Russian-Exclusive Contents of Patch 12.8

[Project45_Opytny]

For some previous discussions on, or related with the same topic:

Update 12.8 has been online for Mir Korabli (or WoWS RU) players and concerning enthusiasts from China has recently fully translated the RU update notes.

Once again, besides the already existing price tag differences, MK players have received much more and arguably better contents for their 8th anniversary.

As many of you may have already known, MK's anniversary celebrations is combined with an Atomic Heart collaboration event (or in other words, the entire steamwave-themed with Back to the Future homage event is developed as a Global servers' substitution for the AH collab). A new collection is dedicated to this unprecedented dual event, describing a story setting in that retro-futuristic universe about a setback in a grand international cooperation mega-space-engineering project (how irony considering all the related real life events). An event commander named GM-22D is awarded in the event progress, and Delny's themed permacamouflage is the final reward for the collection.

Event tokens, named "Progress tokens", can be earned with the event or purchased with doubloons as usual, with rewards (but placed in random bundle chains again) like Premium VIII ship container, themed permacamo for Preussen, and others.

Scarlet Thunder takes the place of Karl XIV Johan (that is arguably worse judging from ingenuity), with the same AH-themed "Ekranoplan" (currently I have no idea about its proper name) permacamouflage rather than the ones inspired by the DeLorean DMC time machine. Can be got from a random doubloon bundle chain with her commander Anton Grant (British). Also, the final prize of Premium battle pass is event tokens and event commander Mikhail Orlov.

(Though personally speaking, neither German-built battlecruisers nor a British battlecruiser fits the respective theme well. Benson, for example, in my opinion fits better for the impressions of the DeLorean time machine on me, at least she is rather fast.)

In addition, Scarlet Thunder sits between examples like Hampshire/Brisbane (while WG staff have created fancy imaginary background stories, they are largely still reasonable in their own rights) and all those Myth/Legend stuff for Pan-Asia (clones without any real life basis). In terms of modelling she is a logical "what-if" version of G3 battlecruiser, yet her name is set completely "in-universe" and judging from already published screenshots, like the Pan-Asian clones, Scarlet Thunder uses the fictional, in universe flag rather than the Union Jack for her stats background.

All the three event commanders come with special voiceover AND Animated portraits that was tested first on rubber ducks and then on a Soviet comedian trio ("the fool, the coward and the pro", from Kidnapping Caucasian Style, 1967) weeks before.

It has been mentioned that Dupleix is also among the RU anniversary prizes though I cannot understand the vague wording.

 

Besides the anniversary event, Soviet Submarine Early Access event is held at the same time. Marathon event, themed permacamouflage, etc. It is said that Soviet submarines are build as specialized hunter-killer-esque boats with hull parameters resembling Gato (very fast surface speed: Tier X K-1 can make 37-kts, drawing humorous comments like "Being Hunted by the Red October" and as such, but sluggish underwater).

A marathon for Schill (with different parameters) starts, that by completing missions and collecting "blueprints" one can get Schill for free in December, or at least get large discounts for her.

Sa Zhenbing and Allied Heroes (gives 6 themed commanders of Soviet Union/Great Britain/Commonwealth-Canada/France/Pan-Europe-Poland/United States paying homage to real history heroes of Allied fleets operating in the Atlantic) collection containers will be available for coal.

All the proposed balance changes (buffes) to Kreml, C. Colombo, Vittorio Veneto, Nebraska, California, Hayate, Belfast 1943, Henri IV and Alvaro de Bazan will be implemented.

5 Epochs of the Navy campaign is reworked, that altered all missions that require specific individual ships. Now all missions are restricted in Nationality and tier spreads only (though this will lead to funny instances like using Jaeger, Vermont and Schlieffen to grind Stage V WWII and the last traditional ships before the missile era epoch, pehaps).

 

Once again the ongoing drama, renewed with today's comparison between respective Anniversary events of RU and Global, reminds me again of the two bleak years Chinese players endured between early 2018 (French battleships) and mid-2020 when renewed agreement came into effect.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

Is this really healthy? Are people going to spend the rest of WOWS's existence screaming because they want the Russian stuff?

Mir Korabley is like WOWS's identical twin that was forced into exile and is now making different life choices. Let it go.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Ensign Cthulhu

[EXEC_HYMNE_Ar_tonelico]

4 minutes ago, Project45_Opytny said:

Once again the ongoing drama, renewed with today's comparison between respective Anniversary events of RU and Global,

The two entities of the same game are at this point different and comparing one to the other due to differing agendas does not make sense.

If you feel the other version of WOWS offers you better deals it might be a good idea to change to that game.

[Project45_Opytny]

27 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Mir Korabley is like WOWS's identical twin that was forced into exile and is now making different life choices. Let it go.

Another problem is that, at least a part of the Chinese players are questioning WG's capability of developing the game, from examples like the two infamous 1943s (that are not mentioned in RU dev blogs) and why, despite the dismal outcome of Concealed Maneuvers Stage 2, immediately announced Yorktown and Essex (as their models are readily available). That provokes unpleasant memories about Wang Leilei and the great delay on CN server from 2018 to 2020.

Japanese battlecuisers and Soviet submarines will be "exhausted" as available unpublished contents by spring 2024 and perhaps what WG Belgrade will pull out will indicate how the Global servers would fare in a clearer way.

26 minutes ago, EXEC_HYMNE_Ar_tonelico said:

If you feel the other version of WOWS offers you better deals it might be a good idea to change to that game.

That isn't entirely impossible though it seems that I would have to work on my rig a bit, dump something to free up enough space for another essentially WoWS client. And premium contents are also cheaper there.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Project45_Opytny

[Wolfswetpaws]

44 minutes ago, Project45_Opytny said:

For some previous discussions on, or related with the same topic:

Update 12.8 has been online for Mir Korabli (or WoWS RU) players and concerning enthusiasts from China has recently fully translated the RU update notes.

Once again, besides the already existing price tag differences, MK players have received much more and arguably better contents for their 8th anniversary.

As many of you may have already known, MK's anniversary celebrations is combined with an Atomic Heart collaboration event (or in other words, the entire steamwave-themed with Back to the Future homage event is developed as a Global servers' substitution for the AH collab). A new collection is dedicated to this unprecedented dual event, describing a story setting in that retro-futuristic universe about a setback in a grand international cooperation mega-space-engineering project (how irony considering all the related real life events). An event commander named GM-22D is awarded in the event progress, and Delny's themed permacamouflage is the final reward for the collection.

Event tokens, named "Progress tokens", can be earned with the event or purchased with doubloons as usual, with rewards (but placed in random bundle chains again) like Premium VIII ship container, themed permacamo for Preussen, and others.

Scarlet Thunder takes the place of Karl XIV Johan (that is arguably worse judging from ingenuity), with the same AH-themed "Ekranoplan" (currently I have no idea about its proper name) permacamouflage rather than the ones inspired by the DeLorean DMC time machine. Can be got from a random doubloon bundle chain with her commander Anton Grant (British). Also, the final prize of Premium battle pass is event tokens and event commander Mikhail Orlov.

(Though personally speaking, neither German-built battlecruisers nor a British battlecruiser fits the respective theme well. Benson, for example, in my opinion fits better for the impressions of the DeLorean time machine on me, at least she is rather fast.)

In addition, Scarlet Thunder sits between examples like Hampshire/Brisbane (while WG staff have created fancy imaginary background stories, they are largely still reasonable in their own rights) and all those Myth/Legend stuff for Pan-Asia (clones without any real life basis). In terms of modelling she is a logical "what-if" version of G3 battlecruiser, yet her name is set completely "in-universe" and judging from already published screenshots, like the Pan-Asian clones, Scarlet Thunder uses the fictional, in universe flag rather than the Union Jack for her stats background.

All the three event commanders come with special voiceover AND Animated portraits that was tested first on rubber ducks and then on a Soviet comedian trio ("the fool, the coward and the pro", from Kidnapping Caucasian Style, 1967) weeks before.

It has been mentioned that Dupleix is also among the RU anniversary prizes though I cannot understand the vague wording.

 

Besides the anniversary event, Soviet Submarine Early Access event is held at the same time. Marathon event, themed permacamouflage, etc. It is said that Soviet submarines are build as specialized hunter-killer-esque boats with hull parameters resembling Gato (very fast surface speed: Tier X K-1 can make 37-kts, drawing humorous comments like "Being Hunted by the Red October" and as such, but sluggish underwater).

A marathon for Schill (with different parameters) starts, that by completing missions and collecting "blueprints" one can get Schill for free in December, or at least get large discounts for her.

Sa Zhenbing and Allied Heroes (gives 6 themed commanders of Soviet Union/Great Britain/Commonwealth-Canada/France/Pan-Europe-Poland/United States paying homage to real history heroes of Allied fleets operating in the Atlantic) collection containers will be available for coal.

All the proposed balance changes (buffes) to Kreml, C. Colombo, Vittorio Veneto, Nebraska, California, Hayate, Belfast 1943, Henri IV and Alvaro de Bazan will be implemented.

5 Epochs of the Navy campaign is reworked, that altered all missions that require specific individual ships. Now all missions are restricted in Nationality and tier spreads only (though this will lead to funny instances like using Jaeger, Vermont and Schlieffen to grind Stage V WWII and the last traditional ships before the missile era epoch, pehaps).

 

Once again the ongoing drama, renewed with today's comparison between respective Anniversary events of RU and Global, reminds me again of the two bleak years Chinese players endured between early 2018 (French battleships) and mid-2020 when renewed agreement came into effect.

I don't feel it's worth losing sleep over.
While nice to keep up with the news and useful for entertaining comparisons, we players do not have control over what the companies do.
What we control is whether or not we play and how much or how little to open our wallets.

[Dareios]

40 minutes ago, Project45_Opytny said:

and why, despite the dismal outcome of Concealed Maneuvers Stage 2

what official response leads you to say the outcome was dismal?

[Project45_Opytny]

2 minutes ago, Dareios said:

what official response leads you to say the outcome was dismal?

The stated goal is to test how new mechanics intended for future support CVs will interact with established T9~10 ships and meta.

Yet there are many battles fought just without CVs or with currently available CVs rather than the two test ships, even comparing with Stage 1 with T7~8 ships.

Will you call that a success?

[Dareios]

yes.

you need control data.

you need to analyse the match differences between 'new' CVs, 'old' CVs and no CVs.

Edited September 13, 2023 by Dareios

[Aragathor]

Ignoring what happens on RU is just permitting WG to become even more lazy and greedy.

With 12.8 out we started to see how short changed EU/NA/Asia is becoming compared to RU. Hell even the BP gives out more now on RU, for the same price.

[Admiral_Karasu]

4 minutes ago, Aragathor said:

Ignoring what happens on RU is just permitting WG to become even more lazy and greedy.

With 12.8 out we started to see how short changed EU/NA/Asia is becoming compared to RU. Hell even the BP gives out more now on RU, for the same price.

It's like they have competition, but don't have competition.

[Aragathor]

3 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

It's like they have competition, but don't have competition.

 

Monopoly in action.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

15 minutes ago, Aragathor said:

Ignoring what happens on RU is just permitting WG to become even more lazy and greedy.

With 12.8 out we started to see how short changed EU/NA/Asia is becoming compared to RU. Hell even the BP gives out more now on RU, for the same price.

Go play Mir Korabley then, and stop complaining about WOWS.

[ZeuSueZ1337]

I'm just glad that the EU-serveres aren't flodded with ex-CIS players whom only master cyrilic, and throws a tantrum when kindly asked to use English/French/German/etc. since the majority of the EU-playerpool don't read/write Klingon.

I'll let myself out....

 

[Nevermore135]

I’ve seen it posted elsewhere that the MK (former WoWs RU) server population is in a very unhealthy state. If that is indeed the case, it would make sense that MK would be much more generous with rewards and reactive to perceived player concerns (the recent QoL buffs). The devs are likely shooting for a different target on the scale of profit vs. player engagement/satisfaction.

[Admiral_Karasu]

59 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

I don't feel it's worth losing sleep over.
While nice to keep up with the news and useful for entertaining comparisons, we players do not have control over what the companies do.
What we control is whether or not we play and how much or how little to open our wallets.

It's still interesting to keep tabs on the differences. Even though WoWS and MK (aka World of Ships or WoS) are two separate games, they aren't necessarily two different games if you understand the disctinction. If they keep developing these games into separate directions long enough, they will start to evolve, or devolve as it may be, into two distinct and different games, and then we can talk about there being three online warship games.

Whatever happens, we are 'stuck' with either playing our version or not playing it. Theoretically, we could also switch over but then we'd have to start from scratch, and I assume for most it would only be possible to do that on a completely F2P basis due to currency restrictions. Not that I'd feel any more tempted to sink real money into MK than into WoWS.

In terms of the psychological effect, if MK starts to look like the superior version, then this question will start to look really interesting, especially if WT starts to pay attention to the situation.

[HogHammer]

I would expect, for multiple reasons, that Wargaming and Lesta will be even more divergent in the future.  If you recall, as CC's and WG staff stated, development plans looked one to two years forward.  The split (I recall) took place at the end of March 2022.  So we are one and one-half years into that timeline. So those plans have pretty much run their course, and each entity is on its own in decisions and development.

Up until this time, we have seen some small differences, but reviewing the RU dev blog, it seems the differences are becoming more apparent, and perhaps for different reasons.

There is also the loss of RU players.  I can only comment on what I have heard/seen via 3rd party reports.  Some jumped to the EU servers or stayed with Lesta.  I'm sure that, too, plays into many of their current decisions to attract players and incentivize current players. 

Perhaps what I find most interesting is what happens in the future.  Wars/conflicts/disagreements don't last forever.  Could a Wargaming/Lesta rejoining effort be a possibility?  That, to me, would be very interesting.

In the meantime, I'm not going to worry about it.  I'll just play the game like I did yesterday - and the weeks and months before.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

For me, it's interesting to see the differences because there is the possibility of actual competition coming in the future.

WG always sneered at us when we talked about going to other games because they claimed there were no other games.

That appears to be no longer true (it never was true, but that's an entirely different topic).

WG no longer has a monopoly on information, no longer has a monopoly on gameplay, and can no longer claim that things we propose won't work...if those changes were made in MK and did work.

This is all very good news for us...and bad news for WG.

[Andrewbassg]

18 minutes ago, Dareios said:

yes.

you need control data.

you need to analyse the match differences between 'new' CVs, 'old' CVs and no CVs.

Undoubtedly. But Wedgie:

a) doesn't care

b) unwilling

c) ain't capable

d) all the above, combined

From their perspective, if the ships (and the mechanic) will be released in a bad and unbalanced state, it is entirely the players fault, who didn't played enough and  were unwilling to play the guinea pig role. they wash their hands.

 

Don't take this is as a joke. This was (and remains) quite literally their mentality.

Speaking of jokes: Sub cap comrades verify the state of the AA in your ports! 🙂 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_political_jokes (there is no separate URSS jokes wiki entry)

h ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_German_jokes 

Enjoy.

[pew_pew_magoo]

@Project45_Opytny  so you’re mad you didn’t get more free stuff?

[Project45_Opytny]

Just now, pew_pew_magoo said:

@Project45_Opytny  so you’re mad you didn’t get more free stuff?

More than that. If Wargaming (rump) turns out to be unable to produce new contents on a regular basis judging from the "announcement" of widely panned copy-pastes like Scharnhorst 43 (that are absent from RU devblogs)?

And you seriously think we do not deserve free stuff when comparing with RU players?

[Admiral_Karasu]

2 minutes ago, Project45_Opytny said:

More than that. If Wargaming (rump) turns out to be unable to produce new contents on a regular basis judging from the "announcement" of widely panned copy-pastes like Scharnhorst 43 (that are absent from RU devblogs)?

And you seriously think we do not deserve free stuff when comparing with RU players?

Free stuff is nice, but I believe the drinks they served on the Titanic when she was sinking were also free so...

[EXEC_HYMNE_Ar_tonelico]

I think you got my point wrong.

 

If you want to show WG how their ways are wrong your only possibility is 

 

to stop playing the game and to play what you agree is going the right way. You can of course continue playing and criticism sharing however as long as you keep playing even with closed wallets you keep the wheels rolling for 23 other players on your team. You enable the game to continue going on as it is and for every € you haven't spent out if the 23 others on your team probably 11 have spent. And their spending is reaching a conclusion because you enable the game for them to go on by playing.

 

That is the only way to prove WG wrong to have enough players to entirely stop playing.

 

Also a reminder that criticism towards WG in this forum does nothing as WG is not collecting it here.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

34 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

if MK starts to look like the superior version,

Why? Because some ships that some people wanted buffed got buffed in MK and they didn't here?

[Admiral_Karasu]

3 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Why? Because some ships that some people wanted buffed got buffed in MK and they didn't here?

I think it takes more divergence than that to make anything superior out of the mess the game is in.

 

10 minutes ago, EXEC_HYMNE_Ar_tonelico said:

Also a reminder that criticism towards WG in this forum does nothing as WG is not collecting it here.

So what else has not changed?

[Project45_Opytny]

12 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

Free stuff is nice, but I believe the drinks they served on the Titanic when she was sinking were also free so...

For me, it's like there are two steamers that are both malfunctioning amid open sea. Then as a complete layman regarding marine engineering/naval architecture, you will have to determine which one is more seaworthy and thus more likely to survive.

And for a number of Chinese players, they argue that while both ships are leaking, "Mir Korabli" has a working main powerplant that is safe from flooding, that would allow all sorts of damage control, repairing and navigation, while for the Cypriots, while their ship is also leaking they are also busy trying to bring their powerplant back into working order.

12 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Why? Because some ships that some people wanted buffed got buffed in MK and they didn't here?

A number of players from my country are not optimistic regarding WG Belgrade studio's production capacity, judging from their recent annunciation of brazen copy-pastes of Scharnhorst 43 and Stord 43, obviously aiming at trying to make some quick profits with the 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the North Cape, that together with USN support CVs are both completely absent from the RU devblog. Plus, the changes (that are all QoL improvements) are interpreted as regardless of the exact reasons, the original developers are kinder towards their audience and contrary to their ex-colleagues in Belgrade/Prague/Nicosia, actually play the game and is aware of what things are wrong.