Following the Roadmap: Vehicle Research Bonuses

A lil somethin somethin: You can find the details for this event on the announcement page here.

Today, we’re ready to present to you the final version of the Vehicle Research Bonuses, which has just gone live today! For those of you who participated in the recent testing, the following changes have been made since then:

• The number of battles with a bonus has increased from 3 to 5;
  
• A 25% bonus has been added to ranks I-III;
  
• While a vehicle is considered new, the bonus does not apply to it;
  
• The bonus will stay active for all remaining vehicles in a tree even if you have the top vehicle unlocked;
  
• The bonus now applies to the top vehicle in each nation as well. Due to this we’ve dropped “new nations” in the name of the bonus. It has instead been renamed to Vehicle Research Bonuses.

If you didn’t participate in the recent testing or would like a recap, this article explains how research bonuses will work after the changes made from your testing and your feedback.

In summary: Each day, an independent research bonus for up to 5 battles will be available for each vehicle type (Army, Helicopters, Aviation, Bluewater, and Coastal) for each nation. The bonus will be available if you have unlocked and purchased a “top” vehicle of the same type in any nation.

Bonus numbers can be seen in the “Table of research bonus numbers for each tree type and rank” table below. The bonus is calculated from the base amount of RP received in the battle and is displayed in the battle results window. The 5 battles with bonuses reset everyday at 00:00 GMT.

How do Research Bonuses work? Each nation and type of vehicle (Army, Helicopters, Aviation, Bluewater and Coastal) will each receive a bonus when researching vehicles that are not considered new. This bonus will be active for 5 battles each day if you have researched and purchased a “top” vehicle in one of the respective trees in any nation.

In each tree there are vehicles that are considered “top”. Once you’ve researched and purchased one of these vehicles, you’ll receive research bonuses for that vehicle tree. The size of the research bonus depends on the rank of the vehicle being researched.

What counts as a “Top” vehicle? A “top” vehicle is (all conditions must be met):

• A researchable vehicle. The following do not count: premium and squadron vehicles, event vehicles, store pack or marketplace vehicles, and hidden vehicles.
  
• A vehicle that is last in its line in the research tree. If the last in the line is in a group, then the first vehicle is considered the “top” one.
  
• A vehicle that is located at the maximum rank in the research tree.
  
• A vehicle whose maximum Battle Rating among all modes is no more than 2 Battle Rating steps lower than the maximum Battle Rating of this tree. For example, the maximum Battle Rating of France’s aviation is 13.7. 2 steps lower would be 13.0 (13.7 to 13.3, then to 13.0). Meaning a vehicle in this tree below 13.0 even at the maximum rank does not count as a “top” vehicle.

You can easily find the “top” vehicle by looking in the tree — it’s connected by an arrow to the new Research Bonus Block at the bottom. If at least one arrow from the “top” vehicle to the research bonus block in the research tree is not red, then the bonus is unlocked in this tree.



An example of this feature in use If you’ve purchased the M1A2 SEP V2 in the US Army tree — which is the last rank VIII vehicle here — you’ll get a bonus when researching ground vehicles in all nations. This means that you can research, for example, the Strv 81 with a 50% research point bonus (which is the bonus value for rank V ground vehicles), for the Swedish ground tree for the first 5 battles of each day.

Checking which nations you currently have bonuses for To see which nations still have research bonuses for the day, hover over this new block section in each of the Army, Aviation, Helicopters, Bluewater / Coastal fleet trees. In the example below, one battle for US ground vehicles has already been played.



The daily Research Bonus icon is shown on each nation. Hovering over it will show you which vehicle will receive the bonus.





If you already have “top” vehicles for several types, nations or trees, this list can quickly become very large. In this case you can disable the “Show the remaining bonus in headers” option for individual trees that you don’t want to advance through at the moment.




The numbers Table of research bonus numbers for each tree type and rank:



This information can be seen by hovering over the new research icon on a vehicle that you’re researching. This icon will only appear if the current vehicle type already has Research Point bonuses and will only be displayed as active (bright) if bonus battles for today haven’t yet been spent and the vehicle is not considered new.



Once you’ve played all 5 research bonus battles for a nation and vehicle type, the reset happens at 00:00 GMT everyday (the time shown in-game is specific based on your local time). The bonus amount is calculated on the base Research Points gained in a battle, the same as how Skill Bonuses work.

For Enduring Confrontation (EC), every 30 minutes spent in battle will use up a bonus battle, similar to how boosters work. Although, as the bonus applies to base RP earned, using up multiple bonus battles in one match won’t increase the earnings.

For example, if you have 5 bonus battles left and play a 3 hour long EC match, you will receive the same bonus amount as if you played 1 bonus battle.



How to see your bonuses after a battle Research Bonuses work in any random battles game mode, and will be applied if a valid vehicle was used. For example, if you spawn an aircraft and tank in combined battles and have the bonus active for both, the bonus will apply to the base reward for both vehicles (and a bonus battle will be used up for both aircraft and tanks in this case).

If you played a battle and received 0 mission points and 0 base RP with a respective vehicle, for example a helicopter in Ground Realistic Battles where the battle ended and you had no time to do anything, you will not receive any research bonus to helicopters. The research bonus battle for helicopters also won’t be spent, so you’ll not waste one of the 5 bonus battles for helicopters in this case.

If you played a battle and received a bonus, this is shown in the My results screen under “Vehicle research bonus” as well as in the Battles section in the messages area.

F.A.Q. (open spoiler) [expand type=details]
Here are some relevant scenarios and answers. Please feel free to ask any additional questions you might have.

Q: I only play one nation, the USSR. I have a max rank vehicle unlocked and purchased in Aviation, Army and Helicopters for this nation, but have nothing unlocked in any other nation. How many bonuses will I get?
A: For each nation, you’ll get 5 battles with a bonus every day. For example, 5 for American aviation, 5 for the American army tree and 5 for American helicopters and so on for each nation.

Q: I only play the USA, and I have every single plane in the USA tree researched and purchased, but only up to rank IV for their ground tree. Will I get bonuses for the ground tree?
A: Not in this case. Bonuses only apply to the same type of vehicle in other research trees. So if you have a “top” aircraft, you will receive bonuses to aircraft research in other nations, but not ground vehicles.

Q: If I don’t plan to play with a vehicle from a nation that has a research bonus available, can I disable the display of the bonus icons?
A: Yes. You can toggle the display of the bonus icon in the research branch using the “Show remaining bonus in headers” option.


Q: If a new vehicle is added to the only tree where I have a “top” vehicle, and mine is no longer “top”, will I lose the bonus?
A: Yes, the bonus status will be updated when new a new vehicle is introduced. If you have only one “top” vehicle of only one nation, and the new vehicle becomes the new “top” of the sub-branch you are researching, then the bonus will disappear until you purchase the new vehicle or get another “top” vehicle.

Q: If a new “top” vehicle is added to the tree, will I be able to research it using the bonus?
A: Yes, you can, but not right away. While the vehicle is considered new the bonus will not apply to it.
[/expand]