War Thunder News

PT-658, one of only two currently fully operational PT series boats, comes to War Thunder as a new season Battle Pass vehicle!

The Higgins-built 78ft. boats of the 200 series are already familiar to War Thunder coastal fleet enthusiasts. These are fairly fast and well-armed boats with a wooden hull and a small crew. Boats are unable to provide any protection to the crew and internal modules even from machine gun fire, so they find their use in quickly capturing points and ambushes among islands and rocks.

The PT-658 boat in our game will be one of the prizes for the participants of the new Battle Pass season, which will soon start in War Thunder. The premium PT-658 fully inherits the advantages and disadvantages of the series. The boat is well-armed: a 40mm Bofors at the stern, a 37mm autocannon at the bow, a pair of 20mm Oerlikons and 4 large-caliber machine guns make it an unrivaled hunter of enemy boats and light aircraft. The PT-658 has a rich selection of additional weapons: you can combine 4x569mm torpedoes, depth charges and 16 unguided rockets. Unfortunately, the wooden structure is vulnerable to damage and the small crew do not allow the boat to survive for long under enemy fire. Even rifle calibers are deadly not only to the crew, but also to the internal modules.





The most profitable tactic of using the PT-658 is to quickly capture points under the cover of a smoke screen, engaging in short fire contacts with enemy scouts. As long as the boat is able to move, it must not stop, otherwise any serious enemy will easily cripple the wooden American with the first salvo. Capture one point - retreat and move to the next one. Premium bonuses PT-658 will bring a good income for each captured point and each enemy shot!

Check out the full Dev Blog article here!

• A bug which would cause weather effects (such as fog) not to display while in the cockpit view of aircraft with rear view mirrors, while the player was also using the old video card support mode, has been fixed
  
• A bug which allowed a tank to fire with a broken breech, after its barrel was repaired, has been fixed
  
• The display of sky gradients has been improved for the “Movie” graphics preset.

The current provided changelog reflects the major changes within the game as part of this Update. Some updates, additions and fixes may not be listed in the provided notes. War Thunder is constantly improving and specific fixes may be implemented without the client being updated.

In the upcoming “Ground Breaking” update we will present three vehicles from the long anticipated Wiesel series. What they lack in size, they make up for in guns!

In the new major update "Ground Breaking" we will present three versions of armored vehicles based on the Wiesel chassis. All three are destined to be popular: they are small, fast and dangerous. Any hit taken is almost certain death, every battle introduces a bucket of adrenaline into your veins! Get ready for the invasion of the mean German "cockroaches"!

The basic version of the vehicle with a 20mm Rheinmetall 202/20 cannon. The gun is mounted on a remote mount, it has a very good traverse speed and excellent targeting angles. With the belts available immediately after researching, the gun can be effectively used against lightly armored targets, helicopters, and low-flying aircraft. The research of the DM63 modification will add a choice of the armor-piercing sub-calibre projectiles, able to penetrate many tanks in the side. The crew of the vehicle is only two, the fire control system includes a laser rangefinder and thermal imagers for both crew members.

Check out the full Dev Blog article here!

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Interaction with the terrain and changing its shape is one of the main features of the upcoming "Ground Breaking" update. This is an additional element of interactivity that diversifies the gameplay in War Thunder tank battles. Soil, sand and snow are now not only authentically crushed under the tracks of tanks - you can dig out shelters, and bombs leave huge craters! Ramparts and craters will now create cover for vehicles and can seriously change the usual routes in War Thunder locations - both for you and the enemy team.



Many armies of the world make use of dozer blades on tanks. For example, in the Soviet army, from the T-72 onwards, equipment for self-entrenching was installed on all main battle tanks and some armored vehicles, and a corresponding standard appeared in the training of tank crews. Many western tanks have dozer blades both in the basic configuration and in modifications for street fighting or engineering purposes. Dozer blades and tank shovels are present on many ground vehicles in War Thunder as well, and in the "Ground Breaking" update, all of them will receive an animation of the blades sinking into the ground. Using the entrenchment equipment players will be able to quickly build tank trenches anywhere in a game location, where there are no buildings, rocks, boulders, ice or paved roads around.





Put the dozer blade down and rake an earthen dugout in front of you. Take it back and repeat the procedure again and again. When self-entrenching, the speed of the tank decreases due to the lowered blade, so it is advisable not to be seen by the enemy during mining operations. A few rolls - and the trench is ready. A long-term firing position with a tank inside appears literally in an open field: be it the Kursk steppes, the pastoral fields of the Maginot Line, the sands of desert maps or the snowy plains of winter locations. The tank hides its vulnerable hull, meeting enemy fire only with a turret. In addition, a tank hiding in a trench is much more difficult to hit! However, the earthwork is not an absolute shelter - you can penetrate it with a powerful kinetic or shape-charged projectile, but the thicker the earthworks are, the more difficult it is to get through.





Now ammunition with a significant mass of explosives leaves craters on the soft terrain in tank locations. Air bombs weighing approximately 50kg or above, heavy rockets and missiles form a pit, the diameter and depth of which depend on the mass of the explosives. For example, a small armored car or self-propelled gun will fit into a crater from a 250kg bomb, and a crater from a 5,000 kg Pe-8’s “Tzar Bomb" will easily cover several heavy tanks at once. In the bomb craters you can hide from enemy fire, and lifting from the bottom of a deep hole to its rim can become a problem for vehicles with poor off-road performance. Explosion craters can significantly affect gameplay, making it difficult to access certain positions or providing cover in open areas.