Today we’ll be doing a brief overview of the improvements and features coming in the Hornet’s Sting major update! We’ve already talked about some of the main changes and vehicles coming to the game in the CM Covert Disclosures article and vehicle dev blogs, so be sure to check those out to keep up to speed with what’s coming.

Updated Hit Effects

In this update, we’ve done a lot of work to update the effects of impacts on various surfaces in the game. Depending on the power of the projectile and its caliber, a funnel effect appears in the center of an explosion, throwing up clouds of dust and earth. Dirt, stone and small fragments are thrown into the air, forming a thick cloud together with the smoke of the charge. The effects of impacts look realistic for each type of surface, be it soil, snow or sand.

The effects of hits on the hulls of armored vehicles has been updated too. With the aim in mind to make these effects look more authentic, our artists looked at materials and video recordings from firing ranges. The result is that effects for shells exploding on armor, the effect of penetration and scattering sparks have now become more realistic. This change affects all types of caliber shells, including guided missiles.

Improvements to the Interface

As mentioned in the CM Covert Disclosures article, we’ve updated the stat cards for tank ammunition. Since then, we’ve finalized new stat cards for all secondary weapons, smoke grenades, machine gun and autocannon belts. All of the most important aspects of ammunition is shown at the top of the card, making it easy to glance at. The penetration effects and values for each shell are presented in detail too.

You’ll now be able to see your friend’s player profile background when hovering over their name in the in-game friends list. The squad leader will always display their current status, whether they’re still in-game trying to salvage a battle, or have left and are ready to play another.

Aerodynamic Hot Stuff!

Aerodynamic heating (where an object heats up when it travels at high speeds through the air) has been added to missiles and bombs. This will mean that it will be easier to lock on to these types of ammo with IR seekers at distance, all of course depending on the speed they are moving and how much they have heated up. This opens up new possibilities when trying to defend against missiles and bombs!

Naval battles: Hull Sections, Flooding and Arcade Aiming

We’ve reworked the mechanics of hull destruction for ships and are introducing new capabilities to the damage model of naval vessels. The updated hull strength mechanic closely tied with the loss of unsinkability is back and will affect battles of both coastal and bluewater fleet. Depending on the class and dimensions of a ship, when one or more sections of the hull are destroyed, the irreversible flooding process begins, leading to the destruction of the ship.

Small and medium boats will now be destroyed if any section of the hull accumulates damage equal to the amount required to destroy all other sections. For large ships, you’ll have to destroy three sections (except the front and end sections), however this will not be easier to do than destroying the ship in other ways.

Torpedoes and mines have been given a new type of damage called hydroshock, a sudden change in pressure from an explosion. Hydroshock will cause additional damage to the hull in the form of a high-pressure sphere, the radius and damage of which will directly depend on the power of the explosive.

There’s another piece of good news for naval players. In Arcade Mode, you no longer need to lead salvos, as the gunners will do it for you. Just aim the sight at the part of the hull you want to hit and press the fire button. The target will now always be in the sight’s field of view, even when firing on a collision course at long distances.

Lead time for missiles

For the F-16C, F-18C and Su-30SM, a lead circle will appear when launching air-to-air missiles, similar to the lead marker for aircraft cannons and machine guns. This displays the optimal lead direction for launching air-to-air missiles along the most effective trajectory.

Set up those radars!

If you’re a fan of top-tier jets and use your radar, we’ve now added the “Switch Radar/IRST gyro stabilization on/off” control that allows for more flexible control of the radar’s vertical viewing area. This will either stabilize it relative to the world coordinates (this was previously the case when the “Constant elevation of radar antenna” option was turned off), or fixing the antenna elevation angle relative to the aircraft’s axis, which now allows the scanning area to be adjusted using buttons and quickly returned to the center position using a new “Reset Radar/IRST direction to boresight” control.

The old “Constant elevation of radar antenna” option has been replaced with a new “Disable radar antenna gyro stabilization at mission start” option. This new one is responsible for which of the two modes of antenna vertical stabilization will be active at the start of the mission by default.

New Multi-Function Displays (MFDs)!

We’ve added a new flight instrument screen for the Su-30 and other modern Russian aircraft, while the Su-30 itself comes with a set of authentic displays that show the radar operation in different modes, including search by speed, as well as RWR screens and a screen for external weapons.

For the F-18 Hornet, two authentic displays of radar control in the azimuth-range and azimuth-elevation modes have also been added, as well as a page for external weapons on the MFD.

Try out all these new features and much more in the upcoming Hornet’s Sting major update! Thank you for reading and we’ll see you soon for more news!