What If: I were to design a WoWS type of game

[ArIskandir]

I had some spare time, so here I am spinning the wheel again...

The premise is simple. If I were to rework, redesign or create a game based on WoWS, what root changes would I make? 

Let's start with the basic layout of game mode options, progression and economy.

 

GAME MODE OPTIONS

Spoiler

GAME MODE OPTIONS

·       OPEN WORLD (PvE/PvP): A Naval Open World with the common stapples of a MMO, missions, exploration, base building, trade, etc.

·       ARENA (PvP): Traditional arena PvP matches similar to the Randoms we know

·       SCENARIOS (PvE): Similar to current Operations, heavily scripted scenarios (historical and fictional) for PvE engagement

·       TYCOON (PvE): New game mode for solo play based on Tycoon/RTS type games, you use the game content unlocked in other game modes to play different PvE Scenario/Campaigns. Campaigns sold separately

GAME PROGRESSION - ERAS

Spoiler

GAME PROGRESSION – ERAS

1.       PRE-DREADNOUGHT (1890-1906): Golden Age of close-range artillery engagements and brawling. Only surface ships. Defining gimmicks: secondary and tertiary gun batteries.

2.       WW1 (1906-1920): Addition of primitive Submarines with limited capabilities, Sea-plane tenders. Defining gimmicks: Hydroacoustic search devices, primitive ASW equipment, primitive AA equipment, Turbine engines and Oil boilers (high speed).

3.       INTERWAR (1920-1938): Addition of primitive CVs with limited capabilities. Defining gimmicks: Improved AA and ASW systems, Improved rangefinders and fire directors (improved accuracy at long ranges), Improved munitions (more munition types).

4.       WW2 (1938-1950): Aeronaval warfare becomes real. Defining gimmicks: RADAR, SONAR, greatly improved AA systems, RADAR assisted rangefinders/gun directors (engagement beyond the horizon/LoS possible)

5.       COLD WAR (1950-     😞 Missiles, beyond the horizon engagements become prevalent. High performance Submarines, Jet Planes. Defining gimmicks: Electronic Warfare, ECMs, Chaffs, Point Defense Systems, Guided Weapons, Self-guided weapons, SAMs, SSMs, ASROCs, Autoloading artillery and autocannons.

 

There will be a Progression Tech Tree. Different hulls and technologies need to be sequentially unblocked in order to advance through the different Eras. It will be required to unlock several parallel technologies from the current Era in order to progress to the next Era. Era progression can’t be skipped in the way current Low Tiers can be skipped.

MATCHMAKING - ERAS

Spoiler

MATCHMAKING – ERAS

Each Era will correlate with an isolated self-contained MM pool.

For ARENA Game Mode, there will be 5 fixed Pools (Eras), the particular (Era) pool is assigned for the player in queue depending on the ship selected. For example, a player using a KMS Bismarck will be always assigned to the WW2 Era pool, it will never face ships belonging to INTERWAR or COLD WAR Eras.

A ship can have different Hull refits, allowing her to enter different Era pools depending on the particular Hull refit selected. For example, HMS Renown as built will be assigned to the WW1 Era pool; if using its 1920 refit it will be assigned to the INTERWAR pool and if using the 1936 refit then she goes into the WW2 pool. Some ships can have fictional/what if refits in order to extend their gameplay range.

For OPEN WORLD, each ‘Map’ (World) will belong to a determined Era and will only allow ships of such Era. For example, there can be a PACIFIC 1914 scenario which will be set at the WW1 Era and allow only WW1 Era ships; or there can be a MEDITERRANEAN 1939 scenario with ships belonging to the WW2 Era. Open World Scenarios are expected to vary on a seasonal/patch basis.

For SCENARIOS, an appropriate one is selected according to the player ship selection. Ships of a similar Era will be pooled into a fitting Scenario.

ECONOMY

Spoiler

ECONOMY

Players are rewarded XP points and Credits for game achievements when playing any Game Mode. XP points are required to progress up the Tech Tree, Credits are required to buy ships, modules or any other in game item. There will be little difference between earning level for different Eras with no strongarm push for players to progress to more advanced Eras. The focus will be oriented to progression within the particular Era. Moving up Eras will be akin to a new start/swipe in a new environment.

In addition to XP and Credits, there will be ‘Special’ resources that can be earned on each era:

·       PRE-DREADNOUGHT --> Coal

·       WW1 --> Steel

·       INTERWAR --> Oil

·       WW2 --> Alloys

·       COLD WAR --> Electronics

These ‘Special’ resources will be required to buy Era specific upgrades and content, for building Dockyard ships, etc. 

MONETIZATION

Spoiler

MONETIZATION

Developer revenue will be extracted from the following sources:

·       Reward enhancers: Be it Premium Time, Booster Packs, Battle Passes or any mechanic that enhances the number of rewards obtained from playing the game.

·       Cosmetics: All cosmetics beyond the stock/default are monetized, including but not limited to paint schemes, flags, sound packs, emotes (for example firing a star shell), etc.

·       Premium ships: These are particular ships that can only be acquired by purchase, these ships will not offer any significant competitive advantage, but they can have significant historical value, have an odd or very rare configuration/playstyle, have unique cosmetics, etc. On the practical side, they will provide a fully upgraded ship instantly on purchase and likely some sort or intrinsic reward enhancement bonus.

·       Dockyards: The Dockyard will be a way to acquire on the cheap a specific Premium ship. Players will buy the ‘Blueprints’ for the desired ship at a discounted price, but they’ll be required to spend ‘Special’ resources in order to build the ship. Extra Dockyard space can be bought for those desiring to build multiple ships simultaneously.

·       Scenarios: Apart from the stock Scenarios provided, extra Scenarios can be bought by players.

·       Tycoon Mode Campaigns: Apart from the stock/demo/tutorial Campaign, more Campaigns can be bought by players. Offline play is possible for Tycoon mode, as it acts independently from the regular Online modes.

 

I see a lot of positive aspects and mechanics in WoWS, imo it just requires some reorganization and a change on the monetization strategy in order to become 'something more' to what it has become. 

[wedge427]

Great ideas!

[Tpaktop2_1 NA]

You are missing ships and ironclads from the US Civil War 1860 to 1865. I believe these would be easier to program than 1900+ era ships since the range and speed would be lower. The main thing is to have a good game engine.

[ArIskandir]

4 minutes ago, Tpaktop2_1 NA said:

You are missing ships and ironclads from the US Civil War 1860 to 1865. I believe these would be easier to program than 1900+ era ships since the range and speed would be lower. The main thing is to have a good game engine.

Actually I think ironclads and all the crazy designs from 1860 to 1890 would be great for limited time events. They are intrinsically 'funny', but I feel the gameplay would be very basic and would become uninteresting after a short time. Monitor for example is a very slow ship and one single gun that goes boom at a very slow rate, once the novelty wears out it will be boring. 

I think they could also work well in Scenarios as part of a bigger arching narrative Campaign, and as NPCs for early Open World scenarios. 

[Admiral_Karasu]

Damn.. too tired to look into this now, I think it's time I call it a day.

[Ferdinand_Max]

59 minutes ago, ArIskandir said:

Actually I think ironclads and all the crazy designs from 1860 to 1890 would be great for limited time events. They are intrinsically 'funny', but I feel the gameplay would be very basic and would become uninteresting after a short time. Monitor for example is a very slow ship and one single gun that goes boom at a very slow rate, once the novelty wears out it will be boring. 

I think they could also work well in Scenarios as part of a bigger arching narrative Campaign, and as NPCs for early Open World scenarios. 

I disagree. Look up Battle of Lissa. Lots of ironclads with lots of guns, but these were about as effective as dreadnought secondaries against capital ships... instead, warships rammed each other and engaged in boarding actions, trireme-style. To me, this sounds lot more fun than the pre-dreadnought "blast at each other for days before heading home to fix damaged paint job" style of engagement.

BTW, Battle of Lissa led to widespread implementation of rams in warship design... which then ironically led to rams sinking more friendly ships in peacetime than enemy warships in war!

TLDR: ramming actions are inherently interesting, and I see no reason not to use them.

Edited June 7 by Ferdinand_Max

[Daniel_Allan_Clark]

Full speed ahead with development.

After all, WG did tell us to do so...

[ArIskandir]

19 minutes ago, Ferdinand_Max said:

I disagree. Look up Battle of Lissa. Lots of ironclads with lots of guns, but these were about as effective as dreadnought secondaries against capital ships... instead, warships rammed each other and engaged in boarding actions, trireme-style. To me, this sounds lot more fun than the pre-dreadnought "blast at each other for days before heading home to fix damaged paint job" style of engagement.

BTW, Battle of Lissa led to widespread implementation of rams in warship design... which then ironically led to rams sinking more friendly ships in peacetime than enemy warships in war!

TLDR: ramming actions are inherently interesting, and I see no reason not to use them.

I'm not saying they are not fun, just they have not much depth to the interaction. Ramming actions are fun (a close call is DD torpedo joust with V-25) but there's not much else to it. Same principle why Brawls are temporary events, the limited spectrum of the mode plays against long term replay ability. Arcade games are fun, and some people enjoy playing them time and time again, but for most folks there's only so many Pacman matches you can play before wanting to try something else.

[Wolfswetpaws]

 @ArIskandir I'd like to compare your "Tycoon Mode" with the "Admiralty System" used in Star Trek Online.

https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Admiralty_System

Quote

"... The Admiralty System allows characters to use their starships in assignments, which makes it similar to the Duty Officer System. However, any ship can be used in any assignment, though certain ships might do better in an assignment than others. It was introduced in Season Eleven: New Dawn and becomes available at level 52.  ..."

The "interpreted by @Wolfswetpaws version" is that the Admiralty System allows a player who has reached a high enough rank, to utilize ships that they have personally commanded/acquired during their "career" and/or the "services" of ships which place themselves "on call" and available to be tasked with completing various missions as the player assigns/requests them to do so.

The missions vary from patrolling the galaxy, to performing in "parades", to transporting crews to shore-leave destinations, to performing search & rescue work (seeking lost ships, diverting asteroids from impacting planets and etc.) to blockading or breaking blockades of a specified territory, and other tasks from a long list.
https://sto.fandom.com/wiki/Admiralty_System/Assignment

Gaining a ship to use as an "Admiralty card" involves getting the ship issued to one's self during one's career, or buying the ship with in-game resources or purchasing a ship with real money or getting the ship "card" as a mission reward or a loot-crate result.
Even if the player later decides to delete the ship from their inventory (to save drydock slot utilization, which is the equivalent of port-slots in WOWs), that ship remains available as an "Admiralty card" which can be "played" or assigned to complete and Admiralty System mission.

In Star Trek Online, the maximum number of ships that can be grouped together to accomplish a given mission is three (ships), including shuttles (which have some benefits they confer, such as shortening the post-mission maintenance time or boosting the stats of the big ships they're grouped with)
A re-designed WOWs could keep the "maximum of three per division" restriction, or consider making changes or options available.

What I like most about the Admiralty System is that ships that get "power crept" (as a player's career progresses) become useful again, as they can be matched to tasks which they remain capable of accomplishing.

What is similar to the Tycoon mode is that a player acts as an administrator who gives orders and expects others to carry them out.
There's no need to micro-manage or actually ride-along or first-person-view command/play the ship(s) assigned to a task.
The ships receive their orders/assignment and either succeed or fail.
If they succeed, the player reaps the rewards offered by the mission. 
If they succeed spectacularly, bonus rewards are provided.
If they fail, there is no reward.

Now.  It's very likely that actual WOWs missions would be somewhat different in specifics, but could be similar in principle.

Since a player can only play one ship at a time (in WOWs and in S.T.O.), this side-effort within the overall game, allows a player to utilize ships that would otherwise be idle.
In Star Trek Online, there is also a "Duty Officer System", which can utilize crew-members to perform appropriate assignments. 
Again, allowing a player to have multiple "irons in the fire" and diversify their game-play experience.

Of course, if a collaboration event between WOWs and Uchuu Senkan Yamato might lead to actual space missions?

As I write this, the recent Star Trek and World of Tanks collaboration event comes to mind.  It's not impossible.  🙂 

Call to the Final Frontier | World of Tanks Official

 
Okay, that's enough for one post in this overall topic.  🙂 

[Wolfswetpaws]

3 hours ago, ArIskandir said:

I had some spare time, so here I am spinning the wheel again...

The premise is simple. If I were to rework, redesign or create a game based on WoWS, what root changes would I make? 

Let's start with the basic layout of game mode options, progression and economy.

 

GAME MODE OPTIONS

  Reveal hidden contents

GAME MODE OPTIONS

·       OPEN WORLD (PvE/PvP): A Naval Open World with the common stapples of a MMO, missions, exploration, base building, trade, etc.

·       ARENA (PvP): Traditional arena PvP matches similar to the Randoms we know

·       SCENARIOS (PvE): Similar to current Operations, heavily scripted scenarios (historical and fictional) for PvE engagement

·       TYCOON (PvE): New game mode for solo play based on Tycoon/RTS type games, you use the game content unlocked in other game modes to play different PvE Scenario/Campaigns. Campaigns sold separately

GAME PROGRESSION - ERAS

  Reveal hidden contents

GAME PROGRESSION – ERAS

1.       PRE-DREADNOUGHT (1890-1906): Golden Age of close-range artillery engagements and brawling. Only surface ships. Defining gimmicks: secondary and tertiary gun batteries.

2.       WW1 (1906-1920): Addition of primitive Submarines with limited capabilities, Sea-plane tenders. Defining gimmicks: Hydroacoustic search devices, primitive ASW equipment, primitive AA equipment, Turbine engines and Oil boilers (high speed).

3.       INTERWAR (1920-1938): Addition of primitive CVs with limited capabilities. Defining gimmicks: Improved AA and ASW systems, Improved rangefinders and fire directors (improved accuracy at long ranges), Improved munitions (more munition types).

4.       WW2 (1938-1950): Aeronaval warfare becomes real. Defining gimmicks: RADAR, SONAR, greatly improved AA systems, RADAR assisted rangefinders/gun directors (engagement beyond the horizon/LoS possible)

5.       COLD WAR (1950-     😞 Missiles, beyond the horizon engagements become prevalent. High performance Submarines, Jet Planes. Defining gimmicks: Electronic Warfare, ECMs, Chaffs, Point Defense Systems, Guided Weapons, Self-guided weapons, SAMs, SSMs, ASROCs, Autoloading artillery and autocannons.

 

There will be a Progression Tech Tree. Different hulls and technologies need to be sequentially unblocked in order to advance through the different Eras. It will be required to unlock several parallel technologies from the current Era in order to progress to the next Era. Era progression can’t be skipped in the way current Low Tiers can be skipped.

MATCHMAKING - ERAS

  Reveal hidden contents

MATCHMAKING – ERAS

Each Era will correlate with an isolated self-contained MM pool.

For ARENA Game Mode, there will be 5 fixed Pools (Eras), the particular (Era) pool is assigned for the player in queue depending on the ship selected. For example, a player using a KMS Bismarck will be always assigned to the WW2 Era pool, it will never face ships belonging to INTERWAR or COLD WAR Eras.

A ship can have different Hull refits, allowing her to enter different Era pools depending on the particular Hull refit selected. For example, HMS Renown as built will be assigned to the WW1 Era pool; if using its 1920 refit it will be assigned to the INTERWAR pool and if using the 1936 refit then she goes into the WW2 pool. Some ships can have fictional/what if refits in order to extend their gameplay range.

For OPEN WORLD, each ‘Map’ (World) will belong to a determined Era and will only allow ships of such Era. For example, there can be a PACIFIC 1914 scenario which will be set at the WW1 Era and allow only WW1 Era ships; or there can be a MEDITERRANEAN 1939 scenario with ships belonging to the WW2 Era. Open World Scenarios are expected to vary on a seasonal/patch basis.

For SCENARIOS, an appropriate one is selected according to the player ship selection. Ships of a similar Era will be pooled into a fitting Scenario.

ECONOMY

  Hide contents

ECONOMY

Players are rewarded XP points and Credits for game achievements when playing any Game Mode. XP points are required to progress up the Tech Tree, Credits are required to buy ships, modules or any other in game item. There will be little difference between earning level for different Eras with no strongarm push for players to progress to more advanced Eras. The focus will be oriented to progression within the particular Era. Moving up Eras will be akin to a new start/swipe in a new environment.

In addition to XP and Credits, there will be ‘Special’ resources that can be earned on each era:

·       PRE-DREADNOUGHT --> Coal

·       WW1 --> Steel

·       INTERWAR --> Oil

·       WW2 --> Alloys

·       COLD WAR --> Electronics

These ‘Special’ resources will be required to buy Era specific upgrades and content, for building Dockyard ships, etc. 

MONETIZATION

  Hide contents

MONETIZATION

Developer revenue will be extracted from the following sources:

·       Reward enhancers: Be it Premium Time, Booster Packs, Battle Passes or any mechanic that enhances the number of rewards obtained from playing the game.

·       Cosmetics: All cosmetics beyond the stock/default are monetized, including but not limited to paint schemes, flags, sound packs, emotes (for example firing a star shell), etc.

·       Premium ships: These are particular ships that can only be acquired by purchase, these ships will not offer any significant competitive advantage, but they can have significant historical value, have an odd or very rare configuration/playstyle, have unique cosmetics, etc. On the practical side, they will provide a fully upgraded ship instantly on purchase and likely some sort or intrinsic reward enhancement bonus.

·       Dockyards: The Dockyard will be a way to acquire on the cheap a specific Premium ship. Players will buy the ‘Blueprints’ for the desired ship at a discounted price, but they’ll be required to spend ‘Special’ resources in order to build the ship. Extra Dockyard space can be bought for those desiring to build multiple ships simultaneously.

·       Scenarios: Apart from the stock Scenarios provided, extra Scenarios can be bought by players.

·       Tycoon Mode Campaigns: Apart from the stock/demo/tutorial Campaign, more Campaigns can be bought by players. Offline play is possible for Tycoon mode, as it acts independently from the regular Online modes.

 

I see a lot of positive aspects and mechanics in WoWS, imo it just requires some reorganization and a change on the monetization strategy in order to become 'something more' to what it has become. 

In addition to your wonderful ideas, I'd like to be able to walk around my Port and my ships and visit other player's Ports and a variety of in-game destinations for a variety of purposes.

1.  Social.  Let's go to <insert player name here>'s Port for a pub-crawl of their Port's sea-side town/city!  Pub-crawl!  Pub-crawl! (and etc. & etc.)

2.  Shopping and customization of player "avatars" and ship's crew members and their uniforms.
Customization of buildings (exteriors and interiors) so each player can make their Port unique and an expression of their personal style.

3.  Creation of items, similar to how the SIMS game allows people to create and buy/sell cosmetic items.  (WOWs might get a 5% cut of the transactions?)

4.  Shore-based missions.  These could be as varied as all the nautical stories ever written.  Shore-leave shennanigans.  Murder/Mystery plots large and small.
  Espionage taking place in non-player-ports accessible by all players.  Treasure Hunts on remote un-charted islands.  And etc. & etc.

5.  Inspection tours of one's fleet and/or ships within one's fleet.  Literally walking the entirety of a ship and checking for problems.
If a player does these "mundane" things periodically, then they'll ensure their ships are "ship-shape" and perhaps will earn a reward (such as a modifier that ensures the ship has 100% HP on the hull and all modules at the start of a battle for the next one to five battles).
By rewarding inspections and maintenance, small improvements in a ships performance parameters (such as gun dispersion or top-speed without needing to use a Sierra-Mike signal flag for one battle or some other small & temporary improvement). 
This idea is in the "brainstorming" phase, and is negotiable, as far as I am concerned.

6.  Tourism destinations.  
  The "Tycoon" on "Fantasy Island" has created a theme-park and invited players to visit their newly opened park (for a "nominal fee" of course, with 95% of the fee to the player and a 5% cut to WOWs?)
How about organizing a surfing contest?  
Or a friendly "scavenger hunt"?
Sailing regatta?
Scuba-diving on a reef or a ship-wreck?
Friendly aerial "rodeo" wherein CV players attempt to hit targets on a training range to score points?
Rubber-Ducky redeux for giggles?

7.  Additional ideas I've not thought of?
 

[Wolfswetpaws]

I'd add at least one "Convoy Escort/Attack" scenario to the roster of available Scenario Operations.

In the "Player versus the computer" category, I'd add some long-duration (an hour or so) situations that are based upon historic events and involve either one ship or a small group of ships (for players who form a "division" together).
Initially I'd use actual historic events as a "basis" and tailor the scenario as needed.

[Wolfswetpaws]

I'd re-examine guns and ordnance.
I see no reason for the same projectile from the same gun to perform better in a ship merely because the ship is a "higher tier", and vice-versa.

I'd like to test or calculate the actual peformance of all the ordnance used in-game and use those values "as is".

Sure, the game uses time-compression and distance compression.  But an explosive charge is an explosive charge.

[hipcanuck]

4 hours ago, ArIskandir said:

I had some spare time, so here I am spinning the wheel again...

The premise is simple. If I were to rework, redesign or create a game based on WoWS, what root changes would I make? 

Let's start with the basic layout of game mode options, progression and economy.

 

GAME MODE OPTIONS

  Reveal hidden contents

GAME MODE OPTIONS

·       OPEN WORLD (PvE/PvP): A Naval Open World with the common stapples of a MMO, missions, exploration, base building, trade, etc.

·       ARENA (PvP): Traditional arena PvP matches similar to the Randoms we know

·       SCENARIOS (PvE): Similar to current Operations, heavily scripted scenarios (historical and fictional) for PvE engagement

·       TYCOON (PvE): New game mode for solo play based on Tycoon/RTS type games, you use the game content unlocked in other game modes to play different PvE Scenario/Campaigns. Campaigns sold separately

GAME PROGRESSION - ERAS

  Reveal hidden contents

GAME PROGRESSION – ERAS

1.       PRE-DREADNOUGHT (1890-1906): Golden Age of close-range artillery engagements and brawling. Only surface ships. Defining gimmicks: secondary and tertiary gun batteries.

2.       WW1 (1906-1920): Addition of primitive Submarines with limited capabilities, Sea-plane tenders. Defining gimmicks: Hydroacoustic search devices, primitive ASW equipment, primitive AA equipment, Turbine engines and Oil boilers (high speed).

3.       INTERWAR (1920-1938): Addition of primitive CVs with limited capabilities. Defining gimmicks: Improved AA and ASW systems, Improved rangefinders and fire directors (improved accuracy at long ranges), Improved munitions (more munition types).

4.       WW2 (1938-1950): Aeronaval warfare becomes real. Defining gimmicks: RADAR, SONAR, greatly improved AA systems, RADAR assisted rangefinders/gun directors (engagement beyond the horizon/LoS possible)

5.       COLD WAR (1950-     😞 Missiles, beyond the horizon engagements become prevalent. High performance Submarines, Jet Planes. Defining gimmicks: Electronic Warfare, ECMs, Chaffs, Point Defense Systems, Guided Weapons, Self-guided weapons, SAMs, SSMs, ASROCs, Autoloading artillery and autocannons.

 

There will be a Progression Tech Tree. Different hulls and technologies need to be sequentially unblocked in order to advance through the different Eras. It will be required to unlock several parallel technologies from the current Era in order to progress to the next Era. Era progression can’t be skipped in the way current Low Tiers can be skipped.

MATCHMAKING - ERAS

  Reveal hidden contents

MATCHMAKING – ERAS

Each Era will correlate with an isolated self-contained MM pool.

For ARENA Game Mode, there will be 5 fixed Pools (Eras), the particular (Era) pool is assigned for the player in queue depending on the ship selected. For example, a player using a KMS Bismarck will be always assigned to the WW2 Era pool, it will never face ships belonging to INTERWAR or COLD WAR Eras.

A ship can have different Hull refits, allowing her to enter different Era pools depending on the particular Hull refit selected. For example, HMS Renown as built will be assigned to the WW1 Era pool; if using its 1920 refit it will be assigned to the INTERWAR pool and if using the 1936 refit then she goes into the WW2 pool. Some ships can have fictional/what if refits in order to extend their gameplay range.

For OPEN WORLD, each ‘Map’ (World) will belong to a determined Era and will only allow ships of such Era. For example, there can be a PACIFIC 1914 scenario which will be set at the WW1 Era and allow only WW1 Era ships; or there can be a MEDITERRANEAN 1939 scenario with ships belonging to the WW2 Era. Open World Scenarios are expected to vary on a seasonal/patch basis.

For SCENARIOS, an appropriate one is selected according to the player ship selection. Ships of a similar Era will be pooled into a fitting Scenario.

ECONOMY

  Reveal hidden contents

ECONOMY

Players are rewarded XP points and Credits for game achievements when playing any Game Mode. XP points are required to progress up the Tech Tree, Credits are required to buy ships, modules or any other in game item. There will be little difference between earning level for different Eras with no strongarm push for players to progress to more advanced Eras. The focus will be oriented to progression within the particular Era. Moving up Eras will be akin to a new start/swipe in a new environment.

In addition to XP and Credits, there will be ‘Special’ resources that can be earned on each era:

·       PRE-DREADNOUGHT --> Coal

·       WW1 --> Steel

·       INTERWAR --> Oil

·       WW2 --> Alloys

·       COLD WAR --> Electronics

These ‘Special’ resources will be required to buy Era specific upgrades and content, for building Dockyard ships, etc. 

MONETIZATION

  Reveal hidden contents

MONETIZATION

Developer revenue will be extracted from the following sources:

·       Reward enhancers: Be it Premium Time, Booster Packs, Battle Passes or any mechanic that enhances the number of rewards obtained from playing the game.

·       Cosmetics: All cosmetics beyond the stock/default are monetized, including but not limited to paint schemes, flags, sound packs, emotes (for example firing a star shell), etc.

·       Premium ships: These are particular ships that can only be acquired by purchase, these ships will not offer any significant competitive advantage, but they can have significant historical value, have an odd or very rare configuration/playstyle, have unique cosmetics, etc. On the practical side, they will provide a fully upgraded ship instantly on purchase and likely some sort or intrinsic reward enhancement bonus.

·       Dockyards: The Dockyard will be a way to acquire on the cheap a specific Premium ship. Players will buy the ‘Blueprints’ for the desired ship at a discounted price, but they’ll be required to spend ‘Special’ resources in order to build the ship. Extra Dockyard space can be bought for those desiring to build multiple ships simultaneously.

·       Scenarios: Apart from the stock Scenarios provided, extra Scenarios can be bought by players.

·       Tycoon Mode Campaigns: Apart from the stock/demo/tutorial Campaign, more Campaigns can be bought by players. Offline play is possible for Tycoon mode, as it acts independently from the regular Online modes.

 

I see a lot of positive aspects and mechanics in WoWS, imo it just requires some reorganization and a change on the monetization strategy in order to become 'something more' to what it has become. 

I played another naval MMO called NavyField (which some of the original WoWs devs played) and something for you to consider would be gun range. NF was a tier based system but each line started off as a DD and ended in a BB5 (Super Yamato for IJN). Gun range helped level the playing field amongst BB's, thus a 'BB3' class Nagato could easily engage BB4's and BB5's, it just couldnt take too many hits from one. IJN ships had the longest range, US ships were good at everything, UK ships had great armour and KM ships had great secondary guns which, unlike this game, were aimed manually and almost always had to be used when engaging DD's. AA was also manual, having to pick the right elevation while planes could gain or lose elevation to dodge flak.

Crew: I would also recommend more detail to non shooting elements of the game. Using NF as an example, much effort needed to be put into crew, a good crew made a ship much better and the crew leveled up on its own to a max level of 120. A BB5 may (may because it was a long time ago and I cannot remember exactly lol) have had 10 crew slots. 2 main gun crew, 2 AA crew OR 2 secondary gun crew, Bridge crew and 5 'support' slots. Support slots were used for Pilots (if you wanted to use your scout plane, you needed a pilot!) Engineers (made the ship faster as they leveled up), Repairers (repaired your ship faster) or Restorers (who reduced incoming damage, put out fires and lessened flooding). If you wanted your ship to go really fast, you could fill all support slots with Engineers. Also, each crew was divided into rookies, experienced and veteran element.....more veterans meant better performance. Bridge crew increased sight range and added general bonuses to the rest of the ships crew. There was significant detail in crew abilities and to describe it all in detail would be a VERY long post. Many veteran players had multiple crew setups for their ships and almost always had multiples of Engineers, Repairers and Restorers.

One of the most fun aspects of NF was the ability to severely alter the design of a ship. For example, I occasionally ran a Kitakami version of Yamato where each gun slot, main gun, secondary and AA gun slot had a quad torp launcher. The torp wall was epic, but no reloads! Armour layout could be modified, deck armour could be removed to add extra torp bulge armour etc. Secondary guns and AA guns could be altered as long as they were properly researched. Again using Yamato, the secondary guns would have been researched when using the Mogami and the AA guns would have been researched when using one of the DD's like Aki. Most players didnt mess with their ships too much, but occasionally you'd run into a frankenship like my Yamakami 🙂 When messing around with a design there was a fixed max displacement and guns took up a specific amount of space and some guns were too large for a ship.

NF also had 'All Welcome' battles where it was all about fun, win or lose you gained the same XP. All classes and all levels of ship were allowed to play, sometimes 40 vs 40...a Kitakami's dream.

The game is still running (somehow) and many of the beta testers for WoWs came from NF. Originally there were dozens (maybe even 100's, there were over 40k NF players in north/south America alone) of us, but there arent many of us left now, Denfish, Prodigal and myself are all I see with any regularity.

[Ferdinand_Max]

8 hours ago, ArIskandir said:

I'm not saying they are not fun, just they have not much depth to the interaction. Ramming actions are fun (a close call is DD torpedo joust with V-25) but there's not much else to it. Same principle why Brawls are temporary events, the limited spectrum of the mode plays against long term replay ability. Arcade games are fun, and some people enjoy playing them time and time again, but for most folks there's only so many Pacman matches you can play before wanting to try something else.

You could also say that there is not much else to "point and shoot" gameplay we have in the game right now... in the end, it all depends on how it is implemented. And ramming mechanics and tactics can be complex indeed, especially since boarding is also involved. For example, ram could succeed, fail, glance off... depending on the relative speeds, relative angle of the ram, weight of the ramming ship, weight and armor of the ship being rammed, and so on.

Then you have boarding - you have to consider number of marines and crewmen on each ship, relative deck heights (taller ship has the advantage), exact location of the incursion and so on.

And guns would be used as well. Ships of the time did have guns after all, they were just arranged into broadsides instead of the turreted battery.

To be frank, ironclad age sounds as it would have potential for far more interesting gameplay and battles than anything since the launch of the HMS Dreadnought.

[Navalpride33]

Normally I would comment on this... But I'm with Karasu on this one.

[torino2dc]

The one area where WG just completely missed an obvious slam-dunk moneymaker was on long-term randomized PvE. Deep Rock Galactic should have been a wake-up call that with proc-gen maps and enemies, you can keep lots of folks engaged and buying your stuff. 

[Wolfswetpaws]

1 hour ago, torino2dc said:

The one area where WG just completely missed an obvious slam-dunk moneymaker was on long-term randomized PvE. Deep Rock Galactic should have been a wake-up call that with proc-gen maps and enemies, you can keep lots of folks engaged and buying your stuff. 

How do you envision that working with oceans & islands?

[Admiral_Karasu]

19 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

How do you envision that working with oceans & islands?

 

[ArIskandir]

15 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

ArIskandir I'd like to compare your "Tycoon Mode" with the "Admiralty System" used in Star Trek Online.

From what I understand, Admiralty System is an extra Activity to do within the regular Game, not a fully fleshed out game mode. Something like that could be easily implemented under the existing parameters of the Game. 

What I envision for Tycoon is an independent Game mode that's actually a different Game, think something on the lines of Anno 1900. Something more management oriented with RTS elements and base development. You have your Port on a given Scenario and a set of objectives to achieve. 

 

[ArIskandir]

2 hours ago, torino2dc said:

The one area where WG just completely missed an obvious slam-dunk moneymaker was on long-term randomized PvE. Deep Rock Galactic should have been a wake-up call that with proc-gen maps and enemies, you can keep lots of folks engaged and buying your stuff. 

Proc-gen PvE would be great, but I worry about the playerbase interaction... On the existing Operations, with fixed and known objectives, spawns and enemy comps, even after years of being released a lot of players fail the Operations. I think proc-gen could work for a basic Shoot'em up setup, but I'm doubtful about more complex scenarios.

[Wolfswetpaws]

27 minutes ago, ArIskandir said:

15 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

ArIskandir I'd like to compare your "Tycoon Mode" with the "Admiralty System" used in Star Trek Online.

From what I understand, Admiralty System is an extra Activity to do within the regular Game, not a fully fleshed out game mode. Something like that could be easily implemented under the existing parameters of the Game. 

What I envision for Tycoon is an independent Game mode that's actually a different Game, think something on the lines of Anno 1900. Something more management oriented with RTS elements and base development. You have your Port on a given Scenario and a set of objectives to achieve. 

Food for thought.

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/anno/1800

Wouldn't there be a problem of eventually running out of unclaimed territories and encountering player opponents?

Or is it a mode that is entirely "player versus programming" and each player is exploring their own assigned parallel world of the game's "fresh start" version of that mode's world?
And the map changes as the player continues to play and make progress?

[ArIskandir]

14 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

1.  Social.  Let's go to <insert player name here>'s Port for a pub-crawl of their Port's sea-side town/city!  Pub-crawl!  Pub-crawl! (and etc. & etc.)

2.  Shopping and customization of player "avatars" and ship's crew members and their uniforms.
Customization of buildings (exteriors and interiors) so each player can make their Port unique and an expression of their personal style.

3.  Creation of items, similar to how the SIMS game allows people to create and buy/sell cosmetic items.  (WOWs might get a 5% cut of the transactions?)

4.  Shore-based missions.  These could be as varied as all the nautical stories ever written.  Shore-leave shennanigans.  Murder/Mystery plots large and small.
  Espionage taking place in non-player-ports accessible by all players.  Treasure Hunts on remote un-charted islands.  And etc. & etc.

5.  Inspection tours of one's fleet and/or ships within one's fleet.  Literally walking the entirety of a ship and checking for problems.
If a player does these "mundane" things periodically, then they'll ensure their ships are "ship-shape" and perhaps will earn a reward (such as a modifier that ensures the ship has 100% HP on the hull and all modules at the start of a battle for the next one to five battles).
By rewarding inspections and maintenance, small improvements in a ships performance parameters (such as gun dispersion or top-speed without needing to use a Sierra-Mike signal flag for one battle or some other small & temporary improvement). 
This idea is in the "brainstorming" phase, and is negotiable, as far as I am concerned.

6.  Tourism destinations.  

A first problem I envision about this is the disk space requirements for all the assets involved in rendering fully fleshed avatars, ports, ships, etc. A game as described in OP would be huge, adding this much  extra 'visual' content would turn it humungus. I would love to have all that in a game, but I don't see it happening it all under the same umbrella... maybe as additional DLC content for those that can afford the extra space?  the question then is, would sales justify the development?

14 hours ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

I'd re-examine guns and ordnance.
I see no reason for the same projectile from the same gun to perform better in a ship merely because the ship is a "higher tier", and vice-versa.

I'd like to test or calculate the actual peformance of all the ordnance used in-game and use those values "as is".

Sure, the game uses time-compression and distance compression.  But an explosive charge is an explosive charge.

Yeah there's a lot of finer details that could and should be tweaked but I went with more general stuff in the OP. For example, I've never liked the way modules/upgrades are treated in the game. I think there's a lot more interesting ways to implement modules/upgrades, I would prefer a system more similar to EVE's.  Each hull has a series of 'hardpoints' for specific hardware. For example you can have a 'magazine' hardpoint, there you can mount an Assisted Loader system for a faster reload, or Extra Armor to increase your armor plating on the area, or an Emergency Flooding system to eliminate detonation risk, or Improved Propellents for extra gun range and a penalty to detonation chance. There's a lot that can be do in terms of making builds more varied. 

 

[ArIskandir]

8 minutes ago, Wolfswetpaws said:

Food for thought.

https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/anno/1800

Wouldn't there be a problem of eventually running out of unclaimed territories and encountering player opponents?

Or is it a mode that is entirely "player versus programming" and each player is exploring their own assigned parallel world of the game's "fresh start" version of that mode's world?
And the map changes as the player continues to play and make progress?

I thought about it as a PvE mode oriented to Solo play, even could be played offline if required. But maybe you could include a 'challenge' option where you play against another player.

[ArIskandir]

8 hours ago, Ferdinand_Max said:

To be frank, ironclad age sounds as it would have potential for far more interesting gameplay and battles than anything since the launch of the HMS Dreadnought.

Gameplay would be more akin to a third person action game than the current shooter we have. Could be an interesting new take.

[Frostbow]

Will you remove Detonation in your WoWS-type game, @ArIskandir?