Verblonde

Liking it a lot, so far - rather more interesting than Coop. The bulk of my initial games were on the NA server (it's that time again, where WG give out a free T9 to inactive accounts, so I've been earning that): my initial impression is that the Americans are a rather less good at this mode than the EU folk are!

Unfortunately, yes. On the positive side (at the level I've been playing at - Bronze), they're comparatively rare, sufficiently so that I haven't reached the stage of giving up the mode. Yet. Bronze has the merit of it being impossible to be top tier in a sub as well; that might be dissuading at least a sub-set of the griefers to go elsewhere?

In which case, another vote for FP (per @DFens_666 reasoning above). It's worth emphasising that the impact of redcing the fire locations by one commonly has a disproportionate impact against typical players (not experts who know the mechanics): the average farty tends to aim centre mass; on a ship without FP, the dividing line between two fire locations is right in the middle of the ship (making it easier for such players to hit both central locations at the same time). FP leaves you with three locations, with the dividing lines further away from the typical area of aim. In other words, what should be - roughly - a 25% reduction in fires tends to become a bit better than that. Of course, a decent player knows all this, and adjusts their aim accordingly.

This. Apparently the desires of a few Richard Edwards outweigh the needs of the many...

Being sensible: how much damage? Just winging the DDs won't net you much, although a lot more than doing the same damage to a BB. To get a decent reward you need to be knocking chunks off stuff...

I haven't double-checked these latest containers (they're of no interest to me, as I have all the ships already and - you're right - the compensation for a duplicate is sh1te), but in recent promotions, you haven't got duplicate drops until you have all the ships. That said, it wouldn't surprise me if exactly what you fear was coming, as that's precisely what they do in WOT Blitz - it's why I've stopped buying such crates for that game.

You'll never hear any complaints from me for that...!

Perhaps worryingly, that was pretty much where my mind went as well...

For the discerning old dude, who is refusing to have any truck with the whole 'growing old gracefully' thing:

It appears that 'pay to grind' is the new approach, rather than the old 'just give people lots of nice missions to do, that might encourage them to play now the weather is improving'...

Is the answer not reasonably obvious: if the information were easily accessible in the game, more people would have the information. More information in the hands of more people is bad for WG, as in increases the chances of people fully understanding what they're up to. This, naturally, would result in less spend.

For me, it depends a bit on which ribbon slots need nabbing, and what the state of play is with regard to what my clan-mates have done already; if I've got free rein, I usually go for cruisers (as you say). Otherwise, it's a matter of finding the best options for wherever the gaps are (especially if a gap has a double on it); bonus points if they're fast or have a speed boost, to get you in a decent firing position before everything else catches up.

The Russian ones are covered here: https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/sales-and-events/armory-124-combat-missions-and-new-containers/ FWIW the Colour ones are here: https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/sales-and-events/the-colorful-regatta-is-coming/

This is a good point; I probably should have mentioned that I tend to try and do such missions relatively late in the day (CA time), which makes for mostly bots in Coop games, increasing one's chances. It also helps that I have a fairly extensive array of ships available, so I'm not trying to do - say - ribbons missions in BBs*, and similar. *Edit: although several of the secondary monsters are pretty good for this!

This. The requirements change frequently, and even the level of the requirements (as in the case of xp). I personally prefer damage and ribbons at the moment, as a) they can be done in Coop, and b) they encourage - for me anyway - use of a more diverse selection of ships.

Now *that* should be its own category (although I may not be old enough to cast my eyes over such things, the title is glorious!)!

FWIW:

Besides that, Randoms has submarines in it. I would *much* rather play Randoms than Coop - in general - but my dislike of submarines and what they do the game is far stronger, so Coop (where their impact is much less) it is...

She might be vaguely worthwhile if you don't have Benham, I suppose? I'm not convinced either FWIW; I'll reserve judgement until we see what actually gets finally released...

C'mon WG: here's the chance to demonstrate unequivocally that submarines are a fine addition to the game, and deeply popular with the player base. Reintroduce friendly fire and we'll see definitively. Got the bottle?

*Now* you're talking! This. All manner of this!

For information: (Source: 18th May Dev Blog).

It looks like they're still messing about with the thing: (This is from this morning's Dev Blog)

Bring back? AA that actually works (and allows AA ambushes). Remove? Submarines. If that's too general, the entirely cretinous thing with pings being mitigated by damicon.

Whilst I'm the last person to listen to when it comes to cruisers to play against real people, my tentative impressions (from messing about against bots): Reasonably robust, *if* you can keep your citadel from being poked. Firepower is good, of its type (average farties who can't use AP right will like the HE). Reasonable volume of torps, bots for the uses of; relatively short range, but who cares against bots? Plenty of smoke charges, but less useful against bots. For me, she's fun, but not remotely essential. I suspect she's not much cop for use against real people, but you really want a proper cruiser player to opine on that. Perhaps a good future change would be to have the option of a heal of some sort in the smoke slot, so you can have one or other, but not both (assuming both was found to be a bit much) - in the manner of a few Russian DDs.