Aircraft world update 2.00. Wargaming has released the most global update for World of Warplanes. Switching the nation of the plane

Wargaming.net has released a major update for World of Warplanes 2.0. In fact, this is a game restart. The rules have been changed, graphics have been improved, and pilots now fight not only with each other, but also with AI-controlled fighters.

And www.gametech.ru had a conversation with a company representative to make sure that version 2.0 listens to the attention of new players and will be kind to old-timers. It is clear that not everyone will like such a radical change.

“Our game is not about how to get a plane out of a spin” - an interview with Wargaming.net

- Start over. What is the World of Warplanes reboot like?
- This is the most milestone update since the release of World of Warplanes, which is why it is labeled as 2.0. In fact, the update with the new game mode is the first of three big steps to rework the game.

But as long as I see the same...
- Come on?! We present a new game mode with improved graphics, a new class of vehicles "bombers", with manual control of the onboard gunners.
The old game mode was interesting, it had its own loyal audience. According to statistics, between 50% and 70% of the players who currently play World of Warplanes joined the game in November 2013. Four years in a shareware online game is very serious.

- But if we evaluate the overall success of the game against the backdrop of World of Tanks...
- If we evaluate the success of any game against the backdrop of World of Tanks, then ... the conclusions are obvious. Yes, the audience of World of Warplanes is smaller than that of World of Tanks. Yes, it is less than that of World of Warships. However, we have a loyal audience, and for it, and to attract new players, we are introducing update 2.0.
The mechanics itself is completely changed. Victory conditions are changing. All game locations have been reworked, and sectors appear on them. They can be completely different. It can be a factory, an air base, a command center. Each of these sectors has its own unique game mechanics.
For example, if an allied team owns an air base, then it gets the opportunity to choose a plane in case the player loses his car.

What does "own" mean? How can an airplane "own" something on the ground?
Historically and in reality, aviation is an auxiliary class of troops, the purpose of which is to conquer airspace and, if possible, help ground troops. This is how we implement everything in the new game mode.
Each sector is initially neutral. It doesn't belong to my team or the opposing team. Planes fly over it. They are neutral and white. These are defensive aircraft. A sector is a complex of buildings: factories, workshops, and so on. The task of the teams at the beginning of the battle is to capture these sectors.
To capture the sector, you need to score a conditional number of points. They are given for the destruction of defending aircraft, ground objects, plus, of course, enemy aircraft also arrive to capture the same sector. Shooting down enemy aircraft over the sector, we also get capture points. Accordingly, whoever scores the conditional 170 points first becomes the owner of the sector, and the mechanics of the sector begin to work for this team.
There are sectors that call bomber squads, and those under the control of artificial intelligence fly to bomb enemy sectors, helping to capture them. There is a mechanic when a military base starts firing V-1 missiles at enemy sectors, destroying ground targets.
All sectors are worth victory points. There is a scale that is filled. The more sectors, the faster the full scale is gained and the victory is closer.

In addition, so that the battles do not drag out for a long time, after six minutes (this time may still change), the “storm front” event is turned on, which disables the ability to respawn and turns the game into a team battle. Whose team will kill the enemy aircraft, she will win.
The next key feature is a complete reworking of vehicle class roles. If in the old regime fighters played a key role, and, in general, the whole process was built around the so-called “dogfight”, when fighters met and fought at one point in space. Killed - the end of the battle. In the new game mode, we have made it so that all classes of vehicles are equally useful and effective in battle.
Fighters help capture sectors by destroying defenders. Fighters are great at defending their sector (they can be recaptured). The bomber class has been implemented with its own unique gameplay. Implemented the ability to manually control the onboard arrows.

- And what does it mean?
- Here sits a gunner who shoots at an enemy aircraft.

- One person controls the plane, or one player pilots, and the second shoots back?
- Managed by one person. By pressing the "T" button, you switch to the side gunner mode and you are already shooting back with them, and the plane continues to fly in the direction you left it.

There are gunners on all bombers. In addition, in the future we will add bombers with a large number of gunners to the game. This will allow you to control the entire rear hemisphere and shoot at anyone who sat on your tail.

- Air fortresses?
- Yes, absolutely right. We have also completely redesigned the graphics component of the game.

I remember when World of Tanks "completely redesigned the graphics", the fans were not very happy, because the system requirements immediately increased.
- Absolutely correct and pertinent question. Our rule is that the system requirements of the new game mode must match the requirements that the current version of World of Warplanes has. A player who was comfortable playing the old version of the game should also be comfortable playing the new one. And this is despite the redesigned render, a large number of new objects in locations, the participation of defender aircraft, and so on.
Process optimization is ongoing. There are plans to develop texture streaming and many other things that will allow you to play comfortably even on fairly weak computer configurations.

Another question about artificial intelligence. The fact is that there is already one game in which fighters under the control of AI intervene in the exchanges of players - it's called Titanfall. For many people who love multiplayer shooters, AI interference is simply infuriating, because it is not clear who to shoot at. There are a lot of people running around you, but only one of them is an enemy player. It will be about the same here, as I understand it? There are several planes in the sky, but only one of them is a player?
- The defenders of the territory are marked in a special way, they do not have a name, and the signature indicates whether it is a light or heavy aircraft. By holding the Alt button, you will immediately see that this is an inanimate player.

- I would like to know if a focus group tested this mode?
- Yes, of course, not once and not once.

- Did people like it, were there any questions, problems, for example, disorientation?
- Reworking the controls, we knew that newcomers would come to the game, and we made it so that they could comfortably fly aircraft. Plus, they can choose from five classes of vehicles, where there are classes that are quite demanding on the skill of the player, for example, fighters, which have to constantly spin in the sky, make vertical turns, horizontal ones. There will be people for whom it will be difficult.

I'm talking about that disorientation when it's not clear who to shoot at. The player will have to decide which target is more important now, a flight of AI-controlled fighters, or a human-controlled fighter. How dangerous are AI fighters in general?
- They are dangerous enough. Defenders have a lower level of technology than players. That is, they are initially weaker than the player's aircraft. And how good they are as fighters… They play a little worse than they could. We've been experimenting with AI, and if we want to, we can create a T-1000 that even an experienced player will have a hard time defeating. However, given our priorities, the defending aircraft will be more like "feed" for fighters, they will not cause a serious problem.
Of course, with an increase in the levels of battles, the defenders will already fly on more advanced aircraft, and their intelligence will also be more serious. On the other hand, already experienced users come there who will definitely cope with them.

- In the end, you tried to create the feeling of a dynamic single-player campaign, but in multiplayer.
Yes, that's pretty much what it looks like. Each battle is a kind of small section of the front, and the goal of the players is to capture strategically important sectors. They have different factories, air bases, and the task of the team is to become their owner. Who could, he won the battle.
Respawns within the same battle will make it easier to perceive errors or communication problems. Previously, after a death or a disconnect, you had to return to the hangar, choose a new aircraft, and queue up for the next battle. Now - wait 10 seconds, and you are back in the game. But at the same time, each new revival costs more time, and the destroyed aircraft needs to be repaired after the battle, so just flying-crashing, flying-crashing will be economically very unprofitable.

- And what about the redesigned graphics? Models, textures were redone ...
- Models have not been reworked, they were originally created in HD quality. But the effects, textures, especially the textures of the earth's surface, factory complexes, they were drawn from scratch.
In terms of immersion in the game, we have seriously worked on the behavior of the camera, trying to convey a sense of speed.
In addition, we redesigned the interface with the goal that without Alt-mode, without additional tweaks in the settings, the interface would be minimalistic so that nothing would distract the player from the process itself. If necessary, it will be possible to enter the settings, enable additional interface elements - attitude indicator, altitude scale. Separately, you can configure what I will see on the screen by pressing Alt.

- Will it be possible to play with a flight sim joystick?
- Yes, definitely. Anyway, this is a flight simulator, many players use joysticks. They were very worried about whether the new version will support joysticks. Yes, you can not worry, everything is fine with joysticks.
The fact is that on BigWorld * it is very difficult to support a joystick, since this engine does not understand the third axis at all, it was created for games whose action takes place in one plane. But in the Kyiv studio there are very intelligent guys who were able to make support for the joystick, and they did it based solely on the wishes of the players. We have kept all the positive developments in the new mode. Joystick, gamepad, mouse, keyboard - control whatever you want.

* BigWorld is a game engine developed by the Sydney-based company of the same name, which was acquired by Wargaming.net in 2012. World of Tanks, World of Warplanes and World of Warships are based on this engine.

- And what about the improvements in physics? In what way does it manifest itself?
- Flight physics, object physics…

How about a little more precise? For example, in car simulators, when developers rework or change physics, it is immediately felt.
- You are talking about such particulars ... With the release of the new mode, we are counting on a serious influx of new players and the preservation of the current audience, so the physics is quite simplified. There are not a number of elements here that are in serious flight simulators: there is no spin, an honest stall of the plane.
The maximum task sounds like this: the player must fight in combat with enemy aircraft, and not with his own. So our game is not about how to get the plane out of a spin. Therefore, the physics in the new version of the game is mostly from the old version. According to the feedback of the players who flew a lot in the same IL-2, it is “appropriate”. This is something between an arcade and a simulator, the quality and character of this or that car are quite well worked out here.

- When update 2.0 arrives, will players still be able to play in the old mode?
- No, this regime replaces the old one.

- But people tried, swung ...
- ... And we will keep all these aircraft and merits in their hangar.

What about the bombers?
- At the time of the release of version 2.0, there will be only three bombers in the game. These are premium cars that are sold for in-game gold or for money.

- Not fair!
- This does not mean that we will not have branches of bombers, there will be more than one. So far, these are the first three swallows. However, with the release of the update, we will include a very interesting promotion where the player will have the opportunity to win a bomber for free. To do this, it will be necessary to collect it from pieces. By completing certain tasks, among the prizes for the battle, you can get a landing gear from a bomber, and so on. I think the players will like this idea.

In the closed test, fresh changes are already being rolled out, we'll see if this will change the state of affairs in this game. Now let's take a look at the patch notes and the leaked video. There is a lot of text, below is a squeeze.

- Conquest mode.
The all-new Conquest game mode. In it, in order to win, teams of players will have to attack fortified and protected key territories on the map in order to gain a tactical advantage over the enemy. Control over each such territory brings the team a certain number of Influence Points per unit of time. The first team to reach the required number of Influence Points wins. In most cases, Influence Points are awarded once every 5 seconds, based on the number and type of territories controlled by the teams. If one of the teams owns all the sectors, the Dominance event occurs, at which the frequency of Influence accrual noticeably increases.
* Key territories
Each territory in the area of ​​​​operation gives one or another advantage to the team controlling it:
Airfields

* Capturing territories
At the beginning of the battle, all key territories in the area of ​​operation are neutral and controlled by local forces.
In order to establish control over the territory, the player's team needs to destroy targets within it (ground objects, defenders' aircraft, aircraft of the enemy team), earning * Capture Points.
To capture the territory, you need to gain 140 HP before the enemy team does. In order to recapture the territory from the enemy team, you need to score 160 HP. The progress of the capture of territories can be observed on their icons. When a territory is captured, all further enemy attempts to recapture it are blocked for 30 seconds.

- As part of closed testing, the approach to firing from forward weapons was changed. First of all, the lead point was removed. This decision is explained by the fact that shooting should focus the player's attention on the enemy aircraft, and not on the interface element. In order to accurately shoot at the target, the player must carefully monitor the enemy aircraft in order to predict its maneuvers, choose the right approach trajectory and lead when firing. It is also necessary to constantly adjust the fire on the tracers, conducting zeroing. Since the projectiles of forward-facing weapons in the game have a finite velocity, the lead mechanic has been preserved. In order to effectively hit an enemy aircraft, it is necessary to adjust the fire, taking into account the direction of its flight and speed - to the point where the enemy will be at the moment the bullet hits.
General principles of firing forward weapons.
The choice of the moment of opening fire.
Depending on the caliber and type of forward weapons, the effective destruction distance varies. An indicator that the target is within range is the appearance of a bar of its durability above the aircraft marker. This means that this enemy can be fired upon.
* Choice of aiming point.
In all cases, except for frontal convergence and tail shooting, it is optimal to aim at a point located slightly
ahead of the enemy. To facilitate sighting, tracers and flashes of hits on enemy aircraft are made more
bright. This allows you to see the trajectory of your projectiles and the point at which this trajectory intersects with
adversary.
* Maneuvering and avoiding shelling.
Standard evasion maneuvers are still effective and allow you to avoid some of the damage. However, you need to start execution immediately when the enemy attacks your aircraft.
* Modification of the damage model.
The damage system has been improved and now allows you to accurately damage individual large parts of aircraft. It has become much easier to inflict critical damage on the required component of an enemy aircraft. This will fully manifest itself when destroying large aircraft with high survivability: bombers and strike aircraft.

- Graphic arts.
* Flight
The game camera has been completely redesigned. Firstly, now it more effectively and visually conveys the state of the aircraft in battle, and secondly, it allows you to more comfortably concentrate on the situation that is played out directly in front of the player.

During the execution of turns, the aircraft now freely moves on the screen. This helps to better concentrate on approaching the target and keep track of the enemy in a turning battle. As the speed increases, the camera gradually moves away from the aircraft, providing a greater view. In addition to the camera, a lot of visual effects have been added to emphasize the speed of flight.
* Shooting
The visual effects of shooting and hitting aircraft have changed significantly. Critical hit or destruction of an enemy has become much more noticeable. Now, when shooting at a target, you can immediately see if it has been damaged, which helps to adjust the fire and aim.
* Taking damage
Added screen effects for events such as taking damage, taking critical damage, dropping durability to a critical level. Now it's much easier to determine the state of your aircraft in the heat of battle.
* Maps
For the "Conquest" mode, 8 maps have been significantly modified. Based on them, areas of operations with different combinations and locations of key territories were created.

Hit or miss. MMO action World of Warplanes, despite active PR and a well-known developer, has not gained much popularity among the players. Wargaming decided to rectify the situation and released the largest update 2.0 since the release of the game, which is designed to seriously change the gameplay and add new content.

What's new

First of all, it’s worth mentioning the new game mode “Conquest”, such KVG is extremely rare. In fact, we have a classic point control with the revival (!) of downed aircraft. Each player will play their role in combat, according to the class of ufolet (which, by the way, have been revised and rebalanced). In addition, a new one was added to the original upgrade branches - it became a branch of bombers, high-altitude aircraft with a large margin of safety, long afterburner and a large bomb load. The bonus will be a redesigned economy, a modified shooting system, improved graphics and sound. (Am I sure I don't read the War Thunder changelog?)

Take off or not (IMHO author)

A similar rebalance 2.0 was arranged not so long ago by one of WoT's competitors - Armored Warfare: Project Armata of Mail.ru Corporation. The situation is also similar in that both projects were very loud at the start: WoWp was the game of Wargaming, the creator of the legendary "tanks", and Armata was in trouble, which was developed by the no less legendary Obsidian, also on the CryEngine engine, which provides advanced graphics at that time . In both cases, a large-scale PR campaign was launched, involving well-known bloggers and the media, but both projects failed miserably and soon lost their audience. After that, patch 2.0 followed (along with a powerful wave of PR, of course), the funny thing is that the patch notes are very similar: a new mode with respawn, a total rebalance, adding / removing a vehicle class, just the word "tank" was replaced with "aircraft", the story is absolutely identical . So it will not take off, you will not return old players, and new ones are busy with more attractive projects.

In addition to Total War Arena, the company Wargaming, whose representatives could be met in the business zone "Igromira 2017", showed reporters an updated version. Answered our questions Sergei Sitkevich, the operation manager of the game. We decided to find out what is so interesting in the Airplanes version 2.0. It is worth noting that the updated version has become available since October 11 and anyone can try it.

website: Sergei, hi. So the developers decided to radically change the game by releasing update 2.0?

Sergei Sitkevich: And there is! The release version of World of Warplanes was released in November 2013. Almost four years have passed since then. A lot of water has flown under the bridge and all that. But all this time, Airplanes had and has its own loyal audience, and most of it came to the game immediately after its release. However, after the release of the project, enough time has passed for the game to be rethought, reworked and give our audience a lot of new content and experiences.

website: Yes, yes, all the same, the version number 2.0 implies that everything has really changed there! Well, let's start from the beginning!

Sergei Sitkevich: Yes Yes! We have changed a lot! The mechanics of the game and victories have changed. We have reworked all game locations and now they have so-called territories, which are called sectors. They can be very different - it can be, for example, a factory, an air base or a command center. Each of these sectors has a unique game mechanic. For example, if an allied team owns an air base, then it can choose a plane if one of the players of this team has lost it.

website: What does owns mean? How can an airplane own something?

Sergei Sitkevich: Yes, good question! After all, as we know, in the historical reality, aviation is an auxiliary class of troops, the purpose of which is usually to conquer airspace and support ground armies. This is how we implement everything in the new game mode. Each sector is initially neutral and does not belong to any of the opposing teams. Planes fly over this sector - these are its defenders and initially they are neutral. Plus, this territory itself is a whole complex of buildings. The task of the teams, respectively, is to capture these sectors. To make them yours, you need to score a certain number of so-called capture points. They are given for the destruction of defending aircraft, ground objects, plus the planes of the other team, which will also capture this sector, will interfere with us. Accordingly, whoever scores more points becomes its owner. Now all the technology starts to work for you. By the way, there are sectors that create bombers under the control of artificial intelligence. Then these planes themselves fly to bomb enemy territories, helping you capture them. And sometimes military bases start firing V-1 missiles at enemy sectors, thereby destroying the ground facilities that are placed on them and helping to capture them. All sectors are worth victory points. The more sectors, the more points.

website: And if, for example, the opposing teams captured an equal number of sectors? Can the game be delayed?

Sergei Sitkevich: We also thought about this. After six minutes, the Stormfront event is activated, which cancels the ability to respawn and turns the game into, in fact, a deathmatch. Whose team will kill the enemy planes, she wins. By the way, it is possible that in the future we will change the time after which the revival is impossible.

website: What about technology? What will change in this regard in version 2.0?

Sergei Sitkevich: If in the previous version fighters played a key role and the whole gameplay was built around their battles, then in the new version all classes of vehicles are useful and effective in battle. Fighters help capture sectors by destroying defenders. They are great at defending their territory. A new bomber class has been added with its own unique gameplay. In general, all classes of aircraft play an important role on the field ... that is, in the battle sky. In addition, the possibility of manual control of the onboard arrows is implemented. During the flight, you can switch to the gunner - in this case, the control will be taken by the autopilot. And you, meanwhile, can fight off the enemy, who sat on your tail. In the future, we plan to create bombers with several gunners on board. The player will be able to switch between them and the pilot.

website: And the player, by the way, will not get confused in all these planes? Will he understand where the other players are, and where are the bot planes?

Sergei Sitkevich: Yes. Above the planes of other players there will be their nicknames, and above the planes-defenders there will be inscriptions informing about whether it is a light defender or a heavy one.

website: How much more of a threat will the defenders pose to the enemy?

Sergei Sitkevich: Defenders have high enough AI, so the players of the other team need to be on the lookout. At the same time, defending aircraft are weaker than aircraft controlled by players. As the level of combat increases, the task of destroying aircraft controlled by AI will become more difficult. On the other hand, more experienced users are already coming there who can handle it.

website: Will there be support for joysticks and gamepads in the new version?

Sergei Sitkevich: Of course! We have a lot of people playing not with a keyboard and mouse, but with joysticks and gamepads. The players were worried about what and how it would be with this case in the new version. So guys, don't worry! Everything is fine and everything will work.

website: By the way, will the physics of the game change somehow?

Sergei Sitkevich: Our game physics is simplified - partly due to the game engine, partly due to conscious decisions of game designers. There are not a number of elements that are in serious flight simulators. For example, we don't have a corkscrew. But, you know, we have more focus on the player's battle with enemy aircraft, and not with his own. In general, physics will not undergo any global changes.

website: What changes have been made to the graphics? Will this affect the system requirements of the game in any way?

Sergei Sitkevich: We have completely redesigned the graphics component. At the same time, despite the redesigned rendering, updated graphics and many new objects in locations, the system requirements of World of Warplanes have not changed much. In the future, we plan to make optimizations to the graphics, which will allow you to run the game even on rather weak computer configurations. We have changed the effects, textures of buildings and complexes, which were drawn completely from scratch. In addition, we have updated the interface, making it as convenient and minimalistic as possible. This was done so that nothing would distract the player and prevent him from enjoying the new version of World of Warplanes.

website: And will it be possible to play the old mode after the release of update 2.0?

Sergei Sitkevich: No. Now you can only play version 2.0 with all the innovations.

website: Will all player progress be saved?

Sergei Sitkevich: Yes, all planes will remain in the hangars, nothing will be lost.

website: And the bombers?

Sergei Sitkevich: We will introduce bombers. Nobody has them at the moment. So far, we are planning three cars of this class. They are premium and can only be purchased with gold or money. With the release of the update, we will launch a promotion where the player can win these planes. By completing certain tasks and winning battles, you will collect parts from a bomber, which you can then collect and get a whole plane. Later there will be entire branches of bombers, so sooner or later you will become the owner of the cherished machines of a new class.

website: And finally, your wishes to the players.

Sergei Sitkevich: Play only good games, and be sure to check out World of Warplanes version 2.0. See you in air combat!

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