[2020] Open Letter Regarding WIP Change to Des Moines Unique Upgrade

Aloha,

So all the changes to the all the UUs and the new ones that coming in the future (no I cannot comment until they are publicly announced) have been changed to better balance them.

As we have stated before all the UUs are meant to be utilized to change how you employ and play the DM they are not meant to be a unilateral improvement overall. Right now, it won't necessarily do so. As you can still station like you might normally and play it the same (which is what we see) and throttle jockey and in some cases still stay hidden.

This was the reason for the change. We understand that some of the changes may not be particularly popular to some, but we would rather make them a choice not a requirement, which is pretty much the case right now.

In short, ALL the UUs are meant to change how you might play a ship and not be a standard, but that is not the case for the DM.

A good example is the Republic, main batter reload is reduced but so is your gun range. And it can take the place of a range mod that some might put on her. So it makes you have to push in closer to be effective. This changes how that ship can be employed and is more an option than a requirement.

-Hapa

You ask any competitive player what UU is 'required' for competitive play and 9/10 of them if not all of them will say the DM UU.

We have stated on several occasions over the past 6-9 months about the fact that UUs are suppose to be an option and UNIQUELY change how a ship plays, not be a requirement in order to do well. Yes you can do well in a DM without it, but with this mod, they can do much better in its current format.

Let me say this, a game mechanic doesn't make a player good. A player that knows how to use a game mechanic makes their game play even better. This was not what I said. My point is, once again, the UUs are meant to change how you employ a ship. Not be a unilateral improvement.

-Hapa

No I am not saying that, I am saying that as an example that is over performing (hence the balance changes) it is a must have to people that use her in competitive play. AGAIN, this was not the intended use for these. Please do not put words in my mouth.

Data was gathered and for ANYTHING in the game, if it is over performing, balance changes occur over time.

These are just the first wave of UU announcements, there are more UUs coming and more changes coming, we also said this.

As for "make it into pre-nerf Henri?" this is not true, as Henry players VERY different to DM. You are comparing apples and oranges, they do not compare at all in play style or performance on a lot of levels.

-Hapa

That is not true, with Yamato, if you take it your turret rotation is seriously nerfed, this can have real effect on the game play of that ship and with HIndenberg you are seriously giving up Rudder shift which is already not the best. Plus you're giving up other bonus' from builds you might have using the mods that go in those slots.

-Hapa

I did not "conveniently ignore how powerful a throttle juking DM at 18km" is.

What some of you fail to realized that though your opinions are valid and the feedback that you are giving for this topic also is (I actually have mentioned and posted it in reports we send up), we pull data HOLISTICALLY and compare this stuff to other ships to attempt to balance things.

The current meta and use of the DM with the UU is move forward and aft with the throttles to mess with the aim of a ship firing at the DM, which is valid, it works well, but someone looked at the data and saw the DM out performing with this UU so balance changes had to be made to it.

I did not make the decision to move slots of it, but this was a balance decision.

Comparing DM to Henry IV is once again comparing apples and oranges, the ships play completely different, the Henry has higher shell velocity, larger caliber guns and significantly longer reach. So continuously saying that this change is making the DM a Henry, even a "pre-nerf Henry" is not accurate at all.

Also, ALL the UUs are being looked at, and we did mention that more UUs are coming, so people talking about how this UU was changed and others not touched yet may not be an accurate statement as we have not released the rest yet. I do not know what those changes are but we are always looking at the data to balance things out.

We can ALL come up with "what if" scenarios of employment of a ship and tactics, but if a player doesn't know how to properly employ mechanics and tactics, having a UU on a ship doesn't just make them better. You have to know what you're doing.

-Hapa