Range lock

[Sir Henry Morgan]

I believe the ALT-Button is what you are looking for... it will not prevent your aim going up/down from heeling though, which is fine imho!

  This allready existing.... silence...

[BelowYourDecks]

I don't think people are talking about auto-aim here. I think the discussion is about being able to lock your cannons to a range.. not to a target.

Well aware of the difference being sought, simply differentiating. But it seems the ability to access the desired effect, already exists

[Rob43211]

Alt does work but it doesn't allow you to shift to see if you hit. Once you shift and check then unshift you would have to not move your mouse afterwards. I would just liek to be able to lock the aim to a point not a target. 

[captain silent]

tbh i cant see locking the guns to work, my reasoning is this.. there are multiple things happening when ranging shots.. first off your target is moving either closer or further away... secondly.. the waves make you roll so even a small degree of side roll will put the locked guns out of range..

 

the system we have now works fine.. if you dont have the shot .. you dont take it.. its that simple.

 

EDIT:

 

Ok i think i have an idea / solution which adds to @sir henry morgans views

 

instead of using the mouse to gain the angle why not use numerical keys 2 and 8 so each press changes the angle for example 5 degrees, that will lock the cannons to that angle unless changed

[Tom Pullings]

I like the idea of disconnecting the elevation of the guns from the mouse.  If we are talking realism, then on a ship, the point of aim of the guns doesn't move just because the captain glances somewhere else.  That's the issue of having the mouse control view AND aim.  

[zhukov032186]

No auto aim of any kind please. ENough of that in games already.

[Tom Pullings]

No one is talking about auto aim, except for the ones saying they don't want it.  At most, people are talking about how to control aiming or how to provide some way to lock aim independent of mouse movement.  Neither of those is related to auto aim.  

 

In a sense, the game already has a kind of auto aim.  The aim point of a broadside of cannons is slowly centered once in aim mode, which represents the gun crews levering the guns to bear upon a single target.  That could still happen if the control for aiming were relocated to something other than the mouse (say the arrow keys).  

[Ned Loe]

Just add 'Shift' to stabilize it for 5 seconds same thing is present in BF4 while sniping. This feature would be great. Devs please consider it.

[admin]

Aiming sights will be improved a bit after current priorities are implemented into the game.

[Jupe]

+1 for key to lock elevation. I think it would be usefull.

[Månis]

+1 for key to lock elevation. I think it would be usefull.

How would this help? Isnt that a bit counter-productive?  Ships moves all the time, either they are closing in on each other or they are moving apart. Not to mention ship rolling. I believe having something like that wouldn't help the player to improve is aim. 

[Jupe]

I would like to have it, once i have test fired it would help me because i usually mess my aim with my mouse so it's kind of handicap tool for me.

It wouldn't improve aim but helps to keep the aim for a short time. Those Who don't need it just won't press the lock button.

[Månis]

I would like to have it, once i have test fired it would help me because i usually mess my aim with my mouse so it's kind of handicap tool for me.

It wouldn't improve aim but helps to keep the aim for a short time. Those Who don't need it just won't press the lock button.

I do understand why you want it but i do doubt that it would help much as i mentioned in the earlier post. I wanted something similar like that until i realized that it would not help me at all. It would actually make me miss the target more. The reason is that if you lock the elevation on the guns, the rolling of the ship would still change the elevation of the guns so you would still undershoot / overshoot the target.

 

The key is ( and i'm no expert on this because i still miss way to much ) is to test fire, and quickly analyze how both your ship and the enemy's is located in the water and then try to calculate where your ship will be next and adjust your test shot for that. Having patience to wait for the right moment is the key. ( This is were i fail, especially on a stormy map. I usually kill the fishes or the seagulls  )

[Jupe]

Poor seagulls you might be right. Sometimes i just mess up my aim between test shot and firing the broadside. I play with light ship, so i think it isn't as steady as bigger ship.

[Månis]

Poor seagulls you might be right. Sometimes i just mess up my aim between test shot and firing the broadside. I play with light ship, so i think it isn't as steady as bigger ship.

Yeah, small ships roll alot more than the bigger ones

[Mauler]

I hope this doesn't change - it's a learned skill that doesn't take too long to get the hang of. 

 

The use of the bar sight and shaded area of shot is already more than what was. This system is easy to use when you adjust using a point of reference to the bar itself. This being Ships' hull, sails or background clouds combined with ranging shots. It is not too intrusive on the view as some more obvious artificial range readout, dial, range block icons etc. 

 

With the above said I am no expert of what sight aiding systems were in widespread use of the time period we are to play in, that might be a good discussion in and of itself. Was it just some blocks? Were they identified with a range label to be placed under a predetermined spot on the gun. I dunno.

 

Use of ranging shots is critical combined with a stable reference point - joy!

 

Good luck with your sea trials but I hope nothing too extreme changes in respect to sighting from what we have now.

 

S!

Mauler

[Jack Freedom]

+1 for key to lock elevation. I think it would be usefull.

 

idk I feel like not having one raises the skill bar. I also think that the red bar aim thingy could be improved instead. Right now it's kind of hard to see because its so thin.

Edited April 6, 2015 by Jack Freedom

[Similon]

I think adding some lock-elevation feature makes sense, since the gun crews do the aiming, not the captain. So for realism's sake, some assistance makes sense. No, I definitely do not want the game to be played for you (which is the traditional response to any suggestion of assistance), but like I've said on several topics - you have a whole damn crew! It's not a 1 man ship. Some way of simulating the input of the other 30 to 800 competent crewmen on the ship only makes sense.

 

On raising the skill bar: I really don't think that should be the goal. If random Joe is incapable of doing anything without a load of practice, random Joe very well may not stick around. One could argue that somebody so fickle is not the target audience, but for a game to succeed, it has to be accessible. I've always felt that Skill should be what allows you to excel, not a requirement to compete.

[Bengerman85]

I don't think that the mechanics of aiming/ranging/shooting necessarily need to change (it's good currently in that it's skill and experience based).

 

But... I would like to see a gauge or indicator on screen that lets you know the current elevation of your guns and/or estimated range of the shots. Shots would still have the same element of vertical dispersion, and it wouldn't necessarily help with aim, but at least you'd have something of a setting to gauge your next shot on (more than memory of where you aimed with the mouse last time).

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

I'm still not a fan of this.  The last time they had it (as I think was mentioned earlier in this thread), the testers thought that it made shooting too easy.

[Doschichis]

I like the curent aiming, you can adjust your guns with a lot of thing, from a long range shot I use player name, from medium range I use sail and in short range its super easy. And for super long range, its your estimate skill

What I want to change is the order you fire your gun, I want it go from the first to the last, not 2 sides first then the middle.

[Sir. Cunningham]

Aiming definitely shouldn't be made any easier than it already is, it's already considerably easier than it would've been in real life, albeit perfect for gameplay purposes IMO.

 

That having been said this doesn't mean that the aiming bar couldn't be improved, esp. for people having issues seeing it for various reasons, of which I know a few. A customizable aiming reticule in terms of shape and colour would therefore be useful.