Greetings, Captains! I, Dasha Perova, am here with you,
and the sea is swelling with interesting news!
Today we'll talk about the continuation of the French arc, the Research Bureau,
changes to the AA defense mechanics, and matchmaker improvements.
Please welcome Update 0.8.7!
Playing with the French destroyers is a must! These ships,
from Tier II through Tier VIII, are now available in the Tech Tree.
I'm sure that everyone will love them for their incredible speeds,
powerful artillery, and unusual sets of consumables.
The continuation of the branch, with Tier IX Mogador and Tier X Kléber,
awaits you in Update 0.8.8.
A new historical Commander has arrived from France as well.
Welcome Philippe Auboyneau, who possesses three talents simultaneously:
“Sparks of Resistance” increases the chances
of setting fires with your HE shells after a key area has been captured,
while “Fully Armed” reduces the reload time of your ship’s armament
and is activated after the Devastating Strike achievement is unlocked.
His third and final talent is “Speed and Composure,”
which increases the speed of your ship
for every two million points of potential damage received.
The activation of any of these talents
is accompanied with the launching of a signal flare,
and any ship headed by this Commander
will have a unique ensign and colored tracers.
Philippe Auboyneau also has the improved Survivability Expert skill.
If you ask me,
this Frenchman makes an excellent choice to attach to the new destroyers.
You'll need a new Armory resource—French Tokens—
in order to recruit this historical Commander.
Players can obtain these Tokens for completing Directives,
combat missions with Le Terrible and Mogador,
and for achieving top positions in the Hall of Fame.
Naturally, the continuation of the French arc has its own themed collection.
Through the Legion of Honor collection,
you’ll discover the rewards, ensigns, and destroyers of the French Navy.
Gather all the sheets of the collection and you’ll unlock a feature
to raise a second flag on French ships
and change the color schemes of their camouflages.
A new game mechanic—the Research Bureau—awaits players in Update 0.8.7.
Now experienced Captains will have another reason to head into battle
with the cherished ships of their favorite branches—Research Points.
Players will be able to exchange these Points for combat signals,
bundles with Free XP, and unique ships in the Armory.
The first such ship will be Tier X French cruiser Colbert.
In order to earn Research Points, you need to reset
your already researched branches of ships and research them anew.
You'll find more details about the Research Bureau on our website.
In other news,
we've changed the mechanics of the AA defense priority sector.
As such, it's become much more convenient to deploy,
and the efficiency of AA defenses now mostly depends on the actions of players.
To increase the power of a sector, players need to turn the camera
to face the direction of an approaching threat and push the "~" or "O" keys.
Immediately after the key is pressed,
the AA defenses deal an amount of instantaneous damage
to the enemy air squadron within their operating range
that’s equal to a percentage of the squadron's HP.
First of all, the AA defenses strive to destroy
the maximum possible number of aircraft.
Then the AA defenses’ firepower increases,
and after reaching its maximum, stays at that level for some time.
Finally, the selected sector returns to its normal state.
If you want to increase its firepower again,
you need to wait until after the cooldown.
The Manual Fire Control for AA Armament skill has been also changed,
now it's called Massive AA Fire.
The skill increases only the instantaneous damage
from the AA defenses priority sector.
When active, continuous damage won't increase,
and the priority sector will have a longer cooldown.
However, ships with weak AA defenses
will be more effective against airborne attacks with this skill applied.
We've also introduced a series of other fixes and improvements to AA defenses.
They will make the game more convenient and balanced
both for aircraft carriers and other types of ships.
You'll find further details on our website.
We've improved the matchmaker in Update 0.8.7.
After a calibration period which requires up to 20 battles,
the matchmaker will ensure that the percentage of battles
played with ships of specific tiers doesn't exceed the specified rate.
For example, we're planning to set a limit
of 40% for Tier VIII ships heading into battle with Tier X ships.
In other words, a Tier VIII ship will meet Tier X ships in battle
just eight times out of 20 battles.
Thus, long series of such battles will now be impossible
because the matchmaker always analyzes the previous 20 battles.
We've also heard your many requests
and added an option to turn the battle chat on or off.
Players will also be able
to block quick commands and text messages from specific players.
These changes will make communication in battle more pleasant.
We've also improved the Port interface and the Autopilot system.
That's all for today.
You can read detailed information about Update 0.8.7 on our website.
My name is Dasha Perova. Until next time, Captains!