WoWS: Introducing Update 0.5.12

~ Sebastianul

Release Notes 0.5.12

The patch is scheduled for 29 September and will be applied on the servers from 05:30 CEST until 07:30 CEST (UTC+2) during which the game server will be offline.

Improved In-game Economics

Team Play

In order to make the calculation of XP and Credits earned in battle fairer, the following factors are now taken into account:
  • Enemy ships and squadrons spotted.
  • Damage caused by allies to enemies spotted by you.
  • Potential damage dealt/received.

The overall logic behind granting Credits and XP per battle was reworked to include the above changes. Consequently, if a player carries out useful actions (causing damage, fighting for control of key areas, supporting allies etc.), their average rewards will not change compared to Update 0.5.11. However, players whose behaviour is mostly “one-dimensional” (for example, battleship players that stay away from the heat of battle and try to only cause damage to the enemy rather than lead the attack, or destroyer players that focus on capturing key areas but do not perform any reconnaissance) will be less generously rewarded.

The changes above have been designed based on the analysis of data received throughout updates 0.5.9 and 0.5.10 and should have a positive impact on the in-game economy, making the rewards fairer, especially for players who are supporting their team a lot.

Aircraft Carriers

The economy model for aircraft carriers was extensively reworked:
  • Fixed the error where some lost aircraft were not taken into account when calculating the cost of lost aircraft.
  • The cost of ship repairs for aircraft carriers was decreased for all Tiers (the higher the Tier, the greater the decrease).
  • The reward structure was modified in favour of destroying enemy aircraft. Now, the rewards for causing damage to enemy ships and air superiority combat will be better balanced in terms of the in-game economy.

Passive Behaviour in Battles

In previous versions of the game, players who left the battle before their ships were destroyed received a penalty in the form of no reward after the battle ended. From now on, to prevent passive behaviour in-game, the same penalty will be applied to players who are inactive after they have joined the battle.

The following passive behaviour criteria is used:

  • The player did not cause any damage and never launched any air squadrons (for aircraft carriers).
  • The ship never moved and the player did not cause any damage (for other ship types).

Game Balance and Changes to Ships

  • The firing range of Soviet Destroyer Khabarovsk has been decreased by 1,800 m (from 13,040 m to 11,240 m).
  • The reload time of the 130 mm/55 B-2-U guns mounted on Soviet Destroyers Khabarovsk and Udaloi have been increased by 0.38 seconds (from 4.62 s to 5 s).

The battle performance of these ships and their average damage was excessively high when compared to their counterparts. The applied changes should make them more balanced.

  • Regular Tier VIII-X cruisers and destroyers are now able to set Steering Gears Modification 3 in their sixth slot (-40% to rudder shift time, and -80% to the steering gear’s repair time).

This change is aimed at increasing the survivability of high Tier cruisers and destroyers, and is intended to motivate players to act more aggressively in battle. Also, the effect of this upgrade will be combined with the effect of Steering Gears Modification 2 (-20% to rudder shift time).

  • The armoured deck thickness of Montana has been adjusted. Now, its armoured deck will be 38 mm thick (previously 28 mm).

This change will slightly increase the ship’s survivability and make its in-game model closer to the data on its design.

  • The firing range of Orlan’s main guns has been increased by 800 m (from 7,990 m to 8,790 m).

This change will adjust its battle performance against its counterparts.

  • The thickness of the armoured deck slopes in the vicinity of the magazines located on the bow of Nagato‘s hulls (B) and (C) was corrected (from 76 mm to 289 mm) in accordance with its historical armour layout.
  • Two 20 mm Flakvierling 30 AA mounts were added to Gneisenau (A). As a result of this addition, the average AA damage within its 2 km AA engagement area radius has increased by 12 points (from 89 to 101 points).
  • The thickness of the upper part of the transverse armour protection of the citadel of Arizona was corrected (from 203 mm to 330 mm) in accordance with its historical armour layout.

The threshold values of the lowered dispersion distance for some German battleships was corrected – i.e. how much the main battery shells disperse is decreased starting from this distance. Consequently, the dispersion of main battery shells at close range can be decreased by adjusting the lowered dispersion distance value. In other words, the higher the value, the better. The actual values of lowered dispersion distance depend on the ship’s Tier, and in the case of German battleships we adjusted these values to make them equal to the values used for other battleships:

  • Nassau: from 4 km to 3 km
  • Kaiser: from 4 km to 3.5 km
  • Friedrich der Große: from 4 km to 5 km
  • Großer Kurfürst: from 4 km to 5 km
The following ships have been added to the game client for testing:
  • Japanese destroyers
  • The Tier VI Commonwealth Premium cruiser Perth

In the beginning, the “torpedo ninja” gameplay concept of Japanese destroyers proved to be good. However, the concept has become controversial as the game developed further and often raised dissatisfaction among both players using these ships and their opponents. Due to that, we plan to add an additional branch of Japanese destroyers and move some of the existing ships to different Tiers.

The preliminary distribution of Japanese destroyers within the branch is as follows:

Ship

Tier

Original Ship

Original Tier
Amatsukaze IV Isokaze IV
Okikaze V Minekaze V
Yayoi V Mutsuki VI
Wakaba VI Hatsuharu VII
Ayanami VI Fubuki VIII
Akatsuki VII –
Shiratsuyu VII –
Nowaki VIII Kagero IX
Akizuki VIII –
Yugumo IX –

 

The tested ships are not available for research and purchase, but players may encounter them in battle.

New Premium Ships Added to Tech Trees

Two new Premium ships, Scharnhorst and Dunkerque, have been added to the Tech Trees and are available to purchase for Doubloons.

Maps

A new map named Shards has been added to the game exclusively for Tiers VII-IX. Fight your way to victory among the islands between Iceland and Scandinavia. This grim location is decorated with rare fishing settlements and marine bases aimed at supporting polar convoys.

This map has a number of interesting peculiarities from a gameplay point of view:

  • The narrow passages and islands that create these passages provide ample opportunities for risky gameplay as well as for quick retreats.
  • The placement of the terrain on the map has been done in such a way that fights for control of each key area are, to some extent, isolated from encounters in neighbouring regions of the map.
  • It is also worth noting that the key areas A and C are located at different distances from the opposing teams – area A is closer to the “lower” team and area C is closer to the “upper” team. However, the “lower” team has clear lines of fire at targets within area C from its side of the map. The same applies for the “upper” team and area A.

Audio

  • Added new voiceover languages (French, Polish, British English, and Brazilian Portuguese).

If a national voiceover is enabled, the quick commands from allies will be played in the language corresponding to the nation of the ship.

  • Added new music tracks for both in battle and the Port screen.
  • Improved the balance of sounds as well as the playback priority system.
  • Optimised the memory usage of the sound system.

Interface

  • Added an option to adjust the water transparency of the Mini-map.
  • Added five new reticles, which were created by our players who participated in the corresponding contest.

In order to change your crosshair, open the Settings screen and click on the Select Crosshair button in the Controls tab.

The technology for visualising the map border has been enhanced in order to give it a better look:
  • Added anti-aliasing to the border.
  • Made the border more visible at close range.
  • Made the border less noticeable from afar, so players are not distracted by it.

Minor Changes and Improvements

Fixed the error where the potential damage amount displayed in the post-battle results screen was incorrectly calculated.
Fixed the bug where a ship name was displayed over two lines.
Fixed several server errors.
Fixed the bug where auto-purchase of camouflages was accidentally enabled when the auto-resupply of signals was toggled.
Corrected visualisation of the base borders and smoke screen boundaries on the map Neighbors.
Corrected the excessively bright lighting on the Shards and Archipelago maps.
Corrected the brightness of the surface-water glare on the map Trident.
On the Fault Line map, decorative aircraft will now be flying in groups so players do not confuse these planes with catapult-launched aircraft.

Scharnhorst:

    • Reworked the arrangement of the AA mounts (some AA mounts are now located on top of secondary gun turrets). The battle performance characteristics were not affected.
    • Corrected the range finder positions. Fixed the visualisation of some small decorative objects.
    • The director now rotates in sync with the main turrets.

Warspite:

    • Adjusted the position of the horizontal plate that separates the interior of the main turret from the area of the corresponding barbette. The battle performance characteristics were not affected but will make the ship’s armour layout more historically accurate.

Gneisenau:

    • Fixed the visualisation of navigation lights at low graphics quality settings.
    • Hull (A): two 20-mm Flakvierling 30 AA mounts have been added. As a result, the average AA damage within the 2 km AA engagement area radius has increased by 12 points (from 89 to 101 points).

Friedrich der Große:

    • Fixed the visualisation of anchor chains when the LOD (level of detail) is switched.

Großer Kurfürst:

    • Fixed the visualisation of anchor chains when the LOD (level of detail) is switched.
    • Fixed the visualisation of the shadows cast by gun enclosures.
    • Fixed minor graphical artefacts on its model.

Arizona:

    • The conning tower will now be included in its visual armour model.

Bismarck:

    • Fixed the visualisation of navigation lights at low graphics quality settings.

Kaiser:

    • Fixed the visualisation of navigation lights at low graphics quality settings.

Flint:

    • Fixed minor graphical artefacts on its texture.
    • Fixed minor graphical artefacts on its model at low graphics quality settings.
    • Fixed the visualisation of the radar at low and medium graphics quality settings.

Hashidate:

    • Improved the collision model of its smoke stack.

Dunkerque:

    • Corrected the positioning of some AA guns.
    • Fixed the visualisation of certain small decorative objects at low and medium graphics quality settings.

König:

    • Fixed the visualisation of certain small decorative objects (lights, the tower in the upper part of the director, and radar stanchion).

Kamikaze / Fujin:

    • Camouflage will now be correctly applied to the main turrets.

Dmitri Donskoi:

    • The shipborne antenna on Hull (A) will no longer pass through other ship’s structures when rotating.

Krasny Krym:

    • Fixed the visualisation of its navigation lights at low and medium graphics quality settings.

Bayern:

    • Readjusted the LOD (level of detail) switching at low graphics quality settings.

Nassau:

    • Readjusted the visualisation of certain minor decorative objects at low graphics quality settings.

Bogue:

    • Fixed the error where aircraft models were overlapping on its flight deck after the Air Supremacy skill had been mastered for the corresponding Commander.

U.S.S.R. nation

    • Fixed the position of the helms on ships with an open deck-house.