Hi, Games!
What turns a person into a drug dealer? A drug dealer into a drug lord? Find out in DDS2!
Drug Dealer Simulator (DDS2) is a prequel to DDS1! You do not need to know the events of DDS1 to enjoy DDS2.
ABOUT THIS GAME
You are Eddie in the early 2000s, and a lifestyle of bad choices made you an outlaw seeking refuge. Don't worry tho, Isla Sombra is the perfect place for fugitives like you! Prove your worth, use your talents and get your life back!
Establish your hideouts, produce drugs and sell them on the streets. Reach clients and suppliers… and grow your operation. Expand to other villages and towns, but beware. The big fishes don’t like it when someone stirs their waters…but you can FIGHT THEM!
So what’s a big new thing in DDS2? First of all, Melee combat!
Melee combat fits perfectly into the gameplay of DDS2. On the contrary to part 1, it introduces means to defend yourself as well as play out a more violent playstyle to achieving your goals, not turning Drug Dealer Simulator into another shooter game, which we were purposefully avoiding. Fights between players and enemies, as well as different enemy factions, bring more action, life and thrill into the world.
The enemies don't only react to the players but also start fights with each other, policemen can beat up thugs that attacked you, and you can encounter spontaneous fights between rival thugs in some areas which can sometimes escalate very quickly.
And secondly - Co-op!
Obviously, the player will be able to choose if he wants to dominate the Island alone in a single-player playthrough, start his journey with friends or maybe start solo and invite members on the way. We are working on delivering a flexible drop-in drop-out system. You set up your cartel, you’re the boss, others may join or leave when you feel like it, it’s all up to you.
FEATURES

• Many improved and many new ways of acquiring, processing and distributing narcotics. Buy and produce drugs or byproducts, and process, mix and/or purify them to achieve the desired quality.
• Singleplayer or co-op mode.
• Expansive and varied environments, from small villages to harbors to towns and everything in between.
• Improved A.I., both for NPCs and enemies. Militia can raid a village and harass the townsfolk.
• Unique economy with two currencies – the local one and the much-desired U.S. dollar.
• Early 2000s technology and an atmosphere of a Caribbean dictatorship, full of colorful characters with their own ambitions and agendas.

LINKS
Wishlist on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1708850/Drug_Dealer_Simulator_2/?utm_source=rdt
Join our Discord: https://discord.gg/drugdealersim
Watch the latest Let’sPlay with dev: https://youtu.be/nGhYb_AtDPM
Release Date Trailer: https://youtu.be/rij1iHdeTas
Release Date: June 20 2024!

Part 2
I certainly don’t have solutions to all these issues because I never coded Maplestory private servers and I probably never will. So, some of these solutions to some of you readers that made their own servers might sound way too impractical or time consuming to implement. With that said, my thoughts:
1) Obtaining skills + skills from newer versions
I’m going to just take v83 as an example since it is the most common version of private servers. We all know Heros have Brandish 4th job, Bishops have HS 3rd job, NLs have triple throw in the 3rd job. We all know Bishops are best in training, Aran is bonkers broken, and we all know Paladins are trash. In any version, we have access to all the info we need by looking up on Google. Everyone knows what classes are in this version, what skills they have, and exactly which classes have the best DPM. I think bringing in new skill animations from newer versions are a fantastic way of changing up the gameplay. One reason why I was so attracted to Castela was that they have skill animations from modern Maple (Ex: Heroes having Post-Destiny patch Brandish skill animation). That in itself made a world of difference as to how it felt compared to other v83s. Of course, they had a ton of other content that made it very different from other v83s, and I really want to applaud them on their custom crafting of equipments. They had myriad of other issues that resulted in player base to leave, but lack of customization was not one of them. Anyway, changing up skills from whatever version you sourced the server is a great way of bringing in “freshness” to the server. I think bringing in old skills in newer versions can be very cool as well. Just make it so that there is not a carbon-copy of the skills we can find on hiddenstreet or Maplewiki. I would absolutely kill for a server with classes that have mix up of old and modern skills. And I would take it a step further and NOT tell players what classes have what skill. Make it interesting. Make it so that players find out on their own, before they choose what class to play, just as we had no idea what 4th job skills we were getting when Nexon announced 4th job is coming out in the 2000s. It would be very cool to do my job advancement and be excited and curious about what skills the next advancement of my class would have. I think so many players would be ECSTATIC at the idea of brining in 6th job skills (the 4th job enhanced skills since the cutscene animation from Origin skills might be too difficult to implement)
In addition to hiding which new skills you imported from newer versions, I would completely change up how you can obtain skills. Mastery books? Boring. We all know we farm it from pap/zak/horntail. We do the quests that everyone knows how to do or we can easily Google how to obtain it (ex: getting Rush on warriors). Bring in some custom questlines that are hidden. Encourage quest exploration by making it so that some custom skills are hidden in NPCs. We all know now that you obtain a story book from Tauros and talk to Manji to begin the Rush quest (or we can Google it if we did not know and you will get a very detailed explanation on Ayumilove). If you secretly added Millie Aiguilles (Phantom hurricane skill) to Hero, then make it difficult to obtain. Make it so that you needed to finish at least 200 quests from NPCs, and once you do so, you get a lightbulb on top of your head from Dancing with Balrog or something to begin a VERY difficult questline. Make the intro about how helping ton of NPCs give you the rights to train directly from Dancing with Balrog. This is a very brief example obviously but imagine the curiosity and satisfaction from the player playing your server. They would be dying to know what this hidden quest is, and how sick it would be once they obtained the skills. It would also explode reactions from the community when the player shows up bossing with this new skill, with everyone wondering how the said player got the skill. So, it kills 4 birds in one stone – 1) completely different set of skills from whatever version you are on to create more unique gameplay, 2) combatting botters by making progression weigh more into exploring content instead of purely grinding, 3) massive satisfaction and curiosity from the player that obtains the skill, and 4) huge interest and discussion from the community as to how to obtain these unique skills. I would make something like 3 skills from each class obtainable through exploration, with one that is shared across the class (EX: Rush for warriors) easy to obtain, two that are unique for each class (one which is pretty hard to obtain, and last one which is very difficult to obtain). More the better, but there also needs to be base set up skills that people obtain so that there is a feeling of satisfaction from job advancing. But the important part is that it is not just about making it so that it is JUST difficult. You can make it difficult by saying “you have to hunt Pinkbean 1000 times”, but that probably won’t give the players the same satisfaction as obtaining one through unique exploration. Randomly clicking on an NPC that starts a chain quest that ends up with you obtaining a very nice skill. That is difficult, but certainly very exploratory and fun. Don’t put the difficult on how grindy it is but make it difficult on how it is difficult to FIND it. I think that is the key part. PLEASE DO NOT GATEKEEP SKILLS THROUGH WEEKLY CONTENT. That absolutely destroys the feeling of exploration and the hype of trying to finish the quest.
2) Quests
I just mentioned using quests as a great way to obtain new skills and encouraging exploration. But I wanted to touch on quests beyond just as a tool to hide the sick skills servers brought on. Add some new quests to the game. MAKE quests is what I am saying. This is admittedly difficult as this requires genuine creativity. A great questline I can think of is Magatia’s Secret: Who is De Lang, which slowly uncovers the secrets of Humanoid A. These quests added the details to Maplestory that we had fun exploring. Learning more about Manji and his brother. Learning about the origins of Bruce and Ayan through quests. Those were all the quests that added onto the exploration of Maplestory. So how can server owners add in more quests? I think they can start out with basic custom quests, that ask you to kill some mobs with great EXP rewards. They also need hidden quests that are difficult to find, but have amazing rewards, like skills, equipments, mounts, etc, that really incentivizes exploring. I think if the server takes off, you can have questline competition that rewards people that submitted quest ideas. I think there are definitely people out there that can create questlines in the community, and they don’t have to be some kind of profession level questlines. If they are interesting, tweak it a little, and implement it so that there are the small moments players have when they play the server. Just like when we had fun doing quests to hear stories from NPCs. Some quests can be dramatic and meaning, while others can just be fillers. But they will certainly make the server different and give more nostalgia than other servers that just have players grinding from 1 -250 in a flat platform map. It also greatly encourages community bonding. More people moving around to different maps instead of everyone being concentrated in the 5 maps that everyone trains at. More people discussing the unique quests they solved and found. People wrecking their brain figuring out some Sphinx question that an NPC asks. I think quests is what really supplemented the feeling of exploration we had when new regions, maps, and mobs came out. So get the community involved and give some cool rewards (their choice of cosmetics or permanent pet) to people that submit questline ideas (people who submitted quests that actually get implemented get bigger rewards). Of course, the questline ideas should be private so that not everyone knows what will happen.
Quests can also give reputation points or something. You get x amount of reputation based on how hard a quest is, a new stat that is available. If you exceed 1000 reputation, you get discounts from NPCs on potions and equipments. If you exceed 2000, they sell you important items. If you exceed 5000, it unlocks a hidden quest that gives you a skill. Maybe it can replace Fame since Fame isn’t really used anymore in private servers.
Last thing I want to mention in regards to quest is maybe change up how job advancement works. We all know what the answers to the 3rd job quests are in El Nath when the Rock asks us questions. You can switch up the questions to fit the customization in the servers and really make some players cry if you make Dark Crystals (or whatever item you decide is needed to start 3rd job advancement) hard to obtain. Or maybe even change where 2nd job NPCs are located. Make Door of Dimensions hidden somewhere. Make it so that you must kill Jr. Balrog or something.
3) Change up Mobs and Drops
It is way too difficult to create new maps. I think that is asking way too much from a private server. I think something that is more plausible is to change up mobs levels and damage. Maybe stumps start out at level 5 but Dark Axe stomps are level 40. Of course, this might make it so that certain maps are just impossible to traverse through, but that is what Alpha and Beta are for. Seeing some crazy stuff in Beta is always a fun and interesting experience. If a map becomes too impossible for players to get through, change up the values. But I think changing up mob levels as well as the EXP would be a simple way of adding that feeling of exploration to the same carbon copies of private servers we see nowadays. This can certainly apply to bosses as well. Make it so that Jr.Balrog is a level 150 mob now with very important drops. Of course, make it a little logical. You can’t have red snails on Maple Island be level 200, making it impossible for players to get to level 10 job advancement. You also shouldn’t have Jr.Balrog be level 150 when Crimson Balrog is level 90. But still, have fun with changing the numbers & drops and change the HP and hit values accordingly.
You can also make it so that map orders are switched. For example, Henesy Hunting Ground 1 leads to HHG3 then HHG2 or something (This doesn’t really make sense but wanted to easy example for people to understand what I meant by changing map orders). Put in a hidden portal where it takes you to a place that starts up a rewarding questline. Or maybe it takes you somewhere where you lose all your current EXP. Or somewhere that gives you an equipment that is +10 W. Att of your current equipment. It doesn’t have to take you to a customized map, but even a random Sleepywood dungeon background map with a random NPC (Tristan or something) that you can interact with to obtain rewards would be very cool.
You can also change the boss levels. Why are bosses always in the order of Pap -> Zak -> HT -> PB -> Cygnus? Make it so that maybe HT is the easiest, followed up by Pap, then Zak then Cygnus then PB. I can see the need for Cygnus being near the end since it has a lot more boss patterns than Pap/Zak/HT/PB, but I think switching up the order can be interesting too. And add in new bosses. Put in CRA, put in Magnus (like Dream), Gollux, anything NEW. Of course, this is asking a lot from the coder, but bosses are a super cool way of testing out the new skills you obtained. Maybe make the bosses pretty much impossible to clear until you obtain the OP skills that you can only obtain by exploring.
4) Dailies and weekly Content
I do not have much to say about this other than they suck. Of course, some are necessary in maintaining balance. Servers should not have unlimited amount of clears for end stage bosses. But making it so that players have to do daily PQs or weekly PQs is one of the fastest ways of burning out players. I personally wouldn’t even have any dailies or weeklies beyond putting end stage bosses as a weekly or bi-weekly (once every two weeks) activity. I get that dailies is a great way of forcing players to log in to keep the player base high, but many people have stopped playing modern Maple and turned to private servers as a response to the truck load of dailies there are. Once again, emphasize the gameplay on exploring, not time-gated content that feels like a chore.
These are the ideas I had in my mind for some time know after being frustrated with how bland servers feel. Feel free to criticize these thoughts and I would love to hear how difficult this would be from the perspective of people that have started their own servers before. Maybe I’m asking for too much, but I think these changes would really bring that exploration that so many players crave when they decide to try out private servers in the first place.
If you read the massive walls of text I wrote in part 1 and part 2, thank you.

Imagine art in the year 1230, what do paintings look like there for you? and if I'm honest, 99% of you have images from the Middle Ages in your head, but even then only European ones. but what about art Asia or South America? and now take one of those medieval pictures and try to find out what country they are from and now I have to be honest I wouldn't tell any difference from a picture from France or Germany. but there are differences, small differences. each of us will know the difference if this were a picture from another continent, when cultures are close together things are always sloshing back and forth.
but why am I talking to all this art class stuff? well, because the Marvel Mangaverse is a bit pointless because it mimics what people think of as "manga style". As I say, a manga is still a comic from Japan. I mean of course it's influenced by the art of their own cultures, but still you can't compare Kentaro miura's, junji ito and Osamu Tezuka. and we're only talking about Japan here, what about creators from Korea (i.e. Manhwa) or from China ( Manhua ). you wouldn't throw jeff smitt and alex ross in the same pot. especially since Western creators have long been inspired by Japanese manga, from Frank Miller to Daniel Warren Johnson.
but now we might get to the part that might be a bit more controversial. at least when talking about race and how dominant cultures represent it.
but what is orientalism? Wikipedia describes it as, "Orientalism in art is understood as meaning representations and (often imitative) uses of Near and Far Eastern motifs by European artists". nowadays it is used to entitle questionable depictions of the Arab and Muslim realms by European artists. from the camp of the saints and holy terror, but also supposedly positive ones, Disney's Aladin and the live action Aladin. but at that time the depiction of non-European cultures in the East was also generally counted among them. and my goodness, Marvel Comics hasn't missed a cliché of what to have in Japanese pop culture. and if you also have creators who aren't directly from the culture, you accidentally did some "racist" work. it's more of an exoticism, where the focus is more on the other. I don't want to say that the creators are racists. it's more complicated and a big cultural problem how we represent other cultures here in the West. it goes in the area of ​​supposedly positive representations that are rather questionable in hindsight, please watch dose Videos from the take, the one is about Model Minority ( https://youtu.be/qWBPGc_dpmY ) and the lotus blossom ( https://youtu.be/NXvertLlhW8 ).
and I wouldn't say they were inspired, power rangers, radiant black, scott pilgrim and ronin are works of the inspiration. the mangaverse is fishy ( i know ther was a british slang for the word ) reggae in comic form.
As a child of the 2000s, I realize in retrospect that the fetishism of Japanese culture was (and still is to this day) very strong.
But what is your opinion?

I'm curious what research in CV was like, before Deep Learning became so popular. I suspect that HoG/DPM/SIFT etc were due to some amount of empiricism.
The reason I ask is because Deep Learning is criticized for being very empirical. But while that may be frustrating for people in other fields, I'm curious if empiricism in CV research was low in the 2000s or so.
EDIT-
To clarify: A fair number of research papers are "we tried XYZ. It worked. We think this is why." post-hoc reasoning about intuitions. Granted intuitions need to be strong and well reasoned, but if you see that one model works better than another, you might argue in favour of the first, and the opposite if the converse were true.
Was this the same with non-DL approaches too?

EDIT: Please be sure to check if your camo is legal or ok to wear in your area
This thread inspired me to write this guide
Today I’ll be discussing different camouflages, which type you should look out for, which ones to avoid at all costs, and how to style them. Keep in mind that I’m really only referring to camo jackets, rather than shirts or pants (although some tips may apply to those as well).
Brief history of camouflage in fashion:
Although different types of camouflage has been around for centuries, the war camos we’re more familiar with originated in WW1 by the French, first devised to conceal equipment, and then to conceal troops. Many other countries quickly followed, and from there patterns and colors kept being devised and tested for decades, with militaries changing their camo patterns for wars they were currently involved in. Camo became much more significant in fashion in 1990’s.
Notable camos include:
US Woodland (Unoffically called M81, this is the most famous camouflage pattern.)
German Flecktarn
British Disruptive Material Pattern (DPM)
South Vietnamese Tigerstripe (adopted by the US during the Vietnam War)
Swiss Alpenflage
US Desert Night Camo (Supreme actually made a parka based on this camo pattern, shown here)
Where do I cop?
You have two options: military surplus (milsurp), or from retailers, which both have pros and cons.
Surplus:
+Genuine.
+Built for battle, so they will be durable as hell and will take tons of abuse.
+You can find some crazy milsurp items.
+You can find insanely good deals
+Pieces probably have some crazy history behind them.
-Tend to fit oversized, as they were made for combat and practicality.
-No guarantee you will get a piece that is 10/10 condition. It might smell, have rips everywhere, be faded, have stains, etc.
-Some may come with unit/branch patches. NEVER WEAR ANY JACKET THAT HAS THESE ON. REMOVE THEM ASAP.
-Limited quantity. Usually when a website runs out of stock, they will never restock.
-They might be overpriced (I’m looking at you, OD M65 jacket).
-Someone could've died in it, but that is astronomically unlikely.
Retailers:
+Guaranteed 10/10 condition, will not smell or be ripped (unless that’s the design).
+Usually better fit.
+Usually a good price.
+Retailers may have their own unique camo pattern (most notably BAPE) and colors (most notably Rothco).
+Usually unlimited quantity and frequent restocks.
-Not military issue and genuine.
-Camo pattern and color may be shitty as hell.
-May not have great materials or construction.
-Most camo pieces retailers make are based off the US Woodland camo, meaning you may not find any other cool camo patterns. Because of this, it is VERY hard to find inspo for other camo patterns, which will be evident later in this guide.
-Might have random ass patches that mean nothing on them.
-They might be overpriced.
Copping milsurp:
These are two milsurp websites that I have ordered from before and have had no problems. There are so many others out there, but I have yet to explore them. Your local thrift store or army surplus store may have items too.
Sportsman’s Guide - Military Jackets and Coats
Varusteleka - Field Jackets
Copping retail (there are many other stores that sells camo jackets):
Alpha Industries
Rothco
Brandit
GAP
Old Navy
(note: I can only vouch for Alpha Industries and like one Old Navy jacket quality, the others I do not own)
How do I style camo? (disclaimer: for this entire section, it’s all opinion):
Camo jackets are statement pieces. You have two main options: military-core, and “I-don’t-wanna-look-like-a-school-shooter” core (note: for both styles, leave the jacket open at all time unless it’s cold). Unfortunately I can’t go into the hip-hop/punk styles of camo because I have no real experience in them, but it isn’t too hard to find inspo pics of them.
Military-core:

• Wear earth tones that compliment the camo pattern.
  
• Wear any shoe that is a boot (Nike SFB, Dr. Marten) or resembles a boot (Converse boots).
  
• If you want, tuck your pants into your boots, or use blousing bands (although I have no idea how this will work with non-military pants) .
  
• Black is the best color to make the jacket pop. Muted colors work as well.
  
• Cargo pants can work, but depending how “military” they are, that might take it a little bit too far. You really can’t go wrong with jeans.
  
• Don’t match your top with anything of the same camo pattern. That’s taking it too far.
  

Going military-core is a very easy way to style the jacket without stepping too far from your comfort zone.
Examples:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
“I-don’t-wanna-look-like-a-school-shooter” core:

• AVOID EARTH TONES AT ALL COSTS. Don’t worry, you can still find other colors that will compliment the jacket’s colors.
  
• You should usually avoid black, but for some fits black jeans can make the jacket look great without going overboard. All black fits though? Absolutely not.
  
• Don't wear any combat boots, or any type of boots that can be taken as a combat boot (Dr. Martens, etc).
  
• If you can, try not to get oversized camo clothes.
  
• Wear trainers (Stan Smiths, Nike Cortez, etc) or skate shoes (Vans Old Skools, Converse Chuck Taylors, etc). Make sure they aren't fully black or similar shade. A safe bet is a black shoe with white accents, a plain white shoe, or a white shoe with some color on it.
  
• Blue jeans are your new best friends. Lightwash works best, but you can get away with other shades too.
  
• Don't wear really dark values. If you have a US Woodland jacket, you can wear lighter colored clothes, like lightwash jeans and a white hoodie.
  
• Generally, whatever you wear underneath the jacket should be a much lighter value than the camo.
  
• To help dress down the camo, wear something underneath that has some kind of graphic on it. A college hoodie, band shirt, or graphic hoodie are some good examples.
  
• Focus on good posture and confidence. A lack of both of these will have people thinking "fuck, this guy prolly has a jammy in his jacket, time to be his best friend."
  

Going “I-don’t-wanna-look-like-a-school-shooter” core requires you to work more with color, wear blue jeans a LOT, and step out of your comfort zone. Once you get this down, you’ll stand out in a very good way.
Examples:
1 (second picture)
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
IMPORTANT: Camos to avoid (opinion)
Avoid all MODERN camos that are currently in use by most world militaries. These camos are a part of their uniforms, and some high school nerd wearing current issued jackets for fashion will be looked down upon. The modern patterns and color shades are also designed with practicality and function over looks, and they really don’t translate well into streetwear; they’re unflattering. Rule of thumb: avoid camos designed in the 2000's and beyond, and maybe late 1990's.
Older camos work because they are phased out by most militaries (with some exceptions such as Flecktarn). They also have more pleasing patterns and color shades, as looks were still being held to the same standard as functionality at that time.
Notable camos to avoid:
Multicam.
Any type of Digital camo (MARPAT, NWU, etc).
Anything Germans wore during WW2 (not modern, but you get my point).
Any desert camos similar to this. This is because your torso becomes a huge blob of sand and khaki. Generally, desert camo is very hard to pair, and very unappealing. You'll also look like you just came back from the Middle East.
Realtree (non-military).This was made for hunters staying in one place for hours at a time, and usually worn by your southern white redneck neighbor. Yes, Tyler, The Creator wore it before and rocked it, but it only looks good on him literally because it’s Tyler that’s wearing it. Any ordinary person would look wack as fuck wearing it.
That is all. If you believe I should add anything, please let me know.
Additional reading:
[Guide] Core Pieces - 008 (Camo)
Top Rank Vintage - Flashback: How Camouflage Clothing Became a Fashion Trend

With how many requests to do non-battleships that I've been getting, I figured I'd go ahead and take a stab at it. First up is a batch of CLs.

T5: Yahagi (Japan)

The only true post-Washington/London light cruisers built by the Imperial Japanese Navy, the Agano class light cruisers represented as many leaps forward over the preceding Sendai class as steps back. Putting to practice many of the designs and construction techniques perfected by Yubari, their performance in combat was nonetheless hampered by Japanese engineers' attempts to fit as much capability on the design as possible. Indeed, they were a flexible class of warships, equipped with a pair of catapult planes, torpedo armament on par with that of even the latest Special-type destroyers, and capable of keeping up with them too with a maximum speed of 35 knots.
This, however, came at the price of main battery firepower and armor. In some respects, this was not due so much to the engineers' incompetence as the shortages of materials created by the war - Agano was not laid down until about six weeks before Pearl Harbor, and the last, Sakawa, wasn't even finished by the time the IJN effectively ceased to exist. Nevertheless, the class reused outdated 152mm guns taken from the Kongo class battlecruisers during their reconstructions, and their armor remained just as if not more horrendous than other IJN light cruisers of 20+ years vintage.
Agano saw no action until the Battle of Empress Augusta Bay, where she accomplished little against the radar-equipped American cruisers. Losing a propellor shaft to air attack at Truk, Agano set for Japan to repair her damage, but, in a mark of just how tightly the American navy had closed the net, was nearly sunk by submarine attack just hours after departing the anchorage, losing another shaft and fighting for 5 days to cover the distance she'd traversed in a few hours. She made another break for the home islands in early 1944, but with only one destroyer escort available, able to make less than half her maximum speed, and a number of bulkheads removed due to the temporary repairs at Truk, she was a vulnerable target for the submarine Skate, who finally sunk the crippled cruiser with two more torpedoes. Her escort, the Kamikaze-class destroyer Oite, attempted to return to Truk with the survivors from the cruiser but was subject to a focused attack by American torpedo bombers at the entrance of the anchorage, losing all hands in the process and taking Agano's survivors with her. Noshiro fared slightly better, surviving long enough to take part in the Battle of Leyte Gulf as part of Kurita's Center Force. Retaliatory air strikes by the vengeful Americans would prove too much for her, and she was lost during the Center Force's retreat, south of the Filipino island of Mindoro.
Yahagi is perhaps the most famous member of the class. She weathered air attacks during the battles of the Philippine Sea and Sibuyan Sea before finally getting a taste of anti-surface action at Samar. Leading six destroyers, Yahagi attempted to break the stalemate by leading her consorts on a torpedo attack against Taffy 3's escort carriers, however the arrival of Johnston would cause the inexperienced Japanese to attempt a torpedo attack on her instead. With their Long Lances improperly set for the additional distance to the jeep carriers and running too deep to hit the American destroyer, the threat had been nullified. Johnston would nonetheless pay for her victory with her life as the seven Japanese ships tore her to pieces with close-ranged gunfire. Yahagi would return to Japan, having survived the year that claimed both of her active sisters, only to sortie with Yamato as part of Operation Ten-Go the following April. It took just one torpedo to cripple the cruiser beyond any hope of use, although she endured another 6 torpedoes and 12 bombs before foundering.
Sakawa was not completed until after Leyte Gulf, and her combat debut was originally supposed to be her last mission: Ten-Go. Alas, insufficient fuel was available for both her and Yahagi to participate, and she was retained. Having never fired a shot, she was disarmed and used as a troop transport until selected with Nagato to be expended at Bikini Atoll as a target for Operation Crossroads. The trouble-ridden trip, coupled with her especially-poor living conditions as a result of neglect and her severely-undermanned nature (the USN assigned 165 men to her, whereas the IJN's definition of a skeleton crew for the class was 325), caused a rather unusual mutiny. Five USN sailors sabotaged the ship, hoping to be relieved of duty if she could not be sailed. The men slashed open her steam lines, isolated her overspeed trip valves, tainted her fuel, clogged the oil and feedwater pumps to her boilers, and destroyed almost all gauges for her propulsion machinery, damages that would indeed see them relieved of duty, though they were brought home in a brig. The USN effected only minimal repairs to keep her afloat for the atomic bomb test - as the Able bomb detonated almost directly above her, the result was unsurprising: the shockwave crushed the lightly-armored hull like an eggshell, causing her to sink so quickly that a salvage tug attempting a beaching was almost dragged down with its tow. The Baker bomb, detonated just 500 feet from her wreck, would cause further damage and irradiation, although she remains easily-accessible to divers today.

Survivability

It's bad. What would you expect of a light cruiser?
At the time of her loss, Yahagi displaced approximately 7590 tons at combat load, which comes out to an even 24000HP. Even for T5, that's pretty low - the Emerald has better HP. With a mere 60mm of belt armor, 20mm deck, and complete lack of TDS or turret armor, Yahagi also has terrible protection, even for a T5 cruiser. Most of the "floating citadels" of that tier have 76mm belts or more, the only exceptions being Konigsberg (50mm) and Emile Bertin (none). Not to mention that the citadel stretches a good 80% of the ship's length and is going to be a tad above-water for at least the boiler rooms (basically everything from the front turrets to around the mount for the aircraft catapult). Think of Yahagi less as a cruiser and more of a destroyer with a citadel.
Unfortunately, it gets worse from here.

Firepower

I want to vomit when I think about Yahagi's main battery. It's that awful. The 152mm guns aren't technically even housed in a proper turret: they're more akin to an open mount that you would find on destroyers with splinter protection built around it. Despite having 20 years to fix the problem, IJN engineers did nothing to alleviate the ammunition supply issues that plagued these weapons on the Kongos, and the rate of fire suffered just as badly. The only mildly-okay thing about these weapons is their traverse rate, which isn't even good by any non-Japanese standards at 6 degrees/second.
Main Battery: 3x2 152mm/50 41st Year Type

• Reload time: 10s
  
• 180 traverse time: 30s
  
• Sigma value: 2.0
  
• Dispersion/range ratio: 9.20m dispersion/km range
  
• HE shell: 152mm HE Type 4
  
• Maximum HE shell damage: 2500
  
• Base fire chance: 9%
  
• HE penetration: standard (25.33mm)
  
• AP shell: 152mm AP Type 4
  
• Maximum AP shell damage: 2900
  
• AP shell weight: 100lbs
  
• Initial AP velocity: 855m/s
  
• Initial HE velocity: 855m/s
  

I'm not sure about the dispersion/range ratio here (I'm not even sure what max range I can or want to set on these things given their shitty ballistics), but I eyeballed it based on the dimensions of the 152mm gunhouse compared to the Mogami's 155mm turrets. If anything, this is an optimistic estimate - drawings I've been able to find of the Aganos place their rangefinder at about the same height as Yubari's. Giving this ship access to ASM0 is basically a requirement.
Anti-Aircraft Battery:

• Weapons: 2x2 76mm/60 Type 98, 10x3 25mm/60 Type 96 Triple Mod. 1, 18x1 25mm/60 Type 96 Mod. 1
  
• Average DPS: 30.3/61/32.4
  
• Base range: 5.01km/3.09km/3.09km
  

The 76mm gun was Japan's only semi-automatic medium-caliber AA gun (heck, the only non-DP gun that didn't have a magazine that needed to be swapped), and had a very good muzzle velocity at 920m/s along with a pretty decent sustained rate of fire of 25 RPM (as a note, I got the DPS value by doing a rough comparison to the 127mm/40 Type 89 so I would put very little store by it). It's one of the few things I can give the Aganos genuine credit for. With a total DPS figure of 123.7, it's best-in-class for T5 and has very good DPS projection to boot, better than even that of Emile Bertin and on-par with Kirov (while doing about 1/3rd more DPS).
Note that this 76mm gun is not to be confused with those mounted on Furutaka's A hull.
Torpedo Battery: 2x4 610mm Type 8 Mod. 3

• Reload time: 97.3s
  
• 180 traverse time: 7.2s
  
• Maximum damage: 14600
  
• Torpedo speed: 63 knots
  
• Range: 8km
  
• Fire mode: Standard (narrow spread/wide spread)
  

This torpedo battery is very potent, almost mirroring that of T7 IJN DDs in potency. You can DS even the toughest enemies you'll encounter with these fish. Thus, we really don't need to be giving Agano stealth-torping abilities, hence why I used Mutsuki's 8km fish rather than the 10km ones found on Furutaka. That being said, these torpedoes are very high-risk, high-reward: if you look at the image provided of Yahagi in the header, the launchers are barely visible. That's because, although they're centerline-mounted, these launchers are tucked away under the catapult, whose support columns block much of their firing arc. The #1 launcher is basically able to fire straight broadside in either direction and that's about it, while the #2 launcher has at least some rearward arc - but I wouldn't call it as any better than Zao's, maybe worse. The only upshot of that is shellfire is less likely to hit the torpedo tubes because of their location.
Frankly, if you have the balls to go for a torpedo attack against someone (which means broadsiding in a cruiser with a 60mm armor belt and crap HP), you should be rewarded for it. Thus, and in a homage to their real-life capability, I suggest that Yahagi be given Torpedo Reload Booster as a third consumable (behind the catapult plane and hydro). These cruisers had the rapid-reload system of IJN DDs in reality, and moreover whatever torps you throw out will probably be your last shot if you do it under any fire - you might as well make it difficult on your opponent to survive the encounter.

Maneuverability

While she's not as long as Furutaka, Agano is close, at 571 feet to the former's 607. The length:beam ratio is very similar, though slightly in Yahagi's favor, and thus I call it at around 730m. To make her atrocious armor and rather-large size workable, I'm giving her Yubari's 3.8-second rudder shift.
Her top speed is excellent, at 35 knots, and with 100,000SHP under the hood coupled to four shafts, you can expect decent throttle response as well.

Concealment

While having Yubari's rangefinder height, Agano has a somewhat-chunkier superstructure, and is quite a bit bigger, having length closer to Furutaka than Kuma. I would call it at 10.35km surface detection range and 7.66km air detection range, since mast height and silhouette are bigger factors in surface detection, while hull size is more important for air spotting. More importantly, you'd need a full AA range build (AFT + AAGM2) to swat at planes even at your minimum air detection range (6.54km - remember that CSM1 isn't a thing), and with max stealth, your surface detection is still 8.84km, which means you can't stealth-torp.
Bottom line: this is not a ship for the faint of heart or easily-frustrated. Yahagi is probably the least-confident proposal i've written to date - too many things seem like they'd need experimentation with in supertest to determine how viable they turn out to really be. As an aside, this isn't a problem confined to the Agano class either: basically no IJN CL has the capability to be placed beyond T5 without serious buffs, although the nature of her air group might be enough to push Oyodo to T6.

T6: HMNZS Royalist (United Kingdom/Commonwealth)

A class of 16 light cruisers designed as "trade protection" cruisers in the desperate early days of WWII, the Dido class cruisers were a quirky bunch of warships that were key participants in many of Britannia's naval campaigns during the war. Based on the Arethusa class from almost 10 years previous, the Didos were designed with anti-aircraft protection in mind, and thus were unique among British cruisers in using a main battery of 5 twin BL 133mm/50 QF MKI guns. This was a direct source of many irregularities with the class, as the exact same guns (and turrets) were needed to complete the King George V class battleships, all of which were under construction at around the same time, and each battleship required the equivalent of 1.6 Didos' worth of guns to complete their secondary armament. The resulting production shortages, worsened by difficulties in fabricating the weapons, led to 4 distinct groups of the class: the first, comprised of 3 ships, were built with only 4 turrets (with a starshell gun in place of the missing main turret), the second had the designed armament, the third of two ships were armed with four twin BL 4.5"/45 QF MKI guns (and additional medium/light AA guns as compensation), and fourth being the 5-ship Bellona subclass. These variants were geared more towards picket ship and amphibious support operations, losing a turret as well in exchange for more AAA and fitting of full-fledged radar FCS, a fixture not possible on previous groups due to the taller superstructure necessary to see over the double-superelevated #3 turret (though not installed on some, their designs weren't altered). To make things even more complicated, as the tide turned against the Axis powers, four of the original 11 Didos were rebuilt to augment the Bellonas, all 16 ships went through an alphabet soup of 2-pounder, Bofors, Oerlikon, and Vickers MG variants throughout their busy lives. As a result of all these changes, almost every member of the Didos was unique in some way.
The Didos fought in almost every battle the Royal Navy took part in in the Mediterranean, as well as all major amphibious landings, some even being transferred to the Pacific for Okinawa. Four ships of the main class - Bonaventure, Charybdis, Hermione, and Naiad - were lost during the war, while Spartan was the only Bellona lost. The remainder served with the postwar fleet for a time, though all of the original Didos were out of service by 1954, with Euryalus being the last to be decommissioned. Bellona and Black Prince were leased to the Royal New Zealand Navy, however the ships were of little use as the RNZN didn't have the manpower to operate them and considered them obsolete - they would follow their sisters by the end of the 1950s. Diadem, converted to an AA training ship at war's end, would be sold to the Pakistani Navy in in 1956 and substantially upgraded with the latest in AAA and electronics. Renamed Babur, she would deploy in clashes against the Indian Navy as late as 1971, though this was mainly because the Pakistani Navy had nothing else to use - between conflicts, she was a training ship. Lacking ECM and with even her radar-laid Bofors guns of no use against the Indian Navy's Soviet-supplied cruise missiles, she served little practical purpose save as a static flak battery even when briefly in service.
Royalist, who was modified into a command ship, would serve a much longer life, remaining with the RNZN until 1965. Little of it was glamorous though - although postwar Royalist would continuously outshine the best of the UK's cruisers in anti-aircraft defense, British naval officers viewed the RNZN as little more than a provincial navy that operated on its own only in name. As a result, Royalist's refits and and upgrades were decided by the Admiralty in London, not Wellington, and most of her crew and officers were Royal Navy or RN-trained and thus bore loyalty to them as much as the RNZN. Further complicating issues was her unique status and space as a command ship, which allowed her to be refitted as a seaborne direction center for British carrier aircraft. All of this came to a head during the Suez Crisis, where, despite Prime Minister Sidney Holland's withdrawal of New Zealand's support for the British, Royalist remained on-station and on-duty, though on-record the PM was quoted as saying there wasn't time to make a decision about the ship. However, despite being seemingly given a pass, the ship's log from that time was still destroyed, and her crew weren't recognized like their comrades in the Royal Navy until the mid-2000s. By 1962, the ship's hull was deteriorating, courtesy of substandard steel used in her construction, her fire control systems and AA guns were malfunctioning regularly, and the ship's interior was borderline-unlivable, rarely getting below 85 degrees regardless of outside conditions. Worse still, her refit upon entering RNZN service had only been expected to last her until 1962, but no further modernizations were planned. Nevertheless, the weary cruiser kept her head high as she went into her final deployment in 1965, officials hoping that she could last just one more year as a symbol of their country before retirement.
It would prove to have the opposite effect. Despite her condition being a serious liability to her combat performance (half of her AA guns didn't work, virtually her entire sensor suite malfunctioned regularly, and her worn engines could only make half of their maximum power), the commander of Britain's Far East fleet was not informed of her state - even at a time when his available forces were already stretched razor-thin as a result of the Malaysia-Indonesia Confrontation War. Fortunately, Royalist's hasty refit prior to deployment proved enough to see her through without embarrassing her country. However, further humiliation would ensue when NZ and British diplomats refused to allow Royalist to share harbor with British warships; as her captain put it, "[how] quaint that the flagship of the NZ navy is persona non grata in the Tokyo Bay area." Further groveling in the mud by NZ diplomats was necessary ensure their sailors could enjoy shore leave without being harassed by police in the provincial ports they were forced to stay at. But, in spite of all this, she made it through her tour of duty without a major mishap, and the end of her long race was in sight. But, like a marathon runner who collapses steps from the finish, the exhausted Royalist broke down just days later. Widespread saltwater contamination of her propulsion plant would cause total engine failure en route back to Auckland, and she drifted for 10 days before two boilers could be brought online, finally limping into port on November 17, 16 days after breaking down. The RNZN decided repairs were not worth it, and the ship was paid off, just five months shy of her slated retirement date. The last active Dido class met the scrapper's torch in 1968. Babur would cling to life as a training ship until 1982, but was withdrawn from frontline service far before Royalist.

Survivability

This is a light cruiser, and a British-designed one at that. The survivability is going to suck, and especially suck, by virtue of those facts alone. At a paltry 7677 tons at full combat load, Royalist will have 24200HP. Her armor is also markedly worse, at 76mm compared to the reinforced 100mm belt the Leander class received. However, her layout is virtually identical, and in all the right ways. Her engine spaces are further underwater than Leander's, reaching just the waterline, with her magazines even further down. These spaces also have the same armored deck present on Leander.
Something to note is that Leander's armor seems massively altered from what I recall it being historically. Instead of her armored deck being 25mm, it's 32 in-game, and her belt is beefed up from 76mm to 100mm. On the other hand, the armored deck is missing for about half of the machinery spaces' length. While I'll be ignoring the belt armor thickness increase, at least initially, I do want to take the up-armored citadel deck for Royalist, as it will make her extremely difficult to citadel unless you score an underwater penetration of her belt - not really difficult given how thin it is, hence why I didn't want to add almost 33% more thickness to it, especially ahistorically. Given how low her HP is, a salvo of battleship normal-pens will just as easily trash her as a couple citadels. The nonexistent TDS is also going to be especially-problematic given that she has 4.3k less HP than Leander, who is already low among T6 CAs.
Of course, with these kinds of survivability stats, she's going to have a heal. While its repair rate is not special, it has a special recovery ratio: 33% of citadel damage, 60% of normal-penetration damage, and 100% of overpen damage. This essentially combines the citadel recovery of cruisers with the enhanced normal-penetration recover rate of UK battleships. I also suggest that her extremity armor be increased from the UK CL standard 13mm to 16mm (found on Edinburgh and above, but present on all other T6 CAs) to eliminate the possibility of heavy cruiser overmatch - a single citadel hit from the Big Guns of a Furutaka or Aoba would just a hair under 20% of Royalist's HP pool, and with Pensacola's lethal 10-gun broadside of American Piercing shells coming to T6 too, I cringe to think how bad things would be if this provision weren't made.

Firepower

It's tenuous for T6. At just a tier higher, KGV has the exact same broadside as you - from her secondary battery alone. Seeing as WG went ahead and gave those guns ahistorically-good stats, it's basically forced that I do the same here. However, this isn't without historical precedence in either case, as Argonaut received RP10 MKI turrets in place of the Dido's original MKIIs, and Anson had her MKI mounts upgraded to the same standard. These are the same ones that Vanguard received, and so they have improved stats.
Main Battery: 4x2 133mm/50 QF MKI RP10 MKII

• Reload time: 6.67s
  
• 180 traverse time: 9s
  
• Sigma value: 2.1
  
• Dispersion/range ratio: 10.27m dispersion/km range
  
• HE shell: 133mm HE
  
• Maximum HE shell damage: 1900
  
• Base fire chance: 8%
  
• HE penetration: standard (22.17mm)
  
• AP shell: 133mm AP MKIC
  
• Maximum AP shell damage: 2500
  
• AP shell weight: 80lbs
  
• Initial AP velocity: 792m/s
  
• Initial HE velocity: 792m/s
  

Eyeballing these guns compared to Leander's turrets, I can't see any noticeable difference in barrel spread - at least, not in Royalist's favor, which is why I'm not changing it from Leander's. I also buffed the sigma from the 2.0 standard of most cruisers to 2.1 to help with hitting stuff at long range. While you are pumping out 72 rounds/minute with your guns, which is pretty good for T6 CAs (being only outmatched by Cleveland with the gun upgrade), your shells are a fair bit weaker than those of other cruisers, so your DPM is actually quite low - Leander has about 10% more AP DPM, and Royalist is the one lacking special AP physics to boot. While she does have HE, it's not that great of a strength - 4 separate T6 DDs have identical/better guns than Royalist, for crying out loud.
Anti-Aircraft Battery:

• Weapons: 4x2 133mm/50 QF MKI RP10 MKII, 3x2 40mm Bofors STAAG, 2x1 40mm Bofors MKVII
  
• Average DPS: 30.3/76.2/15.2
  
• Base range: 5.01km/3.51km/3.51km
  

While Royalist's initial numbers are quite good, if you lose so much as one AA gun your effectiveness drops off the cliff. The AA is very potent for a T6, cruiser, surpassing all but La Galissonniere (who pulls ahead by a tad but has lower max range) and the monster called Cleveland. While I thought about swapping Royalist's two manually-operated Bofors MKVII mounts for the RNZN's unique "Toadstool" CIWS (essentially an electrically-powered single Bofors with its own gun director) to boost her DPS, I have no idea if the Toadstool was any more effective than a manually-operated MKVII in practice, or how the addition of the radar unit would affect the gun's DPS values.
Given the Dido's role as an AA escort ship, I also couldn't have the ship be unable to use DF like her tech tree counterparts. Nothing special, but she gets the option to use it - if you swap out hydro for it.
Torpedo Battery: 2x3 553mm MK IXM

• Reload time: 72s
  
• 180 traverse time: 7.2s
  
• Maximum damage: 16766
  
• Torpedo speed: 62 knots
  
• Range: 10km
  
• Fire mode: Single-fire (tube-by-tube spread/narrow spread)
  

Although Royalist's torpedo tubes were removed in 1945, unlike Belfast, neither the Royal Navy nor Royal New Zealand Navy ever seemed to use that deck space for anything in all images I've seen of her, so I thought I might as well stick them back on when she needs a bit of help. Speaking of help, I felt comfortable her much better torpedoes than Leander due to her weaker main guns and being short one torpedo tube per launcher. As with all British cruisers that have them, she can perform tube-by-tube torpedo launches. Other than the individual performance of the torpedoes, though, there's nothing special about them. The arcs will probably be similar to Leander's, but a little wider since the launcher is smaller and can thus traverse a little further because it's not impeded by the extra tube.

Maneuverability

At over 50 feet shorter and with a similar length:beam ratio to Leander, already an agile ship, one can expect Royalist to be quick on her feet. Her turning circle comes out to a sharp 620m, and given that her armor is more unlikely to eat citadel penetrations compared to Leander, I see no reason to lower her rudder shift by any more than the 7.8 second RST that the former has. With a top speed of just 32.25 knots despite a significantly-better power:weight ratio than the sluggish Leander, it's imperative that she gets the boosted engine physics that other UK tech tree cruisers do - she's not better at anything, except perhaps firestarting and shooting planes, compared to Leander, so it's not like there's a huge advantage that needs compensating for.

Concealment

The original as-built Dido class had their rangefinder 73 feet above the waterline, compared to Leander's 70. In addition, the director's height off the forecastle deck is 51 feet on Dido compared to Leander's 46, indicating a bulkier superstructure. That said, all Bellonas lost a turret and had the superstructure cut down by a deck, each of which is generally ~7-10 feet tall depending on the location within the ship and the ship itself. While she has a bulkier bridge than other Bellonas due to her conversion to a command ship, this was all done without adding a deck so it hardly matters. At any rate, her Cold War-era superstructure also will give another reduction to surface detection, if Belfast's detection range compared to her WWII self (disguised as Edinburgh in WoWS) is any indication. Regardless of what deck height figure is used, the loss of a superstructure deck that puts Royalist squarely below Leander in both aspects of superstructure size that I stated earlier, which means she'll have an advantage in concealment. Seeing as Royalist is also a noticeably smaller than Leander, I'd imagine her air detection will go down, too.
Give or take ~0.2km (probably in the upwards direction), I'd place her detection range around 9.44km base surface detection and 6.10km base air detection. With guns just 3mm larger than Khabarovsk and 0.66km less detection range, I'd give Royalist a 4.0km smoke-firing range - note that her Hydroacoustic Search, being the standard-issue T6 CA version, has a detection range of 3.96km, so you can't stealth-fire out of smoke without spotting aid. This excellent stealth is also augmented by the fact that she has access to a smoke generator, although this is slightly-modified compared to standard UK CLs, with a 30s active time and 84s smoke cloud duration. I chose to sacrifice duration for active time to improve its utility as a tool covering allies, but you'll get the same net smoke time out of it as Leander does out of hers, should you use it selfishly.
However, for those of you who want to play a little ballsier, Royalist has one more trick up her sleeve: she can trade her smoke for surveillance radar. I can hear the weeping and gnashing of teeth already, but hear me out. British radar has hitherto been in-line with that of the Americans, but Royalist will use a unique radar consumable instead, which has a 7.0km spotting range and 20s duration. Although this matches the range of some T5 torpedoes, notably those of Minekaze and T-22 (stock, at least), who rely on them, neither DD should be getting surprised by a Royalist given that her radar range is a full 1.1km below her minimum surface detection range even with a full stealth build. Note that she can't mount Surveillance Radar Mod. 1, though she can mount Hydroacoustic Search Mod. 1.

Economics/Gimmick

My opinion of WG's idea of a separate Commonwealth faction can be summed up in two words that would bring the mods down on me if I included them. Royalist will have the capability to train both Commonwealth and British captains, although all captains recruited with her as their starting specialty will have Commonwealth nationality - historically, most officers of Commonwealth navies had the roots of their career in Britain, or were forced to start from ground zero if they wanted into the proper RN. This is something I think all Commonwealth premiums, if not all ships, should be able to do, but I digress.
So, what's special about Royalist, besides being another floating citadel with smoke? It's her versatility. With the ability to switch out both of her consumables, you can change her box of tricks up considerably if you're up to the challenge or are divisioning with teammates. You can play T6 Atlanta with radar and hydro, or, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, go full fleet escort by taking DF and smoke. She has more versatility than the mainstream UK line, while still being similar-enough that she can train captains for the branch.

T7: Colbert (France)

France's last gun cruiser, Colbert was originally intended as a sister to De Grasse, but was changed significantly-enough to warrant being her own class. But, in spite of the latest in anti-aircraft fire control and guns, she was obsolete upon launch in 1956, being built at a time when missiles were taking naval combat by storm and jet aircraft were breaking the sound barrier. Nevertheless, she remained an important symbol of the French Empire, and was kept quite busy with peacetime duties shuttle VIPs, Charles De Gaulle in particular. The dawn of the 1970s would see the Marine Nationale take her in-hand to become a guided missile cruiser, and finally saw action at the end of her long military career during Desert Storm, mere months before she was decommissioned.
Starting in 1993, she served as a popular tourist attraction along the waterfront of Bordeaux, drawing scores to see the last gunship of the French Navy. For over a decade and a half, she proved to be a popular attraction, even having an open-air restaurant on her foredeck (the ship's galley was repurposed to serve it). However, lurking just under the surface of her peaceful retirement were severe financial troubles: the government, though still her owner, would not pay for her upkeep, and private owners were constantly struggling to find funds. Funding dried up for good in 2006, and on May 31, 2007, she was towed away from her home to join the rest of the MN's mothballed fleet. Throughout the next three years, she was stripped of parts to keep the mechanically-similar carrier Jeanne d'Arc running, but with that ship's decommissioning in 2010, the navy had no use for her, and nobody would take the ship after it had been gutted and neglected. Colbert met the scrapper's torch in 2016, a grim reminder to preservationists worldwide that museum pieces doesn't stay as museum pieces without funding.
Before I begin, you might be wondering why I used Colbert instead of De Grasse under the name of one of her canceled sister ships. Simply-put, Colbert fits the same niche and has actual history behind her name.

Survivability

For once, we have a ship without HP problems. At 11093 tons combat displacement in gun cruiser form, Colbert packs a hefty hit point pool of 30500HP. However, the fly in the ointment is her armor - with no TDS and just 80mm of belt armor, she's as fragile as Atlanta, and a hell of a lot taller and wider, which means those unarmored parts are just free HE/normal-penetration damage waiting to happen. My understanding of her layout is that virtually all critical spaces are thankfully at/below the waterline, but such a short, stubby bow and stern will see overmatch citadels by BBs and heavy cruisers for days - keep in mind that, as a light cruiser, Colbert would get only 13mm of extremity armor.

Firepower

Main Battery: 8x2 127mm/54 M1948

• Reload time: 4.0s
  
• 180 traverse time: 6s
  
• Sigma value: 2.0
  
• Dispersion/range ratio: 7.34m dispersion/km range
  
• HE shell: 127mm HE MK41 PD
  
• Maximum HE shell damage: 1900
  
• Base fire chance: 9%
  
• HE penetration: standard (21.67mm)
  
• AP shell: 127mm MK42 SP Common
  
• Maximum AP shell damage: 2400
  
• AP shell weight: 70lbs
  
• Initial AP velocity: 808m/s
  
• Initial HE velocity: 808m/s
  

Other people have called this ship a French Atlanta, and they're right - to an extent. She has higher total RoF (180 RPM to Atlanta's 168), and the shells are easier to hit at range and by far more individually-potent because of their heavier shell, higher velocity, and greater accuracy. In addition, this gun has some wickedly-tight dispersion patterns: if you look at the French turret, they put the guns as close together as possible with the hoists and other machinery to either side, while the USN did the exact opposite for Montana's twin turrets. However, the 5"/54's much-better ballistics compared to the 5"/38 will make island-camping a lot harder, and you have to remember Colbert doesn't have torpedoes, so you rely on guns alone up close - while that's not an issue for DDs and CAs, Colbert will struggle a lot more against battleships that close the range compared to Atlanta. Not in the least because the French 5"/54 turret weighs just 48 tons - even Atlanta's ahistorical MK32 turrets weigh a minimum of 52.8 tons, while her historical MK29s were heavier, up to 66 each. It won't be OBT Atlanta levels of (or lack thereof) turret survivability, but Colbert will be losing guns if you take hits.
Note that, despite also being 5"/54 guns and using the same ammunition, the French model is completely different in design from the 5"/54 MK16 found on Midway, Montana, and Harekaze. It's also worth noting that the French guns may have lower muzzle velocity due to some unknown reason - no source has ever confirmed this, but French range tables show consistently-lower maximums with the same shells, so it's possible that sekrit dokuments could be invoked to nerf her velocity if the need arises. I also recalculated HE alpha using the formulae instead of just taking WG's value since they seem to be standardizing gun damage for DDs and secondaries based on calibenation, but Colbert uses the gun in neither application.
Anti-Aircraft Battery:

• Weapons: 8x2 127mm/54 M1948, 10x2 57mm/60 ACAD M1948
  
• Average DPS: 125.6/255
  
• Base range: 5.19km/4.5km
  

And you thought Atlanta's AA was bad-enough to deal with as a CV. Let me put this in perspective: Colbert has 2 more 5"/54s and 2 more 57mm Bofors than Henri IV, 3 tiers lower. In fact, the only ships that can surpass your DPS projection capabilities are Des Moines, Worcester, Minotaur, and (surprisingly) Grosser Kurfuerst. Do note, however, that Colbert's M1948 57mm Bofors weigh a lot less than the M1950 versions on Henri IV (16 tons compared to 23), and thus will break more easily. Not to mention the issue with the 5"/54s' survivability I pointed out earlier also applies here, and neither gun mount is armored, so everything, including DD HE, will just pen it for damage - and one dead gun will hurt your output more than it would Atlanta.
One more thing to note: while Colbert will get DF, and have infinite charges like Atlanta, her version boosts DPS by only 2x. This is to prevent her from melting the face off of even a T9 strike package before it drops its payload while not completely-neutering her screening capability - make no mistake, T9 carriers will have to be leery around Colbert, just as they have to be for Atlanta.

Maneuverability

Colbert does 33 knots, and with that short, fat shape (592 feet long but almost 67 feet wide), has an unbelievably-tight turning circle of 530m. To offset this destroyer-like handling, I suggest that she have worse rudder shift than Atlanta - Algerie's 9.5 second value works perfectly for this purpose.
Coupled with this is the fact that she gets Engine Boost, although this only provides acceleration/deceleration bonuses and does not increase top speed (Sierra Mike still can), because a cruiser with this much DPM doing anything faster than 34.7 knots (with Sierra Mike) means every DD in the match stand less chance than a snowflake in hell.

Concealment

I have very few estimates for how big Colbert's superstructure actually is. However, her problems are twofold: air detection would be below-average given her small size, and her surface detection would likely be beyond her range by default. Honestly, the best I could come up with for surface detection was to match her up against the Takao and Myoko classes, which had similarly-shaped and -sized superstructures. She's not as tall as them, but only just, and her silhouette is bulkier due to the banks of guns despite being 70 feet shorter. I'm going to call it at 12.51km surface detection range and 7.83km air detection. Note that, with a full stealth + AA range build, Colbert is just a few tenths of a kilometer short of slamming planes with all of her AA guns if she baits them in by shutting her guns off - not much margin for error.
Based on the firing detection penalty of Atlanta and Harekaze, I estimate Colbert's smoke-firing penalty range at 4.90km, too far for her to fire external spotting, as she will not get radar and standard hydro only reaches 4.20km.
 
Thanks for reading! Before I go, I'll leave you all with a choice: should I do the second round of CLs I have planned, or the first 3-ish of the CAs next?

Yesterday, Riot released the NA and EU LCS All-Pro team voting results along with (in a remarkable and welcome show of transparency) the individual ballot for each voter. There was almost instantaneous blowback directed at some parties for what the community (rightly) perceived as troll voting. That is, unless anyone actually believes Fabbbyyy was the best ADC in NA this past split while ranking dead last in DPM, CSPM and close to last in many others. Looking at you Meteos/C9. Opinions expressed ranged from vocal outrage (TSM fans), to thoughtful commentary on the nature and importance of award voting from a historical perspective (Montecristo/Thorin). Indeed, how the fans perceive award voting and records can have a wide-ranging impact on the sport. Take these two examples.

1. Major League Baseball (MLB) and its fans revere their records more than any other traditional sport. Past legends of the sport and their successes have been woven into the tapestry of American History to an extent that other traditional sports leagues like the NFL/NBA have yet to match. Even non-fans know that Babe Ruth hit 714 Home Runs and Joe DiMaggio once got a hit in 56 straight games. There were benchmarks, carved in stone, that a player had to hit to be considered an all-time great. 300 Wins. 3000 hits. 500 Home Runs. We counted how many seasons of 20 wins and 300 strikeouts a pitcher achieved. How many times a hitter batted over .300 or hit 60 home runs. And that is why baseball fans, more than those of any other sport, absolutely can’t stand players who used Performance Enhancing Drugs (PEDs). Because those records matter to the fans. The same can’t be said for the NBA or NFL. Maybe it’s because those sports go through fads and sometimes the same record can be broken multiple times within a few years just because the prevailing style of the league changed (think passing yards and TD’s in the NFL).
   That the format of competitive League of Legends changes so much hurts the ability for the league, or developer in this case, to build this same fervor in fans. When Doublelift got his 1000th kill a few weeks ago, Riot specifically noted that this record was for the number of career kills in regular season games. The problem? The LCS has had three separate formats since its inception almost 4 seasons ago: 28 Bo1’s with super weeks, 18 Bo1’s and then the current 18 Bo2/3’s. That makes it nearly impossible to compare the careers of early LCS pros to current and future LCS pros. NA LCS teams played 36 games all of last year. Most played over 40 in this past split alone. In Season 7, an LCS Pro who plays every game will play, at minimum, twice as many regular season games as an LCS Pro played in 2015, and three times as many at most. That inconsistency will prevent meaningful records from being established, and eventually result in decreased interest in the esport. Fans keep watching sports, despite it being the same game played every single year, out of hope of seeing something new. They want to witness greatness. Records make it easier for fans to quantify greatness, and without them, there won’t be a meaningful way to measure future players against the greats of our past. Thus, there will be less of a reason for fans to keep watching.
   
2. Now, sometimes statistics aren’t able to tell the full story. Sometimes, a sport can change so much that it’s almost a different game. Most NFL historians will tell you that Johnny Unitas was one of the very best Quarterbacks to ever play the game of football. Unitas never threw for more than 3500 yards in a season, a number topped by a whopping 19 Quarterbacks last year. His career high in touchdowns is 32. A quarter of NFL QB’s equaled or topped that number last year. Most of these QB’s will not go down as equal or better than Johnny Unitas. The problem is that football was a run first, pass second league when Unitas played, so how do we gauge how good he was? MVP and All-Pro voting. Unitas was voted to the Pro Bowl 10 times and won 3 MVP awards. That’s more MVP awards than Tom Brady! That tells a kid growing up in the 2000s that Johnny Unitas was pretty damn good at Quarterback.
   Somewhere down the line, there will be League of Legends fans who never saw Doublelift play, who didn’t watch league “way back” in Season 6. They’ll have heard a lot about him from older fans about how he was the greatest ADC in NA history at the time, maybe even western history. They’ll look at the All-Pro voting for this year and see that Cloud 9, one of the most respected and successful organizations in the league, voted for Fabbbyyy as the best ADC in the league. They’ll see a player who was dropped from his team’s lineup six games in ranked 2nd, and they’ll wonder, was Doublelift really that good? These votes can change the narrative of a player’s career. Someone is going to look at Cloud 9’s vote for Froggen as best mid and think to themselves, “Wow, all those years of playing and he’s still the best”. They’ll say he was in Elo Hell, and that he’d undoubtedly have dominated on a better team, when the truth is that he was a slightly above-average at best. Now, obviously, Bjergsen and Doublelift did get first team All-Pro, but the composition of those votes matter. Just like the fact that Apex’s vote didn’t make it into the ballot is a travesty. These awards are important to future valuations of a player’s career, especially the down ballot 2nd and 3rd team votes that tend to have more variety (6 players received vote for 3rd team All-Pro Jungler).
   

At the end of the day, player’s, casters and the 3rd party media that get a vote need to realize the importance of the process. These awards have a profound effect on how players are and will be evaluated in the future. That includes what happens when it’s time for a player to negotiate their next contract. It’s not uncommon for sports contracts to pay bonuses for receiving awards. In that sense, Cloud 9 did a disservice to themselves and the rest of their fellow players by devaluing what could be used as a benchmark to justify an increase in salary. This is the part where I have to comment on the need for player’s to take control of their own futures and start acting like this is a business, that this is a career. When negotiating, you never throw away leverage, you never give away an advantage. And it’s not about being taken seriously as a sport, as so many like to say about esports. We don’t need that. We just need everyone in the industry to take themselves seriously, because it’s not about being taken seriously as a sport, it’s about being taken seriously as a person, a professional, a businessman and an organization.