WoWS: Update 0.5.13: British Cruisers (Video & Patchnotes)

~ Sebastianul

0.5.13 Update Notes

The update happens October 19; preparation begins at 03:00 PT/ 06:00 ET until 05:00 PT/ 08:00 ET.

Upcoming Changes

Containers


Daily missions have been replaced by the more interactive Containers, which deliver rewards in an entirely new way. You can get three Containers each day, which “contain” Credits, rare Premium ships and more goodies. Containers drop when a player earns a certain amount of XP in battle..
This feature will be available starting at Level 4
At the end of each 24-hour period, the accumulated (not distributed) XP is automatically spent on containers. After the release of Update  0.5.13, each player who unlocks daily missions at Service Record Level 4 will receive five Containers (one of every type) as a gift. This will help all you immediately see the advantages of this new system. In contrast to standard Containers, these Containers will include predetermined rewards:

  1. Container with Credits
    • 50,000 Credits
    • 3x Smoke Generator II consumables
    • 3x Hotel Yankee” Signal Flags
  2. Container with Signal Flags
    • 5x “Sierra Mike” Signal Flags
    • 5x “November Foxtrot” Signal Flags
    • 500 Free XP
  3. “Try Your Luck” Container
    • 5x “Ocean Soul” camouflage
  4. Supercontainer
    • 250 Damage Control Party II consumables
  5. Container with consumables
    • Three Damage Control Party II consumables
    • Three Defensive AA Fire II consumables
    • Three Engine Boost II consumables

These predetermined rewards will be included only in the “starter gift” Containers. All successive rewards will be provided at random according to their description.

Breakdown:

Each 24-hour period, you can collect up to three Containers using the XP you earn in battle. Under the current settings, the first Container can be collected for 2,000 XP, the second one for 10,500 more XP, and the third for 24,500 more XP. (You’ll need 37,000 XP to earn three Containers.)
Each 24-hour period start time is set for each region individually so Containers are refreshed on an even keel.
XP used for collecting Containers is added in parallel to the ship XP (in the same way as Commander XP). This means that the player who collects Containers does not lose XP stored on the ship.
At the start of a new 24-hour period, the XP used for collecting Containers is reset to zero.

Set Your Reward Probability:

Regular Containers:

– More Credits (three ordinary rewards. One of these rewards will be Credits; standard chance of receiving a supercontainer instead)
– More Signals and Camouflage (three ordinary rewards. One of these rewards will be a set of Signal Flags or Camouflage; standard chance of receiving a supercontainer instead)
– More Consumables (three ordinary rewards. One of these rewards will be a set of “Damage Control Party II” consumables; standard chance of receiving a supercontainer instead)
– Try Your Luck (one ordinary reward inside; an increased chance of receiving a supercontainer instead)
After choosing any one, you have a chance of getting a supercontainer with one epic reward inside instead of the selected Container type.

Super Container: Cannot be directly selected at any point; it has a chance to occur when one of the regular Containers are selected; this Container has an epic reward inside.
Ordinary rewards include:
  • Credits
  • Camouflage
  • Signals
  • Small amounts of Free XP
  • Slots for ships and places in the Reserve for Commanders
  • Enhanced consumables of all types
Epic rewards include:
  • Large amounts of Credits
  • Doubloons
  • Large amounts of Free XP
  • Premium time
  • Large quantities of Signal Flags
  • Large quantities of consumables
  • Premium ships, including rare ships and vessels usually unavailable to purchase

The most valuable rewards have the smallest chance of appearing. However, you’re not limited in the number of Containers received regularly (beyond getting no more than three per 24-hour period); just play the way you like and earn XP. Preliminary calculations indicate that the in-game economic balance for players who regularly collect Containers will improve by approximately 25%, owing to the possibility of getting extra Credits (direct profit), as well as various useful items like camouflage and consumables. Plus, there’s always a chance of getting an epic reward like several thousand Doubloons or a rare Premium ship like Gremyashchy, which sets the system of Containers apart from Daily Missions even further!
If you earn a Premium ship that you already have, you’ll get a Credit compensation. In the future, we plan to improve the system to take the items you already have into account.
If you don’t collect the Containers manually during the 24-hour period but you’ve earned enough XP to collect them, the system will automatically collect the Containers for you at the start of a new 24-hour period in order to prevent wasting the XP you’ve earned.

In this case, the Container type is selected at random except “Try Your Luck.”

You can store as many as 1,000 unopened Containers. When you hit the limit, the “oldest” Containers will be opened automatically in order to free up storage space for new Containers.

British Cruisers

British Cruisers Branch


We’ve added a complete (tier I – tier X) branch of British light cruisers: Black Swan, Weymouth, Caledon, Danae, Emerald, Leander, Fiji, Edinburgh, Neptune, and Minotaur.
The British cruisers have many unique gameplay features:

  • Starting at tier II, they all have a gun caliber of 152mm. On one hand, this results in a high fire rate, but ballistic properties, penetration, and damage per shell are lower
  • They only mount AP shells, though with excellent ricochet angles and low fuse arming delay time, which will significantly decrease the number of ricochets and over-penetrating hits
  • Their engines gain thrust dynamically while they lose less speed when turning
  • Starting at tier III, they feature torpedo tubes with enough weapon range, speed and damage to make them a viable main weapon equal to the ship’s main battery, not just auxiliary armament
  • Torpedoes can be launched one at a time, which provides new tactical opportunities to choose the direction for every individual torpedo when launching them
  • Average speed, with excellent maneuverability
  • Their hulls lack heavy armor protection and have a relatively high beam. In contrast to their counterparts of the same type, this results in fewer over-penetrating hits (with minimum damage) received from large-caliber shells at close ranges
  • Relatively compact dimensions and are hard to detect
  • The “Defensive AA Fire” consumable is not available for these ships. They’re not efficient at AA (with the exception of tier IX–X ships equipped with powerful dual-purpose guns with a long firing range)
  • Starting at tier V, the “Smoke Generator” consumable is available
  • Choose to see better or remain unseen: starting at tier VIII, the “Surveillance Radar” consumable is available and can be used in place of the Smoke Generator consumable
  • At tier III, the ships gain a “Repair Party” consumable, which becomes even more efficient at tier VIII

On the whole, they’re excellent destroyer hunters. Their low detectability and rapid-firing guns with unique AP shells make them efficient in encounters with the “natural” opponents of cruisers, though their firepower and protection can make direct encounters with enemy heavy cruisers and battleships a hair-raising experience.
These cruisers have excellent torpedo armament and an ability to set smokescreens, making them able to damage heavily protected targets or quickly retreat if outnumbered.

The top ship of the branch, Minotaur, was the epitome of design for light cruisers at the beginning of the postwar period. While Minotaur may be vulnerable to heavy cruisers and battleships in direct encounters due to lighter armor, she’s also compact, maneuverable, and hard to detect, and she’s got an incredible rate of fire. Her dual-purpose guns also provide a superior AA engagement area radius.

Maps

Rebalanced:
    • Trap: we discovered that the win rates varied a lot for the teams spawning in the opposite corners of the map, and we’ve reworked some islands in order to make sure that the battle terms are equal for the opposing teams.
    • Fault Line: all changes on this map affect coasts of islands near the key “area C.” For the “upper” team, we made the route into the passage more comfortable when proceeding from the “lion-shaped” island, and we added some high ground on the 9 Line for both teams due to balance considerations.
Minor changes:

Fixed various minor defects in the St. Petersburg Port.
Added a “Cloudy” version to the visual weather effects of the following maps: Archipelago, Strait, the Atlantic, Fault Line, Islands of Ice, Trap, Two Brothers, Land of Fire, Shards and Okinawa.
Added an alternative set of visuals for the start of a Cyclone on Okinawa, though the overall chance of a Cyclone when playing on this map remains unchanged.
Reworked lighting and made shell traces, torpedo sights and smokescreen boundaries more visible on: Loop, Tears of the Desert, Polar, Islands of Ice and Shards.

Game Balance and Changes to Ships

Tirpitz:
  • Thickness of lower part of armor belt recalculated using the new method, in the same way as Bismarck. Now thickness value will be equal to 240mm (previous value: 170mm)
Mogami:
  • Aiming angles of main turrets increased for top 203mm main guns due to balance considerations. Aiming angles increased for second torpedo tube mount in order to make its aiming sectors symmetrical from both sides of the ship:

Main turret 1 — +5 degrees for both sides of the ship
Main turret 2 — +26 degrees for both sides of the ship
Main turret 3 — +20 degrees for both sides of the ship
Main turret 4 — +5 degrees for both sides of the ship
Main turret 5 — +15 degrees for both sides of the ship
Torpedo Tubes 2 — +10 degrees for one side of the ship

Tenryu:
  • Traverse aiming angles of second main gun were increased by 26 degrees for each side of the ship
New Orleans:
  • Armor distribution model and hit point model reworked:
  • The internal space, located between the magazine in her forward end and the (previously used) outer armor protecting her citadel, will no longer be part of her citadel. As a result, the citadel in her forward end is now located significantly lower and surrounded by the fore end plating.
  • Thickness of the side armor protecting the magazine in her aft end was increased from 51 mm to 102 mm
  • Thickness of the armored deck which protected the magazine in the forward end was decreased from 83mm to 57mm
  • Thickness of armor located below main armor belt and protecting the propulsion plant increased from 19mm to 25mm
  • Hit points redistributed between ship’s parts
  • As a result, the most vulnerable part of citadel became much smaller. Moreover, overall survivability has increased, especially when hit on the bow/forward end.

Permanent Camouflage

Added permanent camouflage with standard economical and battle performance bonuses for: Gneisenau, Fiji, Edinburgh, Neptune, Mahan, and Ognevoi.

New Content for Testing

The tier VI Premium Japanese destroyer Shinonome is available for testing:

This ship is not available for research or purchase, but you may encounter her in battle.

Audio

  • Enhanced the sound of weather effects and introduced the ability to change the sound of weather effects depending on the camera height
  • Added new sounds to the game menu selection
  • Improved engine sounds and removed the “whistling” sound effect for several ships
  • Added a new music track for the battle loading screen

Interface

Optimization

Thanks to your feedback, we’ve optimized some Port actions:

    • Purchasing, selling and researching of ships
    • Researching, mounting and replacing of modules
    • Purchasing, mounting and demounting upgrades, consumables, camouflage, signals, and flags
    • Actions with Commanders
    • Actions with some tabs and windows

Several components of the battle HUD have also been optimized.

The impact of this optimization will be most noticeable on low-performance PCs.

Player Profile

  • Now you can check out other players’ profiles right in the Port (if they aren’t hidden). Just click on the player’s nickname and choose the corresponding option in the menu!

Bastion Mode

Added information for Bastion mode to the post-battle statistics and the website:
  • Suppressed onshore installations.
  • Damage caused to onshore installations.

Client

  • The “Integrity check” option can be used to recover the game client from any state if the game installer is working and a stable Internet connection is available.

Minor Changes and Improvements

  • Bismarck: corrected incorrect armor thickness protecting citadel present in texts describing her armor layout
  • Fixed bug where it was impossible to open fire at the beginning of the battle if a player had locked their armament on a bearing or sector during the countdown to battle
  • Fixed bug where a page in in-game browser window flashed during authorization
  • Fixed bug where a dismissed Commander could remain in the Reserve until restart of the server
  • Fixed bug where it was impossible to launch torpedoes from the next torpedo tube mount if the player stayed in the Binocular View (for aiming torpedoes) after launching torpedoes from the first torpedo tube mount
  • Bogue: Fixed bug where fire icon displayed in corner of HP bar
  • Fixed bug where total number of camouflage of this type was displayed in the confirmation window for destroying a camouflage