World of Warships News

Captains!

It's now much simpler to participate in the Public Test—you can log in using your main account. To do so, select Public Test in the Game Instance section of Wargaming Game Center. You'll receive Community Tokens as a reward for participating in the Public Test. These can be exchanged for Premium ships, permanent camouflages, Supercontainers, and other desirable items!

Update 0.10.11 brings a new Dockyard, New Year activities, and other fresh new features. Take a look at the Developer Bulletin, and welcome to the Test! See you on the Public Test Server!


[h2]Round 1 Schedule[/h2] Starts: Thu. 18 Nov. 17:30 CET (UTC+1) Ends: Tue. 23 Nov. 06:30 CET (UTC+1)

[h2]Combat Missions and Rewards[/h2]

• The rewards for activities on the Public Test Server may differ from those on the Live Server.
  
• The rewards will automatically be credited to your account within a few days of the release of the new version.
  
• All players will have access to Tier VI, VIII, and X submarines.
  
• You can receive III Dreadnought, VI Repulse, and IX Marlborough for completing shipbuilding phases. However, you will not be able to helm Repulse and Marlborough into battle. The ships will only be available to view in the Port.

You can earn Community Tokens by completing combat missions on the Public Test Server.

Each Wargaming container drops 1 day of Warships Premium Account, 3x Papa Papa signals, and 3x Juliet Charlie signals.

If you obtain a unique Commander of one of the teams in the New Year's Eve event during Round 1 of the Public Test, you will need to obtain a Commander of another team to complete the mission during Round 2.

[h2]Starting Bonuses[/h2]

• The research prices for ships and ship modules will be substantially discounted.
  
• Players will be able to reset Commander skills free of charge.

If you're joining the Public Test for the first time since Update 0.10.9, you'll be awarded the following additional bonuses:

• At the start of the Public Test, every participant will have all researchable Tier VI and VIII ships, helmed by Commanders with 19 skill points, credited to their PT accounts.
  
• 500,000,000 Credits; 30,000 Doubloons; 250,000 Coal, and 90 days of Warships Premium Account.
  
• 50 signals of all types (except for special signals) will also be added to your PT account.

If you fought at least one battle on the Public Test Server during the 0.10.10 Public Test, your account will be copied from the Live Server to the Public Test Server.

[h2]How to Participate[/h2]
https://steamcommunity.com/games/552990/announcements/detail/2716184589232191867

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.

Please note: The rewards for activities on the Public Test server may differ from those on the Live Server.

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[h2]

Dockyard[/h2]
In Update 0.10.11, you will be able to start building new British battleship IX Marlborough at the Clydebank Dockyard. She is based on a 1947 project with some of the design solutions borrowed from the Vanguard-class and King George V-class ships. Her primary feature is a powerful main battery consisting of quad-gun turrets that house sixteen 356 mm guns with a high rate of fire for a battleship and a decent range of fire. She has good speed, maneuverability, and concealment, but her armor is not as sturdy as that of her counterparts, and her firing accuracy is low.


[h2]Event Rules[/h2]

• The construction process at the Dockyard comprises 32 phases.
  
• These shipbuilding phases can be progressed through by completing Dockyard combat mission groups or by spending 1,500 Doubloons to pass through each phase.
  
• The combat mission groups span two updates—0.10.11 and 0.11.0—and the Dockyard itself will remain in your Ports until the end of Update 0.11.1.
  
• In total, you can progress through 27 out of 32 shipbuilding phases by completing the Dockyard combat mission groups.
  
• You'll receive III Dreadnought in the Snow and Stars permanent camouflage, a 6-skill point Commander, and a Port slot as a reward for completing the 6th shipbuilding phase.

• Completing the 18th shipbuilding phase will reward you with new battleship VI Repulse in the Snow and Stars permanent camouflages, a 6-skill point Commander, and a Port slot.

• Completing other shipbuilding phases will bring you Santa's Gift, Santa's Big Gift, and Santa's Mega Gift containers; New Year Sky expendable camouflages, days of Warships Premium Account, Coal, Steel, Research Points, and other valuable rewards.
  
• Upon completing the 32nd shipbuilding phase, you'll receive IX Marlborough in the War Paint camouflage, a Commander with 10 skill points, a Port slot, and a commemorative flag.

If you decide to complete the construction of IX Marlborough by spending Doubloons, you'll still be able to progress through the Dockyard combat mission groups. However, in that case, instead of the usual rewards for completing the shipbuilding phases, you'll get 250 Steel for each completed phase.

On the Public Test server, you can receive III Dreadnought, VI Repulse, and IX Marlborough for completing shipbuilding phases. However, you will not be able to helm Repulse and Marlborough into battle. The ships will be available only for viewing in the Port.

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[h2]

New Year Celebrations[/h2]
We have prepared loads of activities to celebrate the New Year: the New Year's Eve competition, a festive collection, new Commanders, and heaps of other rewards!

[h2]New Year's Eve[/h2]
One of the primary features of our New Year celebrations is a temporary event called New Year's Eve. This competition is being organized by three snow giants who were brought to life by magic stars. Each giant has its own responsibility in the New Year preparations. Help them contribute to the celebration!

New Year's Eve is similar to the Aircraft Bureaus Rivalry and Battle of the Beasts events, with minor interface improvements:

• Updated the tooltips on the team selection screen and above the mission cards.
  
• Added the display of the previous day's winning team on the event's main screen.

[h3]New Year's Eve Rules[/h3]

• The event starts 2 weeks after the release of the update and runs until the end of Update 0.10.11. It is divided into four stages, with each stage running for 1 week.
  
• Once a week, you can choose one of three teams named after the magic stars: Modus, Sertum, or Munera.
  
• During the event, you need to complete personal missions that are issued daily to all participants. The missions can be completed throughout the day in Random, Co-op, and Ranked Battles.
  
• Completing the missions will advance you through the personal and team progress bars and unlock rewards.
  
• Each team offers different unique rewards such as themed Commanders—snow giants with 6 skill points—and V Omaha, V Jaguar, or V Conte di Cavour in the Snow and Stars permanent camouflage. The first time you earn a unique reward from any team, you will also receive the New Year's Eve achievement.
  
• Other rewards include a new temporary resource—Sinterklaas Tokens, Christmas and New Year in the Navy collection containers, and New Year Sky expendable camouflages.

[h2]The Christmas and New Year in the Navy Collection[/h2]
The festive collection is dedicated to New Year and Christmas traditions in the navy. It consists of four pages, with six elements on each. The reward for completing each page is 1 day of Warships Premium Account. The reward for completing the entire collection is a Santa’s Big Gift container.

Collection elements drop only from Christmas and New Year in the Navy containers. These containers can be obtained by participating in the New Year's Eve event and in exchange for Sinterklaas Tokens, Credits, and Doubloons in the Armory.

[h2]New Year Fleet[/h2]
In Update 0.10.11, five themed combat mission groups will be available to you. The reward for the first group is the New Year permanent camouflage for Tier VIII ships. Completing groups two through four will earn you VI Weser, VI Fubuki, and VI Izmail in the Snow and Stars permanent camouflage, as well as Commanders with 6 skill points. The reward for completing the last combat mission group is VI Kijkduin in the Snow and Stars permanent camouflage and Dutch Commander Sinterklaas with 10 skill points.

All five combat mission groups will become available simultaneously. However, the first combat mission group can only be completed playing VI Repulse.

[h2]Snowflakes[/h2]
You will be able to continue earning bonuses for combat results—the Snowflakes introduced in Update 0.10.10. Depending on the ship tier, "blown off" Snowflakes will bring you Coal, Steel, and a temporary resource—New Year Certificates, which can be exchanged in the Armory for any of the three types of Santa's Gift containers.

The bonus for combat results can be obtained by either scoring the first victory or earning 300 Base XP playing a ship.

[h3]List of rewards[/h3]

• Tier V–VII: 750 Coal
  
• Tiers VIII–IX: 75 Steel
  
• Tier X: 1 New Year Certificate

Please note: You can blow a Snowflake off each ship only once during Updates 0.10.10 and 0.10.11 in battles of any type, except for Training Battles.

The Port of London has been decorated for the upcoming New Year celebration.

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[h2]

German Battleships[/h2]
When Update 0.10.11 goes live, the German Tier III–X battleships will become available for all players to research.

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[h2]

Other Changes[/h2]
[h2]Submarine Tweaks[/h2]
The torpedo homing mechanics have been updated:

• At the maximum launch distance, they will home in strictly on the impact point of a sonar ping without considering the target lead.
  
• As the distance to the target decreases, torpedoes will home in with a gradually increasing lead. At a specific distance from the target, torpedoes will home in strictly on the lead point.
  
• At the same time, just like before, torpedoes stop homing when they are within a certain distance of their target.

This change will allow torpedoes to home in on their target in a more natural way and reduce the frequency of situations where homing torpedoes launched in the proximity of islands at ships highlighted with a sonar ping would hit the land. Moreover, it will be somewhat easier for the target itself to dodge homing torpedoes if the sonar ping effect is removed before they hit.

[h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• The Hydrophone now becomes available some time after each battle begins. Unlike main battery or torpedo launchers, the time that the Hydrophone takes to prepare for battle is longer than its reload time.
  
• Added an underwater torpedo reticule.
  
• You can enter Training Battles playing submarines on maps that feature the underwater world.
  
• Added the indication of additional dive capacity depletion for a detected enemy submarine.
  
• Added information about the additional dive capacity depletion of detected submarines to the post-battle statistics screen.
  
• Added new tips for submarines when they launch sonar pings at a target: "The ping will be dispersed" and "Insufficient time for torpedo homing."
  
• The ship status screen that is brought up by pressing H now displays the ship's detectability from a submarine that is at the operational or periscope depths, as well as when the ship is inside a smoke screen.
  
• Added the ability to switch to torpedo launchers by pressing 3 for all submarines.

[h2]Sound Presets[/h2]
Added a sound preset system.

The game currently has numerous sliders and parameters to set up the sound, which can be difficult and time-consuming for some players to figure out. Sound presets allow you to adjust the sound image of the game to your preferences in just a couple of clicks.

Added sound presets:

1. Standard: Default sound settings.
   
2. Cinematic: Sound effects are brought to the foreground; the sound is vivid and saturated.
   
3. Simplified: The volume of sound effects is reduced; additional sounds are disabled. This setting helps focus your attention on in-game notifications.
   
4. Night: The settings are optimized for playing at low and medium volumes; at the same time, all effects and notifications are preserved.
   
5. Custom: Gives you the ability to set up the game sound yourself using the fine-tuning sliders.

Sound presets can be selected in the game settings. The Standard preset is active by default.

[h2]Other Changes[/h2]
Changed the screen transition sequence after purchasing a ship:

• Now, when purchasing a new ship from the Tech Tree, players will be taken to the ship demonstration screen. From there, you can go to the Equipment tab, to the Port, or back to the Tech Tree.
  
• Ships can now be purchased from the ship viewing window.
  
• Added the "To Tech Tree" button to the ship viewing window.

Added the underwater world to the following maps: Ring, Defense of Naval Station Newport, Operation Killer Whale, and Raptor Rescue.

World of Warships' gameplay constantly changes and evolves. New ships are introduced, the game mechanics are updated, and players come up with new tactics.

To keep the game interesting and battles fair, it is extremely important to maintain balance in this ever-changing sea of game mechanics, new content, and creative playstyles. In today's article, we're going to tell you how the game balance in World of Warships is created and dispel several popular myths.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] [hr][/hr]

[h2]

What Is Balance?[/h2]
First of all, we need to define what balance is, since the concept of balance can vary across different games.

For us, balance is a set of actions aimed at keeping the game process interesting:

• In general, the game should be interesting for both the players themselves and those who play with and against them.
  
• Each battle should bring different gameplay, even if a person plays the same ship in a hundred battles in a row.

To achieve this, it's important for each player to have an equal opportunity to affect the battle outcome, regardless of the ship they choose to helm into battle. For example, if a ship is too strong, playing against her will be unpleasant and commanding the ship will also get boring pretty quickly. Moreover, a strong ship will likely become very popular by virtue of its effectiveness and thus reduce the diversity in battles.
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[h2]

Statistics, Feedback, and Decision Making[/h2]
The primary difficulty in maintaining the game balance is the fact that each player may perceive fairness and balance differently, depending on their experience and understanding of game mechanics and the situation in a specific battle. Each player has their own favorite and hated ships, ship types, and playstyles.

Since our game has a wide audience, there are numerous opinions about the game balance and how it should work. It is only natural that these opinions can differ very strongly and even contradict each other.

At the same time, we, as developers, consider it to be very important to help the game evolve in a balanced way and take the majority opinion of our players into account. To create a new feature or make a change and then evaluate the results and plan the next actions, we need to process all these opinions and see the big picture. Next, we need to compare them with what happens in battle and make a decision. We need statistics for analysis.

Statistics can be divided into two main components:

• The first is the opinion of players that we obtain from various surveys and the feedback that we collect via different platforms.
  
• Battle statistics—various data gathered from battle results.

Feedback from players is extremely important to us, and we are infinitely grateful for your involvement and for helping us improve the game. However, our project is very complex, and it grows even more complex with each new release. To find the cause of player dissatisfaction, we often need to solve a huge tangle of interconnections and sometimes arrive at a solution in a completely different area. In other words, the "pain point" itself is not always the place you need to change something.

Statistics and data analysis hold a special place in our work. They are quite powerful tools, but they are the most difficult to use at the same time. We have the ability to collect a huge amount of data about everything that happens in the game, but collecting data is only the tip of the iceberg—you also need to process and analyze it. Since there are so many interconnections in the game and they are so complex, making decisions based on statistics becomes quite a challenging task. At the same time, the consequences of decisions made about some aspects of the game can have unpredictable effects on others.

For example, Update 0.7.5 saw the introduction of the "Hit Hard! Hit Fast! Hit Often!" campaign, which comprised numerous missions that could be completed playing only American ships—cruisers, in particular. This led to a dramatic increase in the popularity of American cruisers, and their distinctive feature is the Surveillance Radar consumable. This had a significant impact on destroyer gameplay.

[h2]Working with Data When Making Decisions[/h2]
As we mentioned earlier, statistics are an important tool for tuning the balance in any game. This is because many interactions in the game are largely random and unpredictable within a single battle or series of battles.

For example, how do you estimate how much damage a battleship receives from torpedoes? In one battle it may not encounter a destroyer because they were on different flanks; in another battle, there may be no destroyers at all. We can give a ton of examples like this. In other words, it's impossible to analyze something on the basis of a single event. To understand how things actually are, you need quite a large sample of battles. Collecting various metrics and analyzing them helps us fine-tune interactions in the game in a much more efficient way than by doing it only on the basis of our own expert appraisal and player feedback.

It is quite obvious that the more data we collect, the higher the load on our servers is and the more difficult the data processing will be. In many ways, analysis of metrics in the game is a process that naturally evolves as the game develops and new ships, mechanics, modes, and other components are added to it.

Just a couple of years ago, we had quite a modest toolset for game balance at our disposal. For example, we used certain average indicators of ship efficiency without dividing players by skill level. Of course, we understood that all people play differently, but we had no idea to what extent.

It happened because we used far fewer metrics than now, and at that time, we had relatively modest server capacity to gather and process them. However, our game grew and became more complex. While the simpler methods of ship balance were generally enough at that time, as our game grew and the variety of game factors and unique gameplay types increased, so did the requirements for ship balancing tools.

Now, we gather significantly more information as our game grows. Apart from that, our approach to evaluating ship efficiency also changed. For example, if we speak about ship efficiency, we don't just evaluate average values now, but also consider the experience and skill levels of players, peak and average values, and we take how these values are distributed over time into account. We used this approach for almost all main metrics: a ship's winrate, damage, relative damage, survival time in battle, and many others.

Apart from that, we now have more experience in planning data analysis. For example, from the very beginning of submarine testing, we were able to receive a significant volume of a variety of detailed data, whether it was how long submarines spent in each state, how many times they hit with sonar pings, or how much damage their torpedoes dealt to different targets.

And we could look at all this data for different groups of players. This allowed us to make decisions faster and better.

Of course, there were mistakes. The Italian battleship branch is one such example. At the time of its release, the ships were weaker than their counterparts in terms of combat efficiency. As a result, their efficiency had to be brought to normal values across several subsequent updates.

Statistics is pure mathematics, but dry numbers always hide player experience, and some interconnections can be lost or invisible after mathematical processing. Therefore, you always need to keep in mind that numbers are not the whole truth when working with statistics. No matter how much we want to calculate everything as accurately as possible, statistics are not omnipotent, and there is always room for data interpretation.

[h2]How Decisions Are Made[/h2]
Apart from the dry numbers of statistics, we also take guidance from the feedback from our players and use our own judgment. In other words, you need to consider a combination of three factors to make an informed decision: statistics + player feedback + developer experience. Based on these three pillars, we can be sure that a decision we make is in the best interests of the game.

[expand] [/expand]
Thus, when making a decision, we have to analyze a large volume of data, apart from the feedback itself. Because of this, some players have the impression that we do not pay attention to their feedback, which of course is not true.

Creating balance in World of Warships is not a confrontation between players and developers, but a form of close cooperation. We draw the ideas for many of our solutions from suggestions put forward by our players.

For example, when adding anti-submarine weapons to ships in the game, we initially decided to give them only to some of the branches so that these would become a new "national" gameplay feature. On paper, players were not happy about this idea. However, even ideas that players do not initially like still need to be tested, since the result may turn out to be quite positive in the end. For example, players did not like the concept of destroyers without smoke generators or torpedo tubes when they first appeared, but in the end, the idea turned out to be successful and these ships found their niche and gameplay. In the case of anti-submarine weapons, however, the test results confirmed player opinions. For this reason, we added anti-submarine weapons to the majority of cruisers and battleships in the game.

Any change to the game balance, be it weakening a ship, strengthening it, or adding new mechanics, affects almost every aspect of battle gameplay and also affects the game experience for both the ship's owner and other players. For this reason, when changing the game balance, we try to find a solution that will benefit both the majority of players and the game in general.

It is not always possible to find such a solution right away, and sometimes it is necessary to wait until it appears. We always keep the unresolved "pains" of our players at the forefront of our mind and work on solving them.

A good example of a long but successful search for a solution to a balancing problem is the story of battleship X Thunderer. Her playstyle—showering enemies with HE shells from a long range—annoyed many players. Based on past experience with other ships, we decided that the problem lay in her excessive popularity, and we thought that we could reduce player frustration by reducing its presence on the battlefield in this way.

Therefore, we decided to withdraw her from sale. Unfortunately, the diminishing popularity of the ship did not solve the problem. Players suggested numerous ways to resolve the issue—decrease her rate of fire, reduce her accuracy, or weaken her HE shells. However, detailed analysis of the statistics and player feedback on X Thunderer showed that there were two main styles of playing this ship:

• A mid-range X Thunderer that used both AP and HE shells.
  
• A long-range X Thunderer that exclusively used HE shells.

Players did not have any problems with the first playstyle, so we did not want to weaken the ship for all of her owners at once.

The solution was found in reducing her firing range. This did not affect the players who fought at medium range, but it significantly changed the gameplay for those who liked firing HE shells from long distances—they had to either change their playstyle or mount an upgrade that increases the range of fire at the expense of rate of fire.

Conversely, our decisions sometimes feel sudden for players. It could be the case that a ship that has shown good performance over many updates and brought joy to players, or vice versa, a ship that has long been considered not very effective, suddenly undergoes balance changes when she hasn't undergone any before.

Game balance is not set in stone. New ships and mechanics are constantly appearing; the ways in which players approach the game are changing; and a ship that did not require any changes before, since she was normal in terms of her characteristics, can move beyond the limits of her battle effectiveness. In this case, we must make adjustments.

For example, recent statistics showed that old-timers in our game, such as X Zaō and IX Buffalo, needed their battle performance to be increased a little, so balance changes have been applied to them in Update 0.10.10.

We're also trying to stick to our strategy of making only small changes. This helps us not to change ships too much in a single take and carefully bring them to the required efficiency level, and to do it all without making sudden moves and without hurting the game experience.
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[h2]

Development of New Branches[/h2]
Returning to statistics, it is worth noting that they can be extremely useful when creating new ship concepts. For example, X Shimakaze's popularity showed that some players are interested in a purely torpedo-oriented gameplay for destroyers. This led to the creation of the European destroyer branch with ships that also have torpedoes as their primary armament but offer different gameplay compared to Japanese destroyers.

When adding a new branch of German destroyers, we analyzed the roles played by destroyers in battle based on data on damage caused, Key Area capture, spotting, interaction with other ship types, etc. We came to the conclusion that our game lacked destroyers that deal significant damage to cruisers. This is how the German destroyers were born, and they cause about a third of their total damage to cruisers.

At the same time, players often criticize us for creating new ships exclusively around "gimmicks," i.e. prominent features in the stats or equipment of a ship, such as Airstrike on Dutch cruisers.

However, these prominent and strong features make a ship unique, and as we mentioned earlier, one of our tasks is to maintain diversity in the game. If we keep making similar ships, this will quickly lead to stagnated gameplay and players will get bored.

For the same reason, we do not make ships that are too strong. Players will immediately understand what ship is the easiest to win on, and it will eventually lead to a decrease in the overall enjoyment of the game, both for those who play the ship, because they will quickly get tired of winning without effort, and for those who play against her. In addition, this will greatly increase the popularity of a ship and will also negatively affect game diversity. At the same time, it is very important for the uniqueness of a new ship to be the key to preserving the uniqueness of the old ships.
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[h2]

How Ships Are Tested[/h2]
Ships arrive in testing after the initial set-up and trial runs by the development team.

Next, they fall into the hands of supertesters and involved Clan players, as well as Community Contributors and other volunteer groups. They help us a lot with testing, and we thank them for their help.

We would like to express our gratitude to participants of the Clan and super tests—you contribution is very important, and your help is invaluable. Thank you!

During testing, we don't look at the ship's balance. We first check the feedback from players to see whether they like this ship or not.

When we receive the survey results, we act in one of two ways:

• Keep the current concept and begin balancing the ship to bring it to the required efficiency.
  
• Completely abandon the concept and do something else.

When we move to fine-tuning the ship, we pick specific facts from the player feedback about what they liked and disliked about the ship:

• If a ship needs to be weakened, we try to "cut" the unnecessary things but preserve the ship's concept.
  
• If a ship is not effective enough, we look at what test participants disliked the most and work with those aspects of the ship. However, it should be noted that not all weak points of a ship need to be fixed because the uniqueness of a ship lies not only in its strengths but also in its weaknesses.

Unlike ships that have already appeared on the Live Server, quite drastic and significant balance changes can be applied to test ships. There are two reasons for this: First, these ships are not available to regular players, so their experience will not be affected by drastic changes to test ships. Second, if we make a decision to apply significant changes to a test ship, there is no need to implement them carefully and in stages, since this will significantly extend the testing of this ship and slow down its arrival to the Live Server.

After passing the closed test, most ships are tested on the Live Server. This stage is extremely important because it allows us to test the ship in real combat conditions.

This approach to testing often raises questions from our players, who believe that ships should be tested on separate servers. Unfortunately, no closed testing can create the same environment and provide the same volume of data as the Live Server.

Moreover, on the Live Server, we test not only the ship settings, but also the concept: how players perceive her in battle—both the owners of the ship and those who play against her. This allows us to fine-tune the ship balance, anticipate possible difficulties, and make the necessary adjustments even before the ship is released.

At the same time, on the Live Server, we don't only test individual ships, we also test new ship types, concepts, and mechanics—for example, submarines or superships. Testing them on the Live Server is quite an important process because it allows us to better prepare them for full-fledged introduction to the game and avoid repeating the mistakes we made with the aircraft carrier overhaul in Update 0.8.0, when insufficient testing led to a long period of changes, including several major fixes soon after the update's release.
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[h2]

Ship Type Balance and the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" Principle[/h2]
At the moment, we are trying to balance ships according to the "Rock, Paper, Scissors" principle—a particular ship type is effective against some ship types and vulnerable to others.

The reason for this is that the game features over 400 ships, and it is very difficult to remember the specifics of each of them. To keep things simple, all ships in our game fall under five types: battleships, cruisers, submarines, destroyers, and aircraft carriers.

The "Rock, Paper, Scissors" principle allows players to understand how they should play their ship type, what strengths and weaknesses it has, what its role in battle is, and what interaction principles with other ship types exist.

Knowing this information, a player will not be confused in battle, even if they have little experience. It helps define in general terms their tasks in battle, how they should act while playing the selected ship of a particular type, what ship types are their primary targets, and who will target their ship first of all.

The "Rock, Paper, Scissors" principle also improves gameplay variability—each ship type will be in demand in battle because each can be effective against ships of another type, and, at the same time, each has its own counter-class.

Moreover, there are also differences between ships of the same type, and these become obvious to players once they gain a certain amount of experience in the game. For example, there are artillery destroyers, torpedo destroyers, ships that fight for Key Areas, those that engage enemies over long distances, etc. In other words, ships of one type may have different purposes in battle, and you will need to play them differently according to their purpose. These differences are more complex and subtle because the boundaries between the different kinds of ships are not always obvious. However, the more experienced a player grows, the clearer these limits become and the more knowledge they will have about how to use their ship in battle based on her strengths.

Working on balance is an ongoing process aimed at maintaining old mechanics and introducing new content. The balance team is currently focused on submarines and superships—they create gameplay for them and for those who play against them. We do not forget about old ships and possible changes for them either. We strive to make adjustments for them as unnoticeable and painless as possible for players. Our goal is to provide each player with the opportunity to find their own gameplay, creating sufficient diversity in the game. At the same time, we want all players to have equal opportunities to apply their abilities in battle.

We hope that our article helped you learn how balance works in World of Warships, which is largely created thanks to your feedback and the battles you fight.

Captains!

Exactly 4 years ago this week, World of Warships made its first appearance on Steam. To honor such a significant milestone—one that we couldn’t have reached without you—we’re throwing an all-out birthday bash filled with exclusive rewards and shiploads of fun, and you're invited! Check it out!


To kick off our shindig, we’ve prepared some special in-game missions that will allow you to get your hands on some brand-new content that's been created to celebrate our Steam anniversary. Newcomers to the game will even be able to get a mid-tier Premium battleship! All absolutely free!



The missions can be completed until November 29
[h3]For All[/h3]
All Captains are invited to participate in a simple two-part mission chain that will allow you to sail away with new and unique Steam Anniversary content.

• Objective: Over any number of battles, earn 3,000 Base XP then destroy eight ships.
  
• Restrictions: Tier V–X ships; Random Battles, Co-op Battles, Operations.
  
• Rewards: A Steam-themed container, camos, and the Anniversary commemorative flag and patch.

[h3]For Newcomers[/h3]
Newcomers to World of Warships on Steam whose account level is between 1 and 7 can enjoy a warm welcome activity.

• Objective: Win two battles.
  
• Restrictions: Tier III–X ships; Random Battles, Co-op Battles, Operations.
  
• Rewards: Soviet Premium battleship Okt. Revolutsiya with her Victory Day permanent camouflage, as well as special Steam-themed containers, camos, and the Anniversary commemorative flag and patch.
  

Here’s an irresistible chance to win a Premium ship of your choice and even a Steam Anniversary t-shirt and hoodie! Just complete a simple mission, and you’ll be entered into a fantastic giveaway of 244 rare prizes!



To participate in this special giveaway event, you only need to open this news in the game, click the “Participate” button, and complete the following mission that will appear in your Port:

• Objective: Over any number of battles, deal 1,000,000 damage.
  
• Restrictions: Tier V–X ships; Random Battles, Co-op Battles, Ranked Battles, Operations.
  
• Reward: 1x Steam container
  

Two weeks after the mission ends on November 29, we'll distribute 200 Community Tokens to everyone who completed it and pick the lucky winners of the following prizes:

• 200 random players will get 2x Steam containers and 2 days of Premium Account.
  
• 40 random players will get 2x Steam Supercontainers and a t-shirt.
  
• Four random players will have the choice of any Premium ship that's currently available in the Armory/Premium Shop, along with a World of Warships t-shirt and hoodie.
  

On top of all that, we’ve also stocked up the Shop with some special new packages.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1797220/World_of_Warships__Doubloons__Camo_Pack/
For a limited time only, you can pick up a handy sum of Doubloons and some celebratory Steam camouflages to grace your ships with festive cheer.

Bundle includes:

• 2,500 Doubloons
  
• 20x Steam camouflages
  

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1739020/World_of_Warships__Oktyabrskaya_Revolutsiya/
The revolutionary Soviet Tier V battleship arrives on Steam's shores, complete with a swanky permanent camo and hefty 40% discount!

Bundle includes:

• Oktyabrskaya Revolutsiya
  
• Victory Day permanent camouflage
  
• Port slot
  

We’ve also designed some beautiful wallpapers for you to download and trick out on your PC with some epic World of Warships art.

Happy anniversary, Captains—enjoy the celebrations!

Time flies when you're having fun, Captains!

Though it feels like yesterday when World of Warships first sailed—guns blazing—into Steam, this week, we're already celebrating our 4th anniversary on the platform. To celebrate this important milestone and show our gratitude to our active community of swashbuckling Captains on Steam, we're going all-out with a special competition filled with snazzy rewards for all participants! 


You only need to complete a single combat mission:

• Objective: Over any number of battles, deal 1,000,000 damage
  
• Battle types: Random, Co-op, Ranked, event
  
• Ships: Tiers V–X

Note: To join the competition, you need to open this news in the game and click the “Participate” button.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/552990/announcements/detail/4492898490982126960
The combat mission will immediately appear on your account.

• Guaranteed prizes: 200 Community Tokens.
  
• The "4th Anniversary on Steam" combat mission offers guaranteed prizes. After completing it, every participant will receive 1x Steam container.
  
• 200 random players will get 2 days of Warships Premium Account and 2x Steam containers.
  
• 40 random players will get 2x Steam Supercontainers and 1x Anniversary t-shirt.
  
• 4 random players will get 1x Premium ship from the Armory, 1x Anniversary t-shirt, and 1x Anniversary hoodie.

• Winners will be picked at random from the pool of participating users. Each participant can win only one prize.
  
• All the event winners will be announced in this post on November 29.
  
• In-game prizes will be credited within a week. Anniversary merch winners will be contacted via email on November 29. Please reply to our message within a week so we know where to ship your prizes!

Good luck and happy anniversary, Captains!

• denizmedved
• Flitzpeople
• 妖淋
• Thedude332

Asia

• Mr Mul
• IsaacColby
• _Shirahane
  
• yamato1987
• Eternity001
  
• Otae
• Cheshire
• 国之重器
• 王思妇
• 2892810977

CIS

• =maks=[38rus]
• зловещий глаз пустоты
• ^1Hellrider
• dangar
• zubastik
• 0xFF+0xFF
• Rocco115
• KOLOMBO_002
• Saneks
• ծաղրածու

North America

• pockington
• ronaldcrabtree2003
• ElCapitanCoco64
• Marcusfer66
• gappatrol
• SrtTyson
• Love
• ilyas
• Dragonir
• MadcapMcQ

Europe

• ✪ captain karacho ✪
• erotikusKiseger
• Makabaka
• Bboojjcc
• Deboezelare
• HenriX
• President Cthulhu
• Lascarnoir [FR]
• s
• FOX CZ

Captains!

Which component of the game is most important to you? Global multiplayer gaming? The militaristic naval setting? Is it realistic ships? Tell us about your preferences, and we'll grant you one day of Warships Premium Account!
                          

1. Find the "Popular user-defined tags for this product" section on the right-hand side of the main page of the game.
   
2. Click the "+" symbol.
   
3. Select a tag (or create your own) that’s applicable to World of Warships. To select an existing tag from the list, click the "+" symbol next to the tag of your choice.
   
4. Share your list of tags in the comments of this news item.
   
5. Within a matter of days, you'll be granted 1 day of Warships Premium Account (for your account associated to the Steam account)!

Attention! During this event, 1 day of Warships Premium Account will be granted only once, regardless of the number of tags issued.

Good luck in battle, Captains!