Ahskance

Ahskance



28 Mar

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

"Community Manager" or "CM" works. To some folks those terms mean the same thing as "flunkie", but I'd rather be called by a title than a direct insult.

"Representative" works too.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

The first time Subs appeared on live server was a Tier 6 "Sub Battle" mode. Submarines at the time were designed to hunt capital ships and there was no point at which they stopped homing.

Also, Destroyers had a large toolset for finding and killing Submarines.

-

After Subs left the public server and went back into testing, their role was altered to interact more with DDs and Cruisers instead of backline Capital Ships. Homing was aimed at being more interactive with DDs, Cruisers, and other Subs. Battleships and CVs had the large homing cut-off ranges they have now and were quite hard to hit (and still are).

Also, Destroyers were moved away from Sub duties as Air-Dropped Depth Charges became the norm. It was determined that DDs were already over-taxed and that they shouldn't be overly incentivized to risk their ships going after subs, so DD Depth Charges aren't insane because it's better for a DD player to screen as ...

Read more
Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Yes, you've been fine in the conversation outside of "flunkie". It's a derogatory term, though light as far as insults go.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Previously, it was given out that there are around 2,000 people that routinely visit the forum (most don't speak) and that they represent around 1% of the playerbase.

If 2,000 people is 1%, then 150 people is 00.075% of the playerbase.

The 150 vote poll is not indicative of the 99% of the playerbase that never saw it. While yes, pollsters and survey folks do have methods of extrapolating off sample sizes, the forums here are a charged subset of players which does represent a strong skew.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

No sorry, I didn't join up to voice opinions that aren't my own. I've seen the data that I say I've seen, and I'm telling you the actual reasoning that we're acting on.

I used to play a game called "EVE Online" and one of the founding rules of diplomacy is that you can never lie. If you do, you will never be trusted again. People might be wrong sometimes, but lying is an automatic fail condition.

One of the core principles that I do bring to my job is the belief that people need to be respected. Players deserve respect, and we do too.

Please, you don't have to use insults when talking to someone. You can just talk to them directly.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Yes, your poll has 150 votes in a charged environment. We have massed poll and survey data as we actually host the game and have the ability to directly communicate with our playerbase.

We have 16,000 players on a single time daily, and that doesn't account for all the players which log-in outside of that highest population time. And that doesn't account for the rotation across the playerbase as different players log in on different days.

Your poll is very significant for telling me what the forum thinks, but I can assure that I was already aware of that.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Yes, if you go back and look at the video that phrase is said more in consolation than as some form of "Deal with it" meme. People hotly requested them and that was a video which was letting people down in the kindest, yet direct way possible as to their desire for subs at the time.

The fact that we later determined a way that would allow them to fit doesn't mean that we couldn't see the path to that outcome years ago.

I have been on this forum a lot for the past 4 days. I have seen a lot of positive comments, as well as the fact that WG NA was literally invited out to a local player's restaurant. He actually regaled us with the stories of why he started playing WoWs... his love of the Tirpitz, and Submarines.

Please, you may dislike something, but calling people flunkies is insulting and should be avoided. Treat other players with respect, even if you disagree with them.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

People will choose to believe what they feel makes the most sense. This is normal.

If you doubt me, then just consider it from a business perspective. Dead games make no money, so doing something that just makes everyone angry doesn't lead to success. Hence, if a business continues on a path despite warnings from the vocal minority, it is very reasonable to assume the silent majority are actually behind the direction being moved in.

Money talks very directly, so it's hard to ignore something that is so straightforward.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Something else to consider is that we ARE a business. It is not in our interest to damage our product, so if polling or surveys showed that submarines would hurt more than help then it would be sensible to expect the idea to be avoided.

That isn't the case. Submarines are still in testing, so there's certainly work still to be done, but the iterations get better with each pass.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Narratives can be extremely powerful when people get used to them. I joined this game in 2019 when there was no announcement of subs or anything, but the playerbase was already saying "If subs ever enter this game, I'm gone" and various other comments.

When you have years to build up hype around a thing that doesn't exist, it's very natural to assume the worst as a response.

This isn't true. I realize you read it on Reddit and the Forums a lot, but there is actually a very strong interest in Submarines. There has been since the game first came out.

We have polling and surveys which show players dislike subs, but that a similar amount of players like them. There's a fair amount of folks that don't really have an opinion either way.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Boggzy tries to stay with a good-natured tongue-in-cheek sorta tone to diffuse tension. Maybe he said something that got taken in an unintended way, but I can't see him disparaging Co-Op mains in the way you described.

If you can, please try to find what you're referencing because that seems strange.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Some people will see it that way.

The other option is that AA does work against average players. Most people are average, so that means it works more than it doesn't.

-

This isn't to say it's not worth looking into ways to make it more consistent and perhaps less punishing to newer players at the same time (as flak walls can be instant death).

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Please don't make up evil narratives to ascribe to us.

I don't know the reasoning as to why Randoms were weighted higher for Tokens, but it did have the benefit of keeping people from yolo-slamming games out in Co-Op. There's already enough awkward tension when snowflakes drive player en masse into Co-Op that recreating that doesn't seem like a very harmonious option.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Combination of larger size stress test and familiarization pre-Tech Tree addition.

Random Bundle distribution is deliberately intended to keep usage lower and spread out to prevent everyone from using them en masse. That update had no issues so this is a larger form distribution.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

SuperShips mostly resemble established ships in the game, so most players aren't nearly as concerned with them as they are with things that are significantly different.

Subs have some similar gameplay loops to Destroyers, but they do have mechanics like depth and homing which are not directly analogous to other established things so the pushback is much, much greater.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Oh, in terms of acquistion? Um, possible.

The random bundle stuff is more used to avoid everyone playing them at once. It paces out how quickly players get the ships to make sure that there's a good variety of ships.

With them appearing in the Tech Tree next update, this does get them into the hands of more players at one time.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

What do you mean? I'm not sure I understand the question.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Locking thread per OP request.

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Yeah, that's really annoying. People need to let other folks play the game.

Clan Battles and Tournaments are a great place for being hyper-competitive, but some folks just want to be able to play the game. We have a lot of different stuff in our game that people can play around with.


27 Mar

Comment
    Ahskance on Forums - Thread - Direct

Sadly, I don't think we have a way to do that.

Any modules you do purchase will stay after the rental, though. I just moves to your inventory to be used elsewhere.

SuperShips will be entering the Tech Tree in the coming update, so any modules you purchase can be put right back on after the update (although the superships themselves are certainly not cheap).