WoWS: 0.5.9 Public Test Patchnotes

Players who are going to update the client from 0.5.8 (who didn’t play the first iteration of Public Test 059 and didn’t update the client from PT058) will have to perform a full update of the client ~ 10 GB.

Players who are participated in first iteration PT 059 will only have to download a ~70 MB patch.

Patch Notes:

  • Changes to the Assault mode:
    • Fixed the display of the control point type;
    • The mode was slightly simplified
  • Fixed the sorting of signals in the port (similar to the sorting in the previous version);
  • Adjusted the matchmaker: In tier VIII-X battles (The battle tier is the maximum tier of the ships that could enter it) there can be no more than one CV in each team;
  • Adjusted battle tiers:
    • All tier I-IV ships, as well as tier V CV’s now have +1 tier maximum matchmaking
    • Other ships keep +2 tier matchmaking
  • Fixed a bug resulting in the target hit ribbon sometimes being doubled with a penetration;
  • Fixed a bug where a “Back to the battle” button wasn’t displayed on the post-battle statistics screen;
  • The “Display the edges of the smoke screen” functionality is now on by default. It can be switched off in the control settings;
  • Fixed a bug which led to the emergency shutdown of the client when the Neighbors map was loading;
  • Fixed the «Airgroups modification 1» modification. Now it gives the correct 10% bonus to the defensive armament of torpedo bombers and dive bombers;
  • Fixed a bug where the progress of capturing a control point wasn’t being displayed after reconnecting to the battle;
  • Fixed a bug which could result in the interface freezing during battle;
  • Fixed a bug resulting in a model of the aircraft not being displayed in the port on those catapults where it should;
  • Fixed a bug resulting in the emergency shutdown of the client when doing a post-battle survey;
  • Fixed an incorrect rounding off of the damage in the battle interface (floating numbers and counter);
  • Fixed the limit of 100 000 experience for free commander retraining (in the previous version, there was no limit, resulting in an inappropriately large amount of required experience in some cases);
  • Due to optimization of the server software, the time after which an inactive player is disconnected from the server was increased from 1 hour to 3. This will help the players who for any reason take long breaks while in port.

As you will know, we’ve recently let you test the upcoming 0.5.9 release. After evaluating the feedback we received, two changes stood out in the community’s comments:

  • The Situational Awareness skill being incorporated as a standard skill for all ships and the question of skill point compensation.
  • The new cooperative PvE battle mode, Assault.

Situational Awareness compensation

After reviewing all possible arguments, we’ve decided to stay with our previously announced scheme:

  1. If Situational Awareness is the only 1st-tier skill taken by your commander, it will be changed to the Repair skill;
  2. If there is more than one 1st-tier skill taken by your commander, the commander will receive 1 skill point for the now removed SA skill;

We believe that this approach takes the favorable middle-ground for most of our players. It prevents you from having to re-apply skills to a lot of commanders which is both tedious and can lead to mistakes and pain – this was the feedback you gave us after the last full skill drop. At the same time it acknowledges the current most popular skill builds, which usually utilize the Repair skill in place of Situational Awareness (Repair is the most popular skill after SA, for all classes).

Cooperative Assault mode

We’ve received generally positive feedback about it from the community, which shows us that it has a lot of potential. However, having evaluated the performance factors of this mode we’ve uncovered a few areas where it falls short and detracts from the overall player experience – especially for those of you who play mostly coop battles. The most important of those areas is its reliance on specific matchmaking conditions for a balanced, fun game – right now, adding the mode to the same match-making queue as standard coop will not guarantee a full human team on the green side, especially during off-peak hours. Another issue, though less critical, is the need to improve the bot AI, which directly influences both the higher difficulty and the fun in Assault.

Due to these and other factors we’ve decided not to release Coop Assault in 0.5.9. We will continue working on it to solve the mentioned problems and release it during one of the upcoming updates.

We would also like to thank you for the effort you put into helping us test and polish these – and other features and content coming in 0.5.9. We will do our best to incorporate your feedback into the game for this version and the ones still to come!