Everyone who is seriously interested in seafaring history, naval history,
sea exploration, and discoveries,
I suppose, must have heard about the American expedition called Highjump.
The aim of the expedition was to explore the mysterious Antarctica.
The expedition was led by retired Rear Admiral Richard Byrd.
But think about this:
did they really set off to "explore Antarctica"?
An aircraft carrier, 13 ships of various types,
25 airplanes and helicopters, a crew comprising 4,000 people—
weren't there too many ships,
aircraft, and people for a simple scientific and research expedition?
As it was found out,
this expedition was to destroy the remaining secret bases
of the Fourth Reich in Antarctica,
as well as to capture a new secret weapon—"flying saucers".
However, on March 3, 1947,
the expedition was unexpectedly aborted, and the squadron returned home.
The thing is, the squadron encountered quite powerful enemy forces.
According to eyewitnesses, the squadron was attacked by
"flying discs ascending from underwater
that used some incredibly powerful energy in their engines".
The squadron commanded by Rear Admiral Byrd sustained a defeat,
but World of Warships players now have a chance to get back at the flying saucers.
A new PvP mode "The Battle for Antarctica"
represents a grand battle between a team of 12 warships
and a team of 12 flying saucers.
The team that destroys the enemy ships first wins.
We experienced major difficulties in balancing warships and flying saucers.
Just imagine a flying saucer loosely flying at a chaotic speed in the air—
that would be ridiculously overpowered.
That's why we made the following decision:
the saucers would still fly at a uniform altitude,
at a speed roughly equal to the speed of an average destroyer,
but, at the same time, the saucers will be more mobile.
And we also decided to remove destroyers from this mode completely
because their torpedoes are totally useless against a flying enemy.
How can we balance blasters on the flying saucers?
Following some long discussions, we decided to implement
a single powerful blast with a very long reload time and great firing range.
The flying saucers will have a perk for their slow reload time.
You can use this perk if a saucer doesn’t receive any damage for a long time.
Actually, we were thinking about the appearance of the flying saucers
for quite some time because, you know, we didn't have any blueprints naturally.
We wanted to make it in such a way
that players could get the feeling that the flying saucers
had been implemented in the game from the very beginning.
Due to some balance issues, we made the flying saucers as large as destroyers.
We couldn't leave out new visual effects.
Our team did a really great job so the laser attacks look very fascinating,
and you can see them from the other side of a map.
The tactics for counteracting the flying saucers
is based on their specific features.
The saucers have almost no way to hide, and their guns have a long reloading time.
Taking into account the saucers’ regeneration ability,
the most reasonable tactics for warships will be to focus fire on a single enemy
until it's destroyed completely.
We hope players will like the new game mode,
and highly appreciate the new unit type!