The naval MMO World of Warships (WoWS) has received a cool new feature with update 0.9.5. You will get the shipyard in the Hamburg harbor in-game and can build two extraordinary German warships for yourself. MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn spoke with the developers about this new feature, the challenges that historical accuracy poses to game design, and funny anecdotes about gaming museum employees.
The military MMO World of Warships lets you replay tactical battles with ton-heavy warships from the era of the World Wars. Depending on which class you choose – from the sleek destroyer to versatile cruisers to sluggish and heavily armed battleships – you have a different role in the battle.
The developers take particular pride in having accurately transferred a multitude of ships from the real world into their game. You can find legendary warships like the “Bismarck”, the “Yamato” or the “Aurora” in the game.
However, there are also ships that never existed in real war and were either never completed projects or existed only as blueprints that are partially included in the game. With the new update 0.9.5, there is such a “blueprint ship” as a reward, the “Odin”, if you complete various tasks.
And all this takes place in the famous shipyard of Hamburg, where many German warships were launched. To learn more about the background of this event and the challenges that ships like the “Odin” pose to game design, I, Jürgen Horn from MeinMMO, asked the developers at Wargaming. Philip Molodkovets, Wargaming’s Executive Producer for World of Warships, was ready for an interview.
What is all in update 0.9.5
As mentioned, update 0.9.5 introduces the new shipyard where you can “build” two ships. For this, you need to complete tasks called “Directives” and gradually finish building the ship.
You can then see the construction progress in the shipyard in the main menu. The more you unlock, the more complete the current ship becomes.
The event has 20 phases, and after completing 10 phases, the first ship, the “pocket battleship” “Admiral Graf Spee”, will be launched. The term “pocket battleship” referred during the war to ships that were actually classified as medium cruisers but were equipped with the armament and armor of heavy battleships.
If you complete the remaining 10 phases, you will even receive the powerful “Odin”, an unusual battleship that focuses on speed and firing rate at close range. Although it was planned, it was never built. Both ships have existed in the game for some time, but players previously had to purchase them as premium models for real money.
However, the “Odin” does not come entirely free. For the last two construction phases, you need to pay the real-money currency “doubloons”. This amounts to 11.51 euros. Ships of this size usually cost around 40 euros in the premium shop.
Why is the Hamburg harbor in the game?
MeinMMO: Why did you choose the Hamburg shipyard for this event?
Philip Molodkovets: Our game is about warships, and building a ship is one of the most important phases in a ship’s life. However, our players see ships that have already been built in the game. Therefore, we decided to let players build their own ships. We like this concept a lot and wanted to improve upon the previous version of the event.
However, the shipyard needs a ship to build: Among several options, we chose the battleship “Odin”. It was in development at that time, is perfect for construction in the shipyard, and would be appreciated by players. Moreover, the ideal location for building a German ship is of course the Hamburg harbor. This way, all the elements of the puzzle came together into the final idea for this event.
MeinMMO: Will there be more harbor cities and shipyards in the future, such as the Royal Navy headquarters in Portsmouth?
Philip Molodkovets: The shipyard is one of the newest unusual events in our game. The idea of building a ship is very appealing to us and the players. Therefore, we will definitely hold similar events in the future. As for the location of future shipyards, unfortunately, we cannot provide details yet, but I assure you that the new shipyard will be no less impressive than Hamburg.
MeinMMO: The idea of “building” the 2 ships through directives is great. Are you planning to introduce more such “construction projects” for other premium ships in the future?
Philip Molodkovets: As we mentioned earlier, there will definitely be new shipyards. However, only the idea of building a ship remains unchanged. The structure, the event rules, and the rewards may look completely different in the future. We learn our lessons and strive to improve our events each time.
MeinMMO: What details were important in reconstructing the Hamburg shipyards? Which landmarks would a Hamburg resident immediately recognize?
Philip Molodkovets: A Hamburg citizen from the mid-20th century would surely feel familiar in this environment. After all, our shipyard is located at the very spot where the original stood, albeit in slightly modified form.
In detail, we were particularly focused on designing and implementing the details that ensure the construction process: the dry dock itself, access roads, construction cranes, storage areas, and workshops where the ship elements are produced.
As for the landmarks of Hamburg that are visible from the harbor and shipyard, there are some that one would immediately recognize. For example, the tower of St. Michaelis Church, the Bismarck statue, or the Speicherstadt.
“Odd cruisers” and “blueprint ships” – The challenges to game design
MeinMMO: One of the ships you can acquire is the “Admiral Graf Spee”. This ship was a famous mix of a cruiser and a battleship, a so-called “pocket battleship”. What were the biggest challenges in game design for a ship that is clearly a mix of two different classes of warships?
Philip Molodkovets: Such a ship must take on the characteristics of two ship types at the same time and have a rather specific gameplay. However, it should also be balanced with its classmates. Therefore, the challenge is to adjust the ship’s characteristics in such a way that its concept and unique traits are preserved, while not making it too strong or too weak.
For example, the “Admiral Graf Spee” has a powerful 283-mm gun with good range, but the guns have a very low rate of fire. And for its large number of hit points, the ship pays with low maneuverability and speed. The development of such ships is complicated by the fact that they combine the characteristics of two types, but within the game, they belong to only a single class and must meet, to some extent, the expectations of players of that type.
A fast battleship armed with guns that resemble those of cruisers should still be well-armored and inflict solid damage on opponents through its salvo. And a cruiser, even with strong guns and a large number of hit points that are more typical of a battleship, should still be a universal ship that can perform a variety of combat tasks due to its traits and consumables. All these factors together make the creation of such ships a very interesting challenge in terms of game design.
MeinMMO: How was the performance and the player feedback about the “Admiral Graf Spee”? Did your concept work out as you had hoped?
Philip Molodkovets: “Admiral Graf Spee” is a cruiser with a very unusual gameplay: strong 283-mm guns, many hit points, and low maneuverability make it more like a battleship than a cruiser. However, we managed to make this ship interesting and balanced, and players generally liked it due to its combat capabilities.
MeinMMO: With the battleship “Odin”, you decided to implement a ship that never existed in the real world and that is based solely on blueprints and project data. What is the biggest challenge with such “design ships”? Are these ships easier or harder to implement into the game’s existing structure?
Philip Molodkovets: Reconstructing a real ship and developing a ship based on a “blueprint” are distinct but equally complex tasks: The main difficulty in replicating a historical ship is fitting it accurately to its prototype. In the case of a ship that was merely a project, the main challenge is to create a ship as the designer intended, based on fragmented documents within the framework of the technologies and national peculiarities of shipbuilding at the time.
MeinMMO: Why did you even decide on a rather unknown design ship instead of bringing ships into the game that really existed in the past and haven’t been implemented yet?
Philip Molodkovets: The ships in World of Warships are primarily designed for gameplay. Therefore, the creation of a new ship always begins with game design. This time we wanted to create a German battleship with non-standard gameplay: a well-armored close combat ship, with smaller caliber artillery than its classmates, but with a high rate of fire for a battleship. The project we based the “Odin” on was best suited for such purposes. In reality, this project did not get beyond the prototype guns, but we could realize it in our game, which we consider just as great as replicating real ships.
MeinMMO: World of Warships is known for its historical accuracy. But how much of it must be sacrificed to achieve a balanced game? Or in other words: When does historical accuracy have to yield to practical decisions in game design?
Philip Molodkovets: We try to maintain historical accuracy in every aspect of the game where it does not harm the gameplay. Even when designing ships that never existed in reality, we rely on the documents and characteristics of shipbuilding from that era. It goes without saying that there are many assumptions in our game, which often relate to gameplay mechanics.
It will be difficult to list them all, so I will limit myself to a few examples: The distances and speeds of the ships in our game are scaled so that battles last 20 minutes instead of days, as they did in reality. Or, for example, the ships in our game have unlimited ammunition, which was certainly not the case in reality. Another example: Radar in WoWS is not a system present on most ships, but rather a capability that is available on certain ships that a player can activate for a short time.
These and many other conventions are necessary to ensure that the game is fun and engaging while maintaining historical accuracy and the spirit of naval combat.
Fans of World of Warships can appear anywhere
MeinMMO: For your projects, you must collaborate closely with historians and museums. You may come across people who perhaps have never played computer games. What was the funniest or most exciting anecdote you can tell about such meetings and collaborations?
Philip Molodkovets: Well, it’s difficult to remember the anecdote, but your comment about the fact that museum employees often do not play computer games reminded me of a story.
A few years ago we filmed a documentary at the German Shipping Museum in Bremerhaven. At the museum, we met a young school-aged boy wearing a Yamato T-shirt. This young man caught our attention because the audience of our game usually belongs to an older age group.
When we spoke with him, we found out that he was an avid player of World of Warships, and it was his love for the game that drove him to volunteer at the museum. So it is certain that some of the museum staff plays computer games, and some of them have even encouraged computer gaming as a reason to pursue this kind of work.
MeinMMO: Thank you for the interview.
A cool new feature that motivates playing
As much fun as competitive gaming is, defeating other players alone gives me relatively little. Much more important to me is that you have additional motivation to play. That you unlock things that you can only achieve through hard work and good performance.
The new shipyard with the two unlockable ships is such a motivational feature that I really like. Because through the lovingly recreated Hamburg shipyard, I can always see how far my efforts have come and that I may only need a few successes more to finally get my finished little ship.
That Wargaming has chosen two unusual ships as rewards is particularly cool. Because ships like the “Graf Spee” or the “Odin”, which clearly stand out from the gameplay of their respective class, often make for a special thrill in the game.
I am certainly looking forward to how Wargaming will pick up the shipyard event in future updates.
Jürgen Horn
Editor at Mein-MMO
