If your boat has weapons...

For a quick reminder, click and drag any button on the HUD for one second to see a short description.
Back to the Navigation page of the HUD.
Instructions on how to control your boat.
Hints on how to sail a boat.
Setting up your sailboat.

Information for boat builders.

I imagine that every boat builer who adds weapons to their boat will make a custom HUD page to control them. Here are the buttons that I added to the weapons page of my Pirate Gunboat and the Golden Hind (that latter boat was designed by Arcady Asylum, so I cannot sell it, I use it a an example of what can be done).

Here are most of the icons and controls that can appear on the weapons page HUD and what they are supposed to mean:

I have one button like this one for every cannon on the ship. Pressing this button fires the corresponding cannon. Usually these cannon icons are arranged in approximately in a picture of their position on the boat.

Some of the buttons are set up to fire groups of cannon. For example, one button to fire all the port side cannons, another for the starboard cannons. And another for the bow cannons.

This yellow slider sets the "charge" of the next cannon to fire and determines how fast the cannonball leave the barrel. Moving the slider all the way to the left puts in only enough gunpowder to fire the cannon at 20 m/s. Sliding it all the way to the right puts in the largest charge and the cannon fires at 50 m/s.

As your ship takes damage from other cannons, the skull and crossbones in this damage meter filles up with red (blood!). When the red gets to the top, you boat explodes and sinks. The example meter at the left shows the damage level at about one half or 50%.

The cannon can be aimed with this widget. Click anywhere on the rectangular area of this target, and all the corresponding cannon swing to the corresponding angle. Yes, one aim crosshair can aim a group of cannon, typicall port starbord and bow. Because this widget can send a lot of messages and cause a lot of parts to move, you are not allowed to click-and-drag on the widget. You have to choose an aim direction, click there, and release before clicking at a different aim point. The example to the left shows the green crosshair up and to the right of center. Clicking there caused the green crossgair to move to the poont you clicked and the cannon to slew up and to the right. Each cannon can have a different range of angles it can slew to. For example, cannon mounted pointing through holes in the sides of a ship may be limited to only a few degrees left, right, up and down,.

This button causes the HUD to "hide", to shrink up and to the left into a single button. Once you have your course set and your sails trimmed, you can move the HUD out of the way with this button to free up more of your screen for the view. When the weapons HUD is not visible, you can still fire the cannon one at a time by clicking on them.

The HUD shrinks down into this little green arrow when hidden. Pressing the greed button causes the HUD to stretch down and to the right back into the main navitgation page.

Pressing this button will bring up this WEB page in your browser to help you control your weapons. It brings up this WEB page you are reading now!

Pressing this button changes the HUD to a page of setting options for the boat.

Clicking on this button will bring back the main page of navigation tools for your boat.

Pressing this button will make the HUD exit, detaching itself from your screen.

For a quick reminder, click and drag any button on the HUD for one second to see a short description.
Back to the Navigation page of the HUD.
Setting up your sailboat.
Instructions on how to control your boat.
Hints on how to sail a boat.
Information for boat builders.

	I have one button like this one for every cannon on the ship. Pressing this button fires the corresponding cannon. Usually these cannon icons are arranged in approximately in a picture of their position on the boat.
	Some of the buttons are set up to fire groups of cannon. For example, one button to fire all the port side cannons, another for the starboard cannons. And another for the bow cannons.
	This yellow slider sets the "charge" of the next cannon to fire and determines how fast the cannonball leave the barrel. Moving the slider all the way to the left puts in only enough gunpowder to fire the cannon at 20 m/s. Sliding it all the way to the right puts in the largest charge and the cannon fires at 50 m/s.
	As your ship takes damage from other cannons, the skull and crossbones in this damage meter filles up with red (blood!). When the red gets to the top, you boat explodes and sinks. The example meter at the left shows the damage level at about one half or 50%.
	The cannon can be aimed with this widget. Click anywhere on the rectangular area of this target, and all the corresponding cannon swing to the corresponding angle. Yes, one aim crosshair can aim a group of cannon, typicall port starbord and bow. Because this widget can send a lot of messages and cause a lot of parts to move, you are not allowed to click-and-drag on the widget. You have to choose an aim direction, click there, and release before clicking at a different aim point. The example to the left shows the green crosshair up and to the right of center. Clicking there caused the green crossgair to move to the poont you clicked and the cannon to slew up and to the right. Each cannon can have a different range of angles it can slew to. For example, cannon mounted pointing through holes in the sides of a ship may be limited to only a few degrees left, right, up and down,.
	This button causes the HUD to "hide", to shrink up and to the left into a single button. Once you have your course set and your sails trimmed, you can move the HUD out of the way with this button to free up more of your screen for the view. When the weapons HUD is not visible, you can still fire the cannon one at a time by clicking on them.
	The HUD shrinks down into this little green arrow when hidden. Pressing the greed button causes the HUD to stretch down and to the right back into the main navitgation page.
	Pressing this button will bring up this WEB page in your browser to help you control your weapons. It brings up this WEB page you are reading now!
	Pressing this button changes the HUD to a page of setting options for the boat.
	Clicking on this button will bring back the main page of navigation tools for your boat.
	Pressing this button will make the HUD exit, detaching itself from your screen.