Adjacency and collateral target accuracy bug.

[Greed11]

Starting at least since 1.06 and up to 1.08 I've noticed that if a ship moves in front of the target that rounds are FAR more likely to hit the blocking ship over the targeted ship. That's fine. Except It's such a strong effect that fleet battles mostly turn into a decision of not which ship to target, but which ship is CLOSE to your target and aim at THAT instead.
Low arcing projectiles exacerbate it. It's gotten so bad that a battleship floated in front of a stopped CL and the BB was sunk first.

I know that blocking incoming shells is a thing. But something is screwing with the hit-chance and suddenly EVERY incoming round stops even rolling to hit the target and instead just plain hits the blocking ship.
Same with incoming and outgoing fire. Rounds stop rolling chances of hitting and suddenly fire perfectly accurately and ALL hit the blocking ship.
Makes it especially weird when all of a sudden any ships in the same division just don't have this happen to their friendly fire.
Separate division have MURDEROUS friendly fire, but switch divisions and poof, the rounds stop hitting your own ships

[Knobby]

I've killed so many unspotted '???' by shooting at the spotted BB's at long ranges it's rather funny, especially as targeting these -presumed- DD's had they been spotted isn't nearly as effective

 

[Heet]

I agree.  I suspect the game puts too much emphasis on accuracy when shooting at a big, slow target, even though this should NOT affect gun accuracy.  It makes RANGING and LEADING faster and easier, but that doesn't mean the gun itself is any more or less accurate.  It feels like the accuracy calculations (in general) need some tweaking.

• When targeting small, fast, maneuvering ships at close range, guns accuracy is extremely poor. Even against larger targets at close range, when the range is changing rapidly the aiming systems just don't keep pace, and accuracy is almost comically bad.
• The game seems to put too much emphasis on target maneuvers and changes in range, even at close range when these same maneuvers shouldn't affect much.
• The advanced turret turning mechanisms do not help your accuracy at all, even though these should make aiming smoother and faster, especially at close range.
• There seems to be no account for rate of fire or number of salvos on a particular target until "the range is found," which then instantly gives a massive boost to accuracy, but then  gets reset very easily by maneuvers.  Historically speaking the landings of each salvo would help walk your fire onto the target.  Quicker firing guns means more salvos fired, means more opportunities to firm up the range.  The game does not seem to take this into account properly.

Historically speaking, the 13.5" Mark V British naval guns (used in the Battle of Jutland), only required 1.1 degree of elevation at 2500 yards, and a flight time of only 3 seconds.  This means that a 10% error in ranging would result in the shell impacting ~15 feet high or low.  In other words 2500 yards is essentially point blank range for these big guns, even against a small maneuvering target, you will still expect to get near them even if the ranging or leading is a little off due to target maneuvers. Against a larger target, like a battleship or heavy cruiser, these should be more or less guaranteed hits somewhere on the target.

I would challenge the designers to observe how targeting unfolds in the game, especially when shooting at close-range or fast maneuvering targets.  Try the old dreadnaughts vs. Modern Cruisers challenge and see (#26 I believe).

Edited August 10, 2022 by Heet

[UnleashtheKraken]

Got a whole thread on this.  

As yet, no dev response.  Hopefully you get some attention.