The VCAC MEPHISTO is a French wheeled anti-tank destroyer, developed on the basis of an amphibious APC design in the late 1970s by the Renault company. Arriving in the top ranks of the French ground forces tree as part of the next major update, tankers will have the chance to take command of the nimble and no less deadly VCAC MEPHISTO!


Features:

• Powerful HOT missiles
  
• Excellent mobility
  
• Small profile
  
• Light protection

In War Thunder, the VCAC MEPHISTO will be a new wheeled anti-tank missile carrier arriving to the top ranks of the French ground forces tree as part of the next major update. Exceptionally mobile and equipped with a considerable number of deadly HOT missiles, the VCAC MEPHISTO is sure to mix things up for French tankers as it becomes the first tank hunter of its kind in this nation‘s research tree.

The VCAC MEPHISTO is based on the VBA VTT wheeled armored personnel carrier and as such, features superb mobility thanks to the vehicle‘s low weight of just 13.8 tons, a 220 horsepower diesel engine and all-wheel drive. All these factors combined allow the VCAC MEPHISTO to reach a top speed of up to 92 km/h on paved roads while its relatively good power-to-weight ratio enables the vehicle to conquer even less hospitable terrain types without greater struggle. Furthermore, the VCAC MEPHISTO also inherits its amphibious capabilities from the base APC chassis. As a result, the vehicle can cross even deep bodies of water at a maximum speed of around 13 km/h, thus giving its aspiring commanders more tactical options.



Once the VCAC MEPHISTO has maneuvered into position and has set its sights on hostile units, its commanders will have a four-barrelled, fully rotatable anti-tank missile launcher at their disposal to engage the enemy forces with. From the stock, commanders will have access to the HOT-1 missiles, followed by researchable modification of more capable HOT-2 ATGMs. Tankers should also not be worried about only having four missiles in the launcher as there‘s another eight spare ATGMs stored inside of the vehicle.



Naturally, being based on a light APC‘s chassis means that the VCAC MEPHISTO doesn‘t boast incredible protection characteristics. In fact, the vehicle‘s armor is only capable of shielding the crew and vehicle modules against rifle-caliber fire and shrapnel but fails to provide more substantial protection against more substantial threats such as autocannon fire or missile strikes. Therefore, instead of relying on the armor for protection, aspiring commanders of the VCAC MEPHISTO should take this matter into their own hands and utilize the chassis‘ excellent mobility to stay out of harm‘s way.



The VCAC MEPHISTO will soon arrive to rank VI of the French ground forces tree as part of the next major update, also becoming the first wheeled missile carrier to become available to French tankers in the game. In the meantime, stay tuned to the news to receive all the latest information about the upcoming update and some of the additions and features it will bring with it. Until then, happy hunting tankers!

In this digest we would like to tell you about our continuing work on improvements and fixes in the game.





We have already talked about the customization of suspended weaponry presets in the devblog. With the release of this update new features are now available for the Mirage F1C, Su-22UM3K, MiG-23MLA, https://wiki.warthunder.com/F-104S.ASA, J-8B, A-10A Thunderbolt II (early) and A-10A Thunderbolt II (late). For each suspended node you can select a different weaponry option from those already researched while taking into account the ammunition weight.

In total you can create up to 20 custom weapon presets. You can create and edit weapon variants in the hangar before a flight. In battle, you will be able to select between already created presets which will allow you to easily and quickly select before re-spawning using the most useful in the current situation the weaponry preset.





We are continuing to improve our game’s big new feature - the hard-kill active protection systems featured on the Challenger 2 Black Night and T-55AMD-1. We have doubled their repair speed in case you have damaged it in the battle and also speeded up by a quarter the replenishment time of the APS at captured points. And of course we have fixed some minor bugs like the icon of the APS replenishment staying on the screen after a death.





This issue might be faced by every pilot in battles of high ranked (and also very fast) aircraft. Markers! Such an important part of the game interface of the AB and RB modes sometimes behaves unpredictably - a marker for the enemy might appear only at close range or conversely can be displayed at a perfectly acceptable and correct distance.

We worked hard on this mechanic and now marker behaviour will become much more predictable. Even an inexperienced crew will spot the enemy at distances of 4 km and an experienced ace crew will surely spot the enemy and report it even from 8 km.

Also keep in mind tactical tricks: the crew sees the enemy better in the direction of its view and very poorly behind. Therefore “sneaking up” on some fighter from the rear hemisphere or preferably under his belly is still a great tactical trick.




We have fixed a bug that prevented aircraft missile seekers warm-up with the “Drop/launch” button, forcing you to activate your missiles with another button “Seeker lock-on”. All good now, seekers warm up easily with the same button you regularly use to unleash hell on your enemies.




The design of this lineup of the Swedish vehicles included an armoured bulkhead between the engine and the main combat compartment. It could cover against shrapnel but it didn’t work against overpressure mechanics. We have found the cause of the error and fixed it. Now such vehicles like Strv 103-0, Strv 103A and Strv 103С will feel a little more protected.


And only between players that use the Steam client, where it was simply impossible to delete a player from your friends list.

Well it’s not up to us to judge the reasons for breaking your friendship but now this feature works correctly.



For this digest we have prepared a large set of useful fixes and game improvements. Be sure to read the full list below - there are many interesting things.

Once again, many thanks for all your bug reports that you submitted using our special service.

• A bug has been fixed where the reload indicator of the hard-kill active protection remains after a respawn when a previous vehicle was destroyed while reloading the protection system rounds.
  
• Repair time of the hard-kill protection has been halved.
  
• Reload time of the hard-kill protection rounds has been reduced by 25%.
  
• Vickers Mk.7 — a bug has been fixed with overestimated repair time for optics.
  
• M50 — a bug has been fixed that resulted in overestimated recoil impulse of the recoilless rifles.
  
• Centauro I 120 — a bug has been fixed that resulted in overestimated recoil impulse of the 120mm main gun (report).
  
• Challenger 2 TES, Challenger 2 (2F) — the stabilizer has been added to the Enforcer Remote Weapon Station (report).
  
• Strv 103-0, Strv 103A, Strv 103С — a bug has been fixed that resulted in overpressure damage to the crew when the engine compartment is destroyed.
  
• Machbet — a bug has been fixed that prevented automatic range setup from laser rangefinder.
  
• AMX-10RC — a bug has been fixed where HUD indicated stabilizer mode is on when the vehicle lacks stabilizer.
  
• M4A3 (105) — calibre of the smoke round has been fixed (report).
  
• Search-and-track radars with plan position indicators now have 360 deg. lock-on capability. This option allows locking on target without moving a turret to its direction. This update is available for:
  
  
  • VEAK 40
    
  • Chieftain Marksman
    
  • AMX-30 DCA
    
  • ZSU-23-4
    
  • ZSU-37-2
• ZSU-23-4 — several radar modes have been added in 30° and 90° sectors. Actual radar features variable searching sector in 30…90° range.

• Kfir C.2, Mirage F1C, Su-22UM3K, MiG-23MLA, F-104S.ASA, J-8B, A-10A Thunderbolt II (early), A-10A Thunderbolt II (late) — custom weapon setups are now available.
  
• A bug has been fixed with AAM seeker warm-up by pressing the “drop/launch” button (report).
  
• A bug has been fixed that prevented SPI set in the air for aircraft with optical lock-on (e.g. MiG-27K, Jaguar GR.1A, etc.).
  
• AD-2 — a bug has been fixed that required the Tiny Tim modification to be researched for opening the 2,000 lbs bombs.

• Groza — firing angles over the ship’s bow have been corrected.
  
• Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen — firing angles have been corrected at the bow’s davits.
  
• IJN Ikoma — circulation angle has been reduced.
  
• IJN Syonan — the type of the main calibre guns have been corrected.

• Flickering of some objects (trees, etc) at high graphical settings have been fixed (report).
  
• A bug has been fixed that resulted in decals removal from vehicles by the application crash.
  
• A bug has been fixed that prevented removing friends from the friend list of the Steam version of the game.
  
• “Awards” button in the “Achievements” menu has become brighter.
  
• A bug has been fixed where icons and names of vehicles in local and server replays of the Realistic and Simulator battles were displayed only for players from the left column of the statistics chart.
  
• A bug has been fixed where enemy aircraft markers were displayed at shorter distances than stated in the crew skills.
  
• Position of the sun, moon and stars now correspond to the actual latitude/longitude.
  
• Time delay of placing marks on the minimap has been reduced from 30 to 1 second.

The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

• Battle chat is now available again for both teams. Please be advised: to avoid violations of the communication rules, there is a message send delay that is set equal to 30 seconds. We will continue to monitor the situation, and, if the number of violations in battle chat increases, we will have to disable it again.

The current provided update notes reflect the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates and fixes may be not listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving all the time and certain fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

We have another round of battle rating changes for May! Please view our forum thread to view the table and leave feedback.

View the changes here

Leave your feedback here

Meet the latest selection of historical decals that you can get for your vehicle until the 10th of June. You will be able to distinguish your vehicles in the battle with exclusive designs: the “Spitting Viper” for Israeli ground vehicles, the fearsome “Shark” for Chinese aircraft and also the moustached tiger, of course for German tanks.

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You can find these decals in the “Weeks latest” section in the customization tab, after which they will be available to their owners in the thematic sections of vehicle customization.

Tasks can be completed in vehicles of rank II-VII.

• The requirements for the decals may be checked in the “Weeks latest” section in vehicle customization or in the Achievements → Decals → Weeks latest.
  
• Tasks can be completed in random battles and events, except “Enduring Confrontation” and “Assault” missions.
  
• Decals received earlier have been temporarily moved to the section “Weeks latest” and will be moved later to the thematic sections.

Some of the decals were created by Colin 'Fenris' Muir, Jej 'CharlieFoxtrot' Ortiz, Ricardo "BlueBeta" Lo Verso and Branislav 'InkaL' Mirkov.

Previous decals have been moved to their respective sections for the appearance of vehicles:

• "Griffin" badge of VF-831, USS Antietam, 1951 → USA.
  
• Insignia of the 3rd S-Boote flotilla of Kriegsmarine, (S57) → Germany (fleet).
  
• "Ace of hearts'' personal emblem of G. A. Kogrushev, 168th IAP → USSR.
  
• Emblem of Guards Armoured Division, Great Britain → Britain (tanks).
  
• Emblem of 1st Tank District, Northern Army, JGSDF → Japan (tanks).
  
• "Stork" emblem of the 37o Stormo, Italian Air Force → Italy.
  
• Emblem of the 2/33 Savoie Reconnaissance Squadron, FAF → France.
  
• Emblem of the Armoured Battalion Norwegian Army → Neutral countries (tanks).
  
• Emblem of the Armoured Brigade Finnish Army → Neutral countries (tanks).
  
• Emblem of 107th Squadron, IAF → Israel.

• Dardo, VCC-80/30 — the incorrect animation of the HE-IT round on the info card has been fixed (report).
  
• FV102 Striker — armour penetration values on the info card have been corrected (report).
  
• 15 cm Pz.W.42 — armour penetration values on the info card have been corrected.
  
• T-80U, T-90A — targeting angles in the TKN-4 commander’s sight have been adjusted from -5/+10 to -20/+30 degrees. Source: Изделие 478Б. Техническое описание и инструкция по эксплуатации, 1985.
  
• LVT(A)(4) — the name of the vehicle on the info card has been corrected (report).
  
• Begleitpanzer 57 — the automatic loader has been added to the ATGM launcher (report).
  
• Т-72M2 Moderna — a bug has been fixed where a reload time was overestimated .
  
• Phòng không T-34, Phòng không T-34 (USSR) — different visibility values have been equalised, visibility of both vehicles are now set to 120% (report).
  
• IS-4M — AA machine gun is now controlled by the gunner.
  
• T29, T30, T34 — AA machine guns are now controlled by the gunner.
  
• Merkava Mk.4B — material and thickness of the spare tracks on the turret have been fixed.

• MiG-21S — a bug has been fixed where in some situations the texture of pylons remains on the detachment line while the pylons are detached.
  
• AD-2 / AD-4 (all versions) — icons of the 1,000 lbs bombs have been corrected in all weapon presets.
  
• S-13OF rocket — the weight has been corrected to 69 kg. Source: “Неуправляемая авиационная ракета С-13ОФ - Концерн «Калашников»”; and others

The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

• Fixed incorrect display of the real value of the "Bomb activation time (sec)", which could occur after switching the game difficulty mode.

The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

This is what Berlin champions look like! We present a special event version of the famous Soviet heavy tank! The tank, as well as unique decorations and decals, are waiting for seasoned tank commanders!


Score points in battles, open new stages and grab your prizes!



IS-2 №321, Rank IV, USSR, event vehicle

The image of the Soviet IS-2 heavy tank side number “white 321” is gathered from retro photographs of actual armored vehicles from the final stages of the war in Europe. Crushed fenders, wooden logs to surmount spring mud, crewmen quilted jackets, left from the winter, shell boxes, holdall bags tied to the hull and turret… the ‘weathered’ IS-2 went through many trials to face the final battle!










Each stage opens for 25,000 mission points and brings you a new reward.

Score mission points in random battles of rank III or above in Arcade, Realistic, or Simulator battles. See the score multiplier in the description of the mission, it depends on the gaming mode and maximum rank of the vehicles for the mission.

You may also score points in reward vehicles of ranks I-II achieved in special events. Such vehicles have event names in their info cards.

Stages change every two days at 11:00 GMT: May 13th, 15th, 17th, 19th, and 21st.

You may achieve rewards by a number of completed stages:

• For 1 stage: decal “321”
  
• For 2 stages: one of text decals
  
• For 3 stages: one of decorations
  
• For 4 stages: one of text decals
  
• For 5 stages: event tank IS-2 №321
  
• For 6 stages: one of decorations

In the tech tree, IS-2 №321 is located in the IS-2 group, USSR, rank IV.

Track your progress in the hangar by clicking your Nickname → Achievements → Legend of the Victory. If you don’t complete a stage in time, until May 25th you will be able to purchase the stage for Golden Eagles and achieve the rewards.

To celebrate the 77th anniversary of “Victory in Europe Day” we have prepared for you unique vehicles, discounts, decals and decorations!

From May 6th to 10th (11:00 GMT), take part in battles in War Thunder and get memorable rewards.

You can follow your progress by clicking on your nickname → Achievements → Victory Day.

Trophies are available in the in-game item store the purchase of which will bring you Allied weapon decorations or decals that you don’t already have. Decals are dedicated to three major Soviet war memorials: "{LINK REMOVED}Rear-front", “{LINK REMOVED}Warrior Liberator” and "{LINK REMOVED}Motherland". Decorations: {LINK REMOVED}Bren Mk II, {LINK REMOVED}ROKS-3 and {LINK REMOVED}M1 Garand.


Until May 9th (11:00 GMT), 30% discount on upgrades and allied vehicles as well as a 50% discount on premium accounts.

More details:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/236390/announcements/detail/3183492026704558993




From 11th to 23rd of May - take part in the “Legend of Victory” event and become an owner of decals and decorations as well as the IS-2 №321 event vehicle!

The image of the Soviet IS-2 heavy tank side number “white 321” is gathered from retro photographs of actual armored vehicles from the final stages of the war in Europe. Crushed fenders, wooden logs to surmount spring mud, crewmen quilted jackets, left from the winter, shell boxes, holdall bags tied to the hull and turret… the ‘weathered’ IS-2 went through many trials to face the final battle!

More details:
https://steamcommunity.com/games/236390/announcements/detail/3183492678622777377


Register now to take part in the “Victory” series of tournaments! Choose a tournament that suits you the most, play alone or join the team!

The total prize fund of the tournament series is 195.000 Golden Eagles. A decent result will also bring you an unique “Allies” decal!



“Allies” decal

May 6th

• 1х1 Air AB
  
• 1х1 Tanks RB

May 7th

• 1х1 Tanks AB (novice)
  
• 2x2 Tanks RB
  
• 1х1 Air SB
  
• 7x7 RB with markers

May 9th

• 1х1 Air RB
  
• 2x2 Tanks AB

May 10th

• 1х1 Naval RB
  
• 1х1 Tanks RB (novice)

May 11th

• 1х1 Air RB (novice)
  
• 1х1 Tanks AB

In this digest we would like to tell you about our continuing work on improvements and fixes in the game.





During the past week you’ve been trying out the new function that allows you to hide your nickname in battles and streams. Now it’s time to use your feedback as a basis for a few tweaks to the Privacy mode.

Some players didn’t realise that Privacy mode was enabled as soon as you entered your fake nickname, so we reworked it into a simple toggle switch. You also don’t have to think of a fake nickname anymore — now when you enable Privacy mode your name will be simply shown as “Player”.

When watching a client-side or server-side replay, both your nicknames will be shown: “Player” and your real one in brackets.





Over a dozen vehicles from the Centurion family are now much more agile when turning in place. Just as we did it with Shermans recently.

You can try it out already for yourself.





We’ve already implemented such a change in War Thunder, but back then it affected vehicles ranked V to VII. Now we’re doing the same thing: adjusting the size of view angle limitation for ground vehicle gunners, but this time it’s for vehicles ranked I to IV. To keep gunners comfortable, we have increased the field of view to match the reserve vehicles such as Pz.IIIE and BT-5.



For this digest we have prepared a large set of useful fixes and game improvements. Be sure to read the full list below - there are many interesting things.

Once again, many thanks for all your bug reports that you submitted using our special service.

• A bug has been fixed that prevented the maximum reverse speed stated in the manuals.
  
• Vignette of the gun sight has been reduced for rank I-IV vehicles, increasing the field of view for gunners.
  
• Type 87 RCV — sight magnification has been corrected from 2.7x-12.0x to х8 (report)
  
• Centurion (all versions) — pivot radius has been reduced.
  
• Jagdtiger — a bug has been fixed that prevented display of the armour values of the hull front upper and lower plates in the hangar.
  
• LAV-AD — armour piercing capabilities of the М247 rockets have been corrected for angled hits.
  
• Machbet — a bug has been fixed that prevents SAM launches when the commander is knocked out.
  
• Merkava Mk.4B, Merkava Mk.4M — a bug has been fixed that disabled blowout panels of the ammo rack located behind the turret.
  
• Merkava Mk.4B, Merkava Mk.4M — vertical targeting angles of the commander’s sight have been adjusted from -10…+20 to -20…+60 degrees; stabilisation of the commander’s sight has been added.
  
• T-72M2 Moderna — armour description of the turret has been corrected in xray mode.
  
• VT1-2, Begleitpanzer 57 — a bug has been fixed that prevented gun breech damage when the module is not shot through.
  
• Zachlam Tager — moved to rank IV. Research, purchase, repair and crew training costs have been changed correspondingly, as well as other economic values.

• MiG-23MLA — incorrect depletion order of countermeasures has been fixed, upper blocks now run first.
  
• Kfir C.2, Kfir C.7 — countermeasure ammo in each block has been increased from 16 to 18.
  
• Reset of the time fuse for bombs while changing game mode has been fixed.
  
• F.C.20 Bis — missing description of rounds of the same type has been corrected for “Armoured targets” and “Aerial targets” belts.

• PTF-7 — a bug has been fixed that prevented maximum speed declared in the operation manual.
  
• HMS Cadiz — year of modification has been corrected.

• You can now toggle the view of custom camos available on the Market in the vehicle customization menu. View offer displayed once for each camo, At the moment, the option is available for camos from the “Winds of change” trophy.
  
• A bug has been fixed where mouse sensitivity increased after enabling the option “Fix gun direction in mouse view”.
  
• Display of the grass at long distances has been improved (LOD settings have been corrected).
  
• Missing highlights of the vehicles' outlines have been fixed for SB replays.
  
• A bug has been fixed that disabled the “Invert axis” option for traverse and pitch axis on a weapon (report).
  
• Vehicles from the latest game events (Crafting event and the 5th season of the Battle Pass) that are available from the Market, have been added to the tech trees.

The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.