Dirigible Derby

Update 0.11.1 sees the start flag drop on a new temporary battle type codenamed "Dirigible Derby."

Airships historically carried intelligence agents bearing important messages and diplomats traveling to conduct secret negotiations in neutral territories. The new battle type tasks you with a mission to delay the hostile airship while also making sure that your allied airship is the first to reach the destination point.

Rules Achievements and Combat Missions Super Zeppelin: Behind the Scenes

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Rules[/h2]

Starts: Thu. 17 Feb. 06:00 CET (UTC+1) Ends: Thu. 17 Mar. 06:00 CET (UTC+1)

Maps: Islands of Ice, Hotspot, Warrior's Path, Shards, Estuary, Trident, and Sea of Fortune.

Battles will be held in a 12 vs. 12 format with Tier X ships.

You can enter each battle either alone or as part of a Division of up to three players.

Each team has an invulnerable airship that travels along a fixed route. Your team's mission is to either be the first to have their airship reach the end of its route or to destroy all enemy ships.

The routes and locations of the airships are visible to both teams on the Minimap. A special bar will also help you keep track of which airship is closer to reaching the destination point.

Each team can affect the speed of both the allied and hostile airships. Each airship has an interactive zone with a 3 km radius displayed around it. The airships will move faster if only allied ships are within their zone, and they will slow down if at least one enemy ship manages to sneak inside it.
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Achievements and Combat Missions[/h2]
Your successes in Dirigible Derby will be rewarded with special themed achievements:

Achievement Name

Condition

Snatched Glory

Win by destroying all enemy ships when the enemy airship is near the very end of the route.

Held at Bay

Continuously slow down the enemy airship for a minute.

Relentless

Win after having continuously accelerated the allied airship for 5 minutes.

Push Ahead, Hold Them Back

Simultaneously speed up your allied airship and slow down the enemy airship.

Photo Finish

Win by bringing your allied airship to the destination point with a slight lead over the enemy airship while also speeding up the allied airship or slowing down the enemy airship at the end of the battle.

Due to the specifics of the battle type, you can only earn these achievements in Dirigible Derby.

You will also have access to special daily and weekly combat missions that can only be completed in Dirigible Derby. Win and earn Base XP to obtain Community Tokens. Detailed information about the mission completion criteria can be found in the game client. [hr][/hr]

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Super Zeppelin: Behind the Scenes[/h2]
When implementing our idea of an escort-based game mode, we decided that we would need a mobile marker that would be visible across the entire map. At this point, we realized that instead of an artificial UI element, we could turn the escorted vehicle itself into the marker by elevating it into the sky. Airplanes are both too fast and too small to serve this purpose — thus the airship idea was born. We already had several models in-game to work with, the largest and most recognizable being the German Zeppelin LZ-127. However, even a giant of almost 237 meters in length wasn't large enough for our needs.

Simply doubling the size of this airship would be an affront to historical authenticity and engineering. Therefore, we had to urgently design a plausible new airship. We dubbed her the "Super Zeppelin."

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The new giant turned out to be 519 meters long and 67 meters in diameter. To build the airship, we used the same design principles that were used in the prototype Zeppelin. It's clear that such an airship would not fit into existing hangars, but it could be built out in the open on a flat area, similar to how ships are made.

The purpose of such a large airship could have been regular communications with South America, a continent which Germany had been actively building relations with from the beginning of the 20th century. Therefore, we've made a cargo-and-passenger airship with a two-tiered control cabin, an observation lounge at the top of the hull, and a large cargo compartment near the center of mass. The Super Zeppelin's load capacity would be 150 tons, and its dry weight would be about 450 tons. To be able to maintain a speed of approximately 120 km/h, the number of engines has been increased by a factor of four, which amounts to 20 Maybach VL IIs.

We had only a short amount of time to develop this model, but, as you can see, the project was very carefully thought out and no detail was spared. For example, we made folding ramps in the cargo compartment so that trucks could enter and unload using an internal overhead crane or special loaders. As a result of our work, we have the desired marker, which is a realistic object that feels cohesive with the overall scope of World of Warships.