Guide: British Cruisers

[dr_finistere]

Now I say it's a problem because there are a lot of RN fans who want to play RN. But they aren't all skilled to be able to do it. I would like to have seen someone else take the "unique hit but then I wonder... who else?  This way I suppose you need to be good to be British. 

 

May I print and frame this quote? Says it all. :-)

[Akula971]

Q&A with developers:-

Lead Developer Boris Alotovkrap

 

Q. Why did it take so long to bring RN to Game?

A. British are super secret with information. (Really? then why are there so many plans, & books out there? National maritime Museum has all plans for RN ships, but you have to pay for them. Besides you often ignore or make up data for game "balance" so?........)

 

Q. Why make an entire line of light cruisers? Every other line is a mix. You could have used the county class cruisers.

A. Errr. Because........ perhaps we make other line future?

 

Q. Why do the ships not have HE?

A. Because we listen to testers who say not another line of HE Spammers, and already BBs are complaining so much.

(Really? then why not reduce the effect of HE on these and all the other HE spammers in game)

A. we consider this. (pass the vodka, who is this guy with his questions?)

 

Q. Why is the gun range so bad?

A. These are super sneaky ships, you need to get in closer.

Q So they are brawlers?

A. Oh god no, you get spotted close you get deleted....ooops forget I said that. Here have some vodka.

 

Q.How do I use these ships.

A. You are destroyers main enemy remember!

But my shells bounce, and there are so few destroyers in game now.

Q. What do I do with bow on cruisers and battleships?

A. Use your super sneaky to relocate.

I run away then?

 

Q. Who are these ships for?

A. Err (Hic) Only for best player, most skilled player.

Q. So you made an entire line that is no fun for the vast majority of your small player base? Is that good business sense?

A. They will suffer such pain, they will gladly open their wallets for the Belfast, Have you seen the price of vodka these days?

 

Q. You fooked up big time didn't you?

A. But we had deadline to meet, cash flow to consider. Besides we always can say we will rebalance if required!

You really don't have a clue do you?

 

Thank you Boris.

 

 

[VapeyVic]

 

The RN cruisers have a very high skill-cap and we would absolutely not recommend them for new or very casual players. 

 

Really?  REALLY?!

 

Well, i suppose thats true, since i've managed to bring in about 50+ peple into the game and, out of the eight or more UK people who played casually who was waiting for the RN line to come out, ALL EIGHT of them quit the game last night... then yeah... its not for new or casual players.

 

*slow golf clap*

 

As a former game industry worker, your statement actually made me facepalm.  They are a line of ships which are open for ANYONE to play.  Within the game there is no mention of this particular line being for "Veteran Players Only", no mention of the line needing "Dedicated Players" and no mention of the line being not for casual play.  The RN line has already caused more than a handfull of the new players i bought in via my youtube channel to quit, which has costed WG well over 200euros in lost income because those people will not be buying the Belfast.

 

[Tekay85]

Looks like he never played what he's talkin about...

But hey, you have mods in the english section and they are at least funny in their tries

In the german section they show up once a week and the translation for example of this "guide" will take 2 Weeks

[damo74]

Q&A with developers:-

Lead Developer Boris Altovkrap

 

Q. Why did it take so long to bring RN to Game?

A. British are super secret with information. (Really? then why are there so many plans, & books out there? National maritime Museum has all plans for RN ships, but you have to pay for them. Besides you often ignore or make up data for game "balance" so?........)

 

Q. Why make an entire line of light cruisers? Every other line is a mix. You could have used the county class cruisers.

A. Errr. Because........ perhaps we make other line future?

 

Q. Why do the ships not have HE?

A. Because we listen to testers who say not another line of HE Spammers, and already BBs are complaining so much.

(Really? then why not reduce the effect of HE on these and all the other HE spammers in game)

A. why consider this. (pass the vodka, who is this guy with his questions?)

 

Q. Why is the gun range so bad?

A. These are super sneaky ships, you need to get in closer.

Q So they are brawlers?

A. Oh god no, you get spotted close you get deleted....ooops forget I said that. Here have some vodka.

 

Q.How do I use these ships.

A. You are destroyers main enemy remember!

But my shells bounce, and there are so few destroyers in game now.

Q. What do I do with bow on cruisers and battleships?

A. Use your super sneaky to relocate.

I run away then?

 

Q. Who are these ships for?

A. Err (Hic) Only for best player, most skilled player.

Q. So you made an entire line that is no fun for the vast majority of your small player base? Is that good business sense?

A. They will suffer such pain, they will gladly open their wallets for the Belfast, Have you seen the price of vodka these days?

 

Q. You fooked up big time didn't you?

A. But we had deadline to meet, cash flow to consider. Besides we always can say we will rebalance if required!

You really don't have a clue do you?

 

Thank you Boris.

 

 

 

Out of +1s sadly

[Catser]

Look how all the players have fun with the mighty Royal Navy. Oh my...

Waiting for so long and dashed hopes so fast. :/

[philjd]

Q&A with developers:-

Lead Developer Boris Altovkrap

 

Q. Why did it take so long to bring RN to Game?

A. British are super secret with information. (Really? then why are there so many plans, & books out there? National maritime Museum has all plans for RN ships, but you have to pay for them. Besides you often ignore or make up data for game "balance" so?........)

 

Q. Why make an entire line of light cruisers? Every other line is a mix. You could have used the county class cruisers.

A. Errr. Because........ perhaps we make other line future?

 

Q. Why do the ships not have HE?

A. Because we listen to testers who say not another line of HE Spammers, and already BBs are complaining so much.

(Really? then why not reduce the effect of HE on these and all the other HE spammers in game)

A. why consider this. (pass the vodka, who is this guy with his questions?)

 

Q. Why is the gun range so bad?

A. These are super sneaky ships, you need to get in closer.

Q So they are brawlers?

A. Oh god no, you get spotted close you get deleted....ooops forget I said that. Here have some vodka.

 

Q.How do I use these ships.

A. You are destroyers main enemy remember!

But my shells bounce, and there are so few destroyers in game now.

Q. What do I do with bow on cruisers and battleships?

A. Use your super sneaky to relocate.

I run away then?

 

Q. Who are these ships for?

A. Err (Hic) Only for best player, most skilled player.

Q. So you made an entire line that is no fun for the vast majority of your small player base? Is that good business sense?

A. They will suffer such pain, they will gladly open their wallets for the Belfast, Have you seen the price of vodka these days?

 

Q. You fooked up big time didn't you?

A. But we had deadline to meet, cash flow to consider. Besides we always can say we will rebalance if required!

You really don't have a clue do you?

 

Thank you Boris.

 

 

 

 

Out of +1s sadly

 

Like wise.

____________

 

Now I don't usually make a truly negative post, but in this instance I will. I will try to not incite the 'RN fanboy flag' of hostility response either

 

OK, for the 300 hundred years up to the middle of WW2, the RN was 'THE' navy against which all others were measured. Now WG approach to the RN was to delay it's introduction, barring 1 decent premium ship, Warspite, which is a fairly standard build within the game concept and the recent Cambeltown, which is fairly rubbish,but again, standard game design build.

 

Now WG have released, finally, their first attempt at a full RN line, but using an experimental approach to the game concept, which has gone through a number of iterations and is still a bit controversial even with those testing it. I fully understand that the WG 'balance' concept is iterative and the live ships will change, adapt etc as the statistics start to build up... We, as 'experienced' players understand this, but also recognise that it takes forum b@tching' etc to promote a response on occasion also. But it will take time for both these to impact on actual ships ingame.

 

In the mean time, there will be lots of new players joining this 'world' who will go 'Oh, RN, they were good, so I will play them to start with'. But given that WG have deliberately designed this line to have a high skill threshhold, these new players will not be impressed.

 

I short, if WG wanted to experiment with a radical approach to the game, why didn't they do it with one of their already in place fantasy lines?

 

____________________________

Alternatively, tongue in cheek perhaps.Perhaps this is a nod of recognition by WG to the quality of the RN, by making sure that only good drivers will drive those ships ;)

 

 

 

 

[C4PT41N_0BV10US]

Well I do:

Yesterday half of my gaming session, 2 games in div, rest was solo.

And game from right now. Unfortunately, I got DC but I think I could go well above 200k in this game:

Furthermore, cruisers are crapnow anyway, with BB's roaming around uncontested, and it was 100% known that RN CL's would not break BB's dominance. 

 

 

[tajj7]

 

Q. Why is the gun range so bad?

A. These are super sneaky ships, you need to get in closer.

Q So they are brawlers?

A. Oh god no, you get spotted close you get deleted....ooops forget I said that. Here have some vodka.

 

Q.How do I use these ships.

A. You are destroyers main enemy remember!

But my shells bounce, and there are so few destroyers in game now.

Q. What do I do with bow on cruisers and battleships?

A. Use your super sneaky to relocate.

I run away then?

 

 

 

 

 

These two are the key points, though it's not really range that is the issue, it's shell velocity and gun arcs that make hitting stuff at range pointless because it takes like 15 seconds for the shells to actually get to the target by which point even the largest slowest targets can easily change direction (then we'll add in anything with armour and angles you'll bounce or break about 70% of those hits) 

 

So.

 

You have to get closer, except these ships are armoured like destroyers, but with massive ship length citadels so everything can get full value from their hits, so you shouldn't get closer because even destroyers can citadel you and heavy cruisers and BBs can citadel you from pretty much any direction, angle or range. 

 

So what are you left with?

 

Well you can sail around not getting spotted and you can run away fairly well. That is what wins games, running away and hiding. 

 

The one class of ships apparently you are a nightmare for can just turn bow onto you and will probably bounce, plus they'll light you up for all the enemy who will clearly stop whatever they are doing because 30-40k of guaranteed citadel damage has turned up. 

 

I seriously don't get what these ships are in the game to do, aside sit in smoke every 2-3 minutes and hope some people wander into their effective range (which is about 10km or less) and they stay broadside on, but don't shoot blind into the smoke and don't rush them bow on.

 

To be honest, considering the game is full of BBs anyway, wouldn't it have been better to actually allow these ships to be HE spammers? If it annoys a few BB players and they stop playing BBs, wouldn't in the current climate that actually be a good thing overall?

 

 

 

[Kais_S012]

Captains,

 

[fresh from the horse's behind]

 

Best,

Kandly

 

 

 

 

sums up how much of that is even true about the RN lines in their current hamstrung setup

[C4PT41N_0BV10US]

 To be honest, considering the game is full of BBs anyway, wouldn't it have been better to actually allow these ships to be HE spammers? If it annoys a few BB players and they stop playing BBs, wouldn't in the current climate that actually be a good thing overall?

BLASPHEMY! How could you even propose that?! It is common knowledge, that BB's are very underpowered and need some serious buffs to be able to fight back those overpowered Mogamis, Baltimores and Budionnys. 

 

More seriously - before GE BB's we had 35% of playerbase consisting of BB players, after GE BB I think we hitted above 40%. Why do you want to upset more then 40% of you customers?  

 

[procrastinatingStudent]

Had a game in the teir 6 vs aboa, first volley 2 pens on slightly anged at 6 km rest bounced, second volley aboa showing aft so shot the superstructure 6  bounces third volley same and another two times. The only "Special" AP really is special.

Only good side was the single launch torps, i save 2 torps and he messed up his torps at 2km

[damo74]

High skill threshold = Unbalanced.

 

It's as simple as that

[Admiral_noodle]

High skill threshold = Unbalanced.

 

It's as simple as that

 

Disagree. German bbs I think have a low skill threshold. And I think that's unbalanced. 

 

We are arguing the wrong point anyway in my opinion. 

 

Personally I think the line overall is ok. I don't hate the AP only and the intent of the line with a high skill requirement I rather like. There are many different lines. I like that WG have tried to come up with something new. And I think it almost works. 

 

Almost. 

 

And I say almost because I feel tier 7, even tier 6 and up work well. 

 

However from my viewpoint saying the whole line is rubbish is deflecting focus on my personal area of concern. Namely that the tier 4 and 5 are weak borderline unplayable no fun zones and that those two ships need addressing. Personally. 

[Yaffle1234]

Right I've sussed it out how best to proceed:

 

Step one - get rid of the garbage:

Step two - move a decent captain to the Blackswan with AFT and club the hell outa all the other poor buggers at the start of their journey to misery.

 

Step three  (optional) buy the Belfast because we actually like this game and wish to support it. BUT as a paying customer we (I) feel a right exists to express disappointment where its due and its pretty overwhelming.

WG you now have a choice - re-act to YOUR customers or continue attempting to p!ss down our backs and tell us its raining.

 

I wouldn't recommend the latter, paying customers are actually pretty astute and will simply stop paying.

 

[Xevious_Red]

I have no issues with a high skill requirement line.

 

However, given how popular the first RN was always going to be they probably should have chosen a low skill requirement line.

Then they can have the high skill requirement line as something obscure/paper than no one is really going to mind because it's not "their" nation.

 

Currently you have lots of people that want to play them because they're RN. These people are then upset at essentially being told "sorry, you're not good enough for RN"

 

[jure_eruj]

After 2 days all I can say about RN line is that it is complete rubbish, usable only for target practice and nothing more. WG should do us a big favour and just remove this crap alltogether.

[cherry2blost]

Hi guys, well I posted on Day 1 about how terrible RN cruisers were, post joined others in the cruiser section.

BUT... played a couple more games in the Emerald and found that it is actually NOT as terrible as initial thoughts suggested.

 

Let me explain myself a little here... Emerald (for example) is another example of a late game ship.... stay safe, stay out of trouble and then pick on the lower health enemies at later stages, use her epic speed to late cap, use islands A LOT to ambush enemies... found great ways to hold up a flank against multiple enemies just by being around a headland those torps are awesome and the smoke is great combined with Hydro....

 

So YES squishy but very useful as late game johnnies.... if you can put up with abuse from team mates about not being up the front dying......

[Admiral_noodle]

 

Your posting high tier Screenies ! post low tier ones, you CANNOT BECAUSE THEY SUCK AND NO ONE WANTS TO PROGRESS THROUGH THEM - it is really that hard to understand.  Upto tier 7 they are borked and need FIXING !!!! Jesus ......

 

OK so I don't entirely agree but I partially agree...

Tier 1 is fine. Tier 2 is more than workable. I can provide 40-50k damage screenies if you want

Tier 3 is actually capable especially if you're lucky enough to be top tier. Its capable vs. DDs and cruisers of the same tier. It is vulnerable to BBs. Avoid, dodge, keep turning, move unpredictably, ambush fro cover. You have to learn to play this ship - which can make you feel its terrible if you experience unfortunate deletion...

...

Tier 6 is decent but is a bit frustrating in tier 8 games. Is definitely workable. Isn't a bad ship.

Tier 7+ are all good if played to their strengths.

 

Now to the ...

 

Tier 4 and 5 in my view are BAD. he tier 4 is very vulnerable but has poor DPM with guns and short range torpedoes. Its a real struggle to do well in and for me not a lot of fun.

 

Tier 5 gets smoke (yay) but is still very fragil, has short ranged torps and the guns have pretty poor dispersion and arcs, meaning you need to get too close to do damage. The tier 4 and 5 also face Kaiser and Konig which are particularly invulnerable to low caliber AP.

 

The bad ships at 4/5 leave a bad taste in the mouth which isn't truly rectified until tier 7. By then you are used to being paper and the ship even feels tanky, and suddenly you get 4 more guns so feel like a god. Plus it is agile...

 

This leads to the perception that the whole line up to tier 7 is awful - the "flat spot" at tiers 4 and 5. 4 I could forgive, but 4 AND 5 being weak is sad. E.g. German cruisers... Karl is awful, but Konigsberg is fun. Nurnberg is considered awful by some because it explodes, but you can at least pewpewpew with the guns until you die... I think the biggest problem with the RNCL is the weakness of two ships, which tarnish the whole line...

 

Of course this is my opinion, but I think the tier 4 and 5 need more damage output in the way of better guns, be that slightly faster RoF, better dispersion and/or slightly better arcs and I'd like Danae to get smoke to be fair). If those parameters were tweaked, I think people would be a lot more satisfied with the ships without removing the skill requirement when playing them...

[Chiledip]

With all due respect, I cannot accept the "high skill threshold" label.

 

If high skill is smoking up in a small puff of smoke, praying that you don't get hit at all, by anything, while also requiring your enemy to turn broadsides to your smoke then anyone in the world can have "high skill" if the enemy is passive and suicidal.

These cruisers ARE NOT high skill threshold, they just require your enemies to have LOW skill, poor judgement and poor luck.

[Capra76]

The question I have about the "high skill cap" is are the super-unicums getting better results with these than they can achieve with other nations cruisers, because if they're not and it takes a top 5% player to get adequate results out of them, then they're not high skill cap, they're bad ships.

[von_Boeg]

With all due respect, I cannot accept the "high skill threshold" label.

 

If high skill is smoking up in a small puff of smoke, praying that you don't get hit at all, by anything, while also requiring your enemy to turn broadsides to your smoke then anyone in the world can have "high skill" if the enemy is passive and suicidal.

These cruisers ARE NOT high skill threshold, they just require your enemies to have LOW skill, poor judgement and poor luck.

 

Exactly, I try my best, sneak up in slow speed and hide in smoke while the target is lit by other ships, but IT DOES NOT HELP. In order to make my guns do at least SOME damage I need to be close, and that just mean enemy fire-spamming into the smoke and I am dead. I struggle to do more then 10K damage in the "better" ship Leander; so far the Tier III was the best for me.... =(

 

This is utter BS.

[philjd]

With all due respect, I cannot accept the "high skill threshold" label.

 

If high skill is smoking up in a small puff of smoke, praying that you don't get hit at all, by anything, while also requiring your enemy to turn broadsides to your smoke then anyone in the world can have "high skill" if the enemy is passive and suicidal.

These cruisers ARE NOT high skill threshold, they just require your enemies to have LOW skill, poor judgement and poor luck.

 

I think that the High Skill part in comes in not being a target for hostile DD's, CA, CLs and BB's, while still trying to make a contribution to the battle. I suspect that the picture will be clearer though once the numbers of RN ships per battle dies down.

[von_Boeg]

 

I think that the High Skill part in comes in not being a target for hostile DD's, CA, CLs and BB's, while still trying to make a contribution to the battle. I suspect that the picture will be clearer though once the numbers of RN ships per battle dies down.

 

It already have, there are almost none now since they are totally useless.

[creamgravy]

The question I have about the "high skill cap" is are the super-unicums getting better results with these than they can achieve with other nations cruisers, because if they're not and it takes a top 5% player to get adequate results out of them, then they're not high skill cap, they're bad ships.

 

I'm doing significantly better in RN CLs than other f2p cruiser lines. (not a top player)

 

Leander absolutely spanks Nürnberg out the park.

Fiji takes out the trash.

Edinburgh ROLFstomps over poor New Orleans.

 

Simple truth: HE would add 30% to my average damage and make them a bit OP (BalancedFast)