Turret Baskets Rebalance

[Alebang]

Honestly you got gaijined hard, you can even see in your replay your round going trough the 3 layers of the LFP and how each one creates a red circle but for some reason it doesn’t create any spalling.

[UniqueScorpions-live]

@Green_KnightCZ

Nah you just got gaijined cus the shell didnt generate any spall whatsoever, could be cause it “overpenned”.

Dude it when straight into the drivers arm, the gunners leg, and the commander foot.

A 152mm dart… even if it hadn’t generated spall, he should’ve died

@Alebang

[Green_KnightCZ]

ye gaijined, the damage engine just died at that point, can happen to any tank.

[UniqueScorpions-live]

I’ve had it consistently happen with the abrams.
And hence why I think they’ve added the baskets to try and counteract things like this.

[Green_KnightCZ]

I have encountered it sometimes where my shell does little damage but not against any specific or unusual offenders (oc bmpt likes to eat everything)

[Alebang]

Yeah I honestly think that the introduction of the turret basket was kinda necessary (especially for the Leo’s with spall liners), but they were implemented in a way that was too extreme and affected other vehicles way more than it should have.

[Caernarvon02]

its on its own bearing seperate from the turret ring

[Pangolin_Fan]

@UniqueScorpions-live

One shot in the general area will cripple both usually

One shot in the general area will not usually cripple a T-80

[Cloudzy26160]

I think the idea is that turning it yellow will take the amount of damage that it currently take to destroy it.

@Alebang

meanwhile the turret basket goes down almost every time something enters the hull of the tank.

all the internal modules are far too fragile IMO, turret baskets and auto loaders especially, if the auto loaders did not get completely destroyed by a single piece of spall to the stub extractor it might not have been necessary to add turret baskets to “balance” them to begin with.

[SoundWave777]

So a manual hand crank version before total traverse lock?
They probably just need to make them more durable so they don’t completely quit from spall instead of the main rod penetrator.

If they start giving Western ammo the correct penetration values then this stuff would be fine.
Charm3 for Challenger 2’s 700mm at 2000m
and 800mm at 2000m for the German and US tanks.

[Super_Duper_Guy]

i think a good way to balance it is make it turn the same speed as when the tank battery is at 0 when its damaged. I think yellow and red ones already lowers the speed. doesnt it?

[Kyuss]

Gaijin implemented the turret basket system in the ‘Hornet’s Sting’ major update on the 18th of March 2025. This original implementation saw turret baskets added to all Abrams and Leopards (including the strv’s). Additionally, all Leopards and Abrams have modules such as power electronics that are not present in tanks introduced before this update. Smin made a post on the 7th of march regarding community feedback on the dev-server of the new feature. In this, he outlined the plans for the implementation of these features to more top-tier mbt’s. This is seen in the following quotes:

Quotes

@Smin1080p_WT

These reworks are not exclusive to the Abrams and Leopard and are just the first tanks we’re working on, and over the year we’ll be adding more.

@Smin1080p_WT

we want to avoid penalizing the player who managed to land a shot on the enemy first, reducing those frustrating moments of penetrating a vehicle without doing any meaningful damage — even though the round passed through a significant amount of the interior.

I understand that a lot of effort goes into implementing these features, but Smin also addressed this in his post in the following quote.

Quote

@Smin1080p_WT

The issue we’d face here if we modelled them and then left them aside while working on other baskets, is that when the time would come to add everything there would likely be significant changes to the vehicles. This would require additional time to make the modules work again, as they’d be months out of date (this is also why regularly a vehicle will receive several changes in one go).

This leaves the question, what has happened in regard to the full implementation of this feature? Smin said that there would be progress over the year but from what I can see (feel free to correct me), the only vehicles that have been given this attention are ones implemented since the ‘Hornet’s Sting’ update. This lack of changes just feel like it was a balancing measure, but there are other areas where the game can be balanced.

A message to gaijin:

If you have been making progress towards this feature behind the scenes, the community would greatly appreciate a dev blog or some news. We understand features such as this take time, but you guys promised this long ago and we haven’t seen nor heard of any progress.

Links to the original post and relevant discussions:

Links

Changelogs and Official Posts:

• War Thunder "Hornet's Sting" - Changelog - Updates - Game - War Thunder
• [RoadMap] Following the Roadmap: Additions in the Second Major Update of 2024 - News - War Thunder
• Responding To Dev Server Feedback Regarding Turret Baskets

Community Discussion:

• Turret Basket’s. Updated opinions, good or bad?
• If turret baskets getting hit means that the horizontal drive is disabled, then carousel autoloaders should have the same funtionality
• Turret baskets going forward and opinions

[Selascо]

its time to give other toptier MBTs the turret basket (i think the only exception would be the challenger if im not mistaken)

[F-16D_Barak_II]

I really hope all the baskets are removed

They make playing the tanks unenjoyable and make fighting the tanks unenjoyable

[Kyuss]

That is the only one which I couldn’t find answers for sure, but from pictures and quotes from books and other such it either has a turret basket or a rotating floor. If the floor is rotating, it could just reduce turret rotation speed and reload whilst turning the turret.

[Kyuss]

I think they are a good addition, they just need to be applied fairly to everyone not just the leos and abrams

[Beeschurger]

@Kyuss

This lack of changes just feel like it was a balancing measure,

It absolutely was a way to nerf the Leo2 and Abrams families and nothing else.

At this point I dont expect any further turret baskets whatsoever, because why would they.

[Kyuss]

I mean Smin promised so there is hope but there isnt the best history with that

[Grossaaaa]

The turret baskets were artificial nerfs specifically to Leopards and Abrams series tanks. Similar to how the autoloader module is a buff to the T-Series tanks allowing them to have a chance at surviving a shot that would have otherwise caused a cookoff via spall hitting ammo.

If fairness or “realism” would have been the goal, a hit to the carousel autoloader would have also disabled turret rotation on russian MBTs. Or everyone would have just gotten the modification at the same time.

Gaijin buffed themselves into a corner. Adding spall liners to vehicles such as the Leopards and STRVs that were not needed at all and just made the game more frustrating by making it that not hitting ammo directly with the SABOT means no more oneshots, buffing the Abrams’ reload that was totally unneccessary and so on.

These MBTs were arguably overperforming, only really being stopped in GRB because the Russian CAS with KH38s was so extremely oppressive.

[Kyuss]

@Grossaaaa

Similar to how the autoloader module is a buff to the T-Series tanks allowing them to have a chance at surviving a shot that would have otherwise caused a cookoff via spall hitting ammo.

You could have just shot the empty part of the autoloader, as for me, it is a pretty reliable killing method even using 30 mil autocannons. I have hit the empty parts, incredibly infuriating but it is fair, it’s like how NATO tanks can take less ammo for the badly placed ammo racks.

@Grossaaaa

a hit to the carousel autoloader would have also disabled turret rotation on russian MBTs.

Only the t-80/64 autoloader is directly attached to the turret, if they separated (regarding damage model) the two parts of the t-72/90 autoloader then it could still rotate to my knowledge.

@Grossaaaa

Adding spall liners to vehicles such as the Leopards and STRVs that were not needed at all and just made the game more frustrating by making it that not hitting ammo directly with the SABOT means no more oneshots,

Well at this point, spall liners are on 40 tanks (that I know of) so not really just a balancing measure, just a feature.

Vehicles

USA

• M3A3 Bradley

Germany

• Leopard 2 PSO
• Leopard 2A5
• Leopard 2A6
• Leopard 2A7V
• Boxer MGS

Russia

• T-90M
• BMPT
• BMPT-72
• BTR-82AT

Britain

• Challenger 2
• Challenger 2 (2F)
• Challenger 2 TES
• Challenger 2 TES OES
• Challenger 2 Black Night
• Challenger 2E
• Challenger 3 Technology Demonstrator

Japan

• Type 24 RCV (P)
• Type 24 ICV (P)

China

• VT4
• VT4A1
• VT5
• CM34
• PLZ05

Italy

• Leopard 2A7 HU
• Ariete (P)
• Ariete PSO
• Ariete WAR
• Ariete AMV
• Ariete Certezza

France

• Leopard 2A5 NL
• Leopard 2A6 NL
• EBRC Jaguar
• CV 9035 NL

Sweden

• Strv 122A
• Strv 122B PLSS
• Strv 122B+
• CV 9035 DK
• Strf 9040C
• Lvkv 9040C
• Leopard 2A6 FIN

Israel
Nothing?

Notably, the only nation that doesn’t have a single one is Israel. The USA has 1 and Japan has 2 so not far behind.

@Grossaaaa

Abrams’ reload that was totally unneccessary

They did that for “historical accuracy” but it mainly gave them to help with the amount of bad premium players who can’t place a shot well.

@Grossaaaa

overperforming

Only overperforming if their characteristics aren’t correctly modelled in game, I think what you mean is that there is no counterpart for other nations at that level.

@Grossaaaa

only really being stopped in GRB because the Russian CAS with KH38s was so extremely oppressive.

I can agree on this, thankfully I have been grinding Russia, so the bias is on my team.