WoWS: Aircraft Carriers – What’s Happening Next?

Today we will talk about the improvement of the new gameplay of aircraft carriers. As already noted, with such a big change in the game, it has been necessary to apply some corrections over a few updates, and now we will share our plans for the foreseeable future – up to 0.8.4.

Please remember that plans sometimes change: the information below is preliminary, the timeframe may move, and following your feedback and suggestions, some points may well be added a little later.

• Balance settings, general to specific. We are now at the stage of adjusting the balance between the classes and focusing on addressing specific issues (e.g. alternate torpedo X Hakuryuto 0.8.0.1). The individual fine-tuning of the ships is out of the question for now. For example, first we need to find the optimal balance of air defense and aircraft losses at each tier, and then, if individual aircraft carriers lose too many aircraft, we can individually increase the survivability (or, if the air defense of individual ships is too weak, it can be strengthened). In addition, it should be understood that the gameplay has changed greatly, and players are still learning and adapting. Statistics of combat effectiveness of carriers and other ships on the part of air defense is changing literally every day and only after some time will it stabilize. Therefore, it should take at least a few days after each balance change before making preliminary conclusions.

• Some changes will affect the mechanics of constant air defense damage. As we said earlier, the number of explosions that appear in the path of the squadron is limited, which on the one hand still leaves the flak bursts of ships strong enough but at the same time gives a chance to the planes to survive and not to see just a wall of “black” sky in front of them (read more here) Constant damage from a couple of ships is simply added up, resulting in excessive efficiency of any group of ships (given that flak now gives more air defense breaks). To solve this problem, we implemented a nonlinear addition of constant damage. Overlapping air defense zones will still be effective, but the squadron will have more chance to keep aircraft. If the squadron gets into the zone of action of the same two groups of guns with permanent damage 600, the total damage is equal to 960 and not 1200. Hit three zones, 1260, not 1800.

• To solve the problem of “F-spam” (when the player, after an attack, could recall a squadron even under heavy air defense fire with impunity), we significantly increased the period of vulnerability of aircraft (climb) when returning. Now recalling a squadron to the aircraft carrier should be done only after leaving the zone of air defense, otherwise losses are inevitable. The same mechanics currently affect aircraft that have just carried out an attack – they need to gain the same altitude before they become invulnerable. Taken together, the problem of F-spam was solved, but, as many rightly noted, the loss of aircraft after attacking increased. To mitigate this, we will reduce the invulnerability ceiling for aircraft that have carried out an attack, but the squadron that a player returns using F-Key will still return via the higher altitude. This will soften the exit from the battle for the planes, but at the same time to avoid the return the “F-spam” exploit. Taking into account the new mechanics of calculating the damage of intersecting zones, significant changes in this area may not occur if other changes sufficiently affect the survival of aircraft.

• We received proposals to take into account the damage to aircraft in the combat economy so that any contribution to the air defense team was evaluated. The plan is to add damage inflicted to aircraft on the battle results screen, and in the calculation of economic rewards, but it will be added a little later, when statistics have stabilized.

• The priority air defense sector interface, as well as the information regarding plane readiness on the deck of the carrier will be reworked for more convenience and clarity.

• We agree with the popular opinion that aircraft carriers have excessive capabilities to spot enemy ships, especially at the start of the battle. Work on a solution of the situation is already underway, and we will share information on progress in future publications. In addition, the action of the skill “Radio Location” will be disabled for aircraft by popular request.

• The same can be said about the interaction of aircraft carriers and destroyers – the search for opportunities to mitigate the unpleasant scenario in which the aircraft carrier can effectively shut down a destroyer with exhaustive attacks are already underway. We’re testing changes to the settings of the Attack Aircraft and other potential improvements. There are chances that radical solutions will not be required, since the problems with the scenario described above play a serious role in the confrontation of the “Destroyer – Aircraft Carrier”.

• After collecting your comments, we will try to modify the autopilot, so that its operation is more predictable and more convenient and reliable to use.

Once again, this is a preliminary and possibly incomplete list, and these changes are planned to be implemented by the 0.8.4 update. We will continue to inform you about our plans and future changes. Thank you for playing, your feedback, suggestions, and above all – for your concern.