RazgrizRaptor

Happy Halloween everyone! today I have two very special PnF skins to release. USS Salem and USS Fletcher have their Strangerealian Fog counterparts released today as your Halloween tweet. terrorize the waters with the undying Heavy Cruiser Oured Bay and the ghostly Destroyer Davenport! Salem is expecting an update in the future to give her a unique emblem. oh, one more thing, these ships, like their Flagship Midway to Nowhere, come with a unique captain picture. and because when Midway was released, I wasn't able to post a message, only edit, I'll include her link in this message as well. I hope you like them, elements of these skins use old files from years ago when HarunaLine made mods (they are however modified to improve some details or give ships custom emblems in addition to the "Fog Marking".) as always, if you encounter any issues, find a visual glitch, or something else, please let me know on discord. ARP Midway to Nowhere Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nz4znxfincft0pv/PnF Midway.zip?dl=0 Halloween Bundle Link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/jiks16rr1vtp2ku/PnF Halloween Horrors.zip?dl=0

so, I said this when they announced submarines, but, isn't this the "year of the CV?" don't get me wrong, new stuff is nice, but I would have preferred it if wargaming had postponed all of these new things to take the year to focus on carriers and get them and the game mechanics around them (like AA). just saying that 5 months of it being pretty half-baked, 6th month being semi-fixed and new battleships, and 7th month being "subs are coming", isn't a good way to celebrate the year of the CV... just saying. ^^; okay, that aside, cool I guess, might be fun to play around with those Italian cruisers. curious to see what the Halloween event will add and if anything is returning as well. =]

updated the nation renamer for 8.7. flag updates aren't planned at this time, so it's completely unknown when or if they'll be updated. EDIT 23/10/2019: not sure why, but it won't let me post a new reply, so I'm just putting the new update news here, in this older post. lol okay, so I wanted to put this update out by the weekend that passed, I ran into a hiccup converting the .mo file into something poedit could read. finally figured it out thanks to the warships community, so here it is. the text file has no major changes it except I ceased altering all names of the "B" ships. as I discovered, it makes things confusing in clan battles when you say "South Dakota (orders)" and the MA B goes "what?" if you guys want those names back let me know and I can just add the names back in and release two versions. ^^ additionally, Tier 10 Aircraft Carrier Midway has been converted into her Fog counterpart, Midway to Nowhere. you might have seen her in past event pictures I've posted. well now she can set sail under your command. she also comes with her own custom captain picture should you want the "Mental Module" for her as well. finally, there's one last treat, but the trick is you have to wait for it, it'll be released on October 31st, Halloween. Link for Midway skin: https://www.dropbox.com/s/nz4znxfincft0pv/PnF Midway.zip?dl=0

sorry about the long wait, I forgot to turn on the "keep me updated" switch. as for that lack of xp/credits issue. I can't say I see that as an issue. with this setup, yes, it could mean that the T6 players get less XP, but they'll earn more xp from a victory with a T10 vs a loss with all T6s. let's take the "Naval Base Defense" mission as an example, in this scenario, the T6 ships struggle a lot with the enemy coming in at every front. DDs breakthrough and trigger the main invasion rather often, meaning that the 7 players have to deal with 2 waves at once and the second wave has a T9 battleship in it. in this mission, the T10 is going to lay down some hefty firepower and make things far easier on her team. could the xp gains be lower? probably per wave, but the victory xp is going to be higher. and in the event that something does break through the perimeter, the T10 is going to be a godsend because she can cover one flank and let you deal with the other 2. how about an "easier" mission? let's use the T7 mission where you invade and capture an enemy base. now, again, a T9 battleship comes out to intercept you. the mission then requests that the team divide its attention 3 ways. one or more ships to deal with fleeing cargo ships, one or more ships to escort your invasion force, and one or more ships to intercept the fleeing CV. here once again, a T10 provides a great deal of assistance. let the T10 CV deal with the fleeing CV. in theory, she can handle 2xT8s' AA fire. the CV's fire is diverted to 2 targets, she isn't going to be focused on engaging the bulk of the enemy forces so she isn't going to be stealing all the XP and credits that you're worried about. she's off trying to get the 6 people that don't have 5 stars, that 1 extra star. as for "fun" in co-op, it's not fun. WG didn't try to even make it fun. if it was fun, I wouldn't have posted this message all those months ago.

So, this is going to be the final update of 2019. first, the update notes, there really isn't anything major. no nations have been reshuffled, no new flags, just an updated version of the text and flag files. Flags have been made "future proof" by including the atlas file. TL;DR: "Year of the CV" has been a bust for me. I'm taking a break from Warships. Updates will be sporadic at best. See ya in the future. (sighs)... it's with a heavy heart, that I announce that, I'm leaving the game for the time being. the reason for this leave/holiday/vacation is simple, the "Year of the CV" has been outright awful, there are no redeeming elements of it at all in my eyes. it's been 7 months of the game getting less and less fun to send out my Midway and other CVs... I've really been trying to hang in there, but I've finally reached the end of my rope and it's time to put down the game, play something else, and hope it gets better in 2020. so yeah, updates might happen in the future, but they're going to be very, very random in their release. sorry to anyone that's been really loving my little mods, if you can't live without them, then just poke me on discord and at the very least, I'll update the nation renamer for you and others. cause yeah, just cause I'm hiding in my port playing GTA doesn't mean I'm ditching you all. honestly, the silent community that seems to like what I do has been the reason I held on this long. if it wasn't for you all, I know for a fact that I would have retired from the game permanently back in March. anyways, that's enough rambling, thank you all for the silent support, once the game's improved and I'm having fun again, the mod updates will resume coming out at a steady pace, and if it's as fun as it was 2 years ago, they'll be releasing on "opening day" again and not "opening week". ^^;

okay, weekends keep sneaking up on me. I probably should get a new calendar or something that'll remind me not to sleep away the entire weekend. ^^; anyways, I got the flags updated, it was done a little hastily, but in theory, it shouldn't have any errors in it. as always, if you find something please let me know on Discord (here works too, but it's slower). a nation renamer update will be out later this week. probably around or after the 4th of July.

with those 3 containers we get from earning a daily amount of XP. could we get one that's focused around getting collection items. for example, "this container is guaranteed to contain 1 collection item with a chance at a second collection item." it's like the other containers, just for collectibles. ^^

A small "stop-gap" upgrade has been made to Flags of Strangereal. all nations have their appropriate flag in the tech tree, filters, and behind ships. the stop-gap flags, however, are not as pretty as the standard flags. they are temporary and will be made to fit in with the others at a later date. still, better than seeing an Aurelian ship with a French flag making things a little confusing. lol example picture in the spoiler.

haha, thanks. it's better than nothing, and slowly (very, very slowly), it'll improve... maybe. XP

alright, so not really anything major in this update of the flag mod. sorry it's late, things have been very busy on my end so I had to deal with that before I could swap out flags. on a non-ace combat note, originally I had intended to release Audacious as the first PnF skin, but Enterprise was already painted up a while back, so all I had to do was make her PnF. so I present to you the revived Fleet of Fog Enterprise--I mean, Kestrel. this PnF ignores all camos (except the Azur Lane one), so feel free to run around and not cover up that glorious glow. ^^ no nations have been shuffled around so that's the same as last time as well. (it should be anyways) if you have any issues, please feel free to let me know on Discord. Oh, one more thing! as of this update, the mod is now set up to work with two other modder's Ace Combat mods. together, we're adding the tag "Gründer Industries" to some of our mods make it easier to find them. from me, you'll find the nation renamer, the flags, and... I think that's it for now. Chobittsu, yes that one, is providing the artwork side of things. so look for their far superior version of "Planes of Strangereal" (or whatever they name it), cause yeah... they'll make my skins look like I just stuck supermarket sticker to the planes while his look like they're part of the stock game. finally, there's Roka who's working in the audio booth to bring you quality Ace Combat mods, like Ace Combat 4 captain voice over mod, available now. with this setup, we hope to bring you even higher quality mods. Oh, and don't worry about our other projects, this one (Gründer Industries) is currently our only joint venture mod. P.S. at a later date, Kestrel's PnF will be updated with Chobittsu's aircraft skins.

Nation Renamer is updated. there are quite a few changes in it. nations have once again been reshuffled due to new data. the nations are now... Commonwealth: IUN PKF. probably going to change in the future France: Aurelia. this is due to the discovery that newspapers in the nation are printed in French (I played the game and never realized this, bad raptor. >.<;) Germany: Belka Italy: Emmeria. I didn't think about it until looking up the nations, but apparently, Emmeria is Strangereal's Italy, that or Bulgurdarest, but Bulgurdarest has no flag as of now and I'm no artist. lol Japan: Erusea. the nation has both French and Japanese traits in it. a few people have French names, but there's a Billboard in Japanese in the game. also, French newspaper is stronger evidence of nationality than a person's name, that person coulda moved to a different nation. Pan-America: Leasath. I forget exactly why they switched to here, but that's who they are now. Pan-Asia: Estovakia. I like their flag and it's hard to truly put a nation to these "navies" of ships from other nations. Poland: Ustio Russia: Yuktobania UK: North Point. the tiny island nation has mirrored the nation of England quite a few times in history, plus it frees up more of Usea for future nations. USA: Osea the flags will be updated at a later date. I don't' know why, but for some reason, this update that was meant to take an hour or so has taken all day. final notes I wish to say (not related to the Renamer mod) is that thanks to CompassRose, I've finally learned how to make PnF skins, so I plan to try and use this to make some ship skins in the future. currently, I'm hoping to use this to make my own ARP skins. in addition to this, I'm currently in negotiations with some other modders, the theorized plan is we might start producing mods that'll work side-by-side with each other to enhance your Strangerealian experience. when I have more to share, I'll post it in the Discord. ^^

So, I'm pretty sure this will be ignored by WarGaming, just like years ago when I suggested my idea on how to fix the RTS Aircraft Carrier (CV) gameplay. I'm gonna keep this short because, honestly, this is my final attempt to do anything in support of the game development cycle. I call it "CV planes = BB ammo". what does this mean raptor? glad you asked. what this means is quite simple. ALL aircraft carriers have a standard reload of about 30 seconds. the "planes on deck" system that currently exists is abolished. gone, doesn't exist. the major difference with what I'm proposing makes it so your stuck doing nothing for less time, you can't spam a single squadron type at the enemy to "haku shotgun" torp drops, "rket rockets" on DDs, or whatever other tactics are out there and in return you truly do have unlimited planes. no more half squadrons caused by the 5 planes on deck nonsense. so, here's what the "CV planes = BB ammo" suggestion does... 1.) the game starts. all squadrons are prepped and you get to have fun doing nothing for 30 seconds, like a battleship. 2.) after the 30s "arming" time, you pick a squadron and it takes off. let's pretend we've sent up Torpedo Bombers (TBs). 3.) the TBs fly about, find a target and we'll say that the planes were unlucky and all 9 are shot down. 4.) the CV is locked out of the TBs for 30s while a new TB squadron is prepared. however, the other two plane types are ready to go. let's say we send out a team of rocket planes. 5.) the rocket planes go out, search around for a bit, and 3 of 9 are shot down. the other 6 make it home. no advantage to them returning. (maybe at a later date, returning planes apply a little bit of a cooldown enhancement. like -1s per recovered plane) 6.) the TBs are ready for another flight, 9 TBs take off. (because this isn't the old system that'd say you only have 5 planes on deck ready to fly.) 7.) rinse and repeat for the rest of the battle. that squadron type is locked out for 30 seconds AFTER the last plane R.T.B.s/dies, forcing the CV to launch a different squadron. so send up TBs, know that once the last one drops its fish or is shot down, you can't use TBs for 30 seconds. now, what this might do is 3 things. A.) it makes it so the apparent issue of spotting can't happen as quickly. B.) it prevents a CV from spamming one squadron type all game. C.) because now the planes are truly unlimited, in theory, it should encourage pilots to swing around and risk another attack. meaning that the defending ship gets more of a chance to fight its attacker. the major con I can think of for this is that pilots will be reckless. they won't care about the losses because the planes truly are unlimited and all they have to do is wait for 30s to get a whole new squadron. but then again, does anyone care to fire torps carefully when all it means is "wait 100 seconds for torps to be reloaded."?that's my suggestion... probably won't be noticed by WarGaming and the devs, so I'm probably just wasting my time. if my fellow captains wish to comment, go for it. but if you wanna help, then see if you can get someone from WarGaming to take a look and somehow tell them.

alright, so the nation renamer and flags have been updated. as usual, if you encounter any bugs, let me know over on Discord and I'll fix them ASAP. ^^

I meant to upload it on Saturday the 2nd, but I completely got sidetracked. ^^; okay, so as of right now, only the nation renamer has been fully updated. USN aircraft are all painted in their Osean colors, thankfully some planes just needed a name change and no major repainting. so all you Midways will enjoy flying an Osean flag and launching Osean planes. sorry, Haku Squadron Leaders, but you're planes are still in the painting booth. ^^; also, sorry but I'm not expecting them to be painted up anytime soon. since the rework, the game's lost its charm and I've been having less so I play less, I don't wanna use the time to paint planes for a game I play less... I still will get around to painting them, but right now, I'm thinking I'll be taking a little bit of a "shore leave", hope the game finds a way to be fun again, and then I'll return to the painting booth. the silver lining, well I guess you Eruseans will be getting your planes eventually. currently, RN/Usean bombers aren't even up for consideration anymore due to my opinion of the post-CV-rework of the game. =s

so, I have a question. what happens if I get the mission for Hood or Duke of York? I already have those two ships. so will finishing the mission gives me doubloons or just credits for the duplicate of the ship? or will it somehow give me nothing at all? thank you in advance. ^^