Combat/Artillery Spotting

Introduction

Artillery Spotting, commonly referred to as ArtySpot, Daytime CI, or simply Spotting, is a series of special attacks that allow ships with specific equipment setups to perform Cut-in attacks during the Day Battle. These attacks grant post-cap damage bonuses as well as increased shelling accuracy.

The Carrier-equivalent for Artillery Spotting is Aircraft Carrier Cut-in (CVCI). Mechanically, they share the same core mechanics, but have different trigger conditions.

Artillery Spotting

Artillery Spotting is a feature for ships that can launch Seaplane Recons. Using special equipment setups, those ships may perform one of multiple special attacks. These attacks are often referred to as Cut-ins due to the way the equipment is displayed in the screen before the attacks are performed. Particular Cut-ins are often referred to by their acronym, such as APCI for Main AP Shell Cut-in, Sec CI for Secondary Gun Cut-in, etc.

Cut-ins may be activated during a ship's turn and will override its normal shelling attack. Do note that the specific equipment being shown during the Cut-ins have no influence on the damage output.

Trigger Conditions

The fleet attains Air Supremacy. Artillery Spotting and Aircraft Carrier Cut-ins can now be performed

• The fleet must have attained Air Superiority (AS) or Air Supremacy (AS+) Air State.
  • For details on Air State, please refer to Aerial Combat - Stage 1
• The ship must be equipped with at least one Recon Seaplane or Seaplane Bomber on a slot with size higher than 0.
  • Seaplane Fighters do not enable Artillery Spotting.
  • Main Suisei Cut-in specifically ignores this condition.
• The ship must be equipped with at least one main gun.
• The ship must target another ship and attack it with Surface Shelling.
  • ASW shelling has no Artillery Spotting setups.
• The ship must not be Heavily damaged (大破)

Setups and Attack Types

Musashi performing Main AP Shell Cut-in (APCI)

Different setups have different conditions, trigger rates, damage, and number of hits. Cut-ins are determined by the attack's prerequisites as well as the previously state trigger conditions.

For a given Cut-in, any other equipment can be added on the remaining slots. Be wary that adding certain equipment may change the Cut-in that will be rolled. Meeting prerequisites for multiple Cut-ins grants each a chance to be activated: in this case, the Cut-ins will be rolled in order of priority from top to bottom.

For clarity purposes:

• is used to indicate a Main Gun of any size,
• is used to indicate a Recon or Seaplane Bomber,
• is used to indicate a Secondary Gun,
• is a custom icon used to indicate any Zuiun variants:

Seaplanes are the main aircraft type used by non-carrier ships (mainly battleships, cruisers, and auxiliaries).

• They are notably required to trigger Artillery Spotting.

Bomber Seaplane Bombers additionally act like Dive Bombers, taking part in the same air phases and sharing the same damage formulas. Additionally, they:

• Play some minor Anti-Installation role.
• Bring an accuracy bonus against PT boats.

Zuiuns are additionaly required for the Ise-class Kai Ni
to perform special Zuiun cut-in attack (see Artillery Spotting for more details).

• is used to indicate any "634 Air Group" Suiseis
  
  .

Attack Type	Prerequisites	Post-cap Damage Modifier	Accuracy Modifier	Hits	Notes
Main Suisei Cut-in (Suisei CI)		1.3	???	1	Ise Kai Ni and Hyuuga Kai Ni only.
Main Zuiun Cut-in (Zuiun CI)		1.35	???	1
Main AP Shell Cut-in (APCI)		1.5	1.2	1
Secondary AP Shell Cut-in (Sec APCI)		1.3	1.3	1
Secondary Radar Cut-in (Radar CI)		1.2	1.5	1
Secondary Cut-in (Sec CI)		1.1	1.3	1
Double Attack (DA)		1.2	1.1	2

• If all rolls fail or the ship meets no Cut-in requirements, then it'll perform a Single Attack: a default 1 hit, no damage modifier shelling attack.
• If an Artillery Spotting attack is evaded, it will deal chip damage instead.

Aircraft Carrier Cut-in

Aircraft Carrier Cut-in, or CVCI for short, is a feature for ships that can launch Carrier-based planes. Similar to Artillery Spotting, using special equipment setups, those ships may perform one of multiple special attacks.

CVCI may be activated during a ship's turn and will override its normal shelling attack.

Trigger Conditions

• The fleet must have attained Air Superiority (AS) or Air Supremacy (AS+) Air State.
  • For details on Air State, please refer to Aerial Combat - Stage 1
• The carrier must fulfill one of the equipment setups.
• The carrier must be shelling a surface ship.
  • Installations cannot be attacked by CVCI.

Setups and Attack Types

Zuihou performing Fighter-Bomber-Attacker Cut-in (FBA)

Different setups have different conditions, trigger rates, damage, and number of hits. Cut-ins are determined by the attack's prerequisites as well as the previous state trigger conditions.

For a given Cut-in, any other equipment can be added to the remaining slots. Be wary that adding certain equipment may change the Cut-in that will be rolled. Meeting prerequisites for multiple Cut-ins grants each a chance to be activated: in this case, the Cut-ins will be rolled in order of priority from top to bottom.

• is used to indicate a Torpedo Bomber. In the game, is referred to as Attacker.
• is used to indicate a Dive Bomber. In the game, is referred to as Bomber.
• is used to indicate a Fighter.

Attack Type	Prerequisites	Post-cap Damage Modifier	Accuracy Modifier	Hits
Fighter-Bomber-Attacker (FBA)		1.25	1.2~1.3?	1
Bomber-Bomber-Attacker (BBA)		1.2	1.2~1.3?	1
Bomber-Attacker (BA)		1.15	1.2~1.3?	1

• If all rolls fail or the ship meets no Cut-in requirements, then it'll perform a Single Attack: a default 1 hit, no damage modifier shelling attack.
• If a CVCI attack is evaded, it will deal chip damage instead.

Note: The Critical Damage modifier granted by Aircraft Proficiency works differently when performing a CVCI.

• Planes may be equipped in any order, but the plane in the First Slot is denominated the Captain (regardless of plane type), and grants bonuses based on whether or not it is present in the cut-in being performed.
  • 0.15 if the Captain is participating, 0 otherwise.
• Instead of adding the Aircraft Proficiency's Critical Damage modifiers, the average Critical Damage modifier of the participating planes is used instead.
  • 0 for no proficiency, up to ~0.106 if all participating planes are Double Chevron ❱❱

The final Critical Damage modifier is given by:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Critical}_\text{mod} = 1.5 \times \left(1 + \text{Proficiency}_\text{average bonus} + \text{Captain}_\text{bonus} \right) }[/math]

With a maximum value of ~1.884 (1.5 x ~1.256).

Trigger Rates

Artillery Spotting and Aircraft Carrier Cut-ins share the same trigger rate formula. The chance of successfully rolling a Cut-in and performing the attack is given by:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{CI %} = \left[ \dfrac{\text{Base}_\text{ship}}{\text{Base}_\text{attack}} \right] \times 100 }[/math]

Where:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Base}_\text{ship} = \left \lfloor 10 + \lfloor\sqrt{\text{Luck}} \rfloor + \text{AirState}_\text{1} + \text{Flagship}_\text{mod} + \left \lfloor \left( \text{Fleet}_\text{LoS} + \text{AirState}_\text{2} \times \text{Ship}_\text{LoS} \right) \right \rfloor \times \text{AirState}_\text{3} \right \rfloor }[/math]

• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{AirState}_\text{1} }[/math] is the 1st Air State modifier.
  • Assumes 10 for AS+, 0 for AS.
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{AirState}_\text{2} }[/math] is the 2nd Air State modifier.
  • Assumes 1.6 for AS+, 1.2 for AS.
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{AirState}_\text{3} }[/math] is the 3rd Air State modifier.
  • Assumes 0.7 for AS+, 0.6 for AS.
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Flagship}_\text{mod} }[/math] is the flagship modifier.
  • Assumes 15 if the ship is the flagship, 0 otherwise.
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Ship}_\text{LoS} }[/math] is the sum of the ship equipment's displayed LoS value.
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Fleet}_\text{LoS} }[/math] is given by the following formula:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Fleet}_\text{LoS} = \left \lfloor \sqrt{\text{Total}_\text{LoS}} + \frac{\text{Total}_\text{LoS}}{10} \right \rfloor }[/math]

Where [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Total}_\text{LoS} = \sum^{\text{All ships}}\text{Base}_\text{LoS} + \sum^{\text{All Recons/Bombers}}\text{Equip}_\text{LoS} \times \lfloor\sqrt{\text{SlotSize}}\rfloor }[/math]

• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Base}_\text{LoS} }[/math] is the ship's base LoS value without any equipment.
• [math]\displaystyle{ \text{Equip}_\text{LoS} }[/math] is the equipment's displayed LoS value.

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Base}_\text{attack} }[/math] is the Value used by each type of Cut-in:

[math]\displaystyle{ \text{Base}_\text{attack} }[/math]	Value	% per Base Value
Artillery Spotting
Main Suisei Cut-in	130	0.77%
Main Zuiun Cut-in	120	0.83%
Main AP Shell Cut-in	150	0.66%
Secondary AP Shell Cut-in	140	0.71%
Secondary Radar Cut-in	130	0.77%
Secondary Cut-in	120	0.83%
Double Attack	130	0.77%
Aircraft Carrier Cut-ins
Fighter-Bomber-Attacker	125	0.86%
Bomber-Bomber-Attacker	135	0.80%
Bomber-Attacker	150	0.66%