World of Warships – Public Test of Update 0.8.7: Round 1

New features are arriving in the game, including Directives, a unique Commander, and a collection, as well as AA defense improvements, an updated matchmaker and a new system for the battle chat!

These and many other things await you in the 0.8.7 Public Test.

IMPORTANT! Because the Update is still being tested, the information in this Bulletin is tentative and reflects the state of game development at the time of its publication. Some changes and new features may be removed entirely or implemented differently by the time the 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.

The French Arc

Update 0.8.7 launches the second Stage of the “French Destroyers” event, consisting of four Directives. The main rewards for completing its combat missions and Directives will be “Legion of Honor” containers and the new temporary resource—French Tokens. Exchange French Tokens for expendable camouflage patterns, Premium Account time, signal flags, and doubloons in the Armory.

The “Legion of Honor” containers will bring you items of the new collection dedicated to the French Navy. Upon completing the entire collection, you’ll be able to mount a second flag and apply an alternative color scheme on your French ships.

The ultimate reward for completing the collection is the new unique Commander, Philippe Auboyneau, who has the following talents:

• Sparks of Resistance—when you earn a ribbon for capturing or assisting in the capture of a Key Area, the chances of your main battery shells setting enemies on fire increase by 1%.
• Fully Armed—activates when you earn the “Devastating Strike” achievement, and reduces the reload time of the ship’s armament by 10%.
• Speed and Composure—increases the ship’s maximum speed by 5% for each 1,000,000 HP of potential damage taken.

All of these talents can be activated multiple times per battle.

Besides those features, the new Commander has an enhanced “Survivability Expert” skill that increases the ship’s HP pool by 400 HP for each tier, and the aircraft’s HP—by 30 HP for each tier.

Philippe Auboyneau will join the ranks of other unique Commanders along with Nikolay Kuznetsov, William Halsey, and Isoroku Yamamoto. Philippe’s talents will come in handy in aiding your ship deliver victory to your team.

Ranked Sprint

Get ready for the new Season of Ranked Sprint that will be played in a 7 vs. 7 format on Tier VI ships, with the number of aircraft carriers limited to one per team. The Seventh Season of Ranked Sprint will be played in Domination mode.

As before, ten ranks are divided into two leagues: the Second League includes Ranks 10 to 6, the First League—Ranks 5 to 1. Ready your ships and fight together with your friends in Divisions!

Battle UI and Chat

Players will be introduced to an updated battle chat system. The reworked system has simpler settings options and reduces the scope of undesirable information incoming from other players.

We have improved the arrangement of the battle UI elements and added new functions. Players will be able to block tactical commands and text messages from specific players, as well as enable or disable battle chat via the Game Settings menu.

Additionally, a system limiting the number of uses for the “Attention to Square” command within a short period of time will be added into the game.

Game Mechanics Improvements

The mechanics and visualization of the priority AA sector system will be updated. These mechanics will become easier, clearer, and more effective to use.

It will now be very simple to activate AA sector reinforcement: you now only need to point the battle camera in the desired direction and press the ~ or ? keys.

Reinforcing the priority AA sector occurs in four phases:

1. Upon activating the priority AA sector, the AA defenses will cause instantaneous damage to enemy squadrons, expressed as a percentage of their current HP, and try to shoot down as many aircraft as possible.
2. A phase in which the ship’s continuous AA damage within the selected sector gradually increases, during which the efficiency of the opposite sector’s AA fire reduces.
3. Having reached maximum efficiency, the reinforced AA sector deals damage to its full extent for a limited period of time.
4. AA sector reinforcement is deactivated. To use AA sector reinforcement once again, you have to wait until the end of the cooldown period, during which the efficiency of the ship’s AA defenses returns to standard values.

In Update 0.8.7 the sector reinforcement parameters and its duration and cooldown time will depend on the ship’s type. AA sector reinforcement affects only the continuous damage by AA defenses, and has no impact on the damage caused within AA explosions.

Together with the priority AA sector, we have also reworked the “Manual Fire Control for AA Armament” Commander skill. Now, this skill will increase the instantaneous damage while completely neutralizing both the adverse and positive effects of AA sector reinforcement on continuous damage. At the same time, the cooldown period before the next possible activation of the priority AA sector will become longer than without this skill. This change will allow ships with weak AA defenses to defend themselves against enemy aviation, and even cause significant instantaneous damage when their Commanders have the “Manual Fire Control for AA Armament” skill researched.

The update of the priority AA sector is not the only change affecting aircraft carriers in the upcoming update. The functioning of the AA zones will be changed and the AA defense plus aircraft parameters will be balanced.

These complex changes are aimed at:

• Improving the AA defense balance, considering the changes in previous versions;
• Making the confrontation of ships with a gap of one and two tiers more convenient and make non-top players life easier (both when playing against aircraft carriers and for them).

In the version 0.8.0, the AA Defense was divided into three non-crossing zones (short-range, mid-range and long-range) to emphasize unique features of each ship’s AA Defense. However, its side effects have sometimes led to irrational situations.

In Update 0.8.7 we have changed the AA zones in a way that they now overlap and supplement each other: short-range air defense zone now can’t be less than 1,5 km, while a mid-range zone and long-range zone will start at a distance of 100m from the ship and end at the same distance from the ship as before, but can’t be smaller than 2,5 rm and 4 km accordingly. This way we will eliminate the flaws of old mechanics. To compensate for the increased constant AA damage from the crossing of AA zones, the damage to each zone will be reduced.

Together with the AA zones, the spawning radius of explosions will be changed. Now they will begin to appear on the border of the long-range zone and end at 3.5 km from the ship. This will allow the aircraft carrier commander to focus on dogging explosions while approaching the enemy and after reaching 3,5 km mark – to aim correctly and choose correct lead for a successful attack.

Updated the progression of planes and AA characteristics as the tier of ships increases. Now the number of aircraft Hit Points and AA damage of ships tier IV-X will change more smoothly from tier to tier. Thus, playing for aviation and against it will not so much depend on the gap in the tier of ships. As well as this change will decrease the gap in effectiveness between ships with weak and powerful AA Defense.

Along with the change in the progression of air defense and overlapping zones, we have also changed the parameters of consumable “Defensive AA Fire” for all classes. From now on the continuous damage bonus is equal 50% instead of 100% and 200%, but the damage in explosions is now increased from 100% and 200% to 300%. For the cruiser Stalingrad, the bonus to continuous damage will be 25%, because the duration of the consumable is 60 seconds, instead of the standard 40 seconds. The continuous damage bonus is now decreased due to the new air defense mechanics and due to the summing of one ship’s damage zones – considering old values this gain would be extremely effective and leave no chance for the squadron to break through to the target or escape from AA zones. The values of consumable for destroyers is now equated to other classes because after progression changings, the characteristics of AA in ships with a weak configuration was strengthened and the effectiveness of destroyers with good air defense under “Defensive AA Fire” exceeded the power of cruisers and battleships. For example, the AA effectiveness of Grozovoi with activated consumable exceeded the effectiveness of the air defense of the battleship Kremlin. Instead of a reduced bonus to continuous damage, the damage caused by explosions will be increased. Now when the aircraft enters explosions during the action of ” Defensive AA Fire ” it is almost guaranteed to be destroyed. Please recall, that explosions with activated consumable are highlighted in red.

Regular explosions

Defensive AA fire

To balance the overall damage obtained by aircraft considering all AA Defense buffs, we have decreased the height for attacking squadrons. This way, more aircraft will be able to get back to the aircraft carrier, while this parameter will remain the same for F button to avoid spamming. In addition to that, Sight stabilization skill has been enhansed to achieve even faster aiming.

We have also enhanced the autopilot. Now, it will take into account the ship’s speed, maneuverability and dimensions while setting the route, as well as autonomously change the ship’s speed. This enhancement reduces the risk of colliding with islands, but even in the case of such a collision, the updated autopilot will make the required maneuvers by itself and return the ship to its original course. The ship’s movement trajectory is now displayed as a route line on the Tactical Map and the Minimap.

Please note, that we will need additional time to proceed with more exact adjustments. Going further, a decision on whether or not any specific changes will be included in the release version will be taken based on the results of the Public test. We welcome your detailed feedback and appreciate your participation in testing.

Matchmaker Changes

The World of Warships matchmaker is constantly evolving. In Update 0.8.7 we are introducing strict limitations on the tiers of battles that you can be sent to. For each player, the matchmaker will take into account the number of battles they have played with ships of the same tier as theirs, and the number of ships one or two tiers higher.

After a short calibration period that will last up to 20 battles for each battle type and ship tier, the matchmaker will ensure that the percentage of battles with ships of the specified tier does not exceed the set limits. For example, for Tier VIII ships, the limits are expected to be 40% of battles with ships two tiers higher. This means that out of 20 recent battles you play with Tier VIII ships, a maximum of eight battles will include Tier X ships.

Research Bureau

The underlying principle of player progress within our game involves moving from lower tier to higher tier ships all the way up to the branch peak—Tier X ships. However, the game has an enormous number of ships of different tiers, and each tier offers gameplay experiences that are equally interesting as those of Tier X ships. Many players like fighting on these ships, but the game hasn’t encouraged such behavior enough to date.

In this connection, Update 0.8.7 will introduce a new tab—Research Bureau, and a new resource—Research Points.

The goal of the Research Bureau is to further motivate the players to play more with their favorite ships and earn unique rewards along the way.

Research Points can be obtained as follows:

• Players who have at least two researchable Tier X ship in Port can sell all the ships from the researched branch and reset its research status.
• After researching them again and purchasing the ships of the reset branch, as well as winning a battle with such ships, players will earn Research Points.

The new resource will occupy a place between the widely accessible Coal, and far more scarce Steel that is only available in competitive modes. At first, you will be able to exchange Research Points for new ships, as well as various in-game items.

Please note that the Research Bureau will become available for players in the Armory only after they earn their first Research Points.

Italian Cruisers

All Public Test participants will have a unique chance to be among the first to try out the mechanics of the incoming Italian cruisers.

Please note: these ships are going through an early testing phase and their characteristics are subject to further changes.

Italian Tier V–VII cruisers Montecuccoli, Trento, and Zara can be exchanged via the Research Bureau tab in the Armory. You’ll be able to reset the researchable ship branches, obtain Research Points, and play on the new Italian cruisers. For the latter, we’ve prepared special combat missions that will bring valuable rewards to your account on the live server.

This model of distribution for the new ships will only be applied during Public Test 0.8.7. In future, these ships will form a researchable branch of the Italian Tech Tree.

The main distinguishing features of Italian cruisers are the special Full-Throttle Smoke Generator consumables they carry, and semi-armor-piercing shells (SAP shells) that combine the capabilities of both shell types.

SAP shell features

• They may ricochet after hitting their target, but they do have better ricochet angles than AP shells.
• They have similar armor penetration mechanics to HE shells, provided they don’t ricochet.
• Hits never result in overpenetrations.
• Cannot set enemy ships on fire.
• Cause greater damage and can penetrate thicker armor than HE shells.
• When hitting destroyers, SAP shells cause 10% of their maximum damage to the target.

The Full-Throttle Smoke Generator mechanics are similar to those of the Smoke Generator consumable, with the only difference being that the ship can hide inside the smoke screen while traveling at full speed. Italian cruisers are capable of concealing their location from enemy ships and aviation without sacrificing their speed and ability to maneuver. The Full-Throttle Smoke Generator consumable produces a smoke screen for a period of 25–40 seconds, that dissipates 10 seconds after being set.

Join the Public Test and enjoy these new changes in your Port, and try out the new matchmaker! Collect your rewards and don’t forget to share your impressions with us!

Special Features of the Test

All Public Test participants will have a unique chance to be among the first to try out the mechanics of the incoming Italian cruisers.

Please note: these ships are going through an early testing phase and their characteristics are subject to further changes.

Italian Tier V–VII cruisers Montecuccoli, Trento, and Zara can be exchanged via the Research Bureau tab in the Armory. You’ll be able to reset the researchable ship branches, obtain Research Points, and play on the new Italian cruisers. For the latter, we’ve prepared special combat missions that will bring valuable rewards to your account on the live server.

For more details, read the Developer Bulletin 0.8.7.

For the purpose of testing the Research Bureau, the Public Test participants will NOT be provided with traditional 30,000 doubloons and Free XP.

Commander skills can be redistributed for free.

During the Public Test of Update 0.8.7, all participants who played at least one battle during the Public Tests of Updates 0.8.4–0.8.6 will be able to use many of their account contents from the live server, except for Free XP and doubloons.

Combat Missions and Rewards

Round
1	2
			Play a Random or Ranked battle. Reward on the live server: three signals of each type, excluding special signals.
			Play three Random or Ranked battles. Reward on the live server: ten “Type 6” camouflage patterns.
			Complete the “AA Defenses” combat mission in Random or Ranked battles. Reward on the live server: ten “Type 59” camouflage patterns.
			Achieve Rank 1 in Ranked Battles. Reward on the live server: five of each of the following special signals: Scylla, Basilisk, and Leviathan.
			Complete the “Mission One” combat mission in Random or Ranked battles. Reward on the live server: one Wargaming container (contains 1 day of Warships Premium Account).
			Complete the “Mission Two” combat mission in Random or Ranked battles. Reward on the live server: one Wargaming container (contains 1 day of Warships Premium Account).
			Complete the “Main Mission” combat mission in Random or Ranked battles. Reward on the live server: Legion of Honor Premium container.
			Play one battle with Italian cruiser Montecuccolli. Reward on the live server: one Wargaming container (contains 1 day of Warships Premium Account).
			Play one battle with Italian cruiser Trento. Reward on the live server: five of each of the following special signals: Dragon, Wyvern, Red Dragon, Ouroboros, and Hydra.
			Play one battle with Italian cruiser Zara. Reward on the live server: one Wargaming container (contains 1 day of Warships Premium Account).

You must register your Public Test account with the same email address as your live account in order to collect your rewards. No exceptions. If your Public Test account is registered to an email address that differs from your live server account email address, make sure you register a new Public Test account using your live server account email address.

To claim rewards for your live account please click the button below. You will be able to claim the rewards for your live account within five working days of the Update’s release.

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