Update 0.9.3

Developer Bulletin News Article

Update 0.9.3: European Destroyers Part 2

European Destroyers: Part 2 ● The Strong-Willed Campaign ● Random Bundles ● Daily Shipments ● Clan Battles. Warrior's Path ● Ranked Sprint ● Interface Changes in Port ● Matchmaking Improvements ● Armory ● Other Changes

European Destroyers: Part 2

The new line of European destroyers is now available for all players to research.

Features of the new Tech Tree branch

• Long-range, high-speed torpedoes that deal relatively small damage. They can be set to fan out in two spreads: narrow and super-narrow spread.
• Ships of Tier VII and higher are equipped with rapid-firing main battery guns that are effective at short ranges.
• Good AA defenses with a solid reach.
• Destroyers from Tier VIII and above are equipped with the Defensive AA Fire consumable.
• Lack of the Smoke Generator is compensated for by decent concealment.
• Destroyers of Tier V and above have the Repair Party consumable at their disposal.

> Review of the European DD line.

The Strong-Willed Campaign

The new game event is presided over by the new "Strong-Willed" temporary Campaign.

The Campaign comprises five missions, the first of which will become available with the release of Update 0.9.3. Access to the subsequent missions will be unlocked each week.

Please note: you can complete the tasks of each mission multiple times. This will allow you to continue earning Stars with each completion, but you'll only receive the reward after completing the task for the first time.

The Campaign will be available for 6 months.

The reward for finishing the Campaign is a new unique historical Commander, Jerzy Świrski, with 10 skill points and a specialization for I Gryf.

The new Commander has the following talents:

• Torpedo Reload Expert: reduces the torpedo tube reload time by 5% for every eight "Torpedo hits" ribbons scored. The talent can be activated multiple times.
• AA Gun Aiming Expert: increases the continuous damage of AA defenses by 10% for scoring 20 "Aircraft shot down" ribbons. This talent can be activated only once per battle.

Jerzy Świrski also has an improved skill:

• Adrenaline Rush: +0.25% (instead of +0.2%) to the reload speed of the ship's armament and squadron speed for each 1% of HP lost.

Half a year after the end of the Campaign, we plan to make Jerzy Świrski available in exchange for Coal in the Armory. Thus, you'll be able to get this Commander at a later date, even if you don't manage to finish the Strong-Willed Campaign.

Random Bundles

The European Navy 2 section of the Armory has been complemented with random bundles. Each bundle can be obtained in exchange for 500 doubloons.

Bundles contain: expendable camouflage patterns, signals, Coal, Free XP, and Elite Commander XP. They also hold unique historical Commander Jerzy Świrski with 14 skill points, and European Commander Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz.

List of Bundles

If you already have Jerzy Świrski, you'll get compensation in the form of 7,500 doubloons upon obtaining the Commander again.

Daily Shipments

During Update 0.9.3, enter the game in the period between April 8 and 29, inclusive, and start getting valuable rewards in the Daily Shipments section.

You can get a total of 10 rewards, while the shipments are available for 14 days. Thus, you can skip 4 days out of 2 weeks and still claim all the valuable rewards.

Clan Battles. Warrior's Path

Starts: Wed. Apr. 15 4:30 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Apr. 15 6:30 AM
Ends: Sun. Jun. 07 8:30 PM PT / your local time: Sun. Jun. 07 10:30 PM

Format: 7 vs. 7, playing Tier X ships of any type.

Rewards: up to 11,000 Steel and many additional rewards.

Maps: Land of Fire, North, Northern Waters, Haven, Tears of the Desert, Crash Zone Alpha, and Warrior's Path. No cyclones will appear on maps in the current Season.

Season Features

With aircraft carriers now being able to take part in Clan Battles, we've introduced a new restriction for the current season: a Clan must make a choice between entering a battle with one aircraft carrier or one battleship.

We realize that the presence of carriers has the potential to greatly affect the gameplay of Clan Battles. We'll watch the results of the season closely and make decisions about the further development of this battle type based on our findings.

Please note: during the current Season, in contrast to previous seasons, there will be no discount on resetting Commander skills. This was necessary at the start of previous Clan Battle seasons because players often needed to change some of their Commanders' skills due to the fact that aircraft carriers weren't allowed in Clan battles.

Ranked Sprint

Starts: Wed. Apr. 29 7:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Apr. 29 9:00 AM
Ends: Mon. May 11 6:30 AM PT / your local time: Mon. May 11 8:30 AM

Format: 12 vs. 12, playing Tier IX–X ships

Mode: Arms Race

Interface Changes in Port

The restriction on the number of special and economic signals that can be mounted on a ship has been removed. You'll be able to mount up to eight combat signals, and any number of economic and special signals, simultaneously.

Changes to the Exterior Tab

• Mounting, demounting, or purchasing exterior elements; changing a ship's color scheme; and linking exterior elements to a ship now requires a single left-click on the corresponding element.
• The ability to mount/demount all economic and special signals with a single left-click has been added.
• The ability to instantly mount/demount all recommended (i.e. the most effective for a particular ship) combat signals has been added.
• The tooltips for signals, flags, and camouflages have been updated.

The Tech Tree now has tooltips describing features of the ship groups in each branch — by clicking them, you’ll open a window with a detailed description.

Editor's Note: This is a well designed upgrade and very welcome. Thanks, WG. - DMF

Matchmaking Improvements

The changes that have been made to the matchmaker in Update 0.9.3 will provide more possibilities for effectively playing low-tier ships against high-tier ships, and also reduce the number of cases where players would find themselves with the only Tier VIII ship in a battle composed of Tier X ships, for example.

Apart from that, the number of battles with two aircraft carriers per team will be considerably reduced, while battles with three carriers per team will never occur.

List of changes

• For Tier VII–X battles, we've placed a limit on the minimum number of ships two tiers lower than the battle tier.
• We’ve placed a limit on the maximum number of ships whose tier corresponds to the battle tier, with the exception of battles where all ships are of the same tier.
• We’ve updated the settings that restrict the number of ships of a specific type in a battle.

For example: in Tier X battles, the team will consist of at least 3 ships of Tier VIII (if such ships are waiting in the queue), and not more than 5 ships of Tier X, provided that the matchmaker's queue has a normal number of players waiting. The number of destroyers and battleships in the team will not exceed 4 and 5 ships of each type, respectively.

For each battle tier, several sets of settings will be used that will replace each other, depending on the waiting time in the queue—the longer the battle waiting time, the softer the restrictions. The new settings will allow us to avoid a significant increase in waiting times if there aren't many people looking to play a battle in a particular moment, and at the same time, still assemble battles with the most efficient team rosters possible.

Armory

Unique Upgrades

On April 17, the Research Bureau will be complemented with unique upgrades for the following warships: X Des Moines, X Worcester, X Gearing, X Montana, X Zaō, X Shimakaze, X Yamato, X Hindenburg, X Z-52, X Großer Kurfürst, X Moskva, X Khabarovsk, X Grozovoi, X Minotaur, X Conqueror, X Henri IV, X République, and X Yueyang. The cost of each upgrade is 19,200 Research Points.

Please note: we plan to change the unique upgrades in Update 0.9.5.

Marceau

Warships V Marblehead, VI Anshan, and X Marceau have been added to the Ships for Resources section, where they are now exchangeable for 34,000; 40,000; and 236,000 Coal respectively.

X Marceau is a design variant of a "3,000-ton scout ship" that was developed in France at the beginning of World War II. She carries dual-purpose guns of a post-war design. In World of Warships, she boasts a high speed and rapid-firing artillery, as well as good AA defenses.

Key features:

• Eight 127 mm guns in four turrets with a reload time of 3.5 seconds and 180-degree traverse time of just 6 seconds.
• Four triple-tube 550 mm torpedo launchers. The launchers are notable for having wide aiming angles, but her torpedoes are not as powerful as those of some other Tier X destroyers.
• Her high standard speed of 44 knots can be increased by 20% with the Engine Boost consumable activated—it pushes her speed above 52 knots.
• The AA defenses she carries are already decent for her ship type, but they can be further reinforced by placing the Defensive AA Fire consumable in a separate slot.
• Like most French destroyers, X Marceau isn't equipped with Smoke Generator. Her detectability is also higher than average for a ship of her type — 8.6 km with her permanent camouflage mounted but without upgrades and Commander skills taken into account.

Removed Ships

Effective as of the release of Update 0.9.3, the following ships will no longer be available in the Armory: X Smolensk, IX Jean Bart, IX Neustrashimy, VII Flint, and IX Black. Jean Bart will also be removed from the Premium Shop.

X Smolensk and IX Jean Bart have become very popular for their tiers. So, in order to maintain the proper level of diversity in teams in terms of the ships they are comprised of, these ships will no longer be available to obtain for an undefined period of time.

For a number of reasons, IX Neustrashimy, VII Flint, and IX Black aren't currently highly sought after in exchange for Steel. Because of this, we'll temporarily remove them from the Armory. They will return and be available in exchange for Coal in 6 months' time or later.

Orkan

In late April, VIII Orkan will become obtainable in exchange for doubloons in the Armory. You'll be able to play this ship to complete the tasks of #The Strong-Willed Campaign, which are designed specifically for the European destroyers. Stay tuned for more news!

Game Balance Changes

In Update 0.9.3, we've made changes to the parameters of certain ships based on our analysis of their battle efficiency and feedback from players. Such changes were required in order to carefully adjust the balance of selected warships. Further changes may follow in future updates, should they be required.

Tier III Soviet cruiser Aurora

• Gun traverse speed has been increased from 5.1 to 5.3 deg/s.

Tier III British destroyer Valkyrie

• Main battery reload time has been increased from 5.2 to 5.4 seconds.
• Torpedo tube reload time has been increased from 43 to 45 seconds.

Tier IV British battleship Orion

• Main battery's standard firing range has been reduced from 14.7 to 14.4 km.

Tier V British cruiser Hawkins

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 14 to 13.5 seconds.
• Horizontal aiming angles of the main battery guns have been increased:

• By 32 degrees (for short distances) for the first turret.
• By 2 degrees for the second turret.
• By 5 degrees for the third and fourth turrets.
• By 36 degrees (for long distances) for the sixth turret.

Tier VII U.S. cruiser Atlanta

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 4.9 to 4.8 seconds.

Tier IX British destroyer Jutland

• Main battery reload time has been increased from 4.1 to 4.2 seconds.
• Torpedo tube reload time has been increased from 122 to 124 seconds.

Tier X British destroyer Daring

• Main battery reload time has been increased from 2.6 to 2.7 seconds.
• Torpedo tube reload time has been increased from 122 to 124 seconds.

Tier X Japanese aircraft carrier Hakuryū

• Maximum damage caused by a rocket has been reduced from 3,350 to 3,250.
• Chances of fire being caused by a rocket have been reduced from 15% to 14%.

Tier X French cruiser Colbert

• Main battery reload time has been reduced from 3.5 to 3.4 seconds.
• The amount of HP restored by the Repair Party consumable has been increased from +0.5% to +0.66% of the total HP pool per second.

Tier X Soviet battleship Kremlin

• Continuous damage caused by AA mounts has been reduced from 433 to 412.
• The number of AA explosions (flak bursts) has been reduced from 10 to 9.
• Damage within the explosion radius has been reduced from 1,820 to 1,750.

Tier VI U.S. cruiser Pensacola

• The armor thickness of the ship's ends has been increased from 16 mm to 25 mm.

Tier VII U.S. cruiser New Orleans

• The armor thickness of the ship's ends has been increased from 16 mm to 25 mm.

Tier VII German cruiser Yorck

• The armor thickness of the ship's ends has been increased from 16 mm to 25 mm.

Aviation

• The spotting range for all aircraft has been reduced from 18 km to 17 km.

Additional Content and Changes

The stock torpedo modules of European Tier V–IX researchable destroyers have become researchable torpedo modules. The parameters of the new stock torpedo module are similar to those of the researchable torpedo module of the destroyer from the previous tier.

If you already have one of these European destroyers in your Port, a researchable torpedo module will already be mounted on this ship, while the stock torpedo module will be placed in the Inventory.

The Victory Day patch and permanent camouflage patterns have been added for the following ships: VIII Alabama, V Texas, VII New Orleans, VII Duke of York, VIII Implacable, VI Aigle, VII Minsk, and V Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya. Details on how to get these items will be announced later.

Operation Narai has returned to the rotation, with a technical error in the auto-pilot system of the bot ships having been fixed.

The following ships have been added for testing by developers, volunteers, and community contributors: VIII Asama, VIII Impero, VIII Champagne, IX Zarya Svobody, X F.D. Roosevelt, V Mikoyan, and V Kotovsky.

Changes to Economics of Operations

• As of now, completing an Operation with an incomplete team doesn't provide any economic advantages.
• The amount of XP and credits you receive when playing Tier VI ships in Operations has been increased for any Operations completed with 0–3 Stars, and has been reduced for Operations completed with 4–5 Stars.
• Similar changes have been made to Operation Narai in terms of the XP you receive, but the amount of credits you receive has been reduced for completing it with any number of Stars.

These changes are intended to balance the amount of XP and credits that Operations can bring in comparison to other battle types, taking into account the difficulty level of Operations.

Other Changes and Improvements

• The rewards of the combat missions whose main prizes are unique upgrades have been changed by replacing the consumables with 1,125,000 credits—an amount that's equal to the cost of the 50 consumables that the reward used to include.
• Minor changes have been made to the textures and models of the following ships: VIII Cheshire, VII Sinop, IV Alberto di Giussano, VI Duca d'Aosta, VII Duca degli Abruzzi, V Visby, X Venezia, V Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya, IV Hermes, III Knyaz Suvorov, X Kremlin, VIII Baltimore, IX Buffalo, VI La Galissonnière, VII Vauquelin, X Kléber, VII Yūdachi, V Hill, X Somers, X Colbert, IX Georgia, VI Anshan, VI Huanghe, VIII Irian, VIII Öland, X Småland, X Halland, IV Bourrasque, VI Devonshire, IX Bajie, X Henri IV, VIII Wukong, V Raimondo Montecuccoli, IX Izumo, and V ARP Kongō.
• The aircraft carrier's spawn point on the Neighbors map has been changed in order to eliminate cases where carriers would collide with the shore when they started moving.
• Fixed an error where the enemy squadron's HP bar was not shown to players.
• Fixed an error where the bot ships failed to reach their destination points in Operations.
• Fixed an error that caused the ship's consumable reload time to be displayed incorrectly after a player received a buff in the Arms Race mode.
• Fixed an error that incorrectly added information about shot-down allied aircraft in the post-battle statistics.
• Fixed an error that caused the icon of a squadron from aircraft carrier Raptor to remain in place after the squadron had taken off.
• Fixed an error that caused the firing ranges of VIII Cheshire and VIII Albemarle's secondary batteries to be incorrect. The firing range of the secondary battery has been increased from 3 to 5 km.
• Fixed an error that caused the detectability range to be incorrectly calculated after the main battery guns were fired for the following ships: X Ohio, IX Lion, X Conqueror, IV Wakeful, IX Friedrich der Große, X Großer Kurfürst, VII Leberecht Maass, IX Z-46, VI Fusō, IX Azuma, and X Yoshino.

[transmission ends]