This is just a proposal created by Myself, on possible mechanics WG could implement to counter the ever going power creeping of AA. WG has not announced any of these changes to AA.
I bring unto you all today, a series of Ideas that I have discussed with friends, whom are among the top CV players, as well as myself whom does not play CV at all, to have good perspective on both sides of the AA gameplay, and we have come up with some ideas that should be fair to both the CV players and non-CV players.
The year of 2017 was proposed to us by wargaming that this would be the year of the CV.
This is what it looks like so far:
And with the recently announced USN CL tech tree, with the USS Worcester Anti-Aircraft Cruiser, things are not looking bright for CV players.
Thus myself and some cv and non-cv friends have come up with some changes to AA in how it functions, without actually nerfing the stats of high AA ships, by introducing some temporary conditions that can effect the AA performance of a ship, conditions that can be dependent on team play or that of a skilled CV player. This includes 2 new conditions that have a reasonable and sensible temporary effect to the AA of a ship.
Condition 1:
If a dual purpose weapon is reloading (whether it be a main or secondary weapon) it does not count towards the AA of a ship’s AA aura. This would reasonably simulate the fact that a DP gun cannot both fire at aircraft and ships at the same time. This would also be semi-dependent on team-play, and can be done either by random players just happening to work together, or division mates acting on intentional team play. In the case of a battleship, cases where all secondary dual purpose guns are all busy are unlikely, so its not like a battleship will out right lose all their long range aa effect because they are being engaged in close quarters combat, only the part that is occupied will be effected. As for AA cruisers, such as Atlanta, Minotaur, and Worcester, it gives some skill to using their ultra powerful AA, meaning they will have to choose between firing at ships or firing at aircraft. Or they can do both by choosing an angle where some of their guns cannot be used for ship warfare, example, an Atlanta player could choose to be bow on to a target, their stern side guns would not be able to fire at a ship, therefore they are never in the state of reloading and are now currently in the AA role.
Overall, “Condition 1” gives team-play, and in some ships, skill, to using their AA effectively.
Condition 2:
AA Crew and Fire does not mix. Very realistic, so here is a game mechanic that can be based off of this fact. AA can be divided into 2 categories for this mechanic, Open AA and Enclosed AA. Most AA found on ships is Open AA, where the theoretical AA crew is exposed to the elements. Enclosed AA, which is usually (but not exclusive to) dual purpose AA, is AA where the crew is protected on all sides by some sort of armored encasement. For every fire a ship has, a penalty is applied to the DPS of AA aura. A ship’s Open AA will receive 20% reduction to the dps of the ship’s Open AA, and only a 10% reduction to the DPS of all Enclosed AA.
Generally, the most powerful AA auras of a ship in-game is found in their dual purpose AA, and that is why I have figured it is fair if the enclosed AA is less effected by a fire on the deck. There are examples of ship’s who have non-dual purpose AA that is fully enclosed, found on many Russian destroyers and cruisers, as well as Minotaur’s medium AA is enclosed, and thus would only get the 10% Debuff to their DPS per fire.
This effect is additive between multiple fires. so if your ship has 2 fires set, the open AA will have a 40% DPS Debuff for the duration of the fire, while the Enclosed AA will only suffer a 20% losses in DPS. This mechanic would also increase the value of the Fire Prevention skill, which from what I hear from players is usually not a popular choice. Given the skill reduces the maximum number of fires to 3.
“Condition 2” I believe is a very reasonable temporary debuff to AA, that can rely on team play and/or the skill of the CV player.
If any of these numbers appear to be too extreme, then they can easily be modified if after play testing the effect is too strong or too weak. Overall, I feel these changes gives some more skill to AA, more teamplay to AA, without applying a dreaded nerf hammer to specific AA heavy ships. AA power creeping is all ways going to be a problem, so introducing new mechanics rather then nerfing specific ships is far easier to implement, and adds skill to what is, currently, a game mechanic that requires far less skill on the non-CV player then it does on the CV player.
Please, I do highly encourage you all to discuss these 2 new AA conditions.
I have also posted this article on the NA Forums:
https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/141682-aa-function-update-a-serious-proposal/
~IGN: Shipmaster_Crook
