This is just a small topic stating some tips you should know as a newcoming player, most vets should know these however since they're really basic in contex.
1. Though Auto FCS is easy to use, it's inaccurate. For new players, it's suggested to practice your aim with manual FCS, since it is much more capable. The training mission with the retired battleships is good for practicing along with blitzkrieg. Most important, learn your angles, every gun is different so stay aware.
2. Deck armor protects against high angle shells, usually fired from guns at 30 degrees or more, while belt armor will protect against any shells usually lower than 30 degrees but when it comes to higher cal guns like 8', alot of armor is required to actually bounce shots and it's not worth sacrificing your ship's speed and displacement, RN BBs are great for deck armor, while a nation like USN relys on speed, only apply bulge with USN BBs, so each nation is different but there is so many more guides for that, check trainworld.us for in depth information like armor. Bulge protects against torpedos, the more bulge, the more torps you can take before you begin losing HP, usually you should only apply bulge until you've lost about 2-3knts on your ship's speed but it is all about your personal playstyle, so experiment. Also, 0.2 of belt armor is enough to half torpedo damage, combine that with a good amount of bulge and you can laugh at those kitakamis abd CVs that think they can torp bomb you. Bulkhead is just how much damage your ship can take until you start to slow down, imo it's pretty useless, don't waste displacement on it.
3. Know your recruits, experts, and veterens. By clicking the RCT on your sailors you'll see your recruits, exp, and vets. Though getting lots of experts and vets is going to boost your combat capability, know when to convert experts to vets, it's a gamble, usually save your experts for a vet conversion event like 400% that occasionly pop up on weekends, don't gamble what you don't want to lose, your experts can be good if you save em but only convert them if A. you have alot and think you'll get atleast one succesful convert or B. until a vet conversion event pops up. Also keep your recruits up, if you keep 55 recruits on your sailors their ability rate will drop as they level up and earn experts and vets, keep em up!
4. Let's refer back to armor, usually in game modes like skirmish and great battle, gunnery duels are happening at long range which promotes deck armor and belt is useless since the shells are dropping from above, but remember, some nations don't promote that playstyle like i mentioned with USN BBs, they just can't bounce shots but RN BBs are good for this due to their trolly deck values. With blitzkrieg, duels usually take place at close range which promotes belt armor, however like I said, some nations just can't take hits so if that's the case, only go bulge and 0.2 of belt so you still got your speed, ships like the MP DD though do promote ship tons of armor (pun intended) since they're built for use by high level crews with sailors like vetted repairs and engineers. Once again, trainworld.us has a lot of useful information so check that out for in depth details.
5. Keep your sailors leveled! All of your sailors should either be ahead or atleast 5 levels within your Bridge Operator's level. This is why having two Bridge Operators is not a bad idea so you can level up other sailors once required (high tier BBs will need somewhere around 7 engineers and 3 repair but you'll only ever need 2 gunners for your main guns and a pair of Reload gunners or depending on the nation, AA guners)
6. Like I just mentioned, keep those sailors leveled, but if you're going to operate BBs then you are going to want either 2 reload gunners or 2 AA gunners, depending on the nation, if for example you're going KM, use AA gunners since they will unlock very good AA guns for later use, but a nation like USN, i suggest Reload gunners since their reload ability is just superior to USN AA gunners, this tip is of course if you plan on using BBs and plan to have self defense AA, or you might want to remove the weight of the AA guns for the sake of speed or more armor. It's up to you.
7. Check your ammo! A classic school boy error is only loading one bind of ammo in double barrel guns and one torpedo for 2 quad torp launchers. When loading ammo onto your ship, you'll see a 1 with arrows pointing up and down, increase the number of binds for more ammo and multiple torps. Of course if you mount a gun that takes up to much space on a turret mount (R mount) then you won't be able to mount any ammo or very little ammo, check how much space you have in your R and T mounts and how much space the gun you want needs. (ex: if your R mount has 96 space and the gun requires let's say... 90, you won't be avle to mount much ammo, possibly 2 binds at most)
8. General tips for guns and torps! To start off... TDA simply lets your turrets turn faster when turned on, i recommend not using TDA on manual aim until you're used to manual. Pressing Y will switch ammo lockers, so you can switch between lets say HE or AP. Pressing F4 will switch between full salvo fire, gradual fire or max velocity which simply fires any gun that is reloaded at that moment. H and N will switch your torps between wide and narrow spread, and fast or slow, fast has less range than slow. Also a tip for manual aim, at the start of a match, go ahead and fire a salvo at max range to see where they land (the little blue circles) so you get an idea of where they may land when firing at max range.
9. When crossing across an ally ship, type in chat "X" or "crossing" to simply notify your ally that you're cutting through. Especially if you're in a.. DD and you're crossing an ally BB, wouldn't want him accidently planting his 16' guns right into your flimsy ship now would you? Simple rule of thumb.
10. When you eventually get the ability to launch a scout plane from your ship (you need a rookie pilot which is leveled up from a special force sailor) Here's basic controls for aircraft which will help with your scout and if you plan on playing CVs. When you load in, you'll see a menu at the bottom of your screen showing your plane/s, a zero with arrows will be there, increase that number to ready a set number of planes on your ship, usually you only need yo ready the amount of pilots you have, with a scout thats usually just one, once the plane is fueled, press the take off button. Now that the plane is circling your ship, press 1 twice and your cursor will turn orange, right click anywhere to send your scout there and using l and ; will raise and lower altitude, however my altitude keys are set to O and L. Those are general aircraft controls, and they will automatcially engage any enemy planes around them, for a scout that has no guns, if you hear them engaging in a duel with a squadron of enemy fighters... I suggest you get the the heck out of there.
11. pretty straight foward, have fun! Play a style that best suits you and don't let any haters discourage you. I've had people complain about BBs having AA on their ships, don't be discourage! Play whatever you feel comfortable with and just enjoy the game. You're playing this game to have fun after all right ? ;)
That's it! General tips for starting out for you new guys. Have fun!
