Line of Sight

Currently, there are three known purposes for Line of Sight (LoS):

• Increasing success rate in the detection phase, which allows participation in aerial combat.
• A higher Fleet total LoS (FLoS) positively correlates with the trigger chance of artillery spotting for a ship's double/cut-in attack in day battle. Fleet total LoS is simply the summation of all LoS stats from your ships, including bonus from the equipment.
• Effective LoS (ELoS), which allows the fleet to reach a specific node (usually a pre-boss or boss node) instead of being diverted to a dead end. Effective LoS is employed in special maps, such as event maps and extra operations maps (2-5, 3-5).
• There are special formula being used to calculate ELoS. As a general consensus, LoS bonus from equipment (esp. recon planes) are more important than individual ship's LoS stats.

Effective Line of Sight (old formula)

• Effective LoS = Recon LoS×2 ＋ Radar LoS ＋ √(Fleet total LoS - Recon LoS - Radar LoS). This is the formula used since Spring 2014 event; in 2-5, 3-5 boss node, and any node with the seaplane-searching animation.
• Due to the formula, recon planes will contribute more to effective LoS than radars. For the purposes of fulfilling effective LoS, avoid using radars that do not give at least +10 LoS.
• You can make an exception to the above if your ships require other equipment for more damage, in which case you can make a DD/Yuubari a radar 'mule' to contribute to LoS by stacking radars.
• ONLY Recon planes' (yellow & seaplanes) LoS values are doubled. LoS from carrier-based bomber planes (red & blue) are not doubled, but in fact square rooted. Avoid doubling dive bomber and torpedo bomber LoS values when calculating LoS. [It is currently uncertain whether LOS from bombers contribute to Recon LOS (x2) or Fleet LOS (sqrt). Testing required.]
• You know you fulfilled the LoS requirement if you see a short animation with a seaplane flying to the node and back to your ship icon, plus the flagship's image appearing on-screen. Otherwise, you will be diverted off-course to a dead end without the animation playing.

5:06-5:11 of this video here shows what the animation looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-x1tNuCeSE

• You can have a high total LoS and still fail the effective LoS requirement. Do not use the total LoS as a guide.

• If you have trouble reaching LoS requirements, take a look at the sortie page (for 2-5, 3-5) or other players' reports (for event maps) and adjust your equipment accordingly

(Events) Variations in effective LoS between players

During the Summer 2014 event, there were many player reports where players of similar HQ levels have differing effective LoS requirements, leading to confusion among many players. This hinted to a possibility that effective LoS scales to level. Do not be surprised if you level up or reach the next HQ bracket (e.g. HQ lvl 60-99, 100+) and fail to reach boss node when you did reach the node the previous sortie.

Effective Line of Sight (new formula)

With the advent of the 2014 Fall Event a new formula for Effective LoS has been devised to account for inconsistencies of the old formula. (Source 1) (Source 2)

• Effective LoS = Dive Bomber LoS x (1.04) + Torpedo Bomber LoS x (1.37) + Carrier-based Recon Plane LoS x (1.66) + Recon Seaplane LoS x (2.00) + Seaplane Bomber LoS x (1.78) + Small Radar LoS x (1.00) + Large Radar LoS x (0.99) + Searchlight LoS x (0.91) + √(base LoS of each ship) x (1.69) + (HQ Lv. rounded up to the next multiple of 5) x (-0.61)
• √(base LoS of each ship) x (1.69) = Calculate the square root of each ship's LoS (base value without any equipment) separately, then add the values together and multiply by 1.69
• Regarding the HQ Level: For example, if your HQ Lv. is 101~105, use 105. If it's 106~110, use 110. And so on.

Excel file that calculates the fleet's LOS for you: http://1drv.ms/1IlzXGX (courtesy of Kouma231)