Firstly: Yes this Theme was somewhere in this Forum before, but i was shocked that only 2 People spoke about such an important theme, that's why i start a new discuassion heere, with the hope that this one will be succesfull!!!
I'm going to explain it!
Right now you have 4 Bearings on the Compass which show you N,S,W,E (North,South,West,East), further you have shown in smaller Letters also the 4 additional NE,NW,SE,SW (explaining themselves i hope)
This makes you possible to talk about the 8 Sky directions we know on the Earth!
But in most cases that's not nerarly enough!!! The Problem with it is that on a Battlefield in World of Warships you have a pretty big map some are even bigger then others. In such an Operation Area talking about 8 Directional-Headings is just not enough to be effectively able to tell exactely what you mean! With the introduction of modern Guns and modern Cariege-Systems that first time alowed ships to turn their Guns to a huge Angle and weren't fixed to a few degrees anymore, options how to manouver and alternate tactics had blowen out of any controll, many nations where testing tons of individual opportunity's how to win a Battle!
With this changes at the edge of the 20st. Century also modernized Navy-Commands found out that to be effectively there had to be introduced a new kind of Directional-Headings.
This ended up finaly with the introducment of the so called "Bearings". So what are this Bearings and what are they good for!
Well they are a Numeric Code whoch basicly simblozes something to youre position and heading.
It is used to describe the Position of something like a Ship compared to youre position and orientation it is used by Angle values to do so, 0-360 in what 0 is in front of youre 180 is behind youre ship and 360 is again 0 which is in front of youre ship. So it uses the Degree and gives for evry degree a numeric value which symbolizes the degree between you and that thing if you are the middle respectively the CCM (Course-Cross-Meeting
[(which is basicly the point where youre ship crosses the other ships course)/sometimes it's also the point where ships can Ram each other cause they are at this CCM in the same time]
So the Bearings alow you to exatly name the degree between youre Ship with an Orientation and the enemy's Ship
If you are very good now you can eventualy even call the bearing of the enemy's Ship, there is also a Mathematical Formula to calculate it!
Bearings where known also before since the first Compass was made, but the Naval-Bearings where a new Navigational-Instrument to be used in massive scale.
Now Captains had the ability to spell an exact course not just one of the 8 Directions! If you dont see the diffrence? Then do folowing:
Take a piece of paper and Draw a line on it
Draw another line cutting the first one in an undefined Angle! Draw a Point on the very first line that symbolizes youre Ship Draw a Point on the second Line that Symbolizes an enemy's Ship Imagine the two Points as Ships, and the two Lines as the direction of this vessel's Now draw a WOWS Compass in the bottom left corner (as it is there in World of Warships)
Now this is a standard Situation that happens evry time on each Battlefield!
In this case you have youre WOWS ingame Compass, imagine the situation: You wan't to report youre Teammates;
You're Course The Spot of an enemy... (we win't dusscuss heere why you would Chat about the enemy's Position, i tell you i do it often and it is important to do it often, cause you cant rely on the Team's ability to keep the Minimap in watch) The Spoted-Enemy's Direction Eventualy the point and angle of a Course-Cross-Meeting [(which is basicly the point where youre ship crosses the other ships course)/sometimes it's also the point where ships can Ram each other cause they are at this CCM in the same time]
Now if you'd have to use the WOWS instrument's only you couldnt tell this things exactly but only with a precision of 45°, you might thing now that is going to have to be enough, it's juts orientating value...
Well let my tell you this isn't true! On a Battlefield with also the pretty small Battlefields of WOWS an diffrence of 45° is fatal
Just go ahead and shoot an Enemy from a Position, then change you're Position in a bearing of 45° to the enemy's position, you will find out that you might not even by able to penetrate him anymore, even though you could before, 45° in Naval-Warfare is a drastical change!
Let's get back to the piece of Paper you have drwab or maybe not (if you haven't drawen it i think you should be able to imagine it if not daw it!)
Now take a Compass with Bearings and imagine those numbers would be in youre Compass which you have drawen in the bottom left corner!
You should be able to find out the diffrence now!
Let's try it with an Example of how youre Message could look like in WOWS:
Option A (With Compass without Bearings); I'm at E6 heading SW eventualy to F7, Spotted an enemy DD right behind my, need Help hee's going S and torping my!!! SOS
Option B (With Compass with Bearings); I'm at E6 heading SW eventualy to F7, Spotted an enemy DD Bearing 230, hee's heading S and torping my!!! SOS
(As you can see the Option B is not just more Accurate but also is smaller and spares a few important Milliseconds you can use better than writing a Message for Help!!!)
Please i dont wan't to diuscuss heere about why to write such messages or in which situation to write messages and in which not, i want to discuss how to be more accurate!
(if you still fail to see a diffrence now, you won't even see a diffrence if it would be changed, so there is no point why to be against it's introduction!)
You might give it a Try heere:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bearing_%28navigation%29
