At ease Captain, After briefing you about the new threats you will be facing last week, today's Developer's Diary will be about some additions and mechanical changes we will be making to improve your own options and help you, help us bring the war to a close. Put on your reading glasses as this will be the most text heavy diary in a while. Now, let's get down to the brass tacks. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40896017/66c7c3809bb16046587a444622fa48718ae8913b.png[/img] First of all, we are doing a balancing pass on the existing torpedoes, greatly increasing the top speed of the Mark 8 torpedo while preserving its acceleration. While it won't be nearly as zippy as the Mark 13, which reaches maximum speed in less than 4 seconds, this does mean that the Mark 8 will be a more viable pick for longer range shots, a cause for jubilation for 81' Experimental enjoyers in particular. All torpedoes are getting a large reduction to their splash radius. Previously, torpedoes had a large enough splash radius that hitting a ship anywhere would often damage all of its components, making where you hit a ship less relevant. This change can indeed be interpreted as a loss of lethality, but it is actually done to compensate for another change we are making that we will be talking about later in this diary. Acoustic torpedoes are also getting a work over. Currently, acoustic torpedoes are about as reliable and accurate as modern day guided torpedoes, finding their way to the target with minimal effort on your part. To compensate for this, they are also very expensive. This is not a state of affairs we were happy with, with the Mark 21 being an egregious offender being a very fictionalized version of an experimental torpedo with the same name that never saw service. We are replacing it with the Mark 28 torpedo, which, while still highly fictionalized, was actually a torpedo that saw service and was noted as being quite effective, even if its operating crews often overestimated how large of a fire control error its guidance could correct. This was our blueprint for what an acoustic torpedo should be like, an effective weapon with the correct use and a disappointment if the expectations are too high. So the Mark 28's guidance capabilities are severely nerfed, making it behave like a Mark 8 that can turn near misses into hits rather than a Mark 48 that time travelled back to the PTO. To compensate, its damage and top speed are both greatly increased, and its cost is greatly reduced as well, making it more available. If you want torpedoes that are better at tracking, the Mark 24 and Mark 27 still have excellent tracking and large numbers, which is compensated by their low damage, making them better at sinking the smaller ships or single targets when used in massed attacks. Last but not least, a knockback effect has been added to torpedoes and bombs, shaking the ships and pushing them with force that is proportional to the strength of the explosion. Overall we hope these changes will make all existing torpedo options have their own appeal while making torpedoes feel more impactful. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40896017/746a9d47f4179c8406e397e955efcc8c416ec1ae.gif[/img] For a game about Patrol Torpedo boats, we have had a suspicious lack of torpedo related updates. In fact, every torpedo that is in the game has been in the game since Early Access started, with only some balance changes happening since. The next Big Update is a good time to be changing that, in which we will be adding two new torpedoes to the game. The first one is the Mark 14 Torpedo, a somewhat more expensive torpedo that combines the strengths of the two entry level torpedoes we have, marrying the quick acceleration of the Mark 13 to the sheer stopping power of the Mark 8. In addition, it also has a magnetic detonator, meaning it will explode in the proximity of ships, enemy or allied. We expect these features to make it a popular mid-range (cost wise) option, something that has been missing from the torpedo selection as the options available were cheap starter torpedoes or endgame guided torpedoes. The second addition is the Mark 15 Torpedo, an oversized torpedo meant for destroyer use. So big and heavy that PT boats can only carry two of them at a time, the Mark 15 compensates for this heft by dealing massive damage to any ship it successfully hits, being enough to smash even the toughest ships. That's really all there is to it; a big, hefty torpedo meant to be used against the biggest targets, or when you're absolutely not taking any chances against that one Akizuki. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40896017/ce28e75dd49d46c6a0919faf2d33a6a86147b34c.png[/img] A mechanic we have been meaning to add for a while is the system of Secondary Explosions/Damage Control. Opposite ends of the same system, the secondary explosions aspect is meant to be an abstract representation of flooding, magazine explosions, ruptured fuel lines and internal fires, with the damage control aspect being the crew's effort to mitigate these. Meant to create positive feedback, the game will periodically check each damaged (but alive) component and either cause an explosion, or heal that component, with the chance of a positive outcome being proportional to the health of the component. For example, a hull part at 64% of its maximum HP will have a 64% chance to repair itself by a randomized amount and have a 36% chance to take damage, again by a randomized amount. These minor events will happen at high frequency and thus not be visually telegraphed. Each faction will have a damage control system bias that will eventually be configurable once we add configurable Campaign Settings; by default, the IJN side gets no bonus, while all US ships will get a +20% effective health bonus (e.g. if they are at 36% health, the calculation will assume they are at 56% health meaning they will be more likely to recover than to sink while an IJN ship with 36% health would be more likely to sink) for purposes of these calculations to account for the superior damage control of USN ships. Breaking this symmetry, every time damage is taken through this system, there's a chance for a large or massive explosion to be triggered, with an appropriate damage and radius. In addition, there is also a larger chance for an explosion to trigger whenever a hull part is completely destroyed. These explosions are strong enough to severely damage if not outright sink the ship, and though they will rarely have enough reach to hurt you unless you are right on top of the ship, you should keep an eye out for the merchant ships full of highly volatile fuel and ammunition! This is something you will need to keep in mind when sinking a ship; a damaged ship will not necessarily have explosions that are potentially lethal to you, but they will happen unpredictably so you should keep a safe distance. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40896017/4d00cbc1bbf4b1f729cb2b5b7c385af9a0ee8534.gif[/img] A part that is heavily damaged will be more likely to end up killing itself than not, whereas applying light damage to a part will give the enemy crew a lot more chances to fix it up. We intend this mechanic to delocalize damage a bit further while giving high impact low fire rate weapons like the torpedoes an advantage in sinking ships. Conversely, automatic weapon fire will also be more effective in sinking ships; it will be harder to sink a pristine condition ship with massed Bofors fire, not that that was ever practical, but every shot will count for more damage once you have used a high impact strike such as a torpedo or an artillery barrage to soften the target up. That said, there is still randomness in the system, so a crippled ship can, if rarely, make a miraculous recovery, or an otherwise pristine ship can be sent to the abyss by a lucky shot triggering a massive explosion. We are very excited to see the community reaction to such a large mechanical change coming this late in the game's development cycle, and we will be actively keeping an eye out for feedback during the Experimental Build so that we can tune the numbers to a sweet spot. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/40896017/0ce8e2b4d70f72471f4fcbae014615a50f185053.gif[/img] In addition to our mechanical changes, we have made some changes to the current enemy aircraft roster, improving the weaponry on the Zero variants, giving the Heavy variant a new paintjob, and also adding Elite variants to the D3A and the Ki-45. These variants will have better armament, additional bombs (with the basic Ki-45 having no bombs in the first place) while being tougher targets, hopefully giving you an additional challenge in the later stages of the game. We understand this has been quite the read, Captain, so we appreciate it if you have stuck with us so far. You may be left wondering when you will get to get your hands on these changes, and we're happy to say that the answer is, soon. [b]Sooner than you might have thought, in fact, as the Experimental Build will be released tomorrow, on the August of 16th, with every change and addition we have discussed so far.[/b] There will be additional content that will come throughout this Experimental Build cycle, which we will be talking about next week. Hope to see you enjoying and giving feedback on the experimental build, starting tomorrow! That will be all for now, Captain, T.T.