We’re here to share the results of the Operations overhaul that occurred in Update 0.11.8 and talk about the future of this battle type.
Operations in World of Warships – What Changed
Since the Operations battle type first appeared in World of Warships, its popularity has been on the low side, accounting for only 3-5% of the time spent in battle by active players. The only exception would be temporary Halloween Operations, which see higher participation.
Regardless, we’ve often received community feedback requesting for Operations to get more attention from the developers, so in Update 0.11.8, we released a sizeable revamp of this battle type:
- You can now take part in all Operations aboard Tier VI-VIII ships, and the “Operation of the Week” was removed.
These changes made it possible to diversify the gaming experience when playing Operations, making it more alluring and in closer in line with Random and Co-op Battles – the game’s main battle types. At the same time, the possibility to enter a specific Operation while in a Division remained. The difficulty settings affecting the bots are now modified by the ship composition the player team brings to the battle. For example, if players bring Tier VI ships, the bots will be weaker. Thanks to the mentioned changes and the removal of the restriction on going into battle on the same ship, player freedom to choose the ship they want was significantly expanded.
- Updated rewards
Completion of additional tasks increases the reward for completing the Operation. Therefore, repeating the Operation a second time can bring as many benefits as the first time around.
- Three scenarios have made a return: Cherry Blossom, Hermes, and The Ultimate Frontier.
These are now also playable with Tier VI-VIII ships, and aircraft squadron AI has been improved.
Results of the Update
The removal of many restrictions and the new reward mechanics initially attracted a large number of players to the battle type, with peak popularity reaching 26% of the active playerbase in Update 0.11.8. After that, this value shrunk and settled at around 13-14% – comparable to the popularity of Ranked Battles.
We are happy with the results of Operations update. It took us some time to design our way of updating them, and we are happy that our approach succeed.
Operations in Update 0.11.9
In 0.11.9, instead of random Operations, thematic Halloween battles and the dedicated Operation for the submarines then in early access—Wolfpack—were available.
During this Update, we received feedback asking that it be possible to play random Operations without the requirement of being in a Division. Traditionally in October we highlight Halloween Operations, but at the same time, due to technical limitations, we had to temporarily disable the random Operation mechanic. We are planning improvements that will allow us to avoid this situation in future.
Random Operations returned to the live servers with the arrival of Update 0.11.10
The Future of Operations
Development is moving in several directions.
- Including more Tiers
The ability to play Operations with Tier VIII ships was warmly received by players, and we got requests to add higher Tier ships. We are considering this possibility, but first and foremost we need to solve some technical issues.
- Allowing participation in special activities while playing Operations
We try when we can to include Operations as one of the permitted battle types to complete missions and activities with, but we cannot always do so due to it being much easier to fulfill certain requirements like this. We are, however, considering options for including Operations in all activities and combat missions.
- Different difficulty levels
In the past, we released “Hard” and “Super Hard” difficulty levels for Halloween Operations, which received positive feedback. We will look into adding higher difficulty levels to standard Operations.
- Return of Wolfpack
At the moment we are held back by technical limitations when it comes to having single-ship-type Operations exist simultaneously with Random Operations which allow a wider range of ship classes. However, we are working on a solution that will allow it to return in the future.
- New Operations
We are also working towards adding new Operations to the game. We don’t have any specific information at the moment, but we will share more when we are closer to release.
Please note that all information in the development blog is preliminary. Announced adjustments and features may change multiple times during testing.
