vak_

Firing out of smoke is a necessary part of gameplay for many vulnerable ships, it allows them to be relevant. And it gets balanced by radar, which back in the day was introduced into the game for this very purpose. There is also blind fire into smoke, torpedo spam into smoke, hydro, repositioning, etc.

I find it curious that the word "fun" isn't in your sentence :) Something being difficult doesn't necessarily make it enjoyable. Doing my taxes this year was difficult due to a number of reasons, but it wasn't fun. Pushing in a BB or contesting objectives in a DD when you're being grieved by a carrier or start getting pinged by a sub is difficult, yes, but not fun. As for the balance -- it's my own personal view on things, I won't go into details, because they've been discussed ad nauseam over the past years. Feel free to disagree with that opinion. But we both know that a lot of people share my view on the balance (though many of them won't write in this topic, because they've quit already).

Game being difficult didn't stop it from growing in the first years, because it was well-balanced and very fun. And when some problems existed (e.g. stealth fire) -- devs engaged with the community in good faith, and addressed players' grievances. But now... Everyone that I got into WoWS is long gone. Last few years I wouldn't even think of telling someone "hey, there is this cool game you should try" -- in fact, when my friends that remember me playing "some naval game" ask me about WoWS once in a blue moon, I tell them to stay away. P.S. Oh, and the fact that WG still hasn't made a good in-game tutorial is mind-boggling. They wasted all this effort to shove submarines into the game, meme ships that nobody asked for and nobody wanted, but you have to go to forums or third party resources to even learn that there is something called "overmatch"?

Yeah, maybe it was camos, I don't really remember. But I do remember that it was an entirely insignificant reward, and it only happened once.

I think like one time they gave a few signals and some credits for having good karma, many years ago. Not even sure if it was the NA server. That's it. Karma doesn't affect anything (other than the amount of reports and compliments you get).

It's not abuse, it's working as was intended by WG. Any kind of karma interaction lessens the probability of people fighting in chat, making the experience worse for everyone.

Contrary to OP's opinion, I think Airship mode is the best thing WG has done with the game literally in years. The moving objective adds interesting tactics, and forces teams to brawl more. Also, there seems to be much fewer carriers and subs in this mode, which is oh so nice, and makes me remember why I used to really like this game to begin with. I hope they make it a permanent mode, one that's separate from randoms.

I don’t trust anyone else as much as her when it comes to premium reviews.

He’s one of the most broken captains in the game.

People have always complained about the NA server’s passive play, since the first year of the game. Of course, in the last few years the game design itself changed in a way that made pushing much more punishing — re-worked CVs and now submarines.

Lack of counter-play for many interactions.

The game has changed a lot, in the first few years for the better, in the last few years for the worse. Try and see if you like it, would take too long to describe what’s different.

So, WG is making a ship line that’s much more annoying to play against than a torpedo DD, and (I’d imagine) also less fun to play than a torpedo DD, unless you’re into griefing? What a wonderful idea. I’m sure this will work out great, and will further improve the player numbers.

I’m almost certain that they took the covid-induced spike in both player number and (probably) spending as confirmation of the fact that the CV rework was pretty good, and as far as vocal fans’ complaints — well, whatever.

LWM is an amazing member of the community, and her work was part of what used to make this game so special for me. Thank you, Mouse, we all really appreciate your efforts.