I’m curious about the people who like Naval battles and why as well as those who don’t and why not.
I’ve seen where many people feel Naval is a grind, but I really don’t see it that way. In fact, I find that Naval players tend to work better as a team to accomplish the mission and are less likely to make their personal scores the priority.
I’m not trying to criticize the way people play the game. Whatever way makes it enjoyable for each individual is the best way to play. However, the game is designed to accomplish missions based on teamwork. I find that happening much more in Naval and certainly don’t feel like I’m grinding at all. I find it to be high octane actually.
So I’m just curious why everyone likes or dislikes Naval. Please be specific. I thank you for your input.
First and foremost, I am a naval main.
I enjoy naval EC the most, then early coastal RB, and then bluewater RB.
I primarily like naval because I like the ship models in War Thunder. I enjoy watching the ships sail.
I also enjoy the relatively slow gameplay that rewards teamwork.
Naval EC is great fun when players work together to outsmart and outplay the other team.
It is honestly a grind. I am not always bothered by this because I like most of the ships, it is usually a problem when the ship underperforms because of uptiers or because they are not meta.
I wouldn’t say I like most of the maps. You are sometimes spawned in the line of fire, and most maps don’t encourage multiple approaches. I find that the open sea maps are the worst.
I don’t enjoy naval EC when players are not coordinating or when one team gets to the bigger ships faster.
I’m not going to enable anti-cheat so I can play Naval… It wan’t access to my anti-virus exceptions and that ain’t happening… I’d play arcade Naval if I didn’t have to do anti-cheat.
So far I’ve only played Arcade with mostly Coastal Boats. I’ve done Bluewater Ships a few times and even captured a Zone with one, but the learning curve is a bit higher.
thewilliamclive: Overall, I love the graphics on this game. Quite realistic without compromising performance. I definitely agree with you on the teamwork. Sometimes the spawning does get in the way. I’ve come in at full throttle and immediately crashed into a teammate because of it.
SinisterIsRandom: I haven’t tried depth charges yet and only limited torpedoes. I mostly defend my boats with guns when heading to and from Zones.
immortal_pinata: I didn’t want to do Anti-Cheat either, but decided it was not big thing and my Anti-Virus software doesn’t seem to have a problem with it.
Zucc_Boi: Thank you for your input. I suspect I haven’t yet reached a point in Naval when it seems to slow down.
Thanks again for all your replies. I appreciate it.
-NighthawkP
Yes and no.
EC map change constantly, it’s the awareness of the battlefield ( check events on maps, look at the “kill log” and of course at your team mate messages) that should tell you where to spam in order to be in the battle…
Unless you want go alone to kill a carrier… :) that is possible… But prepare for a long sail across the ocean…
I enjoyed naval for a while. I started coastal 4 years ago and played it on and off, a year and a half ago I found blue water was just so much fun on my steamdeck and got hooked. In half a year I unlocked the entire tree of Germany and American fleets in Bluewater. So it’s a lot of fun for me.
However with the dropping of SA, and the new BR changes it’s become dead from 5.7+. Match making tends to get pulled into uptiers. Which isn’t so bad, but when you get sucked into 6.7 with a ship that doesn’t have any chance of penetrating a CA or BB at range what is the point? Then at that BR it’s 4 or 5 actual players and the rest are bots.
IDK I’m salty of now trying to find the new meta to play, but I’ve gone from every match being a fight to the end, even when it was an up tier (but those matches had players) to suddenly just dead matches, and now it’s just become a serious grind.
So far I don’t think I’ve had to deal too much with the mixed BR’s, but I can certainly see where that could create issues.
I have come across a lot of bots, which is a shame.
I think both of these events occur simply because there just aren’t enough active players. I personally like Naval in Arcade at the moment. Eventually, I’ll move on to the other battle types but it would be nice if the Naval community could grow a bit.
I agree but I was referring to some situations when players are too crowded and too near each other. I play with an Italian BR of 5.7 with heavy cruisers and when you spawn in the middle of a battle when all the opponents are already at 6-7 km targeting you. Until you disengage with smoke and put an appropriate distance the pace is not very slow…
I think at this point there’s no saving naval mode. Naval was fun when the game mode first came out and it was mostly just coastal fleet battles at the low tiers. The main issue back then was the bomber waves half-way through the match were out of hand because 80%+ of my deaths in naval mode were from getting bombed.
Coastal ships got nerfed and their guns literally can’t do anything to destroyers except for torpedos and there’s heaps of coastal ships that don’t have torpedos. Most of these coastal ships haven’t had their BR touched in years and they seriously need to do that.
Half the time I play the matches are 1/2 full and the rest are bots using meta ships because there’s nobody playing. The large open water maps take 10 minutes to sail to caps or let you immediately shoot at each other from spawn are obnoxious. I’ve died in 10s after spawning 2-3 times.
The mid-game bomber waves are also cancer. I can sit high altitude in a PE8 and drop 5000 lb bombs onto ships and get most of my kills from that.
They just need to start over completely. Separate blue water / coastal ships, reduce the amount of planes with bombs, and just make it fun again.
naval main here as well. I enjoy playing it because of the giants guns and the sound they make when firing. I’ve tried WoW as well, but I think WT naval is miles ahead imo.
The one thing I do dislike are
Facing battleships in cruisers (destroyers vs cruisers is more forgiving)
The amount of Research points you get for each mission are extremely low.
I liked naval when it was just coastal vessels, when they merged it with blue water vessels, it started having this dynamic of begin of the match being rush of speed boats to cap and then you realise people take out big vessels and it’s no longer a place for small boats. I get that there is fun in playing a big ship, but putting this together forces you to play the meta as well if you want to be effective. For me it’s kind of as if we had a combined arms where you could take planes from the start - the big vessels feel out of reach of even doing anything to them if you’re in a small coastal vessel and that’s what I don’t like about it.
Additional thing that I don’t like is that I don’t set the range of firing myself, but the crew has to do this, and because of that if someone goes into smoke or behind a hill for a moment, they will start doing whole distance calculations all over again. Also in a small boat that is tilting a lot when moving around, it makes a mess figuring out how to aim. I’d prefer direct aiming as in the tank mode.
First of all, I’d like to thank you all for your input. I wanted to add one final thought to the thread.
At this point I only do Bluewater in Arcade mode. I suspect it’s more complicated in Simulation. I respect all the things that have been stated such as, it can be a grind, bombers are a problem, spawning can be awkward, etc.
Despite all of that, I LOVE Bluewater. I love to capture zones with all vehicle types and it’s quite intense in Bluewater. I have skills I need to work on. I get hits, sometimes a Kill Assist or even Destroyed. What I’ve noticed that’s important in Bluewater is your repair crews. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve captured a Zone with a ship that I thought might sink, but didn’t because I was completely on top of repairs and was fully restored when I hit the mark.
Another thing I’ve found is that players in Bluewater tend to be more team players. Regardless of vehicle type, this game was designed to win Missions as a team and Bluewater players seem to support each other. I’ve helped with repairs and have been helped. There’s nothing better than being half a kilometer from a zone only to look behind you and find two allied ships right there with you.
In summary, if you like warships then please play Bluewater. Less bots, more people :)