Dev blog #242

Hello everybody,

Previously we talked mostly about the Normandy project, but today we have something to tell you about Tank Crew. Functionality wise, at this stage we're polishing the implemented modules. The coming update 4.005 will bring a dozen important improvements for Tank Crew and the commander binoculars we showed you earlier. Later we plan to implement the indirect fire capability for self-propelled guns (by inputting the distance and traversing angle) and new quick mission types for the tank commanders. It should be also noted that a lot of the damage calculation changes that are prepared for 4.005 also affect the detailed tanks, this is important for the quality of their damage modeling.

Today we have something to show you as well. Our partners from Digital Forms just sent us WIP screenshots of the two latest war machines that are being modeled for the Tank Crew project. The first one of them is German tank destroyer Sd. Kfz. 184 "Ferdinand". Here are some shots of its interior parts. This self-propelled gun is very hard to recreate because there is a little info left and we have to conduct a lot of research to clarify how its internal parts worked and looked. But the result is going to be really good - these tank destroyers which first saw action in the Kursk battle impress with their power - take a look at the comparison of their main gun with the entire T-34/76 tank - and unique design decisions:

The second war machine that is in the works now is the SU-152 assault gun that was built on the KV-1s heavy tank chassis and armed with 152mm ML-20s howitzer. It was designed incredibly fast - it's hard to believe, but between the decision of the State Defence Committee that a new heavy SPG is needed and the act of putting it into service passed only 37 days and it was ready for production by the end of January 1943. There weren't a lot of these assault guns made, but their combat debut at the Kursk salient showed that the Red Army has something to counter the newest heavy German tanks in the coming battles: