A closed concept test for Support carriers will be held in the near future.
Support aircraft carriers would enter the game as alternative tech tree branches to the existing Strike carriers.
They are distinguished from Strike carriers by the special armament and consumables of their squadrons.
As with existing carriers, Support carriers would be deployed at even-number Tiers starting from Tier VI, and both varieties will have equal status in the matchmaking queue.
All Support carriers are equipped with squadrons armed with special “stun” bombs.
The main task of these ships in battle is to support their allies. In the current concept, they are especially effective at assisting ships that are good at setting fires and causing floods:
- Stun bombs deal little to no damage on impact and have a very low chance of setting fires.
- When they hit an enemy ship, Stun bombs will temporarily block the use of certain consumables by said ship, such as Damage Control Party, Defensive AA Fire, or Smoke Generator.
- The amount of time the consumables are disabled depends on the number of bombs that hit — ranging from just a few seconds if only one bomb hits, to several minutes in the rare case where all bombs in the drop land on target.
- Fire and flood damage done to a ship while under the effect of Stun bombs, regardless of which ship caused the status effect, will also count as damage done in the statistics of the Support carrier player.
- These Support squadrons are also equipped with special consumables to protect allied ships:
- An aerial smoke screen can be deployed, which works similarly to the Smoke Generator consumable present on some surface ships.
- Chaff can be dropped to hinder or nullify the effects of a Surveillance Radar consumable use. If any ship enters a Chaffed area with the Surveillance Radar consumable already active, the Radar will immediately stop working and begin its cooldown phase. If ship is inside the Chaffed area when an enemy Surveillance Radar is activated, it will take longer than usual for it to become fully visible to the rest of the Radar ship’s team.
The exact composition of the rest of the Support carrier’s squadrons depends on its nation and Tier.
Support aircraft carriers are in the early stages of development and our aim with this session is to test our initial concept, which may well change significantly over the course of this and further tests. We will keep you posted on the development of these ships and share more details at a later date.
Please note that all information in the development blog is preliminary. Announced adjustments and features may change multiple times during testing. The final information will be published on our game's website.