Silvercat18

This, basically. They are so easily killed that they will get a poor impression of the game. CV's are making mincemeat of them.

I found stock to be best, up until ranger where I went anti-air. Then its back to stock. Most of the other options are downgrades, which is daft.

Too much information there. Maybe pick 3 changes to discuss?

Worth checking the keybinds - I have at least one that is double bound that I cant change (accelerating makes my map move upwards in CV air mode).

I got told to take my carrier "back from the front line and out of danger" the other day. Sad thing was I hadn't moved much from the starting point.....the entire team had gone backwards, away from the enemy, behind our cap and thus I was "in front". Its like that comedy sketch where they ask for a volunteer to step forward and instead everyone but me stepped backwards. Its a real problem when playing an American CV without torpedo bombers, because they are reliant on the team actually getting into the fight and causing initial damage. Makes me want to get on my battleship and go "hey guys, enemy is that way" and go show them how its done, guns blazing.

Maybe this was the case back in alpha, but where CV's are now, I`d be more worried about a group of any other class.

There are a lot of BB captains out there who would do better in a cruiser. To play a BB you need to have some courage and the ability to go towards the enemy while taking fire. Battleships form the backbone of a fleet and if that backbone is weak, then the other ships fall out of formation and lose coordination. Basically, drive towards the enemy, keep shooting, keep the ship in one piece and the rest of the fleet will hammer the enemies into scrap.

All I can say is that the Cleveland must have been on the wrong side of the carrier. One of those can usually destroy any amount of aircraft that get near it.

I`ve done this a few times with my USN auto drops. Its bizarre and not intentional.

Its the new CV weapon - lag torpedo! Sinks whole servers.

The guns start being truly effective at tier 5. As to the torpedoes, the American DD's tend to get twice as many, because they have side mounts and not swivel mounts (or mix the two so that there is still a numerical advantage). Basically, the American DD is superior, so long as you aren't trying to be a sneaky super ninja. They are more thug style than ninja assassin.

Its the compensation the US carrier players get for having to rely on dive bombers to do their damage. Basically, the US ships are sacrificing their own XP in order to be credit to team.

That is a lot of players - which is awesome!

I struggled with phoenix. I guess its one of those ships that is either great for a player or their worst ship.

The Wyoming is a very effective battleship - it is tough and has great firepower. It's as slow as a cow and has terrible range, but if you want to get into some serious action, that shouldn't be a problem. Basically, its like a big, drunken, angry man.

It's best to alternate between two ships at the very least. A quick death in a game is just an opportunity to have a crazy fun game in something with a different playstyle. I alternate between carrier and destroyer.

I`m about to get a bogue and was pondering the same problem. I`m going to go with the 2 fighter 1 DB loadout. My reasoning is that there are a heck of a lot of IJN carrier players at the moment and a good chunk of those seem to be making attacks against the carrier as a priority. With two fighters, I`ll be much safer. The xp wont be as good, but I have been meaning to give dive bombers a proper road test, so it will be an interesting experience at least.

I think once we get the metagame and clans, things will work out ok.

The best tactic is simply to be a cruiser. When I play CV I do shoot cruisers, but they are not preferred targets and I`d expect to lose planes to their AA so I wont engage them unless there are no battleships about or unless the cruiser really needs to be destroyed for the benefit of the team. If in doubt, move with another cruiser and no cv captain will engage you unless they really have to, because the AA of two cruisers is lethal.

There are a couple of ways to play battleships. I think that the most common pointer is that battleships are reliant on fleet sailing - they need to be with other ships and other ships benefit from their presence. A battleship draws and withstands a lot of fire and allows weaker ships to shoot safely. In return those ships protect the battleship from air attack and often deliver killing blows with torpedoes while the battleship is reloading. A battleship on its own is vulnerable, but there are some circumstances where it is necessary for one to be alone, its just that this is not the situation you want to be in most of the time. Getting in close is good and don't be afraid of torpedoes, be mindful of them instead and think about avoiding them. Avoid sailing in straight lines, because torpedoes need to be aimed with anticipation and even a slight change of direction or speed can help you avoid them. A battleship's guns will mangle a destroyer, so mostly they are just as scared of you as you are of them. They will wait for you to be distracted, or will take note of the direction of your slow-tunring guns, so they can attack without reprisal. Getting "late to the action" is usually something American battleships suffer from. However, it isn't really your fault. There are a lot of cruiser captains at the moment who are not working with the battleships and are thus running ahead and getting flattened. Good players will be mindful of where the battleships are and will base their movement on yours. You will often see battleship players taking command or giving direction to the team as their ship is pivotal for success in their area of the map. As a Japanese battleship captain, you have range and lots of it, but there are a few brawlers later in the line that have formidable secondary guns. American battleships are more built to brawl and have much shorter range than you, on the whole. Even so, the closer you are to the enemy, the quicker they die, so don't aim to stay at range, just make good use of it to soften the enemy up a bit, or to take shots of opportunity. In short, never play subtle. You are big, awesome and very tough, even against torpedoes and you can self heal. Use all of these things to club your opponents like the seals they are you will find yourself surrounded by your fellows, eager to follow you into battle.

Well, I`m back in the game after getting my new rig set up - but I`m not in a carrier.....yet. They certainly made the path to getting one unpleasant - first I have to grind a cruiser, then a battleship of the same tier, then one of the next tier and finally I can get a carrier - that's pretty grim and its no surprise that only dedicated people are putting up with that and continuing into the CV class. I`ll have one today, an American one (which is a story in itself...I`m choosing the less entertaining carrier faction and seeing if I can stand it). However as I prefer the Japanese BB to the American, does that mean all my effort to getting that carrier just gets thrown away as "busywork" and hoops to jump through? All this adds up to there being very few carriers and MM struggling....well, If I crumble and have to go back to Japanese CV's I guess I have to do it all again.

Well, still waiting for my new computer so I can install and play again - but it seems my profile doesn't exist? Do I need to log on and off or something for it to wake up again?

If the American carriers have the traditional torpedo spread, I`ll grind them. Much as I loved the Japanese ones, I am not playing with the nerfed "training wheels" spread they gave the IJN.

Well, my computer melted, so I am having to wait till OBT, by which time I will likely have picked up a replacement (typing this on a laptop). I`ve kept an eye on the forums and its disheartening to see that the "balance" for cv's involves destroying utterly the playstyle of whatever one seems most effective. Its completely daft that the US ones are now better in both strike and fighter configurations. I just hope that by the time open beta comes, the constant radical changes will be over, because currently each week makes some CV's godlike and most of the others unplayable. It is too disorienting to allow proper testing and consistently damages the class that struggles the most. If it doesn't settle, then I simply wont reinstall when I get my new computer. I got my money's worth when I bought into beta, but the game I and others enjoyed became further and further a thing of the past with each patch released.

Yes, I think he is comparing the smokescreen to the sort of cloudbank one may see from a high mountain. He does have a point, though the meaning of the initial post was itself somewhat...obscured.