WoWS Q&A – 19th May 2016

Thanks go to Carnotzet.

1. Taiho’s stock and upgraded bombers have the same name (Aichi B7A2) but their characteristics are different. Is it a bug or is it intended?

A. Yes it is intended. Different “entities” for different balancing parameters.

2.a. What punishment does a players get for being reported as “bot” or “playing badly”?

A. Both of these reports are only for analytical purpose. The first one is for data about bots, the second for data about the necessity to have better learning processes. There are no penalties associated with both of these reports.

2.b. In what cases should we report a player for “playing badly”?

A. When a player disrupts the game for other players or when his actions seriously jeopardize his team.

3. When will we see armor visualisation added to the game?

A. I hope in 2016. There’s still some aspects of it we have to work on. We’re actively working on this feature.

4. Are mouse macros prohibited? Since, like it’s the case in some shooters, there are ways to compensate the recoil with mouse macros/parameters, it would give an unfair advantage to the users of such “mod”.

A. Mouse macros are not included in the list of prohibited mods. Fortunately, you don’t have to shoot directly from the guns themselves.

5. When I have the choice between modules for AA or secondary batteries survivability, which one does affect dual purpose guns?

A. AA module only improves AA guns survivability. Secondary guns modules improves secondary guns survivability and dual purpose (secondary – AA) guns.

6. Regarding Warspite, according to some documents, after her refit, her 381mm guns could fire “super charged shells” weighting 879kg and having an initial velocity of 803m/s with a 30km range. In game, her initial shell velocity is 732m/s (it’s possible this is due to heavier shells) even though it was 747m/s for 871kg shells.

Similarly to Molotov, could you give Warspite super charged shells that would have a higher initial velocity (803m/s) and a 18km range?

A. In game, Warspite is equipped with standard shells. Moreover:

We don’t plan to improve Warpsite’s shells characteristics.

7. It seems AFT isn’t working on Novik. She’s equipped with 120mm guns and with the skill, he range should be 12.1 km, but it remains at 10.1. Why is that?

A. I just checked. Unfortunately, on this ship, ballistics don’t allow for longer firing range. Currently, this situation isn’t obvious and affects a couple of ships. We will look into fixing this issue.

Latest Q&A’s (19 May).

First series

1. Will you allow players to buy more than one set of signals at a time? I had once my card blocked for performing too many transactions in a short time.

A. No, and we don’t plan to sell signals directly in the client either since currently, it seems to get disapproval from players.

2. Are Russian / Soviet BB’s planned to be released this year?

A. No, other branches are planned for this year.

3. What do you think about adding USS Worcester and USS Alaska into the game?

A. Worcester is already modeled and fitted, she’s basically done. Her function is however debatable.

We don’t plan to work on Alaska in the near future.

4. Chapayev seems to be a bit weak (in particular damage wise) in comparison to her counterparts. Could you give us her average damage compared to Hipper’s?

A. I looked at the RU server statistics from the last three days. Chapayev does on average about 5500 more damage. Generally speaking, damage and win rate wise, Chapayev is ranked third among tier 8 cruisers (Atago, Hipper, Kutuzov, Mogami, New Orleans).

5. Why did you decide to buff high tier German cruisers HE damage? Their specialties are AP shells and good shell arcs.

A. Because we wanted them to be slightly more effective when fighting DD’s.

6. Do you plan on buffing 155m Mogami (turret traverse, firing range)?

Do you plan to give Kongo her AA hull ?

A. No, and no.

7. Hindenburg seems to get her engines knocked out by cruiser caliber HE shells. Is it normal?

A. We looked into this issue and it seems it’s not intended. We will improve her engines protection from splash damage so that 203mm HE shells won’t knock them out.

Second series

1. In the latest patch, new permanent camouflages were added to several ships, including Cleveland. Will you give players who already own a premium cammo on Cleveland the possibility to exchange it for the new, more recent one for free?

A. No, we won’t give free exchanges. It’s not really “more recent”, they are two different products.

2. I think that many players would like to see smoke screen boundaries. A dev mod already tried to do that but it’s not being updated frequently. Do you consider adding it directly into the client?

A. We’re considering adding a similar feature to the game client but I can’t share any details about it.

3. North Carolina and Iowa have the same dispersion and accuracy. However, NC’s shells seems to have better damage and penetration even though their flight time is 1 second longer. Shouldn’t going up tiers rewards players with better firepower capabilities?

A. Actually, the guns get better – they have better penetration and ballistics. Going up a tier often entails several characteristics being changed (not only guns). On many ships, the guns only change every 3-4 tiers. It’s totally normal.