WoWS 6th Anniversary on Steam - Steam-chan, Weegee's Wish.com Mermaid's Wrath?

[Chobittsu]

So apparently over on the Steamy side of WoWS, it's the 6th anni and if you have an account over there, you can buy a $30 pack and it seems, depending on what region you're on, NA, JP or CN, you get a special Steam-chan captain.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2651670/World_of_Warships__Steamchan_Starter_Pack/

Now, while we here aren't as big and prolific as the WoWS forums of old, plenty enough folk around here know me for my work on Mermaid's Wrath, and while despite a delay in the next update due to another project I'm on which has a hard deadline and some very influential people it needs to impress, I certainly feel like it wouldn't hurt to stick my nose in here and review this new captain.
But what even is there to review? It's just your basic-bones 6-point captain.  Well, yea, but I can at least give my opinions, shaddap!
 

 

Left to right you've got American, Japanese, and Chinese captains.   Personally I think the American captain is the most dynamic in appearance, if you're gonna go gamer girl, you might as well full send it, y'know?

Each one comes with their own voice in the previously mentioned nationalities, and since I'm not fluent in Japanese or Chinese, I'll stick to the American voice for my review;

...it's Mermaid's Wrath.
Or at least as close as Weegee can make while being confined by corporate restrictions and the limitations of retaining parity with other captains (only having a few dialogue variations for each event trigger and such, and only one character in the voice pack).

While you have the normal voice clips we're used to like "Anti-aircraft guns are on normal alert!" and "Fighter deployed!", theres also for some reason what sounds to be a major reliance on pop-culture references and jokes.  Sinking a carrier can result in the line "Well excuuuuuse me, princess!" being used, which.... I don't see the correlation? Are carriers considered princesses of the ocean or something?   Anyway, we've also got "Ahhh! Fire everywhere! This is.... fine!",  "Stop right there criminal sub!" (kinda wish I'd thought of that one), "It's almost over for them, we have the high ground!", imitations of Halo's announcer with "First Blood!" and "Double kill!",  "Yup, that's a lotta damage!",   "Explosiooonnn!", which channels her inner Megumin,  "I used to be a commander like you, but then I took 28 torpedoes to the citadel", which is oddly specific.
And some REALLY oddly specific ones, like "Wew, finally time to relax and play some World of Warships!", which reminds me of that one famous Wayne's World scene.

Other lines like  "Go back to flight simulator, CV!"  feel like they're written purposely to poke fun at the community, which is fine and all, but when that makes up 33% of all the callouts you're going to hear for sinking a carrier, it's gonna get old over time.
And speaking of writing, editing, acting, etc...   the writing feels like it's watered down, like they had the opportunity, that they knew what they wanted, but were held back, either by themselves or by someone higher up the chain.   The editing is fine, but to a trained ear like mine, you can spot that these were processed and edited in two batches, with one set being crisper and a few decibels louder than the other, perhaps this was due to needing additional takes made, which brings me to the acting.   While the actress they selected clearly knows her craft, certain details stood out to me, such as the line for deactivating autopilot; "Now it's your tarn to take controls and carry",  either she misread the line or the typo wasn't noticed during editing, and shouldn't it be "take the controls"?
Overall while it's a pretty solid performance, I can't help but have the feeling that they were at the very least inspired by Mermaid's Wrath when developing this content.  That they saw it and said "Maybe we should do our own, seems pretty popular".   But they put it behind a pay-wall...  I mean, not to brag, but Mermaid's Wrath is, was, and always shall be free. So is worth it?  I certainly wouldn't pay, despite the other goodies the pack gives you, course with a lil tomfoolery and some clever file swapping, you can just make a mod of her voice pack and skirt around the requirements anyway, just like with every other client-side element of the game.
If you're not into mods, this is a fair alternative,   but the steam page for it saying "She's cute, she's funny..."  Well.... first one, I suppose, but the second one is debatable, since she was written by Weegee devs goin' "How do you do fellow gamers?"

But I'll stop rambling for now... I'll let everyone else decide if it's better or worse than Mermaid's Wrath, I'm just bringin' the topic up cause "Heeeyyyy, this seems familiar."

[Wolfswetpaws]

I remember there was a survey or poll regarding the clothing for each Commander.  (I voted.)

Thanks for keeping us in the loop of information @Chobittsu.  🙂 

Edited to add:
Six Years of World of Warships on Steam!

 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Wolfswetpaws

[Chobittsu]

Just now, Wolfswetpaws said:

 

Musta missed that poll.   I've been very busy and distracted with my new contractors and their projects.    The most loop-ness I think applies here is just a brief review of the content since it's in my field and similar to my own work.   I give it a solid 3.6 roentgen outta five, not great, not terrible. Though some will find the voice rather grating over time, cause it's the stereotype happy/hyper streamer girl style, like D.Va, y'know?

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 minute ago, Chobittsu said:

Musta missed that poll.   I've been very busy and distracted with my new contractors and their projects.    The most loop-ness I think applies here is just a brief review of the content since it's in my field and similar to my own work.   I give it a solid 3.6 roentgen outta five, not great, not terrible. Though some will find the voice rather grating over time, cause it's the stereotype happy/hyper streamer girl style, like D.Va, y'know?

It takes a lot to compete with Hololive's Watson Amelia.  🙂 

[Ensign Cthulhu]

2 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

It takes a lot to compete with Hololive's Watson Amelia.  🙂 

Between her, Matilda Kelly, Ashley Violet and Mermaid's Wrath, it's difficult to thread a path without at least inadvertently copying something someone's already done.

[Wolfswetpaws]

4 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Between her, Matilda Kelly, Ashley Violet and Mermaid's Wrath, it's difficult to thread a path without at least inadvertently copying something someone's already done.

"Bang, bang!"
"Yay, we're winning!  We're the best!"  🙂 

That said, Matilda Kelly can still say, "I smell profit!"  🙂 

[Chobittsu]

Just now, Wolfswetpaws said:

 

6 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

 

Given Mermaid's Wrath pre-dates them all...   this is where I put on my smug face

[Ensign Cthulhu]

2 minutes ago, Chobittsu said:

this is where I put on my smug face

And rightly so.

[Wolfswetpaws]

4 minutes ago, Chobittsu said:

Given Mermaid's Wrath pre-dates them all...   this is where I put on my smug face

I wonder if there is a recipe for "Smug Soup"?  🙂 

[Chobittsu]

3 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

 

Probably would use a lotta peppers~

While I'm happy that Weegee is finally taking the idea of female crew voices more seriously, it still feels like it lacks.... something.  Passion? Character? Pluck?   I dunno... it FEELS like it's made by a multimillion dollar corporation, y'know?
Gaaaahhhhh I wish I had the time and drive to once again bury Weegee's efforts with more quality waifus

[Wolfswetpaws]

16 minutes ago, Chobittsu said:

Probably would use a lotta peppers~

While I'm happy that Weegee is finally taking the idea of female crew voices more seriously, it still feels like it lacks.... something.  Passion? Character? Pluck?   I dunno... it FEELS like it's made by a multimillion dollar corporation, y'know?
Gaaaahhhhh I wish I had the time and drive to once again bury Weegee's efforts with more quality waifus

The "win/win" would've been for WG/WOWs to collaborate with @Chobittsu to create some exclusive Mermaid's Wrath content and have an event similar to Hololive, wherein some Mermaid's Wrath Commanders are created and sold for somewhere between 1,500 to 3,000 doubloons.
Preferably, at least one Commander being available for every nation, a la carte', so that players could pick & choose which ones they want and have some "all in one" bundles for a modest discount.

I know, you've stated that Mermaid's Wrath is free, and intend for your wonderful Ladies to not be available merely for a few doubloons. 
But, hear me out, please.  🙂 

The upside is that I imagine you'd be paid for the new content, *and*, WG/WOWs would be maintaining it as an existing part of the game perpetually.
Either they'd pay you for the maintenance (so that the Commanders aren't glitched by each new game update), or they'd be doing that in-house.
In both theoretical cases, players would get content that wouldn't be <bleep>ed-up with every new game update and you'd gain a business opportunity.

I admire your work with Mermaid's Wrath and various LittleWhiteMouse depictions and I enjoyed visiting your art site (on another internet site).
One of the reasons I avoid using Aslain's ModPack or ModStation is because they're "broken" each time a new patch comes out and everyone who uses these mods has to go through the hassle of updating the mods, again.
It's not as bad as a Captain's Skills re-work (for the player), but I imagine it is still a time-suck for the Mod Creators.
Having a fully-supported Commander who won't get "broken" with every update is an appealing prospect for me, because I collect both Commanders and Ships.

Those are my two doubloons.  🙂 

Edited November 21, 2023 by Wolfswetpaws

[Sailor_Moon]

4 hours ago, Chobittsu said:

Given Mermaid's Wrath pre-dates them all...   this is where I put on my smug face

You mean like THIIIIS? 

[Ensign Cthulhu]

11 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

Those are my two doubloons.

The difference between Mermaids' Wrath and the individual commanders like Ashley, Amelia and Matilda is that MW is a host of personalities each speaking a few particular lines, but with a single, unified script across the entire message set, whereas the others all have their own individual scripts.  Creating multiple commanders likely means drafting and recording voice lines for all of them, including finding and paying the talent, essentially reduplicating all of the work. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

12 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

The difference between Mermaids' Wrath and the individual commanders like Ashley, Amelia and Matilda is that MW is a host of personalities each speaking a few particular lines, but with a single, unified script across the entire message set, whereas the others all have their own individual scripts.  Creating multiple commanders likely means drafting and recording voice lines for all of them, including finding and paying the talent, essentially reduplicating all of the work. 

Fair points to make.  Thanks for bringing them up.  I admit I don't have a thorough understanding of all the technical details.  🙂 
(I'm reminded of O-ren Ishii's line, "You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?", from the movie Kill Bill Volume 1.)

That said, the appeal of collecting Commanders remains strong with me.

Edited November 21, 2023 by Wolfswetpaws

[Chobittsu]

7 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

 

6 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

 

Indeed, it does take a bit of effort, especially when you have to deal with the paperwork associated with such a company, while MW benefits from not needing pretty much any, aside from scripts and pay-stubs.   And with Mermaid's Wrath, there are plans to replace the unified stuff so that it's properly randomized, I just don't currently have the time to work on it due to my abilities being needed elsewhere for a much MUCH higher profile thing.   (career paths take priority over hobbies)