Version 0.5.1 Coming

We are happy to announce the upcoming release of the next version for World of Warplanes. The arrival of Update 0.5.1 is not so far away, and will bring you a host of fresh new content, including new planes, improved economics, better physics as well as visual enhancements to sea maps such as ‘Bay’ or ‘Pacific Ocean’.

New Planes

 If you’re a fan of Soviet planes, you’ll be pleased to hear that we are extending the Russian tech tree by an additional branch of the very popular Yak aircraft! Discover these 10 new light fighters, ranging from Tier IV-X, and add them to your hangar as quickly as possible to experience fast-paced and close to the ground-dogfighting action.

What makes the Yak-line so special is its versatility on tiers V-VII. Here you will find a total of six aircraft with varying characteristics, rendering each one of them unique. Try out the more manoeuvrable but light armed Yak-1, Yak-1M and Yak-3, or the slower but high powered Yak-7, Yak-9 or Yak-9U, which  are capable of mounting 37 mm or even 45 mm calibre guns. Whether you’re a speed devil or more a fan of sniper-like shooting – there’s a Yak for every pilot out there.

Jet-powered Yaks begin on tier VIII with the Yak 15, the first soviet single-engine fighter, marking the transition from pistons to jets. Lastly, on the highest tiers, you’ll encounter the Yak-19 and 30. Both are excellent low-altitude fighters with high manoeuvrability, designed for short distance dogfights. Their powerful engines and low weight give them solid acceleration values and make them fun to play. 

I-17	Yak-1	Yak-9	Yak-15	Yak-19	Yak-30

Battle Atmosphere

 With the 0.5.1 update we continue our work on battle atmosphere to immerse the player even deeper into the action. The ships on maps ‘Bay ‘ and ‘Pacific Ocean’ will now be involved in some thrilling background fights. You will even be able to discover artillery fire on ‘Bay’, giving hell to NPC-warships in the coastal region. All ground objects (and ships) will now be able to be set on fire. At the same time, in order not to confuse the players, we’ve reworked the gameplay to have only objects that were actually hit by real players generate smoke, to properly indicate their status. This should help with the understanding of the overall battle situation and increase the role of ground target-oriented aircraft.

New Equipment and Ammunition Belts

 Another big part of this update will be the introduction of seven new pieces of equipment to let you personalise your plane’s performance even further. Increase your survival chances by installing improved armored glass, additional armour plates, an automatic fire extinguisher or neutralising gas for the fuel tank. The ‘Pneumatic Restarter’ will allow you to jumpstart your engine, should it become damaged during battle.

There will also be unification of the ammunition system. This will stream-line the ammo availability rules and also add new types of ammo to the game, meaning you will now have even more control over your firepower. A total of five ammunition types, including the newly introduced armour-piercing and HE-shells, will bring a new dimension to the game, because of their different characteristics – something you will have to keep in mind even before going into battle.

Crew Skills Extension

 Crew Skills and Training made their first appearance in Version 0.5.0, and will now be updated further. Expect to see basic barracks functionality as well as new skills for your squads once you’ve trained them to 100% qualification.

Assign your crews individually, train and retrain them as you wish and move them from one aircraft to another (within the same nation of course). Functions such as the reset of skills, sending a crew to the barracks or even dismissing it will now become available.

Five new skills of level 2 will be added in 5.1 as well – two for the navigator (Bombardier and Veteran), two for the Pilot (Mentor and Sniper) and the universal Firefighter-Skill for any crew member. Veteran will help with the control of a damaged aircraft. Mentor will allow for faster crew training. Sniper and Bombardier on the other hand will strengthen the airplane’s firepower and improve gun, bomb and rocket accuracy.

The Other Sundries

 This update also brings new changes to the game’s economy, tweaks to the physics system and rebalances for almost all of the available aircraft to adjust for the introduction of the new Yak line.

The flight model has been thoroughly checked, to improve aircraft behaviour in difficult conditions such as curves with high angles, pitching, rolling or diving. High-speed aircraft, such as the He. 100 for example, will see their turning speed slow down a bit, while planes that usually don’t reach top velocity (A6M1 for example) will get a slight boost in the same category. The I-16 will now have a much smaller turning radius than the Bf 109 for example, whilst maintaining the same speed when entering the curve. Escaping a fast-paced dogfight will be now more challenging on the quick Soviet fighter, which will make maintaining the optimal speed of your aircraft more important.

The role of altitude is also being reconsidered. Starting with 5.1, altitude will have a much greater impact on a plane’s manoeuvrabilty and overall flight characteristics.  Luring your enemy into an altitude, which is less optimal for his aircraft’s performance, now becomes a viable fighting tactic.

Some ‘under the hood’ improvements will be added as well, optimising memory management and fixing some of the most common freezes.

Get excited for the new version, Pilots!