Update 0.6.6

Revision as of 17:15, 15 June 2017

Scenario Mode

Set sail for Scenario Mode, which includes four Operations on release, which each offers specific tasks. You can play three of the Operations on new maps, specifically for this mode. Scenario mode battles involve teams of seven players facing AI opponents and include random events that affect gameplay. You can play Scenarios if you've achieved Account Level 8, and as of Update 0.6.6, you can enter Scenario battles with tier V-VI ships. Each Operation has specific restrictions on the number of same-type ships that can battle; if three battleships in a Division have already pressed "Ready" the fourth won't be able to do so, for example.

Limits:

• 0-1 carriers
• 0-3 destroyers
• 0-3 battleships
• 0-4 cruisers

Operations

• Defense of Naval Station Newport: Defend allied ships and shore installations
• Operation Aegis: Secure the perimeter and rescue allied ships from the enemy
• Operation Killer Whale: Carry out a daring attack on the enemy base
• Operation Raptor Rescue: Assist a carrier in distress

How do I Participate in an Operation?

The battle selection menu has a new interface. The Scenarios mode icon displays the last selected Operation or the Operation of the Week, if you didn't select any other scenario earlier. To switch between Operations, select "Other Operations."

Operation "Defense of Naval Station Newport" is the first Operation to be available with Update 0.6.6. Access to the remaining Operations is given in running order (with each locked Operation displaying the date of its activation) to become the "Operation of the Week" until the next Operation unlocks. You can complete the unlocked Scenarios again, but only as a member of an Extended Division.

Operation of the Week

If you want to play an Operation and battle right away without assembling a Division, take the following steps:

• Select the Operation of the Week. The ship carousel will filter and display only the ships suitable for this mode.
• Pick a ship out of those suitable for the selected Operation.
• Press "Battle!" to enter the matchmaking queue and begin the fight.

If you want to play Scenario Mode with friends, you can assemble a special Extended Division. In this case, you'll need a special Extended Division that allows up to seven players to take part in one battle. Take these steps to play in an Extended Division:

• Select the Operation of the Week -- the ship carousel will filter and display all the ships suitable for this scenario.
• Create a Division and invite players.
• You can enable the "do not complete team" option in order to enter the battle with insufficient team numbers, if you choose this option, you'll need to have four or more players in Division.
• Press the "Ready" button.
• As soon as all the participants (including the Division's creator) are ready, the Division Commander can press Battle.
• If the Division is incomplete, and the "do not complete team" option is off, you'll be placed in a queue and the matchmaker will add random players to complete your team.

Other Operations

If you or a group of friends are ready for a challenge, you can play other operations of your choice by taking the following steps:

• Select an Operation. The ships carousel will filter and display all the ships suitable for this scenario.
• Create Division of at least four players.
• Press the "Ready" button.
• As soon as all the participants (including the Division's creator) are ready the Division Commander can press "Battle!" and send the team into the battle.
• If you selected the Operation of the Week and if the "do not complete team" option is disabled, matchmaker will complete the team.
• If your Division consists of four players or more, all modes except for Scenario Mode will become unavailable until your Division has three players at most.

Rewards and In-Game Economy

• Each Operation includes main tasks and additional tasks.
• You'll earn a star for successfully completing each additional task provided, along with the main task.
• The reward will be issued only once per player based on the number of earned stars. For example:
  • You completed the Operation with two stars and received two rewards – one for each of the stars. You completed the same Operation for the second time with three stars. In this case, you'll only receive a reward for the third star since you already got the first two.
  • You completed the Operation with the maximum possible number of stars (five) on your first try. In this case, you'll receive five sets of rewards, but you won't earn any rewards for another completion of the same operation with any number of stars. You'll receive Credits and XP earned in each battle.
• The amount of XP and Credits also depends on the number of earned stars and your personal battle performance.
• Your average earnings will exceed those typically received in Co-op Battles, but will be lower than the earnings of Random Battles.

Achievements and Medals

• Operations offer their own commemorative Achievements and Medals:
  • Honorable - Awarded for personal achievements in a battle.
  • Heroic - Awarded for outstanding battle performance.
  • Honorable with Progress - Awarded for overall achievements in battle.
  • Secret - Awarded for achieving a secret requirement.

New Interface

Look for new battle interfaces:

• Scenario markers - located above in-game areas and on the minimap
• Scenario indicators - located above the in-game objects and on the minimap
• Different indicators - for example, the HP of the Scenario unit

Voice Communication

Voice communication is available for both Extended Division and Standard Division. You can activate and configure it in the "Audio" tab, and use it in-game with the "V" key.

Miscellaneous

• Cooldown: When an Operation battle ends, the ship you joined it with will assume the "Waiting for Order" status and will be unavailable in the Operations mode for 30 minutes, which starts when the Operation finishes and the ship returns from battles. Unlocking the ship (i.e. giving her a new order) immediately costs 75,000 Credits.
  • The timer should increase the variety of gameplay and team composition in battle. If you don't want to worry about the timer, you'll only need three or more ships suitable for the mode. You'll want to try several ships to find the right ones to complete any Operation with five stars.
• In Operations, you'll find:
  • A new type of destructible onshore facilities – these structures cannot cause damage to your ships, and can be destroyed.
  • New forts – remain in a suppressed state once suppressed, but can still be recovered with help from your allies.
  • Special scenario ships.
• Two of the Operations will feature a Repair Ship.
• We've improved the process of firing main battery and secondary batteries at onshore installations.
• We’ve significantly improved AI performance. Now, the AI ships select targets more reasonably, they demonstrate more varied behavior, and they can send messages in battle chat. These AI ships are available only in the Operations battle type; the Co-op Battle still uses their traditional AI programming.
• In Operations, friendly fire is disabled. The only way to damage an ally is by ramming. Additionally your ships have a 0% detonation chance.
• This update won't provide separate statistics for Scenarios mode in your profile.

New Account Level

• We've added a new Account Level With the introduction of the Operations mode. Find it in the current sequence of Account Levels as Level 8.
• The reward for achieving this Service Record Level is 1,000,000 Credits. The rewards for achieving the other Service Record Levels remain unchanged.
• We've revised the XP amount values for achieving subsequent Service Record Levels. Now, you'll need to earn 3,000 XP to achieve the next level in the Service Record for the following levels: Level 5 to Level 6, Level 6 to Level 7, Level 7 to Level 8, and Level 8 to Level 9.
• With Update 0.6.6, all players who have earned at least 7,500 XP at Service Record level 5 get 1,000,000 Credits as a reward for achieving the newly introduced Level.
• In other words, if you've already reached Service Record Level 14, you'll still get 1,000,000 Credits.

Balance Changes

Cruisers

The main advantages of German cruiser guns are their great AP damage potential, with a disadvantage of less damage delivered by their HE shells. In situations where you find yourself fighting against lightly armored targets that take damage even from a shot to the bow, or when an enemy ship has exposed her side to you, German AP shells cause devastating damage. Unlike American 203mm shells, German AP shells don't have the same "soft" ricochet angles, and given their weaker HE shells, German cruisers are sometimes less efficient, if firing at a heavy cruiser at a 45% angle in relation to your German ship, for instance.

We've decided to compensate for their lower HE damage by increasing their armor penetration capability, bringing German cruisers in line with other same-type ships in terms of performance. We've also added some minor, yet pleasant, changes to Nürnberg, Hindenburg, Emerald and La Galissonniere.

• Increased the armor penetration capability of HE shells for the following: Karlsruhe, Königsberg, Nürnberg, Yorck, Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen, Roon and Hindenburg. Now, HE shell penetration values calculate as 1/4 of a shell’s caliber when its values were 1/6 of shell caliber in Update 0.6.5.
• Nürnberg: Now has full circular rear turret rotation.
• Hindenburg: Magazines now better-protected from large-caliber HE shells.
• Emerald: Changed thickness of the ship's hull armor plating from 10mm to 13mm.
• La Galissonniere: Main caliber reload time decreased from 10 seconds to 9 seconds.

Destroyers

Japan's Yūgumo performed worse when compared against her Tier IX counterparts. This was largely due to a limited choice of torpedoes, which forced players into aggressive short-range play only. We know not everyone finds this style of play comfortable, so we added Type 93 mod.3 torpedoes with a 12km range to provide an option for longer engagement range and not limit players to aggressive short-range play only

Enhanced the Hydroacoustic Search consumable of Lo Yang. Now, she's a full-fledged attacker even more valuable to her teammates. We increased her torpedoes and ships acquisition ranges from 2.52 to 3.75km and from 3.48 to 5.43km, respectively. Also, we increased the torpedo range of the "533mm Mk15 mod. 0" from 6.0 to 6.7km.

• Yūgumo: Added an option to mount Type93 mod. 3 torpedoes.
• Lo Yang: Increased the acquisition range for the ship's Hydroacoustic Search consumable and range of her 533mm Mk31 torpedoes.
  • Acquisition Range of Torpedoes: from 2.52 to 3.75 km.
  • Acquisition Range of Ships: from 3.48 to 5.43 km.
  • Torpedo Range of "533 mm Mk15 mod. 0": from 6.0 to 6.7 km.
• Fixed values attributable to deck armor thickness as follows:
  • Fletcher, Benson, Shimakaze, Yūgumo, Kagero and Lo Yang: Changed to equal 19mm.
  • Sims, Mahan, Farragut, Shiratsuyu, Hatsuharu and Fubuki: Changed to equal 16mm.

Battleships

• Montana, Iowa and Missouri: Lowered citadel, with an upper level now nearly at waterline level to promote more active play and maneuver. It will now be harder to hit their citadels. Freed space from the citadels now occupied by casemates that increased their volume. There's been a small HP redistribution: Part of the HP has moved evenly from fore and aft ends and superstructures to the central part of the ship's casemates.

Aircraft

We noticed an issue where ships with minor detectability would be spotted by aircraft even though the aircraft itself was out if sight. A single plane having a shorter detectability range than an entire squadron, while still having the same spotting range caused this issue.

We came to a decision that this mechanic was excessive, and now all aircraft, whether carrier squadrons, catapult-launched fighters or spotting aircraft, will have the same detectability range. In addition to that, we've increased aircraft detectability range from 5 to 8km from the sea and from 4.5 to 7km from the air.

Karma

We've increased the daily limit for compliments and reports. Now, once a you've achieved a certain Karma level, your daily limit will also increase:

On the update’s release, a limit of reports and compliments will assign to players depending on their Karma level.

We've added one more report option – "Interferes with my game." The "Bot" report is gone and now shows "Away from keyboard/AFK." "Assisted in chat" was changed to "Good manners."

Sound

• Significantly reworked sound in update 0.6.6.
• We've added a second layer for interactive music in the "battle" mode. It activates as the distance to the nearest enemy ship decreases. This layer includes the percussions and various sound effects (bass volume increase/decrease, cymbals). As the distance to the enemy ships increases, the battle music tone returns to its initial condition.
• Added new music tracks: Main theme, several multi-layer tracks for the "Detected" state, several tracks for battle countdown timer, new tracks in the Port.
• Added battle tracks.
• Improved weather sounds and environment sound effects in battle.
• Improved the sound effects for a ship flooding.
• Implemented new additional sound effects of the camera movements for all battleships.
• Added and improved environment sound effects in Ports.
• Added Italian voiceovers and Italian "national" voiceover modification.
• Steven Seagal voiceovers will be activated the same way as the other modifications. When you enter the battle with the ship under command of Steven Seagal, the respective voiceovers will be loaded automatically. Steven Seagal voiceovers become available as a modification only if the player has this commander in Port. Players can select Steven Seagal voiceovers from the list of modifications.
• Good news for mod makers: we’ve updated our WWISE sound engine (2016.2.1 build 5995) and all officially released modifications in the .wem format. Mod pack developers should use the specified update of WWISE starting from Update 0.6.6 in order to ensure their mod packs work correctly. Now, the modifications of the voiceovers are available in the .mp3 format, the principle remains the same. The updated folder structure will be published on the forum page.
• New preset of sound quality - ULTRA HIGH available via the launcher and featuring:
  • New intensified sounds of gun fire.
  • Vibrant post effects of shell hits.
  • Distance-specific sound delays, the greater the distance, the longer the delay for the sounds of explosions, hits and shots.
  • Increased the 'reach of sound' distance for battle sounds.
  • Set maximum quality for the conversion of a number of frequent sounds.
• This new preset will be further developed and improved.

Game Logic Improvement

• Reworked torpedo launch functionality based on analysis of gameplay and player feedback: If your ship is destroyed while launching torpedoes, you’ll now launch all your torpedoes... if you give the order in time!
• When designating a priority target for AA armament, you don’t need to re-issue the “focus” command if line of sight to the aircraft/squadron is broken (i.e. the aircraft is temporarily out of detection range) and is then re-established.
• The option "disabling automatic switching between the main turrets" will also disable automatic switching for torpedo tubes.

Ship Exterior

• We improved the exterior appearance of Tier VIII ships using a special technology for high-quality rendering of thin elements (mostly the ships' rigging). This correction will have no effect on performance.
  • Shokaku
  • Amagi
  • Mogami
  • Akizuki
  • Kagero
  • Ognevoi
  • Kiev
  • Chapayev
  • Bismarck
  • Admiral Hipper
  • Z-23
  • Edinburgh
  • Lexington
  • New Orleans
  • Benson
  • North Carolina

New Content

Ships

• Premium Soviet Tier VI cruiser Admiral Makarov, British Tier VI destroyer Gallant and US Tier VIII carrier Enterprise added to game for testing by developers, supertesters, and contributors.
• Added High School Fleet ships HSF Harekaze and HSF Admiral Graf Spee.

Commemorative Flags

• The following flags are added:
  • Veteran Flag
  • Battle of the Philippines Flag
  • De Grasse Flag

Camouflage

• The following camouflage is added:
  • Military Veteran Camo (Permanent camouflage for Albany).

Improvements and Fixes

• There's a new intermediate option for the alternative battle interface mode. Now it has three settings: Off, Adaptive and Full. Adaptive option will show extended information about other ships in three instances: when capturing a target, at the specific distance from your ship (approximately 6-7km), and for a group of ships that fall into the viewing range of your binoculars, depending on the zoom.
• Made a minor change to configuration options arrangement in "Controls" tab.
• Shimakaze, Shiratsuyu: Reworked the racks used to fix cables to the main guns.
• Lexington: Brought survivability of steering gears in stock configuration in line with that of the ship herself.
• Algérie, Saint-Louis: Improved ships' exterior while in the Port.
• Hood: Fixed display of ship's emblem of the main gun turret after camo is applied.
• G-101: Fixed torpedo tube sectors -- aiming sector reduced by 10 degrees for starboard single torpedo tube, to match that of the port torpedo tube, while aiming sector of twin-tube torpedo launchers increased by 12 degrees towards the stern.
• Udaloi: Corrected both torpedo module names.
• Orlan: Fixed flickering on the visible armor.
• St. Louis: Fixed bug in the casemate armor -- this change won't affect gameplay.
• Amagi: Fixed conning tower armor -- this change won't affect gameplay.
• New Mexico: fixed bug where firing range exceeded maximum visibility range if spotter airplane was in the air - Now, visibility range is 22.4km
• Fixed location of collections window for resolution 2000 or more.
• Fixed incorrect display of "The Hunt for Bismarck" achievement in special achievements group.
• Fixed text displayed for Right Windows button when assigned in "Settings".
• Fixed display of the number of daily tasks when the number of tasks exceeds 10.
• Fixed certain memory leak instances.
• Fixed bug causing a black screen displayed when launching game.
• Fixed bug causing caused the game crash when closing browser that displays player Profiles accessed from the Clan page.
• Fixed errors causing hang up during pre-battle loading.
• Slightly optimized ship loading when they are detected for the first time.
• Fixed bug showing "Battle" button as inactive after a Division is dismissed in Port.
• Fixed bug causing players without a Division to get stuck in queue if the server is overloaded. Now you'll see a notification if the server is overloaded.