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War Thunder

Meet Major Update “Seek & Destroy”!

Posted by Blitzkrieg Wulf on



Welcome to Seek & Destroy!


War Thunder’s second major update of 2024 is here! With the release of this update, you’ll be able to enjoy several implemented Roadmap features including the ability to drag n’ drop vehicles from the research tree, separate flares & chaff, new crew models, and much more. We’ve also introduced brand-new FOX-3 missiles for each nation, plus the F-15C, F-15J(M), Baz Meshupar, F-4F KWS LV, J-11A and Su-27SM that can carry this new type of missile. Numerous BeNeLux aircraft join France as a new line; two stand-out aircraft include the domestic Dutch Fokker G.IA and F-16AM with MAWs! For ground fans, we’ve introduced the XM800T that will speed around the battlefield, the Desert Warrior and VEXTRA 105 for Britain and France to support lineups, plus many more. The Strela-2M capable Bernau has joined Germany’s Coastal fleet tree, and the Mysterious Valley and Bering Sea are two new locations set for Air and Naval battles.

There’s many fixes, new vehicles and other features — take a look at what we’ve included in this major update.


Please feel free to leave your feedback on this Major update in the feedback thread here

Ground Vehicles: Lighter Vehicles for Several Nations!

Seek & Destroy brings several lighter vehicles for several nations. Some of which include the XM800T, Desert Warrior, ZSL92, VEXTRA 105, premium CV9035DK and Namer 30 for the USA, Great Britain, France, Sweden and Israel respectively. These will help play a crucial role in supporting lineups at their ranks. Italy also gets the Hungarian Leopard 2A7HU and USSR the premium T-80U-E1, plus a premium Canadian Leopard 2A4M CAN for Germany, featuring a unique camo netting for suitable environments!


Leopard 2A4M CAN (pack)

XM800T Desert Warrior ZSL92 Namer 30 USA
Germany USSR
Great Britain
China
Italy
  • Leopard 2A7V HU
France
Sweden
Israel


Aircraft: FOX-3 missiles and New Top Tier Jets!

The star of the show for aircraft are the FOX-3 (ARH) missiles. We’ve added the French MICA, Chinese PL-12, American AIM-120, Russian R-77, Japanese AAM-4, Israeli Derby and South African R-Darter to existing aircraft for each nation at once. Plus, brand-new top dogs, the SU-27SM for the USSR, F-4F KWS LV for Germany and F-15C MSIP II for the USA that all have ARH missiles. The first Brazilian vehicle in the game, the AMX A-1A, joins Italy as a premium aircraft, Great Britain gets the distinctive Sea Harrier FA 2, and France gets an entire new line full of Dutch and Belgian aircraft, which features the domestic Fokker G.1A. Check them all out below!


AMX A-1A (Pack)

F-4F KWS LV SU-27SM FOX-3 Fokker G.1A (Belgium & Dutch aircraft) USA
  • F-15C MSIP II
  • AV-8B Plus
Germany USSR
  • Su-27SM
  • Yak-3, Yak-3P — aircraft model has been updated.
Great Britain
Japan
  • F-15J(M)













China
  • J-11A
  • F-47N-25-RE (Premium)











Italy
France
  • Gladiator Mk.I
  • Fokker G.IA
  • Firefly F.Mk.IV
  • Spitfire FR Mk.XIVe
  • Meteor F Mk.8
  • Hunter F.6
  • Mirage 5BA
  • F-104G
  • F-16A
  • F-16AM
  • Yak-3 — aircraft model has been updated.
Sweden
  • JAS39C

Israel
  • Baz Meshupar
  • Kfir C.7 — c*ckpit model has been updated.


Helicopters: Remade c*ckpits From the Ground Up

Several c*ckpits for helicopters were severely lacking in detail, so in Seek & Destroy we’ve remade some of them that span across 7 nations! Take a look at the UH-1B’s new c*ckpit in these before and after screenshots. The full list of new c*ckpits is below.

Before


After

UH-1B (detailed c*ckpit)

USA
  • UH-1B — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • UH-1C — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • UH-1C XM-30 — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • AH-1W — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • AH-1Z — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
Germany
  • UH-1D — detailed c*ckpit has been added.











USSR
  • Mi-4AV — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • Mi-28N — detailed c*ckpit has been added.








Japan
  • UH-1B — detailed c*ckpit has been added.











China
  • AH-1W — detailed c*ckpit has been added.









Italy
  • A-129 International (p) — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • A129CBT — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • AH-129D — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
  • AB 205 A-1 — detailed c*ckpit has been added.
Sweden
  • HKP3C — detailed c*ckpit has been added.











Naval Vehicles: Strela-2M capable Bernau!

Germany has received the unique Bernau, featuring a Strela-2M missile system for use against aircraft! Great Britain gets HMS Queen Mary, while Japan gets the IJN Haguro, France the rank I premium Tornade to help kick-start your Bluewater research, as well as the Guichen. Additionally, France gets the premium VLT-2 as a pack, making it the first Coastal fleet boat for them. Italy now has the Alano for their Coastal fleet too. Check them all out!


Bernau

USA
  • USS Coolbaugh (DE-217)
Germany
USSR
Great Britain
Japan
  • IJN Haguro
Italy
  • Alano (L9851)
France


Locations & Missions: New Maps for Air and Naval!

Meet Mysterious Valley for air battles, set in the mountainous parts of Southeast Asia. This new location features deep gorges, a hydroelectric power station, a dam and a spaceport complex! For naval battles, we’ve added Bering Sea with inspiration from Alaska. This new location features a beautiful picturesque area with several volcanoes slap bang in the middle.

We’ve also tweaked a large number of missions and updated several locations. The full list of each individual change is in the major changelog.


Mysterious Valley (Air Battles)


Bering Sea (Naval Battles)


Additions from the 2024 Roadmap!

We’ve been working on the 2024 Roadmap and have included many features in Seek & Destroy.

Separate Flares and Chaff!

First up is the possibility to use Flares and Chaff separately! You can now choose the amount of flares and chaff you want before spawning with an aircraft.

Additional modules for ground vehicles!

An important one here are additional modules for ground vehicles, which aims to reduce penetrating shells causing no internal damage. Extra modules include more electronic equipment, physical autoloaders, more aiming drives, power systems, and FCS.

Healing wounded crew members!

Crew members will now automatically heal to a degree that doesn’t induce debuffs after a certain amount of time passes after being hurt. There’s a healing icon next to the crew in the damage panel, and a crew member being healed will change color.

Updated crew models by era!

For German and Soviet crews of open-top vehicles, we’ve added new uniforms for them so that they fit better to their respective eras. Some US and Soviet pilots have also be updated. Check them out!



Visual weapon selector for aircraft!

In battle, you can now see the weapons that your aircraft has and simply click to select them. By default, you can press SHIFT + A or ALT + mouse click on the new in-game icon to open the selector. Click on any weapon you’d like, and it’ll be selected and ready to use! This feature is available for aircraft that have the ability to create secondary weapon custom loadouts. Please, note that on the release of the “Seek & Destroy” major update this feature will only be available on PC, on consoles it will be enabled soon after the release of the major update.



New Mechanics & Features: General QoL Improvements!

General improvements

  • There’s now an option to have smaller team sizes in Air Realistic Battles. You can turn this on by going to Game Mode Select and ticking the battle with smaller teams. This gives a chance of getting a battle with a max team size of 12 instead of 16.
  • We’ve toned down sky glare when looking at the sun at sunset and dawn so that it doesn’t feel as blinding as it was before.
  • Some ships in naval battles have a large amount of different weapon types, and pressing individual buttons to select them could be tedious. We’ve added a simple CTRL + E default bind to cycle through weapons with ease. Console players can access this through the circle menu and customize this keybind.
  • The maximum Battle Rating of several top-tier aircraft has been increased to 13.0, a new high. Check out the list of aircraft with this increase in the major changelog.
  • Sounds have been improved too. Several new voice lines including a new Lithuanian voice over have been added. Air-to-air missiles now have a shockwave sound when passing by your aircraft, and the sounds of aircraft guns have been improved.
  • Wheels on ground vehicles are now physical and will fall off a vehicle when shot at.

Interface improvements

  • Too many vehicles and research trees looking overwhelming? You’re now able to collapse each individual research rank. Good for hiding ranks in a tree that you’ve already completely spaded for example.
  • Crewslots in the hangar and in battle have been given a redesign, with the aim to improve ease of use and accessibility. When hovered over, they now have a slight faded line, and the switch crew button has been moved to the center of a crewslot. There’s also two section blocks on a crew; information for a mission above, and information about the crew below. In the hangar, the crew section allows you to quickly access the crew training area for a specific vehicle, and the mission section displays the number of backups for a vehicle. In battle, the SP cost of a vehicle and the number of backups are clearly shown above the vehicle.
  • You’re now able to drag and drop your vehicle into a remove box area above your lineup to remove it from your preset. This works the same as sending a vehicle on holiday, however it is far faster to do!
  • You can now rearrange your crewslots in the hangar to any order that you’d like.

There’s plenty more to look through!

Major updates are not just about the new vehicles and features, the smaller things also count. We’ve fixed a heap of bugs, introduced new bombs and rockets for several aircraft, new external fuel tanks and customizable loadouts for some more aircraft, several flight models have been updated, and much more.

Be sure to check out the full list of changes in the provided changelog.


Due to spatial constraints, the full changelog cannot be listed below. Please see the full changelog here[warthunder.com].


Location and mission updates

  • Sweden — concrete barriers blocking passages along some streets have been removed to get rid of dead ends trapping players on the way to capture points.
  • The effect of destroying large fences has been changed — vertical particles that interfered with visibility have been removed.
  • Middle East — the hill in square G6 has been removed. Positions that allowed shooting at the spawn point from squares G7, F6, A1-2, and A5-6 have been removed. Flying bushes and bushes sticking out of rocks have been fixed.
  • Campania — larger vegetation has been removed from Capture Point A.
  • Sands of Sinai — hills in squares C7 and F7 have been removed.
  • Advance to the Rhine — brick barricades have been removed from the park area. The size of the bushes has been reduced. Airfields, plane and helicopter spawns in all modes have been moved behind the teams.
  • Volcanic Island — boat spawns have been moved a little closer to the center of the map so that players can sail to the central area faster. The small islands in the center are a more natural shape now, higher and more varied in relation to point B. Some islands on the collision path between Bluewater fleet vehicles have been removed.
  • Fuego islands — in both [Domination] missions some islands near the C points have been removed, and the remaining ones have been moved away from the map center. In the low-tier mission the spawn points of Bluewater fleet have been moved East so that straight paths from them to the C point form a more acute angle.
  • South Kvarken — there were too many islands for Bluewater fleet vehicles. For boats, these islands were also large and there was too much space between the islands in the boat area. The southern part has been cleared of islands.
  • Aleutian Islands — the islands blocking and preventing the passage of Bluewater fleet vehicles to point C have been removed. Boat spawns have been moved closer to points A and B respectively. Larger ship spawns have been moved further away from point C to make movement the movement path a little more parallel between the two teams.
  • Tunisia — the terrain for the large version of missions ([Domination #2], [Battle #2]) on this location have been changed. The size of the mission has been reduced to 3.3 km, the large mountain along with the labyrinth has been removed. The river has been made passable for tanks in the game area. Places where tanks appear on the left side of the map have been changed. Small stones and stones protruding from beneath the floor to a small height have been removed. The height of dunes has been adjusted. The passage in grid square D1-E1 (in the new grid) has been made easier — the overlooking rock positions have been changed, the rocks which formed a dead end on the edge of the game area have been removed. Capture points for the 3.3 x 3.3 km [Battle #2] mission have been changed.
  • Carpathians — position in the upper part of the border between the D3 and D4 grid squares in the rocks near the capture point on the hill has been blocked.
  • European Province — positions that allowed players to safely fire at team spawn points on the left have been removed (B2).
  • Ardennes — airfields, plane and helicopter spawns in all modes have been moved behind the teams.
  • In the following “Operation” type Air Realistic Battle missions:
    • Golan Heights,
    • Kamchatka,
    • Pyrenees,
    • Vietnam (the usual version of the mission without the frontline, not the one based on the “Enduring Confrontation” logic),
    • Rocky Pillars
  • The following changes have been made:
    • Additional dispersal of ground forces: for all ranks the front line has become wider.
    • For all ranks, mobile units now also use a new path system and the higher the rank, the further the roads are from each other.
  • [Operation] Golan Heights (air spawns) — the mission for top ranks has been completely redesigned. It includes several checkpoints on the line of contact with the enemy, as well as MLRS, TBM, and radar located at different distances from the contact line.
  • [Operation] Mysterious Valley. Spaceport. A mission for all ranks at this location following the design described above has been added for the missions.
  • Kamchatka — the mission has been moved to a new location.
  • Changes to Air Realistic Battle locations:
    • Pyrenees — almost 20 square kilometers of mountains have been removed, since the mission for toptier battles requires large spaces. The valley in which the mission takes place has become much larger.
    • Rocky Pillars — a piece of the gorge in the eastern part of the location was completely removed, turning into a mountain valley. The mission at all ranks now expands into this valley and is not squeezed from all sides.
  • A mission with integrated training for Coastal fleet vehicles has been added — dynamic training in movement, shooting, targeting etc. has been added to the first battle that the player enters in naval battles of Coastal fleet vehicles for the first time.
  • Changes in Air Conquest mode:
    • Airfields for repairs and optional spawn of aircraft have been added.
    • Air defense at new airfields protects air spawn points.
    • For better protection from air defense, the height of the spawn of vehicles has been changed:
      • From 1000 m to 500 m for fighters and attack aircraft.
      • From 3000 m to 1500m for bombers.
    • In sessions with a Battle Rating of 6.7 and higher, the capture points have been changed from 2 ground and 1 air to 2 air and 1 ground.
    • Added moving ground vehicles.
    • Shifted bases and ground vehicles closer to capture points.
    • New missions have been added to:
      • The Vietnam location.
      • The Ladoga location.
      • The Normandy location.

Economy and research

  • The MPK Pr.12412 has been moved in the Coast fleet research tree after the MBK-161 late.
  • F-16C, Barak II, MiG-29SMT, JAS39С (South Africa), JAS39EBS HU C, Mirage 2000-5F — their Battle Ratings in all Air Battle modes have been increased to 13.0.
  • AV-8B Plus, J-8F — their Battle Ratings in all Air Battle modes have been increased to 12.3.

Interface

  • Following the Roadmap: Ability to place a vehicle into a crew slot from the research tree by dragging and dropping it with the mouse has been added.
  • Following the Roadmap: The ability to change the order of crew slots has been added. The specified crew order only applies to the selected vehicle preset; accordingly, each vehicle preset can have its own crew order. In the near future, we’ll also add the ability to rearrange crews by dragging and dropping, rather than just selecting a crew from a drop-down menu.
  • The ability to remove vehicles from a preset by dragging and dropping them into a remove box has been added. To do this, click on a vehicle in your preset and drag it into the remove box area.
  • The appearance of the slotbar for crews and vehicles in the hangar and in battle has been changed in order to make it more visually convenient and easy to use:
    • Each vehicle crew has been divided into two sections. The block above the vehicle contains information for a battle, and the lower block is interactive, showing a crew of a given slot.
    • The mission block in the hangar shows the number of backups activated for a vehicle. In battle, it shows the required number of Spawn Points (SP) for a vehicle, the remaining number of spawns on a given vehicle or a type of vehicle, the remaining number of backups for a given vehicle, the possibility of using a backup for respawning, and so on.
    • The new crew block allows you to quickly assess the need and possibility of crew training. If a crew has experience points, a corresponding icon now appears next to its level. When you hover over a new crew slot, a tooltip appears with detailed information about it and a button to go to the training window.
  • The ability to collapse/expand vehicle ranks in the research tree has been added. To do this click the collapse arrow next to the Rank in the left of the research tree.
  • In battle, a tank minimap is now displayed when using a UAV.
  • In battle, a naval minimap is now displayed when using a scout hydroplane.
  • In the window with post-battle statistics the pop up tooltip contents on the “Modifications Research” and “Vehicle Research” points has been reworked. Now, detailed information about the chosen research and Research Points calculation is shown to make this mechanic clearer and more transparent.

Game mechanics

  • Following the Roadmap: A healing mechanic for wounded crew members has been added. Crew members will now automatically heal to a degree that doesn’t induce debuffs to their battle skills after a certain amount of time passes after being hurt. During a healing process, a healing icon next to the crew in the damage panel is shown, and the status (the color state in X-ray) of a crew member being healed changes.
  • For Air Realistic Battles, a game mode setting that allows you to participate in battles with smaller team sizes (maximum 12 players per team) has been added. To enable the option, go to the game mode selection window (under the “To Battle!” button), then on the Air Realistic Battles button. Here click “Game Mode Settings” and toggle the “Participate in battles with smaller team sizes” option. This option is only available for aircraft with a Battle Rating of 10.0 or higher.
  • Following the Roadmap: A visual weapon selector for weapons has been added for all aircraft that have the ability to create custom secondary weapon loadouts. This is displayed in battle in the same design as the secondary weapons menu. The selector is accessible with a keybind (SHIFT+A by default) or ALT + mouse click and allows you to visually select any secondary weapon from the equipped weapon loadout in battle. Please, note that on the release of the “Seek & Destroy” major update this feature will only be available on PC, on consoles it will be enabled soon after the release of the major update.
  • Following the Roadmap: The possibility of using flares and chaff separately has been added:
    • You can now select a more precise ratio of flares and chaff with a slider. The loading of different caliber countermeasures is done separately.
    • A countermeasure switch has been added (SHIFT+D by default). The selector switches between the combined release of flares and chaff, the release of flares only and the release of chaff only. The release of selected countermeasures is done via pressing the “Fire countermeasures” control.
    • The ability to use the countermeasure switch is also available in the visual weapon selector and is done by pressing the corresponding icons at the top of the weaponry panel.

Graphical

  • Sky glare when looking at the sun at dawn/sunset has been reduced.

Sound

  • The sounds of aircraft missiles are now chosen based on their maximum thrust and are divided into three types: small, medium and large. Previously, there was only one set of “start-flight” sounds for all types of missiles. Additionally, now the sound of a missile’s flight takes the thrust mode into account.
  • Missiles passing the player at supersonic speed now have a shockwave sound, similar to supersonic airplanes.
  • Jet and piston aircraft as they move away from the player have a flanger effect at the tail of the sound — a kind of floating sound formed by overlap of direct and reflected sound from the ground surface. This effect is generated in real time and has physical parameters at its core.
  • Helicopters now have sounds of flying past the listener, similar to airplanes and missiles.
  • Fires on ships are now voiced in more varied ways.
  • The sound of aircraft guns have been improved. Clarity and dynamics of gunshot sounds have been improved.
  • The voice acting of the crews on German naval vessels has been improved, phrases have been corrected and complemented.
  • The crew of Lithuanian ground vehicles (the Vilkas) have received their own voice acting.
  • The voices of ground crews now sound more clear. Radio effect processing has become less destructive, and when viewed from the gunner/driver, voices are heard taking into account the space of the fighting compartment.
  • A mid-frequency layer has been added to close explosions of shells and bombs to make them feel more aggressive and to give more sense of danger.
  • The falling sound that smoke shells make when marking an artillery strike has changed. Now the hiss of the smoke can only be heard close to the place of impact, while at a distance only the pop of the shell falling and exploding can be heard.
  • Distant tank shots have been adjusted in the mid-range region for a more natural and less harsh sound.
  • New voice events have been added to Naval Battles. For example, change of the shell type, preparation for launch, launch itself and a loss of scout aircraft, detonation of ammo magazines, target acquisition and loss of target track with radar and many more.
  • In naval battles, the fire alarm signal has been replaced. A special alarm signal when there is a fire in the ammunition magazines has been added.