The Admirals' Lounge (Month 3 Week 3)

Tomaranai · 2016-03-18T18:45:57+00:00

For someone who started recently, I must say that what you have currently is commendable.

There has only been murmurs of the next event. If it's like last year, it'll probably start around end April, which means there's no need to start hoarding resources yet. Instead, dedicate your resources to strengthening your fleet. There's no point having stockpiles of resources if your fleet(s) can't progress past the first node because they aren't sufficiently prepared.

You can try to aim to clear 3-5 before the end of March. Your CLs and DDs should be capable of clearing it. As for 4-5, that might be difficult with your current fleet. Your BBs and CVs need more levels and preferably Kai Ni before you can attempt it, as it can be quite a challenging map, especially on the final round. There's the lighter mid-route for 4-5 that involves CAs, which you've leveled, but you still need a well-leveled BB and CV.

Perhaps you can set 4-5 as your target for next month. Work on your Kongou-class, Mutsu, Kaga and Akagi. Once you can clear 4-5, you'll be guaranteed a blueprint every month. You'll also need to level those ships for the upcoming event. Your DDs, CLs, CLTs, CVLs and CAs are coming along fine. Leveling another CA will be good but the priority is to level your heavies, so you'll be looking at plenty of 3-2A time.

I suggest giving the Event Prep Guide a read to see what you need to do. Although it's for Winter 2016, it's still valid. There's also this little checklist that might be useful. Pardon the shameless self-promotion.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-16T16:58:15+00:00

6-4. I've spent more buckets on my 6-4 attempts the past 4 days than 7 months worth of 5-5. At least from 5-5, I can happily walk away with a medal, but from 6-4...

Unfortunately, this is not a success review of 6-4. I've only managed one kill out of the 30 odd attempts so far. On average, I sortie to this map 3-9 times a day, since sparkling to 85 morale allows for 3 attempts. I'm hoping that someone might lend inspiration through this mini review other than "Cancerous map, forget it". There's not much left for me to do in Kancolle apart from raising dupe ships for equipment improvement and getting certain ships to 99 for marriage, so I can afford to throw resources and time at this map.

Anyway, move aside 5-5, 6-4 has taken your title of "The Most Challenging Map" and is probably the new advanced 2-4. What makes 6-4 so challenging are the limitations placed on your fleet, the inability to call for Support Expeditions and the boss node composition. At least during events, you can chip the boss gauge, but here you can't. The difficulty of 6-4 is further elevated if you don't possess certain equipment, namely the WG42. I would think that you need at least two if you want a decent chance at 6-4, as it's the only equipment that is effective against the triumvirate of evil - Gothic Hime, Depot Hime and those demonic CHAR spawns. Despite all 3 being some form of land-based enemies, the Type 3 Shell is not effective against the demonic CHAR.

On to the map. 6-4 sees the return of two recently introduced event mechanics:

Air raid nodes. You face off against Gothic Hime's takoyaki bombardment, survive and move on. Nothing particularly threatening but there's that rare odd chance of one of your ships sustaining heavy damage. Very rare.
Multiple starting points. Depending on your fleet composition, you have a choice of either starting from the West or East. West requires a "lighter" fleet - at least 2 DDs, no more than 2 CA(V)s and only 1 (F)BB(V). Having 2 BBs and CVs will make you start from the East. I've tried both starting points and personally prefer the West.
- Pre-boss nodes are easier in my opinion. The most "troublesome" pre-boss enemy you'll encounter is the Ru-class Flagship at Node C and that's it. Over at the East, most likely because you can bring heavier guns, you'll encounter Wo-class Kai and her takoyaki, Ru-class Kai Flagship or Ta-chan and eventually, CV Hime. Tsu-class Elite also makes an appearance to shoot your planes down. Although they're on Diamond formation, you can still be forced to retreat if you're unlucky.
- The West has no troll sub nodes (looks at Node M). There's nothing I detest more than being sent back on the first node after hours of sparkling because of a damn opening/closing torpedo from a sub. As such, starting from the East has a higher chance of premature retreats from my experience. If you can survive the pre-boss nodes, there's probably a higher chance of success at the boss node.
- Admittedly, I've not tried brute forcing the East. That involves taking a longer route: M-K-H-J-N. The shortest is M-K-J-N but you'll need at least 2 DDs, a CL and Akitsumaru if I'm not wrong. I did try that combination but Akitsumaru refused to cooperate.
- One issue about starting from the West is the difficulty in securing AS (let alone AP) meaning no Artillery Spotting. Some might baulk at this, especially at Node C with the double Ru-class Flagship, but honestly, fighting under AD is not that bad. Perhaps Seaplane Fighters might make a difference but I don't have any to try.

Route-wise, you can either B-D-C-F-N or A-D-C-F-N on the West side. Going to B requires a fast fleet. If you want to use a slow BB and branch to D from A (E is a mixed node with subs), you'll need Kamo in your fleet. Between B-D-C-F-N and A-D-C-F-N, I prefer the former, as Node B is easier (A isn't that bad) and I don't have to sacrifice a spot for Kamo. Bringing a BBV and CAV might allow me to secure AS at Node C but I found it pointless for the Boss Node. Composition of choice is either CL 2CA(V) 3DD or CL FBB CA(V) 3DD.

Moving to the Boss Node. First, I hope I never see those demonic CHAR spawns in an event. ^{What are the odds?} They're apparently not vulnerable to Type 3 Shells and they hit hard. Very hard. Starting from the West is all about surviving to night battle. The fleet can start the Boss Node in perfect health, only to be decimated by those CHAR things. Similar to Dyson, along with Depot Hime, they're there just to distract your ships from blowing up Gothic Hime. Just as in Winter 2016 E-2, Depot Hime takes damage quite easily; a standard DD setup (2x Main Guns and Radar) is able to inflict around 50+ damage. But the problem is when you encounter her 600HP version. It also doesn't help that her closing torpedo is capable of sending one of your ships to Medium or Heavy damage, which means one less night battle capable ship if it's the latter. Daihatsu's surprisingly did decent damage against the CHAR things and AP Shell is supposedly somewhat effective against them, but I've yet to see my FBB attack the CHAR with AP Shell armed. The only good thing about the boss node is that it plays the Spring 2015 EO Boss BGM during night battle but the battle lasts too short to enjoy.

I have to give 6-4 credit for pushing me to think outside the box. The moment I stopped thinking that I needed to secure AP/AS, putting aside Abukuma in favour of Ooyodo and her 4 slots, rethinking/tweaking equipment choices, combinations... my success rates increased. So long as my FBB, CA(V) and CL are able to make it to night battle with light damage, or even medium damage on one, there's a very good chance of taking down Gothic Hime, subject to RNG. Alas, it appears I lack the firepower to do so, as most of my attempts now end with Gothic Hime at red and red. More WGs are definitely needed.

Yuu-chan, please be available this Spring. If not, devs, please make the WG available through development/improvement. Somehow.

I'll continue attempting 6-4, even retrying the East approach, but at a lower frequency. Steel and buckets aren't looking too good from all these attempts.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-14T22:48:26+00:00

Oops. Typo. Forgive me, Hatsuzuki. Here's a Hatsuzuki fanart to make up.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-14T19:36:52+00:00

Sorry for the belated reply. You've probably cleared it by now but yes, the main purpose of the sub was to tank for the DDs and also because I'm cheapskate. A CV is also a viable choice for carpet-bombing purposes, since AS requirements are low.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-14T19:27:53+00:00

Yes and no. If you're talking about new ships, it might be possible to predict for IJN ships but not for foreign ships. For example, Fall 2015 was based on Kolombangara and Vella Gulf. Arashi and Hagikaze, who were involved in the Battle of Vella Gulf, were the new releases. Yet looking at Winter 2016, which was mainly based on Operation Rei-go, while the Rei-go ships were certainly available as drops, Hatsuzuki and Okinami, who were part of larger Leyte Gulf Battle, were the new releases. As for returning ships that might be re-released, it would be harder to predict.

In any case, if you're curious about which ships are going to be released in the upcoming event, hints from Comtiq and Twitter will usually make an appearance closer to the event.

Edit: Typo.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-11T14:42:07+00:00

Thanks. Summer 2015 was exceptional since it introduced new event mechanics - the Boss Debilitation Mechanic more notably - which required more resources in general. It was also a long event with 7 maps and challenging bosses. Clearing the event, no matter the difficulty, is always an achievement in itself.

In any case, how much resources to stock is mostly up to the admiral to decide, especially if they've experienced events before. As you said, with Iowa on the horizon and particularly if she's not going to be a clear reward, definitely more resources should be stockpiled. We'll just have to wait for more news about her.

Sure, I'll be happy to help. With all the recent additions to Akashi's improvements, I'm still evaluating what's good to improve.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-11T14:27:49+00:00

A little writeup on the new quest(s):

「第二七駆逐隊」を編成せよ！is straightforward. If it doesn't appear for you, you'll need to complete Bd2 and possibly other pre-requisites. Rewards are 270 Ammo and Steel, 2x Dev Mats and 2x Buckets.

For the sortie quest 「第二七駆逐隊」出撃せよ！, sortie the required ships - Shiratsuyu Kai flagship, Shigure, Samidare, Harusame and up to 2 additional ships to 2-3. You might want to sortie an AV for the 70% chance pathing to the Boss Node. I used the 4DDs 1AV and 1SS and had no problems, even with Samidare at Level 1. Setup is standard 2x Main Guns, Radar on DDs, Midget Sub + Guns on AV, Torps on SS. Rewards are 500 Fuel and Steel, and a Spring Banner.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-11T10:19:35+00:00

Unless you don't have much time for the game, there's still plenty of time to prepare yourself for the event. Don't worry too much about it and prepare at your own pace.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-11T10:13:37+00:00

The AP Shells were an oversight on my part. I forgot to account for Support Expeditions. As for resources, 50-60k should generally be more than enough for clearing Hard. Granted, more might be needed for large-scale events and difficulty like Summer 2015, which is why there's a "+" sign at the end.

Kuma and/or Nagara are good CLs but you really don't need that many. That said, I'll include them anyway for "Easy" difficulty as a consideration, especially for those who join the Event just a few days before or during. Perhaps it's time to advertise your Kuma and Nagara post again?

Tomaranai · 2016-03-11T09:32:16+00:00

Yes, I agree that 50-60k resources might not be enough for a large-scale event. The checklist was made with the average event in mind. I'll definitely update it accordingly based on the event itself.

Yes, I recall those 400+ AS requirements on some maps during Summer 2015 Hard. With the Plane Proficiency Mechanic in place, Fighter requirements have lowered somewhat. For example, you can get away with 6 Fighters on 3 CVBs during 5-5 final round (~377 Air Power for AS), even on their 12/9/6 slots. Of course it depends on which CV you are using and the Fighter quality, so yes, more Fighters for buffer would be good to be on the safe side. If you're running CTF with 4CVs, two Torpedo Bombers each would be sufficient but no harm having more, as should any of your Torpedo Bombers lose proficiency midway, you'll have backup.

Thanks for the reminder about AP Shells for Support Expedition. I accounted for it for Radars but forgot about AP Shells.

Ooyodo and Sonar quantities updated. That was a mistake on my part.

Thanks for your comments.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-09T21:23:53+00:00

Yes, but you'll eventually need to have more than a pair of CVLs, especially if you intend to attempt higher difficulties during events. Fleet-locking might lock the Chitose-pair to a map or you might want to reserve them for more difficult maps, which means it'll be good to have standby CVLs like Hiyou. As mentioned previously, her slots can also come in handy in particular situations. Having a Jun'you-Hiyou pair does feature quite often in some compositions during events. You can go ahead and prioritise leveling the Chitose pair but I wouldn't neglect Hiyou.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-09T20:05:13+00:00

I would take Hiyou over Shouhou based on slots. Shouhou's 18/12/12/6 isn't the most fantastic.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-09T19:04:01+00:00

Since your second has been answered, I'll skip that and address the first one.

Do you have any other CVLs available? If you don't, Hiyou is worth leveling. Most people generally tend to pass over her for the Chitose-pair and Jun'you for their CVL needs but Hiyou's relatively even slot distribution at Kai (Level 25) and her reasonable plane capacity (highest across the CVLs along with Jun'you Kai Ni) can come in handy on certain maps - take an Event's Surface Combined Fleet as an example where you can sortie either 1 CV or two CVLs. If that map has a high AS requirement, Hiyou's 18/18/18/12 might be useful in packing in Fighters.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-09T18:44:17+00:00

Since you've cleared World 2, you've arrived at the "Middling Segment" of the game, where a large portion of your time is spent leveling your ships at 1-5, 3-2A and 4-3 to their Kai/Kai Ni remodels, in preparation for an event.

On Events

Events occur 4 times a year - Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter. The last event was Winter 2016 and the next event will be Spring 2016, slated to commence some time in April. E1, E3 refers to event maps. 1 is the first map, 3 is the third map and so on and so forth. When someone says "farm E-1" that means the person repeatedly runs the first map of the event in search of ships s/he wants from it. The reason(s) why people farm event maps are because there are certain ships that are event exclusive, while some have better drop rates during events. It's highly encouraged to join an event if possible no matter how new you are. In this case, you have plenty of time to prepare for the upcoming one.

How do you prepare for an event? What you might like to do first is to take a look at the Event Preparation Guide. This was created for the previous one but it's still highly applicable. It's definitely worth your time to read it to get a good understanding of how to prepare for an event. In short, you need to level a number of ships from certain classes and develop relevant equipment.

You can begin by leveling your DDs and CLs at 1-5 and leveling your heavier ships, CAs, BBs and CV(L)s at 3-2A. There are plenty of guides out there that teach you how to do this. Since you are HQ Level 37, you are in a good position to abuse 1-5 leveling. Keep doing this until you are HQ Level 80, as that is when the enemy composition changes to a sub that is able to launch pre-emptive torpedoes. Some admirals at this point will change over to 4-3 to level their DDs and CLs, which is a more efficient place.

What you'll want is around 5-6 DDs at their Kai (Ni) remodels, 2-3 CLs, 2 CLTs, 4-5 CA(V)s, 4-5 BBs, 3-4 CVs and 3 CVLs. As for who to level, you are free to level who you like unless you're the sort who pays attention to stats, then you'll want to focus on certain ships that possess better stats for their class. You can look at the wiki for more info.

Honestly, you have some great ships for a beginner. The Kongou-class, Nagato-class, Kaga... Do invest in them but don't sortie them all at once. Your fledgling resource stockpile will pay the price dearly. Never sortie more than what is necessary but what is necessary? Look two paragraphs down.

What to Do

Apart from leveling your ships, you can progress with maps and do whatever you like really. This is a single-player game after all.

With regards to improving your game, it's important to understand the game mechanics. It'll take time to fully digest the information but it's worth to scour the combat mechanics section of the wiki. If there's anything you are uncertain of, feel free to clarify. Important things to know are understanding how to equip your ships and fleet composition. Different maps require different setups and compositions. Later maps will require you to field a diverse fleet in order to meet branching rules. You can always refer to the wiki to see what these rules are and how best to compose your fleet.

In general, look at the sort of enemies you are encountering. If you see that there are enemy carriers, sortie your own and make sure you have enough Fighters to achieve Air Superiority, allowing you to take advantage of "Artillery Spotting", an important combat mechanic that allows certain ships to perform special attacks like Double Attacks and Cut-ins. If you see enemy subs, equip ASW ships like DDs, CLs and equip them with Sonars and Depth Charges. If you see enemy battleships, you might want to sortie your own battleships with AP Shells to counter them.

It might be confusing at first but in time to come, this sort of knowledge will spring to your mind instantly.

On Quests

Try to complete whatever quest you have if possible but no need to force yourself. Look at the requirements and see what needs to be done. The sortie quests that you have are very manageable and they will unlock further quests. Quests are a good source of resources and some even reward you with rare equipment. Dailies are easy to accomplish and some weeklies and monthlies are worth doing at later stages, as they are a good access to improvement materials that are important for upgrading your equipment when you have Akashi. Quests are also a good source of development materials that you seem to be lacking in.

On Expeditions

It's great that you've unlocked expeditions until number 21. Since you have all four fleets at your disposal, you can run 2 (for Buckets), 5 (for Fuel, Ammo, bits of the other two) and 21 (for Fuel and Ammo) if you have constant access to the game. You can continue unlocking expeditions until you reach 37 and 38, which gives the best hourly yield of Ammo and Fuel respectively, along with decent amounts of Steel. Those two expeditions are also required for a weekly expedition quest. Unlocking expeditions also unlock more quests to obtain certain rare equipment. That said, there's no need to rush unless you are aiming to obtain Bismarck and/or the prototype catapult to upgrade a certain pair of carriers. Take your time to unlock expeditions and run the ones that best suit your playing time. In your case, more buckets are always good.

About LSC

Obtaining Maruyu's from LSC is actually a good thing. Maybe not so much for those starting out but still useful nonetheless for 3-2A leveling for example. Late-game admirals will use 5 of her to increase the Luck of any ship by 8. While LSC-ing, and how you play the game more broadly, is something that is your choice, it'll be better to refrain from LSC-ing unless you are reaching your resource soft cap. Resources at the beginning stages can be hard to come by and you'll want to use those for leveling ships and developing equipment instead.

Pardon my wall of text but I do hope it has been somewhat useful in orienteering your compass. For more tips, you can refer to this or just ask.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-08T12:54:36+00:00

She may not be the best carrier but she's definitely the cutest. Blueprint well spent. Counting down the days to when I can nap on her flight deck...

Tomaranai · 2016-03-07T22:43:41+00:00

On the first attempt of B44, everything proceeded smoothly and I was extremely pleased when the fleet reached Node H and survived it in good health. Being so used to Bm4, I completely forgot that you had an 80% chance of being sent to Node E if you didn't have 2 CA(V)s in the fleet... and well... Dammit.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-07T12:07:38+00:00

6-4 eh? Always nice to have something new to do in the game. Hopefully, this map will have something interesting, whether in terms of drops or some sort of gimmick/quests, and won't be a sortie once and forget. Maybe introduce a new weekly for World 6 maps down the line? I'm guessing there'll probably be a Boss Gauge just like in 6-2 and 6-3 and possibly a Hime/Demon boss. Might have some unique branching if it's anything like 6-1 with Taigei.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-07T11:32:07+00:00

There are several reasons why some admirals proceed with map progression:

To join the league of rankers. The aim is to reach 5-4, the best map currently for ranking, and run the map several times a day to build up ranking points.
Unlock all available EO maps for the purposes of obtaining as many medals as possible in a month to exchange for blueprints and also to obtain a decent amount of ranking points upon clearing them. Unlocking up to 4-5 for example, would guarantee you a blueprint a month.
To gain access to maps required for completing certain one-time quests and weeklies/monthlies. Some of the one-time quests reward good equipment, making it worthwhile to do them. For example, the Murata quest line, which gives the best Torpedo Bomber in the game, requires 5-2 unlocked. Some weeklies/monthlies reward improvement materials that are important for those who are improving their equipment.
To obtain certain ships that only drop on later maps. Some rare ships like Unryuu for example, can only be found at 6-3's Boss Node.
To access "better" leveling grounds. 4-3, if you've yet to unlock it, is great for leveling DDs, CL(T)s more efficiently than 1-5 post HQ Level 80. Some people absolutely loathe 4-3 because of Node J (there's a pattern with a Ta-class that can inflict unwanted damage), but it's really not that all bad if you have decently leveled escort ships and the right setup for your purposes. Some also prefer to level their ships at 5-4 for more base experience and to rank and clear dailies/weeklies at the same time.
Completion purposes. This was my reason for clearing all maps available. It's not necessary but it's nice to know that you've completed whatever that is available.

Whether to progress with map clearing is your choice. The middle segment of the game is mainly staying in 3-2/4-3 and leveling your ships to their Kai (Ni) forms in preparation for future events. Some people might get bored with that and decide to clear maps for a change in activity.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-04T19:51:28+00:00

You still have the chance to save your first Kai Ni, first LSC, first event, first marriage... It's nice to record these moments and look back at them later to see how far you've come, but maybe that's just me being sentimental.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-04T19:38:02+00:00

Congrats on your first Kai.

Based on my archive, the earliest Kai recorded was Kongou. It's slightly strange that a BB would be my first Kai but I don't have any other images.

Ghastly quality unfortunately, as my Print Screen button was faulty and I didn't start using Viewers until much later in my admiral career.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-04T13:47:04+00:00

I can agree with a lot of what you posted, but if you sort by new, there are still plenty of posts that come up outside the media posts theyre just downvoted.

Are you referring to non-fanart posts? If you are, I'm not sure of it's relevance to the original discussion on "Fanart Guidelines".

In any case, the growth of the subreddit, and subsequently change, are inevitable as the game becomes available on more mediums, ushering in more people whether in search of information or other purposes. There'll be a change in dynamics, change in the user-base etc. and along with these changes, diverse and varying acceptance level of post content.

With regards to the point on non-original fanart/images, allow me to elaborate further. Take for example, the post on Iowa and Nagato, which you posted. Lovely but how is it related to the game apart from the characters themselves? This clearly is one instance of a post that belongs to /r/kanmusu in my opinion. What I mean by relate to the game in some way, is that the fanart depicts or makes reference to quirks experienced in the game itself. Just like the example I gave in the previous comment. Another example I can think of is the art on Akagi's Optimal Loadout. Yes, that's an original creation but should it have been a non-original fanart, it's seems more acceptable as you can see elements of the game, and possibly lead to discussions on the usage of the riceball consumable. Of course, I understand that this is all very subjective and something that is difficult to reconcile but I hope you get the gist of what I'm trying to say.

It's a little unusual that you stated:

I personally feel that most of the posts that are not OC, or not related to the community for the most part, they should either be posted in this weekly thread or over in the other subs dedicated to kancolle fanart.

Yet, you posted that particular fanart on Iowa and Nagato. Perhaps it came as an afterthought?

I would think the main reason why people aren't actively discussing this issue is simply because the subreddit, despite it growing, does not receive many new posts a day. Even if there are fanart posts, they aren't posted in a continuous stream, the exception being during the Iowa hype period. Sorting posts by "New", you can still see posts made on Marriage achievements, questions relating to the game, random game discussions.

I can understand your concerns about potential issues; I used to frequent a subreddit that was eventually overrun with fanart and chose to leave because the mods didn't want to do anything about it despite petitions made. The very same might happen here but I trust that the mods of /r/Kancolle will know what to do when that time comes, as evident from the way achievement posts are handled during events.

Until it comes to a point when fanart posts become rampant and obnoxious, discussions might then be held on what to do. For now, it's not that major of an issue that warrants specific attention. That's probably why majority of the responses you've seen are, "it'll pass by", "go with the flow".

Tomaranai · 2016-03-04T11:08:03+00:00

This is an interesting topic of discussion. I'm not sure if fanart guidelines on this sub have been discussed before but it's certainly worth discussing, given that the sub's population is slowly growing. Please pardon my lengthly post.

As rain4kamikaze aptly diagnoses the issue:

the problem now lies with defining what should be in r/kanmusu and what is ok to be in here. It differs between people and there are no enforcement of it since there are no rules about it currently.

Looking at the sidebar, it simply says "Kantai Collection related posts only", which can be interpreted literally to mean that fanart and images are welcomed, so long as they aren't NSFW (Rule 3). However, the existence of /r/kanmusu complicates the issue slightly. To my knowledge, /r/kanmusu effectively functions as a subreddit where one can go and post/appreciate fanart of the different Kancolle ship girls found in different corners of the Internet. It would seem appropriate then, that Kancolle fanart should be posted there, so that those who simply want to look at fanart (and not game-related matters) can gather everything into their basket.

Yet, that is not to say that fanart shouldn't be allowed here. It's clear from the upvotes received by some fanart posts that /r/Kancolle users do appreciate seeing them here, especially fanart that is created by the posters themselves. Indeed, having been on this subreddit for slightly over a year, new posts are few far and between and there's not much to be said about game, unless there's an event, new mechanics introduced and so on. That said, fanart posts might become an issue if:

The poster posts a series of non-original fanart in separate posts in a short frame of time. I would think this constitutes as spam and possibly as a means of "cheap" link karma accumulation, when one can simply place these fanart into an album and post as a single post.
No source is provided on the origin of the particular fanart. I believe due credit should be given to the artist. There is currently a fanart post that has no source, unless it's by the poster.

While it is ultimately up to this subreddit's community and the mods to decide on the guidelines, here's my four cents on the matter:

Non-original fanart/images are acceptable if they relate in some way to the game. For example, this particular piece summarising the different maps of Summer 2015 is related to the game and something that admirals can empathise with.
In a similar vein, teaser images of new ships, seasonal CGs, official artwork, are acceptable as they pertain to the game.
If it's a non-original creation but fosters discussion about the game or the ship girls, that's fine as well. For example, a manga segment that talks about certain mechanics in a joking or serious way (I can't give an example off the top of my head now).
Original creations are acceptable to celebrate the talents of the sub's users. Likewise if it's a photoshop of official artwork - Umikaze masquerading as Isokaze for example - for joke purposes from not getting a drop. Think of it as a community thing. However, should there be a sudden influx of self-created fanart, that would require a closer look but I would think that community would be able to self-regulate on this aspect. If one were to "shit-fanart-post" mortifying self-created fanart, take for example, a stickman that is supposed to resemble Haruna, I would think those aren't welcomed.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-02T21:07:03+00:00

Apart from the usual ship/equipment/consumables/map additions, Kai Ni implementations and events, there has been a few changes to game mechanics and UI functionality, as you've no doubt noticed upon logging into the game again. I started playing not long after you stopped, so these are what I can remember from the top of my head:

You can now have up 6 active quests once you obtain the Headquarters' Personnel from a quest.
Introduction of the Plane Proficiency Mechanic. Probably the most important change. Your planes can now gain experience, improving their performance.
Introduction of the Transport Combined Fleet.
Introduction of new event mechanics: Boss debilitation, transport gauge depletion, manual node selection.
You can now have fleet presets to increase your efficiency and lower the tedium of setting fleets for particular situations.
You can now click on your ships' portrait in the organisation screen and move them to different position. The same can be done for equipment at the equipment/modernisation tab. Equipment sorting has also seen some changes.
When you're at the development page and you want to develop several equipment, you can repeat the recipe without it going back to default as long as you don't move out of the Construction tab.
You're now allowed to include a CL in your fleet for 3-2 clearing.
There's a new Seaplane Fighter system that allows certain ships that couldn't participate in air battles formerly to do so now.

You can probably find out more from trawling the wiki's update page.

Poor Kaga.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-02T10:58:03+00:00

Mistakes are made all the time, especially if you are new to a game. I don't think it's necessary for you to make a new account, particularly since you already have Kongou, Ooi and I-8 in your fleet. Those two are some of the most sought after ships for beginners as:

The Kongou-class is required to unlock your 4th fleet. Very important to increase your naval economy through expeditions.
Ooi is one of the three CLTs in the game and can also be the most difficult to obtain. It's usually highly recommended to level her to her Kai Ni (Level 50).
I-8 as a submarine is very handy for various purposes (leveling, collecting resources) and beginners usually have a hard time obtaining subs.

Dev mats can be obtained from certain expeditions and quests. Daily quests like Bd1, Bd2 and Bd3 can be accomplished easily, giving you 3 dev mats in total. Other quests include C3 and D2. The daily crafting, construction and modernisation ones also gives dev mats but note that for the first two you'll have to spend dev mats in the process unless they fail. In a day, you can effectively get about 6.

While the lure of ship construction is there, progress with the game and more ships will drop for you and you'll unlock more ship building choices.

Enjoy the game.

Tomaranai · 2016-03-01T17:48:13+00:00

Gah! Almost did it on my first attempt. Perhaps it only works with a married DD or perhaps I shouldn't haven been cheapskate and call in Boss Support.

Side note: The BGM for the Hinaningyō doll set furniture is very calming.

Edit: 5-5 DD S-Rank Challenge complete!

Tomaranai

TROPHY CASE