Vehicles
Vehicle Deployment
This update includes some new additional logic to address the problem of spawning as a Tanker, Pilot, or Cavalry soldier without your mount. We have also made some fixes that should prevent the player from getting the incorrect kit when spawning into a vehicle, for example spawning as a Cavalry soldier when spawning into a Tank. In some extreme cases, the player maybe blocked from spawning if a vehicle cannot be spawned. This can happen due to positioning of other soldiers and vehicles in the world, and should be rare. Previously the player would be spawned without the vehicle; in the new case, the spawn flow will be aborted and the player given a “spawn not available” message.
Landship
Looking at the way the game is played, the Landship is underrepresented in gameplay. We wanted to enhance the role of the tank as a teamplay vehicle, as well as give additional incentives for tank drivers to pick up and play the Landship. The biggest change here is the ability to allow teammates to spawn into the Landship directly, like they do the Heavy Tank today. This will help keep the Landship full of teammates, in a way that makes it a far more effective vehicle. We've also applied buffs to the driver abilities and the armor of the Landship, making it as armored as the Heavy Tank. The shape of the Landship still makes it easier to knock out treads and weapons compared to the Heavy Tank.
Air Vehicles
Several adjustments have been made to the combat experience for Air Vehicles. We’ve removed an exploit that allowed instant killing of airplanes with the Ranken Darts; these are intended as ground attack weapons, not air to air weapons. Fighter airplanes now have slightly higher damage to their MGs overall and Bombers take more damage from MGs specifically. Rockets have also received a velocity boost to make their usage more consistent. Combined with some additional reductions in overheat, this should make Fighters more viable in the air to air role without having to resort to exploits or lucky rocket hits. We’ve also reduced the damage of rear gunners in airplanes, in order to prevent players from easily switching to the rear gun and killing pursuers. This tactic is, of course, still viable, but now is more difficult to perform, making it a skill move. The damage reduction should not be extreme enough to significantly decrease the intended teamplay benefit of having a full airplane.
Line of Sight
We’ve added a “Head Glitching” style fix to vehicles that prevents players from shooting over objects that block the weapon’s line of sight. This is most noticeable in 3P, and is intended to fix players being able to fire their tank at targets while remaining entirely behind cover. It is our intent to provide a balanced 1P and 3P vehicle experience, and this fix goes a long way towards ensuring 3P does not become the dominant play style.
Detailed Vehicle Changes
• TankGewehr now does increased damage, from 120-150 to 160-180. Change is on both the Landship and Tank Hunter. Damage against planes is virtually unchanged
• Landship mortars have had their range increased slightly
• The Mortar Pattern of the Landship now has 5 seats, adding two additional side LMG seats to the package
• The Squad Support Pattern of the Landship now features a front firing 20mm cannon like the Light Tank Flanker Pattern, instead of an LMG
• The Landship now takes the same damage as the Heavy Tank
• Decreased amount of health restored by emergency repairs on the Heavy Tank from 30% to 20%
• Increased the amount of health restored by track repairs on the Landship from 15% to 20%
• Decreased amount of health restored by emergency repairs on the Landship from 30% to 25%
• Decreased damage of Case shells against planes by 50%
• Reduced stationary AA range from 400 m to 334 m
• Fixed inconsistent damage of plane rockets against other planes
• Reduced plane rocket impact damage from 120 to 100
• Increased plane rocket initial speed and reduced time to live
• Reduced Ranken Dart damage against planes
• Made bombers take 20% more damage from bullets
• Increased Dogfighter and Trench Fighter MG damage by 4% and slowed down the overheat
• Increased Bomber Killer MG damage by 3%
• Decreased Airship Killer MG damage by 18%
• Decrease plane tail gunner damage by 23% (far) to 42% (close) and sped up damage drop-off slightly
• Reduced boat torpedo range to approximately 400 m, matching the behemoth AA range
