December Digest #2

World of Warships

Confirmed planned pickups from this Update/Santa bounty using current resources saved/earned: 

• Valparaiso (steel), 
• Roussillon (dockyard event), 
• Lanzhou (event pass), 
• Richthofen (credit and Free XP), 
• Nakimov (credit and Free XP)
• Vampire II (research bureau)

The remaining ships will be earned from whatever Mega and Gift crates I can acquire through the game. Expenditure? Up in the air at the moment. Would be nice to end the year reaching my goal without spending any money where possible. It just depends on what how the Festival Certificate exchange pans out plus earnings from game play. But if spending cash, I want to minimise the amount to what's needed to reach my seven hundred ship goal. 

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Long day session. Played long enough to grab all the Festive Certificates from my Tier X ships - 70+. Exchanged the stash for 14 Mega crates. And scored two new ships - Tier VII Arkhangelsk and Tier IX F. Gonzaga. It's better than nothing I suppose. The drop rate does work so not surprising. 

Now it's time to grab the steel from my Tier VIII and IX ships to purchase Valparaiso. Or Bremen. Nothing is confirmed until the day. 

Would love to do at least one Research Ship reset before year's end (more interested in Vampire II than Paolo Emilio because of the Australian connection).

Today I was reminded that GQ Johnny is not a CQB ship. Ran up against a "YOLO" Emilio in one game and then Kitakaze in another. Died fairly quick in both when choosing to take these elite gunboats up close. At a distance, GQ Johnny can easily cope by using her funny button, smoke, and torpedoes. Up close however unless you get the drop first it's going to be a quick return to port. 

No issues with Blyskawica '44 in contrast. Which is surprising given the Polish DD only has AP, torps, and hydro. No smoke. 

Brisbane performed as per usual in Asymmetrics. Will be upskilling her skipper to 21 point shortly. Remember it's not a leader. Avoid playing aggressively unless you know what you're doing; she's more a strong backup. 

In one game, on the Islands of Ice map myself and a Hindenburg were left to combat four battleships - an Amiga, two Ipirangas, and a Richelieu. A fifth enemy ship, a Hipper, was too far away. The immediate threat to both of us were the battleships. Yet we somehow managed to win out by carefully using island cover to farm the enemy and prolong our shortening lifespan while whittling down their HP to our advantage. 

Looks like I am going to have to buy some Santa crates after all; was hoping to get by for free. If I do end up buying crates, am going for the Gift ones. Cheaper and more crates for your money. Like in previous years. 

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So today I decided to splurge and settled on the 20 Ultra bundle, the most expensive bundle. It will be the one and only spend this Christmas. Got a good enough haul with six new ships - Musashi, Sibir, Suzuya, Hildebrand, Cambridge, Kozma Minin. The Golden crates only gave Red economic bonuses which are welcomed all the same. With the doubloons earned from the Ultras I exchanged them for another forty Gift crates. Someone mentioned a free Gift crate can be earned from playing the sock sequence game on the Santa crate page. That reward plus converting a few remaining snowflake certificates netted a total forty-eight Gift crates which yielded another two new ships - Taihang, La Pampa. 

Not the one I was hoping for - Smaland - but happy with the haul nonetheless.The gain does make grabbing the last few ships for my ultimate goal that little bit easier to reach. 

Usual ship grind - Brisbane, GQ Johnny, Blyskawicz '44, Okhotnik. Highlight, as is normal, was playing Brisbane in Asymmetrics. 

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Thursday. Second Dockyard mission unlocked. And the Event Pass updated. So plenty of rewards on offer. Played Brisbane, Libertad, Shimakaze, Zao. Earned enough steel to finally grab Valparaiso. Played it in Asymmetric. Obscene ship. Ran Lisboa as its captain and it was very brutal for the enemy. Was initially tempted to get Bremen but am happy with my final choice.  

Exchanged Festive Certificates to grab two Mega crates and was surprised to see the Tier X Smolensk. So two new ships - Valparaiso and Smolensk. 

Nine more to go.

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The great thing regarding the Santa crates is that the guaranteed drop reminder enables one to plan what and how many crates to get. Today it was a combination of this plus spending credits and Free XP to grab a total of four more new ships - three carriers M Richthofen, Nakhimov, Essex and one gift crate drop Incheon. Five more ships to go of which two are already locked in for acquisition - Lanzhou and Roussillon. May have to forego the Research Bureau reset however and miss out on Vampire II. You win some, you lose some. 

Finally upskilled my Brisbane captain to 21 points as well. 

Spent the Christmas tokens earned from the Ultra crates on perm camo for the following ships - Montana, Iowa, Rochester, Ostergotland, Constellation, New Orleans, and Hermes. Plenty of tokens remaining. Will likely spend them on more perm camos and explosive effects.

Ships played today: Blyskawica '44, Valparaiso, Brisbane. 

Guaranteed one more ship. Only three left from those that are available for drop: Monmouth, Smaland, Graf Spee. Would be nice to grab all three somehow. That would complete my seven hundred nice and neat. Oh, to dream... 

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Picked up Tier VI German premium pocket battleship Graf Spee. Nice to see a historical ship for once. Just leaves two left on the available list for either Gift or Mega crates. Ignoring the newer ships available through the Ultra/Golden crate system. Won't refuse them if they do drop but the focus will be on getting either the Monmouth or Smaland. Or both!

Played just the two destroyers today. Wasn't much in the mood to play but bothered all the same - Bylskawica '44 and Okhotnik. Both are potent in their own way. Did well on the new map Sunset Isles in the Polish gunboat destroyer where I scored 5 kills, nearly all torp kills. Don't know what my other teammates were doing: some just sailed around watching the sunset. Noticing that a lot lately. Are they BOT players, I wonder....

The famed 'war canoe' Okhotnik is a great torpedo boat. Fearless and lethal if able to close with the enemy. Battleships are especially prized targets. Her eight guns not to be sneezed at either. At Tier V though you're lucky most times to get kills because everyone else at this level are all keen as heck unlike the Sunset Isle map crowd. 

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First game today (Sunday). Began grinding my commander on Castilla, Tier X Spanish cruiser with the funny button. Had promoted him straight from 18-pt to 20-pt using accumulated Elite Commander XP which cost over 700,000 Elite Commander XP. Grinding wearing me down, as expected. 

I was so caught up in the moment of the promotion and gameplay that I forgot Castilla had torpedoes. Lol. After that successful test run in Co-Op, I then jumped straight into Asymmetric, got another lesson reminder - don't YOLO and stayed angled in. Got that reminder vividly when I got blatted out of existence by a Shimanto when I forgot to turn in thinking I could make the island cover in time. Wrong!

Anyway, after playing several games in the ship where it performed okay (remembered to turn off the funny button immediately after it fired its double salvo in order to speed up reload - from double the usual time of 11 secs), I suddenly realised I could promote the commander to 21 points straightaway using ECXP that I had leftover. So I did. 

And then logged out. But not before calculating exactly the amount of Mega crates I need in order to grab the last two ships on the list (see yesterday's post above). I need 24 Megas - nine before the next guaranteed drop, then fifteen thereafter. 

I can score one from the Event Pass; but the remaining 23 I will have to purchase. No way around it unfortunately. Chapter 2 of the Event Pass, like Chapter 1, only delivers 1 Mega crate. And there are no more available thereafter unless I grab some more Tier X ships. But I am now credit and Free XP poor after spending a boat load earlier on carriers. 

Gift crate drops (guaranteed on drop 100) are not worth bothering unless you get lucky. 

Ignoring Ultras; one 20-crate buy was pricey enough. The focus remains grabbing those last two ships from the list through Mega crates. At least, that's the plan. 

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Into the Dead

Having completed two of the main escape plans, focus this time round is completing the Chiefway pipeline escape plan. Almost got there with one pair from an earlier run-through but ran out of lives. 

It is, however, a question of spawning in the right location from the start. So far, each new pairing had ended up following one of the two already done escape plans. 

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Going with Darrel and Leo for my attempt at the Chiefway pipeline escape plan. Added three more crew - Joe, Frank, and Barb - which is good as it would have been many more. Went with Barb for her gunsmith skills, Joe for his larger backpack space, and Frank for his cooking talents. 

Have to remember what the Chiefway clues were and where to find them. For the lazy, you can simply go to the unofficial fan wiki page for a breakdown. Useful if time poor and wanting to tackle the game on hard mode. Or just plain lazy.

Luckily I have a short attention span so will have forgotten most of the clues after reading them all. 

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Staying with Darrel and Leo's group. Expanded to now include Christine and Isabel. They've found the clues regarding the Spill Zone escape plan. Got the hazmat suit from June in exchange for some chilli con carne. And I have now begun searching the fertilizer plant. Meeting up with Otto soon. 

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Joe turned after a nasty encounter pursuing the Network escape plan. Once the team went out on the Network escape plan, I deleted the group and began with a new pairing. Why? Because the game won't allow you to pursue more than one escape plan if one is already locked in as with Darrel and Leo's pairing.

So I am now going with Seb and Dianne again. Going to focus exclusively on the Spillway Zone escape plan clues. Picked up Barb who was crook for a long time for some reason. They've found the clues and are now searching for a hazmat suit. Making for the CDC Field Station which will unlock the three sites for a hazmat suit. 

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Barb was crook for a long time when she joined Dianne and Seb. Her recovery put a drain on the limited food supplies (she couldn't keep her food down). Eventually she's come right. In the meantime, the trio are now a quartet with the addition of Aubrey the veterinarian. Added her for her medical skills. Tried the first of the three hazmat suit locations several times but couldn't find one, at least not worn. Not bothering with the third location when I can visit June and woo hers in exchange for chilli con carne. But it requires a Level 3 food station. Which means scavenging for the materials. 

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Creative Expectations

Seen the new Syama Pedersen collaboration on the Menace trailer. I thought it was okay. Reading the comments, I had a chuckle. Like vultures picking at a corpse, the comments displayed the expectations people have from creators have risen well above the norm for creative content. 

To be fair, Syama did set the bar high when he released his loved project Astartes all those years ago. I was there when they released, one after the other. It was something unexpected and I was hooked. It was, as someone wrote and subsequently echoed by many others, "how I imagined the world of 40K to be". Astartes was brutal, in your face, relentless, detailed, and profoundly impactful.

Syama is a master of the film school of "show don't tell" animation. The fact he has little to no dialogue is a trait of his works. His involvement with other creators is clearly seen in the production's influence. On Episode 5 of the Secret Series, his fingerprints were all over the episode.

What cracks me up however is that many are thinking they've got Syama figured out because they're recognising the same shots in Menace. They are claiming he's simply rehashing elements from Astartes. Is there something new from this man? Well, I hope so. But if not, then no biggie. He came out of nowhere and set the entire 40K animation scene and devoted fanbase abuzz with his supreme creativity. 

He's done so much for the 40K universe, bringing in new fans that can be directly attributed to what he accomplished with Astartes. That's earned him a place in the lore and universe of 40K that can never be overlooked or understated. 

As for his creative abilities, you have to remember that creativity is like a deep pool from which one can draw from. Those who can access it will always be able to do so. If he's not showcasing something new to satisfy the vultures, then try to conjure up a masterpiece at will. I dare you. It's a lot of work; the inspiration is the spark, but it's just the beginning. 

The real mastery Syama displays is what and how he gets from that spark of inspiration to the final composed completion. There are lots of changes along the way. A lot of hard and often thankless work goes into creating what commenters see in a short span of time. Many hours. Many days. Many weeks sometimes. And sometimes, as with Astartes, years.

Comments reveal more about the person making them. 

I guess the real test will come when Astartes II finally airs at the end of 2026. Will he produce something new and different to what's gone on before? I don't know. 

The teaser for Astartes II hinted at that but then there's elements represented within that existed long before the trailer (poor Lamenters). Perhaps what some are alluding to might be true with Pedersen's creativity - that it has run dry. I believe not however mainly because accessing the well of creativity is not something that can be pay walled despite what corporations claim or assert. What bothers me more is that the period between start and finish is where Syama might have issues. The production.

Techniques and approaches to creating change over time yet the basic fundamentals remain the same. Methods can improved upon. Principles can't. And Syama is a master of principles.

His dedication to his art is well known and evidenced by the love he lavished on making Astartes the epitome. He will have work out ways to step around what are simply obstacles to be overcome yet can be major hurdles for the rest of  us. 

I hope that Astartes II tells a story first of all. How it delivers will matter next. And the episode has to be a decent length, not a minute long. And those three expectations will never judge the quality of delivery because what he delivers is always top quality. Roll on 2026.

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