Cannon smoke trail.

[Bart Smith]

Well we have quite modern rigs most of us i belive so little smoke would be great i think;-) same like nice sound of full broadside:-)

[Skyfall86]

I THINK you could work on a cool smoke effect to activate on modern/medium rigs during the beta and waiting for feedbacks: who can't afford it,just untick the option from the settigns and stays with the "stock" smoke effect.

I'm not saying i want a total physic dependent smoke,just a more convincing one... OR you could open in the future the game to graphic  mods like IL-2 did: after years it received a huge amount of community graphic effects like smoke,fire,explosions,sound,giving a second life to the title.

[NorthernWolves]

Hopefully this will be moddable. Surely, since some of the developers have modded the Total War series (which I mod as well). There are several versions of smoke mods for Empire, Napoleon and Shogun 2 Total War, of which there are different types of smoke for each version, light, medium and full.

[Bobbydylan]

Smoke kills FPS

[Vivoune]

I think an authentic smoke effect is as important as a great cannon sound & echo, a beautifully modeled ship or well designed sails flapping to the wind.

 

It's all part of the pleasure and immersion, considering the number of time a player will spend firing or witnessing canon fire, it shouldn't be underestimated. Every detail takes part in providing a gratifying and satisfying experience every time a ship fires. A thick heavy white smoke skimming the see to then spin back and collapse on itself, creating an authentic wall of smoke for the wind to dissipate and let you witness the success or failure of your volley would make for a great experience many players would be ecstatic to come back to.

 

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKi8sySzyNc

 

[Crankey]

CAUTION.............................

 

I am all for making the game more authentic and also 'prettier', but we have to remember that gameplay has been quickened up (See firing table below and Wiki statement. Our guns 18 pdr for instance are firing just over 5 times every 5 minutes, which is almost double the rate of a decently trained British crew in reality), therefore game smoke dispersing should also be quickened up. If it masks and therefore makes targetting more difficult, then everyone should be forced to see it which will have performance issues for all but the mega bucks gfx cards. If the smoke sits lower in the water or is more opaque, then it could be an optional setting for the individual player to choose.

 

(Wiki Quote)

A typical broadside of a Royal Navy ship of the late 18th century could be fired 2-3 times in approximately 5 minutes, depending on the training of the crew, a well trained one being essential to the simple yet detailed process of preparing to fire.

 

Naval action reloads ammunition (Regardless of type) to the following timing (Yes I was that sad and sat with my stop watch mode running on my phone so allow a half second variation to the truth, for hand eye co-ordination to kick in). These were also taken from Santissima, Though I checked against other vessels and they seemed to concurr by cannon type rather than deck and vessel class.

 

Reload  Deck  Weight  Type

00:49    1         24         Carronade

00:58    2         18         Cannon

01:13    3         32         Cannon

01:18    4         42         Cannon

[Robert Danforth]

I reenact the American War for Independence. One of the best battles I ever took part in was a street battle, both sides lined up doing parapet firing (basically you march in a column, fire, turn and head to the back, so the rank behind can fire).

 

It had just rained about an hour earlier, but there was not so much as a breeze. The smoke clung to the humidity in the air, and after about 3 or 4 volleys, we literally could see nothing but flashes in the smoke, and the feet of our enemy.

 

I don't know if that's a thing the game could o, given the processor power that'd like require, but it was truly amazing and really gave us a feel for the action in those days.

[Dino.707]

There needs to be smoke.  These black powder guns created a LOT of it, and I agree, it needs to be blown in the direction of the wind and at the speed of the prevailing winds.  Smoke just isn't there for it's prettiness, but it is a tactical implement during battle.  It obscures view as mentioned before.  One could have the wind to their backs, firing down wind, and the smoke lingers in your view longer, obscuring your target much longer.  When firing into the wind, smoke wouldn't obscure your view nearly as long if at all.  So, one needs to consider the direction of the wind when picking a course to open fire upon an opponent just to maintain a visible target, and check ranging of shell.

[felelo]

 Its computers right?? Give us an option, put the smoke there, if our computers can't handle, we turn it off.... but save your times now... work on this details later!

[DanielCoffey]

You really can't have a full smoke sim that players can turn off... because players who are obsessed with winning will disable anything that will interfere with them having even the tiniest advantage.

 

As SideStrafe mentioned in one of his recent WarThunder videos, it will get abused so you would need to have a low detail smoke that you could not turn off as well as a more detailed smoke that would act as a visual reward for the players who can handle it and still want it. The low smoke should still provide the same obscuring effect as the better smoke for a level playing field.

[felelo]

Yes, something like the smoke we already have not being able to be turned off, and a better one for the smoke lovers

[HMS_Amsterdam]

when they add it in, let them add it in like they done the sails "transparant sails on/off"

"Detailed smoke on\off ( warning may cause fps drops)" 

 

make both smokes drift with the wind but one looks better than the one we have now and the off option uses the one we have now + wind drifting.

[Munro]

You can't make smoke an on/off option per player; it's strategically significant. Players with smoke on will see much less than players with smoke off, and if you adjust the game's use of smoke to more realistic levels that difference in visibility will be huge.

[Dino.707]

If fps is an issue, than turn waves off.  Still make the ship pitch and roll, as if the waves are still there, but the smoke is mandatory for the obscuring factor.

[Flip]

If fps is an issue, than turn waves off.  Still make the ship pitch and roll, as if the waves are still there, but the smoke is mandatory for the obscuring factor.

 

Smoke is MUCH more taxing on FPS than waves. Its a real hog.

[Dino.707]

 Okay, smoke is an issue for fps.  It played such a huge role on the battlefield of the day however, I would not want to rule it out all together.  When smokeless gunpowder was invented, it was heralded as a significant technological breakthrough.

I would rather reduce my graphics to bring my frame rate up, than to remove smoke from the battle, and I think (this is me personally) that others should want to keep it in as well (although reducing graphics in this game would be counter productive (they will be awesome)).

 

But this game may just be a bit to much for some machines to handle.  It always has to be considered.  I want everyone to have fun with it, but it also needs to be fair.  Smoke for some is not the same as some one with it turned off, unless.. there is a reputation/point system in place giving more points to players utilizing more of the difficulty factors (like smoke) and some benefit for utilizing those difficulties.

 

I'm actually torn.  I use an older computer that will in the near future not be able to run the new games coming out and I can relate to those having frame rate probs. But, I also understand the significance of smoke in this era, it was substantial, and to remove it, removes a huge part of the battle field.

[Destraex]

Maybe they could just impliment a fog - like storm fog - when X amount of cannons fired in close proximity to get that big battle and smoke thing happening.

this way no smoke calculations just a haze over the lense so to speak..

[James Rackham]

Okay so from what I have read the smoke from several hundred guns being fired was huge and it hung around, it did not clear as fast as it does in game currently so I would like to request an increase in volume of smoke generated by firing guns and an increase in duration so that it can build up and have consequences for visibility and tactics within the game.

[Thundershield]

This has actually been brought up lots of times. Last I heard about it, the devs stated that more smoke would take a heavy toll on performance. Too much, and the game could be more or less, unplayable.

[James Rackham]

Its a shame really but I can understand that, the game engine has to render the smoke so the more there is the harder it works.

[Brigand]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that smoke will be revisited in a future build, after the current game has been optimised some more and if they have room (fps-wise) for further improvements.

 

~Brigand

[Purple]

i don't have much problems with smoke at the moment. most of the time you are moving when you fire. if you standstill the smoke does take a bit to clear. i would love to see the smoke effected by the wind though.

[Comandante Gómez]

Hearts of oak does it: with no sails, with 1 ship model (not using texture memory), with no damage to hull. on standing ships. 

One day they will start optimizing and then we will see

 

 

Hahahahahaha

 

[Wicked Mouse]

I think an authentic smoke effect is as important as a great cannon sound & echo, a beautifully modeled ship or well designed sails flapping to the wind.

 

It's all part of the pleasure and immersion, considering the number of time a player will spend firing or witnessing canon fire, it shouldn't be underestimated. Every detail takes part in providing a gratifying and satisfying experience every time a ship fires. A thick heavy white smoke skimming the see to then spin back and collapse on itself, creating an authentic wall of smoke for the wind to dissipate and let you witness the success or failure of your volley would make for a great experience many players would be ecstatic to come back to.

[....]

This ^ ... the feel of immersion should not be underestimated, in my opinion. But it's a delicate balance between developer's budget/time and playability. And since every PC gamer can and will have a different rig, it's hard to satisfy everyone. I see that with a popular free to play multiplayer game I play too. They try to cater to fairly low end machines too, while trying to provide very immersive environments and effects.

 

The thing is, I think, that those that buy this title will either HAVE the rig to get the most immersive experience out of it (or close to it) that the game can provide, or they WILL get one to enjoy it to the max. If people see on videos how jaw-droppingly beautiful the game can be when turned everything to the max, many will buy it for that experience alone, and the game mechanics may become a second for such players. If the feeling of "My god, this game looks beautiful, look at all those details!" keeps coming back, even though you have seen it all already, I think will keep providing a certain satisfaction when playing even though you're going through a maybe otherwise boring moment/period in your game experience (travelling, exploring, etc.).

 

Particle effects, sound design, physics, etc. are all just as important, in my opinion, as solid and enjoyable game mechanics.

[danro]

I think the game should offer realistic smoke effects. Yes, it does lower the FPS but one can still chose to regulate or deactivate it through the settings.

But it should be there. There was a lot of gunpowder smoke in those battles and I wouldn't wan't to miss this immersion factor