TheCinC

Where are the patch notes? They would be useful, so we know what to look for. I also noticed that our previous progress hasn't been reset entirely, leaving me with ships I already had and accumulated XP. I like that. Too bad there are no premium ships around this time though.

I'm sure they would, but as Ph3lan explained and I expected, see my earlier posts, they want to know if it can be done and if there are any roadblocks. NOTHING would be worse right now than an announcement followed by some unsuspected snafu causing them to be unable to be deliver, or have to announce it won't be done before the stated date. Trust is already leaking everywhere, if they botch this up, there will be little to none left.

This happened to me once too, ticket in English, response in Spanish. Next time, same guy got me a response that completely ignored my question. Other than those two examples, I've mostly been happy with their customer service, especially when I had a problem with making payment.. oh wait.. Good to see there will be more tomorrow. The campaign is already up on the PTS, but let's not forget, there is only ONE PTS, which explains the Russians constantly speaking in Russian and not talking to anyone else. So that probably does not mean very much. We shall see, tomorrow. But I think we all agree that fixing the immediate problem is the first step, the next step will be about finally improving communication. I've posted some suggestions, if others have better ones, put them here, they will be seen.. We can see you Ph3lan..

You are genuinely surprised that you get the official response through that route as well, instead of them coming up with something new entirely, at risk of creating confusion and even more trouble?

@Ph3lan: Thanks for the update, even if you have nothing concrete to share as yet, I fully understand things like this are more complicated than they seem for outsiders. Like someone else already said, it would be a good idea to have at least some indication of how much time you think you are going to need to come up with something. Are we talking days, weeks, months? Maybe some explanation as of the issues involved as well, to help those of us who feel our patience has been tested enough in the past, or who think there would be a simple solution, understand. I've already tried to make the point that this is more complicated than it looks, but some people doubt that and I don't work at WG. Furthermore, as this problem was caused by a lack of communication, I for one would appreciate it if we could get a heads up of what you are thinking of doing, at least when the decision has been made, so we can provide feedback. Even if you decide to implement the convoy missions, the way it is done could matter a lot to us, if it turns out to be impractical or a too short time period, shorter than what the other servers had. That said, I can understand if other servers would grumble if we get them in sequence, while they get them simultaneously, so it would be best if the solution was fair to other servers as well. I for one am not looking to get something better than the other servers got, but at this point, doing things the same way is no longer possible either. Furthermore, the underlying problem is one of communication. That issue has been raised many times now, with each issue that arose. As I pointed out earlier, and other people with me, if the people in charge really thought they were doing us a favour with this course of action, they were wrong. Some people have made the point that we'd expect you and your colleagues, if asked for feedback, would have told them in no uncertain terms that this was a bad idea. Sorry if I sound insulting when I say this, but I don't think anyone here believes that anyone with any clue about the game OR the playerbase would not have been able to see that this move was ill advised. I just can't think of a way to phrase it more diplomatically, the gap between expectation and reality is just too great. So either the decision makers, at WG or WG EU or both, are too far removed from the game and the playerbase, or at least not using the resources they have and did not run this by the proper people: you and your immediate colleagues. In any case, these decision makers are certainly not using the forums to full effect. That, in my opinion, is actually the main issue: poor communication. Not timely, sometimes not at all, often imprecise, without enough back and forth, which results in poor decision making that upsets players. The immediate issue, the convoy missions, needs to be addressed, absolutely, but that can only be the first step. Please make the point on our behalf that your job and that of your colleagues is a crucial one, together with that of the customer service department. You are on the frontlines, wading into topics like this at your own risk, taking flak as you do it, but it should not be necessary to do damage control if things were thought out better in advance! Prevention is better than a cure, so to speak. I personally feel there should be a dedicated WoWs EU representative, don't think that would be hard to accomplish, at least on a temporary basis, that is an 'experiment' I could get behind! I would also like more interaction with the Devs. On Reddit, there is a regular Q&A with Octavian, I believe. Why is there no such thing on the EU forum? I am also not aware of such a thing existing on other forums, except the Russian one. Why not? I for one would like more visibility of the Devs. Case in point: in the thread 'questions from the community' the last official response was that questions had been collected. It has been, what, three weeks now? Still no answer to the last round of questions. How is that even possible? No answer to my question what is going on either, if I missed something, just a lot of people there now grumbling about the convoy missions.. A dedicated representative and a regular Q&A would help streamline communication a lot. Please put this matter to your superiors as well, if you have not done so yet. Otherwise, in a few days, weeks, or months, we will be back where we started. All of this has happened before, but it does not need to happen again.. I am asking for an improvement on this front with added urgency, due to the upcoming 0.6.0 version of the game. We will see in the afternoon what is actually in it, so far, I haven't seen any patch notes either, but they have the potential to make or break the game. Even if the update is terrific, there is the issue of compensation. With a new set of captain's skills, it should go without saying that we get a free respec for every captain, but so far, no official word on that, we just have to trust WG to deal with this. Umm, we are not really trusting WG very much in matters like this, especially not here at EU server, in the current situation. I hope it is blindingly obvious that a free respec, or something similar, like the temporary reduction in its costs that we had before, is essential. Not stating that up front is just creating unnecessary confusion. Because as the convoy missions issue illustrates, sometimes WG (EU) misses even the blindingly obvious.. That all said, I hope it is clear that I have the utmost respect for you and your team. It takes courage to not hunker down in a bunker with all these fireworks! It takes courage to be the voice of a company at times like this, especially when you can't tell people what they want to hear, no matter how much you want to, or what is being said and done behind closed doors. I do hope you all had a pleasant Christmas anyway and wish you all a very nice New Year! Let's hope things are better in 2017!

Why are people complaining about this? You can disable them by deselecting the filter. Which should not have been enabled unless you had the Yokosuka port enabled. Which should not have been selected unless you were actively trying to grind the ARP ships. You should not have any, unless you had the port enabled right? So how do so many people accidentally end up with ships they did not want?

Just noticed that when you play ARP Takao and have voiceover settings at enabled, English and National, ALL messages are the ARP Takao ones, not just yours, but those of your allies/enemies as well.

You can just get it in addition to another rank 4 skill? There are plenty captains with 15 skill points (or more) around. If it works the same way as before, you need 10 points to get up to and including rank 4. And as a BB captain, why would you not get this skill? DD or CA sitting in smoke, toasting you? BOOM. Headshot.

It does sound as if this will turn into 'Operation: hide behind the fatty', DDs taking cover behind allies. Gosh this is going to be great..

Downloading the client as I am browsing this, was looking for the patch notes, have they been posted yet? And based on past experience, I don't even know why I would continue to bother with the PTS, if not for being able to test new builds and ships I don't have/play on live.

That's the point, even if they saw flaws in the campaign, if they had the freedom to remove parts of it, that implies they had the freedom to remove restrictions. There were many ways to resolve the perceived issues.

I do think you misunderstand the message. Management is aware of the problem and thinking about steps to be taken. Until they decide what to do, and how, they have literally nothing to announce, but it may take a few days at least before they decide on a plan. They have a vested interest in keeping us happy, if everyone stops spending money on this game, it will become untenable. Just have a little more patience.

That is not what it says at all. Management is looking into it, that is what counts. Other than that, obviously, if you get hundreds of active players clamouring on the forum like this, it is clear you have to do better next time, it would be a very bad business model otherwise.

I am not so sorry for the person or the people who made the decision, they should have known better, if they did not see this coming, then, sheesh... I do however feel sorry for the people who have had no say in the matter and will now have to be called in to clean up the mess. But I was much more trying to make the point, that even if we do get our way in this matter, then that will take time and then that will still only be the first steps. The next steps, preventing a recurrence, are more important to me. I don't just want this problem to be resolved, I want things to be better in the future.

Those are the steps that can be reasonably expected at a time like this. You think they would have given such an admittedly vague answer if they had already decided on a course of action? I am just trying to explain, that even if we do win, which I currently certainly don't rule out, we have to have patience. You can hate on the official response, I get where you are coming from if you do, but I am trying to explain there is a different way of seeing it.

Not necessary. Had a good game with my Yama yesterday. We won, my ship survived, sank two enemies, had premium, still made a loss in credits. In a good game where the enemy team gets wiped out, you have to do really, really well to make a profit.

Over 1700 replies and almost 120 k views and still going strong.. Time for some perspective: Rest assured the necessary people got the message. No, they have not immediately given us a promise of what they will do, but that is good, no empty promises either. No, just putting up the original patch probably won't work, it will take at least some coding to make everything work, if just to adjust dates and stuff. Patches usually take weeks, so be ready for that. No, they have not said they won't give us the convoy missions either and I think it is telling that they haven't ruled that out. But if they do give us the missions and give us more time, other servers may feel it is unfair, so they may need to find a way around that too. No, a simple apology won't do, I am pretty sure they will see that too, it will just take some time before we hear anything definitive. The quoted post by Crysantos is informative too. Right now, they are deciding on what steps to be taken, if they are practical, what resources they will need, who needs to sign off, if people need to come back from their holidays and be paid overtime, stuff like that. Until they have made those decisions, we just have to wait, be patient. But clearly, especially with the very visible support from various community contributors, whom we really owe a hearty thank you, this is too big to ignore. Let's hope this provides the momentum for change, not just for us getting these missions, but for better interaction with EU server in the future.

The second part is a bit naive. People are not just going to quit their jobs and work somewhere else. They probably have bills to pay, often a family to look after. I don't have the latter, but even I would not just jump ship if something happened at my job that I am not happy about. I'd try to address it, change things for the better. I also look at switching to NA server a bit in that light, let's make a stand here, so that we do not need to switch. As for speaking out, do you expect an employee to badmouth their company and join us here in this thread? No, they can't, it would be grounds for termination. It is also not helpful to us, we need them to make the case to their bosses that enough people are upset that this needs to be dealt with. And I doubt that a topic with, what is it now, over 100.000 views, over 1500 replies (!) is going to go unnoticed and will be swept under the rug. I don't read that in Ph3lan's response either. It is: message received, looking into this, will let you know, may take some time. That is just the way things are, that is what I would have hoped for. Again, this is not fixed with the push of a button. But it is getting late here, going to sleep. Stay classy people.. Good night!

No, it probably is not that simple. Every large patch is tested for quite some time. I know a bit about the process and for something like WoWs it will involve a lot of work. There is usually at least a few weeks between patches for a reason. Plus people will be off for the holidays. Like Ph3lan said, they are looking at options, not making promises, but, unfortunately, whatever they decide, it may take a while. In the end, it is the result that counts, we don't want a botched job, a game that crashes, do we? What we want is to be taken seriously, that they fix this properly, no matter how long it takes. Preferably sooner rather than later, but if they decide to fix this by giving us the convoy missions somehow, then I am sure they will do so as quickly as possible. I understand many here want this to be fixed today, but that does not seem realistic. I understand many of us here are disappointed by the response posted by Ph3lan, but please see the difference between the message and the messenger. What I am reading is: we are taking this seriously, will think about options, decide on a plan and then inform you further. Don't give up now, don't get impatient.

The current version of the game is different because of the removal of the campaign. So even if they decide it would be best to just give us the campaign, the way to do it would involve a patch. It is not a simple push of a button, I am sure. Which is one reason why I think this was a very deliberate act, but one that I hope they have now found out was the wrong option to choose. The fact that they are considering steps to be taken is, in my opinion, hopeful. It would be far easier to say: sorry, but this is the way it is, take it or leave it. But they don't. No doubt Ph3lan & co have made it very clear to the decision makers that, as I am pretty sure, this uproar is unprecedented on this forum. So hopefully, those decision makers will come to the conclusion that something needs to be done, and work from that. So now, I suggest patience, as pushing for a quick solution will probably only lead to more disappointment and frustration.

I'd put it differently, but yeah, admitting guilt and promising to rectify the situation would go a long way. Trust is easier lost than gained and actions are louder than words. And this is not the first time something like this has happened. It should be clear to WG (EU) by now something needs to be done. Not only does the issue need to be addressed, steps need to be taken to prevent stuff like this from happening again and again, as it has so far. I still see it as shooting yourself in the foot, can't understand how this could have happened. It is in the company's interest to resolve this matter fully, unequivocally. I do hope they got the message though, it is clear that they are at least considering steps to be taken other than yet another attempt at explaining/apologizing it away. That is good. So don't give up hope, even if you are disappointed that so far we have nothing concrete, things like this don't change overnight and empty promises are easy too. This is when we need to be patient, but show resolve. If we want things to change, mistakes like this not to be made again, then we need to make our stand here. Who knows.. we might win this time. And in my opinion, as I illustrated before, that would be a win for WG (EU) as well. A happy customer is a returning customer and one that will be more likely to spend money on this game. Right now I am not happy, but like, I think, all of us, I still want this game to succeed. Going to NA, leaving behind all my progress and accepting a higher ping, is not the solution I want. I want to be heard and things to be better in the future, so I can keep loving and playing this game. Oh and remember: at least be polite, use your words, count to ten if need be. Constructive criticism is much more useful, angry words will just get moderated, and we are interacting with people, not a faceless company. People who need to go back and forth between us and their superiors and who, no doubt, had other plans for the final days of the year.

I hear ya.. Then again, I did not expect them to say: we felt you had too much money, and they had already put the line out there that they did this to 'help' us. Boy, I don't know if I want 'help' like that ever again..

BTW, I just realized, threatening to go to the NA server might not be the best idea. It decreases server load for EU, which I understand is more populated than NA, plus it may allow them to sell the same stuff twice. Even if you threaten to never spend a dime on WG products ever again, even if you fully intend to follow through, someone, somewhere is going to make a calculation how many people need to live up to that threat for it to become a problem. Plus, it will probably come across poorly, no matter how justified we feel. Instead, please try to think positive, help give them reasons to fix this. I can think of a few: 1) Keep their player base happy, especially the many active players who are invested in this game, which us forumites are part of 2) Keep those of us with deeper pockets happy to spend money on this game 3) Turn the negative feeling of many EU players around and stop the current flood of negative PR 4) Get positive PR for addressing a problem, instead of ignoring it, that alone is rare for computer games. It may lead to free advertisement, word of mouth, even if just to our friends/casual players

@Ph3lan, thanks for the reply and I hope you're okay under all of this. Thank you for taking this to the appropriate people and thanks again for giving us their reply. I am not over the moon, but it is something at least. Anyway, guys, please settle down a bit, the humour is okay, but this is more or less what we could've expected, no need to be surprised or to get angry with Ph3lan, don't shoot the messenger, he is just doing his job. As I said, even if they want to turn 180 around and drop the convoy missions on us, it takes time to implement that. At least, they first need to make sure it is feasible. If they make a promise to do so and can't keep it, things are going to get really hairy and if they bug something, we're in trouble too. I think it is a good (for a certain level of goodness) sign that they are at least stating that they are contemplating their options. They are certainly not categorically stating that they won't implement convoy missions. So, at least there is hope on that front. Best case scenario, they are implemented for us, and, to prevent other servers getting angry, other servers get a bit of extra time, while in the future, they do better. For now, we have to be patient again, and wait to see, but the immediate issue (the convoy missions) may be addressed. Furthermore, they at least appear to listen, and may give in to our demands this time, instead of just apologizing and doing squat. We shall have to wait and see, but this is potentially better than what happened with the secret reward last time. So the secondary problem (poor communication) may be improved as well, maybe they can learn from past mistakes after all.. That said, I don't buy the explanation given for a second, but that is just Ph3lan stating the official WG position, I agree, these are probably not his words. As we've established, a chance at unlocking something is better than none, more content is almost by definition better than less, it is blindingly obvious that this was a bad move, no matter what the reasons were. Like I said, if there is someone at WG (EU) who honestly thought they were doing us a favour, that person is wrong. If there are multiple people who thought that, then they are wrong. So IF this is the true reason for them doing what they did, boy, they have a lot to learn.. Like I also said, next time, they should consult with the community, not make decisions for us and then watch the forum servers burst into flames, they should think of the poor hamsters! As for talking to whomever made these decisions, that is unlikely to happen, in my experience as a customer service representative, and, like I pointed out, said person may or may not even speak English. So don't hold out too much hope for that and I certainly advise you not to insult the people actually doing the sometimes difficult job of representing a company we are currently not very happy with.. It will accomplish nothing to belittle them or insult them, it will certainly not be unwise to be at least polite, even if you don't like the message they bring. We have this now, we have to wait for anything concrete, but let's keep it civil, but let's stay on point. Don't be distracted by the whole discussion on goods and products and whatnot, I did not even get a reply when I made two posts trying to clarify the matter, so I am not taking that very seriously. Maybe not all of us agree on this matter, but by and large, boy, we do and at least we've been noticed. Which was not that hard.. How many pageviews is this? And even as I am typing this there are at least 11 new posts.. whew!

I want more detonations.. of forts! That'll teach 'em!