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Understanding The Different Gunnery Modes


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So Let's first off cover all of the basics, in Naval Action there consists 3 different firing techniques: Rolling Front Fire, Rolling Back Fire, and Random Fire. Now each of these firing versions have a unique purpose and advantage.

 

Rolling Front Fire fires all of the cannons in succession, starting at the bow of the ship and ending in the stern of the ship.

Rolling Front Fire: This should be your 'default mode' this mode is used when performing rakes of any kind, hull or sails, is used when you are approaching a ship coming alongside it and YOUR ship is faster, and it is used when exchanging broadsides with a ship going the opposite direction.

**Wind’s Visualization for Rolling Front Fire: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/10218-rolling-front-vs-rolling-back-tutorial

 

Rolling Back Fire gives you the opposite of rolling front fire, firing your cannons in succession starting in the stern of the ship and ending in the bow.

Rolling Back Fire: This firing mode can be appropriately used when a ship is passing you and HE is faster so that your broadside almost follows his ship in a sense, since any other firing mode will just cause you to miss the latter half of your broadside as he would have already been passed when it finally got to that.

 

Random Fire will fire off your cannons In a random order.

Random Fire: this mode is almost never used, the only real practical designation for this would be in some circumstances when firing on the bow of a ship that is coming at you if you try to use Rolling Front/Back he can easily adjust his course some and cause his ship to be at an angle for the latter part of your broadside. So if you use Random Fire he cannot effectively alter his angle for your incoming broadside as he has to dedicate himself to one side.

 

Now, let's move on to Gunnery Arcs: Locked, Unlocked, Unlocked Focus 100m, Unlocked Focus 250m.

 

**Throughout i will refer to this slideshow just to give you a simplistic diagram and hopefully help you understand it better:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1hSjDGU7sifg34C5OWDELDFsuPMmiqY6ARks026G97vI/edit?usp=sharing

 

Locked Sector will fire your cannons straightforward with no angle on them.

Locked Sector: This like Rolling Front Fire should be your 'Default mode' and is the most common to be used. Locked Sector is used for the basic shooting of an enemy's ship broadside, when raking, hull or sails, and unless otherwise specified use this mode or experiment on your own. Locked Sector especially with this new Damage Model is better for shooting at the sides of ships because it causes your shots to be going perpendicular with the enemies ships hull neglecting the angle of fire if side by side.

**When using Locked Sector Focus is is imperative that you are going at a high/reasonable speed otherwise the back half of your broadside will not be hitting as you are not able to get your ship lined up with theres as they speed away. A little later on it will say what to do when going slow.

**Sometimes when using Locked Sector Focus you will need to slightly turn so as to get the back end of your broadside on target. ( For Example if you were firing on a ship on your port side(left) and using Locked Sector Focus with Rolling Front Fire if he's faster than you or farther ahead then by turning slightly to the right when firing every shot will now hit, or if when raking a ship let's say on your starboard side (right) and you begin your rake with Rolling Front and Locked Sector than for the back end of  your shots to connect you may need to turn to the left slightly)

 

Unlocked Sector Focus will cause your Guns to be angled slightly inward

Unlocked Sector Focus: This is used when you are going too slow for Locked Sector Focus and too fast/far away for the 100m/250m focus. Unlocked Sector Focus allows your shots to converge onto a smaller area then Locked Sector Focus, which is good for raking hull/sails when you are heading into the wind or against it as you will be going too slow for Locked Sector focus to be used effectively. This is also helpful for when you’re in a bigger ship and firing at a much smaller ship (Although who would be doing that :P), with Unlocked Sector Focus your (let's say Trincomalee) cannons are able to angle inwards and all accurately converge onto the (Rattlesnake or Privateer) hull. The other unique purpose of Unlocked Sector Focus Fire is its ability to be used to specifically cause leaks underneath the water line (while Locked can do this just as well Unlocked and the 100m/250m variants are better at shooting the bow of a ship and causing leaks.

**Why not use this for shooting at normal hull?

While Unlocked Sector can be helpful as it is able to better specify where you want to shoot when your shots start to angle inwards they are now not coming in perpendicular to the enemies ships hull but at an angle effectively giving him more of a chance to block/deflect it. When shooting at a smaller ship per used in the example above the smaller ships armors are too thin to be of concern. In addition when passing an enemy going the opposite direction as you if on Unlocked Sector Focus or 100m/250m the back half you your broadside will most likely miss (See Slideshow)

 

Unlocked 100m Sector Focus causes your shots to converge into a small area 100m away.

Unlocked 100m Sector Focus: is just a more specified version of Unlocked Sector Focus and as such is used for less as it fills a small niche. Unlocked 100m Sector Focus can be used when you are at very close range for raking the stern/bow if going very slow and can be used to specifically target one mast to bring down if you are close enough. The danger of this fire mode is that if you are too far away the shots will not go at all where you wanted and will go off at very sharp angles.

 

Unlocked 250m Sector Focus causes your shots to converge into a small area 250m away

Unlocked 250m Sector Focus: This can be used as a longer ranged version of the 100m Sector Focus and just like that can be used in rakes on the stern when going slow and can be used to rake the bow as well. It is also able to target specific masts like the 100m Sector Focus but with less success and as such is better used as just raking all the masts when going slow.

**Additional Videos For Further Representations

Locked Section Rake: 

 

250m Unlocked Focus Fire Rake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tY-ZZiwqBw

 

When To Not Use 100m Unlocked Sector Focus Fire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuDTnrPgAmo

 

When To Use Unlocked Sector Focus Fire:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyc5esyihm4

 

When To Not Use Unlocked Sector Focus Fire

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_5lk1unJag

 

Locked Sector Focus Rolling Front Broadside:

 

 

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Edit: I fixed the Locked Sector Focus Rake Example, this new one should give you a much better idea, and patched up the slideshow some. And Thank you all for the feedback, I wasn't expecting much :)

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This is helpful.  I do have a more basic question.  How does a player "aim" the cannon, whether ranging shot or broadside ripple?

There is the red horizontal bar. There is the polygonal white highlighted zone from the ship broadside ports out toward the enemy, with a white bar stretching out that seems a likely aiming tool. 

How is it supposed to work, and how does it work?

Thank you

 

Edited by MikeK
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The basic aiming of cannons revolves around the red horizontal bar which controls the height that your cannons will be fired at. The more you raise the red bar the cannons will, in turn, get an increased height and can fire a further range. The only real way to learn the red bar system is just practice, go into a PvE mission and just shoot ranging shots with spacebar to get a feel for the firing mode.

The white highlighted zone shows where all of your cannons are pointing, you can slightly shift this with your mouse left or right. 

The single white bar that stretches out is the projection where the cannonball will go off the cannon that is going to be fired next. When in rolling front fire, it will be the front most cannon on the top deck. As you keep single shotting you will see the bar moves, it will move to the next cannon that will be fired showing you where it will go.

 

 

I would recommend watching this video: 

as my explanation may not be that good. Also, you can look around on youtube for more tutorials :) gl

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