Hello everyone!

My name is Kirill Yudintsev and I am the creative director of Gaijin Entertainment. As we have now 200,000 subscribers on our Russian channel so we decided to create a short Q&A related to this. It will be, on this occasion, a Q&A from Russian comments, but i can promise you that we will do the same when we reach 400,000 subscribers on our English language channel, so feel free to subscribe to reach this milestone faster!

But back to the Q&A. In this compilation we will answer some of the more interesting questions from the RU community

Dear developers, please make a filter for locations. It is annoying to play on the same location again and again. Old locations are chosen very rarely, maybe twice a year.

Unfortunately this is not so simple because the locations  are available depending on the vehicles that are encountered in battle. This list isn’t static (general for everything) but dynamic. So if you are playing in different vehicles you will have the opportunity to play on different locations (because not all locations are available for all vehicles at once). Perhaps in your case the reason is that you changed the vehicle, maybe faster aircraft, or a more modern tank and standard locations began to occur less often or were not met at all.

For the same reason, making a list with a  location filter, even in terms of the interface is not quite a trivial task because it is determined by who will meet whom in battle and that’s why it is not so simple to realize that. And here we will not even count the standard problems with the fact that there are a lot of locations and the probability is very high that the players waiting for the battle will choose different locations for themselves and it will not be possible to match others even if there are many players in the queue.

Will it be possible to destroy bridges in tank battles when using aircraft bombs?

We already have some bridges in locations which can be destroyed by using bombs, but we also have such that will not be destroyed (and we have more of such bridges). In very early alpha, it was so that all the bridges were destructible. It can make the gameplay unplayable and uninteresting - simply sitting in one place and sniping the enemy on the other shore. We also don’t want to replace bridges that look like they can be destroyed by a single or a few bombs along with some other buildings for aesthetic reasons. This is why it will remain as it already is: we have destroyable and non destroyable bridges. Maybe we'll change the way it looks but the principle will remain unchanged for reasons of gameplay. We have tried it in a different way, so maybe we will change it someday, but not right now.

First question: when will you fix the behavior of vehicle collision with fences or other obstacles? They either push them aside or just slow the vehicles down a lot . Second: when will you improve the graphics of environments and the physics of destruction?

Some time ago we had a bug in the game where hitting the lead road wheel on an obstacle led to incorrect interaction. The bug has been fixed and the patch already released, but if you still have some problems with it, it is most probably up to individual settings of the obstacle or even a specific object on a particular location. So make a bug report, take a screenshots/replay/video/description of the exact object in the exact location.

Regarding the improving of graphics for an environment and the physics of destruction - it will be improved with every major update. In a last 6 month the game has changed quite a lot: we had an update where we switched to the new engine, with significant visual improvements in regard to various particulars like the calculation of reflections, lighting and other aspects. Also, in every new update we improve graphics. The destruction physics are a very difficult thing to improve. There is the physics of destruction of small objects, large objects, the physics of interaction over the network, interaction with other players and synchronization. In general, we have been implementing improvements for many years and will not change it in the near future since there are many subtleties involved. What we have now is a compromise between the capabilities of the network, the performance of players computers and the synchronization with the server. In general here we have a relatively balanced solution and in the near future, the physics of destruction will not be changed significantly.

Hello, there are many bugs in the game which youtubers have showed many time in their videos. When you will fix them?

We continuously fix bugs that youtubers show, these bugs we receive via bug reports and which we ourselves discover. The game is continuously evolving, changing, new types of vehicles are being constantly added, graphics are being redone, new types of weapons, armour, physics, interaction, control are added. All this brings in turn new bugs or opens old ones - we fixing them and so on whilst the game is actively developing. Therefore, bugs should be treated not as something bad but as a sign that we are consistently working on and developing the game. But we do try particularly quickly to correct significant bugs and will continue to do so.

Good day! I would like to know in what direction the game will develop further - new aircraft or tanks? Or will you add new nations? Can you plan to gradually introduce battleships with aircraft carriers into the fleet? In general, I would like to know your plans for the coming year.

So, new aircraft - yes. We are currently working on helicopters.  We are conducting experiments on supersonic aircraft. We will introduce new tanks for sure, maybe also new nations, but i can not say the exact timeframe, we are working on these options.

Battleships with aircraft? We do not plan aircraft carriers for sure! There is nothing more boring than playing an aircraft carrier except that it is used in the game, as an airfield. Battleships are extremely unlikely. Because the battleship might not be that mega-boring, nor that it is much more boring than a cruiser (perhaps it is!) but because of problems with balance - they are expensive but they can be destroyed quite quickly. There were not many of them in different fleets that were equal in capabilities. In general ... it's a thankless task so even if we will introduce battleships they will not be like regular ships in the research trees. So far there are no concrete plans for battleships. We have checked the gameplay with battleships, something involving this may be possible, but this is far from a massive, simple and interesting play in naval battles. Therefore, in planning currently, neither battleships nor aircraft carriers are envisaged other than for very inspired players.

When will the naval fleet will go to the OBT? And, will helicopters be added to the game?

Yes, we will add helicopters to the game! OBT of the naval fleet will start after CBT ends ;).

On locations with night time conditions, nothing is visible but there are headlights on tanks and aircraft.. it would be fun if they could be used )

The headlights were installed on many tanks including infrared lights, night vision devices and this is would create excellent and interesting gameplay at night with night vision devices but this will greatly increase system requirements. We make an online game for a wide audience. Already, in the past, system requirements have been changed not only once, but multiple times, but not all players that have been long with us are upgrading their hardware regularly. Suddenly, an increase in system requirements to introduce new gameplay is not what they want us to do. It will be unfair to players. Unfortunately without this, it is not possible to make locations with night time really. We thought about it seriously and how to implement it, because it is interesting and creates original gameplay. A lot of vehicles will receive new gameplay and will be played in new way. But while it is not clear how to do it, it cannot be done.

Will it be done that we can sell more than one identical items (like stacks) on the market?

Nice suggestion, we will try to realise that. It was already in the plans ;).

Are you planning on doing additional work on or perhaps even changing the current DM? I am talking about sinking conditions, blowing up magazines, etc. And the crew in particular. Ships get destroyed because of the missing crew 90% of the time, but in real life they sunk, burnt, blew up, etc. There has never been an actual case of a ship staying afloat when all the crew members were dead.

Ships sink, burn, and blow up in the game. The crew just offers one of the means of neutralizing a ship. Usually, ships getting destroyed because of their dead crew members means that most of the ship compartments have taken too much damage. So, it doesn’t necessarily imply that all the crew members have been killed – it just means that the number of the crew members has dropped below the minimum required for the ship to sustain her combat readiness

Will the devs abandon the idea of using frames for target-capturing in RB? At the moment, it provides a good practical means of scanning the area, including that beyond the islands.

Only if the target remains detected. We do not plan on discarding this mechanic as it showcases that the target is visible to your ship crew and that they can shoot at it. We will, however, very likely make adjustments to the conditions under which the capture takes place.

Will you implement factual destruction of captain quarters/main turrets/auxiliary turrets/anti-air armaments with the damage being irreversible during combat?

There are no plans for this at the moment.

Will you add a feature where players will be able to customize their own ARMAMENT GROUPINGS? For example, the first grouping will consist of the primary armament and auxiliary turrets being controlled by the player and the anti-air armaments, by bots; while selecting the second grouping will enable all armaments firing at the target for heavy barrage, etc. Currently, a boat with one 20mm gun and one 37mm gun cannot fire both at the same target, so players are forced to switch between their primary and anti-air armaments. This feels extremely ineffective and clumsy. Players should have an option to fire from all armaments at a selected target.

We are not excluding the possibility, but it’s not part of our current plans. The system will be rather complex and will require rigorous testing.

Will you get rid of stabilizing systems where they didn’t actually exist? No boats were fitted with a stabilizing system for their deck anti-air armaments in real life. The only exception is the 3.7 cm SKC/30, but even there the stabilizer was unable to fully compensate for the jerking of the ship. In the game, however, the manually controlled Brownings fire in a way as if they’ve got a tank stabilizer attached to them.

There is partial compensation for ship motion on machine guns and machine gun installations. It is mainly present in the places where the shooter could somehow compensate for the ship’s movement by holding the gun breech. But even that doesn’t fully compensate for the wave-induced motion and maneuvers of the ship.

Will the naval SB ever happen?

There are no plans for this as of now. The current RB mode is pretty hardcore as it is, and it’s already close to SB.

Right now the Germans have the Albatross, which is fitted with anti-ship missiles, and the other nations might get something similar eventually. So I have a couple of questions about that How will the mechanics for controlling anti-ship rockets work? And will there be a way to counter anti-ship rockets?

It’s too early to talk about this. The Albatross only uses her artillery armament. As we’ve mentioned before, anti-ship missiles have a lot of limitations and specifics to them, making them difficult to merge with the current gameplay mechanics. However, should we decide to introduce them, we will definitely do so alongside a means to counter them.

At the moment, I get the impression that instead of floatability and hydrodynamic mechanics being implemented, the ships just had their motion code based solely on the weather, without taking into account the surrounding waves. Will you work to fix this?

The water in the game is coded using discrete Fourier transform based on Beaufort scale analysis (used by the World Meteorological Organization to evaluate the speed of wind and its effects on the waves in the open sea). This means that the geometry of the water grid can be easily defined by wind conditions ranging from zero wind, when the water surface is perfectly level, to a storm with waves over 10 m tall.

In order to allow ship hulls of all shapes and sizes to exist and properly function on water given any wave behavior in the game, static and hydrodynamic pressure is exerted on every point of the ships. These forces are not just defined by their size and vector but by their water depth too. Each ship has her own inertness stats that depend on her mass and the smoothness of her hull contours. Even a parameter such as the draft is defined not by us adding a desired value in the required field but rather just by the mass of the ship. This incidentally allows us to check how accurate the model of a ship’s hull is in comparison to her historical prototype.

Do you plan on creating modes with asymmetric victory conditions (including those that use bots)? For example, one of the teams must defend a convoy from submarines or an island from enemy landing troops, while the other team must do the opposite and assist the bots in sinking the convoy or capturing the island.

We are skeptical towards the use of asymmetric modes in random battles. Such modes, however, can be used in different kinds of events. We are also happy to hear player feedback regarding the repetitiveness of the current ship modes. We are working to make naval battle more diverse than they are now.

Which nations will get more ships/boats by the end of the year?

We don’t to reveal all the information just yet. All updates of this nature will be definitely posted on our website. We do, however, believe that at least one more nation will get its own fleet this year.

Do you plan on adding capsize as one of the game mechanics in the future? Or is implementing this mechanic not a priority for the time being? At the moment, there are instances when a ship/boat that almost has her side floating on the water can return to her original position by using her pumps (assuming the crew makes it in time).

Capsize is already present in the game. Ships/boats get tipped over when a certain roll angle is reached.

There are no binoculars in the fleet right now, unless you count the sights you use for targeting. However, scanning the area through sights is impossible without rotating the turrets. Will you bring back the binoculars that will allow players to just scan the area?

As a separate feature – unlikely. It is possible to add a command that will block turret rotation when monitoring the area though.

The War thunder Team