3 hours ago, JintoLin said:

The AI does seems to push the flanks more. Not sure if I am a fan of this.

I haven't experienced that yet, but it sounds like an improvement to me.  I would prefer to see bots pushing the flanks and performing other normal, rational tactics than to have them simply spawn behind me in an area that has already been cleared to simulate flanking.

If the bots actually flank now, that gives LTs and AFVs a role role to play other than fire support.

On 12/28/2020 at 11:18 AM, knutliott said:

I'm pretty sure they're both working.  At 1am CET (4 pm Pacific) anything you have purchased refreshes.  Then at 5am CET (8 pm Pacific) everything refreshes whether it has been purchased or not.  It also appears to refresh any time there's a server reboot or other server-side activity.

Key takeaway: you have a 4-hour window to get an extra 10:1 BC boost every day.

This morning's patch did not refresh the Store, so it appears that they've at least partially fixed the extra refreshes.

The Store did refresh yesterday at both 4:00 pm Pacific (1:00 am CET) and 8:00 pm Pacific (5:00 am CET).  So it was either today's patch that changed the refreshes, or they haven't fixed the extra 4:00 pm / 1:00 am refresh yet.

Quote

 

We have removed the delay between the moment you get spotted and the appearance of the eye indicator in PvE modes. That way, you will always know instantly whenever you become spotted by an AI opponent.

We have also updated the AI vehicle reaction mechanism in order to reduce various unpopular AI “snap shot” situations where AI vehicles target and fire at you the moment you are spotted. However, the same AI vehicles will now remember where you are for a longer period of time.

 

These are both rather significant QOL improvements.  This will make the bots behave more like real players rather than (poorly optimized) omniscient computers.

On 1/26/2021 at 8:59 AM, dfnce said:

Imo this adorable thing rather belongs to tier 8, with some far-fetching assumptions to tier 9, where it would distinct with unique 140mm gun. 

It would be OP at Tier 8, given that it's basically a Leo 2A5 (which is Tier 8) with an upgraded 140mm gun.  If it were a really old gun I could maybe see leaving it and balancing it at Tier 8, but the 140 on this tank is essentially an all-new clean slate design (from the 1980s).  I.e. it's the same generation as the other NATO 140s in the game at Tier 10.

So... yeah, it should probably be Tier 9.  10 seems like a stretch given the lack of armor.

On 1/22/2021 at 2:48 PM, joebob73 said:

So, if you have the shop link, you actually can buy this, even on an existing account.
Decent value for the $, you get 5.2k gold, an Object 279, and 60 days of prem, along with a couple boosters and a tiny amount of credits.
Unfortunately, it does cost real money.

Yeah, that's a pretty good deal for the money.

Is the 5.2k Gold part of the 30 days of login rewards? Or does that include the value of the Object 279 for those of us who already have it?  A Tier 5 is worth... $7.50?  Or 1500 Gold?

$8.25 to get all of the above plus another 1500 Gold for an Object 279 is really pretty good.  I use gold to skip BP grind dailies all the time.

So they gave the Rosomaks more ammo (which is a good thing, they needed more ammo), but left the poor AGDS with its pathetic 24 missiles?

2 hours ago, Quantum_Ranger said:

Put another way, ignoring XP and credits for a moment, is AFV better to farm BC or MBT?

I have noticed no difference.  I suspect that the allowed delay "between shots" is quite long, so it really isn't accurate to think of it as "between shots".  It's between actions that contribute toward your team's progress.

I suspect that it's only the time before your first shot (contribution) that does not count, and possibly also the time after your last shot (contribution).  That could probably be tested, but given that actively engaged time rounds up it doesn't seem all that important.

There should totally be a special scenario (a la Plague) where all of the bots are T-55 Enigmas and all of the players use M1A1 Storms... 

24 minutes ago, Schlock said:

Imagine SPHINX lieutenants' view range. It can even spot you from another PvE mission!

That actually made me snort my coffee!  :-)

I think the addition of wheeled vehicles will be good overall, if for no other reason than they're all soft and easy to kill.  By all means please replace a T-15 with an ADATS!

(No AGDS... could it be because they can't make the AI deal with its wonky missiles?  Maybe they should fix the missiles...)

20 hours ago, TeyKey1 said:

The main event will probably be the raid after BP. Gonna see what it is this time but iirc SS said it would be different than the last.

Well that will be a bummer, if true.  I haven't enjoyed any of the raids because they're too time intensive and pretty much require playing PvP.

I can completely finish a Battle Path playing PvE.  It takes longer so it's a full 3-month commitment for me, but I can do it.  I cannot complete a raid just playing PvE because you're required to complete all nodes - both PvE and PvE - to get the ultimate prize.  I'm not interested in PvP in AW, and furthermore even if I was it's almost impossible to get matches of the evening Pacific time.

From the FAQ:

The amount of Battle Coins for playing is calculated as such:

You’ll receive a fixed amount of Battle Coins (2 for PvE and GLOPS, 3 for PvP) for each minute of effective combat. Effective combat time is a new mechanic that counts only the time when you are active in battle (during or between the actions that contribute towards your team’s effort). The exact length will be rounded up for the purposes of rewards (eg. 41 seconds will be treated as 1 minute, 1:01 minute as 2 minutes etc.) and will be available on the results screen.

Like before, winning will multiply your reward (by 1.25 for PvE and GLOPS and by 1.5 for PvP) but you’ll also receive extra Battle Coins for being amongst the best players on the battlefield (4 for Top 2 in PvE, 5 for Top 5 in PvP and 10 for Top 5 in GLOPS).

This could be great - I'm honestly interested to see what they do with the contests and special offers... and maybe some new vehicles or skins?

On 1/17/2021 at 11:03 AM, MK_Regular said:

Just looking at the very limited data I have, it seems like effective combat time is a better metric for gauging BC earned than the actual match time.

100%.  Back when this mechanic first came out I did a lot of testing, and it's absolutely based on effective combat time, not time spent in match.  I've also tested it during this Battle Path to see if it's more efficient to play PvE Hardcore or Plague.  Spoiler: Plague wins easily provided you're constantly contributing.  This is due to the fact that you have far less loading/countdown/exiting/finding a new match time while running 4-5 Plague matches vs 6-7 PvE matches.

The question above is "what constitutes effective combat time?"  It seems to me that it pretty clearly does not count any of the time at the start of the match until you "contribute" something toward your team's victory, which can be as simple as hitting an enemy with a single AC round.  Simply firing blindly and missing does not count (and shouldn't count, as that would be far too easy to exploit).

There are 2 real questions that I can see - how long can you go "between shots" and have it count as a continuous contribution?  And does the lag time at the end of the match count, meaning if I last see and shoot a target with a minute left, does that last minute count for me or not?

I'm fairly certain that anything in-game that registers with the server counts as a contribution.  Capping, de-capping, spotting (meaning getting credit for a spot), spotting damage, damage, etc.  Probably literally anything that gives you a commendation (or contributes to one).  Obviously anything that counts toward XPs earned would count.

2 hours ago, Haswell said:

However, please note that, just like the other Tier 10 Hades vehicles, it cannot be obtained permanently and you’ll only be able to get hold of it for a limited time. After the allotted time expires, you’ll have to complete another contract to re-enable it again.

Wait... what?

Hades vehicles are rental only?  You go to all the trouble to get 100 parts, and all you get is a rental???

Oh wait... it says Tier 10.  So the Tier 9 Hades vehicles are permanent, but the Tier 10 vehicles are rental-only?

I'd love to get a Terminator 2 Hades... but I don't have any yet because I don't do enough of the contracts to collect the parts.  

17 hours ago, Baron_Georg said:

I don't know about anybody else but the prices for Gpus especially are outrageous 1500+ US for a card that has a MSRP of 300.  and on top of that nobody but scalpers have any GPUs in stock.

I ordered my new rig from Alienware (which is now owned by Dell) and paid MSRP for my RTX 3080.  Large companies that sell turn-key systems are getting what they need, it's just the DIY market that's having problems.

I.e. if you want to buy a whole new computer you can get basically any card you want.  But if you only want the card you're going to have a tough time finding one.

5 hours ago, Baron_Georg said:

ahhh commander selection the bain of my game existence LOL. definitely have Ioannis who I have never run and Miramon is Carlos his first name?  if it is he is a low time commander for me, one of the Sargent levels I think.  currently I have Freja at Lt, Philip has the xp for Lt but is still promotion locked and Sabrina is at 2 Lt. and currently being run on almost everything to catch up and run to Col first after advice here on the forums.  that's going to be quite a while for me.    Thanks for the info.

Thanks knutliott  as well for your info

Happy to help when I can!

6 hours ago, Baron_Georg said:

I 5 3470 @ 3.2  Ghz   with a nvida 750TI card  12 Gb system memory

That's very similar to my current system (see above) so you shouldn't have any problems.  That said, if you're going to upgrade at this point I'd upgrade both - your CPU and GPU are both very old (as are mine) so it's probably best to upgrade both to keep their generations similar.

18 hours ago, Baron_Georg said:

dfnce & knutiott  ok so from the red circle you are telling me that with the right commander and vehicle you can spot all the bots eastward from the top of the map to the area near the east west road?.   because from that position I can't with my current vehicles and commanders. 

Well... no, not all of them.  At least not with the kind of vehicle that you'd be willing to risk in the red circle.  That spot is really only "safe" for MBTs because one of the spawns of bots charges straight toward it.  And another spawns close to it but then heads South.  So while you could probably technically spot everything from there in an AS21 with Juan Carlos as your commander, that same AS21 would get overrun by that 4-bot spawn that heads right for it.

There are at least 2 spawns that I can remember off the top of my head that are all the way to the east on that paved North-South road.  (Not the perimeter road, the one that heads South into the city.)  I doubt that you'll be able to spot those spawns from the red circle with an MBT, but maybe with just the right config.

I suspect that people go en masse to that circle because it's really safe in an MBT, and it's far enough to one side that it's even reasonably safe for everyone else.  It's especially safe if you have teammates who are roaming around in the fields attracting attention, which seems to also be pretty common.  It also has really good line of sight to pretty much the entire fight in the north fields, so as long as you can deal with the 4-bot spawn that rushes that position it's an excellent spot until you have to enter the city.

The green circle is also pretty safe, but requires that you be reasonably good yourself and at least have an idea of what the spawn timings are like.  Some of the time you need to be on the north side of that circle in order to have visibility, but at other times you need to be tucked into the safety of the corner on the south side of that circle when bots are rushing toward you from the north.  So you have to move around and react to where the bots are, but it's a really good spot for an MBT once you learn it.  Once the last spawn of 4 bots from the north has been dealth with you can move up onto the road and start working your way south into the city, but be aware that you'll have bots exiting the city toward you for a while so you'll want to be cautious until that has stopped happening.

Really the best option, team-wise, is to have one MBT in the red circle and one in the green circle, and everyone else sniping from the red and green squares along the western hills.

8 hours ago, TekNicTerror said:

This is not a bet SS, this IS a scam.

It's not a bet or a scam.  It's what I said it is - the only way that you're allowed to transfer BC from one BP to the next.  You shouldn't be buying them until you've literally purchased everything else that you might possibly want from this BP, at which point the BC you're earning are worthless anyway because they expire at the end of the BP.  These coupons allow you to at least transfer some of your BC into the next BP, but at a steep cost because AW doesn't want you "finishing" the next BP before it has even started.  They already have tons of problems with producing new progression vehicles because so many players already have sufficient Reputation to simply buy their way through them as soon as they're released.

2 hours ago, Quantum_Ranger said:

So what counts as effective combat time? 

I don't think that they've ever explained it in any great detail.  It's basically anything that obviously helps your team from an algorithmic point of view, so I would assume that yes capture points count as effective combat time.

"Holding a gap" might be very important for your team, but unless you're getting spotting damage or doing actual damage it doesn't count.  From an algorithmic point of view, you're just sitting there.  I suspect that simply keeping bots spotted also doesn't count - your teammates must be using your spotting (i.e. giving you spotting damage) for it to count.  Otherwise you're just sitting there doing nothing.

My understanding is that AW is primarily CPU dependent provided you have a reasonable GPU.

For what it's worth, I'm running AW on a GTX 770 graphics card.  That's over 7 years and 5 generations old if you've lost count.  Until it started having heat problems (presumably due to the age of the card and the fact that I never turn off my computer), it was able to run AW on High settings at 60 fps.  I'm now running everything on Medium to give the card a break.  So AW doesn't really need much in the way of a GPU.  The CPU in this computer is an Intel Core-i5 4690K which is almost 7 years old itself.

I did just order a new system, though, which will get me caught back up with nearly-top-tier systems.  Core-i7 10700K CPU with an RTX 3080 graphics card and 32 GB RAM.

If you've actually cleared the north fields before you enter the city, which includes waiting for the handful (3-5) of vehicles to exit the city and join the fight in the north fields as well as waiting for the vehicles that spawn in the river west of the town to either a) be destroyed early because you spotted them when they spawned, b) climb up into the north fields to fight, or c) climb up and enter the city then move through it and exit the city to join the fight in the north fields, then it really doesn't matter which route you use to enter the city because there will only be a handful enemies left and none of them have LOS to any of the entrances.  One is usually hiding near-ish the yellow circle on my map, one or two are usually hiding or stuck slightly south but mostly due west of the fountain in the center of the square, and then sometimes there's a third group of one or two in the buildings SSE of the center of the square.

It is very important to not try to enter the city from the north until the last group of enemies (usually 4 of them) spawn along the north edge of the map.  If you move in too soon, those 4 enemies will spawn and attack you from the north right about the same time that the handful of enemies exits the city on the dirt road and you'll be trapped in a cross fire.

Harbinger is actually a pretty great map once you learn how to play it.  MBTs and snipers can both excel.

From the start, snipers simply turn right and take perches on the hills.  Each hill has its own advantages and disadvantages... I prefer the first hill (red square) for the start of the match, then move to the second one (green square) when my teammates are ready to enter the city.  You can stay on the second hill for the remainder of the game as you have excellent lines of sight to just about all of the action from there.

MBTs with strong turrets have two excellent options at the start.  The first is just across the bridge in the near-right junction of the two roads there.  (Red circle.)  You should be hull down if you're positioned correctly and should be able to see virtually the entire field that the bots spawn in and cross at the start of the game.  This is a great spot if someone else is spotting, but typically isn't close enough to use to spot from.

For that you need the second spot. (Green circle.)  To get there you must cross the N/S road from the bridge and head SE until you're south and slightly west of the farm, hidden behind the farm's dirt road.  You have to move around a bit in this spot because the bots come at you from multiple directions, but once you learn the patterns it's pretty easy to stay hull down and mostly invulnerable for each wave of bots.

Once the field fighting is over, fight your way into the city via the nearest entrance and clear the square.  Once cleared and the next phase begins, there are gaps between the houses in the area of the yellow circle where you can sit and fire into the square as bots appear.  Your sides will be protected, but your front will not be hull down so you sometimes have to play carefully to avoid taking significant damage.  Also beware that bots will enter the square from your south and your north, so you must remain between the houses to be safe.  You can move forward occasionally to find targets in the square, but to do so you'll have to expose your flanks so be prepared to retreat back to the line of houses when necessary.

At the end of the mission there is often 1 bot left somewhere.  The two pink triangles indicate the two most common places to find that last bot.

As the others have said, VR in general was changed pretty dramatically in 0.33.  MBT VR was nerfed into the ground, so there's almost no reason to every put VR enhancements on a tank.  A tank is going to get out-spotted by just about anything (non-tank) even if it has VR retrofits installed.

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, VR retrofits are still very useful on vehicles that should be spotting anyway.  If a vehicle's base VR is noticeably over 400, it can benefit from these retrofits.  I have my AS21 up to something like 540/640, and use Juan Carlos as its commander so it gets another 15 plus his special ability's ~30.  I can almost out-spot Lieutenants in that thing if I'm careful.

It's the vehicles in the middle where you really have to think about it before you decide.  If your base VR is only in the 400-range, both retrofits is only going to get you to ~500 and that's only while stopped.  You'll be able to spot from certain points on some maps, but you'll get out-spotted on other maps because you won't be able to sit in exactly the right spot to use your slight VR advantage.  If you have MBTs in that range - the K1A1 has excellent VR as I recall - then outfitting those probably makes sense.  They'll be on the front line anyway, and have the armor and health to survive being out-spotted occasionally.  Or if you have a vehicle with meh VR but decent camo, that can also be worth outfitting because it helps tilt the VR equation in your favor.

Remember that in PvE visual ranges are effectively halved.  Which means that your margin for error when spotting is also halved.  When you're talking about differences of 50 meters or less, think about how quickly even a tank can cover 50 meters.  Sure, you'll see it first, but if it happens to be driving straight toward you it's going to see you almost immediately also.

On 1/10/2021 at 4:23 AM, Aericar said:

Anyone know about the battle coupons in the shop?

Is it just a Battle coin well, cause 4000 BC to get 1 Battle Coupon (x500), seems like **** to me

As Haswell said, they're for the next Battle Path.  So they're really not meant to be purchased by anyone until after you've spent everything you want to spend on this Battle Path.

Since any coins you have left over at the end of this Battle Path don't carry over to the next one, that 8-to-1 exchange rate is the only way you can transfer coins from this Battle Path to the next.

Of course, if you're the kind of person who has a significant number of coins leftover at the end of a Battle Path, you're not likely to need to transfer any anyway...

1 hour ago, Quantum_Ranger said:

Just discovered that there are upgrades to the Kurganets in the workshop that start at 80 matches...

That's 80 completed daily BP repeatable contracts/BP missions/BP challenges, not 80 matches, and you don't have to complete the requirements in the Kurganets to unlock them.  It'll just happen over time as you play.

If the numbers seem like a lot, realize that there are 10 x challenges in the BP, and that each challenge has 10 levels.  So that's 100 completed right there if you get them all done.  Plus whatever mission chains and daily repeatables you get through while doing the challenges.  It should be fairly easy to get 150 completed by the end of the BP, and IIRC that's the largest number required on any of the vehicles in the Workshop.