Got a chance to try the new tier 5 Soviet DD. Besides the stats which had been leaked before, all of her main guns can rotate 360 degrees. Turret 2 cannot shoot at close range on the side due to the ship’s anti-aicraft guns blocking its elevation.

Thanks to Jorge for sending me this.

Quoting DarthDoge:

I have been in contact with Sub_Octavian for about a week. Yesterday, I inquired about if we could have the forum message capacity increased or if I could apply as being a clan recruiter with a 50 msg capacity is kind of annoying. I was surprised when he said he’ll contact the team.

I then got confirmation three hours ago that it was increased, I checked and now it’s 250 messages cap… amazing! This makes it for people that need to send many messages out there much easier.

 

Thank you Sub_Octavian!

Source

Also I checked, and the inbox message storage is only enlarged for the NA WoWS forums. Not on EU WoWS or any WoT forums. Quite a shame.

Source: Tuccy, WG Staff

The Public Test server will be updated today. Here is the list of changes:

Balance changes:

• Rare Upgrades Repair party Modification 1 and Surveillance Radar Modification 1 performance has been increased from 20% to 40% to make them more attractive – the competition in the respected slots is very high;
• Flooding:
  • Maximum flooding time has been decreased by 25% (from 120 seconds to 90 second)
  • Maximum HP that can be lost in flooding has been rebalanced:
    • Low and mid tiers: Reduced
    • High tiers: Increased
  • Goal:
    • Increase the role of torpedoes in countering heavy ships
    • Increase the role of IJN destroyers – their torpedoes traditionally have highest chances to cause flooding:
  • Changes by tier:
    • I – III: – 33,3%
    • IV: -16,7%
    • V: -11,7%
    • VI: -6,7%
    • VII: -1,7%
    • VIII: +3,3%
    • IX: +8,3%
    • X: +13,3%
• To increase comfort in game we have increased main caliber guns turning speed:
  • T-22 (from 10,0 degrees per second to 10,5 degrees per second);
  • Ibuki (from 5 degrees per secnd to 6 degrees per second);
• Cruisers Marblehead and Marblehead L has received faster rudder shift (from 7,8 seconds to 5,7 seconds) to increase their survivability.
• For the same reason, cruiser Pensacola’s visibility has been decreased.
• Main caliber guns reload time of several USN cruisers has been decreased in order to make them more attractive as damage dealers:
  • Erie (from 7 seconds to 6 seconds);
  • New Orleans (from 14 seconds to 12 seconds for top guns);
  • Baltimore (from 13 seconds to 10 seconds for top guns);
  • Des Moines  (from 6 seconds to 5,5 seconds);
• Speed drop penalty for flooding has been adjusted so that it is more systematic:
  • Penalty for moving forward has been decreased from 35% to 20%: USN battleships (except Arkansas Beta), Koenig Albert, Kaiser, Koenig and G. Kurfurst;
  • Penalty for moving forward has been decreased from 20% to 15% and for moving backward has been increased: Т 22, Ernst Gaede, Z-46, Ognevoy, Kiev, Leningrad, Udaloi and Khabarovsk;
  • Penalty for moving forward has been decreased from 20% to 15%: Srorozhevoy, Derzkii, Izyaslav, Blyskawica, Smith, Tashkent;

Fixes:

• Fixed error that caused incorrect display of shell flying time if shooting range upgrade and spotter were mounted.
• Fixed incorrect smokes setting: Now, the last smoke cloud is deployed at the end of smoke generator work cycle. That will prevent some inconvenient game scenarios, especially with RN cruisers that have short smoke deploying timer.
• Fixed mismatch between circles capture indicators on the timer and on the minimap in Epicenter mode on “Warrior’s path”
• Cyclone is turned off on the map “Warrior’s path” in Ranked Battles
• Upgrades list in port has been set to the same order for all ships of all nations
• Fixed error that caused some new upgrades be unavailable for ships that fit the requirements for them.

Compensation when Soviet Destroyer revamp happens: same as IJN Destroyers.

Thanks to Babykim, EU

Q&A from RU dated January 27

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Q: When will same keys activate same consumables on every ship?
A: This year will plan adding the option of mapping keys individually.

Q: It is unfair to nerf catapult fighters on battleships (90 seconds), but not on cruisers (360 seconds).
A: This is not an issue of fairness. This change in 0.6.0 was intended to balance ship classes. We needed to weaken the plane on battleships, but not on cruisers.

Q: Will you increase the skill point cap for commanders (currently 19)?
A: Not in the near future. The cap precludes well-rounded, universal commander builds, retaining a degree of variation.

Q: Do developers realize that players do not like high tier battles? Maps too large, distances too large, planes too fast, guns too powerful, etc. Do you plan changes to high tier gameplay?
A: The server statistics shows a steady increase in the number of high tier battles. Wether it is the long-awaited Yamato, or the tension of high tier matches, or the realization of a unique potential in each ship, we cannot say that high tiers are unpopular in general.

We understand that the game meta changes as the player climbs the tiers, and we do not see anything wrong with some players enjoying tiers V-VII more than tiers VIII-X. It is a personal preference.

Finally, the economy of high tiers is becoming more enjoyable not only due to changes in earnings and repair bills, but also due to containers and other sources of earnings that help adapting to high tiers by confering various bonuses.

Q: Do you plan changing the animations of sinking ships? All ships sink slowly till they explode, which looks a bit cheap for an otherwise great looking game. When will ships heel in battle (without affecting gameplay)? These changes would improve the show.
A: This year we plan to release a version in which all game effects will be reworked, not only the sinking animations. The heel is already in the game, but we do not see how to further increase it without affecting ship performance.

Q: Would it be possible to spend the elite ship experience on the commander, as in World of Tanks?
A: No, but since version 0.6.0 you can spend the elite commander experience on any commander of any nation.

Q: The permanent camouflage of tier X ships confers a 100 percent experience bonus that is quite useless. Change the bonus to free experience or commander experience would make this expensive upgrade (5k doubloons) more useful.
A: The experience is not entirely useless on tier X, as it is the basis for computing the free experience or commander experience. Moreover, the bonus allows obtaining containers and finishing tasks that require experience faster.

Q: What new types of weapons do you plan to add?
A: We cannot make such announcements here.

Q: When do you plan adding new game modes? The random battles are getting a bit boring; most players wait for ranked battles. Even online poker has seven game modes, yet ships have essentially only one, not counting the co-op.
A: We have two directions: the PvE and the PvP. Therein we have the co-op, random, ranked and team battles. Each of these for types has several game modes, such as Standard Battle, Domination, Epicenter, etc. On top of this we have unique game modes in special events, such as Bathtub and Halloween.

We are currently developing the PvE component by trying to maximize the variety of plays by offering different game modes. Additionally, we plan further developing the PvP component, and would be happy to share our plans with you in due time.

Q: Can you make the catapult fighter on battleships more aggressive to offset the shorted duration of 90 seconds?
A: The catapult fighter is working as intended, and we do not plan changing this in the near future.

Q: When will you get rid of the need to grind identical modules for different ships, for example top torpedoes on the IJN Ibuki and Kagero, requiring an additional 20k of experience.
A: Most of the modules in the game are unique to a ship, but sometimes the same type is used on several ships. The game economy already accounts for this. If the top torpedoes were available at the onset, then we would need to increase the cost of the hull accordingly.

Q: Can you change the team killer pink to any other color? I am colorblind and have difficulties telling the color.
A: You can use the Color Blindness Filter in the game graphics options. If you are still having difficulties telling team killers and enemies apart, note that allies direction is always shown left to right, whereas the enemy icons are oriented right to left.

Q: Do you plan compensating the top players on the losing team? I suggest giving the top two players of the losing team the bonus for winning, whereas the bottom two of the losing team should not be awarder the bonus for winning.
A: This is more of a suggestion than a question, but thank you nonetheless. We do not plan such changes in the near future. The player already receives the same amount of credits no matter if his team wins or loses. To get more experience you need to carry the game. There are battles in which a player carries hard, earns many achievements, but the game turns a loss. Because of that we plan additional awards for individual achievements.

Q: Will you add a timer for smoke?
A: The smoke timer is planned for this year.

Q: Tell us about the development of Russian battleships? Please do not tells us “not this year”. This is a much anticipated branch, and players would like to have a more systematic information on its development.
A: The Q&A are not intended for announcements of new ship branches.

These new stats are from the current WoWS Supertest.

_ Kiev moved down to tier 8, its stats mostly remain the same as itself at tier 7, except hitpoints, torpedo armament (using Tashkent torpedo armament, both stock and upgraded) and Anti-Air has been improved.
_ Tashkent moved up to tier 9, its stats mostly remain the same as itself at tier 8, except hitpoints, torpedo armament (using Udaloi torpedo armament, both stock and upgraded) and Anti-Air has been improved. Currently, the ship does not have the 130 mm/55 B-2-U upgrade.
_ Reload time of 130-mm/58 СМ-2-1 on the new Soviet destroyers has been decreased from 6 seconds to 5 seconds. Now its fire rate is on par with the old 130 mm/55 B-2-U.
_ Catapult Fighter duration on Battleship has been increased from 60 seconds to 90 seconds.
_Some buffs, nerfs (mostly nerfs) to Forts in Bastion mode. If this mode does not improve, it will be removed in the future.
_ IJN Destroyers have a plan for improvement, their turret traserve may get buffed.

From a Chinese supertester who owns an Alabama ST:

Changes in Alabama ST camouflage:
-“75% damage when ramming an enemy ship” has been removed.
-“-20% detectability range by air” has been removed.
-“-99% chance for detonation” has been removed.
-Some minor bonuses, mostly +1% have been removed.
+Added “+300% Free XP earned in the battle”.
+Added “100% to XP earned in the battle”.
+Added “-30% to the cost of ship’s post-battle service”.
+Standard camo bonuses remain the same.

Thanks to Urakaze for translating

Ship
– Tier 10 Soviet destroyer Grozovoy main battery [130mm SM-2-1] reload time reduced from 6s to 5s

Equipment changes according to patchnotes:
-The new upgrades are now classified as [Rare Modifications], the only ways to obtain them will be from various achievements, activities, and supercontainer drops.
-The modifications will only be available to a specific group of ships (Posted in 0.6.1 Preview)