Commanders!
A few months back, we’ve unveiled our general plans to introduce Battalion-based modes and other activities. Today, we’d like to tell you more about what’s coming in the second part of the Black Sea Incursion season.
Organized player teams – in the case of Armored Warfare, the Battalions – are an integral and important part of the community and a place where you and your pals can meet up for a match or two or to just chat. A battalion is more than just a group of players – it’s a community of its own, tied together by the bonds of friendship that sometimes even overlap into real life.
At the same time, there are a lot of different kinds of battalions. Some crave for the thrill of being the best on the server in PvP and are ready to support that claim by winning any challenges we throw at them. Other battalions specialize in PvE and there is not a single achievement that is beyond their reach. We do recognize that fact, which is why we are in fact not only working on a Battalion versus Battalion mode, but also on a hardcore Battalion-based PvE mode, both with their own sets of amazing rewards.
This enormous undertaking will be arriving to Armored Warfare in several upcoming updates. The first part of it will consist of two features:
- Battalion Contracts
- Special Operations Heroic Mode
Simply put, the Battalion Contracts are special missions your whole Battalion can participate in. They are active for the entire Battalion and all its members contribute to their completion.
There are two types of these Battalion Contract missions introduced in Season 1:
- Resource-based missions
- Skill-based missions
In Resource-based missions, the Battalion members accumulate a certain resource under specific conditions (mostly Experience) – for example, to earn 120.000 points of Experience in general, or to earn 90.000 points of Experience from damage dealing and kills only. These missions can be completed in any mode. It’s worth noting that the participating players can also spend Reputation (previously called Global Reputation) to complete the objective.
The Skill-based missions are, on the other hand, a bit different. In them, a platoon of Battalion members driving Tier 9 or Tier 10 vehicles must achieve a certain skill-based feat on behalf of the entire Battalion. Such a feat includes for example completing a Special Operation on Heroic difficulty (more on that below) , but most are tied to the PvP and Global Operations modes, for example by having your Battalion’s platoon kill 10 enemies in a single PvP mode battle with all the members of the platoon surviving. These missions are far more difficult than the Resource-based ones and are much better rewarded.
A third type of missions tied to an upcoming Battalion versus Battalion mode is also in development to be introduced in the future.
The Battalion Contracts will be available using the same principles as the Contract Missions – in a campaign with its missions refreshing periodically. Completing each mission yields rewards only for the players involved in its completion but acquiring a certain number of medals unlocks a major battalion-wide reward. But before we get to that, let us talk a bit about the new Heroic difficulty for the Special Operations mode.
Those of you who play MMORPGs such as World of Warcraft are, without any doubt, familiar with the concept of “Heroic Dungeons” – special, much harder versions of the normal dungeons available in the game that yield better rewards but require a lot of coordination.
The Special Operations Heroic difficulty level is, in its essence, the same thing but for the Black Sea Incursion Special Operation. It will be available for Tier 9 and Tier 10 vehicles only and will be considerably more difficult than even the existing hardcore difficulty. Only battalion members will be allowed to participate in this difficulty mode.
No additional story elements will be added to it (you do not need to finish this difficulty level to follow the Special Operations storyline) but the challenge will be ramped up, for example, by:
- Turning previously optional objectives into main ones
- Giving players less time to complete each task or the mission itself
- Making the enemies tougher, more numerous and placing them so that the players will have it more difficult to engage them
- Introducing new types of enemies that require special tactics to beat them
One thing that will make it, however, easier is the addition of special Special Consumables (an improved version of the existing ones) of three types:
- Special Oil will add 15% bonus to acceleration and turret traverse and 10% bonus to maximum speed
- Special Energy Drink will add 7% to crew statistics
- Special Field Kit will allow you to respawn 3 times with 100% health
These consumables cannot be bought – they are obtained for completing the abovementioned Battalion Missions.
Naturally, Heroic Special Operations will be very well rewarded (ten times the Hardcore Special Operations reward once per 7 days), as will be the Battalion Missions as a whole. The Battalion Activity feature includes four levels of rewards:
- Rewards for completing Resource-based missions
- Rewards for completing Skill-based missions
- Rewards for completing a Heroic Special Operation
- Battalion-wide reward for completing the whole campaign
An additional extra reward of the campaign will consist of Tier 9 special tanks. Upon the start of a Battalion Contract, the Battalion leader will get to choose from one of the following vehicles that will be awarded for 30 days to all the Battalion players who participate in the completion of the campaign:
- M8 Thunderbolt
- T-90MS
- Challenger 2
More of these vehicles (such as the Armata or the Abrams SEP v3) will be available in the future.
These tanks do not have a Premium status, but they do have better characteristics than their progression counterparts as well as unique camouflage. But what makes them truly interesting is the ability to rebalance them using tech kits.
A tech kit is an alternative tank setting for the abovementioned vehicles that has to be unlocked by collecting 10 pieces that drop from Battalion Missions (the first kit will be available automatically by default). When unlocked, a tech kit can be installed to provide both bonuses and penalties, effectively changing the way the vehicle plays. Examples include:
- Armor tech kit (bonus to hitpoints and armor thickness, penalties to mobility and spotting)
- Damage tech kit (bonus to rate of fire, penalties to hitpoints and spotting range)
- Mobility tech kit (bonus to mobility and accuracy on the move, penalties to armor and hitpoints)
That way, the most skilled Battalion players can configure their reward vehicles to become unstoppable killing machines on any battlefield!
But that’s not all – not by a longshot. The next stage of Battalion Activities will include a true Battalion versus Battalion mode.
Stay tuned and see you on the battlefield!
