Join Our Test of New Aircraft Carrier and AA Mechanics!

Public Test

27/07/2024

The information in the following article 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. Screenshots, specific values of certain characteristics, and details of in-game mechanics won’t necessarily be relevant after testing.

We've been working on addressing several issues in the interactions between aircraft carriers and surface ships highlighted by the community over the past few years. After extensive brainstorming and initial testing, we're now ready to roll out a concept that we presented earlier for the players to test and share their feedback with us!

In December 2023, we shared a rough outline of our plans and have been polishing it ever since. Now, after a series of closed tests and reviews of tester feedback, we can finally share what we’ve been working on—and we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts!

Main Issues We're Aiming to Tackle

Spotting: Aircraft carriers provide constant yet intermittent spotting that can greatly influence the flow of the battle for surface ships.
AA defenses: Don’t feel sufficiently powerful for surface ships but feels relatively strong for carriers.
Focus: Being targeted by an aircraft carrier can be extremely frustrating, especially if your AA doesn’t feel impactful.
Our goal is to reduce spotting overall and to make it a conscious choice that comes at a cost—even if that cost is simply time and risking planes—while removing unintentional spotting. Another goal is to make AA more impactful while ensuring aircraft carriers remain viable in battles.

We believe the changes outlined below will make the game more satisfying for both sides.

In the current iteration, the changes don't affect hybrid ships. We're still considering our course of action regarding them and will share more information as we proceed. Additionally, we're working on updating interactions with Fighters and plan to expand on this in the future; however, we aren't ready to implement those changes in the current test.

Test Details Changes to Aircraft Carriers Changes to Surface Ships

Test Details

How to Download and Install the Game Client

Install an additional instance of the game.
In the WGC, navigate to the World of Warships tab.
Open the "Game Settings" menu and select "Install additional game instance."
Select "Region: TST" in the upper-left corner on the screen that appears.
Click the "Install" button.

Once you log into the Test Server, you’ll receive the following ships:

Aircraft carriers:
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,
Battleships:
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,
Destroyers:
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,
Cruisers:
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Please use the ships specifically assigned for the test; otherwise, you might experience issues with the game client.

If you haven't registered for the test yet, don't worry! You still have a chance to participate. Click the button below if you'd like to give it a try! Please note that the client download will become available for you only on July 29th after 12:00 UTC.

Rewards

Rewards are essential, and we'll be giving them to all players who fight at least one battle on the Test Server: 100 Doubloons and 750 Coal.

We're also holding a giveaway of

and

! Five of each of these ships will be randomly distributed between players who complete special combat missions for aircraft carriers and surface ships, respectively.

Play 10 Random Battles in destroyers, cruisers, battleships to enter a raffle for
(5 in total).
Play 10 Random Battles in aircraft carriers to enter a raffle for
(5 in total).

The rewards will be delivered no later than 7 working days after the end of testing. You can only win one of these ships.

Changes to Aircraft Carriers

The general flow of the battle for aircraft carriers has changed.

Currently, carriers operate in one state that has the same rules for spotting, attacking, etc. However, in this iteration, similarly to the concept we introduced initially, planes will operate at either low or high altitudes. High altitude is represented by the travel mode, and you have two ways to operate at low altitude: attack mode or the new recon mode. Each mode has specific features and limitations.

High Altitude	Low Altitude
Travel mode	Attack mode	Recon mode
Planes can’t spot opponents Can see opponents spotted by allies Can see opponents spotted by the carrier itself Planes travel at maximum speed Can’t be targeted by AA Can take damage from Fighters Can start attack mode or recon mode Recon mode recharges	Planes can spot opponents Planes travel at cruising speed Can be targeted by both AA and Fighters Planes take reduced damage during the first seconds of descent Once planes descend, the attack starts automatically	Activated by pressing Q Can be activated in travel mode Lasts a limited amount of time Activating recon mode reserves a specific portion of time from the timer After initial activation, the timer continues to go down while you stay in recon mode Returns to travel mode once you run out of recon time or press Q If you return to travel mode prematurely or choose to attack, the reserved time will be lost Planes can be targeted by both AA and Fighters

Travel mode

In earlier announcements, we introduced the concept of the travel mode to address the issue with spotting. Several key aspects define this state, so let's break them down.

Travel mode involves flying at high altitude where your planes can't spot enemies, but they can see opponents spotted by your allies. Planes can be spotted by other planes and surface ships while operating in travel mode.

The engine boost bar and Engine Cooling consumable will be removed. Instead, planes will always move at maximum speed to help you reach targets quickly, minimizing the time needed to move around the map and allowing more active gameplay.

Additionally, you won't be targetable by AA fire but will take damage from Fighters.

In other words, this mode allows you to travel across the map quickly and rather safely; however, you have to rely on spotting from your teammates to identify targets.

It’s important to note that in previous iterations, Defensive AA Fire could reach planes at high altitude. This will no longer be the case. Based on the feedback from the closed test, we decided to separate interactions for low and high altitudes, so now, while in travel mode, your planes can only be attacked by hostile aircraft.

Initially, we also presented a new consumable ‘Active Reconnaissance’ that was supposed to help aircraft carriers locate enemy ships while in the travel mode but after testing we have abandoned the idea. Active Reconnaissance didn't provide enough useful information for players, yet if we decided to make it any stronger it would become a must before making an attack. Instead, aircraft carriers will have a different spotting tool — we will get to it in a moment.

Attack mode

Recon mode

Manual Control

We're happy to present a feature that was widely requested by carrier players. While not controlling aircraft, you'll be able to manually control the secondary guns of your carriers! This provides an additional layer of gameplay for them—for example, in cases when you must confront an enemy that has gotten too close or when you run out of planes during the late game.

In the case of carriers with mixed secondary armaments, you'll be able to control the largest caliber guns—they will quite literally become the main caliber, while the smaller caliber guns will be considered your secondaries. While operating aircraft, all guns will be controlled by AI as usual. If a carrier doesn’t have any secondary guns, it will operate as it did before.

While you manually control the guns, they will have greater range and precision than when controlled by AI. The main battery guns on aircraft carriers will have comparable characteristics to those of destroyers of their tier but with reduced accuracy.

When controlling a carrier, you must manually use the Damage Control Party consumable. Once you launch your planes, the consumable will become automatic again.

Changes to Surface Ships

One of the issues we see in the game is that there are several AA options, but they don’t feel powerful and often do the same thing. Moreover, if a ship’s AA defenses are weak by default, using extra tools doesn’t make much difference; they are only useful if the ship had strong AA weaponry from the start.

We want to provide more tools for surface ships to protect themselves and their allies against carriers, so let's dive straight into it!

Manual AA	Updated Defensive AA Fire	Automatic AA	Fighters
Only affects planes at low altitude Covers the whole AA area around the ship Used reactively Deals % damage within AA range proportional to the squadron's health	Only affects planes at low altitude Used pre-emptively Increases the ship's AA range to 7 km Increases AA damage If activated before the planes enter the extended AA range, prevents them from spotting any ships/planes Boosts automatic AA progress to 50%	Only affects planes at low altitude Progress passively increases as your AA deals damage to planes Activates automatically Works for an extended period Increases AA damage Increases damage caused by manual AA Reduces manual AA cooldown	Can attack planes at both high and low altitudes

Manual AA

We've improved several aspects of the priority sector; it won’t be just a sector anymore—when activated, it will cover the whole AA area around the ship and will now be called manual AA.

Like the current implementation, manual AA can be activated with the press of a button and takes effect within your AA range. It instantly deals a percentage of damage proportional to the squadron's health. In other words, it should be used reactively to deal burst damage to enemy planes. Manual AA will not increase AA damage.

In previous iterations, we changed priority sector to "active concealment," a completely new concept. One of its main features was the ability to prevent planes from spotting if they entered its range when activated. After gathering data and feedback from closed testing, we chose to abandon this idea. The mechanics felt too complicated, and players had to interact with it constantly. After some consideration, we decided it would be better to move this effect to Defensive AA Fire to highlight the unique role of the consumable. It will also help aircraft carriers: they will know that only ships with this specific consumable will be able to prevent them from spotting. We'll talk more about this in the Defensive AA Fire section.

Automatic AA

Updated Defensive AA Fire