WoWS Q&A

From Takru, EU Beta Tester.

— Clan Wars
When will they be introduced?

We’re currently working with the CW dev team on the final design for WoWS integration. That means that we’re not anywhere close to releasing CW yet – they will come next year.

Will there be a ladder and seasons, similar to ranked battles?

Yes, when we introduce Clans (likely before we plug Ships into the Clan Wars system) we’ll also add a team/clan ranked mode.

Will there be rewards, similar to ranked battles?

Clan ranked will likely be similar to solo ranked in this respect as well, though by that time we hope to have a few more unique options for rewards.
— Unified account
When will the accounts share all XP, free XP and Gold across the different games?

When it’s done, it’s done. I know this is an unpopular answer, but we don’t want any speculation on this topic. When we get close enough to reveal any dates, we’ll let you guys know.
What are the current problems which make introducing unified accounts not possible, especially considering that the game is fully released since 17th September?

This is something that I cannot disclose in detail.

— Destroyer lines
While the other classes have viable roles in mid- and high tier games, the USN destroyer line in particular does not perform well. It suffers greatly from the comparatively short range of their torpedoes, the usually large numbers of planes flying around and the speed of their potential victims. Are there any plans to increase their usefulness and / or survivability and if yes, what are those?

Yes, we’re looking into it and exploring different avenues for how to make these more competitive, but we haven’t decided on one specific course of action yet.

The IJN Destroyers are a little more viable in high tier games than their USN counterparts, but it really depends on whether or not the opposing team has learned to change course and speed every now and then to avoid long range torpedos. If the enemy team managed to avoid most of the torpdos, the IJN DDs can do little more than spot for the own team, since their guns are a lot worse than their USN counterparts. Are there any plans to increase the utility value of IJN Destroyers in high tier battles and if yes, what are those?

Pretty much same comment as above, but it has to be said that enemy skill is not a factor in balancing ships. Generally you need to adjust to players changing course just like they started adjusting their behavior to the threat of torpedo attack.
Destroyers of both factions are put in a dilemma by making them very fragile while almost exclusively rewarding dealt damage in a battle. Will there be rewards for assisting the team, i.e. for spotting? May be something along the lines of spotting damage as in World of Tanks?

This is one of the things we’re looking into, though its much harder to implement this into a working system than in Tanks, where map topography has infinitely more influence on line of sight.
Does smoke from destroyers break line of sight? It would seem to me that secondaries are still able to shoot at supposedly hidden destroyers. If yes, is this intentional or do you plan to change it so that smoke also breaks line of sight for secondary gun batteries?

It does break line of sight, though there is a proximity spotting area and there can also be instances where a ship is on the edge of a smoke screen and two players get conflicting information due to lag or desync etc.
— Aircraft carrier lines (there is a lot of feedback on 0.4.1 changes already, so there is little point in repeating all of it here)
The high tier Carriers carry a lot of spare planes. Even if their first waves are shot down, they still can continue to fight without any loss in performance. In fact, it is preferable for them to have their squadrons destroyed when they have dropped their payload as it saves them the time it takes the planes to fly back to the carrier. Here the comparatively higher AA rating of ships can be seen as working in favour of enemy aircraft carriers. Will there be more adjustments to high tier CV gameplay and if yes, which exactly?

We don’t currently see this as an issue, but we’re constantly monitoring the stats. If there is a big discrepancy still in favor of high-tier carriers, we will take action.
The IJN line now is forced to use fighters while many people perceive the IJN fighters as much inferior to the USN fighters even of the same tier. Will you change the way the fighters of both nations work against each other, if yes, how?

This is an interesting comment, because some reviewers and players state that due to module layouts for high tier carriers it is inefficient for US carriers to run a fighter loadout, contrary to IJN ones. So opinions are difinitely mixed here.
— Battleship lines
The much increased accuracy for main gun batteries for short ranges was a much needed improvement for battleships, but how about changing the mechanic a little: Have the higher accuracy end with the maximum stock range of each ship. This way the calculation could be automatised accross the board and it would remove the awkward effect of having much more modern ships with extremely poor accuracy just outside half the max range of their secondary batteries. Note that this would only apply to main batteries, the secondaries would not benefit from this as a destroyer sneaking up so close to a battleship should have a fighting chance to drop it’s torpedoes and get away without being a guaranteed to be sunk.

It’s an idea. We’ll look into it.
Artillery spotter aircraft are relatively rarely used once the fighter float-plane becomes available. This might be due to the already high range of main batteries and the relatively low chance to hit someone from 20+km away to start with, so the increase in gun range is not seen as something many people can make use of, as well as the obviously high threat carriers in particular pose to battleships. The new angle at which people can shoot at enemy vessels also takes some getting used to and it also raises the problem of realizing whether or not land obstacles would actually be in the way of the ammunition. Do you have plans to make the spotter plane a more interesting choice, if yes, what are those plans?

Not at the moment. We are looking into other ideas for spotting plane functionality, but we’re not sure the userbase would like them.
— Cruiser lines
Cruisers often have the best AA rating on their tier. However, shooting down planes is not considered to earn cruisers much in terms of XP or credits. This in turn dissuades cruisers from sticking close to the more vulnerable battleships or carriers to protect them from air attacks. Do you have plans to give cruisers more incentive to pick up the protection role, of yes, which?

Yes, but I can’t give any details yet.
— Maps
Will you introduce a mechanic that will prevent grouped divisions to be placed on opposite sides of cross spawn maps?

Yes, this is coming in one of the next patches. We don’t like that either.
Will you introduce a mechanic that will try to spawn grouped divisions as near to each other as possible?

Yes, same fix as above.
— General
I feel I need more information of my own ship during battles. For example, I never know how many of my AA and secondary guns are actually still in fighting condition. Please make that information available during battles.

This is a piece of info that we would like to add in the future, as its mostly useful at any given time.
Similarly, I often wonder how far I have to angle my ship until I can use all of my guns. Please let us see how far the individual main guns can traverse so we can make more use of planning our course.

This in contrast would mostly be used by only hardcore users – most players check this out in the first battle they play with any ship, so we’re not sure its worth the development cost.
Fighter floatplanes offer no control to the user. Will you enable players to control it, i.e. by the same way which let’s people prioritize enemy squadrons for AA?

This is likely in the future.
Planes in general seem to be able to spot ships through landmasses. Will you change this so they need to actually have a line of sight?

Depends on the situation, but currently we’re pretty happy with the way plane spotting works in general. We might do this one in the future, but its not a priority.
How are lines of sight calculated?

This is a rather lengthy and technical answer, for which I hope we’ll have a guide on the portal fairly soon. Sorry, but I will take a raincheck on this one.

Are you satisfied with the XP / credits curve in the tech trees? Do you plan to make adjustments to XP or credits required for individual ships or modules?

We’re generally satisfied – this satisfaction was a requirement for releasing the game. However, there will more than likely be some tweaks and adjustments in the future. That’s just how MMOs work.