[2019] ST, changes to Sansonetti and test ships

Italian unique historical commander Luigi Sansonetti:

The "Scorched by Fury" talent is changed. It will be triggered upon obtaining the Confederate achievement rather than High Caliber, and will increase the reload speed by 15% rather than 5%.

The trigger for the talent was changed because the High Caliber achievement was easier to get in Ranked Battles than in Random Battles (due to smaller size of teams in Ranked Battles). The Improved reload speed brings Sansonetti in balance with other unique commanders.

German cruiser Mainz, Tier VIII:

Increased the armor thickness of main battery turrets:

frontal armor plate from 30 to 80 mm;


upper armor plate from 20 to 32 mm;


side armor plates from 20 to 35 mm;

Air resistance coefficient was decreased for armor piercing and high explosive shells from 0.3307 to 0.29;


Krupp value for armor piercing shells was increased from 1852 to 2300.

The armor of this cruiser's turrets will become the same as that of Nürnberg. This will noticeably improve the survivability of her main caliber turrets.

The changes to Mainz's shells will increase their flight speed (making shooting maneuvering targets easier), and will increase penetration of armor piercing shells.

Italian cruiser Gorizia, Tier VII:

Reload time of Exhaust Smoke Generator is lowered from 240 (180) to 210 (140) s;


Parameters of Hydroacoustic Search are changed:

Action time increased from 100 to 120 s;


Torpedo detection range increased from 3.5 to 4 km;


Ship detection range increased from 5 to 6 km.

Changes to consumables will make Gorizia more interesting to play and will highlight her main difference to the researchable Italian cruisers - Hydroacoustic search, compensating the lack of torpedoes.

Other ship changes:

British cruiser Bedford, tier VIII:

Main battery reload time increased from 11 to 12 s.

British cruiser Drake, tier IX:

Main battery reload time increased from 14 to 15 s.

British cruiser Goliath, tier X:

Main battery reload time increased from 15 to 17 s.

These changes are made as part of the initial balancing phase of the ships.

Please note that the information in the Development Blog is preliminary.

Ranked battles are not a true hardcore competitive mode and it's as much of an advantage as having 19 point commander while enemy has 10, nothing prevented him from getting it before or in the future. Now if Italians didn't receive a special commander — that would be wrong.

Ranked battles are not a true hardcore competitive mode and it's as much of an advantage as having 19 point commander while enemy has 10, nothing prevented him from getting it before or in the future. Now if Italians didn't receive a special commander — that would be wrong.

Because others have torps which allows them to pull a pretty cool trick — rushing an enemy (who doesn't have hydro active) from around the corner at full speed covered in smoke to torp at 2-3 km distance.

German cruisers have that hydro from T8, not T10.

I'd concur that Exhaust Smoke + Hydro is a pretty cool combination. Have you played Haida with creeping smoke + hydro? Consumables synergy is a thing that is capable of making ships very strong.

So nothing to worry too much here about, all tech tree ships are subject to changes even after release. Still worth striving to release them so they don't break the balance much.

1) Beacuse they are okay right now.
2) Mainz, while is based on reality, and is less paper than some other ships in game, was still not built, so there is more freedom to play with her shells.
3) If needed, US dd can get buffs, or nerfs, for example, Sims go a topredo buff compared to her initinal state.

One clarification - we mixed up thicknesses of side und upper armor in the text.
It should be:

upper armor plate from 20 to 35 32 mm;


side armor plates from 20 to 32 35 mm;

It won't make much difference, we still needed to make this right.