Update 0.27 Arabian Nights

Warlords of the Wasteland Battle path
Warlords of the Wasteland is a brand-new large-scale individual Battle Path campaign, chock-full of amazing rewards, including no fewer than four exclusive Premium vehicles as well as numerous vehicle customization options, Loot Crates and other treats. It takes place in the Middle East and your task will be to carve a piece of territory for your PMC by completing various difficult missions.

The entire campaign will be available for 90 days and represents a major piece of content that we hope you will enjoy. This is the first of several Battle Path campaigns we are planning to launch.

New Special Operation
Following the events of the Caribbean Crisis Special Operation, Magnus Holter is continuing the assault on Clayburn Industries and its allies, the Evocati PMC, in order to get rid of Douglas O’Reilly’s thugs for good. The Evocate are holed up in the Middle East and the mission seems straightforward enough – but not everything is as it seems...

The Arabian Nights season will feature two brand-new Special Operation missions taking place in Egypt and Iraq, available on all three difficulty levels, as well as an Arabian-themed Garage. Another two missions and the conclusion of the Arabian Nights story arc will become available after the launch of the season.

Low-tier vehicle overhaul
We are rebalancing the way Tier 1 to 4 vehicles in order to make them more fun to play. Their progression rate will also be increased in order for the players to not spend time on low-Tiers if they don’t want to. But – there will be also a good reason to give them a shot since we will also significantly improve the gameplay dynamics for these tiers by increasing their mobility as well as their rate of fire, making them the amazing battle machines they were always meant to be! Please see the detailed patchnotes below for more information.

Skin system
This season, we are introducing the long-awaited Advanced Customization system, also known as the “Skin” system. With it in place, you will be able to obtain exotic appearance modifications for your fully upgraded vehicles as visual customization options next to the existing Base Paint, Decal and Camouflage features. These modifications will be available by various means – for completing certain in-game missions, as free gifts or as a part of Premium content.

Each skin will be tied to specific vehicles that you need to own before you can use it (a vehicle is not a part of a skin unless stated otherwise) and the existing Premium vehicles with permanent paintjobs (such as the Reaper) will be partially integrated into the system – multiple versions of the same vehicle will not be merged, but owning such a vehicle will unlock its paintjob for all the other vehicles of the same type you own.

Active vehicle abilities
In this update, we are introducing the Active Ability System. The core of the system is boosting the properties of specific vehicle groups (mostly classes, but also certain sub-groups within a specific class) in order to make them more suitable for their intended battlefield role by giving them an ability that needs to be activated by players.

Improved player experience
Recently, as a part of the New Horizons plan, we’ve unveiled a number of balance changes that are coming to Armored Warfare. These changes include:


 * PvE difficulty overhaul and the reduction to two difficulty levels
 * Dynamic gameplay improvements and the return of powerful autocannon vehicles
 * Vehicle sounds overhaul (gunfire, driving, non-penetrations and others)
 * Shell mechanics changes
 * Economy improvements

Contract mission campaign
An entirely new Contract Mission campaign is available along with a set of seasonal Arabian Missions, allowing you to obtain, amongst other things, a new Arabian Loot Crate containing the K1A1 Premium MBT with hydro-pneumatic suspension.

Gameplay Mechanisms
Advanced Customization System We are introducing the long-awaited Advanced Customization system, also known as the "Skin" system. With it in place, you will be able to obtain exotic appearance modifications for your fully upgraded vehicles as visual customization options next to the existing Base Paint, Decal and Camouflage features. These modifications will be available by various means – for completing certain in-game missions, as free gifts or as a part of Premium content.

Each skin will be tied to specific vehicles that you need to own before you can use it (a vehicle is not a part of a skin unless stated otherwise) and the existing Premium vehicles with permanent paintjobs (such as the Reaper) will be partially integrated into the system – multiple versions of the same vehicle will not be merged, but owning such a vehicle will unlock its paintjob for all the other vehicles of the same type you own.

PvE Changes

In this update, we are overhauling two principal modes of the game. Regarding PvE, each Tier now has two difficulties available – easy and hard (Recruit and Veteran). In order to make the progression diverse but not overwhelming, the choice of maps will depend on the tiers with the lowest tiers only having access to a small amount on maps so that new players can learn the mode basics properly. Starting from mid-Tiers, both difficulty settings will contain all the missions in the game in order to provide the players with more gameplay choices. Additionally, high-end hard difficulty PvE missions provide more challenge than the earlier Hardcore top difficulty. The increased difficulty will be compensated by even bigger rewards.

Active Ability System

The second system introduced in Update 0.27 will be the Active Ability one. The core of the system is boosting the properties of specific vehicle groups (mostly classes, but also certain sub-groups within a specific class) in order to make them more suitable for their intended battlefield role by giving them an ability that needs to be activated by players. These abilities will only be available for Tier 5 vehicles or higher and will be possible to inspect on the Garage screen where a new ability slot will appear right next to the ammunition. If a vehicle is eligible for more than one ability, this slot will allow players to choose. In the first version of the system, we will be adding five special active abilities:


 * Engine Overdrive
 * Rapid Fire
 * Sharpshooter
 * Silent Running
 * Adjustable suspension

Autocannon Improvements

We've overhauled the in-game autocannons in order to make them more relevant on the battlefield. The changes include:


 * Increased rate of fire and accuracy
 * Increased the AP shell penetration (this is compensated by significantly increasing the penetration value decay over distance)
 * Increased the HE shell penetration module damage along with the non-penetration damage equations
 * Decreased the PELE shell long-range accuracy and changed the way their damage behaves upon non-penetrations

Low-Tier Gameplay Improvements

We are rebalancing the way Tier 1 to 4 vehicles in order to make them more fun to play. Their progression rate will also be increased in order for the players to not spend time on low-Tiers if they don't want to. But – there will be also a good reason to give them a shot since we will also significantly improve the gameplay dynamics for these tiers by increasing their mobility as well as their rate of fire, making them the amazing battle machines they were always meant to be! This global rebalance of lower Tiers also means that they will be competitive with each other. In other words – the matchmaker will be able to assemble more fair battles from these four tiers so that no vehicle feels completely outmatched even during low population times, an important improvement to the current low-tier balance. We've also decided to improve the progression rate of these Tiers – players should not be forces to spend more time on them than necessary. Instead, they should do so for fun! And last but not least, for the sake of gameplay balance and quality, we will be changing the Tiers of the following vehicles and moving them around as follows:


 * Sho't Kal Dalet re-tiered from Tier 2 to Tier 4 (the M50 will now unlock Tiran 6 directly, which will then lead to two options – Magach 5 and Sho't Kal Dalet)
 * T92 and T92 ACAV moved to Marat Shishkin's branch
 * Scorpion moved to Sophie Wölfli's branch and re-tiered to Tier 1 (all players will receive it by default)
 * Chieftain Mk.2 de-tiered from Tier 4 to Tier 3
 * T-72 Ural Tier changed from Tier 4 to Tier 5
 * LAV-150 90 Tier changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4
 * ZBD-86 Tier changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4
 * Unlocking Panzerhaubitze 2000 no longer automatically unlocks PLZ-05
 * OF-40 progression vehicle removed from the dealer trees

Premium vehicles are affected as follows:
 * T-72 Victory Tier changed from Tier 4 to Tier 5
 * IS-7 and IS-7 Defender Tier changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4
 * ZBD-86 Neon Tier changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4
 * Object 279 and Object 279 Banner Bearer changed from Tier 4 to Tier 5 (while receiving Premium matchmaking)
 * Object 430 and Object 430 Ice changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4 (while receiving Premium matchmaking)
 * Type 59-IIA changed from Tier 3 to Tier 4 (while receiving Premium matchmaking)

Premium matchmaking allows the vehicles to end up on top of a team more often than standard progression vehicles. It is therefore important to note that in the light of the global changes (as described in this section) that affect Premium vehicles as well, the performance of the vehicle will not change as they will be more than capable of handling any potential enemies the Premium MM will throw at them. As a result, the Tier increase will in fact benefit players, because for the same performance and powerful gameplay, the vehicles will earn more Credits and Experience. Please note that, where applicable, these changes will be compensated to you using a mechanics roughly similar to the one used in Balance 2.0 (Update 0.19).

In summary, the following things are happening:
 * Tier 1 to Tier 5 tanks received lower reload time at the cost of their alpha with the average time to kill and life expectancy decreasing in order to make the gameplay faster and more dynamic
 * Tier 5 tanks are something of a crossbreed of the fast low-Tier gameplay and the current slower top-Tier gameplay – the further you advance, the higher time to kill value will be, slowing the gameplay somewhat and making it more strategic
 * The differences between smaller and bigger guns are now more pronounced with damage scaling steeper with caliber value
 * The differences in camouflage values between classes are now more pronounced in order to make class gameplay diverse
 * Tier 1 to 4 MBT acceleration was increased by 20 percent and Tier 5 by 10 percent
 * Tier 1 to 5 TD penetration for shells (excluding ATGMs) was increased by 50mm across the board
 * Tier 1 to 5 LT and AFV HE and HEAT shells now fly considerably faster (800 m/s and 900 m/s respectively) with the exception of Jarmila II (550 m/s for HE, 700 m/s for HEAT)
 * The low-Tier vehicle camouflage factors and view ranges will be overhauled as such:

Tier 1-2:
 * LT camouflage 25-30%, view range 415 meters
 * AFV camouflage 35-40%, view range 435 meters
 * MBT camouflage up to 20%, view range up to 400 meters

Tier 3-4:
 * LT camouflage 25-30%, view range 415 meters
 * AFV camouflage 30-40%, view range 435-455 meters
 * MBT camouflage up to 20%, view range up to 400 meters
 * SPG camouflage 20%, view range 360 meters

HE Shell Damage Adjustments

We've adjusted the HE shell damage in order to make high caliber HE more viable while the damage of the low-to-mid-caliber guns should be lower. As a result, the low- and mid-caliber HE shells now work reliably as the means of finishing off the targets with thick armor but only a few hitpoints left instead of dealing massive damage per shot.

Spalling Calculation Changes

We've overhauled the way the damage to internal modules works after an armor penetration. All types of shells now create a spalling field when penetrating (earlier, this was only the truth for HEAT and HESH shells). To explain a bit further, spalling is a real life effect where shard of the penetrated tank's own armor are torn by the force of a blast and act as fast projectiles inside the vehicle, ricocheting all over the place, wounding crewmembers and damaging internal equipment. In this update, the penetrating AP shells will create a narrow spalling cone where the effect takes place, while the penetrating HEAT and HESH shell cone is a much wider one (especially the HESH shell cone is very wide). HE shells can create the spalling effect even when the armor is not actually penetrated but it is thin enough for the effect to take place.

These changes should make the internal module damage more predictable across the shell types with the (especially high caliber) HEAT and HESH shells acting as the ultimate crew and module killers.

Penalty and Reduction Bonus Calculation Changes We've changed the way penalties and reduction bonuses work in Armored Warfare. Now, division is used instead of simple subtraction. For example, if we take Sabrina Washington's skill that reduced ramming damage by 10.71% and we assume the commander has it selected twice, earlier, the equation looked as such:

1-0.1071-0.1071=0.7858

The new equation looks as such:

1/(1+0.1071+0.1071) = 0.8235

We've adjusted all the penalty and reduction bonus values accordingly to make sure this change does not overly affect the gameplay.

Contract Missions Updates

Players can now obtain Wasteland Loot Crates for completing three Arabian Contract Missions. Wasteland Loot Crates contain, amongst other things, the pieces of the BMPT Mod.2017 Premium Tank Destroyer. These missions can alternatively be also completed by investing Gold. Additionally, we are launching another standard Contract Mission campaign for extra prizes, including Credits, Loot Crates and more.

Sound Overhaul In Update 0.27, we are improving many sounds in the game in order to make them more realistic. These sounds include track movements, some engine sounds (including revving), gun sounds, smoke grenade and generator sounds and the sounds of wheels sliding when losing traction.

General Changes
 * Significantly improved the game stability
 * Significantly improved the mobility of the AFV and LT vehicle classes
 * Changed the availability of several Commander unlocks – Freja Højbjerg can now be unlocked from the M108 instead of the M113 ACAV, Rashid Al-Atassi can now also be unlocked from the BMP-1P and Juan Carlos Miramón was moved from the Chieftain to the T-72A
 * Changed the availability of several Retrofit unlocks – Survivability Kit v2 can now be unlocked from the Type 96, Augmented Optics v2 can now be unlocked from the ZBL-08 and Electro-Optical Absorbing Paint v2 can now be unlocked from the BVP Šakal
 * Reduced the PvP and GLOPS requirements for Heroic Contract Missions
 * The screen now shakes whenever a shot is fired or when it lands
 * HE shells now deal double the damage to wheels (tracked vehicles are not affected)
 * Damage done to AC-130 or bunkers in Global Operations now counts as damage dealt for the purpose of reward calculations
 * For vehicles with Ready Racks and clips, the bonuses that increase the ammo switch speed now only work when the rack or clip is fully loaded. The bigger the rack or clip, the higher the bonus
 * PvP and GLOPS player platoon now spawn clustered together more often in these modes
 * We've updated the engine and ammo rack fire system by introducing a dependency of fire chance on caliber (the higher the caliber, the higher the chance of fire) and by making sure that the chance is never higher than 100 percent
 * We've also updated the damage done to your tracks and wheels by falling by including the falling height and vehicle position
 * Assist damage (spotting damage) no longer counts just the damage done to the targets that you've spotted, but also to those you've immobilized and marked for increased damage by your AFV or LT vehicle's special Mark ability
 * Significantly increased the assist damage reward for targets marked by your AFV or LT vehicle's special Mark ability
 * Fixed the inactive (AFK) player auto-detection mechanism
 * Deserters will no longer receive medals or be able to complete Contract Missions
 * Caucasus Loot Crate decals, avatars and camouflage can now be sold for Gold (10, 25 and 100 Gold)
 * Added an option to re-roll Contract Missions for Gold

Vehicles
Missile Vehicle Overhaul

After the recent APS overhaul, we've taken a look at how some missile-dependent vehicles perform. In order to make them more viable, we've made the following changes to them:


 * Kornet-EM – reduced the time between launches from 1.5s to 1s, reduced the full clip (8 missiles) loading time from 45s to 40s
 * T-15 – reduced the time between launches from 1.5s to 1s, reduced the full clip loading time from 24s to 20s
 * AFT-10 – reduced the time between launches from 2s to 1.2s, reduced the full clip loading time from 36s to 28s

General Changes

A number of real life troop carriers received a Troop Compartment module, increasing the base capture rate by 20 percent. These are the entire BMD series, the entire BMP series, M113 ACAV, M2 Bradley, OT-64 Cobra, KTO Rosomak, Rosomak M1, Warrior, ZBL-08, Šakal and T-15 Armata


 * Depleted Uranium shells now have an increased chance to cause a fire when damaging a target
 * Fixed a number of Chinese MBT gun names in order for them to correspond to their real life counterparts
 * Fixed the appearance of the engine radiator for the entire M60 Patton series
 * Improved the appearance of glass textures on all vehicles
 * Improved the appearance of meshes and models in general for the SD client
 * Improved some smaller visual details on the T-64AV Hunter

Abbot, Abbot VE
 * Improved the reverse acceleration

Abrams AGDS

In order to make this vehicle the beast it deserves to be, we are making the following changes:


 * Fixed the issue where its missiles would fly all over the place randomly
 * Increased ATGM damage
 * Reduced the minimum firing range
 * The ATGMs are now easier to control
 * Increased the autocannon accuracy and rate of fire

AMX 10 RCR
 * Fixed the vehicle's armor to correspond to the Garage values

B1 Draco
 * Gun depression improved from -6 to -9 degrees

Begleitpanzer 57
 * Improved the TOW ATGM to the C model with increased performance
 * Fixed the appearance of an engine or ammo rack fire visual effect

BMD Series We are turning the BMD series into IFV-style AFVs instead of purely recon ones. To that end:
 * Recon Package spotting-enhancing module was removed from it
 * Removed the ability to mark enemy targets for higher damage
 * Added their real life ability to lower and raise their suspension (Active Suspension ability)
 * Added the Troop Compartment module, increasing the speed with which they capture bases by 20 percent

BMP Series We are turning the BMP series into more capable spotters.
 * The BMP vehicles received the Recon Package spotting-enhancing module
 * Added the Troop Compartment module, increasing the speed with which they capture bases by 20 percent

Challenger 1 Falcon
 * Improved the turret roof armor to 45-55mm, the roof can now ricochet APFSDS shells
 * The tank can now deploy a smoke screen in a circle around it, much like the Leopard 2 Revolution
 * Reduced the clip rate of fire by 10 percent

Challenger 2
 * Instead of the previous soft-kill APS, the tank now has the Iron Fist hard-kill APS

Challenger 2 ATDU
 * The vehicle now has new PISH shells that work like HESH shells, but are better at penetrating anti-HEAT spaced armor

Chieftain Mk.2
 * Fixed the unintended spots of excessively thick armor on its hull and its turret

K21 XC-8
 * Fixed the description of the Improved Drive Sprockets upgrade – the module works on all kinds of surfaces, not just off-road

LAV-600
 * Fixed an issue where the turret mantlet had no armor

Leopard 2A5
 * Fixed the turret camouflage appearance

M1A1 AIM
 * Fixed an issue where the APS module didn't appear in the vehicle's module upgrade branch even though it was present in the game

Magach 7A
 * Changed the armor of this tank in order to make it easier to penetrate for low-Tier vehicles and harder to penetrate for high-Tier ones

Magach 7C
 * Changed the armor of this tank in order to make it easier to penetrate for low-Tier vehicles and harder to penetrate for high-Tier ones

Merkava Mk.1
 * Gun depression improved from -6 to -8.5 degrees
 * The tank now has an improved smoke generator with 5 charges instead of the stock smoke grenades

Merkava Mk.2B
 * Gun depression improved from -6 to -7 degrees

Merkava Mk.3D Barak Zoher
 * Gun depression improved from -6 to -7 degrees
 * Fixed the appearance of its armor on the Armor Inspector screen

Merkava Mk.4
 * Added the Crew Compartment trait to its Garage description

Merkava Mk.4M
 * Added the Crew Compartment trait to its Garage description

Sprut-SD
 * This vehicle now has the active suspension ability

T-14 Armata
 * Fixed the internal module armor

T-64A Mod. 1969
 * Improved the stock AP ammo penetration from 260mm to 300mm
 * Improved the upgraded AP ammo penetration from 310mm to 340mm

T-64A Mod. 1969
 * Improved the stock AP ammo penetration from 260mm to 300mm
 * Improved the upgraded AP ammo penetration from 310mm to 340mm

T-64A Mod. 1976
 * Improved the stock AP ammo penetration from 310mm to 340mm

T-72 Ural
 * Improved the stock AP ammo penetration from 260mm to 300mm
 * Improved the upgraded AP ammo penetration from 310mm to 340mm

T-72A
 * Improved the stock AP ammo penetration from 310mm to 340mm

T-72AV ICE
 * Fixed the turret traverse rate in order for it to match its progression counterpart

T-80
 * Improved the stock AP ammo penetration from 310mm to 340mm

T-90
 * Fixed the turret armor around the APS module

T-90A
 * Fixed the turret armor around the APS module

T-90MS
 * Fixed the bustle ammo rack module that was impossible to damage
 * The tank now has a shell ejection animation

Type 90
 * Fixed the incorrect Armor Inspector armor appearance and its camouflage model

ST1
 * We added an internal module representing the loader that was incorrectly missing. The vehicle will now get proper bonuses from his presence, but it will also be possible to wound him
 * Gun elevation improved to +18 degrees

VT-4
 * The vehicle now has a hard-kill APS system of the same type as the VT-5

Warrior
 * Reduced the switching time between weapons to 0.5s

WZ-1224
 * Fixed the vehicle's armor
 * Fixed an issue where hitting the vehicle's external steel tow cable could deal damage to the vehicle

Player versus Player

 * Fixed the lighting on several maps
 * Various truck-based map objects (lorries, trucks etc.) are now fully destructible
 * Cold Strike – fixed the fence collision model as well as the "flying house" that could be fired through

Player versus Environment

 * Fixed the lighting on several maps
 * Various large environmental objects (trucks etc.) are now fully destructible

Global Operations

 * Fixed the lighting on several maps
 * Various truck-based map objects (lorries, trucks etc.) are now fully destructible
 * Pleternica – fixed an issue where some trees would fall without making a sound
 * Grindelwald – fixed the capture sound of Objective 1 and Objective 2
 * Grindelwald – fixed the issue where players could enter unintended areas

Special Operations

 * Added a new Special Operation, the first part of the Arabian Nights arc
 * Added the option for the operator to enable older Special Operations in the game
 * Fixed the night vision onset on the second map of the Caribbean Crisis Special Operation
 * Black Sea Incursion mission 4 – the ATGMs from the infantry teams firing from balconies are no longer guided

User Interface

 * Overhauled the appearance of dealer trees
 * Improved the way players can select a mode on the HQ screen
 * Improved the way the aiming reticle targets flying objects such as warplanes, helicopters and drones
 * A chat no longer automatically jumps to newly appearing messages whenever they appear if a player scrolls up to see its history
 * Added tooltips to various Dossier values
 * The Dossier tab opens much quicker now
 * Fixed an UI issue where some vehicles would show different statistics before purchase and after purchase

Issues and Corrections

 * Fixed an issue where the aim reticle would sometimes have an incorrect color when aiming at the AI targets in PvE
 * Commander skills dependent on ally or enemy proximity now appear in the UI correctly
 * Fixed an issue where, if a vehicle had multiple ammo rack modules and one of them would get damaged, repairing it would lead to an instant reload
 * Fixed an issue where retrofits increasing the gun reload time would not work with clip-style autoloader vehicles and autocannons
 * Fixed an issue that caused the enemy APS to influence your missiles too much whenever you loader was wounded (the "missiles flying all over the place" issue)
 * Fixed an issue where Joshua Seagrove and Andrey Zaitsev's skill "Fixed Position" would get disrupted by the movement caused by gun recoil
 * Fixed an issue where AI opponents would sometimes not attack a player who left the battle early
 * Fixed an issue that caused an unintended reticle shift when launching the last guided missile
 * Fixed a number of falling tree animation issues
 * Fixed an issue that caused the Chemical Plant map smoke effects (including dust) to appear green
 * Fixed an issue that caused the game to crash when trying to change the camouflage on the PT-85 Tier 1 LT
 * Fixed an issue where the game would appear distorted on screens with non-standard resolutions
 * Fixed an issue where the background mountains and trees could appear split into two on higher than "low" post-processing settings
 * Optimized the game updating process when minimizing and maximizing the game's window
 * Fixed a number of smaller UI issues