Armored Warfare: 0.11 Update

Hello Warriors,

the next main patch of Armored Warfare, 0.11 will take place on 17 of November and this is what you can expect:

Major Features:

• Tier 9 Vehicles
• Token System
• Custom matches
• Large number of game corrections including but not limited to vehicle models, vehicle performance adjustments, map balance and critical issue fixes

New Features:

Tier 9 Vehicles 

• M1A2, 
• CRAB, 
• BMPT-72, 
• Leopard 2A6, 
• T-90MS, 
• B1 Draco, 
• Challenger II, 
• M8 Thunderbolt

Note: These vehicles will be available through the Token System.

Token System

A new progression mechanism whereby any Tier 9 vehicle can be unlocked by completing the necessary progression in any Tier 8 vehicle in the same Dealer. More info here: http://ritastatusreport.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/armored-warfare-token-system.html

Custom Matches

Upon entering the garage, players can select the 'Custom Match' option found under the PVP queue button. Selecting Custom Match will bring up a new interface which allows players to browse, sort and filter through existing custom matches or create their own.

Clicking 'Create' brings up another window which gives players the option of creating a PvP match with the following parameters:

• Map
• Match Type (Standard or Encounter)
• Match Duration
• Private or Public
• Match Description

Upon creating a match lobby, players may then choose a side, lock teams, invite their friends, chat with others in the lobby, edit the custom match or delete the lobby.

Once players have selected their tank and are ready to play, they must hit 'Ready' before the lobby creator may then hit 'Launch' to start the match. There must be a minimum of two players to start the match.

Preliminary list of 0.11 changes

Gameplay Mechanisms

Firing Mechanism Changes

Reduced the vehicle damage explosion radius of direct-fire (non-artillery) HE shells to reduce the instances where the explosion would deal damage to a distant weak point on the armor. Also updated the HE damage scalars on a per-Tier basis to improve the ability of HE to deal damage to weaker armor. The result of these two changes is that accurate HE shots against on or close to weak armor will deal more damage, while less accurate shots against strong armor will deal less damage.

• Added a feature which scales the crew and component damage of all shell types so that the damage output is no longer tied to the vehicle's Tier. This resolve issues where lower-Tier vehicles had a very difficult time destroying the components of higher-Tier vehicles while the higher-Tier vehicles could often destroy the components of a lower-Tier vehicle with a single shot.
• Fixed an issue where HE (high explosive) shells could sometimes deal unintentionally high damage against strong armor.
• Fixed an issue where AP (armor piercing) shells could normalize on each impact with successive layers of vehicle armor instead of only on the first impact. They now only normalize on the first impact, which will mean that side-scraping will be a more effective defensive tactic.

Spotting Changes

The spotting indicator with three states to better inform players of their current status has been updated:

• When the player is initially spotted the full icon will be displayed
• After the initial spot, the text and border will disappear from the icon
• During the transition to the unspotted state the icon will go gray using the same duration as the spotting delay
• Camouflage Indicator now changes color to show negative camouflage. Negative camouflage is possible when vehicles that already have low camouflage values fire their cannons
• Updated the smoke grenade icon to improve the quality of the graphic

Miscellaneous

• The audio for the autocannon shots now varies when switching between 1st and 3rd person views while shooting
• Remastered weapon, impact and emitter sounds
• Added new audio for counterbattery and secondary ammo
• Dealer Tech Trees will now play background music while you are browsing their wares
• Decals applied to the sides of vehicles will now automatically apply to the other side

Vehicles

• Tier 6-8 MBTs have received a pass to make HE less effective against them from the front. This might result in changes to armor feel, but for the better. Remaining MBT tiers will be adjusted in the next patch.
• Any vehicle with both a gunner’s sight and laser rangefinder can now stack these upgrades together. They used to affect min and max accuracy separately, but now they both change overall accuracy, albeit at a slightly smaller value when they are both on the same vehicle. This update was applied to the following vehicles: BMP-1, FV101 Scorpion, M60, T-62, Wiesel 1
• Retrofits and Vehicle Technology Upgrades now add a flat vision bonus, rather than a percentage. A 10% bonus to spotting has been converted to a 40 meter bonus instead.

BMP-3M

The BMP-3M is an odd case. It has good spotting range and HP for an AFV, but its unusual handling and lack of camouflage make it tricky to utilize as a traditional AFV. In telemetry, it's performed relatively well, but it lacks a real niche. Some significant tuning improvements to retool the BMP-3M as a hybrid AFV/brawler by further increasing its hit points were made, improving its autocannon damage, and improving its accuracy. AW will continue to pay close attention to see if these changes have made it perform too well or if they prove insufficient to make the vehicle compelling to play.

• Hit Points increased from 1430 to 1560
• Stock autocannon AP damage increased from 78 to 88
• Upgraded autocannon AP damage increased from 86 to 92
• Stock Autocannon HE damage increased from 59 to 66
• First Upgraded Autocannon HE damage increased from 62 to 69
• Second Upgraded Autocannon HE damage increased from 65 to 71
• ATGM reload time decreased from 12.9 seconds to 11.76 seconds
• Autocannon accuracy spread per shot decreased by about 20%
• Turret movement bloom rate decreased by about 20%
• Hull traverse accuracy bloom rate decreased by about 20%
• Movement accuracy bloom rate decreased by about 20%

Challenger 1

The Challenger 1 has been performing below expectations. While it does have strong armor, its weak points, low penetration, and lower HP than the Abrams, coupled with lower speed, have made it perform below par. To help bring it up to par, its penetration has been bumped up to levels more comparable to other MBTs of the same tier and increased its hit points, which will give the Challenger 1 the necessary resilience needed to be an excellent brawler. Additionally, AW significantly buffed the frontal sides of the turret and hull enough to bounce some MBT shells, along with strengthening the driver's sight weak point and removing the gunner's sight weak point.

• Stock AP penetration increased from 342 to 377
• First AP upgrade penetration increased from 360 to 396
• Second gun stock AP penetration increased from 360 to 405
• Second gun upgraded AP penetration increased from 368 to 423
• Increased frontal hull sides from 80 to 275
• Increased frontal turret sides from 176 to 330

C1 Ariete

When evaluating the Ariete it was found that its side armor to be performing below what players should expect from a tier 8 MBT. As a result, the appliqué armor package on the Ariete has had its effectiveness more than doubled and the sides of the turret were buffed, allowing the vehicle to better resist shells against the tank's hull and turret sides with the armor package on. The front of the turret also received a small armor buff, which included removing the gunner's sight weak point, allowing the vehicle to be more effective in hull down positions against other Tier 8 vehicles. The goal is to allow it to be a mobile scrapper, but still allow players to find opportunities where it won’t be as easily penetrated.

• Increased both appliqué packages’ armor from 100/80 to 250/250 for the turret and hull
• Upgraded vehicle side armor from 120 to 200
• Upgraded frontal spaced armor from 300 to 400

Dragon 300-90

Added smoke grenades as an upgrade option

FV101 Scorpion

Once the fiercest vehicle in Armored Warfare, the mighty Scorpion has fallen upon hard times. While its agility is still exceptional, the soft stat modifiers that were used to bring the Scorpion into line when it was over performing have no longer proven necessary in light of the changes to High Explosive rounds. With that in mind, AW made some improvements to the Scorpion to bring it back in line.

• Vision range increased from 333 to 370
• Cooldown per shot decreased from 6.67 seconds to 5.93 seconds
• Added smoke grenades as an upgrade option

Leopard 1A5

The Leopard 1A5 is performing below standards for the tier. AW gave it significant buffs to targeting time and accuracy on the move to make it superior to the earlier vehicles in the same line in those regards, as well as a boost to damage.

• Targeting Time decreased from 2.9 seconds to 2.5 seconds
• Hull traverse accuracy bloom rate halved
• Turret yaw bloom decreased from 0.15 to 0.1
• Stock AP damage increased from 294 to 317
• First AP upgrade damage increased from 309 to 332
• Second AP upgrade damage increase from 340 to 348
• Stock HE damage increased from 177 to 190
• Upgraded SC damage increased from 406 to 435

Leopard 2

The Leopard 2 had too many weak points from the front that could be capitalized on and so AW made adjustments to several key areas. The Leopard 2 still retains the critical weak point found on the driver's hatch, but the top portion of the upper glacis has had its armored bumped up enough to have a better chance at deflecting high penetration shots. Additionally, the turret ring's armor has been massively increased (before it was bugged to have little armor) in order for it to have a better chance at deflecting high penetration shots rather than being easily penetrated by auto-cannons. A large sliver of the lower glacis which was easily penetrable before has also been removed, as has the gunner's sight weak point. Combined, these changes will provide the Leopard 2 much greater frontal survivability.

• Increased the top portion of the upper glacis armor from 100 to 150

Leopard 2AV

The Leopard 2AV's gunner's sight weak point has been adjusted in order to better resist shots against similar tiered vehicles, although it will still remain a weak point against higher tiers.

M60A2

Previous M60A2 changes were a step in the right direction, but the devs still feel the M60A2 has a ways to go before it can excel as a high firepower brawler. To better improve the M60A2's intended play style, they increased its standard round damage significantly, reduced its ATGM reload time and decreased the amount of time it takes to zero in on a target. The M60A2 remains inaccurate, which helps ensure that it retains its role as a close-range monster, rather than letting it be an overpowered sniper.

• Damage for both HE rounds increased by 17.5%
• Non-ATGM HEAT round damage increased by 12.5%
• Targeting Time decreased from 3.3 seconds to 3.0 seconds
• ATGM reload time decreased from 16.67 seconds to 14.29 seconds

M1 and M1A1 Abrams

The M1 and M1A1 have both proven to be consistently dominant in their tiers due to a combination of their high health, excellent armor, superior vision versus other MBTs and good mobility. AW feels that the strong frontal armor of the Abrams is an iconic feature, and thus we've chosen not to adjust that at this time. Instead, they reduced its HP values to be somewhat closer to the other MBTs of the same tier. The M1 and M1A1 will still feature above average HP, but they will no longer be as dominant as before. With this change, they expect these vehicles will remain very strong and will continue to evaluate them to see if these changes were sufficient enough to bring them in line with other equal-tier MBTs.

• M1 HP decreased from 2475 to 2235
• M1A1 HP decreased from 2845 to 2570

OF-40

The OF-40 is performing below average on the EU server and about average on the NA and RU servers. While normally this wouldn't be enough of a problem to warrant stat adjustments, AW recognizes that the OF-40 doesn't feel like a fun upgrade from the Leopard 1, and we've given it some quality of life improvements to make the experience of playing it feel more rewarding.

• Targeting Time decreased from 2.9 seconds to 2.7 seconds
• Hull traverse accuracy bloom rate halved
• Turret yaw bloom decreased from 0.15 to 0.1

RDF-LT

While our last set of changes was a step in the right direction, the RDF-LT is still performing poorly compared to the Stingray and VFM. The Devs have given it a minor increase to firepower as well as some more significant improvements to targeting time and accuracy on the move.

• AP damage increased from 216 to 246
• SC damage increased from 270 to 308
• Targeting Time decreased from 2.7 seconds to 2.2 seconds
• Movement bloom rate decreased from 0.25 to 0.2
• Hull traverse bloom decreased from 0.75 to 0.5
• Turret yaw bloom decreased from 0.11 to 0.055

T-72

To bring the vehicle's weak points in line with the T-72A, the armor in the upper left portions of the cupola, the flat area of the sight and the roof of the vehicle have been increased to better resist high penetration shots. Given the easily penetrated lower glacis, the player should be rewarded more for protecting it with a strong turret, although the T-72 will still have several locations that can be breached with careful aim.

• Remodeled cannon mantle section to more accurately deflect shots

T-72A

A full adjustment of the T-72A's turret armor was done due to the vehicle under-performing across the board, making it significantly better armored than before. Affected areas include the upper left section below the cupola, and the roof. The gun mantle and the lower areas to either side can still be penetrated by equal-tiered or higher tanks, but the vehicle should now be able to hull down more successfully even against higher tiered opponents.

• Remodelled cannon mantle section to more accurately deflect shots

T-80

Similar to the T-72, AW felt the T-80 required additional armor around the upper left portions of the cupola, the flat area of the sight and the roof in order to increase the tank's resistance against high penetration shots and solidify the rest of the t-series as having high armored turrets with weaker bases.

• Remodelled cannon mantle section to more accurately deflect shots

SPG Support Shells

AW has updated the behaviour for smoke shells so that the deploy effects occur sooner as well as reduce the time it takes for affected players to be obscured by the smoke. Also, they have updated the visual effect for the illumination rounds when they directly impact a surface before they are able to deploy in the air.

• Vehicles will now have auto-repair and auto-resupply of ammunition enabled by default, consumables will still require players to enable auto-resupply
• Tracked vehicles will now have new VFX playing to show when they begin slipping on various surfaces.
• Updated and corrected the visuals of the following vehicles: M109A6 Paladin, Swingfire, BMD-1, B1 Centauro, Challenger 1, Leopard 1, Leopard 1A5, Taifun II, C1 Ariete, Palmaria
• Fixed the UI information (incorrect module values shown to player etc.) for the following vehicles: Chieftain, M1A1 Abrams, XM800T, 2S3 Akatsiya,
• Reduced the camouflage penalty for firing for the FV438 Swingfire
• Begleitpanzer 57 now can fire AP rounds with 2nd and 3rd gun upgrade

PVE

All PvE maps were checked in order to fix the visual and performance issues, a large number of corrections were made (on following maps: Anvil, Phalanx, Cavalry, Ghost Hunter, Harbinger, Kodiak, Phalanx, Red Opossum, Rolling Thunder, Sapphire, Scorpion, Spearhead, Starry Night, Stormy Winter, Tsunami, Umbrella)

• Fixed an issue whereby players were not being sorted properly by vehicle tier on the map loading screen
• Fixed an issue where ammo info would be displayed during the match end screen
• Fixed several bugs which caused AI not to fire on players in certain circumstances
• Fixed an issue where the artillery reticle would be displayed during the final cut-scene after the battle had finished
• Removed visible health bars from secondary objective vehicles on PvE.

PVP

All PvP maps were checked in order to fix the visual and performance issues.

Cold Strike

Fixed an issue with the map border disappearing on medium and high settings.

Ghost Field

AW made several adjustments to this map to promote better engagements:

• Adjusted the North of the map's engagement zone cover placements
• Changed the spawn points so that players from the South take longer to get to the North engagement area
• Changed the spawn points so that players from the North team take longer to get to the south end of the map
• Adjusted the position of the North team's capture point to make it slightly harder to defend

Roughneck

Fixed an issue whereby players could not shoot through the space under the railway wagon at C6

Reactor

Fixed an issue that resulted in the base capture time for Encounter mode being different from other PvP map Encounter modes

User Interface

• Players can now view a new stat in the Post-Match screen which will show the number of hits you received during the match
• Updated the UI skins for various UI elements in the garage
• Updated the UI skins and assets in match screens
• Added a kill distance range on the Kill Banner
• Added player title before the player name on the Kill Banner
• New players will now be served up an invitation to take part in the tutorial mission
• Updated the F1 overlay to reflect the additional chat commands
• Updated the F1 overlay to reflect the correct 'Your vehicle' icon
• Updated the terminology for 'Aim Time' and 'Accuracy Decay Rate' to 'Targeting Time' for consistencyAdded new stats to the post-match details tab
• Players can now see the potential damage lost for the following reasons: Ricochets, Non-penetrating hits, APS, ERA
• To improve player's ability to customize their auditory experience in AW, we've added additional volume slider settings for controlling the following effects: Engine, Weapon, Impact, Explosion, Environment, UI

Issues and Corrections

General

• Fixed an issue that allowed players to start a match with only two users on the same team
• Fixed an issue that caused the details panel to jump locations after having the cursor hover over it
• Fixed an issue that caused auto-repair to fail and prompt an error message
• Fixed an issue where some players are able to turn their turrets during the match countdown
• Fixed an issue where vehicles would incur repair costs if the player drowned during the victory screen
• Fixed an issue where players were able to use the Maintenance Kit in PvP
• Fixed an issue in PvP where destroyed players were able to crush their teammates
• Fixed a PvE issue where players were unable to highlight enemy tanks after reconnecting to a match
• Fixed an issue where players were being charged twice the repair cost if their vehicle was destroyed after a fall into water
• Fixed an issue where the "Best Ammunition" feature was causing issues with the selection of support shells for SPGs

User Interface

• Fixed an issue with the font in PvE match hit/helper tips being too small
• Fixed an issue causing the functions strings on RDF/LT's HVAP and APFSDS rounds to be swapped
• Fixed an issue with the PvE mission select screen where the information section was not updating based upon the difficulty level selected
• Fixed an issue in PvE where some enemies were missing their HP bar above their tank
• Fixed an issue with incorrect loading screen backgrounds appearing if a player reconnects to a match in progress
• Removed the text exclusive to SPGs when viewing the maximized mini-map in non-SPG vehicles
• Fixed an issue with the combat log whereby ramming damage and shot damage could be combined into one single source of damage
• Fixed an issue with the combat log whereby dying from being set on fire was not reflected in the incoming damage log
• Fixed an issue with the kill-cam whereby the camera will focus on the dead player instead of the attacker if they had already died
• Fixed an issue which allowed players to type in the incoming damage window
• Fixed an issue whereby the incoming damage window would not properly flip orientation in the center of the screen

Garage

• The words "No Active Boosts" are now centered in the garage's Active Boost Window
• Fixed purchased decals for one vehicle being labeled as 'undefined' in the decal tooltip
• Fixed an issue where the vehicle stats panel was not updating after learning the 'Vigilant' perk from Commander Phillip Holzklau
• Fixed an issue where the title selection menu would not close automatically when a player selects a title that is already in use.
• Fixed an issue which caused players to lose currency when attempting to purchase the same decal for both slots without receiving the decal in the second slot
• Fixed an issue which caused decals purchased permanently after being rented first to not be credited to the account
• Fixed an issue where base bonuses were not being applied to vehicle repair costs
• Updated the description for the Command Center
• Updated the notifications for raw materials
• Fixed the ability for players to remove decals
• Added in a missing tooltip for crew in the garage
• Added missing tooltips for titles in the garage
• Fixed an issue where daily rewards were not increasing as a result of active boosts
• Updated the descriptions of various commander skills for clarity
• Fixed an issue which prevented the 'Best Friend' achievement from being properly tracked
• Fixed an issue which sometimes caused players to crash if they repeatedly selected the 'Best Available' ammo option
• Restored missing tooltips for commanders and titles unlocked when "Proven" status is reached on a vehicle
• Removed the ability for players to create Battalions with spaces at the beginning and end of the name
• This will ensure players cannot create names which appear nearly identical to other Battalions simply by adding a space
• Fixed an issue with daily rewards not refreshing while the player remains in the client during the server update
• Fixed an issue with strings missing in the garage UI
• Fixed several visual bugs with certain base buildings and animations
• Fixed an issue where players were not able to receive the 'Target' award
• Fixed an issue with tooltips remaining on screen after the mouse is no longer hovering over the item
• Fixed an issue whereby players would not gain additional Commander XP through the Academy after losing a PvP match
• Fixed an issue that caused incorrect lighting to appear in the garage
• Fixed an issue that caused the camera to rotate continuously after panning the camera in the garage
• Fixed an issue causing larger credit numbers to disappear on the Post-match screen
• Fixed an issue with the F1 help overlay being scaled too high at certain resolutions
• Reduced the brightness of the AW Battalion decal
• Removed debug text which appeared when attempting to revert changes on the service menu
• Made several garage optimizations to improve visuals and performance

Vehicles

• Fixed an issue causing ammo swaps to take longer than the standard reload time
• Fixed an issue where HE explosions could apply damage to both the hull and turret simultaneously
• Fixed an issue that caused vehicles to have jittering effects when loading into a map
• Fixed an issue that caused twice the hull damage to incur on a vehicle from turret/hull splash damage
• Fixed an issue with decals disappearing on upgraded tanks
• Fixed an issue where autocannons continue to produce audio after the gun has stopped firing
• Fixed an issue where players would experience extremely high mouse sensitivity under some conditions
• Fixed an issue with external gas tanks being too easy to destroy
• Fixed an issue where crushing damage was not being dealt when it should be
• Fixed an issue with reticles when a player's turret ring is destroyed

Miscellaneous

• Fixed an issue where players were disconnected and unable to rejoin the server if they attempted to join a PvE mission in a platoon as two SPGs
• Fixed an issue with in-game transactions lagging
• Fixed several audio bugs present while in artillery mode
• Fixed various audio bugs with the loading screen music
• Fixed several bugs related to projectile impacts against tanks
• Fixed several bugs present when firing auto-cannons
• Fixed various audio bugs present in PvE and PvP cutscenes
• Fixed various audio bugs when destroying props

That's all folks and have fun in the battlefield!