Main Features

Retrofit Slots

Each vehicle will have a number of Retrofit Slots available. Some of these will be "stock" on the vehicle, and others will be unlocked as part of the vehicle upgrade tree. Vehicles that previously were sparse on upgrades will generally have more Retrofit Slots, since this helps make their progression more similar to other vehicles and helps to balance them against the vehicles with more upgrades.

There are five types of Retrofit Slots. The first four correspond to the four main sections of the upgrade tree - Firepower, Armor, Mobility, and Technology. The fifth type is Universal. Retrofit Slots can only incorporate Retrofit Upgrades of the same type as the slot. Universal slots can use any type of upgrade, however.

For example, a Firepower Slot can only hold Firepower Upgrades. Firepower Upgrades involve any sort of improvements to your weapon's capabilities, such as raw damage, rate of fire, accuracy, etc.

Retrofit Upgrades

Retrofit Upgrades can be purchased and equipped into the Retrofit Slots on a vehicle. These are purchased on a vehicle-by-vehicle basis. Players will start out with a set of Retrofit Upgrades that they automatically have access to that can be used on any vehicle, but they can also unlock more types of Retrofit Upgrades through Schematics.

Schematics

Schematics give players access to new and better types of Retrofit Upgrades to use on their vehicles. These upgrades might offer different statistics than the default upgrades, or multiple statistics at smaller values than the default upgrades.

Some Schematics are for more advanced versions of specific Retrofit types. For example, a player might start out with the ability to upgrade their cannon with "Experimental Cannon Modifications Mk. I" and later unlock a schematic for "Experimental Cannon Modifications Mk. II", which provides a larger bonus.

Tier Modifiers for Match Rewards

Our matchmaking system allows players to be pitted against opponents that are higher or lower tier than themselves in certain cases. In previous tests, vehicles had a multiplier to their rewards based on the tier of the vehicle. This was to make sure that players would earn currency faster as they unlocked higher tier vehicles, but the result was that players who performed exceptionally well against higher tier opponents were not sufficiently rewarded. To make sure that rewards for these matches are fair, we're implemented a "Match Modifiers" system to tune the rewards earned for a match based on the highest tier vehicle in a match. This replaces the old multipliers based on the tier of the vehicle.

For example, if a match has Tiers 3 to 5, the match rewards would be based on Tier 5 values. This means that a Tier 3 player and a Tier 5 player with the same performance would earn the same rewards. Player rewards will still naturally go up with higher tier vehicles, since they will be matched at higher and higher tiers on average, and thus get into more matches with higher tier multipliers. In addition, player rewards will go up because it will become easier to deal more damage in matches, since damage and HP values go up over time.

We believe this system will help make playing against higher tier opponents feel more rewarding.

Gameplay

• Colorblind settings are now available In the UI options, there a number of preset combinations available to choose from. In addition, if you would like to set the colors manually, you can edit the persistentdata.xml file stored in your settings directory. This is typically found under: C:\Users\Saved Games\ArmoredWarfare\User\PersistentData. Simply edit the lines using color hex codes. You should be able to look up the color codes using any web color picker
• A new "Assist Streaks" system has been implemented, in which players now get a higher reward from damage dealt to vehicles that they immobilize if the player immobilizes more than one vehicle during the match. The flat reward bonus for winning matches has been removed.
• Players will still receive a +25% reward multiplier for winning matches, but will no longer receive the small flat amount of Reputation and Credits they used to get. Credit earnings have been globally reduced by about 10% to compensate for the inflation from the implementation of the match tiers system.
• The required reputation for vehicles in tiers 2, 3, 4, and 5 has been modified to help improve progression. Reputation required has increased for Tiers 2 and 3, and decreased for tiers 4 and 5. This will hopefully allow for more time to play vehicles at tiers 2 and 3, and help with the longer grinds at tiers 4 and 5.
• Reputation required for Tier 2 increased from 1500 to 2400
• Reputation required for Tier 3 increased from 6300 to 7200
• Reputation required for Tier 4 decreased from 22800 to 21600
• Reputation required for Tier 5 decreased from 67800 to 64800

New PvE Maps

• Operation Phalanx: The Lions of Nequiel would rather blow up the refinery then let anyone else take it. Break through to the refinery and disarm the explosives before this senseless act of destruction is carried out!
• Operation Wildfire: Cartel forces are gunning for SAMs pointed at their cargo planes. It's your job to make sure that those missiles will reach their intended targets, thereby crippling enemy operations.

General Changes

UI

Notifications

• The maximum number of notifications has been increased
• We've added a message to inform players that they have been muted by administration.

Menus

• Auto-resupply, auto-resupply of consumables, and auto-resupply of ammo can be specified when purchasing a vehicle.
• Context menus and tooltips are now removed before beginning a level change.

General UI

• Players can now select their native resolution in the settings menu, and after changing fullscreen type (windowed, windowed borderless, fullscreen) the list of possible resolutions is now refreshed.

Bug Fixes

• We have fixed a memory issue with notifications.
• Selecting "do not remind" checkbox for repairs now functions.
• Long Russian ammo names are no longer truncated in ammo-related tooltips.
• Alt-tabbing during level transition no longer causes chat input to be unresponsive.

Gameplay

• The conversion rate for Locked Reputation has been changed to: 1 Gold-to-125 Reputation.
• Optimized occlusion performance for Low and Lowest graphics settings.
• The delay on when players get notifications for when they are spotted and when they are designated has been reduced from 3 seconds to 1.5 seconds.
• A new Loader skill called Secured Ammunition increases ammo rack hit points by 40%.

There are several Crew Skill Changes:

• Driver skill Floor It renamed Off-Road Driving;- now increases acceleration on off-road terrain.
• Loader skill Vengeful Fury renamed Rapid Fire.
• Loader skill Loader's Pride renamed Preparation.
• Loader skill Rampage renamed Explosive Shells.

Artillery has two new special types of rounds designed to support their team in battle: smoke rounds and illumination rounds. Smoke rounds provide concealment from all targets in an area where the shell lands, breaking any line of sight through the area. Illumination rounds reveal and spot all vehicles in the targeted area.

Bug fixes:

• A bug that was causing Philipp Holzklau's Commander Skill Take Aim to work incorrectly has been fixed.
• A bug that was incorrectly rounding rewards for spotting damage and assisted damage has been fixed.
• An issue with restoring default settings causing the player to lose input after pressing the 'fire' button has been fixed.
• Fire Control Technology has been updated to decrease aim time by 20%, rather than increase it.
• Updated achievements to accommodate the number of vehicles in the game.
• A bug that caused Vehicles that have two loaders and can run out of skills at level 5 has been fixed

PvE

After our initial round of testing, we've determined that our PvE rewards were significantly too low and relied too heavily in individual player performance. Our first change was to remove ammunition restocking and repair costs from PvE, which helped to make the mode more viable at high tiers.

In this phase, we're drastically increasing the Reputation and Credits rewards for mission and objective completion to help make sure those are the most valuable things for players to focus on. In addition, we're increasing the base value of all other rewards, especially in terms of credits.

To make sure that this doesn't make PvE massively better than PvP at high tiers, we've decreased the Credit multipliers from match tiers in PvE somewhat. Your Credit earnings will still go up as you play higher tier vehicles, but not by as large of a margin as in PvP, since PvP has to deal with repair and ammo costs.

We've rebalanced our credit rewards as well. The vast majority of credit rewards now come from completing the mission. We've reduced all other credit rewards, but added much higher multipliers for higher difficulties. This means that Medium and Hard will have much higher rewards than before.

Overall, the intent behind this change is to make sure that PvE is a very reliable way to earn Credits at any tier.

• Mission completion Reputation bonus increased from 11.25 to 90.
• Mission completion Credit bonus increased from 300 to 3200.
• Objective reward Reputation bonus increased from 7.5 to 60.
• Objective reward Credit bonus increased from 200 to 800.
• All other PvE reputation rewards increased by 100%.
• PvE credit rewards other than Mission and Objective completion decreased by 50%.
• The Credit multipliers for match tiers have changed. This results in a smaller increase in Credit gains per tier.
• Credit multiplier for Medium difficulty increased
• Credit multiplier for Medium difficulty increased from 1.25 to 1.75.
• Credit multiplier for Hard increased from 1.5 to 2.5.

Additional Changes to PvE

• PvE missions now consist of a single chunk. This is to reduce overall session time and reduce issues with AFK players spoiling the experience.
• Overall AI difficulties are set a bit higher; this will mean higher tier enemies will appear on a more regular pace.
• Some optimization to Snake Bite, and Cavalry.
• AI will now attempt to fire through destructible objects.
• The post-match screen was improved, providing more details on match performance and rewards.

Bug fixes:

• Fixed AI issues where they were not sharing spotting information with squad-mates.
• Fixed issues with Artillery AI not firing at distances.
• Fixed some issues with matches not being marked as successful.
• Subtitles now display properly in PVE.

Maps

Lighting and Atmosphere Improvements to the following PvE maps: Ricochet, Tsunami

Roughneck

• Moved the Encounter Mode's Capture Point to provide a more balanced approach, adjusted spawn locations for this mode to compensate.
• Level Optimizations targeting lower spec machines.
• Flattened out some of the irregular terrain in the map.
• Fixed a handful of collision issues on the map.

Port Storm

• Level Optimizations targeting lower spec machines.
• Added some additional Cover near the broken down trains, made it easier to push through gaps in the train cars.
• Tightened up collision of the train cars.
• Moved capture area to a spot more approachable for the Southern Team.
• Added alternative Lighting and Atmosphere for encounter mode.
• Fixed destructible walls that were causing players to get stuck.
• Fixed a handful of collision issues on the map. Focused on improving shot penetration.

Garage

• Improved lighting in the garage.
• Optimizations targeting low spec machines.

Pipelines

• Optimizations targeting low spec machines.
• Addressed areas on the map where players were getting stuck.
• Adjusted cover points in the map.

River Point

• Optimizations targeting low spec machines
• Fixed some collision near the destroyed bridge, which was interfering with shot penetration.
• Fixed surface properties of objects that were missing them.

Cold Strike

• Map Optimizations targeted for lower spec machines.
• Added alternative Lighting and Atmosphere for encounter mode.
• Fixed the collision on many of the destructible building corners, which were improperly blocking shots.
• Fixed a surface type for Mud Roads that was slowing the players down too much.
• Fixed Several LOD issues on buildings.

Ghost Field

• Added and adjusted cover spots to the northern route.
• Added some additional cover near the run way.
• Added alternative Lighting and Atmosphere for encounter mode.
• Added a volume to prevent vehicles from getting stuck in the C-130 wing and cargo area.
• Tagged several small objects so they don't interfere with camera collision.
• Fixed to rock collision preventing players from getting stuck or shot penetration.

Audio

• We have disabled Reverb for Low and Medium audio levels. This significantly improves audio performance.
• Bug Fixes: the bug that caused an audio crash when using a mono sound configuration has been fixed.

Vehicle Specific Changes

Centauro 155/39LW

Removed from the Dealer Tree as we review its class and mechanics. In the real world, this vehicle is a SPG but we had classified it as a TD as its restricted turret, traverse and wheel-based hull made it difficult to use with SPG mechanics. We are now reviewing this vehicle for some new potential mechanics and we will bring it back once we are happy with how it works.

FV721

• A bug that caused the FV721 Fox to have much cheaper ammunition than other vehicles of the same tier has been fixed.

FV510 Warrior

• The base spotting range has increased from 369 to 425.
• A bug that caused the FV510 Warrior to have much cheaper ammunition than other vehicles of the same tier has been fixed.

2S14 Zhalo-S

With our recent armor and penetration changes, the Zhalo was having too hard of a time penetrating equal tier vehicles. We've given it a bit of a buff to penetration to make it more possible to penetrate weak points on similar tier MBTs.

• Ammo penetration increased by about 10%

Leopard 1

Due to the Leopard 1's light armor; it's often had a difficult time in engagements with other MBTs and LTs of the same tier. Since it's fast and light for a MBT, we've decreased the rate at which its accuracy bloom occurs from movement. We've also increased its penetration. Between these changes, we feel it will play more like something in between a MBT and a LT, which we think players will enjoy.

• Increased the penetration of all rounds by about 12.5%
• Decreased accuracy bloom rate from turret traverse by 33%
• Decreased accuracy bloom rate from hull traverse by 33%
• Decreased accuracy bloom rate from movement by 20%
• Increased the Acceleration Multipliers due to the bump in hp/ton ratio for each Engine.
• Adjusted the Hull Traverse values, also due to the hp/ton ratio change.

Leopard 2A5

Similar to the T-90, the most powerful rounds for the Leopard 2A5 had too much alpha damage potential. We've slightly decreased the damage on the fully upgraded shaped charges and ATGMs to reduce their potential for devastating low tier opponents.

• Fully upgraded ATGM damage reduced from 909 to 886.
• Fully upgraded shaped charge damage decreased from 912 to 869.
• An issue where the last two AP ammo upgrades had lower penetration than their predecessors has been fixed. Each AP ammo upgrade now has higher penetration than the previous ammo types.

T-64

• T-64 damage increased.
• The T-64 view ranges decreased to 320 meters.

T-72

• Updated T-72 turret geometry, internals and cannonbase to more accurately represent the vehicle
• The T-72 view ranges decreased to 320 meters.
• Fixed the textures on the T-72 for the turret and cannonbase

T-80

• The view ranges increased to 335 meters

T-90

• Fully upgraded AP round damage slightly bumped back up in effectiveness (from 717 damage to 760).
• Fully upgraded shaped charge slightly bumped back up in effectiveness (from 896 damage to 923)
• Top AP round penetration increased to 600mm.
• Camo factor increased from 0.15 to 0.165
• The view ranges increased to 335 meters

C1 Ariete

• Camo factor reduced from 0.165 to 0.15

BMD-1

This improvement gives it more HP than its predecessor, making it a clearer overall upgrade.

• BMD-1 HP increased from 759 to 888.

BMD-4

• Adding new parts to the BMD-4 upgrade tree: Engine03, Suspension, Fire Control

BMP-1

These changes should give the BMP-1 a good chance of penetrating the sides of MBTs and dealing solid damage for its tier. We're also investigating giving it some other improvements in the future.

• BMP-1 damage increased by about 10%.
• BMP-1 penetration with Shaped Charges increased by about 10%.

BMP-3M

In our early tests, the BMP-3M hasn't been able to consistently put out comparable damage to similar tier AFVs and Tank Destroyers. While we are also examining other options for improving this vehicle, we've provided it with a slight damage boost to help get the balance process started.

• Damage for all rounds increased by 5%

AMX-10P PAC 90

• Adjusted gear on the AM-10p PAC90 to respect the tank shader

Akatsiya

• Adjusted internals of the Akatsiya to remove clipping of commanders and gunner
• Reduced damage and decreased reload times for Akatsiya.

Palmaria

• Reduced damage and decreased reload times for Palmaria

Abbot

• Increased aim time on Abbot to 5 seconds.

M1 Abrams

• The view ranges increased to 375 meters.

M1A1

• The view ranges increased to 375 meters.

BMOP Ramka-99

• Adding a Thermobaric ATGM round upgrade to the BMOP Ramka-99.