War Thunder News

The VCAC MEPHISTO is a French wheeled anti-tank destroyer, developed on the basis of an amphibious APC design in the late 1970s by the Renault company. Arriving in the top ranks of the French ground forces tree as part of the next major update, tankers will have the chance to take command of the nimble and no less deadly VCAC MEPHISTO!

[h2]VCAC MEPHISTO, tank destroyer, France, Rank VI[/h2]

Features:

• Powerful HOT missiles
  
• Excellent mobility
  
• Small profile
  
• Light protection
  

In War Thunder, the VCAC MEPHISTO will be a new wheeled anti-tank missile carrier arriving to the top ranks of the French ground forces tree as part of the next major update. Exceptionally mobile and equipped with a considerable number of deadly HOT missiles, the VCAC MEPHISTO is sure to mix things up for French tankers as it becomes the first tank hunter of its kind in this nation‘s research tree.

The VCAC MEPHISTO is based on the VBA VTT wheeled armored personnel carrier and as such, features superb mobility thanks to the vehicle‘s low weight of just 13.8 tons, a 220 horsepower diesel engine and all-wheel drive. All these factors combined allow the VCAC MEPHISTO to reach a top speed of up to 92 km/h on paved roads while its relatively good power-to-weight ratio enables the vehicle to conquer even less hospitable terrain types without greater struggle. Furthermore, the VCAC MEPHISTO also inherits its amphibious capabilities from the base APC chassis. As a result, the vehicle can cross even deep bodies of water at a maximum speed of around 13 km/h, thus giving its aspiring commanders more tactical options.



Once the VCAC MEPHISTO has maneuvered into position and has set its sights on hostile units, its commanders will have a four-barrelled, fully rotatable anti-tank missile launcher at their disposal to engage the enemy forces with. From the stock, commanders will have access to the HOT-1 missiles, followed by researchable modification of more capable HOT-2 ATGMs. Tankers should also not be worried about only having four missiles in the launcher as there‘s another eight spare ATGMs stored inside of the vehicle.



Naturally, being based on a light APC‘s chassis means that the VCAC MEPHISTO doesn‘t boast incredible protection characteristics. In fact, the vehicle‘s armor is only capable of shielding the crew and vehicle modules against rifle-caliber fire and shrapnel but fails to provide more substantial protection against more substantial threats such as autocannon fire or missile strikes. Therefore, instead of relying on the armor for protection, aspiring commanders of the VCAC MEPHISTO should take this matter into their own hands and utilize the chassis‘ excellent mobility to stay out of harm‘s way.



The VCAC MEPHISTO will soon arrive to rank VI of the French ground forces tree as part of the next major update, also becoming the first wheeled missile carrier to become available to French tankers in the game. In the meantime, stay tuned to the news to receive all the latest information about the upcoming update and some of the additions and features it will bring with it. Until then, happy hunting tankers!

In this digest we would like to tell you about our continuing work on improvements and fixes in the game.






We have already talked about the customization of suspended weaponry presets in the devblog. With the release of this update new features are now available for the Mirage F1C, Su-22UM3K, MiG-23MLA, F-104S.ASA, J-8B, A-10A Thunderbolt II (early) and A-10A Thunderbolt II (late). For each suspended node you can select a different weaponry option from those already researched while taking into account the ammunition weight.

In total you can create up to 20 custom weapon presets. You can create and edit weapon variants in the hangar before a flight. In battle, you will be able to select between already created presets which will allow you to easily and quickly select before re-spawning using the most useful in the current situation the weaponry preset.






We are continuing to improve our game’s big new feature - the hard-kill active protection systems featured on the Challenger 2 Black Night and T-55AMD-1. We have doubled their repair speed in case you have damaged it in the battle and also speeded up by a quarter the replenishment time of the APS at captured points. And of course we have fixed some minor bugs like the icon of the APS replenishment staying on the screen after a death.






This issue might be faced by every pilot in battles of high ranked (and also very fast) aircraft. Markers! Such an important part of the game interface of the AB and RB modes sometimes behaves unpredictably - a marker for the enemy might appear only at close range or conversely can be displayed at a perfectly acceptable and correct distance.

We worked hard on this mechanic and now marker behaviour will become much more predictable. Even an inexperienced crew will spot the enemy at distances of 4 km and an experienced ace crew will surely spot the enemy and report it even from 8 km.

Also keep in mind tactical tricks: the crew sees the enemy better in the direction of its view and very poorly behind. Therefore “sneaking up” on some fighter from the rear hemisphere or preferably under his belly is still a great tactical trick.





We have fixed a bug that prevented aircraft missile seekers warm-up with the “Drop/launch” button, forcing you to activate your missiles with another button “Seeker lock-on”. All good now, seekers warm up easily with the same button you regularly use to unleash hell on your enemies.





The design of this lineup of the Swedish vehicles included an armoured bulkhead between the engine and the main combat compartment. It could cover against shrapnel but it didn’t work against overpressure mechanics. We have found the cause of the error and fixed it. Now such vehicles like Strv 103-0, Strv 103A and Strv 103С will feel a little more protected.



And only between players that use the Steam client, where it was simply impossible to delete a player from your friends list.

Well it’s not up to us to judge the reasons for breaking your friendship but now this feature works correctly.




For this digest we have prepared a large set of useful fixes and game improvements. Be sure to read the full list below - there are many interesting things.

Once again, many thanks for all your bug reports that you submitted using our special service.



[h2]Ground vehicles[/h2]

• A bug has been fixed where the reload indicator of the hard-kill active protection remains after a respawn when a previous vehicle was destroyed while reloading the protection system rounds.
  
• Repair time of the hard-kill protection has been halved.
  
• Reload time of the hard-kill protection rounds has been reduced by 25%.
  
• Vickers Mk.7 — a bug has been fixed with overestimated repair time for optics.
  
• M50 — a bug has been fixed that resulted in overestimated recoil impulse of the recoilless rifles.
  
• Centauro I 120 — a bug has been fixed that resulted in overestimated recoil impulse of the 120mm main gun (report).
  
• Challenger 2 TES, Challenger 2 (2F) — the stabilizer has been added to the Enforcer Remote Weapon Station (report).
  
• Strv 103-0, Strv 103A, Strv 103С — a bug has been fixed that resulted in overpressure damage to the crew when the engine compartment is destroyed.
  
• Machbet — a bug has been fixed that prevented automatic range setup from laser rangefinder.
  
• AMX-10RC — a bug has been fixed where HUD indicated stabilizer mode is on when the vehicle lacks stabilizer.
  
• M4A3 (105) — calibre of the smoke round has been fixed (report).
  
• Search-and-track radars with plan position indicators now have 360 deg. lock-on capability. This option allows locking on target without moving a turret to its direction. This update is available for:
  
  
  • VEAK 40
    
  • Chieftain Marksman
    
  • AMX-30 DCA
    
  • ZSU-23-4
    
  • ZSU-37-2
    
• ZSU-23-4 — several radar modes have been added in 30° and 90° sectors. Actual radar features variable searching sector in 30…90° range.
  

[h2]Aircraft[/h2]

• Kfir C.2, Mirage F1C, Su-22UM3K, MiG-23MLA, F-104S.ASA, J-8B, A-10A Thunderbolt II (early), A-10A Thunderbolt II (late) — custom weapon setups are now available.
  
• A bug has been fixed with AAM seeker warm-up by pressing the “drop/launch” button (report).
  
• A bug has been fixed that prevented SPI set in the air for aircraft with optical lock-on (e.g. MiG-27K, Jaguar GR.1A, etc.).
  
• AD-2 — a bug has been fixed that required the Tiny Tim modification to be researched for opening the 2,000 lbs bombs.
  

[h2]Naval[/h2]

• Groza — firing angles over the ship’s bow have been corrected.
  
• Admiral Hipper, Prinz Eugen — firing angles have been corrected at the bow’s davits.
  
• IJN Ikoma — circulation angle has been reduced.
  
• IJN Syonan — the type of the main calibre guns have been corrected.
  

[h2]Other fixes[/h2]

• Flickering of some objects (trees, etc) at high graphical settings have been fixed (report).
  
• A bug has been fixed that resulted in decals removal from vehicles by the application crash.
  
• A bug has been fixed that prevented removing friends from the friend list of the Steam version of the game.
  
• “Awards” button in the “Achievements” menu has become brighter.
  
• A bug has been fixed where icons and names of vehicles in local and server replays of the Realistic and Simulator battles were displayed only for players from the left column of the statistics chart.
  
• A bug has been fixed where enemy aircraft markers were displayed at shorter distances than stated in the crew skills.
  
• Position of the sun, moon and stars now correspond to the actual latitude/longitude.
  
• Time delay of placing marks on the minimap has been reduced from 30 to 1 second.
  

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.

We have another round of battle rating changes for May! Please view our forum thread to view the table and leave feedback.

View the changes here

Leave your feedback here

Meet the latest selection of historical decals that you can get for your vehicle until the 10th of June. You will be able to distinguish your vehicles in the battle with exclusive designs: the “Spitting Viper” for Israeli ground vehicles, the fearsome “Shark” for Chinese aircraft and also the moustached tiger, of course for German tanks.







[hr][/hr]





[hr][/hr]





You can find these decals in the “Weeks latest” section in the customization tab, after which they will be available to their owners in the thematic sections of vehicle customization.

Tasks can be completed in vehicles of rank II-VII.

• The requirements for the decals may be checked in the “Weeks latest” section in vehicle customization or in the Achievements → Decals → Weeks latest.
  
• Tasks can be completed in random battles and events, except “Enduring Confrontation” and “Assault” missions.
  
• Decals received earlier have been temporarily moved to the section “Weeks latest” and will be moved later to the thematic sections.
  

Some of the decals were created by Colin 'Fenris' Muir, Jej 'CharlieFoxtrot' Ortiz, Ricardo "BlueBeta" Lo Verso and Branislav 'InkaL' Mirkov.

Previous decals have been moved to their respective sections for the appearance of vehicles:

• "Griffin" badge of VF-831, USS Antietam, 1951 → USA.
  
• Insignia of the 3rd S-Boote flotilla of Kriegsmarine, (S57) → Germany (fleet).
  
• "Ace of hearts'' personal emblem of G. A. Kogrushev, 168th IAP → USSR.
  
• Emblem of Guards Armoured Division, Great Britain → Britain (tanks).
  
• Emblem of 1st Tank District, Northern Army, JGSDF → Japan (tanks).
  
• "Stork" emblem of the 37o Stormo, Italian Air Force → Italy.
  
• Emblem of the 2/33 Savoie Reconnaissance Squadron, FAF → France.
  
• Emblem of the Armoured Battalion Norwegian Army → Neutral countries (tanks).
  
• Emblem of the Armoured Brigade Finnish Army → Neutral countries (tanks).
  
• Emblem of 107th Squadron, IAF → Israel.