World of Warships

[Borgholio]

On that note, on the official forums, I may have just read the most wrong thing I have ever read:

Holy shit, that post made my brain hurt.

[The Vortex Empire]

...and that's why battleships fell into disuse and carriers became the core of the fleet.

[Simon_Jester]

Or you can spend real money on superior ammunition (ACPR or HEAT) if you're a tragically unskilled oaf who should go back to quickscoping or whatever the CoD kids do these days.

I don't know about plane's, but in tanks you can buy special ammo for credits and lots of the newer tanks seem to be balanced around gold being in play.

To translate that: special ammunition can be had for in-game credits, not real money, BUT the exchange rate is unfavorable. Firing ammunition that costs ten cents of real money can totally wipe out your credit profit on a successful engagement.

I'm not sure what you mean about "balanced around gold being in play."

[Jub]

To translate that: special ammunition can be had for in-game credits, not real money, BUT the exchange rate is unfavorable. Firing ammunition that costs ten cents of real money can totally wipe out your credit profit on a successful engagement.

I'm not sure what you mean about "balanced around gold being in play."

Certain tanks (the T69 as an example) have poor AP rounds, but very strong HEAT or APCR rounds and thus seem to be crafted with the assumption that you will use gold rounds on them. The top gun on the E-100 is much the same in that respect, with very low penetration for what it's expected to face unless it uses premium rounds.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

In other words... Why WoT is a scam and you should just play War Thunder?

[Jub]

In other words... Why WoT is a scam and you should just play War Thunder?

It only costs silver for the premium ammo and Gaijin hasn't exactly blown me away with their consumer friendliness either. Examples being the way they've changed simulator battles so you can only play the nations and tanks that they deign to allow, the arcade maps being used for realistic battles involving jet aircraft, they way they changed the daily double bonus... It's a real race to the bottom between the two at times.

[Elheru Aran]

Every game has premium stuff that makes your life easier if you shell out for it. Some are more outrageous than others about it (see Evolve). I don't really see the World Of series as being any less fucked-up in this regard. Get a high end tank, you're already going to be rolling with an edge over other players, so they balance it out a little by making it so that you only get really crazy performance by using gold ammo. That's assuming the examples given are 'high end', of course, as I'm not terribly familiar with the game, but the conclusion seems fairly logical, it's a game balance issue...

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

It only costs silver for the premium ammo and Gaijin hasn't exactly blown me away with their consumer friendliness either. Examples being the way they've changed simulator battles so you can only play the nations and tanks that they deign to allow, the arcade maps being used for realistic battles involving jet aircraft, they way they changed the daily double bonus... It's a real race to the bottom between the two at times.

Well, I won't argue the other stuff (I don't play simulator or jets), but the new dailies are way better. Okay, granted, maybe on an off-day you "only" get +10% for 10 missions instead of +100% once per vehicle, but it's far offset by getting massive injections of silver/research and even free gold on other days. I got 800k silver from one of my dailies, and 150 gold and 3 days free premium from another, nevermind all the other boosts I've gotten.

I think it's just easy to see the "loss" of 2x bonus research and get fixated on that.

[Vendetta]

To translate that: special ammunition can be had for in-game credits, not real money, BUT the exchange rate is unfavorable. Firing ammunition that costs ten cents of real money can totally wipe out your credit profit on a successful engagement.

I'm not sure what you mean about "balanced around gold being in play."

Certain tanks (the T69 as an example) have poor AP rounds, but very strong HEAT or APCR rounds and thus seem to be crafted with the assumption that you will use gold rounds on them. The top gun on the E-100 is much the same in that respect, with very low penetration for what it's expected to face unless it uses premium rounds.

It's more like those tanks are balanced around their gun being slightly shit and people spam gold to make up for that.

[Venator]

In other words... Why WoT is a scam and you should just play War Thunder?

I found the grind time in WoT much more favourable, though, not to mention the tier-matching. That kind of day-to-day stuff won out for me by miles since you feel like you're actually getting somewhere.

[Agent Fisher]

Just signed up for applied for closed beta, so hopefully I can get in. I wanna be a Fletcher and ripple off torpedoes to sink big ships.

[Simon_Jester]

To translate that: special ammunition can be had for in-game credits, not real money, BUT the exchange rate is unfavorable. Firing ammunition that costs ten cents of real money can totally wipe out your credit profit on a successful engagement.

I'm not sure what you mean about "balanced around gold being in play."

Certain tanks (the T69 as an example) have poor AP rounds, but very strong HEAT or APCR rounds and thus seem to be crafted with the assumption that you will use gold rounds on them. The top gun on the E-100 is much the same in that respect, with very low penetration for what it's expected to face unless it uses premium rounds.

The T69's penetration isn't great, but it's designed as a highly mobile tank; I doubt you're supposed to be using that 175mm-class penetration to shoot holes in enemy tanks' frontal armor. A lot of Tier 8 medium guns don't have better penetration than that anyway.

That said, I take your meaning.

[FSTargetDrone]

I just took some quick screen shots of the tech trees from the closed beta, the gallery should be set to public, but let me know if you can't see anything.

Link to Gallery

I see Aurora there for the USSR. Is there an Olympia, by any chance? Some of the US ships are obscured in your 5th screen grab.

[Simon_Jester]

Frustratingly, they seem to have picked the Erie-class gunboat as the "Tier I" US warship despite the fact that there are other ships older than it that 'follow' it in subsequent tiers. Next in the cruiser line is the Chesters, which postdate Olympia by over twenty years.

!

The Auroras look like a 'premium' ship you have to pay real money for... but I'd pay real dollars for an Olympia.

[Temjin]

I see Aurora there for the USSR. Is there an Olympia, by any chance? Some of the US ships are obscured in your 5th screen grab.

Right now, the Aurora is the only thing that exists in the Russian tech tree. So far they're focusing quite heavily on the Japanese and American tech trees.

I can't even tell you how it plays, since Wargaming hasn't given any of the NA beta testers any of the premium currency. They're giving the Russian and EU premium currency, just not any NA testers. Really annoying.

[Edit] And yes, the Aurora is a premium ship.

[Jub]

I'll upload a non-obscured screen grab of the 5th picture later tonight once my shift ends.

[FSTargetDrone]

Hopefully Olympia appears later, if it isn't initially available, premium or otherwise. I'll buy it before anything else. I found a blog post about the ship that the game makers posted after visiting it in November, 2013 after seeing the New Jersey. Perhaps they intend to add it later.

Olympia is something I have a lot of interest in. She's at Philadelphia, barely 30 miles away from me and I've been aboard a number of times. Her she is a few years ago with her berthmate, Becuna (SS-319) on the Delaware River, at Penn's Landing:



A friend of mine works on the ship regularly and is one of the group of preservationists and volunteers who maintain Olympia. As an aside, if anyone is interested, there is a very active and public Facebook Group set up by the "Living History Crew" and there lots of posts of photos of the ship, recent restorations and discoveries, and information about her history and the historical crew. One of the men who routinely dresses as a period officer is a Captain in the Naval Reserve and he's been working on the ship since he was a young man. Incidentally, the next event put on for the public who visits the ship will be this Saturday, 11 April.

A few years ago I read that Totem Games was supposed to make a game with ships from the Spanish Civil War to complement all the other "Age of Steam" games they have made, but nothing has come of it as far as I know.

[Borgholio]

I have always loved the look of the early armored cruisers and pre-dreadnoughts. There's just something about that antique look, like a classic car.

[Jub]

I added a better picture of the end of the US tech tree.

Link to Gallery

Also, if anybody wants the in game stats for any of these ships let me know and I'll snap some screen grabs.

[AniThyng]

How are US gun-only cruisers balanced against Japanese cruisers with torpedoes?

What is the rate of fire of a Des Moines compared to the previous cruisers?

Are battles like WOT where nationalities are mixed up? Where are the Japanese carriers?

[Jub]

How are US gun-only cruisers balanced against Japanese cruisers with torpedoes?

The US gun-only cruisers really don't start until tier 6 as the Phoenix and the Omaha are both armed with torpedoes, I also don't have an experience with them yet as I only have the Phoenix class unlocked right now. Stats wise, and fully upgraded, the Cleveland and the Aoba stack up as follows:

Code: Select all

Cleveland-class Cruiser:

Survivability: 45
Hit Points: 35,200
Armor: 6-127 mm

Artillery Main Battery: 51
152 mm/47 Mk 16 4x3
Rate of Fire: 7.5 rounds per minute
180 degree turn time: 32.7 seconds
Max Dispursion: 125 m
High Explosive Damage: 1640
Chance of Fire: 12%
Armor Piercing Damage: 3560
Range: 14.6 kilometers

Artillery Secondary Battery:
127 mm/38 Mk 32 Mod. 12 6x2
Range: 4 km

Anti-aircraft Guns: 47
20 mm Oerlikon Mk 4 13x1
Range: 2.1 km
40 mm Bofors Mk 1 2x2
Range: 3.5 km
40 mm Bofors Mk 1 4x4
Range: 3.5 km
127 mm/38 Mk 32 mod. 12 6x2
Range: 5 km

Maneuverability: 63
Maximum Speed: 33 knots
Turning Circle Radius: 830 m
Rudder Shift Time: 9.4 seconds

Concealment: 50
Surface Detectability Range: 13.3 km
Air Detectability Range: 8.1 km

Code: Select all

Aoba-class Cruiser:

Survivability: 40
Hit Points: 30,500
Armor: 6-76 mm

Artillery Main Battery: 42
203 mm/50 3rd Year Type mod. C 3x2
Rate of Fire: 5.5 rounds per minute
180 degree turn time: 36.0 seconds
Max Dispursion: 127 m
High Explosive Damage: 2170
Chance of Fire: 14%
Armor Piercing Damage: 5170
Range: 14.9 kilometers

Artillery Secondary Battery:
120 mm/45 10th Year Type mod. B 4x1
Range: 4.5 km

Torpedo: 19
610 mm Quad Type 93 2x4

Anti-aircraft Guns: 28
25 mm/60 Type 96 Triple mod. 1 2x3
Firing Range: 3 km
25 mm/60 Type 96 Twin mod. 1 15x2
Firing Range: 3 km
120 mm/45 10th Year Type mod. B 4x1
Firing Range: 5 km

Maneuverability: 66
Maximum Speed: 34 knots
Turning Circle Radius: 870 m
Rudder Shift Time: 8.5 seconds

Concealment: 58
Surface Detectability Range: 12.1 km
Air Detectability Range: 7.0 km

The numbers next to most of the categories are the ratings given to them by Wargaming as a quick way of knowing what something is good at. I don't know how they arrive at them or how accurate they are, but in this case they seem to match up with what I'd guess about each of these ships.

In this comparison between classes the Cleveland has better guns and more effective AA making it a good escort for your teams battleships and able to break off and sink destroyers effectively. The Aoba with her torpedoes make better flankers and attackers, but don't really make the greatest escorts as they lack in AA weaponry and have a harder time sinking destroyers with their slower turrets and lesser rate of fire. So one class wants to stay with the fleet and work as a screen while the other wants to act more as a destroyer tender and go after the battleships and air-craft carriers with them. It should also be noted that there is a perk effecting the turning rate of guns and guns 155 mm and below differently than guns 156 mm and larger with the smaller guns getting a bonus 2.5 degrees per second aim time and the larger guns getting 0.7 degrees per second. This makes the Cleveland's 152 mm guns even better at tracking fast ships than the Aoba's.

What is the rate of fire of a Des Moines compared to the previous cruisers?

The Des Moine's 203 mm guns can fire 10 rounds per minute compared to the Baltimore a tier below her which can only put out 4 rounds per minute from her 203s. When stacked up against the equal tier Senjo-class the Des Moine-class also wins with her 10 rpm beat the Senjo's 4.6 rpm.

Are battles like WOT where nationalities are mixed up?

The battles are just like WOT in that the nations are mixed on each team. I'm not sure if this will stay the same once more ships are added, but I would guess that it will.

Where are the Japanese carriers?

They aren't in the beta yet, just like the US battleships haven't been added yet.

[FSTargetDrone]

Thanks, Jub. Looks like no Olympia yet, alas. Perhaps later.

I have always loved the look of the early armored cruisers and pre-dreadnoughts. There's just something about that antique look, like a classic car.

Yes indeed. Speaking of, here is a recent and a historical photo of Olympia's turtleback armor, from inside and outside. These are from the other Facebook page for Olympia, this one run by the Independence Seaport Museum.

Speaking of torpedoes, you may note the plated-over torpedo tube on Olympia's bow. There was another at the stern and a pair of them each on the hull sides. All that remains of those weapons is the bulge of the forward tube. I'm not sure if the hull torpedo tubes' doors still exist, but the aft one is completely gone. One of the restorers speculated that it was too involved to remove and smoothly fair over the external projection of the forward tube at the time all the tubes were removed, as opposed to the aft, so it was simply welded closed.

[Jub]

You're welcome, I'm happy to provide any info I can to those interested.

If anybody wants more specific info ask away, now that I have a template set I can rattle off the stats for a ship pretty quickly.

I'd also recommend checking out some youtube videos of game play if you want more info about the pace and feel of the game.

[Borgholio]

Yes indeed. Speaking of, here is a recent and a historical photo of Olympia's turtleback armor, from inside and outside. These are from the other Facebook page for Olympia, this one run by the Independence Seaport Museum.

Thanks for the link! Those pictures of the interior are great. All that wood...looks like a hotel or a 20's era office building instead of a warship. Beautiful.

[FSTargetDrone]

Thanks for the link! Those pictures of the interior are great. All that wood...looks like a hotel or a 20's era office building instead of a warship. Beautiful.

Or like a cruise ship! Most of the officer's accommodations are paneled in this way and the captain's and admiral's captains were particularly lavish, given that this is a warship. With carpeting, bookcases, roomy bunks, and other furnishings, it's somewhat odd to see large guns mounted on the deck in a space that looks like it might otherwise be found in a large yacht!

Dewey led the US fleet from aboard Olympia at The Battle of Manila Bay and before going into action, most of the other ships' wooden paneling was stripped from their interiors and dumped overboard for fear of injuries resulting from shells splintering the wood during the fighting. For some reason, Olympia's wooden paneling was spared and what you see there today is more or less what it looked like when the ship was built.

One particularly interesting element can be seen here. This seating in the officers' spaces on the berth deck is directly underneath the rear 8-inch turret and the seats are arranged around a large cylinder housing the ammunition hoist going from below, directly into the turret. The similar spaces on the berth deck under the forward 8-inch turret has no such accoutrements!