Is World Of Warplanes A Massive Failure For Wargaming?

[Skywalkre 0]

So... is it really just the new US line that's bumped numbers on the NA server? When I was on this evening it was over 1400. Haven't seen numbers like that in months (though still a 30% drop from the figures at launch). While I haven't seen a lot of 38s I have seen a lot of 40s (one game recently was 1/3 40s on both teams).

 

Along those lines is that what keeps players in WoT? I remember hearing 50k as what the NA server maxed out as but I haven't seen over 35k in weeks (and that number seems to be dropping slowly as time goes on).

Edited May 7, 2014 by Skywalkre

[Harold Jones 0]

Personally I stick around WoT because I have friends who still play, I haven't found a tank game that I want to play more, and up until a week ago I still had premium time.

Edited May 7, 2014 by Harold Jones

[Colin 0]

The pop seems to grown a little bit, by about 100, which is about a 8-9% increase. tier III gets thin and it seems to be clustered around tier 5-56

[Skywalkre 0]

So the NA server seems to have stabilized around 1100 (/sigh... yes, I had a scratch and went back again). That bubble from a few weeks ago was likely due to the free premium mission set that was out (the numbers seemed to drop right when that was over). On the positive side there now seem to be players on at every tier but if you want a full 15v15 game you still can't go above tier 5.

 

I'm half curious if the constant stream of new premium planes (it's close to 1 in 5 planes in WoWp are premium whereas in WoT it's got to be closer to 1 in 20) is the only way they can keep it viable. The folks who play it seem to play a lot (from looking at after battle screens of opponents).

 

One complaint that I still hear is no end-game. There was talk back in the day of an integrated CW system. Sadly, given the pop, I imagine CW is nonviable.

[Colin 0]

I play about 5-6 games and then move on to WOT. I find the tier III-IV to suffer the most from the population drop. I rebought a Demon to fly at the Tier1-II level and actually found the games to be full which surprised me I was worried that new players would find empty games and be discouraged. what they need to offer up beginner codes where the planes in tier 1-II get extra HP to keep them from getting shot down immediately.

[Skywalkre 0]

I've heard new players get up to about tier 3-4 and that's when they jump ship. The combination of the tier difference being more painful in this game, C-6s running around tearing up the new folks, and the usual lack of any useful information passed along on how to play (the tutorials in WoWp, just like in WoT, are worthless).

[Skywalkre 0]

Is anyone even at the helm in the NA offices? There's the aforementioned issue of the mission text just being wrong that I listed in the other thread and in trying to find a dev diary I went to the main page and one of the three scrolling headlines at the top is for a mission that expired over 6 days ago.

 

This is real amateur level shit going on. Has WG given up on the NA server or something?

[Skywalkre 0]

FTR had a post a few days ago that in NA at least WG was apparently drastically cutting back if not stopping advertising completely for the game. Looking through some posts just now I came across this:

 

http://ftr.wot-news.com/2015/02/28/insider-on-wargaming-meeting-general-info-wowp-future/

 

 

About the future of WoWp development with following features considered/approved:

- the game will still go on, however it will be completely salvaged and reworked
- proper 3D cockpits will be introduced
- maps might become a bit smaller and with fewer objectives (WoWs style)
- bomber overhaul and the introduction of more planes (an idea surged here from allowing a platoon of players to fly a bomber on different positions, for example one guy is the pilot, the other a bomber and the third a gunner)
- more control of your plane (ability to turn off multiple engines on/off or using your airspeed to extinguish fires (engine on fire, no extinguisher, take a dive and turn off the engine, pray for success)
- graphics correction, no more “cloud plasters” and “blue trees”
- climbing altitude no longer a “damnable task”
- more turbine-based planes in all the branching trees or move them a tier or so
- rockets, because “rockets”
- take off from a carrier as the battle starts (interesting eye candy)
- better plane handling
- at one point, the developers even discussed merging WoWp with WoWs – not wot because of the maps mechanics and stuff, but WoWs can actually pull it off (unlike WoT). It would be a huuuuuuge undertaking, so it’s just an idea.
- WG requires player feedback on how to improve WoWp as well, polls will come out, so if players start filling the suggestion box, especially on the NA/EU cluster that plays, WG will listen

To be continued…

The bolded part caught my eye. Most devs simply don't have the money to completely redo a project. Given how poorly WoWp did, though, this really is the only hope for it.

[Colin 0]

I suspect once WoWS comes online and is working and is getting good stats, they will turn their attention to WoWP

[Skywalkre 0]

This was on the blog that's replacing FTR:

 

http://ritastatusreport.blogspot.nl/2015/03/info-from-insider-meeting-with.html

 

 

- average online player numbers in WoWp from NA cluster: 650, EU: 1,000. WG expects the future updates and the changes they will bring to bring back the amount of players to at least 10,000 in order to self sustain the game

I was under the impression EU was doing pretty decent. Guess not.

 

It's refreshing to hear WG finally admit that WoWp was just a massive failure. I'm really skeptical, though, that they can get the playerbase up to 10k (it peaked on NA at launch with 2.2k) without starting from scratch and redoing it completely. There's just too much bad blood/animosity/negative press from all the folks who have tried it and left already.

[JasonJ 0]

So with WoWP being redone, does that mean anything to current garage of players? I have the tier 9 Japanese jet. Will I still have it when the game is redone?

[Harold Jones 0]

I can't see them wiping hangers, so most likely you'll keep your jet. The name, characteristics and model might change of course.

[Skywalkre 0]

So with WoWP being redone, does that mean anything to current garage of players? I have the tier 9 Japanese jet. Will I still have it when the game is redone?

The few leaks we've gotten point to the game being remade via constant patches to the current one rather than a completely new product. As such it's a safe bet you'll keep what you have (unless they change the tech trees around but they'd likely just do what they do in WoT and replace what you have with the new one). I can't possibly imagine them doing anything that would take any plane away from players. The backlash and negative press would simply be huge.

 

I'm still skeptical. The WoWp engine was never impressive and this is something that will take a long time (too many issues with the game for just a few patches to work, and frankly the changes they've been making over the last year or more have generally made things worse so unless they replace top personnel there's little hope).

 

I hope they can, though. I always liked the idea of the shared account and being able to take a break from one game but still earn XP and gold in another (or use one game to save up said resources so you get a boost in the other which is what I'm planning on doing with WoT and WoWs). I used a fair bit of gold in WoWp when it launched. So frustrating that that was just thrown away.

[JasonJ 0]

Yeah, WoWP is a nice break from WoT. For me, even if it doesn't turn around much, it's still nice to have. I guess all the talk about big changes just means more vigorous changes with patches.

[Harold Jones 0]

The shared account thing is nice, I expect that when WoWS launches I'll buy some premium time and having it take effect across all three games will be a nice bonus. I don't think there's any changes they can make that would cause me to spend gold on the WoWP, but if they managed to make enough changes to the game to bring the population up I could see myself logging in from time to time to fly with friends. I have a few premiums plus some tier 6/7 planes to fly if it happens.

[Skywalkre 0]

There's actually one change they could make now that would make me reinstall and check it out again: get rid of flights.

 

Given the game mechanics a flight of players who were half decent could completely dominate matches. Couple this to the guys in WoWp who gamed the MM system to also guarantee they were always top tier (and given the poor balance of planes they were always in the OP ones) and it was zero fun to load into a game, see one of those flights on the other team, and realize you had lost the game because those guys were pulling 90-95% win rates. In WoT, even against the best purple platoons you'll win 1 in 4 matches if the team plays right. You also saw those purple platoons rarely in WoT whereas with the low pop of WoWp you could get match after match against that same flight.

 

I know folks who just like to chill and play with friends (and who aren't as dominate) will not like this but for the health of the game it's a move they should have made a long time ago.

[Colin 0]

About 702 players at 11:00am PDT on the NA server today. A simple thing they can do is copy the crew features of WOT so you easily swap crews, retrain them etc. They are 1/2 way there anyways. In fact copy WOT as much as you can as that is what many players are used to already.

[Colin 0]

Just played 3 games after the latest update, the graphics have improved and nice to look at, still get chopped up quickly, takes to long the load the hanger after battle. Only 580 people on the NA server.

[zaarin7 0]

Just updated mine and it does look better however just as frustating as always was.

[Skywalkre 0]

Heh...

 

http://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/390kbo/wowp_is_really_dead_this_pretty_much_confirms_no/

 

Btw, we don't need a seperate subforum for this game. WoWp has been dead for a long time. We're not a subsidiary of WG here...

[Skywalkre 0]

Well, since this subforum is still around let's have some fun and push the hatchet a little deeper into the dying skull of this title...

 

http://thearmoredpatrol.com/2015/09/10/undercover-brother-news/

 

 

–It is possible that WoWp will not last until the end of the year unless some serious influx start popping up with better gameplay

This isn't really news. There was a lot of talk a few weeks ago when WG made changes to the EULA or whatever that everyone skips over on patch days where they mentioned something about a title closing down. Most folks assumed WG was prepping to shut down WoWp.

 

If anything it's amazing the game has lasted as long as it has with the low numbers it always had.

[Colin 0]

Well been playing today, lots of free XP to earn which is also good for WOT. Player base at 566

[Skywalkre 0]

It's an older vid, but it checks out.

 

 

I'm really starting to like Jingles. His commentary is always spot on. Haven't watched a vid of his lately that I didn't enjoy.