Greetings, Commanders! The «Victory» competition is on!
But let’s find out what to expect next!
Going on. Let’s ask Anton Rogov about the next stage of event,
and the new Commander Kuznetsov.
Hi, Anton! The continuation of the "Victory" event awaits us in future,
tell us more about that.
In Update 0.8.4, we continue the "Victory" competition,
which is connected to the release of the Soviet battleship branch.
The essence of the competition is as follows:
there are two teams working towards a common goal.
Which team is it more profitable to fight for?
Depending on their playstyle,
players can choose the team with the higher difficulty,
providing them with more tokens to unlock harder achievements,
or they can become part of the team of underdogs,
who receive less tokens but for easier achievements.
If players are confident and willing to win,
they should choose the team with the higher difficulty level.
New tokens— tell us more about them.
Provision Tokens are a new type of resource
that will appear in Update 0.8.4.
Players can exchange Provision Tokens
for "In the service of the Motherland" containers,
Tier V Premium ship Murmansk,
or legendary Commander Nikolai Kuznetsov.
Tell us about the new containers.
The new containers are called "In the service of the Motherland."
Players can find camouflages, signals, Coal,
and elements of the titular collection inside,
as well as the chance to add one of four Premium ships to your Port.
Is it necessary to purchase the containers in order to complete the collection?
No, not at all. That will be a subscription collection,
which is why players will require just a single themed container,
while all of the remaining elements
will be dropped from standard daily containers.
What will players receive for completing the collection?
For completing the collection, players will be able to set
an alternative camouflage color scheme on Soviet ships, install a second flag,
and will additionally receive the "October Revolution" chests.
What skills does the new heroic Commander possess?
Kuznetsov has two unique talents.
The first is quite similar to Yamamoto's talent—it provides an additional charge
to all consumables upon unlocking the "First Blood" achievement.
The second talent is called "Will to Victory"—it's activated in battle,
but is a totally new feature, which has never been done before.
So, achievements like "Kraken Unleashed" won't activate it.
Achievements won't do it. Neither "Kraken Unleashed", nor "First Blood",
but something completely different.
When a ship's HP reaches 10%, a special version
of Damage Control Party is activated, which operates independently
from your primary Damage Control Party consumable;
the effect of Repair Party is also activated independently
from the consumable, which will restore up to 7.5% of the ship's HP;
and the dispersion of shells fired at your ship temporarily increases by 20%.
Let's talk in more depth about Commander Kuznetsov.
Why did you give him these particular talents?
Why did you decide to add him now?
Recently there was a problem, in that the unique talents
of Yamamoto and Halsey were extremely situation dependent.
They were hard to activate… they worked effectively, but rarely.
We wanted to fix that with Kuznetsov's talents,
and so decided to make a talent that wouldn't be as powerful
as the talents of Yamamoto and Halsey,
but one that would be activated more often.
Theoretically, this talent can be activated in literally every battle.
What about personalization? Colored tracers, an ensign?
Like other legendary Commanders,
Kuznetsov will have colored tracers and a guidon,
but when a talent is activated,
instead of launching fireworks as Yamamoto and Halsey would do,
Kuznetsov will launch a signal flare.
Bright? Sure.
It is not an easy task to create an interesting collection.
Sergey Zhebrovsky will tell us how our historian team has resolved it.
Sergey, a new heroic Commander, Kuznetsov, is being added to the game.
Tell us, why add him in particular?
He was the chief of the USSR Navy during World War II,
he ordered engineers to design new ships, and did his best
to make the Navy a formidable force during the years of hardship.
That's why we've chosen him.
There was a unique event in the history of our country,
the Victory Parade that was held in June, 1945.
Military personnel who participated in the Parade
had unique uniforms made specially for the occasion.
That uniform was great, which is why we've recreated Admiral Kuznetsov
wearing the uniform made for the Victory Parade.
It was a uniform that the men of the military wore just for a day,
but it was a highly important day in the history of our country.
A new collection is also being added to the game,
and the majority of it is related to Kuznetsov. Tell us why.
We tried to make a collection about Kuznetsov,
the Russian Navy, and the Russian battleships.
We have ships called Gangut, Izmail, and Sinop,
and we wanted to tell players more about these names.
When I’m playing the game,
I’m only thinking about the ships as models, I'm just playing a game.
But when I'm talking with our historians or the guys from our 3D department,
and learning the history of a ship and what's behind it,
I have completely different feelings.
What are your thoughts about that? How do you feel about it?
As a historian, I would like to see more ships from our Motherland in the game.
Since I was a child, I have been reading about them,
and have always been interested in their lives.
And now, I see them almost as real.
I don't know, you can't explain that with just words…
Our in-game maps are constantly evolving, both visually and balance-wise.
Let’s talk with Danila Pavlov about the upcoming Greece map!
A real success story—how idleness during geography class became a profession!
Today, we're going to talk about the new map,
and also about how you make them.
The new Greece map, tell us why it's the first map this year.
Yes, this is the first new map of this year.
We're constantly working on the maps.
We can distinguish two flows which are regularly worked on.
That's reworking the old maps and resolving their issues,
and designing new maps.
What kind of issues?
There are two types of issues.
The first type are gameplay issues,
and the second type are issues related to some kind of data.
It can be win rate, or the efficiency of particular ships,
or we could just observe that, for instance,
a flank on a particular map has very little activity, or that players
haven’t found the correct way of playing on a particular map, etc.
Alright, let's talk about the new Greece map now.
What type of gameplay is it intended for,
what are its features, why was it created?
We're dividing the map into three zones. A central zone and two flanks.
The idea was to make completely different flanks
and introduce interesting gameplay to the center,
with openings to shoot through and varying island heights—
this had been figured out in the tests and we used the data of their results.
In terms of our idea, everything worked out great.
For which tiers? For high tiers—IX-X.
But theoretically you can play on that map starting with Tier VII.
What about competitive modes?
Well, we're still planning those,
there will be an update for the Public Test
where we'll try out the map in Random and Ranked battles.
Based on feedback from players, if there are no problems,
we'll theoretically add the map to the competitive modes.
Regarding the modes—which do you think is best-suited to that map?
Domination mode. The map will have two variants,
with three and four key areas, respectively.
Four key areas will be assigned, but with one flank used for attacking.
You'll use the latter flank to get behind enemy lines,
while the flank with the key areas
will hold the battle for the disputable territories.
The map is new. Are there any concerns
that players will quickly discover any narrow passages,
a battleship-free zone, or employ two-ships-in-the-epicenter tactics?
There's always a chance of that, but we'll still have
at least one iteration to further improve this particular map.
That's why we'll definitely fix any issues we detect
during the Public Test or elsewhere.
Can you give any advice to players
in terms of which tactics to use and the best ship to deploy?
The thing that we wanted to highlight with this map
is that players can play a good and effective game with any type of ship.
The map isn't an easy one, and players will have to learn how to play it,
but I think that after 2-3 games,
players will clearly understand how to fully utilize their ships on it.
Ok, I have two questions for you. Is there any cover for Des Moines,
and is there a way to get behind enemy lines with Asashio on the map?
Well, I haven't tried Asashio,
but cruisers with ballistics similar to Des Moines surely have
several visually-clear places where they can be used most effectively.
I think you'll be able to play in the manner you want.
The new Ranked season will be different from previous ones.
How? More info from Philip Molodkovets.
I'm fond of your answers on the forum,
but would like to hear your answer in person: which Ranks await us?
Interesting ones. Some things will be new,
and some things players will already be familiar with.
Everything about the duration of the season, Rank progression,
and stars is basically already familiar to players. Tier X ships…
Let me interrupt you right away, why Tier X ships?
What should I do if I don't have any?
Many players have had Tier X ships for a long time now.
But this time we decided to implement the rental ships feature
that we have already implemented successfully
into Clan and Ranked battles: players who don't have any Tier X ships
will be able to acquire a series of rental ships and use these for the season.
There will be a series of nuances, for instance, battles with rented ships
won't be counted towards the acquisition of Ranked Battle emblems,
and there will be no combat achievements for rented ships,
but it offers a good chance to try out Tier X ships…
Will it have the same rotation as in Clan battles?
No, the mechanism will be different. (What else?) Modes.
The classic Domination game mode will be mixed with another mode,
which players might already have tried out in our other event,
Intergalactic Games.
During the event, the mode was called Rings of Saturn,
it was a reworked Epicenter mode, where the rings
could be captured independently, thus slightly altering dynamics of battle.
This temporary mode became a competitive one very fast.
How did that happen?
The mechanic of the mode had already been finished for the event.
Players liked it, and basically nothing was there
to stop us from trying it out in Ranked battles.
I'll repeat, it won't be the only mode.
There will be Domination mode and battles related to the Epicenter mode.
What about ship types? There is an important issue about ship types—
Ranked battles of this season will include carriers.
One Tier X carrier per team.
Can you give us some reasons
why carriers are allowed in Ranked battles now?
First of all, carriers have gone a long way since they were reworked.
Since Update 0.8.0, we have been constantly introducing balance tweaks
and observing carriers in Random battles very carefully.
In general, carriers are much more balanced now
compared to the time just after their rework.
Secondly, the fact that carriers are allowed for the current season
has been accounted for in the selection of maps and modes.
For instance, in Domination mode, we managed to place the key areas
in such a way that a team can concentrate their ships
thus making it easier to cover each other from airborne attacks.
That’s all been taken care of beforehand. So the formation is thicker, right?
Thirdly, and probably the most importantly,
a significant change will be introduced with Update 0.8.4.
I think it will be most important for competitive modes—a take-off delay.
Now carriers will have a period of time in seconds at the start of battle,
depending on their tier, when they aren't able to launch squadrons.
Time to think? Right.
Many players complained about cases when a battle was just starting,
their ships were just beginning to gain speed,
and they were still thinking about which flank to sail to,
but the carriers are already there with their aviation.
Fast-launched squadrons were able fly to the enemy base,
spot everyone on the enemy team and identify the directions they had chosen.
Sometimes that information can be crucial.
That's why we've introduced this delay.
It constitutes 45 seconds for Tier X carriers—enough time for players
to think and decide what to do and what formations to create.
I hope this time won't be wasted for carriers either,
because many players, unfortunately, often forget to plot a course.
Their carrier just stays in the same spot and becomes easy prey.
Everything is clear about the rules.
What about the rewards? The rewards are basically the same,
the amount of Steel is the same, but there is one pleasant surprise…
There will be a commemorative achievement for attaining Rank 1…
Which you won't get.
How did we recreate the spirit of Greece on a new map?
And what about dynamic weather in port?
Natalia Mudrova knows the answers!
It's vacation time, everybody's thinking about Greece. Tell us about the map.
Actually, the idea of making that map was conceived a long time ago.
Frankly speaking, around two years ago.
At that time, we were thinking about creating an unusual setting,
and found out about Santorini.
It's a surprisingly beautiful Greek island,
a volcanic island where one can find three different types of rocks.
There are red, white, and black rocks, all mixed up.
They make for a very interesting environment.
What about the map realization? Tell us about that, step by step.
First of all we needed to choose the specific part
of Santorini and Greece that we wanted to represent.
We found various references to different places, cities,
peculiar rock ledges, even some peculiar Greek trees—
everything to give the proper feeling to that map.
Do I understand it correctly that sometimes
you take some real element of the landscape, a bush or something,
and try to recreate it on the map? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
We aren't bound strictly to a precise map,
but we're trying to replicate everything as accurately as possible.
Are there any parts that are peculiar to the map?
Yes, we decided to make one unique object.
There is only one for now on the map, but there will probably be more of them.
On that map, players will see a skull helmet pierced with a sword
that should serve as a unique visual reference point for players
to find their way around it.
What about the map from the emotional point view?
What feelings does it evoke?
The Greece map somewhat continues in the spirit of the old "Hermes" operation,
because it worked out to be very grim and rainy…
So the map is oppressive and depressive? Yes, it's not a place to rest easy.
While we're talking about mood and atmosphere,
let's continue with the dynamic weather in Port.
For the time being, it looks more like a day-night cycle.
We've just implemented a similar idea for six Ports:
the weather in each will change for a period of 30 seconds or so,
and then the new weather will remain in Port for an hour.
We've introduced bright weather
in several Ports that were initially too dark and weren't so interesting
from the perspective of players who enjoy looking at their ships.
Why dynamic weather, but no dynamic time of day?
We were considering the idea
of binding the weather changes and time of day to the time on players’ PCs,
but there’s a problem with that.
The majority of our players enter the game after 6 PM,
which means that the majority of players
just wouldn't see the daytime versions of Ports.
How has our native Port changed?
St. Petersburg. We decided to add brighter weather to St. Petersburg,
while making the Port gloomy, gray, and uncomfortable,
to show players what the real St. Petersburg looks like.
So, if players previously saw mysterious smoke and shining lights,
now they will see the real St. Petersburg.
It's bright, gray, and there are smelts in the water.
Let me remind you that Developer Diaries
launches at the same time as the public test.
Participate, earn rewards.
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