Hello. I’m wondering how to get the infrared searchlight on the M48A1? I figured it would just be the nightvision upgrade, but that didn’t do anything.
Do i have to unlock every modification to use it? It’s such an iconic feature of the vehicle, especially during its use in vietnam. I’m praying they didn’t remove it for some reason, especially considering other pattons in game have theirs intact.
Thank you!
I asked about this a long time ago, the short answer is it does have NVD but the spotlight was removed years ago
the m60a2 does have a IR spotlight on it though and its a pretty good tank if you use HE
…why??? the german A2 has it??
thats the a2 model the US one is the a1 (witch didn’t get the spotlight irl) :) the m48a3 got the spotlight irl too
i’ve never been concerned about what “tank is better” i enjoy playing the game for its use of historical vehicles. the m48 is one of the most recognizable tanks of all time. and probably the one most commonly associated with the big boxy searchlight… i genuinely don’t understand this game sometimes
basically the m48’s didnt get the ir spotlight till the m48a2 was in service, basically anytime you see the m48 with a spotlight its either the a2 or a3 variant. it sucks but that’s the truth its one of my favorite tanks even have a model of an a3 in a display case in my room
i mean, thats simply not true at all. the model B turret absolutely used the searchlight, which is the one presented in game with the enclosed .50cal commanders turret. like… this is literally THE version with the searchlight???
the m48s all had enclosed roof mg’s they all used nearly the same turret with small changes to the shape/ size of it
well okay i guess its technically impossible to tell if its a type B turret or not since all the original A types were retrofitted with the commanders copula and the biggest difference in design is simply the manufacturing process which you can’t see much of from the outside.
regardless, there were thousands of A1s with searchlights. it wasen’t a standard feature until the A2, no. but this is a video game that has concept vehicles that never saw service in it
Retrofitted?? they came out of the factory with them? you might be thinking of the Patton II (m47)
the very first A type turrets didn’t have the .50 cal, i believe only a few hundred were produced before they switched to the one we’re used too. actually, you’re right i can’t find any info on them being “retrofitted” with the typical cupola we’re used too. most of these were used for training and garrison duty
Training and garrison would make since those were specially built for that purpose
huh? these were the original M48. you might be thinking of the “M48C” which was also never designed specifically for that use, it was just found that their armor was weak due to poor production standards. so they were relegated to rear line use.
i can’t find exact numbers, but the M1 cupola was a fairly hasty design change in early production
actually i have a followup question for anyone who knows. isreal has the “magach 2” in game, which is an M48A2. it has the mount for the searchlight. can we get the searchlight in game? I don’t way to research a tank for a nation i don’t play, only to find out it dosen’t have it :(
Yeah the AN/VSS-1 Xenon searchlight was removed for ‘historical reasons’ being it was apparently only fitted to later models of the M48 Patton like the A2C/A3 at the time.
In the live server release of Update 1.59 “Flaming Arrows,” the new American M48A1 medium tank did actually originally have the searchlight from the dev blog pictures as proven by this very old player’s screenshot from 2016: (it also used to have the fastest reload of any medium tank as well around 5-6 seconds before autoloaders and MBTs were added to the game).
Gaijin then shortly after removed it from the M48A1 for a few updates later to then all of a sudden they mysteriously added it back on the M48A1 again for Update 1.73 “Vive La France” in 2017:
Then finally I guess after the bug report confirmation with the searchlight, with the next update it got removed again and hasn’t changed ever since.
Currently, it doesn’t work. Gaijin hasn’t bothered and probably won’t make vehicle lights, spotlights, etc functional. 1 because they refuse to learn Baked Lighting and continue using real-time lighting.
thats CRAZY. thank you for the in-game details. again, the A1 did historically use the system, but it was not a standard feature (where it was with the A2) its crazy the game has flip-flopped like this…
i think the bigger question to me though is, okay. the M48A1 in game represents the factory standard verison of the tank. thats fine.
so why DON’T they have the M48A2 on the american tech tree??? its arguably the most recognizable american tank next to the sherman, for its wide-spread use. especially during the vietnam conflict. surely, the M48A2 would be the obvious choice of vehicle to have in game???
not only that, the A2 is the most widely produced model of M48. and its literally on 2 other tech trees, germany and isreal. but not for the country it was built for…??? that would be like germany not having a leopard 1, but america having the leopard 1 with canadian modifications.
i just don’t get it…
ah yeah, i actually made several forum posts about this years ago. back when night-time maps were in rotation in the standard game mode, it was CRAZY to me that if you didn’t have nightvision researched, you’d just be on a completely pitch black map. while other people with more upgrades would be able to see you no problem.
some of the city maps were so dark, you literally couldn’t drive. you couldn’t see.
so the idea your tanks has headlights, and you’re in a completely blacked out map, and you can’t use them because “historically tanks didn’t use their lights in combat” seemed like such a lame excuse…
historically, tanks with no lights, or nightvision, or any way to SEE in the dark, wouldn’t launch head-on assaults against enemy tanks which had nightvision…
to know that its just a graphical limitation actually makes it better in my mind? like hiding behind “historical accuracy” for a situation that would literally never happen makes it feel LESS historically accurate.
if they’d just say its a graphical issue, i’d just take that at face value and accept it as a limitation of the game engine.
if they say its an active choice, then i assume they are able to let us use our lights, but won’t for the sake of “realism”
((((again, despite the fact that if it was literally black outside, and the tank driver keeps running into obstacles because he can’t see, in a historical situation he would simply turn on the headlights THEY ARE RIGHT THERE ))))
