Waterline Winter 2023 has been indefinitely postponed

[Project45_Opytny]

As the title implies.

News from WoWS CC UoCat, original post in Chinese language in Bilibili (a popular Chinese video-sharing website).

https://t.bilibili.com/866561814377267205

Spoiler

Original screenshots.

"I asked again whether the next Waterline video would be available before 2024. They (WG staff) replied that the originally planned Waterline video has been postponed indefinitely and there is no further information on future updates."

Edited November 22, 2023 by Project45_Opytny

[Aragathor]

Is anyone surprised that anything requiring actual work, is being delayed?

WoWS vacancies in Belgrade are where they were in April, not filled that is.

 

The only thing EU/NA/ASIA has is a sales team with bad monetization and the community mismanagement.

[Beleaf]

Unsurprising if true

Given that Wargaming lacks a full art department at this time, they likely don't have much to show off. All they can really do is asset swap current ship models, adjust in game mechanics and of course, sell stuff.

So I expect the first half of 2024 to be the Year of the Clones. Maybe we'll finally get a Commonwealth tech-tree. A bold prediction would be another Commander Rework. Not the good kind that tweaks under powered skills but rather the one that bends you over

[Project45_Opytny]

10 hours ago, Aragathor said:

Is anyone surprised that anything requiring actual work, is being delayed?

WoWS vacancies in Belgrade are where they were in April, not filled that is.

 

The only thing EU/NA/ASIA has is a sales team with bad monetization and the community mismanagement.

That is some sort of confirmation, that currently Sicilia is effectively what the best "Cypriots" may do currently while even animation for opening a container of new design is being omitted.

It's some sort of black humor that such a dire situation may in turn bring a (copy-paste stuffed) Commonwealth branch closer to implementation.

[NMA101]

4 hours ago, Beleaf said:

Given that Wargaming lacks a full art department at this time, they likely don't have much to show off. All they can really do is asset swap current ship models, adjust in game mechanics and of course, sell stuff.

So I expect the first half of 2024 to be the Year of the Clones. Maybe we'll finally get a Commonwealth tech-tree. 

In fact, the most likely (99% confirmed at this point) tech tree line being released next is US support CVs. Which are all re-using models from years ago. 

I highly doubt they are ready to add Russian Battlecruisers any time soon (which the Lesta/RU version will have probably around May 2024).

[Project45_Opytny]

2 minutes ago, NMA101 said:

In fact, the most likely (99% confirmed at this point) tech tree line being released next is US support CVs. Which are all re-using models from years ago. 

I highly doubt they are ready to add Russian Battlecruisers any time soon (which the Lesta/RU version will have probably around May 2024).

Judging from development cycles, that is likely the case, while Mir Korabli will have their version of Japanese alternative CVs.

Chinese players have been discussing about the impending disaster. One opinion is that, as WG currently seems to be even unable to render proper animation for opening new types of containers (Black Friday 2023 and Santa 2023), no faith at all regarding new developments should be put on them and we are likely to see various unimaginable practices driven by desperation: more copy-paste; rerun of previous dockyards, or worse, dockyard events with reused CGI animation rewarding largely copy-paste "new" ships (as dockyard events need CGI animation sequences from a ship's keel laying to her final fitting out); more "Salvage" events with various other rare ships as rewards; selling "early exclusive access" of steel/RB ships like the Brisbane (though personally speaking, the event itself alone isn't that bad) plus Lauria...

And there are also comments like judging from the different and with one obviously superior "War Paint"s of Michelangelo as well as event permacamoes of Petropavlovsk and Goulden Leeuw teased by Lesta, it is really interesting that what sort of commemorative permacamo for Kitakami (herself not that beautiful to begin with) will WG present as a gift to those who would like to claim that 2-year exclusivity, and as Global WoWS almost leaped right into the abyss after summer 2023, what on earth happened that caused "Global" WoWS to uproot itself by detaching its own development studio.

[Nevermore135]

The silver lining of this situation might be that WG is finally forced to slow down and stop releasing new tech tree lines every two months. At one time we were conditioned to expect four new lines per year, but lately the devs have been shoving out new (sometimes half-baked) tech tree lines back-to-back every two months.

I do think there are a lot of attractive “filler” options that the devs can utilize to hold most players over for a little while if truly new content is not immediately forthcoming. Re-running old dockyards a la Puerto Rico 2.0 is IMO actually a pretty good idea. Odin, Anchorage, and Hizen have been largely unavailable for 3+ years now, and while I don’t find any of them to be particularly compelling I won’t begrudge those interested another chance to obtain them. The recently buffed ZF-6 is also approaching 3 years since her original release (Spring 2021). There is also a lot of old event content (such as camos) that hasn’t been available in years that WG can re-release, especially considering so many current players weren’t around during the original runs.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

15 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

The silver lining of this situation might be that WG is finally forced to slow down and stop releasing new tech tree lines every two months.

Ah...but will they stop?

And what will that do to their revenue generation?

What makes us think that they have the resources to actually do the technical optimization and bug fixing that the game needs?

[Wolfswetpaws]

20 minutes ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

Ah...but will they stop?

And what will that do to their revenue generation?

What makes us think that they have the resources to actually do the technical optimization and bug fixing that the game needs?

I'm guessing that if they *really* need revenue, then the Enterprise, the Missouri and the Musashi will become available for cash.

And, as @Nevermore135 pointed out, there are a number of ships from the past that could be offered so that new players could have a chance to welcome the ships into their ports.

[AdmiralThunder]

It is what it is.

If this is related to their move out of Russia I am ok with it and will stick by them while they get new folks in and back up and running. Funny how people applauded them at the time for leaving Russia but are now all stressed and up and arms that the move caused some consequences.

As long as they find a way to at least give us events and such I am fine with it all.

Eventually things will get corrected and new ships and such will resume.

JMHO.

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by AdmiralThunder

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

5 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

I'm guessing that if they *really* need revenue, then the Enterprise, the Missouri and the Musashi will become available for cash.

Enterprise being sold again will definitely bring in some revenue.

[Gnirf]

Not that I think it would bring much if any revenue but I guess RU Subs might be coming, I thought they were reasonably ready but I might remember wrong.

[ReDiR20]

Waterline will probably be revealed soon I think. But I just want Russian subs, really sucks that they delayed them

[Wulf_Ace]

16 hours ago, Project45_Opytny said:

As the title implies.

News from WoWS CC UoCat, original post in Chinese language in Bilibili (a popular Chinese video-sharing website).

https://t.bilibili.com/866561814377267205

  Reveal hidden contents

Original screenshots.

"I asked again whether the next Waterline video would be available before 2024. They (WG staff) replied that the originally planned Waterline video has been postponed indefinitely and there is no further information on future updates."

Not true, I know what future brings us...

More BUNDLES

[meatgrindr]

6 hours ago, Nevermore135 said:

The silver lining of this situation might be that WG is finally forced to slow down and stop releasing new tech tree lines every two months. At one time we were conditioned to expect four new lines per year, but lately the devs have been shoving out new (sometimes half-baked) tech tree lines back-to-back every two months.

I do think there are a lot of attractive “filler” options that the devs can utilize to hold most players over for a little while if truly new content is not immediately forthcoming. Re-running old dockyards a la Puerto Rico 2.0 is IMO actually a pretty good idea. Odin, Anchorage, and Hizen have been largely unavailable for 3+ years now, and while I don’t find any of them to be particularly compelling I won’t begrudge those interested another chance to obtain them. The recently buffed ZF-6 is also approaching 3 years since her original release (Spring 2021). There is also a lot of old event content (such as camos) that hasn’t been available in years that WG can re-release, especially considering so many current players weren’t around during the original runs.

Some great ideas here.  I was already thinking of a dockyard event where the final reward is -your choice- of a previous DY ship you may have missed out on.  I think new and established players might enjoy this, plus easy on the depleted art department.

[AdmiralThunder]

4 minutes ago, meatgrindr said:

Some great ideas here.  I was already thinking of a dockyard event where the final reward is -your choice- of a previous DY ship you may have missed out on.  I think new and established players might enjoy this, plus easy on the depleted art department.

And do like they did with the 2nd PR one where if you have them all you get your choice of resources for finishing (Steel, RB pts, Coal)

[Aragathor]

8 hours ago, AdmiralThunder said:

If this is related to their move out of Russia I am ok with it and will stick by them while they get new folks in and back up and running. Funny how people applauded them at the time for leaving Russia but are now all stressed and up and arms that the move caused some consequences.

I wrote about it elsewhere on the board. No one expected them to bungle it so badly, that they would be out of a working team when the split finalized.

And it looks like they are dead set on Belgrade being the place where WoWS is developed, and as the vacancies show they have no takers for that spot.

 

PS: The split wasn't a bad decision at all. Lesta went full revanchist afterwards and is using the .su (Soviet Union) domain for the games.

[Leo_Apollo11]

HI all,

 

On 11/22/2023 at 6:55 AM, Aragathor said:

WoWS vacancies in Belgrade are where they were in April, not filled that is.

 

They still didn't fill up all those new workplaces?

Is there some official info on that?

 

Leo "Apollo11"

[Aragathor]

28 minutes ago, Leo_Apollo11 said:

HI all,

 

 

They still didn't fill up all those new workplaces?

Is there some official info on that?

 

Leo "Apollo11"

There is no official info, beyond the open postings on their corporat page (not a typo).

Some of them are quite high up and old, like Senior Game Designer (World of Warships, PC), Creative Director (World of Warships), Global Operations Coordinator (WoWS), Art Director (World of Warships Franchise).

With what they have listed, you could make a new game, as almost everything is covered.

 

And some of the postings, like that Creative Director, were posted last year in Summer (at least that's when I saw them). So it's not looking rosy for WoWS, no matter how much cope is being spread, because it looks like there is no one biting what WeGreedy is offering.

Edited November 23, 2023 by Aragathor

[Leo_Apollo11]

Hi all,

  

1 hour ago, Aragathor said:

There is no official info, beyond the open postings on their corporat page (not a typo).

Some of them are quite high up and old, like Senior Game Designer (World of Warships, PC), Creative Director (World of Warships), Global Operations Coordinator (WoWS), Art Director (World of Warships Franchise).

With what they have listed, you could make a new game, as almost everything is covered.

 

And some of the postings, like that Creative Director, were posted last year in Summer (at least that's when I saw them). So it's not looking rosy for WoWS, no matter how much cope is being spread, because it looks like there is no one biting what WeGreedy is offering.

I see... thanks!

BTW, I thought many would go for Serbia due to sanctions... obviously not the case...

 

Leo "Apollo11"

[Aragathor]

22 minutes ago, Leo_Apollo11 said:

BTW, I thought many would go for Serbia due to sanctions... obviously not the case...

I think this was the initial expectation at WG. That they would move locations to somewhere Russian friendly and keep the team.

Didn't pan out, now they have to assemble a new team at a subpar place. And EU citizens aren't going to to move to a corrupt non-EU country.

PS: We had some "totally not Russian" people in vids from Belgrade a year ago, that seemed to disappear completely.

[tfcas119]

Seeing how I'm pretty sure WG had events/ship releases planned out almost a year in advance, and they split from Lesta last summer, Michaelangelo, FF, and Spanish cruisers may well of been the last projects WG and Lesta were working on together, and after that they began to really separate (look at Belfast'43, Hayate, Cali, and the balance sweep on RU's 12.10.) Plus looking at the effort Michaelangelo's RU War Paint is compared to WG's may be a sign WG lost the Art Department, their best department.

Even RU's new ships have been different. Pan-Am Kansas with superheal, Kearsarge with Vlad guns and Nakhimov skip bombers, and a Montana/NOLA/Smolensk mutant demon. 

I suspect WG may have to really try to BS some things together (copy pasta premiums and tech trees, low effort game modes/events) for the foreseeable future.

[Beleaf]

28 minutes ago, tfcas119 said:

I suspect WG may have to really try to BS some things together (copy pasta premiums and tech trees, low effort game modes/events) for the foreseeable future.

Everyone thinks that they can do better than Wargaming but they have safe options

- Bring back old EA bundles in the Armory:

They have done this before with Pan-European Destroyers and British CAs.

- Mission chain for a copy pasta premium:

Wargaming during Golden Week could easily knock it out of the ball park with a copy pasta Akizuki, lets say Suzutsuki. Just include the lacquer camo and you are good to go

- Dockyard reruns:

Schroder, ZF2 ( especially after her buff ) and Anchorage

- Salvage for Victory:

Boring but effective

- Tier IX Operations & Rogue Wave:

This time actually allow players a second shot at unlocking Benham

 

Edited November 23, 2023 by Beleaf

[Aragathor]

11 minutes ago, Beleaf said:

Everyone thinks that they can do better than Wargaming but they have safe options

- Bring back old EA bundles in the Armory:

They have done this before with Pan-European Destroyers and British CAs.

- Mission chain for a copy pasta premium:

Wargaming during Golden Week could easily knock it out of the ball park with a copy pasta Akizuki, lets say Suzutsuki. Just include the lacquer camo and you are good to go

- Dockyard reruns:

Schroder, ZF2 ( especially after her buff ) and Anchorage

- Salvage for Victory:

Boring but effective

- Tier IX Operations & Rogue Wave:

This time actually allow players a second shot at unlocking Benham

 

Well, WG can do more than that. Besides just doing reruns of dockyards.

They could modify and update a campaign and run it instead. For the Bismarck campaign that could be a solid month or two of events.
Do a themed update for the Dunkirk evacuation.

They can also do some events for early access stuff, like Iron Cross camos.

[a252]

So far I can recall that WG already have plan for following lines:

Support CV for Japan and USA

Russian Sub

Maybe some Japanese sub contents leftover from Lesta that can help WG to create their own techtree line, and as others have already mentioned, sufficient copy-pasta commonwealth Cruiser/DD, maybe a pan-european and dutch sub line before WG's own team produce their own work.

A lazy expectation, more auction on removed ships, maybe a few more savage events, another rerun on previous events?

 

BTW: WG is being worse on proof-reading their mission chain these days, this time they have forgotten to put asymmetric into acceptable mode in "voyage in north pole" chain and Cherbourg perma-camo chain.

Edited November 23, 2023 by a252