World of Warplanes 2.0.2 Patchnotes

The winter update for World of Warplanes will finally enlarge the pool of bombers in the game with three new German medium bombers, as well asthe first part of the branch of British Hawker Fighters. The main peculiar feature of the German medium bombers is that they are equipped with several defensive turrets, each of which can be controlled by a player.

Update 2.0.2 will include improvements to the graphics, the interface in the Hangar and in battle, and improvements to the reticle and camera. With the new update, players will also be able to watch videos in the game client, where they will be able to learn the basics of the game.

New Event - Skies of Albion

The global event Skies of Albion will be available from the implementation of Update 2.0.2 until January 11. Every day, players will be able to fight for dominance in the sky over Great Britain, either on the side of Allied or Axis powers. Active participation and high performance in battles will be rewarded with loot crates containing equipment, consumables, trained crew members, paint schemes, slots in the Hangar, and bunks in the Barracks. The main rewards that can be found in crates are Gold, Premium Account time, and Special Missions that, if completed, will reward players with the first German medium bombers, British fighters from the Hawker branch, the Premium Tier VIII RB-17, Me 109 TL, and J8M, as well as eight other Tier II–V Premium aircraft.

A player who receives a Special Mission containing a chain of tasks can complete it during peacetime (in between two confrontations). Once a Special Mission is completed, an aircraft will be added to a player's account and will appear in their Hangar.

New Aircraft

New branch of German medium Bombers

A key feature of the aircraft from the new branch is the high bomb load, and the availability of several defensive turrets with wide fields of fire. At the same time, these aircraft carry no forward-firing offensive armament.

• Dornier Do 17 Z - Tier IV German Bomber
• Junkers Ju 88 A - Tier V German Bomber
• Dornier Do 217 M - Tier VI German Bomber

New branch of British multirole fighters

The branch consists of the first three Hawker aircraft. These are durable and quite manoeuvrable Multirole Fighters, armed with a formidable battery of small-calibre machine guns, or four powerful 20 mm autocannons.

• Hawker Hurricane I - Tier IV British Multirole Fighter
• Hawker Hurricane II - Tier V Multirole Fighter
• Hawker Tornado - Tier VI Multirole Fighter

Premium aircraft added for purchase in the in-game shop

U.S.S.R.

• Kochyerigin-Yatsenko DI-6i - Tier III Multirole Fighter
• Lavochkin LaGG-3 series 4 - Tier IV Multirole Fighter
• Polikarpov I-180-3 - Tier V Fighter
• Lavochkin La-9RD - Tier VII Fighter

Germany

• Fieseler Fi 98 - Tier II Attack Aircraft
• Dornier Do 17 Z-7 Kauz - Tier III Heavy Fighter

U.S.A.

• Curtiss F11C-2 - Tier II Multirole Fighter
• Seversky 2PA - Tier IV Fighter

Japan

• Mitsubishi A6M3 (experimental) - Tier V Fighter

U.K.

• CAC CA-1 Wirraway - Tier III Attack Aircraft
• Fairey Fantome - Tier IV Fighter
• CAC CA-12 Boomerang - Tier V Fighter
• North American Mustang IA - Tier VI Fighter

China

• Curtiss Hawk III - Tier II Multirole Fighter
• Curtiss Tomahawk IIb - Tier V Fighter
• De Havilland 98 Mosquito FB 26 - Tier VI Heavy Fighter
• North American P-51K Mustang - Tier VIII Fighter
• Ilyushin IL-10M - Tier VIII Attack Aircraft

France

• Arsenal-Delanne AD 10C2 - Tier V Fighter
• SNCASE SE 100 - Tier V Heavy Fighter
• Arsenal VB 10 - Tier VII Heavy Fighter

Premium aircraft removed from the in-game shop

U.S.S.R.

• Yakovlev Yak-3RD - Tier VII Fighter
• Lavochkin La-11 - Tier VIII Fighter

U.S.A.

• Grumman XF4F-3 - Tier IV Fighter
• Chance-Vought XF4U-1 - Tier V Fighter

U.K.

• Miles M.20 - Tier V Fighter
• North American Mustang I - Tier VI Fighter

China

• Breda Ba.27 Metallico - Tier III Fighter
• Nakajima Ki-43-Ic - Tier IV Fighter

These warplanes will be available for purchase for a limited time in the Premium Shop, or during special events in the future.

New aircraft available for developers and Supertesters only for testing purposes

• Junkers Ju-86 E - German Tier III Bomber

Balance Fixes for Aircraft

System Fixes

Aircraft with several defensive turrets

As we introduce the new bombers, we have also implemented the option to control and fire several defensive turrets mounted on the aircraft individually. Such turrets are marked in the Tech Tree as separate modules, and have their own upgrade trees.

• Each turret tracks and selects targets in the field of fire, and opens fire on them independently. The highest-priority targets are those located closer to the centre of the field of fire, and closer to the turret itself.
• Added the option to manually control each turret on such aircraft. By pressing the T key, a player starts to control a turret, and the camera will be directed at its field of fire. Turrets that do not cover this field of fire continue to fire automatically.
• Each turret that comes under fire takes damage and can be put out of action independently of the others. A turret that has been put out of action stops firing for 20 seconds. Its critical damage counts as an injury to a gunner, and is healed with the First Aid Kit.
• Equipment improving performance of turrets and gunner's skills affects all turrets of the aircraft at the same time.

Bombers without Forward-Firing Offensive Armament

• Unlike other aircraft, bombers of the new branch are not equipped with forward-firing offensive armament. That is why instead of the reticle, a flight direction indicator is displayed in the battle interface.
• On such bombers, the forward shooting that players are used to is impossible. However, such aircraft are normally equipped with a front turret that automatically opens fire on targets in front of the aircraft, and can be controlled manually.

Other Changes

• Premium and Special Reward aircraft now come with bombs and rockets loaded.
• Updated the damage model for the following aircraft: 2PA, XP-58, Wirraway, Mustang I, Mustang IA, Hurricane IID, NC 1070, IL-10M, Do 17 Z-7, Ju 88P.
• Bomb load for Bombers is now free of charge.

Balance Changes for Particular Aircraft

Germany

• BV P.210, BV P.212-03: the launch rack no longer affects manoeuvrability performance and only reduces the airspeed

U.S.A.

• Seversky 2PA: updated the damage model, increased the field of fire and aiming time for turrets, increased the airspeed.
• XP-58 Chain Lightning: updated the damage model, enhanced the turret, increased the damage caused by the forward-firing offensive armament.

U.K.

• Wirraway: updated the damage model, increased the accuracy of forward-firing offensive armament, increased speed performance.
• Mustang IA: updated the damage model, increased the firing duration before weapon overheating.

France

• NC 1070: updated the damage mode, increased the firing duration before weapon overheating.

Camera and Mouse Control

Camera in Battle

The camera response to aircraft control has been completely readjusted. The camera is now more responsive, and better conveys the aircraft’s weight and its dynamics.

• Improved the camera responsiveness for all aircraft performing correction manoeuvres and aiming.
• Reduced the camera responsiveness for all aircraft performing excessive manoeuvres.
• Camera settings now significantly differ between different aircraft types.
• Camera behaviour differs between aircraft with different specifications of the same type.

Controls

• Eliminated the reticle jerks and unresponsiveness when firing and tracking a target. Now it moves more smoothly, and better conveys the aircraft’s weight.
• Changed control settings for the ‘Mouse’ control scheme. Now when slowly descending, heavy aircraft do not use roll, but only pitch to change the flight direction. This makes Attack Aircraft and Bombers steadier in flight. Lighter aircraft continue to use roll when descending. However, when slowly changing the flight direction, they are also steadier now.
• Reduced the rate of level-off in relation to the horizon for Fighters and Multirole Fighters by 25%.
• Removed the default key bindings for pitch (‘Pitch Down’ and ‘Pitch Up’) and yaw (‘Yaw Left’ and ‘Yaw Right’). Players can now assign these actions to any keys they want.

Graphics

• Added new effects for explosions, wreckage, and smoke trails behind destroyed aircraft according to the material of the aircraft and their sizes. The more technically sophisticated an aircraft, the more spectacular it looks as it is destroyed.

Interface

Training

• Added new hints about the game basics at the start of a battle that can be disabled.
• Added the option to watch videos in the game client. Added short training videos about aircraft control, game mode, and aircraft type peculiarities.

Hangar

Optimized the display of the information about aircraft in the Hangar, particularly its specifications and peculiarities.

Display of Main Aircraft Characteristics

• All main characteristics are now displayed on units from 1 to 100. A new bar more clearly reflects aircraft abilities in comparison to other aircraft in the game. 1 corresponds to the lowest performance, and 100 to the highest performance.
• The effect of equipment and crew skills on the display of flight characteristics in the Hangar is now implemented only for the survivability characteristic. For the other characteristics, this will be implemented in subsequent updates.
• The numerical display of the characteristics is combined with the graphical bars. They also visualize an increase and decrease in characteristics when replacing modules.
• Added a new characteristic to the aircraft specification panel: ‘Bombs and Rockets’. It displays the offensive potential of an aircraft when using external weapons. The potential is calculated based on the ‘damage per minute’ and ‘one-time damage’ for all bombs and rockets on the aircraft.
• The aircraft comparison window in battle is temporarily hidden.

Detailed Aircraft Characteristics

• Changed the list of detailed characteristics and their distribution between main characteristics in the aircraft specifications panel. In the future, new characteristics describing aircraft in more detail are planned to be added.
• Added the characteristic ‘Hit Points’ as part of the survivability characteristics.
• Removed the weight, controllability, and top speed at sea level characteristics from the aircraft specifications panel.

Bomber Configuration Details

• As part of the introduction of the new Bombers, implemented the display of several defensive turrets, the absence of forward-firing offensive armament, and an empty bomb slot.

Other

• Modules now have unique icons that better show the difference between them.

Battle Interface

Turret Control Mode

• Added the display of a message about critical damage to the defensive turret and a timer showing time until the turret becomes operational again.
• Changed the appearance of a turret reticle. Added the display of a turret calibre.

Bombing Mode

• Added the display of bomb replenishment timer in the advanced interface mode (available on pressing ‘Alt’).
• Added extra indication for the absence of bombs.
• Bombsight illumination is now activated when the bombsight crosshairs approach a ground target.

Flight Instruments

• Updated texts for the battle interface and settings

Locations and Hangars

• Added 2 new gaming locations with 12 new map layouts:
• Peripheral Mission: a winter location available for Tier III–VII battles.
• Road to Rome: a summer location available for Tier VII–X battles.
• Created a new Hangar design for the Skies of Albion event. The Hangar has two states: peacetime and wartime. They alternate automatically depending on the phase of a confrontation.
• Several asymmetric map layouts were removed for further balance improvements:
• Scorching Sands: Outpost
• Plateau: Shock Wave
• Alpine Gambit: Edelweiss

Other

• Added the flag of Belgium to the set of flags.
• Readjusted aircraft type-specific missions. Now the difficulty of completing such missions and receiving aircraft type grades at the end of a battle is equivalent for all aircraft types.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed some bugs that caused the game client to crash.
• Fixed bugs that caused the hidden cursor (without pressing ‘Ctrl’) to respond to mouse button clicks as if the cursor had been active. It resulted in accidental clicks on the radar and mini-map.
• Fixed a bug in the post-battle statistics window. Now the ‘Experience and Combat Points’ section shows the correct amount earned by each aircraft flown in a battle.
• Fixed the bug that caused static objects to be displayed in a low quality after the graphics quality is changed from High to Low, and vice versa.