Ahskance

As I came from KSC before moving to WG, I wouldn't need to look far to find excellent players that are ok with CVs. This isn't to say it's an opinion shared by most, though.

This is not surprising given the hundreds or thousands of posts the Great CV Debate has inspired.

There was one team that excelled with it. I remember speaking with Stratmania in a post Season 9 podcast that TNG held with reps from severeal Hurricane clans.

Season 11 was quite different with all the ships that had been added.

Prior to the Commander Rework, yeah? Odd that your enemy CVs had so much trouble so consistently. You can just angle to force only one strike angle and then block that.

Weird to hear folks were doing that in Hurricane...? Never got to hear about/experience that one.

You're describing Season 11, as Goliath wasn't in the game during Season 9. Season 11 was a different experience with the introduction of the MvR, though it stablized fairly quickly until the FDR came along and shook things up a small amount.

When did you have to deathball to save your CV? I've never experienced a situation like that, though MvR didn't try to AP Rocket snipe another MvR. That was one of the perks of not bringing the Hakuryu when the MvR was still fresh and pre-nerf.

I haven't sat down to watch pre-Rework KotS. I caught like 2 games of the KotS that had Reworked CVs, but I was a very new player then. I agreed with the removal of Reworked CVs from KotS because they were in heavy iteration at the time and that's not a sound place for competitive to deal with.

As for CVs in Clan Battles, I've played every Reworked CV season since they've been in at a Hurricane level (though I played less recently as twitch and work got in the way). I can tell you with absolute certainty that there was no death-balling in Hurricane. People still moved out, took positions that threatened crossfires, fought over Cap Points, and claimed space.

Fun fact, one of the best teams in that season ran Battleship instead of CV. That was an Asian clan that Stratmania (well respected CV player) was affiliated with if I recall correctly.

I know people like to say this all the time, but it doesn't bear out.

Ships move up and flank and take positions in CV games. The "hide and spin in circles in a big ball at the back of the map" is just a clickbait meme.

Imagine O7 or some other high-end clan just hiding in terror of some planes instead of doing what they actually do... which is taking map positions, caps, and kills even though a CV exists.

CVs have been in the game for years, and in the Reworked state for nearly 3 years. People still play the map regardless of mode.

Surface Ship Fighters are definitely weak to useless against Russian CVs. That is certainly true.

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As for baking in the Priority Sector, that could be done, but there is a constant drumbeat from players wanting More Things To Do. This is often the higher-end of the playerbase that feels like they don't have enough things active to challenge them. Average players are not in need of a wealth of things to keep them occupied, however, so Priority Sector is a compromise between the two. It's a reward for recognizing and responding to a situation, but it's not crippling if it's missed. It's often the difference of a plane kill or not. A single plane shot down isn't likely the end of a CV's match, but if everyone used it the losses would certainly add up. They do in competitive play with high-end teams.

As to the Fighter being able to stop a strike, can you imagine a "Batten the Hatches" consumable that would make a Surface Ship tem...

I don't think you're catching his point.

CVs force players to evaluate positions differently:

"Can I roll solo on this flank like last game? Nah, there's a CV on this side of the map"
"Is this island good for holding the choke alone? Hrm, Hak's can bomb here, I'll move over 1 island where the Halland blocks the attack line"
"Oh god, we only have one DD and they're on the other flank... Oh wait, CV can you spot this DD over there?"

The conditions change so the battle plays out different in various ways.

Whether you like or dislike those differences is a matter of personal opinion, but the point is that playing the same maps with the same ships typically leads to the same spots taken and similar experiences. Shaking those experiences up with "varied rulesets" causes more replayability. Random Battle being random helps a lot, but having matches with CVs, without CVs... with DDs, without DDs... with BBs,...

Just worth knowing, Priority Sector isn't something a CV player hides from. It's just part of the damage interaction. The damage from the Instantaneous and the ramping damage is factored into normal play, so a CV driver that runs away from it would actually be playing incorrectly.

Priority Sector is a nod to "Manual AA" in the sense that you look at and "shoot" the planes. It's only a single look and button click, but it's still often more than a stressed player is able to do. The amount of folks actually using Priority Sector is quite low, so hopefully there's a way to get the word out.

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As for Fighters, Fighters on a Surface Ship deny follow-up strikes or help to deny attack lines. Typically CVs don't pick strike lines that run directly over another ship on the way to a target, because that's wasteful in terms of taking lots of mid/close range AA. Fighters bolster that "don't attack through here" zone more and can drive a CV...

My response to the "CV Apologist" tripe is to state: "I've never apologized"

There was a section in the 2019 CV Summit which measured player behavior after 0 CV, 2 CV, and 4 CV games. That showed information toward general acceptance for 0 and 2 CV being the same, and that was pre-8.5 of all things.

Probably referring to the 15 Rocket Throw of the Kearsarge instead of the 9 Rocket Throw of the Midway. More saturation effect.

This is true, lower Tiers have little AA because lower tiers are training grounds. Both for CV drivers to learn how to CV, and for surface ships to learn what CVs can do.

Tier 4 CVs are gated by bad damage and plane speed to make them more into training experiences. Tier 6 CVs have more damage and speed, but are still undertuned as the AA the exists isn't powerful yet. It's stronger, but not anything like what Tier 8 and up AA is.

So yes, this is different at lower tiers, though CVs are less of a threat there.

I wasn't referring to "resources" like HP or Ammo. Resources in this case is better thought of as "Players" or "Player Positions".

By having players position closer, you gain Defense, but lose Offense. There is no perfect choice, because you are given a situation that is complex and requires dynamic choices since you don't have enough resources (Players) to cover all the problems at one time.

Were you within 2km of the actual planes?

Whenever your AA is used, your Aerial Detection blooms to full value, but I would assume the "Spotting" mechanic is determined by "seeing" your Conning Tower. If it wasn't within 2km of you, then you may have been detected by other planes?

On it. We'll get that information added soon.

It's been elevated. We were made aware yesterday, but any fix/implementation will take time.

We'll keep you updated!

Not instantly, but Fighters have specifically low health pools to aid in them being taken out by Surface Ship AA.

Bearn has tougher Fighters with larger health pools, but specifically reduced spotting capabilities (2km) in a form of compensation.

Worth considering that just because you can see an average skill player with planes left at the end of the match doesn't mean he's USED the planes throughout the match.

Some CV players are actively intimidated by AA and will avoid striking any thing that isn't alone.

Can't lose planes if you don't use them.

I completely understand. It's why I was so excited about Fighter standardization and the Fighter talents being added back with the Commander Rework. I took those into Ranked and bullied enemy CVs on stream. My preference is the MvR as her planes are all very agile so I can be where I need to be to drop Fighters (assuming my team's ground game isn't get stomped and I have to divert to that).

Having a more formalized Air Superiority platform is extremely exciting. Bearn is really cool~

I don't think anyone should be arguing that because it would be ignoring much of the play that gets Destroyers killed in games without CVs.

The bigger impact of the Rocket Change was that Destroyers numbers/players were actively suppressed by the capability of a CV. Matchmaker being what it is, you cannot usually control if you encounter one or not, so Destroyer numbers responded to that. Post Broadside-Reticle Rework, the suppression effect was lifted to a great degree, even though it wasn't highly publicized. It was lifted further when the Delay was added to Rockets.

I'm pointing to the numbers in Ranked play as an observable trend. Folks that were trying hard no longer felt hindered enough to actively avoid a class. They were consistently willing to play within the normal set of constraints of Radar/Hydro/DDs, and even CVs after the changes.

You will have outlier incidents with any class. A Destroyer that opens up on a Battleship that has 3k health and finishes him off after enough torpedoes have landed onto a Battleship that couldn't get away.

Ideally, the Battleship could fall back to their team in such a way that the Destroyer could not follow, or that the torps sent would be screened by the fleeing Battleship's teammates.

In terms of a CV's ability to follow and strike stragglers, it's a Strength of the line's concept. If the planes have a route they can slip through un-intercepted, then that's absolutely a thing they can do.

CVs have Strengths and Weaknesses, and the more you play them the more you'll see where their limitations exist.

It's worth noting that on North America, DD play exploded in popularity after rocket reticles were made broadside. Note, this was even prior to the Rocket Delay change being added.

Ranked matches were consistently run with 3-5 DDs despite a CV's existence. Destroyers are very powerful pieces on the board.

There was quite a lot of concern in other regions when the Rocket Delay was added that feared how powerful DDs would become. Ultimately, the game has found its equilibrium again after some change/adjustment.