At the end of the cease fire and the start of war, the following has taken place when a stack of corvettes opened fire on my land units:

#1 As soon as the stack of corvettes started shelling my position, I could see a corvette there with a question mark on it instead of the number 3.
(I should not even be able to see anything. This position is not scouted and he is offshore and at maximum range.)
Under normal conditions, I would only be aware that I took damage. I should see nothing.

#2 I engaged the 3 Corvettes with two stacks of Strike Fighters.
When the Strike Fighters were directly overhead I observed three things:

A) I could now see the number 3 instead of a question mark.
B) I Observed that there is no red line to indicate the fire pattern of the ships.
C) I observed that I can not see the shot timer for the ships So I no longer can calculate when it will fire its load.

#3 I did the proper damage to the Corvettes. But the Corvettes did not do the proper damage to my aircraft.
Instead of .5 damage per vette for a total of 1.5 damage to each stack of planes, I took the following damage:

A) First stack took 1 hp damage.
B) Second stack took 0 hp damage.

#4 When my two stacks of strike fighters went back to refuel and I was no longer over the ships, the ships reverted back to a question mark instead of the number 2 (1 ship is now dead).


The point of my post is not to say this is a bug.
But to make sure you are aware of how this played out and that you want it to function the way it is functioning.
On a personal note, I dislike all of the changes.
But one really sticks out...

I strongly dislike that ships are revealed now, as soon as they fire, even when the ship is off shore, out of range, and not scouted.
We used to see nothing. Whereas now the ship is visible and has a question mark.

Since this is a challenge match, there is no golden vision involved.

Thanks

Follow up on #3

(Now 2 Corvettes remain)

Second stack of attacking Strike Fighters again took 0 damage.
First stack took the correct damage of 1 HP. (This time since it is only 2 corvettes left, 1 hp is the correct damage)

Note that "first stack" is actually 3 strike fighters and 1 AS fighter.
Note that "second stack" is 5 strike fighters.

The stack of 5 strike fighters never took any damage at all.

Also just to add: It is the Fog of war issues that concern me the most. I am just reporting the damage issues too because it seems slightly off.

Ok, fair enough.
I wont argue the changes simply because I don't like them.
I will pick my battles carefully

If you say it is intended, that's good enough for me.

Btw...

The firing line and the shot timer were also removed deliberately?
I don't really have a problem with that. Might make the game a bit more realistic. I was used to using both to my advantage. Helped me to totally own most naval battles and allowed for a ton of "tricks".
But I am ok without them.

OK. Since you are actually requesting the input, I will explain.
(regarding unseen naval unit bombardment vs visible "?" units)

High end players are always going to find ways to have an edge. In some cases these "edges" are exploitation and abuse. In others, it is just the sum of experience and skill. And you are the one that has to decide which is what.
This is one of the things that I view as something on the skill and experience side.
Your experienced players use this tactic a lot. Even vs other experienced players. But especially vs the novice.
My concern is that if you remove everything and anything that we can exploit, the game will lose appeal to the experienced player.

To explain how this particular item falls into this type of category, let me tell you a real story instead of just stating opinion.

A long time ago, Legion had an Internal.
I was pitted against one of our very best players in South America. I was Columbia. He was Brazil.
Brazil had me beat. Took my Capital.
But I had 2 Corvettes in the water.
I started bombarding his port Cities. And as you know, for Brazil this is nearly all of his Cities. Brazil had gotten a bit lazy having mostly beaten me already.
Brazil did notice that something damaged his cities. But he did not know what had happened because he had not seen any units or vessels there.
As I struggled to hang onto 2 or 3 Cities and stay alive with the help of my closest ally Mexico, I also kept methodically hammering Brazil's Cities. I used some strategy in this, always going to an unpredictable spot. Splitting my corvettes up and skipping one City for another.
By the time Brazil realized what was going on, it was already too late. I had flattened the important buildings in almost every City he had.

I won that game vs a player with skill greater than mine.
And I did it with nothing but 2 corvettes that he never saw.
I know you are thinking, "But how is that possible if he was a good player". Well the guy is still with us to this day and believe me, he is one of the best players belonging to the best Alliance in your game.

But if this new method of visibility was the case back then, Brazil would have immediately reacted and sent planes to kill my corvette.
By the time he realized he needed planes there, he had lost them in other battles.

I won a game due to the subtle difference in the thing you just changed.

It is easy to think that a player should know that a ship is doing the damage.
But it is not so when applied in real time.
Even knowing it is a ship... the urgency is just not there as compared to "seeing" a ship.

Additionally, when you can see the ship (even with a "?") you can target it directly. You can shoot missiles and do direct attacks without ever scouting it.

Additionally, when you can see the ship it tells you what type. In my experience today, i saw a corvette with a "?". I assume that if it were 3 destroyers instead, it would show a destroyer.

I gave you an example of how this tactic works vs the best and most experienced players.
But now consider the novice. Experience players use this tactic all day long to terrorize novices. And this is part of the fun of the game.
If you eliminate every way we get an edge, there is no fun left.
And that's when player retention becomes part of the equation. You will lose a high percentage of your novices no matter what you do. But your high end players, you need to try to keep those.

People wont leave the game over this one simple little issue. But they add up.
It is important to have different levels of learning curves. To have tactics that the experienced player can master and use to have an advantage.
From my perspective, this change is part of an ongoing trend of noobification that is detrimental to the long term survival of the game.