Dear players,

Another round of questions and answers, with War Thunder producer Vyacheslav Bulannikov!

Armament

Q: Is there any chance of a “tank” aiming system for SB not just for boats, but for destroyers as well? By this I mean a system where there is no forced target locking and where the player has to manually set the armament’s angle of elevation, relying only on the range finder, and at this distance (set in the sight) rear and frontal guns will converge horizontally. The advantages of this aiming system have been demonstrated previously in RB:

- It allows you to aim at a half-sunk ship 6 km away rather than automatically firing on a fresh enemy 3 km away that is blocking it in the sight.
- It will also eliminate stupid situations where you can’t continue firing on a ship that’s suddenly hidden behind a smoke screen (and not actually vanished into thin air), when the rangefinder starts showing 9800 instead of 4000. - - And when you fire in that direction, seeing shells sailing right over it, even though a couple of seconds before the ship was swallowed by the smoke, I could see the flashes of my hits.
- You could also quickly turn main armaments on approaching torpedo boats for direct fire without trial shots.
- You would have a chance of firing main armaments on the torpedo bombers advancing on your ship.
- You could also fire on any object (i. e. tank) on land.

A: For the moment, we think that the current aiming system in AB and RB for large ships with long-range artillery when firing on above-water targets suits our needs. Firing on air-borne targets does need further adjustment, and this is in the pipeline. We looked at many options and chose our current system because it is easiest to use in most situations and in general it isn’t much different from the system proposed above (requiring the range to be entered every time without auto selection) in the case of RB mode. It’s possible that we may decide to allow players to choose between the current “arcade” aiming system and a “realistic” aiming system in RB.

Q: What will the armament of boats/ships be limited to (will there be any ATGMs – for example, the Bastion on the Soviet small artillery ship Slepen or the metal-cutting AK-603/630 and the Vulcan-Phalanx?

A: There aren’t many restrictions, any weapon that generates interesting gameplay may be implemented in the game. There’s nothing particularly special about rapid-firing guns or ATGMs, even command-guided AA guns can potentially be implemented. Anti-ship rockets are a thornier problem, as they are designed for firing over very long distances, but theoretically you can come up with interesting gameplay even for weapons like these, especially when it comes to early rocket models.

Q: I wonder what factors are involved in the explosion of artillery ammunition on destroyers. A deliberate attempt to hit the artillery ammunition on a Fletcher-class destroyer didn’t blow it up, it just destroyed the front section.

A: Right now, we have a strict rule, the destruction of part of the artillery ammunition, i. e. the blackened condition on the hit camera destroys the ship with an explosion.

Q: Will there be anti-aircraft shells of anti-aircraft calibre (76 mm and up)? Shells like these were used previously. At one time, almost all the ships in the game had these shells. Even the Yugumo had anti-aircraft shells for primary calibre (127 mm/50 Type 3).

A: Yes.

Q: Will the firing system on destroyers and boats be modified? Boats are also struggling due to the destroyer mechanics (separate guns and range input).

A: We may move to a more simplified system for boats, since they most often use their weapons within direct shot range, and it’s more important for them to quickly transfer fire and perform firing maneuvers.

Q: Torpedo markers make them an ineffective weapon outside narrow channels or minimal distances. Are there any plans to increase the effectiveness of torpedo armaments by overhauling torpedo detection system? For example, a market only appears for torpedoes launched by allies and for torpedoes whose launch or movement will be visible to the player within 5 seconds.

A: The detection range parameter of the torpedo marker will vary within certain limits, depending on the skills of the crew and the types of torpedoes used (some torpedoes are more noticeable than others). We already have this mechanic, but it’s not being used in the current test on the production server. But in general, we see torpedoes, especially in AB, as very effective weapons thanks to their arcade boosts, and in RB it is possible to reduce the detection radius of the marker.

Q: Are there any other ways of quickly and effectively eliminating destroyers and other large ships besides firing on ammunition magazines? Do the boilers explode if they’re flooded? Is it possible that fire, depending on the source and location, will lead to explosions of the same magazines or other destruction?

A: Yes, magazines, hitting torpedoes and depth charges that haven’t been used. A fire in a compartment that can spread to the magazines is also possible. We’ll probably add explosions of fuel tanks on boats that use high-octane fuel.

Q: Anti-air is too aggressive. Will the accuracy of anti-air weapons be reduced?

A: On the whole, we are happy with the anti-air weapons as they are. It’s important to remember that the crew with the most training will have the best accuracy, and that average players will have somewhat worse accuracy for obvious reasons.

Q: Is there currently any mechanism for shell ricochets on the surface of the water and on land, will anything like this be added in the future?

A: Currently, the ricochet mechanism is the same on land as it is on water.

Development

Q: Anton Yudintsev mentioned cruisers at the DMM conference. Will they be split into 2 tech trees – light and heavy?

A: At this point we can’t say exactly which types of ships we’re going to settle on, right now we’re working on light cruisers and after all the playtesting, if everything goes well, we will be able to show them to the players.

Q: Will aviation cruisers like the IJN Tone be added to the game? If yes, will the player be able to control the aircraft?

A: It’s too early to talk about such specific ships and systems.

Q: Are the developers considering adding earlier-period ships apart than those currently in the test, e. g. ships from World War I?

A: Right now, we are working on several ships that were designed and built during WWI and which were later modernized and remained in service.

Q: Will there be monitors in the game? (Not sea armored boats, which were called skerry monitors even though they were just a redesign of the German fast self-propelled landing barge, but true monitors like Zheleznyakovs.) Speaking of the epic Zheleznyakov, would it be possible to make it a premium vehicle (in parallel with the regular version of the same vehicle)?

A: We haven’t ruled it out.

Q: How likely is it that auxiliary cruisers will appear in the game? Specifically, Raider-type ships like the Atlantis (it would look amazing as a premium rank 2 ship). And what about other ships mobilized by navies fighting in World War II?

A: There are no ships like this in the pipeline, but we haven’t ruled them out.

Q: Designing a ship (not a boat) is a very serious matter, it cannot be seriously redesigned if mistakes come up when it’s already been built. That’s why everything is calculated in advance, and in truth, a ship is born long before it reaches the shipyard, it’s born in the final construction blueprints. Will navy branches include projects that were never realized in metal, but existed only in blueprints, not to mention those that never got past the stocks?

A: Yes, we’re not ruling that out, especially with regard to projects that were completely ready, but whose construction was never finished for one reason or another.

Other

Q: Will there be a variety of weather conditions at sea? At the moment, battles often take place at different times of day, but the sea is always calm. It would be great to see some variety in the weather, like there was in the early closed beta fleet.

A Yes, currently the agitation of the water already varies to the point that it affects the movement of boats. Introducing very blustery weather for battles that may involve boats would mean significantly lowering their performance. But the possibility of introducing worse weather conditions for battles where only destroyers and higher-rank ships will participate has not been ruled out.

Q: When choosing a random spawn point, too often the majority appear in the same place, whereas others may be empty, and while tanks and aircraft can quickly disperse and fill the spaces that have been formed, it takes longer for ships. Will the choice of a random point take into account the number of players in each direction in the future, or large groups – is it a feature?

A: Auto selection currently works on this principle, unfortunately, this does not prevent all players, if desired, from spawning in the same area.

Q: Are you going to refine the animation for the destruction of ships, the wrecking and destruction of parts of the hull and deck structures, and the explosion and detachment of the main armament turrets when ammunition is blown up? Will lots of smoke from a fire spread over the water and envelops the ship?

A: Yes. In the latest iterations of the test, the ships actually already have the destruction of the hull into chunks, the detachment of the turrets and other parts during the detonation of the magazines. We’re also planning to add the turret detachment during explosions which will not necessarily lead to the destruction of the ship.

You can ask your question to the developers on our official forum in the "Questions to the Team" section.