Wargaming.net’s upcoming World of Warplanes (WoWP), an aerial version of their current mega-hit, World of Tanks is set to come out this year. Here is the latest trailer, showing off the German planes in the game:
The trailer includes the FW-56 Goshawk trainer, the famous BF-109G Messerschmidt fighter, the FW-57 fighter-bomber and the never-built butterfly-tail ME262 HG III jet fighter.
Note the mix of prop and jet aircraft.
The American plane trailer came out a bit earlier:
Known knowns
There’s a considerable amount of info on this game already in the public domain. Here is a brief summary:
Accounts
- WoT and WoWp accounts are to be unified. XP and gold can be transferred between your Wargaming accounts.
Gameplay
- Each round will start with players spawned in the air. At the end of the round, if you are still alive, you can try landing your bird for additional XP.
- You will be able to use both a Mouse and a Joystick to control your aircraft.
- Rounds will consist of 15 v 15 player battles.
- WoWP will have more gameplay modes than WoT. There will be a TDM of course and Escort missions (probably with non-player controlled bombers) which devs have already hinted at.
- Maps will be approximately 15 km x 15 km in size. Note that WoT maps are approximately 1 km x 1 km. The new maps will actually contain bits of the old WoT maps within them. Devs have already stated that, for example, the WoWP map El Hallouf will contain parts of WoT’s El Hallouf and Sand river.
- Flight sims can’t really make use of text chat in dogfights and thus Wargaming will implement voice chat for wingmen.
- As mentioned, there will be non-player controlled vehicles in the air with you. Most notably, the devs have announced that heavy bomber formations will consist of these NPC’s.
Damage models
- Your pilot cannot be killed, however he can be injured and piloting will be difficult and view range will be reduced. Injured NPC gunners in your aircraft will not shoot.
- Developers have stated that mid-air collisions will be implemented. A mid-air will reduce your health (HP). The amount of reduction will depend on a number of damage parameters (aircraft speed, weight, damaged equipment). You will be able to try and deliberately ram the enemy and chop off their tail with your prop…not unlike documented instances during WWII when pilots ran out of ammo.
- If fuel tanks are shot up, you will need to land, else you will run out of fuel, crash and then face a big repair bill.
Flight Models
- Aircraft will consist of models flown between 1929-1950s. That means that the top tiers in the game will probably feature the F86 Sabre and the notorious Mig 15.
- There will be 10 Tiers.
- German (Luftwaffe), U.S.A. and Soviet (VVS RKA) planes will be first out, followed by British, Japanese and probably Italian models.
- The flight model is being developed based on a realistic physics; however, there are slight arcade overtones: you can’t spin the plane for instance. You will be able to stall the plane. In fact, you will be able to conduct most popular combat maneuvers: barrel rolls, low-yo-yos, etc.
System Requirements
- Multi-core support has been confirmed.
- Devs indicate that if you can run WoT, you’ll run WoWP.
Check out what the devs have to say about the game on the official forums here.
Current Status
WoWP will be coming out of closed Alpha testing very shortly and enter into Closed Beta Testing within a month or so. Given its mix of arcade-like action and physics-based graphical realism, I think it will be a smash hit.
A challenger on the Horizon
The only thing that might come up and challenge WoWP’s aerial supremacy is yet another F2P air-to-air MMO shooter, also made by a Russian developer (Gaijin Entertainment), called World of Planes. Talk about confusing. Both games are Russian. Both are called “World of …..” and both feature WWII aircraft. Here’s Gaijin’s entry, for comparison:
I’m going to be in the Beta for both games, so stayed tuned, I hope to review them in the future!
