13.3 Training Opportunities

[SureBridge]

Hi Folks

A few thoughts on training opportunities in 13.3. A lot of training occurs in training rooms. Unfortunately Training room battles don't level up ships and captains, so some though on how to get your new recruits XP and credits so that they can get better ships, and (eventually) be able to play competitively, whether that's Clan Battles, KotS or just high-tier randoms.

My thoughts on training are that you need to be able to do stupid things to see if they work (or not) and not have folks get upset at a loss (since more things DON'T work than those that do). Having folks angry about a string of 5 losses is an excellent way to lose your long-term players AND your new trainees. 

Training in co-op can be useful, but it's limited (it's hard to lose now that the bots are dumber) and the rewards are pretty minimal (although better than they were a year ago). Operations is a bit better, and can be an excellent tool for training focus fire, but because it is procedurally generated, this often devolves into "there will be a BB and cruiser spawning at A7/8 in 23 seconds, so lets get a torp ship there..."

Training in Randoms generally results in more "losing" games than "winning" games. This is why there are some truly scary folks out there who have (on paper) 42% win rates - they are the clan trainer, and they are training in Randoms. Other "clues" are people who have a lot of battles in T5-8 battles (with terrible win rates) and a dramatic difference in win rates at T9/10. Unfortunately Clan "training officers" tend to be the ones to burn out: let's be honest, it's a slog, and there isn't a lot of glory in it. It's also needed for this game we like playing to have a future, because without active training, new players aren't going to stick around and provide the "core" to attract more new players. 

One of the things that I have looked at is for each new update there are opportunities to do training on other modes that provide PvP interactions, but aren't going to slam the stats of the poor trainers (or recruits). These tend to be Brawls and whatever "playtest" mode WG is running. Some, like the Piniata thing, or the rubber ducks, are terrible for training because they aren't actually training for the "core" game. Others, like Brawls, are good for specific areas (like brawling) and others (like Grand Fleet - intro to superships) are Random Battles with "new stuff" added. These tend to be GREAT for training, because most folks don't really care what happens (and this causes frustration for some when their team throws for no reason). If you are going to train in these modes PLEASE kick out a message at the beginning to your team letting them know that Div X is a training div - that way they know that you are not the group to rely on for the carry!

Very interested in how other folks approach training and helping their newer players "level up" and Git Gud.

Here is my quick and dirty list of modes that I plan to be training in this update:

Training Battles: Planning to be in a training room every Tuesday to train AP and overpen, Damage saturation and vision control. There are a number of "training modules" that we have been developing, and these have (so far) proven to be effective at helping folks understand the mechanics and strategies (aka "use and abuse") of how these systems interact. We're trying this in the "NA Training Club" which is open to everyone on DevStrike, and will have published info once I actually get my act together 🙂 - link at the bottom of this post

Asymmetric Battles: This is an EXCELLENT training mode, especially now that it goes down to T6. Good for practicing focus fire and strategic capping / cap denial, because in the "domination" mode you NEED to take a cap and delay the other caps as long as possible, or you will lose on points. This is probably the best mode for teaching focus fire and defensive positioning because you are ALWAYS outnumbered. That said, because your ships are +2 tiers, you can get away with a bit of stupidity and survive. Strongly recommended for learning Radar tactics because at T8 you get Radar and your opponents don't. This may get a scheduled time or times if anyone wants to put together a div to practice, or you can shoot me a message.

9V9 Brawls at T10. I'l be hitting this a lot to practice Lushun, Nevsky and Russian cruisers for clan battles. I'm not good at these ships, and in a braw my div mates and I can try different strategies and see what works, and what "works on paper". I suspect that this is more likely to be clan-based training, because this is a venue best used for helping train small unit cohesion - and that isn't something that "casual" players tend to need.

Link to the NA Training Club: