Update 0.8.1

Developer Bulletin Update 0.8.1 News article

British Aircraft Carriers

Since the time of the Closed Beta Test, there were only two researchable branches of aircraft carriers in World of Warships—Japanese and American. They will soon be joined by British aircraft carriers, and you can obtain early access to these ships in Update 0.8.1.

Distinctive Features of British Aircraft

British planes have more HP than their same-tier counterparts, and boosting that advantage will enable you to carry out daring attacks against ships with strong AA defenses. To do so, we recommend equipping the Aircraft Armor and Survivability Expert Commander skills and upgrades which can be mounted in slot 4.

British bombers drop their payloads in a different manner, i.e. by delivering a large number of bombs using a high-level bombing technique. Their dispersion ellipse is stretched in parallel to the course of the squadron, and is larger in size than the dispersion ellipses of bombers of other nations. This feature allows you to deal massive damage on a well-performed approach to your target.

British attack aircraft carry a large number of rockets, and their torpedo bombers are equipped with powerful, yet short-range, torpedoes. British torpedo bombers have good maneuverability but a relatively low cruising speed, which allows them to make an almost immediate U-turn by using Boost to slow down.

Please note that aircraft carriers are still subject to balance tweaks. Therefore, the technical characteristics of U.K. carriers may change with future updates. Balance tweaks affecting aircraft carriers can potentially be made after the carriers hit the live servers. This decision rests on the fact that, during tests, players often adopt a play style that’s different from the way they act on the live servers. This makes it impossible to bring balancing factors to their final state during testing. In making any changes, we would very much appreciate your feedback and support!

The "Fly! Strike! Win!" Event

The event will continue in Update 0.8.1. As before, four new Stages will be available to players. A Stage lasts for one week and consists of four Directives, each comprising six to eight combat and economic missions. The rewards include various in-game items, Crowns, and Air Supply containers.

The "Fly! Strike! Win!" event will be available to players who have reached Level 12 in their Service Record and play with Tier V-X ships in Random and Co-op battles. Some of the missions can be completed in Operations.

Once you are done with all Directives of a given Stage, you gain access to the Hall of Fame, where you can earn a reward by achieving a certain rating score. At the end of each week, the 100 best players will get a dedicated achievement called "Top 100".

"Fly! Strike! Win!" in the Arsenal

The Arsenal gets a new temporary category, with three bundles containing researchable British aircraft carriers:

• Tier IV Hermes
• Tier VI Furious
• Tier VIII Implacable

To get the bundles containing British aircraft carriers, you’ll need to obtain the new temporary resources—Crowns and Florins—introduced especially for the “Fly! Strike! Win!” Event.

How to get Crowns:

• Complete the Directives of the "Fly! Strike! Win!" event.
• Complete chains of daily combat missions.
• Obtain them in exchange for doubloons in the Arsenal (this option can be used three times only).

How to get Florins:

• From Air Supply containers earned by completing the combat missions and Directives of the "Fly! Strike! Win!" event.
• Complete chains of daily combat missions.
• From Air Supply Premium containers purchased in the Premium Shop.

You will be able to obtain Crowns, Florins, and Air Supply containers as rewards for completing Directives and chains of combat missions only during first three weeks of Update 0.8.1.

The bundles with aircraft carriers can be acquired only in a specific sequence, one by one. Each bundle is available only once per account.

Crowns can only be exchanged for the bundles with aircraft carriers. Any remaining Crowns can be converted into Florins at an exchange rate of 1 to 8, but only during the fourth week of Update 0.8.1. Florins can be exchanged at any time, and for any other in-game items: credits, Warships Premium Account time, Union Jack camouflage patterns, or combat and economic signals.

With the release of Update 0.8.2, any remaining Crowns will automatically be converted into Florins at an exchange rate of 1 to 8. You will still be able to spend Florins in the Arsenal in Update 0.8.2.

"Naval Aviation" Collection

The new "Naval Aviation" collection comprises 16 elements, among which you'll find aircraft models, signals of landing signal officers, and badges of British aircraft carriers. The first element of the collection can be obtained from the Air Supply containers. Others can be found in Air Supply and daily containers. All you need to do is to activate the subscription on the collection screen by pressing the "Collect" button, once you’ve collected the first element.

You’ll have the opportunity to choose between various camouflage pattern color schemes for British ships as a reward for completing each thematic list. The rewards for completing the entire collection are a permanent camouflage pattern for VIII Implacable, the opportunity to choose between various camouflage pattern color schemes for the Commonwealth ships, and the ability to mount two flags simultaneously on British aircraft carriers.

You will be able to exchange any duplicates for missing items of the “Naval Aviation” collection at an exchange rate of 5 to 1. You can choose the item which you would like to receive in exchange for the duplicates. Upon completing the collection, all duplicates remaining on your account will be exchanged for credits at the following rate: 1 duplicate = 15,000 credits.

More details about the "Fly! Strike! Win!" event, the new Arsenal category, and the “Naval Aviation” collection are available in a dedicated article.

British Aircraft Carrier Daily Shipments

If you log in to the game regularly during the period from February 28 till March 14, you can claim the following rewards in the Daily Shipments section:

• 3x Union Jack camouflage patterns
• 50,000 credits
• 50,000 credits
• 1 day of Warships Premium Account
• 1x Air Supply container
• 50,000 credits
• 5x Union Jack camouflage patterns
• 1 day of Warships Premium Account
• 50 doubloons
• 1x Air Supply container

You can get a total of 10 rewards, while the shipments are available for 14 days. Thus, you can skip four days out of two weeks and still claim all of the available rewards!

In-Game Mechanics Improvements

We carefully monitor the basic game mechanics and are in constant search of ways to improve them. With Update 0.8.1, we are changing the mechanics for flooding and the Surveillance Radar consumable.

Surveillance Radar

Starting from Update 0.8.1 the Surveillance Radar  consumable will operate as follows: a detected ship will immediately appear on the Minimap, but will only become visible to the entire enemy team after a 6-second period, provided that the ship remains in the radar zone for the whole time. Destroyers and cruisers, geared towards relying on their concealment and smoke, will have an opportunity to maneuver. This will give them a chance to evade fire from the majority of enemies, thus reducing the amount of damage received.

The interaction of a ship using the Surveillance Radar  consumable and their target remains unchanged: it will become visible on the Minimap and in the game world immediately.

Thus, ships geared towards relying on their concealment will be able to play more actively. Radar-carrying ships will be able to fight just as efficiently as before, but will have to rely on their own efforts rather than teamwork in the initial six seconds following activation of the consumable.

Interface

Consumables such as Surveillance Radar , Hydroacoustic Search , and Template:Assured Acquisition will have their own distinctive indicators to visually signal how your ship has been detected.

Moreover, each time a player activates either Surveillance Radar  or Hydroacoustic Search , a special sign visible to the allies will appear above that ship. A message signaling that a particular consumable has been activated will also pop up in the allied chat.

Flooding

Previously, a case of flooding afflicting a ship at a time when the Damage Control Party consumable was not immediately available, meant that the chances of her sinking or receiving serious damage were very high.

With the updated mechanics, we have reduced the duration of flooding and the damage an instance can cause. However, a ship can now be afflicted by two floods simultaneously. These can occur at each of the aft- and fore-ends of the ship, the dividing border of which is right in the middle of the ship. However, a ship can't be afflicted by more than one flood simultaneously at a single end.

Flooding reduces a ship's propulsion power capacity, which in turn significantly affects her maneuverability, making the ship a vulnerable target for enemies. With the new Update, the penalty against afflicted ships’ propulsion power gets increased, which, along with other changes to the mechanics, makes flooding no less dangerous than before.

As a result, instances of flooding will be less painful for newcomers and allow more experienced players to manage their ships' HP more efficiently, providing them with more opportunities to make a counter play.

Now players will be less cautious, and won’t be so conservative about their use of the Damage Control Party consumable. Overall this will lead to an increase, rather than a reduction, in the average damage being caused by flooding.

More details about changes to the interface, as well as to the mechanics for flooding and the Surveillance Radar consumable, can be found in a dedicated article : Updated Mechanics for Flooding and the Surveillance Radar Consumable

Shards Map Revision

The arrangement and height of islands on the Shards map have been changed.

More symmetrically located islands near the central key area will allow cruisers and destroyers to hold it more efficiently after allies capture one of the flanks.

The arrangement of islands around the key areas at the flanks forms a wider area to maneuver inside. Key areas will become easier to capture when approached from the center of the map.

The visual appearance and lighting have also been changed for this map. The map will be used for Tier VIII–X battles.

Port

We are constantly working on optimizing the Port and introducing interface improvements. Now, elements of the Port will appear more smoothly. This is an ongoing process, and you should expect this work to continue in further updates.

Audio

The game audio has been updated:

• Changed and improved sounds for weather effects, air explosions, and shells hitting land and aircraft.
• Improved sound environment in the Ports of Dunkirk and Kronstadt: bomb explosion and firework sounds were synchronized.
• Improved sound environment in the Naval Base Port: sounds of a passing ship horn were added and steam locomotive sounds were reworked.
• Improved music and sound environment combination in the Port and in battle. To make this possible, we removed the 'Music' slider, and replaced the 'Music in Port' and 'Music in battle' checkboxes with sliders. This enables precise fine-tuning of the background audio to create a more enjoyable experience.
• Improved spatial and temporal processing effect for HIGH- and ULTRA-quality sound settings. Sounds at a distance from a ship are now more natural.
• Improved in-game voice chat. Added automatic reduction in the volume of game audio when receiving/transmitting a voice message. In-game sounds will no longer interfere with hearing the interlocutor. Added a radio communication effect for the voice chat, the degree of which is regulated with a special slider in Game Settings.
• We should also mention the new Wwise – Auro-Headphones™ plug-in, which creates a full 3D audio environment for the game. To enable Auro-3D®, select the 'Earphones' mode in the audio settings, and experience the full beauty of the sound of naval battle!

Changes to the In-Game Economy

The amount of credits earned for destroying higher-tier ships has been increased. For example, a Tier VI ship will receive more credits and XP for the destruction of Tier VII and VIII ships. As a result, those who participate in higher-tier battles can potentially receive greater rewards for their efforts.

Transition to 64-Bit Systems

Starting from Update 0.8.1, we are terminating support for 32-bit (x86) operating systems. The game client will not launch on these systems.

More details are available in a dedicated article.

Game Balance Changes

Corrected a mistake in the AA defense action range of cruiser Minotaur. The action range of the group of medium-range AA guns has been reduced from 5.0 to 4.0 km, bringing it in line with the AA gun action range of other Tier X cruisers.

• The Minotaur medium-range AA defense action range was originally 5.0 km, with her group of guns causing numerous explosions and effecting high-level, continuous damage. Given the low detectability of the cruiser, this led to situations where aircraft fell under the fire of her medium-range AA guns almost immediately after detecting Minotaur. As a result, the British cruiser demonstrated excessive efficiency in fighting enemy aircraft.

Content Additions and Changes

Combat signals will be available in exchange for credits in the Signals category in the Arsenal.

• 20× India Yankee () – 1,920,000
• 20× India Delta () – 2,400,000
• 20× Juliet Yankee Bissotwo () – 480,000
• 20× Juliet Charlie () – 1,920,000
• 20× November Foxtrot () – 1,920,000
• 20× Hotel Yankee () – 240,000
• 20× Sierra Mike () – 2,400 000
• 20× November Echo Setteseven () – 1,920,000
• 20× Victor Lima () – 3,840,000
• 20× India X-Ray () – 2,880,000
• 20× Juliet Whiskey Unaone () – 1,440,000
• 20× Mike Yankee Soxisix () – 960,000

The “Containers” category will be complemented with a bundle comprising 5 containers of the "Battle of the North Cape" collection, available in exchange for 5,000 Coal.

The occasion of early access to British aircraft carriers will be marked with the installation of the Port of London: a winter fair has arrived there, bringing amusement rides and stands with festive goods stretching along the sunlit, snowy promenade.

Lunar New Year is over, and Dragon Port is returning to its habitual form.

Permanent camouflage patterns have been added for destroyer Błyskawica and aircraft carrier Implacable. They provide the following bonuses:

• • −3% to your ship's detectability range
  • +4% to the dispersion of shells fired by enemies attacking your ship
  • −10% to the cost of the ship's post-battle service
  • +50% XP per battle
• A camouflage pattern for destroyer Błyskawica can be obtained by completing 20 daily combat missions, and a camouflage pattern for aircraft carrier Implacable is granted for completing the entire “Naval Aviation” collection.

Tier IX cruiser Alaska has been added to the Tech Tree. This ship can be obtained in exchange for 1,000,000.

The following ships have been added for testing by developers, supertesters, and community contributors:

• Tier VIII French destroyer L'Effronté
• Italian Tier VI battleship Giunio Bruto
• Soviet Tier III battleship Knyaz Suvorov
• Soviet Tier IV battleship Gangut
• Soviet Tier V battleship Pyotr Velikiy
• Soviet Tier VI battleship Izmail
• Soviet Tier VII battleship Sinop
• Soviet Tier VIII battleship Vladivostok
• Soviet Tier IX battleship Sovetsky Soyuz
• Soviet Tier X battleship Kreml
• Soviet Tier VIII battleship Lenin
• American Tier VIII cruiser Montpelier, a copy of cruiser Cleveland, with the following differences:
  • HP amount – increased from 36,900 to 37,500
  • Main battery reload time – increased from 6.5 to 7 seconds
  • 'Sigma' parameter – increased from 2 to 2.15
• Japanese Tier VIII destroyer Yukikaze, a copy of destroyer Kagero, but carrying different torpedoes:
  • Maximum damage – 21,367
  • Torpedo range — 8 km
  • Speed – 76 knots
  • Reload time – 104 seconds
  • Torpedo tubes 180-degree traverse time – 7.2 seconds
  • Torpedo detectability range – 1.9 km

Event Containers

An Air Supply container provides:

• A chance to get a combat mission with one of the following British ships as its reward: Edinburgh (Tier VIII), Hood (Tier VII), Duke of York (Tier VII), or Vanguard (Tier VIII).
• 1x special signal flag (Basilisk, Hydra, Leviathan, Dragon, Red Dragon, Wyvern, Scylla, or Ouroboros), or an expendable Union Jack camouflage pattern.
• 50x Florins.
• An item from the Naval Aviation collection.

The Premium Shop will offer a special Premium container with even more rewards:

• A chance to get a combat mission with one of the following British ships as its reward: Edinburgh (Tier VIII), Hood (Tier VII), Duke of York (Tier VII), or Vanguard (Tier VIII).
• 9x special signal flags (Basilisk, Hydra, Leviathan, Dragon, Red Dragon, Wyvern, Scylla, or Ouroboros), or 9x expendable Union Jack camouflage patterns.
• 100x Florins.
• An item from the Naval Aviation collection.

Other Changes and Improvements

• A small, but long-awaited change is the possibility to open up all collected containers with a single click. Now, opening your containers will be quick, with the received rewards shown in a separate window.
• Minor improvements were made to the geometry and textures of the following ships: Vanguard, Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, Queen Elizabeth, Dunkerque, and Kaga.
• Optimized the visual effects for torpedo trails and the foam occurring when a ship is destroyed.
• Fixed a rare bug which could cause closing of the game client when adding a player to the contact list.
• Fixed an issue in the economy settings of American Tier VIII Premium aircraft carrier Enterprise. Profitability and service costs were brought into line with the Premium ship’s parameter values.
• Fixed an issue with the camera turning when moving the cursor to the left end of the screen when selecting which AA sector to reinforce.
• Fixed an issue with an incorrect texture for the catapult fighter located on the aft-end of battleship Roma.
• Fixed an issue where a squadron didn't stop turning after pressing Esc/F1 keys during a turn.
• Fixed an issue with the discount on resetting Commander skills disappearing after leaving a Clan.
• Fixed an issue with incorrect volume reduction when the 'Gunfire volume' slider position was changed.
• Fixed an issue where the Ranked Battle selection button stayed active after reaching Rank 1.
• Fixed an issue where the effects of fire, flooding, and movement of the player's ship were displayed in the binocular view at short distances.
• Description of destroyer Kagero’s main battery guns was corrected.
• Description of battleship Hood’s AA guns was corrected.
• Fixed a bug causing the game client to terminate unexpectedly during aircraft take-off on rare occasions.
• Fixed a bug where aircraft speed, modified by Engine Boost , didn't influence the speed of shells fired.
• Fixed a bug causing the game client to terminate unexpectedly in cases of delays in updating the camera position when controlling aircraft.
• Fixed a bug that caused the appearance of a torpedo warning when torpedoes were absent.
• Decreased the frequency of “Returning to ship” voice command playback. Now, the message will be played only when a squadron returns to the aircraft carrier after pressing the F key.
• Fixed an issue where the unique stars for Ranked Battles Expert emblems were added improperly. In Update 0.8.1, the incorrect emblem progression will be removed. Players will obtain stars in accordance with their successes in the Eleventh Season of Ranked Battles.
• Improved the November Foxtrot signal description. Now you can be sure that the signal applies both to the ship and squadron varieties of the consumable.
• Improved the description of the tip regarding AA sector use that’s shown before the beginning of a battle. Now it displays all buttons that can be used to modify AA sectors.
• Fixed the incorrect display of the "Duplicate" inscription on collection elements obtained from containers.
• Fixed a bug which caused freezing when adding a player to the Training Room.
• Amended the description of the tip regarding aircraft-launched torpedo range. Now it displays the correct rounding.
• Fixed an issue where obtaining Premium Account time from the Port selection window was impossible.
• Fixed an issue where the permanent Halloween camouflage for Benson didn't change the main turrets’ appearance.
• Corrected the maximum firing ranges of ARP Kongō, ARP Haruna, ARP Kirishima, and ARP Hiei. Now they correspond to the maximum firing range of battleship Kongo with improved GFCS.
• Improved the Clan Naval Base's exterior, with more realistic foliage and islands added to the Port‘s waters. You can also take a look at the sawmill in the mountains again.