Greetings Captain,
We are pleased to be together for another diary. In the previous Developer's Diary, we talked about the threat half of the upcoming major update we are currently working on. Today, we will be talking about the other half, and that half is all about bases! We figure that if you'll be spending a lot of time around bases, they should be more interesting than they are, and so they are getting a major face lift to serve that purpose.
Before we begin talking about bases however, we'd like to proudly present, the Nagara-class Cruiser!
Coming in roughly twice the displacement of the Akizuki-class Destroyer that has already been terrorising you, the Nagara is one tough customer and will be the largest ship in the game at the time of her inclusion. She is generously armed with 6 single-mount 14 cm/50 3rd Year Type naval guns and ample 25mm AAA, making sure she has bite to spare both up close and from afar. She even has a fully functioning floatplane launcher!
The 14 cm guns, being of a much older design, do not have the fire rate or accuracy enjoyed by the 12.7 cm guns found on the Fubukis. In the game, this will be modelled as them having longer range and higher damage, but with their shells being easier for you to avoid. The Nagara will have to fire salvos in more clever patterns to compensate for the shortcomings of her guns and make the most of their strengths.
The 14 cm shells will probably be the largest shells you can survive a direct hit from with some luck, which already isn't a given with the Fubuki's guns, so try to not get hit! Even if you do survive a direct hit, your boat probably won't be in fighting condition afterwards, so try to give the biggest gun of its class the respect it is due when you meet in combat!
An icon of Army aviation in the Pacific, the twin-boomed P-38 is also diving into the battlefield of the Solomons at high speed! Available as a high-end ally or call-in support, the P-38 will carry a standard armament of .50 cal MGs and a single 20mm Autocannon or more rarely a 37mm Autocannon, alongside a secondary armament of either a lot of bombs or rockets. Fast, versatile, and tough, the P-38 is sure to be a helpful asset to have in your corner.
The models for the Nagara and the P-38 were made by Shigure, who we believe did justice to their beauty. Shigure himself is a talented artist, and we are really looking forward to his future contributions to both the gallery of nautical horrors that you will be facing, as well as the ranks of your allies that will help you withstand them.
Now, onward to the bases!
Base System Improvements
Unlike the threat system, which we felt was in need of a major rework, bases themselves aren't inherently problematic. They were just a little boring, with the concepts of fortifications, force projection and patrols being non-existent. Our plans are to remedy these issues, and to have bases feel more like bases rather than ramshackle groups of gun positions.
Firstly, we're implementing dynamic vision range rather than the current default of 4 km, instead scaling with the base development level. Bases will be able to have perfect vision of everything within this range, and so the distance at which bases will start building up threat just by observing you will go higher and higher based on development. This is the first half of our planned abstraction for small patrols, with the understanding that more developed bases have more patrols around them and thus a larger zone of awareness.
The second half of the patrol system is dynamic generation of skirmishes between patrols. If there is friction between hostile bases with overlapping littoral zones, patrol skirmishes will be dynamically generated on the border. You can safely ignore these small scale conflicts, but keep in mind that the base that loses the skirmish will lose some amount of supplies, so you don't want them happening too often if it can be helped. Base development has an impact on the strength of these patrols, but there is also a randomness factor to ensure that the stronger base does not always bring in more to the fight.
Light base defenses will be more or less the same, as they indeed represent little more than some hastily put together AAA and MG positions. Moderate base defenses are a different story however, and they will have torpedo nets that help protect docked ships against torpedoes and wooden stakes of various shapes to impede movement close to the coast. The medium coastal gun, the same 12.7 cm found on the Fubuki, will also have a chance to be spawned at this base strength tier, at up to 1.
Heavy base defenses will have all that, plus bunkers and concrete platforms that are tough to kill, as well as a new medium coastal gun modelled after the same 14 cm found on the Nagara.
Currently, most cannon type base defenses are on concrete platforms, which is something we would like to change. More appropriate wood and sandbag based models are planned for the existing base defenses, with anything concrete being a special occasion variant available in the heavy base defenses tier as well as...
...Fortresses. Fortresses are the 4th tier of enemy-only base defenses, and only one can exist on an island at a given time. The first batch of Heavy Base Defenses on an island are upgraded to a Fortress. Fortresses are even tougher than Heavy Base Defenses, and all bases on the same island as a Fortress are Alert, meaning their effective threat level is increased by 1.
Successfully reducing a Fortress enough to be assaulted gives an RP windfall, and the AI will never assault Fortresses on its own otherwise. A fortress that is reduced below 30 Strength is instantly demoted to Heavy Base Defenses, and a new fortress can’t spawn on that island for another in-game week.
Fortresses improve assault strength as well, adding a decent stacking bonus to assault strength. This makes it important to take care of them sooner rather than later.
Hopefully, these changes will make bases a lot more interesting indeed! We have even more in mind for them, but those changes fall out of the scope of the upcoming major update so you will have to wait and read about them in a future diary.
That's all we have to share for now,
Captain,
T.T.