War Thunder - upcoming F2P WW2/Korea flight sim

[Graphic]

I keep raving about it in the WoT thread, figured it deserved its own.

This is made by the guys who did Wings of Prey. To me its a lot more exciting than Wargaming.net's arcadey World of Warplanes

http://warthunder.ru/en


Important features:

- Planes are restricted to sides, so no Bf-109s flying side-by-side with P-38s like in World of Warplanes
- Arcade, Realistic and Simulation modes
- up to 65x65 sq. km. maps
- Cockpit view. Most ridiculous missing feature in WoWP.
- All five major powers at the start: US, UK, USSR, Germany and Japan.
- There will be Korean-era jet planes but they'll be restricted to their own maps, so no F-86 Sabres vs. Bf-109s like we're bound to get in WoWP.

Gameplay modes:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

First of all, there’s Instant Action. This is the basic mode in War Thunder: World of Planes. By taking part in Instant Action, players gain experience, unlock new aircraft, and improve the skills of their crew.
Another highly anticipated mode is one that we call Sandbox. It’s a specificaly designed mission editor that allows players to create their own aviasim experience: select any location, any ground and naval activity and weather conditions, limit fuel and ammo and specify the level of realisim – and you’ll get everything you could possibly need in a WWII combat simulation game!
A mode that we’re very proud of is Dynamic Campaign. It’s a full-scale set of history-based missions that can be played with up to three friends online. All missions have real historical background and each subsequent goal is defined by your previous performance. And the co-op feature allows players to improve their team by pracitcing against all kinds of AI-controlled enemies: fighters and bombers, battleships and ground combat vehicles, and stationary units.
For more info about other modes, like Stand-Alone Mission, Mission Editor, and Historical Campaign, please visit Features section at WarThunder.com

Screenshots:

http://warthunder.ru/en/media/screenshots/

Videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ul9tbPopm0o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4tUEVoW-n0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2AOaE1xb2H4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLnMrKmeqok
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUfJFFzEi6o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBIOrXAd4qc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VTazV7Mizg

Plane lists:

Imperial Japan
United States
United Kingdom
Germany
Russian fighters | ground attack and bombers

[Veho Nex]

Im in love

[Graphic]

Been playing it, and it makes World of Warplanes look like a joke. Not even in the same ballpark in terms of quality.

Any World of Tanks player here who were interested in WoWP would be well advised to just forget it and focus on this. Sign up for the beta and cross your fingers, otherwise you need only wait a few months for open beta.

[Ja'chyra]

I'm in as well, it's good but tricky to get a grip of.

Or maybe I'm just not that good.

[Veho Nex]

The Japs are where its at, they turn on a dime and blast stuff to pieces with their 20mms. Ever since i switched off going through Americans and averaging 3-4 kills a round with a few ground kills, Ive been getting 7-13 kills a round with Jap fighters focusing on ground units if we are losing or if there arent many left on the enemy team.

[Ja'chyra]

Do you know if there are tutorials, I think I need them

[Graphic]

There are tool tips that refer to tutorials but they're not actually implemented yet.

[Graphic]

American planes are so bad in this game, it's really starting to piss me off.

In arcade mode the planes of the other 4 nations get to do cartoon bullcrap maneuvers while it's like American planes still have to use simulation physics. Feels like they nerfed 12.7mm guns too (aka 50 cals, aka the guns 95% of American planes totally rely on), everything takes six thousand f'ing hits, including Zeros.

I'm like 1:1 or worse in American planes usually but get 5-7 kills routinely as Japan, Germany and Britain (Spitfires are in a league of their own in terms of brokeness in Arcade)

Can't wait until its live and it doesn't take 10 minutes to get a match in historical mode (which has simulation settings).

Still lightyears better than WoWP

[Veho Nex]

we poor americans have to wait for some decent design plans to come to our planes

[Graphic]

I got this post ready for when I get access to the beta forums (long story)

Just organizing my thoughts on why American planes suck ass:




American planes are really bad in this game. In Arcade mode it's like they have to use 'simulator' settings while all the other nations planes get to use 'simplified.'

They suck for several reasons that are flaws with the game that for some reason seem to only impact American fighters.

1. Turn rate is the only relevant attribute in the game. You will never climb out of gun range with someone chasing you in time to prevent serious damage or death, and you can never dive out of range of someone either because the game takes place under 10,000 feet 99% of the time. By "out of gun range" I mean where the shot leading prediction circle vanishes...if you're going almost straight up they don't even really need it to hit you.

2. Cannons are overpowered, 12.7mm machine guns are underpowered. Any kind of cannon will rip apart any kind of fighter with usually just a second of firing that connects. .50 cals, on the other hand, can take 5-10 seconds of continuous fire to down even Japanese aircraft if you're unlucky.

3. Weight doesn't seem right. Spitfires, Zeros and Bf 109s feel like they weigh nothing, like they're a WW1 biplane or something. Nearly all American aircraft feel WAY too heavy. I know they were heavier than their contemporaries a lot of the time, but the disparity is greater than reality. The P-47D is nearly unflyable when kitted out with rockets and bombs; it handles worse than a B-17 in that case.

4. The game doesn't (yet?) seem to recognize self-sealing fuel tanks as a thing, which is a kind of high tech thing that most American planes had. It makes you bleed like a stuck pig when your fuel tank is hit like everyone else when it should be an advantage.

5. Anything with two engines seems to operate on different rules than single engine planes, so the P-38 is extremely stunted in it's maneuverability when it's legendary for it.


This all creates a terrible situation for American fighters.

You can't dogfight. As soon as most American planes start to turn, they immediately start hemorrhaging speed and altitude while the Zero or Spitfire you were chasing turns in place like a Cylon Raider and blasts you away. If someone gets behind you, you're dead. There's literally nothing you can do. A Japanese A5M4 (a "tier 1" plane, to use WoT terminology) can easily defeat the late-war legend that is the P-47, because the P-47 can. not. shake it. Even planes that were known for their low-altitude performance like the P-39 and P-63 can't compete with the other nations. Dog fighting maneuvers are out of the question if you're anywhere near the ground because you're too damn heavy, you'll just crash; and near the ground is almost always where you end up because the first thing anyone does when you get behind them is dive to the ground to pick up speed.

So what does that leave you to do? Boom and zoom tactics or hunting down bombers. Both of which are tasks other nation's planes can do much better than most American ones thanks to your stunted 50 cals. You will rarely kill anything in the few bursts you get off in a boom and zoom run; usually you just soften it up for someone else and end up getting an assist. Once in a while you can get lucky and kill the pilot or shear off a wing, but it just doesnt compete with the near certitude of destruction that cannons bring. This is all assuming the man you targeted isn't in a Spitfire and doesn't start doing cartoony crap as soon as he realizes he's in danger. With bombers you can't usually afford the time it takes for 50 cals to chew through a wing since it seems like the turret gunners aim for the pilot.

[Graphic]

http://forum.gaijinent.com/index.php...a-goes-global/

Today we start the Global beta of our combat MMO game – a massive testing program that will give players from Europe, America and Africa the opportunity to join the never-ending battles in the skies of War Thunder.

Furthermore, Global beta means that we’ll be inviting new players every week and those who already have access will be randomly given invite codes that can be shared with friends without any restrictions. Also everyone who has purchased Wings of Prey and activated their copy at YUPLAY.com before August 12th will be granted access to the Global beta automatically.

To give players additional opportunities to prepare for exciting aerial combat in the virtual skies of War Thunder we’ve created special War Thunder Starter Kits. These are various bonus packs that will be available for purchase only during the Global beta.

«Dora Starter Kit» and «Typhoon Starter Kit» upgrade player’s hangar with Fw.190D-13 or Typhoon Mk.IIb respectively, add 1 week of Premium account and 1000 Golden eagles. «Pacific Starter Kit» unlocks two full-scale Historical campaigns, gives 2 special gift planes, 1 month of Premium subscription and 5000 Golden eagles. Players who would like to get as much as possible and save a lot at the same time will be offered the ultimate starter pack named «Ultra»: it includes all content from the packs listed above, but the amount of Eagles is raised to 10000 in it and Premium account is given for 2 months.

Each starter kit automatically adds its owner to the list of authorized War Thunder beta-test participants.

The «Sign-up for Beta» form is still available on the official website and remains the best way to get into the Global beta. And we’d like to express our sincere gratitude to all participants of alpha and beta tests who constantly help us improve the game preparing it for the open beta test stage which is set to start later this year.

The official F.A.Q. document was updated with the newest info about the developers’ plans for future changes and improvements in War Thunder:
http://warthunder.co.../game/faq/#q-52

Bomber cockpits are going to be added too

[Graphic]

Every concern I've had with this game has been repeatedly reported in the beta forums. The flight models and balance in general are not done for any plane, little more than place holders right now.

I am now at peace.

[Graphic]

Need some more Org folk to sign up for the beta. It's pretty easy to get in now.

Me and Veho need more wingmen for our squadron :)

[Graphic]

Ahh you guys suck!

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Have they updated any of the balance issues you were talking about? :x

[naut]

I'd be up for the beta!

[Veho Nex]

I withdraw any recommendation I have put forward into this game. The community and they way moderators and administrators treat their users who disagree with something in the game isn't something that should be done.

[Ja'chyra]

Sounds like a story, do tell

[Graphic]

I still like it and recommend it. I just advise against spending money on it at this point unless you really like it because it does have an uncertain future.

[Veho Nex]

Sounds like a story, do tell

The Dev's never respond to any post made by English members, which I can understand barely posting but I don't think it would be too hard to find someone who is fluent in Russian and English to be a go between. I brought that up along with the fact that after 2 months of seeing people complain about something that nothing has been done and I don't think the dev's even care what happens on the english forums netted me a warning from a moderator who assured us they do in fact read them. (Despite the fact that of the 8 accounts who were tagged developer only 1 was active in the last 30 days. Or the 19 accounts tagged admin/dev/moderator only 4 were active)

Then my argument with reasonably stated facts about how one tree is more powerful than the others. This argument showed that one nation, the British tech tree, dominated the game till about lvl 13-14. Equivalent for world of tanks would be if Russia was op until other nations caught up around tier 6 or 7. I was continually countered with one statement which was "The flight models aren't done". Which had nothing to do with my argument, since my argument was just how things were unlocked. After a week/week and a half of me getting flamed by the same 3 guys the moderator banned me because I was disagreeing with his "moderating team"s point of view. My continued statement of the fact that a Beta is when the betatesters, ie me and others, are supposed to bring stuff up that will kill the game.

That combined with the fact that it took 4 weeks to get a response from the customer service after the account I used my credit card on was hacked, is another reason I don't recommend this game.


So three parts, Devs dont care about English users, hell an american server isn't even on the list until after release, Moderators use their power to make their view points dominant despite that it was 3 against the nine or so people backing me up, and customer service is crap.

These guys could learn a thing or two from the world of tanks beta. (That was one I actually enjoyed being a part of.)

[Hooahguy]

Veho gave me a beta key. Interesting game, but its tough to make progress when you are just crushed by players with better planes. Yeah, I get that you gotta start somewhere, but the fact that in an arcade match you only have 3 lives. Maybe for players who have better planes this is fine, but for the basic planes its tough to keep playing when 3 seconds under fire from a better plane and you blow up, and it seems like no matter how many bullets I put into an enemy plane it wont go down before Im shot down myself.
Ill keep playing while the beta is going on, but I cant see myself buying it.

EDIT: Kept playing, its gotten quite fun. Though my biggest annoyance is the lack of ammo level indicator and an inability to reload unless you are out of ammo. Kinda frustrating if I just ended a small dogfight and Im in a lull until I get to the next one and I cant reload for the next battle.

EDIT2: So there is a manual reload key. That just leaves for a lack of an ammo indicator, but I suppose thats ok. Ill manage.

Anyhow, fun game. So are we getting an Orgah squadron or something?

[Hooahguy]

Shameless bump.

Version 1.27 came out recently, and it made it all the more complex, and fantastic. The game is now free for all, though I think its been that way for a while. In the new patch, you can now control your critically damaged plane if physics allows for it, as well as a bunch of new maps and stuff.

But its a great game, and I know Veho had some hard times with the mods so that sucks, but I love this game so much, I would love to start an Org squadron.

[Graphic]

This game would be enjoyable if it wasn't for the harsh economy. It forces you to play an un-fun meta game where you have to constantly swap planes and nations in order to let planes repair part ways before you can think about making a profit if you lose even a couple planes that are higher than tier 6 (sorry, I don't want to play Early War Thunder). It's just unnecessary, especially when there's lots of things they're not capitalizing on monetarily, like plane skins and premium planes that ease the grind so they'd be worth more than $10. And now they just added more massive amounts of grind by making you unlock each bomb payload for bombers; I hope people enjoy playing dozens of rounds with twenty 50 kg bombs.

In World of Tanks, for all its faults, I can at least still make a tiny profit even in an E-75 without premium if I have an excellent round. If Gaijin ran World of Tanks I'd incur a 170,000 loss even if I got 5 kills and didn't die.

Look, all things considered, WT isn't a bad game. What makes me very pessimistic and down beat about it is it's significantly less fun than it was 7 months ago. They keep adding features, new buttons, new maps, etc. so yes the game is moving forward, but somehow it keeps getting less and less fun. Which can't but be due in no small part to the WT community, the only gaming community I know of that thinks harsh grind is a good thing.

[Hooahguy]

Very fair points, and I think that after level 8 in an air force its is almost impossible to rank up unless you grind for what seems like ages.

Im currently level 9 with the British, but barely. Im trying to get to level 10, but thats something like 770,000 points and Im only at 100,000 after hours of playtime and Im pretty decent, if that. I will admit that it can get wearisome because it seems like the only way to rank up is to basically buy golden lions or something and use them to convert XP so you can rank up, which gives an unfair advantage to people who have the money/time to burn.

With the repairing thing, yeah, its tough, and I will admit that I think its not fair to penalize people for wanting to repair their higher tier planes. I do not think that it should cost almost 6,000 lions to repair a medium-damaged Spitfire. But that is the reality of the game, and I put points into repair so now a heavily damaged Spitfire only costs 2k to instantly repair, or about 4 hours to repair for free. This works out great for me because of my hectic schedule, it really only allows for one game, then Ill come back from classes or whatnot, and my planes will be repaired. And Im not even that great of a pilot, my average game nets me about 4-5k, and with the free repairs I now have a bank of almost 250,000 lions, so if i want I can repair instantly, but sometimes I just choose not to because Im cheap.

But hey, whatever suits people. Id still highly recommend people who like flight sims to try the game, as it is free.

[Graphic]

I personally think the economy needs to be adjusted so that you can make a profit with a sortie in any fighter plane by having to get only 5 or 6 kills, which would mean the highest repair costs would be 5 or 6 thousand silver, then you take out the auto-repairs all together. So if you want to run nothing but high level stuff you still need to get 20-30 kills (depending on the size of your hangar), which is still nearly impossible, and it'd keep people from running a hangar of nothing but late/post-war beasts, but at least you wouldn't need to wait days or pay 100s of thousands in order to use them again. As it stands, if I bring out my Me 262, I need to get 25-30 kills with that plane alone, win or lose in order to make a dime in profit.

I'd also make the prices for repair the same for every aircraft at the same level (or at least the same for each type). I don't think a lot of people who prefer German planes are going to like the fact that they're going to be taxed for their taste in planes with substantially higher repair costs than everyone else.

At its core its a good game but the economy feels like its meant for the Russian/Chinese/Korean market and not for the west. The fact that the developers have no presence on the English forums, have never promoted the game in English, and have been confirmed by a forum admin to (supposedly) read the English beta forum with google translate (as well as use it to translate the patch notes), seems to confirm the suspicion that the game isn't meant for us.

Hopefully enabling matchmaking balance finally could cause them to re-evaluate the economy, after all this could all be to protect the poor little biplanes from Me 262s.


Personally the economy isn't a problem for me because I already have over 150 planes from when the economy was more lax, so I can play the lame meta game of plane swapping and delayed repairs. What worries me is the new people like yourself who get to rank 8 to 10ish and hit a brick wall.

All that said, if you want to team up in a squadron just let me know, I'm down to play.

[Sigurd]

This thread needs more pics...

These are some in-game images from my account.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

I found the show no HUD on screenshots

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

[Hooahguy]

Im going to bump this thread for the sole purpose of posting a recent video the devs posted as an advertisement for the game.

Say what you want about the game, they put out some amazing videos:

[Sigurd]

Amazing video. I thought for a sec that the people in the clip was cgi, but they are not are they? Wow... dedicated. I would love to see a full length movie from this team.

*cough*inthegame*cough*.. the maneuver the Russian pilot did should not have worked. Going vertical right in front of the bogey is a sure death. They might be trying to portray some advantage the La 5 series has over the Bf 109 F/G series (climb rate), but the German 20mm nose cannon would have made piecemeal of the soviet fighter long before the stall.

[Hooahguy]

Amazing video. I thought for a sec that the people in the clip was cgi, but they are not are they? Wow... dedicated. I would love to see a full length movie from this team.

They actually did, its called Stalingrad (2013 movie). Its not very good in my opinion, the 1993 German movie on Stalingrad is much better. I mean the Russian movie has great graphics and sound design and such, it just has a bad plot.

*cough*inthegame*cough*.. the maneuver the Russian pilot did should not have worked. Going vertical right in front of the bogey is a sure death. They might be trying to portray some advantage the La 5 series has over the Bf 109 F/G series (climb rate), but the German 20mm nose cannon would have made piecemeal of the soviet fighter long before the stall.

I just chalk it up to glorious Russian bias.

[Veho Nex]

The game has an amazing russian Bias. The tank battle MM is just beyond funny when KV-1s are put up against Stug IIIa's and P3Ls or a P4 with a stub for a cannon. Ive literally seen one KV1 take on an entire enemy team without even losing a module. Its a joke.