Hey, all. I’m a long-time navy player and mostly keep to other War Thunder naval communities. Now history has told us that we’re almost entirely at the whims of Gaijin on what changes and when, if anything positive happens at all. But I did want to get a feel for if anyone else has had the same thoughts I have following the Firebirds update.
Camera
They moved the camera positions for all ships up to the top of the model so you can see more. This works great for long-range fights, but the increased parallax makes close-quarters and bow-in fights even less consistent than they already were. When fighting at close range, slight changes to the vertical angle of the camera have a greater impact on your convergence point than they would at long range. Since the camera is higher now, this is more pronounced. Shooting over islands is a little more difficult now as well, since you appear to have a clear shot from your tall vantage point, but your guns are blocked by the island and you can’t tell.
I was thinking maybe you could solve this by having a gunsight amidships closer to the hull and a camera view at the top of the masts like we have now, akin to ground binoculars?
HUD Icons
We’re horribly lacking in HUD customization in naval, so we’re stuck with the new hit counters at their current size and position, but fortunately they at least somewhat do their job in informing new players when they’re doing damage. More readily noticeable to me is the change in target status indicators. There seems to be more of them to help new players identify the type of damage caused, but in reality the information they give you is minimal at best.
Think about the circumstances that can trigger most of the icons:
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The enemy has lost a single gun, torpedo launcher, or stack, or has a pinhole breach above the waterline.
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All of the enemy’s modules are destroyed and he’s on his side.
See how broad the range of damage is to activate some of the icons? That alone is certainly not enough information to tell a new player if he’s doing enough damage to make a push. Even the magazine fire and detonation indicators are triggered by a range of events from a tiny secondary explosion that does no damage, to a catastrophic primary magazine explosion that’s actively pulling the bow under.
If their goal is to tell a new player how effective he’s being at a glance, then they should be providing the number of operational engines and primary guns, or just tell him when the enemy is undergoing damage control. Those could all factor into one’s decision to push the objective.
Cosmetic Fires
While absolutely beautiful, I didn’t realize just how big they can get until I started playing a stock cruiser armed with only HE. I’ve engulfed entire battleships with flames reaching as high as the superstructure, yet (rightfully) no real damage is applied. The enemy is technically not “on fire” as far as the game is concerned, but appears to be minutes from burning down because of the residual cosmetic impact flames.
In a situation like this, the only way to tell if he’s actually suffering fire damage is to check the fire status indicator in the target readout, which has also had its icon changed to make the flame symbol smaller. This is no problem for me, but once again for someone who has never even touched War Thunder before, you can see how it would appear to give them false information.
Does anyone agree here or am I just nitpicking in the face of much larger issues?