devtrackers.gg
Hello,
Please let me explain a couple of things to avoid any future miscommunication.
The thread was locked precisely for two reasons:
1. Repeated reference to other game.
2. A bit of offensive language.
I hope you understand that (1) this Forum is dedicated to World of Warships, and although we're absolutely fine with mentioning other games here and there (we're all gamers after all), it is not intended to discuss and promote other games in-depth. Each online game has a community, and if anyone want to discuss a particular title, they're welcome to join the respective community. Makes sense, hopefully. As for being offensive, it's simply not tolerated. We always strive to communicate properly and in-depth, give a lot of information and insight. We believe that meaningful communication should be civil even if the parties do not agree on something. Saying things like "Balance does not translate from Russian to English" is quite offensive if not racist (sorry for using these strong words, I personally am rather thick skinned and do not feel offended, but I realize that such comments are still inappropriate).
The thread was locked instead of complete deletion, although, because it had constructive thoughts and feedback, which my colleagues wanted to properly address. We will discuss this internally, and maybe will figure out another, better way of moderating the discussion in such cases, because, again, moderation actions were not directed at anyone's feedback, but at the points I described above. I hope there is a better way of removing non-constructive parts, while keeping everything else.
Now, I am sorry for any possible confusion which may occurred. You're very welcome to continue the discussion here, for example, but please keep it civil and on-topic.
If I may, I would like to bring several points to this discussion. You may not necessarily agree, of course, but I hope you will take them into account at least.
Fighter spawn - the idea you describe was considered initially, however, later it was dumped. This mechanic shifts the fighter play from map control to a much simpler action (which honestly removes some depth). It's not an objective "no, never" - I appreciate the benefits of this solution, and maybe it will find some use in future Support Carrier Class (now, it's not an announcement, but most likely you guys know we seriously consider this).
Def AA and AA in general - we're currently heavy into redesign of AA Priority sector and some connected components (like commander AA skills). We believe that the mechanic is good itself, but it needs heavy tweaking and much better usability. "Investing" more into the consumable, at the moment, sounds like a worse solution, as Def AA works fine and available to a limited selection of ships. What most players need is not Stronger Def AA, but overall better AA experience. Our goals: renewed priority sector will be much easier to use, and also AA overall will be more consistent, while dedicated AA builds will be more efficient. When it's done, we will happily look at Def AA and see if there is need for changes.
Spotting - we appreciate the feedback, but we indeed do not consider this problem as big as some of the players do (to justify emergency changes), and let me explain why. Before CV rework, CV spotting capabilities were stronger (because of several units were available), but CV popularity was lower, and CV air superiority gameplay was more hardcore (sometimes one CV player could just shut down the opponent), so effectively it felt like there was less spotting from air in the game. It was a particular "meta" with huge reliance on concealment. It changed a lot, and this is natural. I can promise you that meta will change many more times in the future, too, in different directions, because the game is alive and kicking, and we intend to support it for years. And there are 2 factors here: 1. Meta change itself is not bad, but it comes hard for many players who got used to specific type of game behavior. 2. While the changes itself may be fine, it's still important to keep it under control. And regarding p.2 what we did in 0.8.4 is targeted at CV spotting a lot - engine boost nerf is considerable for high tiers, which naturally will reduce the amount of spotting. Together with other improvements I mentioned above, we don't believe spotting needs dramatic changes right now (as changes are cumulative and tend to effect over time), but if after all we currently work on is done, the problem still persists, we will be willing to go further.
Data vs Feedback - it's a good and rather complicated question. Many people tend to bring up one in front of another depending on what point they're trying to make. But truth is, both are equally important.
For example, when a player claims that he and everyone around uninstalls the game because of CV, such statement is not to be dismissed. Literally no one in the team wants to loose a player. But also, looking at the audience, activity, uninstall statistics and exit poll results, we could understand overall situation and sum it up to smth like "we have this and that to fix, but overall the game is in good shape and we actually don't have any dramatic uninstalls increase because of what we did last update, so we don't need to flip the table with the CV and remove them, despite of this player saying we must".
Or, for instance, when someone claims that he is "constantly targeted by endless waves of planes" we can compare it with the statistics of plane losses and appreciate overall balance.
However, in both examples, feedback is still valid. Player 1 IS frustrated with the game at the moment, and player 2 DOES feel uncomfortable while playing against CV. It is a valid experience, and one does not cancel the other. Marrying such sources of data and making decisions for the best of the game is a challenge, trust me. It is tough to hear "you know, I used to like your game, but now I don't". We take it hard and personally, because this game is the most important project in career for the most of us, and because we love it. We sometimes get mad over it. However, on the other hand, our level of responsibility is very high, and we cannot immediately act on anything we hear without putting it into the whole picture.
Relevant data - your example is very good, and this case is studied in every basic course for any kind of data analysis. We look at many things, including:
Uninstall dynamics: has only spiked at 0.8.0 within 15-20% compared to normal values, and has been stable on previous levels since then.
Uninstall exit poll: only 5,8% of responses since 0.8.0 are attributed to CV directly, and there are no considerable changes in other response rates.
Player daily, weekly, monthly activity - was higher during Winter holidays, then dipped a bit, and now on normal levels - it's seasonal and happens every year because of Xmas madness.
CV balance metrics - tons of them - much better then pre-rework. A bit excessive on higher tiers (hence the changes), overall fine.
CV influence and dependence - CVs are good at racking damage, but battle influence is much less. Actually right now CV have the smallest WR increase relatively to player's WR increase (so with player skill growth, CV [edited] grows worse than on other classes).
CV retention - new CV are much better at retaining players who started playing them.
Class balance and popularity - on good level, although DD took significant reduction in popularity, and looks like many DD player find CV gameplay interesting. Also, just to remind : we've been to all kinds of meta here, including DD and BB overpopulation. It fluctuates over time.
Etc, etc, etc. This is why we do consider rework in a good place, but when we say "good" it does not mean it does not have anything to change or fix.
A lot of community feedback is actionable, and we will keep working on it. It's not like we just politely "take it into account" and then forget.
Just to remind, we: did a lot of individual ship changes, improved air concealment, nerfed attack planes responsiveness and squadron composition, tried delayed takeoff (but it did not work as we hoped), nerfed plane speed and HE DB accuracy (now), improved continuous DPS for AA, improved fighter planes responsiveness, removed RPF from planes, improved CV MM in T10 battles.. and all of current CV changes in development are community-driven, too.
Whew, it was a long post. I hope it was not too long, and I was able to give you some additional perspective. Have a good day!