Secondary fire mode on 8" guns

[Krusty]

Flipping through TV I happened upon "WW2 in HD" on Discovery, and saw a bit of footage of ships shelling Iwo Jima....


Got me to thinking about those big guns in AH. I'd like a one firing mode to fire ONE of the 3 barrels. Reload is the same for all barrels, but you cannot fire a "salvo" until all are reloaded. The other firing mode, of course, would fire ALL THREE barrels at the same point, exactly like they do now.

Why?

Because when you're ranging something you don't need or want the long reload times. You just need to see where the shell is landing, then when you're ranged BAM! Fire all barrels at once.

I suppose you could do the same with 5"-ers as well, but I'm specifically thinking of the big guns.

[Strip]

Perhaps a ranging mode where the shots are spread out a predetermined value as well, to aid ranging an enemy target.

Strip

[Krusty]

Actually, this is a compromise from a previous wish I'd called for many times: some sort of functioning rangefinder. You enter a mode, and you have to angle the 2 plates/mirrors until the image "looks" like a single image, then you check the range readout.

That'll never happen, it seems, so something to speed up the process we have would be nice: usually by the time I'm anywhere NEAR range of what I want to hit, the ship's already out of the area and heading away (or... sunk because I couldn't hit the SB, etc)

EDIT: For those that don't get the original point:

You can fire 3x as fast, but you still have to wait the same reload time for each gun. That means instead of "fire.... wait 30 seconds.... adjust... oops outta range" you're in "fire, wait 10, adjust, fire, wait 10, adjust, fire" all in the same time frame.

[phatzo]

I wonder if it could be done as simply a dot salvo comand

[ZZee]

+1

seems to be a reasonable request.

[waystin2]

+1

[AWwrgwy]

Don't they have lots of guys stuffed in those turrets?  A crew for each gun all doing identical tasks all at the same time?  Would reload time really be that much faster if one crew had to reload their gun while the other two crews stood around and did nothing?

Just something to think about.


wrongway

[Krusty]

Yes. They had automated lift elevators, ramrods, powder elevators... They could and did reload shots faster than in this game.

EDIT: I mean single guns were reloaded much faster. It might be that AH models "time x 3" to simulate reloading all guns. I don't know the hows or whys of this.

HOWEVER, my original idea is flawed, as you STILL have to wait for the round to travel down-stream to see where it lands to adjust it.

I'd still like it, as it would be better for walking rounds across strats and so forth, and you could sort of fire a spread of 3, and if your 2nd was closest, go back to that distance (and so on).

[mcboi]

I'd also like to see 1 person be able to fire all the 8"ers on the cruiser if no one else is manning any of them. the other 2 turrets are useless if no one else is in them, but in war we all know every gun on that ship would be firing

[phatzo]

I'd also like to see 1 person be able to fire all the 8"ers on the cruiser if no one else is manning any of them. the other 2 turrets are useless if no one else is in them, but in war we all know every gun on that ship would be firing

like taking the position of ships fire controller?

[bravoa8]

I like this idea! +1

[ImADot]

"Land Mode"?
Click on spot on map, guns turn and elevate to hit that spot. 
Range and azimuth readout in upper left...
Fire.
Switch to Manual mode if you want to then walk your salvo around the town/strat.

It's already there...forgot about the three different firing modes?

[Strip]

It works for firing a known land targets....

How do you figure out targets moving at sea, or unknown targets like shore batteries, this is the basis for Krusty's idea.

Strip

[Vadjan-Sama]

You don't understand what they are talking about ImADot, Is not the same trying to measure range looking a hit every 15secs than looking the hit every 5secs.

I think it's a good idea, a way in which a single rapid fire 8" gun to measure range and then switch to normal mode once u got range and destroy it.


+1

[Bino]

IJN ships often used colored dyes to mark shell splashes.  That way two or more ships could fire on the same target ship and have some chance of correcting their aim.  Might be useful if each turret could be assigned - or choose - a color...?