baldrick

wof
War of Fleets overhaul

7 posts in this topic

I think it's time to change the war of fleets system to better reflect what fleets actually try to do.

Fleets should be able to setup specific battles with options for min/max No of ships, max No of ships of each class and max ship level cap. For example:

players 4-7, DD up to 7, CL up to 7, CA up to 5, BB up to 2, CV up to 1, SS up to 2, Max ship level 70.

Challenging fleet should be able to further restrict rules to reflect their abilities. For the above example they may reduce players to 5 and ship level cap to 41 excluding all BBs, CVs, SSs and lvl 50 DDs. At that point leader/officer of first fleet should decide which players to drop from his fleet.

Option A: In order to keep some variety, putting up one of BB, CV, SS could also put lower limit of other high classes to 1 (not 0) or,

Option B: treat BB, CV and SS as a group with a common max No.

This way we may again see fleets put up for battle and waiting for battle instead of trying to pick and set a fight in global chat.

Before the fight starts (e.g. at 30sec countdown) every participating player (abandoning any other action at the time - see relative thread "wof countdown") should be taken to a war of fleets screen to pick their ship.

I would prefer the basic idea, without any of the options (A or B) but anything will be better than the current system.

Edited by baldrick
grammar/spell edit
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Perfect suggestion... searching for WoF is a mess atm.

Especially when you are playing the only active fleet in your timezone!

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Problem is that you may not be the only fleet in your timezone but you don't know it until you spam the global chat with wof requests.

Fleets are not active in war of fleets out of fear of a completely unbalanced battle, especially the weaker ones - the result is that wof rarely happens now while it should be central to the game.

a daily task or two for wof would also encourage some fleet action.

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What you are referring to is the unwritten wof protocols. Two" chiefs"will agree to terms as you specified before entering wof. The problem seems to be, finding an honorable opponent.

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Yes, that is the idea. To fix into rules the "unwritten wof protocols". That way no-one will be afraid of leaving the fleet active as any battle will happen within the chosen parameters. More wof - everybody wins.

Even more appropriate now with new players and teams joining the game in waves. A new fleet could be active for DD/CL up to lvl 8 battle for example.

 

 

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Building on the initial suggestion, perhaps each ship could be assigned a base numerical value, and said value modified for degree of vetting & # of upgrade slots filled. Thus a fully outfitted & vetted BB50 would be a much higher value than a brand new DD1. This way, rather than a somewhat laborious process of specifying level, quantity, etc. of each ship for every wof, Chiefs could simply choose a maximum acceptable total value for each fleet. In addition to simplifying setup, this would allow each fleet to decide its configuration independently—and therefore secretly—while still assuring fairness. So you’d know the opposition won’t exceed a certain total strength, but not the exact ships your fleet will encounter. This maintains an element of tactical strategy and gamesmanship that I feel is critical, yet allows controls to prevent ridiculously lopsided matches.

I realize the initial task of assigning fair & reasonable values to every ship, and determining appropriate modifiers for vetting & upgrades, would mean substantial work for developers. Also, no matter how carefully chosen, the assigned values would inevitably displease some players. A range of objections would surely ensue– from bullies complaining that their favorite super ship has too high a value for most wars to reasonable concerns about game balance; all requiring ongoing evaluation & refinement over multiple upgrades.

It'd certainly involve toil & trouble, but the end result could drastically improve the game’s most important multiplayer activity. With such a simple, fair, & understandable system, both existing and new players could get far more excited about & involved in War of Fleets. I’m quite certain that this would quickly translate into more players playing more often, hence justifying & rewarding the developer’s effort. Of course not everyone would be 100% satisfied, but it’d certainly inspire a LOT more overall excitement about Wars of Fleets (& fleet membership in general) for players of all levels.

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Yes, could be a solution and would even allow uneven numbers to even battles but...

a. Considering that this same problem applies to online battles balance and it isn't resolved there I don't expect it to be resolved in wof as well.

b. you said it:

15 minutes ago, Saint Deraj said:

Also, no matter how carefully chosen, the assigned values would inevitably displease some players. A range of objections would surely ensue– from bullies complaining that their favorite super ship has too high a value for most wars to reasonable concerns about game balance; all requiring ongoing evaluation & refinement over multiple upgrades.

Possible solutions:

a. Build a statistical tool to calculate the "strength value" of each ship based on performance in online battles, taking into consideration the crew xp and upgrades as you said.

b. close ears and sing "La la la" - this requires some commitment by the devs and usage of objective tools like suggestion a. above.

I find the b. issue more critical as it may drive some very active (and paying) players away.

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