I’m not sure if the dev team is aware, but I wanted to highlight what seems like multiple unintended consequences to the recent changes in the naval battles - that covers both: Aiming system and hull strength, specifically in Arcade Battles:
AI gunners (e.g. secondary and anti-air weapon groups) will automatically engage targets at excessive ranges AND they appear to be more accurate even in low BRs.
Torpedo Boats are significantly more difficult to use against bluewater vessels, as they cannot approach them without having to deal with absurd volume of fire from multiple enemy vessels (including those several kilometers away)
All coastal vessels which are using simple damage model were significantly nerfed vs those that use complex damage model. This also applies to the balance of simple coastal vs bluewater.
Airplanes are borderline unusable. Now even a minor MTB will attempt to engage them at 5+ km range, so no more there is any safe zone in low BR matches. You have you constantly avoid a huge volume of fire from most of the enemy vessels, and even with all of that you will still get hit by strays. Furthermore: I was fairly good in making attack runs with dive and torpedo bombers, after the recent changes I’m yet to survive one.
Current state of the game makes weapons like Fritz-X totally unusable, as any airplane which flies in a straight line will be shredded to pieces, regardless of the altitude or BR (previously they were very safe in BR 2.7).
due to the sheer volume of fire, using any medium or heavy bomber became extremely difficult, much more than ever before. And that’s an issue regardless of the BR - from 1.3 till 7.0 (even if at a higher BRs those planes were already very, very challenging… now it’s even worse)
AI gunners can now automatically shoot the main guns on all the ships. This issue is limited to AB, and it stacks with the significant increase in accuracy mentioned above. ⚠ This is likely a bug, and any abuse will result in a ban. ⚠ Just a reminder: this was removed from the game many, many months ago to prevent AFK play.
Manual aiming using the new system
It’s now trivially easyto hit targets at cross-map ranges, the only limitation being muzzle velocity, vertical guidance and maneuvering of the targets
Coastal vessels can put machine gun fire on bluewater vessels across the map
Any exposed coastal vessel is an easy target for bluewater players - just point and tap. Suitability of coastal vessels in bluewater matches went down the drain
Ammo-racking became much easier and more common (but that seems intentional?)
In higher BRs, where HE-VT shells are available, airplanes are (relatively) easy kill in spawn-to-spawn ranges, and there is no altitude in which they would be safe
Time to Kill has significantly decreased. This makes many ships extremely difficult to play, as now they get shredded without having a chance to earn any good amount of RP.
Lead indicator for the aerial targets has no use. It should have been removed, as pointing at it will make all your shots miss the target. Instead, player is supposed to aim at the airplane (as in: literally put your aim reticle on the airplane’s center of mass)
Radar has no use - while in realistic battles it’s still relevant, in Arcade you can just point at the airplane, click left mouse button, and the bullet will land on target (weapon spread permitted), regardless of the range
[Manual targeting of the primary calibre], [Manual targeting of the auxiliary calibre] and [Manual targeting of the anti-aircraft calibre] controls are not working any more in the Arcade Battles (they work fine in realistic)
Camera shakes from nearby explosions despite the Camera Shake setting being set to zero (much like other issues, this appears to be limited to Arcade Battles).
Torpedoes became more deadly and even if you somehow survive - enemy needs to just hit your bow or stern to kill you, as most likely torpedo hit already destroyed 2 sections of your vessel. Again: time to kill is much shorter than ever.
There is a significant inconsistency in the way you aim guns vs mortars or rockets - for some reason guns can be pointed at a target and it’s done, while mortars and rockets still need aiming in blind, without any aim assists (see suggestion: [Naval] Add aiming reticles for depth charge mortars & rockets ). Previously both needed a lead, which made sense, now it’s all about moving your aiming reticle back and forth, depending on which weapon system you would like to use… which is the most bizarre experience.
Anything else that I have missed?
p.s. if players in ground realistic battles are complaining about CAS - just give SPAAGs the system you have implemented for naval arcade! It will solve all their problems ;)
I have also observed these changes in naval arcade. I mainly play RB so I haven’t seen the full extent of these unintended consequences but a simple test run in a custom battle in arcade difficulty can replicate a lot of this.
What specifically you have in mind? If you’re thinking about tasks like Duck Hunt - yea, I wouldn’t be surprised if in a week or two airplanes would be nearly impossible to find in naval
This is not a post about aiming changes but rather about all of the changes combined. The increased lethality of torpedoes primarily comes from the new hull strength mechanic.
A shorter time to kill is unlikely to be intentional. As I understand it, the intent was to make the mode more accessible to new players. Getting killed very quickly without having the opportunity to earn RP is (which is the outcome of the changes for the new players entering coastal battles around BR 2.0-3.0)… well… the opposite of that goal. But then again - that’s just my personal line of thinking, I understand how this could be argued both ways.
I know, which is why I brought up the rangefinder. Gotta be honest about the other game modes.
Also getting killed very quickly without damaging anyone is extremely difficult to do.
I was able to research two vehicles just firing on the first thing seen for a few matches.
which ones do you declare as bugs? The ridicoulos precise KI AA ? and what else?
Are there any bug reports made?
There are several threads about the naval changes - none of them has a comment given by GJ staff.
Where is your source of information that the listed issues are 50% bugs???
I agree. First about the AI ship’s aiming, they really did improved, but when destroy them, player will earn more SL and research points than before, and in cargo ship mode, AI CA finally not just a decoration. Second for aiming system, when enemy turn around or change speed, it is more difficult than before. Third for torpedo, unlimited reloading torpedo is one of the feature of AB, and since 2023or2024, torpedo damage has been seriously nerfed. When using torpedo, most time they just hit and damage one of hull’s part. Fourth for the magazine, just most of skillful players know where they are, and with new aiming system is easier to hit it than before. Fifth, RBU or Hedgedogs, Gaijin increased the recoil of them, only first or second shot was accurate.
Yes, I already voted in this post, I agree to revert to the old aiming system, but in this vote still means some players like the new system, that is the point. And there is some players like me, believe the new system is doesn’t a matter.
My final conclusions about the Naval Arcade changes, fwiw. I was for the aiming changes at the start, but now after testing it thoroughly, I am 100% against the changes (at least as they stand now, without major modifications/roll backs etc.)
Agree with everything especially the part about aircraft being near useless. Making the rewards for AI kills the same as player kills isn’t enough when all the AI play like seasoned veterans against ships and wizards with magic aim against aircraft.
An autocannon from an AI BMO cut my Smelyi’s crew down to 80% from over 5km away in just a few seconds by precisely targeting my AA mounts which is something the vast majority of human players simply aren’t capable of. In another battle, a Pr. 183 sniped my Hellcat less than a minute after I spawned even though I was over 5 km away! Naval is even more of a steaming mess now. Removing the necessity of leading targets essentially dumbs down any challenge in arcade.
The problem for entry to naval wasn’t the difficulty in aiming and getting kills. It’s the terrible grind, incompetently designed maps, horrendous BR compression and the splitting of the bluewater and coastal trees without the ability to research one with the other. Catering to the lowest skilled players by making aiming dumber isn’t going to fix the real issues
I agree with you except regarding torpedoes.
The power of torpedoes has been rather too weak up to now.
Unlike main guns, which can be easily hit thanks to the support of the system, torpedoes could only be guaranteed to hit someone who was going at a certain speed with the ship pointed sideways or stopped at a spawn point, but could not be expected to do any decent damage when hit.
It is so unnatural that oxygen torpedo and Mk.16 torpedo could hit but not cause fatal damage.
just compared the research points for a modification in a rank V boat and a top tier tank - the boats modification points are twice as for the top-tier tank! I didn’t compare the factors but it takes a large number of matches to research one modification in my top-tier costal vessel