Greetings everyone! As we have announced on November 12 we will start a new Open Beta for the Multiplayer. In order to prepare everyone for it, we’re starting today a series of weekly dev diaries which will cover all the novelties contained in the new build. Without further ado, the word goes to Félix, creative director for the game!
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Last beta contained 4 specializations:
- US armored brigade
- US marines
- Russian Tank brigade
- Russian VDV (paratroopers)
Since a multiplayer battlegroup is a combination of 2 specializations you only had access to a single deck archetype per country.
This beta will contain 3 specializations per country, which means that for the first time you will have to choose an archetype when building your army.
There will be 2 brand new specializations that will be presented in detail in a dedicated dev blog for each of them as well as the 4 specializations you already know.
But do you really know them? Things have changed since the last beta. The specializations have been reorganized and we have taken your feedback into account. So some units have been added, some replaced, some transformed and of course a lot of prices and stats have been tweaked but we will not go that deep in the details here and let you discover that on November 12th when the new beta kicks in.
USMC
First the infantry, many of you have been complaining about the lack of Javelin missiles in the USMC armory. The affront is now repaired as the popular anti-tank weapon is now present in the USMC specialization in the form of different customizations for the CAAT (Combined anti-armor team). Alternatively to the double Dragon III missiles already available in the previous beta you can now choose to equip them with a Javelin, a TOW-2A or TOW-2B ATGM.
This 8 men strong heavy support team combines the anti-tank capability with heavy anti-infantry weapons like the M2 Browning or the Mk19 automatic grenade launcher which makes it particularly hard to bypass.
On top of that a new variant of the Marines rifle squad has been added, called Reserve Marines. These rear echelon troops are still 13 per squad but cheaper as don’t carry any anti-tank weapons. They still pack serious anti-infantry power however with 3 M249 and 3 M203 underbarrel grenade launchers in addition to their 10 M16A4.
Another important modification concerning the SMAW squad now called Assaultmen is the addition off the high-explosive anti-armor rockets offering up to 600mm of armor penetration The SRAW variant of the unit got repurposed as a heavy anti-infantry weapon since the SRAW MPV with blast-fragmentation warhead was in fact the most common variant available in the USMC inventory in reality.
A completely new vehicle called the ACV has been added. This is the newest wheeled transport recently acquired by the USMC. Able to carry a full squad of marines from ship to shore and then at high speed on roads, this new vehicle will provide a big mobility boost to the USMC deck as well as great fire power since it can be upgraded with a 30mm autocannon in a remotely operated turret.
The M1A1 FEP can now be equipped with the Trophy active protection system. This defensive upgrade can intercept up to 4 incoming missiles or infantry anti-tank rockets, considerably increasing the survivability of the tank.
The M60 Patton tank received a new upgrade transforming it into the M728CEV, an breaching vehicle equipped with a large 165mm gun absolutely deadly against infantry in buildings or anything lightly armored entering its range.
The AAVP-7 received a new armor upgrade called Survivability upgrade adding ceramic armor to the front and side of the vehicle. But most importantly a new version of the vehicle is now available in the support tab with two options:
The MICLIC which can fire 3 rocket projected cables fitted with explosive charges particularly devastating against buildings and entrenched infantry. And the CATFAE which can project 21 thermobaric rockets at short range.
As you can see the USMC specialization has been gaining some interesting tools allowing it to be played more aggressively. And to reinforce this logic we have taken the decision to move the HIMARS to another specialization as this long range artillery doesn’t fit with the idea of the Marines being primarily an assault force.
Oh, and I almost forgot, the F/A-18C got this 😀
The two F/A-18C and D loadout have been reworked:
The F/A-18C used to carry only air-to-air missiles or rocket pods while the F/A-18D was carrying the rest of the air-to-ground weaponry except for the conspicuous absence of laser guided bombs.
So while keeping the F-18C as the main air-to-air platform, and even reinforcing it in this role with the arrival of the AIM-174 long range missiles, we have transferred the dumb bombs to it and added laser guided bombs to the F/A-18D as well as a brand new weapon: the SLAAM-ER cruise missiles
Armored brigade
The changes to this specialization are less extensive than for the Marines but there are still several novelties like the M1150 Assault Breacher similar to the MICLIC of the marines but on a much sturdier Abrams chassis allowing it to throw its explosive charges from a very close distance without fearing infantry AT rockets.
The M109A7 Paladin an upgraded version of the A6 with more range and accuracy as well as its upgrade the M1299 Iron Thunder has been added to the armored specialization.
This autoloaded self propelled howitzer has a rapid fire power and a massive range. Just look at the length of this gun!
An upgraded version of the M270 MLRS is also available featuring 12 guided rockets with explosive or cluster warheads or 4 PrSM ballistic missiles to saturate the enemy air defense.
In addition to these new units All the modern A3 and A4 bradleys have been fitted with TOW-2B missiles with overfly attack shooting explosively formed penetrators through the thin armored roof of the target which makes them particularly dangerous against tanks.
VDV
One of the most noticeable changes when playing with the VDV is the fact that infantry transports can now be airdropped. This was not possible during previous beta and was preventing the deployment of very useful vehicles like the BTR-D Shkrezhet which can transport troops and are armed with anti-aircraft guns and missiles or the BMD-4M with their powerful 30mm autocannon coupled with a 100mm gun.
As a result some support vehicles like the Strela-10 or the Sturm-S that were added to this specialization during the previous beta to compensate for that shortcoming have been removed since you can now use the infantry transports as airdroppable support as it was supposed to be.
Another interesting change is that infantry is now allowed to use any transport vehicle that you have put in your deck and not only their dedicated transport. So if you add assault infantry with BMD-4 and anti aircraft infantry in BTR-D Shkrezet, you will be able to call the assault infantry with the Shkrezhet for instance.
For that reason you won’t find helicopters in the VDV infantry tab any more, they are all in the helicopter tab now. As a result the Mi-8AMTSh-VN placed in the recon tab which was a redundancy of the Mi-8AMTSh has been removed. But a new helicopter has been added : the Mi-24PN. This is a rather cheap attack helicopter with only a single pylon wired to shoot missiles so it has asymmetric loadouts.
We also observed during the previous beta that many players were forgetting to give the airdrop order to their cargo planes or were giving it at the last moment which forced the plane to make a loop to realign for the drop. To help with that, now when you call a transport plane it automatically performs an airdrop where you called it and goes back to base after that. You can of course cancel that by giving it any new order.
The Su-25T has been moved to another specialization and replaced by the Mi-35 an evolution of the Mig-29 with an extra pair of pylons carrying modern weaponry but retaining the same short flight time unless extra fuel tanks are added in place of weaponry.
Oh and by the way, this time we’re ready to let you play with nukes ;)
The Tu-160 will have the option to carry a Kh-102 nuclear cruise missile. Just make sure that you have cleared enemy radar AA or this missile will be intercepted like any other and it doesn’t exactly come for free.
The USA will also have a nuclear capable plane in the beta but this will be revealed later in another devblog.
One of the most regular criticisms was how squishy infantry felt and how ineffective light-anti tank rockets felt against vehicles.
We have addressed this issue in several ways:
- Infantry resilience has been buffed by 25%
- Light anti tank weaponry damage has been slightly increased from 10% to 25% depending on the case.
- Anti-tank rockets now create a critical effect on vehicles every time
- When a building collapses, instead of instantly killing everyone inside there is a probability for each soldier to survive.
- Sprint ability has been added to all infantry squads
As a result:
- Infantry is now less micro intensive as they die 25% slower from vehicle fire.
- They deal more damage to light vehicles so they are not overwhelmed as easily
- They still don’t do much to the frontal armor of a tank but can immobilize them much more rapidly than before. And an immobilized tank surrounded by enemy infantry is pretty much a dead tank.
- Large amounts of infantry cannot be erased instantly anymore by a building collapsing.
Infantry combat also felt really slow so we have made some modifications:
- Infantry rifles and machine guns damage has been increased.
- Suppressed weapons do more damage but their range and penetration has been reduced making them most effective at short range compared to regular rifles.
- Sniper rifles ignore buildings cover
- Marksman rifles ignore 50% of buildings cover
- Shotguns range has been reduced but damage increased a lot.
Some VDV infantry loadouts have been modified, the Spetsnaz now carry the laser designator instead of the Razvedka, they also have access to the RPG-16 a small but long range rocket launcher perfect for hit and run tactics against lightly armored support units after infiltrating enemy lines.
Drones also did not perform well during last beta so two important changes have happened to them:
- The smallest drones are now flying at low altitude making them impossible to be targeted by long range surface to air missiles.
- The largest drones like the Orion or the American **Redacted until next devblog** which are flying in high altitude have seen their optics doubled which allows them to operate from much further away and if used carefully can force the opponent to send a fighter in your direction to shoot them down.
As a side note VDV drones have received a new option to carry Kh-BPLA thermobaric missiles as an alternative to the anti-tank Kornet missile.
A change that doesn’t have any visual impact but has its importance is the addition of anti-infantry missiles to all dedicated ATGM carriers like the Kornet D-1. These units have been performing poorly in the previous beta and the decision was taken to give them some anti-infantry power to help them perform better. The loadout repartition is generally ⅔ anti-tank and ⅓ anti-infantry.
The Sprut-SD received and options to install spaced + slat armor which increased protection but removed the ability to airdrop the vehicle.
On top of all that several 3D models have been upgraded, gunners and drivers have been added whenever it was possible, many animations have been added to the units like doors opening, missiles reload, wavebreakers extending when the vehicles enters water, dirt is added when they go offroad and is removed when they go in the water…
The units play these animations from time to time in the hangar so if you are patient you can see them there.
Guard Tank brigade
Not much has changed in terms of units for the guard tank brigade except some price changes and some reshuffle in the support tab. The Tunguska has been removed while the Msta-S self propelled howitzer has been added.
The KamAZ-6560 has also been removed which means that this specialization is entirely reliant on the support options of its sister specialization.
Gun launched anti-tank missiles’ range has been increased a bit as the window of opportunity to shoot these missiles was too narrow and they were almost never used.
The T-14 Armata now benefits from 2 possible upgrades, one for its armor and the other to its missiles. You can choose between the long range fast flying Sprinter missile or the top atack SOkol-V missile.
This deck heavy on vehicles and support will also benefit from some general improvements:
- Vehicles automatically use their defensive smoke when missiles are threatening them. This only works if the missile has been in flight long enough so this will not protect you against ambushes or fast flying plane missiles so you have to remain careful. This function can be deactivated and reactivated by right clicking on the smoke button.
- Artillery now moves in range of the target if you give them the order to shoot outside of their maximum range.
- You can press T (fire mission shortcut) multiple times to switch between shell types, allowing for more reactive artillery strikes.
- Surface to air missiles efficiency has been improved with the addition of a new mechanic of near miss which allows a missile that would normally miss to explode near the enemy aircraft and deal partial damage.
- Some anti-aircraft missiles have also received a new guidance type called “Terminal guidance”. These missiles are guided by their shooter by default but have the possibility to go “pitbull” and activate their own seeker to become autonomous if the liaison with the shooter is lost or if the shooter loses the target.