Aotearas

Rest assured I ran into bbowow a couple times on the red side and unless I repressed something, it never ended well for his team so far.

Pretty sure the blacklist only means messages from that user will be blocked in port and ingame (except the F-key commands for some reason). Blacklisting does nothing in preventing getting teamed up with or against people you've blacklisted.

Like I already said, spending some time on the forum and perusing the helpful information would probably help you a lot and be very well worth your time. But if you're happy with just denouncing people who spend time learning the game, interacting with the community and sharing thoughts with another, by all means go ahead and knock yourself out. Also @KarmaQU_EU apparently we're the same person now. Do I hear a Flamu aswell? Maybe a MrConway? Or perhaps I'm just a figment of your imagination ... oh dear. Maybe I'm YOU all along!!! Like, I'm your evil twin that was locked up in your home's basement with nothing else to do in the world than read fora and git gud at videogames. We should really have a heart to heart, lost brother! Come on, let's hug!

So, WG removed the AS and Strike setups for every regular US aircraft carrier. Only balanced loadouts for everyone. Can't say I disagree much and I'm still too inexperienced with CVs to really judge the balancing on that. But what I can say is that I have serious questions as to why the Saipan gets to retain its AS loadout? Yes, yes it's a premium, I know. WG allegedly don't nerf premiums, except for global gameplay changes or whatnot (makes me wonder why the US CV rebalance wasn't considered a global change since it covered ALL regular CVs). Maybe the more experienced CV players can tell me how I'm supposed to play against an AS Saipan in a Ranger with its 1/1/2 loadout. He gets 3x4 (let's assume every Saipan player halfway worth his salt has the Air Supremacy captain skill, aye?) tier IX fighters. I get 1x7 tier VII fighters. He can strafe out of dogfights for free, I lose a fighter each time. Saipan also gets more fighter reserves. His fighter wing is more flexible, it's faster and he has the superiour number endurance. I also find that those tier IX fighters are annoyingly resistant to head-on strafes, with at times zero losses and the most I've got was two fighters (and if he also strafed head-on, I tend to lose two fighters on average). I'll win that dogfight (unless he simply strafes out and runs to safety with my slower fighters having no chance to catch them), but he can sustain those losses and chances are I won't be lucky enough to fight just one squadron most of the time but handling two, if not three at which point he can overwhelm my fighters with as little effort/skill as just clicking on them. No matter how I look at it, unless the Saipan player is a total potato and either let's me strafe his fighters indefinately without fighting back or sends his fighters over my team's AA, the math clearly tells that the Ranger WILL lose the fighter duel against an AS Saipan. Also, yes I know; if I get one good strike in, I already did more damage than he probably will in the entire match. Doesn't count much though, since CVs seem to get very little XP for damage, but much more for fighters, plus winning the fighter duel and ensuring ingame air superiourity is much more strategic value as it opens up those fighters to spot for the team, particularily helpful against any surviving DDs. By the end of it, the AS Saipan gets the better deal with his XP and credits just by shooting down my aircraft and doing whatever damage with his DBs compared to my few solid strikes I may or may not have managed to sneak past his fighters. In short: How on earth am I supposed to fight against an AS Saipan in a Ranger? I can handle a Hiryuu, I can handle a balanced Saipan, but AS Saipan ... nope. If there is a winning strategy, I'd like to know. If there isn't, I'd like to know if there's even a single good balancing argument in favour of the Saipan keeping the AS setup.

They can. Nowhere has WG ever officially stated they will never change a premium ship. They are reluctant to because changing a ship significantly from the origina template mens they'd have to offer refunds to people who no longer like it (which hasn't stopped them from doing exactly that with the Perth, Belfast and Kutuzov when they did the smoke changes just recently), but even so getting rid of the AS setup on the Saipan wouldn't be much of nerf considering it still has the amazing 2/2/0 which more or less universally considered the optimum setup anyway.

Sure, they don't change premiums. Except when they change something that impacts the entire game, like for example ... oh I don't know ... a global rebalance for all US CVs! And quite frankly, if you had read ANYTHING in this topic, you would know that equating an AS Saipan with an easy win is stupid. But hey, I suppose with your zero gameplay experience with CVs above tier VI (or any ship above tier VI for that matter) I'm sure you'd know all about countering an AS Saipan in a Ranger. Citation needed. I'd even go further and say that even without doing much in the way of direct damage, an AS Saipan can still meaningfully impact a game a great deal depending on how fast he managed to shut-out the enemy CV. Having three fighter squadrons available to fly around and scout can make a huge difference as any DD captain who'se been permaspotted by a CV can readily attest to. And whilst that DB squadron lacks in the way of overall damage potential, it can still put a lot of hurt onto the right targets, say ships that you know just recently used their damage control party so you set a fire or two to burn for full duration on a ship, or two, or three ... and without having to worry about enemy aircraft, you have a whole lot of time just searching for the perfect target.

And if you had read my comments, you'd know why that kind of defensive play isn't a winning strategy. Which is what I'm asking for, or alternatively if no winning strategy exists why I'm questioning the balancing aspect of having the Saipan retain its AS setup.

Oh look, someone who can't read. I'm talking about AS Saipan, not the balanced setup. You know ... the one with two more fighter squadrons, not just one more. But by all means, do share your experience of outplaying AS Saipans in that newly changed Ranger you don't have.

Those percentages are too high.

I typically don't do Cv snipes anyway. Chances of success are debatable and it's rather obvious if any player has a normal attention span and notices no strike aircraft from the enemy in the first two minutes. At that point I simply move my fighters near my CV so they're ready to intercept the snipe and I expect no less from a competent enemy CV player. And Saipan fighters are so fast anyway that catching up to Ranger strikecraft doesn't even necessitate him to have a squadron actively guarding his CV, anywhere that isn't across the map is close enough to take heat off the punch and failing to eliminate the Saipan in one strike means you just wasted an entire strikegroup for effectively nothing. Plus I don't want to start building up a wrong mentality considering CV snipes are mechanically as good as impossible from tier VIII onwards due to defensive AA. An opportune attack if it presents itself, yeah, but sniping is something I don't consider a worthwhile strategy, it's more of an desperation attack but that certainly explains why it would be recommended in this specific scenario. And I know, I'm constantly assuming competent counterplay which may be distorting the reality considering the huge skillgap among CV players, but I see so many subpar Saipan players still dominating the skies with the AS loadout that I can't help but think it's blatantly overpowered in that aspect. I certainly can't seem to brainstorm a reliable counterstrategy for use with the Ranger that doesn't bet on the Saipan being an idiot ... and I like to believe that despite my relative lack of experience, I'm not being the idiot in that equation myself.

Contrary to the stereotype, not every player who uses the AS loadout on the Saipan has no idea how to use it. I reckon a good portion just use the AS setup to farm an easy daily Clear Skies for the flags before going back to balanced setup. Problem is a single good strike, even when it outdamages the AS Saipan, doesn't win games. And against any halfway competent AS Saipan, you won't get many of those good strikes. Air superiourity does. And scouting against an AS Saipan is a hazardous affair for obvious reasons. I could use a spend DB squadron and stand good chances running away from any intercepting aircraft, but I won't be doing much scouting if those aircraft are being forced to run as soon as he vectors his fighters closeby. If we were to be talking entirely selfish about credits and XP, he's going to do a crapton more XP and credits (even ignoring the fact he makes even more credits by default with it being a premium ship) shooting down aircraft, whereas one or two good strikes end up in rather meager rewards considering we'd be talking ~60k damage if we're reasonably optimistic. Which is why I'm wondering why WG didn't remove the AS setup from the Saipan with the US CV rebalance. They can easily justify it as a global change and in terms of balancing decisions, it makes little sense to let the Saipan keep it. Just do the same thing as with the Belfast/Perth/Kutuzof when the smoke changes hit: anyone who thinks the Saipan isn't worth it without the AS setup can refund it ... though I somehow doubt many people would take up that offer because the balanced Saipan is still a beast. @MrConway @Sub_Octavian @Tuccy, perhaps any words regarding the decision to let the Saipan keep the AS setup?

*sigh* ... did you even read my comment before posting that ineffectual drivel or do you seriously believe every AS Saipan will defeat itself upon my team's AA, without exception? Once more: how would you deal with an AS Saipan that ISN'T a total potato making mistakes like that?

It'll still only credit one reward per account though. If it worked otherwise, I'd be swimming in signal flags

The answer to that is: I didn't. I barely play CVs and before the US CV changes I only played up to tier VI (as the Independence was the last US CV to be competitive against its IJN counterpart). Otherwise I played IJN CVs and having two fighter squadrons, even if weaker than a single US fighter squadron, opens up a lot more options to handle enemy fighters, such as locking and strafing with two squadrons, or baiting fighters whilst leaving one fighter squadron to fly with the strike to lock down an intercepting fighter group as your bombers do their work. So, if you want to help me, I'd be thankful if you shared your experience, rather than just assuming I'm an expert that knows everything (which appears counterintuitive to me, since I wouldn't have asked for help if I knew how, now would I?). Do you know the exact fighter reserves for the current Ranger and AS Saipan? Because considering the Ranger runs 1/1/2 now, I'd believe most of its reserve aircraft are distributed amongst the bombers, so an AS Saipan may still have the defacto fighter reserve advantage and if he can outlast my fighters, whatever is left of his should have easy work with unescorted bombers. Also, still have the stock hull, so overall I have barely more reserves than the Saipan anyway, maybe the extra 15 hangar slots make all the difference but even if one could potentially win by fighter attrition, that would still assume you'd trade yours roughly evenly with his, which is pretty hard considering he has 3x4 vs my 1x7 for the reasons I already mentioned in the opening comment.

Thanks, worked. No idea what I got though. Could be the single credits container, but I'm not sure if I didn't get from a mission.

You can open a ticket with WG support, but all they're going to tell you is to use the ingame report so you might aswell not waste your time.

Do take note of the words "fluff" and "shoehorn" ... they should tell you roughly how serious you ought to take that statement as to its accuracy.

Sealclubbing at tier V, eh? You gotta pump those tiers down. Those are rookie numbers!

Same observation I made about this community. Someone comes along asking for help? The overwhelming majority is trying to help, with constructive advice and/or asking for more informations for a more in-depth analyzation, with only few people spouting unconstructive l2p platitudes. It's when people come in here and first thing they do is complain about how the game isn't working as THEY think it should when the community by far and large just rolls out the long troll cannons. But even then I've seen two or three people who managed to turn it around after making it clear they realized they had a lapse in judgement and really wanted to learn and improve. And then there's the utterly unrepentent idiots who think the game should cater to them specifically and every salvo they don't delete someone else or each time someone sinks them is just the game being sh*t and WG should fix it so they can just stroll through unopposed (BBabies being the most prominent and stereotypical group with their "why isn't every hit from my big guns a kill" and "HE can't melt steel armour" nonsense). Those are the ones that get instantly antagonized by the majority of the community and quite frankly people with sich an egomaniacal attitude deserve no less than ridicule.

So, WG wanted to make a quirky BB ... and ostensibly failed so they're dialing back on the experiment to proven concepts. What I don't understand however is, why does a BB need cruiser consumables to be quirky? Why can't WG tweak the basic BB gameplay into something that plays different from the usual BB gameplay style? It worked to some extend with the Scharnhorst. Want something different? How about a secondary-focused DoY? Tweak those 133mm secondary/DP gun stats, more range, better base accuracy, rate of fire increase, maybe give those the 1/4 caliber HE pen exception, the mainguns sure as hell don't need it. Keep the faster ruddershift to make it more effective at brawling. Get rid of the hydroacoustic search consumable entirely. Or if we'd get really crazy for a second there, introduce a new consumable for the ship that further buffs secondary performance (accuracy and rate of fire buff) say the secondary equivalent to the defensive AA fire consumable. Hell, the Royal Navy even has the perfect fluff to shoehorn in an explanation with their propensity of eschewing safety protocols to increase their rate of fire (which can also be worked into the mechanic itself): Say the consumable, let's call it the Mad minute (internet cookies for who gets the reference) has a base duration of 60 seconds, with a base cooldown of 120 seconds. When active, it reduces secondary maximum dispersion by 80% and boosts secondary rate of fire by say 33% (numbers would obviously be subject to balancing efforts). Furthermore, you can prematurely cancel the duration (because for example an onrushing DD has been disposed off already) and you get a percentage based cooldown reduction ... only had the consumable active for half it's maximum duration? Enjoy half the cooldown. As a drawback, any module damage dealt to secondaries within the consumable's active period is increased by 50% (again, obviously subject to balancing). I'd actually love such a consumable for all BBs (let's be honest, speccing a BB for full secondaries, whilst fun, is far from optimal for the vast majority if ingame scenarios!). Make the DoY the testbed and maybe even give her a little of the Atlanta touch and grant the DoY unlimited charges for that consumable. BAMM Done. Quirky BB without cruiser consumables slapped on it and it can still play the usual role of a BB (tanking) if necessary. I seriously don't get what's so bloody hard about coming up with gameplay concepts ...

My sincere and kind advice to you: might want to spend more time on the forum and read some of the valuable information written all over here to learn how to play before getting that condescending towards a user who's put magnitudes more effort into learning the game and criticizing it with thought-out arguments. My next sincere but not quite as kind advice to you: put just a wee bit more effort into proper language because to be honest, and I'll be burrowing your analogy here, it looks like you took off your shoes, waltzed through some bowls of lukewarm alphabet soup and them trampled over your poor keyboard to write those comments of yours. KarmaQU_EU's topics might be exhaustingly long walls of text, but yours are simply painful to look at.

Bah, if that whole thing with Support meets a dead-end with no solution, the game continuing to crash or freeze up mid-match AND the playerbase still going on about its continued dive into the depths of incompetency, the next best option I'm looking at is simply uninstalling this game for good. I've about had it if I'm perfectly honest.

Welp, NATURALLY reinstalling various system files (after I had set up my OS entirely anew a month or so back ...) and reinstalling the game didn't fix the game crashes. But I can at least hope I finally have enough base work established that with the following WGCheck and AIDA64 report, support can finally start looking through the informations and search for the bloody issue instead of going about the usual "make sure it ain't a PEBCAC" routine.

@havaduck you'd need to provide sufficient motivation if I were to partake in any such equine frivolousness (and no, socks are not sufficient, gift me a USS Kidd or a Roma and I can see myself involving, otherwise I'd pass). In other news, I finally snapped hard enough to escalate my game stability issues to WG support specialists and they're making me go through a couple redundancies (and reinstall the entire game anew), so if you (don't) see me playing even less than recently, it's a 50/50 chance that I'm jumping through support hoops or playing another game entirely ... Here a bit orchestral Touhou music to contrast all those ponies: Welcome to Scrub Radio!!!

H4X!!! In other news, damn this playerbase is getting worse and worse. So many oxygen wasters online today, thankfully this time mostly on the enemy teams (I had several games where I actually lost credits because the games were over so fast and we just so happened to spawn on the wrong side of the map, away from the enemy lemmingtrain). Was so bad I thought to myself I might aswell have fun in the low-low tiers and perhaps start the PA DD line ... this was the result: I'd feel dirty about sealclubbing like that, if it weren't for the fact that I actual had to perform like that just to give our team a realistic chance at winning. Because you know, enemy team lemmingtrained to the other side from where I was headed and killed two-thirds of my team before I got into range to shoot at an enemy for the first time. And I didn't get that score by being ignored either, 124.600 potential damage ... not much, but considering the Chengan only has barely over 5.000 HP in total, that was a lot of ordnance flung my way as I was plowing through the enemy team. That ruddershift easily accounted for the majority of that potential damage not being actual damage. At one time I was actually fighting off three ships at the same time as they threatened our cap, now that was an intense tango! I ultimately died defending our cap, but by then the enemy only had a single ship left and we had one already capping their base, so it was a guaranteed win if they didn't do something extremely stupid (which they thankfully didn't).