scroll to adjust and determine the target’s range.
*Edit
Rangefinder/gun director view would be either stereoscpic or coincidental depending on the navy.
In stereoscpic view there are two images “bars” and ship silhouette, once those two are align, player would see correct range.
In coincidence rangefinder image of the ships is split horizontaly in two, player needs to align both halves in order to get the range reading
As the target and player moves, player would need to take corrctions.
- Firing solution – *edit - when player makes at least two range corrections (pressing"target lock" key after each correction)- balistic computer will start to plot the fire solution. With fire solution calculated, guns would automatcaly align themselves to fire at predicted target position.
All this time horizontal movement of the guns would be possibile to allow player for quick corrections if target manouvers faster than balistic computer would be able to calculate.
At any chosen moment player would be able to switch guns to “follow the pointer” mode, where they would follow horizontal move of the gun director, with elevation following the data from the rangefinder, allowing to aim without automated corrections - there would be no aiming aid, so corrections would need to be made by player, but gun movement would be only seen by “milldots” moving left or right in guns director view, that way player wouldn’t loose the sight of the target while chasing the correction/deflection point. In this mode corrections to gun elevation would be made by mouse wheel
In addition there should be “danger zone” (place, where vertical spread is the longest, ensuring most likelyhood od hitting the target) it would be indicated by the green light in rangefinder view. Also aiming asistants - bearing indicator and targeted ship view would be moved to upper qarter part of the rangefinder view, they would be more useful there.
How the gunnery action would look like in the battle.
- After spawn, you switch to spotter view, (which is placed where actual spotter was placed on ship), after picking your target, you point it to gun director (the same way you would do it in comander view on ground battles)
- You switch to gun director view.
With binoculars player chooses place on enemy ship most suitable for taking measurments, locks the rangefinder position, takes measurments from rangefinder, press target lock.
Now player have two options:
- switch to aiming without balistic computer, and working out corrections on his own;
- take another reading from rangefinder, which also starts ballistic calculations.
With first option, player can shoot right away but its might take some time to “find the target”.
With second option player would need to wait for fire solution but the chance of hitting with first salvo.
The goal is to keep range readings accurate.
The player would need to make constant range adjustments, with the ability to move guns horizontally if the target’s course changes unpredictably.
This system would still feel somewhat “arcade” in accessibility but would require more attention and situational awareness. It would also prevent unrealistic “snapshots,” giving the impression of operating a complex warship rather than simply steering a floating platform with guns.
AI gunners spotting – AI gunners should not automatically fire upon sighting a target. Instead, they should only report when a target enters their engagement range. The player would then decide whether to engage by pressing a bound key — similar to the mechanic used for “thanking for help with repairs.”
- Yes
- No
