Greetings, Commanders!
I am Dasha Perova and today I'd like to tell you about Update 0.4.1—the next big step for World of Warships.
New game features and maps, better graphics and balance,
as well as Ranked Battles—you will have the chance to experience all of this very soon.
In Update 0.4.1, those players who wish to find their match,
both among allies and rivals, will find what they are looking for in Ranked Battles.
It is a season-long event available to all players
not enlisted in Divisions with Tier VI–VII ships and accounts with Service Record Level 9.
Team compositions are slightly different from usual battles:
each team can have seven players, and the maximum number
of aircraft carriers and battleships is limited to one and two respectively.
In addition to XP and Credits, all Ranked Battles participants earn stars that are only awarded for winning a battle.
When a player gets a certain number of stars, they move to the next rank.
All ranks are divided into three groups.
Beginners taking the first steps on their way to naval glory start in the first group.
The second and third groups are different from the first
Each defeat in the second or third group results in losing a star and, eventually, even a rank.
Achievements are rewarded with in-game resources and
we are planning to introduce some unique rewards in the future.
In Update 0.4.1, the reach of naval battles will expand.
The new Strait map was inspired by the Italian coast
where the British Fleet defended Malta
The second map, Solomon Islands,
is a representation of part of the archipelago of the same name,
which saw one of World War II‘s major military campaigns—the Battle of Guadalcanal.
While exploring the new maps, you might have noticed that the landscape
in World of Warships has become more vivid—now there are trees on the islands.
But forests and jungles will only grow on maps if players
set their Graphics Quality to at least Medium
I'd also like to mention that multiple changes were introduced
to the New Dawn, Fault Line, and Hotspot maps.
In Update 0.4.1, there are more ways to command your fighters.
Now a player can specify an exact zone for barrage fire and their fighters will strike,
spending the majority of their ammunition and causing damage to all aircraft coming their way.
This skill will enable even a few fighters to thin the enemy formation.
Also, the risk of being caught under barrage fire
will force players to control their squadrons more carefully.
We also revised the characteristics for every fighter. Now the damage they can inflict
increases more evenly depending on their tier. The damage caused by rear gunners was also recalculated upward.
We analyzed mass statistical data received after the launch of the Open Beta Test
and continue working on the matchmaker.
Now, the aircraft carriers will be symmetrically distributed to teams, both by quantity and by tiers.
In addition, we introduced an algorithm that forcibly puts a player into an optimally
comfortable tier of battles (equal to the tier of their ship), if they have played several battles in a row against higher tiers.
It will undoubtedly increase the general comfort of gaming and efficiency of powerleveling for all players.
Finally, we improved the distribution mechanics of destroyers and cruisers in teams.
Balance corrections are undoubtedly one of the most important and sensitive subjects of any major update.
I'll start with the nice aspects: We considerably increased
the primary armament's precision at a range of up to almost 2 miles (3 km)
Premium warships Yubari and Sims, veterans in the game, which many of our
captains purchased together with the pre-order package, will receive some nice improvements.
Destroyer Sims can now boast two versions of torpedoes.
She becomes the first Premium ship to have a variable module.
Cruiser Yubari can now prepare an even warmer welcome for enemy squadrons thanks to the Defensive Fire consumable.
While we are on the subject of consumables,
the action time of Hydroacoustic Search was increased for all cruisers.
Cruiser Omaha will get an increase in firing range when equipped with the most advanced hull.
Cruiser Furutaka, which taught many Japanese Navy enthusiasts to keep their cool,
now shifts the helm faster, and turns to the enemy with a more rapid-firing and agile primary armament,
together with updated torpedoes.
However, those same enthusiasts will most certainly appreciate one other improvement:
the rotation speed of primary armament turrets for Wakatake, Minekaze, and Mutsuki was increased.
The U.S. destroyers Sampson and Wickes will also have their guns’ rate of fire and rotation speeds increased
while their colleagues starting from Tier V will have two variants of top hulls.
The alternative variant will have additional AA armament at the expense of the main battery.
At the same time, the Engine Boost consumable will be replaced by Defensive Fire.
Apart from that, the action time of Smoke Screens of all U.S. destroyers will be increased.
Still, we had to do some fine-tuning.
Minekaze, an overpowered, elusive, and dangerous Japanese destroyer, will lose her top torpedoes
The traversing angles of her torpedo tubes will be reduced a little, while the detection distance will be increased by 984 feet (300 m).
It's cool to be a ninja, but it's time to draw a line.
Mutsuki's concealment was modified in the same way.
Our research showed that Tier VI–VIII Japanese aircraft carriers
demonstrate abnormally high battle performance even when used by less experienced players.
This is why we increased the aircraft servicing time for squadrons
and reconsidered the structure of air groups:
now each air group has at least one fighter squadron.
The national bonus for Japanese ships, providing a greater chance to cause fire with high-explosive shells,
was reduced relative to the caliber.
Cruiser Mogami, the terror of Tier VIII, will have to be more careful now,
as the reserve durability of her primary armament turrets was decreased,
while the previous Japanese cruiser Myoko will have a lower rate of fire,
the same for the American battleship Wyoming.
The sound changes are aimed at improving the game experience, as usual.
We updated the sound in general, changed the sound
of flying shells, and recorded several new music tracks.
From now on, any ship touching a map edge will be
correctly processed by the targeting system.
You can set the usual target lead and fire at will.
We added several important performance characteristics to the Port,
such as parameters for aviation torpedoes.
The best thing is that the interface now displays changes
to characteristics depending on installed upgrades and consumables.
We also updated the player statistics summary in the profile and made it much more informative.
That's all for today! My name is Dasha Perova,
subscribe to our channel and follow the updates. Until next time, commanders!
World of Warships
Action Stations!