Welcome to the eleventh issue of the Developer Digest series - find out more about the development of the game straight from the developers themselves!

Additional Update 0.17 Changes

As a part of the game improvement process, we have introduced the following additional changes to the upcoming Update 0.17.

As part of our ongoing effort to rebalance many of Armored Warfare's major gameplay elements, we've taken the opportunity to introduce several major Quality of Life improvements to ATGMs and Smoke Grenades. Additional changes to ATGMs and Smoke Grenades can be expected as we continue to work on game balance. We've changed ATGMs in several areas to make them more viable and easier to use, including:

As a baseline, all ATGMs no longer have a lock-on delay and can be fired as soon as the vehicle stops

Vehicles which could fire ATGMs on the move in real life can now also do so in-game

We've removed the delay when switching between ATGMs and other weapon systems

We've increased the ATGM launch speed from 45 to 100 m/sec

We've made the following changes to Smoke Grenades to increase usefulness and solidify their role in the moment to moment gameplay:

All vehicles with smoke grenades now have 15 charges

Vehicles which previously only fired one smoke grenade now have a 45-second reload

Vehicles which could previously fire up to three smoke grenades now have a 35-second reload

Isn't it too early to introduce these mechanics?

Since we haven't revamped the armor, the damage or the penetration yet, we didn't feel these changes would have an overall negative effect. As of now, it merely makes these mechanics less tedious and more useful.

With all these changes, what about introducing guided missiles to the Leopard 2A7-140?

There will be no ATGMs on the Leopard 2A7.

Don’t you think that 15 charges for smoke grenades too much?

Final amount of charges for smoke is easily tuned, it is best to start with an extreme number like 15 (basically infinite) and scale as needed. We are still in beta, and large changes like this are still possible and good as we balance the overall game to be enjoyable for all classes at all tiers. Expect even more changes going forward that will have fundamental effects on the game, targeted not only to high tier balance and class balance, but the game at large. It is fairly clear that a balancing game with just a few tweaks to numbers is not enough, time to get excited.

Won’t these changes put Light Tanks at a disadvantage?

On the topic of smoke, we do plan to return the quick-fire "charge" system for Light Tanks in conjunction with the ongoing smoke changes but this requires additional code which will not be done until the full Balance 2.0 changes are further along. As a compromise, we shortened the cooldown for those vehicles until the additional code is complete. What will happen is that the Light Tanks will have smoke grenades in “magazines” with short time between “magazine” reloads, while the entire magazine will reload much longer.

You mentioned the “armor degradation” in recent Q&A session, care to share more details about that?

Armor degradation is still just in a testing phase. We haven't committed to adding it yet and will first look at how Balance 2.0 affects the game. If it ends up being exactly what we want, we may not go through with the degradation system at all. One thing we don't want to cause is a reverse gold round situation, where armor is rendered meaningless because you end up penning it anyways.

Is there Skill-Based Matchmaking still in the game?

Skill-Based Matchmaking is not in the game anymore. It only attempts to balance based on tier and vehicle class types.

Will autocannons be rebalanced in the future?

Autocannons are going to be hit hard in balance 2.0, like VERY hard. Damage, penetration and clip size will all be adjusted. Our intent is to promote more ATGM play from AFVs by fixing ATGM mechanics and downplaying the role of Autocannons into more "intermediate damage" players can use to add a bit of damage in-between reloading their ATGMs at closer ranges. It won't be like it is now where you can almost guarantee every AC shot will penetrate a lightly armored target with little care of shot dispersion.

That's it for today. See you in the next issue!