Verblonde

Personally, I think this is the big missed opportunity with the current changes: I would have offered pretty much all the existing camouflage schemes as permaflage for small amounts of doubloons, and do it for all tiers. I would have bought loads of them, but that may be just me.

It's worth checking this stuff; although WG seem to have mostly got it right this time, their history rather lends itself to deep cynicism. Incidentally, for people with Harekaze: I'd missed that her permanent bonuses are rather superior to a standard T8. Did they just combine the two permaflage options or something?

I got Hornet for the historical aspects, and the Mitchells; I only play CVs in Coop/Ops (unless there is an essential mission, which is rare) and Hornet seems perfectly serviceable for that. From what I gather from actual CV players, Hornet is okay, but other things are better...

This is what I'm seeing for (original) MO's bonuses: This is what I see for a more prosaic T9 premium:

Ah, do we have another FastMotion (or whatever that individual was called) on our hands here? Oh dear... As to the OP: I tentatively agree - this is a positive change, in terms of layout and mechanics (with a few aesthetic quibbles, and the odd missed opportunity here and there). There will be a little friction while we all get used to where everything is, but on the whole - at this point - this looks like a +1 to WG. That said, I'm still fairly confident that availability and costs of bonuses will end up being a bone of contention; this is where I expect WG to try and take some 'heat' out of the economy somehow...

This is a screen-grab from my NA account: I assume these correlate to the 'standard' economic signals from the previous version; I haven't found what (if anything) replaces dragon flags yet... Edit: at time of writing, there are no applicable coupons for this section (at least not on my account).

Blimey - there may be slight hope for me yet...!

They do play differently (no radar on SD as well, plus she gets YOLO torps); the ammo differences with SD tend to lend themselves to a specialised captain, whereas you can nab one from the main silver line for Montpelier... Although the cognoscenti may burst out laughing, this is what I'm currently running on SD (not sure what I'll do with the final two points when I get them):

I've got one, but am not hugely qualified to comment on how good she is (I struggle to Cruiser most of the time), as mine lives in Coop. My feeling is she's worth having if you dig the historical aspect (plus, she's quite fun in Coop), but probably too fragile for most people to get much from her against real people. A heal is nice at T8, but Atago's got that too, and is generally better (IMO). Bear in mind she's a CL, and those tend to not be in a particularly happy place, unless you're an expert. Of course she gets SAP, but no HE, with all that this implies. She's obviously nerfable as well. Personally, I'd file her under non-essential for average players, but possibly worthwhile for experts. I got mine for a) historical reasons, b) for Coop, and c) for - possibly - returning T8 Ops where I think she might be fun...

I don't think it's completely mental; after a bit of fiddling around: If you care about the aesthetics, they're still in the same place i.e. the 'exterior' tab (along with flags) per the below: If you're more interested in the actual bonuses, head for the 'economic bonuses' screen; in port, access is underneath the captain (example follows): That'll get you into the main economic bonuses screen: In the above example (Emerald) I have nothing ship-specific applied yet; the permanent bonuses shown come from things like clan bonuses. If you want to mount a particular temporary bonus, single click on the relevant bonus panel, and something like this will pop up: A click on the relevant line will select that particular bonus. Note also this bit: 'Mount best' is self-explanatory. At time of writing, 'Auto-purchase' defaults to off; watch this bugger like a hawk though - I can't imagine that WG won't set it to default 'on' at some point. If you want to get more of these bonuses, have a rummage in the Armory [sic] etc. - they seem to be available in the usual general locations. As with the current system, you can set the economic bonuses screen to replace bonuses for doubloons (but why would you?). Where doubloons really come into play seems to be for permanent bonuses (much like the present situation): If you have a permanent bonus on a ship, it'll look something like this: Hovering over a bonus section will give you a pop-up showing where the bonus is coming from. For example:

Based on observation of WG's previous works, I tend towards pessimism too (particularly the recent Ruckus). That said, the initial framework for the new thing looks to be an improvement in several regards, not least being clearer about what bonus you're actually getting, plus only needing to focus on one particular bonus type at a time (previously, say, if you wanted to maximise captain xp, you also had to maximise regular xp, as one fed from the other). My main concern relates not so much to what we're getting right now, but rather how things will go in the future. Plucking numbers out of my sphincter (I have no idea what the real numbers would be), lets imagine that - under the old system - getting 1,000 xp extra from signals cost you a dollar of real money. In future, because most of us can't easily relate the before and after, that 1,000 xp could cost - say - $1.50; this sort of thing is where I expect the proverbial other shoe to drop. BTW I used dollars because it's easy; the resources spent could just as easily be in-game, or time spent of course.

You must forgive a certain amount of cynicism on this general subject: the recent Ruckus event very obviously had deliberate complexity built in, to make it much harder to relate spend to reward (the whole 'gambling to gamble' thing, which I really hope WG don't repeat - it was pretty odious). Even without Ruckus levels of deliberate complexity, you need to break out a spreadsheet to relate the different currencies etc. to each other; why should we expect anything different with the economy rework (especially given the news article on the subject essentially said this is only the start)?

I assume this is very deliberate: most people can't/won't take the time to understand the detail of the conversion, making a before-after comparison essentially impossible for most. This in turn makes it much easier for WG to make it harder/more expensive to get hold of equivalent bonuses in future. WG *never* do anything to merely improve the lives of players; there is *always* an underlying financial motive. There's nothing wrong with that - WG is a commercial entity after all - but almost everything that they do makes a lot more sense once you understand that.

Aye, if you're going through a bunch of ships quickly, lower-level bonuses look very similar to no bonuses mounted. On my NA account, I went through everything and clicked the demount all option; partly, it's to audit what I've really got later, and partly to avoid using them accidentally. Trouble is, I have far more ships on EU, so I'm not sure if I can be bothered doing the same thing there. Apart from a few niggles like that (and no pretty dresses for T5s), the basic layout for the new system seems okay. As has been said elsewhere though, the crucial thing will probably be availability of new higher level bonuses; besides that, by changing everything, it'll be harder to compare before and after when assessing things like value on loot crates etc. (presumably, very deliberately).

I was having a short poke around in my NA account before work, and I think I found that for some T5s I can now buy permanent economic bonuses, but no equivalent aesthetic. So, in some cases, WG are actively encouraging us not to spend on skins.

My eye was drawn to this earlier (source: https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news_ingame/game-browser/general-news/exterior-visuals-and-economic-bonuses/): Particularly "we're kicking off a major overhaul", which implies the current separation is only the beginning; no doubt more horrors await. Would I be being excessively paranoid if I wondered if the assurances about not being worse off only apply to this initial phase?

WHY ARE WE SHOUTING?! FOR ANYONE WITH A BROWSER THAT DOESN'T SUPPORT LUNATIC FONTS:

Cheers! Oh well; I was wondering where the latest re-work would shaft the players - part of it is now apparent.

So, previously we got a permanent skin *and* economic bonuses (because they were one and the same); now we get the skin only? Besides being a reduction in value (so much for "you won't be worse off"), it also removes the possibility of getting another first skin for cheap in the event you get the freebie. The latter is First World Problems, but the value reduction is poor form, if correct...

Perhaps of mild interest: Source: https://worldofwarships.eu/en/news_ingame/game-browser/general-news/exterior-visuals-and-economic-bonuses/

The crucial question amongst the cognoscenti will, naturally, be: who has the most majestic moustache? As we know, there is a distinct correlation between a significant mo' and WR: Hmmm, I'm thinking 1 or 2, above; 3 looks like the sort of bounder who ties young ladies to railway tracks...

Incidentally, thinking about permaflage: I may have mis-read, but there is something in the news release for this event about the usual sequential bundles for ships and permaflages. It isn't explicitly stated, but does anyone know yet if getting a permaflage for an early access ship will also net you the relevant permanent economic bonuses? I assume that the bonuses and aesthetics are a package in this context, as otherwise the assurances that we'll be no worse off won't have lasted very long...

I haven't really read up on this stuff yet, but I usually - like others, it appears - just go left to right...

FWIW I tend to have a finite amount of time I spend on gaming, the precise amount of which tends to depend on things like work, what's going on in Real Life, and so on. That time then gets split between various things, with the emphasis usually being on whatever happens to have engaged my enthusiasm at that point in time. For instance, I'm currently dialling back on WOWS because of submarines (a foray into Randoms yesterday with a friend reminded me very strongly why that is...), with a greater emphasis on WOT (including Blitz); I've also been giving quite a high proportion of available time to other things, like the Wolfenstein series...

Many thanks!