Spyglass done properly

[Koltes]

Ahoy captains!
This is how I see the spyglass in this game. Added few features based on my believes of the political mechanics (with nation and clan politics as well as criminal tag), which might never be done in this game of course. Enjoy and post your screens / proposals of the spyglass.

Features to note:
1. Spyglass have different quality glass. The better the quality - more information you can read at the longer distance. Even worse spyglass will give full info at closer distances. Better spyglasses can be acquired through gameplay or bought for real money in admiralty store - your choice;
2. When you are looking at a ship, its silhouette with information appears in the top right corner.
Fore mast flag colors tells current political situation between yours clans. In the current example - green means peace.
Main mast flag tells you national political relationship between your nations. In the example - its is blue, which means ally.
Mizzen mast flag represents criminal standing of the player towards your nation - in the current example he is marked as hostile, which means he has recently committed some criminal actions towards your nation.
Flags are dynamic values so will be different to another player who is looking at the same target ship, providing they are from different nation or clan.
3. Compass indicates the direction that the target ship is sailing (top of the compass) and its point of sail (blue arrow is the wind). Current direction in the example - West by South (slightly). Current POS in the example - about 140° broad reach.
4. Below the compass there is a target's speed indicator and your distance to the target
5. Description of the ship includes list of permanent upgrades as those should be visible to an experienced eye
6. Note how there is no indication of the number of crew on board. This is done on purpose as its not realistic to be able to tell exact count of crew on target ships.
7. Buttons to the right from Political Standings. 1). Group Invite; 2). PM; 3). Player's Info

Enjoy
Look forward to your suggestions / pics

Cheers

Edited February 24, 2017 by koltes

[Guest sruPL]

Very nice idea, I like it - especially the informatio about permanent upgrades and distance.

Check out also this old suggestion by me about similar idea with spyglass:

 

[Sven Silberbart]

For me it is more interessting to have an own idea of the ship upgrades, direction and speed of an ship in sight

Too much easy information in my opinion. Identify Ship type and properties is a kind of captains skill and shouldnt just display on gui.

I like the idea of the flags and the different spyglass qualities

 

Edited February 24, 2017 by Sven Silberbart

[Captiva]

Some very good ideas there, Koltes.

I'm not sure that info such as Extra Planking or Reinforced Rudder should be revealed, but Studding Sails and Stay Sails would be something that I would think you would be able to notice through the Spyglass.

This was probably just an oversight but don't forget to show the type of ship the other player is sailing (Renommee, Trincomalee).

Overall, I believe you've offered some valuable suggestions that the developers should consider.

[Cabral]

 That's too many information for a XIX century spyglass. Speed and Extra Planking? That's not a spyglass, it's some kind of infrared device controlled via satellite.

[Guest sruPL]

8 minutes ago, Cabral said:

 That's too many information for a XIX century spyglass. Speed and Extra Planking? That's not a spyglass, it's some kind of infrared device controlled via satellite.

Permanent upgrades like Studding Sails / Extra Staysails would be rather visible in OW, right? Then Extra Planking / Barricades / Copper Plating / Reinforced Masts probably too? I would actually love to make them visible rather than text information. 

[Hethwill]

While I will agree with Cabral the spyglass was specifically used to check for details at fairly close distance and not as modern image amplification binoculars.

[Koltes]

 

2 hours ago, sruPL said:

Very nice idea, I like it - especially the informatio about permanent upgrades and distance.

Check out also this old suggestion by me about similar idea with spyglass:

 

Yeah man I liked it back when you posted in December Doesn't really matter what details go in there. Thats separate issue. I just want the spyglass to tell some info that I would normally see in reality, but is missing in the game due to graphics limitations.


 

1 hour ago, Sven Silberbart said:

For me it is more interessting to have an own idea of the ship upgrades, direction and speed of an ship in sight

Too much easy information in my opinion. Identify Ship type and properties is a kind of captains skill and shouldnt just display on gui.

I like the idea of the flags and the different spyglass qualities

 

And you would if the graphics would allow, i.e. target ship used studding sails you would see them in the OW open up on a side of the normal rig. Since you can't have that and its also hardly realistic, being able to receive that info through spyglass is a good sensible compromise that requires little programing.

Some upgrades might not be visible at all, like Extra Planking. Its fine not to see that upgrade. Some upgrades require closer distance to identify, like reinforced rudder. Because graphical model does not change when you have reinforced rudder, up close spyglass could reveal that info.

Ships needs to be identified by player - I agree 100% thats why I actually removed name of the ship from the info.

 

 

59 minutes ago, Captiva said:

Some very good ideas there, Koltes.

I'm not sure that info such as Extra Planking or Reinforced Rudder should be revealed, but Studding Sails and Stay Sails would be something that I would think you would be able to notice through the Spyglass.

This was probably just an oversight but don't forget to show the type of ship the other player is sailing (Renommee, Trincomalee).

Overall, I believe you've offered some valuable suggestions that the developers should consider.

Cheers mate!
I agree on some upgrades being hidden indefinitely like Extra Planking. Some visible straight away (at the distance that quality glass is allowing) like Copper Plating and Studdings. And some upgrades visible only up close like Reinforced Rudder. From the programming side they all simply need visual parameter that checks against distance and quality of the glass, thus some info will be revealed sooner than the other.
In terms of type of the ship - becuase this graphically represented in game you should be able to tell what you see or will be able to tell with experience.
Thanks for the kind words!

 

5 minutes ago, Cabral said:

 That's too many information for a XIX century spyglass. Speed and Extra Planking? That's not a spyglass, it's some kind of infrared device controlled via satellite.

This is a compromise between what you should be able to see/note if you would really been there observing and what game simply can't show you. Experienced captain could tell the speed ship was traveling. We can't because of the game limitations. Same as for the distance. Mainly because of the OW compression. This is were spyglass comes handy to fill in those empty grey areas.

Again info about the actual speed could have been revealed at the closer distances, while distance to the target ship revealed earlier. Captains would be able to tell if they are going faster or slower, buy just watching the distance.

Other info like direction of the ship in reality being experienced sailor (sailed for many years) I could tell exact direction of the ship by seeing his sails setup and yard angles. This would have told me his exact point of sail. In NA OW sails have an arcade mechanic. Hence why there is a compromise so I could still get that info by using spyglass.

 

1 hour ago, Hethwill said:

While I will agree with Cabral the spyglass was specifically used to check for details at fairly close distance and not as modern image amplification binoculars.

As per above mate. This is a tool to deal with game limitations.

 

[Bubba Smith]

Great idea, nicely done. 

 

[Macjimm]

19 hours ago, sruPL said:

 

 

"1. Flags have to be added into OW. That would require using spyglass from distance to see under which flag the vessel is sailing.  "

I spend most of the time in OW with the UI off.  It would be more than fantastic if all ships had national identifiers (flags, paint) so they can be recognized with a spyglass.  The identifier could be static (to reduce load on data transfer).  Seeing the ships heading, or a popup compass is a bit too gamey for me.  I would rather make the assessment of its heading by my own observations.  Like wise the digital readout of the distance, speed and upgrades is just excessive.  

At the basic minimum it would be utterly wonderful if we were able recognize the origin of ship from it's static flag or national paint scheme.

But if we were to entertain complexities. Perhaps we could hire an experienced officer with perks then could receive info about the ship and it's captain.  Even a estimate from the officer of the ship's speed and heading.  Especially if all this info was not always 100% reliable.  Also this might be an easy place to convey a signal that ship would be hoisting.

Whatever is done it should be optional.  Players should have the ability to turn it off.  Or best if it would display on a toggled keybind.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 25, 2017 by Macjimm
spellingk

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

23 hours ago, koltes said:

Ahoy captains!
This is how I see the spyglass in this game. Added few features based on my believes of the political mechanics (with nation and clan politics as well as criminal tag), which might never be done in this game of course. Enjoy and post your screens / proposals of the spyglass.

Features to note:
1. Spyglass have different quality glass. The better the quality - more information you can read at the longer distance. Even worse spyglass will give full info at closer distances. Better spyglasses can be acquired through gameplay or bought for real money in admiralty store - your choice;

Like this concept. Maybe be another upgrade slot on a ship or possibly a new addition to what will formerly be officers. 

2. When you are looking at a ship, its silhouette with information appears in the top right corner.

I like this.

Fore mast flag colors tells current political situation between yours clans. In the current example - green means peace.
Main mast flag tells you national political relationship between your nations. In the example - its is blue, which means ally.

Believe this is just a bit overkill and possibly just making it a bit too easy. Players should pay attention to the politics tab if they want to be successful rather than what it is currently where only a few actually do. 

Mizzen mast flag represents criminal standing of the player towards your nation - in the current example he is marked as hostile, which means he has recently committed some criminal actions towards your nation.

I like this.

3. Compass indicates the direction that the target ship is sailing (top of the compass) and its point of sail (blue arrow is the wind). Current direction in the example - West by South (slightly). Current POS in the example - about 140° broad reach.

I do not feel this is necessary. A captain should be able to attempt to judge such things from their own compass and other trinkets. 

4. Below the compass there is a target's speed indicator and your distance to the target

I like this simply because it is useful and no other function provides such knowledge in the game.

5. Description of the ship includes list of permanent upgrades as those should be visible to an experienced eye

I do not care much for this. As you said it should be visible to the experienced eye. Although would not be against it if it was a Captains perk.

6. Note how there is no indication of the number of crew on board. This is done on purpose as its not realistic to be able to tell exact count of crew on target ships.

I like this and agree 100%. 

7. Buttons to the right from Political Standings. 1). Group Invite; 2). PM; 3). Player's Info

I like this. Easier than having to open up a completely new menu to access such information.

Overall I agree that the spyglass is a nice feature that can have and should have a larger mechanic.

Edited February 25, 2017 by Davos Seasworth

[John Page]

Excellent idea!

[Macjimm]

This thread germinated an new opinion.

Many players have requested added content for the game.  I've paused to consider that removing some of the information may actually add interest.  In parallel to the  opinion that material satisfaction is improved by limiting consumption, (rather than extending it) perhaps by reducing the available information we would increase the enjoyment of the game because we are providing players with more to do.

If the sighted ship's details were not instantly accessible players would need to wait till the vessel was closer before knowing if it was a valuable target or a dangerous enemy.  This would add more incentive to pay attention and increase the decisions that must be made. 

If we had less information about sighted ships and more skill was needed to visually determine the details of a distant ship, the open world sailing might be less boring.

Edited September 6, 2017 by Macjimm
spelingk

[Thonys]

On 25-2-2017 at 0:42 AM, Cabral said:

 That's too many information for a XIX century spyglass. Speed and Extra Planking? That's not a spyglass, it's some kind of infrared device controlled via satellite.

well you do understand we live in the twentieth first century and this is pixels

anything is better than we have now.