Like the greatest naval commanders throughout history, World of Warships developer Lesta Studio is all about the numbers. In the four years since it first exited its open beta harbour and entered the waters of full release, the free-to-play World of Warships has accumulated over 30 million registered users, with a combined total of over 130 million ships acquired, more than 180 billion in-game kilometres travelled, and some 612 billion shots fired. (“Some of them actually hit their targets, and some of them actually sank their targets as well,” jokes global executive producer Artur Plociennik.)This obsession with data and statistical analysis is why, despite the protests of a small but vocal crowd on the World of Warships official forum and subreddit, Lesta Studio is set to launch submarines into the game late in 2019. Buoyed by the success of 2018’s Halloween event, Terror of the Deep, which saw submarines introduced for a limited time in a PvE scenario mode, and backed up by the raw metrics that proved just how engaged the audience was with the new submersible vessels, Lesta Studio is confident that the time is right for submarines to become the fifth class in World of Warships.

World of Warships: Legends – Full Release Trailer

“It took us a while to [introduce submarines] because we didn’t believe the game and the audience were ready for them,” explains Plociennik. “There wasn’t enough content diversity in the game, there weren’t enough interactions between different mechanics. The game was simply not mature enough to have a new class added.”

“Right now, we believe we do have that diversity. We have a mature audience that is ready for another shake up. We have a huge amount of data about how players interacted with [submarines in the Halloween event] very specifically. How they tended to use oxygen, when they would fire torpedoes, how they would approach enemies, and would they be confrontational or very cautious?”

“Data like that allowed us to see whether this concept had any merit.”

The limited time Halloween submarines event was a success with both halves of the World of Warships audience.

“According to Plociennik, the limited time Halloween submarines event was a success with both halves of the World of Warships audience. The hardcore players, the ones more versed in the role that submarines played in early 20th century naval combat operations, were fussy with resource management and didn’t rush too close to enemies, preferring to utilise stealth as much as possible. The casual players on the other hand, just went headlong into full ramming speed.

“And both groups had fun, ultimately,” says Plociennik.

Testing the Waters

The first three nations in World of Warships to receive the submarine class will be the United States, Germany and the USSR. The Americans are getting the Cachalot (Tier VI), the Salmon (Tier VIII) and the Balao (Tier X), the Germans will have the U-69 (Tier VI), the U-190 (Tier VIII) and the U-2501 (Tier X), while the Soviets will get the S-1 (Tier VI), the L-20 (Tier VIII) and the K1 (Tier X). Japanese submarines are currently in development, and will be introduced as the next line after the initial three nations.

Prepare for Dive

The new submarines class provides a thrilling, stealth-based experience that’s unlike anything else players have become used to in World of Warships.

“The role of submarines in World of Warships is one of strategic positioning,” explains Plociennik. “They will be the class that gets into positions that nobody expects them to be in, to either give their team an advantage by breaking up enemy formations, or dislodging enemy ships that may be using a very static gameplay style and hiding behind islands or staying in the second line for a long period of time, particularly aircraft carriers and battleships.”

“The new submarines class provides a thrilling, stealth-based experience that’s unlike anything else players have become used to in World of Warships.”

“Subs are able to move between surface, periscope, and fully submerged depths, with the latter making the player invisible to others but only for as long as the contents of their oxygen tanks last. Strategic positioning and risk management is key, since submarines need to move to periscope depth and thus become visible to surface ships nearby and aircraft overhead, in order to fire their torpedoes.

Once a torpedo is fired, submarines can use a hydroacoustic wave in order to turn their torpedo into a homing torpedo. Enemy vessels nearby get little indicators on their bow and stern once your torpedo is in motion, and you need to hit both of these indicators with a sweeping pulse from the hydroacoustic wave in order to steer the underwater missile towards them. There is a cool-down timer on the hydroacoustic wave, and thus if you don’t get it just right your torpedo can propel wide of your target and detonate somewhere in the distance, but it’s typically worth the risk since a successful homing torpedo hit will ignore the anti-torpedo bulge on a target and detonate underneath it, doing substantially more damage than a regular torpedo hit. But you need to be careful that you don’t leave yourself open to counterattack.“You’ll be able to use [hydroacoustic wave] for all of your torpedo spreads for as long as you remain in periscope depth,” explains Plociennik. “But that also means you need to weigh the risk of being detected, because at periscope depth you’ll also be moving very slowly.”

Submarines in World of Warships move at a speed somewhere between 5-10 knots, which is virtually at a standstill. Thus the most efficient way to attack with a submarine is to emerge into periscope depth, launch a torpedo, steer it with the hydroacoustic wave and then sink back down into deep underwater in order retreat or skirt around your target for a follow up attack.

Just because your submarine is invisible to enemy line of sight once you move down to the ocean’s depths, doesn’t mean you’re completely safe from harm’s way.

However, just because your submarine is invisible to enemy line of sight once you move down to the ocean’s depths, doesn’t mean you’re completely safe from harm’s way. In order to temper their lethality, the introduction of submarines is also bringing about a change to the destroyer class. When destroyers come within 4-5km of a submarine it will trigger a mini-game, where a circular zone will appear on the map, simulating the way destroyers used to triangulate the position of subs in real battles. When you steer your destroyer into the zone, a smaller zone appears, and you must keep manoeuvring into the increasingly smaller zones before you arrive in an area immediately above the submarine at which point the destroyer will automatically start deploying depth charges.

Meanwhile, the submarine many leagues under the sea is desperately trying to shake the attention of the destroyer relying only on sonar blips on the radar to show the destroyer’s position, with the ticking clock that is the oxygen reserves counting down to the forced resurfacing and keeping the tension high. It plays out like an incredibly exciting game of cat and mouse, but it’s not merely the cat that the mouse has to fear, but the birds as well.

It plays out like an incredibly exciting game of cat and mouse, but it’s not merely the cat that the mouse has to fear, but the birds as well.

““The other nemesis for submarines are the aircraft carrier squadrons,” explains Plociennik. “Your mode of operation as a submarine commander will be to have a good plan, and to try to execute that plan. But if during that plan you’re randomly spotted by an aircraft, a squadron flying overhead, even if it doesn’t necessarily manage to attack you directly, the fact that it’s going to reveal your position is going to be detrimental to your general success.”

What Lies Beneath

Thus, as a submarine commander you’re going to be spending a lot of time in the inky depths of the ocean, and it’s truly an eerie space to inhabit. You’re completely invisible to other players, and aside from rival subs in your immediate vicinity, enemy ships are completely invisible to you – you can only see their last known positions on the mini-map, similar to the existing smoke screen mechanic. The camera follows your sub deep down below the water’s surface, and so the only way to get a feel for your surroundings is via the sonar, which both indicates the general direction of other ships, as well as briefly illuminating the underwater terrain so that you don’t end up inadvertently piloting your U-boat into a huge underwater rock.

It’s an incredibly – and appropriately – claustrophobic sensation; with the all-consuming darkness, the lonely blip of the sonar, and the ever present threat of a destroyer’s depth chargers, and it effectively makes World of Warships feel like something close to a survival horror experience.

[Submarines] effectively makes World of Warships feel like something close to a survival horror experience.

“This is part of the submarine fantasy,” says Plociennik. “I wouldn’t say it’s quite horror, but it’s definitely a military thriller that you are going to be playing, in line with the pop cultural depiction of submarines.”“We try to make it as atmospheric as possible.”

Naval Combat Evolved

2019’s aircraft carrier overhaul was a significant shake up of the World of Warships meta, but there’s no doubt that the introduction of submarines is the biggest thing to happen to the game since its 2015 launch. For the team at Lesta Studio, submarines very much represent what’s likely to be the final piece of the puzzle as far as fully realising its vision for the ultimate naval action MMO inspired by the conflicts that took place in the first half of the 20th century.

“It’s a significant milestone,” says Plociennik. “We’re talking about something that messes with all of the core loops of the game; the battle loops, economic loops, and progression loops that we’ve built for players with the different components of the game. I can’t imagine we would ever introduce another class into the game [after submarines]. I don’t even know what that would be.”“It’s unlikely we’ll ever have a milestone of this exact calibre ever again,” concludes Plociennik.

World of Warships players will get their first glimpse of the new submarine class in the next couple of weeks during the Super Test phase, before the limited PvP event late in 2019 delivers a larger taste of the new submersible ship class ahead of its full introduction to the game sometime in 2020.