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Update 0.9.7

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Developer Bulletin 0.9.7.
News Article


Captains! Due to the installation of the Update, the server will be unavailable:
From: Wed. Aug. 05 3:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Aug. 05 5:00 AM
To: Wed. Aug. 05 6:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Aug. 05 8:00 AM
Update size: 3.7 GB

German Carriers: Part 2 ● Ranked Sprint ● Setting the Order of Consumables ● Unique Upgrades ● Naval Base ● Armory ● Other Changes

German Carriers: Part 2

German carriers are now available for all players to research! The new ships carry high-speed aircraft that have small HP pools. Their armament includes armor-piercing rockets and AP bombs, as well as fast torpedoes.

The new “German Navy” collection comprises six sections, with six elements in each. Learn about the history of the German Navy during the first half of the 20th century—the ships and aircraft; personalities and emblems; awards and uniforms. The reward for completing the collection is the ability to mount two flags and alternative camouflage patterns on German ships.

You can find the first element of the collection in German Navy containers, which in turn can be obtained by progressing through Directives or picked up from Daily Shipments. You can continue collecting elements from daily containers by activating a subscription on the collection page. Another container can be obtained by clicking the button in an article about the collection that will be published next week.

Rewards for completing the Directives: up to five Kriegsmarine containers, which have specific chances of dropping IX Pommern, VIII Mainz, VII Z-39, VIII Admiral Hipper, or other desirable rewards. Final reward: Iron Cross permanent camouflage for Pommern.

Read more>>> German CVs Review>>>

The Port of Hamburg has been updated.

Please note: German Tokens can be exchanged in the Armory before:
Wed. Sep. 02 3:00 AM PT / your local time: Wed. Sep. 02 5:00 AM
After that, they will be converted into credits at the rate of 1:9,000.

Ranked Sprint

Starts: Fri. Aug. 21 7:00 AM PT / your local time: Fri. Aug. 21 9:00 AM
Ends: Mon. Aug. 31 6:30 AM PT / your local time: Mon. Aug. 31 8:30 AM

Format: 3 vs. 3, playing Tier IX ships
Rewards: 10,000 Coal; 500,000 credits; and a lot of signals.
Maps: Hotspot, Mountain Range, Shatter, Warrior's Path, and Northern Waters with reduced combat areas.

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

Setting the Order of Consumables

An option to set a custom order of the consumables for each ship has been added. Any customizations are saved on the server, so you won't need to set them again if you play on different computers.

Unique Upgrades

New unique upgrades for X Daring, X Kléber, X Harugumo, X Kremlin, X Audacious, X Midway, and X Hakuryū have been added to the "Research Bureau" tab of the Armory. They are each exchangeable for 19,200 Research PointsResearch Points. The current concept provides an additional opportunity to mount upgrades with special-but-balanced bonuses in comparison with the regular upgrades.

New Upgrades

Daring (fifth slot)

  • −10% to the torpedo tube reload time
  • +15% maximum torpedo damage

X Daring is currently a versatile ship with a slight focus on artillery. With the upgrade, the destroyer can stay some distance away from a Key Area and focus on torpedoes and attacks from within a smoke screen.

Kléber (sixth slot)

  • −20% to the ship's detectability range by sea
  • +80% to the main battery reloading time

The unique upgrade provides an alternative to artillery focused gameplay. When mounted, X Kléber becomes a torpedo-carrying destroyer for close quarters combat with her high speed, fast reload time, and detectability that's equal to that of other same-tier destroyers. The upgrade allows for more effective torpedo attacks at the cost of losing a significant amount of potential artillery damage per minute.

Harugumo (fifth slot)

  • +30% smoke screen dispersion time
  • +100% Smoke Generator action time
  • +1 charge for consumables

This unique upgrade offers some improvements for gameplay that involves the use of smoke screens, at the cost of detectability and reduced effectiveness in battles for Key Areas. Thus, the ship can escape at ¼ speed while setting a smoke screen and reach the optimal distance for firing.

Kremlin (sixth slot)

  • −18% to the main battery reloading time
  • −12% maximum main battery firing range
  • −1 charge for consumables

The upgrade allows for a more aggressive gameplay style, with the ship sacrificing her survivability in return for a bonus applied to her main battery firing rate.

Audacious (sixth slot)

  • −15% to the ship's detectability range by sea
  • +20% Engine Boost action time
  • −50% to the time it takes to reach full power when accelerating
  • −30% rudder-shift time

The upgrade allows the ship to get close to an opponent and thus increase the frequency of her aircraft attacks. At the same time, the risk of being detected by the opponent, as well as the risk falling under heavy fire, increases.

Midway (sixth slot)

  • +10% bomber cruising speed
  • +5.5% bomber minimum speed
  • −4.5% bomber maximum speed
  • +10% HE bomb damage

Instead of generally increasing the power of squadrons of all types, this upgrade offers gameplay with a focus on bombers with increased damage and speed.

Hakuryū (sixth slot)

  • +15% aircraft maximum speed
  • −20% engine boost action time

The upgrade provides the biggest effect when you're starting an attack approach. It significantly increases the speed of the aircraft and reduces the time they spend within the enemy's AA defense range. At the same time, the overall distance traveled with engine boost remains the same.

Updates to Existing Upgrades

We are continuing to update the existing unique upgrades. These changes will balance their effectiveness, and at the same time, preserve the unique gameplay of each ship. Their names and icons have also been updated.

Z-52 (fifth slot)

  • Added a bonus that reduces the detectability range of torpedoes by 10%.

The upgrade will make X Z-52 a more capable torpedo destroyer, but at the same time make her less effective in Key Areas due to the reduced bonus to concealment compared with the concealment upgrade.

Grozovoi (sixth slot)

  • The penalty applied to her torpedo tube reload time increased from +10% to +20%.

The upgrade offers improvements for main battery gun-focused gameplay. It was too effective, and reducing the traverse speed of her main battery guns didn't affect it significantly because of the already high base value. For this reason, the penalty applied to her torpedo tube reload time was increased instead.

Moskva (sixth slot)

  • The bonus that reduces the maximum dispersion of her main battery shells was reduced from –11% to –7%.
  • The penalty applied to her main turret traverse speed increased from –13% to –20%.

The changes offer a choice between the unique upgrade with its bonus to accuracy, and the standard bonuses to the guns' reloading time or firing range.

Minotaur (fifth slot)

  • Removed a bonus that increased the dispersion of incoming enemy shells by 10%.
  • Added a bonus that reduces the reload time of ship consumables by 10%.

The upgrade allows the ship to stay in a smoke screen for an extended period of time when moving at ¼ speed. The bonus to the reload time of consumables will increase the overall survivability and effectiveness of the ship, and will be useful with any equipment.

Zaō (sixth slot)

  • Removed a bonus that reduced her rudder-shift time by 20%.

The upgrade was too versatile and improved the ship in many ways. In the current state, it's effective when playing in open waters and engaging from long distances.

Yamato (sixth slot)

  • Removed a bonus that reduced the main battery reload time by 6%.
  • The penalty to the main turret traverse speed was reduced from –19% to –13%.

The upgrade was too effective because it provided two bonuses at once—greater damage per minute and accuracy. After the changes, the upgrade offers a choice between these two parameters.

Naval Base

  • Added improvements for the Treasury that will allow Clan leaders to regularly exchange Oil for Clan rewards.
  • The Research Center, which provides a bonus to the amount of received XP, has been renamed "War College." A new building named "Research Institute" has been added. It increases the amount of Research PointsResearch Points a Clan receives.
  • To show the result of the Clan's activity, the water area of the base will fill up with warships and auxiliary vessels, with their number depending on the number of battles played. The more Random, Ranked, and Co-op Battles that have been fought by Clan members over the last month, the more vessels that will appear in the waters of their Naval Base. The number of warships depends on the number of Clan Battles played over the last 3 months.

Read more>>>

Armory

Added two new battle signals, which can be obtained in exchange for credits, Coal, and Research Points.

  • X-Ray Papa Unaone: increases the action time of Smoke Generator by 15%.
  • Sierra Bravo: increases the action time of Hydroacoustic Search by 10% and reduces the cooldown period of Defensive AA Fire by 10%.

They will be added to the "More Signals and Camouflages" daily container at a later point in time.

The following bundles will become available with the release of the Update:

  • IX Pommern for 228,000 Coal, and from bundles that are available in exchange for doubloonsDoubloons. Pommern is a variant of the H-class battleship project that's armed with twelve 380 mm guns. Decent armor, powerful secondary armament, the Hydroacoustic Search consumable, and torpedoes allow the ship a high degree of confidence in close quarters engagements.
  • VI Erich Loewenhardt in bundles that are available in exchange for doubloonsDoubloons. Her bombers, unlike the aircraft of researchable German aircraft carriers, are armed with HE bombs, and her torpedoes have a longer range but lower speed.
  • X Slava for 63,000 Research PointsResearch Points. She was an implementation of a battleship project that was developed after the end of World War II to counter the American Iowa- and Montana-class ships. Due to the high accuracy and excellent armor-penetrating capabilities of her AP shells, Slava is most efficient in artillery duels over greater distances. Her armor is not strong enough to be effective in close quarters combat.
  • Unique British historical Commander Andrew Cunningham with 10 skill points for 175,000 CoalCoal. The Commander possesses unique talents that increase the speed of his ship and aircraft, provide an additional charge for the ship's consumables, or increase the reload speed of the armament.

Ships IX Pommern and VI Erich Loewenhardt will also be available in the Premium Shop.

Game Balance Changes

In Update 0.9.7, we've made changes to the parameters of several 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, should they be required, in future updates.

Attack aircraft

On Hermes, Furious, Ark Royal, Implacable, Indomitable, Audacious, Graf Zeppelin, Graf Zeppelin B, Hōshō, Ryūjō, Shōkaku, Kaga, Hakuryū, Lexington (with Tiny Tim missiles), Saipan, Midway (with Tiny Tim missiles)

  • The missile crosshair was rotated 90 degrees, and is now stretched horizontally.

This change will unify all missile crosshairs and will allow the destroyers to stick to a set of common tactics to avoid the attacks of attack aircraft.

Tier V–X U.S. destroyers Nicholas, Farragut, Mahan, Benson, Fletcher, and Gearing

  • The bonus to continuous AA damage provided by the Defensive AA Fire consumable increased from +75% to +100%.

Tier X Italian cruiser Venezia

  • Main battery reload time increased from 20.5 to 21s.
  • Rudder-shift time increased from 12.6 to 13.6s.

Tier IX British destroyer Jutland

  • Main battery reload time increased from 4.3 to 4.5s.

Tier VII battleships Colorado and Nagato

  • The Fighter consumable can now be mounted on their standard hulls.

Tier IX cruisers Buffalo, Saint-Louis, and Ibuki

  • The Spotting Aircraft consumable can now be mounted on their standard hulls.

Cruisers Danae, Duguay-Trouin, Karlsruhe, Kuma, Svietlana

  • The Hydroacoustic Search consumable can now be mounted on their standard hulls.

Tier IV U.S. cruiser Phoenix

  • The Hydroacoustic Search consumable can now be mounted on both hull A and B.

This change allows for a more consistent transition from her standard hull to the researchable variety.

Tier VIII French battleship Richelieu

  • The Engine Boost and Spotting Aircraft/Fighter consumables were swapped for her standard hull.

Content Additions and Changes

  • Added the Blazing Tropics permanent camouflage for VII Atlanta.
  • Added the Summer expendable camouflage.
  • Added nine patches with symbols of countries.

The details on how to obtain these items will be published a bit later.

Ships VIII Kansas, IX Minnesota, X Vermont, VII Florida, and X Kitakami were added for testing by developers, volunteers, and community contributors.

Other Changes and Improvements

Thunderstorm front temporarily disabled due to the technical reasons.

Changed the research cost of aircraft carriers of all nations:

  • Decreased from 68,000 to 40,000 XP at Tier VI.
  • Increased from 158,000 to 161,000 XP at Tier VIII.
  • Increased from 330,000 to 355,000 XP at Tier X.

Progressing through the aircraft carrier branches will now happen in a similar way to other ship types. The time it takes to research Tier VI aircraft carriers will be reduced. At the same time, the research cost of all ships of the branch remains the same.

If you've already researched a Tier VI aircraft carrier, but haven't researched a Tier VIII carrier of the same branch, the Tier VI carrier will receive 28,000 XP. If you've already researched a Tier VIII aircraft carrier, but haven't researched a Tier X carrier of the same branch, the Tier VIII carrier will receive 25,000 XP.

Other Changes

  • When entering the game for the first time after the Update, a short video will play back. It can be skipped by double-pressing any keyboard button. Another video will play back on the login screen. This video can be paused.
  • To make the process of familiarizing players with the game easier, the possibility for new accounts to start the tutorial battle without the need to first enter the Port was added.
  • Minor improvements to the geometry and textures of the following ships: VIII Lenin, VI Weser, VIII Kii, IX Izumo, VIII Amagi, X Yamato, VI Ryūjō, X Shimakaze, V Raimondo Montecuccoli, X Kléber, X Goliath, VIII Albemarle, V Mutsuki, X Großer Kurfürst, VII California, VIII Amalfi, VIII Roma, VIII Massachusetts, VIII August von Parseval, VIII Odin, IV Langley, and X Hindenburg.
  • Updated the name of the airborne torpedoes of IV Rhein, as well as the bombs of VI Weser and VIII August von Parseval.
  • Bombers of IV Rhein, VI Weser, VIII August von Parseval now gain altitude more smoothly during takeoff.
  • Updated the upgrade icons.
  • XP earned on a ship is now again displayed in the ship parameters in the Port.
  • Updated the names of the Soviet, American, and German ships' armaments.
  • Updated the description of VIII Pyotr Bagration.
  • Updated the "Over-penetration" ribbon for armor-piercing bombs.
  • Improved the loading time for previewing camouflages in the Armory.
  • Fixed an error that caused the "Equipment" screen to be shown as "Modules" when achieving Access Level 9.
  • Fixed an error that caused the French Navy permanent camouflage for X Kléber to not be shown in the list of camouflages.
  • Fixed an error that caused the date when the victory bonus for Research Points expired to be displayed in a pop-up tip.
  • Updated the equipment icons in tactical hints on the battle loading and "Help" screens.
  • Fixed a bug that caused tooltips to disappear when switching to the Tech Tree tab.
  • Fixed an error that caused the sound not to play back when clicking the marker with information about the branches in the Tech Tree.
  • Fixed an error that caused the "Battle!" button to still be active when there was a ship in the Division that didn't match the requirements of the selected battle type.
  • Fixed an error that caused the "Assign Commander" text to blink when hovering over the "Commander unavailable" text.
  • Fixed an error that caused text to overlap the borders of the drop-down list when purchasing a slot.
  • Fixed an error that caused the game client to crash when switching to another window from the battle results screen.
  • Fixed an error that caused the rank icons to be displayed for bots on the battle results screen.
  • Fixed an error that caused the timer in Operation Aegis to be shown above the final point.
  • Fixed an error that caused the camera to freeze when observing an aircraft carrier in Spectator Mode and switching to the allied squadron.
  • Fixed an error that caused the frames from the center of the map to be shown before the loading screen when loading the replay or reconnecting to the battle.
  • Fixed an error that caused the shadows to disappear in the New York Port with medium graphics settings applied.
  • Fixed an error that caused weather effects not to be shown.
  • Fixed an error that caused incorrect text to be displayed in the quick commands menu in battles with weather effects.
  • Fixed an error that caused the turrets of VIII Albemarle to receive critical damage from HE shells without taking armor into account.
  • Fixed an error that caused the "Commander Retraining" window to instantly close when they were assigned to another ship.
  • Fixed an error that caused the message about the lack of places in Reserve to overlap the text field borders.
  • Fixed an error that caused the price of a permanent camouflage to be displayed when the camouflage was already on the account.
  • Fixed an error that cause islands to be poorly shown on the Tactical Map during blizzards.
  • Fixed an error that caused the "In battle" player status not to be shown in the chat header.
  • Fixed an error that caused patches of sunlight to disappear in certain camera positions.
  • Fixed an error that caused the text of pop-up descriptions of various elements of the collection to have different indentations.
  • Fixed an error that caused the game client to crash when changing the resolution with the "Clans" tab open.
  • Fixed an error that caused incorrect armament to be shown in the "Equipment" tab on the ship selected in the Port when clicking the ship in the Tech Tree.
  • Fixed an error that caused the cost of the post-battle service of VIII Graf Zeppelin and VIII Graf Zeppelin B to be 60,000 credits instead of 52,500.
  • Fixed an error that caused the gun elevation angle of allied and enemy ships not to change.
  • Fixed an error that allowed IX Siegfried to be sold.
  • Fixed an error that prevented a Division comprised of different ship tiers with a Division Commander on a ship of a lower tier from entering a Tier I–V Random Battle.
  • Fixed an error that caused the “New” marker not to disappear after opening the combat missions category for the first time.
  • Operation Narai has returned to the rotation, with a technical error having been fixed.


[transmission ends]