Translated by Carnotzet.
Last Q&A’s were terrible in regards to new information disclosed and this one is no exception.
1. In a ranked fight, I saw two Myoko‘s annihilate all the enemy squadrons. I thought that ship had bad AA since it’s equipped with single 25mm guns. Are there additional factors that are taken into account when calculating a ship’s AA power ?
A. In addition to the number of AA mounts, there are other factors that come into play, for instance the type of ammunition used. In this case, we have decided to give IJN ships a slight edge. When setting the AA power of a particular ship, first and foremost we need to achieve the balance goals we’ve set for it, but we also need to try not to break away from the historical realities and maintain some consistency. I can understand if players might be somewhat lost with all of this. However, it is much more interesting to look at game characteristics, which are much more concrete, such as range and DPS, which in turn give the effectiveness of a ship’s AA.
2. Why have you decided to equip Gneisenau with 380mm guns instead of her historical 283mm ? Why don’t you give players the option to chose between the two ?
Do you really think that six guns of not even the biggest caliber will cut it at tier 7 ? Do you realize the monsters it will have to fight against ? If she’s released in her current state, she will be unplayable.
A. Here are the main reasons.
-Guns with different caliber on a single ship is bad.
-Breaking caliber progression within a single ship line is bad.
-Scharnorst.
We have no desire to release unplayable ships.
Sub_Octavian posted a fairly lengthy post that will surely keep all of us busy for some time. It’s about the previously discussed topic of Gneisenau, 380 vs 283 mm.
Sub_Octavian (translated) 14 July
“For all of those who are not aware of this conundrum, here is a brief summary: players are questioning the developers’ decision to equip the premium ship Schranhorst with her historical 283mm guns whereas the standard Gneisenau is planned to be equipped with 380mm guns.
More than once, we have explained that historicity cannot be entirely supported in the game for several reasons. We try to conform to historical realities or at least take them into consideration but the gameplay will always come first. In some rare cases, we have decided not to implement certain changes because of their glaring inconsistency with reality, but it happened extremely rarely. On the other hand, we try to model our ships as close to their historical counterpart as possible. Standard ships represent their class whereas premium ships represent one concrete ship in a given period.
Do some ships have errors or lack precision ? Of course. We are progressively identifying and fixing them. In our Supertesters team, we have one expert whose work for the year ahead is to fix all these little things.
Have we already deliberately forsaken historicity for gameplay ? 100% yes. As an example, we can take the AA configuration of Atago or Arizona (to make them more balanced, the first one had her AA made worse, the second one, better) or the coats of arms displayed on German ships (during combat, they were not displayed, but they are rather pleasing to the eye). There are a lot more of these examples.
The calibers on German BB’s follow the same deliberate choice.
Here are the reasons behind our decision:
1. We currently think that it is best to avoid caliber size going back and forth when advancing in a line. Regarding Scharnhorst, it’s not a problem since it is a premium ship and stands apart from the main line. Regarding Gneisenau, the problem is as follows:
283-305-305-380-380-380-406-406. This is the current caliber progression.
If we had equipped Gneisenau with her historical guns, it would be 283-305-305-380-283-380-406-406.
When gun caliber changes drastically, players have to change the tactics they use considerably. In general, when the main gun caliber changes, it is a risky and stressful moment. Just remember for example the jumps that occur when hopping on Pensacola or Furutaka. Both ships are more difficult to learn because players have to change the way they approach these ships’ gameplay.
Let’s not forget about the enemy ships Gneisenau will face. They are equipped with 410 and 406 mm guns. In this case, a decrease in caliber can be even more off-putting.
2. One ship having more than one gun caliber size option is, sadly, a bad idea. According to our research, Mogami, which is often cited as an example, having the gameplay option between being a heavy cruiser and a HE spam monster is negatively affecting the “audience” of the ship. Now, players are talking more about the satisfaction this ships brings, how it affects their desire to get better and master the game (etc.) than the ship’s combat effectiveness.
3. We are not against sometimes releasing sisterships or developing premium ships that play like their standard counterparts. However, in this case, taking into account the arguments that were previously given, we had the opportunity to release a premium BB with an unusual gameplay (Scharnhorst + 283 mm) as well as fit a standard ship into the BB line (Gneisenau + 380 mm), which will be a logical step in regards to the lower and higher tier ships.
We believe that both ships will be interesting to play as well as being different and needing different styles and tactics. We also believe that with our current plans each of these remarkable ships will find its place.
When both ships will be made available to everyone, we will see if we were right. Currently, we have however no reason to change our plans or question them.
Thank you for your attention !”
