Update 0.2.3

Captains, Update 0.2.3 is here! This update is all about increasing your ship's effectiveness in battle, with the addition of two new systems: Commanders--our version of crews--and ship modernizations, which allow you to personally customize and improve your ship's performance. But that's just the tip of the iceberg: an improved economics model, new Premium Ships, map rebalancing, a more efficient matchmaking system, and the inclusion of "Divisions," which allow up to 3 players to group together for battle are just some of the changes included in this update!

Economy

In Update 0.2.3 we have expanded the economic functionality for World of Warships. Players should remember that any functionality is likely to be rebalanced in later versions, so the specific settings for earning Experience and Credits may change considerably before or even after release.

New game currency - Piasters

• At its core, this is in-game Gold. This alternative name is used in the client to make sure that all the testers understand that the currency is for testing purposes only and is not bought for real money. Piasters allow you to perform the following actions:
  • Purchase of Premium ships that are more profitable than regular ships and have no limitations when a Commander is transferred to them. The prices upon release will differ
  • Purchase of Premium account that gives a 50% bonus to earned Credits and Experience, and has a different port (currently being developed, as stated earlier).
  • Demounting Modernizations.
  • Purchase of Credits.
  • Conversion of Experience from Premium and Elite ships to Free Experience.
  • Recruiting a commander on more favorable terms, retrain and redistribute his skills.
  • Purchase of slots for ships and commanders.
  • The ability to sell ships; any ship purchased can be sold for 50% of its value as Credits, including installed Modernizations.

Commanders

• Beginning at Account Level 5, Captains will have access to the first iteration of Commanders, which can unlock skills that improve a ship's combat effectiveness. A ship’s Commander receives experience with each battle, allowing them to progresses along Levels of Development and gain Skill Points, which can then be used to purchase skills.
  • There are up to 20 levels, each being progressively more difficult to advance through.
  • With each level, the Commander gets one Skill Point. These points can be spent on buying Skills which represent the quality of a Commander’s work with one or another segment of the crew or part of the ship.
  • Skills are organized in a special matrix where they are divided into five ranks (the cost of ranks in Skill Points vary) and six categories: Artillery, Secondary Armament, Ship Survivability, Concealment and Acquisition, Aircraft and Special Skills.
  • Buying skills is limited by rank; to buy any rank’s skill it is necessary to have at least one previous rank of a Skill bought.
  • Skills can be dropped or rearranged for Piasters.
  • The commander can only serve on a ship of his nation.
  • When a Commander is transferred from one ship to another, he can be transferred without re-training for free, or he can be re-trained for silver or Piasters.
  • Without re-training, the commander gets a 50% penalty to his skills. Skills that are not subject to penalties, like Radio Intercept, simply won’t work.
  • By using re-training for free or with credits, the Commander gets the same penalties but they can be overcome upon earning enough battle experience.
  • With re-training for Piasters the Commander gets no penalties and keeps all of his skills at the level of effectiveness they were at.
  • A new Commander can be trained for free (no additional skills points), for silver (plus one additional skill point) and for Piasters (plus two additional skill points)
• While designing this system, we tried to make its management simple and straightforward, as well as create a unique aspect of gameplay which will blend into the concept of World of Warships.

Commander Skills

• Main Caliber:
  • Aiming Expertise — increases rotation speed of main caliber guns / turrets
  • Pyromania — increases chance of setting an enemy ship on fire
• Secondary Armament:
  • Basic Firing Training — increases efficiency of secondary guns and AA guns
  • Torpedo Armament Expertise — decreases preparation time for torpedoes and torpedo bombers
  • Defensive Fire — improves “Protective Barrage” and reduces its cooldown
  • Advanced Firing Training — increases fire distance for secondary armament
• Survivability:
  • Basics of Survivability — accelerates module repairs, fire extinguishing, counter-flooding operations
  • High Alert — reduces cool down for Emergency Crew
  • Repair Work — accelerates actions and reload time of Emergency Crew
  • Fire Prevention — decreases the chance of fire on a ship
• Stealth and Detection:
  • Smoke Screen — increases the amount of smoke charges and reduces the cool down
  • Vigilance — increases torpedo detection range
  • Concealment Expertise — decreases ships visibility for other ships
• Aircraft:
  • Air Supremacy — increases number of aircraft in a squadron
  • Aerial Reconnaissance — increases view range for all aircraft, including scouts
  • Advanced Flight Training — reduces preparation time for aircraft and increases their survivability
• Special Skills:
  • Situation Awareness — shows whether ship is spotted or not
  • Dogfight — increases combat efficiency for fighters
  • Jack of All Trades — decreases preparation time for all abilities

Modernizations

• In addition to personnel training, we decided to give our players the opportunity to influence a ship’s combat capability; namely, technical Modernization:
  • Twenty-seven Modernizations were added. A Modernization is a ship improvement which a player can purchase and install in a special slot on the ship.
  • The number of slots on each ship is unique, depending on the tier and class, with a maximum number of six.
  • Modernizations affect the whole system rather than individual elements. For example, the Main Caliber Modernization affects the main caliber guns on the ship.
  • Some Modernizations greatly improve one characteristic, but downgrade another.
  • Modernizations do not repeat in different slots. Each slot has its own unique set of Modernizations.
  • Modernizations can be demounted for in-game Piasters.
  • Modernizations are available from level six onwards.

Slot I

• Main Battery Modification 1 – reduces chance of critical damage to main caliber and artillery magazines explosion, reduces repair time for main caliber.
• Torpedo Tubes Modification 1 – reduces the chance of critical damage to torpedo tubes, reduces repair time for torpedo tubes.
• Air Group Modification 1 – improves combat abilities of fighters.
• AA Guns Modification 1 – increases AA guns’ survivability.
• Secondary Battery Modification 1 - increases secondary guns’ survivability.

Slot II

• Main Battery Modification 2 – increases rotation speed and increases reloading time.
• Torpedo Tubes Modification 2 – increases torpedo tube rotation speed, reduces repair time for torpedo tubes.
• Gun Fire Control System Modification 1 - increases main caliber accuracy.
• Flight Control Modification 1 – reduces preparation time for aircraft.
• Air Group Modification 2 – increases survivability of fighters.
• AA Guns Modification 2 – increases range of AA guns.
• Secondary Battery Modification 2 – increases distance and accuracy for secondary guns.

Slot III

• Main Battery Modification 3 – reduces reloading time, reduces rotation speed.
• Torpedo Tubes Modification 3 – reduces reloading time for torpedo tubes and increases chance of causing a critical hit.
• Gun Fire Control System Modification 2 – increases attack distance for main caliber.
• Flight Control Modification 2 – increases aircraft speed.
• Air Group Modification 3 – increases survivability for attacking planes.
• AA Guns Modification 3 – increases AA guns effectiveness.
• Secondary Battery Modification 3 – reduces secondary guns reloading time.

Slot IV

• Damage Control System Modification 1 – reduces chance of fire and flooding.
• Propulsion Modification 1 – reduces chances of receiving a critical hit to the engine and reduces its repair time.
• Steering Gears Modification 1 – reduces chances of receiving a critical hit to the steering engine and reduces its repair time.

Slot V

• Damage Control System Modification 2 – increases firefighting speed and ability to deal with flooding.
• Propulsion Modification 2 – reduces time for engine getting its full power.
• Steering Gears Modification 2 - reduces reaction time for rudder.

Slot VI

• Target Acquisition System Modification 1 – increases maximum enemy detection distance.
• Concealment System Modification 1 – makes your ship harder to detect by affecting the range it can be detected.

New Abilities

• In version 0.2.3, we've added two new abilities that will expand tactical possibilities:
  • Repair-Recovery Crew - this ability is only available for battleships. It allows players to regain HP in combat and cope with damage depending on its severity:
    • It is activated for a certain period of time and has a reloading time. This ability can be used four times during a battle.
    • It can recover 10 -15% of HP.
    • There is an indicator showing how much HP can be recovered.
    • Damage recovery is generated randomly.
    • Damage from fire and flooding is recovered fully.
    • Light damage (for example: damage to the ends of a ship) can be recovered at a faster rate.
    • Heavy damage (for example: damage to artillery magazines) can be recovered less easily.
  • Protective Barrage - this ability allows for the improvement in efficiency of a ship’s long-range air defenses. So far it is only available on cruisers which have 2 or more dual-purpose batteries (Secondary guns / AA defense).
    • It can be activated for a certain time period and has a cooldown time. It has no limit of usage during battles.
    • It gives a bonus to long-distance AA guns but no bonus to mid and close distance AA guns.
    • Reduces accuracy of attacking squadrons within range.
    • Increases the efficiency of air defense approximately 1.5 times.
    • The effect multiplies with manual target detection.

New Camera Functionality

• The distance between a player and the ship, and the overall feeling of controlling the ship, was one of the areas of focus for v0.2.0. Work on the in-game cameras systems is still full-steam-ahead. Alpha testers helped us a lot with their feedback and now, in v0.2.3, we are adding a big camera improvement package. The changes affect the countdown camera, main caliber and torpedo cameras, observer camera and air camera:
  • The alignment of a camera path is configured specifically for each ship.
  • We have increased the number of zoom steps in the third-person camera.
  • Carriers receive a third-person camera for direct control and to let them dodge torpedoes more easily. The squadron camera was also improved.
  • The algorithm of switching between observer camera, tactical map and standard camera by pressing Z key for aircraft carriers has been changed.
  • Subsequent pressing of the Z key returns to the previous camera mode. If you want to switch between guns use the button on control panel.
  • Removed restrictions for observer camera, added ability to change distance via mouse wheel.
  • Switching between squadron observer camera and aircraft carrier camera is performed with the SHIFT key.
  • Zooming on a tactical map by using mouse wheel will return your camera to standard mode. Camera zooms to the mouse cursor position.
  • Increased the number of camera settings:
    • "Automatically switching camera between guns" (enabled by default). When this setting is disabled you can manually switch between gun groups.
    • "Set camera on the tower" (disabled by default). From camera "on the ship" by using mouse wheel you directly pass to binoculars, bypassing the camera on "guns".
    • "Limit camera rotation angles on the torpedo tubes" (disabled by default). In camera on “torpedo tubes” rotation angles are limited by torpedo tubes rotation angle.
    • "Follow the selected target" (enabled by default). Follow moving target.
    • "Remember the position of First Person camera when you switch observer camera" (enabled by default). By switching back from observer camera the settings for First Person camera will be the same.
    • "Elastic zooming effect" (enabled by default). When the mouse wheel has reached its zoom limits the effect of "elastic” is implemented (camera swings as if it’s on elastic).
    • "Camera shakes when taking damage" (enabled by default). The camera shakes when damage is received.

Premium Ships

• In addition to the various improvements and modifications to game mechanics in version 0.2.3, we will also add new ships. For now we will add only 2 ships - the first Premium ships in-game - each with its own unique features:
  • Kitakami: A Kuma Class light cruiser, rebuilt in 1941 based on project "Destroyer Squadron Leader." Each side of the cruiser was equipped with five quadruple torpedo launchers, so that number of torpedoes in one broadside could reach twenty. The gameplay in this light cruiser is very interesting; the ship has very dangerous torpedoes. Beware of a full torpedo salvo from this thing – it can easily be forgotten and a salvo is difficult to dodge. It is a typical "glass cannon" – its experimental torpedoes the "Long Lance" F3 have a shorter range than the "Long Lance" Type 93 (but they are much faster), and its protection and gun armament are not the best for its tier.
  • Atlanta: This ship was equipped with eight twin 127mm gun turrets, able to fire effectively at a large number of air targets. In the game, it will bring you and your opponents a lot of unforgettable moments. Why only moments, you ask? This ship is fast shooting, destroying everything in its path, a real nightmare to all poorly armored opponents: fourteen rapid-fire127mm guns in a broadside leave no chance to similar-tier classmates and destroyers and can cause numerous fires to battleships and aircraft carriers. Good speed and good maneuverability allow you to approach attack distances with confidence; which, by the way, are almost the same as for cruisers of this ship’s tier!

Maps

• We have reworked visual components of Islands and Big Race maps, which should significantly reduce the chance of ships running aground. We have also changed gameplay components of game levels; on the map Island, Fault Line and Islands of Ice, we have adjusted the spawn point, removed shores, as well as made some changes to map balancing, depending on battle level. In addition to that, we have changed some general settings:
  • Base capture time in Standard mode - 180 seconds.
  • Base capture time in scenarios with one base - 240 seconds.
  • If there is a defender on base or control point, capture stops.
  • Friendly fire does not reset capture time.
  • Base capture reset coefficient reduced from 1 to 0 when damage is received.

"Divisions": Brothers in Arms

• We are launching the first version of Divisions (similar to Platoons in World of Tanks), consisting of 2-3 players:
  • Basic Division functions introduced.
  • Players will be able to create groups and send invitations to other players. The number of invitations is limited by the number of slots available in the division. Invitations are available for five minutes and can be accepted by a player on their dock screen.
  • Players will be able to create a message in their dock saying "I’m looking for a division." This will allow them to appear in the list of those "seeking a division" and find comrades quickly.
  • Added chat to the dock.
  • If the creator of division leaves it, the commander role is given to another player.
  • Divisions in the current version do not have any bonuses and penalties in the balance system.
  • A “friends list” is not available in the current version so players can invite players through the interface ‘Need Division”.

New Matchmaking System

• Our new version of the matchmaker gives a number of advantages both to players and developers:
  • Increased speed for creating teams and launching battles.
  • Difference in ship tiers in one battle has been smoothed.
  • For each ship/class/tier personal level of battles can be configured. For example: tier I can play with tier I and II.
  • Matchmaking supports Divisions on a basic level.

Music and Sound

• We are introducing a new complex sound system. Take a look:
  • Each ship has its own unique "sound fingerprint," meaning every ship will have it's own sound pack.
  • Different states of the game and the dock (for example, in binoculars mode, the modules tab, “death camera” etc) have their own individual sound package, which gives a player deeper exposure.
  • For in-game and at-dock events (for example, recruiting a ship commander, destroying the enemy and researching a ship) there is not only an appropriate sound effect but also organic changes in the musical theme.
  • Depending on the music volume in “Settings” (including when the music is turned off), the sound package and sound effects adapt to these changes.
• Other sound changes:
  • Changed the voiceover for when you destroy an enemy.
  • Changed sounds of the main caliber and torpedo tube rotation.
  • Changed shooting sounds.
  • Changed sounds of dropping shell cases.
  • Returned sound of flying shell (only for High Quality graphics).
  • Changed fire sound.
  • Fixed issue of playing sound in a minimized client.

Additional Changes

New Ribbons

• Arson – issued for setting an enemy ship on fire.
• Caused Flooding – issued for causing flooding.
• Critical Hit – issued for damaging most important parts of a ship.

Leading point for attacking squadrons

• During the attack of enemy strike aircraft, a player sees in their interface a zone where torpedoes and bombs will be launched. The zone shows best lead chosen according to enemy movement

Chat

• Increased visibility life-span of a chat message.
• Granted the option to change the size of the chat window in the dock.
• Fixed chat message animation.

Balance Changes

• The Aircraft carrier Essex changed tier from tier IX to X. It will remain in its place until we find a top carrier.
• Decreased torpedo tube turning angles for the destroyer Clemson.
• Destroyer Shimakaze has now only a top configuration.
• Formation of US fighters changed to a V formation.
• Formation of US divers changed to Сombat Box.
• Formation of US torpedo carriers changed to Echelon.

System Changes

• For users who have both a built-in motherboard graphics card and a discrete GPU - when launching the game, a game profile is created which allows to launch the game using the resources of the discrete graphics card.
• Optimized graphics interface in dock.
• Increased game performance on multi-core configurations.
• Improved rendering mechanics for static shadows.
• Added option to switch on a special contrast display mode for graphical interface in the dock.
• Implemented and improved optimized fullscreen FXAA-antialiasing mechanism.
• Fixed and improved water rendering and reflections in water.
• Improved and optimized post effect lens flares.