Line of Sight

Introduction

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, or known as Simple LoS) 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 bonuses 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 has been employed in many Event Maps since Spring 2014 Event, Extra Operation Maps (including 1-6, 2-5, 3-5, 4-5), and some World 6 Maps.
  • There are special formulas being used to calculate eLoS. As a general consensus, LoS bonuses from equipment (especially reconnaissance seaplanes) are more important than an individual ship's LoS stats.
  • See sections below for the currently established formula on how to calculate eLoS.
• Reconnaissance Seaplane equipped on a light cruiser with no plane slots can contribute to LoS. But if it is equipped onto ships and then shot down, it cannot contribute to LoS check performed afterward.

Effective Line of Sight calculation method

Formula 33

The current standard for LoS routing calculations.  It is described as follows:

$\begin{align} \phi &= \sum_{s \in \text{Ships}} \sqrt{L_s} + C_{n} \sum_{l \in \text{Slots}}C_{l} ( S_{l} + S_l^{\star} ) - \lceil 0.4 H \rceil + 2(6-N) \\ S_l^{\star} &= C_l^{\star} \cdot \sqrt{\bigstar_l} \end{align}$

• $L_{s}$is the ship's base LoS
• $C_n$is the node factor, it represents the weighting of the formula that is known to vary across different maps and nodes. For example, in 6-2, the node factor of C_n = 3 means that equipment is 3 times as important compared to the original formula (as tested in 6-2-F/H). See following section for more details.
• $C_{l}$is the equipment multiplier:
  • Carrier-Based Fighter: 0.6
  • Carrier-Based Dive Bomber: 0.6
  • Carrier-Based Torpedo Bomber: 0.8
  • Carrier-Based Reconnaissance Aircraft: 1
  • Reconnaissance Seaplane: 1.2
  • Seaplane Bomber: 1.1
  • Small Radar: 0.6
  • Large Radar: 0.6
  • ASW Patrol Aircraft: 0.6
  • Searchlight (Small and Large): 0.6
  • Fleet Command Facility: 0.6
  • SCAMP: 0.6
  • Skilled Lookouts: 0.6
  • Sonar: 0.6
  • Large Flying Boat: 0.6
  • Seaplane Fighter: 0.6
  • Midget Submarine: 0.6
• $S_{l}$is the displayed LoS value of the equipment
• $S_l^{\star}$is the equipment's improvement bonus to eLoS
  • This is calculated by multiplying$C_l^{\star}$, the improvement multiplier of that equipment, with the square root of the equipment's improvement level.
    • The improvement multiplier of Small Radars is 1.25, Large Radars is 1.4, Reconnaissance Seaplanes is 1.2, and Searchlight is 0 (that is, it receives no eLoS bonus when improved)
• $H$is the HQ level. The ceil operation means that the value is rounded up every 2.5 HQ levels.
• $N$represents the amount of ships you have in your fleet.
  • It is unknown whether this value increases mid-sortie if a ship disappears from your fleet (e.g. sinking).

Equipment LoS weighting modifier

• Also known as node factor
• In some maps, weighting of equipment would be higher than that others.
• It is represented as C_n in the formula.
• For all tested nodes, C_n for 2-5 is 1, for 3-5 and 6-1 are 4, for 6-2 and 6-3 are 3.
  • That mean equipment LoS are 3 times more important in 6-2 and 6-3 compare to 2-5 and four time as important in 3-5 and 6-1.
  • In other words, ship LoS are less effective in those maps with higher equipment weighting modifier.
• In 2-5, F33(C_n=1) have to be larger than 31 to have a chance to enter boss and 33 to guarantee boss entry.
• In 6-2, F33(C_n=3) have to be less than 43 to guarantee F>H and more than 40 to guarantee H>K

Special Notice to users of KCV v.4.2.5 as well as older version of some other software

• Please update your software to a more recent version which patched a calculation mistake.