From late 2024 until now, War Thunder’s naval mode has received several updates that, in my opinion, haven’t improved the mode; they’ve actually destroyed it.
Before the compartment system, we had a localized, destructible armor system.
In my view, that system was much better: ships were more durable and gameplay felt more balanced.Then came the compartment system. At first, a single flooded compartment was enough to sink an entire ship. Later, they decided it would take three compartments to make a ship sink.
The system is completely unbalanced because ships don’t all have the same number of compartments. Some, like the Iowa are advantaged, while others like the Soyuz have nearly indestructible ones. Meanwhile, ships like the Yamato are absurdly fragile, a few shells can wipe out a compartment.
This mechanic is just bad; it shortens player survivability and makes battles less enjoyable.Then came the increase in Gaijin bots (let’s call them that, since they’re not player-account-controlled).
This change is both good and bad. Why?
Because those bots have been made too accurate, turning gameplay into a nightmare.
Coastal AI ships can obliterate players in seconds.
Take the PR-206 bot for example, it can kill anyone effortlessly, with no real counterplay.
They’re meant to make battles feel alive, but players aren’t stupid, this just makes the experience frustrating, especially when these bots shoot down planes from over 10 km away.The higher bot count has also ruined battleship matches.
They can snipe your turrets from kilometers away, and if you spawn first, you’re immediately targeted and doomed.
Bots destroy compartments as if they were made of paper. You sink, you rage — frustrating experience.On top of that, kill-stealing by bots has made naval even worse.
It’s not a bug — the kill always goes to whoever hits last.
It’s extremely frustrating when you sink an enemy ship by yourself and a bot fires a single shot just to steal the kill.
Less score means fewer research points — another frustrating loop.
Sure, bots reward the same RP as players, but is it really worth it? I don’t think so.Then there’s the introduction of anti-air missile ships.
Not exactly new, but the more of them there are, the worse the experience becomes.
Those missiles are anti-aircraft, not anti-ship, yet players abuse them constantly.
There’s no reliable counter except having your own missile ship.
It’s incredibly frustrating to get one-shotted by someone who fires, disappears, and racks up easy kills.
In Enduring Confrontation, it’s even worse, players spam missile ships, fire, quit, and rejoin. Two minutes, four kills, six deaths, and an Iowa spawns.
The arrival of AA missile ships has completely ruined naval gameplay.
(https://youtu.be/qaSbtWQ9g3k)The removal of the towing cable, a historical and useful mechanic, was another mistake.
Instead of fixing it, you just removed it.
And when players report it as a bug, you claim it’s not reproducible. But it is; spawn in a regular match, run aground, and there it is. You just need to actually play your own game.And now, the upcoming update feels like the final straw.
In naval battles, repairing is already secondary. The real priorities are fires and flooding.
If you lose one of four main turrets, you don’t need to repair it.
Same for your AA guns.Forcing crew members to reoccupy repaired modules only to have them destroyed again leads to faster crew loss and earlier death.
This change is clearly meant to make players die faster.Maybe new players coming from ground battles will like it at first, but once they realize it just makes them die quicker, they’ll hate it too.
Unfortunately, this past year has effectively killed the naval mode by making it more frustrating and less rewarding.
Developers, it’s time to play your own mode before making changes.
Listen to your community, test mechanics properly, and reconsider the aiming system. A suggestion have been asking for that since the new targeting mode was introduced.This year has truly marked the death of naval mode.
Unwanted mechanics added, good ones removed, you’ve succeeded in driving players away from your own game.
What’s the next surprise you’ll add, the one that finally kills the mode?
the recent changes they made to naval kinda made naval a bit more yikes
however I’ll keep playing naval simply because, I put time and effort into my ships and to this day I still enjoy sailing in them. Yeah mode might not be popular but end of the day I dont really wanna abandon stuff that I enjoy
All i can do is hope they make naval good and not screw it over. Maybe finally listen and fix the mode
I understand why you do not want to leave. I have the same feeling about this.
I own all researchable ships in the game (bluewater and coastal).
I had pain to grind those.
But this time for me is enough. If they implement it, i’ll stop the game.
Unfortunately they wont listen I think which is really sad but it is what it is.
I just focus on my own self and my ship’s that I really enjoy
I gave WOWS a try before but it didn’t feel as nice as WT’s naval feel’s
wows is completely different but think gaijin wanna copy something but doing always bad for the community and this is the confirm is the complete death
I don’t know what you mean:
The most heavily armored battleship in human history dying 1 hit to one that never existed seems perfectly reasonable to me.
The removal of engine steering because it was “mistakenly added” Ohhh was this accidently added too?
yeah ok is possible but you have only the paper talk not test or real fight for the gun and i knw the rudder if damaged you turn slower is better if you destroy you can block the ship finally if you repair and for 30s you turn only right or left or stay in straight this how should work corretcly
I am waiting for the update where gaijin make “To battle” button press the only player controlled thing in naval battles.
Everything else is “too hard” for new (tank) players to understand so now your ship is fully controlled by a bot, and your enemies are also controlled by bots.
Everything is automated, just to make tank players with 20 second attention span happy!!!
At this point, just make naval a dice roll on rewards with a 15-minute cooldown.
I worked on ships for over 10 years and am a ticketed skipper of small ships, multi-screw ships often use the engines to turn more than they use the rudder. It’s not even about damage you reverse or at least slow the screw on the inside of your turn. You give me a twin screw PT boat and ill park it where ever you want with out touching the rudder. And I’ve seen big ship skippers handle their ships in ways that me and my little tub look like a drunk elephant.
dont remeber who has sinked the bismarck
The soyuz
another ex is iowa ok is a museum now but you think he gonna take sea again ok if gonna hit by an a torp on rudder he comeback home with only engine?
Losing her rudder hurt her… she was still steaming in the right direction though.
How would you engine steer on one engine?
You obviously need at least 2 engines, one on port and one on starboard to do it.
and again:
It’s about using both engines and rudder to get the best performance out of the ship. obviously losing one will hurt performance.
On the Bismarck, attempts were made to steer with the propellers, but with no practical results. wikipedia
How about you go get a skippers ticket on how to steer ships and we will talk? I am not in the mood to argue with someone that thinks that Wikipedia the prototype for the “hitchhikes guide to the galaxy” is a substitute for 10 years of ACTUALLY DRIVING SHIPS!
i am not telling that but you can but in a situation of rudder out you lose much of your speed and the rotation of the ship can be fluid that all for sure you knw better than me if you are an a captain but modern ship are more easy with all eletroincs have
Yes, especially in something like a battle ship, that weighs orders of magnitude more than any civilian ship of the same size. Inertia is a thing and given the mass of armour it will be insane on a BB. That is why the lose of the ability to use engine steering in conjunction with the rudder is such an issue.
now can we please stop derailing the topic?
yeah haha that need think topic of game not real life situation
It’s quite amusing to read this, considering that in recent years, snails have invested significantly more in the navy than in the air or land, but at the same time, they do not consider the preferences of their target audience.
Compartment system was the best improvement to naval, making even Soyuz and Bismark able to be destroyed easier using real-life fuctions, though to a limited extent.
Easier of course doesn’t mean easy, as those vessels are still durable.
While not as durable ships have been entirely missed by the compartment system as they tend to lose crew before compartment destruction.
The naval AI is one of the things that need overhauled, but I do think it should stay.
I speak about the benefits and flaws of manual-automatic repairing in another topic.