Yes, so I believe naval battles should clearly differentiate Arcade and Realistic modes in their core gameplay attributes. Realistic mode should be as you described, focusing on historically accurate clashes between these steel behemoths. Meanwhile, I think Arcade mode should be more relaxed and entertaining, similar to how Air and Ground battles are handled.
As for the maps, this is one of the earliest issues in War Thunder naval battles. To be honest, the initial design of naval maps didn’t consider battleships at all. The maps we have now are essentially just scaled-up versions of cruiser maps. The large capture circles are merely a makeshift solution that often results in pure meat grinder battles (which, perhaps, is what suits War Thunder naval battles best, QAQ). If we had more maps with numerous islands, like in World of Warships, we’d encounter the same problems as the current Yokohama map, creating a vicious cycle. As my friend says, War Thunder naval battles aren’t particularly fun because naval simulation games aren’t well-suited for fast-paced multiplayer online battles. T.T
I hope that one day they can figure out how to properly do this differentiation (ofc after finding out if the arcade players would really like that) me for myself i mainly play naval ec atm so i got literally 0 experience in naval arcade, though it could very well be how you described it. If most arcade player really prefer a much faster paced and simplifierd version of it (which maybe in a lot of cases doesnt leave enough time to also handle damage control?) then i think gaijin would also have to go with quite some buffs to the speed and maneuverability of the big ships, don’t you think? similar to how world of warships handles it, with ships that feel like zooming around on rails. and also how it is in ground and air arcade. i never really understood why in all arcade modes all vehicles are buffed in their mobility, gun handling and power except for naval arcade (ships handle basically the same if im not mistaken, its only the aiming thats different?)…But that would lead to a much more dynamic gameplay, covering distances faster, evading shells and torpedoes easier (which on the other hand would possibly also be quicker so…) but also playing much larger areas on the map? with 20 km maps and the speed and turntime of the current top tier ships im not sure how a fast paced and really dynamic gameplay could look like…no one wants to sail and fight 15 minutes to get to an advantegeous position just to get all his crew melted in 30 seconds, thats just dumb…
Yes, for now, we can only hope the development team carefully considers what they truly want naval battles to become. This mode has great potential, as it’s still in its early stages relatively speaking. There’s still a long road ahead.
yeah i can’t wait for the introduction of submarines for example, though i also dont know how exactly those could be implemented in rb and especially ec because of how slow they are to still be useful/fun but also not broken or overly annoying…The ww2 event was so cool diving below the surface with the sub destroyers zooming around above you, you got a really eerie (?) feeling of how scary it might have been sitting in a metal can down there in complete dark and silence…i would play those just for how cool the diving and ascending looked even if they would be largely useless. big bonus if you could dive around at the sea bottom, sonar scanning for other subs and the ground trying to get to an unexpected angle in almost complete dark (with adjustments obv, i think no one wants to stare at a black screen hearing only sonar pings for half an hour…)
All it’s missing is some control of the direction of repairs and systems - something like the new radar interface would be great - plenty of room for more keys and binds IMO
We need to be able to disable parts of the ship - it’s wrong to have AA and some aux guns (especially on top of main guns) manned for long range battles anyway.
Disabling main guns, bridge and fire control probably doesn’t make any sense, but a toggle for propulsion repairs would in terms of coefficients/parallel actions/crew interop.
Disabling AA,Aux and torps also evacuates the crew, with a delay for crew to get there and be vulnerable, and more before firing.
Empty guns should not repair or get crewed
Also, AI target selection needs changing: ships, boats+air (also 40mm cannons should shoot destroyers when in ships mode too? like the 30mm do (bug?)
Also2, really the whole default controls for naval needs a rework:
firing on capslock (or tab, bigger keys = more satisfaction ;)
1,2,3 to select gun class
4 to link firing
alt-1,2,3,4 for ammo
` (~ or whatever on yours) cycles ammo type
Some small subs in the coastal tree would maybe work - even if generally useless except for those times when ships have pushed in and speedboats aren’t able to get to cover fast enough