Thoughts on 'Recommended Upgrades'?

[Verblonde]

As we've all probably noticed, WG have added little tabs to ship upgrades to indicate which ones they think are the best choice; there's also a 'lazy bugger' button that allows you to give a ship the recommended upgrades in a single click.

For example, this is the relevant panel for my most recent addition:

I've noticed that coal mods never seem to get the recommended tag, but beyond that I haven't really done much probing of these things, to see if there is much divergence between what we think we should be running, and what WG think.

In the above example, I tend to like maximum hydro time (and tend to ignore Def AA, if hydro is the alternative), hence the coal mod, and dislike island camping, hence I usually choose 'booty shaking' over the 'drag race' upgrade.

What do people think about the WG recommendations that they've seen so far, or is it way too early? Are any that you've found a bit silly buggers (for the equivalent captain skills, one might suspect that some of the picked skills were only tagged to artificially diversify captains, rather than because they're actually optimal)?

My impression, so far, is that the ones I've looked at aren't a bad 'starter for ten', but shouldn't be trusted blindly. What do others reckon?

[Admiral_Karasu]

Isn't this on PTS or is it on the live server as well? I tried this out on PTS myself and... okay, if you don't want to think about this too much it gives you the default recommended options. However.... it does seem to ask for confirmation IIRC, could be wrong about this, but if it just locks the selection in place and installs the equipment right on... you are likely to have one of those 'oh bu**er facepalm' WG moments that we have come to cherish so much when you realize you are going to have to pay to fix it.

EDIT I was wrong about this. Only tried it once so was a bit hazy for me.

[Verblonde]

Just now, Admiral_Karasu said:

Isn't this on PTS or is it on the live server as well? I tried this out on PTS myself and... okay, if you don't want to think about this too much it gives you the default recommended options. However.... it does seem to ask for confirmation IIRC, could be wrong about this, but if it just locks the selection in place and installs the equipment right on... you are likely to have one of those 'oh bu**er facepalm' WG moments that we have come to cherish so much when you realize you are going to have to pay to fix it.

It's live, as of the last patch (I think) - that screen-grab is from my EU account.

You do get an 'are you sure?' box before the stuff is actually fitted (and it tells you where things are coming from), so WG haven't pulled a fast one. I rather like it, so far - it's a helpful 'starter for ten' (and it may avoid newbies doing anything entirely silly in the way of fitting their ships)...

[dommo77]

I would say they show the most obvious choice, but not always the one you may want. For new players it may be help, but also a bit deceiving sometimes, like on this simple example:

Helena is US light cruiser, so positioning is the key. Preferably behind the island? With high trajectory of her projectiles it's a no brainer. So ASM1 is a logical choice, you want to hit as many times as possible. But I find that more dynamic play works out better for me, and especially when one is forced to kite, or shoot a quick salvo at DD that appeared for few seconds - MBM2 is better for me, as Helena's turrets are very slow.

 

So it may be recommendation, but I would not say it is necessary to follow them. Same as with recommendations for captain skills 🙂

[Capt_Kremenski]

I still select my upgrades manually.

Some of what they suggest are no brainers but I tend to go for freaky builds which doesn't fit with the WG suggestions.

I only play co-op so it works for me but I'd probably get slaughtered in randoms!

Since this was introduced I checked some of my most played ships (Fiji, Neptune, Mino, Bourgogne, Repub) and I have maybe 3 of the recommended upgrades installed and no, I'm not gonna change them.

[Verblonde]

Oh, I see that Legendary upgrades aren't recommended either (and I see that Gearing is officially a torp boat, if you follow the official picks...)...

[Capt_Kremenski]

I wouldn't have said Gearing was a torp boat but.........

(and this was way before this new feature)

 

 

[MidnightPhoenix07]

21 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

What do people think about the WG recommendations that they've seen so far, or is it way too early? Are any that you've found a bit silly buggers (for the equivalent captain skills, one might suspect that some of the picked skills were only tagged to artificially diversify captains, rather than because they're actually optimal)?

For the most part, the ones I've seen are decent so far. They're an okay starting point for newer players, which is really the target group for upgrade/skill/signal recommendations anyway as more experienced players would know enough to pick their own choices. For example, DCS Mod 2 as the general recommendation for most battleships, while some higher level players prefer the propulsion mod on flanking BBs to dodge incoming fire rather than tank fire damage. 

I haven't seen any super questionable recommendations like when they introduced skill recommendations (for example, recommending torp skills on the Italian DDs....). Then again, there are also a lot fewer options when it comes to upgrades, so there are fewer chances for a "really WeeGee?" recommendation to slip in.

 

I still do all of my setups manually (for both skills and now upgrades), and don't really pay much attention to the WG recommendations. They're generally a good starting point and usually don't lead newer players down the wrong patt. But once you know what you're doing, you either ignore them or just don't pay attention to them, and pick what you know you want for the ship regardless.

 

[Verblonde]

3 minutes ago, Capt_Kremenski said:

I checked some of my most played ships

I've been having an occasional look at some (not all - there are far too many) of mine too; on the older ones, there do appear to be a few 'what the h3ll were you thinking?!' moments - I've changed a few of them, but mostly I'm leaving things alone.

The most common thing I've been finding (although I was looking for this prior to the update) is that I have DCS Mod 1 on more things than I really should (it's usually because the ships in question date from before rudder and engine protection got unified)...

[Nevermore135]

55 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

What do people think about the WG recommendations that they've seen so far, or is it way too early?

I’ve found them to be pretty cookie-cutter for the most part. I think they serve as a decent starting point but one shouldn’t take them as gospel. For example, I prefer to run the rudder mod in slot 4 on most of my open water cruisers, but propulsion mod seems to be the standard recommendation. I’m currently grinding JdW with range mod in slot 6 vs. the recommended reload mod - 18km range makes her much more comfortable to play, in my experience. SBM1 is also recommended across the board for German BBs, but I personally don’t consider building for secondaries to be worth it on “standard” German BBs (not CCs) after the skill rework, so I run ASM1.

1 hour ago, Verblonde said:

(for the equivalent captain skills, one might suspect that some of the picked skills were only tagged to artificially diversify captains, rather than because they're actually optimal)?

I’ve always got the impression that these were picked more on nation/type/line vs. any type of optimization for a specific ship. It helps explains thinks like a Furious build without FPE on mid tier RN BBs that don’t have a super heal to laugh off fire damage.

[Admiral_Karasu]

One thing I still haven't quite decided on do you want to pick equipment/skills to patch up the weak points or will you opt to maximize the strengths instead. As a risk-avoidant type, I naturally tend to lean towards the former.

[Verblonde]

2 minutes ago, Admiral_Karasu said:

One thing I still haven't quite decided on do you want to pick equipment/skills to patch up the weak points or will you opt to maximize the strengths instead.

With the usual caveat that I'm rubbish, it depends a bit - for me - on the type of ship and what I want to do with it (and how much I know about playing said ship).

For example, for cruisers - which I *really* suck at - I'm usually trying to plug weaknesses, to reduce the number of ways I can be taken to the cleaners. Meanwhile, on something like a DD, where I suck a bit less, I'll try and maximise whatever strength I tend to find myself making most use of; so, coal mods where something has vision control gimmicks to fortify, and so on.

[Yedwy]

Well as far as I see it its mostly what I would pick, there are some exceptions ofc

[Ensign Cthulhu]

On 8/25/2023 at 6:52 PM, Admiral_Karasu said:

One thing I still haven't quite decided on do you want to pick equipment/skills to patch up the weak points or will you opt to maximize the strengths instead. As a risk-avoidant type, I naturally tend to lean towards the former.

My first battle in any new ship is always in co-op, with no modules fitted and the captain who came with the ship, either with no points selected or with an obvious selection that has utility and which I tend to go with anyway (e.g. with three points, Last Stand and Priority Target for a cruiser; LS and Preventive Maintenance for a DD). From there, I tend to select modules in the first four slots (as available) that repair glaring deficiencies. Slot five generally gets Concealment Expert. Slot six is exquisitely dependent on the individual ship. 

[Kynami]

Some of the worst recommendation I've seen go by are the ones for Japanese CVs. Weegee wants you to improve stats for the attack aircraft and AP bombers instead of the bread and butter torpedoes you actually are reliant on.

They also seem to be shoving German BBs towards full lighthouse secondary builds even when the tank build is actually a better idea (especially mid-tiers) and if you wanted secondaries the faster moving BC line would be really the way to go.

The other one I raise eyebrows at a bit is them telling people to go DCSM2 over prop or rudder mod in slot 4 for the French super heavy cruiser line and the Toulon. Removing fires and flooding 15% faster is less important than the ability to dodge being citadel hit or torpedoed straight out of the game.