Obsidian Entertainment and My.com are pleased to announce the dates of the Third Early Access Test from July 1st, 2015 till July 14th, 2015. This round of testing will feature multiple new vehicles and a new gameplay element, Player versus Environment battles.

Apart from the aforementioned features, the Early Access Test 3 will also bring considerable optimizations to the game code, allowing even less powerful computers to run Armored Warfare. The patch will also feature a number of vehicle rebalances, map changes and bug fixes.

CURRENT TEST: JULY 1st to JULY 14th

EU Server: 5pm - 11pm CEST on weekdays non-stop on weekends

NA Server: 7pm – 1am ET on weekdays non-stop on weekends

To get into the third test players can be randomly selected from the Early Access sign-ups base, win a key in one of the giveaways, or get guaranteed access to this and further tests, as well as early access to Open Beta and other advantages and rewards including premium and exclusive vehicles, by purchasing one of the three available Founder’s Packs. Players who already have the Early Access can download the client:

Major patch features

• Added Tier 8 vehicles to Dealer Trees
• Added 'Lowest' setting to graphic options to support more dual core CPUs, as well as some older GPUs
• Added further optimizations to improve performance for all players
• Decals are now available to add to vehicles
• Player versus Environment (PvE) mode: Missions are now available (in easy, medium and hard difficulty)

Detailed changes

• The matchmaker mechanism was adjusted in order to produce better results and improved balance between teams
• Numerous PvP maps were changed for better balance and gameplay
• Unspotted vehicles now have visible tracers
• Engine sounds were improved for all vehicles
• The camouflage system was changed - vehicles will now be much easier to spot when they are firing
• Adjusted the viewrange-affecting modules and equipment: viewrange bonuses are now additive, not multiplicative (instead of increasing the viewrange by X percent, they increase it by Y meters)

Vehicle changes

• Teledyne DFSV had its textures fixed
• AMX-10P viewrange was increased from 374m to 416m
• AMX-10P PAC 90 viewrange was increased from 344m to 382m
• BMD-1 viewrange was increased from 374m to 416m
• BMP-2 viewrange was increased from 374m to 438m
• PT-76 reload time was decreased from 6.58 seconds to 6.24 seconds
• PT-76 damage increased by about 2.5%
• PT-76 hitpoints decreased to 800
• Fixed the research and purchase cost of the Wiesel 1's Gunner Sight module to be comparable to the vehicle's other upgrade parts
• Lowered the default ammo counts for the M113 and LAV-150
• Penetration for autocannons above 20mm has been reduced by about 15% (20mm autocannon penetration is unaffected)
• Penetration for non-autocannons was reduced as such: 90mm guns - about 5%, guns of higher caliber than 90mm - 15% (this change does not affect automatic cannons)
• Fixed the incorrect gun mantlet armor of multiple main battle tank class vehicles ("missing mantlets" issue)
• Armor of multiple main battle tank class vehicles was rebalanced (improved)
• Added the support of electronic ("soft kill") Active Protection Systems such as the Shtora-1 system of the T-90 (does not need unlocking, it is present automatically). Electronic APS modules have unlimited number of uses but longer cooldowns.
• Fixed the bug where main battle tanks were incorrectly losing too much speed when turning
• Fixed the exploit where players were able to guide anti-tank guided missiles even without line of sight in third person
• Fixed certain crew skills affecting reload times (including the "ammunition type swap" exploit from previous hotfix patch)
• Swingfire view range is 440m now (reduction from 505m)
• Leopard-1 view range increased to 360m (from 350m)
• T-64 stock gun penetration improved slightly so it no longer gets decreased performance compared to T-62

Bug fixes

• Fixed the rare bug where vehicles "fell through" the garage textures (the "underwater garage" bug)
• Numerous UI bugs and element issues fixes
• Numerous server-side bugs affecting performance and stability fixed
• Fixed several issues that caused client crash
• Fixed the bug where the mouse cursor was stuck in the middle of the screen during the battle countdown
• Fixed the bug where clan decals did not appear in combat properly
• Fixed the bug where clan decals appeared with incorrect resolution
• Third person camera and first person camera are now synchronized with the same speed (not limited by turret rotation)
• Fixed the bug where artillery could enter artillery mode before the start of the match
• Fixed the bug where inviting someone in platoon would get blocked and would appear as a new notification in the garage
• Fixed the bug where causing enemy ammunition rack explosion appeared as if players caused negative damage

Patch size: approximately 6 GB

Disclaimer: The Early Access is a part of the Armored Warfare testing process. As such it does not represent a finished product and may contain various issues. The purpose of Early Access testing is to find these issues and to correct them. Should critical issues be found, the test can at any point be suspended in order to perform emergency maintenance. The test schedule can also be altered at any point to reflect the required maintenance times in the future. Please report any issues you run into in our dedicated forum section.