WoWS: Update 0.6.10: British Battleships

Source: Portal

0.6.10 Update Notes

The update happens August 30; preparation begins at 03:00 PT/ 06:00 ET until 06:00 PT/ 09:00 ET.

We’ve seen some questions about mods — please note that any mods previously installed may cause compatibility issues with any update. If you have mods and have difficulty playing, try launching the normal game in “Safe Mode” using the drop-down arrow next to the “Play” button, then uninstall or otherwise remove the mods.

Update notes are subject to change!

British Battleships

The British battleship branch makes its dramatic entrance! Say hello to these battling Britons:

• Tier III: Bellerophon
• Tier IV: Orion
• Tier V: Iron Duke
• Tier VI: Queen Elizabeth
• Tier VII: King George V
• Tier VIII: Monarch
• Tier IX: Lion
• Tier X: Conqueror

They’re masters of midrange marksmanship and get the Improved Repair Party consumable, which restores more HP after receiving damage from shell hits. They also pack HE shells with increased damage and armor penetration.

The tier III-VI ships reward aggressive play and absorb punishment well with thick hulls and bouncy bow armor, and the tier VII-X ships gain better concealment.

Tier VIII and up have more conventional bow armor protection of 32 mm (25 mm for tier VII) with the most viable tactic being an HP exchange during aggressive encounters with few enemy ships at a time. Avoid concentrated fire or exposing your sides, as British battleships can’t benefit from the improved Repair Party advantages while restoring damage from citadel hits.

Good maneuverability helps, and the battleships’ rudder shift times are as good as that of Germany’s. Their hulls are mostly smaller than hulls of other battleships, but their smaller displacements mean they also have less HP than same-tier battleships in the other nations.

Just the Facts

• The armor-penetrating capability of HE shells is calculated according to ¼ of a shell’s caliber, but British battleship HE damage is higher
• Repair Party may restore more HP when compared to battleships of other nations after receiving “non-citadel” damage to the ship’s bow and aft ends, superstructure, casemates, and rest of the hull
• Tier IX and X ships restore their HP much faster
• The AP fuse arming delay is set at 0.15 sec, 2x less than the same shells on other battleships resulting in fewer over-penetrations when firing at poorly-armored broad targets, but be aware, this doesn’t apply to destroyers
• When you research all concealment-specific parameters like camo, upgrades and Commander Skills, HMS Conqueror acquires a detectability range by sea of approximately 11km (12km by air)
• Tiers III to VII have ships that actually served, while Monarch, Lion, and Conqueror are so-called “paper ships” — existed as blueprints, but never built

When you reach tier VII, British battleships are best used for unexpected attacks on unprepared enemies, an exchange of HP at medium ranges, and firing HE shells at long-range while restoring HP. The HE pen value doesn’t change with distance, and only depends on shell caliber. Their long-range AP fire isn’t as effective as other battleships’ due to low muzzle velocity (except at tier VIII), so you’ll want to keep your ballistic trajectories and armor-penetrating values in mind.

HMS Conqueror tops the branch and has performance befitting her name with the best detectability range by sea: just 14.8km stock, 11 km in fully researched concealment-specific configuration. This lets Conqueror approach the target on her own terms. Wise enemies will avoid open encounters with this British battleship, which frequently end with a well-placed salvo into their sides. A fast Repair Party provides assurance critical situations, and Conqueror offers a main armament choice between sheer weight of fire and the shell’s maximum damage potential with a configuration of: 4×3 419mm or 4×2 457mm guns.

British Battleship Missions

If you completed the British battleship missions and earned blueprints, we’ll swap the blueprints for battleships in Update 0.6.10:

• Blueprint 1 = tier III HMS Bellerophon + Port slot
• Blueprint 2 = tier IV HMS Orion + Port slot
• Blueprint 3 = tier V HMS Iron Duke  + Port slot + Iron Duke Flag

New Effects

We’ve been gradually improving our graphics over several updates, with dynamic lighting for maps and Port, external views of the ships, and water lighting and visualization. This update introduces battle interactions: a spectacular, long-awaited graphics change. Now, dynamic lighting effects appear on main and secondary battery shots and hits, with smoother water splashes caused by torpedo explosions, ship destruction, fires and even shots fired hitting terrain!

Don’t worry! These new dazzling effects won’t affect performance.

Sound Changes

Update 0.6.10 improves sound in general, and brings changes to Ultra High settings, a new sound quality preset released in Update 0.6.6, downloaded via the launcher and enabled in Audio Settings. We also made sound behavior more realistic by enhancing ambient noise, amplifying the effect of fire alarms, explosions and shot delay depending on your distance to them, and implementing a new system of aircraft engine sounds.

• Try the new War Drums Music mode in Settings. When you perform successful actions, short additional musical beats complement the main percussion parts. As with other interactive music, percussion intensifies when you near enemy ships.

• Want to tell by ear when you hit an enemy? Eight groups of ribbons, like “Hits,” “Destroyed,” or “Captured” have distinct sounds when earned.
• Fixed “Arpeggio” voiceover availability for certain players
• We re-enabled Quick Commands for the “Arpeggio,” “High School Fleet” and Steven Seagal voices.
• There are NO special voices for the new QC messages: “Get back!;” “Provide AA fire support!;” “Set a smoke screen;” “Requesting support for the allied ship;” “Requesting support for the allied aircraft;” “I need intelligence data!;” “Allied onshore installation (designating target);” “Allied aircraft (designating target);” “Enemy onshore installation (designating target);” “Enemy aircraft (designating target)”

Interface

• Eliminated “black screen” bug at the beginning of a battle
• Saved status of the “Play/Pause” button in login window
• Updated the indicators that lights up when detected from sea and air as well as by Surveillance Radar and Hydroacoustic Search
• Updated indicator for the “Priority Target” skill
• Moved smoke indicator to left of screen close to cyclone approach indicator
• Reduced font size in combat missions and challenges

Changed indicator display priority. From the top down:

1. Detected by Surveillance Radar or Hydroacoustic Search
   2. Detected by sea
   3. Detected by air

Technical Updates

We changed the way the files are stored in .pkg files to help reduce the size of future updates. However, the time it takes to install Update 0.6.10 is consequently longer. Expect six minutes or more depending on PC config.

Other Improvements and Fixes

• Reduced loading time of in-game browser
• Simpler renames: just re-enter the game after changing for it to take effect
• Fixed bug related to penalty for loss of an entire squadron — now, the penalty applied to all researchable Japanese carriers will be 3x the aircraft servicing time (formerly 2.5 for certain carriers)
• Fixed spontaneous cursor movement when battle starts when game is minimized
• Fixed flickering of task bar icon on Windows 8 and Windows 10
• Fixed glitch preventing some players from receiving “Naval Warfare: Tactics” after fulfilling all conditions
• Fixed glitch where the same task could display in two out of three “In Progress” fields for a campaign
• Fixed display glitch in Premium ship price which occurred when selecting a different Premium ship
• Fixed bug with incorrect progress data displayed in Port for a combat mission, including completed ones
• Fixed misc. crashes on macOS and Windows
• When using Quick Commands, Ship names in chat now display in capital letters.
• Fixed incorrect display of Combat Missions progress bar
• Fixed bug with returning to Port from Campaign window by pressing “Back to Port” button
• Corrected smoke setting on Perth
• Fixed occasional infinite loading icon in Port when upgrading ships or Commanders

New Content

Ships

We’re removing the following ships from the in-game tech tree for Doubloons when the update releases, so grab them while you can!

• König Albert
• Aurora
• Campbeltown
• Emden
• Krasny Krym
• Smith
• Tachibana

Stay tuned, we’re adding Katori, Albany, Oleg, Kaga, Mikasa and Hood

Testing, Testing, 1, 2, 3

Developers, supertesters and other special contributors get to test the Premium Japanese tier VIII battleship Kii, and a branch of Pan-Asian ships: cruiser Cheng An and destroyers Long Jiang, Phra Ruang, Shen Yang, Jian Wei, Fu Shun, Gadjah Mada, Hsien Yang, Chung Mu, Hsiang Yang

Camouflage

New permanent camo for destroyer Gnevny

“Sci-Fi Space” Temp Camo (60 Doubloons)

• -3% to detectability range
• +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy attacking your ship
• +100% to XP earned in the battle
• +100% to Commander XP earned in the battle

 “Back-2-School” Temp Camo (30 Doubloons)

• -3% to detectability range
• +4% to maximum dispersion of shells fired by the enemy attacking your ship
• +100% to Commander XP earned in the battle

Commemorative Flags

• HMS Iron Duke

• Kii 

• HMS Nelson