Hello everyone!
Last time in the Developer Diaries,
we outlined what World of Warships will be like
and how studying real ships helps us create the game.
We didn’t tell you much about the different warship types.
So, now it’s time to take a closer look at them.
Today, we will talk about destroyers, cruisers, and battleships.
Full speed ahead!
Real fleets are very complex.
Some historical fleets were really big.
For example, in the Battle of Leyte Gulf between the USA and Japan in 1944,
the Americans had as many as 150 destroyers.
It’s not an easy task to coordinate the actions of this many ships,
and it’s really hard to display all the features of a real fleet in the virtual world.
We simplified it greatly.
The number of battle participants is significantly reduced,
as is the number of interactions between the ships.
For example, in the game there’s no such thing as fuel.
Fuel is not an in game resource at all.
In real life, aircraft can be in the air for five to six hours,
and then deck handling will take about another hour.
Of course, it all happens much faster in the game.
Aircraft can be airborne during the battle without time limits.
However, after their ammunition is spent,
there’s no sense for aircraft to keep flying around,
so they will turn around and head back to replenish their ammunition.
It takes 30 seconds for a six-aircraft squadron to reload on the aircraft carrier deck.
This is quite fast.
Despite all this simplification, the gameplay is still based on the principles of a real fleet.
These principles helped us to decide on a very important issue
the balance of the different warship types.
The most important thing was to elaborate on the idea of warship balance.
We had to answer questions such as:
why is this warship type in the game?
What are its strengths?
What are its weaknesses?
With which other types does it interact and how does it interact with them?
So, we decided that the most effective principle is rock-paper-scissors.
Well, everyone knows this game and how to play it.
We just applied it to warships.
Agile destroyers hunt down and take out battleships.
Battleships search for cruisers and destroy them.
Cruisers target destroyers.
Finally, aircraft carriers stay back a bit
because they have difficulty with all warship types.
Of course, this principle was used for a reason.
It works on the basis of the particular features of each warship type,
inherited from their real-life counterparts.
But first, let’s take a look at each warship type; we’ll start with destroyers.
New players must know about the different ships.
Destroyers are the fastest warships in the game.
Historically, destroyers were always very manoeuvrable
and fast, carrying deadly torpedoes that posed a threat to any warship type.
And that’s how it’s implemented in the game.
The Japanese Fubuki-class destroyer was armed with a main battery of 127 mm guns
and three triple torpedo tubes that were armed with 610 mm Type 90 torpedoes.
By 1945, the more advance torpedo type was in use,
the Type 93 “Long Lance” oxygen torpedo.
Bear in mind that one torpedo has 400 kg of explosives.
It can cause irreparable damage to any ship hit below the water line.
Four torpedoes hits can destroy anything that moves in our game.
Destroyers are also equipped with something that makes them unique: a smoke screen.
A wisely used smoke screen will provide your fleet with an advantage over the enemy fleet.
On the other hand, the improper use of a smoke screen
will blind your fleet, giving the advantage to your enemy.
That’s why experienced players choose destroyers only
when they know what they want to do, how they want to do it and when they’re ready to take a risk.
When there is no opportunity to be cunning or maneuver,
the huge fire power of battleships will help you out.
Battleships, as a type, are the heaviest gunships.
They can sink anything that floats,
or demolish anything on the coast that their artillery guns can reach.
Considering their firing range (the famous Yamato had the firing range up to 42 km),
battleships could strike back well until aircraft carriers
with a greater firing range appeared.
Additionally, battleships were the best protected against all types of armament,
from shells to bombs and torpedoes.
Against everything that was invented at that time, at least.
Rockets weren’t used against battleships because rockets were too weak against them.
The weakness of the battleships is their relatively low manoeuvrability.
Why is it relatively low?
Well, for example, Yamato.
Its turning radius is just one kilometre.
That’s a good response time.
Few destroyers could compete with Yamato in this.
But, of course, they were designed to be fast, not manoeuvrable.
In the game, Yamato has its historical armour.
This is up to 500 mm of front turret armour and 400 mm of side armour.
Yamato carried the heaviest gun in the battleship type.
It fired a 460 mm armour-piercing shell that weighed 1.5 tonnes
and had a firing range of 42 km.
Speed: 27 knots
In reality, the firing range was around 18 km.
This is an effective firing range.
The hit ratio was around 3 percent, this was considered good.
Our game is more compact, so the hit ratio will be higher.
Well, we must fit the time frame.
Yamato, with its heaviest shell, is the most dangerous adversary for every warship
except for destroyers.
Its shell has to hit a destroyer first because it can’t cause much damage with a splash.
Let’s take Shimakaze as an example.
39 knots; three five-tube torpedo launchers carrying Long Lance torpedoes.
Shimakaze is able to sink any ship, and it can actually circle around Yamato
while it’s trying to target the destroyer with its slowly turning guns.
The turret turning speed depends on the calibre of its gun.
Turrets are very heavy, so they can’t aim quickly.
On the other hand, it’s easy for Yamato to destroy other armoured targets.
With proper support, it just floats, shoots and goes on its course.
Problems in World of Warships are solved not only with the help of the main armaments.
Cruisers, which can carry various armaments, are testament to this fact.
Cruisers are average performers in many characteristics.
But in this case, there is a happy medium.
Cruisers combine characteristics of both light warships
such as destroyers and heavy battleships because they carry artillery armament.
It might be said that cruisers are the most flexible warship type.
Depending on what gameplay style players prefer,
they can choose to play an anti-aircraft cruiser
and head to meet enemy aircraft from which other ships will be trying to run away.
Or, they can play an artillery cruiser with thick armour and heavy armament.
They can also choose a Japanese cruiser that carries both torpedo and artillery armament.
There are Japanese Takao-class cruisers in the game.
They are an all-round warship due to their combination
of powerful artillery armament and torpedoes.
They have five main turrets with two 203 mm guns
and are armed with four 610 mm four-tube torpedo launchers.
It’s important to note that we want one ship to represent all ships of its class.
When we talk about Takao, we mean all four Takao-class cruisers that were produced.
Speaking of Des Moines, we also remember
that there were three Des Moines-class cruisers built.
So, warships and their characteristics in the game are the generalised character
of all ships in a particular class.
Using the whole warship class also allows a warship to be represented
not only as a fixed set of characteristics but as a developing entity.
You’ll be able to develop your warship by fighting in battles.
You’ll be able to increase the power of your engine and radio locators,
and change the main turrets in some cases to have guns of a larger calibre.
Upgrading is very important for cruisers
because you can change the specialisation of your cruiser by changing its modules.
For example, you can change it from an artillery cruiser to an anti-aircraft cruiser
or from a torpedo cruiser to an artillery one.
Of course, this option isn’t available for all warships
just for those that could be modified in a real life.
National peculiarities also add to the diversity of the cruisers.
For example, Japanese torpedoes had a greater range,
so their range in the game is higher than of other torpedoes.
American warships, in their turn, had better armour protection and radar armament.
All this will be implemented in the game.
Players will be able to mount new modules and manage their warships the way they like.
It sounds quite simple in theory, but it’s not the same during the battle.
Despite there being just one common principle in World of Warships battles,
there will always be new situations that will require thinking outside the box.
When you’re already quite familiar with the gameplay
and know what destroyers, cruisers and battleships are for, it will be much easier for you
to understand the course of the battle and act sensibly and with confidence.
Next, we’ll talk about aircraft carriers,
which are a very interesting type of warship. See you soon!