Update 0.29 Moscow Calling

=List of Update 0.29 Moscow Calling=

New Special Operation
Four epic Special Operation missions await you, starting with a peace summit that takes place in the Russian capital of Moscow. These will, of course, come with new achievements:

A secret achievement will be present as well along with some proper rewards for your feats, which include camouflages and more.
 * Moscow Resident (four stages to this one)
 * No Slowing Down
 * Magnus Defense
 * Tower Defense
 * Bomber
 * Quick Robbery
 * Not a Problem
 * Before They React
 * Emergency Service

War Games
We are introducing a series of new PvE modes that will challenge your skill and the ability of your group to work as a team, starting with Labyrinth. In this mode, you will race against time to capture randomly appearing bases – but that's just the beginning. In the Moscow Calling season, it will appear periodically along with older Special Operations. You can read more about the mode in our [dedicated article.]

Improved Visuals
A number of visual effects were overhauled to look significantly better. These include:

And, last but not least, we've significantly improved the visual quality of Garage models (including those in the SD client).
 * Penetrations, non-penetrations and ricochets
 * Vehicle interaction with stone, concrete, metallic and wooden objects
 * Tracer rounds
 * Mud and dust from beneath the wheels and tracks
 * Exhaust smoke
 * Fuel and ammunition fires

Economy Improvements
We've prepared a number of reward changes for both PvP and PvE – the mechanics behind them are described in a [dedicated article] but the important part is – you'll earn more.

Commander Improvements
We are improving the Commander system by making it possible to train all your commanders to Rank 15 along with some other changes such as the ability to purchase a Commander Experience bundle for Gold or the ability to level up your Commanders directly for Reputation above Rank 10. You can read more about the improvements in our [dedicated article.]

New Player Daily Bonus
New players have now the option to purchase a special item bundle intended to make the start of their mercenary career even more comfortable. Additionally, for a month, the owners of this bundle will receive daily gifts.

Updated Contract Campaign
We added a new series of contracts and missions with the main prize being the ZUBR PSP Tier 8 Premium Tank Destroyer. You can read more about the campaign in our [dedicated article.]

As for the ZUBR, you can learn more about it in [our preview.]

ATGM Improvements
We've changed the way ATGMs get launched. Before, upon launch, they "slowed down" and only gradually accelerated to their full speed. Now, they accelerate quicker and feel more natural.

Additionally, the maximum velocity of gun-launched ATGMs was increased to 300-320 m/s and some TOW missiles received an upgrade in agility and velocity (this change concerns the following vehicles: M1134, M2A3 Bradley, ZBL-08).

HE and HEAT Impact Overhaul
We've overhauled the way HE and HEAT shells interact with armor at extreme angles. They do no longer automatically detonate when the impact angle is above 85 degrees even when the armor is really thin (overmatch rules do no longer apply) with the chance to not detonate increasing from 87 degrees onwards to approximately 50 percent. As a result:

However, firing at anything at extreme angles (87 degrees or more) is now quite unreliable with a chance of the shell not detonating and is definitely not encouraged.
 * Firing these shells at heavily armored tanks from extreme angles will not work even with the strongest projectiles
 * Lightly armored targets (with roughly 20-40mm of armor or less, the value can depend on a projectile) will still be susceptible to ATGMs even at extreme angles

Ricochet Overhaul
We've overhauled the way ricochets work – as a result, thin armor will ricochet shells off less often and thick armor will ricochet them more often.

Furthermore, earlier on, ricochets would happen from 70 degrees (0 percent chance) to 72 degrees (100 percent chance) – now, they will happen from 67 degrees to 73 degrees for APFSDS shells that still nominally have the ricochet value of 70 degrees. As an example – when an APFSDS shell standard impacts armor (not thin enough to trigger the overmatch mechanic but thin enough to guarantee penetration) under the angle of 71.5 degrees, the chance to ricochet will be:

Ricochet Chance = (71.5-67)/6 = 75 percent (ergo, the chance to penetrate is actually 25 percent)

General Changes
You can now purchase a 12-hour Platinum quality booster token in the Garage for 300 Gold along with some other boosters as well
 * Fixed the reverse steering issue (yes, we had to put this one first, that's how important it is)
 * Premium Account credit income bonus is increased from 50 percent to 100 percent
 * Killing friendly players who are marked as team killers no longer carries any penalty – it also does not cause your team to lose points in Global Operations
 * Added a new set of Pirate flags
 * Players who wait in a queue for a longer time will receive a special bonus to compensate for the waiting time
 * Assist kill now only counts for the player who dealt the most damage towards the destroyed target instead of the previous top three
 * Fixed an Armor Inspector issue where penetration chance was on multiple occasions not displayed correctly – the color now corresponds to the actual chance to penetrate
 * The Armor Inspector ricochet value is also displayed correctly now
 * The Ioannis Sanna commander skills that increase the chance to set enemy vehicles on fire now work correctly
 * Battalion Contract Missions that require you to accumulate Experience for killing, damage and fire support had their requirements changed to spotting damage dealing, fire support or kills directly (with an additional multiplier when playing against other players in PvP)
 * Improved the prize pool for the Battalion Contracts feature – apart from receiving a temporary version of a Hades vehicle, eligible players will now also receive a blueprint part for its permanent version, 10 Experimental Field Kit PvE consumables and three special 12-hour boost tokens that prevent players from losing one rank in Ranked Battles – see the PvP section of patchnotes for more details
 * Battalion Contracts now have a bonus available that increases the contract progress for completing a Heroic Mission (regardless of in which mode) ten times. This bonus is used for up to 20 mission completions per week, but the basic contract progress for completing a Heroic Mission was reduced from 40 to 4 points
 * Battalion Contract Mission cooldown now starts from receiving the missions rather than from completing it
 * Engine revving sound can now be heard even in the first person mode
 * Removed the artificial 30 FPS inactive window cap that was applied whenever the game window was not active and not minimized at the same time
 * Tier 1 and Tier 2 PvP battles no longer count for the purposes of Dossier statistics
 * Improved the mechanics behind GPU autodetection and recommended settings to better tune your client to your PC's specifications
 * Improved a number of small graphics elements

General Changes
The entire BMPT series suffered from an issue where the gun depression and elevation values in the first person (sniper) mode were different from those in the third person mode – this issue was fixed
 * Reduced the kinetic shell penetration randomization value for the Chinese Type-series tanks and the VT-4 from the incorrect 15 percent to the correct value of 10 percent
 * Challenger 1 Fionn and Object 279 Banner Bearer can no longer use the Flag feature
 * The hull traverse speed of a number of vehicles did not correspond to their Garage value – this issue was now corrected
 * Added a new sound effect when using the Hydraulic Suspension active ability
 * Active Ability sounds work now correctly on the Alabino Proving Grounds map
 * Several vehicles (most notably the Centauro series) now have better crew hatch armor
 * Wheeled vehicles now tend to slide less in reverse
 * Fixed the issue where unlocked Tier 9 tokens appeared incorrectly on Tier 2 vehicles

Abrams AGDS

AFT-10
 * Replaced the Engine Overdrive active ability with one called Radar, working roughly the same as the one on the AMX-13 DCA – by activating your fire control radar, you will enhance your viewrange and the ability to detect targets even when they are hiding behind foliage, but at the cost of your own camouflage (the radar is also now animated)
 * Increased the vehicle's viewrange by 5 meters

Altay
 * Added an animation for the elevation and depression of the vehicle's optics module

AMX-10 PAC 90
 * HEAT shell damage is now unified with that of the Leopard 2A6 MBT

AMX-13 DCA
 * Changed the turret hatch armor – now, these do not receive damage from APFSDS shells but HE shells do full damage when they hit them

AMX-30B2 Brenus
 * Fixed the activated radar sound in the first person (sniper) mode

Ariete
 * Improved the amount of kinetic shells carried from 20 to 27

ASCOD LT
 * DM12A1 HEAT shell damage improved to 575 to match its performance on the Leopard vehicle series
 * Fixed an issue where targeting certain sections of hull side armor could make the penetration indicator appear grey instead of its correct color

BM Oplot
 * Overhauled the Upgrade window – both turrets now have their corresponding shells appear correctly

BMD-2
 * The shell impact visual effect now appears correctly on the vehicle's side plate instead of under it

C13 TUA
 * Shells no longer pass through the ATGM launcher – however, hitting it will not deal any damage to the vehicle
 * Improved the visual quality of this vehicle (same goes for BMD-2M)

Centauro 105
 * The duration of the reload sound now corresponds to the actual reloading animation

Centauro 120
 * Improved the appearance of several visual elements
 * The rear turret mesh now acts as cage armor

Challenger 1
 * Improved the appearance of several visual elements
 * The rear turret mesh now acts as cage armor

Challenger 1 Falcon
 * Improved this vehicle's model quality

Challenger 2 ATDU
 * DM12A1 HEAT shell damage improved to 575 to match its performance on the Leopard vehicle series
 * Improved this vehicle's model quality

IS-7
 * Improved this vehicle's model quality
 * Fixed the vehicle's collision model to avoid component clipping

K1A1
 * Fixed the inconsistent frontal gun depression – the gun is now always able to depress to at least -6 degrees as long as it's within 90 degrees to each side of the vehicle's axis

Kornet-EM
 * It is now possible to unlock this tank's upgrade modules for Experience. Surplus upgrade blueprint parts can be sold for Gold. Players who didn't manage to get their hands on all upgrades during the previous season will be able to do so for Experience.

KPz 70
 * Fixed the appearance of the Berlin Brigade camouflage on this vehicle

K21 XC-8
 * Fixed the appearance of its suspension when the vehicle is tilted and improved the suspension's animation
 * Fixed the burning engine visual effect

KTO Rosomak
 * HEAT shell damage is now unified with that of the Leopard 2A6 MBT

Leopard 2AX
 * The Armor Inspector feature now correctly displays the Q-Net mesh armor

Leopard 2A6
 * Improved the thickness of a portion of upper frontal plate so that it would roughly match that of the Leopard 2A6

M1A2 Abrams
 * Slightly reduced the thickness of a portion of upper frontal plate so that it would roughly much that of the Leopard 2AX

M1A2C Abrams
 * Improved its side hull armor

M8 Thunderbolt II
 * Improved its side hull armor

M8 Thunderbolt II Hades
 * DM12A1 HEAT shell damage improved to 575 to match its performance on the Leopard vehicle series
 * DM12A1 HEAT shell penetration improved from 600mm to 700mm to match its performance on the Leopard vehicle series

Improved its rate of fire to correspond to that of the progression version of the vehicle MBT-70

Merkava Mk.3D Barak Zoher
 * Fixed the appearance of its suspension when the vehicle is tilted

Merkava Mk.4M
 * Made the smokescreen deployed by its smoke grenade launcher wider

MT-LB S8
 * Fixed an issue that caused the vehicle to be fully unlockable only be spending Reputation
 * Reduced the price of the Kevlar Spall Liner module

PT-85
 * Minimum accuracy (when the aiming circle is the largest) improved by 10 percent
 * Maximum accuracy was reduced – this way the vehicle is even less accurate at longer distances but better when used as intended (decimating targets at close ranges while driving fast)

RDF/LT
 * Improved this vehicle's model quality

Rosomak M1
 * Improved aiming time and accuracy on the move
 * Reduced the camouflage penalty for firing its gun
 * Fixed the visual model of this vehicle (gap between hull and turret)

T-15 Armata
 * The Armor Inspector feature now correctly displays the Q-Net mesh armor

T-55 Enigma
 * This vehicle now has moving ATGM launchers that can elevate and depress from -5 to +20 degrees (this improvement should solve then majority of reported cases where T-15 ATGMs would behave in a strange way)
 * Fixed an issue where the autocannon firing effect was missing

T-90A
 * Improved the roadwheel mode

Type 99A2
 * Fixed this vehicle's turret armor to perform better

Type 99A2-140
 * Reload time decreased from 8.6s to 8s

VFM Mk.5
 * Weight increased to 59.2 tons

VBR
 * Reload time reduced to 5.7s
 * Aiming time reduced to 1.9s

VT-4
 * This vehicle's collision model now corresponds to the visual one correctly

Warrior MILAN
 * Fixed an issue where the aiming time and accuracy values of APFSDS shells different from those of its HE shells

WPB Anders
 * Fixed the issue where its ATGM was not launched from the correct spot
 * Fixed the shell descriptions


 * DM12A1 HEAT shell damage improved to 575 to match its performance on the Leopard vehicle series

Player versus Player

 * Added a new PvP map Moscow to the map pool
 * Cold Strike: Fixed the collision models of several buildings
 * Salzburg: Fixed the incorrect interaction of shells and various fences
 * Battalion Ranked Battles: Added a new "Rank Insurance" boost token to the game – as long as this booster is active, you will always lose one rank less than you normally would (eg. for a battle that would make you lose one rank, you lose no rank). This token can be purchased at all times for Gold and fills one of the two booster slots available (the Premium slot can be used for free with this booster). Two variants are now available – a 15-min one and a 12-hour one
 * Battalion Ranked Battles: Technical victory (due to the enemy team absence) now counts towards player activity considerations
 * Slightly improved the appearance of map textures

Global Operations

 * When considering friendly fire client settings, the Wildcards that deal area damage (such as the bomber raid) now deal damage to both allies and enemies regardless of client friendly fire settings. Targeted damage Wildcards (such as the AC-130 Gunship one) deal damage only to enemies
 * Slightly improved the appearance of map textures
 * Fixed an issue where your APS would destroy the ATGMs launched by friendly bunkers

Player versus Environment

 * The harder PvE difficulty Hardcore is now only available from Tier 3 onwards
 * Significantly increased the APS cooldown for AI opponents
 * Players now see assists in the Battle Results window (Team tab) for all PvE missions
 * Fixed an issue where, upon changing difficulty by selecting different vehicle Tier and when attempting to enter an older Special Operation than the most recent one, players would start a wrong operation
 * Slightly improved the appearance of map textures
 * Black Sea Incursion, Special Operation 4: Fixed the smoke effect flickering

User Interface

 * Fixed an issue where tutorial tooltips would appear incorrectly in replays
 * Fixed an issue where Reputation bonuses would not appear correctly in a detailed battle results tab
 * Engine modules now have their reverse speed listed
 * Fixed the Active Ability timer in vehicle battle UI
 * HQ PvE mission icon now shows which map will the players enter with an image
 * The intensity of camera shaking now depends on hitpoints and damage
 * Fixed an issue where commander skill icons in the skill field and in the selected skill summary window would sometimes not appear to be the same
 * Fixed the description of the Tank Destroyer class ability to correspond to its real effect
 * It's now possible to transfer platoon leadership to another player via a right-click menu
 * Fixed an issue where the camera would get too close to a tank in the Garage when switching from the HQ window
 * Simply pressing Enter in query windows that require a positive or a negative answer now automatically answers the query with the positive option
 * Updated the way the mouse cursor looks in the Garage
 * APS module upgrade description now features a warning when the module is blocked
 * Commander Experience that is not available for upgrades now appears grey
 * The Disable Scroll Wheel setting in the game now works correctly

Issues and Corrections

 * Fixed several issues that caused the client to crash
 * Fixed a number of small graphics issues
 * Fixed several small UI issues
 * Fixed a rare issue where sometimes a vehicle with its entire crew killed would not get knocked out for as long as it was under constant autocannon fire
 * Fixed an issue that caused some players to not see their obtained Object 279 Mir in the Garage
 * Destroyed vehicle models no longer have red parts on them
 * Fixed an issue that, despite having semi-transparent foliage enabled in the Settings, caused some bushes to not appear transparent at all
 * Fixed an issue that caused motion blur to still appear with some settings even though the feature was disabled
 * Fixed an issue that, when switching the Garage setting from standard to simplified Garage while in battle, caused the screen to appear yellow when exiting the battle
 * Fixed an issue encountered by a handful of players where packs with multiple skins for one tank – in this case, the T-72B3 – would not award all the included skins correctly (any outstanding issues are resolved by this update)
 * Fixed an issue that caused it to become impossible to remove the reserve status from rented vehicles