Just Siming

Although I am mostly known as a World of Warplanes player, there is always something in that game to remind me of Ships.

Despite being poorly rendered, since it's meant to serve as a background element, every time I spot USS The Sullivans, I think about my time in World of Warships. Funny how this Fletcher class destroyer almost acts as a sign to come back over to the "wet side" of things.

USS Sims isn't a Fletcher class destroyer, but it is American and until I climb back up through the tiers, it will do....

Sea Trials with the Giulio Cesare

Despite a poor initial showing (mostly on my part) the previous day, I nabbed a decent victory with my recent purchase, the tier VI premium British Destroyer, HMS Gallant.

I believe the big reason for that success was all three of us Destroyers grouped up, on unspoken terms and covered each other as we baited the enemy ships around an island.

However, I still have a lot of more rust to shake off before I make any honest claims to being remotely proficient with this class of ship.

After that and a few more battles with my other premium ships in my port, it was time to get on with the main event, the first battle with the premium tier V Italian Battleship, Giulio Cesare....

A Boat Brought Me Back

Because I had been gone for so long, I was selected to collect a "welcome back" prize.

March 2016 was the last time I spent time in and wrote about World of Warships, the wonderful Bath Tub Battle for April Fool's Day. Then, like I have so many times before, I wandered off to other projects.

So, imagine my surprise when I received an email inviting me back, with a new premium tier V Italian Battleship as bait. Yeah, I clicked at the necessary buttons, links and reinstalled the client to make that happen. 

Then, to sweeten the deal, World of Warships launched the 0.7.0 Public Test Server. Of course, I downloaded the means to make that happen too, since I was a gluten to overload myself with this virtual naval experience.

Although I have put in quite a few hours on the PTS and many more on top of that in the current 0.6.15 version, I stumbled across something I was waiting for, ever since the first British ship, the Warspite made it's appearance so long ago....

The ports are empty, all the ships have sailed

This was the screen I was getting used to in War Thunder this past weekend....

....replaced with a business-as-usual user interface. In fact, this morning's update also invalidated all the replays with ships, but I have captured a few videos to remember this event.

However, I am holding out the hope this was some kind of test on Gaijin's part and sometime, perhaps even right around the corner, Naval Forces will be on a more certain horizon.

Until then, may you have favorable winds and calm seas.

...and what appears to be a pirate ship

In my eyes, Gaijin has a hit on their their hands. Sadly, it will be gone in a few days time. Despite this, while it is still active on the servers, I will take to the seas, unfurl the sails and rip the air with cannon fire!

In a way, I am reliving a certain fantasy from my youth. Like most kids, way back when, I had been exposed to the whole pirate thing, the ships and the legendary tales of grandiose adventures, both in books and movies.

However, it took a certain movie to click on my interest in mostly the ships....

In 1985, a motion picture that achieved cult status almost immediately, was released to theaters. It was called The Goonies. A band of youths go on a grand journey, thanks to a map, find a real pirate ship and get to claim some treasure from a pirate, known as One Eyed Willy, for their troubles. I must have watched that movie....more times than I could count.

I always imagined myself with that group, experiencing everything they did, my fantasy of being a Goonie too. Now, while there is time left, I can replace that old desire with being a virtual pirate myself.

I will miss this mode when it goes away. I find that rather odd, since I haven't really played anything that was set in this era before. Never touched sailing ship combat game, with any real interest, until now.

The gameplay is simple enough for a causual gamer to jump right into the action. The details and the environment are rendered nicely and capture the times and mood very well. A lot of thought and effort went into this, despite being touted as a April Fools event.

Sadly, Gaijin will let their idea of the Golden Age of Sails slip away very soon, much like One Eyed Willy, Willy's ship, the Inferno and the remains of his crew did, when their time was over too.

An interesting glitch makes for legendary results

In all honesty, I can't get enough of this April Fools mode from War Thunder. As much as I have played and enjoyed World of Warships, the potential Gaijin is showcasing has me believing that if they can perfect their interpretation of nautical warfare, they could very well have a real hit on their hands.

However, there are a few things that need to be ironed out first. During one of the battles I had tonight was seeing this bug....flying ships. I have seen the odd mention of this on the War Thunder forums, but witnessing it for myself was both funny and awe inspiring.

The fortunate part was it was only affecting the enemy team, all the blue guys were still floating in the water, where they belonged. However, it's not an everyday sight to see a old wooden warship just lift up out of the sea and take to the air. Sadly, I couldn't elevate my cannons to get any shots on them, as the rose to the heavens.

Seems the flying ships were too much for the server and the battle was brought to an abrupt end.

I do believe that War Thunder must be feeling confident about testing the Naval Forces component in this way, thinly disguised as ships from a golden, but bygone era. I suspect that rendered ships from the time period this game covers can't be too far off now, or even close to releasing Naval Forces, much in the same way as when Ground Forces was introduced.

Either way, I have a forum signature ready to go, showing off I was here, in the early days, when the third element to the War Thunder universe was shown off, wearing the thin veil of being a farce. 

Beware the bath toys

World of Warships has finally presented their take on April Fools Day events.

Their event is called Jacuzzi Mode and can only be used by ships like the one pictured above. In fact, all the ships are the same except of the coloring, which represent the current nation choices in the game.

While I wouldn't call it a Jacuzzi, it does appear to me to be more like a populated bathtub, without the bubbles, but ready for a child.

As you can tell, I haven't given up on my talent for dying. Despite the sparkly effects from both the friendly and enemy ship's cannons, the bots in Coop Mode felt a little stronger and smarter than usual, especially for being only in tier I boats. Here is a randomly picked battle from the few I played today https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4KvlBjhYDM

Between World of Warships and War Thunder http://wowsquesnel.blogspot.ca/2016/03/hoist-sails-stand-by-braces-and-ready.html I would have to pick the latter to be more entertaining with an unexpected twist, since the surprise factor of Gaijin not only pulling off a nautical mode, but the battles from the Age of Sails took me back a few years in my gaming life.

Jacuzzi Mode from WOWS felt like a redress from the rest of the game for me, with oversized inflatable obstacles replacing the usual islands. I understand the intended purpose from bathroom background scene, it just didn't have that effect on me.

It might sound biased and some others might enjoy the former more than the latter, but that is how I saw it from my perspective.