Update 0.11.4

Development Blog 311 Developer Bulletin Public Test News article

Captains! Due to the installation of the update, the server will be unavailable
from: Wed. May 18 3:00 AM PT / Wed. May 18 5:00 AM Central
until: Wed. May 18 6:00 AM PT / Wed. May 18 8:00 AM Central

Update 0.11.4: French Cruisers

Update 0.11.4 brings you the following new features:

• Launch of an alternative branch of French cruisers in Early Access.
• Italian destroyers taking their place in the Tech Tree.
• Addition of Arms Race to Random and Co-op Battles.
• Construction of VIII Atlântico in full swing at the Dockyard.
• Continuation of submarine testing.

French Cruisers ● Italian Destroyers in the Tech Tree ● Dockyard ● Arms Race in Random and Co-op Battles ● Minimap Updates ● Clan Battles ● Ranked Battles ● Continuation of Submarine Testing ● Game Balance Changes ● Armory ● Azur Lane ● Content Additions and Changes ● Other Changes and Improvements

French Cruisers

These new ships have found their places next to the first branch of French cruisers. The main feature of the newcomers is their large-caliber guns (in terms of their class) mounted on the bow. While they reload slowly, this is compensated for by the Main Battery Reload Booster consumable. The new ships are capable of achieving high speeds with the help of the improved "French-specific" Engine Boost consumable. The ships' armor does a great job in protecting their citadels against medium-caliber AP shells, but the new cruisers are quite vulnerable against HE and SAP shells. Medium and long ranges are optimal for engagements, but with the help of their 139 mm secondary battery guns with improved accuracy, the new ships can also show their worth in close-range encounters.

New Ships

VIII Cherbourg is a project of a super-heavy cruiser, close to the Dunkerque-class ships, with her main armament comprising eight 305 mm guns.

IX Brest is a cruiser with 330 mm main battery guns concentrated at the bow. Her AA artillery comprises Bofors and Oerlikon automatic guns.

X Marseille is a super-heavy cruiser with a displacement of over 30,000 tons. Her main armament comprises nine 330 mm guns placed in three turrets at the ship's bow.

Early Access

VIII Cherbourg will be available as the final reward for completing combat missions.

IX Brest may be obtained via random bundles available for  Doubloons.

X Marseille will be available at the end of a chain of sequential bundles for  Doubloons.

All details of the event dedicated to the launch of the French cruisers in Early Access will be released separately.

When Update 0.11.6 goes live, the French cruisers will become available for all players to research.

Italian Destroyers in the Tech Tree

With the release of Update 0.11.4, the entire branch of Italian destroyers will become available for all players to research.

We'll release a separate article for you describing the intricate details of how to handle ships of the new branch in battle.

Dockyard

The construction of Pan-American battleship VIII Atlântico is progressing at full steam.

The Dockyard combat missions will continue to be accessible during the first 3 weeks of Update 0.11.4, and the Dockyard will be available until Update 0.11.4 comes to an end.

Arms Race in Random and Co-op Battles

In Update 0.11.4, Arms Race will be introduced into Random and Co-op Battles.

The key feature of Arms Race is that special buff areas appear on the map. These provide bonuses to the combat characteristics of all ships on your team.

Arms Race will be available only in battles where the highest ship tier is IX, X, or superships. The main matchmaker settings will be similar to those used in Random and Co-op Battles, respectively. Arms Race is for the following eight maps only: Islands of Ice, Sleeping Giant, Warrior’s Path, Mountain Range, Northern Waters, Land of Fire, Hotspot, and Loop.

We'll give you the full lowdown on Arms Race in a dedicated article.

With the addition of Arms Race to Random and Co-op Battles, we're disabling Epicenter.

Minimap Updates

To make communication in battle more convenient, comprehensive, and simple, we've updated the Minimap. Added new settings:

• "Show the exact location in the square." When double-clicking the Minimap, the exact spot is shown instead of the overall square.

Minimap settings will consist of two sections:

• Circle Settings
• Other Settings

They will now correctly fit on screens of any resolution.

Clan Battles

Update 0.11.4. kicks off Season 17 of Clan Battles. It's code named "Cayman," and the battles are going to be held in a 7 vs. 7 format playing Tier X ships and superships.

Starts: Tue. May 24 11:00 PM PT / your local time: Wed. May 25 1:00 AM
Ends: Mon. Jul. 11 4:00 PM PT / your local time: Mon. Jul. 11 6:00 PM

Restrictions

• No aircraft carriers.
• No more than one battleship per team.
• No more than two superships per team.
• X Petropavlovsk and X Kléber cannot be deployed.
• No more than three mercenaries per Division.

These restrictions will allow us to diversify the game play and increase the variability of setups in the season.

We'll release more details about the new season of Clan Battles in a dedicated article.

Ranked Battles

Update 0.11.4 will see the launch of Ranked Battles Season 7.

Starts: Wed. May 18 9:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. May 18 11:00 AM
Ends: Wed. Jul. 13 12:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Jul. 13 2:00 AM

Format

This season, all the leagues involve Tier VIII and IX ships fighting in a 6 vs. 6 format. The rules for keeping a Star differ between the leagues:

• In the Bronze League, players who take the first two places by XP earned keep their Stars in a lost battle.
• In the Silver League, only the top XP earner keeps their Star in a lost battle.
• In the Gold League, players do not keep their Stars in a lost battle.

These changes emphasize the different levels of competitiveness in each league.

We have revised the number of Stars required to reach Rank 1. The purpose of this is to make sure that the average number of battles required to reach Rank 1 does not change.

You will find all details of Ranked Battles Season 7 in a separate article.

Continuation of Submarine Testing

We continue testing submarines. Update 0.11.4 brings in a number of changes:

• Disabled the possibility to launch conventional torpedoes at maximum depth. From Update 0.11.2, conventional torpedoes no longer home in on targets vertically. It became inefficient to launch them from the maximum depth, which is why we've disabled this possibility.
• Disabled the increased dive capacity depletion rate when a submarine is detected by the enemy. This led to a change in the corresponding Commander skills and upgrades—a modifier for the dive capacity restoration rate has been introduced instead of the modifier for additional dive capacity depletion. Additional dive capacity depletion was already very low and had minimal impact on the gameplay of submarines. We decided to get rid of it because it made gameplay excessively complicated.
• The ping movement effect has been replaced with a launch effect, and this also gives a hint about the direction of the ping's origin. If a submarine isn't detected at the moment a ping is being emitted, the effect is displayed in the direction the sonar ping was emitted within a range of one kilometer from the sub. The previously used effect was visible and drew attention, but it was hard to understand where it originated from. The new effect better indicates where the sonar ping was emitted from. Players' attention will also still be drawn by the hit indication and sound of any pings that come close. The new effect will help players better understand the locations of undetected submarines so they can attack them more efficiently with main battery guns and the Depth Charge Airstrike armament.

Countering subs and sub survivability

After careful analysis of their combat efficiency, we've reduced the survivability of submarines in battle. In Update 0.11.4:

• The radius of the impact area of ship-dropped depth charges was increased from 450 to 800 m.
• Increased the damage dealt with the Depth Charge Airstrike in the outermost parts of the impact area.
• Changed the minimum drop distance for the Depth Charge Airstrike for battleships. It now equals 500 m (same as for cruisers).

Changing sub depth to facilitate quick combat characteristic changes

In Update 0.11.4, we removed the possibility to tread the line between two different depths and retain the benefits of both.

Sub characteristics and capabilities at periscope depth are now maintained while staying at that depth and right until a sub has reached her maximum depth. The border separating the periscope and maximum depths now lies at 15 m. Maximum depth values were changed to 30 and 60 m.

Other submarine tweaks

We've added changes to Commander skills.

• Sonarman
  • Ping effect duration on a sector highlighted once was changed from –10% to +25%.
  • Duration of a ping effect on a twice-highlighted sector was changed from +20% to –15%.
• Torpedo Crew Training
  • Bonus to the torpedo tube reload time applied when the enemy detects your sub was increased from 5% to 15%.
• Enhanced Impulse Generator
  • The skill is activated when a sub has less than 33% of her maximum dive capacity remaining.
• Consumables Enhancements
  • Bonus applied to the action time of consumables was increased from 7.5% to 10%.
• Adrenaline Rush
  • Bonus to the reload time of armaments for each percent of lost HP was increased from 0.2% to 0.25%.
• Improved Battery Efficiency
  • Bonus is activated when a sub has less than 50% of her maximum dive capacity (previously, 25%).
• Enlarged Propeller Shaft
  • Bonus is activated when a sub has less than 50% of her maximum dive capacity (previously, 25%).
  • Bonus to speed while underwater was increased from 15% to 18%.

In connection with these changes, all submarine Commanders will have their skills reset automatically when the update goes live.

Game Balance Changes

We’re tuning the balance of certain ships based on our analysis of their combat effectiveness and your feedback. These changes were required in order to carefully adjust the balance of selected warships. Further changes may follow in future updates, should they be required.

U.S. Tier X cruiser Des Moines

• Surveillance Radar consumable action time reduced from 40 to 35 s.
• Surveillance Radar consumable is now selected by default for this slot.

U.S. Tier IX cruiser Buffalo

• Surveillance Radar consumable action time reduced from 35 to 30 s.
• Surveillance Radar consumable is now selected by default for this slot.

U.S. Tier VIII cruiser Baltimore

• Surveillance Radar consumable action time reduced from 27 to 25 s.

Pan-Asian Tier VIII cruiser Harbin

• Sigma parameter reduced from 2.05 to 2.0.

U.S. super carrier United States

• Preparation time of tactical attack aircraft squadron increased from 150 to 175 s.
• Preparation time of tactical torpedo bombers squadron increased from 150 to 195 s.

British super carrier Eagle

• Preparation time of tactical attack aircraft squadron increased from 150 to 175 s.
• Preparation time of tactical torpedo bombers squadron increased from 240 to 275 s.

Soviet Tier X cruiser Petropavlovsk

• Deck armor reduced from 50 to 40 mm.
• Casemate armor reduced from 50 to 40 mm.

French Tier X cruiser Henri IV

• Rudder shift time reduced from 11.9 to 11.2 s.

E.U. Tier X destroyer Ragnar

• Reload speed of the ship's main battery guns increased from 3.2 to 3.4 s.

Pan-Asian destroyers Hsienyang, Chung Mu, and Yueyang

• Torpedo Reload Booster consumable added.
  • Number of consumable charges: 2
  • Reload time: 300 s

Soviet super destroyer Zorkiy

• Torpedo range increased from 8 to 10 km.
• Main battery reload time increased from 5 to 5.3 s.

Soviet Tier X destroyer Grozovoi

• Range of researchable torpedoes increased from 10 to 12 km.

British Tier VIII cruiser Belfast '43

• Main battery reload time reduced from 10.5 to 10 s.

German Tier VIII cruiser Admiral Hipper

• Main battery reload time reduced from 11 to 10.5 s.

Soviet Tier VIII cruiser Tallinn

• Main battery reload time reduced from 13 to 12.5 s.

Soviet Tier VIII aircraft carrier Chkalov

• Maximum torpedo damage reduced from 5,200 to 4,666.
• Maximum bomb damage of skip bombers reduced from 8,700 to 7,500.
  • Chances of causing a fire on target reduced from 49% to 43%

Armory

German Tier X battleship Mecklenburg

When the Update goes live, the Armory will feature X Mecklenburg, a battleship carrying as many as sixteen 305 mm guns placed in quadruple-gun turrets. The ship's AA defenses comprise systems developed in the 1940s.

X Mecklenburg wields a large number of guns with a high rate of fire and accuracy, decent air defenses, and good armor protection. At the same time, the battleship's HP pool is not that high, and the guns have a small caliber. The warship is equipped with the Defensive AA Fire and Repair Party consumables. Players can also choose between a Fighter and a Spotting Aircraft consumable. Unlike the majority of German counterparts, Mecklenburg does not have access to Hydroacoustic Search.

You can get the ship in exchange for  31,000 Steel.

Community Tokens

In response to requests from players, we are also replacing VII Leningrad, V Exeter, and IV Ishizuchi with Premium Ship II–IV, Premium Ship V, and Premium Ship VII containers available in exchange for  Community Tokens in the Naval Community tab.

The Return of USS Black

We prepared a special Portal campaign for Update 0.11.4, upon the completion of which you will receive an American Commander with 12 skill points.

From 10th of June to 1st of July, you will be able to earn and exchange tokens for themed sequential bundles which contain historical Commanders, a patch, a flag, and a permanent camouflage for IX Black. To unlock all the bundles, you will need to have 24,000 tokens, which can be purchased with at a rate of 1:1. You can also earn up to 2,500 tokens during the course of the portal campaign, which itself is enough to purchase bundles with the patch, themed expendable camouflages, signals, and more. At the end of the chain of sequential bundles, IX Black itself will be available to purchase for 19,300.

Immediately following the end of the portal campaign, IX Black will be made available in the Armory in exchange for Coal. The exact cost will be about the same as that of IX Neustrashimy. It will be possible to apply the Ships Armory coupon, which will incidentally be refreshed in June. Thereafter, you will be able to purchase her either with Doubloons or with Coal.

Azur Lane™

As part of the next stage of our collaboration with Azur Lane, World of Warships will see the addition of:

• Ships III AL Avrora and IX AL Azuma
• Special camouflages "Azur Lane: New Jersey" for IX Iowa; "Azur Lane: Formidable" for VIII Indomitable; and Azur Lane for VIII Shōkaku
• Commanders Bismarck, Zara, Chapayev, Saint Louis, Formidable, and New Jersey
• The Azur Lane — Avrora and Azur Lane — Azuma commemorative flags
• The Azur Lane Premium container contents have been updated:
  • 1st item: 6x "Azur Lane — Siren" expendable camouflages
  • 2nd item: One of the Dunkerque, Jean Bart, Saint Louis, Prinz Eugen, Roon, Admiral Hipper, Bismarck, Littorio, Zara, Shōkaku, Yukikaze, Azuma, Yat Sen, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Avrora, Chapayev, Belfast, Nelson, Hood, Neptune, Formidable, Baltimore, Enterprise, Cleveland, Montpelier, or New Jersey Commanders with 10 skill points
  • 3rd item: 12x special signals of the same type (Basilisk, Wyvern, Hydra, Dragon, Red Dragon, Leviathan, Scylla, or Ouroboros)

Any Azur Lane Premium containers already on player accounts will be updated accordingly with the release of Update 0.11.4.

The full details of the collaboration will be announced later.

Content Additions and Changes

The update brings the following items to the game:

• The following permanent camouflages: Liberation for VIII Cherbourg, IX Brest, and X Marseille; Enlightenment for VII Toulon, and Sui generis for IX Black.
• Gamla örlogsflaggan, French Cruisers, Battle of Helgeå, and USS Black flags.
• Commanders Fredrik Henrik af Chapman, Ichirō Satō, Tamio Yamazaki, Nathan Wyatt, Arleigh Burke, Takeo Takagi, and Hank Bailey.
• Vasa, Battle of Midway, and USS Black patches.
• Caiman and Hurricane: Caiman achievements.

The following ships have been added for testing by developers, supertesters, and community contributors: IV Queen Mary, V Tiger, VII Rooke, IX Duncan, X St. Vincent, X St. Lawrence, ★ Clausewitz, and VII Collingwood.

Other Changes and Improvements

• Disabled frame rate caps in battles. Frame rate cap in the Port remains fixed at 75 frames per second.
• We've added consistency to the way all buttons look in the game.
• Fixed an issue where progress for the Ranked Battles Expert emblems would not be counted. Uncounted progress of this kind will be restored for all players.
• Updated the calculation of the integral characteristics of aircraft for super carriers and hybrid ships in the Port.
• For Soviet, Italian, German, and Japanese ships, as well as some French ships, we've added the relevant nation-specific aircraft and types of bombs deployed with the Depth Charge Airstrike armament.
• In Operation Aegis, allied cruiser VIII Baltimore was replaced with aircraft carrier VIII Saipan.
• Fixed the geometry and textures for the following ships: ★ United States, X Attilio Regolo, IX Adriatico, VIII Tone, VII Nelson, VII Luca Tarigo, VIII Mainz, IX ZF-6, X Des Moines, V Oklahoma, and VI Fubuki.
• Improved the color settings to add more contrast and a more saturated picture in the game.
• In text fields, focus can be removed using the ESC key.
• Updated icons for the chat and system message center.
• Fixed an issue that could cause AI-controlled carriers to drop torpedoes if there was an island between a squadron and a ship.
• Fixed an issue that caused the torpedo aiming distance to be displayed incorrectly for submarines.
• Fixed an issue where subs could fire their torpedoes outside the boundaries of their torpedo cones.
• Fixed an issue that could in certain cases display submarine torpedo markers as "posing no danger."
• Fixed an issue that could in certain cases cause the "Not enough time for torpedoes to ascend" message to be displayed incorrectly.
• Disabled the "Maximum depth reached" sound message for submarines.
• Fixed an issue that could sometimes cause the aiming reticle to be displayed incorrectly on the Minimap.
• The Minimap settings will now fit it correctly on screens of any resolution.
• Updated the loading screen for the Hotspot map.
• Disabled the option to sell the modules of Premium and special ships. All players who sold them earlier will have them credited to their accounts.
• Added new portraits for French and Soviet Commanders.
• Fixed an issue that prevented personal offer discounts from being applied.
• Fixed an issue that caused the client to crash upon re-logging into a battle if the ship's main battery or torpedo tubes had been destroyed.
• Improved the display of aircraft and other fast-moving objects in battles.
• Replays now display FPS and ping data.
• Fixed an issue where the Submarine Spotting Range parameter would display an incorrect value before the Hydroacoustic Search consumable was mounted on a ship.
• Updated the graphic for the Improved Battery Efficiency skill.
• Disabled the display of enemy sonar ping effects for submarines at maximum depth.
• Clarified the description of the Reserve Battery Unit consumable.
• Fixed the display in the detailed post-battle stats of damage received from Airstrike, ASW, and tactical squadron torpedoes.
• In game modes held in the format of 5 vs.5 (or fewer) ships, the battle waiting time was reduced to 30 s.
• Once a ship has been destroyed, the effects of any active consumables she has on board will no longer be displayed.
• Fixed an issue that caused the sonar operation effect to be invisible from aircraft and in the Free Camera mode after the player's ship has been destroyed.
• Fixed an issue where the armor penetration value displayed in a shell dynamic tip would not increase when using Combat Instructions.
• Fixed an issue where skip bombers would not be displayed in the Ammunition Resupply section of the detailed post-battle stats tab.
• Fixed an issue which could, in certain cases, cause the superships' main gun reload timers to display incorrect information.
• For battleship VIII Brandenburg, the value of the horizontal aiming angle of secondary battery gun #3 has been corrected to match with the value applied for secondary battery gun #4 on the opposite side.
• The icon of a submarine is now displayed in the chat.
• Fixed the message displayed when a player is disconnected from the server for lack of activity — a corresponding message is now shown stating the reason for disconnection.
• The Victor Lima and India X-Ray signals are no longer marked as ineffective if a ship is equipped with a secondary battery that fires HE shells.
• Fixed the designation of a British AA gun from "40 mm/39 Vickers QF Mk.VIII on a Mk.V mount" to "40 mm/39 Vickers QF Mk.VIII on a Mk.VI mount."
• Fixed the main battery gun designations for the Dutch cruisers VII Eendracht and VI Kijkduin, displayed in the ships' tech specs and in Modules, from "150 mm/53 Model 1942 in a turret" to "152 mm/53 Model 1942 in a turret."
• Fixed an issue that prevented superships from being highlighted in branches after pressing the button that shows information about the specifics of a particular branch.
• Fixed an issue where the "Create Division" button could overlap a notification text in the Port.
• Fixed an issue that allowed the Port camera to "peek" inside the superstructure of American super carrier ★ United States when focusing on a torpedo bomber squadron.
• Fixed an issue where invitations to join a Division would not be displayed in battle.
• Fixed an issue that affected the receipt of group achievements.
• Fixed an issue that caused the torpedo reticles of submarines to display torpedo aiming distance incorrectly.
• Fixed an issue where wagons could sometimes pass through each other at the Clydebank Dockyard.
• Fixed the flight trajectories and engine sounds of aircraft at the Clydebank Dockyard.
• Fixed an issue where it was impossible to enter battle without re-logging into the game.
• Fixed an issue where the game client incorrectly displayed the number of players worldwide.
• For a complete list, please refer to Player Support.

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