9.16 Public Test Patchnotes

~ Sebastianul

Off-topic: I am terribly sorry, my readers, for being late with this. Had to move my computer and the freezes started again. Luckily I fixed it myself.

Game Features

  • Improved mission UI:
    • Reset the entry point for missions and Personal Missions
    • Reworked the “Awards” window by adding an award selector and a window with more information about Personal Missions
    • Added a dropdown for groups of missions for a selected vehicle or type
  • Added a two-row vehicle selector in the Garage (can be disabled under the “General” tab of the Settings window)
  • Battle improvements:
    • Cross-team battle chat disabled for all game modes except in Training Rooms
    • Hover over the battle chat to freeze messages, scroll through messages and open the context menu with a right-click
    • Hover or right-click to restrict messages (chat and voice chat) from particular players for the duration of battle in all modes except Training Rooms
    • Messages received before blacklisting a player or restricting their messages in battle are hidden
    • Players can complain about the same player only once per battle
    • Inappropriate behavior in chat constitutes four complaint reasons: insults and provocation; spam; out-of-game threats; fraud
    • Can disable/enable chat with allies in Settings menu (Random battles only)
  • New player performance notifications on the battle interface:
    • Damage panel with total damage caused, total damage blocked by armor, total damage caused with player’s assistance
    • More informative and extended battle performance badges: damage caused (amount); damage type (penetration, ignition, or ramming); type of assistance damage (destroying a track; spotting); number of detected vehicles or base capture/defense points
    • More informative fire direction indicators: amount of received/blocked damage, enemy vehicle that fired the shot, marker and name of the vehicle (if spotted). Also, an option that informs players of the amount of received/blocked damage for a specific shot: the wider the fire marker background, the more damage a player’s vehicle received/blocked
    • New fire direction indicator: Critical hits are shown in brown, and if one module or Crew member is damaged/injured, the indicator displays a corresponding icon.
    • “Battle Results” window provides quick access to battle performance summaries
    • New functionality given its own tab in the Settings window

  • Improved Notification Center functionality:
    • Changed the design of the Notification Center with three groups: informational, social (invitations to Platoons or friend requests), and personal
    • Fixed the issue of too-frequent button blinking
    • Added more conspicuous notifications about important events
  • Reduced the visibility system delay — enemy vehicles appear sooner after leaving cover
  • Reduced the visibility delay when spotting and in artillery aim view
  • Displayed how the Camouflage Net changes values on Technical Characteristics
  • Added option to visit the Premium Shop from the Garage
  • Improved Clan-related functionality:
    • When selecting legionnaires for Skirmishes, both Clan and non-Clan legionnaires can be added
    • The first half of any Industrial Resources earned by legionnaires goes to the player with the highest Experience in the battle (Skirmish), and the other half is reset to zero
    • The matchmaker does not create teams that include players belonging to the same Clan
    • Restricted the ability to schedule attacks on a Clan with a Stronghold at a level that differs by more than one (i.e., a Clan that has a level 7 Stronghold can only attack Clans that have Strongholds at levels 6, 7, and 8)
  • Added the ability to compare vehicles in the Garage:
    • Separate window displaying rows of Technical Characteristics and columns representing the vehicles selected
    • Can add at least one vehicle to vehicle comparisons (if only one vehicle is chosen, players see how selected modules and Crew members affect its technical characteristics)
    • Vehicles for comparison can be added from various places, including unresearched vehicles and vehicles unavailable in the Tech Tree (e.g., Type 59). Vehicles received from events can’t be compared
  • Added ability to restore vehicles and Crew members from the game client (restoration will be available upon release of Update 9.16)

Sound

  • Extended the caliber range: Gunfire sounds now comes in five different calibers (instead of three) in tier VIII-X battles
  • New sound for cartridge reloading. This can provide information about the number of shells in the cartridge, when the last shell in the cartridge remains, and a notification when the last shell is fired (i.e., no more ammo)
  • Clearer, more distinctive sounds for when damage is received (0-17%, 18-35%, 35%+)
  • Added sound of a damaged (not destroyed) engine — knocking, clanking, etc.
  • Added a notification sound when gun is destroyed and unable to fire
  • Added individual sounds for damage to each module
  • Improved vehicle driving feedback with sounds of switching gears, acceleration and other maneuvering
  • Increased visibility of sound settings
  • Added option to choose between two sounds for the “Sixth Sense” Perk, including selecting your own MP3 file
  • New sounds that warn that the battle has ended due to last enemy destroyed or base captured
  • Divided interface/notification sliders into interface and voice messages
  • Divided music sliders into in-battle music and in-Garage music
  • New “endless” and nonrecurrent music for the Premium Garage
  • Reworked the “low quality” sound preset. Now available to all players and sounds better than before

Technical Improvements

  • Improved the algorithm of camera movement and its interaction with objects of different sizes
  • Updated Scaleform SDK to version 4.5.31 with the following improvements:
    • GUI supports multithreaded rendering
    • Reduced memory consumption for visual effects
    • Implemented Wwise audio support
  • Improved content scaling
  • Brought back the possibility of displaying several windows with different content
  • Solved issue of shifting pages when scrolling or refreshing the content

Tanks

  • The following vehicles now have HD-quality models:
    • T2 Light Tank
    • FCM 36 Pak 40
    • AMX 50 Foch
    • 112
    • Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. E
    • Leichttraktor
    • Pz.Kpfw. III/IV
    • Pz.Kpfw. V/IV
    • Pz.Kpfw. V/IV Alpha
    • Pz.Kpfw. B2 740 (f)
    • Pz.Kpfw. I Ausf. C
    • Durchbruchswagen 2
    • VK 30.02 (M)
    • Crusader 5.5-in. SP
    • Type 5 Chi-Ri
    • Т-26
    • S-51
    • Matilda IV
    • KV-220-2 Beta Test
    • A-43
    • M4A2E4 Sherman
See the In Development section for screenshots!

Maps

  • Added the Paris map for Random battles mode
  • Improved the visual quality of minimaps to be more informative:
    • Better display of terrain
    • Better visibility of unpassable map areas/slopes
    • Structures and cover points are divided and displayed as destructible (white) and non-destructible (black)
    • Slanting lines are used to display water where one can drown, and otherwise unreachable/impassable areas