Is getting stuck in 'Ladder Aiming' intended in some cases?

[Steeltrap]

I answered a question @Pterry posted in his thread about ships seemingly not firing all their guns, and went through the normal 'aiming' process and that sometimes guns seem to get stuck.

@Nereng also else chimed in and suggested it might be worse the more ships there were.

I pointed out that was in fact accurate, and that "multiple ships engaging target" ought to be a penalty included in all the modifiers you can bring up on the left side of screen.

Then something occurred to me: what if we're dealing with TWO situations.

The first is an error. If you have one ship it makes no sense for your guns to get stuck ladder aiming.( I suppose it could if they're firing at absolutely maximum range and the target keeps coming in and out of that range, but that seems unlikely, and hasn't been true when I've encountered it). Even with a few where they're vastly different, like 2 DDs and a BC, I wouldn't expect it.

That opens a second possibility, however, and it might NOT be an error.

What if ships are getting stuck in ladder aiming for quite some time because there are so many ships firing at the same target that each ship can't tell their splashes from the others and thus take much longer to get a lock?

That would be an very subtle feature if so. I suspect it is an error, but the possibility intrigued me. As I mentioned, I'd have expected it to occur as a modifying factor in the list of them the player can see.

What do people think?

It would also be a perfect illustration of the principle that if we don't know conclusively what ought and ought not happen we have no idea if what we're seeing is an error.

All the more reason to give us the best possible details about the game's mechanics, I'd say.

Cheers

Edited November 20, 2019 by Steeltrap
minor changes

[Nereng]

Yes, your second in line ought to fire at the enemy's second in line. Partly to avoid confusion about which ship's splashes are seen, and partly to not let the enemy second ship aim and fire in peace. That is how it worked in real life, but I'm uncertain about computer sims like this. Isn't it better to obliterate the enemy ships one by one? And more importantly, I suspect that coding it to be "correct" could be a bit of a nightmare. I would like to have complete freedom to choose everything, though. For example that all my three ships target different enemies with their main guns while their secondary guns could be targeting another three, smaller targets.

[Steeltrap]

11 hours ago, Nereng said:

Yes, your second in line ought to fire at the enemy's second in line. Partly to avoid confusion about which ship's splashes are seen, and partly to not let the enemy second ship aim and fire in peace. That is how it worked in real life, but I'm uncertain about computer sims like this. Isn't it better to obliterate the enemy ships one by one? And more importantly, I suspect that coding it to be "correct" could be a bit of a nightmare. I would like to have complete freedom to choose everything, though. For example that all my three ships target different enemies with their main guns while their secondary guns could be targeting another three, smaller targets.

I think the 'ideal' for a game like this is to have ships default to behaviour that is a reflection of standard doctrines for the times while, also giving players the ability to give direct commands to override that.

In this case it means the members of a division really ought to select a single target each, unless there aren't enough targets of similar threat for each to choose one.  Famously Hood spent her time firing at Prinz Eugen instead of Bismarck due to an identification error (other than the size difference they did look similar in outline), so that's a famous case of choosing an individual target when the opposite ought to have happened.

Of course obviously it's better not to be facing an equal or superior force.

As to obliterating one target at a time, the issue is really about reducing combat effectiveness. If you're facing two targets of the same class, it most likely ought to be true that the disadvantages to accuracy potentially arising from two ships having to sort out their shell splashes from the other's, as well as the benefit to the other ship of not being under fire at all, add up to mean it's better to engage both than one. 

Whether that's true at present is another question.