Worth playing again?

[VentiTrentasette]

Are lobbies filled with real players or are there bots in some of them?
Is there 1 to 1 advancing system like in WoT?
State of game and player base?

P.S. what is this anime thing

[Ace42]

Originally posted by bro:

Are lobbies filled with real players or are there bots in some of them?

First 200 matches, as long as you don't play in T5 before that number is reached, you are in protected matchmaking with other inexperienced players.
This segregates the playerbase, so you'll see a ton of WG bots in the lower tiers - which is probably for the best as that's how you learn the game.

Tier 6+ you won't see bots at all in PvP game modes. Obviously there's bots in PvE gamemodes.

Is there 1 to 1 advancing system like in WoT?

Not sure what you mean, but the progression system up the tiers is similar to WoT. Tier disparity is far less of an issue than in WoT, because you don't get the "lower tiers just can't damage higher tier armour" issue here.

State of game

Eh, so-so. It's still fine, still playable, still fun. But it's been in better shape. There's lots of things for people to whine about, and I have plenty of criticisms, but there's a ton of group-think involved that it's best not to be influenced by.

It's good enough to check out.

and player base?

Fine, no trouble finding matches in EU region playing T6+ ever.

P.S. what is this anime thing

Collaboration with the naval themed game "Azur Lane" - it's just cosmetics (ship skins and reskins, custom voiceovers for the unique commanders), which you can turn off if you don't care for it IIRC. Doesn't effect gameplay tangibly.

[VentiTrentasette]

Originally posted by Ace42:

Originally posted by bro:

Are lobbies filled with real players or are there bots in some of them?

First 200 matches, as long as you don't play in T5 before that number is reached, you are in protected matchmaking with other inexperienced players.
This segregates the playerbase, so you'll see a ton of WG bots in the lower tiers - which is probably for the best as that's how you learn the game.

Tier 6+ you won't see bots at all in PvP game modes. Obviously there's bots in PvE gamemodes.

Is there 1 to 1 advancing system like in WoT?

Not sure what you mean, but the progression system up the tiers is similar to WoT. Tier disparity is far less of an issue than in WoT, because you don't get the "lower tiers just can't damage higher tier armour" issue here.

State of game

Eh, so-so. It's still fine, still playable, still fun. But it's been in better shape. There's lots of things for people to whine about, and I have plenty of criticisms, but there's a ton of group-think involved that it's best not to be influenced by.

It's good enough to check out.

and player base?

Fine, no trouble finding matches in EU region playing T6+ ever.

P.S. what is this anime thing

Collaboration with the naval themed game "Azur Lane" - it's just cosmetics (ship skins and reskins, custom voiceovers for the unique commanders), which you can turn off if you don't care for it IIRC. Doesn't effect gameplay tangibly.

Much appreciated sir, downloading right now, cheers.

[SNUFFLES]

Simple answer. No.

[Ace42]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Also, many fanboys here are from the FXP era. Back in the day, you could obtain a lot of the now-limited ships for free, whereas now you have to buy loot boxes to gamble for these ships. The monetization method of the game has also gotten worse. Those who've benefited from the FXP era and those who're trying to obtain these ships now would have very different opinions on the game.

Were you around "back in the day"?

Because, depending on how far you go back, you might remember that there were no premium Tier 9s special Tier 10s "back in the day" - which is one reason that modern high-tier freemiums represent a lot of in-game resources to acquire compared to "getting ships for FXP".

You might remember the days before Coal was introduced as a resource (0.7.6) - pretty sure some ships that people had to pay for "back in the day" only subsequently became available for free via coal.

You might remember the days before Dockyard - so there were not regularly scheduled opportunities to get a free ship (as per WV '44, one that I had already paid for!).

You might remember the days before Research Bureau. When you'd need to spend doubloons to convert spare shipXP from your grind into the FXP needed to unlock ships. Now you can keep resetting and regrinding lines so that the shipXP contributes to RB and thus getting a ship rather than being redundant.

You might remember the days when there weren't loads of Steel Ships for players to earn just by grinding ranked game modes - you try earning Steel by "buying lootboxes to gamble" instead of a F2Per just grinding through the game normally.

If we want to go "back in the day" - let's consider that "back in the day" I couldn't get my Littorio with a slap-in-the-face discount of 80% off.

Let us not forget "back in the day" eco bonuses (permanent and boosters) were not separate from camos. Which meant you had far less control over what and how you would grind whatever resource whenever you needed it.

Let us not forget "back in the day" there were premium consumables to drain credits; and camos gave mechanical bonuses to your ship, which means you had to be mounting one to be optimised for combat, even if that meant not getting the most mileage out of its arbitrary economy bonuses.

But of course you remember all of this to be lecturing older players about how great things were for us "back in the day".

The grind is easier, faster, and more convenient than it ever was. Just being able to instantly requeue after being sunk is a massive boost up the tech-tree. There's more free ships than there ever was.

Sure there's lots of cynical things to criticise about WoWS's monetisation strategies - I list a ton of them in my negative review for the game. Stuff like specific signal flags not being as farmable is a drag that isn't particularly well offset by moving them to battlepass and missions, etc.

But going "Oh, the F2Ps have it harder than it was back in the day" is the opposite of a good point.

[Ace42]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Wow, didn't see that coming. Are you really a human or a bot?

Considering the fact that WG bots didn't have access to premium consumables; and my posts implied I played using them; you can safely assume I am not a WG bot who gained sentience, and then spent the next half-a-dozen years waiting to lecture someone about how the game was "back in the day".

[Ace42]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Didn't know the game was way worse "back in the day", good to know!

I was mostly teasing. You were kinda sorta accidentally right in that there's some really nice desirable ships that aren't easily available anymore - typically because they were OP and bust. And people will have to whale if they want them.

Really the post was mostly for the benefit of new players (or prospective players) who might be deterred by the false notion that the game is more punishing for them than it was in the past.

I'd say that for anyone who is going strict F2P, the game is far far better for them now.
But if they do want to spend money to get specific elements of premium content - there are some monetisations in the game now that are far more cynical than they were back in the day.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Not recommended unless you're ok with spending money on premium time and other stuff.
The game is also very old and didn't get much improvements over the years. .

You clearly didn't play in the beginning. It's vastly different.

[Ace42]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Was it? My knowledge mostly comes from Youtube and Reddit. Looking at videos from a few years back the game seems exactly the same to me.

https://youtu.be/xnfbQnRMIAg
https://youtu.be/lneaZsMUdB8

[Jackson]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Originally posted by Jackson:

You clearly didn't play in the beginning. It's vastly different.

Was it? My knowledge mostly comes from Youtube and Reddit. Looking at videos from a few years back the game seems exactly the same to me.

I started last year around the time of Azur Lane collab btw.

Oh yea, the graphics engine was massively updated. We have weather now, rain, fog, storms. The islands used to be empty with bad looking (comparatively) trees. Most of the towns/buildings/small effects you see on the maps are "new." The ship models have almost all been replaced with "HD" models. There's tons of new mechanics in the game that weren't there in the beginning - but my memory is a bit vague on which ones. And some of them may not be universally loved such as subs, deep water torpedoes and Russian radar.

There's a quite a few UI elements that are newer/better. Many mods in the early days that actually made life better were incorporated into the UI over time.

[Jackson]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Originally posted by Jackson:

Oh yea, the graphics engine was massively updated. We have weather now, rain, fog, storms. The islands used to be empty with bad looking (comparatively) trees. Most of the towns/buildings/small effects you see on the maps are "new." The ship models have almost all been replaced with "HD" models. There's tons of new mechanics in the game that weren't there in the beginning - but my memory is a bit vague on which ones. And some of them may not be universally loved such as subs, deep water torpedoes and Russian radar.

There's a quite a few UI elements that are newer/better. Many mods in the early days that actually made life better were incorporated into the UI over time.

I see, so they spent the first few years polishing up the graphics, and then the game stayed about the same, right? I know that RTS CV, CV rework and subs were the major additions to the game, but also the major complaints from the playerbase.

I still remember finding videos on Cheshire when I first got the ship (my first premium), most of the videos are from 4~5 years ago, and the game looks exactly the same as today.

It doesn't look the same I think. We continually get upgrades if you check the notes. They don't often stand out. For example the fog is quite new and still rarely shows up.

They're continually adding mechanics that are different.

The CV's did drastically change quite long ago because the RTS style just wasn't working. Sure, people complain, but that's either because they were part of the very small % that liked them that way, or because they don't really know how it was back then. I'm not saying some people didn't like them - they did, but they were kinda broken and not accessible/enjoyable to most of the player base. A much higher % of players play CV's now vs before which is what WG was after... and what annoys people who hate CV's.

[Jackson]

To add to the above: If you're not running graphics on highest settings, you won't see many of the graphical updates probably. For example, the wakes are much better now, bow spray has been added, but if you turn down settings, you don't see any of that anyway.

[Hiei]

Originally posted by 奶小的姑娘:

Not recommended unless you're ok with spending money on premium time and other stuff.
The game is also very old and didn't get much improvements over the years. If anything, it has gotten worse with CVs and subs.

Also, many fanboys here are from the FXP era. Back in the day, you could obtain a lot of the now-limited ships for free, whereas now you have to buy loot boxes to gamble for these ships. The monetization method of the game has also gotten worse. Those who've benefited from the FXP era and those who're trying to obtain these ships now would have very different opinions on the game.

Not really
Super ultra powered ships still come out regularly
The fxp ships are usually only really good under certain conditions anyways.
Your post just reads like you're jaded because you can't get them
You really aren't missing much though.
Smolinsk was coal (Could just play Pan Asian cruiser, same thing, possibly even better
Musashi is just a worse Yamato, so play Yamato or any high tier sniper BB it's almost the exact same thing
Other Fxp ships have been made coal ships.
I honestly don't play most of the rare ships I have.
Many games have stuff that leave the market, Even ones like league of legends.