Verblonde

I'm guilty of this; I usually use it as a shorthand for 'most of my experience is in DDs [in my case] so I'm a bit more qualified to comment on this class and it also colours my perspective on other things'... As a slight diversion, I'm almost certainly a 'DD Main' by most people's definition (75%+ randoms in the class), but I was slightly surprised to see my class split for Coop:

Exactly, hence the rest of what I wrote about judging if there will still be a decent HE target in view in about half a minute's time... (Edit: I assume that the non-ideal ammo is fired at something right away.)

I agree entirely; I should perhaps have been clearer: I wasn't saying that not shooting radars was good, but rather trying to explain why the typical BB player might not even try.

Nothing wrong with that - hence my observation earlier that DD drivers should play fatties too, to get a better sense of what's practical in terms of support, and when...

This is exactly what BBs should be doing, but I'm amazed at how many don't. The last couple of days, I've been messing about in KM cruisers (mainly because I've got all the DDs now), and it's incredibly striking how many BB salvos I see whizzing overhead, destined for some BB somewhere behind me, when they should be shooting at me: besides being a serious threat to the red DDs (yay, German hydro), I should be a rewards pinata for a BB (turtleback be damned). It's not only poor target choice from the point of view of winning, it's dumb from the 'maximising rewards' point of view as well...

There are a lot more than that - I have north of 300 in port at time of writing - and it really isn't hard to discern/remember which are which, at least enough to narrow it down to nation. If remembering is too taxing, the information is cunningly concealed right in front of you in the loading screen (assuming one can remember whose flags are whose): One shell is sufficient; besides the damage on even an overpen on a Volkswagen-sized shell not being trivial, a salvo landing anywhere near a DD will force him to dodge, throwing out whatever he was trying to do (like line up a torp strike). I don't expect BBs to switch ammo just because a DD hoves into view, but I do expect them to utilise more than one brain-cell: looking at the mini-map and based on one's experience, how likely is it that half a minute after unloading your currently loaded AP on something there will be a viable HE target? If it's likely, toggle the switch for the next salvo, if not likely stay with AP (to repeat: AP overpens are plenty for dealing with a DD). This is classic 'muh paintwork!' thinking that we see far too much of in BB players: part of a BB's job - its very purpose - is to tank damage. This *requires* you to be shot at. Provided the player has bothered to learn about DCP management, and positions intelligently, such that they can disengage to heal when needed, this shouldn't be that hard. Overall, you are advocating the sort of selfish BB play that we see far too much of, and that loses games (and, yes, I know your overall WR is higher than mine, before you go there).

Not strictly true: what you're getting is a different ship that happens to be identical in all important gameplay regards to its vanilla counterpart. This opens up possibilities (as we've gone over before), if you have both versions, such as different builds on different ships, extra daily win bonus, and so on. It's up to the individual to decide if this is good value for them or not. If you only get the black version, it will probably cost you less than the vanilla one, but it doesn't work as a 'block' on getting the vanilla one in future crates/missions and you don't get access to the doubloon mission. Again, up to the individual to decide on value to them...

I really don't mind the dockyard event: it seems that WG have learned from the PR fiasco and everything is more or less clear from the start, such that you can decide to participate, how much, or ignore it entirely. Unless I'm missing something, Hizen isn't an 'essential' ship by any means; I would probably be a lot less mellow if, say, the reward was some sort of 'must have' for Clans or similar. WG have to make money, and I can think of far more objectionable ways they could be doing it than the dockyard. I'm viewing this as 'yay - free doubloons!' (and 'yay - free silver!' for the T2).

I agree with you entirely, but - for the good of your blood pressure - don't get your hopes up, especially at the weekend! Hitting most radar ships in a BB requires a bit of skill, so whilst the bulk of BB players on here can do it, an average farty in the game will struggle; when you factor in half a minute reload time and the fact that shooting easy targets will probably reap better rewards, it's not surprising that the bulk of BB players play for themselves and not the win. Most of them will probably look at the end results screen and see themselves near the top of the team list due to extensive (healable) BB damage and think that the loss was nothing to do with them. Equally, a lot of DD folk will tend to assume that everyone else can do stuff as fast as them; the faster DDs can be in harm's way almost before their side's supporting ships have accelerated to full speed and - at least as importantly - their drivers have processed where the potential targets are. This stuff is why I tend to think DD drivers should play at least some games in the fatties - it forces you to understand the altogether slower pace of their games, such that you have more reasonable expectations vis-a-vis what sort of support is practical to hope for ('expect' would be too optimistic in most Randoms).

Assuming that the snowflakes go ahead as is, it's a pretty decent load of rewards, and hurrah for being able to get them via base xp earning too - means we won't necessarily have to spend a week or two in Coop mode if we don't want to. I still find it slightly eccentric that the reward for T10 is arguably worse than for T8-9 though - unless they've tweaked the drop chances, the basic Santa containers are pretty underwhelming; I'd rather have steel. Might be just me though... So far, this year's Xmas event is looking really rather promising; what odds will people give me on WG doing/launching something spectacularly ill-judged around the same time that upsets the bulk of the player base? I can't believe they'll allow themselves an actual success without messing it up somehow...?

Although there is still plenty of time for WG to make a hash of things again, it does look vaguely as though they've learned something from last Christmas - it tentatively looks like things will be much clearer this time around, enabling us to make a more informed choice about what to go for this Xmas. I imagine I'll get whatever I can by playing normally (or as normally as possible given that it's snowflake season and I'll have a couple of hundred of the buggers to knock off, at least), and then call it when I know how far I'll get with the main event. It helps a bit that Hizen isn't really of much interest to me (beyond a bit of sad collectoritis), so I won't be upset if I miss out on her whilst focusing more on other things, such as intermediate rewards, snowflakes, and maybe Strasbourg (useful for Narai?).

I don't think that the black ships are a bad thing as such (I have all the current crop, in - I think - all cases obtained after the vanilla equivalents); they do have their uses, which we've gone over repeatedly before. BUT it needs to be made *extremely* transparent what you are getting with these things, and what you're not getting. Provided people are entirely clear about the pros and potential cons, then who really cares if WG do a bit of lazy content recycling? It's not like we aren't getting plenty of entirely new ships coming down the metaphorical pipe... Personally, I'll probably pick up Cossack B, for the same reasons I've got the other black ships.

Might not be ludicrous: besides being down a torp launcher, compared to Daring, Vampire II doesn't seem to get a heal and there are an awful lot of hydro/radar ships about at that tier.

She sounds like she could be very interesting to play: 'proper' hydro, and creeping smoke, but only one torp launcher and no heal. Depending on the resource she's available for, I'll get her on day one (if WG don't do something egregious to her in the meantime)...

Dev Blog (NY snowflakes, dockyard event etc.): https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/89

No healing potion on Vampire II, apparently.

Fen Yang looks interesting: finally, an Aki with DefAA (for what that's worth); sounds like she gets RN smoke, and 12 km Asashio-type torps (can only hit BB/CV)...? She's real too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_destroyer_Yoizuki Two distinctly promising DDs in one announcement? I think I may need to have a lie down to get over the shock...!

First related Dev Blog: https://blog.worldofwarships.com/blog/90

Ah, she's a museum ship: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMAS_Vampire_(D11)

Me too - gimme!

Just the customary reminder whenever there is a new line on early release: don't forget to install the upgrades. Ships such as the new Fettleibig Colorado line on early release come fully researched, but in stock configuration. The old lags will all know this, but just in case there are any newbies in the vicinity. (It's a pity these ships are mind-meltingly dull; the T8 - at least - looks rather pretty with the eagle cammo.)

I was able to get the eagle cammo without spending a penny, when I completed the directive to get the T8; I have been playing quite a lot recently though, so I suspect I may have got the maximum weekend missions available...

Ten points for getting the reference! I was feeling a need for some twisted perversion in my life, so was playing Hipper a bit last night - these new BBs can really ruin your day, provided a) they hit, and b) you don't go out of sight again in the length-of-a-bible it takes them to reload...

You may as well use your existing, provided you can use an invite code (such as the one @domen3 posted). I just did something similar (a week or two ago) with my NA account - I made that several years ago, and it has the bulk of my tanks games on it, but it worked because I hadn't used it for boats yet...

"I've just had an unhappy love affair, so I don't see why anybody else should have a good time."