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The mainstay of Soviet armor!
Hey everyone,
Welcome to Dev Brief #125!
This week we’re excited to officially reveal the Soviet T-34 medium tank. Alongside that we’ve got a small update on how the armor reworking is coming along too!
We’ve got plenty of information and screenshots for you today, so let’s get stuck in…
The Soviet T-34
The T-34 was the primary medium tank design fielded by the Soviet Union in World War 2. Tracing its design lineage from the BT series of fast light tanks, the T-34 added additional armor and a larger gun to form a balanced and effective tank design.
The T-34 utilized the Christie type of suspension, which in conjunction with its wide tracks afforded the tank good off-road performance on the muddy roads of the rasputitsa season. Additional fuel tanks were mounted externally, extending the operating range of the T-34 significantly and often allowing it to drive directly into battle.
One of the most distinct characteristics of the T-34 was its usage of steeply sloped armor plates on the front, side, and rear. This gave it excellent protection given its weight and speed, and contributed significantly to its legendary reputation. The T-34 was equipped with a 76 millimetre gun, which was more than adequate for the targets it was facing at its introduction.
The type was not without its shortcomings, however. The bulky suspension and sloped armor limited space inside the tank, causing no shortage of discomfort for crews. The transmission was difficult to operate, sometimes needing to be hammered between gears.
The turret was barely enough for two men to squeeze in with the 76 millimetre gun, and thus the commander of the tank also had to fire the main gun. Optics were generally poor, and visibility out of the tank was much worse than the German equivalents of the time.
Overall, the T-34 was a well-armed, well-armored, manoeuvrable vehicle which performed valiantly as the mainstay of Soviet armor. Though suffering from a number of ergonomic issues for the crew, these tanks were solid vehicles able to be built in vast quantities by Soviet industry.
In-Game
As we redesign the vanilla vehicle roster, the T-34 will function as the staple medium tank for the Soviet forces – alongside the soon-to-be-introduced Panzer 4 and 75 mm gun M3 / M4 Sherman tank variant.
Player’s will need to learn to use the distinct armor angles of the T-34 to best effect in their positioning and orientation of the tank.
Armor Rework
The second and bulkier half of the armor rework is currently underway, with all tank handling performance being addressed, as well as an entire re-write of the angle and collision detection system of the heavy weaponry within the game. We’re also currently testing different interior components to give greater variation in the ways vehicles can be dealt with – beyond just a simple “catastrophic killâ€. We’re very excited to show more of this in the near future.
Video Competition Reminder
We have had some fantastic submissions so far for the video content competition. If you are unsure what that is, you can find all the details in last week’s developer briefing.
We want to thank everyone who has made a submission so far. A reminder that all submissions must be made by May 17th, so get recording and we look forward to watching them!
That’s all for this weeks Dev Brief, have a great weekend everyone.
We’ll see you on the frontline!
