Update 0.8

Update 0.8 was the first major update after Armored Warfare went into Open Beta, and took place on September 3rd, 2015. It featured a new maps, vehicles, and user interface changes, alongside other changes.

New Content

 * Military bases
 * New PvP Map - Lost Island
 * New PVE Mission - Dire Wolf
 * New PVE Mission Select Screen
 * Mini-boss Mobs (on any difficulty medium and above there is a random chance, increasing with difficulty, in which a mob of mini-bosses will spawn into the map)
 * Daily Mission Rewards (the first phase of a daily mission system to PvE, Players will now be given an extra bonus in rewards for completing a mission on each difficulty level)
 * Extreme Difficulty Mode (this is a much more difficult mode that will most likely require platoons that are coordinated)
 * AFK Punishment (players will be removed from the match if they do not participate)
 * Tutorial Introduction
 * New Vehicles - T92, XM1, M41, ERC-90 F4, XM800T, XM8, Leopard 1A5, Taifun II, RDF/LT, BMP-1P, Dragoon 300-90
 * Kill-Cam - Players will now be able to view the player that destroyed their vehicle. If the enemy has been spotted, the camera will jump to them, showing the player's name and vehicle. If the enemy has not been spotted, the third person camera will be aimed in the direction of the enemy but not directly show the vehicle.
 * New Player Portraits and Titles - as an addition to our upgrade trees, players will now be able to unlock new avatar portraits and titles on select vehicles. This feature allows greater player customization in the game.
 * Performance Improvements
 * Environmental Camouflage Indicator
 * New Light Tank Class Ability - "Override ECU"

Notifications

 * Selecting "do not remind" checkbox for repairs now functions.
 * Added a notification that will trigger when a dealer prerequisite is achieved and a new block of vehicles is unlocked.
 * Task bar icon for Armored Warfare will flash if game is not in focus and a match is starting.
 * Micro-notifications for ammunition and consumable purchases have been removed.

In-Match HUD

 * New Vehicle Status panel featuring new special abilities bar
 * New Artillery Reticle with concentric circles to provide more accurate indication of shot placement.
 * Color Blind Passes: Armor Penetration indicator in the dispersion and static reticle are now tinted.
 * New icon in team list to indicate disconnected player.
 * Updated colors on hit feedback messages to be so that red text shows a kill, yellow text shows damage done, and white text shows no damage done.
 * HE rounds have a new hit resolution status of "HE - No Damage" to inform players when their rounds are unable to deal damage to a vehicle or module.

Match Screens

 * Reworked PvP Match start loading screen to improve readability.
 * Added loading screen tips to the PvE and PvP loading screens.
 * Added slider for adjusting FOV in the settings menu.
 * Streamlined the PvP Post Match screen to improve readability and provide more data regarding how rewards are assessed and calculated.

Vehicle Preview System

 * Players will now be able to preview vehicle models in the garage, simply right-click on a vehicle in the dealer tree and select the "Preview" option.
 * As part of the rollout for this system, players will be able to view vehicles for upcoming releases.

General UI

 * In battle/mission, Chat Scrolling has been implemented. Using the (Ctrl) key to bring up the cursor, the player can then use the mouse wheel, or Page UP/Page Down to scroll through the chat history. The feature currently stores 50 messages.
 * Menu icons have been updated to provide a more consistent look.
 * Players will now be able to view their Ping and FPS while playing the game. To enable/disable this setting go to Settings>UI>FPS/Ping.
 * Updated descriptions for Retrofits.
 * Updated and new Commander skill icons.
 * The Queue window will now remember its last position.
 * The garage is now unlocked while in queue for match.
 * Made improvements to Global Chat:
 * When pressing enter in the Queue window, global chat will open.
 * Pressing the 'ESC' key while chat window is open will result in the chat window minimizing,
 * Tooltip rendering has been updated to improve readability as well as minimize their ability to obscure other UI element.
 * Slider bars will now directly respond to player clicks as opposed to requiring a click-and-drag to adjust.
 * Double clicking on the currently selected vehicle's thumbnail from the vehicle bar will open the service screen for that vehicle.

Bug Fixes

 * Fixed off-center quick-chat radial.

Gameplay

 * Decreased the amount post-impact penetration falloff for shaped charge projectiles (HEAT, most ATGMs) so that the penetration only falls off to 30% over the maximum distance (1.25 meters) instead of falling off to 0. Improves shaped charge performance in situations where two or more fairly thin layers of armor in the path of the shaped charge stream are separated/spaced apart from one another.

Spotting Indicator

 * The spotting indicator has been updated to stay on while you are spotted by the enemy team
 * Updated reward system so that spotting rewards are granted during the spotting persistence time even if the spotter no longer has line of sight to the target.
 * Updated Designated Target mechanic so that it is no longer possible to designate a target vehicle in 3rd person if the source vehicle does not have line of sight to the target. Prevents situations where scouts can designate enemy vehicles while fully protected by hard cover.
 * And issue where vehicles did not come with a full secondary and/or tertiary ammo loadouts when first purchased has been fixed.

Vehicle Class Changes

 * AFVs ability of having no camo loss on movement has been changed to have a speed threshold. AFVs do not have any camo loss until they go past 40% of their top speed.
 * LTs ability of having no accuracy bloom from forward movement has been changed to have a speed threshold. LTs do not have any bloom penalty until they go past 40% of their top speed.
 * Tank Destroyers were unintentionally not getting any camouflage penalties from movement. This has been fixed.
 * Counter Battery - SPGs are only rendered to other SPGs after firing instead of all enemy vehicles.

Autocannon Accuracy Improvements
With the recent changes to the spotting system, penetration falloff over distance, and autocannon HE round minimum damage values, we've found that autocannon damage dealing capabilities aren't as reliable as we'd like them to be. To improve this, we've increased the accuracy of all autocannons, especially smaller caliber autocannons. This should help players effectively target and hit weak points on enemy vehicles - especially at close to medium engagement ranges.
 * Baseline optimum accuracy for 20mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.14 to 0.12.
 * Baseline maximum bloom size for 20mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.84 to 0.72.
 * Baseline optimum accuracy for 25mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.145 to 0.13.
 * Baseline maximum bloom size for 25mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.87 to 0.78.
 * Baseline optimum accuracy for 30mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.15 to 0.14.
 * Baseline maximum bloom size for 30mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.9 to 0.84.
 * Baseline optimum accuracy for 57mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.16 to 0.155.
 * Baseline maximum bloom size for 57mm caliber autocannons improved from 0.96 to 0.93.

Note that different vehicles with the same caliber autocannons will still have different values; these numbers represent changes to base values and modifiers to make specific weapons more or less accurate still apply.

Audio

 * Our audio team have made a pass on our PvP and PvE levels, updating and improving ambient audio, providing a more visceral auditory experience for players.
 * As an added experience, players will now be able to hear projectiles as they whiz by their vehicles.

Progression

 * Separating starting blocks on both dealers to only include tier 1 and 2 vehicles. New MBT blocks have also been created, and have new prerequisites.
 * Tuned dealer prerequisite requirements so that at least one block will be unlocked before the player reaches 100% progress on their first Tier 2 vehicle in a dealer's starter block.
 * Updating the functionality of Consumables.
 * Four new commanders can be found on the upgrade trees for select vehicles. These new characters come equipped with unique skills that offer players new tactical options.
 * New retrofit upgrades offer the option for players to single-use currency unlocks as they progress with the vehicle.

Ammo Cost Reductions
At Tiers 7 and 8, upgraded ammo costs were vastly higher than standard rounds. As a result, players using upgraded ammo could end up losing a significant amount of currency per match even if they performed well. To correct this, we've significantly decreased the cost of upgraded ammunition at Tiers 7 and 8. In addition, SPG ammo was too expensive compared to all other classes, and has been reduced.
 * Tier 7 fully upgraded ammo is now about 1.5x the cost of standard ammo (it was about 2x the cost of standard ammo before). Note that this still varies from ammo to ammo.
 * Tier 8 fully upgraded ammo is now about 1.625x the cost of standard ammo (it was about 2.375x the cost of standard ammo before). Note that this still varries from ammo to ammo.
 * SPG ammo has been reduced in cost. Salvo-based SPGs received a larger cost discount than single-shot SPGs.

Global changes

 * Added Specific Spawn Locations for Light Tanks- this prevents them from randomly taking spawn locations dedicated for artillery.
 * Fixed Lighting Issues with shadows.
 * Optimizations pass to LOD's and View Distance Ratios.
 * Fixed Hitbox Issues and Penetration values for several destructible items.

Ghost Field

 * Cleaned up Collision on Bunkers and Tower Supports.
 * Smoothed out a few terrain spots to help with gun depression.

Pipelines

 * Setup alternative time of day and lighting for Encounter Mode.
 * Smoother out some sharp terrain angles to help with gun depression

Port Storm

 * Fixed destructible version of railcars collision

Narrows

 * Fixed issues with some rocks being hidden in trees and bushes.

PvE Rewards Changes
We're continuing to iterate on PvE rewards based on player feedback and a great deal of data collection. We'll be unveiling a unique new rewards system for PvE soon, but in the meantime, these tuning changes should help bring PvE rewards to an area where they are a more viable way to progress. We've also found that by tuning our rewards around higher multipliers for higher difficulty levels, we've made the lower difficulty levels too low on rewards. We're reverting the difficulty level multipliers for credits back to the old values and generally increasing all rewards to make all difficulty levels more rewarding.
 * Increased Reputation rewards for damage, assisted damage, spotted damage, and kills by about 100%.
 * Base Reputation for winning a match increased from 90 to 105.
 * Base Reputation for secondary objectives increased from 60 to 70.
 * Base match completion Credits set to 2800.
 * Base Credits for completing secondary objectives set to 1200.
 * Increased Credit rewards for damage, assisted damage, spotted damage, and kills by about 200%.
 * Increased other match contribution Credit rewards, such as spotting, damaging modules, etc. by 50%.
 * Match tier multipliers for PvE credits have been retuned for all tiers above 1. These values are lower than in PvP, but higher than the versions in EA4's tests. Updated PVE Mini-boss vehicle tag and mini-map icon to be yellow.

General

 * Updated PVE Mission Start Screen.
 * Updated PVE Victory screen to a new design.
 * Updated PVE Tab Overlay to a new design.
 * Updated PVE Mission Objectives UI.

PvE Maps

 * Optimization and bug fix passes focusing on collision and stability.
 * Spawns should be slightly more randomized and more consistently balanced, number-wise, from map to map.
 * Fixed issues with the game and AI still operating during the success/failure cut scenes.
 * Fixed issues with broken secondary objectives.
 * Set tier thresholds for PvE to lock normal and hard difficulties for lower tiers.

Vehicle AI
Added Reaction time to AI, retuned the target prioritization of AI, tuned difficulty numbers for scaled variants. This was done to reduce moments where the AI felt like they were cheating.
 * AI that fire HE have been toned down in their scaled down variants, specifically the BMP-3 and the PAC-90
 * Artillery now spread their focus of attack around rather than focus fire. Fixed issue with AI Artillery being able to instant target, they now have to simulate finding the player in the environment.
 * Fixed an issue where AI turrets were not updating on the client, the player would see a turret immediately pop to the player when they fired, rather than rotating and aiming.
 * Overall, AI controlled vehicles have also been given a balance pass to make them play better at all skill levels.

Vehicle Changes

 * BMP-1 - Fixed an issue with the BMP-1's gunner sight and laser rangefinder having the same bonuses.
 * BMPT Terminator - The ERA package has been replaced with Kontakt-5 ERA.
 * M1A1 Abrams - Updated M1A1 armor thickness values to be within the correct range for the vehicle's tier. Fixed errors in the M1A1 armor mesh that created large weakpoints on the vehicle frontal hull and turret arc.