[World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 25. März 2014 20:02

Aircraft Carrier vs Battleship: Force Balance



In this second part, Andrey Gashkov continues discussing the strengths and weaknesses of battleships and aircraft carriers, and introduces some winning tactics for both of these classes.

How are you going to keep it all balanced in battleship vs carrier fights?


Firstly, it should be highlighted that, like real life, carriers in World of Warships have a limited number of planes aboard, so the amount of attacks they can perform is restricted to about three per battle. If a battleship manages to survive several air strikes, it will likely have reached an effective firing range, so it is the aircraft carrier that is about to have a hard time. For example, during the course of the first ever clash between aircraft carriers and battleships, the German battlecruisers “Scharnhorst” and “Gneisenau” managed to approach HMS Glorious without being spotted and destroyed her with their large caliber cannons. Of course there were situations when aircraft carriers managed to win close fights but these may be considered to be extremely unusual situations.

In addition, in game, the map is small enough that there is no real place to hide such a large ship. So, once spotted, carriers will immediately became a primary target for all enemy units.

Secondly, we will have a “slotted” balancing algorithm – where a battleship will be equal to an aircraft carrier, or two cruisers, or four destroyers. So, the number of aircraft carriers per team will be far lower than that of other class ships.

Thirdly, battleships will be able to group up to use the “Anti-aircraft” formation that prevents enemy planes from easy attacks. So it will be the carriers who require the support of allied ships to break through the enemy shield of defense.

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So, it turns out that the carrier’s role will largely depend on its tier?

Yes, you’re right. As per historical reality, our game will reflect the growing influence of carriers for higher tiers. So, at early stages they will generally act as reconnaissance units, used to “spot” enemies for the allied vessels. There will usually be two or three fighter squadrons and one squadron of torpedo planes aboard. It will be fairly easy to handle tiny groups like this, and so their effect on the battlefield will be quite modest. Further on, at higher tiers, heavy carriers will begin fielding dozens of plane squadrons, and can easily turn the tides in any battle.

All in all, aircraft carriers present new tactical strategies for players. You will be able to destroy enemy recon seaplanes with your fighter squadrons, making your opponents blind both partially and completely.

How will you handle Lexington or Akagi type carriers that are known to have been rebuilt from patterns of battle cruisers?


Yes, you’re right, these ships were actually rebuilt from cruisers and battleships. However, according to naval treaties that limited the number of them per fleet, it was then decided to turn these initial projects into aircraft carriers, We will have some of them present in the game in two variations (carrier / battleship), in the relevant tech trees.

Won’t this confuse fans of military history?

No, as we have seen in practice, most players understand that it is a unique opportunity to see and experience ships that were never built in real life.

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So, which is tougher: the ‘elephant’ or the ‘whale’?

The outcome of such a battle would depend on numerous details. Despite all the pros of the carrier, the battleship has also a word to say.

For instance, the simple circular “Anti-aircraft arrangement” will effectively cover ships within it from any aerial attacks. So squadrons will have to return for refueling and leave their ship temporary disarmed, offering their enemies several minutes for attack. This time may be sufficient to approach firing distance and complete several salvos. Even a single unexpected raid of destroyers may disarm (if not destroy) a carrier, making it dodge from their attacks and keep it from launching any planes.

Ultimately, winning or losing a battle will largely depend on the player’s skill and experience, and their ability to rapidly adjust strategies to respond to the constantly changing battle situation. Generally, I guess such fights will be won by the smartest opponent, whether it be a whale or an elephant.

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/aircraft ... e-balance/
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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 26. März 2014 19:53

Blog Update + Fan Kit

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Captains!

We are constantly striving to ensure that the World of Warships blog, which serves not only as the official information platform for our project, but also as a place of direct communication with the game’s developers. It is comfortable, open and friendly to each user, therefore we recently released another massive update.

As you probably noticed we have improved the layout and changed the overall design of your blog. It is now much easier to navigate content through the use of functional tags and filters. Each publication is now accompanied by a photograph of the author. This is designed to bring you and our awesome team even closer together. We’ve also made commenting on articles more user friendly, now you can subscribe to our newsletter and receive updates on posted articles directly to your mailbox!

On top of that, we have prepared a little something for our fans. The project is becoming more and more popular. Quite naturally this draws the attention and of a lot of fan resources. Devoted both to World of Warships and Wargaming.net and naval affairs in general.

To support our reader’s creative urge and to showcase some of our amazing artwork and footage, we’ve created the following Fan Kit:

World of Warships Fan Kit (2.09 GB)

It contains renders, screenshots, logos, key art, CGI trailers and expedition videos.
We hope you’ll enjoy them as much as we do!

The World of Warships Team

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/blog-update-fan-kit/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:27, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
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England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 29. März 2014 12:22

Interview with Petr “PPK” – Head of Game Design


Captains! A few weeks ago you had the opportunity to ask questions to Andrey, Head of Gameplay.

This Thursday, February 20, you’ll have a chance to interview Petr “PPK” Porai-Koshitc, Head of Game Design! All you need to do is to enter your question(s) as a comment to this post.

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You can learn more about Petr by reading 16 game design questions and Interview with World of Warships Head of Game Design.



The most interesting questions will be answered by Petr this Thursday, February 20. The interview will last one hour: from 15.00 GMT to 16.00 GMT (16.00 CET to 17.00 CET).



Previous sessions of “interactive interviews”: The_Challenger, Ev1n, Danny, Andrey.


See you all on Thursday!

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/intervie ... me-design/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:26, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
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England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
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Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 3. April 2014 19:26

Developer’s Blog: From Top to Bottom


Over the last seven months, the Word of Warships Developer’s Blog has become a popular place for conversations between developers and the community, a key location to spare some time at and pick up the latest info. To celebrate the updated platform, we thought we would take a look at how it all came about creation so today’s story is “a blog about the blog”.

The first part to appear was our forum. This fulfilled the needs of our growing project up to a certain point, giving the fans the chance to chat with each other whilst the game was being built. The game was still at an early stage then, so there wasn’t much that we could say about it, so the informal format worked fine.

We realised that we would need to have new functionality to start in June 2013. However, the new content was not about the alpha release as many of you thought, but the expedition that our team took across the USA to visit museums and ships. Knowing that we would have to process a large amount of information from the expedition, with new content every day, we needed a place to present it, but where? The game’s forum wasn’t ideal, as it was already serving other purposes at that time. So, we decided to create a new space instead of simply reworking the existing site, and there were only a few days before the expedition was to begin.

After consulting with all the relevant people, we managed to launch it in time with very simple design and functionality.

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The blog’s main page version 1. It didn’t even have post previews, just the logo – so hardcore!



All problems could be easily seen right on the main page, but despite this, it worked quite well. It was possible to post articles and comment on them. The page counter was reset before the expedition began, and we even made a reckless promise – to issue daily reports. This became a real nightmare for our content team who had to endure sleepless nights and early mornings to prepare the new material. That’s how we spent those twenty days!

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Despite the pressure, we managed to keep our promise and the blog finally enjoyed its first readers. Initially, we only had only 500 visitors per day, but they helped us to understand what our community wanted to hear from us. It was too late to retreat anyway – the project had been unleashed and it was up to us now to support and develop it. Luckily, we had a vast scope of activities.

Everything changes – not just the design and functionality, but also the content itself. The name of the platform implies that the content (or at least the major part of it) should be generated by developers and be focused on the World of Warships game development process.

We already knew what we wanted, so the next stage was to find a person to do this job: someone willing to write the news and post it up. That’s how we got some guys from different departments among our authors who now create new content for our community. Of course, we wanted to avoid repetition and keep it all “professionally balanced”. However, now the blog reflects both professional relations and the human differences as well: every article possesses specific character and style, all of which adds to the blog’s character.

We chose the people we wanted to interview and arranged for them to happen. Later on, the number of tools was increased along with the number of topics covered. Alert readers may have already noticed that every month we add a new type of content. When Nicholas Moran (our colleague from US) visited the St. Petersburg office, we decided to give our community the chance to speak to infamous “Chieftain”. This actually became our first “An Hour With The Developers” forum meeting – something that has since become a permanent feature, in which users can ask their questions directly and immediately get a response. [In Europe our first guest was The_Challenger]

Of course, no innovation is random. Every new feature has been carefully considered in order to shape the game and developer team image. We added contests and video interviews based on your questions to make the blog really interactive, and released a series of animations about penetration zones when it became apparent that this material required better illustration. Articles from alpha testers were added once it became possible, meaning everyone could directly or indirectly get a picture of what’s really happening to the game right now. Essentially, we tried our best to keep the blog up to date, interactive and intuitive.

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The blog should always present information clearly, even when it is experiencing downtime.


After all, a person can be repelled by an unattractive product, or one that never reveals its essential features. Early on, when our blog was only a few weeks old, we put the emphasis on three points: convenience, design and social component.

Convenience. As we said before, the blog was only had few tools available, and this needed to be fixed as soon as possible. For instance, introducing search windows and filters meant that our users no longer had to scroll through all the articles in the blog when looking for specific information. This wasn’t easy – some articles had to be removed to make navigation easier.

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Design. Talking about design is like writing a code for perfume, so we’ll let the screenshots speak for us.

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Top: former layout of post list. Bottom: the current display depends on the filters selected.


Here you can see the evolution of the main page. On the old screens you can see that the header covered over half of the main page, something that was clearly not ideal. We started to look for ways to fix this.

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Examination of the layout in different popular resolutions

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The Intermediate version wasn’t that bright, so we decided to make it better. This picture also contains also working font and banner drafts.



You’ve already seen the results, so let’s move onto the next point.

Social Component. Our blog is a dialog area and is intended to be used for communication both ways! While, we wanted to tell everyone about the game, we wanted to be able to have a conversation with our community rather than just write articles, so it was important for us to be able to have that interaction.

To make our readers comfortable and socially active, we added tools for commenting, tweaked social network plug-ins, and added an option to subscribe to our news. We also looked for ways to make each page more user-friendly and “warm”. To help, we decided to add the author’s photo to each of the articles.

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Working version of the page. The latter was chosen as it bears more personalised character.



Why did we consider this to be important? There is a person stays behind every article, someone who devoted his or her time to making the game better. We want our readers to see World of Warships not just as a gigabyte-sized pile of code, but also as the work of real people who love the game they are making.

As time passes, we will start appearing on lots of new official platforms. However, our blog will remain one of the main sources of information about World of Warships. So we will continue to develop it, while listening to your opinions about it in your comments. Some of them match with our vision, while others are just not possible to introduce just yet. Rest assured that we are paying attention though and will take everything into consideration – perhaps your great idea will see the light in the future!

Stay in touch with us!

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/develope ... to-bottom/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:26, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
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England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
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Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 5. April 2014 21:38

An Interview with Naval Historian Eugene Pinak


Captains, as you will know from our article with military consultant Tadamasa Miyanaga, or the interview we had with naval history expert Vladimir Sidorenko, we have been in close contact with military history experts while developing World of Warships.

To continue with our features about this, today we present to you an interview with Eugene Pinak who—together with Vladimir Sidorenko—co-authored the book “Japanese Aircraft Carriers of World War II: ‘Dragons’ of Pearl Harbor and Midway.”



More about Eugene Pinak can be found here.

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/an-inter ... ene-pinak/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:25, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
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England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 10. April 2014 21:04

Cruisers: the Sea Wolves of World of Warships


You know, there’s something vivid about the word “Cruiser”. It’s one of those words that conjures up the image of what it means: large and powerful, but unexpectedly agile and speedy for such a large ship. Perhaps you can see why I compared them to wolves. These ships are fairly capable of “solo performance” and acting independently from the rest of the fleet, while also being effective in supporting their fellows in “the pack”. Perhaps it is their versatility that makes it hard for players to clearly grasp how to best play these ships. The role is quite clear for battleships – they are mighty and huge, while destroyers are sneaky and light. How then should we assess cruisers?

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Playing as a Medium was not the way…
When I was initially invited to the World of Warships Alpha Test, cruisers were the first ships that I set my eyes on. Back then, I was attracted by the low reloading time and thus the high rate of fire. Nine high-calibre barrels each firing a salvo every 10 seconds – this was surely no place for jokes! Their manoeuvrability was also impressive. Unfortunately my World of Tanks experience was of no use. Fighting with your cruiser the same way you would with medium tanks is a really bad idea. Just imagine that the IS-7 that you’re about to corner fires not one, but six shells at you when you approach it. This is what actually happened to me in those early battles.
My strongest memory of those failures is when I was destroyed by a single (supposedly blind) salvo from a distance of over 30km. Damn, I thought, this really must be a completely useless vessel. However, in the following battle it was me on my cruiser that whirled around an enemy battleship in the immunity zone, peppering it with my salvos and distracting it from my fellow carriers.

So where is the power, folks?
The cruiser’s real power is its versatility. Want to repel enemy aviation? Engage a destroyer? Meet an enemy battleship with an HE salvo? None of these are a problem for a cruiser! High manoeuvrability and acceleration allow these ships to effectively dodge battleship attacks, while striking back at them with HE shells and easily clearing the decks of everything that isn’t welded down properly. Japanese cruisers are also capable of carrying torpedo launchers, making it possible for them to block strategic approaches. In proper hands, cruisers are very powerful tools indeed.

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One for all
A cruiser’s survival in 1-on-1 battles largely depends on the overall course of the battle. For example, a direct head-on advance towards a battleship will obviously be suicidal, especially if you’re far away from the rest of your team. Despite a number of decent cannons, that rapid reload time is still not fast enough to beat a battleship one-on-one. On the other hand, engaging an advancing destroyer is likely to be far more successful. The short reloading time allows cruisers to lock precisely on to a target within just a minute or so, ensuring the enemy ship will be met with a sufficient amount of shells.
Packs of cruisers are even more menacing. Their anti-aircraft effectiveness grows immensely in groups, and dense cannon fire can present a threat to any opponent. A single pair of Japanese “Takao” class cruisers can perform intense torpedo attacks just as well as destroyers. In addition, survivability within a group is much higher than when solo.

Now even more cruisers
Cruiser gameplay differs from ship to ship, depending on their construction and nationality. For instance, US ships are quite effective against enemy planes, whereas Japanese vessels possess somewhat weak artillery. However, those torpedo launchers compensate, allowing them to advance for aggressive attacks.

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Captain, we have a ship full of noobs!
That versatility needs to be paid for. Essentially this means that you have to spend more time to master a cruiser. You need to spend your spare time tracking recon planes, aiming and shooting at destroyers while simultaneously dodging their return attacks – this is pretty complex activity for a newcomer. You’ll really need to be good at doing several things at once before you get your hands on a cruiser.
Take your time to master it and you’ll gradually become an advanced sailor. While they may be dynamic vessels, cruisers actually demand thoughtful and careful operation. These ships are precise tools to be used, sparingly and with exact timing.

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/cruisers ... -warships/
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England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 13. April 2014 19:07

Torpedoes Right Ahead!


From the moment when humans first started picking up rocks to hit animals and each other with, an arms race began. For every weapon that was developed, someone was already thinking of one that would be more effective and threatening to counter it. Even at sea, this was no different. For many centuries, the only way to attack enemy ships was to get close enough to ram or board them. Later on, it became possible to deliver small explosive charges through the air (such as by firing cannons), or by finding another way to use a large explosive.

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A breakthrough came thanks to an English inventor named Robert Whitehead. The first prototype torpedo was launched in 1866, and just a few decades later, torpedoes were present in the arsenals of every major maritime nation. They were also famously used during World War I. Over a third of ships in the Battle of Jutland were downed by torpedo fire. Every attack like this was a true menace – several hundredweights of explosives rapidly approaching your ship – unlike regular HE shells, it really couldn’t be ignored, especially if the charge had been sent to detonate underwater. An underwater breach to the hull could be sufficient to down even the largest battleships. Even if the ship is lucky enough to remain afloat, her speed and manoeuvrability will be severely reduced due to the water in the hull.

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In game, torpedoes are only carried by cruisers and destroyers, which have launchers on their decks. Aircraft carriers also have a means to use them through the aircraft on board. Why are they not used by battleships? Historically, these giant ships were only able to launch torpedoes from underwater launchers. Aiming was performed by turning the hull, and the torpedoes themselves had a low operational range. As a result, compared to the rest of the battleship’s armaments, torpedoes were a less desirable option, and sources state that the torpedoes were generally only used for training and never in battle.

So, what do we need to launch a torpedo? An enemy, our own ship with torpedo launchers aboard and, of course, the torpedoes themselves! There are numerous variables to take into account – speed, travel depth, salvo divergence angle (wide or narrow) all need to be account for. Not to mention the target’s azimuth (angular position), leading point, launch intervals, movement… It all sounds very complex, doesn’t it? Thankfully, we’re not building a sim, so we picked another way.

The leading point will be shown by the game – all we need to do is to define the launch direction and the divergence angle (how widely the torpedoes spread). Although massively simplified compared to the real life process, it’s still a fair bit to handle during the heat of a fierce battle as you will need to anticipate the movement of your enemy and define the angle for torpedo spread. At short distance you may want to give your torpedoes a wider spread to increase your chances of hitting the target. Narrower spreads will result in heavier impacts, but are also easier to dodge.

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At long range, this is reversed. Wider spreads are easier to dodge because by the time the torpedoes reach the enemy, the gaps between them are much wider and easier to slip into.

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So, our torpedoes fly out of the tubes and are speeding towards the target. What can the enemy do to resist the attack? Firstly, they can start actively manoeuvring to evade the attack. More nimble ships will find this simpler to do than big slow heavy ones! Ships can also use islands to provide natural cover from attacks, but be careful and choose wisely – certain low locations may be impossible to cross by ships but can still be skipped over by torpedoes!

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So, to summarise! When used correctly, a torpedo launch can deal deadly damage to an enemy ship, even those that are far larger than the attacker!

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/torpedoes-right-ahead/
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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 26. April 2014 20:33

Closed Alpha Test in numbers – February update


Captains!

With February ending we’d like to share with you some updated statistics from the Closed Alpha Test!

Over and out!


Bild

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/closed-a ... ry-update/
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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 26. April 2014 20:35

World of Warships – a year in review


Captains, have you ever wondered…

How many people are working on World of Warships?
How many shots were fired in-game, from the beginning of the Alpha test?
How many ships were tweaked for testing purposes?

Check out our video for the answers to all these questions, and more!



-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/world-of ... in-review/
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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 1. Mai 2014 10:41

Ships are Simple (Except When They’re Not)


When creating an ambitious game like World of Warships, the development team has to consider numerous details and variables. Many of these details may be invisible from the player’s point of view, but they form the backbone of the entire game. Today, Ivan Moroz, the World of Warships Global Operation Director, tells us about some of these odd little details.

Right from the early concept stages, World of Warships has been designed to a very specific aim. Our players are not expecting to see a straight “copy-paste” of the other Wargaming Universe games. They want to see the development of the ideas inherent in the trilogy that make each project unique. We call it the ‘Subsequent Evolution Step’. This is why it is an ambitious task before us – we must ensure succession with the previous projects while developing the gameplay mechanics and in-game logic, and adding new original solutions to provide our players with a unique gaming experience.



Level Design

Designing levels is an area which is rich in nuance and hidden detail. Landscape elements in World of Warships are not just there to look pretty – they force players to manoeuvre actively, and they largely define battle tactics and dynamics. For instance, the tropical maps are scattered with numerous tiny islands and sandbanks that mean heavy ships must think twice and move cautiously. Being caught in a bay where they are unable to move will make them easy prey. On the other hand, lighter vessels such as destroyers will feel pretty confident in this environment – they can move swiftly across the shoals and even launch torpedoes while remaining relatively safe from their enemies. The map change can affect things dramatically, shifting the superiority back to the heavier ships.

In addition, level design has a huge impact on spotting mechanics. Hiding behind islands and other landscape elements provides players with the chance to evade enemy attacks and remain unspotted. As the shells have a curve trajectory, the closer you are to land, the more cover you have from incoming impacts. Destroyers can use smoke screens to achieve the same effect. Using this tactically means that destroyers can temporarily alter the map and thus the battle outcome itself.

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Ship Models

Another process with a lot of details behind it is that of the creation of ship models. Obviously, this is very important! As mentioned before, ships are complex battle machines composed of dozens of sections, modules and functional parts. Damaging or destroying any of these has a direct effect on the gaming experience and could alter the tactical situation on the battlefield very quickly. For instance, an undamaged battleship takes some time to turn her cannons 180 degrees to aim another broadside, and this should be taken into consideration when you play. However, if enemies succeed in damaging the turrets, they may stop rotating altogether, rendering the entire ship ineffective at short distance. In some cases, you can fix it with consumables to extinguish a fire or repair a module, but the rest of the damage can only be fixed when you are back in the dock. A high calibre turret that has been destroyed may not be repairable on the scene, leaving you with reduced firepower for the rest of the battle. There’s logic in it – the ship’s crew would be completely focused on fighting for the ship’s survival, so fixing such a complex mechanism would be beyond their capabilities in the heat of battle.

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Gameplay and Game Balance

Gameplay aspects are also high priority for the World of Warships developers. The way different vehicle classes interact in World of Warships is different from those in the other projects. In World of Tanks, a light tank may only be able to deal minimal damage to a heavy tank opponent, but in World of Warships, any destroyer could quite capably take down even a battleship.

Essentially, World of Warships utilises the classing interaction triangle for playable units – battleships are effective against cruisers, which can deal with destroyers, who in turn can take down the battleships. Aircraft carriers are at the centre of the triangle and can interact effectively with all of the other classes, while being vulnerable at short distances to any ship in the game.

Indeed, aircraft carriers are difficult to master, as you will need to control both the vessel and the aircraft flights simultaneously, something which will involve designating their targets and returning them for refuelling and repairs. If you can handle it though, the rewards are good – seaplanes can seriously affect naval warfare, even in several points at once. To get an idea of this, you can compare a plane to a high calibre shell of a battleship, and they are expended, purchased and repaired in much the same way.



These and many other elements together form the whole product view. There is no place here for half-hearted efforts – every component of the game must shine and make it friendly and open for every player.


-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/ships-are-simple/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:23, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
Eigennützige Werbung für meine hier geschriebenen AARs:

England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 7. Mai 2014 18:02

Through the Eyes of an NA Alpha Tester 2, pt. 1


I’m doomed, that’s for sure.

With a speed of 25 knots my bruised and battered Nagato races towards the enemy, its superstructure black and smoking from the fires my crew just managed to put out, one of the aft turrets is locked in position, its guns are silent and pointing at nothing as the gun crews were just reloading the massive barrels then the turret was hit by one or more large calibre shells.

Shells keep whizzing overhead, creating huge columns of water as they land close to my ship. “Shellsplashes! Shellsplashes everywhere!” I mutter. It’s not looking good, I’m the only battleship left in my team and the rest is scattered across the map save for one Takao, who’s in no better shape than I am, but at least was so kind to stay close and provide AA cover for me.

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Or, WAS providing AA cover. Just as I was looking at him I hear another salvo of shells screaming towards us. They fly directly over my ship, straight into the hull of my unfortunate escort. With a large explosion one of the magazines explodes…and my escort was no more.

Alone on my side of the map, I know I’m doomed, but I’m not planning to go down without a fight!

My last scout plane reports the sighting of a badly damaged North Carolina. I make a sharp turn to port in order to bring as many guns to bear as I can. I fire my first salvo…it misses horribly! Oh well, next salvo! This one lands closer are my gunners are starting to find the range to the target, which has finally noticed me firing on him and starts to turn into a better firing position. Third salvo…straddle! My shells land close to the NoCal, doing little structural damage but quite the amount of buoyancy damage. The fourth salvo…was pure magic. My six 16.1 inch shells fly towards my foe in a beautiful formation, screaming past the camera as they drop down on their target. Five of the six shell find their mark. One lands on one of the forward turrets, which goes up in a bright explosion. One nearly misses, but still manages to cause some buoyancy damage, while the rest slam into the deck of the unfortunate ship. “Critical hit!”, I hear, as I see the last bit of hitpoints evaporate. The NoCal slows down, and I see its bow break off as it sinks.

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My HUD goes red as an enemy shell finds its way to my ship’s superstructure. While the lost amount of hitpoints was minimal, it took out a number of the few AA guns I had left. “Blasted HE shells”, I say to myself as I try to find out where the shots came from.

Redirecting my scout, I quickly find a lone Baltimore-class heavy cruiser which is heading in my direction, firing round after round my way as he tries to ruin my modules with HE shells. While I’m badly damaged, he is no serious threat to me as his guns lack the power to penetrate my ships armor. I fire a salvo his way in an attempt to repay his “kindness”. Two of them find their mark, but do little damage as they pass straight through the cruisers thin armor. “Shell overpenetrated!” one of my officers reports. “Why, thank you captain obvious! Load High Explosives!”

Roughly twenty seconds later, another salvo goes his way. One of the HE shells finds its mark, exploding on impact and doing massive damage on the lightly armored cruiser.

While I’m enjoying myself pounding the helpless cruiser to death, my worst fear becomes reality. Red dots show up on my minimap: divebombers and torpedo bombers. Bombers are a serious threat to a slow and sluggish battleship when it has an escort, but a lone battleship is pretty much doomed if the player using the carrier knows what he’s doing.

Just before he sinks, the Baltimore has one little present for me. With a hail of AA fire he manages to take down my last scout…making me blind. A battleship has a long line of sight, but not as long as the range of its guns. I desperately ask my team for extra eyes in the sky, but realise we only have a few destroyers (without scoutplanes) left.

I hardly have time to do anything about it, though. The little red dots finally managed to get close to my ship and the few AA guns my ship has left start to open up. Little black clouds start to form around the planes and, if you look closely, tracers from machineguns are streaking towards the aircraft.

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realise that the first two waves are torpedo bombers, and I turn away from them in order to minimize the target they can aim at. Two waves of five torpedoes come my way, and turning away looked like the right thing to do: eight of the miss…but two hit me in the stern. “Heavy flooding!”, “Critical engine damage!”…well…crap.

As my ships engines are knocked out due to the torpedo damage, I look at the third wave of aircraft which is surely bringing my doom. Dive bombers are a battleship’s worst nightmare, always hitting a battleship’s weak deck armor, they do massive damage if not stopped by some serious AA fire or evasive manoeuvres. And as my AA was seriously ON fire a few minutes ago and with my engines offline, those bombers aren’t going to have much of a problem of getting to their target: me.

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/through- ... er-2-pt-1/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:23, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
Eigennützige Werbung für meine hier geschriebenen AARs:

England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 14. Mai 2014 18:24

Through the Eyes of an NA Alpha Tester 2, pt. 2


While my AA gunners managed to take down one of the bombers, the remaining four dive down and deliver their deadly payload. I wanted to say “Well, that was that!”, but then I realised that, even though they did massive damage…I STILL LIVE! They took out another two of my turrets and my ship is hanging together with virtual duct tape, but I still live!

When my damage control teams managed to get the engines back up and running, I slowly but surely got underway again. With a top speed of only 16 knots due to the engine damage and the large amounts of water my ship has already taken on, I once again set a course to certain doom and destruction. If I got to go down, I’ll at least apply the golden rule and take as many of them with me as I can!

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Suddenly, a message appears in global chat: “Carepackage inbound for mister JeeWeeJ!”

Wait…what?

A few seconds later a salvo of large calibre shells hits the water near my ship…and another salvo…and another!

Bild


xThecanadianx and Schultz, those dastardly rascals, both in Yamato’s have obviously found me while I have no idea where they are. It didn’t take long before the 18.1” shells started to land on my ship, taking away the few hitpoints I had left and shortly after my proud ship, which had served me so well, went down.

I congratulated them on TeamSpeak and went back to dock, picked a Yamato of my own and went back into another game.

***


Welcome to the World of Warships Alpha, where the game is being tested, but no less important, a LOT of fun is being had!


Without going into details I can say that this is one of the smoothest games I’ve ever tested. The screenshots do not lie: the game DOES look that good when you put the graphics on max. It’s a pure joy to see your ship in action, but it’s also more of a game for the thinking man. As described above, going Rambo and rushing towards the enemy is a one way trip to the bottom. All ships have their strengths and weaknesses and not one plays the same.

Also, there are no detectable “national traits”, for instance, a tier X USN battleship can have a completely different play style than a tier Y battleship. It’s all according as it was in real life…except ships had no health bars in reality.

Personally I’ve fallen deeply in love with the battleships. The sense of power these ships give have no equal in other games. But this does not mean that you’re this invincible floating piece of metal! As described above, there are many dangers that can easily take you down. A well placed salvo of torpedoes from a destroyer or torpedo bombers or bombs from a divebomber can severely ruin your day.

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Destroyers are just made of pure fun. In my opinion you can have two play styles with them: you can do high speed charges at the enemy while dodging incoming fire, launch your torpedoes and get the hell out under the cover of a smokescreen, or play defensively and cover your battleships with smokescreens, hiding them from view from the enemy.

Cruisers are a bit in the same boat as destroyers. You can go on the offensive and try to take out enemy destroyers, cruisers and carriers, or if you’re lucky and armed with torpedoes, a battleship! On the other hand, you can also stay with your own team’s big boys and cover them with your AA guns, something the USN ships are especially good at! (as they were in real life)

And then there are carriers, the class I’ve found difficult to like, but easy to hate as they tend to ruin my day when I’m in a battleship. ;) It’s just not my play style but they can be so very, very, dangerous when used by a skilled player. More than once I’ve been on a team which was, on paper, the superior force…only to be denied our victory because the enemy carrier’s fighters took down all our scouts, removing our vision on the enemy ships while they could see us.

But the most important aspect of all is teamwork. If you cover each other you can achieve so much more. Sticking together improves your AA coverage, reducing the risk of enemy bombers, you can focus fire on a target, you share line of sight, cover each other with smokescreens and simply improve your chances of survival and reduce that of your enemies.

And while it’s nice to critically hit a tank in World of Tanks, it doesn’t come close to the satisfaction of firing a salvo at 30+ kilometres, waiting 15 seconds for your shells to arrive, see them slamming through your targets deck armor and Hood-ing (that’s our term for ammo racking) your foe.

Even though that means that can happen to you as well…

As the timer was ticking down (in World of Tanks style) for the game to start, I found out that my buddy/arch nemesis, Ariecho, was on the other team and it didn’t take long before global chat was saying “Primary target: JeeWeeJ”.

As the game got underway It didn’t take long for my team to find the enemies, and while I sailed in a group of three battleships I did indeed seem to be the primary target, as I was targeted by what seemed to be the entire hostile fleet. I fired two salvo´s towards my nemesis…and then I was looking at my ship going up in a brilliant explosion.

I had been Hood’d.

“Oh well…” I sighed “I didn’t like this ship anyway…” and I went back to select another ship and go back into the queue.

It’s not easy to be a self-proclaimed public enemy #1, with everyone out to kill you…but I wouldn’t have it any other way!

JeeWeeJ

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/through- ... er-2-pt-2/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:22, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
Eigennützige Werbung für meine hier geschriebenen AARs:

England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 18. Mai 2014 13:24

Interview with Mikhail “ArdRaeiss” – QA Lead of Game Logic Group


Captains!


It’s time for another Q&A session with World of Warships developers! Last month Petr “PPK” was our guest, this time we’re meeting with [url=blog.worldofwarships.eu/authors/#mikhail-merzlutin]Mikhail Merzlutin[/url] “ArdRaeiss”, QA Lead of Game Logic Group.

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This Thursday, March 20, Mikhail will be answering your questions! All you need to do is to enter your question(s) as a comment to this post.

You can learn more about Mikhail by checking out his blog posts: Is it easy to be a battleship?, Focus on Battleships,Playing Games at Work pt. 1, Playing Games at Work pt. 2,Rock, paper…torpedo! and Aircraft Carriers as they are.

The most interesting questions will be answered by Mikhail this Thursday, March 20. The interview will last one hour: from 15.00 GMT to 16.00 GMT (16.00 CET to 17.00 CET).

Previous sessions of “interactive interviews”: Petr “PPK”, The_Challenger, Ev1n, Danny, Andrey.


See you all on Thursday!

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/intervie ... gic-group/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:22, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
Eigennützige Werbung für meine hier geschriebenen AARs:

England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 18. Mai 2014 13:30

Fire! Major Calibre Guns in short


Although naval artillery first appeared as a main armament in the days of sailing ships, it reached its highest stage of development in the first half of the 20th century. In World of Warships, military equipment revisits this historical period, and being in control of major calibre, that is to say, major artillery weapons, is an important part of gameplay.

For some classes of ship, such as battleships and cruisers, these guns are the only way to destroy the enemy. For others, such as cruisers equipped with torpedo tubes, or destroyers, they are not as important. Many aircraft carriers have no major calibre guns and their weapons are consigned to being secondary artillery weapons.

There are many different turret configurations, each of them designed for a specific task by naval architects. In some projects, the main goal was to provide maximum broadside firepower, in others – the most efficient forward firepower. The location of major calibre guns could also be dictated by technical factors like weight or other restrictions. As expected, turret configuration will affect gameplay directly and the differences between them will be obvious for players.

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That is why, when you are planning your actions, you should always consider where and how turrets are located on your ship because the number of guns which can shoot at the desired target is perhaps more important than the total number of guns on the ship. If only a couple of guns have managed to aim at the target, the player will face a choice – either to wait for the readiness of all guns and give a full salvo at the enemy or to shoot with the guns that are ready (aimed/turned to the enemy) and, after a couple of seconds, fire the remaining ones which, by that time, will have managed to turn in the right direction. Which option is more efficient? Shooting a rare but powerful, full salvo or “splitting” the shots? It depends on the situation and is up to the player.

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If the direction of the shot is set by turning the gun, the desired range is set by the angle of elevation. The maximum and minimum angles are directly dependent on the design of the gun. During modernisation, the elevation angles of ships were often increased to ensure maximum effective firing range. In the 1920s and 30s, many battleships experienced similar improvements, for example, on the U.S. battleship “New Mexico”, the maximum elevation angle was increased from 15 to 30 degrees, which, in combination with some other technical improvements, increased the firing range from 21 to 31 kilometers.

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Besides the elevation angle, a shot depends on other factors: the mass of the shell, its initial velocity and its shape which affects air resistance. This leads to the fact that when firing different types of ammunition the maximum range may vary significantly. For example, the guns of the “North Carolina” can fire HE shells 36 kilometers or so, which is 3 kilometers more than its firing range for AP shells.

The minimum elevation angle depends on a gun’s configuration and its location. As a result, every ship has a minimum range. Between this point and the ship’s side there is a so-called “immunity zone” in which it is impossible to destroy a target.

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This also means that the longer the distance of a shot, the longer it takes for the shell to fly to its target. This leads to the need of thinking in advance when shooting at long distances, taking into account the shell’s flight time and the enemy ship’s speed. If you do not think, then the enemy can escape from your attack and you will miss. For the player it’s a real necessity to take heed before shooting. The further away the enemy, the greater the need to prepare.

In general, the effectiveness of artillery fire is determined by a combination of factors not only including the number of guns and their calibre but also by the location of the turrets on the ship and the right choice of ammunition. Personal skills will also play a great role in battles because even the most powerful warship is useless without a good captain.

-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/fire-maj ... -in-short/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:21, insgesamt 2-mal geändert.
Eigennützige Werbung für meine hier geschriebenen AARs:

England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!

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Re: [World of Warships] News/Screens/Videos/Infos

Beitragvon Galien » 18. Mai 2014 20:06

You ask, We answer – round 2


Captains!

We’d like to share with you a short video with World of Warships Devs answering some of your questions :)

Actions Stations!



-> http://blog.worldofwarships.eu/you-ask- ... r-round-2/
Zuletzt geändert von Galien am 18. Mai 2014 20:20, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.
Eigennützige Werbung für meine hier geschriebenen AARs:

England in HoI III: For Crown And Country!
Deutsches Reich in HoI III: Tagebuch eines deutschen Landsers
Karthago in Total War Rome 2: Alleine gegen den Rest der Welt!