Let’s take a look at some upcoming new features.
New map — Faroe Islands
A new map, the theme of which — Faroe Islands — was voted by players back in autumn 2021, is now in its final stages of development. We plan to test it during the Public Test for Update 0.11.5 and fully release it when that update goes live.
French cruisers
Update 0.11.4 will welcome a new branch of French cruisers in early access.
Players will be able to complete special combat missions to receive a new temporary resource: French Tokens. The final reward for completing the missions will be VIII Cherbourg.
We’re adding permanent camouflages “Liberation” for VIII Cherbourg, IX Brest, and X Marseille; and “Enlightenment” for VII Toulon.
The port of Marseille was updated for the event.
Arms Race in Random and Co-op Battles on the Public Test
After having appeared several times on the live server as either a format for Ranked Battles or as a separate battle type (most recently in 0.10.10), Arms Race is by now a familiar game mode for many players. The statistics and player feedback gathered throughout each of these past iterations have served to help us continually refine this game mode.
As a result, Arms Race will be resurfacing for the Public Test of Update 0.11.4 as one of the possible game modes in both Random and Co-op battles.
It will be available in battles where the highest Tier ships are IX, X and Superships; on the following eight maps: Northern Waters, Sleeping Giant, Loop, Warrior’s Path, Mountain Range, Land of fire, Islands of Ice, and Hotspot.
The matchmaker settings for Arms Race will be similar to the existing ones for Random and Co-op battles, respectively.
With the addition of the Arms Race mode, the Epicenter mode will be disabled in both Random and Co-op battles.
We will decide on the future of the Arms Race on the live server based on your feedback and statistics after the Public Test of update 0.11.4.
Clan Battles Season 17 — Caiman
The new Clan Battles season will take place between May 25 and July 11 on Tier X ships and Superships in a 7 vs 7 format.
One team cannot field more than 1 battleship and 2 Superships. Aircraft carriers, as well as the ships X Petropavlovsk and X Kléber are banned from participation.
The list of maps that will be used in Season 17 has not yet been determined. We will of course share it once it has been finalized.
Submarine updates
With the release of Update 0.11.4, the following changes to submarines will take effect:
- The ability to launch conventional torpedoes at maximum depth has been disabled.
Since Update 0.11.2, conventional torpedoes can no longer be aimed vertically, making them extremely ineffective when launched deep below the surface.
- We disabled the increased depletion rate of a submarine’s dive capacity when detected by the enemy.
- The relevant Commander skills and Upgrade have also changed: instead of adding a modifier to the increased dive capacity loss rate, they will modify the battery regeneration rate.
As the increased dive capacity depletion rate when spotted was already negligible and had little effect on gameplay, we decided to remove the feature altogether.
- Now, when a sonar ping is emitted by an undetected submarine, a visual effect will display within several kilometers vicinity of the submarine itself, but the sonar ping itself will no longer be visible as it moves across the map.
The former representation of the sonar pings moving across the map gave away the general direction of the enemy submarine well enough, but due to the 8km detectability range of the pings themselves, it could sometimes be difficult to understand how far the submarine was, since they could be emitting sonar pings from further ranges than 8km. The new effect will show the approximate location of the sub itself, regardless of its distance. However, the sound effect produced by passing pings as well as the sound of pings hitting your ship will remain, allowing targeted surface ships to be on the lookout for ping emission visual effects. With the change in the way the sonar ping is represented, it will therefore be possible for surface ships to more accurately determine the general position of an enemy submarine and carry out an accurate airstrike.
Minimap changes
We added new highly requested by players adjustable settings for the minimap:
- “Highlight exact position on map” — when double-clicking on the minimap, the exact point that was clicked will be highlighted to other players on your team, instead of the square surrounding the point.
- “Report position of objects” —double clicking objects on the map (ships, key areas, forts, and buff areas) will result in a team-wide report highlighting that object, similar to how the hotkeys F3 and F5 are used.
The minimap settings have been divided into 2 sections in the interface:
- Circle settings
- Other settings
Return of USS Black event
We prepared a special Portal campaign for Update 0.11.4, upon the completion of which you will receive an American Commander with 12 skill points.
From 10th of June to 1st of July, you will be able to earn and exchange tokens for themed sequential bundles which contain historical Commanders, a patch, a flag, and a permanent camouflage for IX Black. To unlock all the bundles, you will need to have 24,000 tokens, which can be purchased with doubloons at a rate of 1:1. You can also earn up to 2,500 tokens during the course of the portal campaign, which itself is enough to purchase bundles with the patch, themed expendable camouflages, signals, and more. At the end of the chain of sequential bundles, IX Black itself will be available to purchase for 19,300 doubloons.
Immediately following the end of the portal campaign, IX Black will be made available in the Armory in exchange for Coal. The exact cost will be about the same as that of IX Neustrashimy. It will be possible to apply the Ships Armory coupon, which will incidentally be refreshed in June. Thus, in you will be able to purchase her either with Doubloons or with Coal.
Changes in the Armory
At the request of players, instead of Premium ships VII Leningrad, V Exeter, and IV Ishizuchi, the Naval Community tab will offer Premium Ship II-IV, Premium Ship V, and Premium Ship VII containers in exchange for Community Tokens.
New content
The following will be added to the game:
- 2 new Commanders — Tamio Yamazaki and Nathan Wyatt, as well as the “Battle of Midway” patch, in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Midway.
- Commander Fredrik Henrik af Chapman with unique Swedish voiceover, the Gamla örlogsflaggan flag, and the Vasa patch, as part if the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the Swedish Navy.
- The “Sui Generis” permanent camouflage for IX Black.
- Commemorative flags for French cruisers, the Battle of Helgeå, and USS Black.
- Commanders Satou Ichirou, Arleigh Burke, Takeo Takagi, and Hank Bailey
- The USS Black patch
- The achievements “Caiman” and “Hurricane. Caiman”
Please note that all information in the development blog is preliminary. Announced adjustments and features may change multiple times during testing.
