major update War Thunder "Sky Guardians" - Changelog

[Barlowi 47]

As an air player this update has lots of good additions that are overshadowed by a select few questionable decisions.

 

+ the MiG-29, Tornado F.3, Yak-141, F-16AJ and Kurnass 2000 enrich top tier

+ the Ro.44 is a lovely little surprise

+ the improved visual models are absolutely beautiful and I am looking forward to revisiting those vehicles

+ F-4S gives the US a top tier premium... which should make all teams now equally inept

+ lovely graphical updates and updated maps, customizable load-outs, Mirage updates, just lots of quality of life improvements

 

- While the addition of the F-16AJ is controversial japan would otherwise be stuck with the Kai for a long time, not ideal but I can understand it and the

added camouflages are a nice touch

- I really don't understand the reasoning behind the Hunter F.58, Germany has no tangible connection to this aircraft and at 9.3 it is just a slap

in the face of every British Hunter variant in game. While I understand that Germany is short on CAS options I am pretty sure there would be better

alternatives (Alpha Jet or maybe an attack variant of the Lim-5/6)

 

I cannot comment on naval and ground since I rarely play those modes

[SPANISH_AVENGER 11,786]

6 hours ago, NoBombersInJetRB said:

• Ballistic lead indicator system has been added for the cannon weaponry for the 3rd person view when an aircraft’s sensors capture a target. The system is available on the same aircraft that have instrumental lead on the HUD. Old lead system similar to the SPAAG indication has been disabled in AB. For shooting you need to point the moving cannon marker at the captured target.

OK so.. How to disable it because it is pretty annoying for me?

 

Toggle Cannon Ballistic Computer

 

On this note, I am very glad to see this feature implemented, specially even in 3rd person, thank you guys! One of the best non-vehicle additions this update.

[gultraman 24]

4 hours ago, warner7 said:

Well, the Type 62 now has a power nerf bringing it to Type 63 standards. It now has lower power to weight ratio compared to the 63, lower top speed and is not amphibious! Is it still 6.7 material? I guess not.

 

Yes, the 62 should be brought down to BR 6.3 now

[Nilam99 2]

When is the Strela going to be fixed? Its so buggy and glitchy. Never locks on to Helis and always locks on to friendly aircraft, friendly helis and the sun and moon.

[yairobe 0]

Sorry, but adding thermals for shot dal kalet and moving premium to 8.7 is wrong. Other games do refund for that...

[fsendventd 15]

Is the new gunsight mechanic not working on the F-4S for anyone else? Trying it out on a test flight, can't get it to work even with the ballistic computer on. Seems to be fine on the Tornado.

[wintah 302]

And again it has destroyed a deck for me, this time it has hit the British GF on 8.3.

 

Sho't Kal Dalet has been bumped up to 8.7, I guess because he got the thermal vision for the Gunner.

8.3 deck at the Brits was a great deck,very versatile and well positioned,now the Prem.Tank Shot is out of the club
Could live so far well without Thermal on 8.3 and if needed there is the Warrior "still" !

So . Gaijin,the British now have 3 vehicles on 8.7,the Premium Sho't , the Rooikat MTTD and Chietain MK5. . Great . . Yuhu,
finally I can play 8.7 with 3 tanks  without to fill up the rest with 8.3 tanks and now start realy cool against 9.7, because felt 80% of the games you are lowtier !!!!

Great cinema once again from Gaijin, who needs Thermal on nen tank then he can no longer play, because deck not available,

in addition, a dearly bought premium tank . . bad move in my opinion

 

Edited March 7, 2023 by wintah

[Kunae 3]

3 hours ago, MJPIA said:

yeah so I don't see a setting in game to change this in options and these massive notifications pop up each time I take damage, get set on fire or start flooding in naval, each and every time after its repaired and I get damaged again.

It is beyond annoying

Additionally at the start of every match all these pop up, I am not new to naval, I don't need to see this at the start every time

I don't need my hand held letting me know what to do every time I get shot or spawn in a match

 

This.

 

For God's sake, if you're going to add "help" features to the game, give players an easy and clear way to TURN THEM OFF.

[Longbow501 7]

Thanks for the bigger maps for top tier air RB. I much prefer the larger maps at these BRs but I still think they should be their own matchmaking queue. That would allow people to choose which they want to play. 

[twitchTV_Anstrum 2]

Phantom F-4S is currently worse version compared to F-4j

engines are not smokeless, F-4S cannot even go above mach 1.1 on deck level flight meanwhile F-4j goes mach 1.14 on deck level

F-4S loses all energy in 180 turn. Probably lots of things modeled wrong and the work was rushed

 

should it not be better version of F-4j instead we got gimped F-4S that performs like F-4c

My F-4S suffers alot in dogfight, no power, it just feels bad

 

photos of F-4j vs F-4S comparison I did in a simple test

 

 

 

 

[Khomuna 67]

The new high rank Air RB map layouts are not doing great:

• The increased distance to the frontline made so base bombing is almost impossible now, since loaded fighter-bombers and strike aircraft flying at subsonic/transonic speeds can't get to the bases before being intercepted by dedicated fighter players.
• Adding to the problem mentioned above, 4 bases are not enough, haven't been enough for a long time. At least half the team will always take bombs with them, since most aircraft at top tier can take 1, 2 or more bases by themselves we need way more bases to accompany the demand.
• The change didn't solve the main problem, furballs. Since the objectives remained too close to each other, everyone still going to the same location. The objective spread in the previous EC based maps was better since people can take discrete routes to bomb and then search for targets.

Ways to enhance Air RB maps using existing features:

• More main airfields, like low tier air maps and Heli EC, so players can choose where to spawn, making it harder for the enemy to predict where people may come from.
• More bases to bomb. The map canvas is huge, it could easily fit 10 bases on each side of the frontline.

[fakepostman 20]

9 hours ago, Stona said:

A few missions have a new layout of airfields designed for high rank battles. The airfields are located at 46 km from the mission’s centre (might be changed after collecting statistics and players feedback)

Is there a preferred avenue for us to offer this feedback? I absolutely despise these new maps, every time try to play them I miss how the game used to be before this patch, and currently I genuinely don't really want to play jet air RB at all, which is hugely frustrating since I'm grinding interesting planes at that level in several trees and I would really like to enjoy playing them rather than feel like I've wasted all my time and effort. That's my feedback. Please give me the old maps back, even if I have to take a few crewlocks until I get one.

 

I also wonder what I should do to contribute my opinion on this to the statistics. Is it better to simply stop playing air RB, to only play air RB at low tiers, or to try playing air RB at hgih tiers but quit and eat a crewlock every time I get a map I hate?

[fsendventd 15]

48 minutes ago, twitchTV_Anstrum said:

Phantom F-4S is currently worse version compared to F-4j

engines are not smokeless, F-4S cannot even go above mach 1.1 on deck level flight meanwhile F-4j goes mach 1.14 on deck level

F-4S loses all energy in 180 turn. Probably lots of things modeled wrong and the work was rushed

 

should it not be better version of F-4j instead we got gimped F-4S that performs like F-4c

My F-4S suffers alot in dogfight, no power, it just feels bad

 

photos of F-4j vs F-4S comparison I did in a simple test

 

 

 

 

The speed difference is realistic. The F-4S has slats, which reduce the top speed, while the F-4J doesn't. The slats help with turn performance, but they also reduce energy retention, which is probably why it feels "underpowered". The engines in the F-4S aren't really more powerful, they just changed to the smokeless combustor design. Same engine power, better turn performance, slightly higher drag, it'll lose energy faster.

[JAF_R98 27]

The nerf to the VT1 missile makes it impossible to control.  Roll is too exaggerated 

[DerLachendeMann 506]

Why are the SdKfz 222 classed as SPAA? Even the name of these little beauties is 'le.Pz.Sp.Wg', 'leichter Panzerwpähwagen', which literally means light armored reconnaissance vehicle...

[Pod_Lizard 2]

Since the new update the game is unplayable. Both the client on my son's and my computer crash before or shortly after a game starts.

[warhead_beast 352]

Could it be that Mig 23s again have almost no radar signature? 

[Crutey_Hustitch 10]

Guys, I just wanted to launch WT ( I play air RBs) and the client loaded the AntiCheat, the progress-bar is full, but still nothing is happenning - the game is not being launched, just I am stairin already 15 mins for the lauch-screen with full Easy Anticheat progress-bar!!

And yes I have opened  / enabled it in the game install-folder.

Any ideas of what to do???

[BleedingUranium@live 1,774]

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Beaufighter / Lancaster (updated model)

 

Ro.44

 

A long time coming, and they look wonderful! I especially love that the Lancaster Mk I got more than just texture updates, now featuring its fuselage windows and radar.

 

Woah, that's a surprise! Finally an Italian floatplane for Naval! The Ro.44 is the single-seat version of the Ro.43 we have mounted on ships, this is a cool and incredibly handy addition!

 

 

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Among them, the iconic in some circles "little tank", the Sd.Kfz.222 (in versions for Germany and China!), heavy tanks like T1E1, Char 2C or Churchill NA75

 

Not only are we getting a nice pile of WWII tanks this patch, but they're actually going out of their way to draw attention to them, I love this!

 

 

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Nenohi, Duilio, French navy

 

Definitely happy to see Nenohi, as well as the modernized Duilio sneaking in as a much-needed new battleship for Italy (plus getting her name right), and of course the first of the long-awaited French ships.

 

 

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A winter version of the location "Seversk" has been added / Winter versions of the “Ardennes” and “Maginot Line” locations have been added to the rotation / Added a new Pyrenees aviation location

 

Changes have been made to the respawn points in naval missions. The distance between them has increased. The points themselves are formed into columns instead of rows. The movement direction has been changed to be more advantageous to the player and for quicker battle start.

 

 

More winter maps are nice, and finally a new Air RB map that has actual terrain! It's a very pretty map too.

 

Reworks to Naval spawns!? This is huge!

 

 

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Penetration values of the APDS rounds now use modified Jacob De Marre’s formula.

 

A universal template of the fragments formation is now used for 20-47mm HE fragmentation rounds. Fixed cases where the projectile could deal significantly lower fragmentation damage than its counterparts with the same amount of explosives.

 

 

Finally, nice to see further improvements and especially consistency here.

 

Further steps away from the "perfect sphere of death" HE system, good.

 

 

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Lancaster B.Mk III, Lancaster B.Mk I — 8,000 lb HC Mk II and 12,000 lb HC Mk.II bombs have been added.

 

Wfr.Gr.21 rockets — separate rocket fire has been added for all aircraft.

 

Secondary weapon customization added to aircraft

 

Incendiary bombs

 

 

Very cool, nice to have more absurdly huge bombs flying around, though mostly useful for Ground RB.

 

Also mostly for Ground RB, but more than basically any other type of rocket this will be immensely helpful.

 

Nice to see custom loadouts make their way to some WWII-era aircraft.

 

Similarly, incendiary bombs for the same era, where there are actually open-top ground vehicles.

 

 

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The need for sequential research of modifications for improved anti-aircraft, auxiliary artillery and main calibre turrets has been removed. They can now be researched in any order once the appropriate level of modifications becomes available.

 

Tutorial elements in naval battles have been expanded

 

The function of automatic circling flight has been added to ship seaplanes

 

 

I truly cannot overemphasize how massive an improvement this is for spading ships!

 

Always good to see tutorials improved! It's very important, even if it doesn't affect most of us reading this.

 

Definitely nice to have, for those times you really don't want your plane flying off into the sunset.

 

 

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Additional camouflages for all cruisers and battleships have been added.

 

Lancaster Mk3 — Additional camouflage available for completing tasks and for GE has been added.

 

Colour indications of modules of different types have been added for view mode of internal modules of the vehicle in the hangar.

 

Information about the type of ammo which has been used to hit players has been added to the in-game kill log.

 

 

Awesome to see ship camos expanded. I'd definitely love to see ship-specific camos (like planes tend to have) in the future too.

 

An excellent example of the former here, actually.

 

Very nice to see the colour coding, especially for larger, complex vehicles like ships.

 

This may seem small, but will be an incredibly helpful and informative addition to the killfeed, awesome addition!

 

 

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Graphics

 

Sound

 

 

All fantastic improvements, including ejection seats!

 

Time to go see what these all actually sound like, seems promising.

 

 

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[not in notes] AH-6, Char 2C, Des Moines & Nevada, Yak-141 loading screens

 

All of these look amazing, the latter three are some of the best loading screens in the game for sure!

Edited March 7, 2023 by BleedingUranium@live

[Shin_Kazama_ 193]

I am just... so gosh darn happy to see the Kurnass 2000 in-game
The wait for one of my most beloved and anticipated planes is over.
Next on the list are the F-20 Tigershark, A-4M Skyhawk II, and F/A-18A Hornet...

[CMDR_Red 0]

Thanks for the update Devs. 
On steam, you mentioned file optimisation as seen below:

The hyperlink for "More Details" seems to be broken. Could you link the page its supposed to direct me to or explain it here? I can't find this mentioned on the forum post.

 

[Apfelsator 1,160]

11 hours ago, ganJ said:

PROS:
APDS was finally refined and fixed.
More fixes! 

CONS:
Hunter F.58 WRONG TECH TREE... 

APDS is fixed but APCR is still completely broken, now APDS with 2.78kg penetrator have better flat penetration that 4.5kg heavy APCR, very strange application of physics or lack of it.  

what do you mean APDS is fixed? have you tested it? when APDS now hits an angled place, it changes its trajectory after penetration 90° downwards, how is that fixed, thats  not  how APDS works xD

 

 

definately one of the worst and uninteresting of the major patches in the past 2 years.

not only is a lot of stuff broken that was there but new features arent working too well either.

the new maps are mediocre with horrible ground target placement for the new air RB map again while the winter versions of the ground maps are still the same old bad ground maps just with a winter skin.

then you have the fact that it seems like every match in even 8.3 air RB jets is now on a EC map, who thought that would be fun?

 

and then you have things like the Hunter F.58 that started at 9.7 where it was already strong and now sits  at 9.3, HOW IS THAT BALANCED GAIJIN.

Edited March 7, 2023 by Apfelsator

[Ray_Neyra 38]

Current implementation of hight tier Air RB maps is not ok.
High rank map system should be split to 2 queues with option to chose large map queue and normal map queue. Another option could be one queue but with preference option which would guarantee at least 70% of your prefered option. Right now for most situation is just longer waiting time before some action. For bombing it is awful too. In normal EC map you can at least calmly fly to bases because they are spread out across map. In this enlarged versions of normal map bases are in the center and more enemies is there before you to intercept you. In general, enlarged versions of maps feel bad.
I do not hate idea of bigger maps totally because sometimes I would like to have option to play only on EC maps but still I mean real EC maps not enlarged versions of normal maps and sometimes I would like to have only small maps for fast action/kill/death and queue again.

[Bansh_dE 2]

Are you guys really sure that the new VT1 model is correct? It´s nearly impossible to shoot anything faster than a snail (Jets) since the rocket is bouncing like crazy. Even on static trajectory fighters at 8-12km. IMHO those VT1 are now useless - even for helicopters that dive. 

• 9М311, VT-1 missiles - transferred to a new more accurate physical model.
  
  Example: 

   

Edited March 7, 2023 by Bansh_dE

[Antezscar 371]

@Stona why was the 5 sec ammo rack reload implemented on IFV's? it does nothing but destroy the fun and pace of the game, and for veichles like the CV90 this change pretty much kills the veichle when you have to wait 2 minutes to get a full rack again, only 24 ready rounds btw. and its ahistorical, since the crew could reload mutch faster aswell. its litteraly on video. 

Also why didnt the Viggens or Drakens get ejector seats? 

Edited March 8, 2023 by Antezscar