How accurate are my guns? Where will shells go after a shot?
These questions bother every Captain in World of Warships.
In this episode of How It Works, we'll provide you with the answers.
How It Works
In the first half of the 20th century,
it was difficult to hit the same spot twice
even when firing just a single gun from a moving ship.
It gets even worse when we fire 12 guns.
We developed a dispersion ellipsoid
both to model the above-mentioned situation in World of Warships
and to make it possible for you to hit opponents.
Its center is located at the aiming spot.
The dispersion ellipsoid is shaped perpendicular
to the ideal shell flight trajectory after every shot.
Every turret has its own ellipsoid. Your shells fly within this ellipsoid.
If you fire at a moving ship, you need to shoot ahead of the target.
Therefore, you aim at somewhere on the water.
When you fire a shot, an ellipsoid with the center
at the junction of your reticle and the water surface is shaped.
However, it's difficult to aim at ships in this manner
because if you move the reticle by just half a degree vertically
while following a distant target,
the aiming spot will move by a significant distance.
That's why we implemented an automatic lock-on
for targets that you're going to fire at.
An indicator above an enemy shows
that you're locked onto this particular target.
If your reticle is fixed on an enemy,
a vertical plane is shaped through the center of the enemy ship
in correspondence with its movement vector.
Then the dispersion ellipsoid is formed
at the junction of your reticle and the vertical plane,
thus reducing the vertical sensitivity of your reticle.
Therefore, you need to focus on getting the correct lead time.
But it has disadvantages too. For instance,
if you lock onto an enemy who is closer to you and they move to the right,
but then you decide to fire at the enemy who is farther away
and they move to the left,
then your shells will fall short most of the time.
Aim the reticle at a target and press X to switch the lock-on to that target.
You can reset the autolock-on using the same button,
but we don't recommend doing so because firing at an enemy without a lock-on
doubles the size of the dispersion ellipsoid.
The dispersion ellipsoid of every in-game ship
has different dimensions and shapes.
You can look up the Maximum Dispersion parameter
in the Port in the Artillery tab.
It's the horizontal length of your dispersion ellipsoid
at the maximum firing range of the main battery.
For example, the German Bismarck
has a maximum dispersion of 274 meters at a 21.2-kilometer distance.
It's natural that the dispersion ellipsoid decreases
when you fire from a shorter range.
Thus, the German battleship has 100-meter dispersion at a 4-kilometer distance.
Any shell coming out of your guns can't go beyond the dispersion ellipsoid;
they most likely hit the area between the ellipsoid’s edge and its center.
Every in-game ship has a specific hit chance area
that depends on the ship's type, the number of main battery guns,
the number of turrets, and the caliber.
A hit spot inside the ellipsoid is calculated using Gaussian distribution
that is applied to the dispersion ellipsoid in a special way.
This calculations have a sigma parameter, which is obtained
from the parameter of the same name in the Gaussian distribution.
Sigma directly correlates with accuracy—
the greater the value, the more often shells will fall closer to the center.
However, it’s important to know
that the sigma value is just one of more accuracy parameters.
Let’s look what happens
if we change the dimensions of the dispersion ellipsoids.
Of course, it's a topical issue to increase accuracy
by reducing the dispersion ellipsoid.
Most in-game ships have the Aiming Systems Modification 1 upgrade,
which reduces the maximum dispersion by 7%.
You can mount camouflage that increases the enemy's maximum dispersion by 4%
and the Concealment System Modification 1 upgrade
to add another 5% to make them miss you more often.
Let's conclude.
The firing mechanic in World of Warships works in the following manner:
the dispersion ellipsoid is formed when you fire a shell.
The points, where the shell flies through,
are defined within the ellipsoid borders randomly.
Then the shell flies along the calculated ballistic curves.
After a shot,
the shell trajectory remains the same until the shell hits something.
There is one more relevant question
regarding the firing mechanic in World of Warships:
how do you send shells over islands?
As you already know, the target lock-on helps,
but ballistics are another important factor.
We'll explain them in our next episode of How It Works.
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