Not technically a Mailbag, but here are the answers to some of the text questions we didn't get to during Rat Chat #9 on November 24th. Got a question that's been buggin' ya? Fire it off to the Mailbag!

Is there something wrong with bombs? why have only 2 Churchill7s died to bombs this map? - Guest1

There's nothing really wrong with bombs, they just aren't particularly good anti-tank weapons. This is especially true against big heavy targets like the Churchill. The game uses concussive resistance based on vehicle mass to shield the components, including crew from blast force damage. This can make killing the crew tough without a really great shot. If anything the bombs could probably stand to have the shrapnel mass divided up into a bit more pieces but this has the alternate effect of making each of those pieces weigh less and thus do less damage. In either case, penetration of tank armor from these pieces is not extremely likely.


Visual supply? trains, convoys etc.  - dworm9

Oh we wish! If we get the opportunity to do this we'd probably start with convoys but it is a huge system. We'd need some AI mechanisms on the host that just were not part of the original design to get that done and, at present, it's probably more work than the team can fit in. Things do change a lot around here though and if we get some more dev resources this would be a great core technology for us to develop.

Will 1.30 and 1.31 be short development cycles as in 2-3 months as opposed to 10 months...etc? - Geckopow

Both of these should be short turn arounds. 1.29 is primarily focused on finishing up the features for Project China including more training, China specific tiered game access, a tournament structure and a few other goodies like adding chat support for pinyin. 1.31 will drop a bunch of code changes relative to the Unity Upgrade and should be complete before summer.

Will we ever see Gliders for paratroopers? - Navalkid

Nothing on the current dev schedule for that.

Speaking of bomb load outs, when will we be able to provide high alt. CAS bombing with server side tracked bombs? - Trevor8

This is definitely on the list. I don't have a time table but the preliminary STO work is done. If Oliver ever gets some free time (HAR!) this will be one of the items to fill his plate.

The six million dollar question for the mailbag! : When will we see high res terrain, as in rolling hills with high res textures, the game fundamentally lacks this standard functionality? - Geckopow

As soon as I have 6 million dollars to develop it!

Are there some plans to change the terrain? like trees/landscape/bushes? - Dyex

Yes. 1.31 will have a whole new tree library with self shaded and multi-textured tree.

A few patches ago , we could see shockwaves and more fire in bomb blast, are there any plans to bring those visuals back? - Trevor8

No change that I am aware of but those effects will be redone for the Unity Upgrade and as always we expect more BOOM!

When are we getting rocket firing hawks? - XhammerX

There is nothing on the current dev schedule about these so I can't say.

Is it possiable to get your atg to go straight when you switch over to your number 2 guy? - Xcas

Possibly. Those things are notoriously bad handlers.

Do we have any plans for behind the line artillery?  Not ATG's but actual artillery that is behind the lines and fires at distance. - Slovski

Not at present. We keep our eye on this one though. We'd need the ordinance server for high altitude bombs first but once we get that in we might begin discussing the merits of raining death on other players from afar.