Mostly geared towards AB, but some aspects may apply to RB as well.
I like naval battles, but there are undoubt frustrating aspects that make it not enjoyable, at least for me and many other users. This thread, with 444 replies and 14.7k views, to me, represents what’s wrong with naval.
Remove Encounter and Conquest mode
No one wants to be forced in 30 minute matches; in Encounter mode, it is mostly AI ships that reduce tickets. In Conquest mode, it completely lacks cover. Either long lance spam, or use one of these OP battlecruisers. I don’t think tanks or air battles force you into these long matches.
EDIT: Coastal boats are also ill-suited for encounter mode, SKR-7 has a forever reloading issue, and most of these boats are designed for short range. Not to mention they can’t reload without going all back into spawn.
Decompression
Naval has easily the worst balancing in game. A incompetent player can do well in a battleship, which cannot be said the same for other type of vehicles.
Remove ammo racking mechanism (for Arcade)
The Scharnhorst ship represents what’s wrong with Naval; Ammo racking mechanism. Some ships are undoubtedly poorly designed, but they should at least be usable. With highly inaccurate guns, high fire rate and hard-to-ammo rack ships like the Scharnhorst becomes meta.
Ensure battleships, cruisers, destroyers, and light boats get their own spawn
This must be said…Why is it that in some map modes, the lightest of destroyers and the heaviest of battleships get the same spawn? What is this inconsistency?
Decompress coastal to the highest BR of bluewater
Coastal is easily the most unbalanced mode in the game, 3.3 boats have 0 chance against 4.3
It’s more complex than saying 3.3 boats have zero chance against 4.3. Some coastal boats are literal tanks (M-17/M-802), some just dish out a ton of damage but can be destroyed by most things if a hit is landed on them (i.e, Pr.206 - set it on fire and its pretty much a done deal then and there). Then you have frigates being mixed in and forced to spawn at the destroyer spawn. There’s a whole range of issues.
However, was playing some 7.0 blue water last night and that takes the cake for need urgent fixing. Seeing a Scharnhorst just waltz on into our spawn area and no one being able to damage him - I couldn’t believe my eyes. Then you have other 7.0 BB that can’t take hits at all and just pop whenever they get attention. This is largely a map issue for a large extent. Gaijin needs to understand that some battleships need to not be spawning exposed well within reach of enemy gun fire from the very beginning of the round. But then again, I’m sure the Sharn wishes it could survive some of the hits it takes in-game IRL
Decompressing up to BR 9.0 or 10.0 and hard capping maximum plane BR to 7.7 should be a good start to have room for both bluewater and coastal decompression, with a second step being creating dedicated Frigate/Corvette spawn and dedicated BB/BC spawn, so Frigates/Corvettes dont have to spawn alongside DDs and BB/BCs dont have to spawn alongside CA/CLs
I’m still very much a newbie at naval, in fact IJN Kirishima is my first battleship. I can’t say anything about high tiers, but I definitely agree that decompression at all tiers is badly needed. I was really surprised to see the difference between something like the USS Fletcher and the USS Atlanta not being even 1 full BR. 16 guns versus 5, no wonder it killed like 80% of my crew in a couple salvos.
I disagree about 30 minute matches. In fact, I hate that most matches end too early because of ticket bleed. Some matches are just starting to get fun when someone gets into a cap and ends the game too early. I do dislike Encounter, but that’s the bad map design.
As long they get their own spawns (with covers) I don’t see why not. Coastal boats are a “kill each other and maybe capture a point before being destroyed by blue water/frigates” thing anyway. It wouldn’t change the theme even in the highest BR (I see people taking MTBs to top tier)
I don’t see why you called my other ideas bad? Besides, putting the scharn to 7.3 wouldn’t change much; the ship is a representation of game mechanic issues and putting it to 7.3 would mean it doesn’t see heavy cruisers, which all battleships would kill effortlessly anyway.
Also, naval EC exists. 30 minutes is too long. If people wants a really long match they can go there.
The problem with 30 minutes match is that they’re far too long, especially for people with a job and not too much energy to dump it on. It shouldn’t be deviating from the 8-20 minutes norm of air/tank modes.
For people who enjoy long matches there is naval EC; wish it would get better servers though.
Yes, Yes, and no. He had some very good points. I think we tend to be a mite too hyper vigilant with specifics without valuing the concept. But I universally agree about Scharnhorst and decompression.
Everything Wargaming is now total cartoonish, childish trash.
In fact after watching WoW and WoT for ten years devolve into the Anime/Warhammer/GI-Joe greedy ripoff clown-car it is now, I finally tossed it. All of the Wargaming garbage has been uninstalled from my console as of last summer. 🙄
But I assume you are referring to a Naval PVE Mode, which if executed with proper AI, would be fun. That is prolly the only redeeming aspect of WoW, which is ruined by their stupid simple game mechanic.