Developer Diary: Light Tank Changes

[p]Commanders![/p][p]As you already know, the Rough Riders Battle Path is coming in July and the main topic of it will be the history of armored cavalry – or, in game terms, Light Tanks. Upon reviewing the performance of the entire class, we discovered that while some of them are performing adequately or even very well (MPF comes to mind), some others are in serious need of improvements. Today, we’ll tell you more about them.[/p][p][/p][p]At this moment, we are working on the following changes:[/p]

[p]Tier 1 PT-85: Improved HEAT damage and penetration (440mm, 310 damage) and reduced reload time from 4.68s to 4s[/p]
[p]Tier 2 T92 (and T92 ACAV): Improved camouflage from 25% to 30% and reduced reload time from 3 to 2.6s[/p]
[p]Tier 3 Scorpion: Improved camouflage from 25% to 30%[/p]
[p]Tier 4 Scorpion 90: Improved camouflage from 25% to 30%, viewrange increased from 340m to 440m, improved AP shell damage and penetration (550mm, 290 damage), improved AP shell damage and penetration (605mm, 390 damage)[/p]

[p]Please note that the Scorpion 90 shell adjustments will also be made to LAV-300 as it uses the same shells. Let’s continue:[/p]

[p]Tier 5 M551 Sheridan: Increased its mobility by improving acceleration (2.8s and 11s respectively) and hull traverse (63 deg/s)[/p]

[p]Begleitpanzer 57 is performing very well for its Tier and does not need any buffs.[/p]

[p]Tier 6 RDF/LT: The gun is manually loaded on this model so the vehicle will receive a loader.[/p]

[p]In fact, the RDF/LT (which is obtainable as a prize from the Rough Riders Battle Path) is received a larger number of buffs, so let’s take a closer look at thus vehicle. The following changes will be taking place:[/p]

[p]Improved camouflage from 25% to 30%[/p]
[p]M464 AP shell penetration increased from 550mm to 575mm[/p]
[p]M464 AP shell damage increased from 260 to 290[/p]
[p]T70E3 HESH shell damage increased from 230 to 260[/p]
[p]0 to 32 km/h acceleration improved to 1.65s[/p]
[p]0 to max acceleration improved to 11s[/p]
[p]Maximum speed increased to 90 km/h[/p]
[p]Maximum reverse increased to 40 km/h[/p]
[p]Hull traverse rate increased to 77.49 deg/s[/p]

[p]Moving on to other Tier 6 Light Tanks:[/p]

[p]Tier 6 Expeditionary Tank: Viewrange increased from 410m to 420m[/p]
[p]Tier 6 Stingray 1: Reload time within magazine improved from 3 to 2.7s[/p]
[p]Tier 6 VFM 5: Vehicle now has a 7-round magazine with 2.7s between shots within and 20s full magazine reload (partial reload is possible), we have also gave the vehicle a new HE shell with 55mm of penetration and 690 damage[/p]

[p]On Tier 7, CV90105 TML requires no buffs as it is performing fairly well. The same can be said of Stingray 2, therefore:[/p]

[p]Tier 7 TAM 2IP: Increased hitpoints from 2200 to 2400, improved camouflage from 25% to 30%, improved viewrange from 430m to 440m and improved acceleration (3.53s and 15.39s respectively)[/p]

[p]Coming up on Tier 8, most Light Tanks perform fairly well. Harimau, Griffin 120mm and Leopard Cockerill do not need any improvements. Did we mention we’d be adding Griffin 120mm to the Rough Riders prize pool? Because we will, but more on that later. For now, there are three tanks that need to be addressed here. First is the ASCOD:[/p][p]This vehicle has two turrets – a manned one and an unmanned one.[/p]

[p]We removed the Ready Rack mechanism from the manned one and set the regular reload time to 3.5s[/p]
[p]The unmanned turret reload time within its magazine was improved from 4s to 2s[/p]

[p]And now, the bigger stuff. Dragun 125 is getting a larger set of changes, including:[/p]

[p]Improved camouflage from 20% to 25%[/p]
[p]Maximum speed increased to 75 km/h[/p]
[p]Reload time improvement from 5.14s to 4.9s[/p]
[p]Viewrange improvement from 430m to 440m[/p]
[p]Vehicle received a new Invar-M tandem HEAT ATGM with 1050mm of penetration and 770 damage[/p]
[p]Vehicle received a new 3UBK14F1 thermobaric ATGM with 80mm of penetration and 1000 damage[/p]

[p]And M8-105 Buford is receiving the following changes:[/p]

[p]Reload time improvement from 3.74s to 3.5s[/p]
[p]Increased hitpoints from 2500 to 2750[/p]
[p]Viewrange improvement from 430m to 450m[/p]
[p]HEAT round M152/6 now offers 810mm penetration and 610 damage[/p]
[p]Added a new transmission module adding 2.5% bonus to acceleration 10% bonus to hull traverse[/p]

[p]On Tier 9, CV90120T Ghost is performing well enough, as are ZTQ-15 and Anders. Remaining are the VT-5 and M8-120 Thunderbolt II. The VT-5 is receiving the following changes:[/p]

[p]Increased the BTA2 APFSDS shell penetration to 740mm (ZTL-11 uses similar shell, there it is increased to 800mm)[/p]
[p]Added a new HE shell, DTB2 from ZTL-11[/p]
[p]Increased the amount of ammo carried from 54 to 66[/p]
[p]Increased the amount of APS charges to 12[/p]

[p]The M8-120 Thunderbolt (and its Hades version) is receiving the following changes:[/p]

[p]0 to 32 km/h acceleration improved from 3.93s to 3.5s[/p]
[p]0 to max acceleration improved to 17s[/p]
[p]Increased hitpoints from 2650 to 2800[/p]
[p]Reload time improvement from 4.21s to 4s[/p]
[p]Viewrange improvement from 430m to 440m[/p]

[p]And, last but not least, there’s the highest Tier. On Tier 10 there are only three Light Tanks (as of now) and two of the three perform really well – especially the MPF. The K21 XC-8 is getting the following buffs:[/p]

[p]Increased hitpoints from 2650 to 2900[/p]
[p]Reload time improvement from 3.53s to 2.7s[/p]
[p]Increased the amount of APS charges to 8[/p]

[p]And that’s it. There are several more buffs we are working on, but those are not related directly to Light Tanks. From American vehicles, the T249 Vigilante will receive a different Gatling gun mechanic (similar to the M48 GAU-8) along with a shell penetration buff, some improvements to Shilka (mostly penetration) and VCAC Mephisto (increasing the amount of missiles carried and some reload times), all based on your feedback.[/p][p]We hope that you’ll enjoy the changes and, as always:[/p][p]See you on the battlefield![/p]