Update 1.53 "Firestorm"

Update 1.53 "Firestorm"(changelog) was introduced on 5 November 2015. The update is distinguished for moving the game to the Dagor Engine 4.0, which included Physically Based Rendering (PBR), Destructible buildings, and new wave effects. It also introduced over 20 new vehicles, including the first premium British Tanks (full tree added in Update 1.55 "Royal Armour").

New vehicles

Aircraft

United States

• SB2C-4
• TBD-1
• P-38E
• P-38L
• P-38J
• P-38K (limited vehicle, will be available during future specials)
• P-38G & XP-38G (model updated)

Germany

• Bf 109 E-4
• Do 17Z-2
• Do 17Z-7​
• Bf 109-Е7/U2 (limited vehicle, will be available during future specials)

USSR

• Yak-9B
• Pe-8

Great Britain

• Hunter F1​

Japan

• А7М1 (NK9H) (Premium)

Ground vehicles

United States

• T92
• T25
• M26 T99 (Premium)

Germany

• ​Panzerwerfer 42 (Premium)
• Jagdpanzer 4-5
• E-100 (limited vehicle, will be available during future specials)

USSR

• PT-76B
• BM-8-24 (Premium)

Great Britain

• A13 Mk2 1939 (Gift / Bundle)
• M10 Achilles (Gift / Bundle)
• Sherman Firefly (Gift / Bundle)
• Black Prince (Gift / Bundle)

Game Changes

Introduction of the new Dagor Engine 4.0

• New water rendering
• Introduction of Physically Based Rendering (PBR)
• Support for 64-bit version of the client
• New destructible environment

New Locations and Missions

• Stalingrad. New location for combined battles (Domination, Battle, Conquest)
• Advance to the Rhine. New ground battle city map for combined battles (Domination, Battle, Conquest)
• "New Guinea”. new aircraft missions in Domination, Ground strike missions
• “Spain”. New aircraft missions for Alternative History mode
• New system of destructible environments for locations Berlin, Stalingrad and Advance to the Rhine has been added.

Game mechanics

ULQ Visibility Changes

• In SB ground vehicles, the gunner view is now situated where the sight was physically mounted on specific ground vehicles.
• New mechanism for measuring target distance for RB and SB game modes with new modification “rangefinder” which has been added for ground vehicles that were equipped with a mounted range finder.
• Added new award “Vehicle for rent” in battle trophies.
• The ingame chat has been changed. General channels have been removed. The ability to create public and private channels has been added.
• Added experimental voice chat support for Linux and Mac.
• In combined ground vehicle realistic battles, new special markers have been added. The marker will be visible for ground forces above the point where the shot was fired and will not move if the enemy moves.
• A pilot may lose control of the aircraft if maximum G is exceeded. The amount of G and time during which the pilot still has control over the aircraft depend on the skill of the pilot.
• Fuse settings have been changed. In all game modes “attacker” fuse has been implemented. Time ticks down once the bomb is dropped (time is shown in pop-up tip - it’s 5 seconds). For the fuses with permanent delay (time ticks down when the bomb hits the obstacle) minimum setting is 5 seconds.
• Dropping bombs from the He 111 has been fixed. Now the bombs don’t fall out from the back of fuselage, but strictly from the bomb bay.
• Maximum zoom for optics and binocular has been changed: For tank optics from 7.5x to x3.5 and for binoculars from x9 to x6. This represents the most popular setting for tank optics in the 1930s-50s. In the future, these values will be set to historically accurate values for individual vehicle optics.

Crew skills

• Crew skills system updated

Visibility

• Visibility mechanicshave been updated (see image to right & article for more)

Changes in Vehicle Models

• MGs, both AA and twin are now available for all ground vehicles that were equipped with them.
• Specific errors have been fixed, armouring details have been improved as well as improvement on the layout of modules and components for the following vehicles: IS-2 mod.44, Т-34-85 (all modifications), T-44, Maus, Leopard I, M60, Т-54 mod.47, Т-34-100, Pzkpfw V (all modifications), Panzerjager IV L48, M3 Lee, IS-4М, Т-10М, T-54 mod.51, Ferdinand, Pz.35(t). Minor fixes have affected most Ground Vehicles.
• Physical collision damage interaction has been improved on multiple vehicles.

Changes in Locations and Missions

• The “Tank” Training mission is now divided into two parts: “Basics of controlling” and “Basics of shooting”.
• Improved the environment around capture points and gameplay improvements for location "Mozdok"
• Location “Carpathians” has been significantly revised.
• A few settlements in the location “Poland” have been added.
• The size of the bushes in the locations “Poland” and “Normandy” has been reduced.
• Balancing changes on the locations “Finland” and “Eastern Europe”.
• Substantially reworked logic of the mode “Break”. On some locations, for a win, it needs the capture of more than two points.
• In the game mode “Break” the indication of captured and subsequent capture points has been added.
• In Arcade battles it will take more bombs to destroy bases or airfields. Depending on the rank of the battle the durability of the bases has been increased by 1.5-2x

Research and Economy

• Vampire FB 5 and Venom FB.4 moved to “Hawker” line following the Tempest Mk.II
• Calliope moved to rank 3 without changing its BR.
• Pz. III Ausf.M moved from rank 3 to rank 2 without changing its BR.

Damage Model

• Affecting all Ground Vehicles which load ammunition projectiles and charges separately, the chance of ammo rack explosions have been significantly decreased. An ammo rack can be destroyed by a direct hit or close explosion of ammo containing 150 gram or more of explosives. An ammo rack is still vulnerable to all damage, including spalling. Affects: М103, Т28, Т95, Т32, Maus, Jagdtiger, Tiger II 105, KV-2, IS-2, IS-3, IS-4, Т-10М, SU-152, SU-122, ISU-122, ISU-122S, ISU-152, SU-122-54, SU-122P, SU-100Y.
• In the T-34 series, a hit to the oil tank can no longer lead to a fuel tank explosion.
• The mechanics regarding repairing has been changed. Now track repairs will start automatically if the vehicle does not move.
• To activate repair mode, you will need to hold the repair button for 1.5 seconds.
• Reload on capture and base points now starts automatically, if the player doesn't move and will be interrupted if he starts to move.
• The penetration of late-war as well as post-war AP shells with discarding sabots have been fixed and adjusted:
  • USSR: 100mm ZBM-8 penetration increased by 1%, 122 ZBM-11 penetration increased by 3,5%, 122mm ZBM-7 penetration increased by 1%, 85mm BR-367P penetration decreased by 4%.
  • USA: 105mm М392А2 - penetration increased by 5%, 90mm М332 - penetration decreased by 14%, 90mm М304 penetration decreased by 13,2%, 90mm Т44 penetration decreased by 13%, 76mm М93 penetration decreased by 2%, 76mm М331А2 penetration decreased by 10%, 76mm М319 penetration decreased by 10%.
  • Germany: 105mm DM-13 penetration increased by 5%, 105mm PzGr 40 penetration decreased by 10%, 88mm PzGr 40/43 penetration decreased by 11%, 75mm PzGr 40/42 penetration decreased by 15%.

Changes in Flight Models

• Click here for more details.

Armament

• Hurricane Mk.IV - Two 7.7 Browning machine guns have been added.

Changes in Ground Vehicles

• Added ability for the M41 and SPAA M42 to perform a neutral turn.
• M46 and M46 “Tiger”: Added the M348 HEAT shell.
• The maximum speed of the T-44 has been reduced to 60 km/h, according to “Guide to exploitation of T-44” NKO USSR 1946, page 5.
• New modification/module “Rangefinder” added for M103, M47, M60, Leopard I, SU-122-54, Panther F, Panther 2 and Tiger 2 10,5cm. This will allow the measurement of range of up to a distance of 2.5km in realistic battles and 1.5 km in arcade battles.
• T-34 Prototype - The weight of the tank was changed to 25.6t, according to “Album of the photos and characteristics of T-34”.
• T-34 1940 with L-11 cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 25.6t, according to “Album of the photos and characteristics of T-34”
• T-34 1941 with F-34 cannon, T-34 1st Gv. T.Br., T-34-57 1941 - The weight of the tank was changed to 28.12t in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”.
• T-34 1942 and T-34-57 1943 - The weight of the tank was changed to 30t, in according to“Tank T-34. Manual. 1944.”
• Т-34E STZ - The weight of the tank was changed to 29.5t, in according to “Front illustration №04 2006. Stalingrad's 34 p. 42” (mass of the screens - 500kg).
• T-34E - The weight of the tank was changed to 30.6t, in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”. (Weight of Т-34 1941 with F-34 cannon + maximum mass of screens - 2.5t).
• Т-34-85 with D-5T cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 30.9t, in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”.
• T-34-85 with ZIS-S-53 cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 32t, in according to “Guide to the material part of T-34”, Moscow 1949.

Interface

• New battle statistics interface
• New daily rewards interface
• New crew skill interface
• The amount of explosives contained in a shell has been added to the info card for ground vehicles
• The possibility to save the last played mission in “Custom Battles” has been added.
• In spectator mode, lighting circuits for allied vehicles have been added.
• "Visibility" added to info card of a vehicle. This parameter defines tank visibility from distance depending on its height.

Control

• Added new settings regarding “switching between gunners”, which allows the turning off of AI gunners in aircraft.
• The ability to control the camera in the hangar with a gamepad has been fixed. Specific settings have been moved to “Controls” - “View controls” - “View in hangar”.
• The possibility to control the position of decals on ground vehicles and aircraft while using a gamepad has been corrected. Specific settings have been moved to “Controls” - “Miscellaneous” - “Decal movement”.
• By default, a right mouse click is now mapped to activating the “follow target” mode and not for zoom in the scope. By pressing the button the gunner will hold the nearest target in scope view.

Sounds

• Improved background sounds whilst in-game, added sounds for different game events.
• Authentic engine audio has been added for the PT-76.
• New audio for the QF2 cannon has been added.
• The audio of the 30mm ADEN cannon has been improved.
• The audio of the M60 cannon has been improved.
• The audio for the Type 2 machine guns has been improved.
• Improved the audio for the M3 Browning, Hispano 404, Hispano Mk. II and Hispano Mk. V cannons (Wiki Editors note: More echoes).
• New audio has been added for the result screen after a battle has finished.
• New audio for completing strikes (aircraft flights in the arcade battles for ground vehicles) has been added.
• Improved sounds for MG34 machinegun
• New sounds for the destruction of cars when running over them in ground vehicles have been added.
• New audio for the American and the German systems of rocket volley fire has been added.
• New sounds for the destruction of railway carriages have been added.
• Added dubbing in Korean localisation.
• Added dubbing in Italian localisation.
• Added dubbing in Czech localisation.
• Added dubbing in English localisation.
• Added dubbing in Russian localisation.
• Added dubbing in Japanese localisation.
• Added dubbing in Polish localisation.

PS4

• Added Trophies
• Added Internet Radio support
• Fixed freezes at start of tank battles
• Use 'Display Area Settings' instead of a fixed 90% border
• Fixed Customization interface (applying decals) when using gamepad

PC

• Steam Achievements added

Smaller updates that came afterwards

06.11.2015

• Markers have been removed from Air SB;
• Difficulty level “Custom” in custom battles has been fixed;
• Bug that led to an exploit - increased RP gain for bombers after crashing - has been fixed.

07.11.2015

• Fixed ultralow and windows XP render on а Radeon X1600 - X1900.
• Fixed glitch on aircraft position extrapolation on long distances ('jumpings").
• Fixed rendering of bomb craters.
• Fixed capture bases position on Stalingrad tank map.
• Stability improvements.

10.11.2015

• Minor optimization (mostly for tanks battles).
• Fixed rare bug where tank can disappear when it should be visible (graphical bug).
• Fixed disappearing voice in voice chats (squad\squadrons).
• Returned back old (from 1.51) bomb explosion type to tank Arcade Battles (was unintentionally the same as in all other modes).
• Fixed incorrect display of bomb craters on some occasions.
• Fixed halo shimmering effect on distant trees in dawn/dusk timed battles.

11.11.2015

1st Patch

• Fixed tank models occasionally reappearing at the position they were destroyed;
• Fixed the client side extrapolation of aircraft position which was visible through sharp aircraft movement or aircraft not receiving damage, as they already were at a different position on the server.

2nd Patch

• The Silver Lion cost of vehicle repairs and of bonus awards for some vehicles have been changed (Read more here).
• The BR of the A43 Black Prince has been changed from 6.0 to 5.7 for all game modes.
• The BR of the Stug III Ausf G has been reduced by 0.3 for all game modes (in AB from 4.7 to 4.3, in RB/SB from 4.3 to 4.0).
• The amount of respawns for the Sherman Firefly "Scorpion" in Simulator Battles has been changed from 1 to 2, just like for another medium tanks.
• The Camera position for the М26Е1 has been fixed. Previously, zooming to the “commander’s view” could cause the tank model to disappear.

13.11.2015

1st Patch

• Improved synchronization in some situations.
• Improved optimization.
• Client stability has been improved.

2nd Patch

• Field of view for tank optics is extended for “zoom to scope” view mode.
• A bug where ammo rack had almost 100% chance of fire and thus tank destruction when hit by a solid AP shot has been fixed.
• A bug when HESH rounds could cause fire and ammo rack explosion has been fixed.

Changes in the flight models

• Pе-8 - possibility of using WEP on the second step of the supercharger has been fixed.

17.11.2015

• Improved synchronization for aircraft in some situations.
• Fixed a rare bug where shadows were rendered incorrectly in the distance.
• Client stability has been improved.
• Improved auto detection for voice activation for voice chat.
• Friendly artillery strike marker has been added to mini-map.

18.11.2015

• A bug where a player could spawn more than 3 times per battle in Arcade mode in British tanks has been fixed.

19.11.2015

• Assault bomb fuse time for air Arcade Battles has been decreased to 0.5 seconds.
• In Arcade combined battles the time when all the players gain one Artillery strike has been increased from 60 to 120 seconds.
• Maximum available amount of artillery strikes in Arcade battles for medium tanks is now 2.

20.11.2015

• Decreased the amount of RAM memory used for locations with destructible buildings.
• Improved the quality of the in-game voice chat.
• Linux: fixed game client launch while using older video drivers.
• Fixed a visual bug which may have shown double barrels on the damage indicator.
• Game stability for older PC builds has been improved.
• Allied arty strike markers are displayed only for the strikes within 100 m radius.

25.11.2015

• Improved the quality of the in-game voice chat.
• Some client crashes have been fixed.

02.12.2015

Vehicles and armament:

• Increased boosts for all ground vehicle engines in Arcade. The average increase is 10%.
• A bug where modifications that affected a ground vehicle’s mobility might not apply has been fixed.
• T-10M model has been updated. New visual geometry and a more refined armour model has been introduced, as well as a new arrangement of components and modules.
• Anti-aircraft guns have been added for the Т32, М46 and М47 (You will be able to use these in PvP matches in a future update).
• A bug with the M4A3E2 (and the 76mm cannon version), where, if the additional 38mm upper frontal armour was penetrated, but the main armour wasn’t, the tank could have been rendered inoperable, has been fixed.
• A bug which occurred during automatic track repair, where the turning of the vehicle was blocked, has been fixed.
• A bug which would cause a repair time that was too long, after one or more crew members were rendered unconscious, has been fixed.
• A visual bug which incorrectly showed an overload effect (incorrect dimming) has been fixed.
• Do 17-Z-2: A bug which prohibited the research of a modification for the last bomb configuration has been fixed
• BTD-1: the "Improved torpedo” modification has been returned.
• In Simulator Battles, reloading of turret mounted defensive weaponry is now possible only at airfields (automatic prohibition of firing for gunners can be located in: Menu > Controls > Basic > Toggle Gunners.

Interface:

• Errors in the interface and ground vehicle’s info card where effects of the modifications were not displayed correctly have been fixed. Mistake where engine power in AB was displayed incorrectly (showing less power than actually available in game) has been fixed.
• “Agility” skill in tank crew skill tab has been moved up to other “group” skills.
• Numerous interface improvements.

Missions and locations:

• A bug in the model of destroyed tanks has been fixed (turret was displayed somewhat above the hull).
• Numerous changes in the descriptions of ground and aircraft missions before a battle.
• New objectives added for combined battles.
• Balance changes on “Ash river” and’ “Advance to the Rhine”.

Misc:

• Optimization and client stability has been improved.
• Added restriction mechanics to aircraft overload levels in Realistic Battles. For the first three seconds of flight, the instructor will limit the exit out of the overload situation, which may otherwise destroy the aircraft through the wings becoming detached.
• Trophies update: A player can now receive 2x back-ups for one of the vehicles used in the most recent battle in a trophy.

03.12.2015

• A bug relating to allied vehicle markers on the minimap has been fixed.
• A bug relating to tank track prints in the snow has been fixed.
• The incorrect behavior of torpedoes while underwater has been fixed.
• Fixes and improvements have been made to the game interface.

04.12.2015

• A bug which would prioritise integrated graphics for some hardware setups has been fixed.
• The bomb drop delay for the 8x1000 lbs bomb loadout has been fixed.
• A bug which would incorrectly display the coordinates of allies requesting support has been fixed.

08.12.2015

• The cost of the basic level qualification for premium vehicles has been reduced to 10,000 Silver Lions for all the vehicles where it would have previously cost more. The expert qualification cost for these vehicles has been increased accordingly.
• The minimal progress needed for crew progression is now only half of the “progress bar” as opposed to a full progress bar.
• Minor changes in the costs for repair of ground vehicles.