[2023] Following the Roadmap: maps for aircraft, flares and repair

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

We continue to let you know about the improvements we are implementing based on the War Thunder updates roadmap. Today, we are going to talk about improving the map rotation for air battles as well as increasing the availability of flares and the ability to extinguish fires and repair vehicles.

Flares from the start

An important point that we mentioned in our roadmap - increasing the availability of a number of mechanics. In the case of aircraft, countermeasures, and in the case of armoured vehicles and naval vessels, it is about repairing and extinguishing fires. The changes are already in the game: the default set of countermeasures is now available immediately after vehicle research and you no longer need to additionally unlock it!

When researching the “Flares/chaff” modification (or similar) you will unlock options such as “Chaff only”, “Flares reinforced” and “Flare priority”. Additional countermeasure kits such as BOL-type systems, additional containers with Chaff or additional countermeasures kits on the Mirage 2000 and Kurnass 2000 still require separate modifications to be researched.

Advanced FPE and repair kit

FPE for ground vehicles is divided into a regular, single extinguishment, which is available without unlocking any modification, and advanced, which requires modification research, which once unlocked, adds the possibility of double extinguishment.

Repair kits for ground vehicles are also divided into normal and advanced. Normal, available without unlocking a modification, enables you to perform field repairs on all modules up to partial functionality. Penalties to vehicle characteristics after repair of modules with field repair in AB and RB are changed as follows:

• Gun spread multiplier has been changed from х15 to х5;
  
• Guidance angles have been changed from 3 to 6 degrees;
  
• Transmission losses have been changed from 50% to 25%;
  
• Engine power reduction has been changed from 60% to 40%.

Once the advanced repair kit has been researched, this will speed up the repair process and allow you to make repairs without penalties to module functionality.

In naval battles, even vessels without upgrades now have all the tools for firefighting, module repair, breach repair and pumping water - their “field repair” is now replaced with battle for survivability. Without the researched modification, you will be able to conduct it in the former way. You can manually start each process with the buttons of firefighting, repair and water pumping. The crew of a new ship that just came into service will take longer to do this than an experienced trained crew, but even the normal firefighting system has no limit on the number of uses.

The crew can be trained in damage control and effective firefighting with the help of modifications. They are located in the place of the former tools and FPE. There is no need to upgrade them again: players who have previously researched these modifications already have them unlocked.

Improved map rotations for aircraft

We want battles to be as interesting and intense as possible and therefore based on our statistics and your feedback, we have revised the availability of a number of missions depending on the BR of the vehicles participating in the battle. Generally, smaller maps will now be available at low BR and larger maps at higher BR. Some missions, those that most often have fallen into the ban list of the players, have been completely removed from the rotation. Some of these changes have already been implemented in the major “La Royale” update and some we have just added.

Removed from the rotation:
[Air Battle] France 1944
[Operation] Husky
[Operation] The Last Battle of Khalkhyn Gol

Only available up to BR 2.0:
[Operation] Middle East
[Operation] Cochinchina
[Operation] Battle for Vietnam

Only available on BR from 2.3 to 5.0:
[Operation] Laizhou bay
[Operation] Battle of Spain

Only available on BR from 2.3 to 6.7:
[Front Line] Kursk

Only available on BR from 4.0:
[Operation] Pyrenees
[Operation] Bourbon Island
[Operation] Malta
[Operation] Peleliu
[Event] Attack on Wake Island
[Operation] Midway

Only available on BR from 5.7:
[Operation] Battle at Malta

We also introduced the display of a mission’s BR in the window of the preferred missions - now you can ignore maps that you don’t get rated within when compiling your list.

Despite the fact that we have added a display of the BR in the maps filter, the distribution of bans, likes and dislikes has not changed much, and many players ban those maps that are not usually played. Please update your filters to reflect the selection of maps you do and don’t want to see. Please also continue to let us know what you think about the selection of maps for those or other vehicle ranks in this special thread on the forum so that we can adjust it further.

We are continuing to make progress on the War Thunder development roadmap and we hope you will be pleased with these changes. Share your opinion in the comments, social media, on Steam or on the official forum!