Today, we want discuss possible changes to the damage and unit restoration mechanics in Ground Vehicle Realistic Battles. As you know, currently, repairs of several units and aggregates without the parts modification can be done just by being located at a point you control. If a damaged tank does not get help from friends, it will remain immobile or weaponless until the end of the battle. However, a tank with the researched parts modification can repair damage in 10-30 seconds (depending on the severity of the damage, any crew losses and crew skill level). This is a game feature.

After recent discussions regarding modifications and all the changes made in relation to them, we decided to rework this feature in order to take the following considerations into account:

Reduce differences in capabilities for restoring combat readiness between upgraded and non-upgraded vehicles.

Preserve the current gameplay in Ground Realistic Battles in terms of the importance of damage dealt.

Make the game more interesting for non-upgraded vehicles.

Accordingly, we plan to change the critical damage mechanics by adding quick field repair, available at all times for all vehicles.

It will work in the following way:

A disabled engine entirely blocks a vehicle’s movement for 20 seconds, after which 40% of its original function is restored. A disabled transmission entirely blocks the vehicle’s movement for 20 seconds, after which the gear shift range is reduced by half. A disabled traverse gear blocks turrets or guns from rotating(traversing) for 15 seconds, after which their rotation speed is limited to 3 degrees/sec. A disabled elevation gear limits the gun elevation range to ±1.5 degrees from the position the gun was in when it was damaged. A destroyed barrel inflicts significant penalties when fired: a 20-fold increase in shot dispersion and shells have 2 times less armour piercing and muzzle velocity.

If a ground vehicle is equipped with the parts modification, a player can use it to begin repairs at any time and restore a unit to full combat readiness. But without this modification, it will have to reach a secured point and perform a full repair there. Meanwhile, the option of getting repair assistance from party members or allies for light equipment has been entirely preserved. The processes of automatic partial unit recovery and manually activated repairs occur in parallel and do not influence each other in any way.

We think these changes will produce a positive effect on gameplay for stock ground vehicles and will simplify their function without changing the general mechanics of fighting in Realistic Battles. We invite all players to take part in a constructive dialogue about this and look forward to your discussion comments.

We would like to add a small explanation and emphasize, once again that the purpose of the changes is to make the game in vehicles with unresearched modifications more enjoyable.

We do not plan to change the basics of the gameplay in RB with these changes nor how any damage caused affects the game situation. Now, if you have caused functional damage to an enemy, you have some time to destroy him fully but if you did not succeed in doing this the enemy will be able to repair after some time and become dangerous to you again. You still cannot count on the absence of the modification "parts" from the enemy when you fight them. This will remain in the new mechanics, only that those who have not researched the modification will have an improved chance, for example, to get to a capture point and fix it there or approach an ally who can help with the repair and sometimes cover you in a hopeless situation.

We are ready to consider various options for these mechanics based on the results of discussions, for example, to do something with damaged gun barrels for a period of time (comparable to the repair kit/parts) in complete disabling of firing, or not to change the mechanics of damaged weapons at all and return only mobility. In our experience the designated critical damage to a gun is serious enough so we decided that it was possible to implement it for RB in this way. But a significant amount of criticism in the mechanics associated with weapons makes us think about other options. Therefore, we expect practical constructive proposals and dialogue from you.

The War Thunder Team