Supersonic jet aircraft and air-to-air missiles

Aspius · Dec 10, 2018

We would like to tell you about a new aircraft class in War Thunder and also about guided air-to-air missiles and other new features in air battles that we will begin to implement after the release of update 1.85 “Supersonic”.

Aircraft have always been a very important part of War Thunder - it was the first vehicle type available in the game. Since the early days of War Thunder, we have recreated over 650 aircraft models - that’s the largest digital interactive collection of aviation in the world.And these are not just visual models, their flight characteristics, armament and other systems are thoroughly recreated in the game.

Initially we deliberately limited aircraft time periods with the golden age of piston-engine aircraft to the beginning of jet aviation, since these machines truly demonstrate the personal and tactical skill of a pilot. Guided missiles seemed to be a feature that will level all pilots independent of their skills, this is why we did not initially plan to implement them in the game. But the community has become more and more interested, so we decided to study the issue thoroughly and to find a way to implement this feature in our game.

We ran the first tests with ingame prototypes back in 2017 and we have been working on new game systems and new aircraft ever since. Finally, we are happy to introduce all of this to our players. Meet a new age of War Thunder aviation - rank 6 aircraft!
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In update 1.85 “Supersonic” we will introduce the first supersonic jets: The Soviet MiG 19PT, the American F-100D Super Sabre and the British Javelin Mk.9. All these aircraft are supersonic and they are armed with a new weapon type - air-to-air missiles with infrared (heat) seeking.

Air-to-air missiles are a new type of munitions in our game. Historically they appeared in the second half of the 20th century and were designed to solve the problem of hitting targets that were flying at extremely high speeds. The relative speeds of jet fighters were so high, that pilots could hardly aim efficiently with machine guns and cannons.

Air-to-air missiles have a long history of development, like aircraft. Modern missiles have great capabilities at finding and homing in to a target and their maneuverability surpasses that of modern jets.

If a target is captured by a homing device this usually means that it will achieve a hit. However this has not always been the case. The first air-to-air missiles had limited capabilities with capture range and possible overload. To capture a target a homing device needs some time to lock on to a target and all this time the pilot has to hold the target in a pretty narrow sector.

When noticing a missile launch, a targeted pilot could relatively easily evade it with sudden maneuvers or by flying the aircraft against the sun - infrared devices would lose their targets against such bright obstacle.

Being implemented in the game all these features and limitations allow us to believe that the new weapon type will not dramatically change the air battle experience but will add new opportunities that will make gameplay more diverse.
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Flessar · Dec 11, 2018

The OTOMATIC and all its Meme glory is also in the patch.

MagnusEffect · Dec 11, 2018

So more content locked behind a crazy amount of grind? Perfect.

Flessar · Dec 11, 2018

Well the Italian tree will be sparse atm, hopefully in their March patch they finish filling it out, but atm it seems there will be 20 total vehicles, allowing quick progress.

Tuonela · Dec 11, 2018

MagnusEffect said: ↑

So more content locked behind a crazy amount of grind? Perfect.
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Jets are ridiculous, ridiculous grind. I have some US ones. The issue is that to even get there is crazy, and once you get there you're stuck on a slow ass low-end jet that isn't upgraded going against full decked out better jets and you need kills to get more XP... its super easy.

MagnusEffect · Dec 11, 2018

Tuonela said: ↑

Jets are ridiculous, ridiculous grind. I have some US ones. The issue is that to even get there is crazy, and once you get there you're stuck on a slow ass low-end jet that isn't upgraded going against full decked out better jets and you need kills to get more XP... its super easy.
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Yeah, I learned long ago that matchmaking in that game gets worse the higher you climb in the tiers. The most fun I had in that game was in the first two tiers or so. The higher you climb in the tiers the more and more you run into people that do nothing but grind on WT all day every day. They are just absolutely no fun to play with. Gaijin can fuck right off with that high tier garbage.

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Supersonic jet aircraft and air-to-air missiles

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Supersonic jet aircraft and air-to-air missiles

Aspius Well Liked Hirdman

Flessar Well Liked Viking

MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

Flessar Well Liked Viking

Tuonela Well Liked Berserker

MagnusEffect Administrator Staff Member Jarl SC Huscarl

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