Having analysed the feedback of the first days of World War mode in War Thunder we would like to give our players some answers on the more popular questions and tell you about some bugs that were found that will be fixed in the nearest updates.

We would like to remind you that at the moment we are in the open testing stage where having a larger number of players highlights some issues that were not detected during the CBT stage.

Interface

— Q. It is very difficult to allocate battles to join in the large and fast “jumping” list. Is it planned to improve this part of interface?

A. These kinds of issues with the list of the battles became apparent with the beginning of the mass open test. We consider the improvement of the interface in searching for battles as one of the priority tasks for improving this game mode at this stage of the World War development and expect that some improvements will be seen by the next launch. We are also considering the implementation of a “Fast Battles” button with filter settings which will allow you to find battles of interest to you and join it very quickly.

— Q. Maybe it would be possible to just simplify battle preparation? It is very difficult to setup your own vehicle lineup into the crew slots for each battle every time.

A. We already have this kind of mechanic! The “Generate vehicle preset” button on the bottom right part of the battle preparation window will automatically setup the best possible vehicles for the battle in your crew slots.

— Q. Will we have modes without markers in World War?

A. We don’t have such plans at the moment. We believe that the implementation of limited markers (which appear only in the case where a crew can see the enemy directly) is the way forward to unify both AB and RB players in one single mode while maintaining a reasonable level of complexity for everyone.

Balance

— Q. Why is there is such a level of advantage in power for teams?

A. World War in our game simulates a clash on the scale of entire operations and not in single sessions, therefore, as in reality there are some situations when you need to fight against superior enemy forces. Lack of ideal balance in battles is one of the important features of the game mode. At the same time we strive to ensure that in any battle there is a chance to win for both sides and throughout the World War open test we will continue to improve the balance of the mode to achieve this goal.

Players are also able to choose which battles they want to participate in and it means that they are able to choose the balance that they want for their own battles by themselves. At the same time, any players participating in the more “challenging” battles will receive more score and will quickly climb the scoreboard.

— Q. It is clear to see imbalance in the vehicles and ammunition in some battles. I may receive bombers without bombs or just go into the battle with one tank against dozens of SPAAGs…!

A. Vehicles and ammunition available in a battle will be determined by the commander. Each commander has own tactical tricks and specific strategic tasks. For example: attackers can be sent into battle without bombs because there are no fighters on the airfield but it is required to achieve domination in the air. Also such actions can be a deliberate move or commander’s mistake - same as in the real life.

It is a very important element of World War mode and we tried to make it as interesting as possible. By choosing the battle, as in the example above, everyone can see that in this battle the attackers will be used without bomb load. If you are not happy with that commander’s choice, just look for another battle which you like and where the commander sets more suitable tasks for you.

— Q. We see many battles, but there might be few participants in the missions and sometimes the enemy just leaves the battle. Of course it is an easy win and gain rating, but it can be so boring.

A. This is a ratio balancing problem between playing squadrons and single players which we are also watching very closely. This week already, we increased the requirements to create an operation for the minimum number of participants in a squadron, this allowed us to reduce the number of operations (and therefore battles) in which only a few players were participating. This step will make the battles more massive and interesting.

Economy

— Q. I know about the daily and season awards, but do you think that awards for each battle are pretty low?

A. Awards in World War mode battles are fully consistent with earnings in random battles. So for example the awards in the “The Battle of Vitebsk” operation correspond to the awards for the vehicles of rank I-II.

— Q. How will the most 20 active players from a squadron participating in World War mode be chosen for the award of the main prizes? Will it be available for the officer that is responsible for tactics on the map and isn’t participating in battles?

A. There is a statistic available inside the squadron panel which is visible in the “World War” tab. The players there will be sorted by rating and then awarded in the same sequence. This rating will be also added to the squadron rating in the squadron leaderboard.

Regarding officers: there can be up to 128 officers in a squadron and to award them would be strange and it would lead to abuse of the awards system. The main task of the officer is to help the players by doing the right thing, by allowing them to win awards thereby making the squadron stronger, by attracting new worthy members to a successful squadron. Success, recognition and popularity of the squadron is the award of its commander. We’re thinking of additional mechanics for identifying and rewarding successful commanders in the future, but we have other elements to improve or develop at the moment.

Planned Changes and Fixes

• We have raised the requirement for the number of minimum members in the squadron to 20 members that are able to create an operation. This will reduce the number of operations and battles with the minimum number of participants.
• Auto updating of battles in the list has been disabled, instead, a “Refresh” button has been implemented. This has fixed the problem that made it very difficult to get into the right battle.
• We will enable respawn protection as it is currently in random battles.
• We will simplify the battle list by eliminating any battles that don’t have any vehicles and have not begun yet.
• We are preparing the mechanics of the reservation of places in the battles for squads. As the preparation for participation in the battle takes some time for the squads, as the task of such mechanics will be - not to permit situations where the battle will change during this time so that a squad will no longer be able to participate in it. 

Don’t forget how important it is to use your own vehicles in battles! Only so that you will get an already researched vehicle with an experienced crew and not the default army vehicles which will be equipped with basic modifications and a basic crew.

More about the usage of the vehicles you will find on our wiki