Commanders!
As you already know, on April 1, we generally don’t publish any non-serious content or change the game in a silly way, since we believe this to be a bit of a waste of resources and, quite frankly, given what’s happening in the world currently, few of us are in a joking mood. However, nobody says things can’t get interesting. For this year’s April Fool’s Day, we’ve prepared a special mode called Realistic Battles.
This 15 versus 15 PvP mode will allow you to experience Armored Warfare without the spotting system.
Simply put, all targets will be constantly visible and the rendering distance will be increased to 2 kilometers. At the same time, all spotting UI components (most notably, enemy vehicle silhouettes and markers) will be disabled and you’ll have to do without the penetration indicator as well. You will only see your allies on the minimap, not your enemies.
In other words, you’ll have to rely on your eyesight only to acquire the targets. No camouflage or spotting mechanisms will function, which means that various camouflage- and spotting-related abilities, skills and modules will not function in this mode. Auto-aiming and other target tracking abilities will not function either. Additionally, we’ll be disabling some specific abilities that could break the mode completely. These include Ophelia Kitescu's and Alisa Korhonen's main abilities.
Now, if you’re worried about the impact of this mode on your statistics, don’t be. It will be a separate mode with its own queue and will not affect your player statistics in any way. At the same time, this mode will not work for the completion of Contract Missions.
Camouflage-wise, since the vehicles will only be possible to track visually, we strongly recommend using green, brown and grey patterns for each respective environment. As you can imagine, a red base paint or a skin that makes the tank look like it is on fire will make it really easy for your enemies to see you. Then again, maybe that’s exactly the effect what you’re going for!
In summation:
- Spotting and camouflage mechanics are disabled
- All vehicles are constantly rendered within the radius of 2000 meters from your vehicle
- All spotting and tracking UI elements are disabled
- Spotting and camouflage skills and retrofits are disabled
- Only allies are shown on the minimap
- Penetration indicator is disabled
- Commander Ophelia Kitescu's and Alisa Korhonen's special abilities are disabled
- Battle does not count towards Contract Mission progress
- Battle does not count towards player statistics
The mode will be available for a limited time only (15 minutes per hour) and only for Tiers 7 to 10. For the sake of gameplay, the following vehicles will be excluded from it: SBS Pindad, Object 490, Leclerc T40, K-153C, RST-V Shadow and AS21.
There are three new achievements tied to it (with their own rewards) and we encourage you to complete them as soon as possible – once the mode gets retired, there’s no guarantee it’s ever coming back.
Please note: Much like on a real battlefield, it's often easy to mistake your allies for your enemies in this mode. Please make sure that you enable your Friendly Fire protection in the Settings. To do so, open the Settings menu, open the General tab, select the In Match section and enable the "No Friendly Fire" toggle. This way, your vehicle won't fire if the tank you are aiming at belongs to your team.
We hope that you’ll enjoy this mode as an entertaining diversion and, as always:
See you on the battlefield!
