Team Battles Introduced
A new experimental game mode has been added to the client. More information on it in our dedicated article.
Team Battles become available once a player’s Service Record reaches Level 12.
Teams will be managed via the relevant tab in the player profile (“My Teams”). This tab is also accessible via a panel in the Port (“My Teams”).
Initially, the player will only be able to create one Team (for 300,000 credits).
After playing 10 battles in this Team, the player will be able to create a second and third Team, this time at a cost (at present, 300 Doubloons for each subsequent Team).
Once a Team is created, the player assumes the role of its Leader and may invite other players to join it.
The Team will also have a separate Team chat.
A separate chat window will be available for each Team that the player is a member of.
The name of a Team is unique. If a player creates a Team, calls it “123”, and then tries to create another one with the same name, a message will appear saying that a Team with that name already exists. The player will need to enter a different name.
If a Team is created without a name, it will bear the nickname of the player who created it. The Team may be renamed at any time by clicking on its name in the “My Teams” screen. If a player has skipped the naming stage when creating their Team, the first renaming instance will be available free of charge. Each subsequent renaming will cost 25 Doubloons.
The Team’s name does not become available even if all players leave it. The Team will retain its name even if there are no players in it.
Players that have achieved Level 12 in the Service Record may be invited to join the Team. To search for players, players can use the invitation form available in the relevant Team’s panel or their contact list.
To invite a player, open the context menu by right-clicking on the player’s name in the contact list and select “Invite to Team”. Invitations are sent via the invitation form in the Team’s screen. To do this, click on the name of a player you wish to invite to your Team.
The Team Leader receives a system message indicating that a player has been successfully invited. The invited player will be marked with a ‘letter’ icon until they accept or decline the invitation to join the Team.
The invited player receives an invitation to join the Team. It contains the name of the inviting Team and its Rating.
Any member of a Team may suggest a candidate to be invited, in which case the voting process is initiated. The Leader may invite players to the Party, bypassing the voting procedure. Players that have been offline for 21 days may be removed from the Team by its Leader, bypassing the voting procedure.
Decisions on issues of key importance for the Team require a vote. Different types of voting require a different number of votes for a decision to be accepted. The required number of votes is displayed in the voting form. The time for voting is limited.
Teams consist of up to 10 players (seven in the main Team and three in reserve). Seven players take part in a Team Battle.
Any player may be a member of three Teams at the same time. They can also be the Leader in all three of these Teams.
The members of a particular Team will have an option to dismiss the Leader from their position. To do this, right-click on the Leader’s name and select “Dismiss the Leader”. The dismissal option will come at a cost (600 Doubloons). After that, the vote to dismiss the Leader is initiated. The dismissal of the Leader requires a unanimous vote from all participants in a given Team. The time for voting is limited. If the Leader is dismissed, the team are reimbursed for a portion of the amount paid to hold a vote to dismiss them. The dismissed Leader is removed from the Team. The Leader functions are transferred to the player who initiated the vote.
The Leader may Transfer leadership at their own discretion. To do this, right-click on the name of a particular player within the Team, then select “Transfer leadership”. If the Leader leaves the Team, leadership passes to the member with the longest tenure in the Team. In addition, the Leader may designate any Team member as its new Leader in the exit confirmation screen.
Teams have Ratings. Ratings can go up and down. They are assigned after a battle and determine a Team’s place in the League. The higher the Rating, the higher the League that the Team will belong to. The number of Leagues is specified by the terms of the relevant season of Team Battles. A season may last for a predetermined number of days\weeks\months. However, battles will be fought at a specifically designated time of day. E.g. from 12:00 till 23:00. At any other time, Team Battles will not be available.
The applicable Tier of ships is also designated in a Team Battles season.
Two groups of seven players take part in a Team Battle at a time. To announce Team Battle recruiting, press the “READY!” button in the screen of the Team that you want to enter a Team Battle with. The person who announces the recruiting becomes the group’s Commander. Invitations to join a Team Battle are sent to all members of the Team online at the time when the invitations are sent out. An invitation to join a Team Battle may be accepted by pressing the “Accept” button or declined by closing the invitation window. If recruiting has already been announced, simply press the “READY” or “JOIN” button on the panel that replaces the list of Team members.
Any permanent member of a Team can send their Team into Battle.
Team Battles impose certain ship restrictions. At present, a Team may have no more than one aircraft carrier and two battleships.
If you do not have enough Team members to enter a Team Battle, you can invite any player who has reached Level 12 in the Service Record, even if that player is not on your Team. Mercenaries remain in the group for the entire session, until they are removed from it by the group’s Commander or leave the Team themselves.
All players that have been recruited for a Team Battle click “Ready” (similar to the way they do in Divisions). Doing so, they confirm they are ready for battle.
All players unwilling to join a Team but looking to enter a Team Battle have two options:
- Select the “Team Battles” mode and press “Looking to join a Team Battle”. From then, the player will be displayed in the list of players awaiting an invitation to join a Team Battle,
- Or simply enter a Team Battle on a ship of an appropriate Tier. In that case, the player will be randomly thrown into an understaffed Team in the queue for a Team Battle.
Teams may enter a battle at full strength, or with fewer teammates. The matchmaker will fill all understaffed Teams with mercenaries, i.e. players that do not belong to any Team but can enter battle as mercenaries. In this case, a Team will be matched with another team at full strength (fully staffed). Understaffed Teams are not matched against each other; only fully staffed Teams (7×7) are allowed to enter battle.
The minimum number of ready Team members required to proceed to matchmaking is 4 (four).
When you first navigate to the Teams screen, you’ll have to read and accept certain instructional materials about Teams. These are a number of pop-up messages with descriptions for the new functionality. Players will need to read them carefully and click the “Got it!” button.
Maps and Game Modes
Tears of the Desert map has been added
Battle mode was changed from “Domination” to “Standard Battle” in all maps where the “Domination with 2 Key Areas” mode was present (in other words, the “Domination with 2 Key Areas” battle mode was renamed to “Standard Battle”):
- Solomon Islands
- Strait
- Big Race
- North
- Fault Line
- Islands of Ice
- Two Brothers
- Islands
- Northern Lights
- New Dawn
- Hotspot
- Land of Fire
- The Atlantic
- Shatter
- Tears of the Desert
On the Ocean map, the battle mode “Domination with 3 Key Areas” was added.
Balance Corrections:
- On the Hotspot map, some islands were removed in the rear part of the map
- On the New Dawn map, the height of the large island, located in the “upper” teams’ part of the map, was decreased
The point gain in Ranked Battles was decreased for map battles in modes with 3 Key Areas: from 9 points every 10 seconds to 3 points every 5 seconds.
New Commander Skills
Manual Fire Control for Secondary Armament: secondary guns only open fire at targets designated by the player. This way, fire efficiency is significantly increased. -15% to the maximum dispersion of secondary armament shells for Tier I-VI ships; -60% to the maximum dispersion of secondary armament shells for Tier VII-Х ships.
Manual Fire Control for AA Armament: significantly improves the efficiency of large calibre AA gunfire at a designated target. +100% to the efficiency of AA artillery with a calibre of >85 mm when a priority target is set for AA guns.
Survivability Expert: increases maximum amount of HP. + 400 hit points for each ship tier.
Torpedo Acceleration: increases the speed of torpedoes launched from ships and aircraft at the expense of a reduction in their travel distance. +5 knots to torpedo speed; -20% to the torpedo travel distance (range).
Game Balance Changes
Some Commander skills will be modified. Because of this, all players can redistribute their Commander’s skill points for free.
Expert Loader: skill effect was increased from -30% to -50% to reload time.
Torpedo Armament Expertise: skill effect was increased from -10% to -20% to servicing time of torpedo bombers. Torpedo reload time modifier has not changed.
Vigilance: skill effect was increased from +20% to +25% to the detection range of torpedoes.
Last Stand: moved to the second level of skills, into the Special Skills column.
Jack of All Trades: now provides -15% to reload time of consumables.
Advanced Firing Training, Basic Firing Training, and Expert Marksman: calibre of low-calibre guns affected by these skills is now limited to 139 mm.
Last Chance: formerly -9% to reload time of all types of armament, if the ship’s HP is less than 20%; now -30% to reload time of all types of armament, if the ship’s HP is less than 10%.
The Basic Firing Training and Advanced Firing Training skills: now affect all secondary battery guns regardless of their calibre.
Preventive Maintenance: skill effect was increased from -34% to -50% to the risk of incapacitation of modules.
A new consumable named “Torpedo Reload Booster” was added. When this consumable is activated and the torpedo tubes are being reloaded, the reload time of torpedo tubes is reduced to the value specified for each type of consumable.
Fixed the situation where guns that were incapacitated as a result of magazine incapacitation remain inoperative until the end of the battle.
Yamato: The efficiency of the Repair Party consumable was reduced by 33%. Now, the efficiency of this consumable for Yamato is the same as for other battleships.
Mikhail Kutuzov: enjoyed an increase in rate of fire (from 6.75 to 7.5 rounds/min), firing range (from 15,910 m to 19,100 m) and turret traverse speed (from 5.4 degrees per second to 7.2 degrees per second).
Albany: her firing range and viewing distance were recalculated. This time, a different detection device is used: a portable range finder (with 0.8 m distance between optical axes) which could be mounted on her crow’s nest. Her firing range was extended from 6,350 m to 8,470 m. Her viewing distance was increased from 8,200 m to 13,180 m.
Farragut: hull B was changed from AA defence-focused to a standard artillery-focused hull. The number of AA guns was reduced, while one main gun was returned to the hull (5 main guns in total now).
Yubari: fixed the deck armour thickness, now the thickness is 25 mm instead of 20 mm.
Tachibana and Tachibana Lima: decreased the range at which these ships can be detected when firing, their detectability range now increases by 2.28 km instead of 3.6 km.
Midway and Essex: One squadron of torpedo bombers was replaced with one squadron of bombers for the assault setups
Lexington: One squadron of fighters was removed from the default setup.
Lexington, Essex, Midway: Bomber damage increased by 30% (1000lb ANM65 bomb type is now installed on the Curtiss SB2C, Douglas BTD-1 and Kaiser XBTK-1 bombers)
Reworked AA defence and aircraft.
Revised Tech Trees for aircraft.
Reworked the AA armament efficiency (efficiency of AA guns at long-range distance was significantly improved, other AA guns were revised as well).
Increase in efficiency when setting a priority target was reduced by 12% (now, the intensification factor is x1.1).
Intensification factor of the Defensive Fire consumable was reduced by 50% (now, the AA armament intensification is x3 when the Defensive Fire consumable is activated). Now, both dual-purpose guns and large-calibre automatic AA guns deliver fire when the Defensive Fire consumable is activated.
Newcomer Achievements
Added initial achievements that can be received only once. Find out more on our dedicated page.
Changed the earning conditions for several existing achievements
- All downed aircraft are accounted for in earning the Clear Sky achievement, regardless of whether or not the player set them as priority targets.
- Now, the Close Quarters Expert achievement is granted when the final direct damage was caused by the secondary battery guns.
Economy Changes
Increased XP ratios:
- Hakuryu +3%
- Iowa +3%
- Montana +5%
- Hermelin +5%
- Kolberg +5%
- Karlsruhe +5%
- Yorck +5%
- Hindenburg +5%
- Ibuki +5%
- Derzki +6%
- Izyaslav +5%
- Gnevny +5%
- Ognevoi +5%
Reduced XP ratios:
- Ranger -3%
- Zuikaku -6%
- Gearing -2%
- Isokaze -2%
- Mutsuki -4%
Increased credit ratios:
- Hermelin +6%
- Kolberg +4%
- Karlsruhe +2%
- Königsberg +6%
- Nürnberg +6%
- Yorck +6%
- Admiral Hipper +6%
- Sampson +2%
- Nicholas +5%
- Fletcher +5%
- Gearing +8%
- Storozhevoi +10%
- Derzki +10%
- Izyaslav +10%
- Gnevny +8%
- Ognevoi +8%
- Kiev +8%
- Tashkent +8%
Decreased research prices:
- Dresden: 350 XP (instead of 750 XP)
- Hermelin’s weapon station research, that lead to Dresden, now costs 100 XP (instead of 250 XP)
- Chikuma: cost changed to 350 XP (instead of 800 XP) – Storozhevoy: changed to 500 XP (instead of 1000 XP)
- Hashidate’s weapon station research, that lead to Chikuma, now costs 100 XP (instead of 200 XP)
- Storozhevoy: cost changed to 500 XP (instead of 1000 XP)
- Chester: cost changed to 350 XP (instead of 800 XP)
- Erie’s weapon station research, that lead to Chester, now costs 100 XP (instead of 200 XP)
Ranked Battles Revamped
An option to have an irrevocable Star within a Rank, and not just a Rank, has been added.
Player Ranks will now be displayed in the battle statistics window (displayed after the Tab key is pressed), and in the battle loading screen
Tooltips were updated in the help window for Ranks
The appearance of Ranks displayed in the Port was unified (first the Rank as an icon, then the number of the Rank)
It will be possible to select a specific season in the Summary tab for Ranked Battles and see the statistics for this season; by default, the overall statistics for all seasons are displayed
Settings were modified for additional Stars issued when a new Rank is achieved in Ranked Battles
Interface Changes
No more than three system messages may be displayed at the same time.
System messages will be ordered by priority as well as on the tab currently accessed by the player. All messages are saved to a log of system messages.
Once the player leaves a battle, the state of their armament panel will be saved, which includes:
The last selected type of shell;
Torpedo cone width and the condition of AA guns\secondary armament (on or off);
For aircraft carriers, only the condition of AA guns\secondary armament (on or off) is saved.
Once a player enables the “Enlist me in a Division” status, the player will be able to leave a short message (up to 150 characters) describing themselves and what they are looking for in a Division.
These messages will be subject to the rules of the in-game chat policy. All violations of these rules will be sanctioned.
Two new interface hints have been added for new players:
- Players who have unlocked the ship tech tree but have never opened it will see a hint after a few battles played, after the account level has been reached.
- Players who unlock Random battles but stay in co-op mode will see a hint after a few battles played, once the account level has been reached.
Improved Matchmaker
A new matchmaker was added for low-tier battles. Now novice and veteran players will be separated. However, if the player count in the queue for novice players is too low, then a novice player will be transferred to the usual matchmaker.
Distribution of players into teams was slightly improved. Now, after two teams have been formed, the matchmaker will try to distribute players so that teams consist of players with approximately equal ships. For example, if there are two Cleveland cruisers on one team and two Aoba cruisers on another team, the ships will now be distributed evenly if it is technically possible, in order to have one Cleveland cruiser and one Aoba cruiser on each team.
Arpeggio Game Mode Changes
Various types of missions are introduced for the Arpeggio of Blue Steel -Ars Nova- mode.
Players will be able to get a ship without a Commander or a Commander without a ship as a reward for completing a mission
An Arpeggio icon will now be displayed on the corresponding missions and challenges (in order to separate normal missions and challenges from Arpeggio ones)
When a mission is completed whose reward is an Arpeggio ship and Commander, it will only be displayed in the Arpeggio Port
A new condition is added for completing a mission — completion of the previous missions. It will be possible to complete missions in several battle types (except for the Introductory Mission)
Improved Sound and Music
Shot sounds were improved, including those for 5.1 surround sound
Ship movement sounds were enhanced
Sounds were improved for aircraft falling after being shot down
Ship destruction sounds were enhanced
Now the music will completely stop and resources will not be consumed when the music volume is decreased to 0
New music tracks were added
System Changes
A new system was introduced to protect against unsigned mods. When you install mods, you put your game client’s stability at risk.
It is now possible to launch the game client in safe mode (with mods disabled). This option is available in the launcher.
Fixed lags in video play in the in-game browser.
Account Levels
Account Level 12 has been added, opening up Team Battles. To reach it players will need to collect 70,000 account points after they’ve reached account Level 11. The reward for reaching Account Level 12 is 3,000,000 credits. Everyone who already has the required amount of account points by the time the patch is released will reach this level automaticaly.
Account level 2, which opens up the tech tree, is now available upon reaching 300 account points (instead of 500). Account level 4, which unlocks daily quests, is now available upon reaching 1200 account points (instead of 1000). Requirements for further account levels have not been changed.
