It’s Community Update time! The summer is progressing and we have been working on the September major update. As always, today we’ll be talking about some upcoming content and we also have two free decals and a special pack for you. So sit back, grab your favourite snack and read on!
Disclaimer: While we’re excited to be able to share work-in-progress information before dev blogs, the dev server and the full release, please bear in mind that new features, vehicles and maps mentioned in this news are subject to change, be delayed or even cancelled*. War Thunder is constantly being developed, and as with all game development, unexpected delays or other unforeseen circumstances may occur. Thank you for your interest!*
Get yourself some Community Update Goodies!
It’s time for some free goodies and a cool pack! We’re returning last year’s “No Sekrit Dokuments, Please” decal, so those who didn’t manage to get it (although, over 80,000 of you activated it!) have the opportunity to get it now.
We’ve also made a brand-new “Sekrit Dokuments)))” decal. Use code NOSEKRITSINSIDE here to activate both decals! If you already have the original, you’ll be given the new one.
Once you’ve logged in, these decals can be found under Special > Snails and Special > Other in the decal customization menu.
Important: make sure to login to the game after activating the code on the website, as if you don’t login before the mentioned code expiry date, the decal won’t activate on your account at all.
The decal code will remain active from the publish date of this news until September 1st (10:00 GMT).
And last but not least, we’ve designed a very top secret pack for you to decorate your profile with! This pack includes a top secret avatar frame, top secret decal, top secret title and not quite as secret, but pretty useful 300 GE for $/€3.99.
War Thunder - Community Update Pack
The Kit Includes:
- “TOP SECRET” avatar frame
- “TOP SECRET” decal
- “TOP SECRET” title
- 300 Golden Eagles
The upcoming major update
It’s time to take a look at some things that are planned to come in the next major update.
New tank modules
We’re continuing to add new and updated internal modules for vehicles that don’t currently have them. For the T-64 and T-80 series, the autoloader module will be refined, and a new element reflecting the conveyor mechanism will be added above the turret ring. This new element will retain the same functionality of the autoloader module we have already, and will effectively make it easier for the autoloader system to be disabled. The vertical and horizontal drive models have also been refined, they are now more accurate and in general will take up a little more space inside the tank.
Before
After
As well as this, all T-72s, T-90s and ZTZ96s, ZTZ99s, the VT4A1 and the WZ1001 will all receive new detailed tank modules.
Expect to see these soon in more detail, with further tanks planned for the future too!
New Naval feature coming soon
For naval battles, we are also working to add a new control to switch between firing just the main caliber guns and main caliber with secondary caliber guns at the same time. Currently that can be done only via the toggle in the controls menu, but a separate control should make this more convenient in the heat of battle and help you get the most out of your vessels.
More fuel dumping
For aviation, you can also expect to see an expansion of the fuel dumping mechanic to more aircraft! This time covering vehicles like the Gripen, F-15, F-16, F/A-18, Eurofighter, Rafale, Su-27/30 Family and Tornado to name but a few.
F-16 AMRAAMS
After reviewing your feedback on the Italian F-16A ADF armament, we will expand its arsenal to include AIM-120 AMRAAMs, which were used by these aircraft in Italian service. This will result in a BR increase for the platform, but will also bring it some new life where it can enjoy some more advanced and up to date weaponry. You can expect to see an AIM-120 module and BR changes for the Italian F-16A ADF, US F-16A ADF and Chinese F-16A MLU. Thanks for all your feedback on these aircraft, we hope you enjoy the refreshed armament!
Nuclear Carriers
We can also report that for ground battles, we are working on a new wave of Nuclear Strike aircraft for the highest BR range in the game. From 11.3+ onwards you can expect to field the F-111F, Tornado IDS ASSTA and Su-24M as the new platforms to deliver that final big boom to the battlefield. These aircraft have more modern RWR and countermeasure systems, compared to the current top jets delivering nukes. This will provide a more comfortable delivery experience for those of you skilled enough to achieve the game’s highest killstreak reward!
Radar UI improvements
We’re also working on more convenient visuals and controls for aircraft radar systems. At the moment, pilots must use a large number of key combinations to fully utilize an aircraft’s radar, which can be a bit clunky in the heat of battle. To simplify this, we have taken out part of the radar control logic, similar to what we introduced previously for ground-based anti-aircraft systems.
The radar screen will become interactive and can be used with the cursor (with the “show cursor” button activated). Here you can select targets by clicking on them, double click to instantly lock onto the desired target, and hold down the mouse button to move the radar’s viewing area. In addition, we will add separate control elements around the radar screen, where you can activate all other radar functions (change the mode, scale, etc.)
A separate button in the action panel will enable this function, displaying all additional elements around the radar screen when activated. By default, the assigned shortcuts will be displayed above each corresponding element, repeated activation of this feature will hide the tips, or remove the tips entirely for those who find them unnecessary.
We hope that the new controls will allow beginners to master this complex system faster, and let experienced players utilize their radar to the max, and hopefully free up a few hotkeys. Below is a working prototype of the final interface.
Some detailed Helicopter cockpits
We’ve worked on some fully-detailed cockpits for the RAH-66, Mi-8 and Ka-29 and plan for them to come in the next major update. Here’s some work-in-progress screenshots directly from our aircraft model/artist design team (two without textures, one with textures).
RAH-66
Mi-8
Ka-29
Vehicles
As with all major updates, we’ll have a range of vehicles coming to the game. As always, what we mention here is planned to be added, as long as no outlandish and unforeseen issues occur beforehand.
For ground forces, we plan to add new SAM vehicles for the nations who did not receive them in the previous major update: Great Britain, USSR, Italy and France, meaning all nations will now have a new SAM.
The Japanese ground forces tree is going to be reinforced with some tanks from Thailand, since they lack domestic options in several areas of the tree. Thailand will spruce up the tree with more variety and will add more options to some lineups.
So what’s coming for Japan? We’re bringing in the Commando Stingray (also for the USA), M60A3 TTS, M163 and… we are plotting one more tank too. You’ll have to keep an eye out for this one!
There’s of course other vehicles coming as well — aircraft that sting, tanks, helicopters and naval vessels, but we don’t want to spoil everything here! Keep an eye out on the trailer and dev blogs to see more of what’s coming.
Other planned things
Next Event Vehicles
The current aircraft event with the F-106A Six Shooter as the main reward has just started, and today we’re ready to give some hints about what’s planned to come next.
In the next event, we’ll be going back to the high seas with a Naval event featuring a German ship battlecruiser. Once this one is done, we’ll be diving into the water (well, floating!) with an amphibious American tank.
Be sure to check out our website for all information surrounding the next events in the coming months.
Changes to the SP cost of additional aircraft spawns in Ground Realistic and Naval Arcade and Realistic Battles
In the future (follow the news!) we’re planning some changes to how spawn points work for aircraft in Ground Realistic and Naval Arcade / Realistic Battles.
How does it work currently? To give you a refresher: if you spawn the same class of aircraft twice, the SP cost for the second spawn increases (so if you spawn an AD-2 and then an AM-1, for example). But it does not increase if you spawn again in a different class of aircraft — which effectively means you can spawn a fighter, attacker/bomber aircraft one after the other at the default cost.
How will it work instead? The spawn cost of the second and subsequent planes you spawn in Ground Realistic and Naval Realistic / Arcade Battles will be determined by the ordinance you used with the previously spawned aircraft, and won’t be impacted by aircraft class. As an example, if you spawn an aircraft with bombs, the cost to spawn another aircraft equipped with bombs increases, even if the class is not the same.
There will be effectively two types of aircraft spawns in regards to SP, fighters (aircraft of any class equipped with air-to-air missiles or no additional weaponry at all) and aircraft equipped with “Strike weapons” (bombs, rockets, AGMs, torpedoes, mines, AP piercing belts).
Two more specific examples include:
- If you spawn a P-47 with bombs (strike weapons) for 600 SP and get shot down, the cost to spawn it again with a backup with no strike weapons will be at the default cost (540 SP).
- If you take a fighter with one bomb (like a Spitfire), the next aircraft you spawn with strike weaponry will increase, and not for fighter aircraft with no strike weapons.
Overall, this changes the SP cost of additional aircraft spawns from a class-based system to a weapon-based system, which is much more streamlined and works more effectively with the intentions of the mechanic. The actual class of an aircraft is almost arbitrary, when it’s the weaponry that actually has an impact. In addition to this being an overall fairer way to distribute spawn cost, this will also result in less strike-capable planes in ground battles, as now it will be more difficult to spawn these aircraft multiple times.
Scouting through Scout UAVs
In Ground Battles right now, it’s not possible to scout enemy targets through the Scout UAV. However, many players still take advantage by switching to a Scout UAV, put a mark, return to their tank and try to scout targets using this mark. We want to make this method a normal and balanced game mechanic by making it part of the core gameplay, so we are making some changes to how it works.
We will make it so that you can now scout enemy players directly from the Scout UAV. There will also be some changes to the cooldown — when you have a Scout UAV in the air, the cooldown after a successful scout is three times as big, and the spawn point reduction for aircraft will be decreased by two times as well. However, the rewards in RP, SL and mission points have not changed.
With this change, players will be able to scout from the Scout UAV instead of needing to switch back to their tank after placing a mark in order to try and get a scout (however, this method will still be here for those who want to do it). At the same time, the scout cooldown when you have a Scout UAV in the air will be longer to balance it out, and the spawn point cost reduction of planes has decreased, but the rewards will remain the same.
Clarification regarding 5th Gen aircraft
Finally today, as we always receive a lot of questions on this topic, we wanted to share a few details regarding our plans for 5th gen aircraft. Here’s a message from War Thunder’s Game Director, Viacheslav Bulannikov:
“We’re happy to see the attention the game is getting and the enthusiasm for modern aviation, and today we want to talk a bit more about our plans regarding 4++ and 5th generation aircraft specifically.
The game already has the first iconic examples of 4+ and 4++ generation aircraft, but we plan to add a few more of these aircraft to different research trees before moving on to 5th generation aircraft. At the moment for example, not all nations have top fighters with the most modern electronically scanned array radars, and we would like to close this gap first. There are also several modern air warfare technologies that can enrich gameplay that have not yet been implemented in War Thunder.
This process will take several major updates, and the first 5th generation aircraft will not appear in the game before the second half of next year. We hope this news will not upset fans of these aircraft too much, especially as there are a lot of interesting aircraft ahead.”
That’s all for this one!
Thanks for taking the time to read this post! It’s a lot to digest, but should have got you up to speed on what’s coming. Make sure to activate your free decals and check out the pack if you so desire, and see you in the next one!
From your CM and Dev Team
