Two Things I Learned Today

[LittleWhiteMouse]

This will probably be the last topic I start, so I figured I go out doing what I love:  Sharing information about the game.  Here's two things I learned today:

Thing the First:

I am blind.  Not legally mind you, but my eyes do bother me, but that doesn't excuse the fact that today I learned there was a lead-time indicator for torpedoes.  Yeah, it's apparently been in the game forever.  Just like with shell flight estimation times, torpedoes will tell you how long it takes for the fish to reach X range.  Neat.  It would be fun to include for reviews of ships with painfully slow sea mines like Sims and Black or for hail-mary yeeting fish off ships like Asashio or Iwami.  It's easy to see yourself.

Thing the Second:

The 75% health protection against detonations is more effective than we were originally told.  Back in 2017 (and reconfirmed time and again while I was a CC), we were told that detonations can only occur once a ship has been reduced beneath 75% of its starting health.  This could include the attack that dropped you below that threshold, meaning that it was theoretically possible to be one-shot via detonation from full health if you were unfortunate enough to be smacked a single, high-damage attack (a high tier IJN torpedo versus a bottom tier battleship, a Royal Navy HE shell versus a destroyer, etc).  This apparently isn't the case and has been further clarified that you have to START with health below 75% before any attacks are greenlit to be able to set off a detonation.

So let's use an example to make this clear.  You're at full health.  You're going to be hit with three attacks that each hit your magazines (you unlucky bum).  The attacks will each take 20% of your health off per hit.

THE OLD EXPLANATION:

• The first hit reduces you from 100% to 80% health.  You're still over 75% so no detonation check is made.
• The second hit reduces you from 80% to 60% health.  You're now below 75% so a detonation check is made.
• The third hit reduces you from 60% health to 40% health.  You're still below 75%, so a second detonation check is made.

So under this explanation, you would expect to take two detonation rolls.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENS:

• The first hit reduces you from 100% to 80% health.  You're still over 75% so no detonation check is made.
• The second hit reduces you from 80% to 60% health.  You were over 75% health when the attack came in, so no detonation check is made.
• The third hit reduces you from 60% health to 40% health.  You started below 75% health when the attack came in, so a detonation check is made.

So instead of two rolls, you're only taking one.

What this means is that there should be no full-health detonations observed in game.  I spent a couple of hours this afternoon double checking this, huckin' Minotaur torpedoes into South Carolina bots.  I performed this test... lemme check ... 132 times, which isn't conclusive by any means; we're talking about a 1% to 2% chance per torpedo hit to cause a detonation.  At 132 times, I could still see RNGeebus saying "haha, no", so don't count it as definitive proof that this new explanation is correct.  If anyone has any anecdotes and/or replays demonstrating detonations from singular attacks when they were over 75% health, I'd love to see them.  But still, if this explanation is the accurate one then yeah, rest easy.  There's no chance of being detonated from over 75% health.

It's not like this is a new change, supposedly -- it's been in the game since the 75% thing was implemented and that goes back, what?  Six years?  It's just better sharing of information.

Now if only we could get the actual math formula for how critical hits were rolled.  Then we could put the whole Juliet Charlie phantom detonation rumour to rest.

Love you all.  Good luck in everything that you do.

Mouse signing out.

[Justin_Simpleton]

11 minutes ago, LittleWhiteMouse said:

  Just like with shell flight estimation times, torpedoes will tell you how long it takes for the fish to reach X range.

How does this information help?  Doesn't the lead indicator tell you everything you need to know?

[LittleWhiteMouse]

2 minutes ago, Justin_Simpleton said:

How does this information help?  Doesn't the lead indicator tell you everything you need to know?

Gameplay wise?  It doesn't really.  I'm sure there's some super-hyper-10,000 IQ case where some Chad Unicum finds a use for it.  For someone just learning about distance compression in World of Warships, it would be another datapoint to help them isolate the 5.22x compression ratio.

[Northern Nightowl]

On 10/30/2023 at 2:13 PM, Justin_Simpleton said:

How does this information help?  Doesn't the lead indicator tell you everything you need to know?

Oh, if you're somebody who's enjoying torpedo warfare, then it could be useful for you.

Use case 1: it may become a tool used when you stalk a prey, like a Scotsman going after a deer in the Highlands. If you have learned some classical reaction patterns of enemy players beforehand, so that you can e.g. estimate that a BB will take a particular course around an island when he gets to see your teammate approaching. Then, you may get a good timing for your fishes when you measure the distance in your aiming reticle. Additionally and dominantly, you can use the travel time information when using your fishes at the utmost range limits, especially against bow-in targets where the aiming predictor does not provide a good visual intercepting line on your torpedo range circle. You can learn to intuitively / mentally process something akin to an F-Pole or the launch success zone using the timing info.

Use case 2: smoke torping. You can estimate the value of launching torpedoes in a smoke by processing the amount of travel time needed to reach the location.

Use case 3: credit saving. When you're nearing the end of a battle, you can see whether your fishes can reach the target area in time before the battle ends. If they cannot, then you may save on your post battle replenishment costs.

Regards, Nightowl

...who is neither an owner of such high of an IQ nor a unicum.

[Admiral_Karasu]

On 11/19/2023 at 2:16 AM, Northern Nightowl said:

Oh, if you're somebody who's enjoying torpedo warfare, then it could be useful for you.

Use case 1: it may become a tool used when you stalk a prey, like a Scotsman going after a deer in the Highlands. If you have learned some classical reaction patterns of enemy players beforehand, so that you can e.g. estimate that a BB will take a particular course around an island when he gets to see your teammate approaching. Then, you may get a good timing for your fishes when you measure the distance in your aiming reticle. Additionally and dominantly, you can use the travel time information when using your fishes at the utmost range limits, especially against bow-in targets where the aiming predictor does not provide a good visual intercepting line on your torpedo range circle. You can learn to intuitively / mentally process something akin to an F-Pole or the launch success zone using the timing info.

Use case 2: smoke torping. You can estimate the value of launching torpedoes in a smoke by processing the amount of travel time needed to reach the location.

Use case 3: credit saving. When you're nearing the end of a battle, you can see whether your fishes can reach the target area in time before the battle ends. If they cannot, then you may save on your post battle replenishment costs.

Regards, Nightowl

...who is neither an owner of such high of an IQ nor a unicum.

Ah... I've just always trusted the force to do it for me. Sometimes I've known what I was doing, other times... not so much.