Development blog

Howdy, Captains!

Happy graduation season! While Update 13.5 works towards its diploma, let's take a look at what is on the horizon for Update 13.6!

Early Access to French Destroyers

 

Starting with Update 13.6, Early Access for the new line of French Destroyers will commence, with Tier V L'Adroit, Tier VI Duchaffault, Tier VII Le Hardi, Tier VIII L'Aventurier, Tier IX Orage, and Tier X Cassard all joining the battle! We'll hit you with the highlights below:

• This line will feature powerful torpedoes with very high damage, good speed, and decent range starting from Tier VII. 
• Starting with the Tier VII Le Hardi (with her researchable torpedoes) and continuing on at Tier VIII and beyond (by default), this line will feature torpedoes with variable damage based on the distance traveled. This means that torpedoes will remain very powerful from launch, while they will deal less damage the longer they travel.
• The main batteries of these ships have reasonable DPM and shell damage, but poor ballistics. Make sure you get close and make some new friends/enemies when you play these vessels!
• As is the case with the other tech tree branch of French Destroyers, these ships also include special saturation mechanics that make it so they will only take half damage in their midsection after a certain damage threshold is met. 

As we mentioned, players are gonna want to focus on making close-range, surprise attacks in order to be most effective. The high-damage torpedoes, damage saturation, and the short-duration, high-speed Emergency Engine Power consumable can help players succeed up close. Additionally, players can rely on their long-range torpedoes if they prefer a safer approach in battle, but keep in mind that torpedoes will deal less damage the longer they travel. However, if a situation becomes overwhelming and multiple enemy ships are firing salvos in your direction, it will most likely lead to an early, watery grave. 

To celebrate these warships coming to our virtual seas, we're also adding some sweet, exclusive content for the Early Access event, including:

• The L'égaliseur permanent camouflage for Le Hardi (designed by Reaper81 from the Asia server—winner of our contest back in March)

• The Esprit de France permanent camouflage for Orage

• The Uniforme Français permanent camouflage for Cassard

• French historical Commander André Lemonnier
• The Fleur-de-lis Flag

More information will be available in a future publication.

Personal Challenges

Personal Challenges will come back to the game in Update 13.6 as a part of the Early Access. Personal Challenges will last until the start of Update 13.7 and will be split into two sprints, each lasting two weeks. 

New Battle Type: Mode Shuffle

 

Update 13.6 will bring along a new temporary battle type called Mode Shuffle. These are 12v12 matches where you can take any Tier VIII-X ship of your choice. You can also make a division with up to 3 people! When you select this battle type, you will get randomly placed in one of three game modes:

• Airship Escort - Escort the allied airship to the destination point or destroy all enemy ships! During the battle, ships on both sides can affect the speed of the allied or opposing airships by staying within an interactive zone near each one. It's important to remember the following:
  • Airships move at a standard speed if there are no players within their interactive zones.
  • Airships accelerate if only allied ships are within the borders of their interactive zones.
  • Airships slow down if at least one opposing ship is within the borders of their interactive zones.
  • If your team simultaneously speeds up the allied airship and slows down the opposing airship, the allied airship will move even faster.
• Convoy - Join the battle as part of the attacking or escorting team. The objective of the attacking team is to completely destroy either the convoy or its defenders. The defending team needs to escort convoys of cargo ships as they sail along a defined route. That team wins if at least one convoy ship reaches her destination point or the entire attacking team is destroyed. 
• Arms Race - Collect upgrades dropped from planes in various locations on the map. With the help of upgrades, your team enhances the combat capabilities of ships and squadrons of aircraft carriers. After some time, a capture point will appear, with its area decreasing over time.

It's worth noting that while Convoy and Airship Escort will be the most recent versions of those game modes, we have made a slight change to Arms Race: there will be no buffs placed near the map borders. That means that buffs will pop up somewhere in the middle parts of the map, so you'll have to get up close and personal to buff yourself and your team! The changes for Arms Race are only present in Mode Shuffle, as they remain unaltered in other battle types.

Brawls with Support Consumables

 

Update 13.6 will bring three Brawls unleashed in different formats, but this time we prepared something special for them to make battles even more entertaining. Brawls in Update 13.6 will feature Support Consumables which were present in Piñata Hunt and Clan Battles Season 25. However, there's a twist: not all Support Consumables will return to the seas. Only specific ones will be available in each format, so let's take a peek at what each Brawl has to offer:

Brawl #1

• 5v5
• Tier V ships
• Only Destroyers can participate
• Divisions of up to five players

Brawl #2

• 3v3
• Tier VI ships
• Only Battleships can participate
• Divisions of up to three players

Brawl #3

• 5v5
• Tier VII ships
• No Submarines or Aircraft Carriers allowed
• No more than 3 Battleships, 3 Cruisers, and 3 Destroyers per team
• Divisions of up to three players

Pan-American Unique commander added for testing
 

We've also added a Unique Pan-American Commander Joaquim Marques Lisboa to the game for testing!

Joaquim Marques Lisboa (1807–1897), also known as the Marquis of Tamandaré, was one of the constellation of outstanding naval commanders that South America gave the world. A national hero of Brazil, the patron of the Brazilian Navy, who covered himself with glory in several conflicts of the XIX century.

The commander will have the following enhanced skills:

Additionally, the commander will have the following talents:

This commander is still in development and will become available to players in one of the future updates.

Other Changes and Additions

 

When activating Burst Fire and/or Modified Shells (which are currently only featured on test ships Victoria and Almirante Oquendo), the parameters of the shells change. We've added a few things that make this more clear to the player, namely:

• New alternative shell icons have been added when Burst Fire and Modified Shells are active.

• The icon that appears under the crosshair is now more visible.

• Tool tips of shells are now showing the difference between the original and modified parameters of the shell.

We've made a number of sound improvements for Combat Instructions, including sounds that indicate:

• the filling up of the Combat Instructions progress bar.
• the activation of Combat Instructions
• that Combat Instructions are currently active and working
• the end of Combat Instructions action time

In addition to the above, Combat Instructions also received a visual improvement: enhancement of the tool tip UI

• Have you been naughty or nice? Well the Bad Santa Commander with an individual voice-over that we're adding to the game likely doesn't care either way! 
• To gear up for Clan Battles Season 27, we have added the Hurricane: Asp and Asp achievements.

That's all for this DevBlog! Now go forth, battle hard and emerge victorious!

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.