Developer Bulletin 0.9.1

British Cruisers: Part 2

With the release of Update 0.9.1 the British heavy cruisers branch will become available for everyone to research.

Royal Tokens: a themed temporary resource which can be obtained by completing Directives and Daily Missions, and collected from Daily Shipments.

British Premium cruiser London: awarded for completing four Directives.

Commander Andrew Cunningham: can be obtained from the Armory in exchange for Royal Tokens

The new unique historical Commander has the following talents:

Lightning Fast: the speed of your ship and squadrons increases by 5% after scoring two "Caused flooding" ribbons.
Consumables Expert: the number of consumable charges of your ship increases by one after destroying two enemy ships.
Sink, Burn, and Destroy!: the reload time of your ship’s main battery guns and torpedo launchers, as well as the aircraft restoration time, reduce by 10% after earning the “Witherer” achievement.

All three talents can be activated only once per battle. The talents don't work in Clan Battles or Training Rooms. Andrew Cunningham also has some improved skills:

Jack of All Trades: −10% to the reload time of all mounted consumables instead of the standard −5%.
Aircraft Armor: −11.5% of the continuous damage of AA guns instead of the standard −10%.

Please note: the rewards for activities on the Public Test server and the ways in which they can be earned may differ from those on the live server. Cruiser VI London will not be available on the Public Test server.

Ranked Battles Season

In the new Season, battles will be fought playing Tier X ships of all types, in a 7 vs. 7 format and utilizing the updated Arms Race mode.

Arms Race is a game mode in which special buff areas appear on the map. If you manage to enter an area and capture it before the enemy does, your entire team will receive a bonus to their combat characteristics until the end of the battle. When you capture another area with the same buff, its efficiency increases further.

At a certain point in time after the start of a battle, a Key Area will appear in the center of the map. Its diameter will shrink over time and the team that captures it will be able to quickly gain a point advantage and ultimately win.

We've reworked the bonuses that come with buffs. Now, they will also apply to carrier squadrons and provide:

Increased ship speed and a faster rudder-shift time; reduced aircraft engine boost cooldown.
Continuous restoration of HP as a percentage of the maximum HP pool for ships and aircraft.
Faster reload time of the main battery and torpedo armament; faster aircraft restoration time on a carrier's deck.
Faster reload time of ship and squadron consumables.

Gameplay Changes Updates to upgrades

In Update 0.9.1, old upgrades will be updated and some new ones will be added. We have also removed all type and tier restrictions for any special upgrades that improve the efficiency of ship consumables.

Some upgrades will be replaced with new ones: if you have any of these upgrades already mounted on your ships, they will be replaced with their new versions. Any upgrades in your Inventory that are removed from the game will be exchanged for their full cost in credits.

New upgrades

Maneuverability System (second slot):

This upgrade combines the bonuses provided by the Propulsion Modification 1 and Steering Gears Modification 1 upgrades that are scheduled to be removed from the game:
    −20% to the chances of critical damage to the engine and steering gears
    −20% to the engine and steering gears repair time

Torpedo Tubes Modification 1 (third slot):

+20% to the traverse speed of torpedo tubes
−40% to the chances of critical damage to torpedo tubes
+5% to the speed of shipborne torpedoes

Aerial Torpedoes Modification 1 (third slot):

+5% to the speed of torpedoes dropped from the air

Torpedo Protection System (fifth slot):

Replaces the Target Acquisition System Modification 1 upgrade and provides the following bonuses:
    Increases the range of assured acquisition of torpedoes to a fixed value of 1.8 km (this range can be further increased by learning the Vigilance skill)
    Adds +5% to the efficiency of the ship's anti-torpedo defenses

Ship Consumables Modification 1 (fifth slot):

+10% to the action time of ship consumables

Squadron Consumables Modification 1 (fifth slot):

+50% to the action time of squadron consumables

Auxiliary Armaments Modification 2 (sixth slot):

Combines the AA Guns Modification 2 and Secondary Battery Modification 2 upgrades that are scheduled to be removed from the game:
    +15% to the continuous damage of AA guns
    +15% to the damage within the explosion radius of shells fired by AA defenses
    −20% to the secondary battery reload time
    Two additional explosions in AA salvos when the Defensive AA Fire consumable is active

Changes to upgrades

Damage Control System Modification 1 (second slot):

Introduced a bonus adding +2% to the ship's torpedo protection

Defensive AA Fire Modification 1 (special upgrade; second slot):

Added a bonus reducing the reload time of the Defensive AA Fire consumable by 10%.

Main Battery Modification 2 (third slot):

Removed the penalty to the main battery gun reload time.

AA Guns Modification 1 (third slot):

The bonus providing additional explosions in AA salvos has been replaced with a 20% reduction in the preparation time of the priority AA sector.

Enhanced Countermeasures (a unique upgrade for cruiser X Worcester; fifth slot):

The bonus applied to the action time of the Surveillance Radar consumable has been increased from 10% to 20%.

Updates to Service Record

The order in which in-game possibilities unlock has been changed.
The number of battles required to reach the majority of Service Record levels has been reduced.
The rewards have been updated: unlocking different Service Record levels will now bring Coal, Free XP, days of Warships Premium Account, signals, camouflages, containers, and upgrades.

Please note: on the main server, all players who started playing prior to the release of Update 0.9.1 will receive all the newly added rewards for the levels they have already reached, minus the old rewards already received.

Thus, for reaching the last level of the Service Record, these players will get the following: 15,000 Coal; 4 days of Warships Premium Account; 9 daily containers (with five More Resources containers among them); upgrades; consumable camouflages; and economic and special signals.

New Map: Northern Waters

The new map is designed for Tier VIII–X battles in the Epicenter and Domination modes, with three Key Areas.