Verblonde

Dev Blog (Captains' Skills, in case anyone hasn't seen it yet): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/141

This. Of course, there won't be, because WG so clearly don't understand the basics of public relations, and the fact that it helps if you try and avoid making your customers openly hostile... Oh well, I won't be spending money resetting those captains I have specced, and have no shortage of ones that are still zeroed... <shrugs>

When submarines show up, assuming they get crow-barred into Randoms (rather than getting their own mode), I plan on taking option c) - play Valheim and other things until the dust settles...

WG, having learned important lessons from the CV reework and captain skill rework etc., is under no circumstances about to risk buggering up the game further by adding submarines...?

Thanks, guys - much appreciated! (They're still working at time of writing, including on the NA server - if relevant to anyone - with the exception of 'OVRTHKL' which didn't work on any of my accounts.)

Deadeye being chopped is an excellent development (although it probably shouldn't have made it beyond test in the first place). I never really bought into WG's 'greater diversity' spiel for the captain rework, although in the case of my favourite class (DDs) you can make a case that there is now more than one viable build for high point captains; I always believed that the main point from WG's perspective was to remove elite captain xp from the game for a bit (by means of the ludicrous price for a maxed out captain), while at the same time reducing the impact of captains on the game generally (hence the nerfs to things like BFT etc.). Bonus points for people who take competitive seriously and feel the need to spend money to get a maxed out captain. Oh well, we'll just have to see what else they change over the next several months (whilst, naturally, skillfully avoiding the possibility of free respecs along the way). Some love for the cruisers wouldn't go amiss, for a start.

At this stage, we're all just guessing; I'm not sure how close the Black Market analogy will turn out to be - as far as I recall, it was only 'tanks' for sale in the most recent edition, whereas the WOWS version sounds like it'll include other things. As to the currency, the WOT version used a mixture of silver and gold; presumably, the WOWS version may well be similar; however, if it's being used as a vehicle to reduce stockpiled currencies/resources in the game's economy, it could easily include things like coal/free xp, I suppose...?

<camping BBs intensify>

Just for reference: I'm a *lot* more likely to buy premiums if they're 'real' ships (bonus points for actually built); entirely fictitious things are of far less interest. Also, bear in mind that the new (and laudable, for the avoidance of doubt) 'nerfable premiums' policy makes buying new premiums less attractive than previously too...

Reminds me of the first one I ran into: Oooo, a Plymouth? Is that the new one...? <pauses to try and remember what it can do> Oh well, it's a RN cruiser; what's the worst that can happen...? <smoke, radar, horrifying carnage> Ah...

Full price is marginal, but with the coupon, she certainly is IMO - if you like that kind of thing. For me, the main thing she has going for her is longevity, because of the heal; this makes it easier to last into the later game stages where you can really make a difference. The balance between guns and torps is nice (yes, 12 km torps would be nicer, but that would probably push her towards being OP), and there aren't too many things that are sneakier than she is. She's not majestic at anything (apart from surviving), but an effective well-rounded DD. Being a T9 premium, her silver earnings can be pretty ridiculous too. One final bonus: she's a real ship, unlike so many of the Russian "we're a mighty naval power - honest" things in the game!

I believe it is - that's splendid news, after twenty five or so years!

There used to be a rather splendid pasty emporium roughly on the corner of New George and Raleigh Streets - I'm pretty sure they were responsible for me putting on half a stone back in the day...!

" Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" (My numbers are a bit less embarrassing in Ranked, but not by much...)

What @invicta2012 said; similarly to Boise/NdJ, this latest thing could exist in two versions, one for Pan-EU and the other for Peru (so, Pan-Am)...

They could also be interestingly different: one 'as built' (what we're seeing here), plus one 'as designed' - different guns and, I think, torps...

This seems to be the new model: give things to the CCs to trail, and release the Dev Blog later...

She's a museum ship - I smell premium, alas...

Wikipedia on the subject: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Zeven_Provinciën-class_cruiser The optimist in me would like it to be part of a Pan-EU cruiser tree; I suspect we might be looking at another 'two nation' premium (Pan-Am being the second)...?

Me too. I don't disapprove of nerfable premiums as a concept (game balance is more important), but - as I've said elsewhere - I need to know I'll get my money's worth from a purchase in the time it (potentially) takes to nerf it. This is less time than the life of the game (we hope!), so the value proposition of the new premiums is simply less than an equivalent old one. Incidentally, on the basis of a sample size of one (Flandre), there is no price reduction on the new nerfable premiums - Tirpitz (I think - I looked yesterday) is the same price as Flandre, for instance. So, in practical terms, I suspect I'll still be open to buying new premium DDs (assuming they're sensible ones) as I play those enough to get the value from them quite quickly, but most other classes crater in terms of desirability...

I tend to gravitate towards DDs anyway, but if I'm trying to play in the midst of a session when everyone seems to - somehow, and improbably - be *even* worse than I am, I try and pick things that have essentially zero requirement for team-mates to function for me to have a good time (note: 'good time', not necessarily 'win'). This - at the moment - tends to mean things like Smaland, Neustrashimy, Benham, and maybe Groz. Of course, if I'm feeling especially ill-disposed towards my fellow man, there's always the Kamis...

I suspect they may not be that stupid, but they are that cynical: it'll come down to a simple calculation - do they make more money from initially OP ships that are 'required' for some mode or other, or from the existing more stable performance model?

At the risk of tempting fate, *so far* WG have resisted the urge to plonk T10s in Satan crates; I've assumed this is because that would turn them into official 'for money' things, with the associated PR problems if they decide to nerf any of them. Given that WG have said that the 'rare' ships are - allegedly - being removed from future Satan crates, I wouldn't be surprised to see some sort of other mechanic being made available to get them, and that might well extend to the removed T10s as well... (Presumably, WG also need to have a contingency plan in place in the event that enough governments decide that encouraging children to gamble is not a Good Thing...)

As is customary on these occasions, it's probably worth noting that this thing is still WiP, so could easily (and probably will) change... How/if it changes may well tell us a bit about WG's intentions vis-a-vis nerfable premiums i.e. are we seeing the start of the 'release OP ship, sell lots, nerf OP ship, repeat' cycle that many of us are concerned about?

Dev Blog (Axis v Allies postponed): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/136