MrFingers

Damp squib, once again. The good days of proper communitymanagement and -interaction, where each player felt valued and appreciated are once again a vague memory of the past. It was fun while it lasted, but it lasted way too short.

The concept is nice, but the "inter-server"-stuff doesn't work, since it allows for some form of abuse due to time-zones. Where a clan located more westward just can observe and keep up with what the eastward clan is doing, and when those are logging off for the night, they can then catch up and surpass their effort.

I have to say... the event ended, and so did the appearance of PEF’s in the matchmaker. I encountered 1 since 0.8.0

After a small purge where some inactive members were made to walk the plank set free, we now have some more vacant spaces, and are thus looking to expand our community. Basic Requirements: Be active in the game and be regularly on the Discord (voice chat not mandatory, but it helps), and preferably have time on Sunday afternoon (5PM EU-time, 4PM UK time) for the historic re-enactments in the Training Room. That also means: contribute to the clanbase by gathering containers for oil. Speak English. We're not expecting Oxford-English, but you must be able to express yourself in Her Majesty's language and at such a level the others can understand you. Have an adult mindset. Don't be a male reproductive organ. Banter happens, but remain respectful towards others who might have a different opinion on something. Have a passion for, or at least a noticeable interest in, the history of warships, ranging from the age of sail to "everything that isn't a SAM-missile platform". Be open for divisions. If you are in-game, and another one from HAERT is online and invites you, clicking away is frowned upon. You can get bonus points if you know Ainsley Harriott in person. What can we offer to the table: A friendly community of like-minded spirits A (relatively) no-strings-attached approach. Your winrate doesn't matter, if you do PvE only it doesn't matter,... You don't have to be in the game every day, just make sure it's regularly, and make long absences known. A decently equipped clan-base with every building researched, and apart from the Coal (II) and Steel (I) ports everything researched, so plenty of clan-discounts for techtree ships. An Alpha- & Beta- team for Clan Battles, should you have clan ambitions. Having a T10 (cruiser) is preferred, but rentals aren't frowned upon, especially not in Beta. Season after season we're getting stronger in CW's. Tutoring opportunities where a more experienced player learns you the ropes and learns you how to maximise the potential of your ship. Also a dedicated "help-channel" in the Discord. A specific PvE-evening where we tackle the scenarios as a clan. Great for farming (Free)XP. Does this sounds interesting to you? Contact @Fat_Maniac, @Dutch_Soldier, @Lions_Pride, @Isambard_Kingdom_Brunel.

In short: Carriers needed re-adjusting badly after 0.8.0, but this might have been a tad too readjusted.

Take a break, I'm also lowering my intensity gravely since 0.8.0. It keeps my sanity, and I don't have to deal with the unbalanced mess that is 0.8.0.xxxxxxxxx

Be careful what you ask for...

Maybe upgrade the rewards a bit and don't cram the real game full with time-consuming (and time-limited) stuff each and every day, and you'll get ample testers that can spend the time needed to test so farces like 0.8.0 with its botched CV mechanics, botched ranked-emblems bugs and distorted balance won't happen again (or won't be as likely).

Ah, a collection that can be completed via normal daily containers. Enough with the time-limited stuff!

The (CBT-style) AA sounds and visuals.

My wife likes it... it managed to pry me away from “those silly boats” like a band-aid that gets ripped off.

There are no (enemy) carriers in co-op.

How shall I put it... The initial shown demo-concept on a stream looked promising, but everything else that followed in the development was like watching a monkey operating an excavator: "watching from a safe distance with a bizarre mix of sheer horror and morbid amusement, and hoping at the end of the ride that nothing critical got demolished in the process". Well, you've succeeded in making 4 out of the 4 classes miserable, instead of just 1 class. non-overlapping AA-sectors: not logical and downright confusing switching AA-segments: interesting concept, but dead on arrival/ a good CV player will still wreck your day, so much for lowering the impact a CV has. Pulling all teeth from AA doesn't help it either. carriers themselves are very bland and uninspiring to play. I've played one battle, and I thoroughly never want to touch those flattops again, ever. The RTS-style was clunky, but it was more polished and enjoyable than this... And I'm not a CV main, nor did I particularly enjoy CV gameplay or encountering CV's, with me being ganked up one time too many by a superunicum. It is rushed, unbalanced and just not finished. Calling this anything better than "an early Alpha" is a huge insult. Back to the drawing board: scrap everything and strip down to the bare concept, and restart from there, taking into account the lessons you've learned from this... "thing". 0.8.0 has killed WoWS for me, due to a lethal combination of a ruined PvP-experience due to carrier-infestation, bland carrier gameplay, a mangled PvE-experience due to non-symmetrical matchmaker and the culling of over half of the operations and a mutilated Ranked season with the Arms-Race mode no-one asked for being shoved down our throats. Oh, and more time-gated content to top it all off. I'm going to sit this iteration of the game out, with a sporadic ranked or Co-Op battle every now and then. This is not the WoWS I signed up for nor that I was happy to spend time in, this is a mere spook of what once was "great with its own small flaws".

Plain and simple: IT IS NOT FUN. Ranked was all about (individualistic) team-play, strategy and forcing a win and carrying hard... Now with Arms Race it became an arcade slugfest where it doesn't matter how you play or if you use tactics, the buffs will carry you to victory or drag you to defeat. It ain't much use calling out "X used damacon, Y got a flood,...". Of all the seasons of ranked, this has to be the biggest damp squib of them all. But at least there aren't any carriers there.

I can write a whole essay about 0.8.0, but it can be perfectly summed up in short snippet. I played yesterday on my dormant NA-account, just to gauge the waters. CV rework: rushed and unbalanced (for surface vessels as well as the carriers themselves), which made PvP about as fun as being an ant on a sunny afternoon that encountered an 8 year old with a magnifying glass who just learned about "focal point". PvE isn't much better either Ranked battles could have been an escape-pod for those who don't want to brave the hordes of CV's, but then one has to endure the ArmsRace mode. It's like chosing between pest & cholera. Clan Clash Naval Battle: it's back, and it's basically free oil... but one has to brave PvP for that, see point one why that now became a hurdle. FSW-event: Oh look, a time-limited event with time-limited missions in a time-limited directive where one can earn time-limited containers for a time-limited collection. Hot on the heels on the previous time-limited event with time-limited missions in a time-limited directive where one can earn time-limited containers for a time-limited collection. What could possible go wrong with the endurance of the playerbase? Lunar New Year: looks nice on first glance, although the containers are a bit bland (as per usual since half a year in these events), and the "get lootcrates for doubloons" reeks a bit like a circumvention on the regulation of paid lootcrates, where one can still buy them via a detour (one doesn't buy the crates, one buys doubloons).

I'll sit this update out in PvP, outside ranked (until I get fed-up with the arcade-y Arms Race crap). I'll respec my captains for free, and then go PvE for a while. As for CV's, the old style was pretty bad in regards to balance, the new style is still pretty bad in regard of balance, as well as being bland (but good-looking). Solution: make carriers an AI-controlled entity that can be added to the match at random.

We're straying a bit (a lot!) off-topic here, so I'll leave it at this: easy fix: remove the short-duration timegating, and keep the content flowing. So instead of having an 8-week event chopped up in 8 individual stages with 8 starting dates and 8 end-dates, have it as consecutive stages with 1 starting day and 1 end day, and then let the player decide how to fill it in. Two birds with one stone: you can keep your events succeeding eachother rapidly, the player has the opportunity to fill in the time as he desires. Oh, and re-start with making full monthly calendars again, so one knows exactly what happens when.

@MrConway: Maybe because CM-interaction in said subforum is quite low, and it isn't known by the people you read it and pass it on? It can be perceived as this: I know you are reading that subforum, but let's be honest, not a lot of the feedback posted there is being acted on. For instance the "burning out of the playerbase" with the never relenting time-gating of everything and having events succeed eachother within minutes, without any downtime... Known issue, yet WG seems to push even harder on it with each week passing. What kind of signal does that give apart from "yeah, you can write down the feedback all you want, we might read it... but we're still doing what we think is best, so you'd better adapt or bust".

Dammit, I misclicked, I pressed "old mechanic" while I meant "current mechanic".

If they remain behind that island until 20 seconds after they have fired their last shell they won't. If they get in line-of-sight 19 seconds after they fired their guns, they will be spotted for 1 second over their maximum range.

0.8.0 in a nutshell

PEF should have looked like this. Not this... "contraption" we currently have.

Once again, I'll go for the ultimate goal: the R15 commemorative flag. Not going to bother with this arcade-y iteration any further.

Peculiar radar... should pick up the "superheavy cruisers" like Stalingrad, Alaska,... as well, since they are often the same size (or larger) than a BB from the tier-bracket they sit in.