Good day everyone,

The following are patchnotes released on the 9.19 Supertest. The first bit was covered yesterday in the Ranked Battles post, but after that is some new info you might be interested in.

Game Features

1. Ranked Battles

Ranked Battles is a 15v15 mode exclusive to Tier X vehicles, where the first team to eliminate the opposition or capture their base secures victory. Basically, the setup is the same as Random Battles. And that’s where the similarity ends. Ranked Battles is all about individual results. Your ultimate goal here is to put on a stellar individual performance to climb the ladder, earning ranks and rewards along the way. Unlike Random Battles, your success depends directly on your results, not your team’s. The more successful you are in battle, the higher your rank in a special Random Battles ladder.

– Matchmaking. The matchmaker puts you in a team with players whose rank is similar to yours (±1). It will also create a team of comparable skill for you to compete against. Just as with Random Battles, if getting a ±1 match would take too long, the matchmaker will loosen its restrictions a bit to get you in a battle quickly. The two teams will always have the same number of players with any given rank. Simply put, you play alongside tankers of similar ranking and have competition to match. The higher your rank, the higher the competition that you face.

– Progression. Getting in the Top 12 by XP on the winning team earns you a chevron, taking you a step closer toward earning a new rank. So does getting in the Top 3 on the losing team. The 1st rank will cost you just one chevron, and the higher you climb, the more chevrons it takes you to progress. The bottom 3 players of the winning team do not earn a chevron, while the bottom 12 players of the defeated team lose a chevron.
Upon reaching the 1st and 5th ranks, you progress is saved so you don’t have to start the grind all over if you end up losing a few battles. On top of that, after you reach the 5th rank you get an option to prove your skill on a certain Tier X vehicle by leveling it to the max. The rules remain the same: participate in Ranked Battles in this tank, and the better your individual performance, the faster you progress. Just one exception here: the number of vehicle ranks isn’t limited.

– Timeline. Ranked Battles are divided into seasons. The first season will consist of four 7-day stages. When a new stage begins, rank leveling is reset to the beginning. The progress achieved by the end of day 7 is included in the leaderboard. When the season ends, your results over the last 28 days are totaled and you receive rewards, depending on your final standing.

– Economy. Along with the usual earnings per battle, you will get bonuses (сredits, consumables, and Personal Reserves) for reaching a new rank and fulfilling the special combat mission, exclusive to Ranked Battles. At the end of a season, you receive a certain amount of an all-new in-game currency, Bonds, which can’t be bought with credits or gold. Bonds can buy new consumables and improved equipment that significantly boost crew skills and vehicle parameters. The higher your score for the season, the more Bonds you earn.

– Improved equipment. Analogy of the standard equipment that already exist in the game. However it provides a bigger bonus to the technical characteristics. Such equipment can be bought with Bonds only.

– Directives. A new type of consumables used for increasing technical characteristics of vehicles. The directives can increase the bonus of the mounted equipment or learnt skills/perks of the crew members. A player can equip only one directive at a time. Once used in battle, a new directive needs to be purchased.

– Badges. Players can earn Badges (new vehicle customization element) as a reward for participation in a season. Badges are unique icons that will be displayed next to the player’s nickname in battle and everyone will be able to see it. This is the simplest way to show off.

2. Missions 2.0

The visual and functional part of the Missions and Specials window underwent considerable changes within the first iteration.

The Missions options will becomes available in the Garage: it allows displaying the corresponding screen. Missions are conventionally divided into three sections: strategic, tactical, and missions for the currently selected vehicle.

Strategic missions: tasks that require considerable efforts (for example, marathons).

Tactical missions: tasks that can be grouped according to their idea (for example, daily missions, Battle Training, etc.).

Each mission is displayed as a tile; all missions are logically sorted: high-priority missions are displayed at the top of the list. Each mission (tile) can be opened to view its detailed description. The new design of the Missions will simplify understanding of the game entity by players.

Now Specials are available as a Store menu option. There are various specials in the game: basically discounts for vehicles, consumables, experience conversion, etc. Each special is represented with a tile with a detailed description of the discount, its size, and other information. All specials are interactive: specials can be used right in the game client by clicking on the corresponding tile.

3. Clan Management.

The update extends clan management options. The following will be available in the game client:

– Distribute gold from the clan treasury
– Change ranks of clan members in the game client
– Transfer Clan Commander’s permissions
– View detailed statistics of clan members

4. Improvements to Strongholds 1.6

The below awards that could be received for Stronghold-related activities up to version 9.17.1 were transferred to the Special category:

– Skirmisher
– For Decisive Battles
– Capturer
– Fortress Crusher
– Retaliation

5. Changes to Particular Vehicles.

The following vehicles were reworked to the HD-quality:

KV-13
Т-44
IS-2
BDR G1B
Renault FT 75 BS
Renault UE 57
Renault FT AC
Alecto
Excelsior
Vickers Mk.E Type B
STA -1
MTLS-1G14

6. The Tank Company Battle mode was removed from the game.

Germany Tech Tree Changes
Vehicle added:

* Tiger 131

China Tech Tree Changes
Vehicles added:

* WZ-120-1G FT
* WZ-120G FT

U.S.S.R. Tech Tree Changes
Vehicles added:

* Т-103

USA Tech Tree Changes

Changes to vehicle parameters:
* M4A3E8 Sherman
* Improved armor of the gun mantlet

* M4A3E8 Fury
* Improved armor of the gun mantlet

* M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo
* Improved armor of the gun mantlet

Patch size:

350 MB for the SD-version of the client;
515 MB in addition to the HD-version of the client.