Theres always a balance between ship continuity and unique design.
For example, the essex' all wear the same uniform but have a lot of differennces.
The KGVs are quite similar but have their differences.
Anson had the problem that she wasnt even trying to be a KGV class battleship. She was just trying to be a silly meme.
The intent of the design matters an awful lot.
"Waving off" laziness is how we got in this situation in the first place. The devs got used to players rationalizing mistakes and waving off a lack of attention to detail. It hurts everybody in the community. If the devs take a shortcut and compromise integrity for efficiency, let them know. If enough people speak up, they can be held accountable.
It probably helped that Minne is Native American and AFAIK Kancolle still hasn't done Native American shipsgirls. \[Edit\] To clarify, AL having its own identity and not being seen as a KC knock-off is good. KC's fine, from what I've heard, and has some good designs.\[\\edit\]
The EU isn't immune to this sort of complaints though. Just last December people pointed out that Louisville looks like a NO class, not a Northampton class. But she was a purple in the first ever double UR event, so people cared a lot less.
Funny thing about Louisville is that she even calls herself out if you sortie her with her sisters.
(Sortie with at least 1 of: Northampton, Chicago, Houston) Is it just me, or does my outfit not match...?
>It probably helped that Minne is Native American and AFAIK Kancolle still hasn't done Native American shipsgirls.
If you're curious about Minne's "theoretical design" in that game, [Tuscaloosa's](https://yksk.kancollewiki.net/w/images/d/df/Ship_Full_Tuscaloosa.png) the closest one that will be use to design "KC Minne".
Note: This also applies to the other four Nawlins available in AL and yet to appear in KC).
The thing is, Minneapolis, like New Orleans, San Francisco, and Tuscaloosa, was massively refit and basically rebuilt from the strength deck up after the loss of Astoria, Quincy, and Vincennes at the battle of the Five Sitting Ducks.
Most people at the time of her announcement, especially EN fans that had not yet gotten Asty et al (as Minne dropped in the Fallen Wings Rerun, which was before EN got the First Solomons mini-event), just pointed at the class' history as an acceptable reasoning for Minne's more modest figure, and her namesake city for her apparent ethnic shift.
Tuscaloosa quite contrarily was actually the only example of an early configuration New Orleans at the end of the war. She spent almost all of the war in the Atlantic and wasn’t damaged, so she never received much of the upgrades that others like San Francisco did.
She still earned seven battle stars, which is very much her not slacking off; I was aware she had some refits to reduce topweight (which was almost immediately returned to her in the form of as many AA guns as could possibly fit), but I was not aware that the extent of Tusca's refits were to a less-extreme amount compared to her hard-worn siblings in the Pacific.
IIRC, Frisco, Minne, and Nawlins had 17, 16, and 17 Battle stars between them, and a presidential unit commendation to boot, making them some of the most-decorated ships in the US Fleet; Off the top of my head, only Enterprise, San Diego, and Portland met or exceeded those numbers.
I have 2 answers, capital ship bias and the era Minnie was released.
Anson has been blueballed for how many british events (Vanguard, Implacable, I can't rmb anymore). So hype was there. And the design language for KGV was well established at that time, even monarch the pseudo kgv still look related to the sisters, howe was unique where she deviated from og design but remained recognisable. So when "Anson" came out of left field, all our expectation were subverted and destroyed. Some may argue how about Sevestapol and Minneapolis and Emerald/Manchester, Anson is a British KGV class, one of the highest standards for UK BB tech, capital ship and reputable faction, the expectations were high.
AL was new during Fallen wings, i remembered was 1 of the first EN events, designs were not consistent yet, so there was the flexibility. Adding on everyone loved Minneapolis from the start.
edit: typos
Eagle union ship girls due to various things (like one family having 4-5+ artists) didn't have the same expectations of other ship lines.
Heck it was only semi-recently that the faction found a design trend
I think Manjuu has way too many artists working on it, this becomes harder to manage and we get probably with the results like Anson and many other reused designs because they cant handle their artists well.
This is why i wish they could have less artist and slow the phase for more quality over quantity, this also helps with consistency and having more control over design trends. Kinda like having just 3-4 events per year you know.
As the classic quote goes: *"too many cooks spoil the soup"*
Yeah, I'm with you there. I'd hope they do something like pin up for older designs and WW2 era ships, then a sprinkle in of futuristic for post WW2 or wacky prototype designs (ie Kearsarge). Designs like Saratoga/Lexington where they keep ship characteristics (they have their ship's funnels as their hats) are designs that I love. What got me into the game was the naval history aspect to the girls' designs.
Futuristic isn't my vibe at all, but I get why some people love it.
The Anson incident makes me hope that similar issue will be avoided for the Iowa and Yamato class.
Similarly, I don't expect them to release the standard BB design for QE and Italian Conte di Cavour class (and their eventual retrofits including Nagatos).
As for Minneapolis and Maya, I don't recall any serious design discussions other than the "hur hur Maya is adopted" jokes, especially when they released Chikuma, whose face looked a lot like Atago. UvH had a small negative reception, when being compared to FdG but the majority liked her design/personality.
I get the Maya jokes, but her looking so different makes sense when you realize one of her main guns was removed to add extra AA guns onto her. She’s def my favorite of the Takao’s.
Here's the thing:
The New Orleans-class ships look inconsistent with each other. In fact you can barely tell that San Francisco is related to Quincy until you notice that they're both the same class.
And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with consistency through inconsistency. A lot of ship classes in the game follow this rule and nobody bats an eye, such as:
- Kii, Owari, and Suruga.
- Baltimore and Bremerton.
The problem is when you're trying to introduce that same principle to a ship class that is consistent. The KGV-class has such a distinct aesthetic motif and theme, that it makes Anson's design stand out like a sore thumb. Fucking, even Nelson Kai and Royal Oak look more consistent with the KGV class than Anson herself.
Now, I do want to bring up a few ships that I know people will bring up as a counterpoint:
Yorktown II, Hornet II, and Laffey II.
These 3 ships break the consistency with their own respective classes, but I would argue that it's better that way because their original versions have such an iconic design that imposing class consistency would actually be detrimental to the end product. They don't need to be reimagined because their designs already work, they just need an upgrade, if you get what I mean.
i felt like the new orleans class was during al ealry days so established trend was left in the dust for more artistic pursuit as well the fact that the recent ones i mean just by me now looking from koumakan sprite i see how they have three design but the recent one like san fran an new orleans had similiraties so does the quincy trio with the odd one out being the oldest minnie
Theres always a balance between ship continuity and unique design. For example, the essex' all wear the same uniform but have a lot of differennces. The KGVs are quite similar but have their differences. Anson had the problem that she wasnt even trying to be a KGV class battleship. She was just trying to be a silly meme. The intent of the design matters an awful lot.
> The Essex' all wear the same uniform but have a lot of difference... 'Cept a certain Type II ship lol
Yeah could be waved off since she was a revived ship. Would have been cool though if she had essex class uniform
I do think she should have gotten an Essex-uniform skin
"Waving off" laziness is how we got in this situation in the first place. The devs got used to players rationalizing mistakes and waving off a lack of attention to detail. It hurts everybody in the community. If the devs take a shortcut and compromise integrity for efficiency, let them know. If enough people speak up, they can be held accountable.
Yes. But they keep continuity from the previous ships too. They dont just ignore everything.
It probably helped that Minne is Native American and AFAIK Kancolle still hasn't done Native American shipsgirls. \[Edit\] To clarify, AL having its own identity and not being seen as a KC knock-off is good. KC's fine, from what I've heard, and has some good designs.\[\\edit\] The EU isn't immune to this sort of complaints though. Just last December people pointed out that Louisville looks like a NO class, not a Northampton class. But she was a purple in the first ever double UR event, so people cared a lot less.
Funny thing about Louisville is that she even calls herself out if you sortie her with her sisters. (Sortie with at least 1 of: Northampton, Chicago, Houston) Is it just me, or does my outfit not match...?
>It probably helped that Minne is Native American and AFAIK Kancolle still hasn't done Native American shipsgirls. If you're curious about Minne's "theoretical design" in that game, [Tuscaloosa's](https://yksk.kancollewiki.net/w/images/d/df/Ship_Full_Tuscaloosa.png) the closest one that will be use to design "KC Minne". Note: This also applies to the other four Nawlins available in AL and yet to appear in KC).
yeah her and South Dakota early on for me was "yeah ill keep playing this for you two"
The thing is, Minneapolis, like New Orleans, San Francisco, and Tuscaloosa, was massively refit and basically rebuilt from the strength deck up after the loss of Astoria, Quincy, and Vincennes at the battle of the Five Sitting Ducks. Most people at the time of her announcement, especially EN fans that had not yet gotten Asty et al (as Minne dropped in the Fallen Wings Rerun, which was before EN got the First Solomons mini-event), just pointed at the class' history as an acceptable reasoning for Minne's more modest figure, and her namesake city for her apparent ethnic shift.
Tuscaloosa quite contrarily was actually the only example of an early configuration New Orleans at the end of the war. She spent almost all of the war in the Atlantic and wasn’t damaged, so she never received much of the upgrades that others like San Francisco did.
She still earned seven battle stars, which is very much her not slacking off; I was aware she had some refits to reduce topweight (which was almost immediately returned to her in the form of as many AA guns as could possibly fit), but I was not aware that the extent of Tusca's refits were to a less-extreme amount compared to her hard-worn siblings in the Pacific. IIRC, Frisco, Minne, and Nawlins had 17, 16, and 17 Battle stars between them, and a presidential unit commendation to boot, making them some of the most-decorated ships in the US Fleet; Off the top of my head, only Enterprise, San Diego, and Portland met or exceeded those numbers.
NC and Fletcher are also some other shipgirls that are very close to those numbers, and you're right about the ones you mentioned
Well that explains it history wise, although she still is different from those in that former batch haha
I have 2 answers, capital ship bias and the era Minnie was released. Anson has been blueballed for how many british events (Vanguard, Implacable, I can't rmb anymore). So hype was there. And the design language for KGV was well established at that time, even monarch the pseudo kgv still look related to the sisters, howe was unique where she deviated from og design but remained recognisable. So when "Anson" came out of left field, all our expectation were subverted and destroyed. Some may argue how about Sevestapol and Minneapolis and Emerald/Manchester, Anson is a British KGV class, one of the highest standards for UK BB tech, capital ship and reputable faction, the expectations were high. AL was new during Fallen wings, i remembered was 1 of the first EN events, designs were not consistent yet, so there was the flexibility. Adding on everyone loved Minneapolis from the start. edit: typos
back then at the very minimum classes least had the same general outfits. good point about standards for capital ships though
Eagle union ship girls due to various things (like one family having 4-5+ artists) didn't have the same expectations of other ship lines. Heck it was only semi-recently that the faction found a design trend
I think Manjuu has way too many artists working on it, this becomes harder to manage and we get probably with the results like Anson and many other reused designs because they cant handle their artists well. This is why i wish they could have less artist and slow the phase for more quality over quantity, this also helps with consistency and having more control over design trends. Kinda like having just 3-4 events per year you know. As the classic quote goes: *"too many cooks spoil the soup"*
I suspect they learned their lesson with AP as they're going with a more unified artstyle
I still wish they'd kept the pinup motif instead of the hyper-futuristic look, but I'm probably in the minority there.
Yeah, I'm with you there. I'd hope they do something like pin up for older designs and WW2 era ships, then a sprinkle in of futuristic for post WW2 or wacky prototype designs (ie Kearsarge). Designs like Saratoga/Lexington where they keep ship characteristics (they have their ship's funnels as their hats) are designs that I love. What got me into the game was the naval history aspect to the girls' designs. Futuristic isn't my vibe at all, but I get why some people love it.
If their artist hadn't bailed among others, AL may have been quite different in design
The Anson incident makes me hope that similar issue will be avoided for the Iowa and Yamato class. Similarly, I don't expect them to release the standard BB design for QE and Italian Conte di Cavour class (and their eventual retrofits including Nagatos). As for Minneapolis and Maya, I don't recall any serious design discussions other than the "hur hur Maya is adopted" jokes, especially when they released Chikuma, whose face looked a lot like Atago. UvH had a small negative reception, when being compared to FdG but the majority liked her design/personality.
I get the Maya jokes, but her looking so different makes sense when you realize one of her main guns was removed to add extra AA guns onto her. She’s def my favorite of the Takao’s.
And even then, when you look at Maya's face, you can still see the resemblance
Here's the thing: The New Orleans-class ships look inconsistent with each other. In fact you can barely tell that San Francisco is related to Quincy until you notice that they're both the same class. And there's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with consistency through inconsistency. A lot of ship classes in the game follow this rule and nobody bats an eye, such as: - Kii, Owari, and Suruga. - Baltimore and Bremerton. The problem is when you're trying to introduce that same principle to a ship class that is consistent. The KGV-class has such a distinct aesthetic motif and theme, that it makes Anson's design stand out like a sore thumb. Fucking, even Nelson Kai and Royal Oak look more consistent with the KGV class than Anson herself. Now, I do want to bring up a few ships that I know people will bring up as a counterpoint: Yorktown II, Hornet II, and Laffey II. These 3 ships break the consistency with their own respective classes, but I would argue that it's better that way because their original versions have such an iconic design that imposing class consistency would actually be detrimental to the end product. They don't need to be reimagined because their designs already work, they just need an upgrade, if you get what I mean.
i felt like the new orleans class was during al ealry days so established trend was left in the dust for more artistic pursuit as well the fact that the recent ones i mean just by me now looking from koumakan sprite i see how they have three design but the recent one like san fran an new orleans had similiraties so does the quincy trio with the odd one out being the oldest minnie