Update 1.2 Public Test

Overview of the Update

The major features of Version 1.2 are:

• Introduction of combat missions
• Recording and playback of replays
• More informative post-battle statistics

These and other new features of the game have been designed to make the gameplay more diverse, interesting and user friendly. Balance changes have been designed to increase the diversity of gameplay with different tiers, classes, and particular models of aircraft, as well as for greater historical accuracy of individual aircraft characteristics.

New features in the game

Combat missions

Combat missions are now available for players. By performing all the requirements of a mission, players can receive the applicable reward (it can be experience, credits, consumables, etc., depending on the specific mission). Combat missions are displayed in the hangar for selected planes, but players can also check all the missions available for all planes.

The list of available combat missions will be updated regularly. Stay tuned by following the portal news or check it in the game.

Replays

Recording and playback (replays) of battles has been implemented in this update.

• The replay recording feature is disabled by default, but you can activate it in the Settings Menu
• Replay files are stored in the "Video" library of your user account in Windows. You can check the path in the in-game Settings Menu
• To play a replay, you simply open the file in Windows
• Basic player functions have been embedded: fast forward, rewind and pause

Extended post-battle statistics

• The post-battle statistics screen has been reworked – now it is displayed in the hangar after each battle
• Detailed statistics from all battles within the game session are now available in the system messages panel
• Players' main battle results have been reworked and information about the results of other battle participants has been extended. 

Balancing and Physics

Visibility system

• View range
  
  • The difference in view range between different tiers was reduced
  • The view range of biplanes was significantly increased
  • The view range of piston monoplanes was slightly increased
  • The range for guaranteed enemy detection was reduced, so camouflage efficiency and the low-altitude visibility effect were slightly increased

• Aircraft visibility
  
  • A tier-dependent aircraft visibility coefficient was implemented. It affects the enemy detection range. The higher your plane tier, the more visible it becomes, increasing the range at which it will be detected
  • Jets have greater visibility than piston planes of the same tier and class
  • The detection range was decreased due to the introduction of the visibility coefficient for low tiers
  • Coefficients are configured in the following way: if a lower tier plane and its higher tier opponent have an equal view range, then the lower tier plane will detect its opponent earlier

Shooting

• The damage done by fighters and heavy fighters to ground targets was increased
• Dispersion at low speeds was reduced

Damage model

• Fixed a number of minor bugs in the aircraft damage model
• The chance of critical damage to air-cooled engines was reduced relative to water-cooled engines
• The chance of wing or tail destruction was slightly increased

Fire mechanics

• Reworked the feature that causes a plane to possibly catch fire when any part of the plane is hit that contains ammunition with a chance of ignition (not just a fuel tank as it was before). The chance of fire breaking out in each part of a plane was adjusted accordingly
• A pierced fuel tank increases the chance of fire, as it did before
• The maximum duration of a fire was increased

Matchmaker

• A new matchmaker algorithm was implemented for creating battles for beginners - without experienced players
• It works for planes of Tiers I and II on accounts with a small total of earned experience

Physics

• Improved energy saving in turns for most fighters and heavy fighters
• Acceleration performance while using a boost was reduced for all planes, and acceleration while diving was slightly reduced
• Improved the acceleration of Tier I-VIII piston planes while not boosting
• The speed was reduced for all Tier IV-VII fighters and for Tier VIII-X planes of all classes while not boosting
• The dynamic characteristics of jet planes were reduced
• The optimum altitude for most fighters and heavy fighters was increased. The difference between high, medium and low-altitude levels was extended to emphasise the characteristics of individual planes

Economics

•    Players are now always fully rewarded with credits and experience points for destroyed enemy planes. The reward is calculated by taking into account the total amount of hit points remaining at the moment immediately before the plane is destroyed. In particular, it will increase the reward for shooting down an enemy plane by critically damaging its wings or tail or when it crashes after a player's attack.

•   The experience points reward for shooting down or damaging an enemy aircraft of a higher or lower tier was modified. The reward for shooting down or causing damage to a plane of a lower tier was reduced, and increased for doing the same to a plane of a higher tier.

Balance changes for particular planes

• U.S.S.R.:
  
  • Polikarpov I-5 – increased the burst length for stock weapons
  • Polikarpov I-15 – improved the maneuverability when using the stock airframe
  • Polikarpov I-16 (early mod.) – increased HP, improved stock weapons characteristics and reduced the impact of weaponry on plane performance
  • Polikarpov I-16 (late mod.) – improved stock weapons and increased burst length for machine guns
  • Ilyushin BSh-2 – improved the ability to control pitch in a dive
  • Ilyushin Il-2 – improved the ability to control pitch in a dive and reduced the impact of weaponry on plane performance
  • Curtiss P-40 M-105 – increased the optimum altitude
  • Ilyushin Il-2 two-seat – improved the ability to control pitch in a dive and reduced the impact of weaponry on plane performance
  • Lavochkin La-5 – improved the maneuverability when using the stock airframe and increased boost efficiency
  • Lavochkin La-7 – improved maneuverability when using the stock airframe and increased boost efficiency
  • Lavochkin La-9 – increased boost efficiency
  • Yakovlev Yak-3 – reduced weaponry impact on plane performance
  • Ilyushin Il-8 – reduced weaponry impact on plane performance
  • Lavochkin La-160 – replaced the top engine (RD-10F) with the RD-500, improved performance while not using boost, increased its performance at speed, increased optimum altitude and reduced boost duration
  • Lavochkin La-15 – increased boost duration
• Germany:
  • Focke-Wulf Fw 57 – improved acceleration while not using boost and improved the top rear-gun
  • Heinkel He 112 – improved maneuverability when using the stock airframe;
  • Messerschmitt Me 210 – increased the downward aiming angle of the rear gun-turret
  • Messerschmitt Me 209 V – improved the ability to control pitch in a dive, and increased weapons accuracy and burst length
  • Focke-Wulf Fw 190 V – improved maneuverability when using the stock airframe
  • Messerschmitt Me 410 Hornisse – increased the downward aiming angle of the rear gun-turret
• U.S.A.:
  • Grumman F3F – improved acceleration while not using boost and increased its speed near the ground
  • Chance-Vought XF4U-1 – increased its optimum altitude, weapons accuracy and burst length
  • Chance-Vought F4U-1 Corsair – reduced the impact of weaponry on plane performance and increased accuracy
  • Chance-Vought F4U-4 Corsair – reduced the impact of weaponry impact on plane performance and increased accuracy
  • Goodyear F2G Super Corsair – improved performance of the stock engine and increased gun accuracy
• Great Britain:
  • Gloster Goldfinch – increased weapons accuracy
  • Bristol Blenheim F – added the "Inboard cannons 2х20 mm Hispano Mk. I" as the new top module, improved maneuverability when using the stock airframe, improved the rear gun-turret, increased HP, increased its speed near the ground, increased its optimum altitude, reduced the boost duration and reduced the dive speed
  • Bristol Beaufighter – increased HP, improved the rear gun-turret, added the effect of the rear gun-turret on plane performance, and increased its speed near the ground, its optimum altitude and the cannon burst length
  • De Havilland 98 Mosquito –increased its optimum altitude, and improved roll performance and acceleration while not using boost
  • De Havilland 103 Hornet – improved acceleration while not using boost and increased its optimum altitude
  • Westland P.1056 – increased HP and its speed near the ground, and reduced its optimum altitude
  • Gloster P.228 – increased HP, optimum altitude and boost duration
  • Gloster Javelin – increased HP, optimum altitude and boost duration

Game locations

• Optimized resources for objects on all maps
• "Adriatic": reworked the layout of ground targets, added the new visual effect of lightning from the side of the storm front
• "Lighthouse": Graphics effects optimized and air bursts added to the background effects of AAA
• "Harbor": improved land textures for the city area, added new objects to the port and between the mountains, and fixed some bugs
• "Fortress": optimized the tree layout, improved land textures for the city areas and added a ruined city area

Other changes and fixes

Interface

• Updated the battle results window and moved it to the hangar
• Added a new characteristic, "altitude performance", that will be displayed in the hangar, tech tree and plane information window
• Made the planes carousel and "Battle!" button available in all hangar menus (home, service, upgrades and paint shop)
• Added game chat parameters to the "Game" section of the settings menu.
• Updated the filters in the store
• Added the new characteristic, "altitude performance", to the tips (battle loading menu, planes comparison in the target lock window)
• Added the plane experience and free experience display above the modules tree in the "Upgrades" hangar section
• A module info-tip in the module tree now has the display of its impact on the plane characteristics;
• Updated the experience exchange window
• Added loading visualization to the local panels (the ones with lists, e.g. the achievements window)

Battle Interface

• Added new schemes to display modules' in-battle condition to reflect different types of planes

Graphics

• Added a camera view change when going to the "Service", "Upgrades" and "Paint shop" menus
• Changed and optimized the wingtip vortices effect
• Added camera effects for the following game events: "boost", "close explosion" and "flying past planes"
• Changed the pictures of all pilots to reflect the general style of Wargaming.net projects

Sound

• Added new sounds for ramming and diving after a plane has been shot down
• Added new voice messages
• Updated engine overheating sounds
• Changed the background sounds of the battle for all maps

Chat

• Added closed chat channels with the possibility to set, view and change the password feature
• Added a training room chat
• Added visual highlighting of the active chat window compared to the other windows
• Added a chat settings feature to hide the message time
• Improved flight chat: in-battle messages to flight members are now displayed in the battle chat and in the hangar
• Implemented colour-marking of chat messages if the player's name is mentioned in it

Improvements and bug fixes

• Completed optimization works to:
  • reduce the number of critical errors with Out of Memory messages; and
  • increase FPS for displaying multiple planes and/or ground objects in the frame.
• Fixed the missing bombsight when flying at an altitude below 25 meters
• Fixed the situation with planes crashing when flying over a tree
• Completed optimization of game resources to improve the processes of patching and battle loading by renaming maps packages and changing the principle of preparing planes packages

Changes in Public Test #2

Weapon:

• 20mm M3 (К) cannon characteristics were changed in accordance with characteristics of the similar 20-mm M3 cannon
• Reduced damage for 7.92-mm MG-17 (1934) and 7.92-mm MG-17 (1936) machine guns relative to 7.92-mm MG-17 (1940)
• Increased damage for 7.62-mm ShKAS (1941) machine gun
• Reduced damage for 30-mm MK-108 (1942) cannon

Matchmaking changes for particular planes

USSR

• Fixed the mistake in the characteristics of the top engine RD-500 for La-160
  

Germany

• Ar.80 – increased HP for the modification with stock airframe
• Bf.209V – improved yaw performance, increased speed near ground, reduced boost recovery period

USA

• F2F – increased HP for the modification with stock airframe.
• F6U Pirate –  improved yaw and roll performance, reduced accuracy for top guns

Removed:

• Updated sounds for engine overheating