Distance of enemy ships

[KeinePanik]

I'm pretty new to this game and slowly geting into it. Did some first small battles and a few missions already. 

 

Now my question:

 

Is there any way to tell how far away an enemy ship is? Or do I have to keep on guessing?

[maturin]

You have to guess.

[Capt. Rice]

fire a guessing shot to guess how far they are i guess.

[GrapeShot]

Space bar to fire a ranging shot, shift key to view the shot with the spy glass to see if it falls short, over shoots or hits.

You get a feel for the range of the enemy, and performance of your cannon/carronade, after a bit of practice.

Edited February 1, 2016 by GrapeShot

[SyberSmoke]

Keep in mind the ranges of the cannon types. Carronade's are for spitting distance, get close and blast away. Medium cannons are just that, medium. Medium range, but they have very good reload times so if you want to spam cannon balls, there you are. Long guns have good accuracy but are better because of their flat trajectory. They take more time then mediums, but are good if you can give distances and want to stay at a distance.

Edited February 3, 2016 by SyberSmoke

[Admiral 8Q]

fire a guessing shot to guess how far they are i guess.

I guess that takes the guess work out of guessing.

[Ghroznak]

I guess that takes the guess work out of guessing.

 

Well, it's called a ranging shot for a reason

 

Another thing to be aware of though when you get into a ship with more than one deck, e.g. the Snow, is that guns on different decks will also fire at different angles. E.g. if you found the range to enemy ship with the guns on your upper deck, then you usually have to aim slightly higher when firing the guns on the lower deck, else they'll fall short.

 

This also depends on type of guns you are using, e.g. long guns will shoot fairly flat so less correction is needed when firing guns on different decks. Regular cannons, and especially carronades will need you to correct the elevation as you go through gun decks. You may even want to fire a new ranging shot when you start firing the guns on another deck.

[KeinePanik]

Thank you 

[Admiral 8Q]

Gotta wonder about the gunners sometimes though.