Navyfield

Navy Field is a naval combat massively multiplayer online game set during World War II. The game was developed by SD Enternet, a South Korean company, and has been operational in Asia since 2002. It was made available to Western players as a free open beta on November 5th, 2004, and in commercial form on February of 2006.

Gameplay
The object of the game is to upgrade and advance a WWII naval ship and to participate in naval battles with other people online. Gameplay starts out by configuring a naval ship to prepare it for battle. Once ready, the player proceeds into the game's 'Battle Map' and joins one of the open battle rooms. These rooms are located and created in one of the 25 different 'Areas' on the 'Battle Map'. Each room can hold up to 128 players divided into two teams.

New players take command of a 'Neutral' nationality ship at the beginning of the game and need to progress by advancing in levels to access larger and more powerful vessels. There are two main types of ships that a player can command in the highest levels of the game: Aircraft carriers (CV) and Battleships (BB). Battleships may be armed with the largest guns in the game and can hold the most powerful armor, while aircraft carriers have aircraft that have long-range striking capabilities along with lethal accuracy depending on the skill of the player. Up to 6 different ships of a single nation can be purchased at a time and can be armed and equipped with multiple variations of naval guns, aircraft, fire control systems, powerplants, and armor. The game uses two forms of currency: "Credits" and "Points". Credits are used to purchase ships and equipment, and points are to purchase recruits and promote sailors.

Battles are played in real-time using Isometric projection|isometric graphics. Players control their ship's weapons and speed while in battle. Ships can have gun turrets, torpedoes, and anti-aircraft guns. Larger ships can also hold aircraft that can help to scout for or attack other enemy ships and aircraft.

Like many massively multiplayer online strategy games, players may form clans, known as fleets. Each fleet is unique and has the ability to create up to 5 squadrons of 30 or more people within the fleet, and they have the unique capability to participate in the Harbor Assault gameplay mode. Squads can also be formed without belonging to a fleet, but they cannot participate in Harbor assault.

Game balance
The four nations in the game all have their weak and strong points, explained later. Some ships and weapons in the game are noticeably strong or weak compared to the ships and weapons of other nations at similar levels; this also applies to other important areas, such as support crews, aircraft, and armor. Balance is an ongoing and hotly contested issue among players.

Game modes
There are seven types of battles in Navy Field:


 * 1) Normal
 * 2) Great Battle II
 * 3) Operation Convoy
 * 4) Blitzkrieg
 * 5) Missions
 * 6) Night Battle
 * 7) Great Battle I

The common theme for all game modes is that the battle is between two teams, each of which has a flagship. Damage done to friendly ships produces an experience penalty to discourage the practice of team killing (which is also now a bannable offense). All games are "hosted"; ships join a hosting zone and join or are assigned to teams. When all ships are ready to play, the game proper commences.

In Normal battles, there are no restrictions on the number of each ship type, and the host is free to set restrictions on the type of ships that enter the room by indicating it in the title, which is not possible in any other game mode. Each ship earns experience based only on the damage that it inflicts. Credits and points are awarded primarily based on personal damage inflicted, with a small proportion coming from the team total. Each ship chooses its own side and decides when to become ready to play.

In Great Battle II battles, all ship types are allowed, though a maximum of 10 BBs and 6 CVs may participate. Experience, credits and points are awarded based on both personal and team performance, making team play and in particular escorting and defending friendly ships more significant. Great Battle II games are played to a time limit. The game splits ships between the two sides, attempting to balance them based on ship power (power is determined by weapons, armor, engine and the ship in general), then the room host can move ships between sides. The room host decides when the game starts.

In Blitzkrieg battles, destroyers, frigates, and cruisers under or at Level 60 may participate. Experience, credits and points are awarded based on both personal and team performance, but experience is double the normal amount to aid newer players in leveling their sailors. The game is played to a time limit. As of patch 1.179, Blitzkrieg is balanced automatically, using the same "balancer" as Great Battle I.

Night Battles are exclusively played between a maximum of 14 battleships and 6 carriers. The sight range of ships and aircraft is limited, and all sailors receive reduction to all of their abilities.

Great Battle I is very similar to Great Battle II, but the limit for the number of BBs is 14 instead of 10. It also features an enhanced "balancer" which splits the vessels before a battle. This enhanced "balancer", like its predecessor in Great Battle II, is distrusted by many players, who believe that the teams produced by the "balancer" are not evenly matched.

Missions are played either solo or in small teams against computer controlled ships. They represent training opportunities or historical scenarios. Rewards for missions are generally very low, although repeated play of them can be used to turn crewmen's recruits into experts (called "Mission Whoring" by many players). There is only one (player) side in missions, and all ships must become ready to play before the game starts.

Historical accuracy
Navy Field is an interpretation and/or a simulation of WWII Naval warfare|naval combat. It contains many abstractions and some speculative ships and weapons.

The visual designs of the ships, guns, and planes are very detailed. However, characteristics of some of the units in the game are quite historically inaccurate. In particular:


 * The scaling of the ships is very large compared to the lengths of their gun ranges.
 * The majority of ships in the game can travel at speeds much higher than that of their historical maximums.
 * Ships turn "on their axis" rather than turning by the stern; this sometimes allows players to dodge torpedos or bombs dropped by dive-bombers much easier, since the ship rotates about its center.
 * Guns fire at a substantially increased rate.
 * Plane preparation time for launching from carriers is far shorter.
 * Carriers do not need to turn into the wind in order to launch planes.
 * The accuracy of guns can become unrealistically high, in some cases allowing them to fire with perfect accuracy out to their maximum range, popularly called a "block shot" by players.
 * Damage is greatly abstracted; until 21st September, 2006 the only effect of damage was to slow ships down until they eventually sank; it had no other effect. Now, battleships and battlecruisers which are below 30% of their DP have their "Turret Drive Acceleration" disabled, which forces them to move their turrets at a slow pace.

Nations
When a new player creates an account, he or she receives four Sailors with balanced ability in all areas, fifty thousand credits and thirty two thousand points to spend on purchasing a neutral ship and more crew. Players may also buy or sell naval guns, torpedo launchers, and other equipment using credits, or trade with other players for ships and crewmen.

Beginners are advised to battle in the "Beginner" area to level their Sailors up. Once a Sailor has reached level 12, he may be assigned to one of four nations:

Royal Navy
- Royal Navy - British empire|British Empire The RN has the most effective armor, the best support crews, a large variety of fast battleships, as well as the hardest hitting guns. However, RN guns lack a fast reload speed (due to the system used to class their gunners), their armor is the lightest but most expensive, and RN torpedoes are the slowest and have the shortest range, but have highest damage. Players gain access to battleships and heavy cruisers at lower levels than the other navies.

British Ship Classes/ Destroyer(DD)- O class/ DD- Q class/ DD- Tribal class/ DD- L class/ Light Cruiser(CL)- Dido class/ CL- Sirius class/ CL- Emerald class/ CL- Edinburgh class/ Heavy Cruiser(CA)- York class/ CA- Surrey class/ CA- County class/ Battle Cruiser(BC)- Renown class/ BC- Hood class/ Battleship(BB)- Revenge class/ BB- Queen Elizabeth class/ BB- King George V class/ BB- Nelson class/ BB- Vanguard class/ BB- Lion I class/ BB- Lion II class/ Aircraft Carrier(CV)- Attacker class/ CV- Colossus class/ CV- Courageous class/ CV- Illustrious class/ CV- Ark Royal class/ CV- Malta Project/

United States Navy
- United States Navy - The USN is presented as a balanced all-around choice, with good fighter pilots, good aircraft carriers, and powerful light cruisers. United States heavy cruisers are considered to lack range compared to those of other nations, and its early-to-mid game battleships, the Nevada class battleship|Nevada class, Alaska class cruiser, and New Mexico class battleship, are generally considered to be weak. However, its mid-to-late game battleships, the (North Carolina class battleship and South Dakota class battleship (1939)), are easily the fastest battleships in the game, yet field potent firepower.

US ship classes/DD- Fletcher class/DD- Gearing class/DD- Gearing DDR/ DD- Timmerman class/DD- Somers class/DD- DDX project/CL- Atlanta class/CL- Omaha class/CL- Brooklyn class/CL- Cleveland class/CA- Northampton class/CA- Portland class/CA- New Orleans class/CA- Baltimore class/Large Cruiser(CB)- Alaska class/BB- Nevada class/BB- Pennsylvania class/BB- Tennessee class/BB- North Carolina class/BB- New Mexico class/BB- Colorado class/BB- South Dakota class/BB- Iowa class/BB- Montana class/CV- Bogue class/CV- Independence class/CV- Yorktown class/CV- Essex class/CV- Lexington class

Kriegsmarine
- Kriegsmarine - Naval guns of the KM typically have the greatest range of all the four navies, yet do the least amount of damage for their size. German ships boast some of the best speeds in the game. Some KM ships lack the displacement required to hold large amounts of armor, yet others can stop 16-inch HE shells. Typically, the Kriegsmarine's gunships have excellent anti-aircraft weaponry and its carriers have powerful fighter aircraft. Most of the (relatively few, compared with the other nations) ships available for Kriegsmarine are Z Plan projects which were never built or commissioned.

German ship classes/DD- Z1 class/DD- Z31 class/DD- Z99 class/DD/CL- Spaehkruezer/CL-Emden class/CL- Koenigsberg class/CL- M Project/CA- Admiral Hipper class/Panzerschiffe(PS)- Deutchland class/PS-P Project/BC- P Project II/BC- O Project/BC- O Project II/BC- Scharnhorst class/BB- Bismarck class/BB- H39 class/BB- H44 class/CV- Seydlitz/CV- Graf Zeppilin class/CV- Graf Zeppilin II class/CV- Europa class/

Imperial Japanese Navy
- Imperial Japanese Navy - The Imperial Japanese Navy is the only nation that can use Type 93 torpedo "Long Lance" oxygen-fueled torpedoes and it has some of the fastest ships in the game, as well as a large assortment of aircraft carriers and a line of ships designed specifically to use torpedoes as their primary weapons. The earlier Japanese Battleships are usually considered hard to use, and their armor is generally considered to be quite weak; hence, the Imperial Japanese Navy is largely considered a CV and torpedo nation. However, the IJN does have access to the Yamato class battleships, the largest and most powerful battleships ever built, wielding 18.1 inch main batteries and powerful anti-aircraft weaponry. They also possess the much more powerful Super Yamato class battleship, with 20.1 inch guns.

Japanese ship classes/DD- Kagero class/DD- Akitsuki class/DD- Tsukekei class/DD- Fubuki class/DD- Tatsuda class/DD- Shimakaze class/CL- Agano class/CL- Kuma class/CL- Kitakami class/CL- Mogami(1938) class/CA- Mogami(1941) class/CA- Myoko class/BB- Kongo class/BB-Ise(1937) class/BB- Fuso class/BB- Nagato class/BB- Yamato class/BB- Super Yamato class/CV- Oyodo class/CV- Mogami(1944) class/CV- Ise(1943) class/CV- Junyo class/CV- Unryu class/CV- Taiho class/CV- Shokaku class/CV- Hosho class/CV- Ryujo class/CV- Hiryu class/CV- Akagi class/CV- Kaga class/CV- Shinano class/

Ships
Each nation has a large variety of all types of ships. As a player's Bridge Operator levels up, he gains access to more powerful ships, culminating in either a battleship or an aircraft carrier. The sailor system is explained below. Players may also purchase "Premium" light cruisers, heavy cruisers and battle ships, explained in the main Ships article and the Payment section. There are also ships who concentrate on torpedoes - designated TW's by users. They are usually of Destroyer or Light Cruiser type.

Ship characteristics
In-game, there are many characteristics about the ships in the game that differentiate them from the other ships in the game:


 * Ship Class: the class that a ship belongs in. The classes are listed below.
 * Required Level: the minimum level that a Bridge Operator of a certain nation must be in order to command the ship. However, players must also consider the ship's placement in the ship tree (explained later).
 * Durability: the "life points" of a ship. Determines how much damage a ship can take before sinking.
 * Cost: the amount of credits required in order to purchase a ship.
 * Repair Cost: the amount of credits required to fully repair a ship if it sinks.
 * Sailor Slots: determine how many sailors can be placed on the ship; this is divided into two categories, "on-ship" and support slots. More powerful ships have more sailor slots to place sailors in.
 * Displacement: the amount of water that the ship displaces, determines how much weight it can hold without sinking. More available displacement means that more sailors, heavier equipment, and more armor can be mounted on the ship. However, heavily displaced ships cannot move as quickly as lightly displaced ships.
 * Structural Strength: the integrity and durability of the ship. The higher the rating, the less damage the ship will take per shell, bomb, and torpedo.
 * AP/HE Defense: amount of weight that specific types of armor take. The higher the rating, the heavier the armor is.
 * AAW Defense: the AAW rating (explained in Sailors section of the main article) of a ship. The higher the rating, the more powerful its AAW.
 * FCS Space: the amount of space available to mount a Fire-control system|FCS, which directs the fire of the ship's turrets.
 * Power Plant Space: the amount of space available to mount an engine on the ship, which controls how fast a ship can move. More space is required for more powerful engines.
 * Armament: available space to store a ship's special armament, torpedoes and bombs. Important for ships that rely on torpedoes and aircraft carriers.
 * Aircraft space: available space to store aircraft. Aircraft may be carried by most cruisers, most battleships, and all aircraft carriers.
 * Turret Mounts: hardpoints for mounting Naval artillery|naval guns or torpedo launchers. Divided into two categories, R-mounts and T-mounts.

Ship designations
The game uses the USN|United States Navy's Hull classification system to classify most ships in the game. In the game, the following types of ships are available:

The Ship Tree
Not all ships of a nation are available to a Bridge Operator of that nation, even if he has the required level to use them. Instead, ships are arranged into "ship trees". The trees consist of decision points where a Bridge Operator must select which ship type he wishes to use. Once the choice has been made, the Bridge Officer is committed to that "line" of ships, and may not select ships from alternate lines. As well as diverging, the ship lines also rejoin at some points.

For example, a German Bridge Operator at level 12 can only select the Z1 destroyer as his chosen ship. No choice is available. When he reaches level 17, he is given the option of choosing the Z31 line. If he does so, he can command the Z31 destroyer and its remodels. If, however, he does not choose to go down the Z31 line at level 17, then at level 20, he can instead choose the D38 line of ships. A single Bridge Operator cannot command both a Z31 and a D38; he must choose between them. However, regardless of his earlier choices, he is given the option to command the Z99 type destroyer when he reaches level 25. At this point, the Z31 and D38 lines converge again. Further choices of this type are offered to Bridge Operators of all nations throughout their careers. Choices are irrevocable once made; a Bridge Operator cannot switch between mutually exclusive ship lines.

Ships can also be remodeled. This involves spending credits to change a ship into a different variant. A Bridge Operator that has control the basic ship can control all re-models of that ship, if he has the required level for them. Remodels can be relatively minor, such as the Atlanta / Juneau II / Oakland light cruisers, or more significant, such as the Agano light cruiser remodeling into the Ōyodo aircraft carrier.

Available ships
Each ship has a Class (see above) and a level within that class, which can range from 1 (least powerful in a class) to 5 (most powerful in a class). In general ships of a higher Class are more powerful then the ones below, and levels within each class determine how it compares to other ships in the same class. Different classes also excel in different areas, EG a DD will generally excel in torpedoes and many CL's excel at anti aircraft gunnery.

The classes of ships available in the game are:

Sailors
Sailors are the crews of players' ships, and perform specific tasks when in battle. Each sailor represents a group of enlisted men and officers who are specialized in a specific role. As sailors gain experience through battle, they increase in level and become more effective at their roles, and gain opportunities to further specialize their roles as they increase in level. Sailors perform many roles, from bridge operating, to gunnery, to conducting ship repair, to flying aircraft. In order to specialize in roles and to gain additional crew, players must spend points in order to upgrade their sailors. +12 is the best possible stat you can get in any category with the exception of potential which has 15 as its maximum stat. There are exceptions to this though; players may purchase "Elite Sailor" items which begin with base stats above what is possible to roll in special skill areas, and "mod crews", crews given to game moderators which may have stats that are also above what is possible to roll. It is also possible to "Boost" the base stats of sailors by 20%, which effectively makes, for example, a +12 stat into a +14 stat (rounded). These boosts are purchasable items like the Elite sailors.

Weapons
In order to win battles, ships must use weapons in order to damage and sink the ships of the opposing team. There are two general categories that weapons fall into, ship-mounted and aircraft. These weapons may be used to attack two different targets, ships or aircraft.

Ship-mounted weapons consist of turrets, and torpedo launchers. Turrets fire shells at their targets; these targets may be enemy ships or enemy airplanes, and there are several different types of guns and many types of ammunition used for these purposes. Torpedo launchers fire torpedoes at enemy ships, and target them below the waterline; their large warhead (compared to shells) make them very useful for destroying enemy ships, though they also have drawbacks of their own. It is not advised to carry torpedoes on any light cruiser or above - as many players see it as poor skill. The exception to this is the IJN Fubuki line (which has torpedo specialty ships at Light Cruiser level, such as the Kuma-Kai or Kita-Kami)

Ship-mounted weapons
The majority of weapons available in Navy Field are mounted on ships. Ships use these weapons to fire ordnance at enemy targets in order to damage and destroy them. The number of mounts available vary from ship to ship.

In order to mount a weapon on a ship, several factors must be taken into account:


 * Mount type: in Navy Field, there are two types of mounts, R mounts and T mounts. R mounts are for the primary armament of the ship, and only naval guns may be mounted on them. T mounts may mount both naval guns and torpedo launchers, but usually have less space available for mounting. R mounts are located at the bow and stern of a ship, while T mounts are located amidships.
 * Weight: each ship has a certain displacement that it cannot go over. In order to mount certain guns, the ship must have enough available displacement to mount them. Heavier guns take up more weight but are more powerful, while lighter guns take up less space but are weaker against enemy targets.
 * Gun space: in addition to weight, each mount only has a limited amount of space available for certain weapons; even if enough displacement is available, some guns cannot be mounted if they take up more space than is available. Furthermore, remaining gun space is used to store ammunition, so the less remaining gun space there is, the less extra ammunition it has, and the greater the chance that the player will run out of shells in the middle of combat.

Naval guns
The large majority of ships in the game carry Naval Guns, which they use to fire shells of various calibers at other ships in order to damage them (or, in the case of AA, at enemy planes in order to shoot them down). As a player's gunnery sailors rise in level, they gain access to larger and more powerful guns; higher caliber shells can be fired from larger guns, and they also have more guns per turret (RN players can wield a turret that has four 14" barrels, popularly called the "quad" by players).

Gun variants
Each specific gun has up to four variants that determine its firing range and reload times. In general the N variants are available at the lowest level, soon followed by the L variant, and then the D variant. A variants need specialised anti-air gunners are therefore separated from regular guns even if they are similar otherwise..:


 * N guns (sometimes denoted by no letter at all) are balanced in both muzzle velocity and reload time. They are also balanced in weight and gun space.
 * L guns have a higher muzzle velocity, giving them a longer range. However, they suffer from longer reload times, are heavier, and take up more space.
 * D guns have a faster reload time than N guns, but have lower firing velocities. They are also very light and use the least gun space out of all gun variants.
 * A guns are specially designed for anti-aircraft duty. They have extremely short reload times and have balanced muzzle velocity, but are heavy and use almost as much gun space as L guns. Only low- and medium-caliber guns (up to 6") have A variants.


 * P guns are Premium guns added with the new Premium Battleships. They are considered to be much more powerful then any other gun at the same level with increased damage and range.  They are only usable on Premium ships, with some nations premium CA's being able to carry the Premium guns and they come in both N and L variants as per the above.

Ammunition
Each gun can fire various types of shells (certain guns are limited in this choice, however):


 * High Explosive (HE) Ammunition: This type of shell explodes on contact, and is very effective against poorly armored ships. It comes in three types: Light, Normal, and Heavy. Light shells travel farther but do less damage, while heavy shells travel a shorter distance but do more damage.
 * Armor Piercing (AP) Ammunition: This type of shell is designed to break through armor, and is effective against heavily armored ships, at the cost of doing less damage. It is believed by some players that AP shells cause more critical hits, and thus kill more of their target's crew. However, this has not been proven. Lower-caliber guns cannot carry AP shells, but rather APC shells, which are effective against armored and unarmored ships.
 * Anti-Air (AA) Ammunition: Designed specifically to shoot down airplanes. Depending on the caliber, some guns will do more damage to planes than others. AA shells do no damage against ships, and, like A guns, are available only for low- to medium-caliber guns.
 * Fireworks (FC) Ammunition: Fireworks do just as they say: they create fireworks when fired into the air. For the most part these shells are useless, though some players sometimes attempt to use them as a blinding and distracting tactic and many report to have shot down aircraft with FCs, while others use them for miscellaneous purposes such as celebrations.

Torpedo launchers
Generally considered as a secondary armament by most players, Torpedo Launchers (sometimes shortened to simply Torps) are used to drop torpedoes into the water. Torpedoes then travel in a straight line until they either contact a ship or land, or run out of fuel, at which point they detonate, doing splash damage to all ships nearby. While torpedoes take longer to reload than naval guns, they also do far more damage, in some cases being able to sink poorly-armored ships with one or two torpedoes. Some ships, particularly those of the IJN, are designed specifically to use torpedo launchers as their primary weapons. In order to combat torpedoes, players may mount bulge armor. When launching torpedoes, players may choose to fire them in a tight or wide spread, and to set them to a fast or slow speed. Wide spreads allow the torpedoes to cover a wider area, but lower the chance that a larger number of them will hit the same target; fast torpedoes give enemies less time to dodge the torpedo, but run for a shorter distance overall.

Unlike naval guns, the remaining gun space on a torpedo mount is not used to store torpedoes. The number of available torpedoes that can be stored on a ship is determined by the ship's armament locker, which varies from ship to ship.

Naval mines
Certain ships may mount mine launchers in order to drop naval mines in the water. In order to launch mines, players must first purchase them (500 mines for $1 USD, or 1000 mines for $2 USD), then mount a mine launcher on their ship. Only FFs, DDs, and CLs have the ability to mount mine launchers.

When dropped on the battlefield, mines will become invisible, and arm themselves 10 seconds after being dropped. If a ship, friend or foe, crosses the mine while it is active, it will explode, damaging the ship. Mines are always visible to all ships on the team of the ship that launched the mine. Ships on the enemy team will not be able to see the mines, except for FFs and DDs, which can spot enemy mines in the water close to a certain radius. Mines may also be attacked using guns, which will destroy the mines after a certain amount of damage.

Aircraft
As in real naval combat, airplanes are very potent weapons and tools that can easily turn the tide of battle in the proper circumstances. In order to use airplanes, players must first have at minimum a Rookie Pilot sailor on their ship; for the specialized airplanes, more specialized classes are required. Their ship must have the ability to carry planes. In general, all ships CL and above are able to carry airplanes, though some CLs do not possess this capability. Furthermore, only CVs have the ability to carry and launch planes other than scouts.

Scouts
Scouts, while not necessarily weapons in the normal sense, are considered the eyes of a fleet. Most CLs, all CAs and BCs, and most BBs (the Nelson class battleship being the only exception) are able to carry scouts. Scouts have a very wide range of view; however, they possess very little firepower with which to defend themselves, are comparatively slower than most other planes, and are easy to shoot down. For this reason, most ships are able to carry more than one scout, in the very likely event that one is lost in battle. Scouting is a very important tactic in the game, since it gives each team information regarding the whereabouts of enemy ships, and spot gunnery fire for BBs, allowing them to shoot targets farther than their sight-range allows.

Scouts require a Rookie Pilot to fly them; pilots of higher classes may not pilot scouts. As a Rookie Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful scouting aircraft.

Fighters
In order to protect their fleets, CVs may carry and launch Fighters from their flight decks. The role of the fighter is to intercept and destroy enemy planes that pose a threat to all friendly ships and, in the case of enemy fighters, a threat to friendly airplanes. While fighters are very useful in destroying enemy airplanes, they cannot attack enemy ships, which can shoot them down with AA. Fighters are very fast and have considerable firepower, but have the shortest flight time of all planes and rely on friendly ships and scouts in order to see around them, as their sight-range is very poor. Using fighters to shoot down planes also yields the most credits.

Fighters require a Fighter Pilot or higher to pilot. As a Fighter Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful fighting aircraft, and becomes more effective at fighting.

Torpedo bombers
One of the primary anti-ship weapons of CVs, Torpedo Bombers (TB for short) are used to attack enemy ships. Like scouts, they are slow and vulnerable to enemy attack, and they, like fighters, have very limited sight-range. However, they have the ability to attack enemy ships by getting close and dropping torpedoes into the water, which then run towards enemy ships and detonate. They are very useful for destroying ships that have little to no bulge armor, such as DDs, and also for wearing down BBs, which cannot move quickly enough to completely dodge torpedo salvoes. Because they have to drop altitude in order to release their torpedoes, torpedo bombers are very vulnerable to ships' automatic anti-aircraft weapons.

Torpedo Bombers require a Torpedo Bomber Pilot or higher to pilot. As a Torpedo Bomber Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful aircraft, which can carry and use more powerful torpedoes.

Dive bombers
The second primary anti-ship weapon that CVs yield, Dive Bombers, or DBs for short, are used to attack and destroy enemy ships. Similar to TBs they are vulnerable to attack and cannot see very far, but like TBs, they have the ability to destroy ships without putting the CV in danger. Dive bombers attack by flying over their targets, diving downwards, and dropping their bombs onto the decks of ships. Because they directly attack a ship instead of its bulge, they are very useful for wearing down a ship for others to finish off with shells. Furthermore, because they do not have to drop altitude to release their ordnance, they are less vulnerable to automatic AAW. However, because they have to fly directly over a target, they are more vulnerable to flak.

Dive Bombers require a Dive Bomber Pilot or higher to pilot. As a Dive Bomber Pilot increases in level, he gains access to more powerful aircraft, which can carry and drop more powerful bombs.

Armor
Ships can be armored. Armor reduces the damage that the ship will take, but also reduces its speed due to the extra weight.
 * Deck Armor: This armour protects against long range and high angle fire, and dive bombing aircraft.
 * Belt Armor: Belt armor protects against direct shots from close range which hit the side of the ship.
 * Bulge Armor: Bulge armour protects against torpedoes, both ship launched and from torpedo bomber aircraft. Unlike other armour, bulge is ablative; it will stop a certain amount of torpedo damage completely, but then will not protect from any further torpedo damage.
 * Bulkhead Armor: Ameliorates the reduction in speed that occurs when a ship is badly damaged. It should also be noted that bulkhead does not protect against crew death, contrary to popular belief.

Soft Defense
'Soft Defense' is another feature that helps to reduce the visible damage done to a ship, which in effect increases the overall durability of the ship. Soft Defense is calculated based on the number and level of all sailors on the ship, particularly support crews. When a ship takes damage, a percentage of the damage is translated into "burning damage" instead of immediately subtracting from the ship's visible durability; this gives the support crews the chance to repair the damage while the ship is burning. The higher the Soft Defense value, the more damage is translated into burning damage, the less immediate damage is done to the ship. The highest current possible value of SD is 900; at this level, only 10% of the damage done to a ship is translated into immediate damage, and the remaining 90% is converted to burning damage.

Payment
There are three types of game subscriptions that players can purchase:


 * 1) Free: No cost, but upon reaching level 30, player receives a penalty to the amount of experience, credit and point gain per battle. Upon reaching level 30, players receive only 60% of what they would normally earn.
 * 2) Basic Subscription: Costs $7.99 United States dollars (USD) for 30 days. This removes the reward penalty above level 30, allowing full gain of rewards.
 * 3) Premium Subscription: Costs $11.99 USD for 30 days. This removes the reward penalty above level 30, and adds a 1000 bonus to experience, credits and points for each battle in which the players stays for 5 minutes. There is a time counter showing how much time is left to "premium" reward. Due to a technical detail in the feature, the true waiting time is actually 4 minutes and 30 seconds rather than 5 minutes. Premium Subscription is rather handy to have in the early game as it allows a player to excel through the levels at a much faster rate.

All players, regardless of subscription type, also have the ability to purchase "Premium" ships, which are vessels that are designed to be the best ship in its class for its nation. For example, a premium light cruiser can mount guns normally used on heavy cruisers while premium heavy cruisers often carry battleship guns. In 2007, premium battleships were released for purchase. Much of the playerbase agrees that "premium" battleships are overpowered and need to be weakened.

Criticism
Perhaps harkening from its WWII era theme, the game engine's sprite-based design was already outdated when it hit its initial beta release in 2004. Minimum system requirements are generally suggested at 512MB of memory with a Pentium III-era processor, however negative issues with gameplay experience will be felt with anything less than 1GB of memory and a Pentium IIII-era processor.

The game is constructed upon a TCP-based protocol which creates adverse gameplay. Similar examples of poor program design are seen with repeated calls to srand when rolling for new sailors, rounding of numbers such as "soft defense" or "armament" values due to improper variable casting, and poor keyboard event handling that results in an inability for a player to hold the firing key down and rotate guns at the same time.

Within the gameplay itself, the transitive design dictates that, in battle, the largest of the ship classes always presents the most advantages compared to smaller ship classes. For example, a player in a destroyer-class ship would find themselves firing many minutes worth of salvoes trying to sink a battleship while the battleship is capable of sinking the destroyer with one or two shots and at a much greater range. While historically accurate, it leads to dissappointment by newcomers to the game as they'll find themselves continually outmatched and unable to compete until they've played the thousands of games required to reach the requisite levels for a battleship or high-level aircraft carrier. This issue has led to the gaming modes of Great Battle and Blitzkrieg which reward all players with experience points largely irrespective of their performance within the battle, and further leads to play styles where many players simply participate minimally (or not at all) in helping their team win.

SD EnterNet
Navy Field was designed and developed by SDEnternet, a small South Korean company that specialises in making online games. The game engine for Navy Field is available for licensing to other developers.

Upcoming features
Upcoming features are not revealed to the playerbase. New features are added during game updates. Game updates usually occur on every Wednesday at midnight PST (or Thursday morning for European players).