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Aircraft preparation time at the beginning of the battle was tested on the 0.8.4 Public Test.
The purpose of the change was not only to delay the detection of the enemy team but also to achieve the almost simultaneous beginning of battle for all ships. Destroyers are fighting at the control area, cruisers and battleships are firing at the spotted targets. Presently, this flow is broken by early detection from the air. We want to bring the timing of battle to the point that the aircraft are near the control area at close to the same time as other classes.
Preparation time influenced the battle as it was intended: later spotting allowed destroyers to reach the control areas undetected, which ensured active battle for other classes.
However this change created a long waiting period for the aircraft carrier player without any actions to perform other than setting the ship's route. We want to preserve battle dynamics without excluding the aircraft carrier commander from the game for almost a minute. It has been decided not to introduce the preparation time for squadrons in the tested form, and to consider other options for influencing the aircraft's time of arrival to control areas:
Move aircraft carriers' spawn points away from control areas;
Move other ships' spawn points closer to control areas;
Add the preparation time for planes in the beginning of battle, but no longer than 20 seconds;
Additional change to engine boost - planes will start with the engine boost depleted, which will not allow them to accelerate at the beginning of battle, but will make boosted maneuvers possible in the active phase of the battle.
The implementation of these points will make battles more active, without creating discomfort for players on aircraft carriers. We are not ready to report on the exact timing of the introduction of these changes, but we plan to do this around the autumn updates.
In one of the next updates we plan to introduce a soft limit on the number of aircraft carriers in battles of VIII - IX tiers. In the first minute of waiting for the player whose been waiting for the longest time in the queue, there will be a restriction - no more than 1 aircraft carrier per team. From the second minute of waiting the battle will be assembled with a limit of no more than 2 aircraft carriers per side, and no more than three starting from the third minute.
This change will significantly reduce the number of battles of VIII - IX tiers with two aircraft carriers in each team. This will be specially noticeable for tier VI ships: they will fight against two tier VIII aircraft carriers much less often than is experienced now.
Please note that the information in the Development Blog is preliminary.