This is the next part of the thread with mal_h (Malik).
A player writes: “it seems that developers-programmers seem to be much more active since Malik lately spoke on the forums”
Answer from Iwao (game designer):
“I just want to remind you that there aren’t only programmers working in our firm.
Let’s then go back to the topic at hand.
I cannot speak for everyone, but many developers regularly visit the forums on their own and not only when there are serious problems. And when a serious problem arises, we search for a way to get rid of it. The bothersome thing about it is that when we solve a problem, it usually leads to the discontentment of those who the problem helped.
Take, for instance, invis firing. For some, it was and still is a blast, but the implementation of hydroaccoustic search nerfed the ships that were used to fire from smoke one way or another. We all remember that, before their release, several Soviet DD’s had a significant invis firing window, which impacted negatively on the gameplay. It’s the same with launching torpedoes from stealth at high tiers, which leads to the so-called “torpedo soup” (or torp walls) since the range of torpedoes if far greater than detection range. The safety windows is tremendous, which leads to the belief that DD’s wreak havoc and stay clear of what could destroy them. In fact, several DD’s get obliterated when facing an advancing cruiser, but in order to do that, cruisers need to advance to the front line which isn’t safe for them since they get obliterated by BB’s there. As for BB’s, without cruisers, they fall prey to CV’s, against which they aren’t as efficient as cruisers.
All of this is only a hypothesis and it requires thorough research, however, there is a little drawback. There aren’t a lot of players at high tiers compared to mid or lower tiers, thus the statistics regarding high-tier ships we need to draw conclusions is collected very slowly.
Please excuse me for my digression but I wanted to explain that. Do we read the forums? Yes! We read them and try to do it regularly but by the time we examine the consequences of the problems raised there and find their causes, seas have already risen and fallen several times. Do we act upon your feedback? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Feedback is an open account of its author’s experiences, who shows in written form that something is wrong with the statistics, for instance.
Finally, not all problems are solved painlessly, those who need to have a tooth removed will prove it to you, but we’ll be as gentle as possible.
PS. Regarding the excuse saying that we don’t want to change, online projects need to change radically quite regularly otherwise they stagnate. Too frequent changes (particularly drastic changes) will often cause a negative response from the playerbase since people prefer stability and comfort.”
