Welcome to the sixth issue of the Developer Digest series. In this issue, we answer some of the questions about the Loot system and more!

Are there any plans to change Daily Challenges?

We've made some changes to Daily Challenges in 0.16, which will make it easier to complete certain challenges and will allow players to earn the initial 150k credits (similar to what you would get for completing all three difficulty modes in the old system) by completing any of the three challenges listed.

Since you now get supply crates for completing the other challenges, you can also earn more credits on top of the 150k plus additional credit/rep boosts and insignias. Overall, the new version of Daily Challenges tied to the loot system give plenty of opportunities for players to play in a way that suits them and still earn better rewards. Asking players for a small amount of additional effort in exchange for way more rewards is a good deal in my eyes.

Here are the changes just so everyone has a refresher.

Now that the Loot system is live, you'll see your non-credit challenge rewards replaced with different quality Supply Crates. Completing any of the three available challenges in any order will award you with the following:

Completing 1 challenge of any sort awards you with 150k credits

Completing 2 challenges of any sort awards you with a Bronze Supply Crate

Completing 3 challenges of any sort awards you with a Silver Supply Crate

Daily Challenges are now also randomized in difficulty, but you have the highest chance of getting "easy" challenges, then medium and finally, hard.

Assists will now also be counted towards completing Daily Challenges which require players to "kill" enemy vehicles

Fixed an issue with the "Stealth Kills" daily challenge, which prevented it from tracking kills properly

The challenge now properly counts if you were never spotted or if you were spotted but went undetected again

Regarding the lack of enemies of certain classes - in 0.16 you will get credit for kills and assists. This means players can both damage a vehicle and get credit for it, regardless of who kills it. The system will always be open to tweaking and you can bet we will add and fine tune the challenges more over time.

Why are some flags missing? For example the Dutch flag?

We will get it added. We have a number of flags we are adding in each upcoming patch. The 0.16 flags actually got in a bit early with our recent 0.15 hotfix, but we have more planned for each subsequent patch.

Do the 0.16 normalization changes mean that MBTs will now be able to use sidescraping?

This doesn't add sidescraping since a number of high-tier MBTs don't have the frontal side armor capable of reliably blocking traditional large-caliber shots to begin with. What it will do though, is ensure MBTs don't take unrealistic damage from being shot in the tracks/wheels at offset angles from the front.

You mentioned that PTL-02 was moved to Tier 7. Why?

The PTL-02 was originally intended to be a Tier 8, but after taking feedback both on the forums and the PTS into account along with internal metrics it was determined that Tier 7 would be a better place for it. The move to Tier 7 was just the initial change. We'll still be looking at performance and feedback (such as what you left above) for any further changes that are needed.

Please allow us to sell items by dozens. Selling 100+ energy drinks one at a time was rather tedious.

We agree that this is important functionality. This will be addressed when the trade-in mechanics and interface are implemented for Loot.

Lead Systems Designer Matt Festa on Loot System

Let’s talk about the Loot System for a while. Regarding the 0.16 Loot system, is it possible to add decals and Camouflages as rewards?

Yes, this is something we're actively exploring.

Will you add some “crafting” element to the Loot system?

"Crafting" will come in the form of a system for trading in your unwanted Loot for better Loot. The designers here at Obsidian will need to evaluate the impact of this new Loot feature on progression and the overall game economy before we decide how to proceed with these trade-in mechanics, but this is something we recognize as critical to the experience of the Loot feature in Armored Warfare.

Doesn’t the Loot system mean that players will just “farm” PvE Easy for quick and simple loot?

The way that this system works will require that you still have a "good" match in order to get better Loot, regardless of which game mode you choose to play. It is not technically "easier" to get good Loot in PvE Easy compared to PvE Hard or PvP. While the PvE Easy game mode itself might be easier to play, the metrics which determine the Loot you receive are based off of every other player's performance in that game mode, so you'll still have to have a good match relative to other players to get awesome Loot. We set the system up this way so that you'll be better rewarded for playing well, not for playing the more difficult or competitive game modes.

So, PvE Easy will have the same type of rewards as PvE Hard?

The types and qualities of the rewards available will be the same, yes. However, while a given game mode might be easier to play, your rewards will be based off of comparing your match results to the match results of other players who also play that game mode. So your rewards are based off of how well you do compared to all other players, not based off of the difficulty or competitiveness of the game mode.

One additional clarification - the comparison of your performance to other player performance is global - based on all match results - not just the results of a single match. So even if you are the best player in a given match in terms of the metrics which measure performance, you may not receive the best Loot unless your performance was also in upper percentiles of all individual match results from that game mode.

What about Loot system bonus stacking? Will that still be possible?

Yes and no. All the various bonuses from events, First Win of the Day, Premium Account, Premium vehicles, Boosts, Insignias, etc. will still stack in the same manner as before. The difference is that you'll be specifically limited to how many Boosts you can stack together. However, at the same time that we've limited the number of Boosts which players can stack together, we've also added Insignias and made it so that players can receive Loot for free just by playing matches.

Part of my responsibility as this system goes live will be to watch the trends in progression and the overall game economy and determine any necessary adjustments. While the goal was to minimize net changes to the overall global economy and progression rates from the addition of the Loot system, there are a lot of factors in play and we may not get things exactly right the first time. If we determine that we've miscalculated and somehow slowed down progression, we'll respond quickly. We have a lot of tools in our toolbox to address potential problems. In the short term, the faster fixes will be to adjust Loot drop rates. If necessary, however, we can do things like increase the bonuses applied by the Boosts and Insignias, or add new types of Boosts and Insignia into the system with larger or more specific bonuses.

Rest assured that we have an enormous amount of data available for this kind of analysis, and we have a very dedicated group of developers here at Obsidian that are invested in the success of this new Loot feature and, of course, to Armored Warfare as a whole.

So, that means I will be able to activate only 1 boost at the same time (or 2 if i pay)?

Yes, the number of Boosts that you can have active will be limited. However, we added another form of progression modifier with the Insignias at the same time, and this is only Phase 1 for the new Loot system. Our goal was to make progression modifiers available to all players (not just paying players), increase the flexibility of how and when you apply these modifiers, and add some new and interesting rewards to the game that are beyond the basic currencies used for progression. Adding more modifiers into the system risks unbalancing the progression economy. That’s why it was important to be cautious without initial implementation. If I've miscalculated and we determine that the changes to the economy do not have the desired effect on progression, we will take action to resolve the issue. This might mean increasing the bonuses, adding additional Boost Slots, etc. We needed to be cautious because it is much easier to add new things into the game or increase bonuses on existing content than it is to remove things or nerf content if we underestimated the impact.

In 0.16, players will be able to have two Boosts active at any given time. Players choose which Boosts to activate by placing them in one of two Boost Slots. One of the slots is free (place any Boost at any time) and the other is premium (costs Gold to activate a Boost). Premium Account bonuses are separate from Boost bonuses and the bonuses from Premium Time and Boosts all stack together. You can apply simultaneous stacking bonuses from Premium Time, having an active Boost in the free slot, and having an active Boost in the premium slot (in addition to any other bonuses like Premium Vehicles, First Win of the Day, etc.). Insignias will also stack with these other bonuses, so it will still be possible to stack a lot of progression bonuses in the new system. While the new system limits how many Boosts can be active, it also adds other sources for progression bonuses as well as making these available to all players through the Supply Crates.

One day Boost will be split to two 12-hour Boosts in Update 0.16?

Your 1-Week Boost will be converted into fourteen (14) 12-hour Boosts, so you will keep the exact same total duration, just split into smaller pieces. Our major reason for this was to make it so that players could selectively activate their bonuses for one "session" at a time. We toyed with using 6 hours, 18 hours, 24 hours, 36 hours, etc., but felt like 12 was about right. The main goal was increasing flexibility in terms of when you choose to apply increased rewards, but we also didn't want to have players constantly forced to re-activate their Boosts. If you're a typical player in terms of how often you login and how long you play per session, you'll just need to activate a new Boost once each time you hop on to play. We are looking into ways to make it easier for you to use both Boosts and Insignias so you won't have to perform unnecessary or excessive inventory management. As always, your feedback and suggestions are welcome.

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