NewHorizons_1

I don't think ops should qualify for damage or ribbons missions (events / Naval battles) as you're correct in that ops provide an environment where it's relatively easy to farm large quantities. What I do agree with @Schelfie & @electro75 is that ops should be eligible for BaseXP missions and BaseXP Naval Battle stars as the rewards for PvE players (in co-op) are fairly meagre. This is particularly acute in Naval Battles as the 2nd bar typically requires 800 BaseXP, or more, which is pretty hard to achieve in co-op.

I dunno, I think I prefer the new orientation. You now can view your ship at an angle and also get the harbour village in there whilst at the same time your ship is nicely illuminated by the sunlight. I'm glad to have the bling removed from Fjords though. One minor downside is that you can't fit the nice cascading waterfall in any more as that's off to the left in this view.

I'm pretty sure this a just a display glitch as, when I've had it before, any subsequent match does not have the first win bonus applied - as you'd expect. Restarting the game client (after the one match in that ship) in the past also displayed the ship correctly without the star. Just now, I tried a different tack - with the same instance of the game client (I haven't restarted it yet) I played another match in Groningen. As, expected, the second match had no first win bonus and the star was (eventually) cleared from the ship's carousel icon. This feels, given its infrequent & random nature, like an uninitialized variable bug. So it could be worth the developer's looking at the compiler flags that are used. In C/C++ you can tell the compiler to optimize the resulting executable code (so it executes faster) which also performs flow analysis on the source code. Ie, the compiler checks if a variable has always been set (written to) before it has been referenced. IIRC The gcc / g++ compilers could catch all kinds of stuff with -O2 -Wall Eg, if we have a class that describes a ship class Ship { private: int nVictory; // ... and name, class, nation etc public: inline int GetVictory() const { return nVictory; } inline void SetMatchResult(bool bVictory) { nVictory += bVictory; } Ship() { // nVictory should be initialized to zero here in the constructor // otherwise it can have a potentially random value } ~Ship() { // free up memory, close handles etc, etc } }; After the battle SetMatchResult() is called with true or false depending on if you won (or not). If you're victorious, then nVictory will be incremented. then later on in the carousel code if (pShip->GetVictory() == 0) { // Display a star for the first win of the day if that ship hasn't won a battle yet DisplayFirstWinStar(pShip); } All looks good, yes? Well no. Most of the time this code will probably work as when the Ship class is allocated its memory may be all made up of bytes that are zero. But this is certainly not guaranteed. The memory that is used to store nVictory could be all 0xFF bytes which would cause the instance of that class to start off with a nVictory value of -1. So in this case, the player wins a battle in the ship, SetMatchResult()increments the value, from -1, to zero and the carousel will now (incorrectly) display the first win star after a victorious battle.

As with everything to do WG the phrase "caveat emptor" always springs to mind. Only buy something if the thing you're after is specifically listed (bundles, battle pass bonuses, perma camos & Distant Voyages crates no longer including economic bonuses ... etc, etc) That is not at all surprising. First one was OK - final reward was a decent little T7 light cruiser for a reasonable price. Second was a licence to gamble Third is early access to a tech tree ship.

First win of the day star can remain on a ship's carousel icon after a victorious battle. See red arrows on the attached screenie.

It was a light-hearted joke, seesh. No need to be a jerk about it. I commend & admire anyone who's using English as a second language, and we all make slip ups (even when it's own native tougue )

Actually a Shaun the Sheep themed event could be fun.

Yup, British BBs are one of the few legit exceptions. That bit of snark was aimed more at the Pommern's & GK's that always fire HE at broadside cruisers and BBs that are nearby.

To be fair to WG this would be standard practice for any software company. Eliminating external factors, and reducing the problem down to a bare minimum example, is a normal method of tracking down bugs.

Surely that should the new name for AP shells. Or would that confuse HE spamming BBs?

Be VERY careful what you wish for. The most recently added game mechanics are less than popular. An "Acoustic Decoy" to mitigate homing torp pings. That would take some of the demand off Damage Control Party. Give it shorter cooldown than DCP (but bit longer than a ping reload to give the sub a chance) and unlimited charges so that Russian BBs & German BCs (that have a limited number of DCPs) can't run out. Incorporate DefAA into Priority AA Sector

I never thought Newport was that bad - tough, but there's plenty of cover to exploit. The old problem with Newport is when one or more members of the team extends from outside of that cover to try and yolo the bots. And then leaves the remaining members having to take up the slack after they get killed. Hermes was a bit of a disaster for cruisers when it was reintroduced - the bots would drop everything the instant a cruiser was spotted and focus you down. Especially the phase just before the heal with the German BB flotilla. It's a little better now - team mates seem to get a fairer share of the incoming fire without any one individual being persecuted at single moment in time. Originally, when it was a T6 only operation, Aegis was (like Newport) tough but certainly possible. With the introduction of higher tiers, and the artificially buffed stats of the bots, the balancing seems way off. If WG had let ops wither on the vine, without any development attention, they maybe I'd would agree. But as they've invested some time & effort in bringing back ops I'm not sure was their intent. The result that some ops haven't scaled well with higher tiers is probably an unforeseen consequence that should have been caught with adequate testing & QA before they were released. From the quotation, neither do I (browser translation failure by the look of it). But, referring back to my actual post. There are dockyard missions for each class of ship (cruiser, battleship etc). Sadly, operations do not qualify for those missions. Yet the dockyard mission for Commander XP (which can be done in any type of ship) can be done in ops. Why is there a difference in what game modes are suitable? That's where WG can't seem to make up their mind about what modes are suitable for dockyard missions. Edit : Attached screenie highlighting the difference between the Dockyard commander XP mission and the Dockyard cruiser-specific mission

An all T6 operation was, and still could be, a useful tutorial in its own right. When WG opened up ops to higher tiers, they should have coded the MM to form same-tier teams. That would help lower tier ships (Nurnburg, Leander, Dido) to be still viable. And as a result not throw new players right in at the deep end against waves of higher tiers ships that often have abnormally inflated stats.

WG don't seem to be able to make their mind up in this area. Some dockyard missions, that don't require a specific ship class, can be done in operations, eg earn X commander XP. But those that require a certain class cannot be done on ops. I'd like ops to be available for Naval Battles too, even if it was just for the (most common) BaseXP stars as ribbons/damage ones would probably be too easy to farm. Presumably to mislead people (who think they're still of any use**) into buying them. ** Expect to see a marketing campaign to lure dormant players (who might have missed the economy rework) back into the game. It's a similar problem for random operations. With operation of the week you could pick your most suitable ship. Now you end up using a smaller subset that are all-round, general purpose ships. Ahh well. Yet another reason not to play random matches - I'll stick to co-op. Game client updates are large Not everyone has fast inet, so it can take a long time to download DL'ing beforehand ensures everyone has the update available when the server is upgraded on a Thursday It's then a quick switch from the old game client version to the new as @Klopirat pointed out, it's been like that for years. Having said that, it would be nice if the update could be DL'd in the background, at a throttled down transfer rate to avoid impacting client/server response (ping time), so that you could carry on playing. When you finish playing the game, the DL resumes at full speed.

Some of the larger cruisers kinda get screwed here. Compared to smaller cruisers, they may get some of the disadvantages of BBs ... poorer concealment low agility longer flood/fire time ... but don't get all of the advantages that BBs get against a sub longer distance homing torps stop tracking longer ASW airstrike range (if any at all) better torp protection

I tried looking up the patches on the wiki, but that's bust (again) - none of those collapsed sections expand. Just like the recommended commander skills table. Sounded like a good day out, though.

I was going to mention the transphasic torps that bypass shields, but WG already beat me to it with homing torps that can bypass a ship's torpedo protection for a direct citadel hit, soooo...

I've pulled off @Figment's second trick in a random match with GK - not the most manoeuvrable ship in the game. But as @Nov_A points out, it'll often leave you exposed in a vulnerable position - which it did.

While this advice, and other good tips such as those by @Figment above, are no doubt effective the one issue I find is that they tend occur in a 1v1 vacuum. Yes you can take steps avoid the homing torps, but you then may end up moving out of cover to show broadside to a BB or come into torp range of a DD. Not to mention a cruiser that was waiting for you to clear the ping and burn you down with fires you can no longer extinguish. The ping+homing mechanism probably wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the poorly implemented counter measures.

Is that a Community Contributor? I thought those were extinct after the great purge?

IIRC I actually got Hayate before, lastly, getting Azuma ... with the intention of buying Yoshino for coal ... which I still haven't done. With the (long term) rumours of FreeXP ships being withdrawn it kinda made sense to get the most unique ship while it was available. Plus it was a bit of a test to see how well I did at saving up all that FXP in co-op.

If I'm in a BB next to a Kleber or Mogador (which have very quick loading torps with excellent firing angles) I'll start looking around for broadside cruisers and BBs heading towards the other cap zones. Marceau to a lesser extent, as that is more of gun boat (faster firing guns, but the torps take a longer to load) so can give you more time to contribute on your flank. Shimakaze, I can't say I often see it played like that. I suppose it could be, but they'll often send an initial torp salvo or two at the start and then try to cap in smoke. But that first salvo often has a poor hit rate as the bots will be bow on and they're quite good at dodging. Plus it's quite vulnerable, in a yolo run, to gun boat DDs and CLs - which may also have torps. Harugamo. The torps take aaaages to load. I suppose you could use the TRB right at the start of the match, gun down the DD then torp the cruiser. But now you're stuck waiting ages for those torps to load again - a co-op match would probably be over before that happens. I like the IJN gun boat DDs, but that seems a bone-headed way to play them**. I'd rather gun down the bot DD & cruiser, maybe while taking the cap. Then torp the BB, use the TRB after that and try to torp anything that's left from another flank (or the first BB if it survived the first torp salvo). ** Oh wait. This is WoWS so it probably does happen.

Looking at life from the other side of the garden fence. (I play destroyers, cruisers & battleships in co-op so I can see your point, but it's not all rainbows, bunnies, sweet smelling roses & birdsong for the other ship classes) They really can't. A co-op DDs player's only defence against return fire during a yolo run are hard evasive manoeuvres** and the sometimes dubious aiming from the bots (probably related to slow BB turret traverse). The bots have been changed in the last year or two, so that they'll also use the correct ammo for the situation at hand. Previously DD players were quite safe as the bot BBs would fire AP at them and usually over-penetrate. Now they fire HE* at DDs. Is a DD yolo run effective? Of course, but it's not without risk - especially if you don't have any det flags. And, the bots also typically try to reduce the number of opponents as quickly as possible. Hence they usually target the lowest HP members of a team, which is ... the destroyers. The close range torp yolo drive-by run is probably also a thing in co-op as Bots are quite good at dodging torps. They'll often start to avoid them pretty much as soon as they're launched. A far quicker reaction than spotting the torpedo as it nears the target. So point blank and "dodge this" tactics it is. In a fast paced co-op game, the long time it takes torps to reach a target at a long range risks the target being taken out by someone else. And then on top of that you have bot CVs that can nail a DD with rockets better than most human CV players can... And then your torp launchers getting reset just as they're a few seconds from reloading... * Italian BB SAP isn't much of a threat as it has an artificial damage reduction when fired at DDs. ** OTOH I tanked about 360k potential damage yesterday in my Cossack without taking a scratch. Most of it from a distant Italian battleship which has notoriously bad gun accuracy. Thankfully Cossack is very agile and hard turns are quite effective at avoiding shells.

TBH, the base XP missions are probably the fairest** as any ship (provided you actually do something) will earn, even a little, towards the end goal. Last week, one of the previous dockyard phases had a "Score X Captured/Assist in Capture/Defended" mission for destroyers. And in some co-op battle modes (Standard / Arms Race) it's highly unlikely you'll be able to earn any of those ribbons. Standard battle : At best one capture or assist (unlikely as it requires a bot to survive). Only chance to get defended ribbons is if the bots break through to your base and no one else notices. Arms Race : capture zone rarely appears (I've seen it once) as co-op matches finish beforehand. First three matches I had in DDs that day I had two Arms Race and a Standard battle which, of course, meant I didn't get anywhere in that mission. ** There's also no advantage for premium accounts and players with shed loads of economic bonuses and/or premium ships (for the total XP boost). Downside for co-op players is that the baseXP rewards aren't great. Shame operations don't count for those.

Kinda surprised you don't already have it. Klaas Janssen. I think he was a mission/event reward during the Dutch cruiser early access.