War Thunder - free to play air combat

3.3 GB patch is out as of several minutes ago, probably 1.29 update!

EDIT: Open up the redesigned main menu system, and was greeted with the following image when I checked my messages. Seems they redesigned the achievements, medals, decals and so on so they have progress bars and a slightly better presentation. Too bad player level is useless, only nation rank matters :lol:

Spoiler :


Also I don't have 200 aircraft...
 
1.29 patch added in US servers too, and a second 100 MB patch today fixed a bit more. I
m not entirely sure if the ranking system was improved or not, but I haven't seen any MiGs and it seems better. Flight models in arcade mode were changed a bit, so flying is a little different, slightly more realistic, but I like it.

Mini-patch:
■ Added display and choice of standard shell rack;

■ Added display of increased bomb spread due to improper bombing angles;

■ Improved display of tracers;

■ Summer has come to the hangar.

■ Fixed error with displaying arcade bomb-sight for dive bombers, attack aircraft, and fighters;

■ Fixed bomb-sight for bombers;

■ Fixed repair on capturable airfields;

■ Fixed a bug in the selection of the fuel before the start;

■ Fixed respawn after repairs at the airport (the plane is no longer teleported far away from the airport);

■ Slightly improved maneuverability in arcade combat;

■ Fixed excessive impact of damage to the wing on aircraft maneuverability;

■ Improvements and fixes in the interface;

■ Small optimization in rendering shadows (less potential "micro freezes") ;

■ Improved instructor handling of damaged aircraft.
Click to expand...
 
There was a Q&A with some of the developers, this is the only transcript I've seen and it isn't complete.

Spoiler :

More info (copied from the arcade forums):

Just a quick overview of the Q&A as I remember it. It was over 3 hours long but here are the questions I remember most relevant to Arcade mode. Forgive me if I misunderstood or got any of this wrong, i'm old, that's my excuse and i'm sticking to it. Hope this helps until something more official arrives.

Russian Planes OP
Russian FMs are handled by the Russian FM team, all other nations FMs are handled by the Dev team who were involved in the Q&A. However, permission has been sought and granted to allow them to look at the russian FMs and "tweak" them.

Economy
The economy is a work in progress, like the rest of the game. The Devs want to study player behaviour and how the current economy is working for at least a week, but changes are already planned and there will be changes in the future. They are aware the current economy was a shock to the system and will work to improve it. The changes were required however due to the future releases of ships, tanks, and World War mode.

Lions vs Exp.
The Devs were made aware of the issue of gaining xp at a rate that out matches the earning of Lions, leading players to reach higher levels but can only afford a plane(s) from several levels below them. They invited players to submit examples of this and promised to look into it.

Arcade Engine
Arcade is arcade, and will never reach the level of realism that FRB or HB do. It can be made more realistic, but not to the level where entry and new players cannot play. "If you are a simmer, you shouldn't be playing Arcade." (Although this may have meant "shouldn't be playing Arcade for realism")

Patch 1.29 Damage Model
The DM from patch 1.29 will be coming back. It was rolled back due to the number of bugs in it. When they are happy with it, it will be reintroduced.
Premium planes receiving nerfs
This was a decision made on the Russian side and the Devs don't know a lot about it. They did however promise to look into it.

Bomber cockpits
Are being worked on. They will be rolled out as they become available.
First Person View for bomber gunners.
Good idea. It will be forwarded to the relevant parties.

New Maps
In the works and being developed but no ETA.
A second arcade mode with more realistic settings
It was rejected a long time ago, and unlikely to be introduced, but never say never.

Bugs
A new bug section was created in the forums today. If you believe something to be a bug, post it there.

Suggestions
The Devs do read the suggestions area. Some of the suggestions there have been taken on board and are already being discussed/developed.

Communication
Is important and is an area that is improving.

Lack of/Slow/incomplete patch notes
Is probably going to continue. The patches are worked on by the Russian programmers right up until the last moment and are then released, which leads to a delay in the communication/translation of them.

Performance Issues.
You can use the Bug section with as much information as you can, and post the game logs (I didn't catch how to get these). Another thing that is recommended is that you disable "Seed after Download" in the Launcher options.

Clan Support
Is being planned and implemented.

Bomber Gunner AI
Unlikely to be improved beyond current levels. It is recommended that you switch to gunner duties, when you can, to be more effective.

Player customisable ammo belts?
Nope.

Convergence.
Should be working in arcade mode. If it is not, it's a bug. They will look into it a.s.a.p.

X2 XP reward not working
It was pointed out that the two times xp bonus wasn't working. The devs hadn't noticed, and neither had any of the players in the session. Information was requested and devs again said they'd look into it.

Tiering of planes
Tiering is currently based on efficiency levels of the planes. There are thousands of possible planes for inclusion, so more planes will allow for better tiering.

There was more as well.
 
Change notes for upcoming 1.29.5 patch:

  • Added voice chat for squads.
  • Changes in assist and scoring systems (in particular cases).
  • Improved performance of rendering.
  • Color indication of aircraft types(?).
  • Added tracers in Japanese belt 7.7 mm turret guns Type 92.
  • The British 7.7mm machine guns got armor-piercing/incendiary bullet.
  • Fixed belts for MG131 (correction in type of ammunition).
  • Japanese aircraft guns 20mm Type 99, Type 99 Mk2 and 30mm Type 5 are more efficient now.
  • Removed tracer of 30mm high-explosive shells for the gun Type 5.
  • Belt selection is added for weapons of Ju-87B2/R2/D3, OS2U.
  • Increased damage of the fire per time unit (4x times).
  • М4, М10, НС-37 heavy guns is overheating after firing long bursts.

Fixed engine design in the following aircrafts:
F4u-1a
F4u-1c
F4u-1d
F6f-3
FW-190a-5
FW-190a-5
FW-190d-12
FW-190d-13
FW-190f-8
P-51d-5
Yak-1B
Yak-3
Yak-7B
Yak-9Т
N1K2-j
N1K2-jko

  • Bf-109 F4 ammo for MG15120 increased from 150 to 200.
  • Bf-109 G2 ammo for MG15120 increased from 150 to 200.
  • Bf-109 G6 ammo for motor gun MK108 increased from 60 to 65, wing guns MK108 ammo decreased from 50 to 35 per barrel.
  • Bf-109 K4 ammo for motor gun MK108 decreased from 150 to 65, wing guns MG15120 ammo decreased from 150 to 135 per barrel.
  • FW-190A-5 ammo for MG17 decreased from 1000 to 900.
  • P-51d ammo of machine gun M2 changed for two internal(?) machine guns from 400 to 350 and for external(?) guns from 270 to 280.
  • P-40e ammo for machine guns M2 is reduced from 425 to 235 per barrel.
  • F4U-1c ammo for guns AN/M2 increased from 220 to 231 per barrel.
  • Spitfire Mk. IX ammo for guns Hispano MkII increased from 60 to 120.
  • A6M3 ammo for guns Type99 MkII increased from 60 to 100.
  • A6M2 and A6M2n ammo for guns Type99 MkI reduced from 100 to 60..
Click to expand...

EDIT: I just bought a 4,000 LB bomb for my Wellington :D
 
I used to play using the Keyboard then switched to mouse. MASSIVE difference. So much easier than before. I thought this game was geared towards joysticks though.
 
I give up on HB. There is no point. You make more credits and exp in arcade battles.
 
HB mode is great if you can get some kills, tonnes of rewards. Depends a lot on the teams though, and matchmaking is difficult because there are few people playing it.

I've had more fun with Arcade mode too, but I still try to get into HB every now and then.
 
I try but its so frustrating to constantly face off against 190s and high end 109s while flying my low tier American and British fighters. I'm not goin to even bother to try it again till the matchmaker is implemented.

I'm also more or less done with it(by that I mean I'm only going to play a few arcade matches then move on to something else) till they fix the economy and some of the other crap thats wrong with the game, such as lack of a Flight model for what seems to be half the planes in the game
 
I haven't seen any FW190s when playing low tiers, only when playing with rank 9 or 10 planes. It does have a matchmaker, and while it isn't the best it does work when there are enough people on. If you only play on NA servers, which have the least amount of people playing on them, you will probably get worse match ups. I just leave server selection on "any available" and it usually works. The first 109 you get is at rank 6 and then two more at rank 7

The international (ie non-Russian) devs are working on the Russian FMs, though it will take a while. Thankfully I don't run into too many yak9ts but the day they are fixed will be one of much rejoicing.

The economy prices get ridiculous at higher ranks but you do make a LOT more money at higher ranks, should be fixed in the next major update though iirc.

Anyway, there are 5 days of XP bonuses and some discounts on premium planes for May 1st to 5th.
 
I picked up the game a few days ago but finally finished downloading through the updater yesterday and played quite a bit this morning.

The game is actually very enjoyable. Attacking ground targets and attacking other planes are both pretty fun, though I haven't actually played with a bomber yet.

I don't much like some of the starter planes for the UK and Japan. Japan's planes, compared to others, feel slower and they chew through ammo faster than other starters. British planes just feel slower, but neither countrys' planes feel so weak that they're not for MP, just that I haven't gotten use to them yet.

I also like how getting new plane slots doesn't cost money like World of Tanks, as far as I know, the cost for a new plane slot for a particular country just goes up after you get a new one, but you can actually use in-game currency to buy the slots/crews. The fact that the game doesn't force you to pick which country you want to have planes for helps.

In WoT, you have like, five tanks altogether without delving into your wallet (and tank slots cost $5 each). This game, for the most part, allows you to get what you want without too much a hassle.

Graphics look more-or-less good running on max with 45 FPS on average.

Proudest moment so far is landing a plane without wings, which was more luck than anything else given I had lost them not too far above the ground and there was good open terrain below me. Still mastering how to land a plane without breaking the prop, which happens one in five times for me.

I tried to get into Historical Battle, but that didn't exactly work out. I figure I'll give it a try when I'm not too worried about money and XP.
 
I don't much like some of the starter planes for the UK and Japan. Japan's planes, compared to others, feel slower and they chew through ammo faster than other starters. British planes just feel slower, but neither countrys' planes feel so weak that they're not for MP, just that I haven't gotten use to them yet.
Click to expand...
Yeah thats similar to how I found them to be too. The Russian starters have 4 MGs instead of 2 as well and especially the rank 1 Chaika pumps out an insane amount of bullets, but reserve/low rank matches are a lot of fun and sometimes its nice to take a break from higher ranks. The UK reserve planes aren't too bad, except the Swordfish, you just have to play smart with them. Though that goes for most planes in general heh.

I also like how getting new plane slots doesn't cost money like World of Tanks, as far as I know, the cost for a new plane slot for a particular country just goes up after you get a new one, but you can actually use in-game currency to buy the slots/crews. The fact that the game doesn't force you to pick which country you want to have planes for helps.
Click to expand...

Yeah the reserve planes don't cost money to repair, and you can buy two slots with silver lions (10,000 and 50,000 respectively) and you really don't need to buy more after that (6th slot costs 200 golden eagles and the 7th 500 or something, I think that may be the limit too).

In WoT, you have like, five tanks altogether without delving into your wallet (and tank slots cost $5 each). This game, for the most part, allows you to get what you want without too much a hassle.
Click to expand...
Yeah, you can cheaply get (with in-game money) 5 slots for 5 nations and have whatever planes you want in them (from that nation).

Proudest moment so far is landing a plane without wings, which was more luck than anything else given I had lost them not too far above the ground and there was good open terrain below me. Still mastering how to land a plane without breaking the prop, which happens one in five times for me.
Click to expand...

Yeah it takes a bit of practice, you want to land at no more than a bit over 200 km/h and try to level off your plane at only a slight angle when touching down (hold CTRL to brake once your wheels are on the ground).

I tried to get into Historical Battle, but that didn't exactly work out. I figure I'll give it a try when I'm not too worried about money and XP.
Click to expand...
You want to play HB battles with at least rank 4 planes really, I've tried them a bit and had mixed results. Its a good mode, but it isn't for everyone.
 
Are crews transferable between planes, or is it like World of Tanks where they technically are, but are just awful?

Yeah thats similar to how I found them to be too. The Russian starters have 4 MGs instead of 2 as well and especially the rank 1 Chaika pumps out an insane amount of bullets, but reserve/low rank matches are a lot of fun and sometimes its nice to take a break from higher ranks.
Click to expand...

I remember running into a Soviet plane for the first time and thought I was under attack by a higher-ranked plane because I've only been playing America/German up to that point.

Besides, 5 per nation ~25 slots so I don't think I'll be hitting the limit often. 10k and 50k lions don't really seem that hard to get.
 
Each slot has its own crew, but their skill applies to any plane you put in that slot. Generally I have the first three slots specced for fighters and the last two for bombers.

You can also qualify your crew (basically train them for that plane) for a fee once you have XXX amount of XP (100+ depending on the plane and its rank) which isn't transferable. It gives bonuses to reload & repair speeds, vision, and gunner accuracy & precision (for turrets). It helps, but isn't required to do well with the plane.

Plus it costs you a small fee just to give the crew basic training of the plane in that slot, so you want to plan what planes will go into what slots, but its pretty cheap at low ranks. It works out well enough and isn't as bad as WoT's system.
 
Recent interview with the CEO of the developer: Link

tl;dr

- Playable ground forces (tanks, etc) will be added later this year as well as battles with ground and air forces together, although there will be much, much testing.

- As previously mentioned, patch 1.30 will introduce a clan system as well as updates to the leaderboards and player run tournaments. Three new maps and several new planes.

- Options to choose battles with specific weather conditions and night time will be added sometime. Radars are being considered.

- Angled weapons (ie a gun pointed at an upwards angle to attack bombers from below) will be tested, future update will add the Schräge Musik to the D0.217.

- Mouse-aim system is more or less done, joystick controls are still being worked on and polished.

- Bomber cockpits will be added as they are finished, each plane, even variants of the same plane, will get their own unique cockpits.

- Italy will be the next nation once mid and higher tier aircraft are made and ready for play. France will be added in the future as well.

- War Thunder will also be released on the PS4 and MacOS. A Android and iOS mobile version is also in development.
 
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