Captain Skills are kind of bad. Complaints and proposals:

[Andreevson]

Currently, Captain skills are in my opinion, not fun or interesting in any sort.

 

I have several complaints:

 

First, segmentation. You play a BB? Take theese skills. You play a Carrier? It is IMPERATIVE you take these skills instead. You get where im going at? There is little to no choice on what you actually pick up. Well, you DO have a choice, but if you pick the wrong skill you suddenly find yourself at a disadvantage. That is especially true for carrier players.

 

Not only that, but if you pick up the wrong skill and dont have any gold, say good bye to that captain, go train annother, since skill redistribution only happens with gold. (srsly cant we pay some hefty silver sum at least?)

 

Thirdly, retraining of captains to ships. If you have a nicely trained captain, it is a SLOG to actually retrain him to a new ship, which will in most cases be new and stock, which, again, would reduce your effectiveness instead of increace it (you are going UP a tier and you face tougher opponents, yet your previous tier is stronger...wut)

 

Fourth on the list is the huge fail of putting skills for 155mm guns (and smaller) only, while completely forgetting all other guns in the game. Id say those must be offed.

 

Fifth, Situational Awareness. This skill IMO should not be a skill but just DD and CA/CL Exclusive, or be removed from the game whatsoever. Real player skill should dictate whether or not they expect a DD to torp them from the shadows, for example.

 

So what are our options? I dare say the captain skill tree must be improved. Captains shouldnt have skills that increace the effectiveness of a ship too much also, since that gives an advantage over a guy without a trained captain.  It should be kinda like this:

 

A tier one choice must be a small improvement Also, no class must have clear advantages from the skills. That way the choice is a choice, and that is important, depending on your personal playstyle.

Engine Mainteance: Your crew maintains the engine of your ship regularily, and it is more responsive. you get +10% to acceleration and braking speed.

Navigation Mastery: Training and coordination has made your crew extremely responsive to your commands.-10% to rudder shift time. (% are example and not real, also the names)

Helmsman fitness regimen: Your skipper has gone to fitness and is now stronger while spinning the wheel. -10% to turning radius.

 

Now, a savvy DD skipper will instantly take all three tier 1 skills maybe, but he will be missing on more important skills down the line, and so on.

 

Please tell if you too have some ideas or if you agree/disagree with me.

[Spartan_93]

To point 4: Most or all AA guns and secondary guns are 155mm or smaller and that means every class benefits of the 155mm-skills.

 

 

[Kirasa]

Some of the commander skills will be changed with 0.5.1.

 

 

[IamTroublemaker]

More skill will come with time, but some of the current ones need a slight change.

Didn't see what 0.5.1 will bring regarding them yet, but I hope they aren't changed a lot, because the what I've read, the new advanced firing training is kinda useless for cruisers with 155 and that would mean I've wasted 4 points of skill on some of my ships...

[chippy_lw]

I'd like to see some sort of optical boost skill.

[praetor_jax]

The skills that benefit 155mm and smaller guns where meant to benefit secondary guns and destroyer main guns - it seems they will change the skill in the next patch to work that way.

[Reverend_Lovejoy]

Secondary guns can not hit a barn when ship is inside the barn so choosing captain skills with secondary artillery in mind is kind of pointless.

[Admiral_noodle]

I've always wondered why rof and accuracy can't be boosted by skills directly, given some ships were noted for their crack gunnery.

Maybe British early tier battleships should get the fast rof captain skill, but it triples the chance of detonation...

 

More te variation of skills would be nice. And an option to retrain with credits not just doubloons. Everything in game should be available with credits, inflated if necessary, but available. 

[Zathras_Grimm]

Just started on the 5th level skills with my IJN DD captain, unfortunately he died of old age

 

[Andreevson]

Just started on the 5th level skills with my IJN DD captain, unfortunately he died of old age

 

I unintentionally dismissed my Jap skipper who was almolst at his 5th skill. After that I was done with the Japanese ships and switched to german instead. Wish i could unintentionally dismiss my Jerry now, so I can finally get back to ships that were good...

 

 

Guess my point in all this is that i find captain skills too much of "If you are X class you must choose Y or you are not competitive" instead of being meaningful choices to tailor a ship to your playstyle instead.

[Jagdpants_666]

 

I unintentionally dismissed my Jap skipper who was almolst at his 5th skill.

 

There really should some sort of failsafe on the dismiss option. Like "are you absolutely certain you want to dismiss this commander? If so, type in his number of skill points" or something like that. I've only ever sacked a 4th-level commander by accident in a severe derp moment, can only imagine what i's like to suddenly realise you're short of a >10-point captain.

[basharran]

 

There really should some sort of failsafe on the dismiss option. Like "are you absolutely certain you want to dismiss this commander? If so, type in his number of skill points" or something like that. I've only ever sacked a 4th-level commander by accident in a severe derp moment, can only imagine what i's like to suddenly realise you're short of a >10-point captain.

 

Yea, or make a recycle bin where a deleted captain is kept for another couple of days/weeks.

[_VOXX_]

As far as skills go some are must have (basic firing training) others ... My biggest problem 500 d for senior retraining course that is daylight robbery! Why not pay in silver all the way?

[JapLance]

 

Yea, or make a recycle bin where a deleted captain is kept for another couple of days/weeks.

 

It's called Reserve, and you can keep it there for as long as you wish.

[Hedgehog1963]

I think allowing the situational awareness perk on the first rank devalued DDs more than any other nerf since the game started.  In CBT you had to earn the skill at third (I think) rank, so yes DD's suffered until they achieved that.  A BB or CA commander  probably wouldn't take that skill because there were better skill/perks available. Now the SA perk costs only one point, so why not take it in all classes?  Sure life is easy for the DD you just bought, because you can  now have SA from the first voyage.  However life in the long run has got much harder.

 

Once you get to the fourth rank the decision for a DD commander is to either guarantee your helm and propulsion always work or to increase your gunnery range.  Not an easy choice.  I like that. It came to the decision for the commander I use in both the Gremyashchy and the Murmansk.   I decided in the end to take the 20% gunnery range perk.  I've paid the price sometimes with the Gremy.

 

 

As far as the retraining of commanders on new ship goes...   Takes no time at all with 500 gold.  Part of the price you pay for playing free is less well developed crews.  True in the tanks as well.

[Nagine]

Considering that we have (and will have) a more or less limited amount of skills, it is actually good that captains can specialize. I would prefer to have a captain, which emphasizes DD or CV gameplay instead of having a universal one.

And funny enough, Andreevson, your proposed skills are mostly useful for BBs (or somewhat CAs) So it is still specializing.

 

Lastly, even current skills allow different builds (e.g. for a DD only "Situational Awareness" is mandatory, all other levels allow several options - even the fifth skill). The only exception are CVs, which, I agree, don't have much space for selection.

[philjd]

Before the game was launched there was quite a few discussions over crew skills structure/format/content - personally, I was kind of surprised that they "only" have a Captain set of skills, when a much broader set of skills could be done using multiple crew members, although perhaps that might smack of Navyfield too much.

[Hedgehog1963]

Before the game was launched there was quite a few discussions over crew skills structure/format/content - personally, I was kind of surprised that they "only" have a Captain set of skills, when a much broader set of skills could be done using multiple crew members, although perhaps that might smack of Navyfield too much.

 

They could have had heads of department.  Gunnery Officer, Torpedoes, Chief Engineer, XO (repairs firefighting), Navigation, Signals and so on, 

[Mucker]

OP, regarding your first point: 

 

A lot of people complain about the WG bundles and how they don't need the doubloons that come with them for anything. Well, switching Captain skills is one premier reasons to spend doubloons in the game, as it does indeed make a lot of sense. I recently reskilled my Japanese BB captain for the second time. As I progress in the game, I have a better understanding on what skills are more important and I wont scrap a 11 point captain and start all over again because my previous skill selection was unfit. 

 

But since that was a bit off-topic, inho the skill system can be tweaked, but the implementation is about right.  

[xtrm_]

great ideas and i suggest they give everyone the ability to respec their captains after the patch 

[viceadmiral123]

Commander skills are fine. Everyone gets the same deal. If something is useless/obligatory for you, it's the same for the other players. Some minor tweaks here and there, and new skill would be interesting.

 

I would only cap the retraining EXP cost, it is 1/2 of the current level experience, and it's ridiculous after you get 15 points.

[ShockPirat]

I do not like how CV skills are so divided from the rest, that taking a CV captain into your premium ship puts you at serious disadvantage.

Skills should be more universal and usable by most (or all) classes. For example, the current Torpedo armament expert skill - reduced the loading time of torpedos and the servicing time of torpedo bombers by 10%. That is a good skill. Skills that affect only one class (almost all current CV skills) suck.

[Spuggy]

Hey Andreevson,

 

I think you've pointed it out in the first post of the the thread but I would like to re-iterate the problems with the current commander skill system.

 

1st problem is that the skills are very much pigeon holed to ship types. A DD captain will always want to use skill set A, B, C, D and E and never any others. A BB captain a different but similar setup of only a certain 5 skills are useful and a CV captain will want all of the aircraft skills and not much else. This complete removes the idea of choosing a skill set and basically puts you into a simple "grind" to next skill level where you only intend on getting that skill and ignore all other options.

 

2nd problem is a component of the 1st problem in that there is hardly any choice as the skill sets are still incomplete. This means that the problem of there being no choice is compounded by the fact that there is little choice to begin with.

 

So what would I like to see? 

 

I would like to see the commander skill system redesigned into a more focused and complete system where there aren't "useless" skills which offer meaningless bonuses and you actually have to make a choice.

 

My draft of a skill system would look like this:

 

First skill would be ship type specialization. This would be low cost and simply inserted at 500 XP. Selecting your ship type specialization will unlock that particular skill tree.

 

Destroyer Specialization Tree:

 

Level 1	Level 2	level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Skill Group
Basic Firing Training -10% reload time of guns up to 155mm caliber	Aiming Expert +2.5 deg/s turning speed of turrets	Incendiary Expert +3% chance of fire on target caused by a shell hit	Demolition_Expert +10% chance to damage/destroy modules on shell hit	Last Chance -10% to reload time of all guns when ship HP is less than 20%	Main Artillery
Precision Torpedo Salvo Narrow spred torpedo aim unlocked	Torpedo Armamen_Expertise -10% to reload time of torpedoes	Torpedo Aiming Expert +2.5 deg/s turning speed of torpedo launchers	Overcharged Torpedo Propulsion +5 knots to torpedo speed	Lucky Shot +10% chance of magazine hit causing a detonation	Torpedoes
Situational_Awareness Indicator displayed when detected	Incoming Torpedo Alert 20% to detection range of torpedos	Expert_Observation Indicator to show damaged/destroyed modules on targeted ship	Incoming_Fire_Alert Indication of what ships have a targeting lock on you	Concealment_Expert -10% to detectability	Concealment & acquisition
Basic Survivability -15% to repair / fire extinguish / flooding recovery time	Fire Prevention -50% to chance of fire from shell/bomb hits	Hard To Hit -3% to accuracy of enemy ships firing at you	Evasive Maneuvers -1.5 seconds to rudder shift time	Last Stand Ship remains able to maneuver with critical engine steering damage	Ship_Survivability
High Alert -20% reload time of damage control part	Recon Expert  Spotted ships remain visible for an extra 5 seconds after leaving view range / line of site	Superintendent +1 additional charge to all consumables	Jack of All Trades -10% reload time of all mounted consumables	Preventative Maintenance -34% chance of mudule incapacitiation	Special Skills

 

 

Cruiser Skill Tree

 

Level 1	Level 2	level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Skill Group
Expert Loader -50% to reload time when shell type is switched	Aiming Expert +1.5 deg/s turning speed of turrets	Demolition_Expert +10% chance to damage/destroy modules on shell hit	Long Range Expertise +20% range to guns less than 130mm +15% range to guns 130mm-155mm +10% range to guns 155mm- 215mm	Last Chance -10% to reload time of all guns when ship HP is less than 20%	Main Artillery
Focus Fire Ability Unlocks ability to focus secondary & AA guns	Basic_Firing_Training -10% reload time of secondary guns +10% to AA efficiency	Small Caliber Marksman +15% accuracy of secondary guns	High Explosive Expert +5% chance of fire on target caused by a secondary battery shell	Advanced Firing Training +20% to range of secondary and AA guns	Secondary &     AA guns
Situational_Awareness Indicator displayed when detected	Incoming Torpedo Alert 20% to detection range of torpedos	Expert_Observation Indicator to show damaged/destroyed modules on targeted ship	Incoming_Fire_Alert Indication of what ships have a targeting lock on you	Concealment_Expert -12% to detectability	Concealment & acquisition
Basic Survivability -15% to repair / fire extinguish / flooding recovery time	Fire Prevention -50% to chance of fire from shell/bomb hits	Flooding_Prevention  -50% to chance of flooding from torpedo hits	Evasive Maneuvers -1.5 seconds to rudder shift time	Last Stand Ship remains able to maneuver with critical engine steering damage	Ship_Survivability
High Alert -20% reload time of damage control part	Aviation Expert +1 minute of ship launched aircraft endurance	Lucky 1 in 4 chance of a magazine detonation only destroying the turret	Jack of All Trades -10% reload time of all mounted consumables	Preventative Maintenance -34% chance of mudule incapacitiation	Special Skills

 

Battleship Skill tree

 

Level 1	Level 2	level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Skill Group
Expert Loader -50% to reload time when shell type is switched	Aiming Expert +0.7 deg/s turning speed of turrets	Demolition_Expert +10% chance to damage/destroy modules on shell hit	Accuracy Expert -5% shell dispersion	Last Chance -15% to reload time of all guns when ship HP is less than 20%	Main Artillery
Focus Fire Ability Unlocks ability to focus secondary & AA guns	Basic_Firing_Training -10% reload time of secondary guns +10% to AA efficiency	Small Caliber Marksman +15% accuracy of secondary guns	High Explosive Expert +5% chance of fire on target caused by a secondary battery shell	Advanced Firing Training +20% to range of secondary and AA guns	Secondary &     AA guns
Situational_Awareness Indicator displayed when detected	Incoming Torpedo Alert 20% to detection range of torpedos	Expert_Observation Indicator to show damaged/destroyed modules on targeted ship	Incoming_Fire_Alert Indication of what ships have a targeting lock on you	Concealment_Expert -14% to detectability	Concealment & acquisition
Basic Survivability -15% to repair / fire extinguish / flooding recovery time	Fire Prevention -50% to chance of fire from shell/bomb hits	Flooding_Prevention  -50% to chance of flooding from torpedo hits	Damage Prevention -25% damage per second of fire & flooding	Battle Damage Recovery +10% to HP gain from repair party	Ship_Survivability
High Alert -20% reload time of damage control part	Aviation Expert +1 minute of ship launched aircraft endurance	Superinterdent +1 additional charge to all consumables	Jack of All Trades -10% reload time of all mounted consumables	Preventative Maintenance -34% chance of mudule incapacitiation	Special Skills

 

 

Aircraft Carrier Skill Tree

 

 

Level 1	Level 2	level 3	Level 4	Level 5	Skill Group
Expert Rear Gunners +10% efficiency of self defence for aircraft with rear gunners	Dogfighting Expert Increased DPM of fighters	Aircraft Servicing Expert +5% to aircraft HP & -10% aircraft servicing time	Precision Bombing +25% chance of fire and module damage or destruction (DB only)	Air Supremacy +1 Fighter +1 Bomber	Aircraft
Focus Fire Ability Unlocks ability to focus secondary & AA guns	Basic_Firing_Training -10% reload time of secondary guns +10% to AA efficiency	Small Caliber Marksman +15% accuracy of secondary guns	High Explosive Expert +5% chance of fire on target caused by a secondary battery shell	Advanced Firing Training +20% to range of secondary and AA guns	Secondary &     AA guns
Situational_Awareness Indicator displayed when detected	Incoming Torpedo Alert 20% to detection range of torpedos	Aircraft Recon Expert +1km spotting range for aircraft	Incoming_Fire_Alert Indication of what ships have a targeting lock on you	Concealment_Expert -16% to detectability	Concealment & acquisition
Basic Survivability -15% to repair / fire extinguish / flooding recovery time	Fire Prevention -50% to chance of fire from shell/bomb hits	Flooding_Prevention  -50% to chance of flooding from torpedo hits	Damage Prevention -25% damage per second of fire & flooding	Last Stand Ship remains able to maneuver with engine & steering damaged	Ship_Survivability
High Alert -20% reload time of damage control part	Aircraft Maneuvers Expert -10% damage received by bombers from AA fire	Aircraft Quartermaster +2 reserve aircraft of each type in hanger	Jack of All Trades -10% reload time of all mounted consumables	Preventative Maintenance -34% chance of mudule incapacitiation	Special Skills

[Jagdpants_666]

 

They could have had heads of department.  Gunnery Officer, Torpedoes, Chief Engineer, XO (repairs firefighting), Navigation, Signals and so on, 

 

Looking at the various skills' effects in-game that they are commander skills in name only - your commander just represents the ship's crew. Just because you have, say, a few gunnery-related skills and Superintendant doesn't mean your captain is personally an artillery expert or logistics genius, it means he has highly capable officers and crew in these particular departments under his command.

[Admiral_H_Nelson]

*Apologies for the long post - but I need to get this off my chest * 

 

I am a below average player. I have found cruisers to be where I fit best.

I appreciate that I can get some compensation for my lack of talent by gaining Captain's Skills (by grinding though lots of battles to gain the points needed).

 

Tiers 1,2,4,5 all contain good skills for a all captains, IMHO.  Tier 3 is more "challenging".

I like this survey of skills:

http://forum.worldofwarships.asia/index.php?/topic/8795-onboard-reviews-the-crew-skills-repost-from-wotlabs/#topmost

 

It says for the 3rd tier:

QUOTE

Tier 3:

High Alert: -10% cooldown time for Damage Control Party(DCP)

- Basically rendered obsolete by premium DCP consumable, although you could stack it with JOAT on a BB for superfast 64s DCP refire.

 

Vigilance: +20% torpedo acquisition distance

- The "I'm **** at situational awareness" skill. If you're paying attention, you don't need it. If you aren't, it won't help. This is serious pubbie trap material.

 

Dogfighting Expert: Increased combat power fighting faster planes

- Clearly designed as a tier leveling skill, this is useful on US carriers because the fighters are quite slow. I guess you could use it on Japanese carriers for fighting high tier enemies. My guess is we'll know more about how useful this skill is when German and UK carriers come out.

 

Superintendant: +1 consumable charge

- Great skill if you're like me and like tanking a hundred thousand damage in your BB. Extra scout plane/smoke/speed boost is excellent and really, everything else in tier is **** for non-CVs

 END-QUOTE

 

For a cruiser captain who is not attracted to the higher tiers (yes - I have played some games there), tier 3 represents a waste of three valuable points. The only choice that really gives me anything extra is "Superintendant", and I've not found scout planes very useful TBH, except in limited circumstances.

 

But I am forced to spend those three points. Otherwise, I cannot get a tier 4 skill.

 

Frustrated = max.