Hello, hello!
We hope you are well, commander. In today’s DevBlog, we wanted to shine a light on three miscellaneous updates coming to
WARNO hot on the heels of the
BRUNE milestone (
released last week).
Before diving in, a quick word about
Army General. For those who really
really want to know when to expect this new mode, the simple answer is: “It’s done when it’s done.” Make no mistake, we are working very hard to get the campaigns out to you as soon as possible. As a matter of fact, we’ll be able to tell you much more about
Army General in next week’s DevBlog! Until then, hang tight!
So what’s coming to
WARNO?
Rank Reboot
First up is a
Rank Reboot. We will reboot the leaderboards and start several rounds of testing to see the best possible ranked format before
WARNO’s official release out of Early Access. What can you expect?
Map Pool Improvement We will select a pool of six maps. Limiting the number of maps gives novice players - or those returning after a while - the advantage that they will not have to relearn all the maps. Depending on the season, we change the map pool to make the experience more interesting and diverse.
Our first pick should include:
- Airport Duel
- Vertigo Duel
- Two Lakes Duel
- Black Forest Duel
- Black Forest
- Death Row
BalancingOur current plan is to aim for
Ranked Seasons lasting six to eight weeks. The shorter seasons will allow us to check the meta for each season. This gives us a good indication to analyze online game strategies and ensure that none becomes too overpowered or dominant. All for the best possible mix of playstyles. We will fine-tune the gameplay with each
Ranked season.
New Trait: Tandem
No, this new trait doesn’t refer to a tandem bicycle beloved by the Dutch but rather to
tandem-charged HEAT rounds. The introduction of reactive armor in the late 1970s and '80s, designed to defeat standard HEAT rounds and missiles, saw the development of new types of warheads. These were specifically created to deal with reactive armor by using two separate charges. Tandem-warheads’ first charge would detonate the reactive bricks, while a second one would punch through the resulting hole and explode on the (hopefully exposed and much weakened) steel armor.
As you might know, we introduced the new
ERA (Explosive Reactive Armor) trait, applicable to vehicles equipped with these bricks. This trait grants units featuring reactive armor a +2 HP bonus. However, when targeted by a shell or round (either tank rounds, infantry rocket launchers, or missiles) with the
Tandem trait,
ERA-traited vehicles will be dealt +1 damage. This represents the tandem-charges grinding through the reactive bricks. Mind you, the
Tandem trait doesn’t
undo reactive armor but destroys part of it on successful hits. Against non-ERA vehicles, the same rounds will perform as regular HEAT.
Next to retrofitting the new
Tandem trait to existing ammunition, we will also introduce a new one: the
TOW-2A. This new round will be used on the (refurbished)
Bradley M2A2 and
M3A2 (see further below).
Updated weapons- Panzerfaust 3
- RPG-7VR
- RPG-27
- RPG-29
- 9K121 Vikhr
- 9M113 Konkurs-M
- … and the new TOW-2A
As exemplified in the list above, the Soviets were not only much bigger implementers of ERA on their armored vehicles but also users of tandem-charge weapons compared to NATO. For being major reactive armor users, they believed NATO would do the same. In reality, only a very few NATO tanks (right now, only one present in-game, the
AMX-30 BRENUS) used reactive armor. Of course, if you pit Soviet-made vehicles against each other though, the ERA bricks and tandem-charge rounds would fly around your ears.
Meanwhile, NATO only belatedly developed tandem charges. The ones in-game will likely see plenty of use against ERA-clad Soviet main battle tanks.
The Return of the Bradley
Did they ever leave? No! But after our
BRUNE milestone, in which we introduced the reworked and expanded
Bradley series, we have replaced the
M2A2 Bradley IFV with the new but identical state-wise
M2A1.
This means that the
M2A2 will be updated in-game as the jacked-up IFV it was, with not only a major armor upgrade giving it more resilience to infantry AT weapons but also the ability to fire the newest
TOW-2A tandem-warhead charge missile (see above for more details).
The
M2A2 was still a rarity in 1989 compared to other models. Only around 10% of the
Bradley fleet deployed in Europe featured this specific model. Some say up to 20% of the
3rd Armored Division were
M2A2. As a result, we have retrofitted this particular
Bradley model to the
3rd Armored Division (but not the
24th Infantry Division) and only as a transport to the
FIRE TEAM LEADERS and a single “combat”
FIRE TEAM. We will also take the opportunity to introduce a new
M2A2 BRADLEY LDR., replacing one of the two cards of
M2A1 BRADLEY LDR.
Another, even rarer variant than the
M2A2 in 1989 was the
M3A2 BRADLEY CFV. This model contained the same upgrades as the
M2A1 (so, armor and ATGM). This recon variant of the American IFV will be featured only in the
11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. In this division, one of two cards of
M3A1 will be replaced with the
M3A2.
Until next week
That’s all for this week. Tune in again next week! Let us know what you think.
Join the passionate
WARNO community. Check the latest news on the
Steam News page or visit the
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See you on the battlefield, commander.