War Thunder Ground Forces - latest vids and images (rolling update)

It's looking good tankers

http://forum.warthunder.com/index.php?/topic/48225-ground-forces-work-in-progress/page-96

Wow, the graphics realism is certainly there, I wonder what the physics and actual gameplay will be like, and of course MM. I cant deal with another RANDOM match maker that somehow manages to keep the majority at around 50%.

More info from the WT forums -

Soviet and German trees at start with 60 vehicles (because they are more balanced and most used in WWII battles). USA tree will be next. Next trees? "We'll see"

At start there will be light, medium, heavy tanks and tank destroyers. Flak's will be released later (but possibly at release).

First they planned matches with 32 players on planes and 32 on tanks, but probably they will limit this to total 40 players in one battle (with possible later increase to 60 players).

There will be pure "planes vs planes", "tanks vs tanks" battles, but devs still undecided how to roll this out. Maybe pure battles will be available in "Events", maybe some checkbox.

They plan to implement advanced (manual transmission etc) and simplified tank controls.

Tracks can be repaired during battle, but chances are that you wont survive until repair will be completed. Maybe they even won't limit available repair attempts because survival rate statistically very low.

Tanks will spawn closer to the objective points than planes.

In the next week after Igromir they will release preliminary tech trees.

CBT (closed beta test) will be very Soon™. OBT (open beta) and release this year.

Fleet will be in 2014. They already implemented some prototypes but decided that resulting gameplay is too hardcore and can wait until air/ground forces get some more development.

AndyScouser wrote: and of course MM.  I cant deal with another RANDOM match maker that somehow manages to keep the majority at around 50%.

I'm afraid it is the majority, that keeps the majority at around 50%48.5% winrate, not the MM.

More gameplay details from a 2nd Developer interview posted on the WT forums. It seems possible that CBT may open in a few days but this has not been confirmed.

1. Will there be joint battles of planes, tanks and ships?

Apart from the fact that this is one of the key elements of our game - we are trying to have all kinds of armed forces on one map because not having them all on one map would only strengthen the myth that it is impossible to do. Now you could see for yourselves that it can be done in our game.

2. What factors affect the tank controls?

We're still working on it. Underneath the easy controls is a very advanced physics, i.e if you are trying to climb a steep hill with your tank and you just don't have enough horsepower, then... you know what happens, the tank will stop, that's why you should try to move with slalom etc.

3. How accurate are places of armor penetration?

The tank is presented with the use of few hundred parts, like engine, gearbox, rollers, crew, turret steering mechanism and other mechanical parts. The armor has its thickness, angle, in same cases a tank turret has armor with different thickness (layered armor), it can be presented with one or few blocks, we are trying to reproduce all this geometry.

4. How much will the tanks resemble their real life counterparts?

One of the key elements of design in our project is to have all the characteristics of combat vehicles as close to reality as possible. You can find many tanks in our game, some of them don't exist anymore, but this is not as important as the plans that are easier to work on, but for example the sounds are recorded from real tanks.

5. What shells and what ways of replenishing ammunition will be available ingame?

Most tanks that were presented during Igromir have AP rounds, HE rounds and APCR rounds. Everything is realistic because different tanks have different amounts of ammunition. In AB mode the ammo reload will be probably automatic while in HB you will have to return to spawn area.

6. How interactive are the surroundings?

Rocks or bunkers are hard to destroy. Elements of topology such as rocks, bunkers are objects that you can hide behind, they are indestructible, while objects like shacks, fences and trees can be destroyed without problems.

7. Will there be a cooperation between different kinds of forces?

Right now during presentation the artillery is indestructible on purpose, normally tanks, planes etc. will be able to destroy it... (incomprehensible).

8. What will be the differences between different classes of tanks?

Combat tasks of different kinds of tanks were different, if you don't take it under consideration then you think that i.e. a light tank is way worse than medium tank - it is faster but it dies easier, it has worse armament and is worse in general, but it's purpose was different. It is a fast vehicle whose tasks were to infiltrate the defenses, catch the infantry, take some position. In our game we balance it with the fact that light tanks can call artillery barrage. It's a class ability, light tanks can call artillery, each light tank has its own artillery support. Light tank can find the enemy, come closer to him and call artillery strike on enemy's position, it can also mark it which will make the enemy visible to allied planes. Normally the planes can't see the markers of enemy vehicles - it is very hard to spot a tank in the forest, light tanks make it easier.

9. How will the battles of tanks and planes be balanced?

We will experiment, test different ways of balancing such battles, it requires some decisions, research, we have different variants. We already found one type of battles - city fights and fights in forest areas where tanks feel more comfortable, they can still be destroyed by planes but it happens way less often.

10. How will the roles be divided between ground and air forces?

Ground forces will be taking strategic locations while air forces will provide air support and destroy enemy airfield which will lead to achieving air domination. The battle can be won by taking strategic points but the air forces will have direct influence on that.

11. Will there be a limit of number of planes and tanks in battle?

In current mode (AB), it's possible to spawn multiple times. While the enemies pick on their own, you will be able to see what your teammates pick and pik your vehicle accordingly to have a balanced team. I don't want to reveal the specifics now, but there will be some mechanisms enforcing balanced teams (i.e you will not be able to spawn heavy bombers with entire team at the start of the match).

12. What kinds of Ground Forces will be presented ingame?

Heavy tanks, medium tanks, light tanks, tank destroyers, AA artillery operated by players probably after OBT(?) or after launch (of tanks), but it is planned.

13. How will the AA artillery be presented ingame?

Just as it was in real life, and it was different at times. In real life timers had to be set to define the time of shell explosion, whereas on ships it was done automatically, the Germans used shells with radar that exploded near airplanes, but usually timers had to be set manually depending on the altitude of targets. We still don't know how this will work in our game. In general we did not want to make AA artillery but it turned out that tanks have big chances of shooting down heavy planes, right now heavy bombers are being destroyed by tanks more often than the other way around. It wasn't like that in real life, but in real life bombers weren't flying at the altitude of 300m in order to drop bombs, also, the 3rd person view ingame provides much better field of view.

14. What will be the size of maps?
The map that was presented was 30 x 30 km or 35x35 km, I can't recall correctly. We don't plan to have maps bigger than 50x50 km. Actually we consider implementing some limits because right now you can just desert - hop into a tank and drive god knows where.

15. What will be the distance between tank spawn areas?

In current version I think its 2 km. We will work on that, it will depend on the speed of tanks and density of vegetation.

16. How long does it take to fly to the enemy airfield?

It depends on the airplane, 3 - 4 minutes on average.

Details on the tank trees will be released this Saturday (12th) and there will be dedicated channels on Twitch at 16:00 GMT to explain these.

Everything you need to know here and links here:  http://warthunder.com/en/news/292/current/


Notes:

Arty will always be highlighted on the map to allow attack by air forces nd reduce its effectiveness

Only scouts and light tanks will be able to call in arty strikes

Arty will fire ranging shots before the main salvo - this is to let tank drivers know they are being targeted and take evasive action

Arty will have limited shots per game

Player controlled vehicle WILL NOT be highlighted on the map to make detection harder by air forces

AAA will be introduced later but will come

New screen shots:

12/10 - USSR and German tank tech trees released

http://warthunder.com/upload/image/media/tanks/!ger_tank_tree_eng.jpg

http://warthunder.com/upload/image/media/tanks/!ussr_tank_tree_eng.jpg

Those tech trees look very weird, I wouldn't even touch it with a pointy stick.