War Thunder News

The Finnish Air Force is one of the oldest in the world, turning 106. It was formed on March 6th 1918, shortly after Finland declared its independence. Finland’s air force took part in the Finnish Civil War, and the Soviet-Finnish War during World War II. Today, the Finnish Air Force operates more than 150 aircraft, some of which include the American F/A-18 C and D, and the British Hawk Mk.51.


By completing the task below you’ll be able to get yourself this decal.

[h3]

When: From March 6th (11:00 GMT) until March 9th (07:00 GMT).
Task: Play 3 battles using aircraft in the Swedish tree to receive the “Emblem of the Satakunta Air Command” decal! 

Additional details:

• You must use a minimum of rank III.
  
• Your activity must not be below 70%.
  
• You can complete the task in random battles, except for Enduring Confrontation missions, [Assault] mode and Helicopter PVE battles.
  
• Track your progress in the hangar by clicking Nickname → Achievements → Holidays → Finnish Air Force Day.
  
• You can find the decal in the “Neutral countries” tab in the Customization menu.
  

[/h3]

“Emblem of the Satakunta Air Command” decal

In the Alpha Strike major update, we’ll be introducing the North Holland location for ground battles. Let’s take a closer look!

[h2]Meet North Holland![/h2]
We’ve taken Eastern Europe, one of War Thunder’s most popular ground forces maps according to the number of likes, and created North Holland based on it, set in the Zaandam region.

In this location are similar spawn points and routes to capture points, plus a canal that cuts through the city, which can be driven-through as the water is not too deep. You’ll be familiar with the general gameplay, timings and layout of this map, but the differences are that it has been transformed 50 years into the future, giving it a modernized touch. Additionally, the largest mission on this map is still not as large as European Province, but overall will still be more spacious for higher ranks.



Driving through the city, you’ll be greeted with modern looking buildings and cars. Near the middle is a large mall that you’ll be able to drive through with your vehicles, knocking down broken walls, allowing you to have some interesting encounters with the enemy!



Near one area are red street lamps that illuminate the surrounding buildings, creating an atmospheric scene. All-in-all, this new location features streets and open fields, overall making it great for short, medium and long-range combat engagements.



North Holland is going to be part of the map rotation when the Alpha Strike major update releases. Be on the look out and give it a try!

• Information about the lack of tracers in an aircraft belt has been added to the tooltip in the modification window.
  
• A message about the need to select a weapon to be able to change its belts has also been added to the tooltip.
  

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 our game, we strive to reproduce all of the features of weapons and military vehicles that gives players a new and interesting experience. The more modern technology that comes under a player’s control, the more systems require mastering to effectively use this technology. Guided missiles, radar and other sensors require some knowledge that is not always available through the game. In order to solve this problem, we’ve decided to add the ability to see the operation of sensors and missile weapons using a new sensor vision system.

This system visualizes the operation of the radar, other sensors and various weapons and presents it to the player in a clear and understandable form. At the first stage of integrating this system into the game, it’ll be available to players in client and server replays. A new button will be added to the top of the replay control menu called “Sensor view”.

To change the render type in replay, click on “Sensor view”

In this mode, the visualization of the world changes — vehicles, the terrain, water and all other objects in order to conveniently monitor the progress of the battle; a display of the operation of the aircraft radar and weapon seeker is added. Special markers also appear containing new information — for vehicles this is the radial speed relative to the player’s vehicle, and for weapons the current flight parameters including the speed, lifetime, distance traveled, a current available overload, and angle of attack. You’re able to customize the display of information using a set of filters, leaving data that’s most interesting to you at a given time.







This feature will be available for client and server replays, however we’d like to note that in order to optimize the size and traffic consumed, the client replay does not save all information about the progress of the battle. The parameters of objects that are far away or not visible to the player may be recorded with less accuracy or be absent altogether. For example, a client replay contains information about the operation of the radar of only the client itself, as well as radars of those vehicles that track the player’s aircraft. The server replay however will store more complete information.

We’re hoping that this innovation will help you better understand what is happening in battle and improve your skills and abilities, and will also help us find various errors in the operation of missiles and sensors and quickly correct them.

In the future, we’re planning to expand this functionality and use it to create a new missile “kill camera”, which would allow the player to observe a fatal hit by an enemy missile from the moment of its launch to impact directly in battle.

Meet the Zerstörer 45! This is an experimental German SPAA armed with 30 mm autocannons, capable of inflicting deadly strikes into enemy vehicles, and is coming in the next major update. 

[h2]Zerstörer 45: An SPAA for Germany at Rank IV[/h2]

Features:

• Quadruple 30 mm turret!
  
• Excellent ballistic properties.
  
• Open fighting compartment. 
  

Vehicle History
[expand]
In parallel to the development of the Flakpanzer IV ‘Wirbelwind’, equipped with a quadruple 20 mm turret, the Ostbau Werke company also produced a second variant in November 1944. This version was then outfitted with the same quadruple mount but armed with modified 30 mm MK 103 cannons instead. Initially, firing tests of the turret were conducted on a Flakpanzer IV ‘Möbelwagen’ chassis. In December however, two dedicated prototypes were constructed using the chassis of the existing Panzer IV Ausf. H medium tanks.

Despite the work done however, the Zerstörer 45 never made it past the prototype stage as the factories of the Ostbau Werke got destroyed in the final months of the war and thus a full-scale production became impossible.
[/expand]


[h2]Meet the Zerstörer 45![/h2]

The Zerstörer 45, is in fact in many aspects quite similar to its close relative — the Wirbelwind — but is distinctly different from it in terms of firepower and layout. Keen to find out more about what this vehicle entails when it arrives in the Alpha Strike major update? Let’s take a look at all of the details! 
 
You may already be familiar with the no less infamous Wirbelwind, which is an outstanding SPAA that the Zerstörer 45 is quite close to. There are some differences though, as instead this vehicle is not equipped with 20 mm cannons, but rather 30 mm cannons. These new cannons, which are modified Mauser MK 103 guns, possess practically the same ballistic properties as their aerial counterparts. As a result, the Zerstörer 45 can not only down enemy aircraft with greater ease than the Wirbelwind, but can also pose a significant threat to ground targets as well!



Thanks to the availability of subcaliber rounds, you’ll also be able to effectively engage even more heavily armored targets without necessarily needing to outflank opponents and hitting them in the sides or rear. This substantially increases the Zerstörer 45’s versatility in battle and allows it to support allies in more ways when hostile aircraft are currently not present above the battlefield.

You may have noticed some changes in the layout of the fighting compartment of the Zerstörer 45 compared to something like the Wirbelwind. Unlike a regular turret, the quadruple guns were covered by side skirts that provided anti-fragmentation protection at best. In the combat position, these skirts would open to allow for the guns to traverse horizontally. This is the position that we’ve decided to model the Zerstörer 45 in War Thunder, which provides better aiming angles, but also means the crew inside are extremely vulnerable to all types of fire. Bear this in mind!

In your matches by Egor, Ground Forces Game Designer: “If spawning this as the first vehicle, take cover behind rocks to remain hidden, keep close to your teammates to provide support. Only fire at enemy tanks if you know you can kill them fast, if you can’t, support your allies by covering and shooting at enemy tracks, barrels and anything to block the enemy’s view. When playing its intended role of an AA, make sure to prioritize and pick your targets, especially aircraft with larger bomb loads that can pose a bigger threat to your team. Fire in short bursts and stay near capture points, as they typically attract enemy aircraft.”

With that, we’ve reached the end of today’s blog. Coming in the next major update, the Zerstörer 45 is going to provide the German SPAA line with another excellent windbreaker — make sure you give it a try once it arrives. Until that happens though, keep an eye on our website for other dev blogs, and happy hunting!