I admit folks, I was a bit late with this (more than 1 day). Sorry for this, and I will try to be quicker next time! I will also try to post a historical article and a leak if everything goes fine today.
Thanks to Carnotzet & RichardNixon
Sub_Octavian and other developers answered quite a lot of questions in the 0.5.5. thread.
Developers think that experienced players will like the new short range torpedoes and won’t lose their effectiveness. The changes aren’t targeting IJN DD’s or their captains but the mindless long range torpedo spam that some players were doing blindly. Such tactics shouldn’t be efficient.
There are several elements missing from the patch notes, such as Ishizuchi and Izumo buff, Russian DD’s buff (concealment and torps for low-tier, chance of fire for high-tier), a decrease in rudder and engines incapacitation duration for all ships, interface improvements and many more. They will all be included in the release patch notes.
The number of maps with the new weather effects is still limited. Only one map, North, has gameplay changing weather (reduced visibility). For Ocean, Salomon Islands, Break, Big Race, New Dawn, Atlantic, Fault Line, Ice Islands, Two Brothers, Land of Fire, Split (?), Mountain Range, Land of Volcanoes and Trap, the weather changes will occur at the start of the battle.
CV sniping was bad for everyone. A team that loses a CV at the start of the battle – it’s bad. AA specialized cruisers that stay behind to protect their CV’s without supporting the rest of the team – also bad. These changes are not buffs to CV’s, but a buff to all players’ gameplay.
New Matchmaker is still in development (will be released in one of the following updates).
Ishizuchi buffs: her rudder and engines will be protected against being knocked out by splash damage; reload rate increased.
New burning effect (can be disabled)
They consider that the rework of high tier IJN torps doesn’t justify a free captain respec.
Atlanta’s buffs consist only of increased turret survivability for now. Additional buffs will come later.
New shells visuals are planned :
New ranked season details are still being discussed. It will be released as soon as possible though.
Armor visualisation will come in 2-3 major updates. Not guaranteed though.
In the gameplay weather map, planes will be visible only at 3km.
Devs will think over DD’s “immunity” to large caliber hits, they may add harsher consequences for being hit.
“Gameplay” weather will occur approximately in 5-7% of matches, and only in high-tier battles. Moreover, this feature is only being tested for now. If it’s well received during both super and public testing, developers will know they’re on the right track. If it leaves a bad impression, they will think over the necessity of its implementation.
Also:
Regular game client: 226 538 files / 39 015 folders
Public test client: 13 979 files / 5 628 folders
With some +/- due to mods. All update files are deleted and size is similar (21 vs 22.2 GB).
