Update 0.9.5

the Dev Blog. Changes to Unique Upgrades.
News Article

Captains! Due to the installation of the Update, the server will be unavailable:
From: Wed. Jun. 10 3:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Jun. 10 5:00 AM
Until: Wed. Jun. 10 6:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Jun. 10 8:00 AM
Update size: 3.3 GB

Dockyard ● Updated Combat Missions ● Armory Update ● Unique Upgrades ● Changes in the Soviet Cruiser Branch ● Ranked Sprint ● Clan Brawls ● Visual Improvements ● Map Changes ● Daily Shipments ● Other Changes

Dockyard

The main feature of Update 0.9.5 is the Dockyard in the Port of Hamburg, where players will be able to construct two German ships at once: VI Admiral Graf Spee and VIII Odin. The Dockyard rules have been simplified in comparison to the previous iteration.

Dockyard basics:

• The event will span two updates — 0.9.5 and 0.9.6.
• Ship construction at the Dockyard consists of 20 shipbuilding phases. You can advance through these by completing Directives or spending 1,750 doubloons on each phase.
• The reward for completing phase 10 is VI Admiral Graf Spee in the War Paint camouflage.
• In total, you can complete 18 out of 20 shipbuilding phases by finishing Directives. You need to spend doubloons to progress through at least two of the 20 phases.
• After completing phase 20, you will receive VIII Odin

By completing the Directives, you'll obtain VI Admiral Graf Spee and various other rewards from the Dockyard, as well as get a massive discount on VIII Odin.

Read more >>>

Updated Combat Missions

In Update 0.9.5, we've significantly improved the combat missions.

• The interface has been revamped.
• Added combat missions with an "or" condition. In such missions, one of two given conditions needs to be fulfilled in order to get the reward. E.g. earn 10,000 Base XP "or" destroy 10 enemy ships. Thus, you will be able to choose which of the conditions you prefer, and fulfill the requirement playing the most suitable ships.
• Changed the way combat missions are displayed on the post-battle statistics screen: the interface has been revamped, and the possibility to track combat mission progress in a separate window has been added.

The rewards have also been updated: during summer, you’ll also earn Steel in addition to Coal when you complete combat missions! More details about that, as well as other changes to Daily Missions, will be available in the dedicated article covering combat missions.

Please note: the new system is still being tested, so the final rewards may differ. We'll be closely watching the results and taking player feedback into account when making decisions about the further development of Daily Missions.

Armory Update

• The interface has been revamped. Navigating between sections will now be easier and more convenient.
• Added the possibility to preview ships and camouflages in the Port before purchasing.

The details of these changes will be published in a dedicated article.

Unique Upgrades

In 0.9.5, we're starting the process of updating the unique upgrades. The current concept provides an additional opportunity to mount an upgrade with special-but-balanced bonuses in comparison with regular upgrades.

These changes will balance the effectiveness of the various unique upgrades, while preserving the unique gameplay of each ship.

Enhanced Armaments (Yueyang, fifth slot)

• The bonus that reduces the main battery reload time has been increased from 10 to 15%.
• Removed penalties on the action time of ship consumables.
• Added a bonus increasing the action time of Surveillance Radar.
• Added a bonus increasing smoke screen dispersion time by 20%.
• Removed a bonus that reduced the torpedo tube reload time.

The older version of this upgrade was unpopular because of low competitiveness with other upgrades in the slot. The new variant of the upgrade offers more aggressive gameplay with an accent on consumables and main battery instead of the concealment upgrade which involves a safe playstyle.

Heavyweight Artillery (Khabarovsk, fifth slot)

• Removed a penalty that reduced the traverse speed of her main turrets.
• The bonus applied to the main battery’s firing range increased from 8 to 10%.
• Added a 20% penalty to the action time of the ship’s consumables.

The upgrade now places much stronger emphasis on aggressive gameplay due to the enhanced main battery guns and reduced effectiveness of consumables.

Enhanced Countermeasures (Worcester, sixth slot)

• Moved from the fifth to the sixth slot.
• Removed all bonuses on the action time of her consumables.
• Added a bonus reducing the reload time of the Priority AA sector by 20%.
• Added a bonus reducing the reload time of ship consumables by 20%.
• Added a bonus increasing the number of the ship's consumable charges by one.

The upgrade moved from the fifth to the sixth slot, which means that it no longer has to compete with other upgrades that provide bonuses to maneuverability and detectability. The new parameters emphasize the role of this ship as a versatile cruiser.

Enhanced Propulsion (Des Moines, sixth slot)

• Reduced the bonus to engine power. Now, with the unique upgrade and the “Propulsion Modification 1” upgrade, it’ll take the cruiser 21% more time to reach maximum forward speed, and it’ll take three times more time to reach maximum backward speed. The ship will still be gaining speed faster with these two upgrades compared to having just one of them. At the same time, the time it takes the ship to reach 1/2 and 3/4 of her speed remains almost the same.
• Removed a penalty on the action time of Surveillance Radar.

The bonus to engine power was lowered to reduce the excessive effectiveness of the upgrade. The penalty to the duration of Surveillance Radar didn’t affect the use and effectiveness of the upgrade. Players will now choose between this unique upgrade and an upgrade that increases firepower.

Enhanced Main Armaments (Großer Kurfürst, sixth slot)

• The bonus reducing the main battery’s reload time has been decreased from 15 to 10%.
• Removed a penalty that reduced the traverse speed of her main turrets.

Enhanced Damage Control System (Montana, fifth slot)

• The bonus reducing fire extinguishing time has been decreased from 15 to 10%.
• The bonus reducing flooding recovery time has been decreased from 30 to 10%.

Additional Main Battery Loader (République, sixth slot)

• Removed a penalty that reduced the traverse speed of her main turrets.

Accelerated Torpedo Tube Reload (Shimakaze, sixth slot)

• The penalty reducing the torpedo tube traverse speed has been decreased from 80 to 70%.

Concerning X Großer Kurfürst, X Montana, X République, and X Shimakaze, balance changes designed to compensate for the excessive or insufficient effectiveness of their unique upgrades were made.

Expect changes to the unique upgrades of other ships in the coming updates.

Changes in the Soviet Cruiser Branch

Update 0.9.5 will see the Soviet cruiser branch split into two sub-branches. X Moskva is a heavy cruiser, and she is going to leave the light cruiser branch and acquire the status of special ship that's available in exchange for Coal. She'll be replaced in the tech tree by light cruiser X Alexander Nevsky. V Kirov will also leave the branch to become a Premium ship. She'll be replaced by V Kotovsky. The Premium version of Kirov is based on her standard hull that historically existed. The ship’s AA armament is the same as for her standard hull, while all of her other characteristics are same as for her researchable hull. At the same time, it will be possible to choose between the Spotting Aircraft and Fighter consumables.

• Cruiser X Moskva will acquire the status of being a special ship. This means that the base cost of the post-battle service of this ship will be reduced from 180,000 to 90,000 credits, and Commanders from other ships of the same nation can be assigned to her without any penalties or retraining requirements.
• You'll receive cruiser X Moskva under the following circumstances: if you've already researched but haven't yet purchased her; if you sold her; or if you’ve had the branch reset through the Research Bureau.
• If your progress through the Soviet cruiser branch has been reset, the Research Point bonus will be transferred to X Alexander Nevsky.
• The unique upgrade and combat mission for cruiser X Moskva, as well as any permanent camouflages you’ve purchased, will be preserved. If the Type 20 permanent camouflage hasn't yet been purchased, it will be added.
• The Commander of cruiser X Moskva will preserve his specialization.
• Cruiser X Alexander Nevsky can be obtained only after she has been researched and purchased in the Tech Tree.
• The same rules apply to cruiser V Kirov and her tech tree replacement V Kotovsky, except that Kirov will become a Premium ship instead of a special ship.

Ranked Sprint

Start: Wed. Jun. 24 7:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Jun. 24 9:00 AM
End: Mon. Jul. 06 6:30 AM PT / your local time: Mon. Jul. 06 8:30 AM

Format: Tier VIII ships in a 8 vs. 8 format Rewards: 10,000 Coal; 500,000 credits; and loads of signals Maps: Haven, Fault Line, Greece, Northern Waters, and Loop

The details of the Ranked Sprint will be published in a dedicated article.

Clan Brawls

Clan Brawl 10

Date: June 20

Format: Tier X ships in a 3 vs. 3 format
Restrictions: one battleship, one cruiser, and one destroyer per team
Rewards: up to 3,500 Coal; 2,500,000 credits; and 100,000 Elite Commander XP
Maps: Shatter, Warrior’s Path, Greece, Loop, and Crash Zone Alpha

Clan Brawl 11

Date: July 4

Format: Tier VIII ships in a 4 vs. 4 format
Restrictions: a maximum of one ship of each type per team
Rewards: up to 3,500 Coal; 2,500,000 credits; and 100,000 Elite Commander XP
Maps: Hotspot, Trident, Northern Waters, and Mountain Range

Prime Times

CIS 15:00 — 20:00 UTC
EU 16:00 — 21:00 UTC
ASIA 11:00 — 16:00 UTC
NA 23:00 — 04:00 UTC

Visual Improvements

The following maps have been updated to conform to the new lighting model and enhanced HDR technology: Riposte, Operation Killer Whale, Defense of Naval Station Newport, Raptor Rescue, Operation Narai. Ports Dunkirk, Kronstadt, Designer's Table, and Twitch Prime have been updated as well.

Map Changes

Some changes have been made to the geometry of the Greece and Sleeping Giant maps.

• Sleeping Giant: changed the heights and the location of islands on the right flank. Closed the openings on the islands near the ship spawn points.
• Greece: the gap in the island inside Key Area A has been covered with a mound to avoid situations where ships could be detected by opponents that remained undetected.

Daily Shipments

During Update 0.9.5, enter the game in the period between June 10 and 24, 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.

Game Balance Changes

In Update 0.9.5, 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 their balance. Further changes may follow, should they be required, in future updates.

British Tier III destroyer Valkyrie

• Main battery reload time increased from 5.5 to 5.8 s.

British Tier II cruiser Weymouth

• Main battery reload time increased from 8.9 to 9.2 s.

British Tier V cruiser Hawkins

• Main battery reload time reduced from 13.0 to 12.6 s.

U.S. Tier V battleship New York

• Main battery reload time reduced from 31.0 to 30.5 s.

Soviet Tier VIII destroyer Ognevoi

• Defensive AA Fire consumable moved to the separate fifth slot.
• Torpedo speed increased from 56 to 57 knots.
• Number of charges for the Engine Boost and Smoke Generator consumables reduced from 3 to 2.

Tier IX Soviet destroyer Udaloi

• Stock torpedo module 53-49 replaced by module 53-49M. Torpedo characteristics changed as follows:

• Range increased from 6 to 8 km
• Speed reduced from 69 to 66 kts

• Researchable torpedo module 53-49M replaced by module 53-39 mod. 4. Torpedo characteristics changed as follows:

• Range increased from 8 to 10 km
• Speed reduced from 66 to 60 kts
• Maximum torpedo damage increased from 14,600 to 15,100
• Torpedo tube reload time increased from 129 to 134 s

• The Defensive AA Fire consumable moved to the separate fifth slot.
• Number of charges for the Engine Boost and Smoke Generator consumables reduced from 3 to 2.

Tier X Soviet destroyer Grozovoi

• Defensive AA Fire and Engine Boost consumables have been swapped.
• Maximum researchable torpedo damage increased from 14,600 to 15,100.

Tier X Japanese aircraft carrier Hakuryū

• Maximum bomb damage of standard and researchable bombers reduced from 8,500 to 8,200.

Tier V German destroyer Т-22

• Action time of Hydroacoustic Search increased from 60 to 70 s.

Tier X Soviet battleship Kremlin

• Continuous damage caused by AA mounts reduced from 413 to 395.
• Number of explosions from shells in a salvo reduced from 9 to 8.

French Tier X cruiser Henri IV

• The time it takes for her engine to reach full power has been reduced.

Aviation

• Spotting range for all aircraft reduced from 16 to 15 km. This parameter determines the distance at which an aircraft can spot an enemy ship.

German HE Shell Penetration

The armor penetration capacity of 128 mm HE shells of German destroyers increased from 21 to 32 mm, and armor penetration of 150 mm HE shells—from 25 to 38 mm. These changes affect the following ships:

• VI Ernst Gaede
• VI T-61
• VII Z-39
• VII Leberecht Maass
• VIII Z-23
• IX Z-46
• X Z-52

New Content

Ships

• V Kirov and X Moskva for 43,000 and 244,000 Coal, as well as X Shikishima for 32,000 Steel have been added to the "Ships for Resources" section.
• IX Siegfried for 47,000 Research Points has been added to the Research Bureau.
• IX Ägir is available in the Tech Tree in exchange for 1,000,000 Free XP.

Ships IX Ludendorff and VI Erich Loewenhardt have been added for testing by developers, volunteers, and community contributors.

Camouflage Patterns

The following permanent camouflages, which are available in exchange for doubloons, have been added to the Camouflage tab in the Exterior section: French Navy for X Kléber, Victorian White for X Goliath, and Freedom for VII California, as well as the Nordic camouflage for IX Ägir, VIII Odin, and IX Siegfried.

New "Made of Steel" permanent camouflages for 10,000 Steel for X Yamato, X Des Moines, and X Shimakaze have been added to the Armory. These camouflages provide standard bonuses, but will allow you to stand out among other ships in battle and demonstrate your achievements in World of Warships' competitive modes.

Commanders

Added Commanders Fubuki Shirakami and Marine Houshou with a special voiceover as a part of our collaboration with Hololive.

Added Commander Ashley Violet.

Warhammer 40,000

As a part of our collaboration with Games Workshop, we've added content inspired by Warhammer 40,000.

• Ships VIII Ignis Purgatio and VIII Ragnarok, which are the copies of VIII Amagi with unique permanent camouflages.
• Commanders Justinian Lyons XIII and Arthas Roqthar the Cold.
• Protector of the Faith and Primordial Annihilator expendable camouflages.
• Iron Halo, Imperial Aquila, The Chaos Star, The Mark of Chaos patches.
• Imperial Navy and Khorne flags.
• "Warhammer 40,000 — Chaos" and "Warhammer 40,000 — Imperium" containers.

Details on how to get these new items will be announced later.

Other Changes and Improvements

• Now when the game client is launched, a video about the Update will be played once. To play the video again, select "Play video at startup" in the Game Settings.
• Small changes to the geometry and textures of the following ships: VI Weser, IV Klas Horn, III Romulus, IX Drake, VIII Cheshire, VIII Ochakov, VII Scharnhorst B, VII Scharnhorst, VIII Siliwangi, IX Bajie, VIII Atago, VII Gorizia, IV Alberto di Giussano, V Genova, VI Trento, VI Farragut, VI Devonshire, VIII Amagi, VII Sinop, X Hayate, X Minotaur, VIII Roma, V Raimondo Montecuccoli, X Marceau, VIII Bismarck, VII Zara, VIII Amalfi, V Hawkins, VI London, VII Surrey, V Krasny Krym, I Orlan, V Visby, IX Sovetsky Soyuz, II Tátra, VIII Baltimore, X Conqueror, X Moskva, VIII Kidd, X Salem, X Gearing, X Zaō, X Des Moines, X Daring, X Thunderer, VIII Enterprise, IX Friedrich der Große, X Großer Kurfürst, VIII Tirpitz, IX Roon, X Z-52, VIII Le Fantasque, VIII Z-23, VIII Asashio, VIII Benson, VIII Hsienyang, X Kléber, VIII Richelieu, VIII Gascogne, IX Alsace, X République, IX Jean Bart, VIII Mogami, and IX Z-46.
• All supported game client localizations are now available in all regions.
• Bot-piloted aircraft carriers no longer launch air squadrons without having at least one full attack flight.
• The "Ultra" client option has been removed from the Wargaming.net Game Center. "Ultra" sound settings are now available to all players. The size of the game is unaffected.
• Added a special message informing Clan members about their selected prime time. The message contains information about the selected prime time and who performed the action.
• Fixed an error that resulted in an incorrect acquisition range for the Hydroacoustic Search consumable on VIII Pyotr Bagration. The range of assured acquisition of enemy ships increased from 4 to 5 km. The range of assured acquisition of torpedoes increased from 3 to 3.5 km.
• Fixed an error causing the aim point to move to the maximum range with a locked target in the Binocular View upon activating Spotting Aircraft.
• Fixed an error causing the marker for the gun aiming point on the Minimap to disappear.
• Fixed an error causing the torpedo range of aircraft carrier squadrons not to appear in the Minimap settings.
• Fixed an error causing shell models to keep moving, even after colliding with landscape elements.
• Fixed an error causing the game client to close when connecting to a battle that had just ended.
• Fixed an error causing the window where ship bots are added in the Training Room to close when attempting to add several ship bots at once.
• Fixed an error causing the game client to terminate unexpectedly during the loading stage.
• Fixed an error that prevented the playback of audio messages about torpedo hits for certain voiceover modifications.
• Fixed an error causing the NEW marker not to disappear from the "Tech Tree" tab and player name in the Port.
• Fixed an error causing the autopilot to work incorrectly after a tangential collision with an island.
• Fixed an error causing ship XP not to be shown in the Spectator Mode.
• Fixed an error that resulted in upgrades mounted on ships still being displayed after they had been sold.
• Fixed errors on the following maps: Sleeping Giant, Crash Zone Alpha, Greece, Northern Lights, Hotspot, Operation Killer Whale, Riposte, Shards, Northern Waters; as well in as the Saint Petersburg and Fjords Ports. Removed the decorations in Novorossiysk Port.
• Changed the name of the torpedo module on V Mikoyan from 53-36 mod. 2 to 53-36 mod. 1.
• Fixed an error causing the text on the submarine depth indicator to be truncated.
• Fixed an error causing the audio of attack aircraft rocket explosions and aerial torpedoes hitting water’s surface to be excessively loud.
• Fixed an error causing ships’ main guns to reach an elevation angle that was too high when aiming at islands beyond their maximum firing range.
• Fixed an error causing Co-op battles fought on the Greece map in Domination mode with four Key Areas to commence with an incorrect number of points.
• Fixed an error causing the camouflage of cruiser VI Admiral Makarov to be different on the icon in the ship carousel compared with the ship model in the Port.
• Fixed an error causing the battle type icons to overlap each other when a low screen resolution had been selected.
• Fixed an error that allowed the selection of more than one aircraft carrier when creating a Division in Submarine Battles.
• Fixed an error causing the game client to freeze when the player was redirected to another server during maintenance.
• Fixed the incorrect armor thickness of VIII Amagi’s conning tower. It is now 356 mm thick.
• Fixed incorrect aiming angles for IX Alsace and VI Normandie’s secondary guns.

[transmission ends]