What's This? It's got a Good Beat! (Megadeth)

[Verblonde]

I note that Megadeth (the noted Popular Beat Combo) are the subject of the latest tie-up with WG.

Leaving aside the golden oldie nostalgia thing (I used to rather like their music in my teens), would I be correct in thinking that the themed T5 cruiser is basically Marblehead?

[Nevermore135]

54 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Leaving aside the golden oldie nostalgia thing (I used to rather like their music in my teens), would I be correct in thinking that the themed T5 cruiser is basically Marblehead?

She is indeed a Marblehead clone. It’s a bit disappointing that WG didn’t at least make her a premium clone of Omaha - we already have both Marblehead and Marblehead L, after all.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Nevermore135

[Verblonde]

8 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

She is indeed a Marblehead clone. It’s a bit disappointing that WG didn’t at least make her a premium clone of Omaha - we already have both Marblehead and Marblehead L, after all.

Many thanks!

I have to admit my basic reaction was more or less 'is that it?'. Presumably - for tie-ups like this - WG offer several packages, with different level of effort involved; I'm guessing this is one of the more basic ones (although it does range across more than one title), to avoid spending too much of Mustaine et al.'s marketing budget...

[Nevermore135]

10 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

I have to admit my basic reaction was more or less 'is that it?'

That was my reaction as well. Marblehead is a coal ship. IMO it would have been a better decision to market the visual as a skin for Marblehead. It’s a tough sell unless one is a big fan.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Nevermore135

[ZeuSueZ1337]

At least the WH40k colab it was Amagi and Hipper Mainz etc.* and fwiw those are both decent/gut t8 boats.

Marblehead? C'mon! Thats pretty underwhelming....

*) see corections below by @Nevermore135, my game-memory (pun) is failing me.

Edited August 29, 2023 by ZeuSueZ1337
Added paragraph, typos etc.

[Nevermore135]

5 minutes ago, ZeuSueZ1337 said:

At least the WH40k colab it was Amagi and Hipper and fwiw those are both decent t8 boats.

The first WH40k collab featured two identical slightly modified Amagis (they trade a bit of reload for better sigma). The second collab featured perfect clones of Fenyang (lol) and Mainz, not Hipper. I personally feel that Hipper is underrated, but most would probably rate her as a weak tier VIII. Mainz, on the other hand, is commonly considered one of the best tier VIII premium cruisers.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Nevermore135

[Verblonde]

Presumably, there was more marketing budget available for WH40K (ditto the current AL thing)...

[Nevermore135]

11 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Presumably, there was more marketing budget available for WH40K (ditto the current AL thing)...

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a unique collaboration ship, though. The first WH collab had tweaked Amagis and the 2nd and 3rd AL collabs featured three unique ships between them: Montpelier, Yukikaze, and Sov. Rossiya, all of which were similarly tweaked tech tree ships. The HSF collab had the excellent Harekaze, and the return years later featured the underwhelming Harekaze II.

Most of the collaborations over the last few years have featured only cosmetic items (commanders and skins) or ships that were simply reskins of existing assets with identical gameplay. Most of the budget for these collabs seems to go towards things other than developing and testing new ships. While there are some expenses required to generate the art and voice assets, I suspect most of the budget goes towards licensing fees.

Edited August 29, 2023 by Nevermore135

[Wolfswetpaws]

10,000 doubloons bundle contains the Megadeth ship, plus two 12-point Commanders.
Or one could purchase each commander separately for 3,500 doubloons.
The ship and commanders are compatible with and a part of the US Navy organization in-game.

https://worldofwarships.com/en/news/sales-and-events/megadeth-in-world-of-warships/
 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Wolfswetpaws

[Wulf_Ace]

really not worth it...

[Ensign Cthulhu]

3 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

10,000 doubloons bundle contains the Megadeth ship, plus two 12-point Commanders.
Or one could purchase each commander separately for 3,500 doubloons.

Marblehead is priced at 3400 doubloons in the Armory. So basically if you buy the whole package including the ship, you save 400 dubs.

The question is whether you think a 12-pointer is worth 3500 dubs. The question is made complicated by the fact that as with the Popeye commanders, there is almost certainly an inbuilt licensing fee. 

I'm going to do the mission for the free 6-pointer, choosing the creepy captain because he looks cool, and because I've never been a fan of Megadeth (I couldn't even name one of their songs!) and Mustaine himself means nothing to me (other than having the reputation of a respected and highly skilled musician). 

[Verblonde]

40 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

reskins of existing assets

I encountered the phrase "sweating the assets" at a previous workplace (admittedly, they were talking about buildings); presumably, WG have embraced this approach.

It makes good commercial sense, as long as you - in this case - season things with occasional newness (AL (and HSF) does quite a good job in this regard, with the mixture of clones and - kind of - new things)...

Edited August 29, 2023 by Verblonde

[Verblonde]

32 minutes ago, Wulf_Ace said:

really not worth it...

I tend to agree on the spending money front; still, bagging a freebie captain (I'll be taking the same approach as @Ensign Cthulhu) for just playing doesn't suck.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

41 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

Montpelier, Yukikaze, and Sov. Rossiya, all of which were similarly tweaked tech tree ships.

IIRC Sov Rossiya is a clone of Roma so cloney that when Mouse first pulled the camo off, the original nameplate was still visible, while Yukikaze was a mishmash of things already in the game (Kagero hull, F3 torpedoes) and Montpelier is not much more different from Cleveland than the Warhammer Amagis are from the original. 

Harekaze II may be underwhelming, but she at least represents an effort by WG to do something different (a Kagero variant with her gun armament thoroughly de-emphasized in return for hydroacoustic search, which makes her unique among IJN destroyers). 

[Nevermore135]

57 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

IIRC Sov Rossiya is a clone of Roma so cloney that when Mouse first pulled the camo off, the original nameplate was still visible,

Sov. Rossiya is a Soviet ship, the sister to Sov. Soyuz. She’s modified A-hull Soyuz with American dispersion, among other tweaks.

[Ensign Cthulhu]

5 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

Sov. Rossiya is a Soviet ship, the sister to Sov. Soyuz. She’s modified A-hull Soyuz with American dispersion, among other tweaks.

DUUUUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRPPPPPPPPPPPP, you're right; I got her mixed up with the Littorio. 

Ouch.

[Wolfswetpaws]

3 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

4 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

10,000 doubloons bundle contains the Megadeth ship, plus two 12-point Commanders.
Or one could purchase each commander separately for 3,500 doubloons.

Marblehead is priced at 3400 doubloons in the Armory. So basically if you buy the whole package including the ship, you save 400 dubs.

The question is whether you think a 12-pointer is worth 3500 dubs. The question is made complicated by the fact that as with the Popeye commanders, there is almost certainly an inbuilt licensing fee. 

I'm going to do the mission for the free 6-pointer, choosing the creepy captain because he looks cool, and because I've never been a fan of Megadeth (I couldn't even name one of their songs!) and Mustaine himself means nothing to me (other than having the reputation of a respected and highly skilled musician). 

I'd calculate the doubloon cost of the FreeXP or CommanderXP needed to bring a 10 point Commander to 12 skill points, and then compare with the 1,500 doubloon Dasha Perova 10 point commander.
My guess is that 3,500 doubloons (for the unique commanders with their unique voices) is competitive, even if Megadeth gets their percentage of the collaboration deal.
 

Edited August 29, 2023 by Wolfswetpaws

[Wolfswetpaws]

3 hours ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

IIRC Sov Rossiya is a clone of Roma so cloney that when Mouse first pulled the camo off, the original nameplate was still visible, while Yukikaze was a mishmash of things already in the game (Kagero hull, F3 torpedoes) and Montpelier is not much more different from Cleveland than the Warhammer Amagis are from the original. 

Harekaze II may be underwhelming, but she at least represents an effort by WG to do something different (a Kagero variant with her gun armament thoroughly de-emphasized in return for hydroacoustic search, which makes her unique among IJN destroyers). 

The Harekaze-II is in keeping with the anime' story.
The Harekaze was sunk as a result of damages she sustained during her action in the finale of season 1.
Harekaze-II was a replacement, with a different hull design.  Hence their differences in hull characteristics and equipment and performance.
I'm okay with it.

The Harekaze is the more versatile and better ship for low-effort fun game-play, in my opinion.
And the Harekaze-II brings "collector's club" appeal and a bit of a "challenge accepted" for players seeking a ship with a slightly higher difficulty level of play.

Personally, my decision was to welcome both 'botes to my Port.

[Yuzral]

The nice thing for WG about copy/paste ships is that they don’t have to do a separate balance pass, which probably cuts a significant chunk of dev time out of the process.

 

Personally I’d have gone with a CV and a “High Speed Dirt” theme rather than Marblehead and Hangar 18, but hey ho…

[Ensign Cthulhu]

1 hour ago, Yuzral said:

Personally I’d have gone with a CV and a “High Speed Dirt” theme rather than Marblehead and Hangar 18, but hey ho…

The other thing about picking a low-ish tier premium is that it soothes the egos of those who scream that new players are allowed to buy ships of too high a tier too soon. By offering a clone of an old and well-known T5 premium (itself a derivative of a tech tree ship) with no OP balance issues at all, that problem is avoided completely. As is the issue of people screaming about more carriers in the game and newbs not being able to drive one properly.

If this works out okay, I suspect it won't be too long before we see Iron Maiden's Eddie as a ship commander for the UK (which would be awesome, as although I'm not an Iron Maiden fan, I really do love their album cover art). 

[Verblonde]

25 minutes ago, Ensign Cthulhu said:

The other thing about picking a low-ish tier premium is that it soothes the egos of those who scream that new players are allowed to buy ships of too high a tier too soon.

Do people still worry about this? I would have thought that argument was long over, with the widespread introduction of T9 premiums, years ago?

[Nevermore135]

28 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Do people still worry about this? I would have thought that argument was long over, with the widespread introduction of T9 premiums, years ago?

New players in high tier premium ships isn’t a huge issue. While they certainly exist, it’s also pretty easy to grind up to a tech tree tier most are not ready for nowadays with the changes to the in-game economy over the years. Add in the section of the playerbase that plays at a similar level (either as a result of inability or unwillingness to improve, it’s not really an important distinction), and you’ll see that type of play at higher tiers anyways.

Are there players who complain about new players in high tier ships? Yes. But l the idea that WG would alter their decisions to appease that small section of the playerbase is more than a bit silly. Before tier IX premiums it was tier VIII premiums, after all. That ship sailed a long time ago.

I suspect a significant reason for the specific choice of ship is that someone at WG thought the name was clever (Marblehead -> Rattlehead alongside Vic Rattlehead).

Edited August 31, 2023 by Nevermore135

[Wolfswetpaws]

10 minutes ago, Nevermore135 said:

I suspect a significant reason for the specific choice of ship is that someone at WG thought the name was clever (Marblehead -> Rattlehead alongside Vic Rattlehead).

I hadn't thought of that.  Now that you've mentioned it, it makes total sense, and I find it amusing.

[Verblonde]

Just now, Wolfswetpaws said:

I hadn't thought of that.

Neither had I - I was wondering why they picked Marblehead of all things...

Thanks @Nevermore135 - that explains it!

[Ensign Cthulhu]

I got the six-point Rattlehead commander from the missions so that I could have the voice files, and that ends my involvement in this promo. I like the raspy voice and find some of the lines amusing. To me, he is reminiscent of the Arqus Rothqar WH40K commander. 

He will probably be posted to the Cachalot or Seattle on a permanent basis once their commanders are finished their jobs and move up to the Salmon/Wooster. I know it's possible to take a ship out for snowflakes with no commander at all, but in those cases you earn no Commander XP and I would rather have a pittance than nothing at all (especially if there's an earn-CXP mission on).