War Thunder?

[Bluebook]

The ground game in war thunder is the best I have ever seen. Like world of tanks but realistic damage and spotting. Can not get enough of this game.

[Berkut]

I heard the ground game is even more stupidly pro-Russian that World of Tanks...true?

[Bluebook]

Not that Ive noticed. Matchups are balanced and since Im new Im facing T-34s, KV1s and KV2s in my StuG and I can kill them if I get side shots in. The damage model seems to be very physics-oriented and every time you hit a small box pops up and shows an x-ray-movie of the penetration and each shrapnel. Its insanely cool and seems very correct from my 20-something years of playing ww2-games viewpoint

I havent tried the air war yet, so I cant say anything about that other than Ive seen many planes go down and Ive been bombed a couple of times.

[Bluebook]

Let me give an example from yesterday to give you an idea what the ground game looks like right now.

I find myself alone on the right flank because everyone else spawned on the other spawnpoint. I move my StuGIIIf to a small cluster of buildings overlooking a field where the allies will come if they try to flank us. ThrThe maps are very big though, so I need to cover a 270 degree arc.

Instead of taking up a shooting position right away, I position myself behind some bushes. I cant use the gun from this position because the foiliage is blocking my aim, but I can see over them with my binoculars.

After a while I spot a T34 on the other side of the field, roughly 1k meters away. He is hull down behind a ridge and is obviously scouting my side of the field. But because Im behind the bushes and not half-way through them that a firing position would require he cannot see me.

He decides to cross the field and is moving towards my village at a slight angle. I wait and when he is in the middle of the field, I move my tank through the bushes and take up firing position. Aim for the side/middle where the T34 has its fueltank and shoot, blowing him up instantly. The x-ray movie shows that my round penetrated the armor and shrapnel entered two fueltanks as well as three of the crew.

I back up and hide behind the bushes again. Soon an M4A1 appears on the other side of the field. He is not moving though. The burning wreck in the middle of the field is a pretty good "do not cross" sign. I can see on his turret that he is scanning my side of the field through his gunsight. I wait until the turret is facing 45 degrees to my left, move through the bushes and open fire. My first round penetrates the side turret without doing critical damage. He is backing down from the crest, turret not moving indicating he has not seen me.I get off another shot, this time sending shrapnel into all three men in the turret and the engine who catches fire. He dissappears behind the crest but the black smoke is visible. Then after 10-15 seconds he explodes after failing to put the fire out

[Berkut]

I am intrigued. So I re-downloaded, and am going to mess around with the ground game part of it. Looks like they've made pretty serious changes to the air game as well since I last played.

If anyone has not played and wants to give it a try, feel free to use my referral URL, so you can send me free in game currency!

http://warthunder.com/en/registration?r=userinvite_3666310

[Berkut]

So, when I logged back in I saw I had a premium account for three days. Not sure how I got that.

The way research works is kind of confusing. I have to pick a "next" vehicle to research, but I can also spend research points on my current vehicle? Do those points come from the same pool?

[Berkut]

I do have to admit to liking the ground model, what little of it I've seen. No WoT "hit points" which is kind of silly in an armored tank game. You just have to:

1. Hit the target
2. Penetrate
3. Do some kind of damage.

I am unclear though what constitutes a kill...

[Alcibiades]

Yeah I got the three days too, must be a welcome back gimmick.  You research a single vehicle or plane now instead of like before - which I forget how it worked before now but I think you could invest in all the tree lines at the same time if you had an active vehicle in the line.

To get a kill you have to either make something explode (hit a filled ammo rack or fuel) or kill all crew members minus one.  So if you kill 4 out of the 5 crew sitting in the vehicle it's a kill.

[Berkut]

I really do like the damage model. You want the kill of course, but even short of that, your shots are doing damage, and impacting the ability of the target to fight in the engagement.

[Malicious Intent]

Yeah I got the three days too, must be a welcome back gimmick.  You research a single vehicle or plane now instead of like before - which I forget how it worked before now but I think you could invest in all the tree lines at the same time if you had an active vehicle in the line.

To get a kill you have to either make something explode (hit a filled ammo rack or fuel) or kill all crew members minus one.  So if you kill 4 out of the 5 crew sitting in the vehicle it's a kill.

The old research model is gone for quite a while now. They dropped it long before the introduction of ground forces.
Back then, planes were divided into 20 tiers. Instead of researching a single plane, you leveled your tier in a specific air force. If you for examle reached Tier 12, tghen all planes up to and including that tier were unlocked, even those, that were introduced at a later date. The system was incredibly player friendly, but was an economic catastrophy for Gaijin, since it removed the incentive for a premium account for dedicated players, because at reaching rank 20 (which was not difficult) you were effectively exempt from the grind forever.

[Bluebook]

New patch today. Really great one.  Among the news are the US tank destroyers up to the M18.

Those tank destroyers are a real pain. Both the M10 and the M18 will one-hit you through the frontal armor when you are in a StuG or PzIV like I am. They are fast too.

Not many news for the Krauts, but thats ok. Im still grinding my way towards a Panther G. I have the PzIVG now and will probably reach the IVH today.

Three new maps. Berlin 45, Hurtgen forrest and Normandy.

[fromtia]

Im still playing Warthunder. It's the game I play when I'm bored, irritated or just generally feeling brainless. I continue to enjoy it. I play tanks in Arcade mode almost exclusively and at the lower tiers, where the game is a bit more forgiving.

The best thing about it is that my son and all of his friends play it obsessively. On a trip to the UK a couple of years ago My son turned my brother on to it and now My brother and I play together every few weeks and chat about life and family matters at the same time, which is lovely.

As my brother and I are both children of the seventies and life long gamers and wargamers we played world war two games a lot as boys, so listening to my son and his friends argue about the merits of the various world war two tanks, more or less the same arguments we had 30 or 40 years ago, is a delight.

[Syt]

I was trying War Thunder again a few weeks ago. I have to say I like their tank game better than World of Tanks. Their progression system is weird and grindy, but they focus on tanks that actually saw action in reasonable numbers (as opposed to throwing in every single design study ever like in WoT), and the damage model is much superior, with a little x-ray graphic giving you immediate feedback on penetration (or not), and whether your ammo caused any internal damage and what. Much better than pinging away at health bars. Includes accounting for AP, SABOT, etc.