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Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Thursday, April 24, 2014

[WoWP] Update 1.3 for WoWP

Update 1.3 for World of Warplanes is now live bringing multiple fixes, including performance optimization, new FX, update tutorial, and F5U "the pancake". 

Share your thoughts on the new update. 


28 comments:

  1. Love how there is always a wowp livestream on the day the game gets an update

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  2. This game is very hard to get into as a new player. I downloaded it again the other day to give it a fresh shot. With tier 1s you get matches that are 2/3rds+ tier 2s. Being put at a mechanical disadvantage immediately would be bad enough, but if you look at the player stats a huge proportion of them are very experienced players with 1k+ matches. I actually sorted the endmatch screens by XP and only twice did I find a player in the top 5 with less than 500 matches when I was playing tier 1s.

    Sure you can get to tier 2 quickly, but then you run into the crew skill grind. The 50% starting crew has such an adverse affect on vision you can't see people behind you until after they start firing. This allows experienced players an almost insurmountable mechanical advantage. And training up a crew takes so long it's not realistic to expect new players to just endure this until they can play on an even footing.

    And this is just a new player's initial experience. It doesn't take much time after this to for new players to see the effect the 'compressed' altitude and oddly implemented 'performance bands' has on tier balance. There are some fundamental mechanics to this game that need to be seriously rethought, but of course new players have to be given a reason to stick around before any of that matters.

    My recommendation would be not counting low tier matches (say tier 4 and below) on the profiles of players after, say, 250 matches or so as well as granting 0 income. This will weed out the stat farmers, at least. It's a stopgap measure, but frankly until you can get new players to stick around no other changes are going to matter.

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    1. Planning to improve new player experience in one of the upcoming updates with AI-element (bots).

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    2. This sounds interesting... dare I wonder if there are new game modes coming...? z: )

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    3. Yup, they are. We have got a few prototypes in development.

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  3. I'll try and get it downloaded ASAP, 1.6 gigs takes a bit on my connection. Looked through the annoucnment page and looks alright though, the new American planes look sexy as hell, especially that F2H Banshee, and its nice to have the Flying Flapjack back in the fold.

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  4. The new update seems to be running pretty well, I'm getting great FPS and everything looks quite lovely. Despite not playing for a while, it was fun to get back into the game though I'm still fighting my new joystick, bouncing my aim all over the place. Though joystick aim is made much harder by the way that the plane jolts against any manuever after the joystick is released quickly. Slowly releasing the joystick for steady aim on distant targets takes a lot of practise specific to the stick you're using, which I think puts a lot of non-mouse users off a bit. Removing that 'opposing reaction' to manual controls would make things slightly less realistic, but would lessen the massive accuracy penalties those who enjoy direct control over their plane suffer (when it makes the game so much more fun.)

    Otherwise, I'm quite pleased with how WoWP is looking these days and it gives me some optimism. Looking forward to seeing more lines in the game (especially more ground attack planes, there's now lots of choice for fighters, a decent range of heavy fighters, but still only one line of GAA's with little variety. I would personally make it a priority.)

    It's great to see more content out in such great shape. I've stuck with WoWP since Closed Beta and it feels like it's really shaping up.

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  5. How do I feel? Meh.

    Lots of stuff that doesn't really matter till they fix the core problems with the game.

    Scaling is off and feels wrong. Flight model doesn't make it feel like you are flying. Maps are far too small. The whole spotting issue, in that planes magically go invisible (ever been up in a small plane? Other planes are remarkably noticeable, certainly at the ranges for a gun engagement) (also a WoT issue). The whole pilot amnesia issue, like you'd lose your P-51 qualification because you're now flying a... P-51 wait what? (also a WoT issue).

    Stuff they were told about in alpha, closed beta, open beta, and chose not to address and now there are more battles going on in WT than there are players on in WoWP.

    WG need to fix it (not become WT cause WT has it's issues also) or WoWP will die on the vine. Not be adding new planes and tweaking existing planes.

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  6. I'd love to give WoWP more of a chance, but I have that lovely bug where it takes me well over a minute to load in...meaning that by the time I'm loaded in, my poor hapless plane has derped across the entire arena and been shot down before I even get to fly. Makes the game totally unplayable for me, so I stick to WT instead. Maybe this update has fixed it, but I'm leery of even trying, which is sad...esp. since the high tier Japanese planes include one of my all time favorite experimental designs, the Shinden Kai.

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  7. Hello Dmitry.. between us.. its worst patch by patch.. on one side its graphically beautifull game.. but broken MM, insane grind + frustration from ... 2 minutes wait in queue.. 30sec waiting on game start ..~2,5 minutes of play.. rinse an repeat, no tactic.. except meat ball..(followed by friendly collisions.. or face to face crashing) .. rly good dogfight will be visible like every 30th game, when one is lucky enough to find someone with plane with similar parameters (its not about hands and brain anymore) when you see two pilots capable to survive first "crashing" phase. (yes I am still one of those who still investing money to WOT and WOWp because thinking that it good idea to support this gaming company, because as old man I like "fast paced" combat games, due workload and because I have no time to spend hours flying in one game like in WT - but between us. I starting to feel more and more as idiot investing to WG because course which WG takes is not good. I agree that is good partially ignore trolls in live versions.. but absolute ignorance shown to beta testers during beta (all actual issues was already addressed during beta...and ignored and WG reactions? often going straight towards beta testers feedback.. I Would try now to paraphrase: Beta testers told ex: destroying ground targets are fun right now (during time when even fighter was capable to destroy GT).. next patch.. we increased GT HP... beta testers: ground targets are to hard to destroy (fighters lack of firepower to do so. Heavy.. paritaly.. ).. next patch .. we increased GT HP.. beta testers: what is the point to destroy ground targets (even unlucky ILs in higher tier game was not capable to destroy targets) ... next patch.. we increased GT HP and flak doing more damage.... sad?? if WG will take care at least bit about beta comments during testing than there will not be need to search for reason why people don't play WOWp - and if you want to find someone to blame?.. search for person who decided two weeks before official game release to change fragile, but relatively working game balance. And only masochists will play frustrating game and pay for it .. game should be fun so...
    If you ask me what I will change?
    a) fix MM so tier split will be max two tiers ..
    mountains of comments are on official US and EU forums.
    b) Made point in killing / guarding ground targets.. I will personally give them less hp so even fighters can kill them , and radically increase their numbers on one map - 60 -90 ..why not?
    c) lower huge gap difference between tier planes and their basic performance
    d) find different hosting for WOT and WOWp..
    e) let to narcis like Serb to be more kind to comunity
    and I believe me... people & money will start to return

    sorry for wall of text in improper English. //Jiri

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  8. Well game looks more polished with each update, but gameplay is still the same. Quite boring. Too simplistic arcade flying model, no skill or tactics involved, just turning till you crash into someone.
    What put me off in the first game is that I was the only tier3 in a tier5 match. My I-15 got killed in 3 seconds after a t5 turned onto me. Nowehre I can run or turn.
    Now with such small playerbase on EU server, I'd expect everyone to be good at this game ... WRONG. People are sooo bad.
    Stats are more important that flying experience, which is somewhat expected for arcade, but ... we already have tanks.
    Oh... Still no CW.

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  9. Okay, got it patched, have to say it definitely feels a fair bit better now, just overall funner, though I still suck at it horridly.

    Though one thing, and it may sound weird, but the flight model seems to feel off? Like it feels as if the control surfaces, aileron, elevator, etc aren't actually controlling my plane, like when I move my joystick its just turning the aircraft at the center of the model instead of being controlled by the control surfaces.

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    1. In 1.3 or previously as well?

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    2. I assume previously, (abit I haven't put too many hours into it) but it's only been really noticeable for me since the patch, *Shrug* maybe I'm just being nitpicky,

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  10. Graphics seem a little better but I really can't tell much other than everything seems "brighter".

    They(the WG NA minions) said that the chat/contacts problem seems to be fixed but I have seen it broken "post-patch" at least once(logged out and re-logged in and it seemed to come back up).Shouldn't having a operating community chat system in game be priority number 1 in a game like this?

    A hell of alot(well...the scant handful that play it on the NA server) people have noticed that the sights on their planes seem to be screwed up with 1.3. Shots seem to now drop short of the cross-hairs and it is damned annoying. So now the sights have seemingly added to the shotgun effect that previously existed reducing themselves to not being a precision aiming device but merely a "suggestion". WTF?

    I don't know if the new planes are any good because frankly I have not tried any of them. I idea of heading back to a P40 and claw my way to a P38 just doesn't seem worth it when coupling the act with a pissy MM and crap server population. Speaking of the last one...only 1280 on the NA server right now in NA...not good at all.I haven't seen the game break 1500 players in a very long time and the numbers barely scratch 1000 on the weekdays.

    Over all I would say the 1.3 update is "mehh". Neither here nor there in addressing the larger issues that seem to plague this game and for the most part is just like adding frosting on a cake that is already stale and starting to sour. As I said before you are going to have to go big if you want to save this game in NA. A shaky start, failed promises(canceling certain events) and piss poor WG NA leadership/managers has all but doomed this game in NA.

    Go big or go home.

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    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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    2. Can you elaborate on this
      "A shaky start, failed promises(canceling certain events) and piss poor WG NA leadership/managers has all but doomed this game in NA."?

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    4. Shaky start...
      The on again off again launch date.No one seemed to know what was going on.The December patch knocked hundreds of players off until it was un-screwed and even the latest one has knocked off even more players.The other thing for the NA server is the constant collapse of the chat room and contacts seemingly every weekend.How the hell do you have a multiplayer game when you can't even co-ordinate flights with people in your contact list? They say it may be fixed but it was on again off again last weekend yet once more.

      Failed Promises...
      In an effort to draw more attention to the game on the minuscule NA server a certain event(an event now known by the NA community as "the event that shall not be named" due to getting the thread locked and deleted or ending up banned for mentioning..great management WG NA) it was offered that drew a huge interest of WoT players and new players.Instead...they pulled it without even a notice apart from a small post in the forums and nothing apart from removing the event on the front page without a "retraction".The result was that people ended up flying for over week before realizing it had been pulled.
      This started the death spiral of the population and poor reputation the game has now.They said another event would be scheduled but that never happened.


      WG NA leadership or lack there of...
      Oh where to begin on that one as there is so much. So here are just a few examples. The Pearl Harbor Event...or shall we say non-event. As other severs had specials for it the one you think might have had it didn't. It was only when someone tapped the slackers that be on the shoulder and reminded them of what was going on that weekend that a half-hearted cut and paste "wiki" post appeared on the page on Saturday.Then what followed after a few players saying "wtf" on the forum was the most embarrassing exchange and excuse I have ever heard of from the community managers of a game.Result was more people walking away and the reputation of the game going down even more.
      Worse still is the absolute absence of the WG NA folks on weekends when people play more and problems crop up again and again(failed specials,chat collapsing yet again...etc). No tech support,no "we see it and understand the problem"...just absolute silence and sweeping it under the rug as just another weekend foul up when they come back Monday afternoon hoping that time abated the communities anger.
      You want more..then find a player named shwedor(Alpha Tester) who left in disgust due to the WG NA leadership with a sizable portion of the community.He could write a book on it.

      Like I have said before you have a the makings of a nifty game here with a lot of potential but there are so many factors working against it from the past that make any forward progress like swimming through peanut butter.Something has to be done or this game is all but doomed as far as the NA is concerned.
      I hear the EU players complaining about their low population and when I see their numbers I only wish we had half of those here in the NA....right now we are barely above 1300 and this will be the high point of the day if not week.People see these numbers and do not see any point in paying into the game let alone hanging around very long.It has become a vicious circle.

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    5. Regarding @absence of the WG NA folks on weekends when people play more and problems crop up again and again@

      how persistent are those issues?

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    6. Very persistent.All you have to do is just read the NA forums each weekend and see yet another complaint about something breaking or the special being screwed up.
      The only response is silence or a locked thread.

      People have grown apathetic about the whole deal feeling that if WG doesn't care about the game...then why should they.It is killing the game.

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    7. WG NA is the most hilarious thing i've ever seen. If you want a good laugh go to their forums and read what mods and important people write there (like: We don't care about the things you don't like we only submit feedback on the things you dó like" being said by the NA producer for WoWP, most amateuristic office ever seen by mankind.

      God am I glad to be on EU which is understaffed but at least the staff is professional and does what it can.

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  11. I don't blame the people at the NA server for the failure of this game back in June July we tried to tell them what was wrong etc etc didn't listen at all. Serb knows best I guess, u make junk and players stay away and forums are not very kind to this one of course you can say pretty much whatever on other forums but these folks shut you down for being Honest! Now all they do is build on this game and personally its waste time and resources. Its my hope that they don't ruin WOWS to me the best that they can with this one is shut it down!

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    1. Exactly. WG NA takes everything PERSONALLY. They write from personal perspective as well and not out of company perspective, basically anything coming out of their keyboards is a P+R disaster. Throwing out bans for speaking your mind and offering solutions they don't like. Censorship like in the Korea's over there.
      If I act on the NA forum as I act on the EU forum (which made me the first Community Contributor for WoWP EU ENG) I'd be on a lifetime IP ban for more than a year now xD

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    2. I actually was banned from the forums for speaking my mind about how they run their artistic forum competitions, quite possibly the worst run department in history. But even if WGNA office was competent, player numbers are still so low in the NA server that the game meta is horribly messed up. Not to mention that the flights system is completely borked and can make a ~50% win rate player shoot up to ~70% simply by removing one bad player from the team.

      http://rocketbrainsurgeon.com/contributes-winning-world-warplanes/

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  12. Hi Overlord, long time no see, yet the message remains: let go of planes, get into ships and never leave tanks. The battle in the air is lost, u give nothing that other cant give or that has been already given.

    Greets,
    NT

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  13. Would be good if you spent as much time on World of Tanks, as the game play gets worse and worse, all singing and dancing graphic engines, taking precedence over game play common sense. The profit you made last year could easily double if players enjoy the game instead feeling that War Gaming are trolling them. Tanks that cant pen at their tier level, overly biased matchmaking, and trolling RNG, are some areas not forgetting the overmatch as stated in wiki, being wrong ingame, and developer answers to paying customers being downright rude and insulting. Go back to basics dude and please remember that games are supposed to be enjoyed by ALL. Not trolled by some, the RNG system has such an open end that never seems right, penetrating hits should be inside shell damage parameters not way below on average 25% of value with artillery. State what shells hit for as average not lies. It pisses people off.

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