Dispersion, Horizontal to Vertical

[vonKaiser]

I'm not advocating for a change to the game, I'm not well versed or experienced enough to bring up things like that, probably 50 million reasons why this wouldn't work or be viable anyway.  But I keep getting my head a thought that makes me want to discuss and see what others think with regards to it.

As it stands right now, when a ship fires the main guns there is a fair amount of lateral dispersion (bow to stern, length of the broadside ship) and some, but seemingly not as pronounced vertical dispersion (Height of the ship)  IE you'll have a lot of shells that'll land bow/stern along the waterline of a broadside ship, while some others will land just short, or a little long and bracket the ship.  That's those shells that, while you're aimed at the waterline, some will go low and won't hit due to being absorbed in the water before striking the ships waterline, some will go high and hit the superstructure and some will overshoot entirely.  This is EXTREMELY simplified way of looking at it, I'm not going to go into Sigma values, dispersion rates and the likes because that's going to vary ship to ship and just be a whole convoluted mess.

But what would happen, either if it was added in on a premium ship, through a national flavor, heck even a choice in the armament settings or upgrades for the ship, where you'd have a ship with the lateral dispersion minimized, while the vertical was elongated?  For instance, if added in on a battleship, you'd have a BB that would land many more shells, due to the dispersal pattern and general orientation/length of the target, on enemies that were bow on, while if that same ship was firing at a broadside target, you'd get more shells that were to land low in the waterline or higher into the superstructure and overshoot the ship.  Add it to a cruiser line and you'd have ships that would be more effective landing shells versus an angled, running away ship, or bow on charging target, but would suffer versus ships running parallel and offering up a broadside.  If added as an upgrade or modual, now you could semi-tailor your guns to your enemy engagement style.  Ships running Modification 1 would be as they are now, but that same ship with modification option #2 would have the altered dispersion pattern

Again, I'm not advocating a change to game or anything, but it's just something that keeps bouncing around in my head over and over again and wanted to see what others thought, even if the prevailing thought it "vonKaiser is off his rocker" lol.

[RipNuN2]

I think the reason they have lateral dispersion more pronounced than vertical is because of how it looks when firing through the reticle. I think we can more easily handle the horizontal dispersion and make corrections than trying to do that if the vertical was more pronounced.

[Fog_Repair_Ship_Akashi]

11 minutes ago, vonKaiser said:

 

Talk to @LittleWhiteMouse she can give you the details on how the dispersion works or you can check this thread out to see if it helps you.

 

[AirshipCanon]

17 minutes ago, RipNuN2 said:

I think the reason they have lateral dispersion more pronounced than vertical is because of how it looks when firing through the reticle. I think we can more easily handle the horizontal dispersion and make corrections than trying to do that if the vertical was more pronounced.

It wouldn't do a whole lot in that regard. You don't really adjust based on dispersion. Dispersion simply means that shot one: Overpen. Shot 2: Citadel. Welcome to World of RNG.
A straddle would then forth be an "On target" shot.

Vertical oriented Dispersion would change damage tanking tactics and the way some of the game is played, since the shell that misses is the best defense.

Bow on vs Vertical would change negatively. Sharply negatively.

Part of why Bow on is prevalent is that  you're showing less of a hittable target to the enemy-- which is factored by dispersion.
A bow on target facing a 12 gun salvo often times sees only one or two shells hit.
A broadside target sees 6 or more many times.

This is because the shell moves outward and away from the bow on target, while simply moving along the girth of the broadside target.

Change to vertical and the situation reverses-- the broadside target now has shells moving towards its sides, while the bow on target has shells flying along the length of the vessel.

Armor angling would still play in, but Battleship survivability would drop pretty hard-- at least until new tactics were developed.

[vonKaiser]

58 minutes ago, Fog_Repair_Ship_Akashi said:

Talk to @LittleWhiteMouse she can give you the details on how the dispersion works or you can check this thread out to see if it helps you.

 

I'm not really talking about how it currently, works, more a "what if it was this way" instead of the way it is

38 minutes ago, AirshipCanon said:

It wouldn't do a whole lot in that regard. You don't really adjust based on dispersion. Dispersion simply means that shot one: Overpen. Shot 2: Citadel. Welcome to World of RNG.
A straddle would then forth be an "On target" shot.

Vertical oriented Dispersion would change damage tanking tactics and the way some of the game is played, since the shell that misses is the best defense.

Bow on vs Vertical would change negatively. Sharply negatively.

Part of why Bow on is prevalent is that  you're showing less of a hittable target to the enemy-- which is factored by dispersion.
A bow on target facing a 12 gun salvo often times sees only one or two shells hit.
A broadside target sees 6 or more many times.

This is because the shell moves outward and away from the bow on target, while simply moving along the girth of the broadside target.

Change to vertical and the situation reverses-- the broadside target now has shells moving towards its sides, while the bow on target has shells flying along the length of the vessel.

Armor angling would still play in, but Battleship survivability would drop pretty hard-- at least until new tactics were developed.

You'd get more impacts into the superstructure sure, but it would also make turret armor more of a factor.  I know I see it now with current gameplay, bow on tanking BB, send a salvo out, shells that do manage to hit if I haven't aimed far enough back to the amidship it'll crash onto the turrets and bounce/shatter

[Edgecase]

Vertical dispersion is already larger than horizontal dispersion in most cases (watch gunfire landing from a CV view). Some lines, like IJN BB, already have greater vertical dispersion than others, so it's already being used as a flavor and balancing factor.