Thanks to Carnotzet.
Q. 1. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately), I wasn’t playing at the time when Furutaka was really crappy. Now it’s an enjoyable ship, which needs some time to adapt to and a little bit of skill. After playing a few dozen battles with her and Omaha, and reaching a comfortable skill level, I’m quite enjoying both of them. But I wonder: after quite a lot of battles fought on both of these ships, my average stats are lower in my Furutaka than in my Omaha (including average damage). At first, I though I just needed more practice but then I saw some unofficial stats (I know you don’t like them) and noticed that Furutaka’s average damage, kills and win ratio are considerably lower than Omaha’s or other tier 5 ships.
It lead me to ask two questions: could you please provide official stats concerning Furutaka, and compare them with Omaha’s? If Furutaka’s stats are lower, do you plan to do anything with her?
I like Furutaka a lot and I think it’s a very interesting ship at tier 5 but I find it hard to be in the top 3 at the end of a battle.
A. At the moment, Furutaka’s average damage is 1170 less than Omaha’s. Win ratio is practically the same (0.4% less than Omaha). The reason for these disparities is in fact not because of each ship characteristics but because of the gameplay. Furutaka is the first heavy cruiser in the line, and thus requires different tactics and a change in habits. US cruisers have the same problem when going from Cleveland to Pensacola. The gameplay changes, players have to relearn the way they play, and thus their performance decreases a bit.
2. Most of the ship lines are well thought progression wise and allow new players to learn the ropes of the game and the role of their ships from at tier 1-4. Except BB’s. They really start to shine at tier 5 and new players have a really hard time crawling through tier 3-4. Could you please look at the statistics of players who started the BB line and stopped before tier 5? Are you happy with this situation?
A. We’re keeping an eye on that kind of stats and we’re fine with it. There are two points I need to raise. First: BB’s are the ships that benefited the most from gunnery research and development in the first half of the 20th century. Their gun performance improved a lot. Secondly: tier 3-4 BB’s were created specifically in such a way as to make them harder to sail than CL’s and DD’s. Bigger ship, bigger responsibility. In fact, not every player can play BB’s efficiently and enjoy their gameplay. We prefer most players choose the cruiser lines (and DD’s, but they’re slightly harder to play).
3. I come from WoT and there’s a very interesting premium light tank – AMX Chaffee. I’d like to know if there’s a similar ship in WoWs.
A. There’s a ship that plays a bit like that (Atlanta). However, at the moment, we want to release balanced [as in opposed to niche] ships that every player can enjoy. “Singularity” is difficult to explain to players and, most often than not, leads to negative feedback and misunderstanding.
Q. Have you changed something with the detonation chance from air dropped torpedoes on BB’s? It seems I get detonated much more often (about once in ten battles).
A. We haven’t done anything regarding this matter. I will still check though.
Q. When will you release the next part of the Arpeggio event?
A. Not this month, but there will certainly be another one.
We first need to analyse how it was perceived by players. In general, players on the RU server gave neutral or positive feedback. Since new content is ready to be released, we decided to start working on the next stage of this event.
Q. Do you plan to add a second airplane on ships with two catapults? Do you plan to add visual effects to AA guns when they fire (or at least to some of them)? Current tracers rounds are not really impressive and don’t give the impression of working properly.
A. No. Currently, only one takes off. And no. At the moment, we need to be very careful with performance issues. Maybe later.
Q. Don’t you think that, after the buff to torp focused DD’s, the game is broken in random mode? It’s not unusual to see 5 or 6 DD’s on each team and the number of BB’s is steadily decreasing. Now, it’s a rare sight to see more than 2 BB’s on each team. BB’s are “food” for all the classes and the less BB’s there is, the worse it gets for everybody. CV’s and DD’s torp them, CA/CL’s burn them, other BB’s citadel them. So, here’s my question:
What is your ideal class representation?
For me, it’s something like this:
1 CV, 4 BB’s, 5 CA/CL’s, 2 DD’s (3 DD’s if there’s no CV)
If everyone has a favorite target, they are all happy.
And another question, how will you balance the number of DD’s in random and will you do anything about it?
A. We’re considering limiting the number of DD’s on each team. We’re also considering changing high tier IJN DD’s stats.
Q. How did Kawanishi N1K turn up on Shokaku? It’s quite obvious that Kyofu’s were the sea fighters, N1K were land fighters. And where did you find the N1K5?
A. It’s a very difficult question for me to answer. I’ll have to ask my colleagues.
Q. When will you improve the detailed statistics screen? And make the achievement screen more convenient?
A. We plan to change some things. Regarding the statistics screens, our priority is to improve the post battle screen.
Q. On Ishizuchi, lifeboats prevent the middle turret to fire at some angles, it can barely fire at all. Do you plan to fix the models of ships like this one that have a lower performance because of visual elements?
A. We’ll make sure to look at problems with lifeboats. It was already fixed on several ships: if they impede the ability to fire, we’ll remove them.
Q. Suggestion regarding captain retraining. We all know how long it takes to retrain a captain with a lot of skill points. Why aren’t the skills gradually unlocked? At the rate at which they first unlocked them?
A. Instant retraining is a paid service. Paid services are needed for the game to continue to run and for developing new features. Thus, it’s very unlikely the retraining feature will change considerably.
Q. Today, I found myself in the following situation. My rudder was destroyed and I sailed right against an island and sunk….on the beach, my ship clipping through the land texture. Could you make ships remain on land when destroyed? For realism and the beauty of it?
A. We plan to add something like that but it’s not high on the priority list. It’s quite possible that, someday, we’ll be able to admire the charred remains of a destroyed warship lying on a golden beach while wondering about the meaning of life.
Q. Do you consider lowering the requirements for the “Clear Sky” ribbon?
Currently, it’s nearly impossible to earn it without playing with an air superiority CV. For instance, 2 IJN CV’s (tier 6 and 7) = 120 planes + 5-6 on cruisers and BB’s. I can’t think of a way an AA oriented cruiser can shoot down 64 planes. Maybe if they all fly above it but it still will have to wait for defensive fire to recharge.
A. The requirements are not easy to meet but if a player has an oriented AA ship and there’s only one CV, the requirements can be met. In addition, not all achievements should be easily “farmed”. We currently don’t plan to change it.
Q. Do you plan to give New York its famous AA setup back? Or should I sell the ship?
A. In the following month and a half, we plan to improve the AA on some ships, including New York. Stay tuned.
Q. In 0.5.3.2 patch notes, Benson was supposed to receive a permanent cammo. Where is it?
A. It is currently in “reserve”. It’s an oversight. 
Q. Please explain how will personal offer work?
A. The concept behind personal offers is the following:
1. They will appear after the player has done a certain action.
2. We don’t plan to “spam” offers.
3. They will include things like unique ships, invitations to private test drives, or training lessons.
4. Naturally, we will not disclose technical details on how these offers appear (to whom or in what circumstances).
Q. We’re often told that regular TKers are banned. But, in my experience, the TK system barely works. Sometimes, a player damages a teammate for 50k damage and he doesn’t even turn pink. What is taken into account in flagging somebody as a TK (damage, kills, etc)?
A. It’s determined by unsporting behaviour, which means no other statistics are taken into account.
Here are the details: the current system is rather permissive. When we implemented it, it was intended for new players who committed all sorts of bad things because of their inexperience. And it worked quite well on them; it wasn’t excessively punishing. Now, we’re experiencing another phenomenon – “professional” trolls. Whether they get a 3 day or 30 day ban, they don’t care.
That is why we plan to modify the system as to separate this kind of people from the normal players. When we’ll receive the “go” to release the final version, we’ll tell you more about it.
Q. 1. Why have you decided to cancel the test drive for new lines (for instance Soviet DD’s)?
2. Did the event not meet your expectations?
3. Do you plan to do it again for Soviet cruisers?
A. We decided to cancel test drives because of the negative feedback we received from players. Players had mixed feelings for not being able to have upgraded ships and had the feeling that, in the end, we were “taking their ships away”. Thus the effort is not worth the negative reaction it gets. We don’t plan to bring back public test drives in the near future. We may add individual test drives though.
