Greetings, Captains!
In today's episode of Waterline,
we'll be taking a look back at some most recent ships we've released in the game,
then go into some detail about exciting upcoming content,
including Pan-American cruisers,
bombers on American Hybrid battleships,
and even a destroyer with a catapult-launched aircraft!
You'll also hear about a new feature that will allow you
to mount recommended upgrades with just one click,
as well as the Airship Escort temporary battle type.
You'll learn about all this, and much more,
if you stay with us and listen carefully!
But please, note that all the information we're about to share
is preliminary and subject to change!
Where is the line? I'll tell you where to start.
Hello everyone, I am Stacy, and I am Emil.
Let's quickly go through some of the most recent milestones in our game.
In Update 0.11.9, submarines entered Early Access,
and now American and German submarines
are available for anyone to research in the Tech Tree.
Yeah! Six submarines have been added to the game.
Moreover, Japanese light cruisers have been added.
Exactly. These ships have good firing range, decent concealment,
and torpedoes with high damage and range.
New ship types and branches are always nice.
Do you know what Edgar and Admiral Ushakov have in common?
They're not just cool ships, they're superships!
Speaking of superships: Patrie, Edgar, Clausewitz, and Dalarna
are out of Early Access and available for everyone.
Sekiryu and Admiral Ushakov took their place in Early Access.
In the next few minutes, we'll remind you
of the dreaded Twilight Fleet and the Greek hero—destroyer Velos.
What is the Battle Pass and how does it work?
Where can you admire the beautiful new surf effect?
How did we go all-out for the Holiday Season?
Stick around and find out!
Operations "Saving Transylvania" and "Sunray in the Darkness"
returned to the game in the autumn,
as well as Twilight Battle, in which players had the opportunity
to stand at the helm of Twilight Fleet ships
and try out their equipment with unique characteristics.
You also might have enjoyed cool new adventures on our portal:
for example, one of them allowed players to follow the warpath of Velos,
the first Greek representative in our game.
Captains, we have added the Battle Pass!
The Battle Pass is designed to unite and organize activities
around daily, weekly, and monthly combat missions.
You can play and earn Battle Pass Points, fill the progress bar,
and complete its levels to earn rewards.
We also got five updated maps in the game!
The game received another major graphical update.
HD textures have been added to 5 maps.
A surf effect and dynamic reflections on all surfaces have also been added,
as well as improved vegetation, models, and animations for ship wakes.
Our game looks better than ever! Praise the Art Department!
Hi, I'm Mike, Head of Franchise Services for World of Warships.
We’re currently looking for proactive, out-of-the-box thinkers
who can bring fresh ideas and unique perspective to the table.
The World of Warships project is driven by a team of international developers
who combine their talents with their passion for videogames,
resulting in World of Warships being a favorite hobby
for millions all around the globe and having a flourishing community.
If you’re interested in joining the World of Warships team in Belgrade,
check the link in the description, we want you here!
Next up, bombers on U.S. hybrid battleships,
as well as new British submarines.
Keep watching!
In the beginning of 2023,
a branch of American hybrid battleships releases in Early Access.
Three new ships are awaiting players: Nebraska, Delaware and Louisiana.
Their main batteries have good range, but not the highest damage per minute.
They also have a squadron of dive bombers armed with HE bombs.
But be aware of the large, lightly armored superstructure
that makes up their hangar space.
The next branch to be added to the World of Warships Tech Tree
is reserved for British submarines.
The following ships will be added to the game: Undine, Sturdy, and Thrasher.
You know, the new submarines have only one type of torpedoes: homing.
They come in large numbers per salvo, and have fast reload, but low damage.
Briefly about what lies ahead: The new Airship Escort—
now there are more maps and a wider selection of ships.
Commander Sa Zhenbing— what are his talents?
Unique upgrades for Tier X ships
and new, but familiar, aircraft carriers coming to the game.
Interested? Take a look…
Dirigible... Dirigible...
We just change the name!
We decided to choose a new name for the temporary battle type—
Airship Escort!
You will be able to participate on any ships of Tiers VIII-X.
It's no secret that we regularly test new mechanics in temporary battle types
with the aim of adding them to the game permanently at a later date,
and Airship Escort is exactly the case.
Therefore, if the updated version of the mode performs well this year,
it is very likely that Airship Escort will become our main candidate
for adding to Random Battles in the future as one of the possible game modes.
This year is not without its traditional Lunar New Year celebration!
This time we've prepared the "Age of Sa Zhenbing" themed collection,
the reward for completing which will be Sa Zhenbing himself,
the new unique Commander for Pan-Asian ships.
He will have special customizations,
talents and enhanced skills for different types of ships.
As we have announced in our Development Blog,
we are beginning testing on new unique upgrades for Tier X ships.
The first two upgrades— for Venezia and Halland—
are already in closed testing. Right, Stacy?
Yes, Emil, indeed.
From new upgrades to other new features!
How are the previously removed aircraft carriers doing?
About them and much more we'll tell you right now…
The old odd-numbered tier aircraft carriers
are coming back to the testing grounds.
So they will be the aircraft carriers you're already familiar with
from before this ship type was reworked, but with new distinct mechanics,
aimed, among other things, at encouraging teamwork.
Right now, we're developing a minefields mechanic
that can be laid by planes from these aircraft carriers
and we still expect their squadrons to have access to an aerial Smoke Generator,
which will allow them to hide allied ships from the enemy.
This winter, we will be testing
the changed "Domination" mode for Random Battles.
We will revise the starting number of points at the beginning of battles
and the number of points awarded to one team
and taken away from the other when destroying ships.
The changes are designed to reduce the number of extreme situations
when battles go either too fast or too slow.
We will test it in the Supertest and the Public Test of Update 12.1
and if it shows good results, we will add it to the main server.
As we discussed in the previous episode of Waterline,
we are now...
As we discussed in the previous episode of Waterline,
we are working on a new activity: Collective Combat Missions.
Missions with special conditions
that require the combined efforts of the whole server to complete.
They will be carried out like normal combat missions,
but the objective will be common to all players of the server,
and everyone participating will contribute to their progress.
If players complete the collective battle task on time,
each player who participates will receive their reward.
In 2023, we are planning a major update of the game's sound system.
The improvements will be released during the whole year,
but now we are going to share with you our plans for the first half of the year.
We are preparing new interactive music for submarines,
which will correspond to their gameplay.
The sound of flying shells and aircraft will be updated—
they will become more detailed and of higher quality.
The sound of distant events will be improved.
Shots and explosions that occur far away from the player
will sound more realistic.
To continue the conversation—what does the coming spring have in store for us?
We're starting a geography lesson:
Pan-American cruisers are getting into the game,
new branch of destroyers is added to the European fleet,
the first researchable branch of our game's newest nations
and other new ships. More about all of this—right now!
As we have already announced, closed testing
of the Pan-American cruisers branch will begin in Update 12.0.
The goal of developing this branch was to create gameplay
where Combat Instructions would play an important role.
The preferred combat range is medium, and thanks to the Surveillance Radar
and characteristics of the Repair Party consumable,
the ships will be effective in engagements over Key Areas,
as well as those in open water.
The updated Combat Instructions encourage aggressive gameplay,
rewarding constant firing
and allowing you to use your ship's consumables more often.
Additionally, as we mentioned in the last episode of Waterline
and our Development Blog, there will be a second branch of European destroyers.
Ships in the new branch will represent countries
such as Turkey, Norway, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Greece.
The branch is still in development, and the concept of the branch
may change during testing scheduled for the first half of 2023.
The concept of these newcomers is of artillery-focused destroyers
equipped with Smoke Generators,
and with Surveillance Radar at Tiers VIII-X.
This spring, we are also preparing a branch of Spanish cruisers,
the first full-fledged Spanish line in the game.
It's too early to say something about their exact concept and specs,
but their most important feature will be the burst alternative fire mode.
What's quite nice is that the caliber of guns in the branch
will increase from 120 mm to 254 mm on Tier X.
Two new superships will be entering closed testing this spring—
the Soviet super cruiser Novosibirsk and the British super battleship Devastation,
which will continue the Petropavlovsk and Conqueror branches, respectively.
You can also expect to meet Halford, a Fletcher-class destroyer
whose main feature is the presence of an aircraft catapult.
She'll be the first hybrid destroyer in our game.
In our September 2021 message to the community,
we promised to release West Virginia '44 in 2023.
We are now happy to announce that she will enter closed testing this spring.
In our next block, a Tier IX Japanese Premium Battleship
as the new construction project at the Dockyard.
A new map, long-awaited by commanders;
and recommended upgrades at the push of one button.
About all of this—right now!
Although Admiral Schröder is still under construction at the Hamburg Shipyard.
The next ship in Spring Dockyard
is the Japanese Premium Tier IX battleship Daisen—
a fast-moving battleship with powerful artillery and torpedoes.
The battleship features an accurate main battery, but a small number of guns.
The armament is also represented by torpedo tubes
with high range and torpedo damage.
The battleship has a very high cruising speed.
Furthermore, we are working on a new feature
that will allow you to enter new battles after your ship is destroyed
without the need to wait until the battle ends.
This way, you will be able to do more battles
on your favorite ship during the game session,
which will help you speed up your progress in the game.
A special temporary battle type will also mark the 1st of April.
We're not ready to share its details yet, but we can say that it was inspired
by one of the former temporary battle types that appeared in the game before.
A new map—Seychelles was announced to enter closed testing last summer.
While developing it, we were inspired
by the real geographical terrain of the Seychelle islands.
During testing, we had to make some changes to ensure
the quality of the game experience and that the map was balanced,
but there is still a clear link to the real Seychelles.
In the spring of this year, we plan to release Seychelles on the main server.
Also, we plan to improve the Equipment tab as well.
We are going to add recommended upgrades for each ship,
as it is currently displayed in the Commander Skills tab,
as well as a button, which, when clicked,
will place a set of recommended upgrades on the ship,
similar to the existing button for signals.
In the last episode of Waterline,
we announced the changes in the Notifications and Settings tab
which were to be released by the end of last year.
Due to various circumstances,
we had to postpone these improvements to this spring.
Let us remind you what exactly will be improved:
Notifications for players in the Port will be updated.
We are planning a number of improvements
that will make them more systematic and informative.
Secondly, we plan to redesign the settings interface
by making it more user-friendly,
the selected options will be stored on the server,
and thanks to the improvements "under the hood"
we will be able to easily add new settings if necessary.
And that’s it! With you was Stacy… And Emil.
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And see you in the next Waterline!