Welcome to the newest issue of the Developer Digest series. Here you can find out more about game development straight from the developers!

Can you tell us about the intended weakspots of the Abrams in Balance 2.0?

For the vehicles of the same Tier, they include a place under the mantlet, the small commander cupola and the middle part of the lower front plate with upgraded ammo.

Have you made any changes to vehicle movement model?

The movement profiles (which include physics attributes) have been updated for each vehicle. This means their overall handling capabilities should feel much better and more distinctive towards the specific vehicle you're driving. Ramming damage has been improved too.

What will be the fate of the XM1?

You will get a chance to earn the XM1 again in the future.

Is the decision to introduce Dragun 100 as a Tier 8 vehicle of the BMP line final?

The Dragun 100 you see at Tier 8 is just a placeholder at the moment. The Dragun 125 will be added in that spot once its artwork is finished before the release of 0.19.

Many players think that the PvE mode was introduced too early and killed PvP. What is your stance on that?

From a development perspective there are other reasons we won’t go into which we believe contributed towards the current population numbers. It is easy to point fingers at PvE and accuse the mode of pulling too many PvP players away, but in reality it's just a symptom of a greater population problem. PvE games are easier to get into with only 5 players and offer a less stressful experience. With population declines this just makes PvE more appealing, but with a proper population both modes would not feel the "heat" so to speak from the other. Making changes to reward amounts now might force players to play one mode or the other more in the short term, but as others have pointed out, many of the players currently playing enjoy PvE or PvP the most and have no real interest in playing the other mode. With Balance 2.0 our goal is to fix the underlining issues with the core gameplay and then get the game out to a wider audience who will include many more players that enjoy both modes of play.

Why change vehicle cupolas to take 100 percent damage?

Cupola hitboxes behave differently in Balance 2.0 than they do on Live. Their actual penetrable area is more armored and harder to penetrate which means they aren't as easy to get a guaranteed pen on. We'd like to explore adding logic to make it so shots that are angled into the hull do more damage than those that would logically pass straight ahead, but this would not come in 0.19, nor is it a guarantee it will come at all.

I’ve seen some Balance 2.0 videos and the autocannons seem useless against Main Battle Tanks, is that intended?

We don't want players using autocannons against most MBTs. You may get some penetrating shots into the rear, but autocannons are primarily reserved for squishier targets as they should be.

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