Verblonde

This (very good, although I wouldn't exclude CVs, believe it or not) idea comes up quite frequently, especially now that submarines are almost everywhere. Sadly, it'll probably never happen (unless WG's income craters horribly, and perhaps not even then): As mentioned earlier, it would probably kill the queues for whichever class was being escaped from. It would be a de facto admission that submarines were a mistake, and WG almost never admit to making mistakes. I'm afraid that if - like me - you find PvP with submarines intolerable, the only escape is to retreat to PvE and the remaining few PvP modes that don't have submarines, or stop playing. I'm a mixture of both, personally...

Presumably, WG are not *entirely* stupid; they'll be aware that - of the forum population - something like only 15% of us (+/-) think submarines should be in the game in their present form; given that, the forum is probably not a channel that's it's worth spending much time on if you're trying to market the damn things. Conversely, I suspect that actively marketing submarines on the forum is more likely to have a net negative impact on income as it'll remind a chunk of the players how angry they are about having half-baked submarines forced on us (in the game's primary modes), which is probably a less than ideal mindset to have people in if you want to extract money from them.

Aye, in Coop they're can be worthwhile, although the speed differential thing is still a problem. The key issue that makes DCs rarely useful (if not downright counter-productive) for DDs is the spotting thing; while you're getting into position to drop, the enemy team will normally take you to the cleaners, unless they're idiots. Recently, I've been playing the occasional submarine game in Coop; I've been horribly sunk by DCs several times (usually when trying to play too manly*)... *Understanding, of course, that there is no such thing as *too* manly.

Thanks! As I've mentioned elsewhere, I've withdrawn from Randoms; in Coop, the air-dropped ASW seems pretty powerful - at least in some cases - but the Coop experience doesn't usually translate well to PvP, so I consider myself ill-informed on this stuff these days. This was largely why I withdrew; submarines take the fun out of PvP games that they're in for me. PvE rather less so: although the overtaxing of DCP is still irritating, the spotting issues are far less important against bots.

I was under the impression that BBs have among the most effective ASW in the game (aside from CVs' automatic version) - is that not the case?

This. It amazes me that there are apparently a few forum denizens who still don't understand the fundamental objections to submarines; I don't think most of us would object nearly as much if submarines were OP and fun to play against...

I occasionally wonder if WG are making some sort of Producers type play i.e. deliberately trying to drive the game into a ditch for some sort of dubious tax-related reasons...

Won't try to change your mind; there are basically two practical options besides not participating (which is what I'm doing with the current one; I'll almost certainly get Alliance from a Satan Box at Christmas, if WG haven't succeeded in driving me away entirely by then, whether I want her or not): You get the 'big prize' (whatever it is - Alliance in the current example) in the first bundle, in which case it might be worth getting. YMMV of course. If you have the money spare, assume you'll have to buy all the bundles and calculate value accordingly. It's also worth noting that it appears (to me, anyway) that WG are currently in the process of dialling back the value in things like this (cf the rewards in successive Battle Passes) to see what they can get away with, so it's a good general policy to check any kind of multi-stage offer in the game before opening wallet to check the most current value proposition i.e. don't assume that because the last one may have been worthwhile for you that the new one will be as well.

Guessing, but is it possible for the rockets to hit in sequence? i.e. if the rockets move towards their target across a straight line, and if the target isn't running exactly parallel to that line, then the rockets won't hit at the same moment. So, rocket one removes x hp, rocket two removes y hp, and so on until you're past the 75% threshold. I vaguely recall this general sort of thing can happen with sequential gunfire...

I imagine there are a few factors in play: Last time, there was presumably pressure to produce 'results' in terms of customer engagement with submarines, and the more generous premium boat offer would have been part of that. Alliance is a museum boat, which people from - theoretically - a rich server might be more interested in (if the submarine implementation didn't blow goats, I'd have bought her on day one), so perhaps lessening the need for 'extra value' in the bundles. I get the impression that WG are going through one of their periodic exercises where they reduce the value on paid-for content, to try and ascertain at what point people stop spending. I did actually look through the bundles that include Alliance, but the 'other' stuff isn't nearly valuable enough for me to open my wallet; I'll wait until Satan Boxes. Who knows, they may even have made submarines less carp by then...?

I'm not: the bulk of the submarine enthusiasts seem to lack some key critical thinking capabilities (with a few noble exceptions), so why wouldn't WG rinse them? Got to keep the lights on... I imagine Alliance will be the first thing to fall out of next winter's Satan Boxes though, before I get anything decent that I might be missing, so no need to spend now.

(Bonus points for having a more diverse selection of profanity at your disposal: it's easier to express yourself on - say - forums without walking into a profanity filter and/or a ban from any overly-sensitive moderators in the vicinity.)

A while ago, I got a qualification in the area of English tuition; my final (I think) assignment was an essay explaining why you should teach your students to swear (and understand other less profane colloquialisms). Amongst other reasons, it enables you to function better in a native-speaking environment. For example, the British tend to swear. A lot. Their cursing tends to be more diverse than - say - in North America, so if you don't comprehend slang/swearing you're missing out on understanding a not insignificant sub-set of the language.

"Egad!" "Is that entirely wise, sir?"

I'm sure we can help on that front - the forum populace are (mostly) very helpful when it comes to providing essential information to those keen to learn...

Glib summary: play less and pay less! There's still fun to be had, in Coop and submarine-free modes, but as the latter become fewer in number, I'll eventually be pushed out. This is not conducive to spending the money I used to. On the up-side, playing submarine-free modes (and Ops effectively moving to T8) has resulted in a significant shift in the ships I'm playing, which has freshened things up a bit.

Yet 9/10 times it does - I think it's very reasonable for the Ops enthusiasts to be anxious.

Not sure about 'horror', but whoever coded the Coop MM would be - were they an ice-cream flavour - Pralines & Richard:

Good question - let's see what WG say, before reaching for the torches and pitchforks, but it wouldn't surprise me that they'd shaft the Ops enthusiasts. WG: for the avoidance of doubt, reducing the number of available non-gimmick modes without submarines in is not going to make me play modes with submarines in; it will simply make me play other games.

For the good of my blood pressure, I try - as much as possible - to disconnect what I'm seeing on the screen from what I remember from reading the various books; besides allowing a more relaxed game of spot the "rubbish/nonsense/made-up" bits, it reduces the chances of an aneurysm... For example, that sort of approach made the Hobbit trilogy tolerable (although, to be fair, same as with LOTR I've only ever seen the extended versions, which may make a difference)...

<waves shyly> Mind you, I'm probably the only person on the planet who didn't work out right away which one Sauron was...

I tend to just ignore anyone who apparently doesn't know that British ships are 'she/her'...

The only thing that remains to be seen is if WG will continue with the practice of whatever the Prime drop was being an intermediary reward in the early access missions or bundles, so reducing its value to a modest amount of silver...

Harsh, but fair...!