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War Thunder

Meet the “Dance of Dragons” Major Update!

Posted by Blitzkrieg Wulf on



Welcome to Dance of Dragons!


Meet Dance of Dragons, War Thunder’s third 2024 major update that features brand-new vehicles, quality of life additions and plenty of bug fixes. Welcome the first domestic aircraft from Switzerland to the game through the addition of the player-made premium P-16 strike aircraft for Germany! Next up is China, who’s received the JF-17 squadron vehicle and Al-Khalid-I premium tank from Pakistan, plus the superb J-10A fighter jet. The USA now has the T1E1 with a 90 mm cannon, as well as the F-111F bomber and AV-8B (Night Attack) Harrier variant as a premium, plus the USS Tennessee battleship. The excellent Stormer AD has joined Great Britain as an SPAA, plus the Australian F-111C bomber, with the USSR getting the fast-firing Su-24M. Besides this, the CTWV RCV for Japan and CV9035NL for France are now obtainable squadron vehicles! Last but not least, France has now received their Coastal fleet tree now in closed testing, one interesting boat is the La Combattante that can fire SS.11 missiles!

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.[steamcommunity.com]

Ground Vehicles: A Variety of New Vehicles Including Squadron Vehicles & Model Updates!

We’ve introduced a variety of interesting ground vehicles across several nations in this update. The US now has the T1E1 with an experimental 90 mm cannon, and Sweden now has the premium Finnish KV-1 m1942 with excellent armor! Moving onto Germany who now have the Puma with Spike missiles, to Great Britain who now have the Stinger and GAU-12 rotary-cannon capable Stormer AD for use against aircraft and tanks. Two new squadron vehicles, the CTWV RCV for Japan and Dutch CV9035NL for France are here, ready to be obtained through squadron points. Last but not least, we’ve updated the visual models of the M41A1, ZTZ99A, T-80U-E1 and Freccia, with the latter two receiving a new camouflage net and optics respectively.


Al-Khalid-I (Pack)

KV-1 m1942 Puma VJTF T1E1 (90 mm) Stormer AD USA
  • T1E1 (90)
  • M41A1 — vehicle visual model has been updated.
Germany



USSR
  • ZSU-23-4M2
  • T-80U-E1 — vehicle visual model has been updated, a camouflage net has been added.
Great Britain



Japan
  • CTWV RCV (Squadron Vehicle)



China
Italy
  • Freccia — vehicle model has been updated: Janus optics system has been added.
France



Sweden
Israel
  • Tiran 6


Aircraft: A Player Created Model, Superb Chinese Jets and two F-111’s!

For aircraft, there’s several additions spanning across multiple nations. Germany has received the P-16 from Switzerland, created by two War Thunder players as part of the revenue share program, with help from the Swiss Air Force Center in Dübendorf and the Swiss community. China has received the JF-17 squadron vehicle, a joint-development aircraft from Pakistan and China, plus the excellent modern J-10A fighter jet. Several top-ranking attack aircraft have joined three trees in the form of the F-111F and F-111C (from Australia) for the US and Great Britain and the almighty Su-24M for the USSR that has an insane rate of fire (seriously, check it out!). Lastly, Italy now has the Tornado IDS, Israel the F-16C Barak II and France the Dutch Sea Fury FB 51 and premium Sea Hawk Mk.50!


FAA P-16 (Pack)

JF-17 (Squadron Vehicle) F-111F/C J-10A Su-24M USA
Germany
USSR
Great Britain
China
Italy
  • Tornado IDS

France
  • Sea Fury FB 51
  • Sea Hawk Mk.50 (Premium)
Israel
  • F-16C Barak II


Naval Vehicles: French Coastal Fleet Closed Testing has Started!

In this update, French Coastal fleet closed testing has started. If you’d like to join, you can purchase the VLT-2 Pack or take part in the closed testing tasks. France now has an entire Coastal fleet line, with one interesting addition being the La Combattante that’s capable of firing SS.11 missiles! The full list of French boats can be seen below. The US now has the almighty USS Tennessee that has huge 356 mm cannons, Germany and USSR the SMS Derfflinger and Izmail battlecruisers, Japan the PT-802 and potent IJN Amagi, Great Britain the Australian HMAS Fremantle and Italy the MAS 441.

French Coastal Fleet Closed Testing USS Tennessee (BB-43)
USA
Germany
  • SMS Derfflinger
USSR
  • Izmail
Great Britain
  • HMAS Fremantle
Japan
Italy
  • MAS 441
France
  • VTB-8
  • VTB-9 (Premium)
  • VTB-11
  • VTB-13
  • VTB-14
  • VTB-19
  • MTB-96
  • L9059
  • VLT-1
  • La Combattante
  • Arras
  • La Surprise


Locations & Missions: Several Updates

There’s no new location in Dance of Dragons, but we have updated several existing locations and missions. First off is a new [Domination #2] Eastern Europe mission that has the C cap point on the other side of the river and A and B slightly moved. In terms of location updates, 38th Parallel, Kuban, Iberian Castle, Second battle of El Alamein and Eastern Europe have had several changes in terms of the adjustment of rocks, lakes, houses and spawn shoot-throughs. 

Lastly, [Domination] Eastern Europe has had its bridges destroyed, blocking positions to the northern side of the river. This updated mission is for low Battle Ratings, below 4.0. Be sure to check out the full details in the changelog itself.


Interface: A Better Secondary Weapon Selector, New Vehicle Period Increase & X-ray Part Filter

We’ve made some quality of life improvements to the game’s interface. The secondary weapons menu has now been moved to the bottom of the screen, which now means the changing of ordnance on an aircraft can be seen and is also updated instantly in real-time. Depending on the weight of the ordnance, you’ll see the aircraft move and get heavier when changing preset as well.



The period where new vehicles are counted as “new” has been increased from 14 to 28 days, meaning any new vehicle marked with a golden strip on them doesn’t block the research of the vehicle after it for much longer than before.

For the X-ray section of the interface, the addition of an X-ray part filter has been added. The X-ray part filter will only show certain parts, depending on what you select — great if you want to only focus on one module inside a vehicle and see it in more detail, all while hiding others you don’t want to see.




Sound: Ground Vehicle Radio Distortion Changes & Open c*ckpit Sounds

Radio distortion from ground crews has been subtly reduced, making their voices more clearer. Our sound engineers have also implemented muffled sound effects when a c*ckpit canopy is opened at high speeds, as flying with the c*ckpit open previously gave a hearing advantage.

Customization: New Camouflages, Coloring Camouflage Nets & Changing Drop-tank Texture

We’ve added some cool customization options to several areas of the game. Firstly, all modern South African ground vehicles have been given a dark green camouflage as an additional Golden Eagle unlock, ensuring those vehicles have a relevant camo option on forest maps. Italian ground vehicles have also been given a post-war camouflage, and the “Tricolor late camouflage pattern” for post-war Italian ground vehicles has been fixed.



One new addition is the coloring of camouflage nets. Camouflage nets for the Vextra 105 and T-80U-E1 will now match the color of the camouflage selected on these vehicles. Over time, vehicles that have camouflage nets will receive proper coloring based on the camouflage selected too.


And finally, the texture of drop-tanks now correctly changes and corresponds to the selected camouflage that you’ve selected for your aircraft.



Following the Roadmap: Custom Tank Sights For Modern Tanks & Updated Helicopter Damage Models

A point from the 2024 Roadmap has been implemented: custom tank sights! We’ve added a button called “Sight settings” to the Ground vehicle Battle Settings, where clicking this will open a new screen where you can customize to your heart’s content. Be it the sight itself, plus brand-new additions such as the rangefinder, turret rotation, sight field of view and shot readiness indicators to show in the sight — all features of modern tank sights. There’s a visual background that you can toggle, as well as see how it looks in thermal and at night. Full details in our blog here.



We’ve also refined helicopter damage models, with the addition of avionic systems, weapons control, night vision devices, countermeasure systems and radar equipment modules. For the AH-64s and Ka-52, new fully detailed damage models have been added. For all other helicopters, all systems are temporarily integrated into the damage model of a fuselage as a whole until a detailed damage model with separate modules responsible for their functionality are added. Overall this will mean less empty space in helicopters, and besides this, the damage model of tail tear offs on fuselage and tail impacts against the ground and other objects has been improved. We’ll be releasing fully-detailed dev blogs on these changes as well as all other Roadmap points soon.


Items marked with * will be added to the game in one of the upcoming updates.

There’s plenty more to see!

That’s all for this post, but be sure to check out the full list of changes in the provided changelog, as there’s many bug fixes, improvements and additional vehicle changes not mentioned here.


Due to spatial constraints, the full changelog cannot be listed below.

Please see the full changelog here.[wt.link]


In this update we have made at least 63 changes or bugfixes due to player-submitted reports. Thank you for taking part in the project!

New locations and missions

  • A new [Domination #2] Eastern Europe mission has been added for battles at a Battle Rating of 4.0 and higher.

Location and mission updates

  • 38th Parallel — a position in the grid square E7 (a ledge near the map border), where it was possible to shoot at the spawn point in grid square A6 has been blocked.
  • Kuban — rocks in the B3 grid square where tanks could get stuck have been removed.
  • Iberian Castle — used pines have been replaced with ones more suitable for the region (the size and shape of the tree crown has been changed).
  • Second battle of El Alamein — the depth of the lakes near the spawn point of the right based team has been reduced so they can be crossed by a ground vehicle. A position on the junction between grid squares C5/C6/D5/D6 which allowed firing at the spawn point in squares A3/A4 has been blocked.
  • Eastern Europe — a few houses have been removed near the spawn point in grid square F2 to make exiting easier. Some pits and piles of debris have been removed in grid squares F3/E3.
  • [Domination] Eastern Europe — the bridges in the mission are now destroyed, thus blocking the positions on the northern side of the river. This mission is available in battles at a Battle Rating of 4.0 and lower.

Ground Vehicle model, damage model, characteristic and weaponry changes:

  • XM975, Roland 1, FlaRakPz 1, ItO 90M (all variants), Imp. Chaparral (all variants), ADATS, ADATS (XM113), Tor-M1, 2S6, ZSU-23-4 (all variants) — new internal modules have been added.
  • KPz-70, MBT-70, XM803, CCVL, HSTV-L, XM-8 — an autoloader module has been added to the damage model.
  • AMX-13-90 — the weight of the OCC 90-62 shell has been reduced from 8.95 to 3.65 kg.
  • G6 — the HP and RPM have been increased from 518 to 550 HP and 2100 to 2300 RPM.
  • Vextra 105 — the wrongly present OE 105 F3 shell has been replaced with a new HE shell, the OE 105-60.
  • 2C bis — the gun mantlet armor thickness has been increased from 35 mm to 50 mm.
  • 2C bis — the gun depression and elevation angles have been changed from -10/10 to -15/20 degrees.
  • Desert Warrior — the gun depression and elevation angles have been changed from -8/60 to -7/59 degrees.
  • Type 81 (C) — a third crew member has been added.
  • SK-105A2, JaPz.K A2 — the number and shape of the fuel tanks have been corrected.
  • SK-105A2, JaPz.K A2 — the partition separating the driver has been removed.
  • BT-5, RBT-5, BT-7, BT-7A (F-32), BT-42 — the location of the fuel tanks has been corrected.
  • T55E1 — the turning mechanism of the 2 front pairs of wheels has been changed. The turns are now done by turning the whole frontal carriage instead of turning individual wheels.
  • leKPz M41 — the tracks have been replaced with physical ones.
  • M1128 — the composite screens have been converted to volumetric armor.
  • Namer 30 — vehicle mass has been increased from from 61 to 64.4 tons.
  • A.C.I — internal partition armor has been moved from Armor view to X-ray view.
  • Somua SM — maximum speed has been increased from 40 to 50 km/h.
  • ADATS — with the update of internal modules, the ammunition for the 25 mm gun has been reduced from 600 to 200 rounds.
  • HSTV-L — the XM884 76 mm HE shell with a radio fuze has been added. Automatic target tracking (ATT) functionality has been added.
  • Type 98 Ke-Ni — maximum speed has been increased from 40 km/h to 50 km/h.
  • XM800T — maximum reverse speed has been increased from 13.9 km/h to 43 km/h.
  • FIAT 6614 (M40A1) — elevation angles have been changed from -10\+12 to -17\+65 degrees.
  • SPz 12-3 LGS — elevation angles have been changed from -5\+13 to -17\+65 degrees.
  • Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. E, Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. F, Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. J — turret rotation speed has been increased from 12 to 14°\s.
  • 2C — the following changes have been made to the Mle1916 shell: muzzle velocity has been increased from 500 m/s to 558 m/s, mass has been increased from 7.2 kg to 7.445 kg, and HE filler mass has been increased from 285 g to 350 g.
  • Comet I (all variants) — muzzle velocity of the Shell Mk.1 HE shell has been decreased from 754 m/s to 495 m/s.
  • AMX-30 DCA — engine power has been decreased from 720 to 650 hp.
  • Vextra 105 — muzzle velocity of the OFL 105 F1 when shot from the CN 105 G2 has been reduced from 1525 m/s to 1500 m/s.
  • Vextra 105 — used HE shell type has been changed from OE 105 F3 to OE 105 60.
  • AML-90 (all variants) — muzzle velocity of OE 90 F1 shell has been increased from 640 to 650 m/s.
  • AML-90 (all variants) — turret traverse speed has been decreased from 25 to 18 deg/s.
  • Merkava Mk.1, Merkava Mk.1B, Merkava Mk.2 B (all variants), Merkava Mk.2D — engine power has been reduced from 963 to 900 hp.

Aircraft and helicopter model, damage model, characteristic and weaponry changes:

Weaponry

  • Ki-84 — 100 kg bombs have been added.
  • SB2C-1C — a 1,600 lb AN-MK.1 armor-piercing bomb and 2 x 1,000 lb AN-MK 33 armor-piercing bombs have been added.
  • SB2C-4, SB2C-5 — 2 x 1000 lb AN-MK 33 armor-piercing bombs have been added.
  • A-26B-10, A-26B-50, A-26C-45, A-26C-45DT — 4 x 1000 lb AN-MK 33 armor-piercing bombs have been added.
  • Buccaneer S.2B — 500 lb Mk.82 AIR r------ded bombs have been added.
  • Spitfire LF Mk IX — 500 lb AN-M64 and S.A.P Mk.II bombs have been added.
  • Sea Harrier FA 2 — Mk.M2 540 lb bombs have been added.
  • F-20A — the total number of rounds for the 20 mm M39A3 guns has been reduced from 560 to 460.
  • Lincoln B Mk II — 4,000 lb, 8,000 lb and 12,000 lb bombs have been added.
  • Ki-49 (all variants) — an additional 500 kg bomb has been added.
  • Lightning F.53 — H.E. M.C. Mk.1 No.118 540 lb bombs have been added.
  • B-25J-30 (USSR) — additional variants with 2 x FAB-500 + 4 x FAB-250 and 8 x FAB-250 bomb loadouts have been added.
  • Jaguar GR.1A — a 540 lb H.E. M.C. Mk.1 No.118 r------ded bomb has been added.
  • Mirage 2000D-R1 — 2 x BGL-400 guided bombs have been added.
  • F-104G (Germany) — a 2000 lb Mk 84 bomb has been added.
  • AH-1Z — the AGM-114B Hellfire has been replaced with the AGM-114K Hellfire II.
  • Yak-9K, Yak-9UT, TIS MA, Su-8, Tu-1 — armor-piercing high-explosive ammunition, as well as armor-piercing belts for aircraft armed with the NS-45 cannon have been added.
  • F-104C — the ability to carry 2 additional AIM-9B missiles under the fuselage pylons has been added.
  • IL-28 (China), Tu-4 (China) — FAB-100, FAB-250, FAB-500, FAB-1500, and FAB-3000 bombs have been replaced with 100-2, 250-2, 500-2, 1500-2, 3000-2 bombs respectively.
  • Q-5 early — the ability to use 2 x 100-2 bombs has been added.
  • J-7II — FAB-500 bombs have been replaced with 500-2 bombs.
  • Spitfire Mk.IX (CW) (Israel) — the ability to use 8-cm Flz.-Rakete Oerlikon rockets and AN-M57 bombs has been added.
  • P-63A-10, P-63C-5 — the ability to use M8 rockets has been added.
  • Pe-8 — the following amounts of ammo have been increased: for the 12.7 mm UBT turrets in the landing gear from 200 to 400; for the 20 mm ShVAK turret on top of the fuselage from 200 to 440; for the 20 mm ShVAK turret in the tail from 230 to 430.
  • Canberra B.Mk.2 — an additional set of 2 x 4,000 lb H.C. Mk.IV bombs has been added.
  • AV-8B Plus (all variants) — GBU-38 JDAM bombs and the modification for them have been added.
  • Su-27SM — the ability to carry additional underfuselage R-77 missiles has been added.
  • F-16D Barak II, Baz Meshupar — GBU-31 JDAM guided bombs have been added.
  • F-15C MSIP II, F-16C, F-16A (France), F-16AM (France), F-14B, JAS-39 (all versions) — GBU-38 and GBU-31 guided bombs have been added.
  • JH-7A — LS-6 250 and LS-6 500 guided bombs have been added.
  • MiG-29SMT — KAB-500S guided bombs have been added.
  • Su-25SM3 — S-25L missiles have been replaced by the S-25LD version.
  • Damage model of bombs has been changed, previously overestimated resistance to shrapnel hits has been reduced. This change will increase the probability of destruction of bombs when hit by shrapnel of SAM and will make the interception easier.

Naval fleet model, damage model, characteristic and weaponry changes:

Naval weaponry:

  • Soukou-Tei No.4 — the rate of fire of the Type 89 machine gun has been increased from 600 rpm to 700 rpm.
  • RN Andrea Doria — the maximum elevation angles for the 40 mm mounts have been fixed.
  • LS 3, VS-8, VS-10 — the max ammo count for the 15 mm autocannons has been fixed.
  • Bretagne, Lorraine — the maximum elevation angle of the main battery guns has been increased from 18 to 23 degrees.

Interface

  • A naval minimap is now being displayed when flying reconnaissance aircraft launched from a ship.
  • In Arcade Battles, a round marker for fire control system data refresh has been replaced with a progress bar, just like in Realistic Battles.

Economy and research

  • The period where new vehicles are counted as “new” has been increased from 14 to 28 days. During that period, any new vehicles are marked with a golden strip on them and they don’t block the research of the vehicle after it.

Customization

  • The ability to change the texture of drop-tanks when creating camouflages has been added.
  • A “Basic green camouflage” for South African ground vehicles has been added.
  • A tricolor camouflage has been added for post-war Italian ground vehicles.
  • The pattern of the “Tricolor late camouflage pattern” for post-war Italian ground vehicles has been fixed.
  • The color scheme of North African tricolor camouflage has been corrected.
  • For camouflages where change of condition, scale and rotation are not available, the corresponding tools are now disabled and a warning has been added.
  • The following changes have been made to the nation challenge achievements:
    • Achievements can now only be obtained with vehicles that belong to a specific nation. Vehicles with the same name from another nation will no longer be added to achievements. For example, the achievement “Bf.109 German Ace” can only be completed with aircraft from the German aviation research tree and not with captured aircraft from the US and Japanese aviation research trees.
    • The nation indicating the vehicle’s ownership has been added to the achievement names.
    • The missing vehicle by nation has been added to the completion conditions.After October 15th, vehicles that do not belong to the nation specified in the title will be removed from achievements.
  • A new mechanic for coloring camouflage nets to the tank’s camouflage has been added. Currently it is available on two vehicles: Vextra 105 and T-80U-E1.

Interface

  • Following the Roadmap: A sight settings menu has been added. It can be accessed from the Ground vehicle Battle Settings menu by pressing the “Sight settings” button. In this new menu, you can select a reticle from the preset or custom ones, add and move some elements wherever you want. The following indicators can be added and some of them can be moved: the rangefinder, reload timer, turret position indicator and a frame showing the field of view at maximum zoom. The colors of all these elements can be changed taking into account the sight backlight state and the current channel (visible light, night vision, thermal vision). The selection of suitable colors is helped by the ability to switch backlight state, current channel and 4 maps in the background with different conditions, and as a result a different color palette. The menu also has ready-made sight presets that can be saved to a vehicle right away or edited if wanted.
  • This is just the first version of this menu as we already have plans for further improvements to it. We would like to thank the authors on WT Live, as some of the preset sighting reticles are part of their work included in the game. We hope that they will continue to create awesome sights that everyone can download from WT Live and use in the game for their own pleasure.
  • The Secondary weapons menu has been changed: The window with a list of weaponry presets has been made smaller and moved to the lower part of the screen. Camera settings have been changed. Now the aircraft can be seen when selecting different weapon presets and when making new ones. All changes are reflected on the aircraft in real time without it flickering.
  • The ability to display radar altitude has been added to the aircraft HUD. Switching between the indicated altitudes is done via “Indicated altitude” parameter in the “Air Battle Settings” category. It is possible to choose just one of the altitude types — either barometric or radar, as well as both of them at the same time.
  • Information about the calculated (maximum, with an accurate hit) damage to bases for bombing and the reward multiplier for this damage (the multiplier applies to SL, RP and mission points) has been added to the description of secondary weapons for aircraft.
  • Bombs that have their mass specified in pounds now also have mass in kilograms displayed in the brackets after the mass in pounds.
  • The ability to filter by module parts has been added to the X-ray view of ground and naval vehicles in the hangar.
  • Rookie trophies in the in-game Item Shop are now grayed out and cannot be purchased if the player already has the vehicle in the trophy on their account.
  • A discount indication has been added for pack vehicles. Now these vehicles will have an icon with the discount value when there is a sale in the store.
  • A display of max thrust on shafts has been added to the x-ray tooltip for helicopter engines.

Game mechanics

  • Following the Roadmap: detailed damage models have been added to helicopters. It’s possible to disable avionic systems, weapons control, night vision devices, countermeasure systems and radar equipment. For all AH-64 helicopters and the Ka-52, new detailed damage model modules corresponding to various systems have been added (when hovering over a module with the cursor, the information on what the selected module is responsible for is displayed). For other helicopters, all systems are temporarily integrated into the damage model of the fuselage as a whole, until a detailed damage model with separate modules responsible for their functionality are added. The damage model of tail separation during strong impacts of the fuselage and tail impacts when hitting the ground or other objects has been improved.

Sound

  • The effect of radio distortion for ground vehicle crews has been reduced, speech has become intelligible. The effects of radio interference for tank crew communications have been removed. The radio effect only remains when the commander communicates with external characters (artillery, aviation, etc.).
  • Now, when flying an aircraft from c*ckpit view at high speeds, an open canopy/c*ckpit door will cause external sounds to be muffled by the wind and become indistinguishable.