Another Wargaming project made in the same formula as World of Tanks is going down.
Apparently after fail of World of Warplanes, Wargaming didn't learn, that the formula is failed, and World of Tanks succeeded not because, but in spite of flawed formula, where better players have to carry, or are being dragged down by worse players.
This ended how it can be seen in World of Warplanes, World of Warships lost half of player base before WG realized, that endgame content matters, and now Total War: Arena met its fate.
It wasn't bad game, there were tactical options, but there were also all flaws of the mode, design based on frustration and lack of endgame.
The only hope for World of Warplanes is Gaijin - shutting down WoWP would be a confirmation, that Wargaming is a single game company (20k peak players in WoWS is joke), and this is something that WG really doesn't want to do. Especially when WoT also loses players, because frustration isn't a good fuel for something, that should entertain.
Tuesday, November 27, 2018
Monday, November 26, 2018
New approach towards premium vehicles in shop
Initial approach towards bought premium planes was that after purchase or winning in game, if player already owned such plane or tank (can't tell about ships, because ships have other gold system and I don't play them), got plane or tank price in gold.
It was a nice source of free gold in WoT, where low tier premium tanks were given quite often. And there happened first crack - gift tanks were refunded in silver.
Currently WG developed new approach - in some sets, especially those heavily discounted, in premium shop, tanks or planes are given as "gift", so they aren't refunded, at all.
Like for now - out of 6 special bundles consisting planes, 3 are with "gift" planes. For tanks same for 10 out of 15 sets.
Great lesson of reading the fine print, and a great way to discourage players from buying now even more virtual things than before for Real Money.
It was a nice source of free gold in WoT, where low tier premium tanks were given quite often. And there happened first crack - gift tanks were refunded in silver.
Currently WG developed new approach - in some sets, especially those heavily discounted, in premium shop, tanks or planes are given as "gift", so they aren't refunded, at all.
Like for now - out of 6 special bundles consisting planes, 3 are with "gift" planes. For tanks same for 10 out of 15 sets.
Great lesson of reading the fine print, and a great way to discourage players from buying now even more virtual things than before for Real Money.
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Players number
World of Warplanes, as everyone know, is a great success. Especially version 2.0, which is so big success, that Wargaming decided to take down counter of online players.
Yet there is still possibility to track number of players, although not all of them - Hall of Fame.
Although the Hall of Fame shows only 1000 players, it is possible to find how many players played given number of battles during given time period - there is a search option, that allows to find certain player, and there are columns that can be used. And it's not so hard as to do multiple copy and pastes from top to the bottom, skipping 3 players at a time.
Using 2 columns is quite useful - opening HoF in t2 tabs, in one sort by Win Ratio (first column), in the other - by Experience per battle (last column). This is determined by 2 factors - usually top win ratio have hardcore sealclubbers, killing planes at bottom tier, and there is increasing personal points to exp conversion rate through tiers.
So player playing at lowest tiers will have lower exp per battle ratio than player scoring similar amount of personal points at higher tiers.
So algorithm is like: take top players by WR, find their exp per battle - usually below 1k. Switch to the other tab sorted by exp per battle, find given sealclubber.
There is a good chance, that up or down there will be listed new players, that don't know the game, with much smaller Win Ratio - copy such player, switch to previous tab sorted by Win Ratio, and look for that player. Finding players with exceptional low WR (20% or below) or with exceptional low experience per battle (300-400 and below) should pretty fast reach the bottom of the table.
Now some real numbers:
- 1.x had average number of such weekly players at 7394 (between May 2016 and October 2017), lowest 5775, highest 12058 during giveaway of free plane during Gamescom 2017. Pretty wide threshold.
- immediately after release, WoWP 2.0 had 11831 weekly players, and quick and steady, with random changes due to events, it went down to levels below 1.x worst, like 4660 in 13-20 May 2018.
- heavy doctoring stats, using gold as a reward, allowed to bump numbers from 5381 at Nov 2nd 2018 (end of bombers event) to 4964 at 2.0.8 release at Nov 9th, then gold started to flow and at Nov 16th there were 6017 weekly players - rewards made to play 15% players more (or 20, depending at which number you look).
At Nov 15th there were 6134 - it shows, how much important is pay 4 play policy, and how big success WoWP 2.0 is.
Yet there is still possibility to track number of players, although not all of them - Hall of Fame.
Although the Hall of Fame shows only 1000 players, it is possible to find how many players played given number of battles during given time period - there is a search option, that allows to find certain player, and there are columns that can be used. And it's not so hard as to do multiple copy and pastes from top to the bottom, skipping 3 players at a time.
Using 2 columns is quite useful - opening HoF in t2 tabs, in one sort by Win Ratio (first column), in the other - by Experience per battle (last column). This is determined by 2 factors - usually top win ratio have hardcore sealclubbers, killing planes at bottom tier, and there is increasing personal points to exp conversion rate through tiers.
So player playing at lowest tiers will have lower exp per battle ratio than player scoring similar amount of personal points at higher tiers.
So algorithm is like: take top players by WR, find their exp per battle - usually below 1k. Switch to the other tab sorted by exp per battle, find given sealclubber.
There is a good chance, that up or down there will be listed new players, that don't know the game, with much smaller Win Ratio - copy such player, switch to previous tab sorted by Win Ratio, and look for that player. Finding players with exceptional low WR (20% or below) or with exceptional low experience per battle (300-400 and below) should pretty fast reach the bottom of the table.
Now some real numbers:
- 1.x had average number of such weekly players at 7394 (between May 2016 and October 2017), lowest 5775, highest 12058 during giveaway of free plane during Gamescom 2017. Pretty wide threshold.
- immediately after release, WoWP 2.0 had 11831 weekly players, and quick and steady, with random changes due to events, it went down to levels below 1.x worst, like 4660 in 13-20 May 2018.
- heavy doctoring stats, using gold as a reward, allowed to bump numbers from 5381 at Nov 2nd 2018 (end of bombers event) to 4964 at 2.0.8 release at Nov 9th, then gold started to flow and at Nov 16th there were 6017 weekly players - rewards made to play 15% players more (or 20, depending at which number you look).
At Nov 15th there were 6134 - it shows, how much important is pay 4 play policy, and how big success WoWP 2.0 is.
Monday, November 12, 2018
Ki-45
Ki-45 is the first Japan heavy fighter at tier V.
Quite agile, but with armament good only to attack bombers or other heavy fighters - first that are insignificant 2 machine guns - stock 7.7 or developed 13.2mm along with 20mm cannon - one tier lower light fighters happen to be better armed, and finally it gets 20mm plus 37mm cannon.
Which makes it a tier V version of Bf 110 C-6 - a very random plane often missing when passing light and multirole fighters, or leaving them with few HP.
Airacobras or multirole Yaks also armed with high caliber gun feel this problem much less, as they are armed also with machine guns that can help in stripping target' last HP, and are more agile.
Ki-45 is a sluggish platform, so is okish to attack other sluggish platforms - bombers, heavy fighters, maybe GAA.
Rear gunner is as insignificant as stock armament.
Not a very first choice to grind.
Quite agile, but with armament good only to attack bombers or other heavy fighters - first that are insignificant 2 machine guns - stock 7.7 or developed 13.2mm along with 20mm cannon - one tier lower light fighters happen to be better armed, and finally it gets 20mm plus 37mm cannon.
Which makes it a tier V version of Bf 110 C-6 - a very random plane often missing when passing light and multirole fighters, or leaving them with few HP.
Airacobras or multirole Yaks also armed with high caliber gun feel this problem much less, as they are armed also with machine guns that can help in stripping target' last HP, and are more agile.
Ki-45 is a sluggish platform, so is okish to attack other sluggish platforms - bombers, heavy fighters, maybe GAA.
Rear gunner is as insignificant as stock armament.
Not a very first choice to grind.
B-17D
First tier V US strategic bomber.
Has 2 options of bomb load - 8x 500 lbs bombs dropped in one drop with reload of 60 seconds, or 2 drops of 8 500 lbs bombs with reload of 80 seconds.
I've found bigger load better, because plane is slow and fragile to AA, so the less time spent within AA range, the better. Having 2 drops during pass over target allows to do more damage and score more points - with good approach it can single handed capture a plant.
With a good MM - tier IV/V battle with 5 caps it can reach Thunder or Doolittle medal.
So much pros, now cons.
Flown by bot is a HP piniata and free frag for anything with cannons - 2km altitude isn't stellar.
To be a harder target, it has to fly well over 2.5km - engines are handy. This altitude should cause most attacking planes to attack from the angle of bottom rear gunner (two barrels as an upgrade), which gives a chance to defend - as for now I used gunner trained in B-26 and an equipment extending the range in manual mode.
Flying lower we expose a dead zone at the level of wings - neither - upper nor lower rear gunner can fire to enemy attacking at that angle - usually bot Bf 110 or P-38. Bf 110 C-6 can kill B-17D from well beyond of gunners' range.
As for now I hadn't any battle with tier VI planes, but I suppose it won't be a challenge.
Very specialized plane highly dependent on MM and team to win, and map layout to score.
Has 2 options of bomb load - 8x 500 lbs bombs dropped in one drop with reload of 60 seconds, or 2 drops of 8 500 lbs bombs with reload of 80 seconds.
I've found bigger load better, because plane is slow and fragile to AA, so the less time spent within AA range, the better. Having 2 drops during pass over target allows to do more damage and score more points - with good approach it can single handed capture a plant.
With a good MM - tier IV/V battle with 5 caps it can reach Thunder or Doolittle medal.
So much pros, now cons.
Flown by bot is a HP piniata and free frag for anything with cannons - 2km altitude isn't stellar.
To be a harder target, it has to fly well over 2.5km - engines are handy. This altitude should cause most attacking planes to attack from the angle of bottom rear gunner (two barrels as an upgrade), which gives a chance to defend - as for now I used gunner trained in B-26 and an equipment extending the range in manual mode.
Flying lower we expose a dead zone at the level of wings - neither - upper nor lower rear gunner can fire to enemy attacking at that angle - usually bot Bf 110 or P-38. Bf 110 C-6 can kill B-17D from well beyond of gunners' range.
As for now I hadn't any battle with tier VI planes, but I suppose it won't be a challenge.
Very specialized plane highly dependent on MM and team to win, and map layout to score.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
A story of a bug
There was a bug, that from time to time there were no tokens for achievements granted.
I've had a conversation with support in that case, another time support shown how incompetent they are - first they sent me to outdated sources, and after that they stated that official Wargaming wiki is not official, because is being made by players.
Mentioned issue, as many others, was not confirmed by Wargaming, because just not, denial after all works better in contacts with customers.
But apparently they tried to fix it.
From the user's perspective it looks like the main issue was connection between client and server, some things were lost - similar bug with leaving the queue in client, but not in server. Apparently creation of reliable communication protocol over unreliable connection overwhelms Wargamin/Persha programmers.
So some clever guy decided that they'll start collect data in real time, during the battle. As they thought, they implemented.
As a side effect, it seems that there is also plane availability checked in real time. Looks like nothing wrong, right? Well, because of that, under some circumstances, player can leave the battle before end and enter another with the same plane.
Not sure if it is working as intended.
Of course it will be fixed, most probably by adding a flag that plane is in battle.
Which will result with another issue, when client and server will have that flag desynchronized, planes won't be returning from battles.
I've had a conversation with support in that case, another time support shown how incompetent they are - first they sent me to outdated sources, and after that they stated that official Wargaming wiki is not official, because is being made by players.
Mentioned issue, as many others, was not confirmed by Wargaming, because just not, denial after all works better in contacts with customers.
But apparently they tried to fix it.
From the user's perspective it looks like the main issue was connection between client and server, some things were lost - similar bug with leaving the queue in client, but not in server. Apparently creation of reliable communication protocol over unreliable connection overwhelms Wargamin/Persha programmers.
So some clever guy decided that they'll start collect data in real time, during the battle. As they thought, they implemented.
As a side effect, it seems that there is also plane availability checked in real time. Looks like nothing wrong, right? Well, because of that, under some circumstances, player can leave the battle before end and enter another with the same plane.
Not sure if it is working as intended.
Of course it will be fixed, most probably by adding a flag that plane is in battle.
Which will result with another issue, when client and server will have that flag desynchronized, planes won't be returning from battles.
Japan HF and US bombers marathon (part 2)
Ki-45 missions were quite easy, lazy option was to skip Predator achievement for 4 tokens, still 9 is less than 18.
Ki-45 has an option to mount 2x 250kg bombs - their stats are same as multirole' J7Wx bombs, but bombs are apparently different and require separate development. Just like Pe-2 M-82 engines (same as in La-5, but different).
Another set of reasonable missions are for tier V B-17D:
1) 200 cap in won battle -- whole 5 frags in cap circles
2) 8 GT in one battle -- higher tier battles may be better, as there are more GTs and it's less likely
3) 2 aerial targets with turret fire in one battle -- same as for Ki-45 - SE 100 with 20mm rear gunner at tier V is a beast
4) 30 AA guns
5) 50 GT' sections in one battle
6) Expert pilot (top 3 in 2 won battles in a row)
7) 7k personal points in one battle
8) Cap 20 sectors
9) 5 AA guns in one battle
10) Cap 2 sectors in a single sortie
11) 150 cap points for GTs
12) 1500 cap points
With a bit of luck in mission 6, it all can be done without skipping any mission for tokens.
Missions for tier VI and VII planes seem like a plain token or time grab.
Ki-45 has an option to mount 2x 250kg bombs - their stats are same as multirole' J7Wx bombs, but bombs are apparently different and require separate development. Just like Pe-2 M-82 engines (same as in La-5, but different).
Another set of reasonable missions are for tier V B-17D:
1) 200 cap in won battle -- whole 5 frags in cap circles
2) 8 GT in one battle -- higher tier battles may be better, as there are more GTs and it's less likely
3) 2 aerial targets with turret fire in one battle -- same as for Ki-45 - SE 100 with 20mm rear gunner at tier V is a beast
4) 30 AA guns
5) 50 GT' sections in one battle
6) Expert pilot (top 3 in 2 won battles in a row)
7) 7k personal points in one battle
8) Cap 20 sectors
9) 5 AA guns in one battle
10) Cap 2 sectors in a single sortie
11) 150 cap points for GTs
12) 1500 cap points
With a bit of luck in mission 6, it all can be done without skipping any mission for tokens.
Missions for tier VI and VII planes seem like a plain token or time grab.
Friday, November 9, 2018
Anniversary and planes missions
WG 5th birthday, there are 4 quite easy missions for a plane - not much to write about, except that releasing mission for premium day at Friday evening sucks - Armored Warfare with premium tokens that you can activate as you want is much better in this case.
One way is to delay premium day mission by not destroying any ground targets.
Things like MM actively making the mission harder, like constant being bottom tier are as usual - fucking "karma" - retarded idea that everybody once in a time has to be on autowin side.
XP-36F is MEH, average. 2 cannons sound nice at tier IV, but it's hard to notice when they work. Good side is painting with +20% crew exp bonus.
There are also missions for medium tier Japan heavy fighters and US bombers.
Are they worth - tier V quite, higher - only if you care about paintings and a bit of additional exp for crew, you can't wait a month and grind them in normal way, have tokns to spare etc.
Single hangar slot costs 18 tokens. Operation order costs 5, extending it for another 24 hours - 3 - even skipping 2 out of 12 missions for 4 tokens each will make it cheaper than buying a hangar slot during ordinary grind.
Missions for Ki-45 are:
1) 7 aerial targets in a battle
2) 200 cap points - in case of fighters cap points for defense aren't shown in battle
3) Cap 2 sectors in single sortie
4) 2k cap points
5) 7k personal points in single battle
6) 2 targets with turret fire in single battle - while avoiding GTs, which rules out high tier GAA, SE 100 seems to be the choice
7) 5 air defense aircrafts in single battle
8) cap 20 sectors
9) 5 enemy aircrafts in single battle
10) Predator (10 assists)
11) 7k personal points in single battle and win
12) 60 frags
All seem to be doable, even within 24 hours, especially during weekned.
One way is to delay premium day mission by not destroying any ground targets.
Things like MM actively making the mission harder, like constant being bottom tier are as usual - fucking "karma" - retarded idea that everybody once in a time has to be on autowin side.
XP-36F is MEH, average. 2 cannons sound nice at tier IV, but it's hard to notice when they work. Good side is painting with +20% crew exp bonus.
There are also missions for medium tier Japan heavy fighters and US bombers.
Are they worth - tier V quite, higher - only if you care about paintings and a bit of additional exp for crew, you can't wait a month and grind them in normal way, have tokns to spare etc.
Single hangar slot costs 18 tokens. Operation order costs 5, extending it for another 24 hours - 3 - even skipping 2 out of 12 missions for 4 tokens each will make it cheaper than buying a hangar slot during ordinary grind.
Missions for Ki-45 are:
1) 7 aerial targets in a battle
2) 200 cap points - in case of fighters cap points for defense aren't shown in battle
3) Cap 2 sectors in single sortie
4) 2k cap points
5) 7k personal points in single battle
6) 2 targets with turret fire in single battle - while avoiding GTs, which rules out high tier GAA, SE 100 seems to be the choice
7) 5 air defense aircrafts in single battle
8) cap 20 sectors
9) 5 enemy aircrafts in single battle
10) Predator (10 assists)
11) 7k personal points in single battle and win
12) 60 frags
All seem to be doable, even within 24 hours, especially during weekned.
Thursday, November 8, 2018
2.0.8
2.0.8 was released today.
There are release notes, but apparently as usual there are hidden changes that WG doesn't want to publish as well.
Since I've got a mission for US and USSR planes, I took P-80 for a spin. .50s seem to be nerfed to the ground - accuracy spread seems to be increased to tremendous values, and despite packing 6 barrels in the nose making a death ray, at the edge of range they inflict really minor damage.
Seems that giving a free(*) counter to Chinese JL - then one of best tier VIII planes money can buy - backfired, and another such plane was given for free, causing even more damage to game balance.
For comparison I took P-51H and F-86 for a spin -- they deal damage a bit better, but still not so effective as in 2.0.7, so .50 seem to be nerfed in general, and P-80' accuracy a bit more.
P-51D with
Other noticed changes:
* camera in hangar - since there are to appear big strategic US bombers, it can be zoomed out more than previously. Sad that it isn't saved between battles, and apparently it's somehow set to default relatively to plane. Maybe in case of bomber it works, but in case of fighter it's placed too close to the plane as for my taste. Would be much better to set up an angle and a distance from plane instead of absolute position.
* filters in hangar - they finally work, a big plus;
* annoying second clicks in battle - seems like it happens after respawn, so cause may be similar to guns sound;
* bug that sound of firing .50 is heard without pressing trigger;
Other still not fixed issues:
* Vanishing equipment in right hand side panel and in service view after leaving a battle;
* Still in some cases there is no scrollbar for emblems window in paint view;
* I'm not sure if all emblems are being shown for all planes - especially national flags;
* Still applying paint schemes doesn't change state of 'Apply' button in paint view, change of emblem enables the button;
(*) free as a reward in marathon.
There are release notes, but apparently as usual there are hidden changes that WG doesn't want to publish as well.
Since I've got a mission for US and USSR planes, I took P-80 for a spin. .50s seem to be nerfed to the ground - accuracy spread seems to be increased to tremendous values, and despite packing 6 barrels in the nose making a death ray, at the edge of range they inflict really minor damage.
Seems that giving a free(*) counter to Chinese JL - then one of best tier VIII planes money can buy - backfired, and another such plane was given for free, causing even more damage to game balance.
For comparison I took P-51H and F-86 for a spin -- they deal damage a bit better, but still not so effective as in 2.0.7, so .50 seem to be nerfed in general, and P-80' accuracy a bit more.
P-51D with
Other noticed changes:
* camera in hangar - since there are to appear big strategic US bombers, it can be zoomed out more than previously. Sad that it isn't saved between battles, and apparently it's somehow set to default relatively to plane. Maybe in case of bomber it works, but in case of fighter it's placed too close to the plane as for my taste. Would be much better to set up an angle and a distance from plane instead of absolute position.
* filters in hangar - they finally work, a big plus;
* annoying second clicks in battle - seems like it happens after respawn, so cause may be similar to guns sound;
* bug that sound of firing .50 is heard without pressing trigger;
Other still not fixed issues:
* Vanishing equipment in right hand side panel and in service view after leaving a battle;
* Still in some cases there is no scrollbar for emblems window in paint view;
* I'm not sure if all emblems are being shown for all planes - especially national flags;
* Still applying paint schemes doesn't change state of 'Apply' button in paint view, change of emblem enables the button;
(*) free as a reward in marathon.
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