Qbicle

Given that this will be a variation of the upcoming remodelled T-72A, then it'd quite likely be quite strong for low tier standards just as T-72B is in post-0.33 armour layout.

Also, it sounds like that this T-72M1 will be readily available in the future, even after the Desert Storm raid, because the wordings imply the devs plan to add various skins for it, perhaps for other events or even as a "welcome gift/offer" for new players further down the road.

On the other hand, I'd imagine some people complaining that we'd have too many T-72s in the game.

Source:

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/maintenance-january-28

Quote

On the 28th of January 2021, starting from 8:00 CET (27th of January, 11 PM PST), the server will not be available for 5 hours due to the application of Update 0.34.7657

 

 

 

List of Update 0.34.7657 Changes

 

PvE Changes

In this update, we’re introducing a number of changes to the PvE modes that are available in the game:

• Added 35 wheeled vehicles to the AI pool (learn more)
• Added 34 tracked vehicles to the AI pool (learn more)
• Significantly changed the pool of potential Lieutenant and standard AI vehicles (learn more)
• Lieutenant AI vehicles can now deploy smoke

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.

General Changes

• The game now remembers whether you opened or closed various Visual Customization UI categories and keeps them that way
• PvP loading screen minimaps now feature the location of spawning positions
• Fixed several smaller visual model issues
• Added several new assets for future events

Time to brace for impact?

Looking at the full list, there are a few vehicles that are potentially concerning, but we will have to wait and see:

• VBL Ingwe's missiles can be annoying to face while playing T5/6 MBTs, depending on how much they can pen. Many of the T5 tanks already have really weak turret armour.
• There are also other missile only vehicles, such as VCAC Mephisto and IT-1.
• Will K21, AS21, and Leclerc T40 use top attack missiles, or they stick to autocannons only?
• Kinda surprised that SBS Pindad is there too. Its performance is also something to watch out for.
• And hey Bradley AAWS-H also there.

4 hours ago, tahax said:

site is not working. check it plz.

Just realised that URL was the wrong one for both post. They should now be correct.

It's been a while, but CSB has now been updated to include new stats and skill trees seen in 0.34.

Link: http://csb-hype.5v.pl/

A few things to note:

• Only English, German, and both Chinese languages are up to date and fully translated. The other languages are only translated up to 0.30 or before.
• Recommended builds are disabled for now because the old ones are really outdated. You can suggest some here and I will forward them to HYPE for future updates.
• Andrey Zaytsev's levels 1-2 values for Fixed Position IV skill are at 10%. They might get reverted back to the old values in the future . For reference, the game now rounds that skill's values up or down to the nearest integer, so it can look rather confusing.
• Freja Højbjerg's Lone Hero skill is currently incorrect; it should activate when there is no friendly vehicles nearby, not enemies, but for some reason this is what's written in the game as well (it was correct before). I've asked HYPE to change this for a future update.
• Similar to the point above, but even though the game has updated some of the old skills' descriptions, they may actually be incorrect. One such example is Rachel Kramer's Fury Fire, which states reload speed would increase when HP is at 50% or below, while it should be 50% or more. That's the problem with copying descriptions directly from the game, so we may have to carry out tests in the game to verify them if necessary.

There may be other errors in the latest build so please do let me know if you do spot any.

20 minutes ago, knutliott said:

Sabrina actually has 4 Tier 1 ammo swap rate skills.  (A3, B3, D1, D2)  If all 4 get replaced by even a small reload buff (the smallest are currently Freja's 0.6% "Defending I" skills that only apply in your base), that might make me want to finish leveling her up.  I left her at level 11 because that's where I needed her to get my Commander tree built, but I could literally just add those 4 skills to my current build if I wanted to.  No reset needed.

Andrey has 5 Tier 1 ammos swap rate skills.  (B4, C1, C4, C7, E4)  These are harder to fully use if you're doing the usual "crew killer" build for him, but they're all well within reach if they're big enough boosts.  Note that he already has 2 x Continuous Fire III (1.9% reload for TDs), so if all of of the new skills plus both of those can be put into a single build then we may have a new meta Commander for TDs.

Yea the English patch notes are a bit off. According to the Russian counterpart, Sabrina's A3 and B3 will be replaced by what appears to be a Muffler I (reduced camo loss upon firing by 2.44%), whereas D1 and D2 will be replaced with a skill that increases reload speed by 0.6%.

Andrey's C1, C4, and C7 will be replaced by the TD exclusive reload buff (also at 0.6% for each skill), while B4 and E4 will be the same as Sabrina's camo loss reduction skill when firing.

Lastly, Fyodor Sokolov is also getting the same changes as Maximilian Koenig.

Unless the actual update brings changes that are different to what the Russian patch note suggests, then all of the new reload buff skills are at 0.6%, and all camo loss reduction skills are at 2.44%.

9 hours ago, TekNicTerror said:

you do realize you could be getting gold if you kept the prem tanks?

as the same for normal tanks... the more tanks you have, the more xp you get when playing.

  Yes but I will explain below.

7 hours ago, dfnce said:

I need some explanation - one is selling premium tank for credits to avoid getting xxx gold compensation?

Or, is there some glitch which allows them to sell prem tank for gold, then a next contract box has favorable drop rules which toss this sold tank again to a player ?

The Eastern Crate (much like the American Dream and Moscow Calling seasonal crates) can drop premium vehicles, as well as tier 9-10 rentals, skins, gold, and even camouflage.

However, a number of players started reporting a lack of vehicle drops from seasonal crates this year, and after some hypothesis and cross checking, they find out the chance of a premium vehicle drop decreases significantly if you own all available tier 6 premium vehicles.

So the workaround solution is to sell a tier 6 premium vehicle that you already own to increase the drop chance again. Ultimately, I prefer doing it this way because you can get more premium vehicles, and in turn you can reclaim more gold via rental drop (e.g. from Spec Ops crates) compensations.

Got my first Eastern Crate after 2T Stalker's introduction. Sold my XM1 for the second time, and I got a Leopard 2 Revolution together with a Bradley Sentinel skin.

My previous Eastern Crate got me an XM1 (after selling it away for the first time) together with a Sprut-SD Titan skin.

NM142 is one of the powercreep victims. Apart from the use of infantry, camo, and MM, C13 TUA can even go hull down and scout in the front line with its tall unmanned turret up there if other players in the team struggle to recon.

I once asked SS about this issue in May's Q&A, and he said the devs would need to "address that with a larger batch of balance changes". As of now, 0.33 and 0.34 hasn't fixed this issue yet, and it's quite doubtful if it will happen in the near future.

New article is now up and online:

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/development-msta-s

Its history introduction is noticeably short.

Quote

In Armored Warfare, the Msta-S will be a Tier 9 Premium SPG. Indeed – it will be the first vehicle of this class to be introduced in years. We’ve decided to add a new vehicle of this class partially because some of you have been asking for one, but also because we are planning to finally return SPGs to the Global Operations mode, making them useful in PvP as well as in PvE.

This change will happen at some point in the near future (not necessarily with the launch of Update 0.34 though) and will be permanent.

As for the Msta-S, it will be about what you’d expect. As is customary with SPGs, it will have poor mobility and practically no armor whatsoever with only a 7.62mm machinegun being available for close combat.

 

Click the image to open a larger version

 

What it will have, however, is a long 152mm gun (no magazine, 8 seconds reload time) capable of firing two types of HE shells (apart from the usual White Phosphorus and Smoke ones, of course):

• Standard shell (300 m/s) with high trajectory that will make it easier to fire at targets behind cover
• Fast shell (600 m/s) with low trajectory that will make it easier to fire at moving targets (but not over obstacles), available via additional Battle Path progression

Otherwise, they both will have the same properties similar to other high-caliber and high-Tier HE shells:

• 50mm penetration
• 1200 points of damage per shot

The faster shell will also come with a special ability of nearly instant switch, so you’ll always have the option to immediately choose, which shell suits your purposes the best.

Single-shot gun with 8 sec reload and two types of HE to choose. The latter kinda reminds me of the HE and HERA that Palmaria used to have before Balance 2.0.

I was kinda hoping to see the early prototype of Koalitsiya-SV instead, because it is a prototype and the double-barrel guns makes it look different enough to stand out as a premium vehicle.

P.S. SS said the Msta-S can be obtained after reaching rank 25.

The old Object 195 page has now been updated.

Also this kek:

Anyway, the main text:

Quote

In Armored Warfare, the Object 195 will be a Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank.

But before we get into any details, the usual disclaimer:

The numbers below are very preliminary as the vehicle has not been properly tested. They are sure to change and should only be discussed as an indicator of how we’d like to set the vehicle up. With that being said:

All things considered, in its basic form, the Object 195 will be quite similar to the 152mm version of the Armata MBT, so if you are familiar with either the standard Armata or its Premium counterpart, you already know what to expect.

Protection-wise, it’ll be almost the same, with one exception – Object 195 will not feature the Supercharged APS ability, or, for that matter, the Afganit APS itself. Instead, it will be equipped with an older combination of Shtora-2 soft kill APS and a hard kill APS called Shtandard.

Firepower-wise, there’s of course the trusted 152mm 2A83 gun installed in an unmanned turret. However, unlike on the Armata, there’s also a 30mm autocannon available with its own complement of shells. What that means is that you can switch between 152mm shots to your autocannon in order to do some extra damage, or that you don’t have to waste your precious main gun shells on some very light targets. The guns can elevate to +14 degrees and depress to -7 degrees. The rate of fire, accuracy and other similar values will be the same as on the 152mm Armata. The 152mm gun fires APFSDS and HE shells, the 30mm autocannon fires APDS shells only.

The same more or less goes for the tank’s mobility. Its 57 tons are propelled forward by a 1500hp diesel engine, allowing it to go as fast as 70 km/h.

Last but not least, the vehicle will be available with three active abilities to choose from:

• Rapid Fire
• Override
• Top Speed

We hope that you will enjoy this long-awaited Main Battle Tank and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

I voted for PVE, because we haven't had new PVE maps for quite some time and they tend to have higher replayability. IIRC the last ones were reworked versions of existing maps in 2018, such as Harbinger, Starry Night, Stormy Winter, and Ghost Hunter.

https://imgur.com/92p9dEQ

Old Harbinger map. More screenshots here (originally shared by Silentstalker on official Discord server)

That said, the recent reworked PVE maps now tend to look too similar to their PVP counterparts. I wish to see more modifications and visual varieties as with the early versions of the said maps, like how Stormy Winter was a snowy town and not just the same old refinery, while Harbinger had an overhead bridge that you need to pass under before you reach the town centre (not that it was a popular map back then due to enemy spawn locations, but it sure looked very different when compared to its latest iteration).

The idea of spec ops isn't bad, because it, while having some critical flaws, does offer some new story elements and atmosphere as well as different gameplay / mission flow from time to time, but I won't tend to replay campaign missions that often, and some players may get bored of playing the same missions repeatedly while waiting for the next chapter to come. Queue time can also get longer as a result.

Adding gameplay elements that require or promote teamwork sounds good on paper, but given the experience with random players nowadays, this is usually not a good idea to have for a game like AW. Ultimately the game is more or less about looking for enemies and wiping them off the map, and this is what a lot of players tend to care more than other gameplay elements (damage assist, capturing etc). Labyrinth kinda falls under this issue too because while players have to capture all 14 points to win, it's people who deal damage get the most rewards. Adding elements that require team coordination risks failure due to players not focusing on objective or even griefing. Moscow Calling's delivery objectives are particularly notorious for this. Sure, one can always argue that players should platoon up for the best outcome, but this tends to get a lot of resistance for all sorts of reasons.

Dodging map-based enemy fire in Spec Ops is a pain, and I don't enjoy it. It's worse when I thought I am way clear of the danger zone or targeting laser, only to be hit by enemy fire anyway. Moreover, some stages have a high number of fast moving helicopters and gunships that a team should take down in order to progress the mission, and this can be very problematic when a team consists of random players doesn't have the appropriate vehicles to counter such threats (e.g. helicopters in Moscow Calling chapter 2, gunships in American Dream), and possibly causing players to feel they are forced to bring said vehicles in order to complete the missions ("I can't trust other players bringing an AA or using one for intended purpose so I must bring one myself"). I sometimes hypothesise a gameplay mode featuring problem solving scenarios with randomised factors that can replace Heroics mode for battalion or specific teamplay.

What Spec Ops has done right sometimes are the secondary objectives - by completing side objectives that has an impact on mission flow or helping the team overall (activate UAV, calling for friendly support fire/airstrike) gives a better incentive than just destroying or capping random places on the maps (even backtracking) for some bonus credits while others hoard all the damage and assists. I do hope this can applied on existing PVE maps as well.

18 hours ago, dfnce said:

Another bad thing happenened in last year with PvE was the way of self-preservation (read - careful and vigilant gameplay) was replaced with dumb down max aggressive push forward

While the extra lives help increase the chance of a mission success, as Haswell has replied this now promotes a different kind of gameplay. Rushing into certain places to trigger mass spawns, take some damage, back off and heal while continuing to spot and deal damage at the same time. This leads to some players arguing that HP is a resource that you should spend and trade with aggression for better reward.

Found this sneak peak tweet saying Object 195 will be the tier 10 reward vehicle for the upcoming BP. @Soren said it's legit so I guess I'll believe it.

IIRC Object 195 has been in the game files for quite some time, and there is an article dating way back to February 2017 saying it was originally going to be a progression vehicle. Nevertheless, those who have been tracking past articles and files would have expected this to come as a premium vehicle soon or later.

Question is how the devs will make it stand out from the existing 152mm MBTs like T-14-152 and Object 490. Maybe a autoloader clip or ready rack together with some other gimmicks?

As the upcoming's BP will be Russian themed, it seems fairly likely that one of the rewards will be an SPG. IIRC it may either be 2S19 Msta-S or 2S35 Koalitsiya-SV as SS mentioned in the June 24 Twitch stream.

Dug up an oldie but goodie from last year:

Also this

Source:

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/maintenance-october-22

Quote

Infantry Attack Command

You can now use a dedicated key (“V” by default) to mark targets for your Mechanized Infantry to attack. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

Abrams Updates

The Tier 7 to Tier 10 Abrams MBTs are receiving the following changes:

• Adjusted their mobility and agility to correspond to the one they had with the old model
• Adjusted their ground clearance
• Fixed some track animation issues

AI Vehicle Changes

In this update, we are introducing the following changes to AI opponents that will improve their performance:

• Fixed an issue where the AI opponents would drive towards you in reverse, showing their rear armor
• Update the AI logic in order to fix some unplanned and strange AI behavior
• Fixed an issue where AI opponents wouldn’t choose their targets properly, their ability to aim at vehicle weakspots is now somewhat improved (only to a certain extent and not in a gamebreaking way)
• Fixed an issue where, if an AI opponent was turning on the spot, its wheels would not move correctly

General Changes

• Fixed the issue that allowed for an incorrect full Ready Rack reload when players were switching to their machinegun and back during the reloading process
• M60-2000: Fixed the collision model
• Type 10: Fixed this vehicle’s mobility bugs
• Wilk XC-8 now correctly displays a Battalion logo
• We have set the minimum allowed game resolution to 1366x768
• Fixed an issue where the minimap radius of Mechanized Infantry viewrange wouldn’t correspond to the real one
• Battle UI now shows the correct state of active infantry after a respawn
• Fixed some smaller visual issues of various vehicles (mostly the Abrams MBTs and their skins)
• Fixed some smaller UI issues
• Added a number of assets for future events

Results from my 50 + 5 crates:

Over half of the crates dropped rentals, and I got less than 1 part per crate (excluding special crates). There are talks of how the very first few crates tend to have better drops than the rest, and this does look quite plausible here.

It's also amusing how I got 11 rentals in a row; a friend of mine got 9 rentals in a row in his 10-crate run, and that doesn't look encouraging for prospective spenders (if there are any). He got 99 parts at the end, and among them 60 parts are from special crates, including one that dropped 50 parts. Even then, he said he felt doubtful on buying crates because he doesn't know how many more rentals he would get from crates before getting the single part he wants.

Thanks for the anniversary event. Congrats to those who got the tank within 50 crates. For those who didn't get it, you're not alone. Business is business, I guess? But I will leave that for others to discuss.

You probably won't notice the model changes just by quick glance (or if you don't care about them in the first place).

So far the most significant changes on the Abram models are the turret proportions, most importantly on the turret face angles and height. Other smaller changes are on the gun barrel width, surfaces and props such as Combat Identification Panel and crosswind sensor sizes. Sure, they bring very little to no impact on gameplay, but I guess it's something the devs want to do to satisfy some of the really early complaints on Abrams models' quality.

Still, they already announced armour bugs on some of the skins in advance. I won't be surprised if there are other bugs hidden in the new model update.

A friend of mine got 9 rentals out of 10 crates. I sure don't look forward to opening mine.

https://prnt.sc/uygiil

The Archangel XM1A3 skin has now been revealed on the official discord server

Also from SS:

Quote

Wings unfold, runes glow, parts are animated.

11 hours ago, Katsumoto said:

Will it be tested on PTS?

Highly unlikely, unless the feature got delayed to become a launch feature for new update e.g. 0.34 or 0.35. Otherwise it'd be released directly live for testing or direct implementation.

For reference the infantry deployment feature was first tested on live server mid-0.30 without going through PTS.

Source:

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/maintenance-october-1

Quote

Al Dabbah PvP Map

The Al Dabbah desert PvP (Random Battles) map is now available. Conquer the dunes of Sahara in an epic battle for one of the last remaining power plants and water purifiers on the river Nile. The map comes in two modes – Standard and Encounter. Read more in our dedicated article.

Battle-Hardened Improvements

Battle-hardened vehicles now have preferential Matchmaking. They will no longer encounter vehicles two Tiers higher in any of their battles. This will allow for more comfortable gameplay with this feature unlocked.

General Changes

• All sorts of Inventory items that were previously impossible to get rid of can now be sold for 1.000 Credits each
• Tier 7 to 10 vehicles had their HESH (HEP and PISH) shell characteristics adjusted
• Some vehicles still had HEAT and HEAT-MP shell damage bonuses even after their removal in Update 0.33, this has been fixed (Leclerc Prototype, NM142, Zubr PSP, C1 Ariete, Griffin 120mm, M1134, Т-72B3, QN-506 and PL-01)
• BMPT series vehicles with twin autocannons now fire their guns simultaneously (two rounds per cycle)
• Fixed an issue where destroyed ERA modules would appear as intact on the BMPT series and Bradley FV
• Centauro 120: Fixed the incorrect HE damage
• Leopard 2A5: Improved this vehicle’s visual quality and fixed some model issues
• M60-2000 Neon: Fixed the armor of this vehicle
• River Point: Fixed the grass that disappeared in the last update
• Fixed an UI issue where a longer player nickname wouldn’t fit its tile on the PvE loading screen
• Fixed an issue with team tab color settings in the match result window
• When you run out of ammo and replenish it, the weapon will now be loaded with the last used type of ammo
• Fixed the Ready Rack issue that allowed vehicles to fire faster than intended on the Alabino Proving Grounds map
• Added a number of assets for future events to the game
• Fixed a number of small visual model issues

Looks like high tier HESH and PISH are getting a nerf again (understandably, but hopefully not by too much like how they used to do with PISH balancing in the past).

After initial response and saying they won't add Battle Hardened preferential MM, they're now going to implement anyway. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

BMPTs are getting simultaneous firing back on the twin autocannons, but there's still no mention of different RoF between BMPT 2000's AP and HE rounds (I reported this way back in PTS1).

----

BTW when did tanks start firing ATGMs again? Was this from Sept 24's patch? I'm pretty sure that they were not supposed to use them at 0.33's launch, yet it's going back to 0.32 status in that aspect.

Source:

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/maintenance-september-24

Quote

List of Update 0.33.7341 Changes

 

• Compensated the missing resources for the M1A2, M1A1, Leclerc Prototype and Leclerc module progression reset
• Fixed a large number of incorrect shell characteristics
• Fixed the armor for T-72B, XM1 and Merkava Mk.2B by making their lower plate more vulnerable so that some Tier 4 vehicles could penetrate it as well
• Some vehicles still had HEAT and HEAT-MP shell damage bonuses even after their removal in Update 0.33, this has been fixed
• Fixed an issue where some rounds (such as the ADATS rockets) didn’t have their penetration listed in their description
• Fixed an issue where BMPTs were firing with both cannons at the same time
• Fixed an issue where wheels would clip into the hull when using active suspension on some vehicles
• Further improved the game’s performance by pre-loading some additional resources before the start of a battle
• Overhauled the appearance of ping, recording and FPS indicators for the new Battle UI
• Abrams AGDS: Fixed a number of issues with this vehicle’s armor
• BVP M-80A: This vehicle is no longer marked as Battle-Hardened
• BM Oplot: Fixed a number of issues with this vehicle’s armor
• M1 Abrams: Overhauled this vehicle’s armor to 0.33 standards
• M1A1 Abrams, M60-2000: Fixed the clipped turret decals
• M108 no longer has a Soviet machinegun
• M60-2000: Fixed a number of issues with this vehicle’s armor
• Object 640: Penetration RNG reduced by 5% for the HEAT shells and by 10% for ATGMs
• ST1: This vehicle has been properly rebalanced under Update 0.33 standards and its armor was fixed
• T-72B: Destroyed ERA modules no longer appear undamaged
• XM1 Fox: Its armor is now identical to the standard XM1
• Several vehicles (Armata, Object 640, CATTB and PLZ-05) now have machineguns of the correct caliber
• Fixed the appearance of the M1A2 Warhammer skin
• Fixed an issue where character portraits in Special Operations covered the team list
• Fixed an issue where some AI opponents (Swingfire etc.) would not fire at players
• Fixed an issue where players could incorrectly see the Benchmark window
• Fixed an issue where the BMP series vehicles wouldn’t display one of their decals properly
• Fixed the color of trains on the Moscow map
• Moscow Calling, Chapter 4: The tanks that appear in the initial cutscene no longer stay on the map
• Spirithaven, Chapter 4: AI vehicles no longer fire from behind closed gates
• Fixed an issue where Ophelia’s shield icon on enemy tanks wouldn’t appear correctly
• Fixed an issue where the UI wouldn’t allow players to switch off some elements correctly
• Fixed an issue where the team panel colors wouldn’t update correctly after Settings changes
• Fixed some issues with the Borderless screen mode
• Fixed an issue that could lead to the game crashing
• Added the ZTQ-15 Tier 9 Premium Light Tank

Two post-Q&A answers:

It would be funny if they add woke Magnus in the game.

SS did say 0.33 will come in mid-September on the official discord server, so this more or less confirms that the devs are pushing for the update one way or another, i.e. get the update live first, then fix bugs or other issues along the way. I don't agree with the direction the game is going with some of the mechanic and balance changes, but I guess we will see how this will pan out on live.

4 hours ago, Lenticulas said:

Just to be absolutely clear on this, did he say... Reset as in:

"set back to where it was before, so you don't lose anything"

Or

"set back to zero and your previous progress deleted"

It's the latter. Everyone should be back to 0/500 for the new 2T Stalker contract. Any progress on the current contract will be gone. Unless something breaks or some new unannounced "feature" is in the way.