User blog:Lapo90/Ship just got real - From the initial announcement, to the leaking, to the actual release.

Updates Naval Units
This is a blog for information and images of the upcoming Naval units. I'll try to update this whenever new information becomes available (through forum posts, events, game files and official releases).

Z2 Forum Update 10/6/14
Citizens!

In the past you’ve fought for glory.

You’ve fought for honor.

You’ve fought for Nanopods…

For this upcoming Invasion we’re giving you an even more compelling reason to fight - an exclusive first-look at our awesome new Naval release! You read that right, for the first time in Battle Nations history we’re granting the winning Guild a first look at our brand new, unreleased Navy content! You and your guildmates will be the first in the world to see the all new **********, *******, *********, and more!

The details - the Leader of the winning guild will receive an exclusive, early-access release package via email from me on Oct 17th. The Guild leader will then be responsible for sharing that content with the rest of their Guild. From there, Guild members can decide for themselves what they want to do with the content.

How will you share your hard-fought bounty, Citizen? Will you share with your fellow players or keep the information to yourself???

For everyone else, we will begin widespread distribution of the Naval content approximately two weeks later.

This is going to be one hell of a fight… Best of luck to you and your Guild.

Ship just got real.

Developer Q&A
The Naval units were first mentioned and previewed in the latest Developer Q&A with the release of the 4.0 Patch. It's most likely the Naval units will be released in a big update at the end of 2014.

In the Dev Q&A, the following was said:

"'Naval stuff is coming. I’m not going to say it’s coming tomorrow or anything, but we’re definitely working on it. Art is working on new designs for units, design is working on building out new missions and a new campaign. So keep your eyes peeled, because it’s coming soon.'"

"'The awesome thing about the naval campaign is that it’s going to begin at mid level, so we’re going to have a whole range of players that are going to be able to experience this.'"

Battle Nations PAX party
During the Battle Nations PAX party in August 2014, a few questions were answered and new information was shared regarding the Naval units:


 * Naval campaign announced, starting from level 25.
 * New NPC announced, named Pike.
 * New naval enemy type.
 * Naval critters implied.
 * Naval buildings and decorations confirmed.

The information was confirmed by KoolRanch.

Game Files
The following units are currently mentioned in the game files:

"ship_battleship_med_name"                          => "Battleship Raptor-Class" "ship_battleship_med_shortname"                     => "Battleship-R1" "ship_battleship_med_weapon_primary_name"           => "Turret" "ship_battleship_super_name"                        => "Battleship Mammoth-Class" "ship_battleship_super_shortname"                   => "Battleship-M10" "ship_battleship_super_weapon_special_name"         => "Mk12 Gun" "ship_destroyer_med_name"                           => "Destroyer" "ship_destroyer_med_shortname"                      => "Destroyer" "ship_destroyer_med_weapon_primary_name"            => "Deck Gun" "ship_gunboat_name"                                 => "Gunboat" "ship_gunboat_shortname"                            => "Gunboat" "ship_submarine_name"                               => "Submarine" "ship_submarine_shortname"                          => "Sub" "ship_submarine_weapon_primary_name"                => "Torpedo Tube"
 * Battleship Mammoth-Class
 * Battleship Raptor-Class
 * Destroyer
 * Gunboat
 * Submarine

There's also mention of a few unreleased abilities that are likely to be used by future Naval Units:

"abil_ship_bombard_3col_name"                       => "Barrage", "abil_ship_cannon_1shot_name"                       => "Targeted Shell" "abil_ship_cannon_2shots_name"                      => "Dual Shell" "abil_ship_cannon_3row_name"                        => "Broadside" "abil_ship_flak_cannon_shot_name"                   => "Rapid Fire" "abil_torpedo_strike_name"                          => "Torpedo"

Lastly, the building that we can utilize to build ships will most likely be called the Dry Dock:

"comp_milunit_drydock_desc"                         => "WIP" "comp_milunit_drydock_name"                         => "Dry Dock"