It seems like once you get into Battleships in Naval (arcade) there is a serious wall, and not like other grind walls I’ve experienced in this game. It seems like I’m more often tossed up into uptiers against 7.0 lifers which wouldn’t be so bad normally except that, on top of all the shenanigans in these matches, there’s the potential to walk out of a full length 25 minute Encounter match with ~1000 score and relatively no progress toward any research whether it be new vehicle or modification. And if you’re downtiered with a battleship, there’s not much to do with the long reload and faster ships except suppress another battleship that you can’t kill but somehow get top score in the match for landing volleys against another motionless target.
Normal shenanigans at 6.3 involve being ammo wracked at least once per match even in the Premium Courbet, on first volley mind you, by a spaded 7.0. Another possibility is landing 100% of volleys into a 7.0 that you can’t penetrate while he coasts into boarding range for the duration of the match.
I also find it strange how a monstrous battleship can’t turn on its own power, but if a friendly destroyer bumps it, I’m suddenly spinning a 360 while throwing up a rooster tail that sinks all my allies.
I suppose the reward for grinding through this is to be able to farm people once you’re into 7.0 Spaded territory.
I suppose it’s also my mistake for not leaving the match after first or second death or whenever I’ll evade crew lock, but that doesn’t seem like good game design. I don’t know what the solution is or if such fine tuning can actually occur. I suppose it ruins the gravy for the people that already grinded before, but I assume it’s only going to get worse for future players as there’s more 7.0 spaded players.
It just seems like there should be more rewards for activity time or accuracy or something, to make these full length matches even remotely productive. Very few match types, maps, or modes go to full length except Encounter or possibly the large, single point 5.7+ Conquest maps.
It’s just a massive sinking feeling when you battle a guy making throttle changes constantly in a spaded 7.0 that somehow still gets away from you at half buoyancy and 9% crew after 30 minutes of chewing only to walk out with 1k research toward a mod and same for a ship. Like what did I just do…
I’ve been ammo wracked on first volley on 2 spawns per match, multiple times now, and I’m just baffled that this is supposed to be compensated by a subsequent free win and top score in a downtier while scoring 0 kills. It’s just not compelling gameplay in the slightest.
You would probably have more players at 7.0 if 6.3 did not frequently uptier to 7.0. I’ve made several attempts to break into 6.3, and I just shake my head with disgust with myself for spending 30 minutes in a match for absolutely no gain.
And when I get downtiered, the match isn’t that much better, and I still get DMs from people complaining at me like I’m dishonorable for launching a volley for 20% crew once, while otherwise feeling mostly useless against ships hiding behind islands I can’t mobilize around.
If the wall were moved to 6.7, maybe that would be better. I haven’t played any 6.7 yet. But being 6.3 and seeing a 7.0 every time while being useless for no gains at all… I would hold out hope that the Paris once spaded will be somewhat useful for vehicle RP, but the Courbet is already useless as a premium other than it’s basic survivability against non-ammo detonations.
Maybe squish 6.0 to 5.7-6.3 or 6.7, 6.3 to 5.7 or 6.0-6.7, and 6.7 to 6.3-7.0, and 7.0 to rare 6.3s or 6.0s and mostly to 6.7 to “7.3.” They already have mostly bots as it is as I understand it.
It just doesn’t make sense for research to artificially fail because of lack of gameplay when it’s already scaled.
Maybe it’s a map design or match type issue. If the vehicles are battle rated based on gun size and armor, why are they constantly thrown together regardless of BR on open maps? Why not a map with a mobile convoy so the fleet’s spawn locations make more sense with respect to land masses. As it stands now it just seems like one big pot to me, and it’s LAAAAAAME. I don’t see any reason to go to 6.0 if the lions are the same other than the enticing big gun gameplay which just isn’t enough of a lure at the moment.