Captain skill ideas

[rambo495]

Evening all,

I think for the experienced players in this game, the captain skills are completely boring. Almost every class has an identical captain build, even more so for CV's. Ive brainstormed a few ideas for WG consideration. I don't have names for them just concepts. Comment what you think.

#1. (1 point skill), this skill would replace "expert loader". Currently in game if you want to change ammo mid reload you have to start the reload cycle all over again. Alternatively if you have rounds in the tubes you either reload the shell or fire them out the tubes. This skill instead would compartmentalize your turrets ammo and allow them to have both ammo types in different turrets around the ship.

Scenario. You are in your Atlanta, Turrets are loaded with HE and are chain firing. Turret 1 is ready to fire with HE, the rest are on reload. You hit the 2 key once for AP. Turret 1 fires HE out of its barrels then loads AP meanwhile the remainder of the turrets still load HE but once they fire they load in AP in succession. If you hit the 2 key twice all turrets go into reload. Currently we have a system where 1 is loaded with HE and if it fires the rest reset their reload completely.

#2. (1 point skill), this skill would add to "incoming fire alert". This skill would plot on screen and on the minimap where spotted torpedoes would run out as well as their course along the water but only viewable to you. I know this is a mod but it would be nice if it is implemented.

#3 (3 points), this skill would change "demo expert".  for BB's (im looking at you conqueror and others with RNBB syndrome) demo expert stays the same, but for cruisers and destroyers for every fire you start 0.25% gets added to your fire chance. This skill would start out at 0% at the start of the game but the more fires you create the more it rewards you. This would mean HE slingers would have to currently start 8 fires (average fire count at T7-10 cruisers) to get the current bonus. Any more than that would reward the player up to 4% maximum bonus.

#4 (3 points), This skill would add a 10% dispersion buff to ships who are stationary (2 knots to -2 knots) for more than 10 seconds.  

#5 (3 points)  this skill is similar to defensive AA with manual AA. This skill would be defensive AA when clicked on a specific group. When a particular squad is clicked on it is panicked as well as the other defensive AA bonuses.This skill would have an effect active time of 6 seconds for DD's, 5 for cruisers and 4 for battleships This would have a cool down of 15 seconds for DD's, 12 for CA and 10 for BB's. Yes this would compound on top of manual AA. Also if you're in an AA spec minotaur and elect to take this, you have to give up superintendent so you would have to risk losing that to gain this. Also it would help oblivious battleships who are venturing all alone which me in my CV wait for every match.

#6 (4 points) attack aircraft gain a 20% HP buff while in def AA. If you think this is OP then you don't know how OP AA and defensive AA is.

#7 (3 points) smoke rounds for ships with smoke and carriers. The amount of this would need testing but smoke rounds would be added to your ships inventory. A limited amount is given but superintendent is considered and applicable. Carriers would have to choose to load their strike up with smoke ordinance or not but could smoke friendly ships that are in trouble. Shells and bombs would create a single puff where as torpedo squads when dropped would create a wall of smoke. Smoke duration is applicable to half your nations regular smoke time. . You would exchange your smoke rounds for smoke generator quantity. 1 smoke generator for 10 turret reloads. Eg a Kutuzov could have 2 smokes with super and prem as well as 10 clicks of smoke puffs wherever he placed them in his firing range.

#8 (2 points) True bearing and speed. When aiming in binocular view you see the targeted ships true bearing and speed in 15 second vectors (I work on ships I know what im talking about). somehow work this to where you cant use it as an aimbot.

 

[Umikami]

By the numbers:

1. No. Complicates the game.

2. No. Incoming Fire Alert is already a cheat, as it is a physical impossibility.

3. No. There is enough fire in the game already.

4. I'm ok with this, as it has a factual basis; ships standing still are more accurate, even today. During Desert Storm USN BB's were stationary when firing off cruise missiles.

5. No. CV players are screaming about AA as it is.

6. No. Planes are OP as is.

7. No. There is too much smoke in the game already.

8. No. This is a total Aimbot cheat. To work it to where it isn't; don't put it in the game.

2 hours ago, rambo495 said:

I think for the experienced players in this game, the captain skills are completely boring.

Not that boring.

[Ivlerlin]

Only tweaks to skills I'd want is for EL, IFA and JoaT atm. The usefulness of them while okay; could be better. But would potentially require a change in their positioning. 

JoaT was once an incredible skill with -15% to consumable Cooldown. But was a T5 skill. In combination with High Alert it dropped DCP -25%CD. 7pts? I think, well worth it points for that alone. Not to mention it's effect on other consumables. At its current -5% it feels pretty worthless. 3s off a 60s CD? Consumable builds are still limited by Prem and SI, credit sinks and another 3pts. Wish it returned to a higher tier and back at -15. CE moved down but stayed the same. Swap it with IFHE maybe? Sure IFHE is a valuable skill on certain ships. But universally at 4pts unless you're that specific ship it is skipped. At 2pts it might need additional rework. But it's still competing with the likes of EM, LS, AR and a fair amount of other skills. 

Expert Loader, could use a second look. The ability to rapidly swap to a better ammo choice has great value. BUT it only works if ALL turrets are loaded before swapping. If a CA fired half it's batteries loaded with HE while the others are loaded and still Traversing if you force an ammo change Everything resets to standard reload time. IF a turret has fired and you force a swap it make sense for a full reload cycle to occur, BUT if a turret is loaded and unfired WHY does EL's effects' not affect those specific turrets that have not fired? Would such a change make it more valuable than 1pt? Maybe, but would it be on par with the likes of PT, PM, or IFA (if tweaked)?

Incoming Fire Alert, first off its UI placement is poor with the allowance so Situational Awareness granted as a basic mechanic. All it does is bring Long-Range shots in your direction to your attention. And how does it do that? It simply CHANGES the word "Detected" to "Incoming" that is all. Zero indication of direction or what ship fired it; nothing. All the information given is something far away or a ship with long hang time shells fired at you and has you locked on target. All this information can be extrapolated from PT. And PT does more thanks to the swapping quirk if a ship has a lock on you and swaps to Torpedoes. That giant compass with my ship's heading in it? Have IFA light up the Quadrant or Sector (if divided into 8th) of where that IFA is coming from... does that sound OP for a 1pt skill? Potentially, but it's defeated by focused fire. IF all sectors on 1 half of the ship are "detecting Incoming Fire" unless the player is very acutely aware of the order the sectors light up the directions and order which they dodge still won't be easily overcomed. Likewise in a long range 1v1 IFA is defeated since there's only 1 Target attacking the player already knows which direction the shells are coming and that the travel is 6s or longer to their ship. PT going back to the "Lock-on" quirk it has gives advanced knowledge is a Torpedo strike is potentially coming in a 1v1; if it's blinking 1-0-1-0-1 it's obvious the Red attacker is checking the Traverse time on their Torpedo Tubes. 

Sure there's probably more things that could be tweaked to be more "competitive alternative skills" but JoaT is next to useless compared to the 2pt options. EL is useless unless you strictly Salvo fire all batteries, it's defeated by ammo queues currently (why, wait 30s on a CA to reload wait 20s for reload then +10s for EL swap; when you can queue a swap, fire a salvo in 20s, then have the next ammo type fully loaded within a standard cycle?). And IFA is just a blinking light and a shadow of a potential alternative pick to SA; compared to PT (which replaced SA) which skill is a better 1 pointer is incredibly obvious. 

[xLeadSledx]

I have 15 captains with 19 skill points right now and they do not have all the same configuration. Each captain is matched to the ship and the type of battles I like to play and that also changes with experience.  I can also add a new 19 skilled captain a month since 85%  my ships have a "ELITE CAPTAIN" and that takes 1 708 000 experience from 0 - 19 but then again I have 16 captains working on 1. You can also use elite exp for retraining and if you change or add a ship just pop in a new captain it only cost elite exp. I try to always have 500 00 elite exp banked. Just 1 elite captain makes huge difference in your game.

Not all my captains have 19 skills.