Tanks2.DE News

Update 0.1.8 has been released, containing new bullet mechanics and many other improvements.


New bullet mechanics
As announced in a previous devblog already, the new bullet mechanic has been added to the game now. To make the explanation short: bullets fly now instead of spawning instantly inside the enemy. If you are fast enough, you might be able to avoid slower bullets. They are not affected by your tank's relative velocity yet, this might be changed in a future update though.



Friends and statistics
You now can search for other players and add them as a friend. You can see the online status of a player if he added you as a friend as well. You can also check out other players profiles this way now. It’s planned to use this new feature to form platoons with your friends in a future update.



Garage chat window
The garage chat has been reworked. It displays previously sent messages in a channel now, even if you haven’t been online when they were sent. Every clan now also has its own chat channel, only visible to members of your clan.



Clan season 2
The last clan season ended, and all gained clan experience has been reset. This season you will be able to buy the Russian KV-2 tank for 500.000 silver, after earning 2.000.000 experience together with your clan comrades. The season ends on 30th June 2019.



AI pathfinding
The pathfinding system of NPC tanks has been reworked in this update. They will no longer drive through static obstacles like water or other map objects. They also will calculate a smoother path around obstacles now, so they don’t get stuck anymore, and they can drive through destroyed map objects now. Other tanks are still ignored, however. This behaviour will be fixed in a future update with a new server-sided movement system.

Balance changes
The IS-2 has been moved to Tier IV and was replaced with the IS-1. The IS-3 is still Tier IV, but has been removed from the tech tree for now. It probably will be placed back into the tree with its own line at some point.

• KV-1 reload time reduced from 7s to 6.5s
  
• KV-1 health increased from 475 to 600
  
• M4(105) reload time increased from 8s to 12.5s
  
• Adjusted values of all M4 variants to better match other medium tanks
  
• Increased turret speed of all tanks by 25%
  
• Decreased aiming time of all tanks by 50%
  
• IS-2 health increased from 775 to 850
  
• IS-2 frontal armor increased to 190mm
  
• IS-2 base view range increased from 20.5 to 21
  
• IS-3 frontal armor increased to 220mm
  
• IS-3 side armor increased to 150mm
  
• IS-7 side armor increased to 190mm
  

Comment about the IS-3 and IS-7 side armor: in reality, both tanks had an interesting side armor shape, which made them really hard to penetrate. This design is hard to realize in the game however, so their general side armor strength has been increased instead. These values may receive further tweaks in future updates.

Other small changes
Besides the balance adjustments, there have been some other small changes. Check out the list below for more information…

• Added tier indicator to tanks in the garage interface
  
• Added tier indicator to the buyable clan season tank
  
• Clan members are now always sorted by rank
  
• Clan description can be edited by commanders now
  
• Clans can be locked and unlocked by commanders now
  
• Your clan tag is now shown in the battle chat
  
• Tanks in garage are now sorted by nation
  
• Added !stats command to Discord bot
  
• Silver income has been adjusted for vehicle tiers: T5 -10%, T4 -5%, T3 unchanged, T2 +5%, T1 +10%
  

Notable bugfixes
Not all fixes are listed here, but at least the most important ones…

• Fixed various wrong map tile visuals
  
• Enabling/Disabling map particles now works while in battle
  
• Hangar data should update correctly now even after leaving battle early
  
• AI tanks should no longer drive through water or other static obstacles
  
• AI tanks should no longer get stuck in or near static obstacles
  

That’s pretty much all for this update. Feel free to share your thoughts about it on Discord or in the comments below this article.

Good luck on the battlefield!

The bullet mechanics will change with a coming update. Today we will talk about the current and the new mechanics, and how the gameplay could be affected by such changes.

First, let’s review the current system again. Currently all bullet calculations are made instantly when you shoot. The bullet is not flying, it’s not affected by physics, it’s just instantly created in a straight line, calculating the bounce angle or possible damage in the same moment it spawned. This system is obviously a bit too simple, so it will receive a rework.

The new system is a bit more complex, since bullets will receive full simulation on the game server. Instead of flying instantly into the target position, they will now ‘slowly’ move into the target direction. The speed depends on the used ammo. Really big rounds like the Sturmtiger rocket will fly slower, while regular projectiles will take about 0.5-1.0 seconds to reach their target at maximum distance.
This system makes it easier to dodge enemy hits, by provoking a shot and instantly moving back behind cover for example. It also will be a lot easier for light tanks to dodge really big bullets like a Sturmtiger rocket or a SU-152 round.

And that’s not all yet, since the system will be improved in the future. For example by inheriting the tanks current velocity for a newly spawned bullet, to make proper aiming while driving even more important. It also would be interesting to add sound effects to bullets passing by near your tank, or decreasing bullet speed and penetration over distance.
We are excited about all the possible ways this could go. If you are as well, let us know on Discord or in the comment section below this article!

Please note that the shown changes are not final yet. They may still get reworked or completely abandoned at any time without further notice. The Devblog series is here to inform you about the latest development plans for the game.

Update 0.1.7 has been released! This time it contains a new map, a clan system and some other improvements.

Let’s take a quick look at the new map first:



The map is called ‘Swampy Forest’, and you probably already see why. A lot of water, many trees, some bunkers… doesn’t sound really special? Take a closer look again!
There are two unconnected land masses near the B point, opening it from all sides! You only can access these small islands from A or C however. These positions will make it really hard for the enemy to flank you, so it’s the perfect map for tank destroyers, isn’t it? No? Why not? Just because you have to drive around the whole lake to move somewhere else? Oh well, let’s see how this works out the coming weeks first…

While we are speaking of maps, let me also quickly show you some texture changes from this update:



Thanks to the new textures, the maps should look a bit better now. And of course, we will keep improving existing textures in future updates as well.
Oh, and before I forget to mention it: capture zone circles are now colored on the ground. White means neutral, red means captured by the enemy team, green means controlled by your team.

But let’s take a quick look at the new tank in this update, the russian T-34-100 event tank:



As shown in the devblog already, this tank is only available for clans. Your clan will have to unlock it with experience first before all members are able to buy it. The tank can be bought for 500.000 silver then and counts as a premium tank. (That means +50% more silver and experience in battles compared to a regular tank)
It’s not shown in the regular tech tree and it will only be available in events or special offers in the future, so better get it before the first clan season ends!
For more information about clans and clan experience, please check out the latest devblog.

There also have been smaller changes and bugfixes again in this update. You can find the most notable changes in the list below:

• T-34-76 and T-34-57 swapped their position in the tech tree
  
• T-34-57 now reloads faster while the T-34-76 deals more damage
  
• The reload bar will now let you know when you are out of ammo
  
• Pressing tab no longer loses game focus
  
• The battle chat has been improved a little bit
  
• Exit button has been added to the game
  
• Steam ‘rich presence’ integrated
  

Of course we also fixed smaller bugs like the wrong explosion effects for APDS(-FS) grenades or kills not counting correctly when killing enemies with a shockwave.

But that’s pretty much it again for this week. See you on the battlefield!

Fighting for rewards can be fun. Fighting together with friends can be even more fun! Today we will take a closer look at the upcoming clan system and its mechanics.

First, what is a clan? It’s pretty simple actually: a clan is a group of players that… well… plays together! And to support this social behaviour, we will introduce a clan system with a coming update to the game.

So how will it work then? That’s pretty simple as well: create a clan, invite other players, play together!

Clan creation
The clan creation costs silver. You will choose a name, a clan tag and a short text to describe your clan. The creator of the clan can then open the clan to other players. The player limit of a clan is 10 at creation, but this can be increased by buying clan upgrades with silver once your clan is experienced enough.



Clan experience
Every clan automatically gains ‘clan experience’ when its members are playing. This experience is gained additionally to the normal experience you earn. If you earn 2500 experience in a normal battle, your clan will automatically receive 2500 clan experience as well. This experience is used to unlock new purchasable clan features and rewards.



Seasons
At this moment, unlockable clan upgrades will change with every season. A season usually lasts about 1 month. After the season ends, all clan experience is reset to 0 and new unlockable rewards are added. In the first season you will be able to unlock the russian T-34-100 tier III premium tank. After unlocking it, you still have to buy it with silver. It can be purchased once by every player in the clan.



While this might still look a bit basic, keep in mind that this is just the beginning! There are many more clan features possible, but for now, let’s see how this new system works out in the first season.
Also feel free to tell us what you think about it on Discord or in the comment section below this article. We are excited about your feedback!

Please note that the shown changes are not final yet. They may still get reworked or completely abandoned at any time without further notice. The Devblog series is here to inform you about the latest development plans for the game.

Today we released Update 0.1.6, a smaller update focused on gameplay improvements and bugfixes before the Steam release on Friday.


Since the last update introduced a new game mode, all old maps have been removed from the game, so it’s time again to create new ones. Today we start with a new winter map:

Like the current desert map, it has been split up into smaller areas that are easy to access. However, it also contains a lot of cover and is slightly bigger than the desert map. Let’s see how this works out ingame for now. It still can be adjusted later if needed.

Besides the new map, the battle chat has been finally reworked. The regular static chat window has been replaced with a more temporary version, fading out the messages automatically. The message input field also has been hidden by default and only shows up after pressing enter. Sending messages to the enemy or own team has been simplified as well, and should be much easier to understand now.


And that’s it already about the new features. As written above already, this update was focused on bugfixes only, so check out the most important changes here:

• Object pooling/caching should be fixed now, improving the game performance by keeping reuseable objects like explosions or UI windows in memory between battles
  
• The damage counter should be displayed correctly now
  
• The ticket counter should always show the correct ticket amount for both teams now
  
• VSync and Map Particle options have been added to the settings menu to improve the performance for older devices and to (hopefully) fix tearing on Linux
  
• AI tanks should now prioritize capture zones that are captured by the enemy team
  
• AI tanks shouldn’t get stuck inside map objects or water anymore
  
• Map collisions near water have been improved
  
• Localization improvements for English, German and Polish
  

Of course the update also contains many more smaller background changes, too many to list here. Better server performance, client optimizations, NPC adjustments, smaller bugfixes and localization changes, and so on…

And please note that this is the final update before Steam release on Friday, March 22. The game should be playable on Steam for free at around 19:00 CET that day. We expect at least a few new players then, so please be nice and say hello to them if you see them! :)

Thats all for now. See you on the battlefield!