Aiming

[SonicSuicide]

I posted something like this under the topic >combat feedback< but maybe it belongs here:
I don´t get the aiming mechanics in the naval academy:

Especially in dreadnought vs modern cruisers, but also in other scenarios i tend to have a hit-chance of 1-2% while my opponent is already at 20% and is destroying my ships while it wash his with salt water.

Is that normal/intended? It feels a bit unfair...

[Dirlinger]

Heh, depends on the speed of the targeted ship, technology used on cannons. radar and towers etc. Each hull type has different stability factor which also affects precision.  Also the damage you take affects the precision. Depending on the  tech, you get penalty if you use triple instead of twin cannons in turrets (often small imho). If you are using flank speed you will lower your precision (or to put it more precisely you will have bonus if you are on your cruise speed). High waves, night/evening combat reduces precision too.

There are other factors too.   

Basically you see on the window on the top left what affects you precision. Unfortunately you cant  see the same for the enemy and I feel that this window doesnt show all information unless it has room for it.

If you are unlucky in the scenario you mention, the AI will construct high speed BC where you get minus 50 to 90% to hit. Then you are either lucky or get quickly a shot in.

What probably has happened is that you have been hit few times, while the enemy remains undamaged and increases hit % to high numbers as they close in (they will not get 20 % hit chance 25 km away).

Also as general note, the scenarios are more about luck than finding the right design. If you are unlucky, just restart the scenario until you role the right dice.

Edited March 21, 2020 by Dirlinger

[GUTB]

A couple of things. I notice that Naval Academy missions often cheat. The other thing is a lot of people don't know how to play this game so you see youtubers who make bad ships by just cramming as many guns as possible into a hull. Stability, tech and speed have a huge impact on accuracy. The stat you want to pay attention to when building a ship is "pitch". So, you pick a hull with the highest Stability, then when you are putting it together you pay attention to the pitch. Putting towers and guns closer to the center of the ship improves pitch. Multiple hulls, bulkheads, torp protection improves pitch. Armor can also help. Pitch will go out of control as you put guns all up and down the deck. The weight balance isn't very important even though the game alerts you with large text, maximize pitch even if it means there is a weight imbalance. What this does is greatly improve the stability bonus to accuracy AND the bonus to cruise speed (lowering the speed just below your full speed marker usually -- ie, if max speed is 24 kts, cruising around 18 kts will give you the max accuracy bonus). If you design a low pitch ship using the most stable hull and be sure to find your optimum cruise speed you will see a large accuracy improvement.

[arkhangelsk]

12 hours ago, SonicSuicide said:

Especially in dreadnought vs modern cruisers, but also in other scenarios i tend to have a hit-chance of 1-2% while my opponent is already at 20% and is destroying my ships while it wash his with salt water.

Is that normal/intended? It feels a bit unfair...

Yes it is intended. You are out of the hand holding phase by the time you play Dreadnought vs Modern Cruisers, and in these scenarios the computer is given better tech than you - in this case, they have Mark 5 guns while you are stuck at maybe Mark 3. They are also smaller and faster so yes expect them to have an advantage. The thing is when you do hit them finally, it hurts them a lot more than it hurts you if you've designed the ship right.

Pitch is important but most of the time it is outweighed by Imbalance. However, the detrimental effects of both go up exponentially as you deviate farther away from the optimum, so you might indeed want to check both variants by shifting guns back and forth and seeing which gives you the least total reduction.

You might also want to check each individual gun. 12 inch guns are favored in the current game (they break the usual rule of bigger guns having more accuracy). Plus, they are of a higher mark. Try having a mix of 12" guns for their better accuracy and faster reload and training and 18" guns for really gutting them when you hit. The game doesn't penalize you for mixed battery regardless of any threats it puts up at this moment, so go ahead.

Forget secondaries. They probably degrade stability more than the little good they can do. If you go for a single caliber main battery, you can put a tiny 2" gun and set it on the cruisers so it'll keep telling you how far away they are as you focus on the battlecruisers, but if you go mixed caliber the 12" is the secondary armament - as in, you can only track two targets per ship max.

Oh, and keep evading. The game's basically up if you end up inside a torpedo spread.

As for what lessons you want to take away in the campaign? First, don't let yourself get into this situation - work on Tech. Second, escort your battleship with a light cruiser, so you can stick the sonar on it and use that to hear for torpedoes.