WoWS: Public Test 0.6.11

We are pleased to present to you the Developer Bulletin for Update 0.6.11. It covers the details of the upcoming version! With the latest Public Test comes Naval Bases for clans, changes to smoke spotting mechanics, and more! Read more about it in our Developer Bulletin below and dive into the Public Test to try the changes out for yourself.

Round one of the Public Test will begin on 07 September at 18:30 CEST (UTC+2) until 11 September at 15:00 CEST (UTC+2)!

Important! Because the version update is still being tested, the information in this Bulletin is tentative and reflects the state of game development at the time of publication. Certain changes and new features may be stripped or implemented in a different way by the time the final version of this update goes live. Screenshots, specific values of certain characteristics, and details of in-game mechanics will not necessarily be relevant after the update is released.

Naval Bases:

In Update 0.6.11, all clans will have their own Naval Base! To go to your Naval Base, select the Clans tab, and then the “My Clan” section. Develop your base to provide all clan members with bonuses—for example, discounts on servicing or purchasing researched ships of a certain nation. How is a Naval Base developed, and what bonuses will be provided? You can get the answers in this Bulletin!

A Naval Base includes four structures that are already built: The Headquarters, Research Center, Dockyard, and Shipyard. Their places at the base are marked with flags, and these structures do not provide any bonuses. To get the bonuses, you need to build facilities in every structure. Upgrade structures and get more bonuses for your clan!

Do you want to increase your clan size? To select your Headquarters, click the right-mouse button on its icon, and select a facility marked with a flag—facilities with grey flags are not built yet. Hover over any facility; a tooltip with its name, description and building cost will appear. After building Squadron Staff or Task Force Staff, the maximum number of your clan members will be increased.

For building, you will need resources. In Update 0.6.11, a special clan resource—oil—will be introduced. This resource is required for upgrading structures.

The whole amount of oil obtained by your clan members will be added to your clan’s account. You can easily obtain oil, but only if you are a clan member. In Update 0.6.11, you will get oil upon receiving containers for completing daily missions and challenges. In the future, you will be able to get oil for winning a clan battle—the Clan Battles season is due to start in one of the upcoming updates.

Only Commander and Executive Officers can build facilities. To get bonuses, all clan members need to obtain the required amount of oil for access to the Naval Base structures.

The amount of oil obtained by a clan, including the amount that was spent on building facilities, influences another new feature—clan level. Clan level reflects the clan activeness and its Naval Base state.

Changes to Smoke Mechanics

Firing from smoke is one of the basic tactics of destroyers and light cruisers equipped with Smoke Generators, and was not intended for heavy cruisers and battleships. Coordinated actions of a battleship or a heavy cruiser together with a destroyer could result in enormous damage to enemies, without getting close to them. In Ranked Battles, players preferred playing passively and waited until someone could not cope with the stress or set a smoke screen too early. Your feedback was very useful, and we started improving the mechanics of smoke generators. We kept in mind that this is one of the core mechanics, and, after many tests, we are glad to introduce a new version of smoke screens. The new mechanics are unlikely to significantly influence the performance of ships that are equipped with Smoke Generators and were balanced according to this consumable. The change will affect only close and medium range fights.

It is worth mentioning that previously a ship firing from smoke was totally invisible. It could be detected only in the range of assured acquisition—2 km (if Target Acquisition System Modification 1 was mounted, this distance was increased to 3 km), and with Surveillance Radar or Hydroacoustic Search. After implementation of the new mechanic, a ship that fires its main calibre guns will be easier to spot and can be detected from enemy ships (aircraft still cannot detect it). The new detectability parameter will depend on the main battery calibre and ship type, with an average detectability range of 2.5 km for Destroyers, 5.9 km for Cruisers, and 13.6 km for Battleships. The time period within which a ship can be detected will be 20 seconds.

You can see the range of assured acquisition (2 km) and detectability after a main battery shot in the ship characteristics in Port, and by pressing H or pointing cursor on your Hit Points indicator in battle.

Every ship has its own detectability range after a shot from smoke. All of these details will appear in the version release notes!

Other Changes

Inertia Fuse for HE Shells

To increase the value of the Inertia Fuse for HE Shells skill for ships with small-calibre guns, we changed the rate of this skill. Ships with armament up to 139 mm will have -1% to the chance of being set on fire, and -3% (as it was) with gun calibres higher than 139 mm.

Maps and Locations

We added a little splash of colour—towns—on the rough islands on the map Haven. We also fixed several bugs on different maps and in ports on the following: Archipelago, Strait, The Atlantic, North, Two Brothers, Islands, Northern Lights, Riposte, the Clan Naval Base, and the Hawaii port. These changes will not affect gameplay and the tactical challenges of these maps.

Other

  • Fix for the Defensive Fire bug causing incorrect performance: aircraft attack cones didn’t expand when the range of Defensive Fire was close to the range of the attack squadrons launching attack. This bug most often repeated on the Battleship Hood.
  • Players from the same Division are not able to report or compliment each other (unless playing in Dynamic Divisions).
  • Now you can add players to your contact list or blacklist from the context menu.
  • The context menu for ships controlled by the AI was removed.
  • Quality of water visualisation near the surface, and in the medium or higher binocular view was improved.

What can you earn!

Get three signal flags of each type (except special signals) on your live account for playing one battle (PVP & CooP) on the Public Test server.

 

Win 3 random battles with Minotaur and get 1 day of Premium Account time on the live server.
Create your own clan and build at least 5 buildings of any type and get 10 type 6 camouflages on the live server.

 

Win 3 random battles on any Tier 10 destroyer and get 3 of each special signal flag on the live server:
Image Flag Name Flag Effect
Dragon +333% Commander XP
Wyvern +50% Credits
Ouroboros +777% to Free XP
Hydra +50% to XP

+150% to Commander XP

+250% to Free XP

Red Dragon  +100% to XP

+100% to Commander XP

You will be able to claim your rewards on the dedicated website. Information regarding when you will be able to redeem them will be sent to your registered Test Account email address on the day of the release of the update or slightly after. Please note that only players with a Public Test account registered to the same e-mail as their live server account will be able to redeem their rewards.

What resources will you get on the Public Test server?

  • Tier VII+ ships with 15 Skill point Commanders will be credited to all players at the start of the test.
  • Research prices will be discounted so that players can easily reach Tier X.
  • Research prices for modules will be discounted.
  • Account Level 15 upon first login.
  • Premium Account for the duration of the Public Test will be given to all players on their first login.
  • 30,000 Doubloons.
  • 500,000,000 Credits.
  • Assorted signal flags for testing: 10 of each Signal Flag, except the Special Signal Flags.
  • Ability reset for Commanders will be discounted: 1 Doubloon = 1 Skill Point.

Please note that resources from the previous Public Tests have been wiped.