"Smoke detected in the north!"

[prolych]

In every battle, the message "Smoke detected in the north!" scares me!
First, how do you know where this "north" is?
Yes, I see something that looks like a compass card in the upper left corner, but I do not understand how it is related to the image on the screen. What is this "compass" tied to: to the camera, to some ship, or to something else?
How to find out where the ship is going, north or the other direction?

[prolych]

The absence of radar did not prevent hundreds of years to know exactly the direction to the north.
I want to understand, the compass needle shows the north direction relative to what? Relative to the line of sight of the observer's camera? Or relative to the course of a ship? I just want to see that a particular ship is heading northwest and should be turned to the right so it's heading north.

[PatriotASR]

Just set on of them to AI and they will head straight for the enemy.

Another option is to select the lead ship and turn the screen so the compass points north and send them into that direction.

But the AI option is easier.

[foster.r.l]

The direction is tied to the camera.

To know what direction north is, click and hold the right mouse button on the open ocean (anywhere) and rotate the entire camera scene while watching the compass in the upper left. When the N is directly at the top of the compass, North is directly toward the top on the screen.

Hope that answers your question.

[Haytor]

It would be nice to have Speed/Heading available for each ship - whether the heading scould be cardinals ie NNW or degrees im not sure. For Enemy maybe we could hace best guess>>>

[DUKT!]

This part of the spotting mechanic can be very wonky at times. I've always found it weird that you can spot smoke 30km away but can't see a ship itself till it's sometimes (especially with small ships) right on top of you. The compass can be difficult to rely on and I've had numerous times where searching for a ship with "smoke spotted to the SW" can be a challenge as to where in that arc the ship actually is. It would have been far better if the compass was using degrees instead. Smoke spotted at 269 degrees and 185 degrees are both SW in the current version but are a big difference in actuality. Basically you just have to fiddle with it, send DD's each off on separate tangents and hope they run across the enemy. Or just wait till you develop the RDF radio tech which removes this clunky component.

[prolych]

Originally posted by DUKT!:

This part of the spotting mechanic can be very wonky at times. I've always found it weird that you can spot smoke 30km away but can't see a ship itself till it's sometimes (especially with small ships) right on top of you.

The sea is round, even the ancient Greeks knew. To see a ship from thirty kilometers in clear weather, you need to climb twenty meters in height, and then you can only distinguish the masts and tops of the funnels sticking out from behind the round sea, if the angular resolution of the binoculars is enough.

[prolych]

Originally posted by glythe:

Originally posted by prolych:

How to find out where the ship is going, north or the other direction?

You don't. The game doesn't let you track ships without high tier tech such as RDF.

Every ship has a compass and the captain of every ship knows exactly which direction his ship is heading. So it was hundreds of years ago, and the RDF has nothing to do with it.