[2019] Russian bias and the sad state of Italian Cruisers

Heyo,

One thing to remember is that Competitive Metas are very different to Random metas. Having a well communicating team with high skill levels can also minimize the access to ship weaknesses which would otherwise see them punished in regular games.

In saying that, we are aware of the community sentiment and feelings regarding "Russian Bias", and thus are beginning investigations into key ships of note. It should be noted that the Kremlin did recently receive nerfs in 0.8.9.0, we will assess and make further tweaks as necessary, we rather hit it with a small hammer than a sledge hammer to begin with, understanding it may need to be hit again. The Smolensk, we definitely hear that you do not enjoy playing against it, and it is currently being looked at as well, however please recall it is designed with weaknesses which when played against can be smacked.

It is definitely not with intention to have one line or nation preforming over another, balance is the name and aim of the game. Imbalance only breeds discontent within the community which only makes every ones jobs harder. That can also be said about the IT CAs, we hear you, initial feedback is not as positive as we wouldve hoped. It is still early in their deployment so data is limited on them, we will continue to monitor them, and as always, if changes need to be made, they will be made. It is important to ensure that changes made are supported by data and not just feeling alone.

Thank you Zoup and other repliers for conveying your concerns in a constructive manner.

Fem,

(Taken from Reddit - Added by Fem)

I can understand why @NoZoupForYou feels that way and share some of the concerns, however, I respectfully disagree with some others. Here are my thoughts on the subject(s).

Russian Bias.

KOTS lineup is indeed skewed, but it's rather a combination of unfortunate circumstances and meta state at this period of time. Kremlin was indeed stronger than needed, while it was nerfed recently, due to tech stuff, KoTS was conducted on the server where Kremlin was pre-nerf. Of course I am not saying that alpha damage reduction instantly makes Kremlin bad lineup choice - she is still amazing in pushing, and it is needed at this level of play, but so far I see 1% of avg PvP WR drop after the change, for example, which is a step in the right direction at minimum).

At the same time we have Grozovoi, which is actually viable in competitive after the buff. At the same time we have Moskva, which is actually viable in competitive because good radar and reliable guns. And of course Smolensk - a new and very hyped ship with a lot of utility and strong in capable hands (as well as Stalingrad). So the state of the current competitive meta in this KoTS WAS shifted to having a lot of Russian ships. And this is fine, as long as this does not become a trend, and meta will evolve in something new next time. Obviously there is no good in having stale meta skewed towards any particular game nation. It's bad for players (becomes boring and less diverse), it's bad for us (we did not spend hundreds of hours making all these ships to make them unneeded).

Also to be more specific, here's the lineup stats from this KoTS (ship presence):

Kremlin: 40% RU, 49% EU, 69% NA and ASIA (Other fun facts - Republique 31% RU, Bourgogne 21% ASIA, Yamato 20% on EU and NA);

As for cruisers - Smol + Stalin + Moskva combined are 34% on RU, 47% on EU, 65% on NA, 46% on ASIA. While Henri, Des Moines, Worcester - 65% RU, 44% EU, 32% NA, 52% ASIA (fun fact, Henri is 39% on RU).

Top DD were Somers (RU 44%, EU 49%, NA 31%, ASIA 13%) and Daring (RU 5%, EU 33%, NA 47%, ASIA 45%). Groz was 13-15% everywhere but ASIA - there it was actually 31%.

Several more points to it:

The brightest "bias moment", IMO, was NA-EU finals, but there, in my humble opinion, the level of play from NA was generally very good. What I mean is that this super skewed situation in finals is not necessarily the best proof (although it looks very skewed, appealing and emotional to make a point).


As a whole KOTS is not the benchmark for balancing ships in the game, although, making observation of its meta is important.


Not to this video, but to the topic in general: I really wish people stop making this "salty about Tsushima", "salty about Novorossiysk" or "ahahah USSR did not have navy but at least they take revenge in the game" remarks. Honestly, they just decrease the value of the discussion and sometimes they're just silly. I want to use this opportunity and make it very clear: there is zero reason to tune balance in favor of one nation, and game balance teams does not care about ship nation. Sure, we care about the nation when we create plans for content, but people tend to over estimate how important this "I am Russian, so I want Kremlin" or "I am American so I want Montana" is. It absolutely has some impact, but mostly and majorly gameplay is a decisive factor. Especially now when we have all major navies and huge part of the iconic ship represented in the game. Finally, from business PoV, even if this factor is important, our game is played all over the world and Russian segment of players is not even the biggest. In the end favoring one nation does not make any sense from any PoV. Now, I can't make you guys stop silly comments about national pride, and I don't want to, but I hope you will at leat take this into account :-)

All in all, we will watch meta closely, including competitive and tournament, and will work hard to make sure it lives and evolves. We believe that over presense of ANY nation/ship/ship type is anyway okay in any short given period, but if it becomes long term trend, than it's time to worry and shake things up.

As for IT CA, not enjoying them is a valid opinion, and we support our CC regardless of their opinion on our content :-) However, I disagree with Zoup both personally and from dev PoV. Personally, I love these ships. They require me to think differently, I love their gimmick smoke, I love the need to actually aim with SAP. Honestly, I am struggling to master some of them now on live, but I am having fun time. I can easily see them NOT being the choice of hard core super competitive players, but that I can live with.

From dev PoV, all the stats of course are skewed, because they're early access, and because we should actually give people time to settle with how to play these ships. So I am absolutely against drawing any solid conclusions right now. But generally what we have is not indicative of any emergency situation - a lot of players play these ships, and the results are good. We will be monitoring these ships as we always do after we release a line and will apply changes if needed. That's a pretty standard procedure. As for fun factor - I really want to see how the popularity of these ships changes when the event is over. Right now IT CA are all over the place which is good, but does not necessarily mean that they are great - of course we understand that. We will see pretty soon :-)

Thanks, and have a good day.

Heyo Captains,

Just a reminder to please keep things civil amongst one another, there is no need to take shots at one another.

Fem,

Last chance,

Please keep this topic on topic in regards to discussing RU and IT ships.

If this continues on the path of personal attacks I will close it.

Smolensk isn't being nerf'd because she is a special ship... she isn't even confirmed to be being changed. Shes just being looked at.