Some Odd People Play This Game

[Guest]

So, you drop down to tier 1, just for fun once in a while and there they are. Those strange denizens and their odd clan who do nothing but play the same ship in Tier 1 game after game, day after day, month after month, thousands of games in the same tier 1 ship. They division up, 2 or 3 men, always win because they can't lose and brag in chat that they are "#1 in NA". Well, after that many games I should hope so. What motivates some people to do the exact same thing in the exact same way over and over and over. There's no challenge, it's always the same 2 maps. It just strikes me as very odd. 

[Frostbow]

10 minutes ago, Kalishnikat said:

So, you drop down to tier 1, just for fun once in a while and there they are. Those strange denizens and their odd clan who do nothing but play the same ship in Tier 1 game after game, day after day, month after month, thousands of games in the same tier 1 ship. They division up, 2 or 3 men, always win because they can't lose and brag in chat that they are "#1 in NA". Well, after that many games I should hope so. What motivates some people to do the exact same thing in the exact same way over and over and over. There's no challenge, it's always the same 2 maps. It just strikes me as very odd. 

When I first heard of this (around early 2021), about a division of 2 or 3 players who play nothing but Tier 1 ships, I decided to find out for myself. After two Tier 1 Random Battles (and the waiting time was excruciatingly long), I finally found myself matched against a division of 2 players both in Hermelin, and both from the same clan.

I can say they really know how to use the bots to their advantage. While one of them was actively supporting a flank, I was consciously searching for the other human player who was staying dark for a bit longer than normal. When he finally fired his guns, I focused on him and forced him to disengage. I decided to shoot at what my team's bots were shooting at, and that quickly turned the tide. Both of human players on the enemy team were eventually forced to retreat, and before long, our team won. 

I can't blame them for anything. Tier 1 battles are fun and can be challenging. No gimmicks. No heals. Just pure sailing and shooting at enemy ships. 

But if they brag that they are "#1 in NA", then that would be pure hogwash. 

 

[AdmiralThunder]

38 minutes ago, Kalishnikat said:

So, you drop down to tier 1, just for fun once in a while and there they are. Those strange denizens and their odd clan who do nothing but play the same ship in Tier 1 game after game, day after day, month after month, thousands of games in the same tier 1 ship. They division up, 2 or 3 men, always win because they can't lose and brag in chat that they are "#1 in NA". Well, after that many games I should hope so. What motivates some people to do the exact same thing in the exact same way over and over and over. There's no challenge, it's always the same 2 maps. It just strikes me as very odd. 

Who cares why and how other people enjoy the game. If playing T1 solely is their thing good on them and more power to them. People worry too much about what others do in this game.

[_KlRlTO_]

Okay, I am not interested in tier 1, but at one time I played the crap out of tiers 3 and 4. They are fun! Unfortunately, they also don't provide anything for in game missions, beyond some early game mission content. I WG rewarded low tier play at all, I would spend more time down there. There are potential premiums down there I would love to see in the game, except WG doesn't see the potential because no one plays down there, by their own intentional game design.

BTW, there is a good capitalistic reason they focus so hard on tiers 9 and 10 now. It costs them the same amount of money to graphically design a ship for tier 5 as it does for tier 9, yet they sell the tier 9 for more money, assuming someone will buy it. Naturally, that makes them want to focus on selling the more expensive products with the greater return. Also, paper ships provide more design freedom. Do I like it? No. I will never spend real money on a tier 9 again (I did for Missouri, and there is nothing else they could possibly offer I would spend that on again). All I can do is hope for the occasional tier 5-8 that I will want, as rarer as those are becoming.

Edited September 30, 2023 by _KlRlTO_

[Gnirf]

39 minutes ago, _KlRlTO_ said:

Okay, I am not interested in tier 1, but at one time I played the crap out of tiers 3 and 4. They are fun! Unfortunately, they also don't provide anything for in game missions, beyond some early game mission content. I WG rewarded low tier play at all, I would spend more time down there. There are potential premiums down there I would love to see in the game, except WG doesn't see the potential because no one plays down there, by their own intentional game design.

BTW, there is a good capitalistic reason they focus so hard on tiers 9 and 10 now. It costs them the same amount of money to graphically design a ship for tier 5 as it does for tier 9, yet they sell the tier 9 for more money, assuming someone will buy it. Naturally, that makes them want to focus on selling the more expensive products with the greater return. Also, paper ships provide more design freedom. Do I like it? No. I will never spend real money on a tier 9 again (I did for Missouri, and there is nothing else they could possibly offer I would spend that on again). All I can do is hope for the occasional tier 5-8 that I will want, as rarer as those are becoming.

In the beginning of the game I was F2P and also played without any grind so for my first 2000 games the majority was in the unnerfed! Chikuma. It is still my most played ship (1736 battles) despite not having played it the last 6 years or so more than max 2 games if any at all. Likewise Bogatyr (1057 battles). I had 19 p captains on both. The challenge was to beat my own records and just try to get super results. Now König have come close, 1538 battles, I am on my 3rd captain.

One thing is the visuals, I simply like the early T2-4 ships visually and second I did not want to spend any mpney at all in the beginning. 

Later I changed my mind and more or less left the low tiers. There are a few ships that I regret that I can not play because of missions. My daily weekdays often are playing for the daily missions and containers.

I have played a few games when I regrind lines as we mostly get the low tiers in lines for free.  I keep every ship. I like to look at them in port. 

If the low tiers would now be reintsted for missions I would play a little more, mostly Nikolai, Orion, Mikasa. 

I always think, next weekend I will take out Mikasa but in the end it will not happen. I have 8 games or so total in Mikasa, but I think she is the most beutiful ship in the game. 

[Admiral_Karasu]

5 hours ago, Kalishnikat said:

So, you drop down to tier 1, just for fun once in a while and there they are. Those strange denizens and their odd clan who do nothing but play the same ship in Tier 1 game after game, day after day, month after month, thousands of games in the same tier 1 ship. They division up, 2 or 3 men, always win because they can't lose and brag in chat that they are "#1 in NA". Well, after that many games I should hope so. What motivates some people to do the exact same thing in the exact same way over and over and over. There's no challenge, it's always the same 2 maps. It just strikes me as very odd. 

I have a theory, they probably haven't discovered there's an option to research the tier 2 ships yet.

[HogHammer]

One of our clanmates, a 79-year-old gentleman, only plays Tier 4 and DDs.  Really a salt-of-the-earth guy and, in-game, an example of the type of player you want on your team.  Has a 57% win rate with over 8,500 battles.  Active daily in the clan and participates - come Naval Battles, you can always count on two lines of DDs being active, like clockwork.  

As he puts it, T4 is competitive and not too easy, and most of the people at that tier are nice.

So, whatever tier you play, as long as you enjoy the game, so be it.

[Gillhunter]

When the game first started there was a lot of activity in tier 1. A tier one community kind of developed that I was active in. You saw the same 20-30 people every day and the tier was very balanced and challenging as this group got better and better. You played with and against this group. The 3 that were mentioned started divisioning and were almost unbeatable. Not good, as far as I was concerned and I moved on. These guys must have 40,000+ matches in T1 and have hidden their stats for a long time. Why do they do it? Don't know. Whatever floats your boat I guess. 

[Gillhunter]

3 hours ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

I have a theory, they probably haven't discovered there's an option to research the tier 2 ships yet.

This is the the only online game I play. When I started in 2015 I had absolutely no idea how to research the next tier. I'm almost ashamed to tell you how long it took me to figure it out. LOL

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

9 hours ago, Kalishnikat said:

So, you drop down to tier 1, just for fun once in a while and there they are. Those strange denizens and their odd clan who do nothing but play the same ship in Tier 1 game after game, day after day, month after month, thousands of games in the same tier 1 ship. They division up, 2 or 3 men, always win because they can't lose and brag in chat that they are "#1 in NA". Well, after that many games I should hope so. What motivates some people to do the exact same thing in the exact same way over and over and over. There's no challenge, it's always the same 2 maps. It just strikes me as very odd. 

Tier 1 is the most balanced tier, and the tier where skill is the most deterministic of outcome.

No gimmicks.

No special consumables.

Just the basic core gameplay.

[Wolfswetpaws]

5 minutes ago, Gillhunter said:

This is the the only online game I play. When I started in 2015 I had absolutely no idea how to research the next tier. I'm almost ashamed to tell you how long it took me to figure it out. LOL

Took me an embarrasing amount of time to figure-out how the Captain's Skills selection process worked.

[Admiral_Karasu]

22 minutes ago, Gillhunter said:

This is the the only online game I play. When I started in 2015 I had absolutely no idea how to research the next tier. I'm almost ashamed to tell you how long it took me to figure it out. LOL

Glad I could be of some help, mate.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

9 hours ago, Kalishnikat said:

So, you drop down to tier 1, just for fun once in a while and there they are. Those strange denizens and their odd clan who do nothing but play the same ship in Tier 1 game after game, day after day, month after month, thousands of games in the same tier 1 ship. They division up, 2 or 3 men, always win because they can't lose and brag in chat that they are "#1 in NA". Well, after that many games I should hope so. What motivates some people to do the exact same thing in the exact same way over and over and over. There's no challenge, it's always the same 2 maps. It just strikes me as very odd. 

Flambass went down there in the heyday of Tier 1 randoms and got eaten alive. When it's all the same map and all the same ship, you scrabble for every tiny advantage and you are lethal to anyone who steps in unwittingly, because if you don't know the map like the back of your hand, you're dead meat.

theLaalaa on the old forums (I think his Youtube channel still exists) was the master. By the time the Black Swan had its AP ammo removed and switched to HE, thereby ruining it for him forever, he had over 4 million XP on it. Boggzy interviewed him at one point. 

Every now and then they put in a mission for sub-tier-5 ships, and this is a good thing. I'm pretty sure the way to let low tiers into daily missions etc. is to restrict them to co-op only so there is no clubbing, but I have a feeling there are coding issues in the way of this and that a lot of duplication would be necessary.

[SoshiSone]

I occassionaly drop to T2 and play Mikasa secondary build.  And also to remind myself of just how bad main battery dsipersion is on a T2 BB.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

2 hours ago, SoshiSone said:

I occassionaly drop to T2 and play Mikasa secondary build.  And also to remind myself of just how bad main battery dsipersion is on a T2 BB.

This is the way to peak fun...

...also the reason I only use HE with Mikasa. Hitting citadels is actually very unlikely with those main battery fire control...best to just get consistent damage.

[AdmiralMcintosh]

Yeah everyone's got their favorite ships, I know a guy I sometimes division up with only plays tier one and two ships so I guess we all got are own preferences. For me I just don't like those tiers enough to want to do that, but I understand why they like it.

[Asym]

And, if the game had half a brain, they'd create a low tier mode.  Call it Jutland or whatever.  Some of us are not as spry as we were 20 years ago....

[Guest]

Not criticizing these guys, I guess I just can't understand playing the exact same ship/map over and over forever. I love low tiers, but I like to vary things up, play different ships and classes. Just seems boring to me to only do one thing, but that's just me. Tier 1 is fun if you don't have to be continually unequally yoked. With humans being only 2 or 3 out of 12, when they have a 2 or 3 man division your fate is sealed.

[Guest]

13 hours ago, HogHammer said:

One of our clanmates, a 79-year-old gentleman, only plays Tier 4 and DDs.  Really a salt-of-the-earth guy and, in-game, an example of the type of player you want on your team.  Has a 57% win rate with over 8,500 battles.  Active daily in the clan and participates - come Naval Battles, you can always count on two lines of DDs being active, like clockwork.  

As he puts it, T4 is competitive and not too easy, and most of the people at that tier are nice.

So, whatever tier you play, as long as you enjoy the game, so be it.

I've likely played against and with him. I too am old, but not that old. Those T4 DD guys are tough to beat.

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 hour ago, Kalishnikat said:

Not criticizing these guys, I guess I just can't understand playing the exact same ship/map over and over forever. I love low tiers, but I like to vary things up, play different ships and classes. Just seems boring to me to only do one thing, but that's just me. Tier 1 is fun if you don't have to be continually unequally yoked. With humans being only 2 or 3 out of 12, when they have a 2 or 3 man division your fate is sealed.

NASCAR racing = another left turn.