Pilots!
Today we're going to give you a peak behind the curtain and show you some of the features coming soon to World of Warplanes 0.4.3. We'll go over some details about the latest patch, crew training, and new maps and planes. Let's get started, shall we?
There will be three different types of crew skills: pilot, gunner, and navigator. The latter two will be limited to multi-seat aircraft, while single seat planes (fighters, typically) will be pilot only.
Pilots will be able to improve the following characteristics of their aircraft:
Pilots who reach 100% training levels in these skills will be able to make the most out of their aircraft and its specific performance characteristics.
These co-pilots will be responsible for the "Defensive Power" characteristic in aircraft, improving the overall defensive capabilities of aircraft while in battle. If the gunner manages to aquire 100% of this skill, he'll become that much more effective when you need a tail gunner to keep enemies off your back.
Improving the Navigators skills will help both the Gunner and the Pilot by improving their overall battle efficiency.
You'll be able to look through specific crew skills in each of the personnel records of each crew member, of which will be available to you in the Hanger. Apart from the major qualification skills mentioned above, there will be additional skills available for each crew member:
We'll go into greater detail about crew skills in future game updates. We can share that, like World of Tanks, there will be the option to increase the qualification of crew members with Gold.
We plan to release the first iteration of this system with the 0.4.3 Game Update, but don't expect to see a 1:1 with how it appears in World of Tanks. For right now, there won't be a Barracks or options to transfer crew from one plane to another. We'll enable features likes these in the future, but for right now we just need to test some core functionality of making sure the information detailed above works first.
Expect to see the in-game illumination system significantly improved with the 0.4.3 Update. Highlights and reflections will be much more realistic, as well as some improved shaders on ground objects and enhancements to give a better perception of speed.
As for the gun tracers effect that appeared in the 0.4.2 Update, we heard you loud and clear. Expect to see these significantly altered. With the 0.4.3 Update, the width of these tracers will depend on the tier of gun and the overall visual intensity of the tracer effect will be dramatically decreased, hopefully making the process of zeroing in and firing on targets that much more enjoyable.
We've spent a significant amount of time researching how to improve the overall performance of the game client. We're happy to report that the results of this research should increase the overall FPS for most PC configurations after the 0.4.3 Update.
We're always on the lookout on how to improve the tree climbing in World of Warplanes, both from a historical and a gameplay perspective. As such, we'll be making the following changes to the tech tree with the 0.4.3 Update:
We'll have more details to share about these new maps in the future, but for right now we at least wanted to share what they looked like. Let us introduce to you: Burma and Arizona.
All of your feedback and hard work to help us test our game has not been forgotten. Once World of Warplanes is released to the public (at a date that's still to be determined), we plan to reward you with some special prizes that will only be available to you, our test pilots
All Senior and Alpha Test Veterans that have completed at least 700 battles when the game is released will receive an aircraft as a reward. Veterans who've completed more than 100 battles by the time World of Warplane is released will receive the "Alpha Test Participant" medal. They'll also retain their Senior or Alpha Test Veteran status on the forum and some other special goodies.
Those who have completed at least 700 battles when Warplanes launches will receive an aircraft as a reward, retain their Alpha Tester status on the forum, and receive an "Alpha Test Participant" medal along with some other additional nice stuff.
Global Alpha Testers that have completed more than 100 battles when the game is released will retain their Alpha Tester status on the forum, and receive an "Alpha Test Participant" medal in the game client, as well as some other additional nice stuff.
All Beta Testers that have completed at least 700 battles when the game is released will receive another plane as a reward, retain their Beta Tester status on the forum, and receive a "Beta Test Participant" medal along with some other cool goodies.
Beta Testers that have completed more than 100 battles when the game is released will retain their Beta Tester status on the forum, and receive a "Beta Test Participant" medal as well as some other additional nice stuff.
Open Beta Test participants that have completed at least 700 battles when the game is released will receive an aircraft as a reward.
Thus, Senior Alpha Test Veterans, as well as Alpha Testers with at least 700 battles played, will receive a total of three aircraft as a reward. Closed Beta Test participants with more than 700 battles will receive a total of two reward planes, and Open Beta Test participants with at least 700 battles will receive one aircraft for a reward.
We hope you enjoyed this small amount of information about the future of World of Warplanes and we can't wait to share even more details with you in the near future. For now, all we can say is... Get Airborne!