Steel Ocean New Version 3.0 Preview

[CYBIZ]

Version Information:

1. British Aircraft Carrier Branch
2. British Destroyer Branch
3. New Mode: 5v5 Arena
4. New large size maps
5. New Fleet Point System


New Tech Tree:

British Aircraft Carrier Branch - For His Majesty’s Glory

HMS Argus (Lv3 British Aircraft Carrier)
HMS Argus was the first significantly modern aircraft carrier to serve in the Royal Navy. Previously known as the ocean liner Conte Rosso, it was converted into an aircraft carrier with a full-length flight deck in September 1918. It was originally designated to take part in the attack on German anchorage grounds at the end of WWI, but the war ended earlier than anticipated.


HMS Eagle 1931 (Lv4 British Aircraft Carrier)
HMS Eagle served to suppress pirates in Hong Kong waters in the 1930s. When WWII broke out, it searched for the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee. In July 1940, HMS Eagle sank 3 Italian destroyers and 1 submarine in Tobruk harbor. It was sunk two years later by the German submarine U-73 near the Spanish island of Majorca.


HMS Hermes 1939 (Lv5 British Aircraft Carrier)
HMS Hermes was at first built as an armored cruiser. After France surrendered, HMS Hermes, in the company of Home Fleet, launched bombers against the French battleship “Richelieu” in Dakar harbor. In 1942, HMS Hermes was spotted off Trincomalee and was then sunk by a Japanese aircraft. That makes it the first aircraft carrier ever sunk by carrier-based aircraft.


HMS Unicorn (Lv6 British Aircraft Carrier)
After completion, HMS Unicorn spent most of its career on anti-submarine protection and trainings in home waters. In 1944, it was transferred to Pacific Ocean to support aircraft carriers on their operations. During the Korean War, it spent most of the war ferrying aircraft, troops, stores and equipment and maintaining aircraft in support of Commonwealth operations in Korea and even conducted a shore bombardment with its guns in 1953.


HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious (Lv7 British Aircraft Carrier)
HMS Courageous and HMS Glorious were converted from light cruisers into aircraft carriers. In WWII, while conducting an anti-submarine patrol off the coast of Ireland, HMS Courageous was torpedoed on the port side and sunk by the German submarine U-29. HMS Glorious, on its journey back home from Narvik, was spotted and sunk by German battlecruisers KM Scharnhorst and KM Gneisenau.


HMS Ark Royal (Lv8 British Aircraft Carrier)
“HMS Ark Royal” was finished in 1938. Two years later, it launched an air attack on the German cruiser KM Königsberg in Bergen harbor. And in 1941, HMS Ark Royal was involved in the hunting for the German battleship Bismarck and caused damage to the latter. At the end of that same year, however, HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine U-81 on its journey back home.


HMS Illustrious (Lv.9 British Aircraft Carrier)
Illustrious class Aircraft Carrier features an armored flight deck, resulting in a reduced aircraft complement. In the attack against Taranto in 1940, HMS Illustrious sunk the Italian battleship Conte di Cavour. The armored deck enabled the carrier to survive an intensive assault near the Strait of Sicily by German dive bombers which scored 6 hits.


Malta-Class (Lv10 Aircraft Carrier)
The Malta-class aircraft carriers were ordered upon the reports of US’s launch of Midway-class aircraft carrier. Malta-class aircraft carrier features a hangar-deck armor as an effort to improve the carrier’s gravity center design. Its double-island layout was adopted in later designs, including the UK CVF programme. All 4 Malta-class aircraft carriers were canceled after WWII was over.


New Tech Tree: British Destroyer Branch – Lord of the Atlantic

R Class (Lv1 British Destroyer)
R-class destroyers were hastily produced during WWI. Most of the R-class destroyers were decommissioned in the 1930s, and only two of them survived. The HMS Skate saw service again in WWII and was part of the escort for the Battle of the Normandy in June 1944.


V and W Class (Lv2 British destroyer)
V class destroyers were originally built as the M and R class leaders. It introduced the A/B layout for the main armament. W class was a follow on from V class, but was designed to carry and launch more torpedoes. In WWII, 15 V and W class destroyers were refitted to improve air defense capabilities. Most of the V class and W class spent the wartime in Atlantic Ocean and home waters.


A and B Class (Lv3 British Destroyer)
Six A and B class destroyers played an important role in Norwegian Campaign in 1940, among which HMS Codrington embarked members of the Dutch Royal Family and carried them to safety and later assisted in the Dunkirk evacuation. In Battle of the Atlantic, HMS Bulldog captured the German submarine U-110 and an Enigma machine, the first German rotor machine ever captured.


O Class (Lv4 British Destroyer)
O class destroyers were the first ships in the War Emergency Programme. They mostly served as convoy escorts on Atlantic Ocean. In December 1942, 4 O-class destroyers repelled G German warship KM Admiral Hipper and KM Lützow in Battle of the Barents Sea. Another ship of O class, HMS Opportune, was present at the Battle of North Cape.


Q and RClass (Lv5 British Destroyer)
Q class destroyers were ordered as part of the War Emergency Programme in 1940. Q class was designed larger than its earlier counterparts and it adopted transom stern. Q and R class' range reached 6000 nautical miles. These destroyers were completed in 1941-43, some of which were handed over to the Royal Australian Navy and the rest saw service in the Mediterranean.


M Class (Lv6 British destroyer)
M class destroyers features QF 4.7-inch (120 mm) Mk XI dual purpose guns. During WWII, these destroyers mostly served in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. Among them, HMS Marne and HMS Martin sank the Germany minelayer Ulm at the Barents Sea while HMS Matchless and HMS Musketeer were engaged in hunting for the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst in Battle of the North Cape.


Ca Class (Lv7 British destroyer)
Ca class destroyer replaced the commonly used 4.7-inch guns with QF 4.5 in (114 mm) guns. In November 1944, 4 Ca-class destroyers escorted convoy JW 62 from Soviet Union. HMS Cassandra, one of those four, was ambushed by the German submarine U-365 and lost its bow but fought its way to Murmansk.


Tribal Class (Lv 8 British destroyer)
Tribal class destroyers evolved in response to new designs by the Axis powers. It is noteworthy that HMS Cossack became famous for its outstanding performance in the Altmark Incident. Two flotillas of tribal class destroyers took part in the Battles of Narvik and eliminated the whole German Destroyer Fleet stationed in Norway.

NEW MODE—5V5 ARENA

Start Time: 20:00-22:00 of CST (GMT-06:00), every Thursday and Sunday.

Description: Each team consists of 5 players. Players will be matched through the ranking system.

Participation:
This mode is separated into two stages according to level: Primary Lv5-Lv7; Advanced Lv8-Lv10. You can invite other players to your team or find teammates through the matching system.

Special Maps:
The 5v5 Arena features four special maps:
Ocean War - 5v5 Flag Mode, The English Channel - 5v5 Flag Mode, Luzon - 5v5 Flag Mode, Iron Bottom Sound - 5v5 Flag Mode (Night Battle)

Ranking System:
 The 5v5 Arena adopts the Elo matching algorithm commonly used in international chess, and other competitive, rank-based games. Rankings will be calculated according to battle results, total ranking of all team members and personal ranking after the battle.

System will give preference to the most close to the weight of the current team match other teams as a rival.

 The ranking of all team members will determine the matching weight value.

 Consecutive wins will increase a team’s matching weight value. In contrast, consecutive losses will decrease a team’s matching weight value.

 Teams formed by players will have extra matching weight than teams matched automatically by the matching system.

 Teams with the closest matching rating will be matched to face each other.


Rewards
 Single Round Rewards:
You cannot receive ship experience in 5v5 arenas. 25% of ship experience will be converted into extra global experience;

 Season Rewards:
Three months will be deemed as a season in the 5v5 arena. Rewards will be issued according to personal points when each season ends;

 Testing Season:
Testing season runs from the 25th of November to the 31st of December, and will be used to test and improve rules. Rewards are not available.


New large size maps
New Maps: Bigger than Bigger

“Ocean War L”, with 33% map area expansion! This massive, 15x15, no-island map gives you more space for tactical creativity!

“Luzon Island L”, with 125% map area expansion! With a reduced number of islands, you can now enjoy a brand new tactical experience!

New Fleet Battle Rules

Single Ship Fighting System
Single Ship Battle Ranking

To measure individual ship usage, we’ve introduced Naval Power value ratings for each ship.

Individual Naval Power is determined by the ratio of individual competition experience to the average experience of all players in the most recent 250 competitions of the same type.

Overall Naval Power is based on Individual Naval Power plus the ship’s level coefficient. Overall Naval Power will increase as a ship’s level increases.

Ship Level Level Coefficient
Lv1 0
Lv2 0.5
Lv3 0.8
Lv4 1.0
Lv5 2.0
Lv6 2.5
Lv7 3.0
Lv8 3.0
Lv9 3.0
Lv10 3.5


New Fleet Point System
New Fleet Battle Rules

Description:
To encourage weaker fleets, a new points system will be introduced to fleet battles:

All fleets will be divided into seven levels according to their current rankings. In fleet battles, the side with the lower level will gain extra points if they win:

Points of a victorious fleet with a lower level = Standard wining points *(1+0.5 * level difference)

Fleet Level Fleet Ranking
1 No. 1-5
2 No. 6-10
3 No. 11-20
4 No. 21-40
5 No. 41-80
6 No. 81-120
7 121 and below

[badebier2]

beautiful =) Do we get also Goldships like Tirpitz?

[Sinjen Blackstar]

very exciting I look forward to this.

[RaelM]

As much as I want the Royal Navy, I'd appreciate it if you worked on fixing game breaking problems first before adding new content.

The game engine runs like Rick Waller on a treadmill, he's a really fat guy if you didn't know.

The server is plagued with packet loss... and no it's not on the clients side before you say "Try use VPN".

Most of the sounds are good but maybe you should try and not use Ashton Kutcher for the Fighter Pilots... listen to them and you'll know what I'm talking about.

The gameplay is pretty solid except for Anti-Air and Aircraft. Spotting ranges need increasing on aircraft and AA damage needs dropping slightly since 1 volley can annihilate a wing of aircraft. The shell flight time for BB's could do with shortening a little as well but apart from those 2 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ the gameplay is good.

After you've sorted all that out then you can start adding new content.

[Sinjen Blackstar]

The pilot voices are very annoying I agree with that. It is also very immersive breaking when your japanese pilots sound like some american teenager.

[NODDY]

dates please

[-V- Pepper Therapy]

I agree with RaelM, Please fix this insane packet loss. The game has been live for a little while now. This should not be an issue at this point in time.

[Keytrickz | k3rnel-pan1c.ksd]

we need a EU Server! :c bad ping atm for all players here

[RaelM]

TBH ping isn't the problem, the server suffers from a packet loss problem. If you're in the UK + EU you'll get approx 100-175ms ping to the US (if you have a decent connection), for a twitch based game anything over 200ms starts to hamper your gameplay.

I do agree they need a new server, I just think it needs moving to an area with a more stable internet infrastructure to stop the insane lag spikes that are caused by the aforementioned packet loss problem.

[Triptrippen]

Needs more players... incentive to invite friends or something maybe, already waiting 5-15 mins for a match.
http://steamcharts.com/app/390670#1m

[TaggthemageTTV]

CV's are fine as they are. Simply a higher skill cap to play the ship that can turn the tide of battle.(You can also obtain commanders to make your planes not blind. I have one but he is not yet leveled enough)

Curious if Britain will be bomber focused, like how IJN is torp focused and US seems more like a 'middle-ground' (Look at damage range differences between IJN TB's and DB's and USN TB's/DB's)

OR.. if US are actually the DB focused ones and Brits would be mid-ground.

Regardless. Looks like they'll be a fun addition to the game.

Like others have commented: Packet loss being tweaked would be neat.

Keep up the good work! *raises *

[ebigunso]

Great stuff!
But the only concern is that from my timezone (Tokyo UTC+9), it's really hard to participate in this 5v5 and even fleet battles since it's mostly in the middle of the day (11:00-13:00) and takes place in the weekdays.
So I request the devs to add an additional time in Asian and possibly EU timezones so people over there can play too, and not have to completely give up on participating.

[HansOlav]

Agree with the Timezone. Here (UTC +1) the figths are at 03:00 - 05:00 Every time!

[Macejkos]

Originally posted by RA Nanohana:

we need a EU Server! :c bad ping atm for all players here

I have +-160 ping and it´s absolutelly fine. Packet loss is problem.

[RaelM]

Considering we haven't had a reply yet, I'm seriously starting to wonder if they "the developers" are even watching this particular thread. I know that they haven't even attempted to respond to an email I sent highlighting the packet loss problem (and it's associated tracert attached).

I have a feeling it's going to end up like a lot of games that come out these days. Lets bring out shiny new stuff to try and draw attention away from poor game management (Blame the casual gamers for allowing this mentality).

[hammer_of_god]

So much better than WoWS.......
.