Redemption and temptation.

A shot from earlier today....

....and another, from a few hours later. I would seem that WarGaming is fulfilling the rest of the Humble Bundle terms surrounding the Murmansk offer. Frankly, I counted myself lucky to just get the ship, but I won't say no to receiving the rest of the package.

From a public relations perspective, I believe this is a very good move on WG's part, right before the "soft launch" into Open Beta. Based on some of the posts I have read on the main North American forums, "faith" has been restored to some after completing this transaction.

Currently being offered through the gift shop, the "limited" time Warspite deal will allow new and existing players to pick up this tier VI British Battleship and for some, being the highest tiered premium ship available for purchase (all indicators are pointing to the Warspite being carried forward through the Open Beta phase, despite the previous statements that it wouldn't be). However, I took a look at the ingame option, buying through the tech tree....

....for a mere 6500 Doubloons? So, the better deal for me, would be just pick up a package that would be inclusive of the 5000 Doubloons I already have banked/collected and make up the difference.

But, I won't and here's why. As tempting as it would be to acquire the only current premium British ship in the game, it's a battleship, a class I am not performing well in at this time. Also, it doesn't fit into my previously stated plan of using Destroyers, and a more serious look at Cruisers.

Even if I were to dismiss the first two reasons away, my final deciding factor was the comparison between the Warspite and my "earned" Arkansas. All I would be doing, for all intents and purposes, is buying a "somewhat" better ship than the one I just got for "free".

I will "stick to my guns" and hold out for a premium ship that fits in better with the direction I want to go in. Perhaps, I might get a deal with it too!

The first thirty battles, milestones and mistakes.

No sooner do I accomplish my first mini-goal of reaching level 7 since the last wipe, now I have arrived at level 8. So what do these little bonuses do for me from here on in? No real idea, perhaps I will have a closer look at those at a later date.

So far, not a very pretty picture, statistically speaking. Here is how my ships are measuring up, at this point....

Time to get my head more into the game, since there will be no more wipes to player statistics, anymore.

More bad news here, seems I forgotten some of the lessons I should have learned and retained by now. Then again, I could use the excuse of things being "still early yet"....but I won't.

Despite my best current efforts, coupled with my prior experience with American Battleships, I don't feel I am doing very well with the Arkansas. I am having difficulties adjusting to the slow speed, slow to maneuver, slow to aim and shells that take a long time to hit their targets, if they are still there when those same shells arrive. However, it was what I have seen a quite a few matches now, that has me a bit worried....

....the Arkansas seems to have become a "shell magnet". I can't even count the number of times, when I get spotted in a battle, just how short my life becomes. Sadly, from the "giving end" of things, I almost feel bad for being a part of the "beatdown party". Perhaps, it's just a phase that will pass, then again, I will continue to keep on eye on this and see if it becomes a short-term norm.

Just as it was during most of my Closed Beta experiments, the premium tier V Soviet Cruiser, Murmansk, is still a strong performer for me. The guns are still good, it can take quite a beating and the torpedoes can still pull off a few surprises. By and far, a wise move on my part to buy into the Humble Bundle package, that was offered just a while ago now.

With the good, comes the bad. My tier VII American Destroyer, Sims, has been a disappointment. Not so much the ship, but how I am not using it properly. A big part of the issue is, I am trying to use it like my tier V Soviet Destroyer, Gremyashchy, when I shouldn't. The two ships couldn't be anymore different from each other and I am not adjusting my playstyle to maximize the Sims' attributes, rather playing in a "generic destroyer mode". Something I need to work on. 

I'm sorry, you can't have that so soon.

....this was yesterday....

....and here is today, after the update. However, not only was the American tech tree affected, so was Japan....

Both the tier VII premium Cruisers Atlanta and the new Atago have been removed, in theory, to prevent brand new players coming into the Open Beta phases from purchasing either one (or even both).

Why? Well, I will look at this from both sides of the fence. From the one side, just as I did during my early Closed Beta days, some feel that players should "earn" the privilege of purchasing/using premium assets, especially at the higher levels/tiers. I somewhat agree with this, to a degree. Learning the game, from the first tier foreword, can be a valuable experience. Exposure to how the game works and getting a feel for the strengths and weaknesses of the ingame assets, the changing environment and playstyles as the journey of progression unfolds, are all possible tools that players can use to improve themselves and increase enjoyment from the game.

The darker side to this is the players, who have already experienced the upper tiers from a time before now, don't want the "new kids" jumping in and ruining their fun. Some stand by the firm belief that limiting players in this way will force them to become better, not be a hindrance in the "team" environment, an old chant that goes back to the early days of online gaming.  

On the flipside, some may not need to have the "long lesson" to learn all of this and may be among those few "natural talents" who will be good or better then their peers, right out of the gate. These select few could very well be the "team carriers" that will defy the notion that "learn to git gud" doesn't apply to everyone.

For me, I took my time and "earned" my pre-paid premium ships, by grinding out the equivalent tech tree counterpart. I did this to test myself, not set a standard to be followed or imposed on others.

On the same notion, it was a I choice I made for myself. Although WarGaming has their reasons to follow through with this action, it is somewhat sad to see that a little "freedom of choice" has been removed from the table, if even only temporally.

Perhaps, there is a bright side to all of this. Those very players who will be denied purchasing one or both of these higher tiered premium ships will take their time and grind up through the tiers.

Or, discover there are lower tiered options that can be still highly effective in battles https://na.wargaming.net/shop/wows/vehicles/


And when the Atlanta and/or Atago are returned to be bought, they will be just downright-deadly with them.

I wonder what a certain crowd will say then, defeat after defeat, from those very same players....

Charting my course.

Here is my plan of action, for whenever I have the time to play World of Warships. Firstly, I set a primary goal of re-achieving the same level that I left behind in 0.3.1, which was completed by the second day of my return. Time to consider my options and select the right benefits that come with reaching this first and subsequent levels.

Then, I took a hard, long look at what I wanted to get accomplished, at least in the short term. The four ships I was counting on being here, the Arkansas, the Gremyashchy, the Murmansk and the Sims were, indeed, carried over in the process. These will be my "four cornerstones" for the foundation of my Ships career.

Not just the ships are part of my plan, but also the Commanders as well. For some, using the banked-and-carried-over skillpoints to re-establish their proficiencies was fairly easy, others, will take some time to return them to a level similar to where they were at before, since they are starting out with nothing. So, for the first 100 battles, I will use nothing but these four premium ships and collect the credits and experience earned from each battle, win lose or draw.

As much as I want to repeat the grinding process and start again down the tech trees (not really), I have made the choice not to do so, at this time. Banking and building up, is the course of action I will take and after I pass the milestone "100 battle" mark, I will gauge myself on what to do next.

Coming back to the new beginning

Once again, I have returned for an indeterminate amount of time, so I will just dive into things like I wasn't gone in the first place. The update process went a little slower than usual, since I couldn't just download it direct and had to turn on the torrent function to complete the process. A little odd, buy oh well.

Ah yes, this was what I was hoping to see. Well, mostly. While I was gone, I was keeping an eye on the World of Warships forums and was reading all about the problems/issues surround the Humble Bundle Murmansk E3 package that was offered. Without going into too many details, I am just happy to see the ship appeared on my account, despite the other components being absent. Now, has the name always been on the rear quarters and I just never noticed?

I was also pleased to lay my eyes on the tier IV Closed Beta reward Arkansas-Beta. I did spend sometime experimenting with what this ship could have been like, before the update, by using the same tiered American Battleship Wyoming as a point of reference.

While Battleships aren't my strong suit or preferred playstyle, my Arkansas will be a valued addition to my fleet and just perhaps, I might even get "good" with it. I took a quick note of the "comparison" function, as seen in World of Warplanes, has made it's way into Ships. A nice touch and a handy tool.

The tech tress for some nations have experienced some changes as well. For Japan, the Kitakami at tier VIII is out, the Atago is now in. Changes for the tier I starter ships too. I wonder why the switch out?

For the US, only the Albany, at tier II is missing.

Mother Russia is looking about the same.

No changes for the only ship, representing the UK.

I will post more, once I get a few battles under my belt, getting a feel for some of the other changes I am expecting to have taken place.

Something in the wind.

Once again, it would seem I just came back, to say good-bye. Real life is taking up more of my time, with a major change about to take place very soon. So, what does that mean for me and World of Warships? Let's have a look at what is floating around....

Based on these sites https://thearmoredpatrol.wordpress.com/2015/06/19/could-world-of-warships-sink-its-esports-rivals/#more-2224  http://www.gamerhub.tv/articles/e3-2015-wargamingnet-presentation/2015/06/19/  http://www.thebuzzmedia.com/e3-2015-day-two/ talking about the strong possibility of the Open Beta phase coming at the end of June, I opened up my Ships client. Seems there was an update of some kind....

First, I will start with what I bought. Both the premium pre-order Destroyers, the tier V Gremyashchy and tier VII Sims will carry over to both Open Beta and Live. These pictures are a reminder of how they were in the latter days of Closed Beta.

Although I bought the tier V Cruiser, Murmansk ingame using tokens, I also acquired one through the Humble Bundle offer that was offered during the E3 events this year.

Source: http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/32639-e3-humble-bundle-murmansk-faq/ So, if this is true, my experiments with a certain Soviet Cruiser might just continue into the future.

The Wyoming will carry over as well, but I will have to restart all my progress on it, if I decide to repeat that process. This ship served me as a preview of the Closed Beta Test reward ship, as being seen on the WOWS 4.0 Common Test server....

The last bit of news I saw on picking this premium Battleship up was, a minimum of 49-50 battles, either Player vs Player and/or Player vs Environment (bot battles) or the total between the two.

I think I have those requirements covered, but that will either be confirmed or denied when I return, whenever that will be....

Say, you want in on the Closed Beta action?

As of right now, if a person wanted into World of Warships during the remaining Closed Beta period, there are at least three options I know of.

1. Look for those players who have the "inside track" and give out Invite Codes through their Twitch streams (yeah, I have better things to do than wait on a lottery system, thanks but moving on.......).

2. A interested party could go here http://worldofwarships.com/en/news/common/pre-order-bundles-cbt-access/ and spend some real world money to "buy their way in" ( I picked up two packages myself, but only after I was invited back from being a Beta Weekend Tester, so I wasd already in when I did this).

3. For a very limited time, a person could "buy into" Ships, from a different angle. During the E3 event, Humble Bundle is almost giving away access (stressing the word "almost") and here is how you could do it, if you are still interested.

Step 1, go here https://www.humblebundle.com/twitche3#t and create an account in the upper right hand corner (the onscreen instructions will walk you through this process). Once that is done, return to the linked page and click the green "Pay What You Want!" button. With the many amount options, pick one that best suits your budget (I selected the "Custom Amount" option and parted with $2.00). Follow the onscreen instructions to be sure the purchase was made properly and where the codes will be going to.

Step 2. Open the email account used to create the Humble Bundle account. Click through untill you find something like this....

Step 3. Click the link to go here and scroll down....

Step 4. Copy the Closed Beta Key and go here http://worldofwarships.com/?utm_source=global-nav&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=wgni click "Activate Invite Code" and paste that into the box given (logging into an existing WarGaming account or creating a new one will be required).

Step 5. Copy the Bonus Content code and go here https://na.wargaming.net/shop/bonus/ and paste that into the box.

If all 5 steps were followed not only would a person now have access to Ships, but they would also collect a tier V premium Soviet Cruiser, Murmansk and 1000 tokens/dubloons for when Open Beta starts! Read more about that here http://forum.worldofwarships.com/index.php?/topic/32639-e3-humble-bundle-murmansk-faq/

Well, there is one more option, for those who just flatout refuse to part with any money or wasting their time on handouts. I hear free access to Open Beta might be right around the corner. Then again, who really knows (or can say), for sure.

Arkansas vs Wyoming.

So, for those of you who might be interested on how the Closed Beta Test reward ship, USS Arkansas will measure up to her tech tree counterpart, USS Wyoming, take a look at the above and below pictures for that comparison.

If these numbers hold true to when Open Beta starts, the premium reward version will be very close to the fully upgraded grind version everyone else will have access to.

It will be the Arkansas.

Yours truly has returned, if only for a short while, before I have to head off again. However, I was greeted with a few private messages that pointed me towards the confirmed news of the Closed Beta Test reward ship http://worldofwarships.eu/en/news/common/cbt-rewards/

Starting this last April, I tried to unravel the mystery behind just what this ship was going to be, with this http://wowsquesnel.blogspot.ca/2015/04/deductions-part-1.html then http://wowsquesnel.blogspot.ca/2015/05/deductions-part-2.html onto http://wowsquesnel.blogspot.ca/2015/05/deductions-part-3.html and finally http://wowsquesnel.blogspot.ca/2015/05/so-about-that-closed-beta-test-ship.html

I tried to piece together the clues I could find, to determine just which ship it could possibly be. It turned out the answer had already been there for quite some time....

....and now, I feel a whole lot better knowing I was on the right track all along. I had this feeling, with the introduction of the American Battleship line, the Arkansas wasn't left out by mistake, but I couldn't be too sure if it would come as part of a second, future line or be the reward ship itself.

Now, the mystery has been solved, the details revealed to all.