Developer Q&A: February 5, 2021

[Haswell 294]

Must have been RU-only.

https://aw.my.games/en/news/general/developer-qa-february-5-2021

Quote

Will Tier 1 to Tier 7 vehicles get rebalanced the way Tiers 8 to 10 were?

Yes. But, unfortunately, we don't have a deadline for that.

Will some parts of older vehicles become animated where appropriate? For example, various case ejection ports, side skirts and so on.

Generally speaking, yes. These animations are now always present on new vehicles. On the older ones, we implement them as a part of ongoing model overhaul program.

Will you buff AFVs across the board?

No. They are already fulfilling their battlefield role.

Will you add more night-fighting maps or options (such as a thermal imager mode)?

No, at least not for the foreseeable future.

Will you improve the decal system by allowing decals to be resized or repositioned from their fixed places?

We are currently investigating this topic. For now, we have no definitive answer.

Will you buff machinegun elevation and depression angles?

Most machineguns in the game are coaxial. Their elevation and depression should therefore match that of the main gun, which is sufficient. In some rare cases where no such coaxial machineguns are present (mostly on various SPGs), we are setting these angles independently.

Will the spotting system be fixed?

As far as we know, it is currently working correctly. If you have evidence to the contrary, please submit it via the usual channels (dedicated Discord bug and feedback channel, for example).

Will the reverse steering be finally fixed?

We are aware that the system could use some more improvements but for the most part, it's working correctly. Any improvements to it would require major overhauls of certain mechanics at the expense of other planned features. That would not benefit the majority of players.

Will the old PMC base system ever return to the game?

No.

Are you planning some major new vehicle visual customization options (such as adding camo nets to all vehicles)?

Not for the foreseeable future.

What about the Battalions? Are there any plans specifically for them?

So far, we have no specific plans to do that. It's quite possible that some improvements to various Battalion mechanics will appear in the future, but, generally speaking, the whole Battalion system is currently working as intended and requires no urgent fixes. One thing we are looking into, however, is the ability to add your own Battalion logos. Obviously, there are some serious pitfalls to the system – we have no intention of allowing players to run around with swastikas or some lewd images on their tanks. So, for now, we can offer no promises other than that we're looking into it. Likewise, we currently have no plans for more Battalion-exclusive vehicles or Heroic maps, as these quite expensive to produce while benefiting only a small percentage of players. Right now, we want to focus on content for everyone.

Some of us don't like the Grassy Fields (Pleternica) map in high-Tier PvP. The open nature of this map leads to an excessive amount of draws, as nobody can cross the open fields without being shot to pieces. Will you remove this map from PvP?

We won't remove it, but we reduced its chance to appear on top Tiers. The map itself is valuable in the sense that it provides more gameplay diversity and less repetitiveness on higher Tiers.

Will you add a Contract Mission status window directly to battles?

Sadly, we cannot. The contract objective completion calculations only take place when the battle is finished.

Can you add a voice warning that you are running out of ammunition of a certain type?

We'll look into it.

In real life, the Armata platform (T-14, T-15) does have ERA elements on its sides. In the game, it does not. Will you add them?

We'll look into that as well.

Please explain the HEAT-MP shell purpose. To us, it's very toxic, because it allows you to deal damage even upon non-penetration. The ATGMs do this too, but they do have a lot of disadvantages the HEAT-MP shells do not, such as being exposed to enemy fire, or being fired by vehicles with light armor.

The HEAT-MP shells are intended to be sort of warning shots. They don't deal massive damage upon non-penetration, but they do force camping MBT players to move, because otherwise their hitpoints would get chipped away with every shot. And it's working. We are currently considering reducing the HEAT-MP non-penetration damage to make this shell type not as obviously superior to the standard HEAT rounds as it is, but we won't remove it altogether.

Are you planning to return alternative weapon systems to VBL or Wiesel? Will MBT-70 get its 20mm autocannon?

Not at the moment, for any of these questions. But we'll consider it.

Will you add more maps to the Global Operations mode?

Not for the foreseeable future. Map-wise, we are currently focusing on new Special Operations, new standard PvE missions and new PvP maps, roughly in this order (since PvP got a new map fairly recently).

We feel that soft-kill APS does not work against AI opponents. Is that intended?

No, that's not intended. If it's so, please submit a bug report.

The Type 99A2 Tier 10 progression MBT is too weak – it has a really thin upper front plate, thin sides, offers poor gun depression and no real niche for its playstyle. Can you improve its performance?

We know that it's not great and we are planning to overhaul it in the future. For now, we can't promise any deadlines, it's not like the vehicle is critically broken so that it requires an immediate intervention. Additionally, some of the abovementioned arguments aren't entirely valid. The upper frontal plate is protected by modern ERA, which was overhauled recently. The sides (although only the frontal portion of them) are amongst the thickest on Tier 10 MBTs and we will actually make that thicker area larger. As for the gun depression, that aspect is dictated by the vehicle's geometry – we can't improve it without the gun clipping into the hull.

What about the CATTB? It's poorly armored and has a long reload time to boot.

The sides will receive a buff. The frontal armor of this vehicle is average – as intended, so we won't be improving that. The reload time will not be improved either.

The BMPT series does not have sufficient autocannon ammunition. Any plans to improve it?

Yes. We'll improve the entire BMPT series ammo count to match that of the T-15. In other words, these vehicles will have 1200 autocannon rounds instead of 900.

Can you give us a list of vehicles that can go in reverse as fast as going forward?

AMX-10 RCR, Begleitpanzer 57, CATTB, FV101 Scorpion 90, FV101 Scorpion Kastet, FV101 Scorpion, FV107 Scimitar, FV438 Swingfire, Object 490, Rooikat 76, RST-V Shadow, Sabre, Taifun and Type 10.

Can you tell us what the intended use for Russian MBT gun-launched ATGMs is?

They can help in situations where you need to fire at targets below your maximum depression angles. They also are the only rounds available to Russian MBTs, which are also capable of dealing damage upon non-penetration (unless of course you are also carrying some HE shells).

Some top-down ATGMs deal full damage even to vehicles with unmanned turrets. Some don't. What's up with that?

It all really depends on the length of the HEAT metal jet and the angle of impact. Generally speaking, the system works as intended – if the jet does not penetrate the main hull of the vehicle and only goes through the unmanned turret, the damage will be reduced. If the jet is long enough to go all the way through the unmanned turret and penetrate the hull, the vehicle will take full damage.

People actually think non-pen damage on HEAT-MP is too good... the absolute state of the playerbase.

 

[dfnce 28]

53 minutes ago, Haswell said:

Will you buff machinegun elevation and depression angles?

Most machineguns in the game are coaxial. Their elevation and depression should therefore match that of the main gun, which is sufficient. In some rare cases where no such coaxial machineguns are present (mostly on various SPGs), we are setting these angles independently.

Decent amount of tier 10 MBT have machine guns mounted on top of turret with independent sight and rotation - altay, cattb, atdu, k2, Merkava, 490, 640, t-14 125/152, type 10, xm1a3.

Many of them have coaxial guns too, the game doesn't allow a player to switch between these guns, or select automatically the one which is most optimal from elevation/gun depression point of view to hit the target.

I do realize some of these turret mounted guns are just pile of pixels, but it would be to great to have them working. Otherwise their presense causes confusion.

53 minutes ago, Haswell said:

What about the CATTB? It's poorly armored and has a long reload time to boot.

The sides will receive a buff. The frontal armor of this vehicle is average – as intended, so we won't be improving that. The reload time will not be improved either.

About reload - i would like to see double shot gun "as is", but in pve this terrible dpm sometimes is quite annoying. I wish we had second option to choose - at least that mode of guns  XM1A3 offers.

Edited February 5, 2021 by dfnce (see edit history)

[LeoAegisMaximus 6]

gosh wonder how the Challenger series is doing? I mean the tooltip ingame mentions HESH and PISH shells doing more damage than their APFSDS shells before their respective nerfs.

 I hate the Stryker ADTAS for being able to do a 1000 damage alpha strike on frontal armor.  

Edited February 5, 2021 by LeoAegisMaximus (see edit history)

[MK_Regular 24]

Quote

Will you improve the decal system by allowing decals to be resized or repositioned from their fixed places?

We are currently investigating this topic. For now, we have no definitive answer.

Are you planning some major new vehicle visual customization options (such as adding camo nets to all vehicles)?

Not for the foreseeable future.

More customization options please, I want to pimp out my tank!

Quote

Can you add a voice warning that you are running out of ammunition of a certain type?

We'll look into it.

This would be a nice little QoL change provided that it isn't overdone. There are times when I run out of one type of ammo and I only realize it when my next shot has a different impact sound. A simple one-time warning of "X rounds of HEAT remaining" or similar would be great, but "X rounds of HEAT remaining .... X-1 rounds of HEAT remaining ... X-2 rounds of HEAT remaining .... X-3 rounds of HEAT remaining" would get very annoying very quickly.

Bonus points if the warning is made at a different time for vehicles that have a magazine or ready rack system, with the warning being issued when the player has a full exactly one full reload of the shot type left (e.g. A player in a Merkava would get the warning with 4 rounds remaining, but a player in a PL-01 would get it at 6 rounds remaining).

Quote

The Type 99A2 Tier 10 progression MBT is too weak – it has a really thin upper front plate, thin sides, offers poor gun depression and no real niche for its playstyle. Can you improve its performance?

We know that it's not great and we are planning to overhaul it in the future. For now, we can't promise any deadlines, it's not like the vehicle is critically broken so that it requires an immediate intervention. Additionally, some of the abovementioned arguments aren't entirely valid. The upper frontal plate is protected by modern ERA, which was overhauled recently. The sides (although only the frontal portion of them) are amongst the thickest on Tier 10 MBTs and we will actually make that thicker area larger. As for the gun depression, that aspect is dictated by the vehicle's geometry – we can't improve it without the gun clipping into the hull.

Are you planning to return alternative weapon systems to VBL or Wiesel? Will MBT-70 get its 20mm autocannon?

Not at the moment, for any of these questions. But we'll consider it.

What about the CATTB? It's poorly armored and has a long reload time to boot.

The sides will receive a buff. The frontal armor of this vehicle is average – as intended, so we won't be improving that. The reload time will not be improved either.

At least they're planning on fixing the worst tier 10 MBT (Type 99A2), so that's good

MBT-70 and/or KPz-70 getting their 20mm cannon would be interesting, might be something to look for with the tier 1-6 rebalance mentioned in the Q&A.

CATTB frontal armour is fine imo, but a buff to the side armour is welcome. Personally, I'd consider buffing the damage and penetration of the CATTB's shells to match the same shells of the XM1A3 before buffing the CATTB's reload.

Quote

In real life, the Armata platform (T-14, T-15) does have ERA elements on its sides. In the game, it does not. Will you add them?

We'll look into that as well.

Please explain the HEAT-MP shell purpose. To us, it's very toxic, because it allows you to deal damage even upon non-penetration. The ATGMs do this too, but they do have a lot of disadvantages the HEAT-MP shells do not, such as being exposed to enemy fire, or being fired by vehicles with light armor.

The HEAT-MP shells are intended to be sort of warning shots. They don't deal massive damage upon non-penetration, but they do force camping MBT players to move, because otherwise their hitpoints would get chipped away with every shot. And it's working. We are currently considering reducing the HEAT-MP non-penetration damage to make this shell type not as obviously superior to the standard HEAT rounds as it is, but we won't remove it altogether.

The BMPT series does not have sufficient autocannon ammunition. Any plans to improve it?

Yes. We'll improve the entire BMPT series ammo count to match that of the T-15. In other words, these vehicles will have 1200 autocannon rounds instead of 900.

And just when I thought the people doing the Q&A had good ideas on how to balance some of the vehicles.

 

 

Oh, and then there's this gem:

Quote

We feel that soft-kill APS does not work against AI opponents. Is that intended?

No, that's not intended. If it's so, please submit a bug report.

Apparently the AI mitigating players' soft-kill APS is not intended, and the devs are only now being made aware of this despite this being the observed behaviour since the hard/soft kill APS split.

Edited February 5, 2021 by MK_Regular (see edit history)

[Katsumoto 11]

11 hours ago, Haswell said:

Will Tier 1 to Tier 7 vehicles get rebalanced the way Tiers 8 to 10 were?

Yes. But, unfortunately, we don't have a deadline for that.

Then why did the tier 8 through 10 get shoved down our throats rushed out?

 

11 hours ago, Haswell said:

Please explain the HEAT-MP shell purpose. To us, it's very toxic, because it allows you to deal damage even upon non-penetration. The ATGMs do this too, but they do have a lot of disadvantages the HEAT-MP shells do not, such as being exposed to enemy fire, or being fired by vehicles with light armor.

The HEAT-MP shells are intended to be sort of warning shots. They don't deal massive damage upon non-penetration, but they do force camping MBT players to move, because otherwise their hitpoints would get chipped away with every shot. And it's working. We are currently considering reducing the HEAT-MP non-penetration damage to make this shell type not as obviously superior to the standard HEAT rounds as it is, but we won't remove it altogether.

I have no idea why this is a topic of discussion.  I see HEAT-MP as a balancing tool that allows for use across multiple spectrums without the outright damage potential.

 

I'm happy to see them looking at the 99A2.  It is one that has potential to be a good "average" MBT to an average player, but not one that excels in the hands of a great player.

 

The fact that battalion operations isn't getting an overhaul makes me wonder.  It has had at least 1 major and 1 minor adjustment to it since AW came on line.

[JintoLin 9]

So I am not the only one that thinks that the AI's magic missiles and chip damage for non-pen hits are bs.

[CaptKingNF 0]

On 2/5/2021 at 3:07 AM, Haswell said:

Will Tier 1 to Tier 7 vehicles get rebalanced the way Tiers 8 to 10 were?

Yes. But, unfortunately, we don't have a deadline for that.

This has made tiers 4-6 a complete joke,  nothing as fun as getting hit with Chipping damage now and having such a slow reload and slow plodding versus TierVII....Yeap this has really destroyed the lower tiers,  but hey who really cares anyway.....High tier Premium Content is all that people care about......

[knutliott 41]

On 2/13/2021 at 10:47 AM, CaptKingNF said:

This has made tiers 4-6 a complete joke,  nothing as fun as getting hit with Chipping damage now and having such a slow reload and slow plodding versus TierVII....Yeap this has really destroyed the lower tiers,  but hey who really cares anyway.....High tier Premium Content is all that people care about......

That's why you should play PvE.  In PvE there's a hard break between Tier 6 and Tier 7, so you never have to worry about your Tier 6 MBT facing a rebalanced Tier 7.

[itzjustrick 40]

14 hours ago, knutliott said:

That's why you should play PvE.  In PvE there's a hard break between Tier 6 and Tier 7, so you never have to worry about your Tier 6 MBT facing a rebalanced Tier 7.

People should play whatever they like tbf, some people like PvE and for other people PvP is more their cup of tea. It's nice to have a choice xD. That said, it's a total joke that there has been such a big difference between tier 6 and below and tier 7 and above. You basically need to relearn the entire game when you reach t7... So far about consistency... 

That said I am still of the opinion that we didn't need this "rebalance" and that the game would be better off if this didn't happen at all... 

[knutliott 41]

3 hours ago, itzjustrick said:

People should play whatever they like tbf

Of course.  That was meant to be ironic, because AW spends so much time trying to force everyone to play PvP that it's amusing when they do something that actually encourages people to play PvE instead.

[itzjustrick 40]

Oh lol, rip... Sarcasm is sometimes hard to get without hearing the other person say it...