enu87

100% would absolutely play this for a few battles! Even though this is a joke, a once a month craziness mode would be a blast. +1 for giving it an actual go!

Admittedly, there's definitely an element of wanting the older ships at play here haha! The other concern I had was that if there's never a way to reintroduce these ships to newer owners, they'll gradually fade from the game as the players that did get them move on to other games. These ships weren't removed for being OP or too popular, so adding more to the game won't upset any balance or economy. The alpha/beta ships definitely should stay only available to alpha/beta actual players -- 100% agree. If those ships end up fading from the game, then maybe they can introduce a sister hull, but definitely should not give out the original ones out of respect for what they symbolize.

I'm absolutely fine with this and as I stated in the OP, I want to respect the work and money that the original owners put into acquiring them. I agree with you that putting them into the game at a discounted rate or some other lower bar would upset those owners. They were dockyard ships in the past and they should only be obtainable through the dockyard today, which is where the idea of using the unused phases of the dockyard comes in. Those are the most difficult to complete phases and require no small amount of grinding to unlock. So to get phases applied to an older ship a player would need to: Complete the current dockyard with extra phases remaining. The only way to do this is to pay doubloons. This mostly covers the cost players put into the older dockyard ships as there'd be zero way to get them now without paying money (whereas some of the past ships, in theory, could be acquired for free). So it's already a higher bar in that respect. The dockyard phases after the ship is built cannot be bought (it would stay as it is today). You'd only have access to the unused phases from the dockyard missions that you haven't completed prior to finishing the current dockyard ship. This leaves only the hardest missions left and they're essentially stages you've paid for. For a new owner to acquire an older ship, they'd have to both pay to unlock and then subsequently grind only the most difficult stages of a dockyard. (Yes, this does leave the option of buying all dockyard phases and then grinding it that way, but that's still not cheap and you still wouldn't finish the older ship in only one dockyard event.) In theory, to acquire these ships now would require a very difficult grind and a decent dollar cost for new owners.

Ah, that makes sense, thanks! I still prefer the original idea of just using the existing dockyard mechanics to unlock old dockyard ships anyway.

They've used coal for old steel ships, it's definitely not a stretch to see it being used for old dockyard ships either. They weren't removed from the game because there were OP or too popular, so the normal reasons to not bring a ship back seem to not really apply to them. Hopefully they do find some way to bring them back as there's some really unique ideas among them.

Thanks! That would definitely be awesome if they gave us a way to earn ships in the dockyard for free, but I don't think they're going to go that route as it'd be too much of a departure from the current model (that seems to be working) for the dockyard. My hope was that in coming up with an idea for obtaining older ships that respected the current model for the dockyard, it might be something they'd be more likely to implement.

That's pretty much what I was suggesting except it's an addon to every dockyard. This way they can still maintain any scheduled dockyard releases they have planned but give us a shot at getting the old ships at the same time.

True and that's why my suggestion was to keep the entire dockyard event the way it is today and then only add some variety to what the phases earned after completing a ship could be used for. This way nothing changes about how the dockyard ship is paid for and built, the only thing that changes is what you do with the extra phases afterwards. Right now they're just used by people as a roundabout way to buy steel ships. Plus, it keeps dockyard ships as only obtainable through the completion of dockyard phases. Since they were originally created to be obtainable through dockyard phases and that's how their existing owners acquired them, then this keeps that same purpose for those ships... they drive people to complete dockyard phases.

How the new idea will be implemented is described above already -- added to the existing dockyard. How the idea will be carried out (basically another way of saying implemented, but whatever) -- let's say carried out through purchasing dockyard phases or earning new phases through new missions unlocked after completion of the dockyard How the idea will be marketed, and promoted - simple, market it and promote it the same way as the dockyard, it's an extension of the dockyard. Just a blurb saying that extra dockyard phases can now earn shipbuilding stages on an older ship instead of just steel. They already cover how the concept of extra phases works when earning steel. How the idea will be programmed / developed -- I covered that, it's largely reuse of existing code through the existing dockyard mechanics and reuse of the already-created models and animations from when those ships were in the dockyard (this was covered in my post) How the idea will "function with the above" is it will extend the value of dockyard phases. Today players can ONLY use extra phases for steel. This would give them the option to get either steel or a phase on an older ship. Your own example of co-op is missing examples of how it will be programmed and developed. I'm not sure what you're getting at here, it seems you're intent on disputing semantics rather than providing useful input on the idea itself.

The purpose is simple: give newer players a shot at a ship that there's zero ways of obtaining today. The secondary purpose of this is to help keep these ships in the game as older players retire and are gradually replaced with newer ones.

No need to get hostile lol! It's not "because I've heard of them". The focus on this post was on improving one feature of the game: the dockyard. It was not focusing on a way to bring any and all older ships back to the game. Moreover, the primary reason other ships are cycled out of the game is due to them being overpowered or too popular. The dockyard ships are removed simply because the event ended. Granted there's other event ships that have come and gone over the years, but again this post focuses on the dockyard feature of the game.

Reason for Feature The older dockyard ships are often some very interesting ships that Wargaming has put considerable time and effort into developing, testing and adding to the game. They were only available for a short while back when each of their dockyards were active and have been gone from the game since. This means that new players don't get to experience these ships and have no means for obtaining them, essentially making them fade from the game over time as older players gradually stop playing and are replaced by newer players. It'd be sad to see some of these start to disappear from the game. In order to prevent that from happening and to give new players a shot at them I have a suggestion that allows for them to be re-introduced into the game in a way that both makes them available to new players and respects the time, effort and money older players put into obtaining them when they were first available. Implementation of Feature The idea is basic and would require very little change to the game. In a nutshell, the idea is to implement a means for a player to pick an older dockyard ship to be assembling from an in-game list that appears in the current dockyard after a player has completed building a current ship, but still has phases left. The idea would be to let a player choose to use their remaining phases either for steel (which is what they currently provide) or for ship phases on an older ship and forgo getting steel from them. Since this most likely means that it would be impossible to build an older ship from just leftover phases in the current dockyard, the older shipbuilding phases would have to persist between dockyards -- IE if you start it in one dockyard event it would disappear when that event ends but reappear in the next dockyward after you complete the ship for that next dockyard. Sequentially walking through the events would look like this: New dockyard event launches Player buys starter packs or individual phases and finishes the current ship before finishing all the dockyard missions Player is given the option to determine if they're using their remaining phases for steel or for the "retro dockyard" If they pick steel, dockyard continues as it does today and nothing is different If they pick "retro dockyard", they are given a choice on which previous dockyard ship they'd like to work on that's not already on their account If they already have a "retro dockyard" shipbuild in progress from a previous dockyard event, then they're not given the option to pick and simply pick up where they left off The old dockyard ship is now loaded into the dockyard and the player can watch it get built as they use their remaining phases to build it If they don't complete the older dockyard ship before either running out of phases or before the event ends, then they're notified that their progress is being saved and will be able to be resumed with leftover phases at the next dockyard event. Benefits to the Player and to Wargaming The benefits to the player are obvious, players are given a shot at a ship that they don't have access to today and are given more choices for the dockyard. This adds more value to the dockyard phases. The benefits to Wargaming are likely that they'll easily sell more dockyard starter packs and phases at each event as people aim for building previous ships. In addition, there should only be minimal development work needed for this as it uses existing mechanics and existing dockyard ship phase animations and models. I'm sure some tweaking might be needed to get it working in the current game client, but the majority of the work should already be done. Edit: Free Way for Additional Phases Just had a follow-on to this that I thought of for getting a few phases that aren't for straight money. The idea as proposed above would require for all additional phase to be paid for (I'm not against implementing it that way at all), but if you wanted to give a few free phases out, then maybe a mission chain that unlocks after completing the current ship dockyard -- IE: unlock a few phases of the "retro dockyard" or get even more steel by playing your new dockyard ship (gives even more incentive for completing the dockyard). They'd have to be challenging to complete, but it's a thought for players to still earn additional phases that doesn't change the initial cost of the current dockyard ship since it would only unlock after the ship is completed. Will add more if I think of something. Happy sailing all!

You have the game launcher open and you're logged into it before opening Modstation?