War Thunder Thread

[Dread Rlyeh]

I spend 80% of my time in arcade air where I earn the most Lions per battle.  Then I spend about 15% of my time in arcade land battles where I earn a whopping 900 Lions on a good day per battle.  Something is not right, at least for me, for to only make just about 1k Lions per land battle with 1 kill and maybe 4 or 5 hits is economically not attractive for me. 

That's crazy... what tiers/tanks are you playing?  Personally I think T3 is about the sweet spot.  Even if you don't have premium/premium tanks, you can field some brutal lineups.  For RUS I would go with something like a 5.7 lineup.  T34-85 at 5.7 for a quick cap rush/flanking.  When that dies, get out an IS-1, and have a SU-152 for a backup, or a heavy cracker.  The 152 can 1 shot anything, and if you don't 1 shot they will be spending time repairing.  KV lineups are an option as well.

With premium account/premium tanks I'm literrally clearing (profit) 40-50k a match on average with some insane 100k + matches. 

Finally, I've discovered that mouse flying on a pc in arcade battle is so frikkin easy to kill planes with compared to my performance using a game controller on my console version of the game.  I should have played pc way sooner than on the console.  Playing with the console controller really cripples my ability to look around and fly like the Thunderbirds.  On the other hand whenever I tried playing WT pc version with a flightstick it felt like flying with one hand tied behind your back compared to mousing around.

Oh yes, mouse rules in arcade.  I only flew joystick when I played air and I would almost never take head-ons, I could do well otherwise.   I would send out a bomber on a suicide mission, WEPing all the way due to no damage, then quickly shift into my fighters.  Haven't played air for a long time though, other then fighter/bomber runs in GF.   

edit:  I should add, for the 152 don't bother using anything other then HE rounds.   If you could guarantee a pen, they wouldn't be best, but, they 1 shot about 1/2 the time vs tigers, IS1, KV2, whatever.  It will one shot T5s even... at a 5.0 battle rating.  If they don't 1 shot, they do brutal damage with multiple incapacitated crew members/modules unless you hit a tread or something. 

[W8taminute]

That's crazy... what tiers/tanks are you playing?  Personally I think T3 is about the sweet spot.  Even if you don't have premium/premium tanks, you can field some brutal lineups.  For RUS I would go with something like a 5.7 lineup.  T34-85 at 5.7 for a quick cap rush/flanking.  When that dies, get out an IS-1, and have a SU-152 for a backup, or a heavy cracker.  The 152 can 1 shot anything, and if you don't 1 shot they will be spending time repairing.  KV lineups are an option as well.

Sadly I only have tier 1 and 2 tanks in both the pc and console version of the game.  Once in a blue moon I'll make about 8k Lions using one of those tanks but usually I hover around 1k.  I have been getting better at surviving matches in my tank so perhaps my rewards will grow in time.

[Dread Rlyeh]

One thing I would advise, in your lineup of 3 tanks, have one really fast tank that you can use straight off to get to a cap unopposed and with as few of your teammates as possible.  This could be the closet cap to you or, in Domination, the middle cap if you can beat the enemy.  This will give you exp+lions every match for very little risk.  When that dies (as mine usually due, soon after a cap), bring out your heavy hitters. 

Try to engage enemy fighters (during escort) or attack bombers and their escorts.  That is some easy cash right there and it is no problem to save up the 1 'streak point' needed for a fighter run.  I almost never bother with the 2/2 fighter-bomber runs.  Rockets are pretty terrible unless against lights and a 3/3 run is just way, way better imo. 

I can't really remember much of the 2nd tier, but if you have a tank with a machine gun, make sure you use it.  It will get you extra credits and exp and, if you can, try to nick a fighter or bomber, you can often get credit for the kill if you did the most damage. 

[W8taminute]

Good advice!  Thanks.  I'll have to try that strategy out.  I must admit that I rarely try to cap bases because I'm too chicken.  Rushing in straight off the bat with a fast tank makes sense though.  I need to try that out!   :)

[Nefaro]

My understanding, which could be flawed as I tend to skim the forums every couple weeks, is that bombing in Ground Forces is getting nerfed - bombs will have a 10 second delay before they explode which begins when they impact the ground.  There will also be some sort of icon denoting their location.  As to whether or not that will be +- lions I think it depends on if you play with a squad. 

The patch info says that they are implementing historically accurate bomb delays.  Of the kind used for safety of the dropping aircraft.  If I understood the notes correctly, they should only be short delays and 10 second arming times may be the rarity (on stuff like 2k pounders or something).  I suppose this could curb people dropping bombs from low & level with pinpoint accuracy perhaps?  Not sure what, exactly, it will be until we see it. 


Speaking of seeing it, they're supposed to be taking the servers down for "scheduled maintenance".  For five hours.  So I'm guessing the update on the dev server is going live in a few hours.  Only a few new tanks & planes and a lot of specific aircraft tweaks.

[Dread Rlyeh]

My understanding, which could be flawed as I tend to skim the forums every couple weeks, is that bombing in Ground Forces is getting nerfed - bombs will have a 10 second delay before they explode which begins when they impact the ground.  There will also be some sort of icon denoting their location.  As to whether or not that will be +- lions I think it depends on if you play with a squad. 

The patch info says that they are implementing historically accurate bomb delays.  Of the kind used for safety of the dropping aircraft.  If I understood the notes correctly, they should only be short delays and 10 second arming times may be the rarity (on stuff like 2k pounders or something).  I suppose this could curb people dropping bombs from low & level with pinpoint accuracy perhaps?  Not sure what, exactly, it will be until we see it. 


Speaking of seeing it, they're supposed to be taking the servers down for "scheduled maintenance".  For five hours.  So I'm guessing the update on the dev server is going live in a few hours.  Only a few new tanks & planes and a lot of specific aircraft tweaks.

Hmm, interesting.  I wonder if it will be enough of a nerf to bombing.  Personally I think it can be a bit OP, especially spawn bombing, which I presume is a bit of a turn-off to new players.  I wish the arcade maps were larger with some heavy AI AAA around the spawns. 

The forums are crowing about the Maus being added, I'm curious if it is really going to shake up Tier V.  Hate the look of the tank though.   

[Nefaro]

Yeah the Maus is fugly.

The new vehicle additions don't contain anything I'll be specifically aiming for anytime soon so that part of the update is meh.  But some of the other additions are great.  Contrails, new graphic effects like heat distortion, and finally a commander's binocular view for tanks.  Requested binos since tanks was in beta but the popularity of those Sim battle events with no map updates started a flood of them.



The official patch info vid:

Lots of other tweaks and stuff not mentioned, of course.  I'm kinda excited about the La-5FN getting a new model, skin, and supposedly more engine power.  I like the plane as an all-rounder already so it could end up being a murderous beast. 

As for the P-51Ds I talked about recently, I've put more time in and realized that the developers had revised their old terrible flight models into newer less terrible ones.  It's acceleration and energy retention is much better now.  But it still turns like a dog (not what it's info card implies), doesn't perform as well as it should at higher altitude, and I have a terrible time getting kill shots with it's six .50s in RB.  With .50s, I just load the Omni-Purpose rounds that have all the incendiaries and hope to start fires.  But those can flame back out quickly too.  >:(  In contrast, the P-47 with it's eight .50s is noticeably more destructive.  I guess eight Fifty Cals Of Freedom is the magic number.  :)  Either way you still have to hold a steady stream on them for what seems an eternity.

I recently picked up an F8-1B Bearcat, with the four 20mm guns.  It's a great airplane but the stock 20mm ammo seems to shoot paper at times.  Or maybe it's just the Fw-190 damage modelling that turns them into tanks.  I recorded a vid of putting a dozen 20mm rounds into the rear of a 190 and it just kept going.  Guess I need to upgrade to better ammo? 

Really been enjoying RB air battles for the strategy focus.  Even if my shooting is erratic.  Can't help but think that if I spent lots of time getting my joystick settings someplace comfortable that I could possibly do better, even in RB against mouse aimers.  Or at least try to use my TrackIR with the mouse, although it was disorienting when I last attempted it.

[Dread Rlyeh]

Really been enjoying RB air battles for the strategy focus.  Even if my shooting is erratic.  Can't help but think that if I spent lots of time getting my joystick settings someplace comfortable that I could possibly do better, even in RB against mouse aimers.  Or at least try to use my TrackIR with the mouse, although it was disorienting when I last attempted it.

Can't tell you how much time I spent tweaking my joystick settings.  Going between simplified and realistic or full realistic, dead zones, non-linearity, etc, etc.  Then you have different handling between various planes to make things even more complicated.  Over all it was fun, but the arcade aimers did wear on me a bit.  I just watched some youtube video on the recoil difference between mouse aim and joystick and it was crazy.  We aren't even talking about the benefit of precision aiming, the joystick user had like an order of magnitude more recoil from the cannons to contend with.  Sigh...  I do kind of miss the air game though, its been a loong time since I played.  I think I will get back into it when I get an Oculus Rift.  That should be super cool.
   

[Nefaro]

Yep.. they definitely buffed the La-5FN's engine power.  I can hold a steady 22-23 degree climb at ~265km/h.  Sustained climb better than a 109G2.  :o

Russian developer bias?  Probably.  But I know why they designated it "FN".  Because it can climb to Fucking Neptune.  And it can still turn fairly well even though there is some newly introduced rudder wobbling by the Instructor that wasn't so bad before.  Not a bad trade-off.

I saw mention about the P-47's WEP actually being removed and incorporated into the regular 100% throttle.  Dunno if that's the case, but the American planes (and maybe some others) with the great high altitude superchargers need to have them implemented.  Before this update, all aircraft engines lost power the higher you went (as it should be) but I don't think they quite modeled the big advantage of the supercharged aircraft and how long some could run them.

[Nefaro]

Don't get me wrong.. the mid & especially higher tier Spitfires are still the penultimate OP trolling cheese for prop planes in WT.  :D

[Nefaro]

I broke my jet cherry in War Thunder last night.  I enjoyed it more than expected!  O0  Despite my shiny new F2H2 Banshee having a BR of 7.7 which means I ended up fighting foogkeen MiG-15s much of the time. 

I think they recently raised the Battle Rating of the Banshee so, mixed with my above average PvP rating, I get shoved into those highest tier games more often than I like.  They're still fun, but the Banshee turns like a brick.  I'm very lucky to hit 8 Gs in my hardest turn (in a jet!), which makes me worry less about ripping the wings off, but it takes some foresight to fight more maneuverable jets, which is most everyone else.

I was thinking of going the P/F-80 to F-86 long route but they're nearly all equipped with only six .50 cals.  I've never had much luck with less than eight of them so ruled that out and went with the Navy line.  Next new one will be Panthers.  :)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Jets are boring. I never fly mine. 

I did take my Lancaster up as they added a new component to it so I lost my ace crew rating icon.  They definitely nerfed the Lanc.  In addition to the silly bomb delays, they wholly changed the flight characteristics. The Lanc used to be reasonably manoeuvrable for a heavy bomber (something it was renowned for in reality). Now I can't get more than about a 5 degree negative deflection on the elevators even at moderate speeds so I have to use trim to control descent.  It's disappointing.

They also seem to have re-mapped some keys on me.  My zoom key was disabled and the arty map screen buttons have changed so I was caught a few times while stuck on the map because I couldn't use my normal call/cancel button to exit the screen.

[Nefaro]

Jets are boring. I never fly mine.

You don't like the slow plodding energy fights?  I must be the opposite because I dont like some of the prop fights where one side can snap turn on a dime but still dive at the same speeds as heavier ones that should accelerate faster.   

I did take my Lancaster up as they added a new component to it so I lost my ace crew rating icon.  They definitely nerfed the Lanc.  In addition to the silly bomb delays, they wholly changed the flight characteristics. The Lanc used to be reasonably manoeuvrable for a heavy bomber (something it was renowned for in reality). Now I can't get more than about a 5 degree negative deflection on the elevators even at moderate speeds so I have to use trim to control descent.  It's disappointing.

They also seem to have re-mapped some keys on me.  My zoom key was disabled and the arty map screen buttons have changed so I was caught a few times while stuck on the map because I couldn't use my normal call/cancel button to exit the screen.

There are always more flight models they need to adjust.  Sometimes they screw one up when they do so.  Overall there have been a lot of FM improvements since I started, so it's much better on average, but that doesn't help when one of your favorites gets screwed in a patch.

I read something about them changing the artillery call UI on ground forces.  Again.  I thought the last one was just fine.  Dunno what the problem is.  I haven't played ground forces lately since I've been on an RB air forces kick so I don't know what's up.

[Dread Rlyeh]

I read something about them changing the artillery call UI on ground forces.  Again.  I thought the last one was just fine.  Dunno what the problem is.  I haven't played ground forces lately since I've been on an RB air forces kick so I don't know what's up.

Don't know if you guys played GF back when they had the 'hover view' artillery, but they re-added that.  It's like hovering above the terrain with a bomb sight vs the click on map arty.  You now have the option to toggle between the two.  The hover view is nerfed now - before you were further above the ground and could easily use it to scout over hills and in cities.   Personally, even nerfed, I think it is super lame and have no clue as to why they re-added it. 

Also, ground forces for life, bro :)  Well at least until Oculus Rift

[W8taminute]

Here's my performance economically speaking in WT.  I'm starting to collect data on 1.47 to see if they changed anything for the worse when it comes to making Silver Lions and the cost to keep your air and land fleet going.