May Digest #2

World of Warships

Interesting moment that stuck with me enough to mention it tonight. Throughout today's session I would look at the various combat missions I'm involved in to check on my progress. Noticed this particular VE day mission (image below) was ticking over nicely throughout the session. Expected to grab the reward because it was close to completion before logging out. But then it just stopped at the amount shown below. Stared at the screen for nearly half a minute expecting it to resume ticking over. But there was no change. So I took a photo to record the moment. 

Could be any number of reasons why it should just stop, so I reasoned to myself. In the end, however, I just shrugged it off and moved on. Expect it will "done and dusted" and activating on the last mission happening when I log back in tomorrow. 

My question though is if the amount targeted was ticking over nicely throughout the day, why did it suddenly stop/pause when so close to completion? A more suspicious fellow would, if eliminating glitches, believe WG is prolonging the end just to get more playing time. You know, the salt mine mentality. Anyway, that's my thought on the matter.

In my previous post I mentioned unlocking Level 2 of the Event Pass because I was close to obtaining the Monaghan, a ship I already have in port. As expected, when it happened, I received the usual credit compensation. But this time it was 1.05 million less than expected. And, to be honest, I expected this outcome. The value of the compensation keeps dwindling every year. Compensation for a Tier VI premium ship was 8.25 million credits two years ago; now it's 7.2 million credits.

There are complaints that WG is nerfing Asymmetrics so much so that it's almost unplayable: the BOTS play is now more advanced and, in going up against twelve lower-tiered ships, a team of five is going to have a hard time winning out. At the same time the rewards are being reduced. 

I can appreciate playing more advanced BOTS. It just adds that much more excitement for those wanting a more challenging run. But the rewards in the past made such a venture into Asymmetrics attractive for the resources rewards. And it was, and still is, fun. Nerfing them now will impact negatively upon player interest. But as someone commented recently, Asymmetrics was always a testing ground for BOT development. 

At least one isn't confronting flying submarines dropping aerial torps and smashing you into oblivion with cruiser guns at the same time in Asymmetric.

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In the grind to complete particular Dockyard event missions, I've been using the French Tier V premium destroyer Siroco from time to time and pleasantly surprised by her performance. Got one of the Honore brothers as skipper (part of my commander upskill program). 

Impressed by the potency of her AP. Which is significant given she's a destroyer. Stealthily I play her as a gunboat DD as her torps are adequate but not a weapon I overly rely upon in combat. It's her firepower for me.

She is quite capable of taking on cruisers when the need arises. With the Main Battery Reload Booster she can sink (mostly) any unsuspecting cruiser presenting broadside. Her speed and manoeuvrability is good too for evading any torps coming her way. While having no smoke can be a worry she more than makes up for this disadvantage with her fighting abilities if you play her right. 

In the same no-smoke class, the German Tier VI premium destroyer K. Schonberg has more torps per spread although they're slow. Good enough for area denial or sinking an enemy battleship, if able to get real close without dying. 

Like the Siroco her guns (both HE and AP) will do some damage to enemy DDs and some cruisers, and thus makes her a useful gunboat DD. And like her French counterpart, she has no hydro. Which makes playing her an interesting challenge/prospect for anyone game enough to run her like I do with one my commander upskill captains (trained for Hindenburg). 

It is a fact that it's a different playstyle with no-smoke gunboat DDs as opposed to the usual smoke torp DDs.

Unlikely to finish this week's Dockyard event mission by the time the next Dockyard mission unlocks because I don't earn enough XP in Co-Op. Unless I jump into Operations or Asymmetric mode which I am loathe to do. My present frame of mind is one of disinterest as I'm currently spending more time and focus on home maintenance (winter is a great time for all those little to-do house chores I've been putting off). When I play this game nowadays, I just switch off (for the most part) and grind. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. 

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Saturday was a short grind because I had other plans for the day. Slowly whittling down the Dockyard missions. Today was not a day of interest or involvement however.

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Sunday (Mother's Day). Fifteen games in Co-Op in Narai upon whom I am upskilling one of the Rong brothers - Quan. Elevated him to 18 points using ECXP. Will most likely send him to the reserve or one of the other Pan-Asian ships I like to play. His brother - Da - I have assigned to the Tier IX battleship Yimeng for now but haven't yet played him. Once raised to 21 points both brothers will join Sa Zhenbing as my trio of Pan-Asian 21 point Special commanders.  

Ten different AL ships sighted today: Yukikaze, Tashkent (twice each); Kearsarge, Richelieu, Bismarck, Hindenburg, Montpelier, Gorizia, Cheshire, Marco Polo (all once each). 

The VE Day mission must have completed last night because it was not showing in the Combat Missions. No Victory permanent camo reward even though I participated. I did receive two Signal containers. Probably compensation? Or something unrelated? I was disappointed though as I was really hankering for that Victory permanent camo reward. :) 

Seriously, the reward was 500 community tokens. 

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Monday's grind was running the Flint to trim down the required XP target for the Dockyard mission. Seven games played. Seven games too many.

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Tuesday's grind. Finished the cruiser mission (earn 130,000 XP). Now it's the turn of the destroyer (same task). Will likely finish in the year 2027.

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Thursday means a new Dockyard event mission unlocked. Finishing this will unlock the Tier IX premium German DD ZH-1. Worth grinding therefore. 

The Azure Lane crates are basically just collection tokens. Not bothering with them.

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SurrounDead

Visited the Factory in tonight's session whilst scavenging for airdrops. Building is huge but pretty empty. I did discover the manhole access to the underground labyrinth at the back however. Ventured down on a quick recce. Obviously it showed evidence of being occupied by survivors but they're either all gone or dead by now as it was now occupied by zombie tenants keen to greet new visitors. 

Winter wonderland makes it sometimes a surprisingly beautiful landscape. Certainly a change of visuals from the usual greens and browns.

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Steam PC Games

Sampling a few demo games tonight (Wednesday) and will do so for next few days. Starting with Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes. Nostalgia was the reason for downloading this demo. Hope it pans out as I do enjoy space games, especially of favourite tv series from the past. Playing through the tutorial is quite involved to begin with however. 

Expect it will take me a few playthroughs to fully absorb the instructions. Not my thing - going through the tutorial instructions - because there is so much to take on board the first time. And I lose interest real quick if it doesn't grab me first up. Still, I will persevere before making a final evaluation, i.e. buying the game.

Next demo sampled was The Artisan of Glimmersmith. Simple puzzle game. Reminds me of crossword puzzles in that it's relaxing and also dull and boring. It's about shapes alignment by seeing patterns. Supposed logical thinking required. But often it's just impulsive application. The playthrough diverges after the first few puzzles solved where alignments add new shapes to the mix that need to be joined.

Not sure about getting this game however.

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Contraband Police Prologue. Seen it previously but never thought much about it at the time. Skipped on to something else. But then I saw Jingles playthrough first time playthrough the other night and was instantly interested. Lol. 

Did the border check training and nabbed a couple of naughty boys for contravening the rules and smuggling the sniffing powder. Transferred them to the labour camp in the police van. Then visited Vlad on the way back to pick up a weapon which turned out pointless as I learned later on in this chapter.

Long story short: dropped off the contraband. Chased a runaway truck that crashed the border gates. Learned a unit was compromised at the sawmill. Went to investigate with a fellow border guard and discovered the unit was working with the rebels. That's when the rebels spotted us and killed us. 

The game is basically one of survival. You can boost your meagre earnings by trading stuff like cigarettes and tools as you try to survive. Easy to trade in contraband, and you can't really trust your fellow comrades as they're all in it for themselves. Will I buy the game? Not sure.

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