What's the point of Premium Ships? Benefits seem ridiculously low.

[snugginz]

So I got this Arizona which gives me +50% Free/Ship/Commander XP, and a whopping (wait for it!) +5% credits. wow. I'm just blown over by the benefits.

Meanwhile normal boosters go up to 2400%.

And to make buying a premium ship seem even more silly, he doesn't even research your tech trees! LOL. OMG seriously?! So his ship XP doesn't even go to my BB line.

[THEmarcineuu]

Some premium ships offer new options to play, for example Massachuesets has good survivability and awesome secondary guns which you wont find in base tech tree. If there were no premium ships, wegetable would have to find some other form of monetisation

[christof]

Generally speaking?

Premium ships have a permanent booster attached that you don't need to refresh or pay for.

Premium ships have reduced maintenance cost.

At some tiers they do get a bonus to credit earnings (you should see a respective sign on the equipment page).

You can use any commander of the matching nation on premium ships without having to retrain him. Good for always using your best (suited) commander or training one up from scratch while enjoying better economy.

[Jackson]

It gives you WAY more than 5% more credits. Its a modifier that's built in that you can't see. Just look at your overall net earnings then play a tech tree T6 BB and compare.

Plus the extra captain xp is huge if you're trying to lvl up a captain. Other than that, sometimes they're just fun to play. Premium ships tend to be odd or famous. Arizona is very famous. That makes it more interesting to a lot of players.

[snugginz]

Hmm OK. I guess that just compared to bonuses you get from expendable bonus cards, the premium ship permanent bonuses just seem a bit skimpy.

Funny how they don't show every ship's base credit multiplier. Sure would be helpful to know.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by snugginz:

Hmm OK. I guess that just compared to bonuses you get from expendable bonus cards, the premium ship permanent bonuses just seem a bit skimpy.

Funny how they don't show every ship's base credit multiplier. Sure would be helpful to know.

Yea, I don't know why it's secret, but there is a pattern. The higher the tier, the more money they make other than T10 because they don't have a credit modifier. T9 premiums make the most. Here's an old poster showing which ships make the most.
https://prnt.sc/TRR7HATRyqhN

It is old and should you obtain a Missouri now, it's the same as any other T9.

PS: Not all of it is hidden. A fairly good sized part is built into the service cost. Also camos don't have credit multipliers anymore. That all got built into the ship.

[christof]

Remember, you can put consumable bonuses ON TOP of the permanent bonuses.

And yeah, they've never done that with the multipliers for... reasons. At least we have something of an idea on which ships get the best bonus there (it's premium tier IXs).

[snugginz]

Well the way they make the game so totally unbalanced for new players with no obvious viable options, hardly makes a person ever want to play Tier 9 period! I don't want to play Tier 5 LOL! Until I can crawl my way up to a 50% win rate at T3 vs the one human player I'm afraid a Tier 9 premium sounds like a terrible idea.

I think maybe I just picked the wrong decade to be a beginner in WOWS ;-)

[christof]

As a new player you SHOULDN'T be playing tier IX, premium or not.

But once you have gathered enough coal that you can afford your first one (for free), you should have enough of an idea about game mechanics that you're at least not worthless. Still doesn't hurt to get a ship at mid tier first, I guess. But once you're tier V and above, you will meet experienced players anyway.

Just stop feeling sorry for yourself and being afraid of learning the game. And just do it. It's not hard to become a somewhat decent player, nor does it take that much time. But it does take the will.

[Kamiyama]

It's more than just the permanent economic bonuses they come with. If you look at a premium ship in your dock and go to the equipment page, there is a box at the bottom left that shows it's intrinsic bonuses for being premium. All premium ships have perks that grant more credits, reduced maintenance costs, and allow free instant retraining for commanders.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3117654234

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3117654375

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3117654440

The last two perks are the free economic bonuses and permacamo. Everyone knows about those last two, but the first 3 only show up here.

[snugginz]

Originally posted by christof:

As a new player you SHOULDN'T be playing tier IX, premium or not.

But once you have gathered enough coal that you can afford your first one (for free), you should have enough of an idea about game mechanics that you're at least not worthless. Still doesn't hurt to get a ship at mid tier first, I guess. But once you're tier V and above, you will meet experienced players anyway.

Just stop feeling sorry for yourself and being afraid of learning the game. And just do it. It's not hard to become a somewhat decent player, nor does it take that much time. But it does take the will.

No I don't think so.
I don't think you're being straight about how rigged this game is against new players.
Or maybe you just can't see it.

[Kamiyama]

^ Like what christof said, don't jump into the game buying a premium ship blind. You could end up buying a ship you aren't good at and end up hating the game.

Instead focus on leveling up all the different ship lines in the tech tree. Try to get as many different lines to tier V as you can. Play a thousand battles or so in many different ships and then you should have an idea what type of premium ship it is that you want to buy.

[jaquig]

after 2 years playing I still have not bought a premium ship, the game itself has given me several though.

[Ace42]

Originally posted by snugginz:

I don't think you're being straight about how rigged this game is against new players.
Or maybe you just can't see it.

You know when you linked that profile of a 52% winrate seal-clubber?

Well, it would be "rigging the game" for you not to face him. Because he's a random player, playing the same game as you, in the same choice of ships, with access to the same
game mechanics and tools.

At low tiers there's not even a ton of upgrade slots to take into account.

What you're asking is for the game to be rigged in your favour - for you to be treated with kid gloves, to not get punished for your mistakes, to not have to make use of game mechanics or learn how it works. For you to be matched up against incompetent players so you can get wins that have no bearing on your actual level of competence of the game.

And there's certainly a business argument to be made for not scaring off new players by exposing them to their own short-comings.
But THAT is what would constitute "rigging them game."

[snugginz]

Originally posted by Ace42:

Originally posted by snugginz:

I don't think you're being straight about how rigged this game is against new players.
Or maybe you just can't see it.

You know when you linked that profile of a 52% winrate seal-clubber?

Well, it would be "rigging the game" for you not to face him. Because he's a random player, playing the same game as you, in the same choice of ships, with access to the same
game mechanics and tools.

At low tiers there's not even a ton of upgrade slots to take into account.

What you're asking is for the game to be rigged in your favour - for you to be treated with kid gloves, to not get punished for your mistakes, to not have to make use of game mechanics or learn how it works. For you to be matched up against incompetent players so you can get wins that have no bearing on your actual level of competence of the game.

And there's certainly a business argument to be made for not scaring off new players by exposing them to their own short-comings.
But THAT is what would constitute "rigging them game."

Really? So a level 21 captain isn't a thing?
Several thousand hours of game experience against a brand new player is a good game design? I mean if you don't care about player retention....
I wouldn't say he would be treated unfairly if he never faced brand new players.
But I would say 100% loss rate is a turn off to any new player in any game.

[Ace42]

Originally posted by snugginz:

Really? So a level 21 captain isn't a thing?

If you think a L21 captain is going to make your misplays suddenly turn into victories, you are very much mistaken.

L21 captains don't stop your AP from ricocheting because you mispositioned; they don't stop you from getting yolo'd by a DD around islands; they don't make you immune to taking citadel damage when you mis-angle.

And I promise you, even if you /do/ run into a seal-clubber - the chances that they'll have a L21 captain on a *Tier 3/4* boat is incredibly slim.

See those vids I linked in the other thread? NONE of those was with a high-pt captain (and back then 19pts was the level cap). I'd guess 10pt at the most, more likely ~6pts.

I've got a ton of unique L21 captains, complete with special upgrades, and can you guess which tech-tree ships they're assigned to?
Here's a hint, it's not a load of low-tier T3/4 ones that any experienced player can simply face-roll, and where the buffs convey very little benefit.

Even at higher tiers, I'm more likely to be playing a ~17pt azure lane captain than my 21pt specials.

Once you've got a 10pt captain (which you'll typically get around the time you're in T6, potentially sooner) you're competitive - because DDs / Cruisers get Concealment Expert and BBs get Fire Prevention at 10 COpts.

Anything above that (not counting secondary builds which are point intensive, and suboptimal in general) is just gravy.

Several thousand hours of game experience against a brand new player is a good game design?

I didn't say it was "good game design". You've changed your argument. Now you're insisting that the game *should* be rigged in your favour. Because according to you, rigging the game in your favour is "good game design".

But I would say 100% loss rate is a turn off to any new player in any game.

There's no way to shield players from mistakes without breaking the game.