In the only other free-to-pay game I have played much of, I ended up buying a small ($5) powerup and then I couldn't get the free daily powerups any more. So, that makes me hesitate to buy into a game that is otherwise free.
Even developers of "free" games want to eat. The busineess model is just different (and it seems to work well). You can play it for free, but I do not see a point not to invest some money when I like the game. When you do not have unlimited funds (and who has?) you just should not fall into an uncontrolled buying spree. Higher tier premium ships are VERY expensive, still player tend to buy them on release day - and a lot of them Personaly I would not do that, I have myself under control there. The day one bundle pack of HMS Hood was €100 - A HUNDRED - a no go for my taste. Still there were a lot of them sold. I have got a few premiums as well, but most of them were discounted. Patience is the key there. In general nothing speaks against trying the game for free. Should you not like it: no harm done.
Front to back: Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Jersey - 7/6/1954 Virginia Capes
I guess the thing about games like that is that there is something for everyone. The nice part for the companies is they can catch people who have the weakness for impulse buys or the thrill of the one-armed bandit and make more money than the ones with a standard flat rate. And then there are the games where you pay $50 for the game and thereafter need more purchases to buy the other parts like expansion packs or special game art or units.
No, there is no advertising in the game. Free to play: You can play every tech tree ship for free. Of course you have to level them up, equip them, buy modules and new ships all with ingame currency. That currency is earned just by playing. The better you play, the more money you earn (damage is money). You have to pay a repairbill and ammunition for each match though, so you should play better then the repair bill. This works quite fine until Tier 7. Repairing and Ammunition gets more expensive with every Tier, from Tier 8 on it is recommended to use a premium account IF you still want to earn money (you can still play that for free but most likely will lose ingame money in the matches). Premium is around $10 per month (depends on how much premium time you get, more is cheaper). Premium earns just more money and more experience. There is no advantage in game, you can just progress faster. Players choice is: time or money.
This is from someone with 100 ships in the harbour, mostly tech tree ships with a few premiums and over 11000 matches played.
Front to back: Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, New Jersey - 7/6/1954 Virginia Capes
Oh, and if you don't want to spend any money on camouflage, flags, or other consumables, the ingame crate system helps with that. I get all my ship-mounted consumables from ingame crates, missions, ribbons, and credits, not spending any money there.
I'm playing the new team missions on the playtest server (easy way to get free flags and premium time on real server)... I think you guys are going to like them. More later, they change every hour on here (ever week is the plan on public)
Update: The Co-Op scenarios as was implemented on the PTS and will show up in 0.6.6 are brutally difficult. I mean, face off against an equal number of cruisers and destroyers, then go across the map and deal with a new wave of cruisers and battleships, oh and here is some air support... for them. Now, brutal difficulty isn't too bad as it makes these unique and challenging more than the standard game mode. They're well constructed missions, giving you a good sense of staging, purpose and accomplishment inside a match that feels much different than random team vs random team to the death. I never survived a scenario though. Didn't matter what I brought, V,VI (that is what it's limited right now, but you'll face up to VIII's) BB, CA, CL, DD, CV. Any victory I got, was because my team held out long enough for friendly reinforcements. It only happened twice. --In short-- They're good, better with a communicative division, and they'll challenge you to the point where most people will stop playing them.
I love the scenarios in 0.6.6 also saw the new UK premium destroyer HMS Gallant yesterday in game on the opposing side. I don't play aircraft carriers I will get USS Enterprise as a collector piece. (iChase did a review of her and does not like the ship but we will see how the ship is in final form)
Erwin Rommel - "Give me American supply lines, British planes, German officers and Canadian troops, and I can take over the world".
My 1st ever Kraken Unleashed after 400 battles. I wish I had this recorded so I would have put it on my YouTube channel. The majority of the team lemming trained and died going to Objective D. Me a Yorck and 2 destroyers went to Objective A capped it. One of the destroyers detonated a Blyskawica and I took out a Dunkerque. Assisted in sinking a Murmansk. When we reached the Objective on D a full health Nurnberg tried to sneak up on me but I obliterated him. A Scharnhorst eventually joined us and we took on an enemy Scharnhorst, Colorado and Bayern. I sunk all 3 while our destroyers set them on fire and used torpedoes to keep throw their aim off us. (Our Scharnhorst and Yorck scummed to the 3 battleships).
I got a lot of praise from my team saying, I was like a pro player and after the battle was invited by one of the players to join his clan.
Played this weekend from Tier 6 to 8 and made large amounts of credits and damage with my best friend Gary (aka zhoom987). Here is a video of our last game of me in the premium destroyer Lo Yang.
Erwin Rommel - "Give me American supply lines, British planes, German officers and Canadian troops, and I can take over the world".
Nice TrickiVic, I'd totally consider a Lo Yang purchase. Sure you only got 4 guns but 9km torps on a US chassis with hydroacoustic search... it'd be like my Fiji with 2x the concealment capability.