Thanks to Babykim
The Q&A by Sub_Octavian dated August 22, 23, 25, 30 and September 1
There is a lot of material. Below is a first summary, subject to possible (small) corrections.
On main guns:
Q. The performance of the Scharnhorst 283mm BB shells are inconsistent compared to similar guns on other ships. They cannot citadel battleships even at close (10km) ranges, whereas similar guns of higher tier German ships, or, for example, the 220mm guns of the Moskva can. Secondly, the plunging fire at medium ranges (15-18 km) also does not penetrate battleships.
A. This is not terribly inconsistent, given the actual characteristics of the shell. We do not see a problem in the game balance either. The lack of citadels is compensated by the rate of fire other qualities of the ship. I would not necessarily say that plunging fire should penetrate the deck of a battleship at medium ranges in general.
Q. Can you comment on how the occurrence of penetrations has changed following the change in shell normalization in 0.5.10? Cruisers with calibers up to 155mm and battleships with calibers up to 305mm appear to have stopped causing citadel hits.
A. Can you specify which ships have this issue?
Q. Over-penetrations cause the same damage, no matter if I hit the bow, the midship, the citadel, or the stern. Is this acceptable?
A. We do not see it as a big problem. An over-penetration indicates the wrong choice of ammunition.
Q. Do you plan to add more information on the thickness armor that can be penetrated by a given gun, similar to WOT.
A. We are thinking about summarizing this information in an accessible manner.
On secondaries and AA:
Q. The highest average AA-dpm of the Atlanta is 876 per second. Taking all the relevant upgrades and lower level skills give you 146, manual AA priority raises it to 292, and Heightened Alert triples it to 876. Is this correct?
A. Yes.
Q. Does AFT skill boost the secondaries of the Scharnhorst?
A. Yes. The AFT skill boosts the secondaries, regardless the caliber of the main battery.
Q. Do secondaries have an aura similar to AA?
A. No. The secondaries are aimed and fired individually, subject to all hull design and other limitations.
Q. In the game settings, we have a checkbox to “Enable AA & Secondary Guns if Priority Target Set”. What does it mean?
A. It means that when manually setting the target, they will activate even if they have been deactivated previously using the P-key.
Q. Player reports and tests on bots show that the 128mm secondaries on the German battleships are very fragile.
A. We are aware this problem and will fix it in version 0.5.11.
Q. It is very difficult to compare the accuracy of the guns in game. Do you plan adding a characteristic for comparing the relative accuracy to the client.
A. No, as the issue is quite complex and would require more than one metric.
Q. I am glad that you nerfed the mid-tier ship carriers, but don’t you think that also the high-tier AA needs to be nerfed? The AA of high-tier American battleships is too strong.
A. No. If you spec your American high-tier battleships for AA, which is known to be their strong point, at a cost of improving other qualities, you should rightfully expect them be effective plane killers.
On torpedoes:
Q. How do torpedoes scatter? Sometimes several torpedoes hit one section of the target, whereas other sections remain unhid.
A. Torpedoes belonging to each salvo scatter about the centerline of the aiming template, which may cause bunching of torpedoes when firing from multiple launchers at longer ranges.
On bombs:
Q. How do bombs scatter?
A. There are two elipses governing the deviations from the aiming point. Each ellipse having its own distribution parameters.
On ships:
Q. Some higher-tier ships have costly modernizations of questionable value. For example, the guns of the New Orleans, the torpedoes of the Ibuki, or the power unit of the Izumo. Do you plan to make them more effective?
A. We do, but without changing the costs.
Q. Why do destroyers have such a low number of HP in some sections of the hull? A destroyer may take 2-3 torpedoes (some on HP depleted sections) and survive, whereas a cruiser would die.
A. The distribution of HP around the hull is roughly similar for all ship types. The destroyers are smaller, and often carry upgrades and skills that can save them is such situations.
Q. The Kaiser cannot shoot all turrets to one side. Why?
A. It can, but the fire sectors are slightly non-overlapping due to the location of the turrets.
Q. The destroyers get critical engine hits way too often. Why?
A. Because they are fragile. This is compensated by their small size, high speed and stealth.
Q. Why are some ships in stock configuration so bad?
A. We are gradually improving some of the stock ships, without changing the basic concept of game progression.
Q. The Kaiser and Köning did not get stock historical hulls. Why?
A. Because the historical hulls have no AA.
Q. The model of the Scharnhorst does not have the bow anchor seen in historical videos.
A. The model will be corrected.
Q. The maximum speed of the Scharnhorst is lower than mentioned in historical sources. Why?
A. Perhaps the maximum speed cited was attained by overcharging the engine. The actual maximal speed could have been lower. The ships does not need any changes at the moment.
Q. The Mahan hull C loses one turret compared to hull B, yet the indicated firepower of the ship (artillery score) stays the same.
A. We will look into this.
Q. Can a carrier detonate?
A. No. In a carrier, possible areas that may detonate on impact are scattered around the hull, making computing detonations more difficult. In the game, only ammunition bunkers of the main guns can detonate, not torpedoes or the secondaries. Detonations occur as a result of a direct hit by a BB, or a close hit by a HE, bomb or torpedo.
Q. Some ships have an excessive number of spotter planes in reserve. Why?
A. Yes, this is small advantage for the said ships.
Q. The Błyskawica has a detection range of 7.5km, whereas the Kiev has a detection range of 8.7km. Yet the sizes of the models of the two ships are approximately the same.
A. The relative sizes almost never matter, game balance does.
Q. Why did you decide to release the Dunkerque, as opposed to, for example, the Richelieu or the Alsace.
A. We have other plans for them. No further comment.
On matchmaking:
Q. Carriers have a +1/-1 and a mirror balance. How would you balance a division of, say, a tier 5 carrier and a tier 5 cruiser?
A. It is still +2/-2 in theory. But in practice, the need to balance the carrier would rarely put this division in a tier 7 battle. This is a loophole that we plan to close.
Q. After the recent change in the matchmaking, tier 5 ships very frequently get into tier 7.
A. Yes, because of the tier limitations on the tiers 3 and 4 that are meant to make the game more comfortable to new players.
Q. Why do you plan to equip the British cruisers with smoke?
A. Because they are quite fragile, they need means to survive at small and medium distances, where they can do damage and fight the destroyers.
Q. The Kirov sits lower in the water than her sister-ship the Molotov. Why?
A. We will look into this and make changes, but only if this difference affects the performance.
On ARP:
Q. Can we expect ships from the manga (Nagato, Lexington, Bismark), or just from the anime?
A. Please wait for news on the ARP ships.
On other topics:
Q. Do you plan to add the wake? This would make judging a ships speed easier.
A. Yes.
Q. Do you plan to introduce a multi-server client?
A. Not at the moment.
Q. Do torpedoes that missed count for potential damage?
A. Yes.
Q. Why cannot we have a skill metric for the players based on their average ranking in the table of battle results?
A. This method would be very susceptible to farming in low tier games. Any skill metric must be a composite measure, based on several relevant criteria.
Q. The number of AFK bots is appalling!
A. According to our estimates, the number of bots is not that high. The good news is that we plan monetary sanctions for AFK players starting from version 0.5.12.
Q. What about a convoy game mode discussed last year?
A. No comment or information on that.
Q. When can we expect the French captains to start talking French.
A. In 0.5.12.
Q. The India X-ray and the Juliet Whiskey Unaone flags confer bonuses at an increased chance of a detonation. Why would I use such a flag?
A. Hint: Carriers cannot detonate.
