World of Warships

World of Warships ( WoWs for short ) is a ship simulation from the Belarusian developer Wargaming.net . The computer game was released on September 17, 2015 for the Windows operating system and has been continuously developed since then. In August 2019, a version of the game was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One game consoles . The warship simulation combines the game mechanics of a first and third person shooter into a tactical war simulation with an emphasis on long-range combat.

Game mechanics

Professional reviews
Reviews
source	rating
GameStar	82%
Computer picture games	good (2.00)
4players	82%
EGM
GameSpot
IGN
PC gamer	80%

The game principle is based on its predecessors, the tank simulation World of Tanks from 2010 and the airplane simulation World of Warplanes from 2013. Up to 12 online players, each piloting a warship, fight as a team against another team made up of players ( Player versus Player ) or computer opponents (AI opponents, Player versus Environment ). The battles last a maximum of 20 minutes. There are four types of ships , each with different tactical advantages and disadvantages: destroyer , cruiser , battleship and aircraft carrier . There should also be submarines in the future . The ships are assigned to 10 different performance levels. Only ships of similar levels meet in battle.

Seasonal specials and special content appear at regular intervals.

Ships

The more than 300 ships in the game date from the first six decades of the 20th century. Some really existed, others were just drafts. Almost every ship has different characteristics. The ships come from the USA, Japan, Germany, the UK, the Soviet Union, France, Italy and other countries.

Levels and points

Every ship has a fixed power level from 1 to 10. The higher the level, the stronger the armament and armor. A new player only has level 1 ships. By playing you get points (EP) with which you can install better ship modules, train the captain and get a ship of the next higher level ( technology tree ). The better you play, the more points you get.

Hit points and destroy ships

Each ship has a certain number of hit points . The higher the level, the more hit points the ship has. Battleships generally have the most hit points at the same tier, followed by aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroyers.

To destroy a ship, you have to reduce its hit points to zero. This happens through grenade and torpedo hits, fire (through grenade hits), water ingress (through torpedo hits) and ramming. How much damage (loss of hit points) a shell hit does can depend on the shell, its speed, the thickness of the armor, the angle of impact and the location hit. Hitting the citadel can cause very high damage. The armor of the ships is usually of different thicknesses in different places.

Game world

The naval battles are thematically set in the area of the Second World War . The three-dimensional virtual game environment is generated by a BigWorld game engine . The more than 30 square, almost mirror-symmetrical playing cards ("Maps") consist of a surface of water which is interrupted by islands and cannot be left at their edges. The maps do not show any real areas. The mostly steep rocky islands of the archipelago offer privacy and cover . The surface battles are carried out almost exclusively in daylight with large-caliber guns, ship artillery and torpedoes , as secondary armament some ships have anti-aircraft guns for the anti-aircraft defense of torpedo bombers . The player sees the playing field in third-person perspective and can in several magnifications , the field of view vary, alternatively there is a map. Aiming and firing is first- person .

Each player has only one ship available in a battle and cannot return to the ongoing game round after it has been sunk (“ spawning ”). But then he can watch his team.

simulation

The player takes over the control of a warship selected before the start of the game, which is commanded and maneuvered through missions that are completed in time and space until the given goal is reached or the game is sunk. The following properties and functions are simulated:

Maneuverability : the drive and control system with the parameters starting / (stop) ability, maximum speed, turning ability, supporting ability, swiveling ability,
the horizontal and vertical alignment of the (large-caliber) weapon system (with the parameters azimuth rotation speed of the gun turrets, meridian equipment of the barrel weapon) and its cadence ,
the ballistics of the ammunition ( muzzle velocity , external ballistics , effective range , dispersion ) as well as the penetration ( target ballistics ) and projectile effects of the projectiles ,
the armoring of the hull , deck and deck structure , stations and casemates ,
Visibility (depending on the size of the ship and its camouflage).

At the start of the fight, the opposing fleet is outside your field of vision, only the topology of the playing card is known. After reconnaissance of enemy warships in these are (filling) range to bring their own weapons systems, including at least one fraction to the other moving needs.

Battle types

Random Battles and Co-op Battles

The battles take place on a randomly chosen map with randomly chosen fellow players and opponents. In random battles, the two teams consist of 12 players each. The game tries to form teams of equal value, but only takes into account the ships, not the skills of the players. In co-op battles, one team usually consists of 9 computer-controlled ships (bots) that do not play well (the torpedoes can dodge well), the other consists of 9 players; if there aren't enough players, the team of players is replenished with bots. Random battles are worth more points than co-op battles.

The team that destroys all enemy ships, reaches 1000 team points first or has more team points at the end wins. Team points are obtained by conquering special zones on the map and by destroying opponents. Ties are very rare.

Playing with friends

Divisions

Up to three players (in the corporate battle type up to seven) can form a so-called division in order to get into the same battle (as part of a normal team).

Clans

Up to 50 players can form a clan . Sometimes players from one clan (12 maximum) can fight in clan battles against players from another (randomly chosen) clan. This often requires level 10 ships.

Practice battles

In practice battles you can play alone, with friends or against friends on maps of your choice. You can also choose computer-controlled ships as opponents or opponents. The two teams can each have a maximum of 12 ships and do not have to be of equal value. The ship levels don't have to be similar. You don't get any points.

control

The ship's movement is controlled via the keyboard with the default WASD , whereby the speed can be selected from four speed levels and one reverse gear (“full speed back”). The steering to port and starboard is infinitely variable. The angle of view and the direction of the gun follow the mouse movement, the volleys are fired with the mouse button. The mouse wheel changes the zoom factor. With "Tab" you can view the ships and player names in a battle within a battle, bots are marked with colons at the beginning and end of the name. In addition, you can use the F2 to F12 keys to send quick commands that contain important information for the team, with "B" you can call up a quick command bar and click on the corresponding commands if you want to move quickly or if you do not know the numbers by heart .

Business model

The free-to-play - Online game can be installed for free and played and is financed through the sale of virtual goods which are assets in the game progress. For example:

Things that bring more points per battle:
- time-limited premium accounts
- special ships ("premium ships")
Points
the game currency "doubloons", with which you can do various things, e.g. B .:
- change the player name
- found a clan
- Buy premium ships
Containers with partially random content ( loot boxes )

development

On August 16, 2011, the development studio Wargaming.net announced on its website a sea battle simulation entitled World of Battleships that can be played free of charge in multiplayer mode . As the third part of the "World of" series, it should complete the Wargaming.net war game trilogy . On August 2, 2012, the naval simulation was renamed World of Warships . For the realistic modeling of the warships, Wargaming.net researched and obtained copies of the original architectural drawings from national archives , model builders and from historical books. The closed alpha test phase started on November 14, 2013.

During the Tokyo Game Show 2014, Victor Kislyi, the managing director of Wargaming.net, announced a collaboration with the Japanese military science fiction anime Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio . The cooperation made it possible to unlock ships of the “Nebelflotte” and to play special missions with them.

At the Tokyo Game Show 2016 , Wargaming.net announced a collaboration with the Japanese anime High School Fleet . This cooperation continues to this day and in contrast to the previous cooperation with Aoki Hagane no Arpeggio , which produced free ships, ships that result from this cooperation are premium ships that can be purchased in the premium shop within a certain period of time. So you can buy the HSF Admiral Graf Spee and the HSF Harekaze to date . It was later announced that more Captains, a collection, and a special camouflage pattern each would be added for the Yamato and Musashi .

The closed beta phase started on March 12, 2015, immediately after the end of the alpha phase. From April 9, 2015, pre-order packages with bonus ships and access to the closed beta test were offered for sale. The open beta phase as the last development step before the official release started on July 2nd, 2015. On September 3rd, 2015 Wargaming.net announced that the open beta phase was over, and on September 17th, 2015 the computer game was officially released for the Windows operating system.

The game gets an update about once a month (as of February 2020).

There are some free, player-made and manufacturer-allowed mods for the game.

System requirements

World of Warships is based on a client-server model and cannot be played without a (stable) internet connection. On the server side, the game runs on a Linux platform.

operating system

On May 23, 2016, the port of the Windows game client for the operating system macOS from version 10.7.5 ( Mac OS X Lion ) was published. According to Wargaming, this is a wrapper from CodeWeavers that is still in the development stage (beta phase). With version 0.6.4 the maintenance of the client for the operating systems Windows XP (from version 5.1) and Vista was stopped. For audio output on Windows platforms, at least the DirectX 11 programming interface is required.

hardware

The installed game client requires 73.4 GB of hard disk space, when running at least 2.5 GB of working memory (RAM). The internet connection to the game server needs a receive data rate of at least 1024 kBit / s. Wargaming recommends at least dual-core processors as the main processor, such as Intel Core2Duo (with 2.7 GHz) or AMD Athlon II (with 3 GHz). The minimum resolution is 720p (1280 × 720 pixels), the highest 5K or UHD + (5120 × 2880 px).

reception

The aggregator Metacritic determined an average rating (“Metascore”) of 81% for World of Warships on the basis of 29 reviews. The multimedia rating platform IGN gave a rating of 8.3 out of 10 points and stated that the “fights feel good” and that the teamwork is “satisfactory”. The English video game website GameSpot awarded 8 out of 10 points and praised:

"The thrills that await, along with the promise of unlocking advanced ships down the road, make World of Warships an enticing expedition into the sometimes turbulent waters of free-to-play games."

"The thrill that awaits you, along with the prospect of unlocking more advanced ships later, make World of Warships a delightful voyage of discovery into the sometimes turbulent waters of free-to-play games."

- Cameron Woolsey : GameSpot

The English-language site The Escapist awarded four out of five and wrote "with its tense sea battles and the large amount of historical marine vessels is World of Warships a free-to-play MMO, can that make each a war game." (English " With its tense naval battles and huge array of historical vessels, World of Warships is the free-to-play MMO did can make a wargamer out of anyone. ") In 2015, was the naval simulation for the British Academy Games Awards for multiplayer nominated , but was subject to the sports simulation Rocket League .

Others

Players can see how many battles they have played in total and per ship and how many they have won. You can see these statistics from other players as well, unless the other player has disabled this feature.

There are a few players on Twitch who regularly stream the game. There are also regular streams from the manufacturer. Viewers can get things in-game. (Status: February 2020)

There are separate servers for Europe, Russia, North America and Asia. In the evening, more than 20,000 players are simultaneously on the European server (as of February 2020). The European version of the game is available in nine languages: German, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Turkish, Czech and Dutch (as of February 2020).

Game console version

World of Warships: Legends is the version of the game for the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 game consoles . It was released on August 12, 2019. Players of the two console models can play together, but not with PC players.

Differences to the PC version are, for example (as of February 2020):

a maximum of 9 players per team
no aircraft carriers
fewer ships and from fewer countries
The levels only go from 1 to 7.
The battles last a maximum of 15 minutes.

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Benjamin Jakobs: World of Warships appears on September 17, 2015. In: Eurogamer . September 3, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b Johannes Rode: The 15-Minute Admiral. In: GameStar . July 7, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

↑ Stefan Mehmke: Clear ship made. In: Computer Bild . September 29, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

^ Benjamin Schmädig: Sea Free-to-Play. In: 4Players . November 5, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

^ Joe Layton: World of Warships review. In: Electronic Gaming Monthly . October 13, 2015, accessed on August 11, 2017 .

^ ^A ^b Cameron Woolsey: World of Warships Review. In: GameSpot . September 17, 2015, accessed on August 11, 2017 .

↑ ^a ^b Rob Zacny: World of Warships Review. In: IGN . September 23, 2015, accessed October 21, 2017 .

^ Ian Birnbaum: World of Warships Review. In: PC Gamer . September 29, 2015, accessed December 28, 2017 .

^ Wargaming.net Declares Naval Warfare . Wargaming America. August 16, 2011. Archived from the original on August 22, 2012.

↑ wargaming Renames World of Battleships to World of Warships . Wargaming America. August 2, 2012. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012.

^ Jason Wilson: How Wargaming's historians helped bring World of Warships to life. In: Venturebeat. May 20, 2016, accessed on August 17, 2017 .

↑ World of Warships enters Closed Alpha Test . Wargaming America. November 14, 2013. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ World of Warships, Arpeggio of Blue Steel Join Forces . 18th September 2014.
↑ Cooperation with TV anime series "High School Fleet" announced. September 15, 2016, accessed December 31, 2017 .
↑ Public test 0.7.0. (No longer available online.) December 27, 2017, archived from the original on December 31, 2017 ; accessed on December 31, 2017 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Closed Beta: Full Steam Ahead . Wargaming America. March 12, 2015. Archived from the original on March 3, 2015.
^ World of Warships Pre-Order Packages Now Available . Wargaming Asia. April 9, 2015.
↑ World of Warships Now in Open Beta . July 2, 2015. Archived from the original on July 3, 2015.
↑ James Orry: World of Warships officially launches on September 17. In: VideoGamer.com. September 3, 2015, accessed October 21, 2017 .
^ World of Warships . In: Metacritic . Retrieved February 14, 2016.
^ Marshall Lemon: Fun, Fast-Paced, And Free. In: The Escapist. September 17, 2015, accessed August 15, 2017 .
↑ 2016 Games Multiplayer . BAFTA Awards. Retrieved June 1, 2016.

[eurogamer_2015-09-03-1] Benjamin Jakobs: World of Warships appears on September 17, 2015. In: Eurogamer . September 3, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

[gamestar_2015-07-07-2] Johannes Rode: The 15-Minute Admiral. In: GameStar . July 7, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

[computerbild_2015-09-29-3] Stefan Mehmke: Clear ship made. In: Computer Bild . September 29, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

[4players_2015-11-05-4] Benjamin Schmädig: Sea Free-to-Play. In: 4Players . November 5, 2015, accessed August 11, 2017 .

[EGM_2015-10-13-5] Joe Layton: World of Warships review. In: Electronic Gaming Monthly . October 13, 2015, accessed on August 11, 2017 .

[gamespot_2015-09-17-6] A ^b Cameron Woolsey: World of Warships Review. In: GameSpot . September 17, 2015, accessed on August 11, 2017 .

[ignreview-7] Rob Zacny: World of Warships Review. In: IGN . September 23, 2015, accessed October 21, 2017 .

[pcgamer_2015-09-29-8] Ian Birnbaum: World of Warships Review. In: PC Gamer . September 29, 2015, accessed December 28, 2017 .

[announc-9] Wargaming.net Declares Naval Warfare . Wargaming America. August 16, 2011. Archived from the original on August 22, 2012.

[rename-10] wargaming Renames World of Battleships to World of Warships . Wargaming America. August 2, 2012. Archived from the original on August 6, 2012.

[venturebeat_2016-05-20-11] Jason Wilson: How Wargaming's historians helped bring World of Warships to life. In: Venturebeat. May 20, 2016, accessed on August 17, 2017 .