I would like to raise a concern regarding certain custom sound mods that have recently appeared in the community.
These mods are advertised as providing audible warnings for incoming missiles, as well as voice or tone cues indicating the direction and approximate distance of nearby enemy vehicles – even when the player’s vehicle has no onboard detection system (RWR, MAW, etc.) to justify such information.
From what I have observed, these mods appear to rely entirely on client-side data, which means they can potentially offer awareness that goes beyond what the game’s intended mechanics allow – such as crew skills, visual scanning, or actual sensor equipment. This raises a legitimate concern about fair play, especially in Ground Realistic and Air Simulator battles where situational awareness is a core skill.
I fully understand and appreciate that sound modding has been a long‑standing and welcome part of War Thunder’s modding culture. However, I am worried that this particular type of modification crosses a line – not in terms of audio aesthetics, but in terms of giving users gameplay information that is not meant to be delivered that way.
Therefore, I would like to suggest that the development team at least consider the following:
Temporarily restricting custom sound mods to strictly cosmetic files (e.g., engine sounds, gunfire, ambient noise) while a proper review is conducted.
Clarifying whether such mods are considered acceptable under the current EULA and fair play policy.
Exploring server-side measures to ensure that critical gameplay events (like missile launches or enemy proximity) are not manipulable through client-side audio mods.
I am not here to accuse anyone, but rather to share a growing concern I have seen echoed by other players as well. I believe the War Thunder team has always been responsive to community feedback, and I hope this issue can be looked into before it becomes more widespread.
Not sure what mods youre talking about,since most mods simply replace the already existing files and use those instead of the vanilla
I have sound mods on and yet i sometimes still cant hear people literally butt licking me (Potato audio rendering from the game)
Plus even in vanilla,you can hear tanks from a looong distance if you have properly set up your audio settings to be competitive
Mods like Freebird replace missile flight audio with loud, unmistakable cues. This effectively gives ground and air vehicles a missile approach warning capability that does not exist – especially for early IR missiles.
And this is likely just the tip of the iceberg for similar mods.
Nah,ive seen the video of it,it looks funny af not gonna lie but its not gonna give you any advantage since the game will load the song at the same distance that it would load the vanilla sound,meaning that if you aint paining attention,you will still not be able to defend yourself from missiles