War Thunder

1.45 is looking closer and closer! Already one test server opening. They might make it before Christmas after all. Yay, US tanks!

1.45 is here. Patch notes linked.

Notes are too long and varied for me to list because I'm a bit lazy but having American tanks seems to be the smallest change in there.

They're going to release US tanks in stages. Only Tier 1 is out right now.

So far they seem pretty competitive at that level.

There are entire matches where it's just the M2A4 in them.

It's adorable.

edited 17th Dec '14 1:21:31 AM by LeGarcon

It's kinda fun in a demented way. They are so fast, scarily fast.

The upgraded APC shot is pretty good on penetration, just wish it had an explosive charge (the general complaint about pure kinetic penetrators). Fortunately reload rate isn't bad.

They've made SB for ground forces nation-agnostic for now, because they were worried that most people would be out leveling their Tier I US.

Just unlocked the Lee, but haven't played it yet. Effective in test drive, though. One just has to keep an eye on which gun is going to fire, because the 75mm in the limited-traverse mount hits low of the aim point.

I am NOT looking forward to the grind through all those almost-identical Shermans, though :(

And I'm waiting for payday to buy the Porsche Tiger, because I tried it in test drive and it's a nice gun platform indeed, very steady for firing on the move. Uprated armor but still those vulnerable slanted corners like on the Ferdinand. They sensibly gave it a 6.0 BR, higher than the regular Tiger because of the better armor but not so high that it'd be out-gunned by everything. It turns like crap though, not entirely surprisingly.

I'm trying to figure out what the machine guns are actually for and if I can shoot them without using the mouse.

I'm lazy and only play arcade mode with the simple controls.

Machine guns fire with the space bar in whatever direction the mouse is pointing (if they can). Whichever guns can bear on that target will fire.

They've only implemented them for the US tanks, they haven't added them to anyone else's yet.

And they're useful for harassing the enemy with in between shots (especially since the impacts will impair vision through the gunner's scope), they can hurt lightly armored vehicles, they can cut down vegetation, and they can shoot at aircraft, sometimes at angles the main gun won't reach.

edited 17th Dec '14 12:19:28 PM by Morven

Oh, and if you want to get in on some seal-clubbing action until they fix the mistiering, pay the $4 for the cheap US vehicle pack to unlock the higher US tiers, and with the 500 Lions you get, unlock the Lee then the Sherman 105mm.

The Sherman 105mm is currently some unholy beast. Its BR is only 3.7. It can beat Tigers. It can one-shot T-54s from the side. Both its armor and its gun appear to be overperforming. If you want a quick ride through unlocking the US tech tree, have fun with it before the inevitable nerf.

The gun, being a gun-howitzer firing HE, isn't super accurate at long range but it's reasonably quick firing.

Imagine a KV-2 that moves like a medium tank and doesn't have that huge target of a turret, and can fire a shot every 13 seconds. That's what this is right now.

Well they bumped up it's rating to 4.7 so now it's not so overpowered anymore.

Also having a tough time getting used to the Lee, the bigger gun is hard to aim.

Yeah, they basically fixed it; its HE doesn't do as much damage and it's properly ranked. Fun while it lasted, and it's still a decent tank, just not OP.

For the Lee, have you bound keys to the commands to switch between the guns? That way you can select the 75mm and get accurate indicators in AB.

No I've got both guns bound to the left mouse button because I'm very lazy and haven't actually altered the controls much at all.

The aim is adjusted for the smaller 37mm gun though and the big one is just sort of there. I really need to get around to changing that at some point.

I've bound the 37mm and 75mm guns to number pad keys. I still hate the M3 Lee, though. I can't imagine some idiot actually designed that thing.

They knew it was an ugly stopgap when they designed it. But they needed to get the big gun into a tank ASAP.

Well got the guns synced up on the Lee. It's much better now. Also because of these 5x bonuses I'm advancing really quickly through the armor now.

Playing with the KV-1, the first one with the L-11 cannon. I know it's a heavy tank but god damn does it feel sluggish and fat. Also the gun is worse than the one on my T-34 1942 so it's fairly useless. Almost to the newer one though.

Still on Tier one with the Jerries. Their shells suck so until I get the HEAT stuff all their tanks are useless. But it's ok because they have the StuG and that's wonderful.

Yeah, the early German tanks suck. Tier II through IV they do pretty well.

Russian heavies are SO sluggish. It's exasperating. It's worth it for the IS-2 and its tank-destroying 122mm though, and the IS-3 and IS-4 are just amazing.

I've unlocked Tier II with them, once I get the last Panzer III in Tier I I'll move on to it. I like to sort of have all all my branches open at once.

Also I can't move past the first Sherman with the Americans, I'm having to unlock the Stuart instead which is a bit annoying because I don't like light tanks. Do I need to buy a bundle or something?

If you want it now, yes. Gaijin's keeping them in beta until they've ironed out the kinks, at which point we'll be getting them two-or-three tanks at a time.

...is the story, anyway. Seems like a fairly transparent cash grab to me, since you can just buy your way into this beta and it's happening on the same servers as everyone else. That said, apparently it's lead to the derp-Sherman already getting it's BR nerfed, so there might actually be some weight to the whole "ironing out the kinks" idea. The whole "buying your way in" deal still sounds super-shifty to me, though.

But the buy-in is only about four bucks, so it's not too bad, and it probably really is keeping down the number of people playing them until they have more gameplay data.

How do you all paint your planes and tanks? Do you leave them stock? A few discreet decals? Custom skins, and wish other people could see 'em?

Or do you do like arcade style and go as silly as possible?

I live solely in Arcade mode but don't ever paint mine. I'm too lazy to do anything fun with graphics and they usually don't look too bad stock.

Is it just me, or is the tier 1 Stu G III Ausf. A a little bit OP when fully upgraded? Because the top tier HEAT ammo has 100mm of pen at maximum engagement range for the gun.

The Stu G A is well-known good. It's just that (a) HEAT ammo is always a bit finicky and doesn't always work, and (b) everyone knows the Stu G's weaknesses.

HEAT tends to only work well when it strikes a surface close to perpendicular. Also, there has to be something immediately behind the point of impact that's critical, or you won't get much damage; it doesn't "spread" very much on the inside.

The Stu G is vulnerable from the front in the gunner's viewport on the top right (from the opponent's POV) and the driver's slit. It also obviously is really vulnerable to being flanked.

Play to its strengths, though, and you can do well.

I have reinstalled this so-called "Thunder of War". My first game I load into the match with my T-34 and am immediately crippled by fire from God knows where.

Sigh.

You're supposed to have 10 seconds of invulnerability upon spawn; was it quicker than that?

The thing is, War Thunder is trying for a greater degree of realism, and one hit kills are in fact realism in tank combat. Not every hit, of course; some don't penetrate, some penetrate but don't take out anything vital, some take out a component or crew member but not enough to knock the tank out. A detonation in the middle of the crew compartment, or hitting the ammo, though — bam. You're toast.

The maps need quite a bit of tuning, though. Some are prone to spawn camping. Poland is one of the worst for that, though I love that map otherwise.

The Panzer I Vs are all hilariously vulnerable through the giant driver's viewport in the front of the tank. Tigers have the same viewport but bounces rounds there a lot more often, although I haven't gone after one with APCR yet.

Are the Soviets the only faction who have APHE rounds in the later tanks? US and German tanks seem stuck with APCR, but the game doesn't seem to model the spalling damage that makes those kinds of high penetration, thinner rounds so deadly to crew and tank internals.

edited 11th Jan '15 12:13:23 AM by Mars444