Ranked Battle Season 3 Feedback

[MrConway]

As the season has now ended, we would like to hear your feedback on how this season panned out.

 

To keep this thread from turning into a discussion thread, I am marking it as a feedback thread, so you won't be able to see posts. I will be collecting the feedback and sending it on to our producers.

 

If you want to be really awesome, please provide the feedback in the following way:

 

What you liked:

• ...

 

What you disliked:

• ...

 

Suggestions for the next season:

• ...

 

Thanks for all the valuable feedback, I have collected/summarized it and sent it on!

[Trigger_Happy_Dad]

 

What you liked:

• good rewards (flags , XP, credits)

 

What you disliked:

• same reward pirate flag for rank 1, DDs decide the games, always 4-10 DDs ingame

 

Suggestions for the next season:

• other reward for rank 1 (other pirate flag), more incentive to play other ships than Yo Lang / Benson / Tirpitz / Amagi / Atago)

 

[anonym_EFwxJOPWzlER]

I liked all the maps except shatter

 

Caps were too small on some maps

 

Benson was too overpowered, far superior to same tier Fubuki

 

Matchmaking was so bad it was unreal

 

 

 

Next season:

I would suggest removing the small caps

Bring in mirror matchmaking only to ranked, this will deal with the overpowered Benson

Once someone reaches rank 5 they need 5 stars to reach next rank, all ranks should be 4 star, 5 is too much

Reduce teams from 7 v 7 to 5 v 5, this will hopefully reduce bad play

 

That's about it!

 

 

 

[gr0pah]

What I liked:

It's Ranked Battles. What's not to like? In no particular order, and compared to earlier season: better map rotation and MUCH better cap circle position/placement. 

 

What I disliked:

That it started way too soon and without any official feedback, roundup or notice from previous season. It felt like a HUGE letdown that a new season started with a late announcement and no recognition of the previous season. I exclusively play DDs, so I'm in a bit of awkward position stating this, but something needs to be done to tone down the DD flocks. I'm a good DD captain, so more DDs just make it more likely I will shine (and win), but it's not as much fun playing against 5 DDs. The fun factor comes from balanced teams.

 

Suggestions for next season:

I think you are implementing a few good things already. No untrained captains, no stock ships, no super tomatos (45% WR). My number one suggestion is connected with what I disliked; please, please do proper After Action Report on all seasons, don't have more than 3 (max 4) seasons per year, and introduce them properly. Make Ranked Battles a THING. It's the premier WoWs event in my eyes, it should be a.big.thing. 

EDIT: Oh, and same Jolly Roger flag every season feels very lame

 

Thank you! <3

[ilhilh]

 

What you liked:

• Barely participated.  I think I pushed to rank 10 or 11 but then I stopped.  Made rank 1 in season 2.

 

What you disliked:

• As I said above I didn't play that much as there were lots of other missions (ARP) and just general progress towards tier 10 on some lines that I wanted to make with my limited gaming time.

   

   

   

  Suggestions for the next season:

   

  • More space between seasons.  You need to devote quite a lot of time to get to the top of ranked and it loses its appeal if there is no break between.  As I said above one of the main drivers was that I just wanted to play my other ships and I didn't have time for both.  My choices for ranked at tier 8 are quite limited but I can't improve those chances if all I am doing is playing already elited ships.  Allowing pearls to be collected in ranked was also a good decision - you have to be careful which missions are in ranked as they could seriously screw with gameplay... but, if possible they should be allowed in ranked.

 

[44smok]

Boring one class/one ship meta (Benson >>> Blyska, Fubu >>> the rest) and the amount of stars needed to get rank 1 forcing to either play a lot of ranked or skipping it. The third thing I didn't like - less though - was philosophy behind irrevocable ranks. Starting ranks for each league shouldn't be irrevocable. You should be able to drop from league and get an irrevocable rank only I you prove yourself. Ranks 18, 13, 8, 3 are better irrevocable choices for each five rank league range than something like 20,15,10. What I did like was more focus on winning and the change in cap patterns - 2 caps on most maps and 3 caps on ocean. Though starting positions should be more balanced - on fire land one cap is too close and the other too far from starting points. Overall I like the challenge of the mode but its too frustrating and monotonous too play in a long run.

[Sigimundus]

Suggestions for the next season:

 

Not lose a star even if I lose but have at least 1000 (or more) base Xp

Not get a star even if I win but have 300 (or less) base Xp

 

Be more strict to AFK players in ranked battles. For example if player was AFK in 10 ranked battles then remove him possibility to enter them (for one day, then for current season etc)

 

Restrict maximal number of DD in one team to three.

 

Add possibility to compliment best player in team (similar to karma but separated for ranked battles) and give present to most complimented players and the end of the season (for example forum title, special flag or even some dublons).

 

 

[Xevious_Red]

I didn't take part in ranked battles this season for one very simple reason:

 

The ARP missions were random only, so since I wanted free ships all my games this last 2 months have been in random.

Had they been available for random/ranked then I would have played ranked instead

[Elderdaddy]

it was my last season 

 

1. As a Cv player i could't play coz there was no second CV in q. It was 3 weeks with that crap

2. Total random. U can be good or bad if u had at least 3 good players in your team u won if no u lost

3. Tier 7 on rank 5+ was a joke

4. Change MM for CV coz it is retarded for CV captain. U can w8 but after that u will get some very bad players coz all good are at rank 1

[IamTroublemaker]

Liked: Nothing because I played only 4 games for the reason below.

 

Disliked: It came too soon after Season 2, for which we NEVER GOT a prize ship or just a simple article/season recap.

 

Suggestion: The rewards for playing good and then losing is not fair (losing because of AFK players for example), people should not have a star removed if they played well and still lost, as well as playing bad and then winning, those should not get a star.

[GulvkluderGuld]

 

What you liked:

- cap zone size on some maps (north in particular) got balanced (in S2 south team had a safe camp spot)

- shatter with 3 cap zones forced a lot of action and strategy. Contrast to North and Land of Fire which ended up as a stale camp-fest. The downside is most games are "over" in 3 mins, but at least the winning team will accrue points faster, which means less slow and painful losses.

- nice with rewards every 2 ranks or so.

 

What you disliked:

• too many Destroyers (3 is ok, 4+ on each team is silly).
• Silly nation/class distribution (all IJN dds vs all US dds)
• Carriers very rare - leads to the DD spam.
• Same rewards for rank 1 as last season

 

Suggestions for the next season:

• Cap the number of dds or reduce the DD influence somehow (maybe make CVs more viable, which increases demands for CAs)? 
• More maps with 3 cap-zones (it forces action, which is nice)
• Permanent flag displaying you max league/rank (historic for all seasons) for those of us who dont get to rank 1 (got discouraged by the DD spam and w/l/w/l streaks)
• Make top dog on losing team NOT lose a star if he got 1k+ base xp or epic medal (high caliber, kraken, confed)

 

[robihr]

liked:

few days at start of the season when i got to rank 15. there were actually skilled players there and was enjoyment to play with them.

premium day award. flags were also ok.

 

disliked:

rest of the season. ranks 16+ are terrible to play and only luck can get you to rank 15, and after few good days at rank 15-13 lots of players arrived that killed of any enjoyment in it. if you dont grind ranks at start of the season you will have hard time getting a decent team later in season.

also i didnt like that you put arp missions along start of the season, so ppl had a choice to either grind arp or grind ranked.

there were lots of afk and one less ship in battle means loss for either side.

ranked are 10x more frustrating cause individual players influence match much more than in random, and then all players are punished for solo warriors and afk-ers. and that repeats over and over again and you dont progress on ranked either up or down.

 

suggestions:

punish afk-ers. it is ok if it happens once, but if it happens 2-3 times you should ban ppl from ranked for a day or more. heard there was lot of abuse in ranked with ppl just putting their ships into battle then abandoning battle and putting another ship in. that way they can easily grind ranks without actually playing them.

also there should be team report on bad teamplayers, so if 2-3 players report a player for bad teamplaying that he doesnt gain star on winning team or maybe loses extra star on losing team. there are lot of occurrences where players go solo even though there is plan in chat, or ppl just ignoring caps and rest of the team and going for kill on edge of the map, or ppl sniping in bb from 20+km.

also hope that you implement that 1000xp in losing team doesnt lose star and 300xp in winning team doesnt earn star.

also put some doubloons for rewards (you could put 50 or 100 doubloons for some rank).

[Et_Lanatus_baro]

Hardly played got to rank 10 and stopped.

 

Main problem: is the season started way too soon after the last season also I don't find ranked battles skill rewarding its more based on luck so tehrefore:-

 

Suggestions:-

 

Don't start the next season so soon, have some down time also alot of players have put idea's about making the game more skill rewarding by if your on the losing side but play well (have good xp) you dont gain a star but you dont lose one either some of the threads go more into detail about it, Think this idea is a must as THAT is more skill rewarding. Which would definately make me play ranked again.

[Ferry_25]

Hey WG. Nice to ask feedback. Always happy to give it. You ask my opinion. Well to be honost I did 4 or 5 battles and I almost immediately had it. Though I highly liked S1 and 2 I was bored to death in 3. all the battles were the same: the cruisers running off, alone, somewhere in a suicide run. After which the BB's and the rest followed. The matches were roughly 2 BB's, 2 DD's maybe a rare, stray CV. Those CV's never had a fighter in their config so lacking the AA cover from the suicidal cruisers they left the BB's to be slaughtered. Usually the first planes were launched in the 10th minute of the battle as well! And the BB's mostly camped behind an island and did nothing to push. I seemed to me everybody was so anxious to lose! And the setups were quite predictable as well: the BB's were Tirpitzes, DD's Blyska's and the cruisers either Atago or Atlanta (cannon fodder). My point is: those ships weren't available to everybody. I know this must be a dillemma for you but the team with the most prem's (except the atlanta) wins. Furthermore IMO this game is primarily meant for 1 tem to shoot the other to the bottom and capping as an "escape" for that lone surviving DD who's hiding somewhere. In order to keep pace the cappng is there so the game can be ended. This is not the case at all: is came down on who's DD entered the cap the first and didn't get shot (1 DD loss = game loss. There's almost no possibility of a come back). And I think this issue is getting manifest in the randoms as well lately.
All these things wouldn't have driven me off. The decisive factor for me was the vile malignancy on the TC... I know: nutcases who think their life depends on this game are everywhere: as well in the randoms. But in the ranked this was endemic! Hell! I play it to have a good time not to be compared with all kinds of diseases or being spat on. In the best cases we were a noobteam right after the "Action Stations!" was called... I don't want to be a whimp but that did it for me and I went back to the ranked. For me it was a pity cause like I said; I highly enjoyed S1 and 2. I even started 1 with my stock New mexico: my only ship at that time that qualified. I had the time of my life! (even won the Dersky in it in a RB!).

So i'm sorry to say I liked nothing on this season.

My suggestions? Well I already read you're going to introduce this possibility only to players with some XP. In other words; increase the chance of bringing people togehter who actually at least little bit know what they're doing. as well as balancing the MM. I'm not sure whether the RB will be possible in the teamplay mode to come. If so I didn't register that. So those suggestions you already dealt with. You might consider a way to decrease the importance of capping and increase it for shooting the hell out of each other (the main reason I like this game so much), Maybe considering it to be only available with Techtree ships only: in that way it comes down more to player skills than to the size of your creditcard. Because everybody has the same starting conditions. And make a captain transfer free for ranked battles so I can put my best captain in that particular ship and give the ability to adjust the skills for free. After the battle automatically change it back to the way it was.

 

So those are my thoughts. Please don't take any offense: you asked for my opinion and I give it. Thanks for the otherwise awesome game. I am extremely particular in my game choices and you hit it right on the spot. That's why I gladly have invested some cash in it. I have a company of my own and I know earning cash is part of the deal and life. And please: don't let the whining and complaining on the forums stop you from the awesome ship missions! I highly appreciated the Emden, ARP and now the Kamikaze missions!!

[VonBroich]

This was the first season of ranked battles I took a proper active part in and i have to say that on the whole I really enjoyed the experience.

 

What I liked:

    Rewards for gaining each new rank

    Mix of maps

 

What I didn't like:

    Occasional poor matchmaking. eg. 1 team with 1dd the other team with 3 dd's

     Large difference in ranks between team members. eg. my first match after getting to rank 15, i was in a team opposed by

     a team made up of mostly rank 11/12 players - a smaller difference between ranks would ease you into a new tier better

    

Suggestions:

     Long period of time between seasons. Preferably the next season would start after new ship lines have been introduced so as

     to make choices of ships to use more varied.

     Limit dd's and bb's to 2 per team, 1 cv, with the rest cl/ca

    

 

[B010011A]

What you liked:

I liked the rewards of credits, flags and camos.

What you disliked:

It gets pretty damn boring to play always the same ships, so next season im trying to get more tier8s to evade that issue.

The map rotation is so damn bad, for the games you play to rank1 it gets pretty boring to do play the same maps all the time.

There isnt really a perception of skill in between players and gets too damn toxic.

 

Suggestions:

Why dont you apply the method you will use on display the player's skills like in team battles? 

Maybe you should add a bit more % of credit earnings at the end of ranked battles to make people not be scared of playing tier8 and that will encourage people to play more ranked when the season is up.

 

Thats for now.

 

[MrWastee]

liked:

- the rewards!

 

disliked:

- matchmaking (unbalanced matches in terms of shiptypes and tier as well as nations; no playerskill considered to balance teams)

- rank collecting system that not takes any playerskill into account, just win or lose of whole teams which are (very) often unbalanced in terms mentioned above

- stock ships are able to enter

- rank-jojo, e.g. to move between rank 10 and 7 up and down for like 2 weeks

 

suggestions:

- better matchmaking in terms mentioned

- ranks gained should be irrevocable imo

- more (permanent) flags that not fade at end of season, like e.g. the "port of kure" type every 5th-10th rank

- on ranks which granted the "league-flags" some other rewards could be added as well

- maybe a derivate of k/d ratio and the other factors (except winrate!) to determine personal playerskill and build the ranks around it, so good players not get punished for getting bad teams by rng (could be shadowed)

 

- establish a permanent league with similiar rewards for teams, seperate it from random-ranked

[MaxxyNL]

What i liked:

• Playing for the Ranks
• Playing for the rewards

 

What i disliked:

• Matchmaking fails part 1 (3x Tirpitz vs Nagato + North Carolina)
• Matchmaking fails part 2 (Teams with 4-5 DDs + 1 CA + 1 BB)
• Matchmaking fails part 3 (1 team with f.e. 3 Bensons vs team with Kiev + Hatsuharu + Blyskawica)
• Teamkilling
• AFK players
• Hate/racism chat in battle
• RNG
• Number of battles for next Rank (Why do EU players have to win more battles to gain in Rank? For example, NA players have to win 1 less battle to improve in Rank)

 

Suggestions for the next season:

• Improve matchmaking / team/ship balancing
• Punish teamkillers / AFK players
• Use the same Ranked Battles system as on the NA server. (1 win less needed to improve/gain Rank)
• Better / more useful rewards

[BadGene616]

Limited time in ranked unfortunately this season due to RL, ars missions and pearls. Been playing more for relaxation than competition for the last few weeks so needed a destress.

Liked that I could play one battle and get the rewards from the previous.

 

 

Disliked, and I know this is weird, starting at 15. Was looking forward to grinding loads of crew exp in the lower tier games!!

 

Suggestions, run it when there are fewer events please!! I really like ranked and I want that jolly Roger.

[Azrael_Ashemdion]

 

What you liked:

• Being able to push to achieve a recognizable goal with tangible rewards - the concept of Ranked is a good one

• Limitations on what tiers could enter (5-6, 7-8, etc.)
• Limited map set to enable players to "get to know" the playstyle of the fields involved
• Medium team size, accelerated game play and made individual contributions matter more

 

What you disliked:

• Having a spectacular game and still have it get wrecked by a team that just wasn't on top of their game for whatever reason (eg., they were new, they didn't feel good today, whatever)
• By the same token, when I have a crapgame and have to rely on my team to carry (and there were a few cases where this happened), I don't think I really deserve a win for that.
• Watching teammates intentionally throw the game to the enemy team so their buddy could get a win (didn't happen often, but it did happen)
• MM queue seems to have some weird agenda going on - quite often the queue would exceed 14 total BB/CA/DD vessels with me as the only DD, yet it would twiddle its thumbs until there were 3-4 more DDs in queue before dropping us in.  Alternatively, having 6 DDs on a side at some points was pretty silly. 
• On the topic of the MM - I think if it is performing its nightly checkup and determining that "X player's win rate is getting high, we need to pair him with some lower-odds players", this particular feature needs to be removed from ranked.  The whole point is for players to have native win rates, isn't it?
• The number of absolutely novice players in ARP or Premium ships - I have no issue with the ships themselves, it's the players in them.  

 

Suggestions for the next season:

• Earn your way into a "natural" tier ship of the same level before being permitted to enter Ranked with a premium or ARP vessel - i.e., you have to make your way to a natural Tier VIII before being allowed to enter in your Tirpitz.  
• Scoring:  award a star if the player is:  (a) in the top 5 players of winning team, or (b) scored > 999 base XP on either team.  Deduct a star if the player is in the bottom 5 on the losing team, or (b) scored < 400 base XP on either team (combination may result in a + and a -, yielding a net neutral result).

 

[havaduck]

What you liked: the 3k free xp for reaching some low rank after only a few games. In general the income and rewards are kinda immoral high. That why a lot of "players" are attrackted; but not high enough for me to suffer playing this game mode.

 

What you disliked: the rubbish player base. This game mode attracts so much afker, bots cowards (because 10k repairs are something to be afraid of ...) and general scavengers and parasites trying to cash in big, that in order to win you have to do a ridiculously hard carry. (and even then your teams finds new and creative ways to throw the game)

Its impossible for me to play this mode without going mad in the long run.

 

 

Suggestions for the next season: Stop allowing non elited ships at the very least. A lot of scavengers not only try to thrive of the rewards, no, they try to grind horrible ships like the Yorck and get their upgrades (like hull).

The rest has to do with the constant underpowered cruisers: If they get a use aside from being targets for large calibre shells and torpedoes, both ranked and random wont dominated by DD and BB mostly.

 

[piet11111]

 

What you liked:

• generally the players where friendlier and more coördinated then in random battles also the rewards for gaining a rank where substantial.

• I also enjoyed playing with smaller teams where you can be more tactical as you where able to actually flank without stumbling into 3 enemy ships this also made it a lot easier to do a strong push if the team went along with it.

 

What you disliked:

• having a good game and still losing a rank because the team for some reason melted away like snow.

• lots of AFK players (cant always blame them the mm took 2 minutes+ quite regularly for me when playing with a battleship like the tirpitz)

 

Suggestions for the next season:

• a system that allows the best players of the losing team to advance in rank if they performed really well in the battle and of course a system that punishes the players on the winning team that performed exceptionally bad especially if by their performance in that battle it can be concluded they where AFK.
• AFK'ers that have been reported several times over multiple different battles to be afk to be barred from entering a ranked battle after moderator review to avoid abuse, i suppose this could be partially automated as the reports could trigger an automated review that could look at distance traveled or amount of button presses and mouse movements in those battles and if the number is below a certain threshold then a moderator could take a look.
• A big fat bonus for those who decided to hand out the kamikaze R to everyone over 260 pearls as us customers of wargaming want to keep those good people fully motivated !

 

[Wolfenbane]

Liked-the idea of ranked is good but the way it is structured at the moment,it isn't good.Frustrating is the word

 

Disliked-the sides are too small,if you get two bad players or even one,the battle can be over there and then ie BB players sniping and staying far away from conflict or the opposite where players rush head on in and die in minutes.Basically players not using their ships the way they should.Larger sides might enhance a comeback or better players who can make up for the weaker players for a more engaging battle.At the moment they are short and sweet(or sour) whatever the outcome.

 

Next season-Larger sides,a few more map choices.Make it similar to random if possible.

 

Regards- Paul

[AlwaysBadLuckWithTeams]

The usual things I am complaining about for 3 seasons now:

* skill not required, just die your way up (even with the last safe rank at 12, damn, the skill level was so low at 10+ this time...)

* Buying your way into rank 10 (and better) games thanks to premium $hip$ and no clue how to play them.

* Stock Colorado ? No problem, hide at the border and let those 6 other players carry you.

* Uneven distribution of ships by number and nation (Benson anyone ?!) pre-determine the outcome.

* A-symmetrical maps somewhat work in dynamic 12 vs 12, but in "trench warfare"-ranked, there is usually a preferable side (anyone else who rather starts in the north on "Land of Fire" than in the south ?).

* losing games despite Kraken, really ?!

* Why should I play at all ? I had Jolly Roger already. And I have 100 mio silver in the bank. And plenty of flags.

* 12 DD out of 14 ships, 10 of which Bensons (I have posted a ss a few weeks ago)

* you don't care about td/tk in random, but in ranked ???!?! c'mon... (yes, it was this bad this season)

 

Suggestions:

* some of the new signals as a reward next season (Zulu Hotel *hint*)

* maybe (just maybe) divide it into 4 leagues, each one with exactly one playable tier (i.e. 1*V+1*VI+1*VII+1*VIII) instead of V/VI+VII/VIII, it would stop sevens dragging you down (Atlanta vs Tirpitz ? Damn, I'd feel so guilty even placing my bet. Then again, Atlanta vs anything is a lost cause....)

* a few days ago, there were rumours about coming changes, in particular getting a star when losing with 1k base exp & getting no star when winning with less than 300 exp (bye bye afk bots)

* as for the motivation thing, maybe add a golden pirate flag which you get/keep as long as you finish every ranked season as #1 (or maybe 80% of them, stupid real life)

 

P.S.: I am pretty sure there were hints at a special reward for season 2 ?! What happened ?

[Needy_Game]

   What i liked :

1- shorter queue time, and mirrored CV MM

2- great rewards

3- good tiers 

 

   What i disliked :

1- larger number of DDs in a match (common to have more than 3)

2- cap placement, made even the attempt to pass near it, extremely risky due to endless waves of torpedo's and/or heavy HE fire, due to their closed location

3- battles are static and revolve around the caps circles alone

4- the nature of the mode, makes DDs asymmetrically powerful, due to torpedoes/guns and ability to cap

 

 My suggestions

-hard cap on number of DDs in a team to 2

-extra credit earned in victory, compared to random battles, to increase number of potential players

-reworked star earning system 

-caps positioned in open waters without cover

-players who are repeatedly reported and/or score poorly, are fined more severely 

-premium time reward