Is this game too easy?

[The nubinator]

Playing the demo of RTW2 for the first time now at night and wondering if I should buy RTW3 as a late christmas present for myself or not.

But as I fight my first battle (a test battle/naval excercise) despite not having a clue of what im doing and just trying to show as much broadside as possible while angling as much as possible I managed to beat the AI (equal forces) by 10x points. I sunk two BBs wheras he just damaged two of mine (Neither got heavily damaged).

Was I just lucky with RNG, was my weird division ( a default division of 2 bbs 2 cls and 1 DD) just something the AI couldnt work with or is it this easy?


I dont even know how to optimize my armor and guns, I have no idea at what points certain armors get penned at what angles by what guns at what technology level...The RTW2 game doesn't tell you, maybe RTW3 does?


But if I can beat the AI without knowing anything, is this just all complexity without any depth to it?

[Lucky]

Dunno about this particular scenario but normally with 2 BB vs 2 BB action it is very random and single critical hit at the start can decide the whole thing. Like bridge being destroyed or two turrets flashing out.

[Andrew Cree]

I think the AI in exercises is slightly weaker than in game.

Were your forces mirrored, that is, did both sides get the same ship classes?

[The nubinator]

Originally posted by Andrew Cree:

I think the AI in exercises is slightly weaker than in game.

Were your forces mirrored, that is, did both sides get the same ship classes?

Yeah.


Maybe I got lucky, I waged a war against Russia too and won every single battle except one but they are weak, was trying to bait france into a war as well but the demo ended before I could.

[Andrew Cree]

The AI does have a few weaknesses which a good player can exploit, especially in the early portion of the game. It really kicks into high gear around the time the demo ends, as aircraft and torpedoes suddenly start to become brutal.

Russian ships do tend to be fairly easy to kill - they are much slower at gaining experience which in turn means they'll often have poorer crew quality, as well as being weaker technologically which usually adds up to your ships being more accurate and survivable.

Try a few more games, and try a few different nations as well.

Certainly sounds like you were having fun until the game ended :D

[Lucky]

Wait, russian "poor education" perk affects experience? All this time I have been playing hardmode without even realizing it?

[Andrew Cree]

From the RtW2 Wikia:

Poor education (Russia/Soviet Union, Italy): Imposes a penalty on crew skills, as well as causing ships to be built 10% slower. If combined with Undeveloped shipbuilding industry, the effects stack, as well as ensuring the Undeveloped shipbuilding industry cannot be lost with time

Edit: As far as I know, this has not ben changed for RtW3

Edit 2: It's harsher than I thought. Not just a skill penalty, but also a build time penalty which stacks with Undeveloped Shipbuilding!

Edit 3: I was wrong about taking a technological penalty, but on the other hand they don't get many technological bonuses.

[Lucky]

Undeveloped shipbuilding looks stupid when you are churning out Yamatoes or smth like that. It works more like "you build more ships at any given time but it takes more time to finish them". Tech wise I was able to outtech UK in shipbuilding techs. So all those features are mostly serve to irk the player.

But skills? both officers and crew... This is a whole different story. Brilliant gunnery expert with crew quality 2 ship... It just kills stuff.

Now I fully realize why I cant help myself but to succumb to urge to torpedo-ram everything even in later years.

[Andrew Cree]

Indeed, Undeveloped Shipbuilding + Poor Education is a double edged sword.

Britain can build 75% of the ships concurrently for the same budget as Russia - but Britain will have the ships out in 75% of the time that Russia needs to build its ships. This means that Britain can get technological advances into service quicker than Russia, and in the event of a war replace individual losses more rapidly as well.