Commanders!

Today, we are introducing the first vehicle of our Legendary Reinforcements – the Type 99A2-140!



The Type 99A2-140 is an experimental version of the most advanced Chinese Main Battle Tank in existence – the Type 99A. Unlike its production counterpart, however, it is not armed with a 120mm smoothbore, but massive 140mm smoothbore cannon. This is a theoretical upgrade to the vehicle – while the People’s Republic of China was considering upgrading the firepower of its Main Battle Tanks to face latest western and Russian MBT models, a 140mm gun was never installed on this chassis and was only mentioned in passing by certain Chinese sources. Now, however, your enemies will have the opportunity to experience what such a vehicle with you in command would be like to face in battle!


Gallery:


















In Armored Warfare, the Type 99A2-140 is a rather unique Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank. It is essentially a version of the progression Type 99A2 Tier 10 MBT with one difference – the 140mm gun, trading its rate of fire for penetration and single shell damage. It is very fast and mobile (with its maximum speed being well over 90 km/h), protected by ERA and APS both and capable of using an acceleration-boosting active ability that pushes its engine far beyond the limits of common Main Battle Tanks. If used right, the vehicle is extremely deadly and one of the best Tier 10 MBTs on the battlefields of Armored Warfare.




What does the community think of the Type 99A2-140 Premium Main Battle Tank? Find out more:

Review by Terror5FDP:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q_fg_YLnxg

Review by the Gamestone blog:

• Link: http://aw.gamestone.pl/type-99a2-140-review/

Starting today, March 29, 2018, you have the opportunity for the duration of only 28 hours to obtain it by opening a special Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate!

There are several ways of obtaining these Loot Crates:

• Win 3 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive 2 free Type 99A2-140 Loot Crates
• Win in Armored Warfare Social Media events and tournaments
• Purchase the Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate in our Web Shop

Don’t miss the opportunity – after the 28 hours pass, this Loot Crate will not be available anymore for the near future and the vehicle will not be available by any other means either!

In the Web Shop, the Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate is available for 1 USD per piece in the following bundles:

• 2 Loot Crates
• 5 Loot Crates
• 11 Loot Crates (10% discount)
• 23 Loot Crates (15% discount)
• 50 Loot Crates (21% discount)
• 100 Loot Crates (31% discount)

Apart from a chance to receive the ultimate rare drop – the Type 99A2-140 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank, each Loot Crate contains a number of goodies. In fact, you are guaranteed to receive items of at least the value of the Loot Crate! For a mere 1 USD, the Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate offers you the chance to win one or more of the following items:

Unique Premium Vehicle

• Type 99A2-140 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank

Rare Premium Vehicles

• Sabre Tier 6 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle
• T-72 Victory Tier 4 Premium Main Battle Tank

Premium Vehicles

• M1134 Fox Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer
• Challenger 1 Wolf Tier 7 Premium Main Battle Tank
• Leopard 2AV Predator Tier 6 Premium Main Battle Tank
• BMD-4 Joker Tier 6 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle
• AMX-10P PAC 90 Merc Tier 4 Premium Tank Destroyer

Rare Commanders

• Aleksandr Cortez (universal commander, suitable especially for PvE)
• Kathryn Grey (MBT specialist commander, suitable especially for the front lines)
• Joshua Seagrove (TD specialist commander, suitable for sniping)

Gold

Gold is an Armored Warfare premium currency and can be spent to accelerate progress or to purchase Premium Vehicles within the game or in the Web Shop.

• 10.000 Gold
• 7.500 Gold
• 5.000 Gold
• 3.500 Gold
• 2.000 Gold
• 1.500 Gold
• 1.000 Gold
• 750 Gold
• 500 Gold
• 350 Gold
• 200 Gold
• 100 Gold

Premium Time

Premium Time accelerates the Armored Warfare progression by improving the Credit and Reputation income rates.

• 3650 days (yes, 10 years!)
• 365 days
• 180 days
• 90 days
• 30 days
• 7 days
• 3 days
• 1 day

Boosters

Boosters (or Boost Tokens) accelerate general progression for 12 hours each.

• 5 Platinum Armored Warfare 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Platinum Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Armored Warfare 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Drill Master 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Global Legend 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Intel 12-hour Boost Tokens

Insignia Tokens

Insignia Tokens are progression boosters that improve specific types of income for one battle.

• 10 Platinum Crew Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Commander Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Reputation Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Credits Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Global Reputation Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Crew Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Commander Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Reputation Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Credits Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Global Reputation Insignia tokens

Global Reputation

Global Reputation is a special type of Reputation that can be used on every vehicle, not just the one it was obtained on.

• 1.000.000 Global Reputation Points
• 750.000 Global Reputation Points
• 500.000 Global Reputation Points
• 250.000 Global Reputation Points
• 100.000 Global Reputation Points
• 50.000 Global Reputation Points
• 25.000 Global Reputation Points
• 15.000 Global Reputation Points
• 10.000 Global Reputation Points
• 7.500 Global Reputation Points

Please note:

• This offer starts on March 29 at 12:00 CEST (3 AM PDT)
• This offer ends on March 30 at 16:00 CEST (7 AM PDT)
• You can only obtain one item per loot section from a single Loot Crate (for example, 30 days of Premium Time and 100 Gold can be obtained from a single crate but 30 days of Premium Time and 7 days of Premium Time cannot)
• For the purpose of the rule above, Unique, Rare and standard Premium Vehicles count as a single section, allowing you to only receive a single Premium Vehicle of any type per Loot Crate
• Exceptions to the “Loot Crates are available only during one day” rule may include tournaments or other long-running community events
• Players who own a Premium vehicle and win it by opening a Loot Crate will instead receive its Compensation Value in Gold (Please note that the compensated Gold will arrive with a delay)
• Every bundle is delivered either to the EU server or to the NA server, based on your server selection

Enjoy the event and see you on the battlefield!

Commanders!

Today, we are introducing the first vehicle of our Legendary Reinforcements – the Type 99A2-140!



The Type 99A2-140 is an experimental version of the most advanced Chinese Main Battle Tank in existence – the Type 99A. Unlike its production counterpart, however, it is not armed with a 120mm smoothbore, but massive 140mm smoothbore cannon. This is a theoretical upgrade to the vehicle – while the People’s Republic of China was considering upgrading the firepower of its Main Battle Tanks to face latest western and Russian MBT models, a 140mm gun was never installed on this chassis and was only mentioned in passing by certain Chinese sources. Now, however, your enemies will have the opportunity to experience what such a vehicle with you in command would be like to face in battle!


Gallery:


















In Armored Warfare, the Type 99A2-140 is a rather unique Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank. It is essentially a version of the progression Type 99A2 Tier 10 MBT with one difference – the 140mm gun, trading its rate of fire for penetration and single shell damage. It is very fast and mobile (with its maximum speed being well over 90 km/h), protected by ERA and APS both and capable of using an acceleration-boosting active ability that pushes its engine far beyond the limits of common Main Battle Tanks. If used right, the vehicle is extremely deadly and one of the best Tier 10 MBTs on the battlefields of Armored Warfare.




What does the community think of the Type 99A2-140 Premium Main Battle Tank? Find out more:

Review by Terror5FDP:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q_fg_YLnxg

Review by the Gamestone blog:

• Link: http://aw.gamestone.pl/type-99a2-140-review/

Starting today, March 29, 2018, you have the opportunity for the duration of only 28 hours to obtain it by opening a special Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate!

There are several ways of obtaining these Loot Crates:

• Win 3 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive 2 free Type 99A2-140 Loot Crates
• Win in Armored Warfare Social Media events and tournaments
• Purchase the Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate in our Web Shop

Don’t miss the opportunity – after the 28 hours pass, this Loot Crate will not be available anymore for the near future and the vehicle will not be available by any other means either!

In the Web Shop, the Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate is available for 1 USD per piece in the following bundles:

• 2 Loot Crates
• 5 Loot Crates
• 11 Loot Crates (10% discount)
• 23 Loot Crates (15% discount)
• 50 Loot Crates (21% discount)
• 100 Loot Crates (31% discount)

Apart from a chance to receive the ultimate rare drop – the Type 99A2-140 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank, each Loot Crate contains a number of goodies. In fact, you are guaranteed to receive items of at least the value of the Loot Crate! For a mere 1 USD, the Type 99A2-140 Loot Crate offers you the chance to win one or more of the following items:

Unique Premium Vehicle

• Type 99A2-140 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank

Rare Premium Vehicles

• Sabre Tier 6 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle
• T-72 Victory Tier 4 Premium Main Battle Tank

Premium Vehicles

• M1134 Fox Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer
• Challenger 1 Wolf Tier 7 Premium Main Battle Tank
• Leopard 2AV Predator Tier 6 Premium Main Battle Tank
• BMD-4 Joker Tier 6 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle
• AMX-10P PAC 90 Merc Tier 4 Premium Tank Destroyer

Rare Commanders

• Aleksandr Cortez (universal commander, suitable especially for PvE)
• Kathryn Grey (MBT specialist commander, suitable especially for the front lines)
• Joshua Seagrove (TD specialist commander, suitable for sniping)

Gold

Gold is an Armored Warfare premium currency and can be spent to accelerate progress or to purchase Premium Vehicles within the game or in the Web Shop.

• 10.000 Gold
• 7.500 Gold
• 5.000 Gold
• 3.500 Gold
• 2.000 Gold
• 1.500 Gold
• 1.000 Gold
• 750 Gold
• 500 Gold
• 350 Gold
• 200 Gold
• 100 Gold

Premium Time

Premium Time accelerates the Armored Warfare progression by improving the Credit and Reputation income rates.

• 3650 days (yes, 10 years!)
• 365 days
• 180 days
• 90 days
• 30 days
• 7 days
• 3 days
• 1 day

Boosters

Boosters (or Boost Tokens) accelerate general progression for 12 hours each.

• 5 Platinum Armored Warfare 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Platinum Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Armored Warfare 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Battlefield Glory 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Drill Master 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Global Legend 12-hour Boost Tokens
• 5 Gold Intel 12-hour Boost Tokens

Insignia Tokens

Insignia Tokens are progression boosters that improve specific types of income for one battle.

• 10 Platinum Crew Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Commander Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Reputation Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Credits Insignia tokens
• 10 Platinum Global Reputation Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Crew Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Commander Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Reputation Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Credits Insignia tokens
• 10 Gold Global Reputation Insignia tokens

Global Reputation

Global Reputation is a special type of Reputation that can be used on every vehicle, not just the one it was obtained on.

• 1.000.000 Global Reputation Points
• 750.000 Global Reputation Points
• 500.000 Global Reputation Points
• 250.000 Global Reputation Points
• 100.000 Global Reputation Points
• 50.000 Global Reputation Points
• 25.000 Global Reputation Points
• 15.000 Global Reputation Points
• 10.000 Global Reputation Points
• 7.500 Global Reputation Points

Please note:

• This offer starts on March 29 at 12:00 CEST (3 AM PDT)
• This offer ends on March 30 at 16:00 CEST (7 AM PDT)
• You can only obtain one item per loot section from a single Loot Crate (for example, 30 days of Premium Time and 100 Gold can be obtained from a single crate but 30 days of Premium Time and 7 days of Premium Time cannot)
• For the purpose of the rule above, Unique, Rare and standard Premium Vehicles count as a single section, allowing you to only receive a single Premium Vehicle of any type per Loot Crate
• Exceptions to the “Loot Crates are available only during one day” rule may include tournaments or other long-running community events
• Players who own a Premium vehicle and win it by opening a Loot Crate will instead receive its Compensation Value in Gold (Please note that the compensated Gold will arrive with a delay)
• Every bundle is delivered either to the EU server or to the NA server, based on your server selection

Enjoy the event and see you on the battlefield!

On the 29th of March 2018, starting from 8:00 CEST (28th of March, 11 PM PDT for NA), the Open Beta servers will not be available for 4 hours due to the application of Hotfix 0.24.4495


 
 

• Corrected the Legendary Loot Crate Issues
• Fixed an issue where a portion of vehicle characteristics disappeared from the UI

On the 29th of March 2018, starting from 8:00 CEST (28th of March, 11 PM PDT for NA), the Open Beta servers will not be available for 4 hours due to the application of Hotfix 0.24.4495


 
 

• Corrected the Legendary Loot Crate Issues
• Fixed an issue where a portion of vehicle characteristics disappeared from the UI

Commanders!

Today, we’d like to tell you more about the balancing process in Armored Warfare.

Balancing the vehicle properties in order for them to match their role on the battlefield without becoming too strong or too weak is a delicate process that requires finesse because the goal is not to simply produce vehicles that are balanced, but also, and perhaps more importantly, diverse.



But first, let’s talk about the basic balancing principles:

• Advancing through Tiers, the vehicles should steadily improve but, at the same time, “stock” vehicles should not feel very weak compared to upgraded ones
• When balancing a vehicle, all the three main Armored Warfare modes (PvP, Global Operations and PvE) are taken into account (more on that later)
• Each class should have its role on the battlefield
• Each vehicle within a class should have an affinity to a certain role that should be sufficiently obvious and its parameters are optimized for this role (the Challenger is, for example, a typical “tanking” vehicle that’s designed to take a lot of punishment and to resist most of the shots thrown at it)
• While “universal” vehicles are allowed and are intentionally available (such vehicles make the game accessible to newer players), many vehicles are also intentionally tuned with specific (sometimes truly unique) abilities that allow then to utilize tactics other vehicles of the same class cannot use (for example, the ADAPTIV active camouflage of the PL-01). Mastering such vehicles gives advanced players a tremendous advantage in the situations the vehicle’s unique traits were designed for, encouraging the discovery of the game and the choice of the vehicle that fits that player’s playstyle
• New whole branches are generally balanced around the same playstyle (with the exception of unique vehicle dealers such as Oscar Faraday) and share a certain theme. The first vehicles of the branch should generally show the players the overall playstyle of the entire branch with the rest of the branch building upon those foundations (for example by adding more unique traits) and finishing with a rather unique vehicle on Tier 10
• Premium vehicles are not a requirement in Armored Warfare (as all standard vehicles earn enough Credits to advance through the Tiers comfortably) and do not necessarily have to be worse compared to the progression vehicles of the same Tier. They should, however, not be significantly better overall – pay to win is not the kind of experience we are looking for
• Vehicle balance is not a static element of the game. It constantly changes with the introduction of new vehicles and features. There is no such thing as “final balance”, it is an ongoing process where vehicle properties change with each patch to reflect the changes to each vehicle’s performance that we carefully track
• Vehicle balance does not exist in a vacuum – other game elements such as commanders (notably the commander overhaul) influence it significantly and are taking into account when deciding the future course of action in the balancing process

Battlefield diversity is one of the key elements of the entire balancing process. To put it simply, if all – for example – Main Battle Tanks were the same, the class would be perfectly balanced, but also very boring to play. Our approach is to introduce a number of unique elements to many vehicles that make them very special. Some of them are obvious at first glance – for example, the acceleration active ability for the Chinese Main Battle Tanks, others are not (improved ammunition racks for the Challenger), but these too influence the gameplay a lot.

When determining the performance of each vehicle (how “balanced” it is), we are using a complex analytic method that uses more than one hundred parameters, ranging from the most obvious ones (damage taken, damage dealt) to those not as obvious (the distance each vehicle travels in battle for example). The best known of these parameters is, naturally, the winrate – the percentage of victories in the overall amount of battles played, separated by modes. Since the players are familiar with this parameter, we’ll use it to demonstrate how we approach all parameters.

When looking at vehicle parameters, we also take into account the environment they exist in, most notably the players. As such, the parameters are not a single static number, but change in accordance to (for example) the skill of a player. The same vehicle will have a different winrate for a casual player than for a Top 100 player on a server. As a result, the winrate graph looks roughly like this:



The shape of the winrate curve is an indicator that the vehicle is going fine – or not. If the curve enters the yellow and red fields, this is the first (and the most basic) alarm that there is something wrong with the vehicle. If that happens, a thorough analysis takes place to determine what the cause of the problem is, but it’s worth noting that a deviation from the ideal curve (which runs through the center of the green zone) does not tell us what is wrong with the vehicle – it’s merely an indicator.

In other words, a broken winrate is not a reason for vehicle changes; it’s an indicator that some changes should perhaps take place. There are many special situations tied to this:

• A nominally “alright” winrate curve does not automatically mean that the vehicle is correctly balanced and doing alright
• Sometimes, even vehicles with a nominally “alright” winrate curve are adjusted to become more interesting based on player feedback
• Some changes are being made based on indicators that are not openly known to players (a typical example would be the shell pricing changes that are based on the average battle income of a vehicle)

The deeper we delve into the intricacies of vehicle balance, the less intuitive some issues and changes become. One example would be a popularity of a vehicle – the higher the popularity, the lower its average winrate. However, excessive popularity can also be a good initial indicator of a broken vehicle – as a result, a potentially overpowered vehicle might have an acceptable average winrate (which is why we compare the results to player winrate).

In some extreme cases, buffing a certain property of an already well performing vehicle might, in fact, reduce its winrate – for example, if a brawler tank (like the Soviet MBTs) receives a buff to a property that makes it more comfortable to fight with at close distances, its users become more confident and start deploying it in riskier situation.

When a vehicle is investigated based on a winrate alarm (or any other reason really), we take a look at the following parameters first:

• Average Reputation per battle
• Percentage of penetrations of the enemy’s armor by the investigated (separated by armor sectors and your shell types)
• Percentage of penetrations of the vehicle’s armor by enemy vehicles (separated by armor zones and enemy shell types)
• The ability to spot its enemies
• How stealthy the vehicle is (the ratio of shells fired in an unspotted state to those fired in a spotted one)
• How good a sniper the vehicle is (the ratio of shells fired at over 300 meters to those fired in total)
• Average survival time per battle and the percentage of battles survived

This generally gives us an idea regarding where to look for issues as we dig deeper into the vehicle’s performance.

But there’s two more elements to the entire balance equation – there are also the game modes.

When looking at vehicle performance, we take a look at how it performs in all three modes and balance the vehicle accordingly. Our goal is to make sure that each vehicle performs in each mode in an acceptable manner. The word “acceptable” is the key here – it does not mean that the vehicle should have perfectly balanced winrate at the same time in all three modes.

There are vehicles that perform well in PvP but are not really all that good in PvE (typically various fragile vehicles) or vice versa (typically “damage sponges” like the Challenger series). Our goal is not to make these vehicles perform well in all modes, but to make sure that they are not completely unusable in one mode.

And last but not least, there is the third element – the player feedback.

Contrary to popular belief, we actually take feedback very seriously. When taking a look at player reactions, we are aggregating the feedback from multiple sources (including the forums, the opinions of closed player focus test groups and social media) – what interests us the most are the general opinions on certain vehicles, such as “this tank is boring” or “I am having a hard time playing this vehicle” – such feedback is a good start for an investigation into vehicle’s performance and often results in balance changes.

Other good source of feedback are proposed features that the players would like to see on specific vehicles or even which vehicles to introduce next (but that is a topic for another time). As an example of this approach, we will be returning the 20mm automatic cannon to the VBL TOW – players will get to choose which weapon system to use.

In the future, we’ll let you know of our plans to introduce even more diversity and interesting gameplay features to Armored Warfare. The year 2018 in Armored Warfare is definitely going to be exciting!

We hope this article did shed some light on the balancing process and will see you on the battlefield!

Commanders!

Today, we’d like to tell you more about the balancing process in Armored Warfare.

Balancing the vehicle properties in order for them to match their role on the battlefield without becoming too strong or too weak is a delicate process that requires finesse because the goal is not to simply produce vehicles that are balanced, but also, and perhaps more importantly, diverse.



But first, let’s talk about the basic balancing principles:

• Advancing through Tiers, the vehicles should steadily improve but, at the same time, “stock” vehicles should not feel very weak compared to upgraded ones
• When balancing a vehicle, all the three main Armored Warfare modes (PvP, Global Operations and PvE) are taken into account (more on that later)
• Each class should have its role on the battlefield
• Each vehicle within a class should have an affinity to a certain role that should be sufficiently obvious and its parameters are optimized for this role (the Challenger is, for example, a typical “tanking” vehicle that’s designed to take a lot of punishment and to resist most of the shots thrown at it)
• While “universal” vehicles are allowed and are intentionally available (such vehicles make the game accessible to newer players), many vehicles are also intentionally tuned with specific (sometimes truly unique) abilities that allow then to utilize tactics other vehicles of the same class cannot use (for example, the ADAPTIV active camouflage of the PL-01). Mastering such vehicles gives advanced players a tremendous advantage in the situations the vehicle’s unique traits were designed for, encouraging the discovery of the game and the choice of the vehicle that fits that player’s playstyle
• New whole branches are generally balanced around the same playstyle (with the exception of unique vehicle dealers such as Oscar Faraday) and share a certain theme. The first vehicles of the branch should generally show the players the overall playstyle of the entire branch with the rest of the branch building upon those foundations (for example by adding more unique traits) and finishing with a rather unique vehicle on Tier 10
• Premium vehicles are not a requirement in Armored Warfare (as all standard vehicles earn enough Credits to advance through the Tiers comfortably) and do not necessarily have to be worse compared to the progression vehicles of the same Tier. They should, however, not be significantly better overall – pay to win is not the kind of experience we are looking for
• Vehicle balance is not a static element of the game. It constantly changes with the introduction of new vehicles and features. There is no such thing as “final balance”, it is an ongoing process where vehicle properties change with each patch to reflect the changes to each vehicle’s performance that we carefully track
• Vehicle balance does not exist in a vacuum – other game elements such as commanders (notably the commander overhaul) influence it significantly and are taking into account when deciding the future course of action in the balancing process

Battlefield diversity is one of the key elements of the entire balancing process. To put it simply, if all – for example – Main Battle Tanks were the same, the class would be perfectly balanced, but also very boring to play. Our approach is to introduce a number of unique elements to many vehicles that make them very special. Some of them are obvious at first glance – for example, the acceleration active ability for the Chinese Main Battle Tanks, others are not (improved ammunition racks for the Challenger), but these too influence the gameplay a lot.

When determining the performance of each vehicle (how “balanced” it is), we are using a complex analytic method that uses more than one hundred parameters, ranging from the most obvious ones (damage taken, damage dealt) to those not as obvious (the distance each vehicle travels in battle for example). The best known of these parameters is, naturally, the winrate – the percentage of victories in the overall amount of battles played, separated by modes. Since the players are familiar with this parameter, we’ll use it to demonstrate how we approach all parameters.

When looking at vehicle parameters, we also take into account the environment they exist in, most notably the players. As such, the parameters are not a single static number, but change in accordance to (for example) the skill of a player. The same vehicle will have a different winrate for a casual player than for a Top 100 player on a server. As a result, the winrate graph looks roughly like this:



The shape of the winrate curve is an indicator that the vehicle is going fine – or not. If the curve enters the yellow and red fields, this is the first (and the most basic) alarm that there is something wrong with the vehicle. If that happens, a thorough analysis takes place to determine what the cause of the problem is, but it’s worth noting that a deviation from the ideal curve (which runs through the center of the green zone) does not tell us what is wrong with the vehicle – it’s merely an indicator.

In other words, a broken winrate is not a reason for vehicle changes; it’s an indicator that some changes should perhaps take place. There are many special situations tied to this:

• A nominally “alright” winrate curve does not automatically mean that the vehicle is correctly balanced and doing alright
• Sometimes, even vehicles with a nominally “alright” winrate curve are adjusted to become more interesting based on player feedback
• Some changes are being made based on indicators that are not openly known to players (a typical example would be the shell pricing changes that are based on the average battle income of a vehicle)

The deeper we delve into the intricacies of vehicle balance, the less intuitive some issues and changes become. One example would be a popularity of a vehicle – the higher the popularity, the lower its average winrate. However, excessive popularity can also be a good initial indicator of a broken vehicle – as a result, a potentially overpowered vehicle might have an acceptable average winrate (which is why we compare the results to player winrate).

In some extreme cases, buffing a certain property of an already well performing vehicle might, in fact, reduce its winrate – for example, if a brawler tank (like the Soviet MBTs) receives a buff to a property that makes it more comfortable to fight with at close distances, its users become more confident and start deploying it in riskier situation.

When a vehicle is investigated based on a winrate alarm (or any other reason really), we take a look at the following parameters first:

• Average Reputation per battle
• Percentage of penetrations of the enemy’s armor by the investigated (separated by armor sectors and your shell types)
• Percentage of penetrations of the vehicle’s armor by enemy vehicles (separated by armor zones and enemy shell types)
• The ability to spot its enemies
• How stealthy the vehicle is (the ratio of shells fired in an unspotted state to those fired in a spotted one)
• How good a sniper the vehicle is (the ratio of shells fired at over 300 meters to those fired in total)
• Average survival time per battle and the percentage of battles survived

This generally gives us an idea regarding where to look for issues as we dig deeper into the vehicle’s performance.

But there’s two more elements to the entire balance equation – there are also the game modes.

When looking at vehicle performance, we take a look at how it performs in all three modes and balance the vehicle accordingly. Our goal is to make sure that each vehicle performs in each mode in an acceptable manner. The word “acceptable” is the key here – it does not mean that the vehicle should have perfectly balanced winrate at the same time in all three modes.

There are vehicles that perform well in PvP but are not really all that good in PvE (typically various fragile vehicles) or vice versa (typically “damage sponges” like the Challenger series). Our goal is not to make these vehicles perform well in all modes, but to make sure that they are not completely unusable in one mode.

And last but not least, there is the third element – the player feedback.

Contrary to popular belief, we actually take feedback very seriously. When taking a look at player reactions, we are aggregating the feedback from multiple sources (including the forums, the opinions of closed player focus test groups and social media) – what interests us the most are the general opinions on certain vehicles, such as “this tank is boring” or “I am having a hard time playing this vehicle” – such feedback is a good start for an investigation into vehicle’s performance and often results in balance changes.

Other good source of feedback are proposed features that the players would like to see on specific vehicles or even which vehicles to introduce next (but that is a topic for another time). As an example of this approach, we will be returning the 20mm automatic cannon to the VBL TOW – players will get to choose which weapon system to use.

In the future, we’ll let you know of our plans to introduce even more diversity and interesting gameplay features to Armored Warfare. The year 2018 in Armored Warfare is definitely going to be exciting!

We hope this article did shed some light on the balancing process and will see you on the battlefield!

On the 27th of March 2018, starting from 8:00 CEST (26th of March, 11 PM PDT for NA), the Open Beta servers will not be available for 4 hours due to the application of Hotfix 0.24.4484


 
 

General Changes and Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused “match failed” errors and players stuck in mode queue
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to crash straight after the game launch
• Fixed an issue that caused camouflages and colors to disappear in the Garage
• Fixed an issue that caused a game freeze when switching between different windows
• Fixed the incorrect HE damage versus unmanned turrets
• The PvP AI opponents at low tiers now have names based on those from the My.com name contest
• Special Operations – “boss” (named) AI vehicle performance buffed
• Destroyed player vehicles can no longer trigger Special Operations and PvE Mission events (for example by being located in a certain area)

Caribbean Crisis Chapter 4

We rebalanced the last Caribbean Crisis chain mission to improve the experience and make it a bit easier:

• Changed the number and placing of enemy vehicles on Insane difficulty
• The repair point now also fixes broken modules (instead of just reloading ammunition)

Vehicle Changes

• Sprut-SD – the vehicle now only loses less speed when turning while going fast
• EE-18 Sucuri II – the vehicle now has the Ready Rack mechanism
• EE-18 Sucuri II – reload time between shots when the Ready Rack is spent reduced from 12s to 8.5s
• EE-18 Sucuri II – rate of fire increased from 10 to 11 rounds per minute
• EE-18 Sucuri II – shell muzzle velocity increased approximately by 40 percent
• EE-18 Sucuri II – fixed the suspension animation
• Rooikat 76 – fixed the suspension animation
• Rooikat 76 – fixed a number of visual model issues
• NM142 – the BGM-71F guided missile now ignores unmanned turret and hatch damage reduction modifiers
• ASCOD LT-105 – fixed an issue where it was impossible to deal any damage to the LPT turret

Map Changes

• Ghost Field – fixed an issue where the map was missing the fog effect
• Roughneck – fixed the missing snow storm effect on low settings

User Interface

• Fixed a bug where players could switch shell type in the Tutorial mode during the first countdown
• Fixed the missing APS sound effect
• Hidden achievements will now be displayed in player’s Dossier (Achievement section)
• Global Operation repair point icons and timers will now be displayed above vehicles
• Fixed a number of issues in the Garage vehicle filters
• Removed the “sell gun” button for the XM1A3, Object 187 and ASCOD LT-105 (LPT turret)
• Fixed an issue that could lead to the match result window displaying in the Garage incorrectly when pressing F2 (UI disabled) before a post-battle cutscene

On the 27th of March 2018, starting from 8:00 CEST (26th of March, 11 PM PDT for NA), the Open Beta servers will not be available for 4 hours due to the application of Hotfix 0.24.4484


 
 

General Changes and Fixes

• Fixed an issue that caused “match failed” errors and players stuck in mode queue
• Fixed an issue that caused the game to crash straight after the game launch
• Fixed an issue that caused camouflages and colors to disappear in the Garage
• Fixed an issue that caused a game freeze when switching between different windows
• Fixed the incorrect HE damage versus unmanned turrets
• The PvP AI opponents at low tiers now have names based on those from the My.com name contest
• Special Operations – “boss” (named) AI vehicle performance buffed
• Destroyed player vehicles can no longer trigger Special Operations and PvE Mission events (for example by being located in a certain area)

Caribbean Crisis Chapter 4

We rebalanced the last Caribbean Crisis chain mission to improve the experience and make it a bit easier:

• Changed the number and placing of enemy vehicles on Insane difficulty
• The repair point now also fixes broken modules (instead of just reloading ammunition)

Vehicle Changes

• Sprut-SD – the vehicle now only loses less speed when turning while going fast
• EE-18 Sucuri II – the vehicle now has the Ready Rack mechanism
• EE-18 Sucuri II – reload time between shots when the Ready Rack is spent reduced from 12s to 8.5s
• EE-18 Sucuri II – rate of fire increased from 10 to 11 rounds per minute
• EE-18 Sucuri II – shell muzzle velocity increased approximately by 40 percent
• EE-18 Sucuri II – fixed the suspension animation
• Rooikat 76 – fixed the suspension animation
• Rooikat 76 – fixed a number of visual model issues
• NM142 – the BGM-71F guided missile now ignores unmanned turret and hatch damage reduction modifiers
• ASCOD LT-105 – fixed an issue where it was impossible to deal any damage to the LPT turret

Map Changes

• Ghost Field – fixed an issue where the map was missing the fog effect
• Roughneck – fixed the missing snow storm effect on low settings

User Interface

• Fixed a bug where players could switch shell type in the Tutorial mode during the first countdown
• Fixed the missing APS sound effect
• Hidden achievements will now be displayed in player’s Dossier (Achievement section)
• Global Operation repair point icons and timers will now be displayed above vehicles
• Fixed a number of issues in the Garage vehicle filters
• Removed the “sell gun” button for the XM1A3, Object 187 and ASCOD LT-105 (LPT turret)
• Fixed an issue that could lead to the match result window displaying in the Garage incorrectly when pressing F2 (UI disabled) before a post-battle cutscene

Commanders!

The concept of Fair Play is an important part of every competitive game – Armored Warfare included! To play fair is to not cheat, to not use exploits, to represent your Battalion colors with honor, to be humble in victory and graceful in defeat.



To celebrate Fair Play, we’ve prepared several missions for you!

Between March 23 and March 26, 2018, the following bonus and missions will be active:

• 100% bonus to Crew Experience income
• Win 1 battle in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive a “Fair Play Badge“ decal
• Win 3 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive 2 Gold Loot Crates
• Win 5 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive a “Fair Play Badge 2” decal
• Win 7 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive 2 Platinum Loot Crates

Fair Play Badge



Fair Play Badge 2



Please note:

• This event starts on March 23, 16:00 CET (8 AM PDT)
• This event ends on March 26, 16:00 CEST (7 AM PDT)

Enjoy this event and will see you on the battlefield!

Commanders!

The concept of Fair Play is an important part of every competitive game – Armored Warfare included! To play fair is to not cheat, to not use exploits, to represent your Battalion colors with honor, to be humble in victory and graceful in defeat.



To celebrate Fair Play, we’ve prepared several missions for you!

Between March 23 and March 26, 2018, the following bonus and missions will be active:

• 100% bonus to Crew Experience income
• Win 1 battle in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive a “Fair Play Badge“ decal
• Win 3 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive 2 Gold Loot Crates
• Win 5 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive a “Fair Play Badge 2” decal
• Win 7 battles in PvP, Global Operations or Special Operations to receive 2 Platinum Loot Crates

Fair Play Badge



Fair Play Badge 2



Please note:

• This event starts on March 23, 16:00 CET (8 AM PDT)
• This event ends on March 26, 16:00 CEST (7 AM PDT)

Enjoy this event and will see you on the battlefield!