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Pilots!
This is a short recounting of the development of World of Warplanes from its Global Alpha Test Stage up to now. We couldn't be more excited for the game to go live!
The first signs of a large-scale battle in the air appeared on New Year's Eve, just before the arrival of 2012, when the announcements of German, American and Soviet Tech Trees were published on the World of Warplanes official portal. They were the forerunners of the Global Alpha Test (GAT), which was launched February 23, 2012. The word "global' meant that unlike the initial alpha test (AT), it was held in all three regions: Russia (RU), Europe (EU) and North America (NA). Participants of the previous stage reached the status of Veterans.
At the early Alpha stage, the game had two maps: ‘El Halluf’ – a small part of it overlaps with the World of Tanks map of the same name, and ‘Novorossiysk,' later renamed ‘Port.' There were about a dozen planes from the USSR, USA and Germany in the hangar. Actually, there were no hangars, and planes were shown in the air, propellers spinning, in the haze and clouds.
Within the period of the Global Alpha Test, World of Warplanes got a third map, ‘Pacific.' For quite a long period of time, it had been available only for planes of tiers VI to X and surprised players, as they were repeatedly getting to this map in their favorite La-5, F4U or Bf.109G.
In addition to cannons, machine guns and rockets, bombs were represented in the game, and the first planes that could carry bombs were the Fw.57, Il-2(d) and the F4U. Using the special aiming marker (bomb sight), bombs could be dropped at sea and ground targets, which consisted of barrels and boats. However, soon the most cunning test pilots invented a method for destroying enemy planes with bombs if their pursuers were too zealously hanging onto their tail.
By the beginning of the Closed Beta Test stage, barrels and boats were replaced by complex destructible targets, which randomly appeared on maps. The hangar and the ability to repair damaged planes were represented, as well as engines overheating, caliber indication for ammo slots, training missions, and the most important: a full list of planes for the first three tech trees.
The World of Warplanes Closed Beta Test (CBT) launched on May 30, 2012. Over the summer, the gameplay was supplemented with high-altitude anti-aircraft guns, penalties for the destruction or damaging of allies, and a new map with lots of gorges and canyons called ‘National Park.' Suspended bombs and missiles began to affect flight characteristics, and for the first time, players got the opportunity to research and mount modules, however via presets this time.
Extended adjustment of the mounted modules became available only in autumn 2012, when the ‘manual’ mode on module mounting was introduced. The list of maps was supplemented with a new map for high tiers – they were ‘Lighthouse,' Plateau,' 'Asian Border,' 'Arctic Region,' and 'Bay.' The ‘Pacific’ map got the first moving objects: transport and battle ships. Moreover, the first Premium planes were introduced in World of Warplanes (German Fw.56 and Soviet P-39Q), as well as test Gold earned by players in battles.
It was decided to make an unlimited amount of ammunition available on the aircraft (it was too distressing to be left without shells against several opponents at the end of a battle), which pleased amateurs wanting continuous firing, but their freedom was restricted by the implementing of guns and machine guns overheating, which first interrupted shooting, and subsequently slowed down the rate of fire, significantly impairing its accuracy.
Soon, a new Japanese tech tree was added to the friendly World of Warplanes family. In addition, pilots of the “land of the rising sun” came to the game together with "Flights." Flight participants got the opportunity to coordinate their activities with the added help of voice chat.
The 0.4.0 update became one of the most crucial moments in the development of the game. It brought extensive reworking of the client-server architecture, which allowed the developers to significantly improve aircraft control response: performancd concerns that occured while navigating were greatly decreased, and a good perspective on further game optimization was clearer. New physics provided the opportunity to set and adjust aircraft easier and more accurately.
A special assault mode, convenient for ground target attacks, as well as several different mouse control variants were introduced. Graphics on Medium and High settings were improved, and the flight model and lighting system were improved.
Before the start of OBT equipment and consumables, the crew training system (each pilot got his personal list of perks and skills) appeared, the number of aircraft significantly increased, redering of game objects, sounds (true historical aircraft prototypes were used for sound recording), physical models as well as optimization and game balance were greatly improved. Planes' response to the player actions was improved, the battle interface was completely changed, and so was the plane research system.
Players who preferred joysticks got the opportunity to adjust this device in a more convenient way, and additional visual effects (tracers, explosions, rotating propellers and giant destructible objects) added more realism to the game. Test pilots got the chance to check context popup tips. First awards for game achievements were represented, as well.
The system of modules research and mounting was rebuilt to be closer to World of Tanks', and became more user-friendly, while useless limitations disappeared. For example, to mount a cannon you had to research and mount a certain type of engine, which, in turn, could be mounted on the certain airframeanly . This order was changed in favor of a more diverse and comfortable gameplay.
Work continued on addressing latency issues within the game. The following video shows you the developers' process in analyzing and optimizing laggy in-game situations:
From the beginning until 00:42, you can see the old mechanics. The blue plane shows where the plane is according to the game logic; the red plane is what the game shows to a player. You can notice the delay. After 00:42 to the end, you can see the new mechanics with a quite noticeable improvement of the process.
Economic and balancing game model settings, performance optimization, and adjusting aircraft controls were the primary goals of the Open Beta Test (OBT), which began on June 2, 2013. In addition, maps were reworked and new maps were added: “Fjords” and “Western Front.” New background military actions were added on the maps “Bay” and “Pacific Ocean." Objects in all game locales were not only destructible, but also could be ignited with the help of a whole set of ammunition: highly-explosive, armor-piercing incendiary, fragmentation incendiary shells, etc.
The third branch of aircraft appeared in the Soviet research tree. It was occupied by the legendary fighter aircraft constructed by the aeronautical engineer Alexander Yakovlev. Later, a British tech tree followed – another aviation power of the military aviation “golden era."
The list of equipment and consumables was significantly extended, the system of crew perks and skills was changed, and thefirst game “Achievements” and solid training course for beginners appeared.
One of the most important achievements of the Open Beta stage was the total re-balancing of the game research trees and implementation of the unified economics for World of Warplanes and World of Tanks -- in particular, the Unified Premium Account for both projects.
World of Warplanes testers have become witnesses of the creation of a new game project -- all its numerous changes, trying things out, rejecting redundant features and leaving only the best solutions, inevitably closing in to the release. The process of the game development will be continued even afterwards. But even now, World of Warplanes is bolstered by:
The World of Warplanes developers won't simply stop at this point. The rate of the game's evolution won’t slow down compared to the test stage. There are still lots of exciting evens ahead that will be appreciated by gamers and military aviation fans.
See you in the skies!