World of Warships developer interview
The new Italian ships
Before moving on to the actual interview, it is good to give some information about the game and the new features introduced in the latest update. The title is an online mass multiplayer dedicated to naval battles, with a historical focus that goes from the early 1900s to the 50s of the same century. Particularly interesting is the historical work of reconstruction and reproduction of the boats, all really existed and faithfully transposed onto the screen. Obviously the game needs some approximations, fundamental to allow a wide-ranging and entertaining use, but without falling into banal or simplistic.As for the recent update, all Italian, the following battleships:
Dante Alighieri (Tier IV), the first Italian battleship that entered service in 1913 Conte di Cavour (Tier V), battleship that entered service in 1915 and which participated in both the First and Second World War Andrea Doria (Tier VI), an evolution of the Conte di Cavour that entered service in 1916 and revisited in 1930, with the improvement of the anti-torpedo protection, speed and armament Francesco Caracciolo (Tier VII), recreated in World of Warships on the base of the first battleship of the Regia Marina, commissioned during the First World War Vittorio Veneto (Tier VIII), entered service in 1940 and represents the new generation of Italian warships during the Second World War Lepanto (Tier IX), revised version and improved of the Vittorio Veneto, with the weapons now positioned on quadruple turrets
Interview with Jacopo Bartolomei and Rajeev Girdhar
To the happiness of the whole Italian community, the next update of W orld of Warships will concern the placing of numerous tricolor ships. Can you reveal some details about the most intriguing features of the most powerful battleship (the Lepanto, tier IX)?Jacopo Bartolomei: I would say the armor, which allows the ship to be very resistant (it is difficult to reach the citadel of Lepanto), combined with the Smoke Exhaust: an invisible, indestructible marine tank!
One of the most fascinating (and most complex) tasks of the game is undoubtedly that of historical research and its transposition on the screen. What is the modus of your research activity and what kind of sources have you drawn on for the reconstruction of the new Italian ships?
Rajeev Girdhar: First we need to conduct a thorough research to get all the information available. From visiting historical archives around the world to researching photographs, videos, designer notes, projects and any other useful data, we try to bring them all together to recreate the ship in as much detail as possible.
What is the criterion by which new ships are chosen to be introduced in the different game updates?
Jacopo Bartolomei: To make this decision we take into consideration various elements starting from the historical relevance, the interest of the players, the available data and how to make them work with the rest of the game content.
The aesthetic reproduction of the ships is one of the strong points of World of Warships. How does the process of rebuilding and designing boats work, especially older ones (and therefore lacking in large photographic material) such as the new Dante Alighieri (1913, Tier IV)?
Rajeev Girdhar: Actually, although Dante Alighieri was an old ship, we had all the information, including photos, and some of them are even available to the public. There are certainly ships with little photographic material, in these cases we base our work on all the information we have available: do we know the speed? The dimension? How many cannons or torpedoes did it carry? Then we look at the parameters already set for a particular country and era and combine them with our game design needs. Sometimes there are similar ships on which we try to base some of our projects.
It is worth saying that we have a whole department of employees with specialized shipbuilding training. They know the ins and outs of real ship design and support us in rebuilding each model, especially when information is scarce.
World of Warships' historical fidelity is accompanied by the need to maintain a balanced and homogeneous gaming experience. How are the parameters of the different ships studied and above all what are the principles with which it is possible to make ships from the early 1900s coexist with more modern boats?
Jacopo Bartolomei: In World of Warships there are the most significant historical warships from 1900 to the 1950s. The difference in technological development over that time period is reflected in the differences between the 10 different tiers in the game. However, we must ensure that each ship is competitive within its tier. Each ship has its own advantages against the others, some are better matched, making them more effective in battle, and finally, each ship must be fun to play and offer a unique gameplay experience. As you can see, there are quite a few factors that we need to keep in mind before the ship is ready for launch. It can be said that the balancing of the characteristics of each ship is an art form in itself.
Moving on to broader topics, 2020 was a difficult and particular year, which however saw a physiological increase in online gaming. How much has the pandemic impacted on World of Warships game numbers?
Rajeev Girdhar: 2020 has been a busy year for the entire sector, but we can proudly say that we have faced the challenges head on: we have moved most of our employees to smartworking, simplified workflows work and taken all necessary safety measures for employees in the office. As a result, we were able to release all scheduled updates on time and hit our KPIs. We also believe that we have provided quality online entertainment during the pandemic, which is our humble contribution to helping the world through all these difficult times.
