Update 0.8.0

Developer Bulletin News Article

We're launching a series of updates focused on aircraft carriers. In addition to the new gameplay experience, Update 0.8.0 kicks off an event called "Fly! Strike! Win!" with new Directives dedicated to naval aviation.

Reworked Aircraft Carriers: Game Play

All details are available in a series of articles where we describe the new system of aircraft controls and attacking, special consumables, changes in the Tech Tree and in other aspects of the game. Wanna be heralded a true flying ace? Read on, the information in this article will come in handy. First, let's take a look at some highlights.

Please mind that during a test it is impossible to tweak up the balance right because a test server is very much different from the main server. It offers different game conditions and incomplete statistics, with many of your opponents replaced with bots. For several months following the release of reworked carriers, any of the aircraft parameters, including the number and types of aircraft in a flight formation, will be subject to change. In doing so, we would very much appreciate your feedback and support!

Aircraft Carriers: Tame your Planes

Under the new concept, you control only one squadron in the air, but now you can use your squadron to carry out several attacks in a single offensive mission.

Apart from that, a new type of aircraft — Attack Aircraft — will appear in the game, armed with unguided rockets. Torpedo and dive bombers will continue to be at your service.

Squadrons are controlled with the WASD keys and the mouse.

Once you've selected your target and are ready to attack, hit the left mouse button. This will cause a flight formation to detach from the squadron and switch to attack mode. When the formation is ready, hit the left mouse button again to make it attack your target.

We've taken every effort to keep anti-aircraft (AA) defenses of every ship unique. Now, AA mounts are divided into three types, depending on their range of operation:

• Short-range guns (caliber: up to 25 mm inclusive);
• Medium-range guns (caliber: up to 85 mm inclusive);
• Long-range (caliber: more than 85 mm).
• AA mounts deal a certain amount of damage continuously with a given frequency to one randomly selected aircraft in a squadron that is within their reach. Moreover, medium- and long-range AA mounts fire shells that explode in the air in a hostile squadron's path, substantially damaging aircraft within the shell’s explosion zone.

Every squadron will now be equipped with specific consumables: "Fighters", "Engine Cooling" and "Repair".

The "Fighters" consumable replaces Catapult Fighters previously mounted on ships. After this consumable is activated, a squadron of fighters will be called in to battle. If fighters are called in by an aircraft, they will arrive to patrol the area around the point at which their assistance was requested. If this consumable is activated by a ship, fighters will not race to a given point on the map but will escort the ship instead. If hostile aircraft enter their patrolled area, fighters automatically attack them and can destroy as many of them as the number of fighters patrolling the area.

More details about the new aircraft controls, attack modes, types of aircraft and the mechanics of AA defenses and consumables are available in a dedicated article.

Aircraft Carriers: Pimp Your Carrier

All changes that produce an effect on game play entail changes to such game aspects as the matchmaker, the Tech Tree, economy, upgrades, Commander skills and much more.

• In the Tech Tree, aircraft carriers will be placed at even tiers only.
• Up to three carriers may be matched to a team for battle.

Now, you will have more options for fitting up your carrier and more strategies to pursue in combat, but it will take you many a dozen battles to acquire a good understanding of the mechanics and become a true flying ace. Controlling air squadrons with the new AA defense mechanics in place is a tricky business: you need to master the skill of starting a maneuver well in time to evade explosions of AA shells, keep an eye on enemy squadrons, and foresee the actions of your target.

From January 30 until February 8 you can reset skills and retrain your Commanders free of charge. All upgrades that interact with aircraft or AA defenses will be demounted from your ships so that you can "pimp" your ships the way you like.

All details on the subject are available in a separate article.

Aircraft Carriers: Choose Your Nation

Japanese carriers

Japanese carriers boast fast strike aircraft and AP bombs. We have reworked the mechanics of AP bombs to make them more interesting yet harder to use: the trajectory and angle at which the bomb hits a ship depend on where you drop it.

• IV Hosho
• VI Ryujo
• VIII Shokaku
• X Hakuryu

U.S. carriers

U.S. carriers boast stronger aircraft, torpedoes with a short arming threshold and two types of rockets for attack aircraft.

• IV Langley
• VI Ranger
• VIII Lexington
• X Midway

However, if you don't like the new game play or would like to research the whole carriers branch from beginning to Tier X once again, until February 21 you can exchange any available researchable aircraft carriers for credits and Free XP, and sell Premium aircraft carriers for their full price in doubloons. You can do it in the Inventory section. The rules for compensation for aircraft carriers are intended to ensure maximum advantage to players, and the general principle is really simple: you lose nothing, and even gain an advantage.

For a more detailed look into the unique features of carriers and the rules of replacement, read our special article.

Ranked Battles: The Eleventh Season

The Eleventh Season of Ranked Battles will really stand out: battles will be fought with Tier IX ships in the reworked Arms Race game mode. We've added new bonuses and enhanced the logic of dropping buffs to add more reality to naval clashes in this game mode.

• Format: 6 vs. 6;
• Shorter-than-usual duration of the season: 27 days only;
• Fewer Ranks: the new season will offer 18 Ranks only;
• Fewer Leagues: League 2, League 1 and the Premier League remain only. The League of Sea Wolves will no longer be available;

However, despite a reduction in the number of Ranks, the total amount (worth) of rewards remains practically the same as in prior seasons;

• The amount of Steel you can get (5,500) will not change, either.

More details about the Ranked Battles are available in a separate article.

Naval Battle: A Clash Between Clans

Your Clan needs Oil to develop the Clan Base and get extra bonuses? Don't miss our weekly competition codenamed "Naval Battle"!

The competition will consist of two stages: "Preparation": From Monday till Thursday. At this stage, your Clan needs to confirm its participation and earn, by joint efforts of all clanmates, a given amount of base XP to be able to move to the next stage; "Engagement": From Friday till Sunday. Here you will compete against another Clan and your primary task will be to outscore the adversary by the number of stars you get. Stars will be issued for earning base XP with ships of different types and nations.

Game Balance Changes

Concealment Expert Skill

We changed the Concealment Expert skill: ships of all types will now receive a 10% bonus. Previously, it equaled 16% for aircraft carriers, 14% for battleships, 12% for cruisers and 10% for destroyers.

After-effects for various types of ships:

• Destroyers will have more time to initiate a maneuver should they unexpectedly find themselves in a dangerous vicinity to a cruiser;
• Cruisers can be less fearful of battleships tweaked for better concealment;
• For battleships, this skill will no longer seem a must, allowing more flexibility in what concerns configuration choices.

This change to the skill will remove weird situations when a ship with huge dimensions could get a bigger bonus to concealment than a smaller-sized ship.

We'll keep a close eye on how these changes affect game play experience with these ships and take measures if needed.

Large Cruiser Fires

In update 0.8.0, fire duration on certain large cruisers has been increased from 45 to 60 seconds. This change is systemic and affects the following ships: Kronshtadt, Stalingrad, Azuma and Alaska.

The excellent armor of these large cruisers created an excessive advantage in survival during long battles. With the correct positioning of the ships, the only way to deal a lot of damage to them is through setting fires. Increasing the time required to extinguish the fire for these cruisers will improve their combat efficiency compared to conventional cruisers, keeping their distinctive features: high damage from the main battery salvo, a well-armored citadel and a large amount of hit points.

Changes to Ships

The ships listed below showed a statistical lag in comparison to other ships of their tier and type. Taking into account their individual characteristics, we made a number of balance edits with the intention of increasing their efficiency.

Japanese battleship IX Izumo

• Increased the sigma parameter from 1.8 to 2.0 to achieve tighter grouping of shells inside the dispersion ellipse.

The battleship will become more potent in battle due to the increase in accuracy of the guns, compensating for the specific arrangement of the main battery.

Japanese battleship VIII Kii

• Main Battery reload time was reduced from 31 to 30 seconds

We changed the following parameters of torpedo armament:

• Range was increased from 6 to 10 km
• Speed was reduced from 63 to 62 kts
• Maximum damage was increased from 14,600 to 17,233

This turns Kii into a battleship with more opportunities to use her torpedo tubes, elevating them beyond being a weapon of "last resort". Previously using them required players to expose the ship's broadside to enemy fire, due to the restrictive launch angles.

Japanese battleship VII Nagato

• Main Battery reload time was reduced from 32 to 30 seconds.

By reducing the reload time of the ship's guns, we emphasize the role of Nagato as a battleship with good maneuverability, with her small number of accurate guns coming at the cost of armor protection.

U.S. battleship VII Colorado

• Increased the sigma parameter from 1.9 to 2.0.

The new sigma will distinguish the battleship as a slow ship with decent maneuverability, good armor, and a small number of accurate guns.

French battleship VI Dunkerque

• Reduced the main gun reload time from 28 to 26 seconds.

Reducing the reload time will compensate for the small caliber of Dunkerque's main guns, making the battleship better balanced against other battleships at Tier VI.

U.K. battleship VII Hood

• Increased the sigma parameter from 1.8 to 1.9, improving the ship's firing accuracy with a tighter grouping of shells inside the dispersion ellipse.
• AP fuse delay was increased from 0.015 to 0.033 seconds.

Due to the new fuse timing, armor-piercing shells will detonate more often inside the citadel of armored ships, but more frequent over-penetration of lightly armored targets should be expected.

French destroyer VIAigle

• Torpedo range was increased from 7 to 8 km.

Increasing the range of the torpedoes will grant the French destroyer a larger window within which to launch torpedoes whilst remaining unspotted by the enemy. This will allow for more opportunities in battle to strike battleships.

U.S. destroyer VII Mahan

• Main Battery reload time was reduced from 4 to 3.3 seconds.

Despite the fact that the destroyer has one of the best damage-per-minute statistics for her tier, the specific ballistics of her guns often prevents this ship from realizing this advantage when engaging other destroyers. The new parameter won't change the features of her main battery ballistics, but will significantly increase her efficiency in combat with enemy destroyers at close range.

U.S. destroyer VII Sims

The stock torpedo stats were changed:

• Range was increased from 5.5 to 7 km

The alternative torpedo stats were changed:

• Range was increased from 9.2 to 10.5 km
• Maximum damage was increased from 8,500 to 9,667
• Reload time was increased from 72 to 76 seconds

Changing the characteristics of the stock and alternative torpedoes emphasizes the difference between the two styles of game play available to Sims:

• "High risk, high reward" game play, employing torpedoes with a short range and good speed, capable of causing a great deal of damage.
• The comparatively safe option with a longer range, meaning that torpedoes can be fired from a greater distance, but with less damage and low speed.

Soviet destroyers VIII Ognevoi and IX Udaloi

• "Repair Party" consumable was added to an extra slot:

• Number of charges: 1 (Repair Party I) and 2 (Repair Party II)
• Reload time: 120 (Repair Party I) and 80 (Repair Party II) seconds
• Duration: 28 seconds
• HP regeneration speed: 0.5% of HP per second

Soviet destroyer VIII Kiev

• "Repair Party" consumable was added to the slot with "Smoke Generator":

• Number of charges: 2 (Repair Party I) and 3 (Repair Party II)
• Reload time: 120 (Repair Party I) and 80 (Repair Party II) seconds
• Duration: 28 seconds
• HP regeneration speed: 0.5% of HP per second

Adding the "Repair Party" consumable will allow for more effective duels with enemy destroyers, making the progression to Tier X more logical.

Content Additions and Changes

British Tier V cruiser Exeter has been added for testing by developers, supertesters, and community contributors.

Lunar New Year

In celebration of the Lunar New Year, we've added new containers, camouflage patterns and unique Commanders.

Lunar New Year 2019 Container and Lunar New Year 2019 Premium Container.

The Lunar New Year camouflage and special permanent camouflage patterns for Anshan, Loyang, Huanghe, and Irian.

The Dragon Port has been changed. The Port will be shown at night. We also added some new sounds.

Lunar New Year article

Commanders

We added two unique Pan-Asian Commanders — Dà Róng and Quán Róng — each with enhanced skills.

Demolition Expert - +1% to each type +3% to the chance of HE shells causing a fire on target (by default: +2%); +2% to the chance of rockets causing a fire on target (by default: +1%); +6% to the chance of HE bombs causing a fire on target (by default: +5%).

Survivability Expert

+400 HP for your ship and +20 HP for aircraft for each ship tier (by default: +350 and +15, respectively) Commander Dà Róng will be available as a reward for completing a chain of combat missions, while you can obtain Commander Quán Róng via the Arsenal.

Musashi and Kronshtadt Removed

Starting from Update 0.8.0, Tier IX ships Musashi and Kronshtadt won't be available for purchase with Free XP, and cannot be obtained for Coal in the game client either.

These ships are becoming extremely popular at their tier, and to avoid Tier IX battles being packed with these ships as well as to maintain adequate team setup diversity, we decided to remove the possibility to purchase or obtain these ships for an indefinite period.

These ships have already been replaced with a French Tier IX battleship Jean Bart, and we also plan to offer U.S. Tier IX cruiser Alaska in the near future.

Arsenal

A new set of bundles is available with Lunar New Year 2019 containers and other in-game goodies in the Arsenal. For guaranteed receipt of the main reward, a unique Commander named Quán Róng and Premium ship VIII Irian, be sure to obtain the bundles consecutively and in sequence, one by one. You may even find that Premium cruiser Irian drops into your hands in one of the Lunar New Year containers that are part of the bundles.

Bundle offers: 15x Lunar New Year 2019 containers, available for 8,888 doubloons. 9x Lunar New Year 2019 containers and a special permanent camouflage for Premium ship Irian, available for 8,888 doubloons. 3x Lunar New Year 2019 containers, unique Commander Quán Róng, Premium ship Irian, and the "Irian" commemorative flag, available for 8,888 doubloons.

Operations Removed

In light of the changes to aircraft carrier game play, some Operations were removed from rotation:

• Cherry Blossom
• Operation Dynamo
• The Ultimate Frontier
• Raptor Rescue
• Hermes

Part of the gaming process in these Operations is tied to carriers. Unfortunately, at this stage bots have not been "trained" to cope with the new gaming process. Work is already underway to "upgrade" them, and we'll make every effort to put these Operations back in the game.

Other Changes and Improvements

By popular demand, the graphics settings will now contain an option to configure the transparency of fog in battles. By default, it is set to the minimum value. Thus, players that are comfortable with fog in battles will not need to change anything. But if you feel like making fog in the game a little more transparent, switch its transparency setting to maximum. However, the fog cannot be removed completely using the game settings because this parameter is important for the visual perception of the game process. This setting will also help you configure the visual display in battles involving local weather activities.

Fixed an issue which immediately removed a detectability penalty applied to a ship after firing if the ship has left the enemy's line of sight. In Update 0.8.0, the penalty will work for 20 seconds irrespective of whether the enemy target sees the firing ship or not. Improved the interaction of shadows with the effects of fires, flooding, and smoke.

Added a message to notifications for instances when a ship attains Elite status.

The description of the peculiarities of Elite ships will be added as a tip window in the Modules tab.

We reworked the geometry of armor protection for cruiser Mikhail Kutuzov, with more detail added. This change will not affect the combat performance of the ship.

Minor improvements in the geometry and textures of the following ships: Akizuki, Mahan, Asashio B, Atago B, Dreadnought, Bourgogne, Hood, Perth, West Virginia 41, and Vanguard.

Destroyer Kagero’s model was reworked. It was brought in line with the ship's real model with numerous changes in the geometry of the hull and main battery turrets, thickness of smoke stacks, form of superstructures, location of anti-aircraft defenses and much more. This change will not affect the combat performance of the ship.

The "Urashima" camouflage was adjusted to match the new model of destroyer Kagero in the game.

Fixed an issue which caused the incorrect display of the window used for purchasing Premium Account time in the game client.

The "King of the Air" and "AA Defense Expert" achievements will no longer be displayed in the Achievements section of the Profile of players who have never earned any of them.

Fixed an issue which sometimes made it impossible to maximize the Clan or Division chat.

Fixed an issue which caused the carousel of ships to overlap with the missions of the "Mighty Prinz" campaign on screens with a resolution of 1,366 х 768 or smaller.

Fixed the visual display of battleship Hood in the carousel.

Made minor changes to the Czechoslovakian Legions patch.

The list of rewards in the Daily Shipments section now automatically shifts to the current day.

Fixed the display of a service text in the description of reasons regarding the impossibility of selecting Clan Battles in the Campaigns window.

Fixed the incorrect display of the combat missions banner when setting up a Division.

Fixed an issue in the Operations selection screen, which caused the name of an Operation to stretch beyond the limits of its field.

Fixed poor performance of the Port camera when flying over ship modules in the London Port.

Enhanced the display of visual effects, which will no longer be disrupted when a player moves the camera. This, for example, helps to avoid breaks in a torpedo's wake.

Added an option to re-configure the replay save parameters. You can utilize it by editing the scriptsPreferences section of the preferences.xml file. Future updates will not affect your personalized settings. To change the settings, edit the following parameter: maxReplaysToSave — number of replays to save, 0 — save all replays, N — save replays of the last N battles

Fixed an issue that caused a minor memory leak during a battle.