Armored Warfare Developer Q&A

Hello warriors,

Armored Warfare released its first weekly developer Q&A (player questions from AW forums were answered by developers, mostly the chief developer Richard Taylor). This is however not only a repost - if you want to, you can ask some stuff in the comments and Silentstalker ("Frank Davis" in comments) will be answering if he can.

Question: Can you quickly describe the ramming system? What happens when I ram into an enemy vehicle?
Answer: Each vehicle has a base "ramming damage rating". This rating is primarily determined by the vehicle's mass, tier, and class. Vehicles also have a "ramming defense rating", which is also primarily determined by mass, tier, and class. This helps reduce the damage that vehicle takes from ramming.
When the vehicle impacts another vehicle, we check the relative velocity of the collision. If it exceeds a certain threshold, a damage score is generated based on the ramming damage rating multiplied by a factor of the relative speed of the impact. This damage is then reduced based on a combination of the armor thickness at the point of impact and the ramming defense rating. This happens to both the vehicles in the collision; essentially, they both deal damage to each other based on their (ramming damage * velocity modifier) vs. their opponent's (ramming defense + armor at point of impact).
The reason we use things like "ramming damage ratings" and "ramming defense ratings" rather than just mass and armor is because we have both heavy and light vehicles at almost every tier of play. These ratings help us make sure that ramming damage remains reasonable, so we don't see cases where tapping an equal tier vehicle causes it to explode, or where a heavy vehicle for its tier is immune to ramming.

Question: Is it possible that if a new tank is unveiled in future (for example the Armata, expected to appear during the Victory Day parade in Moscow in May), it will be added into the game?
Answer: Yes, it’s completely possible – we will be adding more and more vehicles to the game, including the newest tanks.


Question: Will the shells in flight be modeled as physical objects – for example, is it possible for two missiles to hit each other?
Answer: All projectiles are modeled as spheres in space which means they do have some dimensions. They are not modeled out to their accurate shape in the air because this would not have any impact on gameplay while costing precious server CPU cycles while calculating their collisions with the world. It is actually possible for two shells to collide and explode, but it is incredibly unlikely that this would ever happen just because of the timing it would take for two shells to occupy the same space in the same instant.

Question: Will it be possible to test premium vehicles before buying them, for example in some sort of training room?
Answer: It will not be possible to test vehicles you do not own at first. However, we are exploring some options that would make it possible to launch into a single player test map on your computer. We do not have an estimate of when this change would be released in an update. It is still something we are in the early stages of evaluating for now.

Question: Will PvE mode be introduced in CBT and will it be possible to use it as alternative means for progression (eg. gain XP via PvE)?
Answer: PvE mode is expected to be released into Closed Beta Testing at some point but will not be part of the initial phase. It is our intention that one can progress through and unlock the majority of the content of the game through only playing PVE. Once we are closer to being able bring PVE into the Closed Beta, we will provide additional information.

Question: Currently, the highest tiered light tank is tier 7. Are there any plans for tier 8 light tanks in the future, such as the CV90120-T?
Answer: There is no reason why we wouldn't have light tanks of all tiers, should suitable candidates present themselves. The only reason we do not already have a Tier 8 Light Tank is because we had to divide up our initial vehicle budget across all 5 classes and try to spread the classes across 8 tiers. As we continue to add more vehicles to Armored Warfare, there will be more class representation across all of the tiers.

Question: Will there be a competitive mode for skilled players and clans?
Answer: Definitely, an „end-game“ mode for organized groups and clans is being prepared and should become available after the game gets released.

Question: Will the vehicles that are amphibious in real life (PT-76, BMP) be able to swim in Armored Warfare as well?
Answer: Currently no maps feature any bodies of water large enough as to actually use such ability, but it’s possible that in the future, this feature will be implemented.

Question: Is there a plan to introduce bots as „replacement players“ in PvP mode?
Answer: No, there are no such plans – we want to use bots only in PvE battles.

Question: Are there any plans to reduce the accuracy RNG factor?
Answer: We are currently testing several variants related to shell distribution in the aim circle. It’s completely possible that the accuracy of the vehicles will be improved in order to produce more accurate and predictable results.

Question: Will the players be allowed to paint whatever they want on their tanks? If not, why?
Answer: While we do want players to customize their vehicles and don’t want to limit them to several pre-set camouflages, there is unfortunately the issue of preventing abuse of such functions. Displaying certain signs and pictures openly (such as nazi symbols) is strictly forbidden in many countries and allowing players to „decorate“ tanks freely could potentially lead to issues in the aforementioned countries.

Question: Will the players start the game with a tier 1 vehicle from every dealer or will some dealers have to be unlocked as the player progresses?
Answer: Our current plan is that Tier 1 vehicles will always be given to players for free no matter what Dealer Tree they fall into. However, not all Dealers will have Tier 1 vehicles. Some of the future Dealers will start at higher tiers than Tier 1.

Question: Are there plans for wheeled artillery as well, such as the Vz.77 DANA or South African G6 howitzer?
Answer: There is nothing preventing us from introducing these vehicles to the game, although our primary concern when it comes to artillery is to first introduce a balanced and entertaining way of playing it. We can consider adding more artillery vehicles to the game only after we are absolutely sure the entire class is playable and balanced.

Question: Is tank information such as firing, HP, penetration and movement calculated on the server or on the client?
Answer: All combat and movement calculations are performed on the side of the server to prevent the creation of hacks and cheats.

Question: I would like to ask developers about implementation of the weather on maps. Can game engine handle map wide fog, hard rain, snow? Will terrain change due to weather effects?
Answer: We definitely want our maps to feel as realistic as possible and that includes realistic weather effects. At the same time, changing the ground properties based on weather conditions could..