Update 9.20.1 Release

October 17, 2017October 17, 2017 jerryatrick53

Changes and notes

This is in addition to the Video posted bellow.

Update 9.20.1 is dropping on 18 October, with a load of changes across the British, American, and Chinese lines, plus a veritable salvo of matchmaker adjustments, including balancing by vehicle roles. Personal Missions see a major overhaul with a new interface, improved rewards and revised completion mechanics designed to enhance the overall experience. Finally, Epic Medals and Battle Heroes achievements now get you Bonds. Read on for more details!

Downtime

EU Cluster: World of Tanks servers will be down on 18 October from 01:00 to 09:30 CEST (UTC+2) to get everything in order.

NA Cluster: World of Tanks servers will be down Wednesday, Oct. 18, from 01:00-07:30 PT (04:00-10:30 ET) to get everything in order.

Premium Accounts & payments

Current Premium players will be credited an additional 24 hours of Premium account time to make up for the maintenance period. If you’d like to make any in-game purchases, please wait until the servers are up and running again.

What’s new

Vehicle Rebalances

British TDs from the FV4005 Stage II line were revised to provide for a much more accessible experience, while the nation’s medium tanks at Tiers VIII–X cemented their role as mid-range support vehicles receiving stronger front armor. Heavy Brits from Tier VIII onward were reshaped into a coherent line built around the Conqueror’s gameplay with the all-new Super Conqueror replacing the FV215b at Tier X.

The update also ramps up the firepower of Tier X light tanks and reshuffles American LTs so that they offer unique, distinct gameplay. Finally, Chinese Premium tanks that grew obsolete over the years welcome a series of tweaks designed to make them relevant again.

We once again revisited the combat parameters of Super Conqueror, Conqueror, FV4005 Stage II, FV4004 Conway, and FV4202 (P) after your feedback from Common Tests. Head to the article on rebalances for more details.

Personal Mission Revisions

Listening to community feedback, we came through with a set of major changes to Personal Missions. Together with adjusting conditions to better reflect the current state of the game, 9.20.1 replaces Commendations with Orders and Components, which should streamline progression through the first campaign. We’ve taken steps to improve on navigation, too, with a revamped mission interface. We hope these changes improve your experience.

Bonds and Medals

If you haven’t made it to Tier X, enjoy playing at lower tiers, and excel at it, 9.20.1 gives you extra motivation to bring your A-game to the table every time you roll out. It makes Bonds an extra reward for Epic Medals and Battle Heroes achievements. Now, these rare accolades earned in Tier IV–X vehicles don’t just reinforce your personal record, but add a set number of Bonds to your accounts. This new rule only applies to medals received after the release of 9.20.1.

Matchmaker Improvements

Medium and heavy tanks are no longer distributed randomly. The matchmaker now organizes TDs, medium and heavy tanks into smaller packs grouped around a certain combat role, and it tries to ensure each side has a similar number of vehicles of the same role. Along with this, we addressed some of your most vocal requests: refined team assembly logic, increased the chances of getting matched in a Grand Battle, and more.

Now that you’re briefed on 9.20.1, let’s head to the battlefield together! We’ll continue to tweak and respond to feedback going forward, so keep it coming.

Full List of Changes

New Features

Update to the Personal Missions

Idea Behind Changes

Reworked the visual and sound component
Added new rewards
Revised mission conditions: to receive a reward vehicle, completion in vehicles of higher tiers is no longer required
Added Orders that simplify completion of the Personal Missions
Learn more about the changes to the Personal Missions in a special video that can be watched in the game client

Interface and Sound

Reworked all interfaces of the Personal Missions:

Changed the point of entry to the Personal Missions: now it is located on the upper panel of the Garage, under the Battle! button. The tab name is Campaign
Added the “General” screen that displays all operations
Completely reworked the screen of operations: now it looks like a geographical map with objectives displayed as map areas
Completely reworked the Campaign reward screen:
1. now the main reward (a vehicle) is located in the center of the screen
2. added operation statistics: now players can see how much more credits can be earned

Added new sounds:

Added a special sound track for the Personal Missions
Added interactive sounds: the more missions within a set are complete, the more intensive music is played

New Way of Earning Reward Vehicles

Commendations were replaced with Components:

To receive the reward vehicle for an operation, all five Components should be collected: hull, suspension, gun, power unit, radio
Each component corresponds to an appropriate mission set within the operation:
1. Power unit: set of missions for light tanks
2. Suspension: set of missions for medium tanks
3. Hull (+turret or cabin): set of missions for heavy tanks
4. Gun: set of missions for tank destroyers
5. Radio: set of missions for SPGs
To receive a component, the final (15th) mission of the corresponding set of missions should be completed

Orders

Added a new game asset: Order:

To receive an Order, the final mission of any set should be completed with honors
The Orders can be committed (i.e. used) to any mission. Thus:
1. The selected mission will be considered completed without honors
2. The player will receive the reward for the completion of the primary conditions
3. A used Order remains committed to the mission
4. The committed Order is not removed but disabled until the player retrieves it
To retrieve a committed order, the mission should be completed with honors. Thus, the player receives the Order back and can use it again.
Number of Orders to be committed to missions:
1. Any mission from 1 to 14 requires 1 Order
2. Mission 15 requires 4 Orders

Summary: orders can be used to pass complicated missions or missions that the player considers to be uninteresting. Important: players can commit Orders to the final mission of a set, even if the previous 14 missions are not completed. Having completed the four sets of missions with honors, players can immediately receive the last (fifth) vehicle component.

New Rewards

Added new rewards: badges

The rank II badge is received together with the reward vehicle.
The rank I badge is earned for completion of all 75 missions in a particular operation with honors.
Two badges can be completed in each operation:
1. After completing all missions in all operations, the player will receive the special unique badge: Campaign I Champion

Added new rewards: Camouflage patterns:

A set of three Camouflage patterns for the reward vehicle is earned for completion of all 75 missions
The same set of Camouflage patterns becomes available for any vehicle of the nation the reward vehicle belongs to, once all 75 missions are completed with honors
A set of three unique Camouflage patterns (summer, winter, and desert) can be earned for completion of each operation:

Changes to the Mission Conditions

Missions in each operation were revised to correspond to the main reward. For example, now all missions of the StuG IV operation can be completed in Tier V vehicles; missions of the T28 Heavy Tank Concept operation can be completed in VII vehicles, etc. At the same time, participation restrictions remained unchanged. Players can complete missions of any operation even in Tier X vehicles.

Secondary conditions of final (15th) missions in each set were made more diverse. This is because of the fact that the additional reward of the final missions became more valuable: it now provides Orders.

Important! If the mission condition requires spotting 5 enemy vehicles (for example), and the player spots 7 vehicles, it is obvious that the mission is considered completed. This rule is true for all numeric conditions.

The following missions underwent changes

StuG IV
Mission Change
LT-7
Primary condition

Before: Spot and cause damage to 1 SPG
Now: Cause damage to 1 SPG

LT-9
Primary condition

Before: Spot 2 enemy vehicles while remaining unspotted
Now: Spot 1 enemy vehicle while remaining unspotted

LT-12
Primary condition

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 500 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you. Remain unspotted at the moment when the damage is caused.
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 250 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you. Remain unspotted at the moment when the damage is caused.

LT-13
Primary condition

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 1,500 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 1,000 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you

LT-14
Primary condition

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 2,000 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 1,500 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you

LT-15
Primary condition

Before: Damage caused and damage caused with your assistance must total 4,000 HP
Now: Damage caused and damage caused with your assistance must total 3,000 HP

Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Enable your allies to cause damage to 4 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks.

MT-8
Primary condition

Before: Cause 500 HP of damage to medium tanks
Now: Cause 300 HP of damage to medium tanks

MT-9
Primary condition

Before: Cause 500 HP of damage to heavy tanks
Now: Cause 300 HP of damage to heavy tanks

MT-13
Primary condition

Before: Cause 3,000 HP of Damage (Personal/Platoon)
Now: Cause 2,000 HP of damage (Personal/Platoon)

MT-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Cause damage to 5 enemy vehicles.

HT-7
Primary condition

Before: Cause 1,000 HP of damage
Now: Cause 500 HP of damage

HT-8
Primary condition

Before: Cause 1,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks
Now: Cause 500 HP of damage to heavy tanks

HT-12
Primary condition

Before: Cause 1,000 HP of damage
Now: Cause 500 HP of damage

HT-15
Primary condition

Before: Cause, receive, and block a total of 6,000 of damage
Now: Cause, receive, and block a total of 4,000 of damage

Secondary condition

Before: Win the battle
Now: Win the battle. Cause 20% of total amount of damage caused by your team

TD-15
Primary condition

Before: Cause 3,000 HP of damage
Now: Cause 2,000 HP of damage

Secondary condition

Before: Destroy 1 vehicle
Now: Win the battle. Destroy 2 vehicles

SPG-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Cause 1,000 HP of damage.

T28 Heavy Tank Concept
Mission Change
LT-7
Primary condition

Before: Spot and cause damage to 2 SPGs
Now: Spot and cause damage to 1 SPG

LT-9
Primary condition

Before: Spot 4 enemy vehicles while remaining unspotted
Now: Spot 2 enemy vehicles while remaining unspotted

LT-12
Primary condition

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 1,000 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you. Remain unspotted at the moment when the damage is caused.
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 750 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you. Remain unspotted at the moment when the damage is caused.

LT-14
Primary condition

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 3,000 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 2,500 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you

LT-15
Primary condition

Before: Damage caused and damage caused with your assistance must total 5,000 HP
Now: Damage caused and damage caused with your assistance must total 4,000 HP

Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Enable your allies to cause damage to 5 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks.

MT-6
Primary condition

Before: Cause 3,000 damage to enemy vehicles of 3 different types
Now: Cause 2,000 damage to enemy vehicles of 3 different types

MT-8
Primary condition

Before: Cause 1,000 HP of damage to medium tanks
Now: Cause 750 HP of damage to medium tanks

MT-9
Primary condition

Before: Cause 1,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks
Now: Cause 750 HP of damage to heavy tanks

MT-12
Primary condition

Before: Cause 2,000 HP of damage
Now: Cause 1,500 HP of damage

MT-15
Primary condition

Before: Cause 2,000 damage to tank destroyers
Now: Cause 1,000 damage to tank destroyers. Destroy 2 tank destroyers.

Secondary condition

Before: Survive. Win the battle
Now: Win the battle. Cause damage to 6 enemy vehicles.

HT-7
Primary condition

Before: Cause 2,000 HP of damage
Now: Cause 1,000 HP of damage

HT-8
Primary condition

Before: Cause 2,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks
Now: Cause 1,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks

HT-12
Primary condition

Before: Cause 1,500 HP of damage
Now: Cause 1,000 HP of damage

HT-15
Primary condition

Before: Cause, receive, and block a total of 8,000 of damage
Now: Cause, receive, and block a total of 6,000 of damage

Secondary condition

Before: Win the battle
Now: Win the battle. Cause 20% of total amount of damage caused by your team.

TD-15
Primary condition

Before: Cause 4,000 HP of damage.
Now: Cause 3,000 HP of damage.

Secondary condition

Before: Destroy 2 vehicles
Now: Win the battle. Destroy 3 vehicles

SPG-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Cause 1,500 HP of damage.

T-55A
Mission Change
LT-3
Primary condition

Before: Spot 5 vehicles
Now: Spot 4 vehicles

LT-5
Secondary condition:

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause damage to 6 vehicles spotted by you
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause damage to 5 vehicles spotted by you

LT-6
Primary condition:

Before: Enable your allies to cause damage to 6 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks
Now: Enable your allies to cause damage to 5 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks

LT-7
Primary condition:

Before: Spot and cause damage to 3 SPGs
Now: Spot and cause damage to 1 SPG. Destroy 1 SPG

LT-9
Primary condition:

Before: Spot 6 vehicles while remaining unspotted
Now: Spot 4 enemy vehicles while remaining unspotted

LT-12
Primary condition:

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 2,000 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you. Remain unspotted at the moment when the damage is caused.
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause 1,500 HP of damage to vehicles spotted by you. Remain unspotted at the moment when the damage is caused.

LT-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Enable your allies to cause damage to 4 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks

MT-15
Primary condition

Before: Destroy 1 tank destroyer that is one tier higher
Now: Cause 2,500 Damage to tank destroyers

Secondary condition

Before: Survive. Win the battle. Cause 2,000 HP of damage
Now: Win the battle. Cause damage to 7 enemy vehicles.

HT-8
Primary condition

Before: Cause 3,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks
Now: Cause 2,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks

HT-14
Primary condition

Before: Destroy 6 vehicles of 3 different types
Now: Destroy 5 vehicles of 3 different types

HT-15
Secondary condition

Before: Win the battle
Now: Win the battle. Cause 25% of total amount of damage caused by your team.

TD-15
Secondary condition

Before: Destroy 3 vehicles
Now: Win the battle. Destroy 5 vehicles

SPG-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Cause 3,000 HP of damage.

Object 260
Mission Change
LT-3
Primary condition

Before: Spot 7 vehicles
Now: Spot 6 vehicles

LT-5
Secondary condition

Before: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause damage to 8 vehicles spotted by you
Now: Spot enemy vehicles and enable your allies to cause damage to 6 vehicles spotted by you

LT-6
Primary condition

Before: Enable your allies to cause damage to 8 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks
Now: Enable your allies to cause damage to 6 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks

LT-7
Primary condition

Before: Spot and cause damage to 3 SPGs. Destroy 1 SPG
Now: Spot and cause damage to 2 SPGs

LT-9
Primary condition

Before: Spot 7 vehicles while remaining unspotted
Now: Spot 6 vehicles while remaining unspotted

LT-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Enable your allies to cause damage to 5 vehicles by spotting them or destroying their tracks.

MT-15
Primary condition

Before: Cause 4,000 HP of damage to tank destroyers
Now: Cause 3,500 HP of damage to tank destroyers

Secondary condition

Before: Survive. Win the battle
Now: Win the battle. Cause damage to 8 enemy vehicles.

HT-8
Primary condition

Before: Cause 4,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks
Now: Cause 3,000 HP of damage to heavy tanks

HT-11
Primary condition

Before: Cause 5,000 HP of damage
Now: Cause 4,000 HP of damage

HT-14
Primary condition

Before: Destroy 8 vehicles of 3 different types
Now: Destroy 7 vehicles of 3 different types

HT-15
Secondary condition

Before: Win the battle
Now: Win the battle. Cause 25% of total amount of damage caused by your team.

TD-9
Primary condition

Before: Score 7 armor-penetrating hits in a row
Now: Score 6 armor-penetrating hits in a row

TD-15
Secondary condition

Before: Destroy 5 vehicles
Now: Win the battle. Destroy 6 vehicles

SPG-15
Secondary condition

Before: Survive
Now: Win the battle. Cause 4,000 HP of damage.

Bonds and Awards

Starting with Update 9.20.1, the Epic Medals and Battle Heroes achievements will be additionally rewarded with Bonds. Exceptions are accumulative medals. The number of Bonds is not final and might change.

Improvements to Bootcamp

Changes:

Disabled irrelevant options in the context menus of the vehicle research window, Tech Tree, and vehicle panel
Balanced the rewards (credits and experience) for victory and defeat when completing Bootcamp
Rewards received for completion of Bootcamp are displayed in the Notification Center
Added a notification that the reward is not received for repeated Bootcamp completion
Crew recruiting window was made more informative

Fixes:

Fixed issues related to inappropriate display of some interface elements in the Colorblind mode
Fixed issues related to saving and restoring the settings when entering Bootcamp and quitting it (vehicle panel and reticles)
Fixed issues related to inappropriate display of some game hints (losing concealment when shooting, returning to the base circle)
Fixed the rare issue related to inappropriate display of the Skip Tutorial button
Battle results were removed from the Notification Center in the mode
Fixed the issue related to display of the EULA window, when the game client is restarted
Updated the vehicle characteristics in the loading screens of Bootcamp
Music in battle, Garage, and in the final Bootcamp video no longer overlap
Added reward descriptions to the victory screen
Fixed issues related to bot behavior
Fixed the issues related to display of map borders

Improvements to the Grand Battle

The following changes were made to this battle type:

Message about victory or defeat: added a new message about victory of defeat so that players know when and why the battle ended. The message displays separate animations for victory, defeat, and draw. The additional text provides information why the battle is over. When a battle ends because the base is captured, the progress bar of base capturing gets locked right before the message is displayed to show that the battle outcome cannot be changed. This functionality globally applies to all Random and Ranked Battles.
Updated the reward tooltips that describe different completion conditions for the Grand Battle and other types of Random Battles. They were changed for simplicity of perception.
Improved the HUD in the Grand Battle: transparency of the team list background was decreased to make information more legible on light backgrounds (sky, water, etc.) Borders were added in the top panel to make the empty progress bars more distinctive.

Reworked a number of vehicles to HD quality

Vehicles that have been remodeled in HD:

M6
T-34-3
Batignolles-Châtillon 155 mle. 58
Batignolles-Châtillon 155 mle. 55
Vickers Medium Mk. I
Valentine
Vickers Medium Mk. II
Churchill I
Valentine AT
STB-1
Valentine II
Object 416
T-150
KV-4
T-44-122
FV215b

Switching to Wwise 2017.1.1

Switched to the new version, Wwise 2017.1.1, which allows further sound improvements.

Improvements to the Matchmaker

Now, the matchmaker attempts to assemble the teams considering the roles within the vehicle types: e.g., the Maus is matched against another Maus, Type 5 Heavy, or E 100, while the T57 Heavy is matched against the AMX 50B, etc. However, in some situations, the matchmaking by roles will not be mirrored, e.g. in case of Platoons that comprise vehicles of different roles.
Increased the chance of getting ranked at the top of the list for Platoon players.
Equal chances of getting ranked in the top/middle/bottom of the list for different vehicle classes (previously, heavy and medium tanks would end up in single-level battles way too often, while SPGs and TDs tended to get ±2 and ±1 setups).
Increased the chance of getting matched in a Grand Battle.