That's kinda what I thought. As long as it's a skill based thing, it's fine. After all I have way too little playtime to be great :). Thank you all for responses.

Should be more unrefined.
Back in the day they had to use a wooden wedge and rope to aim the cannon. :P

@darlain said in How do you aim the cannons?:

@lucid-stew

I bet you the wind and waves even come into play a bit.

A bit? Waves changes your height entirely and sometimes block your entire view, so they're a pretty big deal.

yeah, definitely. I was talking purely about their horizontal motion, but as you mention, if you're rising on a wave, that's not only going to impart roll, but also give the cannonball upward momentum. Same in reverse as you descend into a trough.

@retto-elbaroda also, may sound daft and obvious but...shooting people out rather than cannonballs is a different trajectory too

@lucid-stew

I bet you the wind and waves even come into play a bit.

A bit? Waves changes your height entirely and sometimes block your entire view, so they're a pretty big deal.

To OP
There are A LOT of thing to take in consideration when firing in SoT like @Lucid-Stew said, not easy at all.

Two things you need to consider in SoT that you don't need to consider in most other games:

1. The momentum imparted by your ship.
2. The roll angle of your ship.

I bet you the wind and waves even come into play a bit. I can tell you they push the ship around when you're sailing.

The cannons are completely subject to the physics engine, so they have rotations and vectors from (at least) your ship added to them. You need to subtract those in your brain when you fire. Good luck.

Thing is, I tend to be good at aiming projectiles in games. Bows, grenade launchers, all sorts. My problem with SoT is that it feels like it's shooting the balls from outside the cannons (on the sides). But it will be probably just lack of experience and skill :)

@retto-elbaroda same answer to the question “How do you get to Carnegie Hall?”

Practice!

and that's not trying to be flippant...you will just learn how and where to aim. cannons are pretty simple things so no sights, reticules etc aim, shoot...if you miss, adjust...if you hit...hammer them! :D

@retto-elbaroda You point it and shoot. As you get better with it, you can figure out what trajectory and lead time you will need to hit things that are moving and/or while you are moving.