Turret Catapults

[Unabletony]

Yes, those things on top of turrets that shoot off planes. For Example:

New York-class

 

IJN Fuso

 

And the Gneisenau-class (yes they actually had them for some time)

 

However, ships like New York don't have them in game, because the mechanics of trying to launch a plane off a turret. But this ingame screenshot of Nelson shows...

That Nelson will have it. Now this might mean that ships like NY and Texas might get them, as Myogi and Kongo have them. What do you guys think about this, and how do you think it'll work?

[RipNuN2]

My Texas would really look forward to this.

[Stonehammers]

Sure, I don't see why not.

[IJN_Yamato_BB17]

I asked trenzor during an Q&A and he said the reason they weren't on the New York class and the Wyoming is because of game balance, which I fully don't believe is correct.

[Lord_Magus]

I asked trenzor during an Q&A and he said the reason they weren't on the New York class and the Wyoming is because of game balance, which I fully don't believe is correct.

 

I thought it was because of game engine issues. IIRC at one point turret-mounted AA was a game engine problem as well but that's obviously not the case anymore. Hopefully they've worked out how to do turret catapults now. For that matter I hope they've made secondaries on top of turrets workable, since that accounts for more than 1/3 of HMS Dreadnought's secondaries.

 

(Incidentally, WG needs to put the 25mm mounts on top of Yamato's B and Y turrets which look naked without them, and 3 single 20mm Oerlikons on Iowa's B turret. I also notice the floatplane is a Swordfish, which I'd like to have as Warspite's floatplane just for for flavor since that's what she actually carried for most of her WW2 career.)

[Vaidency]

It's probably a combination technical and balance issue. 

 

It was certainly a technical issue for a long time.  WoWS runs on a heavily modified version of the Bigworld engine and they had to tweak it quite a bit to do such complex "characters" as warships.  Stacking independently animated elements on top of each other is a very tricky thing to do, which is why rooftop AA mounts and catapults were absent from the game for a long time.  They eventually figured out how to make it work and many ships now have turret roof AA mounts. 

 

They're probably a bit leery of adding even more AA and catapults, though, especially to BB's.  They've been taking a lot of heat in recent months for allowing the BB population to get a bit out of hand, which is doing weird things to the game ecosystem.  Buffing a bunch of BB's by giving them more AA mounts and planes to launch probably isn't a very high priority right now, even if they have the tech worked out.

 

Would giving the New York a catapult actually cause a balance problem?  In a vacuum, no, but it would be yet another plane spotting DD's over islands, spotting torpedoes, and disrupting bombers (if it's a fighter) or giving better vantage to get the range right for shooting into smoke (if it's a spotter plane.)  Just a little bit more BB power creep.  Just a little bit more reason why nearly 100% of games on the NA server now have more BB's on each team than any other ship type.

 

Basically, I think the general health of the game would be better served if WG looked into buffing underperforming cruisers and DD's right now.

[BBsquid]

 

I thought it was because of game engine issues. IIRC at one point turret-mounted AA was a game engine problem as well but that's obviously not the case anymore. Hopefully they've worked out how to do turret catapults now. For that matter I hope they've made secondaries on top of turrets workable, since that accounts for more than 1/3 of HMS Dreadnought's secondaries.

 

(Incidentally, WG needs to put the 25mm mounts on top of Yamato's B and Y turrets which look naked without them, and 3 single 20mm Oerlikons on Iowa's B turret. I also notice the floatplane is a Swordfish, which I'd like to have as Warspite's floatplane just for for flavor since that's what she actually carried for most of her WW2 career.)

I thought Warspite carried Walrus like KG V and Renown? 

Speaking of shipbard a/c, when did Hood lose hers and her fantail catapult? I thought she had them when she met Bismarck?

[Hunter_Steel]

Excuse you, it's the "Scharnhorst" class, not the "Gneisenau" class.

 

~Hunter

[Lord_Magus]

I thought Warspite carried Walrus like KG V and Renown? 

 

Eventually she did. But many of her battles had her carrying a Swordfish.

 

Speaking of shipbard a/c, when did Hood lose hers and her fantail catapult? I thought she had them when she met Bismarck?

 

Apparently Hood only had that catapult for a year, from May 1931 to June 1932.

 

Excuse you, it's the "Scharnhorst" class, not the "Gneisenau" class.

 

Gneisenau was the first to be laid down and first to enter commission. But Scharnhorst was the first to be launched. And since German convention was that ships aren't named until launch, I guess that's how the class name came about. Though some sources do still call them Gneisenau class. This sort of thing happens with a great many classes actually, whenever the designated lead ship isn't actually the first ship, some sources will use the traditional method of class naming rather than the official one.

[BBsquid]

 

Eventually she did. But many of her battles had her carrying a Swordfish.

 

 

Apparently Hood only had that catapult for a year, from May 1931 to June 1932.

Thanks Magus...I remember reading Ernel Bradford's The Mighty Hood years ago and coulda sworn he inferred that Holland was contemplating launching the floatplane for some recce after Norfolk and Suffolk lost contact and he had detached the destroyers. Maybe he was referring to launching PoW's bird?

Equally possible that, as often as I misplace my keys, I simply remembered the events incorrectly. memory isn't what it used to be....  

[Kitsunelegend]

Arizona historically had a turret mounted catapult as well, yet in game she doesn't, so I'm really hoping they go back and update her turret to be more historical (ie with a catapult and a non-red turret roof)