Update 0.5.2

Revision as of 09:25, 27 September 2016

Game Maps and Modes

New Map: The Atlantic
A large-sized map.
Game modes: Domination with three key areas and Domination with two key areas.
Battle tiers: IX-X.

New Map: Shatter
Also large-sized.
Game modes: Domination with three key areas and Domination with two key areas.
Battle tiers: IX-X.

Maps visually improved and tweaked for better gameplay:

• Islands
• Strait
• Fault Line
• Two Brothers
• Northern Lights
• Land of Fire
• Trap
• Islands of Ice

Modes/settings updated for the matchmaker:

• Added tournament scenarios for New Dawn, Fault Line, North, Strait, Land of Fire and Ocean.
• "Zone" mode is disabled on Ocean, Islands of Ice and Trap.
• "Encounter Battle" mode is disabled on all maps.
• Solomon Islands map to be limited to tiers II-V (was II-VI).
• Fault Line limited to tiers V-VII (was V-VIII).
• Re-adjusted the randomization priorities for maps and modes in the PvE mode. From now on, they will completely coincide with each other.

New Signals

"Zulu Hotel"

• Achievement: Confederate
• +50% commander experience per battle.

"Victor Lima"

• Achievement: Witherer
• +1% chance to cause fire by bombs and shells of caliber over 160 mm.
• +0.5% chance to cause fire by shells of caliber less 160 mm.
• +4% chance to cause flooding.

"Papa Papa"

• Achievement: Solo Warrior
• +300% free experience per battle.

"November Foxtrot"

• Achievement: High Caliber
• -5% consumables recharge time.

"November Echo Setteseven"

• Achievement: Clear Sky
• +10% AA efficiency.
• +10% efficiency of the defensive armament of aircraft's rear gunners.

"Juliet Whiskey Unaone"

• Achievement: Liquidator
• +15% chance to cause flooding.
• +5% chance to detonate the magazine (of your own ship, disadvantageous).

"India X-Ray"

• Achievement: Arsonist
• +1% chance to cause fire by bombs and shells of caliber over 160 mm.
• +0.5% chance to cause fire by shells of caliber less 160 mm.
• +5% chance to detonate the magazine (of your own ship, disadvantageous).

New Achievement: "Kraken Unleashed"

• Granted for destroying five or more enemy ships in one battle. Rewards the "Equal Speed Charlie London" signal (+50% XP per battle). (Previously rewarded for "Confederate" achievement).

Ships Rebalancing

General Changes:

• Added Mikhail Kutuzov, a Russian cruiser, to the game client (Kutuzov will become available for purchase at a later date).
• Japanese aerial torpedoes: recalculated the drop distance in automatic mode; torpedo planes will not run in at a distance that is 15% closer to the target. The torpedo cone for this mode of attack at the intended point of intersection with the target is increased by 14%.
• Implemented a converging cone for torpedoes launched from Japanese carriers in the manual mode.
• Increased the efficiency of alternative attacks for all U.S.A. and Japanese fighters by 66%. During an alternative attack, the speed of flight is increased by 15-21 knots depending on the plane.
• Increased the return speed of U.S. and Japanese offensive aircraft (after dropping bomb loads) by 15-21 knots depending on the plane.
• Reduced the detectability range of ship-launched torpedoes by 100 m to 500 m, depending on the type of torpedo. For higher tiers, the reduction of the torpedo detectability range is greater.
• Reduced the maneuverability for ships with displacement exceeding 35,000 tons.
• AA armament now has consistent statistics across all ships and classes.
• Premium consumables will receive one additional charge.
• In case of a through-and-through penetration to the main battery turret, the ship will suffer damage as well.
• On cruisers, the Repair Party consumable may restore up to 33% of damage to the citadel.

German Ships:

• German cruisers Kolberg, Königsberg and Nürnberg: armor slopes are now taken into account in the calculation of protection for the engine and magazine, when hit by HE shell fragments. The probability of damage to the engine room from shells with a caliber below 6 inches (150 mm) or less is reduced to zero
• Karlsruhe cruiser: the main battery reload time was decreased from 8.57 to 6.5 seconds
• Karlsruhe cruiser: the traversing angles for the front turrets (towards the opposite ship side) were changed from 25 degrees to 70 degrees
• Yorck cruiser: turrets' full rotation time was decreased from 51.4 to 34.6 seconds
• Hindenburg cruiser: anti-torpedo protection ratios were recalculated

Japanese Ships:

• Hashidate cruiser: full damage from an HE shell was reduced from 2,100 to 1,800
• Zao cruiser: the number of the ship's hit points (HP) was reduced from 44,900 to 40,800

US Ships:

• Erie, Chester cruisers: casemate coating was extended from 13 mm to 22 mm
• Hit points for the Nicholas destroyer were redistributed. 15% of the ship's HP was redistributed from bow to stern. The firing accuracy of Hull B guns was slightly improved
• Nicholas destroyer, the option to research artillery guns was removed. From now on, artillery guns will change along with the research of the ship's hull: the 127 mm/51 Мк7 gun was replaced with the 127 mm/38 Мк21 gun with no option to mount the top gun on the stock hull. Players who have already researched the artillery gun module on Nicholas, will receive a compensation of 2,500 XP points for the ship, while those who researched and mounted the module on Nicholas will get 2,500 XP points and 210,000 Credits. If a player researched the artillery gun module and mounted it, but later decided to exchange it for the stock guns, that player will also receive the same 2,500 XP for the ship and 210,000 Credits while the ship will get the guns associated with the hull being used.
• Benson destroyer: Hull B was modified. During research, the main gun turret is not removed while the number of hit points (HP) was increased from 12,800 to 15,400. The AA defense mounts were modified: the integral values were increased from 19 to 20 points.
• Pensacola cruiser: number of guns on Hull A was increased from 8 to 10.
• Omaha cruiser: bug related to torpedo cameras was fixed.

Russian/Soviet Ships:

• Kiev destroyer: the number of hit points (HP) was reduced by 3,000.
• Damage from the HE shells of B2LM guns was reduced from 1,900 to 1,600; the chances of causing fire were reduced from 9% to 7%. These changes were made in respect of the following ships: Gnevny, Ognevoi, Kiev, Tashkent and Udaloi.

Aviation

• The visual display of the aiming spread for fighters and torpedo carriers has been reworked.
• Implemented a parallel, dispersing, converging and self-crossing aiming spread for torpedo carriers. These aiming spreads will be available to players once the relevant settings are enabled for the game units (ships and aircraft).
• Fighters: the air assault cone will overlap the landscape rather than be cut off by it.
• Torpedo carriers: the air assault cone will be cut off by the landscape.
• If the torpedo drop point is set on the landscape, the cone will not be rendered (displayed).
• Minimized possibility of an assaulting re-run for air groups. From now on, air groups attack ships correctly the first time.
• There is a time penalty for instances when an air group is completely destroyed. If a player decides to destroy the remaining aircraft in an air group to quickly launch a new one, the servicing time for that new air group will be increased two times for US aircraft and 3 times for Japanese aircraft. If a damaged air group reaches the carrier and lands on it, no penalty will be applied.
• Now, an attack may not be canceled if the air group has already reached the approach point.
• Fixed a bug that made it impossible for a player to rotate the lower cone of torpedo carriers in instances when cones were located under one another.
• Fixed a bug that caused the final order (set by pressing and holding SHIFT) to be displayed on the air groups panel and on the air group itself rather than the current one.

Karma System

• Karma is calculated as the difference between the number of compliments and reports received, and may not be less than zero. Karma is displayed by the player's nickname.
• It is prohibited to compliment and report players within the same Division.
• If a player is complimented or reported, a system message appears after a battle. The system message for reports will be displayed only if a player has been reported by at least two players.
• The system message for compliments will show the specific number of people who complimented you (without specifying their nicknames, however).

Selling Modules (Compensation)

• For any sale of a ship, all modules belonging to this ship will be sold as well (at half price and no more than one unit).
• If that ship is re-purchased, all modules will need to be re-purchased as well.
• The first time the game is launched after updating, modules currently available in the depot will be sold automatically. Only one unit of each module will remain in the depot for ships that a player already has in the Port. Attention! As part of this update's release, the majority of players will receive a large one-time compensation in Credits as a result.

Intro Mission

• Added "Introductory Mission," a new battle type available from the Port that allows players to replay the mission under certain conditions (currently, there should be no more than 10 Co-op or Random Battles on a player's account).
• Added option to select a nation for completing the Introductory Mission (USA and Japan).
• Added scenario for the Introductory Mission to be accessible on a Japanese ship (Japanese ships against US ships).
• Added message about the lack of server capacity to run the Introductory Mission (if it's not possible to run it for a particular player).

Chat System Improvements

• Battle chat channel for Divisions introduced.
• It will also be possible to disable messages in the battle chat. Either all messages, or messages from particular players can be disabled. Messages from all players can be disabled directly in the battle screen when the chat is active. Messages from certain players can be disabled in the statistics screen by pressing the TAB key. Messages can be enabled and disabled in the context menu that appears after right-clicking on the name of a particular player.

Other Chat changes:

• You cannot send chat messages if messages from all players are disabled.
• Quick commands and in-battle reward notifications will remain active regardless of the state of the chat.
• The chat will be automatically re-enabled once the battle during which it was turned off is over.

Sound Improvements

• Optimized the high and low sound configurations; implemented a system of priorities for playing sounds.
• Added new music tracks.
• Added the sound of in-battle transition between the main cameras.
• Added new voice messages for the "First Blood" and "Double Strike" achievements.
• The sound of quick commands will differ for the player and his teammates (added a radio transmission effect).
• Added new complex sounds for ships' engines.
• Added squeaking sound that is produced once angle turning is enabled (by pressing the Q\E buttons).
• Added siren to warn the player when his ship has lost 50% of her hit points (HP).
• Reworked the general music pattern of the game.

Commander Management

• Implemented an option to display the comparative values of the integral characteristics of a ship in a tool-tip and in the skill-mastering modal window. The comparative values will only appear if a skill directly influences a particular integral characteristic of a given ship.
• Implemented a mechanism to cancel the dismissal of a Commander that will operate for a short period of time (at present, 5 minutes).
• Added list of all Commanders to the Personal File to enable a player to switch between Commanders the way they switch between ships.
• In case there is a mismatch between a commander's specialization and the ship that the Commander is assigned to, their basic specialization will be shown separately.
• When a Commander is assigned to a ship, a dialog window will show the number of points required for retraining.
• Players will be offered a chance to retrain the Commander automatically once he is assigned to a ship, similar to the process of purchasing and mounting ship modules after research; it will also be possible to return to the retraining process at a later stage if initially the player selected the 1st or 2nd retraining option when assigning the Commander.

Permanent Camouflage

• Permanent Camouflage is bound to a specific (Premium) ship.
• It is purchased only once and remains available forever (auto-resupply is free).
• It provides additional benefits for a given ship.
• Each Premium ship owner will get a camouflage for a relevant ship free of charge.
• Special New Year's camouflage for the Cleveland, Nürnberg, Gnevny and Minekaze ships will be released as well.

"ARPEGGIO OF BLUE STEEL -ARS NOVA-" Comes to World of Warships

• Exclusive anime-inspired ships join the fleet! Are you ready to add some stylized flair to your shipyard? The battle-torn oceans in World of Warships are getting unique in-game content inspired by the naval-themed sci-fi anime "ARPEGGIO OF BLUE STEEL -ARS NOVA-." Read the previous announcement for the latest details.
• Update 0.5.2 only preps this content -- you'll be able to earn the "Arpeggio" ships via a series of missions that begin in January. Stay tuned!

Other Changes

• Improvements for bot-piloted aircraft carriers:

• Being undetected, bots will carry out patrolling operations from one carrier spawn point to another, choosing between them randomly. Bots will travel straight forward at maximum speed.
• Upon detection, bots will try to escape from enemy ships (at maximum speed, too) by making tracks. The bot will stop making tracks and proceed to the patrolling of carrier spawn points as soon as it has remained undetected by enemy ships for 30 seconds. On re-detection, bots will set a course to escape from the enemy.
• Aircraft carriers will not attempt to avoid collision with islands any more: in Update 0.5.1, carriers and battleships laid their routes bypassing clusters of islands. For aircraft carriers, that decision turned out not to be particularly successful, especially on Strait. It was reversed to make carriers choose the shortest path in setting their course. Given their tendency to stay in the rear, the changes will be nearly invisible, except for maps where carrier spawn points are separated by islands, as on the "Strait" map.
• Aircraft carriers will tend to use their fighters more actively.

• The bonus provided by "India Bravo Terrathree" signal has been doubled: it now provides a -10% discount for repair costs (rather than -5%)/
• Changed the parameters of the "Target Acquisition System Modification 1" upgrade. Added the following parameters: +50% to the range of assured acquisition; +20% to the acquisition range of torpedoes
• Added option to watch video tutorials using the built-in browser
• Until a player has reached the 4th Service Record level, the browser will be accessible through a banner in the Port; once the 4th Service Record level is achieved, the browser will appear in the Escape menu only.
• "Controls" menu added an option to enable/disable the display of a clock in the Port to show the current time. Disabled by default

The clock will be displayed on all Port tabs.

• If a camera is rotated in the Port with the right mouse button pressed, the interface fades away to show only the Port and the player's ship.
• Port selection functionality has been added. Players can now select between different ports.
• Implemented the mechanism to display changes in ships' integral characteristics after the installation of upgrades, flags and camouflage, taking into account all skills mastered by the ship Commander.

System Changes

• Improved performance of the visual effects subsystem for CPUs with more than 2 cores.
• Added "borderless window" screen mode (launch the game client in faux fullscreen without window borders.
• Optimized the game interface in the Port and Missions interface in general.
• Optimized ship carousel performance for players with numerous ships (application of filters, switching slots, enabling/disabling compact view).
• Optimized scrolling for ranks and levels in the player's Service Record.
• Optimized the movement of water surface.
• Fixed flickering bloom issue.
• Added option to change gamma in the windowed mode, not just in the full screen mode. Any change of Gamma will apply to a 3D scene only.
• Updated legal info.
• Fixed error that caused delays in the reproduction of visual effects when switching between camera modes.
• Fixed visual bug that caused ships to twitch during turns.
• New multi-thread unpack system implemented. This allows faster unpacking of data for some computers, and you can pause and resume the process.
• New game client file system implemented. All the following updatees will be applied in two steps: game client core files first and content files after that.

Mini-Client (trial update)

The mini client is about 30% of the size of the complete update, and offers new/returning players to play without downloading the full client. It offers access to ships of Tiers I and II, including Premium ships, as well as maps for those tiers.

The main restrictions of the mini client in terms of functionality are the following:

• Can't create a Division.
• Can't be invited to join a Division by another player.
• Can't select a Port.

All warships and maps, except for those mentioned above, are unavailable.

In-Game Economy Changes

The Credit reward for capturing key areas in the Domination mode has been reduced by 20%. In light of this, and in order to bring the amount of XP and Credits earned to our planned values, we changed the reward ratios for the majority of researchable ships. We draw particular attention to a significant increase in the amount of XP and Credits earned on tier IX-X ships.

Increased XP ratios for the following ships:

• 4% for Bogue.
• 3% for Essex.
• 4% for Midway.
• 13% for Iowa.
• 18% for Montana.
• 18% for Erie.
• 22% for Chester.
• 2% for Omaha.
• 6% for Cleveland.
• 6% for Pensacola.
• 15% for Baltimore.
• 14% for Des Moines.
• 9% for Sampson.
• 2% for Wickes.
• 9% for Nicholas.
• 7% for Farragut.
• 20% for Hermelin.
• 15% for Kolberg.
• 19% for Karlsruhe.
• 8% for Nürnberg.
• 21% for Yorck.
• 8% for Roon.
• 36% for Hindenburg.
• 5% for Zuiho.
• 4% for Hiryu.
• 2% for Taiho.
• 32% for Hakuryu.
• 9% for Izumo.
• 8% for Yamato.
• 6% for Hashidate.
• 5% for Chikuma.
• 3% for Furutaka.
• 19% for Ibuki.
• 11% for Zao.
• 4% for Wakatake.
• 27% for Shimakaze.
• 8% for Orlan.
• 47% for Storozhevoi.
• 41% for Derzki.
• 30% for Izyaslav.
• 8% for Gnevny.
• 18% for Khabarovsk.

Decreased XP ratios for the following ships:

• 5% for Ranger.
• 3% for Wyoming.
• 3% for North Carolina.
• 8% for St. Louis.
• 5% for Phoenix.
• 5% for Myogi.
• 5% for Kongo.
• 3% for Fuso.
• 6% for Nagato.
• 13% for Amagi.
• 11% for Kuma.
• 10% for Isokaze.
• 3% for Hatsuharu.

Increased Credit ratios for the following ships:

• 9% for Langley.
• 5% for Bogue.
• 8% for Independence.
• 6% for South Carolina.
• 4% for North Carolina.
• 11% for Iowa.
• 28% for Montana.
• 8% for Erie.
• 13% for Chester.
• 6% for Omaha.
• 7% for Cleveland.
• 4% for Pensacola.
• 3% for New Orleans.
• 7% for Baltimore.
• 18% for Sampson.
• 15% for Wickes.
• 12% for Clemson.
• 17% for Nicholas.
• 20% for Farragut.
• 4% for Mahan.
• 3% for Fletcher.
• 5% for Gearing.
• 21% for Hermelin.
• 18% for Kolberg.
• 25% for Karlsruhe.
• 4% for Königsberg.
• 13% for Nürnberg.
• 25% for Yorck.
• 1% for Admiral Hipper.
• 13% for Hindenburg.
• 17% for Hosho.
• 17% for Zuiho.
• 7% for Ryujo.
• 1% for Hiryu.
• 1% for Hakuryu.
• 4% for Kawachi.
• 1% for Kongo.
• 5% for Izumo.
• 6% for Yamato.
• 9% for Hashidate.
• 5% for Chikuma.
• 7% for Furutaka.
• 6% for Aoba.
• 1% for Mogami.
• 17% for Ibuki.
• 6% for Umikaze.
• 8% for Wakatake.
• 1% for Isokaze.
• 5% for Minekaze.
• 12% for Mutsuki.
• 6% for Hatsuharu.
• 13% for Fubuki.
• 2% for Kagero.
• 19% for Shimakaze.
• 5% for Orlan.
• 59% for Storozhevoi.
• 43% for Derzki.
• 35% for Izyaslav.
• 13% for Gnevny.
• 9% for Ognevoi.

Decreased Credit ratios for the following ships:

• 6% for Ranger.
• 10% for Lexington.
• 7% for Wyoming.
• 5% for Benson.
• 6% for Shokaku.
• 16% for Taiho.
• 6% for Amagi.