WG offering short rental of San Diego to NA server.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

19 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Little White Mouse got upset that San Diego wasn't exactly what LWM wanted her to be, and opined on the basis of numbers on the page that WG would never be able to get the ship right.

In its release form, the ship per se was well received on the basis of its merits. 

...as if there is only ever one right opinion...and being wrong is a punishable offense...

😂

[Wolfswetpaws]

2 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/community/sea-trials-2023/ 

Offer good to 28 August; ship disappears after 3 days or 5 battles.

EU/Asia server members - it would be interesting to know if you guys got a similar, server-restricted offer. 

I clicked some webpages and some buttons and got the ship, thanks to a notification when I logged-on to the game, this morning.
Haven't played her, yet.
I've got a couple of days.

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 hour ago, Verblonde said:

On the specific subject of rentals, I suspect they may be a bit of a double-edged sword for WG: their current strategy seems to revolve around attracting as many newbies as possible, with negligible focus on actually learning the game; that sort of consumer can probably be sold expensive premiums in hope of them magically improving their results (we old lags all know that's nonsense, but newbies probably not so much).

The problem with a rental is that it gives a potential customer a wonderful opportunity to discover that - for them - the shiny expensive premium doesn't make a blind bit of difference, and so it may well become a less attractive buying proposition.

Presumably this SD rental is an attempt to gather some data apropos sales rates, and how they vary if you do give a rental?

Years ago, when I was still new to the game, the Kaga was provided to me as a 24-hour rental.
I sailed her and formed a positive impression.
Later-on, I exchanged currency to welcome the Kaga to my Port.

So, rentals can be a worthwhile endeavor for all concerned.

[Wolfswetpaws]

59 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Exactly. That's why I referred to this as a data-gathering exercise. In my Real Life, I - more or less - sell stuff for a living via various means and media, and arguments about the effectiveness of given promotional mechanics are a perennial feature of such industries. Ultimately, the only effective why to resolve such arguments definitively is to test the concept and see what happens.

I assume this is what WG are up to here, especially since they've picked a sub-set of the overall market.

(Naturally, once the results are in, I'm sure whole new arguments will break out apropos *why* the results turned out however they did - it's Traditional.)

👍

[Frostbow]

2 hours ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

...as if there is only ever one right opinion...and being wrong is a punishable offense...

😂

LOL! 

There was one who really took up the task of defending WG re San Diego, but in the end revealed a lack appreciation of the nuances and details in LWM's review.

https://forum.worldofwarships.com/topic/262799-premium-ship-review-san-diego/?do=findComment&comment=5884347

[Slimeball91]

4 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/community/sea-trials-2023/ 

Offer good to 28 August; ship disappears after 3 days or 5 battles.

EU/Asia server members - it would be interesting to know if you guys got a similar, server-restricted offer. 

Thanks for posting this.  I was considering trading in one of my coal ships I don't really play for the San Diego.  This should help me decide if it's worth it or not.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

24 minutes ago, Frostbow said:

the nuances and details in LWM's review

Ha. Hahahahaha. No.

[MBT808]

We should check if rental San Diego counts for trade in. No way they’d make the same mistake twice(or could they?).

Edited August 21, 2023 by MBT808

[a252]

I still remember ages ago WG offers random rental ships for a few days then a discounted coupon to buy it at premium shop.

Havn't seen this kind of rental for maybe more than a year already....

[Ensign Cthulhu]

3 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

Years ago, when I was still new to the game, the Kaga was provided to me as a 24-hour rental.

I never got her as a "Surprise, here you are, try her out" thing, but I did play her a couple of times as a rental in exchange for completing a short mission. I dragged my feet on buying her, and by the time I was ready to purchase, the Kaga Black was available for a slightly reduced price.

At Christmas 2022, Kaga was one of the many ships that dropped into my port from Santa Crates. Sure enough, unlike all the others, there was XP on her. It was literally my lightly used rental ship, returned to me for keeps! 😂

[Guest Capt_of_Satisfaction]

I just took her out in a Co-op to see what she's like before I realized I forgot to equip her :-)  

Pretty nifty ship.  Gonna try an OP later.

[Guest Capt_of_Satisfaction]

1 minute ago, Capt_of_Satisfaction said:

I just took her out in a Co-op to see what she's like before I realized I forgot to equip her :-)  

Pretty nifty ship.  Gonna try an OP later.  I set her 10 pt capt up w/o concealment and SE instead :-)

 

[Ensign Cthulhu]

Got her as rental, played three battles out of the five.

My feelings are mixed. I certainly can't complain about the battle results, and the main battery reload booster really chews through small ships (destroyers and mid tier light cruisers like Chumphon and Dido). Against larger ships approaching head-on, though, I find I'm missing the ability to set fires. With the exception of a well-timed torpedo hit, there's no way for this ship to accumulate damage over time - and with Atlanta, Flint and the aforementioned Chumphon already in my port, coughing up the money/dubs or sacrificing a high tier coal ship to get hold of a fourth Atlanta-class derivative which simply can't do what the others can do doesn't strike me as a good deal right this minute. Unlike others, I don't have national or home-town pride resting on this ship and I can (I think) judge her by her merits.

I'll play the other two battles tomorrow night once I've had some time to mull over tonight's experience.

[Slimeball91]

2 hours ago, Capt_of_Satisfaction said:

I just took her out in a Co-op to see what she's like before I realized I forgot to equip her 🙂

Pretty nifty ship.  Gonna try an OP later.

I saw in the news article it said the rental was only available for random, ranked, brawls, and co-op.  Not available for ops.  Assuming that's correct, that kind of sucks.  I really wanted to test the San Diego in ops.

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

33 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Got her as rental, played three battles out of the five.

My feelings are mixed. I certainly can't complain about the battle results, and the main battery reload booster really chews through small ships (destroyers and mid tier light cruisers like Chumphon and Dido). Against larger ships approaching head-on, though, I find I'm missing the ability to set fires. With the exception of a well-timed torpedo hit, there's no way for this ship to accumulate damage over time - and with Atlanta, Flint and the aforementioned Chumphon already in my port, coughing up the money/dubs or sacrificing a high tier coal ship to get hold of a fourth Atlanta-class derivative which simply can't do what the others can do doesn't strike me as a good deal right this minute. Unlike others, I don't have national or home-town pride resting on this ship and I can (I think) judge her by her merits.

I'll play the other two battles tomorrow night once I've had some time to mull over tonight's experience.

Isn't this basically what LWM said?

I've got to go reread her review...

[Wolfswetpaws]

3 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

I never got her as a "Surprise, here you are, try her out" thing, but I did play her a couple of times as a rental in exchange for completing a short mission. I dragged my feet on buying her, and by the time I was ready to purchase, the Kaga Black was available for a slightly reduced price.

At Christmas 2022, Kaga was one of the many ships that dropped into my port from Santa Crates. Sure enough, unlike all the others, there was XP on her. It was literally my lightly used rental ship, returned to me for keeps! 😂

Having a ship arrive with XP from the rental period is a pleasant surprise.  👍

[Slammer58]

Never played with a rental before.  If I add any modules, will they be auto unmounted/returned after rental period ends?

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 minute ago, Slammer58 said:

Never played with a rental before.  If I add any modules, will they be auto unmounted/returned after rental period ends?

Yes, the ship is rented, but you paid for the hull modules and they will be dismounted and returned to your inventory when the rental period expires.
Sometimes Commanders accompany the rented ship.  Sometimes those Commanders stay with the ship.  Sometimes they remain in your reserve barracks.
During the Submarine Testing events, WG/WOWs adjusted how they handled "rental" Commanders.

My bet would be that the rented Commander (10 skill points, if I recall correctly) remains aboard when the ship departs.

If a player test-drives the ship with one of the Commanders already in their port, then that player "paid" for that Commander, and thus the Commander remains in one's Port when the rented ship departs.

I say all this based upon my own past experiences with rental ships during the past few years.
I don't have an article in front of me to use as a reference for this current event.  So I may be unaware of some "fine print", as I write this.

[o4x4]

This is very good for anyone who is thinking to trade 232k coal for San Diego.  

[Nevermore135]

19 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

My bet would be that the rented Commander (10 skill points, if I recall correctly) remains aboard when the ship departs.

This is correct. The days of rental ships coming with regular commanders that are retained afterwards are long over. The accompanying commanders are rentals themselves, with their own rental icon visible in port.

[Guest Capt_of_Satisfaction]

I can see LWM point.  The one game I played, the AP was nice, but the SAP didn't seem great.  You can't burn them down like with Atlanta.

1 hour ago, Slimeball91 said:

I saw in the news article it said the rental was only available for random, ranked, brawls, and co-op.  Not available for ops.  Assuming that's correct, that kind of sucks.  I really wanted to test the San Diego in ops.

No, you can play it in Ops @Slimeball91

[Wolfswetpaws]

2 hours ago, Nevermore135 said:

This is correct. The days of rental ships coming with regular commanders that are retained afterwards are long over. The accompanying commanders are rentals themselves, with their own rental icon visible in port.

Thanks.

[Frostbow]

10 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Ha. Hahahahaha. No.

On the contrary, it was a resounding yes.

Anyways, I'll just leave this here. This can serve as reference for those who may have good faith inquiries about the San Diego.

[Frostbow]

7 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Got her as rental, played three battles out of the five.

My feelings are mixed.

7 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Against larger ships approaching head-on, though, I find I'm missing the ability to set fires.

Congratulations! You summed up what Little White Mouse wrote in her review of the San Diego.

6 hours ago, Daniel_Allan_Clark said:

Isn't this basically what LWM said?

Yes, what Ensign Cthulhu wrote is basically what LWM said in her review.

[Frostbow]

7 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

Unlike others, I don't have national or home-town pride resting on this ship and I can (I think) judge her by her merits.

Even those who may have pride resting on the San Diego were able to judge the ship on her own merits, and they too have the same mixed feelings/findings about the ship, as you yourself have just recently discovered.