Current to 27 Sept 2021 (significant revisions to initial post)
The Direct Hit update has changed the way naval rangefinding has worked. For experienced players who maximized the value of the previous system this is going to be a minor adjustment, but players who are used to “aiming off” could struggle.
The following post will describe the changes made, and what I'd propose as the most efficient way to use the new system to maximize main gun accuracy.
Summary of changes
The key mechanical change here is that the ability to force a range calculation by constantly hitting the target tracking key has been taken away from the player and put on a timer. The range value you see on a “hooked” naval track is not the actual instantaneous range, the way it is with a plane trackin Air RB. It is an estimate, with a degree of error. Closer targets get faster updates than targets farther away, with far away targets being 4 seconds or more out of date before refreshing. Previously, players would re-range using their "Lock Target" button before each shot to guarantee they were firing with the most accurate data. Now you just have to accept a somewhat larger degree of error. (Update: the Lock Target button still has a function though, see below).
The Direct Hit "rangefinding" system in RB does not affect thisperiodically updated instantaneous range, and is not really a "rangefinding" system so much as a "horizontal lead calculation system". It does not currently change the gun (true) range for you, or take into account either target or gun motion during the time of flight in the solution it provides. All it provides is a horizontal lead adjustment you can adjust to, when it works. Vertical lead must still be entered manually by the player (using a mouse or scrollwheel offset). On the screen you see two range numbers, one attached to the target "brackets" (in red if you use the "light" setting for Player names, in gray if you don't). That is the estimated range to target. The number in black, tied to the binos reticleis the range to where to where the rounds will land, if the gun was stationary, given their current bearing and elevation. The point corresponding to this second number is also expressed in the view as a green upsidedown "thumbtack."The vertical (elevation) component of any lead you apply needs to be expressed as a difference in these two range numbers you can see, when one number (the red one on the target) is being continually updated on you, and the adjustable one you need to establish the lead factor (the black one) also now changing with any vertical mouse movement you may make. This means the new system, as it is today, requires a more disciplined player effort than the previous system (see diagram).
Spoiler
This change has been complemented by a number of user interface changes, both good and bad. The binocular reticle has been redesigned, with the vertical reticle axis (which was largely unnecessary) moved off to the left where it won’t get in the way. A calculated horizontal lead indicator (a red V) has been added, which as said can be quite buggy and unreliable and may need to be ignored. When the red V and the black inverted V for the center of the sight are close, they both go green, which is supposed to form a green X to indicate you have the correct horizontal lead, but if the red V half is bugged, this won't work either. (note: see Update #2, below).
As mentioned, a green “thumbtack” indicator has been added in all views to indicate fall of shot. In third-person view, or when a target has not been selected in binos view, this shows you where the rounds will land based on azimuth and elevation of the main or secondary guns (but not relative closing speed or bearing). In binos view, once a target is selected, this thumbtackcan also double to store a horizontal lead value, as I'll explain. It also has value in binos and 3d view as a quick indicator of where your main guns are pointing right now, but otherwise you should really try to ignore it.
(It is important to understand what this green thumbtack is showing. It is NOT showing anything relating to movement by either shooter or target during time of flight. It is only showing where rounds aimed at the mouse-controlled black inverted V will land (if your vehicle were stationary at the point of firing), modified vertically (for elevation) and horizontally (for bearing) by any modifiers you have added through the adjustment keys or scrollwheel, assuming the gunlaying has fully caught up with the aiming (if you slew off in any direction, the green thumbtack will take however long it takes to swivel the guns to catch up with the new "Black V" point of aim, correcting bearing first, and then elevation). There is no way to tell if it's still correcting for elevation, other than by visually comparing where the black V and the thumbtack are on the screen. This means there is a risk if you start moving your mouse around in binos view too fast, you can end up overcorrecting.
A bar showing the "rangefinding" update status is also visible, and fills continuously while "rangefinding" (again, really horizontal lead calculation) is working. Changes to the estimated range (the red/gray number)can still happen at any point along this bar being filled. When the red V is working, it updates the horizontal lead indication every time the bar fills. Note that coastal boats with rangefinders use these same underlying mechanics as bluewater ships, and boats with automatic weapons as their primary armament or that don't have rangefinders do not have the lead calculation capability but otherwise work the same in terms of the underlying mechanics.
The indications of when turrets are laid on and ready to fire are more intuitive. And the two range values (red estimated range and black shooting range) have been moved around (to the degree they can even get confusingly superimposed).
Another change is that the intervals in the binos reticle have been changed, apparently to tenths of a degree, which seems an odd choice but whatever. That does change previous ways people did horizontal adjustment a little.
In test sail, you also see the close quarters sight (a circle-dot indication, same as for AA fire) which that gives an “open sights” fire solution at ranges under 2000m for close quarters fighting in both 3rd person and binos view. It works fine in the Test Sail mode, but not reliably currently in custom or random battles (although you sometimes still see it).
Spoiler
Recommended Keybinds
The following assumes PC controls. I understand consoles may be different
To maximize realistic rangefinding in its current form, the following keybinds should be set in the game’s control options for naval.
- Direction Correction: left and right arrow keys work well or this
- Distance Correction: either map to mousewheel and/or keyboard up/down keys.
- Reset Keys: "Reset Correction Value" for both Direction and Distance Correction should be set to Num Zero or another key close to the others
- Manual Aim Correction: Allows you to deselect all targets, which can sometimes necessary. I use Num Delete.
- Ranging Shot: Turret ranging can be on or off. You may want to set to a secondary mouse key as you’re likely going to use it a little more
- Lock Target: I use a secondary mouse key for this as well.
Most other keybinds can stay as default settings.
Rangefinding procedure: big changes
The big difference with old rangefinding via binos was before, every time you manually re-ranged or the system re-ranged for you, both the range values (calculated and firing) were reset, and you could reapplya few mousewheel clicks of vertical adjustment just before each shot. Now you should avoid doing this. You need to use vertical adjustment inputs other than with your mouse sparingly now. The calculated range (the one under the target brackets) is constantly changing. As a player you now need to keep your firing range (the one tied to the reticle, under the black inverted V) either above (for receding targets) or below (for approaching targets) to avoid under- or overshooting, but in either case, still fairly close.Again, note those actual range-estimation updates are not tied to any specific place on the "rangefinding" bar filling up. This means for an approaching target, at the moment you want to keep one number just below the other. For a target that is neither approaching nor receding at all, obviously you want them to be pretty much exactly the same when you fire. You do need to check and recheck these two numbers haven't grown too far apartconstantly.
The other big difference is it’s gotten a little harder now to hook a target when it’s behind cover. Whereas before this was pretty automatic, now you seem to need to see more of the target’s waterline than before. Losing the target’s waterline behind cover also seems to lead to a faster loss of hook.
Another upside is spamming the Lock Target key to re-range often led to misclicking and selecting the wrong target, because another ship was crossing in front or came close to the target. Since you don’t have to do that quite as much anymore, that becomes a little less likely.
Spoiler
Step 0: Target selection
The break distance for rangefinding through binos is above 2000m. Below 2 km, targets are often too close to have time for this full rangefinding drill. I'll talk about an optional drill you can use below 2000m at the end of this article. You often need to shoot from the hip in those situations. If the currently buggy circle-dot shows for you, that’s great. Otherwise, you just have to guess, or switch to secondaries/AA, or trust your AI gunners, or use torps, or establish some distance, as the thumbtack is not a good aiming device at these ranges.
Because of the increased difficulty of keeping a solution behind cover it’s also more important than before to select targets you’re not just going to lose before you get some hits in. Beyond that, standard target selection boatoar-alligator criteria apply (hit the most dangerous alligator first).
Step 1: Put horizontal axis on target waterline
After you’ve hooked a target, giving it the 4 corner brackets and the range in either 3d view or binos view, the first step is to put your binos view horizontal axis (the dotted line) on the waterline of the target ship. Because ranges are calculated based on the sea surface, and visual perspective plays a role, if you let the horizontal axis float anywhere above or below the waterline at first, you can lose a lot of vertical accuracy. Resist the urge to let it drift up. Shots arc ballistically; if you try and aim up a bit to snipe a turret you'll likely just end up overshooting. Because mouse movement is the primary input here, you've got to be disciplined about your mouse actions. Remember that main guns adjust bearing first, then elevation, so its best to wait until the vertical movement of the guns coming onto the correct elevation is finished before introducing other vertical inputs; putting the axis on the waterline allows you to visually confirm this quickly.
Note also that every time you go out of binos view, the dotted line will "float up" on you and you will have to restart each time from this step.
Step 2: Dial in a horizontal adjustment factor (optional)
At the moment, the horizontal adjustment indication the rangefinder provides (the red V) can sometimes bug out (it just centers and doesn’t move again). Even if it's not working, you may not want to wait for the first firing solution to complete. One thing you can do instead, while you're waiting, is dial in a factor based on your own estimate of relative perpendicular speed using the green thumbtack as your visual marker here. In the current reticle, because of the ways angles work, a value of +/- 10 equates to 50 kmph/25 knots/31 mph at any distance. (So for km/h, you can just divide the relative horizontal speed by 5 for the current binos). If only one of you is moving this is thus fairly easy to guesstimate, a little harder if two bodies are in motion on different vectors.
So long as the two range values are close to each other, and the horizontal axis is on the target waterline, the green thumbtack indicator will slide up and down the dotted line in the binos at this point using your horizontal adjustment keys. It can be used here to store your aimoff assessment, relative to the black inverted V, which is where you want the shots to land, while still keeping the inverted black Vat the location you want to hit on the target ship.
Use your reset adjustment key if you haven’t yet first, which should bring the green thumbtack on the same vertical line as your black inverted V, zeroing out any previous adjustment you set. Then use the left/right keys to dial in an initial factor, which will move the thumbtack left or right on the dotted line. The rangefinder, when it comes on line, may agree with you (if so the red V will move to the same place) eventually, but sometimes that will bug out and stay bugged out, too, so don't accept it blindly. Note the horizontal factor you enter with the left-right keys is persistent. It stays even if you go out of binos to navigate and come back, until changed or reset. For this reason you will want to reset adjustment after every engagement ends to zero out any factor you applied in this manner. (Note: see the end of this guide for a faster procedure, that basically merges steps 2 and 4. I tend to lock in a horizontal adjustment, ie, use this full procedure, only if all targets are 5 km+ and I'm not being engaged myself, so I have the time to concentrate on this kind of precision sniping.)
Step 3: Adjust the vertical range using a mouse offset
You need to change the vertical range value you can adjust (the firing distance one, underneath the black inverted V) to be either slightly above (for receding) or below (for approaching) the other range value (the one tied to the target brackets and underneath the target). The amount you want these two numbers to differ depends on your estimate of relative closing speed and how the distances of the two ships will change over the time of flight. This is an experience factor: a couple quick tips are
- relative closing speeds less than 20 km/h do not require significant vertical adjustment at any range, and
- targets closer than 5 km do not require adjustments greater than 200m at any closing speed.
If in doubt, try to set the two numbers about200m (0.2 km/0.1 nm/0.12 mi, either higher or lower, depending on if they're converging with you or not) apart to start and then slightly adjust the gap as you go. If in doubt, you can afford to be a little high/long, because the ship profile will absorb some higher shots aimed at the waterline whereas low shots will hit the water. Also at closer ranges, you can afford to shoot a little longer even, because the ship's profile takes up more and more vertical space.
The following chart is less meant as a useful calculator in the heat of battle, and more to indicate what the math looks like if people want to come up with their own additional rules of thumb.
Spoiler
If the two numbers are over top of each other, you can zoom the binos in or out, rather than moving your mouse. You can also make the one under the target appear red, so there's a color differentiation by going to Options/Battle Interface, and setting Player Cards to the "light" mode, so they're not both grey/black. There are two ways to make this adjustment:
A) You can apply this vertical adjustment, watching the numbers to make sure you're not overadjusting, byby subtle up-down movements of your mouse to move the dotted line and the "thumbtack" together up or down relative to the target waterline. Note, that, because of perspective, the dotted line and the thumbtack may move by different vertical amounts visually. What matters here and what you need to be adjusting to is still the difference between the two numbers. This method does require very precise mouse control, as while you're doing it, you can only use the mouse for creating that often visually tiny offset, and maintaining it.
B) You can apply the vertical adjustment with your scrollwheel, assuming it's set to vertical correction as outlined above, and just use the mouse to keep the dotted line on the target waterline. Again, watch the two numbers as they change with this method to avoid overcorrection.
You should use one method or the other here, not both, as otherwise they will duel with each other. There are pluses and minuses to each which are discussed below in step 5.
Step 4: Adjust black inverted V to target specific systems
Using the mouse, you can now also introduce an additional offset to move the thumbtack on the target left and right along the waterline (and up or down if desired) to target specific systems. If the two steps above were perfectly done (which they won’t be, that would be very unlikely unless both targets are perfectly stationary) you can assume rounds will now hit the sea surface right at the thumbtack in your binos, allowing you to aim at bridge, below the front turrets, at engine, etc. Again, be cautious with vertical adjustments here, as small adjustments here can have big impacts due to visual perspective playing a role.
Step 5: Check turret availability and fire
This is important: if you used option 3A, above, and won't somehow unhook your target by doing so, you should hit "Lock Target" just before firing. This issue is, that if you aim off vertically with the mouse and thumbtack as outlined in 3A, and stop making continual adjustments, the thumbtack will maintain the same range relative to your ship, and so still gradually "drift" off the target. The counter to this is actually to hit "Lock Target," which on an already locked target currently has the interesting side effect of restoring the vertical adjustment to what it was the last time you stopped moving your mouse, relative to that target. So if you are tracking an approaching target, and you had a good firing solution for elevation dialled in, you can restore the vertical offset to the same offset for each salvo by relocking the target each time before firing. When this happens you will see the "thumbtack" range under the horizontal bar suddenly jump to have the same offset from the target range that it had when you put in your last mouse input and the thumbtack will move correspondingly. Note this action does not change the estimated range under the target at all, which still changes on a timer over which you have no control, just the "thumbtack range" and any prior vertical offset for your previous mouse off is recalculated. Thanks to VC381 for noticing this.
The downside of this is, if you leave binos views after you've dialled in a vertical adjustment with your mouse (the same mouse we do a lot of other things with too), you'll have to start the vertical adjustment process over when you come back. Another problem is it carries a greater risk if there's another ship in front of your target locking the wrong target and losing your firing solution.
Alternatively if you adjusted vertically with the scrollwheel instead (option 3B) assume you'll have to keep scrolling continuously to keep the thumbtack catching up to the target and the numbers close to each other, as those mousewheel adjustments are to the ship to impact-point distance and are not affected at all by target location the way Lock Target affects mouse-based adjustments. Hitting Lock Target does nothing to any vertical adjustments you entered with the scrollwheel,and hitting Reset Correction Value resets it to the current target center with no offset at all. The advantage to this method is that you don't need to keep hitting Lock Target anymore and you can be a little less precise in your mouse movements, and also, if you have to move your mouse away, when you come back and put your black dotted line on the waterline the horizontal offset value you entered should bepreserved (although if you or the target were moving it's now quite possibly out of date too). But it does involve a LOT of scrolling and watching and comparing two numbers quite closely.
The rings at the bottom tell you which turrets can bear and which are ready to fire. If they're bright green they can, if they're a dimmer green they can but aren't yet adjusted on to target. If they're grey they cannot hit that target right now and you would need to change your ship attitude to bring them to bear. Assuming you have some, fire. If you’re uncertain about the solution, you can use your ranging fire button here to possibly get some hits while saving the full salvo.
If you follow this procedure above strictly, the accuracy improvements you will see above 2000m even on the first shotcan be quite remarkable. Then the trick is getting fast at it, and not losing track of one of the factors in the firing solution. For second and subsequent salvos: go back to step 0 and run through all 5 steps again:
0.Make/change target selection
1.Check dotted horizontal line is on (or close to) the target waterline
2.Check horizontal adjustment (green X, or thumbtack adjustment method if bugged) if needed (if relative perpendicular speed has changed)
3.Check vertical adjustment (adjust by mouse or mousewheel (not both) if closing speed has changed)
4.Adjust the aiming point on the target with the black V if needed (to target specific systems)
5.Check turret availability and fire
Repeat until target is dead or hook is lost. Remember to reset any adjustments before the next engagement.
More complicated cases
If a target is partially or fully obscured by terrain, hooking and ranging may not be as possible as before. If you can get a hook, you can do the procedure above, using an estimate of where the target waterline is and placing your dotted horizontal line there.
If you cannot hook a target at all, alternatives involve using 3rd person and the green thumbtack (in its role as fall of shot indicator), to place a salvo without factoring in rangefinding: for instance to drop rounds in front of a ship about to come into view. For a target that is completely unhookable and not coming out from behind terrain, you can again guesstimate the target waterline, put the dotted line on it in binos, and then dial in the distance as a pure vertical adjustment, checking your success with the shell camera. This will likely be a very inaccurate and lengthy process unless both shooter and target stay basically stationary.
Simplified procedure
For close or frenetic engagements, assumingthe <2000m circle-dot sight feature from Test Sail remains borked for a while, you can use a simplified procedure that removes a step. Still keep the horizontal axis on the target line, but rather than dialing in the horizontal adjustment in step 2, just move the black Vwith the mouse either left or right of the target to account for horizontal adjustment and position on the target (front-back-middle) at the same time (basically saving a step by merging steps 2 and 4). Make sure you've reset adjustment recently to remove any previous horizontal factor you've dialed in, and the rounds will fall at the black V. (If the red V is working, this is where it would merge to form the green X.) You will still need to then also adjust vertically for the range using a mouse or mousewheel offset up or down though. This doesn't give you a way to preserve your last horizontal adjustment if you've got to move your view around, but if you've got a couple torpedo boats approaching your destroyer at speed, you won't care about that. It also means if you're targeting specific systems (which at close ranges you often are) the black V will not be pointing right at the subsystem, so you have to consider the impact of those adjustments could be having as well, if you're not just firing center-mass.
If you know your aim offs, I recommend using this procedure whenever you have an enemy under 5 km or you are being engaged yourself and need to keep moving.
(UPDATE, 09/12: If the bug issues with the red V/green X get resolved fully, this could become the more efficient and preferred method, ignoring the horizontal lead-setting stage altogether, as you'reable to take better advantage of the green X feature. But as it stands currently, I'm using this method (estimating and applying horizontal lead with the black V only, with the horizontal axis on the waterline) and only using the red V/green X indications as helpful advice. You can use the lead calculator when it works of course, the trick is recognizing when it's bugged out on you again and the green X is now giving you bad data, which isn't always obvious).
(UPDATE #2, 09/22: In today's patch, they added a setting to remove the "green thumbtack" from the view if you want. This is not a good idea to my mind, as that also removes from you any clear indication of whether your guns are slewed and adjusted on to target yet. In practice, it's likely going to just lead to a lot of shots fired at nothing while turrets are still rotating (because the setting to only fire guns when they're on target is disabled in RB aiming). There's also a reference to "Lead marker on weapon control - Indication of the distance correction with the lead maker has been fixed. Now it indicates more accurately whether you should aim closer or farther relative to the enemy ship." This is not any new visual change, but I would interpret it to mean that some of the bugs that have led to the "green X" lead calculation bugging out in battle have now been addressed, which would be nice.)
(UPDATE #3, 09/27: After a lot of playing I've found option 3B above, using the shortcut I describe to skip step 2 most of the time, is the most efficient, at least for me, for small capital ships. The lead indicator and close quarters sight both continue to be extremely buggy and unreliable. I'm basically just using the thumbtack now to confirm the guns have made their elevation and traverse changes before applying my own adjustments, L-R with mouse and up-down with scrollwheel. The reason 3B is superior here, I think, is due to another flaw in the implementation.. that when you go out of binos view your point of aim and the dotted line float up, every time, so you have to redo Step One aboveevery time. Because the scrollwheel method preserves the last vertical adjustment from before I had to switch to 3rd person, and I'm likely to miss a lot if I stay in binos just to preserve my solution, keeping the dotted line on the target waterline throughout (or putting it back on whenever I'm in binos) is the better method of the two I think.)
Wrapup
A way to look at this mechanic is they've given us someone else on the crew (possibly computerized)to sit in the corner and do all our fire control solution math. They are now looking at their gun director data, shouting out elevation and bearing changes continuously at us. We are playing the role of the gun layer now, frantically twiddling the wheels (or dials or whatever) to keep the bearing and elevation on our gun platform synced with what 's being yelled at us, while also steering the ship, repairing, watching for new targets, etc. This actually requires more discipline and dexterity than the previous method (although it would certainly work better without those bugs), not less, as some people had feared with the introduction of FCS mechanics. But the improvements to accuracy you can get if you come up with a good method (either the one above or your own incorporating some of the same principles) can be quite significant.
Edited by Bruce_R1
