Archief - World of Battleships

A direct question about the release date for World of Battleships will likely be left unanswered, so I am going to try and approach this differently. I'll ask four questions at once. What is the earliest year in which we should expect World of Battleships? What is the latest year by which time the global alpha test will commence? If we happen to survive the end of the world on December 21, 2012, will we have forgotten all about it by the time World of Battleships is released? How many installments of Call of Duty will be released before gamers will have the chance to race some ships on the seven seas? Feel free to answer any of these.

It's a pity that you've decided to try and take me in the flank: specifically today I was going to answer any direct question put to me! I can tell you with great confidence that World of Battleships is guaranteed to be released before the next installment of Diablo, and that the answers to all your questions are roughly co-located in the year 2013. But the most accurate response is this - the game will be released when we are satisfied with its quality.

Will the game be standardized with World of Warplanes and World of Tanks, i.e. players will have a single common account with shared gold, etc.? Or will you come up with something novel?

Gamers will have a single account for all three projects, with shared premium currency - gold, and shared free experience, which can be re-allocated at will between the different games. Additionally, all three projects will share the global map, and clans from all three games will be able to provide each other with assists as required.

I'll venture forth that map sizes will be comparable to the spatiousness we see in World of Warplanes? Because you need room to maneuver, and besides, the main guns of naval vessels have very long ranges? Or will ships be fighting it out within narrow confines?

The combat areas of Battleships will excede those used in World of Warplanes in size, because things as massive as naval vessels need a lot of space to fully realize their potential. Battleship main guns, for example, can accurately strike targets 10-15 kilometers away, with a maximum range in excess of 30 kilometeres. So map sizes in World of Battleships will be at least 60x60 kilometers.

It's clear now that there won't be a direct "co-location" of World of Tanks and World of Warplanes within the same combat - the map sizes and distances are too different. On the other hand, World of Warplanes and World of Battleships are fairly similar - large spaces, coastal and open sea areas. Are there any plans to combine the two games into a single session? The ships below, the planes above, and besides, WoBS is going to have aircraft carriers anyway. If the answer is no, I'll immediately offer this follow-up - what's the biggest challenge in implementing this?

We've never had plans to do this, and here's why: the airwing of just one Midway-class aircraft carrier is comprised of 90 aircraft, and we'll have a minimum of two of these or comparable carriers in the same battle. And so to fully sate the appetite, so to speak, of the carrier strike forces, you'll need at least 180 pilots whereas the maximum number of machines in a single game of World of Planes is just 30.

Why was the Lesta studio selected as the developer for WoBS? Are they solely responsible for developing the game or is there a combined effort with Wargaming.net?

The Lesta studio was selected because it houses a team of professionals with colossal experience in the gaming industry. Naturally, the development work is being done in St. Petersburg, but given the many overlapping points of the three projects, the guys at Lesta are in close contact with the Minsk team in order to enable developers, designers, artists and game designers to share information and experience with each other.

[Parenthetically, one of Lesta's "flagship" projects in the past was a naval hybrid strategy/simulator. It's also based in St. Petersburg, i.e. right next to the home base for the Baltic Fleet and, presumably, with easier access to archives, plans, etc.]

What nations will be in World of Battleships initially, and which will be added later?

Initially there will be vessels from the navies of the U.S. and Japan; later on, we'll add Russia/USSR, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, and other nations.

[Shockingly, Lesta's naval hybrid strategy/simulator focused explicitly on combat in the Pacific. They even followed it up with a 5-CD encyclopedia of Japanese and U.S. naval vessels of World War II, so they clearly have done a lot of the research that would have gone into this game...and yes, there are other factors for going U.S./Japan first, but this couldn't have been a small consideration, in my view.]

[And oh yes - RUSSIAN BIAS!!!........]

[In seriousness, from personal experience - just as there are a lot of American gamers infatuated with the German Panzerwaffe, there are a lot of Russian gamers infatuated with the Japanese navy. Which should make for an interesting cross-server experience for someone such as myself...also - JAPANESE BIAS!!!!.....]

What ship types are planned for World of Battleships? What tasks will they specialize in? Will it have its own "scouts" and "heavies"?

The game will have four ship classes, each with its own set of tasks on the battlefield: battleships and battlecruisers, aircraft carriers, light and heavy cruisers, and destroyers. The mission of destroyers is to break through to reach the ungainly enemy battleships and fire off a multi-torpedo salvo; the cruisers are tasked with sinking the enemy destroyers well before they reach the fleet; the battleships are the steel backbone of the squadron, designed to absorb enemy fire. The aircraft carriers end up as a remote observer not participating in combat directly, but capable of making significant contributions to victory from long range.

It's a fact that vessels used to mount - and still do - a large number of all sorts of weapons, from machine-guns and anti-aircraft cannon to guns of all calibers. Will players get control over only some of these, or will they be able to switch between different gun types while in battle?

Any ship has the main caliber, the auxiliary caliber, the anti-aircraft caliber and the so-called small-caliber AA. Plus it may have torpedo tubes, seaplanes, or fighters/bombers/torpedo bombers. The players, of course, won't be able to fire each of these guns individually, because they serve as captains of their vessels, and a captain doesn't personally run to man every machine-gun. So players will control - i.e. aim and fire - only the main caliber and the torpedo tubes. The auxiliary caliber, the universal caliber, the anti-aircraft caliber, and the small-caliber AA - all will be AI-controlled, although the player will be able to set target priorities and give commands to open fire or cease firing.

Will players be able to set up mines or use torpedoes?

Players will not be able to set minefields because even in real life during squadron battles there is practically no opportunity to do so.

Will players interact with coastal areas? Maybe World of Battleships will have coastal batteries controlled by the AI or even the players themselves?

We have no plans for anything like that at this point.

What game modes will we find in World of Battleships besides the standard "seize that objective or destroy the enemy team"? Will teams get tactical goals like - "bombard and destroy the enemy shore base - get a victory"?

Why don't we keep our game modes our little secret for now.

How will aircraft carriers be controlled? Like in Battlestationsacific, but without personal control over aircraft on sorties? If so, will gamers be able to set specific goals for their aircraft, or will the steel birdies fly around and attack targets of their own volition? Can you tell us what kind of an animal the carrier will be?

A carrier is a floating airfield situated at a relatively safe distance from the sea battle and, like artillery with tanks, using its airwing to rain fiery death upon the opponent. The units will be controlled using RTS principles, and the player will be able to set certain mission goals for the airwing, customize strike group composition and armament as well as the type and quantity of aircraft.

Will losing the carrier mean an almost certain defeat for the team? Historically, carriers were the core of the battlegroup, these vessels were guarded and protected like the apple of one's eye, because with the death of the aircraft-carrying vessels the fleet was deprived of air support.

There have been examples in history of a battleship destroying a carrier, or of a battleship fighting off air attacks. In addition, anti-aircraft guns with radio-detonators and anti-aircraft cruisers will also have their role to play, and so if your last carrier is sunk it won't mean an inevitable defeat for your team, although it will be highly likely to affect the battle as it continues to unfold.

What is the maximum number of carriers on a team?

Since the balancing process is only in its early development stage, it's far too early to make any definitive statements in this regard.

How will the damage system work? Will it be possible to sink an enemy ship with a single lucky shell hit?

The damage system is fairly complex and considers the thickness of the main ship armor elements, angle of inclination, the point at which a shell hits a surface, the angle of attack, relative velocity, and armor penetration. The ship is divided into compartments, each compartment has its own flotation reserve which is used to calculate the flotation value for the ship as a whole, as well as the ship's stability. If the ship doesn't have enough flotation or stability, it will sink even if it still has a lot of HP. Also, one lucky hit, in theory, could penetrate into the ammo stowage under a main caliber turret or else the torpedo storage compartment, and the resulting detonation will be sufficient to destroy the whole vessel.

Will destroyed vessels immediately sink as burnt-out hunks of metal, will they fall apart into many hull sections, burn as giant torches until the end of the round, etc.?

Damage to each ship will be visible - the bow and the stern will collapse from ramming or hitting the shallows, ships can be broken apart, set on fire, explode, turn over, sink straight as they were, sink bow or stern first, and so on, and so on, and so on...behind simple controls there will be an incredibly complex damage model affording the maximum freedom to players.

Will ships have the chance to ram each other? If a giant battleship "floats onto" a tiny destroyer, will this be fatal for the latter?

They will, definitely. But ramming is dangerous for both parties, even the "tiny" destroyer is only 3-4 times smaller than the battleship.

Will we see sailors on ship decks, for example manning the anti-aircraft artillery or some of the smaller guns?

You will not see any sailors because we do not wish to traumatize people's psyches with sailor body parts flying into the camera after a 406mm HE shell detonates under an anti-aircraft gun.

Will working your way up the tech tree be similar to WoT and WoWP? Start with the weakest ship in the class, and eventually gain enough experience to reach the top tiers?

The process will be a little different from what you have with tanks. At Tier 1 of any nation the players will control training ships; from Tier 2 onwards, they'll be able to select a ship type and then advance up that tech tree branch. That's where you'll see the familiar division into several ship types, tier progression, etc.

What will be the main difference of WoBS from WoT and WoWP, besides the fact that these games feature different types of military hardware?

In World of Battleships, thinking will be very important, even more important than in "Tanks" or "Warplanes". Tactics, self-evaluation, planning the next step, coordinating your actions with your teammates, correctly selecting the attack approach - these are the keys to success in naval battles.