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Screenshot Competition – Another Day at the Beach!



Welcome to the 158th War Thunder Steam Screenshot Competition!


We loved seeing all of your screenshots that you captured and shared with us last week, thank you! This week we return to the beach! You can capture a screenshot with any vehicle of your choice as long as there is a shoreline. The three most popular and three selected by us will get 300 GE. See the winners down below!

[h2]Let’s begin the 158th edition of our competition![/h2]

Create a stunning screenshot and submit it on the War Thunder Steam Community Hub with the tag #WTscreen158. You have time until the 14th of February to submit your screenshot.

After that date, 6 winners will be selected (3 of which will be the highest rated by the community and 3 selected by our judges), each of which receive a reward of 300GE.

[h3]Terms:[/h3]
    Your screenshot must include a player vehicle, and a shoreline.
    You must add the #WTscreen158 tag (title cannot have any other text in it).
    Artists may only win by popular vote once per four screenshot competitions.
  • Screenshots need to be compliant with the War Thunder rules.
  • You need to be the author of the screenshot.
  • Screenshot needs to be new. You cannot use those which have previously been published or used in other competitions.
  • We will only accept raw screenshots from the game. You cannot use any editing software nor any other visual enhancements (like Nvidia Ansel filters).
  • You can use filters and settings built into War Thunder.
  • You can use the replay functionality built into War Thunder.
  • Rewards will be delivered to the author's account within 14 working days.


[h2]And now, time for the winners of the competition’s 157th edition – Your Favorite![/h2]

[h3]Winners selected via community votes:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418904866
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3420224774
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418736546

[h3]Winners selected by our judges:[/h3]
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418585985
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3421630667
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3418980601

Each winner will get 300GE! Congratulations and see you next week!

The Return of Monthly Historical Decals!



Hello everyone! Today we’re very happy to be able to present a new series of historical decals for you to unlock. We’ve been working on returning these decals for a while now, and this series will have a few changes compared to the previous run. This initial post will be a bit longer, bear with us!

[h3]The Format[/h3]
This time around, we’ll aim to add a set of historical markings once a month instead, and there’s a few reasons for this. Chiefly, it gives everyone interested in the decals a longer amount of time to unlock them, as previously many players weren’t able to get the markings. This also ensures that we don’t actually run out of possible additions. Some nations do indeed have a huge amount of options, others however have a very small amount. To make sure that we can keep adding emblems across the board for everyone for the foreseeable future, we’ll have 10 per month — 5 new emblems and 5 emblems from previous events, that way new players will be able to unlock some old emblems they wouldn’t have been able to get previously as well.

[h3]Unlock Requirements[/h3]
We’ve made the unlock requirements slightly longer this time around to compensate for the extended duration, though not by a huge amount. The unlock requirements will be simple: frags, missions played, score earned, things that are universally achievable. Some special markings will be a little more challenging such as finishing at a certain position on the leaderboard, but in general the requirements will be simple and able to be achieved gradually as you play normally. 

[h3]Open to ideas![/h3]
While we have many months worth of decals created and planned, you’re welcome to leave your own suggestions on the forum here. For a marking to be considered, we’ll need clear historical references (clear enough to be able to accurately make the decal) along with as many sources and references as possible. Going forward we want to avoid any divisional or formal markings belonging to currently active units. Though personal markings, modern insignia of deactivated units, or older versions of emblems used by active units will generally be fine. No promises of course, but if you can find some interesting examples (especially for nations that have fewer options in general) we can potentially include some down the line.

The following decals will be available from February 7th at 11:00 GMT until March 7th 09:00 GMT.




“Enemy Planes If You Can Read This You’re Too Close” Inscription, USA

“61st Keibitai Insignia, Japan

“Kör Asz” Emblem, Hungary



Defeat 70 players using American aircraft at rank III and above

Defeat 50 players using Japanese light tanks at rank III and above

Finish in position 1-3 five times while flying Italian or Hungarian Aircraft at rank III and above





6ème Escadrille GC III/6 Emblem, France

3. SFltl Emblem “Tiefseefisch”, Germany

Guards Armoured Division Emblem, Britain

269th Mechanized Infantry Brigade Emblem, China



Play 20 battles while using French aircraft with a minimum of 60% Battle Activity at rank III and above

Can be purchased for 200 Golden Eagles

Defeat 50 players using British Heavy Tanks at rank III and above

Defeat 50 players using Chinese Light Tanks at rank III and above





“Bear Bomber” Personal Marking, USSR

Brigade Nord Emblem, Norway

319th Division Emblem, Israel



Earn 10,000 score while flying Soviet Bombers at rank III and above

Play 20 battles while using Swedish Ground Vehicles with a minimum of 60% Battle Activity at rank III and above

Play 20 battles while using Israeli Ground Vehicles with a minimum of 60% Battle Activity at rank III and above



Monthly markings can be found in a special tab in the customization menu, (Monthly Decals) after a month, they’ll be moved to their corresponding category.

All of the emblems will come with a detailed description. This will generally consist of the history of the marking, its design, which vehicles used it, and where it was often placed on vehicles historically if applicable (some emblems are taken from badges, which weren’t always applied). This way you can more easily recreate the original positioning if you’d like. In addition to tasks, all markings can be purchased for 200 Golden Eagles as well.

Thank you for reading, enjoy and let us know your thoughts!

Freedom Fighter: F-5A(G)



Meet the protagonist in the Freedom Fighter event: the Norwegian F-5A(G) multi-role jet fighter!

[h2]F-5A(G): An Event Vehicle Jet Fighter for Sweden at Rank VII[/h2]
At a glance:
  • AIM-9L Sidewinders!
  • Penguin Mk.3 guided missile.
  • Countermeasures.
  • RWR.
  • Unique camouflage on the missiles!
Vehicle History
[expand]
The first foreign operator of the F-5A jet fighter was the Royal Norwegian Air Force. At request from the Norwegians, an export modification was developed for operation from Arctic airfields. Deliveries of the aircraft began in 1966, and several air squadrons were equipped with the F-5A and two-seat F-5B. During upgrades, this Norwegian variant received an updated cockpit, a new sighting system with the ability to control advanced weaponry such as the AIM-9L Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and Penguin anti-ship missiles, an RWR and countermeasure pods. The F-5A was in service with the Norwegian Air Force until December 31st 2007 and also took part in the Eye of the Tiger (EoT) program, where the aircraft tested anti-ship guided missiles.
[/expand]



[h2]Introducing the F-5A(G)![/h2]

The Norwegian F-5A(G) has arrived to War Thunder in the Freedom Fighter event! This is a very special variant of the F-5 with new combat capabilities and a cool unique camouflage. Let’s take a look at the details!



The F-5A(G) is an export modification of the American Northrop F-5A jet fighter, developed for the Norwegian Air Force and represented in its latest modification when it participated in testing anti-ship missiles. This Norwegian variant differs from the American one both externally and internally — the shape of the nose cone has changed, the pods for launching countermeasures are located on the vertical stabilizer, and a tail hook was added! There’s also a new cockpit with additional displays, HUD, a new radar and a radar warning receiver (RWR).



There has been some improvements in the weaponry department as well. Instead of the early rear-aspect AIM-9E air-to-air missile, the F-5A(G) is capable of carrying two all-aspect AIM-9L missiles with an increased launch range and a much higher maximum overload. In addition to this, the central pylon under the fuselage can hold the new Penguin anti-ship missile with IR+IOG guidance. Despite ships being the intended target, this heavy missile with a large explosive load can combat tanks in Ground Battles — capture a target from a long distance and then fire the missile, which will then operate in “fire and forget” mode. The destructive power is enough to destroy any tank upon impact!



For flight performance, the F-5A(G) retains all the great features of the F-5 series. That’s excellent maneuverability, high resistance to overloads, a good rate of climb and fast-firing 20 mm cannons. In addition to the guided weaponry mentioned above, the F-5A(G) can also carry regular and incendiary bombs, plus Zuni and Mighty Mouse rockets.

That’s it for this one! The Norwegian F-5A(G) is the main reward in the Freedom Fighter event that started today, featuring a special Eye of the Tiger camouflage, with a grinning tiger on the vertical stabilizer and tiger stripes on the fuselage, external fuel tanks and even Sidewinder missiles!

Please note that this vehicle’s characteristics may be changed before it is added to the game.

Click here to find out more details about the Freedom Fighter event

War Thunder players take a break from leaking classified information to review bomb their beloved game for adding an auction house




Gaijin Entertainment's War Thunder is usually in the news for one repeated reason: The people who play this military simulator take it incredibly seriously, and have a habit of leaking classified information onto the game's forums in an effort to win Internet arguments. But when they're not targeting each other, the favourite target of the playerbase is developer Gaijin and in various ways the game's extreme F2P grind: And they have a new focal point...
Read more.

It’s fixed! №102



Today, we’ve rounded up and will be going over some of the bug fixes and improvements that we’ve made to the game today and over the past few weeks. If you’d like to catch up on every fixed bug, then be sure to check out the changelog section on our website.

If you’ve found a bug that you’d like to report, you can do so on our community bug reporting platform.

[h2]Helicopters that had magic tricks[/h2]


Helicopters are pretty fragile vehicles, but a couple of bugs that crept into the game made them much more durable. One of these bugs allowed bombs to pass through helicopters without causing any damage. Another gave helicopters the ability to deflect bombs with its rotor blades, with the slower the bomb fell, the more chances the blades had to deflect it. Both of these bugs have been fixed.

[h2]Crew incorrect voices after firing[/h2]


You aim your gun, fire and hit your target and smile — however, your crew said that it was a miss and to adjust your aim. What kind of shenanigans were going on here? There was a bug where the crew called out a hit a miss when the discarding sabot part of an APFSDS shell flew past the enemy vehicle, even though the armor-piercing part of the shell itself hit the target. We’ve fixed this bug!

[h2]Missile launch line displaying at all times[/h2]


When launching air-to-surface guided missiles, the launch zone is outlined with a green line for clarity. But a bug caused this line to remain on the screen if you were destroyed and respawned in another aircraft, even if you left the battle and went into another. This bug has been fixed!

[h2]Stuck bomb bay[/h2]


Aircraft capable of carrying different bombs either externally on hardpoints or internally in the bomb bay were found to have strange behavior. If you opened the bomb bay and then selected bombs on the external hardpoints, the bomb bay closed by itself and did not open again until either selecting the bombs in it or deselecting the external weapons. We’ve fixed this bug too.

[h2]That’s not all[/h2]
You’ll find the full list of improvements in separate update notes. The display of water near the shore has been improved, the voice announcer no longer reports the direction of the previous missile, and the hit analysis no longer shows shells that are not in the feed.


Today's update: Update 2.43.0.87


[h2]Aircraft[/h2]
  • Tu-2S-44, Tu-2S-44 (China), Tu-2S-59 — the M44 bombs have been replaced with the M43, with more explosives.
  • Mirage 2000-5F — Mirage 2000-5F — a bug where the HMD wasn’t being displayed when the pilot’s head was turned away from the sights at small angles has been fixed. (Report).
  • F-8E, F-8E(FN) — EEGS (unsynchronized shooting) has been added.
  • Matra R550 Magic 2 — engine operating time and total thrust have been clarified. Operating time has been reduced from 2.2 to 2s, total thrust has been increased from 55,000 N to 55,900 N. Source: Solid propellant rocket motor manufacturer website www.bayernchemie-protac.com

[h2]Ground Vehicles[/h2]
  • MIM-146 — the burn time has been changed from 2s to 3.17s while maintaining total thrust impulse. (Report).
  • MIM-146 — missile autopilot has been updated, trajectory sway has been reduced. Rocket dynamics have been updated.

[h2]Naval Vessels[/h2]
  • RN Duilio — the thickness of aft casemate armor belt has been increased from 20 to 70 mm.
  • Nurnberg — the display of main caliber ammunition in the ship’s X-ray has been fixed.
  • HMS Spey — elevation angles of the 40 mm Bofors 90 mounts have been reduced to 85 degrees.
  • A bug where on some vehicles it was possible to buy and accordingly take into battle fewer shells than were in the ammunition has been fixed.
  • For playability reasons, the following naval weapons have been stabilized:
    • “Plamya” 30 mm automatic grenade launcher
    • 57 mm Type 97 mod. 1937 gun
    • 75 mm anti-aircraft Type 88 gun
    • 76 mm/40 F-34 gun
    • 85 mm/54.6 ZIS-S-53 gun

[h2]Interface[/h2]
  • A bug where the hit analysis could show shells that were not in the feed has been fixed.

[h2]Other[/h2]
  • The delay for sending messages to the in-game chat has been reduced: for unique messages the delay is 2 seconds, for repeating messages the delay is 5 seconds.


[hr][/hr]
Patch notes reflect only key changes, meaning they may not include a complete list of all improvements made. Additionally, War Thunder is constantly being updated and some changes may not require an update. Changes reflected in patch notes are formed by taking reactions and requests of the community from the bug reporting service, forums and other official platforms into account. Bug fixes and changes are implemented in order of importance, for example a game-breaking bug will be worked on and implemented sooner.