It's time to break our silence once again, this time for a comprehensive update on the state of our vehicles. Hot off the press from our resident vehicle programmer Shurek, here's what you have to look forward to in our upcoming patch!

First debuting in September 1944, the M36 Jackson, or “Slugger” as it came to be called, finally gave the American tank destroyer corps the firepower needed to engage German Panthers and Tigers at stand off ranges. Like previous US tank destroyer designs, the M36 was lightly armored with an open topped turret, making it extremely vulnerable to every enemy tank and AT weapon on the battlefield. Besides the hard hitting 90mm main gun, offsetting the deficiencies in armor protection, were the hydraulically powered traverse system and the vehicle’s quick off-road maneuverability.

Standard loadout for the M36 is APCBC (AP), HE, and a handful of HVAP.




That's not all Shurek's been working on though. In addition to the M36, you can also expect to see the Panzer III Ausf. N on a battlefield near you in the near future!

By late 1942, the Panzer III series was largely obsolete, having been supplanted on the battlefield by tanks with far better firepower and heavier armour protection. However, hundreds of reequipped Panzer III’s were used until the end of the war in a variety of different combat roles, including on the Western Front – for infantry support, command vehicle, and anti-partisan warfare. The Panzerkampfwagen III Ausf N was the final production version of the standard Panzer III, and the only version to be armed with the 7.5cm KwK L/24 gun. Loaded with a potent mix of HE, HEAT, and canister rounds – the Ausf. N is an opponent not to be taken lightly. Underestimate it – at your own peril.




On top of that, we have some more upgrades to the vehicle combat, as well as a slew of fixes and changes. Read on for more:

NEW FEATURES:

• Improved track damage model:
  
  • Hit areas are now better defined
  • Frontal and aft shots now have the possibility to take out tracks.
• Additional component damage:
  
  • Locational hits to the turret can disable traverse, or affect gun elevation.
  • Locational hits to the turret can cook off shells in turret ready racks.
  • Locational hits to driver’s area can damage controls or “disable” tank.
• Improved crew damage model:
  
  • Crewmen can now take fire damage (hot, hot!).
  • Hull gunners can now be struck by penetrating shots (damage to drivers and commanders added in the previous Betas).
• Added rider positions to the following tanks:
  
  • Sherman M4A1 75mm
  • Sherman M4A1 76mm
  • Sherman Firefly
  • Panzer III series
  • Panzer IV series
• New ammo icon art for Allied tanks

CHANGES/IMPROVEMENTS:

• Rolled back moving graticule feature for German and British tank gunsights. Targeting and ranging now done via the method used in stock RO, resulting in more precise aiming for widescreen and non-widescreen monitors alike.
• HE shells now use a range based penetration table system similar to AP rounds.
• Added a periscope view to Sherman 76mm commander’s position.
• Increased the range of movement for Stug and Jagdpanther scissor scopes.
• Increased smoke shell load out for Sherman, Stug, and Stuart.
• Modest increase to MG ammunition load outs for most tanks.
• Added a limited amount of APDS and HE shells to British 6-Pounder AT gun
• Added a limited amount of APCR rounds to Panther tanks
• Added a limited amount of HEAT rounds to Panzer IV tanks
• Tanks will now spawn without a round pre-loaded in the barrel if the player has Manual Reloading enabled for vehicles

BUG FIXES:

• Non-penetrating HE/HEAT shell hits can no longer trigger tank fires.
• Dual magnification optics now function properly.
• Revised models and rigging on the AT guns – now with much better hit detection as a result (many thanks to tt33).
• Captured AT guns are no longer invulnerable.
• British APDS rounds are now randomly inaccurate.
• Small arms fire can no longer penetrate armor and kill tank crews after a shell hit.
• Shots to tread areas no longer register as automatic armor penetrations.
• Significantly reduced the penetrating power of deflected shots.
• Stug and Jagdpanther gunnery optics can now be damaged. Including by small arms fire.
• Low hits on turret sides can no longer trigger the track damage code.
• Eliminated “floating” legacy hit zones above driver’s hatches that allowed for automatic penetration.
• Sherman commanders can now see over the top of their open hatches.
• Eliminated lean bug on Sherman M4A1 75mm
• Fixed bug that allowed riders in the German halftrack to take small arms fire through the vehicle’s sides.
• Fixed front hull armor thickness and slope values of M10 Wolverine and Achilles.
• Cromwell driver can now take small arms fire damage when unbuttoned.

Shurek has also sent me one other important thing to note:

So as he says, if you've got that particular tank in any of your maps, you'll need to remove it, otherwise that map will break and potentially crash servers whenever it tries to load.

The obvious question being asked lately is "so when is this actually coming out?!?" The answer to that is "soon" but unfortunately I can't give you a specific date (is anyone really surprised?). We had actually hoped to have this released a few weeks ago, however we've been having some on-going issues with an as-yet unannounced system and until that's solid, we can't release. Fortunately, I've made great strides in the last week and it looks like we're finally back on track to get something tangible out the door.

In the meantime we'll try to keep some info flowing to you about what is and isn't going to be included in the upcoming update.

Teh update! WOOT! YAAAY!

WOOT! Buh-bye Fire Bug (you bitch!)

Really nice work fellas. Now the real waiting begins

Outstanding good work gentlemen

Looking forwards to getting the update. Nice one.

Now we're talking

Yay those rocks!
espacially the Jackson

I clicked on the post and when it loaded I JIZZED IN MY PANTS

Absolutely thrilled to see some new tanks for both sides
Good work as always DEV team and keep it up

but that's not even the best part!!

But the M36 will now be the fear of Panzer IV and stugs

M36 = Panther Killer

That 90mm gun can punch right through the Panther's mantlet at 1,000 meters or more.

Hmmm, not quite. Also the Jackson had paper thin hull armor like the Wolverine and Achilles. Better be gunning from cover or in an ambush position otherwise you're cooked Spam.

Sorry, I'm under-whelmed. What's the Jackson going to do that the Firefly, M10 and Archilles can't do already? There's no mention of fixes to the paper armor of the Tiger1, and to a slightly lesser degree, the Panther.

I'll tell you what would possibly fix those issues at a stroke...getting rid of whatever damnable flaw/bug it is that makes everything in RO/DH appear further away than it actually is. Having to drive a tank to within 500m of a target to get it to appear as if it's 1000m away removes from the axis tanks the one main advantage they had in reality, being able to engage targets beyond the target's effective range.

What do you say?

"My Tiger1 went down to a shot from 1000m away, that's BS! Paper Tiger!"

"Actually, due to the visual-range bug/flaw you were actually hit from 500m away."

In the game, if you can get your head around it and remember to double the distance...well bugger, the target can now barely be seen! At 2000m? FORGET IT!!!

Another solution...double the armor thickness on all tanks, so they can survive at 500m (where they appear as if they're 1000m away in the actual game) what they could survive at 1000m. If that makes sense?

It can't go on as it is, with the tanks having to be at half the distance to see a target as it would be at twice the distance. THIS is why the perception exists that the axis armor is under-performing, would I be correct in that?

I have to say - great work guys! What I'm most excited about is all the little fixes/tweaks/additions to general gameplay. New vehicles, whilst interesting to see won't have such an impact on how we play the game.

But let me reiterate - super effort

Ted

For a Tiger "ace" you sure complain a lot. lol. Guess you must have missed the following points, all of which primarily benefit the "heavies":

BUG FIXES:

* Dual magnification optics now function properly.
* Non-penetrating HE/HEAT shell hits can no longer trigger tank fires.
* Small arms fire can no longer penetrate armor and kill tank crews after a shell hit.
* Shots to tread areas no longer register as automatic armor penetrations.
* Significantly reduced the penetrating power of deflected shots.
* Low hits on turret sides can no longer trigger the track damage code.
* Eliminated “floating” legacy hit zones above driver’s hatches that allowed for automatic penetration.