Calculating distance

[Calico Jack]

So this is irking me  - how to measure distances in matches.

[RearAdmiralZill]

You mean like knowing one block on the map = 1km?

[Sammy B. T.]

But not all blocks are created equal.

[Calico Jack]

Admiral Zill can you point me to where that is written and hopefully something about which maps it holds true for?

[Captain Smollett]

It's true on dunes.  But a scale on the map would be amazing.

Please Muse can we has this???

[Keon]

Not all maps are 1 km. Honestly I just sort of feel it out. "I think that's probably in gatling range, lemme check."

[Calico Jack]

I agree about feeling distance out Keon, it's something I like about this game that you don't get numbers in the GUI.

I did think about trying to work out distances using the spy glass zoom, but IRL optical range finders rely on being able to have 3 points - distance to target, and two focal points with a known distance apart.

[Alistair MacBain]

Same for me. Just experience with different guns and thinking this could hit.
If ur not sure ...
Fire 1-2 Shots and see where they hit. Then u can adjust or refuse firing cause the enemy is out of range.

[Letus]

Never bothered.  More like "ship is this size, maybe it's this far."  Fire, nope...went over...aim a bit down, fire again..
Oh hey...that one hit......................well now I know where to aim.

I hear many times "ship is _____ range" and in my head I go "...that means nothing to me...."

[Calico Jack]

this is more for fun than for gunnery but I think I might have found a way - you basically need three points, two of which have a known distance


that could be the top and lower deck on any ship with 2 decks measured in player height, which for ease of use we'll say multiples of 2 m, then the approximate angle in relation to one of the viewpoints and apply the law of sines

http://www.mathopenref.com/lawofsines.html

the diagram on the page I linked to can be dragged about to change the sizes of the sides.

[RearAdmiralZill]

Forgive me, as it's correct that all blocks aren't equal. Smaller maps like duel (and maybe paritan now) have blocks that equate to 500m. Not written anywhere that I have found, but it's fairly easy to gauge if you know the ranges of the guns and compare.

[Calico Jack]

Collecting this here as it's pertinent

The size of a square is different from map to map (the whole thing is dumb, it's ancient code that we never got to change). 

Smaller maps like duel (and maybe paritan now) have blocks that equate to 500m.

ahh interesting ......


The reason I got onto this was I vaguely remember hearing 1k on lobby chat on this as a nooblet and then tried to track it down, and see my google-fu failing badly.

[Imagine]

Nah, no numbers needed. I like the feel of hmmmm, ok, they should be in range just about now, let's check. I'm sure for gunners it adds a skill level, too, being able to eyeball distances.

[Captain Smollett]

That's true, but I do like the idea of precision.  Guess I'll be playing with a ruler now and calculating distance based on the size of an enemy ship.  Surprised I never thought of that.

New captains tool proposal - Ruler

[HamsterIV]

I would prefer Muse just made the blocks uniform, we don't have to have A-E on each map, some could be A-H and Some could be A-D.