Automatic ship spotting.

[Ned Loe]

Automatic spotting should be in-game as default. If we take a look at real life and how spotters were used on ships, we can easily say that we need this feature. Ages ago a guy would sit in crow's nest and spot ships, land and survivors. I want to suggest devs to set up spotting range that can also be upgraded and show us nearby ships with icons. Symbol should only show up when ship or port within a spotting range. Spotter could shout (ship on the horizon or sail spotted).  Player still has to click on it to get more detailed info. I believe this could be a nice addition and won't hurt anyone.

 

Same can be applied to ports. Port icon will appear in the distance. 

 

 

Please discuss. 

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

I still think having to personally scan for ships is part of the skill of the game.  Personally scanning allows for someone to "miss" a distant ship, and adds the need for extra vigilance when you're sailing around.

[Ned Loe]

I still think having to personally scan for ships is part of the skill of the game.  Personally scanning allows for someone to "miss" a distant ship, and adds the need for extra vigilance when you're sailing around.

If devs set up range, players will still miss ships if they do not look around. This only applies for in range targets. Spotter will warn player that these targets are close and ideal for attacking.

 

Here is an example:

 

In this case I would get 3 icons pop up on my screen and follow ship direction like shown on the top screen. 

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

What would that range be?  I'd support the idea if the range were close enough to complicate matters for the person that missed the initial manual visual spotting.

[akd]

Won't hurt anyone? Obviously it will hurt those who are trying to get the drop on people who aren't looking around. I think I deserve every second I get that someone doesn't spot me, and seconds do matter.

What we absolutely need is to not have to hold RMB to look around. That is very poor UI.

[jok83]

i think this is kind of redundant;

 

close ships easy to see dont need a marker. it would clutter the sea with markers that look kinda out of palce. seeing only the ships on the ow map creates better atmosphere for the player, it looks more nice. 

far ships that are hard to see shouldnt have a marker for obvious reasons. player should find em and look for them.

 

i think the time that would be spent for this could be spend elsewhere with more use.

[maturin]

Half the time I am sailing within sight of 4-5 other ships. This will make automatic spotting pretty pointless, and I am against anything that prevents a player from carrying out a surprise attack.

 

 

 

However, for long AFK passages across open water, it would be very nice to click a button that sounds an alarm for the next spotted sail only. No information given, and if we ignore the lookout's call, all subsequent spottings will go unremarked.

[Macjimm]

From a non- competitive point of view.

With the frantic speed of OW (open world) there is very time to address matters so having an audible warning could often be helpful.

Also a big part of the fun for some people is the details of sailing at sea. Details like navigating and spotting. Spotting - ships, ports and land. These duties add to the interest and intrinsic feel of the game.

On the other hand it is abundantly clear that many players are here mostly for combat and the movement between battles must be expedient and conducted with ease and an a minimum of effort. Any enhanced features should not be forced but allow our fighters to focus on conflict without complicating matters.

It should be possible to have the option of navigating and spotting manually. Having an option shouldn’t impose too much on our fighters. Employing a spotter (at a cost) or an Officer (at a greater cost) to be on lookout would be a helpful aid. A player could leave the game running and turn up the speaker volume and attend to any alerts that he hears. The advantage of manually scanning is the certainty that nothing is missed. But it’s important that it is a toggled feature that can be turned off and on. In busy shipping lanes amongst islands the continuous alerts would be irritating. Ideally the alerts should include customization to allow spotting of ships only, land only, port only or combinations. This would allow a player to filter for the information required. Example: seeking ships in amongst a chain of islands.

 

I disagree with a range limit for auto spotting although perhaps less skilled crew and/or officers could be subject to the range limit.  And these less skilled sailors would be cheaper to hire.

 

I also disagree with ignoring subsequent lookout calls if a player doesn't respond.  The appeal of the spotter is a player can leave the keyboard to attend to RL.  It would be a shame to miss a contact call and then be unaware that spotter went silent.  I would prefer that the spotter reacts the opposite way.  He calls the contact and waits for a response.  He will repeat the contact after an interval if no player response is provided.  When the contact is out of sight he stops reporting.  I could be aware of the sighting(s) in game just by listening.  

 

"Sail HO"

pause

"Dutch Brig off port bow"

pause

"Dutch Brig abeam port"

pause

"Dutch Brig astern"

pause

silence

 

Half the time I am sailing within sight of 4-5 other ships. This will make automatic spotting pretty pointless, and I am against anything that prevents a player from carrying out a surprise attack.

Maturin makes a excellent point. There is almost always at least one ship in sight (usually there are more, sometimes 4 or 5 fleets) so the ship alerts would usually be redundant and moot.

Personally I would like to see several enhancements to OW. Each one should be toggled with a key binding. (in order of importance)

• Removal of port names (could be toggled with CTL "h" only)
• Compass
• Watch
• Telescope
• Sextant

Audio animation of a lookout calling contacts would be great but I would like to see the above enhancements first.

[Blackjack Symons]

I love this, but without icons.

 

There be me, sailin' upon open waters when to my bewilderment I'm targeted by an enemy Bellona right on my stern. Having settled down for a long sea journey I am necessarily lax on observation and so a simple 'sail, two points from the starboard quarter' would have sufficed. I don't believe an icon is necessary, or that it's imperative to remove the chance of a surprise attack (certainly, my crew could have been lazy and relaxed (like their captain ) and thus not seen the Bellona until it was too late) but it does get a little tiring constantly holding right click and squinting at the horizon, wondering if that's a sail or if I'm going blind. 

 

Interestingly enough, we play the role of not just the Captain, but the entire crew - we aim the guns, fire the guns, reload the guns, steer the ship, trim/increase the sails, turn the sails, manage damage control, and not least play the role of the man in the crow's nest when in OW. Though I do think the occasional 'sail ho! 3 points off the ____' would do wonders for the OW (as would a spyglass), I do enjoy the danger associated with inattention to the horizon. 

 

I'm not quite sure how to reconcile the two. It is my humble opinion that cries of 'sail ho' or 'land ho' would greatly increase immersion, however, if not necessarily being fair to players searching for surprise attacks.

[mouse of war]

I used to be in favour of some sort of mechanism like this but then decided that in this game the captain is the crew.

If the player doesn't spot a strange sail then we can assume the crew didn't do so. For whatever reason (poor discipline, bad training, drunk on watch etc.)

[Wicked Mouse]

Maybe not with the icons, but only with voice commands? Like "Sail ho! Two O'Clock!" and "Land Ho!" if you haven't been near land for some time.

[ShiverMyTimber]

Automatic spotting should be in-game as default. If we take a look at real life and how spotters were used on ships, we can easily say that we need this feature. Ages ago a guy would sit in crow's nest and spot ships, land and survivors. I want to suggest devs to set up spotting range that can also be upgraded and show us nearby ships with icons. Symbol should only show up when ship or port within a spotting range. Spotter could shout (ship on the horizon or sail spotted).  Player still has to click on it to get more detailed info. I believe this could be a nice addition and won't hurt anyone.

 

Same can be applied to ports. Port icon will appear in the distance. 

 

 

Please discuss. 

I actually have a thread that discusses just this. It can be found here essentially you would employ an officer of the watch and depending on his rarity or (please please please) how much XP he has gained sailing with you he improves at spotting ships, from starting with "I see a sail on the horizon to the North West" to "I see a fleet on the horizon to the southeast" to "I see a ship/fleet of ships on the horizon, they appear to be French" (nobody gets things right every time) moving with him being able to spot ships before you can spot ships and spotting ships in storms or fog that you would almost definitely miss with a call of "I think I see a sail to the north, but I can't be certain captain (like in the film version of Master and Commander where Midshipman Hollom was afraid of beating the ship to quarters over nothing and had to be 'rescued' by Midshipman Callamy) and finally ending with "I saw a sail in that storm/fog to the south, I am sure of it".

Naturally sightings in storms or fog (the devs need to add this, seeing a black flag coming out of fog and attacking them in battle should have an effect on their morale causing them to do everything slower, a little 'pay' for the fact that all other nations hunt us) would be reduced to 1/3 or 1/2 normal sight distance.

Sure crewmen spot ships but it's the officer of the watch who recognises them and relays this information back to the captain. My thread essentially uses officers as a way of taking some of the micromanagment out of the game while still making it a tough game to play.

[Destraex]

I loved hearing the crew in the silent hunter series report contacts. 

But in this game I think ship spotting is part of the game (you are the crew). You have to process the traffic yourself.

I would love to hear a voice when I click on a contact I have seen however.