loadout More options for the VFW side skirts

[super_cacti 1,071]

Hey everyone,

 

So with the recent addition of the Versuchsflakwagen fur 8.8cm Flak 41 (a.k.a VFW) and with it's feature to raise and lower the side skirts in the hanger, a lot of people (me included) came up with some nice ideas for this.

 

Now I'm going to split this post into two, first I'm going to talk about a pretty hot discussion a lot of people got about the skirts. And last I want to talk about a little thing I would like to see.

So let's dive right in! 

 

Raise and lower the skirts in the beginning or mid game

 

So a big thing that sets the VFW apart from any other vehicle ingame, is that you can have side skirts raised up, or lowered. You can do this while in the hanger by changing the 'Side skirts up' modification.

Now this is very cool and all, but a lot of people have been complaining that this should be possible to do while in a game. And I agree with that, but there are two ways of doing this:

 

-While in the spawn menu, you can change the state of the side skirts.

-While driving the VFW in a battle, you should be able to push a button and the skirts would go up (this can be set on the retract radar button for example)

 

Now let's talk about the first option, this one is the most easy to implement. Just before spawning you just choose whatever you want to have. This is also much more usefull then having to set it when your back in the hanger.

For example: When I'm on an large open map, let's say Kursk, I would want my skirts lowered so I can enjoy that fast reload and cover all the sides of my vehicle. But when I'm on a urban map with small roads and such I want to have my skirts up so I can fit in set small roads and have my crew be better protected against flanking enemy machinegun fire.

Although it looks like a small little feature, it is however very usefull to have. It will allow you to adapt to your suroundings.

 

Now onto the second option, this one is a little unhistorical I must say, but we can give it some features that might make it a bit more historical. So first the unhistorical part, in real life putting the skirts up or down took a lot of time and would require the entire crew to get out of the vehicle and get the skirts down or up. However in War Thunder this can not be added. You just press a button and some invisible tooth fairies will magically raise or lower them for you.

Now how can we make this more historical? Well let's start with making the vehicle immobile while this is happening. So you push a button, the skirts go down, but your tank must stay where it is while this is happening. Also the duration of this process could maybe take up to 30 sec ingame (wich will feel like sitting still for hours in some cases). Maybe some other penalties could be done to, like a slower reload, or maybe total loss of movement in both your tank and gun, thus making you completely immobile during the process. 

 

But those are the two ideas most of the community is talking about lately, give us your opinion in the poll above! 

 

 

Adding a third 'mode' for the skirts to be in

 

What we have ingame right now is either the skirts all the way down, or almost fully up. And that's the importnant thing, almost fully up, not all the way.

You see in real life the skirts could also go up all the way.

Spoiler

 

Now for this to be possible the front mantlet of the tank did have to be changed. The outer plates of the mantlet had to be removed.

Spoiler

 

You can see that these plates are connected on the back.

 

When these side plates are removed the entire side skirts will be able to fully close up, turning the vehicle into the real Flak Toaster we all know and love!

Now horizontal movement will most likely be even less in this configuration, but it does give your crew the maximum ammount of safety against enemy machinegun fire.

 

So let's list all the possible confirurations to clear things up:

 

-Side skirts all the way down.

Spoiler

 

This will remain the most widely used configuration. It gives you all around fire and no reload penatly! With this setup you can get the reload down to 4 seconds!

-Side skirts partially up.

Spoiler

 

In this configuration your giving your crew a lot more protection, but on top of that I want to point something out:

As you can see in the image above, the turret still has 360 degree of rotation, only the gun elevation is hindered by the side skirts. This is something we don't have ingame at this moment but could be something fun to have in the future.

What we also have ingame is that this setup gives you a reload penatly, the minimun reload time like this is 6 seconds.

-Side skirts all the way up.

Spoiler

 

Now like this you have become the true Flak Toaster! It removes the side plates on your mantlet and turns your tank into a full tank destroyer! 

Maybe this setup can give you an aditional reload penalty like the previous setup. I would say a minimun reload of 7 seconds sounds fair.

 

 

So yeah there you have it. I heard a lot of people talk about this so I thought I make a post about it!

Anyways give us your opinion in the poll above, and I'll see you on the battlefield! 

Edited April 14, 2019 by super_cacti
Fixed a small spelling error.

[blaZzinG_FurY@psn 298]

Open for discussion

[kamikazi21358 998]

If we get this feature on other vehicles like the Gepard

I think it should be a toggle option, but for the big doors like the VFW, it should be be a pre-battle decision?

[super_cacti 1,071]

9 hours ago, kamikazi21358 said:

If we get this feature on other vehicles like the Gepard

I think it should be a toggle option, but for the big doors like the VFW, it should be be a pre-battle decision?

Yeah having it as an toggle option for the more smaller side skirts would be nice. (The T-64A also comes to mind, those little side armour thingies could retract to)

But if we're talking heavy duty like the VFW skirts, then having that as an pre-battle things sounds good. (Or like I said in the post, when you toggle them you become immobile or something)

[NoodleCup31 8,824]

+1

Would also be nice for the Sd Kfz 140

[Wolf_89 2,525]

And on "unhistorical" we already have that part in game. Fix a blown track in less then 30 sec? Or engine/transmission and so on.

So if it take 10 sec to go from fully closed to semi open. And dunno 15-20 sec from semi open to fully open.

At least i think its good.

 

And they should add 3 variants for the VFW shields/sides. And we should be able to change the sides/shields in game.

And they could use the FLAP mechanic from aircraft's. There we have some aircraft's that have 3 stages for flaps.

 

 

Going from fully closed to semi open should be faster then going from semi open to fully open.

 

And if you are fully close the reload should be longer. Then it would be when its fully open. Because fully closed = Less space to move around.

 

 

There are many vehicles that could use a function to open/close sides. Or like the Zis-30 having stabilizer legs. To reduce recoil/kickback from fire the gun. 

On 21/04/2019 at 10:23, NoodleCup31 said:

+1

Would also be nice for the Sd Kfz 140

Wish i could close the top. To reduce the height of the vehicle.

[Milocat 4,854]

First off, this is an excellent suggestion!  

 

I definitely want to see the third skirt mode implemented into the game.  There are no words for how much fun I would have driving around the uLtImAtE fLaKtOaStEr, traverse and reload speeds be damned.  

 

Secondly, as others have mentioned, the requirement to raise or lower the skirts in the hangar is both extremely annoying and really reduces the potential of the vehicle.  There should be an easier option to pick the amount the skirts are raised, either choosing before spawning or moving them in combat.  I personally would prefer the more historical option of "select skirt level at the spawn menu" but I would be okay with either option, they're both better than what we have now.

[ARZIAC 1]

I would really love to have these as an option. 

I honestly don't care what is implemented, I just want those as options.

[_Ausfire_ 24]

To raise or lower skirts during battle should have a realistic time penalty (game-wise at least)

No penalty if already set at spawn.

BTW - how do I change the skirt modes? I've looked in hanger, spawn, modifications ... I see it no where! Help please.

Edited July 31, 2019 by _Ausfire_

[super_cacti 1,071]

13 minutes ago, _Ausfire_ said:

BTW - how do I change the skirt modes? I've looked in hanger, spawn, modifications ... I see it no where! Help please.

 

Right here buddy 

Edited July 31, 2019 by super_cacti

[Wulfbane 126]

Being able to select while in battle is an absolute, but best scenario would be able to change while actively playing. I think a 10 second immobilization while moving them up/down would be fair. As has already been pointed out, vehicle repairs are unrealistically fast, so moving the skirts up/down shouldn't be such a burden as to be unusable.

 

On a side note though, all vehicles with adjustable skirts should be able to adjust while in play.

[HMSD33Dauntless 1,257]

This would be a really useful feature, I do like the idea of being able to change the sides skirts' position during a match with a key press. I think there's other vehicles that could benefit from a feature like that too, but as for the VFW I think it's a great idea. Being able to raise them in battle without needing to leave the match would help a lot in case you see more planes or enemies and you need to protect yourself from MGs, and then you could lower them to get your fast reload back when it's safe again. I'd also like to see the ability you mentioned to traverse the gun 360 degrees with the side skirts raised by raising the cannon over them, even if it doesn't end up being very useful.

As for the option to raise them all the way up, perhaps they could change the modification so that it removes the outer plates and allows them to be raised up to 90 degrees, that way you could get both the ability to raise them all the way and the ability to raise or lower them in battle? Leaving the modification unequipped would keep the outer plates on the mantlet on, so that you could switch between the two modes in game currently while in battle. Equipping the modification would remove the mantlet plates and allow you to switch between fully raised or fully lowered in battle with the key press.

[Carl Gustaf RFK 35]

You know I don't need a Skirt, 

Gaijin Please, cut off my Skirt.

[Milocat 4,854]

1 hour ago, bufman said:

You know I don't need a Skirt, 

Gaijin Please, cut off my Skirt.

 

Well, now that you've gone and made that joke, my mind I can't see this topic without being reminded of this joke:  

Spoiler

 

[TheBraveGallade 59]

how about the toggle being available at a cap point like crew replenishment. make it work like that

[Carl Gustaf RFK 35]

I want a more Option like a "Side Skirt Remove"

Edited February 12, 2022 by bufman

[伊地知虹夏正在点国策 1,289]

On 14/04/2019 at 01:19, super_cacti said:

-Side skirts all the way up.

The hinges are modeled, so ...

 

 

[super_cacti 1,071]

9 hours ago, Ens_Reefen_Ronny said:

The hinges are modeled, so ...

 

 

 

Yes I had spotted these as soon as I got the VFW ingame back when the event was happening.

 

It would be really nice if Gaijin would look at this suggestion and expand upon their very basic system that they have in place right now.

[SaperPL 446]

I'm playing mainly VFW as my first vehicle in lineup, and while I would love to have the ability to change the skirts mode in-game, it's something that needs a lot of additional edge-case handling and may not be worth it. In-game meaning while you're already spawned.

 

Look at the scenario like this: you get between a wreck and a wall with skirts folded upwards and you open up - this will push you upwards unless there is a special mechanic figuring out that you cannot open the skirts. It feels like a simple collision check, but once they do it with some leeway, it'll start being cumbersome whenever you want to open up and you're in a ditch or on a slope or there's a rock sticking out etc. This is a vehicle that not a lot of people have, so I guess they may not be willing to handling things like this.

 

I do like the idea of being able to select this when choosing to spawn in VFW because it'd make a lot of sense and wouldn't be costly to implement.

 

Also worth noting is that if we wanted to have it made realistically, then we'd have skirts folded upwards and opening up one-by-one when needed while the gun is turning to make place for it when used as SPG, while opened up completely when used as SPAAG. So potentially the dynamic approach for SPG would make the things worse for VFW as having closed up skirts makes things worse.

[NoodleCup31 8,824]

Yes please!