This is the exclusive Wot-News interview with Ivan Morozov, one of the World of Warships developers. Please note that I tried to translate everything correctly, but I don’t know the naval terms even in English. Also, if you are confused by some of the answers (like “what did he mean by that”) – well, so am I. Here’s what he said:
Do you publish a lot of info about World of Warships?
We publish several entries per week on our blog, we do tell about the game and its development. There, you can find out about the game mechanics, get an idea about the state of the game from fresh screenshots or read regular reports from alphatest either from tester reports or from the infographics. Apart from various kinds of content posting, the developers simply talk directly to the blog readers, answering their questions using videos or interviews online. So, to answer your question – yes, we publish a lot about World of Warships. Especially given the fact that the project is still in the alpha testing stage.
Can you tell us what the WoWs ship classes will look like?
We can tell, but you have to see it with your own eyes. Of course a tanker will get the associations immediately: battleship – that’s a heavy tank, destroyer – that’s a “scout”, aircraft carrier is “artillery and cruiser is like a tank destroyer. But after even a few battles in WoWs, it becomes clear that using WoT tactics will surely lead to defeat.
Sea battles were fought according to their own rules, which were used for the core of WoWs game mechanics. That’s why there is no principles matching with World of Tanks mechanics apart from the general rules. The role of “scouts” is fulfilled by scout planes and destroyers can completely destroy a huge battleship with one good torpedo salvo. Interaction between classes of ships and effective set of tactics are also implemented completely differently. For example, traditional TD tactic – hide and snipe – is principially impossible in WoWs. Firstly – because a ship staying on one spot will be quickly destroyed and secondly, because of the difference in damage dealing system, that is described below. All these differences might seem unusual,but they will certainly not disappoint the tankers.The possibility to deploy smoke screens, deploy air attacks or cover your teammates with AA fire screen mean that the strategists will find their room to maneuver.
How big will the teams and maps be?
We are currently experimenting with team sizes, we are considering variants in range from 12 to 18 players. The optimal solution is tied to the map size – in our case, they will be 50km x 50km big.
Will the maps differ from the WoT ones, or will the islands play the role of “cover”?
They will be different – our map settings will be gorgeous. Generally, design of the game maps for WoWs is a separate topic, complicated and interesting. Just like in World of Tanks are the elements of landscape supposed to help the player, to determine the tactics and to decide the dynamics of the battle. In our case, they stimulate the player to maneuver actively and to react instantaneously. For example, tropical maps with a lot of small islands and shallow water force the heavy ships to pick their route very carefully, so they don’t get stuck in narrow straits much to the amusement of the enemy. But light ships have a sort of an advantage here: they can maneuver freely, sail through shoals and even fire torpedos through them.
The situation then changes on another map and those who had the advantage before will be forced to
be much more careful.
There are no camo bushes on open sea. How will the ships mask themselves? How will the visibility system different from the tank one?
Spotting and visibility mechanics as a whole will depend a lot on the design location. A player can hides behind islands, rocks and hills, but this kind of camo system, as I said before, is different from the one in WoT. You can’t just hide and stop the engines – a static ship is a dead ship. You also have to consider ballistics. Since the shell flies through a sharp ballistic curve (SS: not sure about the proper naval term, basically a high-angle shot like the arty uses in WoT), the closer to the land the player is, the better he is protected. By the way, I already mentioned smokescreen, that’s in fact also a landscape element. Setting it on the right spot, the player creates an artificial cover for his team and in fact he changes the layout of the map according to his needs. Other game possibilities, that affect the visibility system, are currently being developed.
What’s the current WoWs status? When will it enter closed beta stage?
Currently, WoWs is in closed alpha stage. That means that the game is now available to a small group of players, which help us to polish the main elements of the gameplay before we can open the door to all who want to try.
How can we now get into the alpha test?
There are several ways. You can leave your request on the forum, but in order for it to be considered, you have to post 50 and more posts on the WoWs forums. There are other options as well however. We are constantly running lotteries for alpha access on the forums, the blog and the WoWs VK group. Be active on our sites, that increases your chance of getting in compared to others.
What nations are available on alpha-test? What nations are planned in general?
Currently the players are testing the ships of two nations: Japan and USA. These will be implemented when the game is released. This answer can hardly raise eyebrows: at the beginning of WW2, these countries were rightfully considered foremost naval military powers. After the game is released, we will add other nations into the game. What definitely has to appear in WoWs are the branches of Great Britain, Germany, Russian Empire/Soviet Union, France and Italy. There is also an idea of a “small nations” tree. Many countries in those years couldn’t boast with an advanced fleet, but they had very unusual projects. By bringing together the ships of Holland, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Austrian-Hungary and Greece, we can get a very interesting and well balanced development tree.
Will there be “dings”? How will the damage system work? Will the ships have weakspots such as the KV-5 miniturret?
The damage system in WoWs considers many factors such as thickness of the armor, its slope, the point where the shell meets the obstacle, angle of impact, velocity and penetration capability of the shell. The difference from tanks is that the armor of the ship is not homogenous and is different on various parts of the ship, so in order to destroy the ship engine, you will have to penetrate 3-4 layers of armor of various thicknesses. Naturally, vital parts and equipment such as engine, ammunition storage and command center are protected by the thickest armor, but hitting them will cause significantly more damage than hitting for example the rear of the ship. That means that “oneshots” in WoWs are possible, but difficult to achieve. If you achieve a direct hit on the ammunition storage, consider the enemy already sunk.
The “didn’t penetrate their armor” situation can occur in a few cases. For example when picking a shell with penetration poorer than what is needed to beating your opponent:
Or when you choose the attack range poorly. Every ship has its “zone of free maneuver” – that’s the distance on which it is practically invulnerable to enemy shells. We described this mechanic in detail on our blog earlier.
How will the battle dynamic be compared to other WG projects? Will there be “hugging”?
It’s possible to say that the WoWs gameplay will go at slower pace, when compared to the other games of the “World of” series. But it won’t be boring! Even when playing on a relatively small destroyer, you will have to successfully keep switching between main guns and torpedos, while creating smokescreens and shooting enemy planes with your AA guns (AI helps with that) while not forgetting to maneuver actively, evading enemy fire. As you can see, it will be very important in the game to reach the right pace and keep it until the end of the match.
“Hugging” in classical sense will be impossible. First, the enemy can carry torpedos and cut it short by one click. Second, by assuming static position you become a perfect target. But when it comes to ships, there is the interesting concept of free maneuver range – within that distance range, causing significant damage to your ship gets a lot harder. That can be used as much as military ethics and shell reload time allow you.
How will ramming work?
Just like the common sense tells you: the rammed ship will sink! By the way, for many players the ramming became the first way to destroy the enemy (and sometimes a teammate). These pieces of info and many others can be learned when you subscribe to the World of Warships developer blog. Stay tuned!
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