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World of Warships introduces a land-defense mode and new matchmaking algorithm

World of Warships bastion

Wargaming’s third crack at the World War 2 warfare piñata, World of Warships, continues to evolve. A number of changes have come into effect today, as well as new additions, to improve games. This includes a brand new matchmaker that Wargaming are promising will significantly decrease the ship-level gap between players, making it all about skill and timing. They also detail their new, short-term testing process that they say is helping to make the game better, faster.

We’ve got some thoughts on World of Warships eSports – it may have a future.

The most notable addition today is Bastion, a mode designed around defending and attacking land installations. It’s entered testing for high-tier players on a single map, Atlantic, and is one of several prototypes they’re working on.

This method of ‘testing’ new maps and modes by introducing them to high level arenas before expanding them out to cover the whole game has been successful, say Wargaming. It’s what they did with weather effects too. “The team started by introducing them on one map for tiers 8–10, tested these effects thoroughly and, listening to player feedback, fully polished the feature, then implemented it for vessels of Tier 6 and higher across 11 maps.” They’re working on a second mode, Epicenter, though haven’t said what it will be about.

The new matchmaker is also now in the game and though Wargaming haven’t detailed exactly how it changes things, they do say it should lead to fairer matches across the board. It comes with a batch of extra post-battle rewards for different actions, and an in-game real-time damage counter for keeping track of effectiveness on the battlefield. These were added after feedback was received from the community.

If you want to give it a shot, here’s a link.* Full details on Bastion mode are available in the latest patch notes.

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