Thanks to Carnotzet.
Note: the first part of the q&a is a continuation of the previous one.
Here is the rest of the text.
[Disclaimer: please be reminded that the following information comes from the Russian-speaking community and thus certain information may not apply to other clusters.]
Economy
Even though it is easier and faster to get credits in our game than in other companies’ games, there are often complaints about the economy. The situation improved through the whole year with us balancing ships’ incomes after the release, beginning with the addition of credits and xp for capping points. From Spring until now, there is a special discount on repairs. We are thinking about implementing it permanently or keep it until we introduce other changes that would increase the amount of credits earned.
However, we still must examine this issue carefully. We want the economy to be accommodating enough for the game to be comfortable at every tier with a premium account and for players without a premium account to have to farm credits at lower tiers from time to time.
Secondary batteries
We received complaints that secondary batteries are slightly too weak and are acting weirdly. We have added several upgrades, flags and captain skills that improve the secondary guns situation and makes them more deadly against enemies. And in cases where you just did not killed you enemy, these batteries can help you. There is still room for improvement but we have to do it right or we will end up with “World of Battleships”.
Customer service
[Since this concerns only the Russian server, I have decided to skip it]
Chat moderation
At the beginning of Closed beta, there was a tacit rule in every battle “If you are afraid of being sent packing, do not go on the internet”. When discussing the issue, the obscenity filter seemed like a considerable limitation. Unfortunately, it was necessary to prevent players from insulting each other. What are we doing? All chat logs are automatically uploaded and analysed, and if a player insulted another one, he receives a chat ban. The same effect can also be reached with the reports we get from players, but, in this case, it is the players who decide whether or not they feel insulted. In the future, we would like to crisscross this system so that, for example, players who rage at themselves in chat do not get banned. Moreover, we do not analyse division chat or personal messages. In addition to that, we will soon implement “component” bans, i.e. a chat ban will be divided into port, battle, personal and division. This means that a player who received a chat ban will still be able to write to his friends and division mates.
There have been many complaints regarding the severity of the moderation of port chats. Not long ago, we loosened the rules in that regard, which had a positive effect on communications. We will continue asserting the situation and will try to limite the cases where our rules impede on healthy social interactions.
Site moderation
I very well know that it is not very clear. We remove posts that violates the rules but, at the same time, players do not always know what rules they violated. They then ask about it and such posts fall under another rule violation. After that, they get banned. The system is not logical. That is why in the near future we will update the forums and add notifications that will explain why a player’s post has been removed. After that, we hope that the system will be transparent enough and that we can think about ways to improve it.
Karma system
It now has been quite a long time since we first introduced the karma system on the forums and in the game. And if it meet our expectations on the forums (good posts receive positive karma and bad ones, negative), this system needs improvement in the game. It was supposed to be some kind of an indicator of social adequateness but in its current state, it does not fully fulfill its tasks. Especially in those cases where players report the top three players on the opposite team. We will have to fix this.
Unreleased features
There are two things that players often ask to be added into the game: replays and module depot. What is being done? At the moment, we have added a “technical” version of replays into the game. What needs to be done? Implement the replay functionality at a proper level of quality. We have already started working on this. We need to allow players to manage their upgrades. Achieving this by adding a depot or by another more convenient feature, that is the question.
Team communication
There have been a lot of requests for better team communication tools. What have we done? We have added quick chat commands, and voice chat in the latest update. What needs to be done? We need to improve and expand communication functionalities while taking your feedback into account.
Teamkillers
There were a lot of complaints about teamkills and that the current system do not work. How it was. For quite a long time, players could teamkill extensively (they had to sink three or four teammates or deal an extremely high amount of damage to them) before the mirrored damage system would kick in.
What has changed? Now, the mirrored damage system kicks in nearly instantaneously – after a players sinks his first teammate or if he inflicts a low amount of damage. Moreover, teamkillers receive x10 mirrored damage and only inflicts 10% damage against teammates (those numbers are not entirely accurate, unfortunately, since I do not have all the data before me but they are about right). That means that teamkillers become nearly instantaneously harmless to their teammates.
What still needs to be done? Add an automatic ban to serious offenders. There is already a punishment system but it is operated by hand and only once a week. We would like it to be instantaneous, but, in any case, it is always minus one player for one team, which is bad.
Bots and AFK players
There are some complaints about this issue as well. We already manually punish players that display such anti fair-play behaviour. However, we would like to improve the system, making it faster and automatic.
Updates size
Our updates are quite heavy. Taking into account that they are release about every three weeks, many players are starting to get annoyed. We have started to work actively on reducing the size of our updates and hope that in time, it will make the life of our players easier.
Gold and doubloons unification
For now, we cannot implement this feature because of technical limitations. However, we believe that we will make some progress in this matter and, hopefully, this year. At the minimum, we would like to give players the possibility to transfer their currencies from one game to another, in the case of players who have stopped playing one of our games and would like to play another one.
Too few ships and nations
There are complaints that the game have too few ships and nations. This issue can only be solved slowly. The reason for this is the work needed to create high quality models. Since the release of the game, we have added German and Soviet ships and are about to release German battleships. We will also add British ships this year. We will then gradually add ships we think are interesting to play and beautiful to look at.
Communication between developers and players
We have done a lot of work regarding this matter. Since this post is quite long, I will be brief:
- added comments on the portal;
- shared with players our plans for the year and since recently our patch notes do not need to be edited anymore;
- implemented a three week system for the release of updates, which allows us to add changes and solve problems quicker, and also make every version more stable;
- restructured the forum several times;
- started to rework the forum so as to make it more user-friendly (we will soon release the first patch);
- added surveys in game;
- established regular streams where players can ask questions formally and more entertaining streams on “Корабли TV” where players can discuss with us more informally.
And it is far from being all we have done.
As a final reminder, please do not forget that a lot of these features and comments concern mainly the Russian server so do not get upset some things seem different in this text than what you can experience on your server.
News from the latest Q&A’s (I have been busy so I’m lagging behind).
First series (2 August).
1. The current economy (how credits and xp are earned) encourages passive gameplay for BB’s, especially in Ranked battles where passiveness helps to keep a star on a defeat. Are you happy with this situation?
A. No, we are not, it is not an enjoyable situation. We do not like it as well. That is why in the next few updates we plan to rework the economy system by rewarding more teamplay actions.
2. Are there any plans to introduce flags, upgrades or skills that increase radar (duration, distance)?
A. We do not plan to but the idea is interesting. I will send it to my colleagues.
3. Will you give players the possibility to add cosmetic decorations on their ships?
A. We are actively examining the topic. We would really like to. We plan to complete work on patch 0.5.11 and then quietly start working on prototypes of decorations.
Second series (2 August).
1. Why do CV’s torpedoes not change when going up tiers? After all, DD’s see their torpedoes improve, but not CV’s?
A. Because CV progressions is about planes, in this case TB’s that carry torpedoes to their objective. They become faster and stronger. If their torpedoes characteristics improved as well, they would create an absolute hell.
2. Why is Tirpitz’s secondary batteries range only 4.5 km and Scharnhorst’s, 5 km? (and other tier 7-8 BB’s, 5 km as well).
A. For balancing reasons. You have not seen Bismarck’s secondaries yet. 
Third series (2 August).
1. Do you plan to add the fire resistance to ships info cards?
A. It is planned, yes. I very much hope we can add this useful improvement into one of the updates.
2. I saw on the forums that British cruisers are coming this year. I take this opportunity to ask you if, per chance, you haven’t discussed about adding HMS Ulysses? Is there any hope?
A. Was it you who told me about Ulysses quite some time ago? Thank you very much since it motivated me to read that wonderful book.
We discussed this question with my colleagues. They like the idea in principle but it will be not subject to a fast development. We will tray to find a way to make it work. There is hope, even though it is small.
3. How many Super league battles (Rank 1, tier 10 battles) were fought during last season?
A. Only few dozens on the RU server.
The experiment paid off: we will not bring the Super league in its current form. It will come back in another form, we will try to make it more popular.
4. You have already released and will release tier 6-7 premium BB’s from the British, USA, German and France nations. Couldn’t you think about adding a tier 6-7 premium soviet BB before the end of this year?
A. Before the end of the year, unlikely, but, generally speaking, it is planned.
Fourth series (3 August).
1. Do you plan to change cyclones in the near future?
A. Cyclones will be improved and further developed. You can expect a small set of changes as soon as patch 0.5.10.
2. Regarding invis-fire, do developers think this kind of mechanics is adequate in a game about warships from the first half of the 20th century? If not, can you share some info on what you plan to change?
A. Yes, such mechanic has its place in a game about warships. It became more easy to do since improvements were made to the minimap. But generally speaking, it is a useful feature.
On the other hand, we are not happy with the state of certain ships. For example, there may be changes coming to Zao and other high-tier cruisers. Some of them needs some improvements, others are just too strong.
3. [Question about spotting, tanking, etc.]
A. We are currently working on earnings for spotting, damage done to spotted ships and tanking, it is planned to be available in one of the next few updates.
Moreover, in patch 0.5.10, you will already be able to see those figures in your statistics.
4. Do you plan to make that torpedoes have a chance to bounce off the armour, just like it is the case with shells?
A. Technically speaking, it could be done, but such mechanic is not needed in the game for now.
5. Since CV’s dominated high-tier games, you decided to limit their numbers to one per team. However, you didn’t touch the limit set for tier 3-5, where ships have practically no AA to speak of. This also raises the entry level for BB’s, who are rusty buckets at lower-tiers and just food for CV’s.
What do you think about CV’s at tier 3-5, about the AA ships have at those tiers when facing two CV’s, and about the high entry level for BB’s in general?
A. We are aware of both problems you speak of (CV’s at low tiers and BB’s at lower tiers). We will take measures to fix them. Regarding CV’s, limiting their numbers will not necessarily help. The limit we set for high tiers was done so as to not have CV’s of different tiers fighting each other. The fact that it also helped other classes is an additional benefit. However, we would still like a better distribution of CV’s across battles. Generally speaking, I mean.
Regarding BB’s, first and foremost, the problem arises because new players are confronted with the controversial comfort of tier 3-4 battles. Especially when it comes to the shooting. We are not just thinking about these issues, but working on concrete solutions. It is important to remember that these issues cannot be easily solved by, for example, adding +20% to a characteristic. In this case, we need to tread carefully.
Latest Q&A (4 August).
1. Lately, it is not rare to see team compositions such as this:
1-2 CV’s
4-5 BB’s
1-3 CA/CL’s
3-5 DD’s
Are you happy with such differences between classes? Can we expect any buffs to cruisers?
A. Well, this is not entirely the real tendency. However, it is true that BB’s have become more popular lately.
It is also true that certain cruisers need some balance tweaks. Although I cannot share any details, they are planned for the next few updates, that is, after 0.5.10 though.
2. Do you plan to add new alternative branches to already fully released trees, such as different types of IJN DD’s or BBV’s?
A. We have plans for several alternative branches. This way there still will be more diversity for certain nations/classes.
3. Is it true that developers have abandonned the concept of rock-paper-scissors?
A. As I have already written more than once, we have not abandoned the concept, even though it is not 100% followed. If we followed it to the letter, for example, rock would always beat scissors, without compromises. However, in the game, a BB can stand up to a DD, a DD to a cruiser and a cruiser to a BB. Even if it is quite hard. So, when we are talking about this concept, we are not talking about applying it to the letter, but more like which class is at an advantage against another one.
