War Thunder Auto Cannon Nerfed - Update 1.29.57.0

Hello all,
While I was away Gaijin introduced a large update. Most of this is small fixes, with a reduced magazine loadout for some planes, etc. But the most important element, hidden at the middle of the list, was that they have nerfed the auto cannons: New heating parameters for large caliber automatic cannons M4, M10 and NS-37. Long bursts of more than 5-7 shells now lead to gun jamming!
I've only got very limited game time at the moment so I havn't really noticed this change, but I hope it is for the best.

 

The rest of the changes are as follows:

• Fixed: Air kills and assists counter malfunctions in some situations
  
• Render efficiency was improved
  
• Fixed: several shut-down issues
  
• New color indication of aircraft types in the development trees

• Added: tracer bullets for ammo belts for Japanese 7.7mm Type92 turret machine guns;
• Added: armor-piercing incendiary bullets for Brittish 7.7mm machine guns;
  
• Ammo belts for MG131 have been revised, now  immediate-action ammo belt has the correct type of bullets;
  
• Ammo racks for Japanese 20mm Type99 and Type99 Mk.2 cannons have been changed for better efficiency;
  
• Ammo racks for Japanese 30mm Type5 cannon have been changed for better efficiency;
  
• Tracers were removed for 30mm HEF (high-explosive fragmentation) shell for Type5 cannon;
  
• High-explosive fragmentation action of Japanese 20mm Type99 and Type99 Mk.2 HEF shells has been revised and improved;
  
• Improved localizations mistakes in the descriptions of ammo racks for 7.5mm,  7.7 mm and 7.92mm bullets;
  
• Added: custom ammo belts for Ju-87B2/R2/D3, OS2U.
  
• New heating parameters for large caliber automatic cannons M4, M10 and NS-37. Long bursts of more than 5-7 shells now lead to gun jamming!
  
• Improved materials for engine parts of single-engine fighters;
  
• Bf-109 F4 - number of shells for MG 151/20 cannon increased from 150 to 200;
  
• Bf-109 G2 - number of shells for MG 151/20 cannon increased from 150 to 200;
  
• Bf-109 G6 - number of shells for MK108 cannon increased from 60 to 65; wing mounted MK108 cannons now have 35 shells per cannon;
  
• Bf-109 K4 - number of shells for MK108 cannon reduced from 150 to 65, wing mounted MG151/20 cannons now have 135 shells per cannon;
  
• FW-190A-5 - number of bullets for MG17 machine-guns reduced from 1000 to 900 per gun;
  
• P-40e - number of bullets for M2 machine-guns was reduced from 425 to 235 per gun;
  
• F4U-1c - number of shells for AN/M2 cannons was increased from 220 to 231 per cannon;
  
• Spitfire Mk. IX - number of shells for Hispano MkII cannons increased from 60 to 120;
  
• A6M3 - number of shells for Type99 MkII cannons increased from 60 to 100;
  
• A6M2 and A6M2n - number of shells for Type99 MkI cannons reduced from 100 to 60;
  
• P-51b - number of shells for Hispano MkII cannons reduced from 280 to 125 shells for the first pair of cannons (closest to the fuselage, right and left) and from 350 to 125 for the second pair.

All the best,
Kasper

War Thunder New Update/Patch 1.29.33.0 New Damage Model

Gaijin posted the information on the new patch that updates the current beta to 1.29.33:

• More informative ammo belts description
• Shutdowns on Intel graphic cards are fixed
• Shutdowns on the ATI 1950/1650 are fixed
• Bug fix: engine sound dissapears when playing some maps
• Damage Model (DM) is fixed and now works as supposed in v.1.29
• Turret gunners behavior is changed

I'm glad for the extra information on the ammo belts, but the most important is this one "Damage Model (DM) is fixed and now works as supposed in v.1.29". Apparently the new damage model means that fighters are a bit more resilient, i.e. no more instant kills (unless you are flying Japanese planes, that is :-)).

Interestingly, a Gaijin representative (Borisych) stated the following on the Damage Model:
In general - we have different materials, different parts, we counting caliber, distance, type of ammo and angle of every single hit. Aim weak parts - cockpit, tail, engines - like in real combat, it works for almost every aircraft. Choose your ammo properly, try to control your bursts and follow the target - this all about skills and sometimes luck ;)
If that is true, it sounds like a great system. But the concept of aiming for weak parts while dog fighting and dodging incoming fire, manouvrering etc really is more about luck than anything else :-).

Otherwise the most interesting change is the "Turret gunners behavior is changed". What this means is propably just that they will hit more often? If so, this means no more sticking on a bomber's ass and hoping for the best :-). This change propably also applies to the AAA-gunners, so be careful around those...

All the best,
Kasper