World Of Warships

[RETAC21]

This is the stupid philosophy of "DD spot while we snipe from across the map"

[DB]

Pretty much. The key item for me was the elephant herd arriving at C so late as to be useless for the rest of the game. I'm guilty of being slow to read the map, but I'm rarely that slow.

[DB]

I was bimbling along in my BB when I hear and see the torpedo warning...

 

Torpedoes off the port quarter, so I swiftly took a look and saw 2 of the nasty little orange buggers... but it's OK, they're missing well to port. I just steer small until they're past, no problem.

 

The noise gets louder... I check again. Nope, they're still off the port quarter, still missing.

 

I focus on the fight to my front, when suddenly, I'm 12k+ HP down and flooding. WTF?

 

OMNI player, twitch streamer and all round nice-seeming chap Flambass has a video showing a blatant hit by an invisible torpedo, and other reports abound, some related to possible disappearance of torpedo tracks when torpedoes miraculously pass through islands, some not.

 

It has been suggested that someone has been given the new submarine class to test, others that it's the new (Russian only!) deep-deep water torpedoes. Me, I think it's a bug.

[TonyE]

[DB]

I've only now bothered to read the announcement of the new public test. Previous ones I've ignored, at least in part because the in-game news server is slow enough to be almost unbearable. I had no idea that they provided live server bribes for taking part.

[Harold Jones]

They have for some time, but I still can't be bothered to install the client. I have enough trouble finding time to play the live server as it is.

[DB]

I've started picking up on DD play a bit. Previously I'd had no luck with it as I'm a slow learner and my favoured platform is BBs, which are more forgiving of small errors.

 

I got Farragut for free months ago and gradually worked through to Mahan, and then started the Pan Asian line.

 

Only a couple of hundred games in so far, and it's like playing a completely different game.

 

Turns out for one thing that I'm a little impatient at times, and also likely to lose SA and forget options like smoke when under fire. Interesting, if stressful.

[RETAC21]

DDs are were you are going to see more differences between national lines by far. US is a jack of all trades, Japanese is torpedo attack all the way, Russians and Aigle are gunboats with torpedoes but gunboat armor..., Pan Asia is like US but more OP, German is avoidable above tier IV.

[Colin]

I picked up the Graf Spree, slowish reload, but decent torp suite, plays well as a supporting ship for bb and other cruisers. The German VT-150 is still one of the deadliest DD I have, fast torp reloads and forward tubes.

[Gregory]

Just joined WoWs...having fun poking around.

[Marek Tucan]

I picked up the Graf Spree, slowish reload, but decent torp suite, plays well as a supporting ship for bb and other cruisers. The German VT-150 is still one of the deadliest DD I have, fast torp reloads and forward tubes.

With Germans you just have to suffer through the T-22. Rest is decent fun. They do not excel at anything, but they are good all rounders and with Hydro good DD hunters.

 

First batch of changed US cruisers is hitting testing, will be sure to have a close look at Cleveland on VIII.

[Rick]

Just joined WoWs...having fun poking around.

Do like to take an occasional look. Always wondered how accurate were the shell dispersions, rudder shift times, etc.

[Skywalkre]

 

Just joined WoWs...having fun poking around.

Do like to take an occasional look. Always wondered how accurate were the shell dispersions, rudder shift times, etc.

 

Eh, dispersion certainly isn't (unless there's been a massive overhaul in the last year) and a lot of leeway is applied to keep 'themes' consistent within lines so play is similar as you progress up a tree.

[DB]

If any aspect of the game was accurate, then rounds would take hours to play and hit rates would be what, single digit percentages?

 

Interesting from an historical perspective, but only of interest to dyed-in-the-wool wargamers if it was like that.

 

The ships are out of scale to the distances shown, the gun accuracy and rate of fire is... for gaming purposes. Armour schemes are approximate and somewhat scaled to tier (hull plating specifically).

 

I still find it interesting. A more challenging way to waste my life than jigsaw puzzles.

[Skywalkre]

They could drastically speed up the firing process, though, like in WoT and on top of that tie it to level of tech (rangefinders, computers, etc.). Instead there are oddities like IJN ships being better at long range fire than other nations (because that's their 'thing') and how secondaries for most nations can't hit the broad side of the barn but for others are more accurate.

 

It's a decision made for gameplay purposes but certainly not the only direction it could have been taken.

[Marek Tucan]

Got the Normandie camo. Now off to have some fun with the liner with attitude

 

[Mk 1]

DDs are were you are going to see more differences between national lines by far. US is a jack of all trades, Japanese is torpedo attack all the way, Russians and Aigle are gunboats with torpedoes but gunboat armor..., Pan Asia is like US but more OP, German is avoidable above tier IV.

 

Agree in general with the differing game-play of the national DD lines. Japanese have the consistent torp-sniping potential from Tier V on up, that is rare in any other national line. Russians are indeed generally gunboats, although with their speed Russian DDs offer a different twist on the torpedo-boat in confined waters (around dense sets of islands). US DDs also can be remarkable gunboats, given fast reload times, good accuracy within their range, and long-lasting smoke. They also retain the second-side torpedo barrage up through Mahan (excepting the Nicholas), which provides a VERY useful threat when closing in for decisive action.

 

As to the Pan-Pacific, I find much less of a consistent national style. The boats vary greatly from one tier to the next. So far, the Fushun is my favorite in this line. Like a Gnevny that's had it's motors de-rated a bit, in exchange for 8km torps with bigger warheads, and more smoke. OK, I'll take that trade, you betcha!

 

I am also enjoying the Aigle quite a bit. I view it as a better gunboat than a Tier VII Russian, but at Tier VI. Oh, and the smoke lasts longer, and you get longer-range torps. What's not to like with that package??

 

I find the DDs to be particularly effective in division/team play. Two or three DDs that are working together and communicating throughout the game can REALLY tilt the odds for success.

 

I play DDs more than anything else. There are 4 Russians, 4 Japanese, 4 American, 2 Pan-Asian and my "premium" RNZS and French DDs that I consider to be keepers so far. Not that I don't like my Cleveland, my Iowa, my Fiji or my Hosho. I do. But the DDs are just always there calling my name...

 

-Mark

(aka: Mk 1)

[RETAC21]

I find the Aigle plays like a light cruiser, but find DDs to be the trolls of the game, specially at lower tiers. At higher tiers they are much harder to play. Love Fletcher but can't get Gearing to work.

 

Tuccy, what's with the continuous nerfing of Midway?

[Harold Jones]

Tuccy, what's with the continuous nerfing of Midway?

I'll take a stab at it. Carriers are broken and can never be balanced because they do not fit in a game that is designed around naval gun battles.

[RETAC21]

That is so, and specially so in the lower tiers (I did more damage with tier V carriers than with tier VI because tier V ships lack any AA), but the high tiers are another matter altogether as planes are just ammo given the lethality of AA, so you have a IJN carrier with a "multibarrel" shotgun (lots of squadrons) vs a US carrier with lots of bullets of less quality (tier VIII planes), but now wargaming thinks that the US lines is not screwed enough and takes 30% of the "bullets" out of the magazine.

[Marek Tucan]

I find the Aigle plays like a light cruiser, but find DDs to be the trolls of the game, specially at lower tiers. At higher tiers they are much harder to play. Love Fletcher but can't get Gearing to work.

 

Tuccy, what's with the continuous nerfing of Midway?

Basically in short games, Midway and Hakuryu tend to be balanced, but at longer games the large hangar wins a bit too much.

[RETAC21]

So the incentive to have a Midway is removed making the US line pointless.

[Marek Tucan]

If the incentive is breaking the balance at a specific point, yes. Again, it wasn't "Hakuryu advantage in short game, Midway in longer" but "Both are balanced in short game, Midway has advantage in longer". She has plenty of things going for her, esp. with the AP bombs and high popularity of German BBs

[RETAC21]

So many that no one plays them,..

[DB]

With the excessive module vulnerability to BB long range HE spam (or any HE spam, to be frank), having a deep aircraft pool makes your CV disproportionately strong in the end game.

 

Are secondary and AA modules given different vulnerabilities based on gun shields and turret protection levels (I ask simply because it doesn't look like it)?