[2020] Unique Upgrades and 9.3/9.5

Folks,

We DID say that we were moving all the UU's to the Research Bureau, we also said that more UU's are going to be added and the existing ones were going to be changed some to make them more functional or useful, because quite frankly many of the UU's are not at this time.

We also said that the mission chains if not completed by Dec 31st of this year would have a compensation tagged to them. What is that? I do not know yet.

MANY of those missions require A LOT of grinding and so this is why the cost in RP is there, because it can cost a lot of grinding to get 2 lines worth of RP.

That being said, I reset every single tier X line before I started working for WG and at the time I had a VERY healthy FXP pool and was able to bring them back up to tier X in a fairly short time. Not saying this is going to happen in the majority of cases, but I am pretty sure a lot of people will do this.

ALSO, do not forget that after tomorrow you will be able to mount every single economic signal in your inventory on a ship, if you don't think that will speed your grind up, I think you underestimate how much can be gained by this.

Mahalo,

-Hapa

What cash grab? You can't BUY RP, sure you can buy doubloons and FXP your way up, but you still have to grind the means to do that, which is XP and FXP. And what "PR spin" it is literally the truth. ALSO, you have until Dec 31st to finish grinding them without spending a dime if you have the missions currently. And so, if you WANT to play the huge amount of battles needed to get these UU's many of which aren't improvements for ships, then feel free.

I think the misconception is that UU's make a ship BETTER, they do not! Many do not AT ALL, there are only a couple that make the employment of those ships different and more fun.

Like the example I often use the Republiques. But many are, quite frankly USELESS.

-Hapa

I own every tier X and have multiple UU's and the only 2 that I think are good for those Tier X's are the DM and Republique, which is just my personal view.

Again these are NOT global improvements. There is a reason they are supposed to be called UNIQUE Upgrades, because they make the play of certain ships UNIQUE. Case in point the Shimakaze UU, it reduces torp reload but slows the torp tube rotation speed to an absolute crawl, which makes it, not particularly useful for most players.

-Hapa

We changed the reasoning behind the limits of signals to ships because the community has been asking for it for a LONG time. That and the "Mount all" "Demount all" option. It has NOTHING to do with this particular change and has actually been on the development list for awhile.

-Hapa

The reason people did not like the NTC was NOT due to UU's it was because UNDERSTANDABLY we were going to add upgrades that would be a literal BUFFS to a tier X ship.

The UU's ARE NOT THAT, and quite frankly people need to stop trying to spin this into that. They are two TOTALLY different ideas and entities.

You ask most people that have multiple UU's and they will tell you that they DO NOT buff a ship necessarily. IN MOST cases they are a nerf actually. Changing how you are able to receive this is NOT the NTC.

IN FACT this is a good thing, the majority of people that have tier X's aren't really even progressing in the missions for the UU's and aren't driving towards them. THIS is why we are moving how to get them. Case in point I myself have quite a few missions just sitting in my que that I am ignoring. This is VERY common for the majority of the population in the game that have tier X's.

-Hapa

TBH, I am willing to believe over time, more people will acquire and use the UU's from this than are currently. This will believe it or not be easier to get them and get the ones you WANT.

-Hapa

I cannot speak to changing things catered to you or other casual players. What I can speak to is the overall volume of the average player that plays. If we make things easier, or simpler for the casual player and the majority of our players are not (and I assure you they are not) we will run out of content to put out VERY quickly. These hard limits have to be set somewhere and how they are set is based off historical data.

I don't mind re-grinding a line if I have to, as long as it's a fun line, currently I have over 150,000 RP sitting in my pool I think right now and that is after purchasing Ohio. I have no need or want to get Colbert, I have rest DD lines that I found to be REALLY fun, why? Because I don't actually mind regrinding and it gives me ships to play with my friends who are playing in those tiers, ergo I have a lot of RP.

You have to understand we go off of historical data for a reason. Though I totally understand where you are coming from in terms of not having a lot of time to play, you have to ask yourself is a UU that you may not even appreciate using worth worrying about that grind?

Also, do you have the mission for a UU you want NOW?

-Hapa

Well I am not going to lie, I DO agree the price is a bit high. But unfortunately I do not set those prices.

-Hapa

So here's the thing, you have until Dec 31 to finish grinding them in the missions, you're not NOT (I hate double negatives), to get them for finishing the missions.... and the ones for the CV's still get those completed (wink wink).

-Hapa

muahahahahah, AM I!?

Disclaimer: I am not.

Suppose you are right. The reason for this is quite simple, most players that have 1 or 2 tier X's are not going to necessarily know what is needed to adequately implement a UU. Purely from experience, this takes time.

So when we originally brought UU's to the game they were purely for those that had a lot of X's and have been playing for some time and might want something at CHANGES not improves the play style of those X's. THAT is why the cap was put in place.

-Hapa

Aloha,

We have put this out in multiple portal posts and I have stated it in numerous posts throughout the forums. You have to have 5 Tier X ships in order to start using the RB.

-Hapa

Aloha,

So keep in mind the RB was specifically designed for those players that don't have a lot of content to dive into as they may own 5 or more or ALL the tier X's in the game.

But I will pass your feedback up, as you are not the only one asking for this.

Mahalo,

-Hapa

It isn't a narrative, there is a point to resetting the line, to get RP. and Also, once again, the UU's do NOT make a ship "OP" many of them don't necessarily even make a ship better.

And once again, not everyone will want the UU's if you look at the UU's and what they do (you can find those here: https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Upgrades#Unique_Upgrades_.28.22Legendary.22_Upgrades.29) you'll see, once again they are meant to make the game play of a specific Tier X ship UNIQUE or make you employ them differently, in essence CHANGE the characteristics of a ship. They are not straight up upgrades.

What does this mean? You may not even want them. So no point in getting them for YOU.

Once again, the UU's were put into the game to give people that enjoy playing that have a lot or ALL the tier X's something to do. This was something that continuously came up from the veterans in the community over the course of YEARS.

-Hapa

https://wiki.wargaming.net/en/Ship:Upgrades#Unique_Upgrades_.28.22Legendary.22_Upgrades.29

The ONLY UU that would be worth it for competitive play as far as I can tell is the one for the DM and maybe the Gearing and if you don't have it, it doesn't ruin the game or game play. Look at the wiki I posted, it explains what they do and then look at WHERE the module goes. And what modules they will replace, some for the DD's go into the CONCEALMENT slot of a DD, which means they lose concealment....

They are NOT good for competitive play. With the ships that are currently employed in all aspects of competitive play by the top clans, VERY few would even uses the ships that benefit from the UU's.

-Hapa

I'm not inferring that at all. What I am inferring is the fact people want to say these are straight buffs to ships, which they are not, what I am inferring is people are saying that these are "must haves" to be competitive which they are not. What I am trying to emphasize is that these are NOT mandatory. For CB's sure you can use some of them and have them work. When I talk about competitive play, I would probably defer to O7 or OO7 as they are some of our top players on the server. I will tell you that a Zao in CB's, yes can be powerful, unless primaried by a couple BB's, they will die very quickly. You're not at a disadvantage by not having a UU. And I did say some of them are overall improvements.

Zao's UU IMO though is not the best to use, you actually lose gun range with it(if you use the UU in place of the GFCS Mod 2), you lose 8% gun range for some rudder shift and a little bit of dispersion buff. Yes, it can make a good player play better.

But if you look at say KotS right now and the ships employed, I would be willing to believe the only ship that is using a UU in those matches is the DM.

-Hapa

So, since you like to paraphrase, let me add some more information that you decided to leave out, the fact that I mention mounting of all economic flags, which makes the grind SUBSTANTIALLY easier to get to tier X. And that fact that @eagle_lance ALSO mentioned this.

And me saying "these are NOT mandatory" is true, for the high end competitive players, they may be. But unless your specific clan plans to beat O7 tomorrow, you don't NEED them to make you better, most of the player base needs to learn how to employ their specific game play before putting a UU on their ship and changing how it plays. (and if you play randoms, then you'd know this is true because people are getting to tier X before they really know how to employ their specific ship).

Every single competitive player that has the UU's that are of value and those that have the UU's that just simply wanted to get them, had to do EXACTLY what you will have to do, which is grind them out as well. They weren't just given to them.

Many, if not MOST competitive players have also spent a lot of time in the game and learned how to employ them and make them work. Which is exactly what every single player will have to do.

The time spent grinding through the mission to get the UU AFTER you get to utilize the RB I assure you will be substantially shorter now that you can utilize all these signals to get them.

40,0000BXP takes quite a bit of battles to get to. Resetting a tier X and getting it back to tier X can be substantially shorter with all the signals.

-Hapa

If you own a UU you will still own it, it is not being removed from you, also if you have the missions for other UU's you can still grind them out with the mission and not purchase them.

-Hapa