Dear players,

We have another round of questions and answers for you, with War Thunder producer Vyacheslav Bulannikov!

Aviation

Q. Has there been any more work or news on a drop tank feature for aircraft? This would really help a lot of aircraft with limited fuel in battles and allow for more tactical choice and longer engagements.

• Yes, for top ranked battles It's already under consideration. I think we will start to work on it next year.

Q. Previously you announced that you would remove non-historical and incomplete vehicles from the German Ground tree that were never fully completed and introduce replacements. Could you tell us if you have any long term plans to remove and replace the R2Y2 series of aircraft in the Japanese Aircraft tree? Both the Kawasaki T-1 (capable of mounting bombs and sidewinders) as well the Kawasaki P-2J (bombs and torpedoes) are in line with the positions that the R2Y2s already occupy. There is also the more advanced Kawasaki T-4 that can also supposedly carry bombs and gunpods. All of these would be more grounded replacement options than the 3 R2Y2s.

• We can talk about their withdrawal from the game when there is a replacement ready for these aircraft. It’s all already in our plans.

Q. Could you clarify if it's possible we will see South African Aircraft in the British tree too now that they have ground forces within their tree? Currently there is only the Rhodesian Hunter as a premium aircraft.

• The British aircraft research tree is already quite representative (five lines as opposed to four in ground vehicles tree before South Africa was introduced). South African aircraft may be added in another capacity - as a premium or event and squadron vehicles.

Q. Has there been any more developments regarding working on removing air-to-air missile spool up / shut off timers? With more and more modern jets these can sometimes adversely impact battle situations due to the reaction times of these timers. Perhaps a compromise situation where some elements of actual known characteristic spool ups / shut offs of each missile could be implemented rather than a singular timer like how it currently is?

• While we are at the stage of gathering information on our collection of Air-To-Air missiles, you can't find such information for all missiles unfortunately. The mechanic change itself is simple - a change in the value in the missile configuration file. We think within 1-2 major updates the decision will be made and changes will be also made.

Q. Is the appearance of the UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) in the game possible? In what form? A separate vehicle type or as a modification for ground vehicles?

• It is possible. It is very early to say how this will be exactly, but one of the variants is how it was implemented on the last April fools event.

Q. In most of the missions in aircraft RB, destroying bases with bombing has no effect on the victory points of the enemy team. It means that bombing bases in such missions is completely pointless and bombers are more or less like ballast for the team. Do you plan to do something with that?.

• What you are describing looks like a bug. Bases should affect mission points. If this happens in any of the missions please report it by using our special reporting system or leave a comment.

Q. Will there be an interface update in air battles for top ranked fighters (like it is already implemented for helicopters)?

• Yes, we have such plans

Q. Will there be bombers with the ability to carry any winged missiles like the Tu-22 is doing?

• For now there are no targets in the game for such aircraft and weaponry systems. Perhaps in the future when these targets will appear in the game such aircraft may be implemented.

Ground Forces

Q. The Swedish top tier Strv 122s have gone quite some time without receiving new shells, despite many new tanks and shells for other nations since their introduction and the penetration of their current shells now falls quite significantly behind most nations. Has there been any more consideration into giving these tanks new shells? In particular Slpprj m/95. Given Sweden is also lacking a 3rd Rank VII MBT, has there also been any consideration into an Strv 121 “late” or the Strv 121 “Barracuda'' that could be given m/95 as a good inbetween tank between the current Strv 121 and 122s.

• The Swedish 122 has high efficiency statistics in addition to its own features - compared to all the Leopard 2s in the game it has the best armour protection. However we are considering the option of a new shell for the next modification of the Strv 122.

Q. Will we see the Double Feed system in vehicles that had it? Currently changing the belt to HE in the VCC 80/30 requires a full reload where in real life you have 2 separate cartridges and loading belts that allow you to select the next round.

• Such a system is needed and is already in our plans.

Q. Will there be any camo netting customisation options in the future? Expansions to tank camouflage could prove a good feature to people to make use of.

• Not planned as a researchable modification in upcoming updates.

Q. Do you plan more artillery / howitzer platforms for the game, particularly for those nations that don't have them yet? There are many iconic examples such as the M109, PzH 2000, AS90, FV433 Abbot, PLZ05 and AMX-30 AuF1 that could be considered. Also mortar gun carrier vehicles with capability to direct fire like 2S9 Nona-S would be very interesting.

• Yes and one of them, G6 Rhino is planned in the nearest Major Update!

Q. Do you have plan to give light vehicles more capabilities, like set anti-tank mines, Goliath bombs (Sdk.fz series), deploy recon-drones (modern combat vehicles) and help teammates guidance for missiles?

• Some of the mentioned above are possible, yes.

Q. China is currently lacking a long range anti-aircraft system for top tier. Are we considering some options to fill this gap? For example “Tor” System used by China could be a good addition.

• Yes, we have this in our plans; a SAM for “long” (in the game terms) ranges for the Chinese tree.

Q. Are there any plans for a normal implementation and visualisation of modern tank sights and fire control systems in particular? Many modern vehicles (CV 90120 etc) have for example automatic target tracker which can capture air targets and get appropriate calculations for shooting and can display many indicators of gunner’s and commander’s screens, also providing some opportunities to adjust all this, we don't have something like this in the game.

• There are such plans and even some developments.

Q. Are there any plans for a new visualisation of the blast wave impact to the tank from the close bomb explosion, like detonation of the ammo rack, with the turret torn off and only chassis remained, etc.? At the moment the tank hull just turns black and burns, no matter what happened to it (ammunition cell explosion or crew died from armour shrapnell).

• There are such thoughts and plans, but require more detailed elaboration.

Q. Are there any plans to add the Object 287, Object 787 and similar vehicles?

• We do not exclude this.

Naval Forces

Q. Will the efficiency of large calibre guns be increased in the game? Often for now, medium calibre guns are preferable to “big bang” because of their rapidity. Maybe some mechanics like “overpressure” will be added, but only for kinetics so there won’t be a situation where a 155 mm shell doesn't do any damage at all.

• This is also true for reality, the rate of fire with sufficient ammunition power is a very important parameter of weaponry.

Q. Are there any plans to introduce Naval Enduring Confrontation which is the most adequate and realistic naval mode at the moment on a permanent basis?

• Naval EC has its audience and it’s quite noticeable but it is still considerably inferior to regular random battles, so for now we plan to make EC available during weekends.

Helicopters

Q. It was mentioned that Chinese helicopters were within plans for the coming updates for some time now, is that still the case now? Are there any details you can share with us about what we can expect?

• Yes, our plans to introduce the Chinese helicopter tech tree were somewhat optimistic and took more time but hopefully in the near future we will be able to introduce some Chinese helicopters.

Q. The Premium Apache has been removed from the US tech tree, so when will we finally see a premium Comanche? A legendary helicopter, even if it was never used in combat. When will the Mi-24 Super Hind be introduced?

• In the future most likely :)

Misc

Q. Will multithreading be implemented? Currently 100% load of 1 thread when all the other are by 15-20% because of that wildly loses FPS and we get micro freezes.

• Multithreading is already implemented in the game. But you have to understand that it doesn’t always make sense in the game and not always there is something to occupy a large number of cores.

Q. Are there plans for a complete update of the game interface? Now absolutely all UI, all the fonts, icons in the game are outdated. We would like to see the interface in the style of the snail store (Gaijin Store) which has been updated about a year ago and looks very neat and concise.

• Yes, we have such plans

Q. Will trees and other bushes be subjected to more physical impact? At the moment the artillery strike doesn’t destroy trees. Some bushes can be destroyed by machine guns, some only by ground vehicle tracks. Some trees can not be destroyed even by nuclear strike. Can we expect some single universal formula? Clearing thickets by artillery would be for example very useful.

• Trees will be damaged and destroyed by artillery fire and a nuclear strike destroys every object on the map. The universal formula - the bigger the tree, the more hits it can hold or that more powerful weapon you need to take it down.

Q. With "Wind of Change" Update, we received a new map Sun City, in which players could fight around terrain features like overpasses. In the future could we see more viaduct and tunnel terrain that could improve the stereoscopic feeling of the scene?

• It is possible.

The War Thunder Team