World of Tanks news » 8.6 Public Test [UPDATED]

Tankers!

We're pleased to announce that the 8.6 Public Test Server is now underway! Here's your chance to play with the new artillery pieces and the new Korean-inspired map, Sacred Valley. Keep in mind that this is a test phase for the 8.6 Update so expect there to be changes between what you experience during the Public Test and the final release update.

How the Public Test Works

To participate in the test you need to do the following steps:

• Install a small launcher update found here
  
• Update World of Tanks via the launcher (size: 4.96)
  

Be sure to install the test game launcher in a different folder, rather than the current game client version. Also, switch off the game client before installing the update. Only players who have registered prior to  May 26, 2013 at 0:00 UTC can participate in the Public Test.

Please, keep in mind certain features of the public test server:

• Payments are not accepted on the public test server.
• For the first iteration, all test accounts will receive a one-time credit of:
  
  • 100,000,000 XP
  • 100,000,000
  • 20,000
  • Progress won't be transferred to the main NA server.
  • Credits and experience rates will not be increased for this test.

Scheduled Server Restarts

Changes from Public Test v. 8.5 to v. 8.6

New Content

• New map added, Sacred Valley (Korea)
• Encounter Battle mode has been added to the following map: Mines, Lakeville, Redshire.
• New birds have been added to Ruinberg and Lakeville
• Improved the after-battle statistics report
  • Hits received' - each shot on players vehicle counts as one hit. All ricochets, screen armor damage and non-penetration shots also counts as hits received.
  • 'Penetrations' - all shots on player, which penetrated armor and dealt damage
  • 'HE damage' - all splash damage dealt to player vehicle
  • 'No damage' - all hits, on player's vehicle, which dealt no damage.
• Reworked the list of World of Tanks Industry Achievements seen at the login screen
• Removed following inscriptions: Popeye, Mickey Mouse, & Betty Boop. All players currently equipped with these inscriptions will receive compensation.
• Small improvements made to the Special Battle screen
• All new accounts will now receive tier I tanks with 100% crew

Tier X SPGs

As was announced previously, the artillery lines will run up to tier X. The current tier VIII artillery will shift up to the tier X slot and lower tier SPG's will fill in any gaps that are created as the tech trees are restructured.

The USSR SPG line has been reworked:

• Tier II - SU-18
• Tier III - SU-26
• Tier IV - SU-5
• Tier V - SU-122A (new vehicle)
• Tier VI - SU-8
• Tier VII - SU-51
• Tier VII - SU-14-1 (new vehicle)
• Tier VIII - SU-14
• Tier IX - Obj. 212
• Tier X - Obj. 261

The German SPG line has been reworked:

• Tier II - G.Pz. Mk. VI (e) (new vehicle)
• Tier III - Sturmpanzer I Bison
  
• Tier III - Wespe
• Tier IV - Pz.Sfl. IVb (new vehicle)
• Tier IV Sturmpanzer II
• Tier V - Sturmpanzer 38(t) Grille
• Tier VI - Hummel
• Tier VII - Gw Panther
• Tier VIII - G.W. Tiger (P) (new vehicle)
• Tier IX - Gw Tiger
• Tier X - Gw E-100

The American SPG line has been reworked:

• Tier II - T57
• Tier III - M37
• Tier IV - M7 Priest
• Tier V - M41
• Tier VI - M44 (new vehicle)
• Tier VII - M12
• Tier VIII - M40/M43
• Tier IX - M53/M55 (new vehicle)
• Tier X - T92

French SPG line has been reworked:

• Tier II - BS
• Tier III - Lorr.39LAM
• Tier IV - AMX 105 AM
• Tier V - AMX 105 AM mle. 47 (new vehicle)
• Tier VI - AMX-13 F3 AM
• Tier VII - Lorraine 155 50
• Tier VIII - Lorraine 155-151
• Tier IX - Bat.-Châtillon 155 55 (new vehicle)
• Tier X - Bat Chatillon 155

GAME MECHANICS

• Collision models for the following tanks have been improved: SU-8, SU-85B, Cromwell, Comet, Matilda Black Prince, SU-5, SU-76, Т95, Т92, M12, M41, M7 Priest, T57, G.W. E 100, G.W. Tiger, Hummel, Pz.Kpfw. V/IV, IS-6, Pz.Kpfw. III/IV, and Object 268.

• Reworked additional absorption bonuses for Spall Liner:
  • Small Spall Liner - 15%.
  • Medium Spall Liner - 20% (was 15%).
  • Large Spall Liner - 25% (was 15%).
  • For heavy tanks more than 70 tons we’ve added a super-heavy spall liner with additional absorption coefficient - 30%
  • All spall liners on vehicles with weight above 70 tons were dismounted, moved to the depot and changed to ‘Super-Heavy Spall Liners’

• New HEAT shell parameters:
  • HEAT shells are likely to ricochet if the impact angle is greater than 80 degrees. The armor penetration after ricochet will remain the same
  • After penetration, a HEAT shell cannot ricochet inside the tank (as the shell is transformed into a continuous stream)
  • After penetration, the HEAT shell will lose 5% of armor penetration force for each 10cm of traveling distance
  • After penetration, the force with which the HEAT shell continues to travel through the armor will take into account the angle of impact between the armor and penetration point
  • Suspension also counts as spaced armor

• Changed the mechanism of camouflage calculation when using a camouflage pattern and camouflage net:
  • From now on, the values for vehicles and camo patterns and camo net will be cumulative.  This means that the camouflage net and camouflage pattern will provide fixed bonuses which will only differ based on the class of the vehicle (for example, TD's will receive the highest bonus)
  • To avoid the likelihood of having nearly invisible TD's, it was decided to decrease the overall camouflage bonuses provided by bushes and fallen trees

• Increased income for high tier tanks (the full list of changes will be available later):
  • For tier X vehicles (except SPGs) income increased by an average of 10%.
  • For tier IX, VIII, VII, VI vehicles (except SPGs) income has also been increased but not quite to the degree of tier X

• Tracers have been temporary turned off:
  • Removed all tracers from unspotted enemy vehicles, except those from SPGs
  • The range at which SPGs can see other unspotted SPG’s tracer rounds while using artillery view has been reduced

• Changed the mechanism by which shot accuracy is calculated. The amount of shells traveling to the edge of the aiming reticule has been reduced by 20%
• Changed the mechanisms for calculating damage and penetration. The extreme numbers (high and low) will be randomly generated 5% less
• Removed decreasing coefficients of XP received from dealing damage on TDs an SPGs. TDs will receive 33% XP from damage, while SPG owners will notice 50% boost in the same parameter
• Added assist bonus for tracking enemy: if you track enemy and allies deal damage to it, or even destroy it, you will receive an XP bonus. Mechanism will work similarly to current damage on spotted vehicles mechanics
• Shell normalization of all ACPR and ARCP shells decreased from 5 to 2 degrees
• A mechanism which determines which player gets bonuses (XP, Credits, kill count) for damaging or killing tanks using physics (pushing into water or from cliffs etc.) was added
• Added compensation mode for vehicles moving in Sniper mode (can be enabled in settings by selecting ‘Use dynamic camera’ option)
• Rebalanced Tank Company requirements for different types of tanks. Now all ‘divisions’ will have same requirements for medium and heavy tanks, TD’s and SPG’s. Limitations for light tanks will still be in place

REBALANCING

• Gun elevation and depression of the Matilda Black Prince have been improved
• Balance changes have been made to the Fjords map. Also one-story wooden houses can now be now destroyed
• Balance changes have been made to the Assault Battle mode on Westfield
• Full re-balance of SPGs was made (full list of details will be available closer to the update)
• Overall velocity of SPG’s shells decreased (10-15% for regular guns and 50% for short mortar guns)
• Most SPG’s received an increase in reloading time by an average of 10-20%
• Re-balancing of premium shells has been performed (the full  list of changes will be available later):
  • Price adjustments have been performed according to the efficiency value, which was calculated for each type of shells taking into account its penetration value and damage
  • The price for some APCR/ACRP shells has been increased and, for some of them, reduced.
  • The price for almost all HEAT shells has been increased because they turned out to be cheaper despite the same efficiency as APCR/ACRP shells
  • Almost all premium HEAT shells remain without any changes except certain HE shell types

• Rebalancing of HE shells has been performed (the full list of changes will be available later):
  • Armor penetration of high tier HE shells was decreased
  • Middle tier HE shells (105-122 mm) armor penetration was significantly decreased
  • Players who had premium shells that had their characteristics changed were compensated with credits according to the shell’s purchase price

VISUALS

• VK 16.02 Leopard tank model has been significantly improved
• Visual models of the following tanks have been improved: Matilda Black Prince, SU-85B, SU-14, T26E4, G.W. Panther, SU-26, Hummel, Е-100 (turret has been moved 10 cm closer to the front), SU-18, Object 212, Т-54, BТ-2, АТ2, Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. G, Pz.Kpfw. I Ausf. C.
• Graphics have been improved on the following maps: Murovanka, Widepark , and Airfield
• Visual changes have been made to the Ruinberg map
• Reworked animation for base flags

SOUND IMPROVEMENTS

• Sound processing has been reworked. Now it’s possible to play more sounds without sound distortions while requiring less system resources
• Changed mechanics of ambient sound placement on the map. Removed dead zones, increased volume of wind in SPG’s artillery view, created new events for water, industrial objects and fire
• Decreased amount of sounds from tanks while driving over rough areas
• Increased distance of the firing sound, changed dependence of sounds from camera position, added physical model of hearing sounds from a distance
• Increased distance of other tank sounds, added Doppler effect to realism
• Increased variety of tank hit sounds
• Changed sounds of tank destruction
• Added 3D parameter to support 5.1 sound systems

TECHNICAL IMPROVEMENTS

• Reworked mechanism that informs players of a memory leak
• Added an automatic quality regulation system for tuning special effect depending on resource usage and system performance, which will reduce quality of effects (explosions, smokes and fire) automatically, if fps drop is detected

FIXES

• Corrections have been made in names of French tanks and their modules
• Fixed the low turning speed of some vehicles on bridges
• Added small corrections to tutorials
• Fixed collision models of small objects
• Fixed errors and improved display of dynamic shading effects
• Addressed issue with newer driver conflict with World of Tanks client