Welcome to the newest Q&A Session where developers are answering questions posed by players.
Will you change the way the multi-barrel weapons, such as the twin 30mm of the Terminator, work?
We'll look at the mechanism after we are finished fixing the existing issues. For example, we are planning to address the situation where missiles, fired by multi-launcher systems, sometimes collide with obstacles due to the vehicle's launcher tube layout. We'll also take a look at multi-barrel guns.
Will artillery return to PvP?
We are planning to run some experiments in order to turn artillery into a support class, as we announced before. However, those are long-term plans and to even consider returning the artillery class to PvP, we have to run extensive tests and collect a lot of community feedback on the matter.
Will you add additional PvE difficulty level "Insane"?
Yes, we are planning to add a harder PvE mode. In Update 0.19, PvE generally became more difficult, which can be seen from both statistics and feedback. With that being said, we'd like to make the "Insane" mode more different from the three existing PvE difficulty levels without resorting to simply buffing the bots and letting more of them spawn, but for example by having players fight stronger and stronger infinite enemy waves or by adding some features known from the Global Operations mode, such as the bunkers, the airstrikes etc. We will tell you more about our PvE plans a bit later.
Are you happy with the ammunition prices?
In one of the near 0.20 updates, the shell price will be reduced. Our general goal is to have a situation where, if you play well, your earnings are on the same level as in Update 0.18 or higher. Bad players or AFKers on the other hand should see a drop in their income (but they will never drop to negative values, you won't lose Credits).
Will you improve AFVs?
Yes, we'll work on the AFV autocannons and on the AFV ability to scout.
Will you introduce changes to the spotting system?
Yes. As the first step, we'll take a look at bushes (bare bushes without leaves will no longer provide camouflage bonus and the size of the bonus will depend on the type of the bush), spotting in PvE and bug fixes.
Will you introduce night vision to the game?
We are currently considering adding it to night missions, but that's a question of mid-term future plans. It will likely appear in PvE first.
Will you add self-propelled mortars as a class?
That depends on what we do with artillery (see the question above).
Why did you change the ammo rack explosion mechanism? What was wrong with the old one?
The new system better represents modern vehicles with separated ammunition rack from the crew compartment and using safer explosives as shell propellant. We are, however, planning to return instant explosions to older vehicles that have no means of preventing catastrophic explosions.
Will you increase accuracy and armor for Tier 9 and 10 vehicles?
Accuracy will be increased for specific vehicles (we want some, but not all, tanks to be "snipers"). There will also be changes to armor layout, but we have no intention to return to the old "pixel hunting" system. Some vehicles will be armored more, some less, but the important part will be the penetration value of shells fired – higher penetration will allow players to penetrate spots they could not before.
Will you improve the automatic ban system? Players get banned for accidentally shooting an ally crossing their line of fire, it's unfair.
Yes. We will introduce more tweaks in order for the system to better determine whether the shot was intentional.
Will you return class active abilities (such as the Light Tank acceleration) that existed before Balance 2.0?
The current Light Tanks don't need an acceleration buff. They have their own class niche. They are fast, agile and able to fire accurately on the move. As for Tank Destroyers, we are currently looking into it.
Abrams never had an autoloader, why does it have it in the game?
An Abrams tank with autoloader called Fastdraw was proposed. This autoloader consisted of two separate drums with powered feed. We are, however, planning to separate it from the 140mm gun. Players will have to choose either a high-DPM 120mm gun with autoloader, or a 140mm gun without it.
Client stability dropped with Update 0.20. Why is that?
The client stability considerably improved since the launch of Update 0.20 on the Russian server. But as always, any feedback in the bug report section on the forums is welcome.
Why do all the tanks have practically the same armor?
They don't – tank armor against various types of shells and on various places of the tanks differs significantly between vehicles, both value-wise and statistics-wise (the amount of hits that end in a penetration on the same Tier can vary wildly from vehicle to vehicle – from 25 percent to up to 65 percent). As for the turret ring and lower frontal plate weakspots, many tanks have those (something that's visible even in official military simulators or ultra-realistic PC games). However, to produce more diverse gameplay styles, we are planning to further change them a bit compared to reality.
When will you improve the physics to allow players to tip their vehicles on the roof?
We are constantly working on improving physics. One of the tasks for the near future is improving the wheeled vehicle physics. As for tipping over, this is already supported by the engine physics but this feature is disabled in order for the gameplay to be more comfortable. It's possible we will revisit this topic in the future.
When will you add new Tier 10 tanks?
New vehicle branches are designed with Tier 10 vehicles on top.
Will you reduce the MBT viewrange?
No, we do not want to return to the state where the MBTs were blind. We can tweak the camouflage factor of the vehicles that need it but we do not want an intentionally blind class in the game.
Until Balance 2.0, the game attracted players by pixel hunting. That was removed – what will you do now to attract new players?
It didn't. Pixel hunting was definitely not the reason why players joined Armored Warfare. What we want is to have interesting, tactical and diverse gameplay – to that end, we will fix the issues that need fixing and add new maps and vehicles.
Do you have any plans for a Clan Wars mode?
We are working on it, but Update 0.19 brought many high-priority tasks that we need to deal with first. We would like to introduce it in the future after we fix the game's problems.
What's the reasoning behind limiting the amount of shells carried to three?
We are planning to add one more slot – in other words, to increase the amount of shell slots to four. That's an acceptable compromise – only a few vehicles even carry five shell types and we don't want a fifth slot that would be useless most of the time.
When will you add Merkavas and South American tanks?
Merkavas are planned as a part of an Israeli vehicle branch. We are already developing it and it may appear in the game around the end of the year. South American tanks are currently not planned.
Why do PvE Light Tankbots have such a high accuracy?
AI opponents in PvE are designed not to try to aim with a full circle, but to fire from the hip – having them actually aim carefully would make them very annoying to deal with, which would lead to the well-known "bots are cheating" accusations. Light Tanks as a class have very high accuracy on the move, which means they will be accurate even when firing from the hip. Besides, this adds more variety to the game – enemy AI light tanks are easy to penetrate than enemy MBTs but will hit with more shots to compensate.
What about the Oplot MBT, will it be introduced?
The Oplot MBT is planned as a part of the T-80 line extension, possibly for this year.
Will you add special camouflages to the Loot Boxes? What about historical camouflages?
Yes, we are planning to add camouflages (and more!) as drops as a part of the upcoming Loot overhaul.
Will you be adding visual camouflage nets?
That's a huge undertaking – we'd basically have to remodel each vehicle separately to introduce this feature. Technically it's possible to introduce them (for example by having special reward tanks that come with it as a base model) but when it comes to this feature's introduction to all the vehicles in the game, there are far more important tasks for us to do instead –improving existing model quality and introducing new tanks come to mind.
What makes the announced Central-European AFV/TD branch unique gameplay-wise?
We will talk more about that in a separate article. But – one example: we are planning to introduce limited self-guiding for the Spike ATGM that is used in this branch to reflect its real-life ability.
Will you change the shell damage system further? The current one doesn't work.
Yes. This too will have a dedicated article in the near future as these changes are not that far away.
Will you make Retrofits cheaper?
We will tweak the game economy further, we already announced that. We aren't planning any radical Retrofit price reductions for the near future, but we'll take a look at the statistics.
Will you change the PvE system to work in three-mission batches the way it was in Early Access?
It's something we are considering for a more difficult PvE mode.
Will you change the Update 0.20 Garage UI to something more familiar and comfortable?
Now that's a good question – in fact, you answered yourself already. There are two types of issues with the Update 0.20 garage that the players encounter. For one, it's a change and it takes a while getting used to. Secondly, some elements are still unfinished. The unfinished parts will be dealt with in the near future (we will for example make switching consumables and Retrofits easier). But those are small things compared to the main problem: the players simply got used to the old interface – this is obvious from both streams and written feedback. Many are applying the logic of the old interface to the new one – for example, many players are using written pop-up windows with detailed information even though the information they are looking for is now present in the base windows. At the moment, we are in a transitory period where players get used to the new interface – we know that it's not easy but such an overhaul was necessary. The new interface will not only make the vehicle set-up easier for new players, but also lays down the groundwork for the future improvements.
Will you reduce the accuracy loss for autocannons when firing long bursts?
For some high-end autocannons, yes.
Will you allow players to modify their battle UI by introducing their own aiming reticles?
We are not planning to overhaul the battle UI in the near future, but it's possible that in the future, we will introduce more customization options and we might also be supporting player-made UI mods.
Will you introduce the armor inspector feature?
It's planned and we are working on it, but we have no exact deadline to share at the moment.
That's it for today! Got questions for the developers? Please submit them on the forums!
We'll see you on the battlefield!
