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War Thunder: Update 1.53 'Firestorm'
5 November 2015

We would like to proudly announce the major
War Thunder Update 1.53 "Firestorm"!

Update 1.53 - "Firestorm"

Introduction of the new Dagor Engine 4.0:

New Vehicles

New Locations and Missions

  • “Stalingrad”. New location for combined battles (Domination, Battle, Conquest)
  • “Advance to the Rhine”. New ground battle city map for combined battles (Domination, Battle, Conquest) 
  • “New Guinea”. new aircraft missions in Domination, Ground strike missions
  • “Spain”. New aircraft missions for Alternative History mode
  • New system of destructible environments for locations “Berlin”, “Stalingrad” and “Advance to the Rhine” has been added.
  • A player that has landed on an enemy airfield will be considered as captured and his aircraft destroyed.

Game mechanics

  • In SB  ground vehicles, the gunner view is now situated where the sight was physically mounted on specific ground vehicles.
  • New mechanism for measuring target distance for RB and SB game modes with new modification “rangefinder” which has been added for ground vehicles that were equipped with a mounted range finder.
  • Added new award “Vehicle for rent” in battle trophies.
  • The ingame chat has been changed. General channels have been removed. The ability to create public and private channels has been added.
  • Added experimental voice chat support for Linux and Mac. 
  • In combined ground vehicle realistic battles, new special markers have been added. The marker will be visible for ground forces above the point where the tank was hit and will not move if the enemy moves.
  • A pilot may lose control of the aircraft if maximum G is exceeded. The amount of G and time during which the pilot still has control over the aircraft depend on the skill of the pilot. 
  • Fuse settings have been changed. In all game modes “attacker”  fuse has been implemented. Time ticks down once the bomb is dropped (time is shown in pop-up tip - it’s 5 seconds). For the fuses with permanent delay (time ticks down when the bomb hits the obstacle) minimum setting is 5 seconds. 
  • Dropping bombs from the He-111 has been fixed. Now the bombs don’t fall out from the back of fuselage, but strictly from the bomb bay.
  • Maximum zoom for optics and binocular has been changed: For tank optics from 7.5x to x3.5 and for binoculars from x9 to x6. This represents the most popular setting for tank optics in the 1930s-50s. In the future, these values will be set to historically accurate values for individual vehicle optics.

Crew skills

Changes in Vehicle Models

  • MGs, both AA and twin are now available for all ground vehicles  that were equipped with them.
  • Specific errors have been fixed, armouring details have been improved as well as improvement on the layout of modules and components for the following vehicles: IS-2 mod.44, Т-34-85 (all modifications), Т-44, Maus, Leopard I, M60, Т-54 mod.47, Т-34-100, Pzkpfw V (all modifications), Panzerjager IV L48, M3 Lee, IS-4М, Т-10М, Т-54 mod.51, Ferdinand, Pz.kpfw 35(t). Minor fixes have affected most Ground Vehicles.
  • Physical collision damage interaction has been improved on multiple vehicles. 
  • The P-38G and XP-38G have had their aircraft models updated.

Changes in Locations and Missions

  • The “Tank” Training mission is now divided into two parts: “Basics of controlling” and “Basics of shooting”.
  • Improved the environment around capture points and gameplay improvements for location "Mozdok"
  • Location “Carpathians” has been significantly revised.
  • A few settlements in the location “Poland” have been added.
  • The size of the bushes in the locations “Poland” and “Normandy” has been reduced.
  • Balancing changes on the locations “Finland” and “Eastern Europe”.
  • Substantially reworked logic of the mode “Break”. On some locations, for a win, it needs the capture of more than two points.
  • In the game mode “Break” the indication of  captured and subsequent capture points has been added.
  • In Arcade battles it will take more bombs to destroy bases. Depending on the rank of the battle the durability of the bases has been increased by 1.5-2x

Research and Economy

  • Vampire FB.5 and Venom FB.4  moved to “Hawker” line following the Tempest Mk.II
  • Calliope moved to rank 3 without changing its BR.
  • Pz. III Ausf.M moved from rank 3 to rank 2 without changing its BR.

Damage Model

  • Affecting all Ground Vehicles which load ammunition projectiles and charges separately, the chance of ammo rack explosions have been significantly decreased. An ammo rack can be destroyed by a direct hit or close explosion of ammo containing 150 gr or more of explosives. An ammo rack is still vulnerable to all damage, including spalling. For example: KV-2, IS-2, IS-3, IS-4, Т-10М, SU-152,SU-122, ISU-122, ISU-122S, ISU-152, SU-122-54, SU-122P, М103, Т28, Т95, Т32, Maus,  Jagdtiger, Tiger II 105.
  • In the T-34 series, a hit to the oil tank can no longer lead to a fuel tank explosion.
  • The mechanics regarding repairing has been changed. Now track repairs will start automatically if the vehicle does not move.
  • To activate repair mode, you will need to hold the repair button for 1.5 seconds.
  • Reload on capture and base points now starts automatically, if the player doesn't move and will be interrupted if he starts to move. 
  • The penetration of late-war as well as post-war AP shells with discarding sabots have been fixed and adjusted. 
  • Changes: 
  • USSR: 100mm ZBM-8 penetration increased by 1%, 122 ZBM-11 penetration increased by 3,5%, 122mm ZBM-7 penetration increased by 1%, 85mm BR-367P penetration decreased by 4%. 
  • USA - 105mm М392А2 - penetration increased by 5%, 90mm М332 - penetration decreased by 14%, 90mm М304 penetration decreased by 13,2%, 90mm Т44 penetration decreased by 13%, 76mm М93 penetration decreased by 2%, 76mm М331А2 penetration decreased by 10%, 76mm М319 penetration decreased by 10%. 
  • Germany: 105mm DM-13 penetration increased by 5%, 105mm PzGr 40 penetration decreased by 10%, 88mm PzGr 40/43 penetration decreased by 11%, 75mm PzGr 40/42 penetration decreased by 15%.

Changes in Flight Models

Armament

  • Hurricane Mk.IV - Two 7.7 Browning machineguns have been added.

Changes in Ground Vehicles 

  • Added ability for the M41 and SPAA M42 to perform a neutral turn.
  • M46 and M46 “Tiger”: Added the M348 HEAT shell.
  • The maximum speed of the T-44 has been reduced to 60 km/h, according to “Guide to exploitation of T-44” NKO USSR 1946, page 5. 
  • New modification/module “Rangefinder” added for M103, M47, M60, Leopard-I, SU-122-54, Panther F, Panther 2 and Tiger 2 105. This will allow the measurement of range of up to a distance of 2.5km in realistic battles and 1.5 km in arcade battles.
  • T-34 Prototype - The weight of the tank was changed to 25.6t, according to “Album of the photos and characteristics of T-34”.
  • T-34 1940 with L-11 cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 25.6t, according to “Album of the photos and characteristics of T-34” 
  • T-34 1941 with F-34 cannon, T-34 1st Gv. T.Br., T-34-57 1941  - The weight of the tank was changed to 28.12t in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”.
  • T-34 1942 and T-34-57 1943 - The weight of the tank was changed to 30t, in according to“Tank T-34. Manual. 1944.”
  • Т-34 STZ - The weight of the tank was changed to 29.5t, in according to “Front illustration №04 2006. Stalingrad's 34 p. 42” (mass of the screens - 500kg).
  • T-34E - The weight of the tank was changed to 30.6t, in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”.  (Weight of Т-34 1941 with F-34 cannon + maximum mass of screens - 2.5t).
  • Т-34-85 with D-5T cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 30.9t, in according to M. Kolomiets “First full encyclopedia T-34”.
  • Т-34-85 with ZIS-S-53 cannon - The weight of the tank was changed to 32t, in according to “Guide to the material part of T-34”, Moscow 1949.

Interface

  • New battle statistics interface
  • New daily rewards interface
  • New crew skill interface
  • The amount of explosives contained in a shell has been added to the info card for ground vehicles
  • The possibility to save the last played mission in “Custom Battles” has been added.
  • In spectator mode, lighting circuits for allied vehicles have been added.
  • "Visibility" added to info card of a vehicle. This parameter defines tank visibility from distance depending on its height.
  • In the ammo info card, impact angle for penetration are displayed in the same way as ricochets.
  • Avatars for the player profile have been updated.

Control

  • Added new settings regarding “switching between gunners”, which allows the turning off of AI gunners in aircraft.
  • The ability to control the camera in the hangar with a gamepad has been fixed. Specific settings have been moved to “Controls” - “View controls” - “View in hangar”.  
  • The possibility to control the position of decals on ground vehicles and aircraft while using a gamepad has been corrected. Specific settings have been moved to “Controls” - “Miscellaneous” - “Decal movement”.
  • By default, a right mouse click is now mapped to activating the “follow target” mode and not for zoom in the scope. By pressing the button the gunner will hold the nearest target in scope view.

Sounds

  • Improved background sounds whilst in-game, added sounds for different game events.
  • Authentic engine audio has been added for the PT-76.
  • New audio for the QF2 cannon has been added.
  • The audio of the 30mm ADEN cannon has been improved.
  • The audio of the M60 cannon has been improved.
  • The audio for the Type 2 machine guns has been improved.
  • Improved the audio for the M3 Browning, Hispano 404, Hispano Mk. II and Hispano Mk. V cannons.
  • New audio has been added for the result screen after a battle has finished.
  • New audio for completing strikes (aircraft flights in the arcade battles for ground vehicles) has been added.
  • Improved sounds for MG34 machinegun
  • New sounds for the destruction of cars when running over them in ground vehicles have been added.
  • New audio for the American and the German systems of rocket volley fire has been added.
  • New sounds for the destruction of railway carriages have been added.
  • Added dubbing in Korean localisation.
  • Added dubbing in Italian localisation.
  • Added dubbing in Czech localisation.
  • Added dubbing in English localisation.
  • Added dubbing in Russian localisation.
  • Added dubbing in Japanese localisation.
  • Added dubbing in Polish localisation.

PS4

  • Added Trophies
  • Added Internet Radio support
  • Fixed freezes at start of tank battles
  • Use 'Display Area Settings' instead of a fixed 90% border
  • Fixed Customization interface (applying decals) when using gamepad

PC

  • Steam Achievements added