0.7.9 New Arms Race Mode

[MrConway]

Get your Tier IX and X ready for battle in the new Arms Race test mode und feel free to leave your feedback in this thread.

[AnEvilJoke]

[PassTheSalt]

I feel I'm missing something UI-wise
I see the minimap grey circles but I don't see which of the 3 buffs they give, shouldn't there be either/or a floating icon above them in game akin to capture icons with an accompanying minimap symbol?
A personal buff counter in the UI as well?

If they are there and I'm missing them then that's partly my bad but also an indication they are not obvious enough.

[ghostcat]

Press H to see your personal "Buff Counter". As for an indication of what you get from circles I am also missing that. There were Icons on the Test Server. Please bring them back.

 

Otherwise: I LOVE this game mode!

[Unknown_Lifeform]

I don't find the capture area indicators especially visible on the arctic mini-map, especially when they spawn next to or overlapping islands. Maybe something could be done to change their colour or give them a more defined outline?

[MrConway]

18 hours ago, PassTheSalt said:

I feel I'm missing something UI-wise
I see the minimap grey circles but I don't see which of the 3 buffs they give, shouldn't there be either/or a floating icon above them in game akin to capture icons with an accompanying minimap symbol?
A personal buff counter in the UI as well?

If they are there and I'm missing them then that's partly my bad but also an indication they are not obvious enough.

 

Can you post a screenshot? I am seeing them in game.

[zenhyan]

18 hours ago, PassTheSalt said:

I feel I'm missing something UI-wise
I see the minimap grey circles but I don't see which of the 3 buffs they give, shouldn't there be either/or a floating icon above them in game akin to capture icons with an accompanying minimap symbol?
A personal buff counter in the UI as well?

If they are there and I'm missing them then that's partly my bad but also an indication they are not obvious enough.

i have had this aswell, for me it is after i installed some mods to the game again, i think thats the issue here...

 

do you have mods installed aswell? if you have, try it without them.

 

edit:

fyi, the mods i have right now (ingame) are:

- smaller cruise controls

- approx time to win indicator

- pink rpf

- shell tracers

- red target lock

- secondary armament status (doenst work currently tho)

 

[zenhyan]

the tX unique upgrade missions dont work in arms race, wich is a shame, would be nice if you'd change that

[Midway67]

Battles played in this new Arms Race mode are apparently not counted in your Random Battles total. 

Tried Arms Race yesterday, yet saw that my Random Battle total remained the same as before after that. 

(Perhaps a separate counter will be added in future for one's Arms Race battles?) 

 

It looks interesting as such, nice initiative and my team won fairly easily, so my first impression is positively biassed ;-)

... yet will have to try this mode several dozen more times before being able to build a balanced opinion upon it. 

 

What I miss at first glance is a sort of comprehensive "overview" of where we stand, in the course of the battle, e.g. "3 out of 6 strategic points taken". 

It is nice to be notified each time your team gains the overhand in a certain "control zone", yet the total would be good to be (made) aware of as well. 

 

[PassTheSalt]

3 hours ago, MrConway said:

 

Can you post a screenshot? I am seeing them in game.

Seems it's a mods issue, something from Aslains as @Zenhyan said, will just play vanilla until its resolved.

[RedOnly]

Like the game mode, but it'll take some times to digest for players that haven't tried on PT as far as I heard in the clan

[Fat_Maniac]

23 hours ago, MrConway said:

 

Can you post a screenshot? I am seeing them in game.

It looks like an mods issue. I was seeing them until I installed the score timer mod in the official modpack and now I get this ...

 

 

[Altsak]

The game mode is by far the most fun of the current game modes. Excellent work WG.

[fodder89]

Ok, will be honest i was skeptical about this whole new "mode", but it turned out that:

 

- It is great for tier X-IX random games because gameplay differs greatly there - it's slower and more positional, maps are bigger etc. You changed it, now everyone can play Arms Race if they are borred which rewards aggresive gameplay. It renews receiving fun for many players and their tier X ships.

 

- Normal tier X random games is now more fun likewise because, there is more lower tier ships (A lot of them right now playing Arms Race)

 

- For tier VIII ships it is a great news too, because you now how higher probability to be top tier or at least has less Tier IX and X ships in the game.

 

I see what u did there. You highly promoted tier X game lately and thanks to that now you can split tier IX and X gameplay and still have enough people to play Random Games and Arms Races, all thanks to that. You also probably received more profit because players where working hard to reach that end of the line ships.

 

So that is a win.. a win. and a win for everybody.

 

The one can only imagine how difficult it was to introduce such an enterprise for a massive multiplayer game and how many thoughts were needed beforehand to achieve such a success.

 

Cons ?

- Probably some balance twiks because in this mode some ships are stronger than others. (comparing to random games)

- Also showing up buffs sometimes can give you a feeling that are not fair for both teams.

- Maybe a slightly bigger problem to enter the high tier game during nightime ? but that is an unknown now - it just has yet to happen.

 

Whoever in yout team came up with this idea, take care of him well please -  for sure in the future this guy can have a large impact for the flourishing of the game.

 

Good work! o7

[Gnomus]

This seems fine addition to the game. Play meta is different, as you you can't count anymore on some "certainties" about camo or DD's not repairing hit points etc. I haven't played enough to say if this changes balance (too much), but at least it changes game style. If some radar CA or low camo BB have managed to get several camo buffs it can give you bad surprises.

 

What WG messed up is that Arms Race is not progressing some missions. Now I need to decide if I want to progress TX special upgrade missions or play this new battle mode. If there is no good reason to exclude mode from missions then new modes should be added to old missions. 

[JohnnyAlphabet]

I like it even if so far I’ve been on the losing side more often than on the winning side. 

It appears to me that some people who are playing haven’t really understood that capping active areas also gives the team points and takes points away from the opposition. I have seen ships going between two active points sitting almost one next to another to engage enemy whereby going through them (and capturing them) would’ve made little difference to ability to engage. 

[Grand_Admiral_Thrawn_67]

This mode is a lot of fun, it can change completely how you play your ship. The game mode is fast past and favourite aggressive gameplay and it change a lot from ramdom camping style.  The only down side I see is than cv is useless because they have no too little ugprade they can earn. What is more the missions can't be accomplished in this mode that sad, it will be a nice upgrade for this mode.

[milzmilz]

Overall the Armsrace is a really nice, lighthearted diversion from the normal gamemodes. Especially if you tried the hell we call "ranked" before. I just see a few minor problems:
1 - UI problems in combination with official mods. See above. multiple [10GO] Members I recently spoke to had no markers on the buff circles as well whith scoretimer active as well, while I could see them clearly, even with multiple Aslains-Mods active.

2 - DDs are the overwhelming majority at the moment. Low concealment DD's like Shimakaze are absolutely reigning this mode at the moment. 6/6 concealment? Have fun trying to find one of those things. Harugumo with 6/6 reload buffs and a bit of Adrenalin rush active? Just wait for one with Yamamoto score a kraken...

3 - Basically a result from "2": BB's have absolutely no chance in this mode. They can't get close enough to the buffs early game and late game you have Worcesters, Harugumos or Minotaurs with reloads that offer no chance for any BB in range. I think the range a BB can get a buff from an allied ship inside the circle needs to be increased.

[Jessa_Doom]

On 9/21/2018 at 1:18 PM, MrConway said:

 

Can you post a screenshot? I am seeing them in game.

I'm not seeing the buff markers too or the buff counter in HUD, like we had in test.

[G4tt4B0]

My opinion - I did not join this game to play heavy arcade thus I am not interested in this new mode and idea as such so will skip it completely. I respect those who like this but I hope possibility to opt out from it will remain going forward. e.g. like in WOT where you can untick some game modes in rotation. My other concern is that this adds extra granularity and divides connected players into more smaller groups (random, coop, ranked/clan,scenario, arms race) extending wait times in non peak periods.

[Atorpad]

On 9/21/2018 at 5:47 PM, zenhyan said:

the tX unique upgrade missions dont work in arms race, wich is a shame, would be nice if you'd change that

yes WG plz enable unique upgrade missions in arms race

[Spithas]

Good for grinding tier 9 ships... nothing more beyond that. Mode is for CL and stealthy DDs exclusively.

[Aragathor]

Since this is just a test, according to the information given to Notser, I don't see the point of playing this mode.

[Captain_KriegWurst]

I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Tashkent with 48s reload for torps and 2.5s for guns? Hilarious. 

 

That and the fact that the team is forced to play the objectives and support DDs by being within 12km if they want the buffs. It's really good fun. 

 

As others have said having it count towards missions would be better as would capture ribbons for getting the buffs. 

 

I give it 6 months before people are complaining that noobs are ruining the meta/gameplay. 

[IlljustcallhimDave]

I tried this when it first came out and found it a fun game mode but as I was mostly doing t8 daily's haven't played for a while, decided to play at 12pm on a Saturday, 17181 on line and only 9 in queue for Arms Race, would be interested to know how many are actually playing this game mode and if its as dead as it appears.