Obsidian Entertainment and My.com are proud to introduce the the newest addition to Armored Warfare - Update 0.12, bringing some of the long-awaited and exciting features that include:
- Battle-Hardened vehicle status
- Camouflage System overhaul
- Tank Destroyer rebalance
- Three new PvE Missions
- New Inventory Screen
- PvE overhaul (including randomized spawns and adjusted AI vehicle behavior to eliminate the split second AI snapshots)
- Statistics Sharing
- Localized Crew Voiceovers
Apart from the new features, a large number of game corrections including but not limited to vehicle performance adjustments, map balance and critical issue fixes was implemented as well.
These include fixes of certain commander and crew skills, some vehicle models (notably the Abrams tanks), reload timer freezes, the "artillery destroys all modules" issue, several audio issues and much more. The issues were prioritized based on player feedback and the full list of changes can be seen in this post.
New Features
Battle Hardened Vehicles
In 0.12 players can now use gold to apply a new "Battle Hardened" status to standard progression vehicles - upgrading them to pseudo-premium status. The intent behind Battle Hardened Vehicles is to give players a way to convert their favorite vehicles into ones which resemble a 'Premium-lite' vehicle. Battle Hardened vehicles cost approximately half of an equal tier Premium Vehicle and come with the following benefits:
- +25% to Credit gains while playing this vehicle
- +25% to Crew Experience gains while playing this vehicle
- +25% to Commander Experience gains while playing this vehicle
- +10% to Reputation earned on the vehicle (including locked reputation)
To unlock Battle Hardened on a specific vehicle, the vehicle must have first reached Renowned status. Once reached, a special "Battle Hardened" node can then be unlocked with gold. Battle Hardened status may only be unlocked on vehicles at or above tier 3.
Progressive Camouflage Penalties
Based on player feedback, in 0.12 we've made some significant changes to the camouflage and spotting system to help address the following goals:
- Make camouflage penalties more intuitive
- Encourage a more dynamic battlefield where players are able to move and re-position more
To accomplish this, we've introduced new "Progressive Camouflage Penalties". This update changes all methods of applying camouflage penalties (movement, shooting, on fire) from a binary on/off state to a more dynamic system where penalties grow and decay.
Previously, when driving your vehicle you would receive a flat movement penalty as soon as you started moving. Once you stopped and were stationary for a period of time the penalty was disabled. With the updates to the system the penalty now grows as you move and decays when you are stationary based off of two factors: time and distance traveled. If a player moves away from the location they fired, the camouflage penalty decays faster as the player moves further away.
Additionally, the camouflage penalties from shooting are now additive instead of being a set value. This means that a stationary vehicle repeatedly firing a cannon will continue to build up camouflage penalties with each shot making it easier for them to be seen by enemies while a vehicle that re-positions between shots will be less likely to be seen. If the player stays stationary and does not fire again the camouflage penalty slowly decays down to zero, but this will take some time. This means that a stationary vehicle repeatedly firing a cannon will continue to build up camouflage penalties with each shot making it easier for them to be seen by enemies, while a vehicle that re-positions between shots will be less likely to be seen.
With auto-cannons, instead of firing a single shot and having a set penalty applied, each shot now has a smaller camouflage penalty and builds up over time. This allows vehicles with auto-cannons to shoot a few rounds with a smaller chance of being spotted, but makes them more likely to be spotted if they are emptying a full clip into an enemy. We feel these changes will improve the camouflage and spotting system by making the system more intuitive while also encouraging a more active and dynamic battlefield. We have more plans to keep updating the vision and spotting mechanics and we look forward to your comments and feedback on the current updates.
New Tank Destroyer Class Ability
In 0.12 we took the opportunity to redesign the Tank Destroyer class ability to be an active ability instead of a passive max accuracy damage bonus. This new ability works with the new progressive camouflage penalties to help reinforce TD's role as a sniper on the battlefield and no longer rewards with more damage for achieving maximum accuracy when that is something they are likely to do with nearly every shot anyway.
TDs now get a "Gun Suppression" ability that greatly reduces the camouflage penalty from all shots while the ability is active. Players must be stationary for 2 seconds before the Gun Suppression ability is available for use. Once active, a timer appears and starts to count down. Players must fire a shot before the timer expires or the ability is disabled. If the player fires a shot then the timer resets and the player must fire again before the timer runs out. In total, a player is able to do this for three shots. The ability is only usable while stationary and will turn off if the player moves while the ability is active. Once the ability turns off, it goes on a cooldown for 60 seconds regardless of how many shots have been fired.
Additionally, we are removing the passive damage bonus ability for tank destroyers when they were at maximum accuracy and are re-purposing the UI yellow reticule indicator to show when Gun Suppression is active. In order to ensure that tank destroyer performance does not drop, we are increasing all TD damage to start with and will be keeping a close eye on telemetry data to ensure TDs are performing as intended. Details on these TD damage changes can be viewed in the full patch notes below.
New Year Decorations
For a limited time, players will notice that the garage has been updated with a holiday overlay in this patch, filling their garage with seasonal decorations and surprises! This change is also reflected in the Base view.
New Statistics Sharing Settings (Dossier Sharing)
Players can now opt to share their gameplay statistics either publicly, or with just those on their friends list. By default, player statistics are set to private. To switch your statistics to public or to friends, pull up the options menu and select the 'Social' tab. Afterwards, select one of the available options under the 'Dossier Privacy' dropdown and hit apply. To view another player's statistics, right click on their name outside of a match and select 'View Dossier'. If the player has opted not to share their Dossier, the Dossier will not display.
More Decals
New decals added for your tanks.
Three new PvE Missions
Three new missions were added to the PvE mission roster:
Operation Hydra - somewhere in Eastern Europe, a warehouse full of chemical weapons has come under attack by enemy forces. The Black Company must keep the stock as well as the rockets used to deliver it from enemy hands!
Operation Sapphire - enemy mercenaries have captured an ammunition factory and are planning to transport the shells away. Destroy the ammunition caches to prevent their misuse!
Operation Starry Night - this mission will take the Black Company to a smaller town and the outlying farms where enemy forces are terrorizing the population. Drive them away and destroy enemy fuel trucks to deny them the tactical advantage!
Encounter System (PvE Overhaul)
All PvE maps were reworked to improve the variety and randomness of spawn locations. This also should eliminate many cases where players have AI vehicles suddenly spawning on top of them.
Screen Resolution Changes
In 0.12 we've made improvements to Armored Warfare's available resolution options. Now when running AW in "windowed mode" players can resize and maximize the window as they see fit.
- The new window size and position will be saved in-between sessions.
- Players can also set two different resolutions for both windowed mode and full screen, meaning when they switch between them by hitting Alt+Enter their resolution will adapt based on their preferences.
- Players can now enter fullscreen mode on any monitor, not just their primary one.
- AW now properly works with Windows scaling (150% and 200%)
- Previously, with Windows scaling active players often had trouble clicking on buttons within the UI
New Inventory Screen
A new work-in-progress inventory screen has been added to lay the framework leading up to the implementation of the loot system and to provide a way for players to redeem boosts provided to them. Previously, if a player was granted a boost (due to a promotional event or store purchase), it automatically activated once a player logged in. Now any boosts players find in their inventory screen can be activated by double clicking on the appropriate boost icon.
If a player has multiple boosts of the same type, these will stack within the inventory screen - allowing a player to manually activate another one after the first one has run out.
Upon logging in for the first time, players may find they already have boosts in their inventory. These are legacy promotional boosts which were previously not activated during the promotional event by logging in. There will be new features associated with this screen in future patches.
Localized Crew Voices
The crews now speak with the language of the game client the player selected - German language client will for example hear German voiceovers.
List of 0.12.1680 Changes
General
- Upon purchase of a cannon upgrade, the weapon will now come pre-loaded with compatible ammunition
- Added an event for AP rounds so that non-penetrating hits will play the ricochet visual effect more frequently. Previously, AP rounds would only ricochet when they exceeded the "auto-ricochet" angle of 75 degrees. Now, they can ricochet at angles below the auto-ricochet angle, but this will still only occur on shots that do not have sufficient AP factor to penetrate the armor. This is a visual change to when the ricochet visual effect is shown and does not impact gameplay, though it will provide additional feedback about the impact angle of a non-penetrating hit
- Updated the Voice-Over trigger for "Multiple systems down", in this update players will only hear that message if multiple unique systems are impacted
- Tweaked the Auto-Lock (also known as auto-aim) feature to more accurately synchronize the selected aim point on the client and server. This adjustment results in fewer missed shots when using Auto-Lock to fire at close-range or slow-moving targets
HE Changes
- Slightly decreased module damage dealt by artillery with calibers greater than 125mm
- Artillery module damage is now more heavily affected by the distance between the point of impact and the affected component. Note that this only applies to module damage, not normal hull damage
- Slightly reduced HE damage to heavily armored targets for vehicles Tier 5 and higher. The base damage of these rounds is unchanged, but high armor will decrease the damage the target takes somewhat more than it used to
Garage
- Fixed an issue where vehicles would still be auto-repaired even after the checkbox had been unticked
- Fixed an issue with context menu options not updating in real time after right clicking on a player and selecting an option
- Fixed an issue whereby two lobby windows could appear when entering a custom match lobby after leaving another custom match that's still in-progress
- Fixed an issue where the Ammo tab within the service screen continued to display old ammo if the menu was open when a new weapon was equipped
Rear Armor Rebalance
Normalized the T-90 based vehicles to have the rears able to be penetrated by autocannons.
- Lowered rear of T90-MS from 100 to 70
- Lowered rear of T90 from 80 to 70
- Lowered rear of Terminator from 80 to 70
- Lowered rear of Ramka from 90 to 70
Tank Destroyer Rebalance
The 'Sniper's Precision' ability (long range bonus) has been removed as a part of the class overhaul. It has been replaced with a new class ability, as well as a permanent damage bonus to all Tank Destroyers, rather than the conditional damage bonus that the ability provided. The damage increase varies from vehicle to vehicle based on how well the Tank Destroyer was working pre-patch:
- AMX-10P PAC90 damage increased by ~5%
- B1 Centauro damage increased by ~15%
- B1 Centauro 120 damage increased by about ~15%
- Dragoon 300 90 damage increased by ~10%
- ERC 90 damage increased by ~8%
- LAV-150 90 damage increased by ~5%
- LAV-300 damage increased by ~10%
- LAV-600 damage increased by ~15%
- M1128 Stryker damage increased by ~8%
- Taifun II damage increased by ~15%
- Zhalo-S damage increased by ~12%
Please note that there may be some slight variation from these percentages on specific ammo types due to rounding up or down on values
Challenger 2
The Challenger 2's mobility was a bit too high for an MBT that is focused on being so heavily armored. As a result, we've lowered the MBT's hull traverse speeds and slowed its acceleration slightly to make it more susceptible against vehicles which are able to flank the tank.
Hull traverse speeds:
- CV12 Engine slowed from 15.2sec to 16.1sec
- MT 883 Engine slowed from 13.6sec to 14.5sec
0-32kph Acceleration:
- MT 883 Engine slowed from 7.0sec to 7.3sec
B1 DRACO
While the Draco is still new and players are adapting to it, its performance has been low enough that we feel it warrants some immediate attention. It has prodigious burst damage if it can get into position, but its large size for an AFV, wheeled setup, and relatively weak penetration and gun handling for the tier have made it difficult to use. We've made several improvements.
- Penetration for all rounds increased by ~15%
- Targeting Time decreased from 3 seconds to 2.5 seconds
- Hull traverse accuracy bloom rate decreased from 0.75 to 0.3
- Smallest reticule size decreased from 0.14 to 0.125
- Largest reticule size decreased from 0.84 to 0.75
- Hit Points increased from 1760 to 1935
M41 Walker Bulldog
The M41's has been struggling to fight against equal tier vehicles, especially MBTs. We've given it some performance improvements to bring it up to par.
- Rate of Fire increased from 10.1 rounds per minute to 11.4 rounds per minute
- Stock AP penetration increased from 146 to 157
- Upgraded AP penetration increased from 154 to 173
- HEAT penetration increased from 129 to 138
- Targeting Time decreased from 3.2 seconds to 2.5 seconds
M48 Patton
The M48's average Reputation earnings per match have been stable, but its win rates are slightly below average. We've given it a slight bump in Rate of Fire to improve its overall combat ability.
- Rate of Fire increased from 8 rounds per minute to 8.6 rounds per minute
Object 430
The Object 430 has been consistently over-performing in both win rate and average earnings. The main factor here appears to be the tank's amazing armor angling for the tier, but it also has few disadvantages. To help bring it in line, we're cutting down its Hit Points, which should make it more vulnerable in situations where it is successfully flanked.
- HP decreased from 990 to 850
PT-76
- The BK-350M HEAT is now the stock ammunition for the PT-76
- HE Rounds have been removed from the vehicle
RDF-LT
Our previous buffs to the RDF-LT have helped improve its performance, but it's still showing some signs that it needs additional help. We've increased its sub-par Hit Points and made some tuning changes to its AP rounds to make them into distinct valid options.
- HP increased from 1390 to 1540
- HVAPDS damage increased from 246 to 285, penetration decreased to 275
- APFSDS round penetration increased from 275 to 312, damage unchanged
Stingray 1 and Stingray 2
The Stingrays are just about in the right balance range, but we've given them a slight increase to Hit Points and AP round penetration as quality of life improvements, and we're looking into some issues with their mobility for future patches. Stingray 1:
- Stingray 1 Hit Points increased from 1465 to 1580
- Stock AP round increased penetration increased from 265 to 278
- First AP upgrade penetration increased from 278 to 292
- Second AP upgrade penetration increased from 285 to 299
- Third AP upgrade penetration increased from 298 to 313
- Stock Shaped Charge penetration increased from 244 to 262
- Upgraded HEAT penetration increased from 249 to 274
Stingray 2:
- Stingray 2 Hit Points increased from 1685 to 1815
- Stock AP penetration increased from 318 to 334
- First AP upgrade penetration increased from 334 to 350
- Second AP upgrade penetration increased from 342 to 359
- Third AP upgrade penetration increased 357 to 375
- Stock HEAT penetration increased from 280 to 296
- First HEAT upgrade penetration increased from 292 to 310
- Second HEAT upgrade penetration increased from 299 to 317
- Third HEAT upgrade penetration increased from 311 to 330
M1A2 Abrams
- Adjusted the M1A2 gun depression at both the front and rear of the vehicle so the gun barrel did not clip into the hull
- M1A2 gun depression is now -9 degrees in the front and 0.2 in the back
- Fixed an issue with the stock space hull being misaligned on the vehicle
AI Vehicle balance pass
- Reaction times of enemies are tuned based on difficulty level, situation and tier. Higher tier enemies will now react to stimulus quicker than lower tier and enemies on hard missions will also be more aggressive. AI are more likely to target closer enemies first and will take longer to react to players they cannot currently see
- Adjusted counter battery rules and reaction times for AI SPGs. Now AI SPGs will take a few seconds to react to a player SPG after they have shot once. The second and third shot from a player will decrease the time it takes for them to zero in on the player. Moving in between shots causes the Arty counter battery reaction time to reset
- Some enemies that focus on firing HE have had their damage reduced
- AI Accuracy Scaling- AI are more likely to miss players on easy and medium difficulties. AI get much more accurate on hard and tier 7+
- Adjusted aim points for enemy AI
PvE Mission Select Screen Updates
- Performed a visual polish pass
- Added the ability to deselect the currently selected mission to fix an issue with the 'Start Contract' button overlapping mission buttons on the map, making it difficult to select a different mission
General
- A pass has been done across all PvE maps to fix numerous visual and collision bugs present
- Fixed an issue where capture rings were still allowing enemy controlled AI on PvE to continue capturing after the zone had moved
- A pass has been done to fix numerous instances of mission voice-overs not matching their in-game subtitles
- Fixed an issue where PvE players were unable to hear mission audio after they were destroyed
- Adjusted load music to fade out when PvE 'start mission' music begins playing
Albatross
- Updated the lighting on the map
Banshee
- Updated the lighting on the map
Cerberus
- Fixed an issue whereby enemies could go outside the map's boundaries
Kodiak
- Fixed an issue where the audio for failing the secondary objective did not play after the objective failed
- Fixed an issue where AI could not capture points if they spawned on top of them
- Enemy AI vehicles no longer spawn within the cap circles
Perseus
- Fixed an issue where the voice over did not play after being defeated
Red Opossum
- An optimization pass has been completed
- Updated the primary objective description for better clarity
Rolling Thunder
- Fixed an issue with artillery view being disrupted by wrong building hitboxes
- Fixed an issue with secondary objectives not displaying on the mini-map until the countdown timer end
A pass has been done across all PvP maps to fix numerous visual and collision bugs present
Cold Strike
- Added in a new spawn point setting which automatically causes platoon members to spawn closer together on the map
Ghost Field
- Added in a new spawn point setting which automatically causes platoon members to spawn closer together on the map
- Updated terrain and vegetation outside of gameplay space to resolve an issue where artillery were able to see an empty space outside of the map
Lost Island
- Adjusted the downed plane at E3 so players no longer get stuck on it
Narrows
- Opened up the hill in E/F/0/1 area to reduce the chokepoint nature of this route
- Blocked off a section of the map that should not be traversable in A0-B0
- Optimized the bushes and vegetation on Narrows which caused performance issues for players
Pipelines
- Updated sand VFX to prevent it from passing through buildings
Port Storm
- Updated draw distances for foliage in artillery mode
- Corrected issues where oil derricks were displaying multiple states and indestructible
Reactor
- Fixed an issue whereby a player could go off the map by entering the water behind J3/4
- Made walls in the capture areas destructible
- Added additional hard cover areas near the middle sections of the map and along the river banks
River Point
- Smoothed out the terrain near the spillway area, eliminating an area where some vehicles could get stuck
- Fixed an issue where Sabrina Washington's commander skill "Blending in" was not working properly
- Fixed an issue where Freja Hojbjerg's commander skill "Full Auto" was not working properly
- Fixed an issue where Maximillian Koenig's reputation bonus was not being applied to locked reputation
- Fixed an issue where the reload time for a vehicle would be displayed incorrectly after Ioannis Sanna's 'Feed the Flames' skill ended
- Corrected the descriptions for "Mobility" and "Quick Rotation" commander skills on Rashid Al-Atassi
- Fixed an issue whereby the Quick-chat radial widget would sometimes not display the hotkeys associated with the messages
- Fixed an issue where ricochet visual effects were visually drawn at a different angle than the actual ricochet angle that was calculated during hit resolution
- Fixed an issue where the minimap marker and objective notifications were not appearing at the same time
- Fixed an issue where remote vehicles were not correctly being equipped with consumables
- Fixed an issue where crew skills were duplicated on vehicles
- Fixed an issue where the armor indicator sometimes ceased to function
- Corrected retrofit icons in the notices menu
- Resolved an issue where the reload timer can freeze in match
- Fixed an issue where vehicles would still be auto-repaired even after the checkbox had been unticked
- Fixed an issue with context menu options not updating in real time after right clicking on a player and selecting an option
- Fixed an issue whereby two lobby windows could appear when entering a custom match lobby after leaving another custom match that's still in-progress
- Fixed an issue where the Ammo tab within the service screen continued to display old ammo if the menu was open when a new weapon was equipped
- Fixed an Artillery targeting issue when in artillery mode which caused the camera to skip around when moving past a tall object. The artillery camera will now properly zoom in when it's obstructed by a building located between the player's vehicle and the camera
- Improved the visual quality of M1A1 Abrams and B1 DRACO models
- Fixed small visual problems with the following models: BMD-3, BMP-1, BMP-3M, Challenger 1, CRAB, B1 DRACO, Leopard 1, Leopard 2A6, M1128 Stryker, M2 Bradley, M41, Object 430, OF-40, Palmaria, Ramka-99, Stingray 2, Swingfire, T-54, T92
- Fixed an issue which caused shots entering the CRAB's turret ring to pass through without damaging the vehicle
- Fixed an issue where the M1A1 Abrams cannon was clipping into the rear part of the vehicle hull
- Fixed an issue with the M1128's smoke grenades not deploying forward of the turret
- Fixed an issue with Battalion names causing problems if players attempted to create a Battalion with both Cyrillic and Latin characters
- Added vehicle audio for the tank destroyer class
- Implemented holiday music and ambience in the garage
- In game cutscene bug fixes for all PvE and PvP maps
- Final audio passes completed for PvE missions
- Fixed a bug that caused audio UI slider settings to not be saved when shutting down the game
- Added UI audio for Basic Training
- Various engine audio bugs fixed
