World of Warships - Anyone here playing it?

The Game Room
#1

I recently picked up World of Warships and am having a lot of fun with it.

I hate, hate, hate the pay as you go model but this is just fun enough and interesting enough to get me to play (I’ve always been a sucker for naval combat games). Beyond the initial purchase I am doing my best to not spend more money (i.e. spend as much as I would on a premium title and leave it at that). It seems borderline pay-to-win.

I have not played either of their other games (World of Tanks and World of Planes).

Anyone else here play it? Opinions?

#2

I’m planning on playing World of Warships when it goes into Open Beta. World of Tanks has consumed my gaming time for over two years now.

In World of Tanks it’s entirely possible to play for free, it just means you progress will be a lot slower, and credits will be a real drain when you reach the higher tiers. So I plan to play Warships for free for a while before I give War gaming any more of my money.

#3

A recent HumbleBundle has a beta key for World of Warships for $1 (or whatever the minimum is now but regardless it is very cheap and you get other stuff too).

This is a great way to give it a try without much expense. Of course they try and get you to buy other stuff but as a chance to try the game this is well worth it (not to mention the other things the bundle gives you).

ETA: Apparently this does NOT work for EU accounts. Only North America (or US at least…not sure).

#4

I’m fine with waiting a bit longer. More importantly how’s the game at the moment? Is it fun?

#5

Having loads of fun. It can be a grind though to move to a better ship.

#6

I’ve been watching a ton of youtube “let’s play” World of Warships videos. (Baronvongamez & Phlydaily.) I haven’t actually played.

I have had a life long interest in WW1/WW2 naval military history. It’s thrilling to see some of the early (or at least not the same old, same old) warship classes (like the Omaha class cruiser).

The game is good eye candy, but as a nitpicker, I think I’ll pass. I beg your patience while I try to explain. The damage models seem simplistic. Hits do damage to health bar of target. Health bars. Ugh. “critical hits” are possible (loss of steering, loss of motive power, fires, which does damage over time, or an odd turret knocked out), but can be fixed by pressing the “R” button (which has a two minute cool-down). But yeah, health bars. An Atlanta class CL (with a 5-inch main battery) shouldn’t be doing a whole lot to a BB (with it’s 14inch belt armor), but in this game, you can whittle away the health bar, given enough time. (I know what the “all or nothing” armor scheme is…) If they were able to model the hits to ships the same way War Thunder does on it’s vehicles, it would be a winner, in my opinion.

Gunnery seems a ton more accurate than in real life. Most maps is a maze of small islands, which seems to me to artificially move the fighting to close range, and using land masses to mask fire/make a get-away. Ships accelerate (and slow down) faster, too. These could be concessions to game play concerns (in order to keep things fun for the players, and not actually having to sit through a single match that takes several hours to play out).

I saw no weather modeled other than “clear & sunny”.

Carriers don’t seem as effective as they could be, but that could be that the players using them aren’t tactically using them right.

So, while promising, it seems a bit more “arcade” than “realistic”, to me. But, again, if you’re in the mood for something “light”, maybe it’s just the ticket. :slight_smile:

#7

Yeah, it’s definitely not a sim.

Open beta looks to be pretty imminent, so I’m excited about finally being able to give it a go.

#8

Sorry. I guess I didn’t really pay attention to the OP: “Is anyone else playing this?”. :smack:

I apologize if I seemed too negative. It’s a very pretty game. I let my life-long fascination with (big gun) warships influence my opinion of the game’s modeling of naval combat.

#9

I’ve been totally consumed with World of Tanks on Xbox 360, and have watched the development of World of Warships with hungry eyes. The problem is that I’m not going to buy a PC on which to play it, so unless it comes to the Xbone (which I will buy for HD tanking), there’s little chance I’ll ever play. Looks gorgeous, though.

#10

In an utterly boneheaded move WarGaming are now sayingthe Murmansk included in the Humble Bundle won’t carry over to Open Beta. Naturally a lot of people are pissed off…

#11

As has been noted it definitely is not a sim. It is a light game.

There is no doubt hit ratios are a lot higher than in real life (IIRC battleships had a 3% hit rate or something like that…that would be deadly dull as a game).

Damage modeling is not as deep as I’d like and admittedly repairs seem a little too easy but it is in Beta so maybe these things will change.

I wish there were submarines but the developers have been quite specific that there won’t be because they are either no fun or game breaking.

I would like a deeper simulation too but this is still a fun as hell game to play. Driving well modeled historic warships around just never gets old.

#12

There is an update at your link. It now says people who got the Murmansk this way will get to keep it forever.

#13

I play World of Tanks, up to and including tier 10 tanks. So I’m aware of WarGaming’s pay-to-win business model. I find World of Warships boring and repetitive,but well designed. They do employ a great rock-paper-scissor model (no matter what you play, you’re both the prey and the predator) It just doesn’t have the pace or the excitement to keep my interest. But it is a well done game. If you really want to get a better insight on that game, go to YouTube and watch some of Jingles WoW videos. He reviews the ships and their role in the game.

I’ve also been a Alpha (test 3) and now a Beta tester (both rounds so far) for Armored Warfare and find it far superior to WoT. It lacks the toxic environment that WoT has.
World of Warplanes is pretty much a failure and they have all but admitted that. For arcade type aircraft games, go to War Thunder’s offering.

#14

I think this is the crux of it for most people.

It does have a slower pace but it is a pace I love. There is great tension when you spot a torpedo spread coming for your ship and you try to maneuver your large, sluggish ship through it. It is pins and needles and really tense as they creep towards you and your ship ever so slowly starts to turn. I have done some near impossible evasions and I find that really satisfying (gotten nailed plenty of times too). Way more fun to me than a shot being an insta-hit.

Other times I am on the edge of my seat as I try to sneak close to a carrier in my destroyer. It is a slow(ish) ride in but you are scanning the skies to hope a plane doesn’t see you and hoping a cruiser doesn’t spot you and so on. It can be tense (in a good way).

I have had other times a battleship is ranging on me and I am dodging and weaving running away hoping I can get behind a nearby island before a single hit annihilates me.

As for Pay-to-Win I agree it is there. I really dislike this sort of payment model. That said by far my most successful ship is a Tier 5 (out of ten) Russian destroyer (and I have Tier-8 ships and cruisers). I die before the end most times but I usually cause way more damage than it takes to kill me. I know I have caused battleships much frustration. Loads of fun!

So while there is absolutely a pay-to-win aspect and it sucks you can actually do well in the “lesser” ships. Really well in fact (at least for now).

#15

I’m in, I’m diggin it.

#16

Unfortunately, WG allows a really toxic environment in chat, and sponsors it with public efficiency ratings and color coded ratings via XVM. It sucks to start a game and hear people whining about the percent chance of winning, and how bad their team sucks before the first shot is fired. Are they allowing XVM in WoW? It will really suck if they do.

#17

I have not played any of the other games (World of Tanks or World of Planes) but I have not noticed what you are talking about in World of Warships.

Of course it is still in beta so it might be something they implement later.

So far chat has seemed pretty tame and even downright decent. I haven’t seen any fights or too much bitching (usually the main gripe I see in chat is when one player rams another and they disagree on who should have avoided the collision).

Again though, it is in beta and things can always change. I am hoping this will not appeal to the more twitchy (read younger) crowd due to its somewhat slower pacing.

#18

I really hope they keep XVM out of that game. It causes so many problems with stat Nazis proclaiming their superiority to the team. It would really be wonderful if chat stayed limited to game type comments, and suggestions, instead of blame tossing.

Did it take forever to load? (I think it’s open beta now BTW)

#19

Yep, it’s open beta now. Took me about two hours to download and install two nights ago. No XVM yet that I know of. Personally I’ve gone back to vanilla in WoT anyway and I don’t see much stats whining on SEA - probably because 75% of the players aren’t speaking English…

It’s a lot of fun but I’m terrible! I’ve yet to finish in the top half of a team. The boats are pretty though.

#20

Load as in download? I forget…it took me an hour or two (I forget) on a 50 Mbps download line. Not terrible.

Load as in load the game at startup? Runs pretty snappy for me but to be fair I just finished building a new PC for myself and it is pretty fast so YMMV (I was even able to run Batman: Arkham Knight on release day with no problems but I was seemingly one of the few who could).