How do I range my guns?

[WhiskyTango]

My current ship is a cutter. I can set windage by turning my ship but cannot range my guns. I don't even see the little red line like in the videos.

 

The videos I've seen all show me what to do but they don't discuss how to do it.

 

Is there somewhere in game to practice gunnery on sitting ducks like in the videos?

 

Thanks

[Aetrion]

You have to right click to add gunnery mode. You should see the red line then, if you do not you might have your UI turned off, or are experiencing a bug. 

 

Ranging isn't an exact science in this game, but hitting shift lets you pull up your spyglass and observe the impact. Best way to range an enemy ship is to pick a spot in its rigging, like "Hight of the lower yards", fire off a single shot, go to spyglass, see if it goes over or falls short, adjust accordingly.

[WhiskyTango]

I do that, it's not there.

[Cpt Shadow]

Can you tell me do you get onto deck? ... right click to bring up the side field for fire, move your camera to look is the direction (right click hold spin angle, thing I use middle wheel zoom too, hard to remember when not on the game), look port or starboard then right click to get gun range field and elevation up.  Sounds like what has been said above, either your not getting onto deck or a bug.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Cpt Shadow

[Ghroznak]

To enter "aiming mode" for the guns...

 

First look in the direction the guns are aimed. E.g. if you want to fire guns on the left side of your ship, then turn the camera so you are looking in the direction left of your ship... and then press right mousebutton. Likewise, to aim with the guns on the right side, you have to move the view again so you are looking towards the right side of the ship and press RMB again.

 

Do the same for bow chasers (if mounted) and stern chasers (if mounted). Simply look towards front or rear of the ship, and right click.

 

If you are looking towards the front and right click, and have no bow chasers, then clicking RMB does nothing.

 

Once in aiming mode you should see the thin red line indicating elevation. If you have colorblind mode turned on it might be white (and a bit tougher to see if there is a lot of smoke etc).

 

Thirdly, to range an enemy you use spacebar to fire a single cannon, then use Shift key for binoculars to see where it lands. If you get a good hit, then press left mousebutton to fire entire broadside.

[Long Beard]

I've been playing for around a month now and have no idea what this red line is you're all referring to. Never seen it.  Generally I undershoot the target then adjust elevation and try again. 

 

Am I missing some kind of game mechanic that makes targeting easier? What and where is this red line?

[Ghroznak]

I've been playing for around a month now and have no idea what this red line is you're all referring to. Never seen it.  Generally I undershoot the target then adjust elevation and try again. 

 

Am I missing some kind of game mechanic that makes targeting easier? What and where is this red line?

 

I don't mean this as an offense, but as a serious question; are you colorblind? There is a colorblind option in the settings which turns the red line into a white one.

 

I've posted an image from my stream below where the aiming reticule is white (colorblind mode). For normal mode it is just red colored instead of white.

 

 

 

Added one with the red line as well for comparison...

 

Edited February 22, 2016 by Ghroznak

[Long Beard]

No offence taken.

 

I just watched through one of my recordings and low and behold it's there.  I've done probably hundreds of sea battles now and never once noticed it, or rather paid attention to it. Looking at my video, I realise now that I had assumed it was the health of the ship I was targeting and never paid any attention to it or realised it didn't change when the ship took damage.

I can see how this will be helpful since I've always used trial and error.

 

Well there you go. Something new learned

Thanks for taking the time to post the screenie.

[Cpt Shadow]

I don't mean this as an offense, but as a serious question; are you colorblind? There is a colorblind option in the settings which turns the red line into a white one.

 

 

Chuckles! .. on your screen shot you used a red arrow explain it.   But hey thanks for posting this, I did not know there was a colour blind option and someone told me they had problems in battles with the red and green player names above ships.  So I wonder if this will also address that for them ??

[Admiral 8Q]

I'm curious, what does red or green look like if colourblind? A dull grey?

[Admiral 8Q]

Yes. Without the right elevation you can miss at any range. I had trouble until someone told me about the crosshair line.
In this video I suppose one newbie can't aim and the other doesn't know how to press fire.   

[walleye]

Yes. Without the right elevation you can miss at any range. I had trouble until someone told me about the crosshair line.

In this video I suppose one newbie can't aim and the other doesn't know how to press fire.   

 

OMG..NOOB...Guy dosnt know where his 7 key is??!!111

Edited February 22, 2016 by walleye

[Admiral 8Q]

OMG..NOOB...Guy dosnt know where his 7 key is??!!111

"Loading... hmm...hmm... doopeedoo... loading... Come on already!"

"Cannon loaded, Sir."

"Fire!"

...... *ppff* *splash* ......

"We missed... how the hell could we miss??!!"

[Cpt Shadow]

I'm curious, what does red or green look like if colourblind? A dull grey?

[Cpt Shadow]

Colour blindness is not quite how people imagine, there are varying degrees of colour defect. I have a very mild defect in colours that contain red or green in the mix...very dark greens and dark browns become a close call for me. I'm classed as having a colour defect. It's often just that..something marginal.

[Rosebud]

No offence taken.

 

I just watched through one of my recordings and low and behold it's there.  I've done probably hundreds of sea battles now and never once noticed it, or rather paid attention to it. Looking at my video, I realise now that I had assumed it was the health of the ship I was targeting and never paid any attention to it or realised it didn't change when the ship took damage.

I can see how this will be helpful since I've always used trial and error.

 

Well there you go. Something new learned

Thanks for taking the time to post the screenie.

This has got to be, hands down, one of the bravest responses I have ever read. I personally would have opted for the "Oh my game must be bugged" or "I had it turned off" option. Admitting to not getting what seems obvious to most everyone else shows great self-confidence. Certainly more then I have. The truth is every one of use has missed the blatantly obvious at some point. Its just part of being human. My hats off to you sir. 

[Ghroznak]

This has got to be, hands down, one of the bravest responses I have ever read. I personally would have opted for the "Oh my game must be bugged" or "I had it turned off" option. Admitting to not getting what seems obvious to most everyone else shows great self-confidence. Certainly more then I have. The truth is every one of use has missed the blatantly obvious at some point. Its just part of being human. My hats off to you sir. 

 

I remember back in Everquest (years ago) we were on the boat travelling to go get some XP in some far off location. We were all around level 40-45'ish at the time, which was quite a high level considering 50 was max and there were what was famously known as 'hell levels', not to mention the fairly unforgiving nature of the game where you literally lost xp if you died.

 

Anyways, while on the boat there is little to do and by complete chance someone did an /inspect on the halfling we had with us and noticed he didn't wear anything in his belt slot.. when confronted as to why he didn't wear anything in his belt slot the reply was:

 

"We have a BELT slot???"

 

Turns out the guy had been playing for weeks, if not months, and never even knew he completely missed one of his inventory slots.

 

Point is... often the little, perhaps obvious things, can be completely overlooked.

 

For instance...

 

Did you guys know you can double-tap your Q/E and Z/C keys to set your sails/yards to full left/right the same way you can lock your rudder left/right by double-tapping A/D ?

 

I played this game since sea trials in 2014 (admittedly with a break from the game) and I never knew until I came back to the game recently.

 

Go figure...

[Long Beard]

This has got to be, hands down, one of the bravest responses I have ever read. I personally would have opted for the "Oh my game must be bugged" or "I had it turned off" option. Admitting to not getting what seems obvious to most everyone else shows great self-confidence. Certainly more then I have. The truth is every one of use has missed the blatantly obvious at some point. Its just part of being human. My hats off to you sir. 

Haha yes, it was a facepalm moment!  Still on the bright side, since I've done hundreds of missions without it, I got very good at aiming by sight alone. Now with this little line I'm finding things are even better so I guess it was a blessing.

 

 

 

Did you guys know you can double-tap your Q/E and Z/C keys to set your sails/yards to full left/right the same way you can lock your rudder left/right by double-tapping A/D ?

 

 

NO! Damn it! I do now though so thanks for the info. I suppose these things will be common knowledge when there's an official manual, but I kind of like learning these things as I go. Thanks for the infos!

[Jeheil]

For a cutter, try this :