Warwake Demo — 0.3.0 Update Notes

New: the Ship Modeler

You can now design a cruiser from scratch in the Demo:

• Shape the hull: drag sliders for length, beam, freeboard, forecastle, bow flare and more, and watch the hull reshape live.
• Fit it out: drag turrets, barbettes, funnels, masts, bridges, torpedo tubes and AA mounts from a picture library; they snap onto the deck.
• Prefab superstructures: ready-made bridge towers, fire-control towers, deckhouses and funnel casings, each in three styles.
• Mirror: place a part on one side and its twin appears on the other.
• One-click details: bollards, capstans, life rafts, searchlights, ship's boats, davits and railings, laid out for you; hit "Reshuffle" for a different layout.
• Paint: recolour the hull, deck, superstructure and more by role.
• Sortie check: see live whether firepower, hit points and weapon count are within the sortie limits, and exactly what is over

New: Choose Your Ship

BEGIN GAME now opens "Choose your ship" first:

• USS Wyoming is the default; or pick one of your own designs, or "+ Build a new ship" to open the modeler; then set the difficulty and signal code, and sail. Once a sortie starts it sails a locked copy of that design, so editing the design mid-run doesn't change the run.

New: Refit Between Rounds

After each win, once you've picked your card, you can spend steel to refit your ship: more guns, AA, torpedoes, or a hull tweak within ±5 %. Same hull type, same sortie limits, and a refit doesn't repair damage. Steel buys options. (The stock Wyoming can't be refitted.)

• This is still being tested. We'd love your feedback on how it should finally work.

New: Press Q to Call in the Dauntless Dive Bombers

In battle, press Q (gamepad: hold View + RB) to call a three-plane formation. You fly the lead aircraft yourself, and your deputy takes over your ship.

• To call it: an enemy ship within about 30° ahead and 6 km; 150 s cooldown. If the conditions aren't met, nothing launches.
• (We'll keep testing to find what feels best.)

Flying: W / S pitch, A / D roll, or steer with the mouse; Left Shift / Left Ctrl throttle; Space opens the dive brakes; arrow keys free-look (gamepad: left stick to steer, D-pad up/down throttle, RB dive brakes, right stick to look).

Bombing: LMB / RT drops a 1,000 lb AN-M65 bomb and your two wingmen drop right after you. Each bomb scores a direct hit, near miss, miss or dud, shown in the aircraft HUD.

Back to the ship: press Q again; bombs already released keep falling.

The aircraft has its own HUD: speed, altitude, dive angle, dive brakes, a bombing pipper and bomb status.

Combat Improvements

• Citadel hits reworked: one citadel hit now does about 6 % of a hull. It used to take around 110 hits on average to sink a battleship, and a citadel hit barely registered.
• Health bar animation.
• Difficulty tuning.
• The shell-cam (Z) now follows in slow motion.
• Lots of new 4K part art: portholes, armour belts, anchors and a more realistic teak deck on the hull.

Fixes from 0.2.0 to 0.3.0

• Fixed: reversing drew a white wake trailing off the bow. No wake is drawn while going astern now.
• Fixed: a ship starting from rest in a straight line left only a short, hooked wake. The full V wake now builds as the ship gets under way.
• Fixed: AP hits showed almost no fire or smoke (see above).
• Fixed: citadel hits did too little damage; the damage setting was not being applied to AP shells (see above).
• Fixed: the shell-cam (Z) stuttered (see above).
• Fixed: health bars jumped on a hit (see above).

⚠ Known Issues

• A home-built cruiser faces heavy pressure from enemy battleships, so clearing all 3 rounds is a real challenge. We're continuing to tune the balance.
• The battle HUD labels a home-built ship "BB02 WYOMING"; fixed in the next build.
• Aircraft sounds will keep improving until the final sounds are in.
• Enemy AA doesn't engage the aircraft yet, and the aircraft can't be shot down. AA arrives in the next build.
• Returning players: if you have an unfinished sortie from an older build, BEGIN GAME continues it first and skips ship selection. Finish or lose that run, then BEGIN GAME again to choose and build your ship.

Thank you to every captain who played and sent feedback. Share the ship you built, or your first direct hit, in the comments!

If you enjoy it, please wishlist Warwake on Steam to hear the moment the full game launches.

We're working to get into Early Access as soon as we can.