Apr 20, 2021

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

Today, we’d like to tell you more about a Turkish skin for the Sabra Mk.2 Tier 7 Premium Main Battle Tank that we call simply M60T.

The M60T is the official Turkish service designation for the Sabra Mk.2 MBT. The Israeli Sabra Mk.2 was developed as an upgrade kit for the aging Turkish M60A1 and M60A3 series Patton tanks in the early 21st century. Its main features include a new 120mm IMI M253 smoothbore gun replacing the old M68, and a brand new set of additional NERA armor, significantly improving the tank’s protection. Between 2006 and 2010, Israel delivered 170 of these vehicles to Turkey and they are of course still in service. You can read more about the history of this vehicle in our dedicated article.

First and foremost, in order to make the skin look as realistic as possible, we’ve substantially improved the model of our existing Sabra Mk.2 MBT. Many smaller and bigger adjustments have been made, from such tiny elements as various rivets and handles to a full re-model of this vehicle’s mantlet and a comprehensive texture upgrade. This is a change every Sabra Mk.2 owner will benefit from.

The M60T skin itself is based on the Sabra MBTs that participated in the Turkish incursion into Syria in October 2019 (Operation Peace Spring). We started with a vehicle that bears the standard NATO camouflage, which is used during peacetime along with standard markings, such as the frontal and rear vehicle number.

For the operation, the numbers were partially covered by green canvas but, more importantly, the entire vehicle was camouflaged by clay common to the north-Syrian region. This is quite a common tactic that was widely used for the vehicles hastily moved to the front. Note how the original color shines through at some places. The muzzle of the barrel was not dirtied this way in order for no dirt to get inside.

The rear of the vehicle has been upgraded as well with the rear turret trays left in their original color in order not to dirty the crew’s possessions stored inside.

The top of the turret was improved as well and small Turkish pennants are now attached to this vehicle’s antennae.

In real life, the Sabras didn’t do exactly well during the conflict. Despite only facing scattered opposition, the Turks lost a certain number of these tanks, mostly to guided missiles. At least 4 to 5 M60T tanks were lost in combat, although some sites claim three times that number. It’s worth noting though that the Turkish Leopard 2A4 MBTs fared even worse.

The passive protection levels of both vehicles are currently deemed insufficient against modern ATGM threats, which is why both tanks are being upgraded with hard-kill APS. However, that’s not a part of this skin.

In Armored Warfare, the Sabra is a highly useful and well-armed tank. We hope that you’ll enjoy the opportunity to give your Sabra the proper military look it deserves.

See you on the battlefield!

Apr 17, 2021

In Development: SU-152 Taran

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

Since the launch of the last Battle Path, we’ve had a series of new Soviet or Russian vehicles coming to the game. Today, we’d like to tell you more about the last one – at least for a while. Whenever we ask you about the introduction of new machines, it’s one of the most requested vehicles across the board – we are, of course, talking about Object 120, better known under the name SU-152 Taran.

For its time, the project was fairly anachronistic. The design work on the Object 120 began in 1957, back when the ATGMs were becoming a thing. At that time, the general belief of the Soviet designers was that the tank killing role on the battlefield would be undertaken by guided missiles. This led to the development of a series of ATGM-based Tank Destroyers. While these dedicated tank killers would eventually mostly end up as failures, the ATGM development would continue, resulting most notably in the heavily armed BMP and BMD class of vehicles.

But, back in the mid-1950s, the old guard still had a say in what the future Soviet Tank Destroyer should look like. There were some officers, who didn’t exactly share Nikita Khrushchev’s vision of ATGM-dominated battlefield and it was just enough to justify the development of one of the last gun-armed tank destroyer projects.

The thing was, at that time, the Tank Destroyer class was intended to be used at distances of over 2000 meters. In other words, in order to defeat even the envisaged future western tanks, the gun would have to be extremely powerful. To achieve just that, the Taran development program was launched –primarily to develop such a weapon, and secondarily to install it on a suitable platform.

The OKB-3 design bureau was chosen as the main developer for the program with SKB-172 in Perm being responsible for the development of the gun, and the NII-24 institute from Moscow being responsible for ammunition. Two calibers were considered for the project – 130mm and 152mm (the 130mm caliber was an old naval one, so it was not all that unusual). Accordingly, two different weapons were developed in 1958 – a 130mm rifled cannon with the factory designation of M-68, and a 152mm smoothbore cannon designated M-69.

The rifled variant fired a 9kg sub-caliber shell at 1800 m/s and could penetrate 360mm of armor at 1km (or 165mm of armor angled 60 degrees at 1km). The smoothbore variant fired an 11.5kg shell at 1720 m/s and could penetrate 370mm of armor at 1km (or 179mm of armor angled 60 degrees at 1km). Both guns were tested and the M-69 smoothbore gun was in the end chosen as the winner, also because it could fire a HEAT shell as well as a kinetic one.

In the January of 1960, two gun prototypes were sent to Ekaterinburg to be mounted onto a new platform. The platform consisted of a steel-only, relatively lightly armored chassis and a massive turret. The whole vehicle had a crew of four and weighed some 30 tons. The chassis of the vehicle was actually based on a much older design, the SU-152P, which was a failed Uraltransmash self-propelled gun prototype from the late 1940s. The SU-152P, in turn, was based on another design called SU-100P. The suspension was not derived from some older existing WW2 design and is said to have offered excellent maneuverability and off-road properties.

The armor of SU-152 Taran was steel only and its frontal hull plate was only 30mm strong. Overall, the vehicle was built withstand 57mm armor-piercing fire frontally, but not anything more powerful. That’s only logical – this vehicle was supposed to engage the enemy at over 2 kilometers. One has to take into the account that the late 1950s were the era of optical rangefinders and very limited situational awareness (and therefore limited ability to respond). In short, thin armor was quite sufficient.

As was stated above, the main weapon of the vehicle was the 152mm M-69 smoothbore cannon. The gun was fitted with a fume extractor and a muzzle brake. It fired two-piece ammunition of the following types:

AP (sub-caliber) shell (370mm penetration at 1km, 340mm at 2km and 320mm at 3km)
HEAT shell of unknown properties
HE shell weighing 43.5kg

While the kinetic penetration values may not seem like much in 2021, they were more than enough to deal with the Patton series of tanks of the time.

Interestingly enough, the gun used three types of charges – one for the kinetic shells (9.8 kg) and two for HE shells (10.7kg and 3.5kg respectively). The gun was loaded manually by the loader from an ammo rack located at the back of the turret, in the bustle. As a result, the rate of fire was relatively low (2 rounds per 20 seconds on average). The vehicle carried 22 shells and charges. The gun was sufficiently accurate at approximately 2km when firing at a 2m tall target, and at 2.5km when firing at a 3m tall target. It could elevate to +15 degrees and depress to -5 degrees.

And, finally, the mobility was provided by the 400hp 38.88 liter 12-cylinder V-54-105 diesel engine. This was a modified variant of the mass-produced engine used in the T-54 series of tanks, with improved cooling and longer lifespan. This engine allowed for a maximum speed of 63.4 km/h.

In the end, the Taran would end up as a direct competition to the IT-1 Tank Destroyer. Compared to the IT-1, the Taran offered a number of advantages:

No minimum range (IT-1’s Drakon missiles could not be used at 300m or less)
Higher rate of fire (could reach 6 rounds per minute, compared to IT-1’s 2.5 launches per minute)
Slightly higher maximum range (3500m compared to IT-1’s 3300m)
More ammunition carried (22 rounds compared to IT-1’s 15 missiles)
Lower gunner workload (which corresponded to the T-62 tank and was 2.3 times lower than that of IT-1’s missile operator) while keeping the hit probability at 2.5 to 2.7 roughly the same

However, there were some disadvantages as well. Most notably:

Considerably thinner armor than that of the IT-1 (even though this did not realistically play a role at the distances of 2km or more)
Considerably lower shell penetration than that of the Drakon ATGM

The latter wasn’t really an issue either – the 152mm Taran gun was more than capable of defeating any NATO tank in service at that point, even at its maximum range. What was an issue, on the other hand, was the zeitgeist. By 1960, the development of modern ATGMs was just beginning while oldschool guns like the M-69 were considered a thing of the past. The Taran, while powerful, was considered having little to offer compared to the generation of the ATGMs that would come after the Drakon. As a result, the project was cancelled in 1960 in favor of further IT-1 development. The single Taran prototype that was built was moved to the tank museum in Kubinka, where it rests to this day.

In Armored Warfare, the SU-152 Taran will be a Tier 5 Premium Tank Destroyer, which will be obtainable for free during an upcoming event.

But before we get into any details, the usual disclaimer:

The numbers below are very preliminary as the vehicle has not been properly tested. They are sure to change and should only be discussed as an indicator of how we’d like to set the vehicle up.

With that being said:

Gameplay-wise, this will be a classic gun-armed Tank Destroyer with excellent penetration and damage per shot values, but quite long reload time (10 seconds). It’ll be able to fire two types of shells, just like in real life:

Kinetic (380mm penetration, 730 damage per shot, 1350 m/s)
HE (50mm penetration, 975 damage per shot, 800 m/s)

We’re therefore looking at some 4380 DPM with the kinetic shell type and 5850 with HE. In other words, each shot of this vehicle will be extremely destructive. Please note that, unlike in real life, this vehicle will not be able to fire a HEAT round for balance reasons.

The rest of the parameters will, on the other hand, not be all that great. The armor will only be very basic (enough to withstand autocannons and machineguns) while the mobility will be average at best with the maximum speed of 63.4 km/h and the acceleration from 0 to 32 km/h of 5.89s. Finally, there are the average viewrange (390m) and camouflage values (29 percent).

In summation, this vehicle will be the avatar of peek-a-boom tactics, where you take a position, fire and immediately retreat to take cover, because every shot will expose you to the enemy, which is something you can’t survive due to your thin armor. Your mobility will allow you to successfully (if a bit slowly) move from flank to flank, but not to outrun or outmaneuver faster classes. Please do keep in mind that this will not be a speedy vehicle.

Any close combat is, of course, a death sentence – this is strictly a second line vehicle, intended to support MBT assaults with its devastating fire. As a result, due to its nature, the Taran will only reach its true potential in skilled player hands.

We are also working on a special skin for the Taran, which will also be available during an upcoming in-game event.

We hope that you will enjoy the vehicle and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Apr 15, 2021

Offer: Western Firepower

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

This week, we’ve prepared another set of attractive items for you:

Panzer 87-140 Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank
Abrams AGDS Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer
Leclerc T40 Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer
Leopard Revolution Tier 8 Premium Main Battle Tank
Marder 2 Tier 8 Premium Armored Fighting Vehicle
WWO Wilk Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer
ASCOD LT-105 Tier 8 Premium Light Tank
Iron Crate (this time with Enigma's Legacy vehicles, including the Type 10 MBT)

Between April 15 and April 22, 2021, the following items will be available:

Panzer 87-140

The Panzer 87-140 is an experimental version of Panzer 87 (Swiss Leopard 2A4), fitted with a RUAG 140mm smoothbore cannon and an armor kit called WE. It was developed in the 1980s and early 1990s to counter the next generation of Soviet MBTs, but with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the project was shelved, only to resurface around 2005-2006 but never passing the experimental stage. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Panzer 87-140 is a Tier 10 Premium Main Battle Tank. Much like other Leopard series MBTs, it’s a long-range fighter with an extremely powerful gun and the ability to fire with pinpoint accuracy. Even though its armor leaves much to be desired, at long range, this MBT has few equals and can be considered one of the best snipers of its class.

The Panzer 87-140 Tier 10 Premium MBT is available in our Web Shop via Loot Crates. Collect 100 blueprint pieces from these crates to obtain the vehicle.

Abrams AGDS

The Abrams AGDS (Armored Ground Defense System) was a vehicle concept and proposal, drafted in July 1996 by Dr. Asher H. Sharoni (a former colonel in the Israeli Defense Forces) and Lawrence D. Bacon from a Californian company called Western Design Howden. It was supposed to be an air-defense vehicle, protecting the Abrams formations against flying threats, although its weaponry can be deployed against ground targets as well. The United States were, at the time, sorely lacking a vehicle comparable to the Russian Shilka and one of the ideas was to use the Abrams chassis paired with a new turret to produce an armored AA gun that would be able to keep up with the American tank units. This plan was never realized and the vehicle stayed only on paper but you can play the Abrams AGDS in Armored Warfare and experience what it would have been like, had it ever been deployed.

In Armored Warfare, the Abrams AGDS is a very unique Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer. What makes it so special are its two large guided missile launchers capable of firing an incredibly devastating volley within seconds. The AGDS can devastate practically every opponent on the battlefield with a single salvo, making it one of the best and most effective mid-to-long range vehicles in the game. At close ranges, it can rely on excellent frontal turret protection and its two 35mm autocannons to keep enemies at bay until the missile launcher reloads to unleash another deadly swarm of missiles. The Abrams AGDS is one of the most feared vehicles in Armored Warfare!

Leclerc T40

Sometimes called the French Terminator, this vehicle was designed on the Leclerc MBT chassis with one purpose in mind – to accompany tanks and fight off infantry attacks the same way as the Russian BMPT series does. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Leclerc T40 is a Tier 9 Premium Tank Destroyer. It offers you a combination of a durable hull, rapid-fire 40mm automatic cannon and, most importantly, the Javelin missile system. Simply right-click the target, wait until it becomes locket and fire the Javelin ATGM – it will home itself on the target, attacking its weak roof armor. Thanks to this ability, the Leclerc T40 is one of the most destructive vehicles in the game.

Leopard 2 Revolution

The Leopard 2 Revolution is a continuation of the older Evolution upgrade, intended to improve the performance of the older variants of the Leopard 2 Main Battle Tank in order to make it excel even on the battlefields of the 21st century. The improvements include a comprehensive armor upgrade, ROSY soft-kill APS and smoke grenade launchers as well as an entire suite of cutting edge electronics. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Leopard 2 Revolution is a Tier 8 Main Battle Tank. It is not only well-armored, it also features an extremely accurate 120mm gun with advanced ammunition, allowing it to destroy its opponents at very long ranges, rivaling those of Tank Destroyers. The German tanks in general perform best at longer ranges and the Revolution is no exception.

Marder 2

The Marder 2 was an experimental German IFV, developed in the late 1980s to replace the aging Marder IFV. It featured more armor, a new turret and a brand-new Rheinmetall dual-caliber autocannon that could fire both 35mm and 50mm rounds. Despite its qualities, the vehicle was never accepted in service due to its high cost and because it was no longer needed because of the fall of the Soviet Union. A single surviving prototype can be found today in the Koblenz military collection. You can read more about it in our dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the Marder 2 is a Tier 8 Armored Fighting Vehicle. With its 44 tons, it’s one of the heaviest and toughest AFVs around. Unlike many other AFVs of its Tier, it is not armed with guided missiles, relying instead on its extremely powerful 50mm autocannon. This vehicle can also deploy Mechanized Infantry.

WWO Wilk

The WWO Wilk is the second Polish vehicle of Armored Warfare named after the ferocious pack animal. It is a fire support variant of the Rosomak, replacing the original IFV turret with the Cockerill CT-CV one, armed with a 105mm gun. A prototype of this vehicle was built and tested in 2012. After passing the tests, it was offered to the Polish Armed Forces but failed to catch its attention despite the excellent trial results. You can learn more about its history in our dedicated article!

In Armored Warfare, the WWO Wilk is a Tier 8 Tank Destroyer. A lower tier counterpart to the existing progression vehicle Wilk XC8, its mobility is comparable to other vehicles using the Rosomak platform, while its 105mm gun firepower allows it to compete with such vehicles as the American Stryker.

ASCOD LT-105

If there was a word best describing the ASCOD platform, it would be the word “international”. It was developed by the Austrians and the Spanish, adopted by the British and available with a wide range of turrets. The joint project from 1988 eventually led to a number of vehicles using the ASCOD platform, the two best-known results of which are the Austrian Ulan IFV and the Spanish Pizarro IFV. The ASCOD LT-105 was a fire support variant of the platform, offered with pretty much any turret a customer would like, including those from B1 Centauro, M1128 MGS or even a South-African one by Denel. However, after two decades of not having to found any customers, the project was terminated and by 2015-2016, it was removed from all official offers. You can learn more about it in a dedicated article.

In Armored Warfare, the ASCOD LT-105 is a Tier 8 Premium Light Tank. It is fairly unique in one aspect. It is possible to select one of the two turrets: the manned Denel turret with the GT7 gun or the Low-Profile Turret by General Dynamics with the M68 gun, known from the M1128. The first turret has better kinetic shells but fires in a normal manner, while the latter has a clip-style autoloader, balanced by worse overall characteristics of the gun.

Iron Crate

We’ve prepared for you an additional offer this week. Between April 15 and 22, 2021, the Iron Crate will be available on MY.GAMES Market with 50% discount!

The mechanics are very simple. This crate allows you to win one of the vehicles listed in its description (or its value in Gold if you have it already). The crate contains some very rare vehicles, including:

Type 10 Tier 10 Premium MBT
Hunter Tier 9 Premium AFV
Pindad SBS Tier 8 Premium AFV
Seon'gun-915 Tier 6 Premium MBT
Type 74 Tier 5 Premium MBT

For a full list, please visit the MY.GAMES Market Iron Crate page.

We hope that you will enjoy the offer and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!

Apr 15, 2021

The Desert Storm Raid is now available!

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

The Desert Storm Raid is now available. This month-long event will put you into the role of a raider, conquering the territory represented by a map but unlike the last time, you’ll be able to follow the footsteps of Operation Desert Storm around the city of Basra and win four amazing historically-appropriate skins for the vehicles that participated in the operation back in 1991.

You can access the event by:

Completing 10 Contract Missions
Purchasing access for 499 Gold (click on the Raid icon in your Garage)

But, compared to the last time, we’ve decided to upgrade the event a bit. No matter how you obtain the access, upon obtaining it, you’ll also receive the T-72M1 Tier 5 Premium MBT for free! This Premium variant of the T-72A features powerful frontal armor that is, despite the lack of an ERA kit, more than capable of withstanding most enemy fire. Its powerful 125mm gun will make short work of anything on the battlefield.

Aside from this, four main rewards in the form of epic skins await you:

Asad Babil skin for the T-72M1 Tier 5 Main Battle Tank – the T-72M1 MBT was the best tank in Iraqi service during Operation Desert Storm. The domestic modification of this tank was called Lion of Babylon and featured several distinctive elements, such as the IR dazzler on the left side of the turret. You can read more about the skin in our dedicated article.

Challenger 1 Mk.3 ODS skin for the Challenger 1 Tier 7 Main Battle Tank – based on a historical vehicle belonging to the 7th Armoured Brigade, the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. During Operation Desert Storm, the Challengers participated in one of the largest tank battles of all times, the Battle of Norfolk. You can read more about the skin in our dedicated article.

M60A1 USMC skin for the M60A1 Tier 4 Main Battle Tank – the U.S. Marines tank units fought during the Operation Desert Storm still equipped with the old M60A1 MBTs (and some M60A3 TTS models). However, these were fitted with an additional armor kit and some extra equipment. Despite being generally obsolete, these tanks performed admirably against the Iraqi military. You can read more about the skin in our dedicated article.

Daguet skin for the ERC-90 F4 Sagaie Tier 5 Tank Destroyer – the third major military participating in the operation was the French one. Light armored vehicles from the Daguet division performed fast, daring dashes across the battlefield and got into more than one battle with the enemy. You can read more about the skin in our dedicated article.

And finally:

Iraqi Camouflage available for completing each objective and for claiming every other reward. The camouflage is based on a real-life Iraqi pattern that was used during the war, as we mostly have the Coalition patterns in the game already. The pattern consists of sand-colored background and wide green stripes that are perfect for anything that fought on the Iraqi side during the war, for example the T-55 and T-62 models as well as the BMPs.

Apart from the abovementioned rewards, there will be a lot more to earn, including Boosters, Battle Coins for the next Battle Path, Premium Time, Credits and more.

For more pieces of information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions below.

Frequently Asked Questions about Raid</center>

What is the Raid event?

The Raid is a month-long event, in which you, as a Raider, conquer certain territory by moving along the lines representing roads and other paths and forming a grid. Each grid intersection has a point that is either a mission that you must complete (Mission Points), or a reward that you may claim (Reward Points). Completing the mission or claiming the reward unlocks another portion of the grid. The main prizes await you in each of the territory map’s corners. Players who complete all missions and claim all rewards receive a special reward.

Once the map is available to you (either by purchasing access or completing 10 Contract Missions), start from the center by clicking on one of the dots that show the initial direction of your advance.

What rewards are there available?

Standard Reward Points that can be found around the grid will reward you with various items such as Reputation, Boosters or even Battle Coins for an upcoming Battle Path. The top rewards that are waiting for you in each of the map’s corners are the four epic skins listed above.

Please note that these skins do not come with the vehicles themselves. The skins also work with multiple vehicle upgrades where applicable. Finally, completing all missions and claiming all rewards will unlock the top reward, the Iraqi camouflage.

What missions appear in Raid?

There are four categories of missions available:

PvP missions (which require you to play either Random Battles or Global Operations)
PvE missions (which require you to play either standard PvE or Special Operations)
General missions (which can be completed in both PvP and PvE)
Elite missions (which require you to complete a very difficult objective in order to access major rewards such as the abovementioned skins)

General, PvE and PvP missions have randomized requirements that may include the use of vehicles from specific dealers, or playing specific Tiers. Elite missions are not randomized.

Can I obtain the rewards only by playing my favorite mode? For example, I do not want to play PvP or PvE.

Yes, with one exception. The Iraqi camouflage will require you to collect all the rewards, which requires either play missions or complete the ones you do not wish to play by using Raider Tokens.

Is it possible to change missions if I do not like the conditions?

Yes. You may obtain a Reroll Token from a Reward Point. Using it changes the conditions of a single mission. Please note that PvP missions cannot be rerolled into PvE ones and vice versa, the main mode requirement will always remain the same. Elite missions cannot be rerolled. Reroll Tokens can also be purchased for Gold.

Is it possible to skip missions?

Yes. You may obtain a Raider Token from a Reward Point. Using it will instantly complete the mission you have selected. However, please note that these items are rare and you best save yours for a rainy day. Please also note that completing Elite missions this way will cost you five Raider Tokens. Raider Tokens can also be purchased for Gold.

What are the time limits on this event?

The Raid missions have no timers and, if you wish, the entire event can be completed even on Day 1. The only timer that is present is the one-month deadline that starts at the event’s launch and is therefore the same for everybody. You can see the time left to complete the event in the upper right corner of the Raid window.

Good luck on the battlefield, commanders!

Apr 14, 2021

Maintenance - April 15

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

On the 15th of April 2021, starting from 8:00 CEST (14th of April, 11 PM PDT), the server will not be available for 5 hours due to the application of Update 0.35.8028

List of Update 0.35.8028 Changes

Desert Storm Raid

In this update, we are adding a number of assets for the Raid event, including:

T-72M1 Tier 5 Premium MBT
Asad Babil skin for the T-72M1 Tier 5 Premium MBT
Challenger 1 Mk.3 ODS skin for the Challenger 1 Tier 7 MBT
USMC M60A1 skin for the M60A1 Tier 4 MBT
ERC-90 F4 Daguet skin for the ERC-90 F4 Tier 5 TD

The Raid is scheduled to begin on April 15.

Special Operation “War”

We are making the following changes to the mission:

Reduced the overall difficulty of the mission
Increased the train movement time by 30 seconds
Changed the AI helicopter, infantry and vehicle deployment order
Changed the AI vehicle power for both difficulty levels
Improved the helicopter flight paths to make them smoother
On the Extreme difficulty, the train now has 11 thousand hitpoints instead of 10 thousand
Improved this map’s visual quality on all settings
Fixed an issue that could cause the sound during cutscenes to play with a delay
Fixed the appearance of several objects on minimum graphics settings
Updated this mission’s soundtrack

PvE Difficulty Changes

Starting tomorrow, the following changes will take place in PvE:

Tiers 1 to 3 will only have the Standard difficulty available
Tiers 4 to 6 will have both difficulties available
Tiers 7 to 10 will only have the Hardcore difficulty available
Special Operations will only be available on Tier 4 and above

Please note that these changes are temporary, pending your feedback.

General Changes

Rebalanced Wilk XC-8’s PELE round by increasing the effect it has on enemy modules, removing the ability to deal minimum damage upon non-penetration and by reducing the partial penetration damage to 250
Fixed an issue where the visual effect of an artillery shell impact and its actual server-calculated impact location could differ
Fixed an issue where the splash of some HE shells would disrupt the objective-capturing process in the Global Operations mode
B1 Draco: Fixed the radar animation on minimum graphics settings
M60A1 and M60A3: Fixed the ERA model in order for it to correspond to its real-life counterpart
Msta-S: Fixed the destroyed gun model
Realistic Battles: Fixed an issue where it was possible to get into the mode using vehicles normally unavailable for it by using a platoon (yes, the mode will return in the future)
Fixed an issue where the loading status of a player during the battle launch phase could differ between the team panel and the player list panel
Fixed several map object collision issues and optimized some other collision models to increase performance
Fixed an issue where an incorrect discount could appear while converting Gold to Credits
Fixed a number of small vehicle model issues

Apr 13, 2021

Interview: Karolis Dzevecka and Evgeny Badylkin

Armored Warfare - Silentstalker

Commanders!

Today, we're bringing you an interview with two key Armored Warfare developers – Head of 3D Vehicles Team Karolis Dzevecka and Lead 3D Artist Evgeny Badylkin. These are two developers who bring you what you like the most – new vehicles!

Tell us about various skins. Is it really you guys, who decide to create a specific skin, or are you doing what the others tell you?

Karolis: It depends. The modeling team only fulfills tasks. Decisions are made either by the Art Director, or by the leadership. If there's some event tied to something from real life, for example the upcoming Desert Storm Raid, we make the skins to fit the topic. If there's no such defined topic, we do things as we see fit and everything's left to the imagination of our Art Director. In any case, as you might have noticed, we've recently been focusing on historical skins and it's going great.

When it comes to you guys, do you personally prefer fantasy skins, or more realistic ones?

Karolis: That's a hard question. I personally don't really have a preference, they both can exist. There's definitely a demand for both. That's the truth, no matter what you might have heard – some players like things like the Kraken skin and some like historical skins. The problem with historical skins is that they all look more or less the same. There's a camouflage or paint, some markings and a whole bunch of bags and other things on the vehicle. But we do have lots of camouflages and decals in the game already and some tanks have those bags and camo nets already as well. In other words, if a player wants a historical-looking vehicle, it's sometimes possible to do that even with the assets that are already in the game. You can't say the same thing about Kraken though. Historical skins are all about the detail, but such details may not be obvious to all players.

Take the recent USMC M60A1 skin, for example. We've seen some feedback from the Russian community that we're being lazy by just repainting the tank to ochre and adding some chevron decals to the side. We were like, you've got to be kidding me, are you serious, people? The list of changes for the vehicle alone had 18 pages and apart from the obvious stuff included a number of fixes to the ERA geometry, additional boxes to make the skin accurate, cables, water canister mountings, canisters, various bags, boxes, spare roadwheel, wear and tear textures, inscriptions and so on. Apart from that, we had this idea to add a mine plough, but we weren't able to make that on time. If you don't consider this a detailed and accurate historical skin, I really don't know what to tell you. And as for the fantasy skins, well, don't forget that our game takes place in the future. It's not like you're a member of any official military. Pretty much anything goes.

Evgeny: Just to add to that, fantasy skins are much more interesting and challenging to make. You get to solve complex art and technical issues, which are often unique to each skin. We had to animate the tentacles, create the ray of death effect for the mummy skin, which doesn't just appear randomly, but only when you spot an enemy. There were also the angel wings, unfolding at certain speed.

What do you feel when the tank you make is finally released and appears in player hands? Is it fear? Satisfaction? Does the team read player feedback?

Evgeny: Yep, we're reading the feedback, watching streams and are happy when we run into positive comments.

Karolis: It's mixed. On one hand, there's the feeling of pride and satisfaction – we spend a lot of time on each model and we do our utmost for each and every asset that comes from us so that our vehicles look authentic and realistic. We do our job so that we don't have to feel ashamed of our work. You see your work in the game's Garage and you're thinking the players will notice your craftsmanship and praise it. And then you go reading the comments and all you get is stuff like "yeah okay" and "meh". And immediately, the comments turn towards other topics.

"Yeah, the tank's nice, but what about the playerbase size? Why don't you fix the ATGMs? Or buff CATTB?"

Such questions of course have nothing to do with our modeling team. Sometimes, players notice some bugs and we then fix them. It seems that nobody ever praises the visual appearance of new models, even though if you run the game on maximum settings and a decent rig, they look just as good, if not better, than the competition.

Do you guys play Armored Warfare? If so, what vehicles? What modes? Are you skilled players?

Karolis: Sadly, I rarely have time to just play. I'm responsible for vehicle visuals – when I run the game, I mostly just watch the vehicles in the Garage or test them on the Proving Grounds map. But as for my colleagues, especially those, whose job is connected to the game's balance, I know they play a lot and they are really good at it too.

What are your favorite vehicles in the game and why?

Karolis: There are several candidates. For example, consider the Type 16 – I really think that it's one of the most beautiful models in the game.

The overhauled T-72B looks really great. Thanks to that, we could in turn update the T-72A and make the T-72M1, which looks good especially with the Lion of Babylon skin.

AMX-13 – not sure why but I just like it. The Object 195 MBT was one of the hardest to make due to the lack of visual references for the model, but we worked hard and our historical consultant noted that we now have the best 3D model of this vehicle, anywhere. The T249 model is very detailed even though we didn't have that many photos to work with. The ZUBR PSP was mostly designed by us. For the AGDS, we only had one drawing to work with.

But for me, the truly special are the vehicles, the models of which feature various animations, such as the C13 TUA, VCAC Mephisto or the recently added radar animation for B1 DRACO (yes, we have already fixed the bug connected to it, it will appear live soon). These smaller details truly bring our vehicles to life, which is why we are trying to add as many animations as possible to all new vehicles. Even the "junk" on new tanks – various canisters, bags and such – is typically animated. They shake when the gun fires or when the tank drives over obstacles.

Sometimes, these are really small things. The first animation we ever made were the folding headlights of Merkava Mk.3 – not many noticed. The IR headlight of T-72B also follows the gun. You'd say it was a simple thing to do, but no. It was pretty complicated code-wise. Another huge thing was the set of Mechanized Infantry deployment animations – when these vehicles were first made, nobody really thought about modeling their troop compartments, there was no internal model of the vehicle. We spent a lot of time finding the photographs of these compartments, adding them and animating the doors correctly.

Evgeny: My favorite vehicle is the IT-1. It's the first vehicle in the game without a special reloading animation and what an animation it is – the rocket wings unfold beautifully. I went through the entire PvE campaign using just this vehicle because I just couldn't get enough of the animation. And, of course, there's the GAU-8 and the Vigilante – Gatling guns are my passion.

What's the most difficult model you ever worked on, one that gave you the most trouble?

Evgeny: This can more or less be said about every vehicle. The most problematic models turned out to be the Burlak and the T-72A. It's not like we don't want to give all that extra attention to all models, but everyone has deadlines to meet.

Karolis: I'd like to mention the Abrams tanks here. Even though there's a lot of information available on them, the process of their model overhaul turned out to be extremely difficult. It would have been easier to start from the scratch like we did with the T-72B, but instead, we decided to fix the old, existing models. This definitely turned out to be a mistake – the whole overhaul ended way behind schedule and the results are still not perfect.

And then there's the whole matter of the legacy Obsidian left us. Generally speaking, there are more than 400 vehicles in the game and each of them has or had its own set of difficulties. The T-72B and Abrams models are just two glaring examples.

Of course, there are many other vehicles that need visual improvements. On one hand, these overhauls are difficult to justify to the bean counters, when it comes to manhours spent. On the other hand, I just can't watch them without getting a bit sad. That's why when we are making new skins for these vehicles or their new variants, we always improve the quality of the base model, even though this isn't always listed in the patchnotes. The Sabra Mk.2 model is the latest to receive such an upgrade.

How much does a model suffer during the highpoly to lowpoly transition and why's there such a big quality difference between your models and the old ones by Obsidian?

Evgeny: I wouldn't say that the model suffers. If we do everything right, it does not. In general, our models feature more polygons and higher resolution textures. They no longer have wheels looking like octagons and hexagonal muzzles. We transferred all out vehicle models to a new shader system, which breaks the texture down to separate layers. In the old Obsidian shader, the dirt, wear and tear, rust and the base color were all baked into the texture. Our shader has them as separate layers, which allows us to edit them. We can, for example, change material properties at the same time with just a few clicks for all vehicles without having to overhaul all the model textures. This shader system also made the dynamic dirt feature possible.

Unfortunately, overhauling the game to this new tech didn't always go smoothly, some tanks even lost some of the original visual model quality. The human factor played a role here – we had very little time to overhaul more than 200 tanks, which is why we contracted a considerable number of outsourcers. And when you work on a project of this scale with such strict deadlines, it's really hard to keep the quality level constant for every single case. But, we are constantly fixing these issues and the new models look really well – more than on par with our competition.

They say that game developers make a lot of money in general. Is it true?

Evgeny: This sounds like a case of survival bias. For every rich developer, there are hundreds of closed down projects that never took off.

Karolis: Well, if you consider Gabe Newell a developer, then yes – some do make millions. But when it comes to the games industry, we have average earnings – no more and no less than other IT development branches.

How much does your job consume you? Is it difficult to just switch off and do something else?

Evgeny: This job doesn't allow you to slow down. The progress and technology development in this industry are incredibly fast. There's always some new software appearing, there are always new development methods. You always have to learn something new, it takes all your free time, all your holidays, you can never stop or you get left behind. For example, even relatively not so long ago, CryEngine was an advanced engine. By now, it's already obsolete and it's Unreal Engine that's at the forefront. Rapidly developing Blender and Houdini 3D software with its procedural modeling is replacing the old Maya and 3ds MAX dinosaurs.

Karolis: I have another habit – I always try to find local military museums. Last summer, just before the release of the Battle Path, I was going 600km away from Moscow to visit my relatives. There, I accidentally found a park with a Shilka! I was really excited. I climbed all over it and took a whole bunch of photographs, which were then useful during the polishing phase of the game model.

How much time does it take to develop a tank from scratch, from the moment the task reaches you guys personally?

Karolis: I'd expand the question it a bit. Not from the moment of the task, but from the moment of the decision that we actually want it in the game, because there's another important phase before the artists start doing their job – the search for references and the creation of a so-called Workbook, which is a document that can have as many as 70 pages containing photos and describing each part of the vehicle. These are made by our historical consultants. With this phase included, it takes 4 to 6 months.

Last but not least, can you show us something you're working on?

Right now, we're working on improvements to the Sabra model, which will come along with a new skin for it. You can see it below along with some earlier work in progress details. We hope that you'll like it!

That's it for today, commanders. Did you like the interview? Would you like to see more of such content? Let us know on Discord and, as always:

See you on the battlefield!