Verblonde

Likewise - since there isn't much going on with WOWS at the moment, I've just nabbed some Wolfenstein games that I'd been meaning to have a go at for years...

I agree. WG missed an opportunity to expand a revenue stream here. For example, I have several ships with permaflage that I dislike (mostly Xmas and Soggy Mad Max ones, plus one or two halloween ones); if new aesthetics had become available for modest amounts of doubloons, I would have replaced the lot. As it is, not so much - I dislike them, but not several thousand doubloons dislike! I'll just use filters instead, or some spare one-use aesthetics (assuming I've understood the mechanics correctly). That's before you even get started on adding pretties to lower tier ships, had they been available, and replacing less pretty but not offensive permaflages on ships that already have them...

It's weird - I can't image that it would be much work to create permanent options for all the temporary cammos; the skins already exist for pretty much every ship in the game - just add an option to make 'em permanent and charge x doubloons (presumably, scaled with tier) for the privilege. I'd probably plonk at least one on almost every T5 I have (premiums and the few silvers with a permaflage already excepted, and maybe even some of them where the existing was dull), assuming the price was sensible.

WG missed a trick there then - I would have thought that a bunch of aesthetic options for not much money might encourage people to open their wallets?

I've mentioned this story before, I think: when I was a very new player, I lobbed a bunch of shells into the vague vicinity of a full-health Atlanta (who I guess was also a newer player); most of them weren't remotely close, but one clipped his stern as I recall - Detonation! We were both stunned, and a brief "what the hell just happened?!" conversation occurred in cross-team chat. I don't think either of us were familiar with the Detonation mechanic at that point. Whilst this was an Atlanta, at least that sort of thing doesn't happen to DDs any more...

I rather enjoyed "The launch of the Ruckus in the Depot event was not as smooth as we wanted it to be"; that's like describing the North Atlantic as 'a trifle damp'... With any luck, this whole rat-fornication will discourage WG from doing this sort of promotion again.

I thought I read somewhere that 'extra' permaflage aesthetics would cost rather less than the 'full set' (i.e. aesthetics and bonus)? That said, I don't recall seeing any firm pricing. We can take a guess (and/or see - after the changes - if WG are taking the pi$$ or not): This is - probably obviously - Yamato. I'm guessing the 'basic aesthetic plus bonuses' package will remain at 5K doubloons. The Kobayashi aesthetic will - probably - be a couple of thousand doubloons on top, and the 3D thing 3K doubloons. One question will be: can you still buy 'poncey aesthetic plus bonuses' packages without buying the basic aesthetic first (as you can now)? Another will be - if there is more than one bonus package available (HSF in this case) - can you buy the bonus package part without the aesthetic?

I think I got Harekaze on her initial release (or possibly the second); certainly it was more years ago than my semi-senile memory can cope with, so I can't recall. If I did pay doubloons for it, I certainly got decent use from it - more than any other of the 'special' permaflages, I think...

Whilst I trust WG about as far as I could comfortably spit a rat, they have said that - in general - all the ludicrous 'stacked' bonuses will still be available after the changes (assuming you have the necessary signals and cammo in stock), so you won't suddenly have to play a shed-load more games to earn the same, at least until you run out of bonuses. The acid test will be what sort of availability (and/or cost) will there be on the higher level bonuses after we all run out of our existing stocks. I'm expecting the ludicrously high bonuses to more or less vanish (or become prohibitively expensive) - a bit like superships, I strongly suspect a large part of the aim of this exercise is to reduce the silver in the game. I don't think WG are stupid enough to lie about the economics with existing stocks, but these changes do give them scope to take a lot of the 'heat' out of the game's economy without breaking their word. Edit: for the love of the gods, please do something about the formatting of the OP!

This is excellent advice: of all the 'bonus earnings' permaflages I have, I've probably only really got excellent value from Graf Spee (thanks to Ops), and Shinonome (Ranked, when it's T6), and maybe Warspite (Ops again) and Ashitaka (Narai). I do play Roma and Kii quite a lot, not to mention Prinz Eugen, but these three tend to be mostly in Coop, so a lot of folk may find the value proposition in that sort of context less compelling. Do we count the 'cat' permaflage on Harekaze? I have a vague feeling that was free with the ship though. That's probably the 'bonus' permaflage I've got most use from...

I think so, although most of the time I'm using these things in Ops (Shinonome excepted), so it may be more noticeable there, perhaps? These are the bonuses: That extra xp might be useful too after the update, assuming that translates across to free xp and captain xp...

The other ones that might be worth a look are the National permaflages for things like Graf Spee, Warspite, and Shinonome - they dramatically improve the profitability of those ships (albeit they're T6s).

The Yamato one gives the same bonuses as a regular T10 permaflage, so not worth getting over a regular (cheaper) one, unless you like the aesthetic. Ashitaka is worth having if you make use of her in Narai, but she's (obviously) a T7. FWIW I have them all, apart from Yamato.

Whilst it's too late for you, for anyone else passing through: Don't buy permaflage for the Superships! We had a whole thread on this a while ago - they don't do anything for the things' economics, and one-use cammo (that most people have plenty of) generally gives better bonuses. The permaflage simply isn't worth the money. There are a few options vis-a-vis superships: Don't play them if you aren't comfortable with spending the silver - they're *meant* to be credit sinks (as @Seraphice reminded us earlier). If you actually need to make a profit, save your economic cammo and signals for exclusive use on superships (especially the Meritorious Service cammo if you have any left - it halves service cost, I think, which is why there are no new ones being issued); I only play mine occasionally, but generally make a profit - I'm not good, but always load up appropriately on signals/cammo. Pick profitable modes to use them in; for instance (and it may be confirmation bias), my clan asked me to give the IJN super DD a run out last time we played Clans, and I *think* I was making a lot more silver than when I tested her out in Randoms. Luckily, I don't have to worry about all this too much; most of the superships strike me as really rather tedious, so I don't feel the urge to get any more (possibly until Super-Ikea is released, assuming she doesn't suck)...

I was wondering why I wasn't seeing as many of this sort of thing lately:

Done. ID 140199483.

Broadly speaking, there are a couple of primary considerations: What can you consistently do lots of damage in (especially relative damage; you want high % damage, rather than absolute hp removed)? Damage is the key driver of earnings. What sort of thing will you enjoy playing over *many* battles? To make the most of your ship, you'll want to play it a great deal, and it helps if you avoid it becoming a chore. Besides that, it's worth having an awareness of which things earn more than others: You can see where the various coal options fit into the above schema. It's worth noting that this graphic (ex LWM) is out of date in a couple of respects: MO is no longer any better at credit grinding than any other T9 (unless you have one of the 'original' issue). The thing about premium ships not being nerfable is no longer the case; all newer ones can be nerfed. To tell if you're looking at a nerfable premium, look for something like the following text in the ship's entry in the Armory[sic]/shop:

Deleting submarines from the game entirely (until they can come up with a way to make them not detrimental to the game for everyone else) would be favourite...

This, right here. The current ruckus is a particularly pronounced example: the process of getting the tokens in the first place is clearly designed to make the relationship between real spend and the tokens less than obvious; the next layer where you can spend those tokens muddies the water still further. This is a significant part of why I personally think the ruckus promo is a whole new level of egregious...

My cynicism says 'bad' as WG never changes anything (especially not something involving quite a lot of work, as here) without it making them money, which generally means a down-side for the players somewhere. It just may take a while to become apparent. My delusional optimism (which you would think would have been crushed by WG's actions over the last few years) thinks it may be okay, and possibly even a slight improvement: If WG are being honest, then - on average - earnings (both interms of the various experience points, and silver) are supposed to be the same or better (per @SV_Kompresor above). Apparently, we won't have to use horrible aesthetics to get particular bonuses (hurrah - I can bury Frosty Fir Tree, or whatever it's called, at a crossroads, at midnight, with a stake through its heart). For those of use who occasionally like to buy our favourite ships pretty new dresses, it *should* cost less than previously (I think I read that the aesthetic components will cost less after the initial one). In a similar vein, it should be possible to use cammo on purely aesthetic grounds, as the bonuses part is done separately; so, you might have a cammo you like but don't use because the bonuses are poor - problem solved. Of course (again, as previously mentioned) the critical factor which will heavily inform whether my cynicism or optimism turns out to be right will be availability (and costs!) of the various bonuses...

I actually tried this when you asked the original question; I've also just tried it again: in neither case did it make a difference. Still can't get at Armory [sic] and similar screens.

Easy: it's still fun, provided I avoid modes with submarines in. Not sure what I'll do when WG fail to realise that 'no means no' (submarines) and force them into all modes of the game...

That's why it's my primary PvP mode to play at the moment; well, the 'no submarines' bit anyway. I'm less hostile towards superships than submarines (by an order of magnitude): although the former aren't a particularly good idea, they don't - IMO - fundamentally break anything (super CVs possibly excepted) as they're essentially more of what we already have.

8 and/or 9, and play in Ranked - no submarines!

@YabbaCoe Small update: was just cycling through my accounts as previously described, and the NA one worked; just logged into my main EU one, and it's not working still. Don't know if that tells you anything (I'm accessing the game from near Toronto).