It wasn’t that long ago that the Polish heavies arrived,
and wheeled vehicles have just recently appeared.
But we’re already ready to show off something new.
Hello everyone! My name is Yuriy. I'm the Lead Balance Designer.
Hello! I'm Alexey Ilyin. I'm the World of Tanks Product Manager.
Now let’s talk about the new branch of the Swedish medium tanks.
Developer Diaries Swedish Medium Tanks
The first Swedish tanks were released in 2016, with two interesting branches.
For autoloader fans, there were the heavies with well-protected turrets
and guns with good depression angles.
And Swedish TDs were unlike anything in the game before.
The TD branch became the first branch with a special new game mechanic.
This was the so-called ‘siege’ mode.
We had our share of concerns
about how these innovations would be perceived by players.
Two years later, we can safely affirm that the vehicles became very popular.
The Swedish tech tree is one of the best trees regarding player demand.
Now it's time to expand it.
There are already Swedish medium tanks in the game.
But only up to Tier VII. After that, it’s a heavy tanks branch.
At the time of release,
there was an idea of expanding the medium tank line to Tier X.
And work was done with this in mind.
But there were no archive materials and no great gameplay concepts
for the top-tier tanks at the time. But now, we have a solution.
Researching the new branch of the Swedish medium tanks
will start at Tier VII with the Leo. Then for Tiers VIII, IX, and X…
we’ll add a kind of, well, let’s just call it a "sub-branch".
And traditionally, the main gameplay features are placed at higher tiers.
As you progress, you’ll be able to move along the heavy tank branch
or research these new medium tanks.
Starting from Tier VIII,
the Swedish medium tanks will all have this gameplay feature.
They will be able to adjust their clearance level
and change their hull inclination angle,
thus giving themselves better gun depression angles.
At the first glance, the suspension of the new Swedish medium tanks
is very similar to that of the Swedish TDs.
But in fact, there are more differences than similarities.
Siege mode doesn't give the Swedish medium tanks any other advantages
apart from additional hull inclination.
However, it's turned on automatically
as soon as the speed drops to a certain value.
Here's an example.
You roll up to the hill and decelerate to start aiming.
And when your speed is lower than 10 km/h,
the vehicle switches to this mode, and its suspension starts helping you.
If you start accelerating, and are going faster than 20 km/h,
the vehicle turns off this mode and its hull levels out.
And you continue to roll out as a regular medium tank.
Keep in mind, the speed at which the Swedish medium tanks enter this mode
is different from the speed needed to cancel it.
So what are the advantages of the new suspension?
This mechanic will benefit these tanks in unusual situations in-game.
The total depression angle can reach 13-14 degrees.
Let's talk details now and take a closer look at these tanks.
The candidates for the branch
were selected from the projects of the UDES 14 program.
By early 1970s, the Swedes decided they needed a replacement
for the British Centurions and homemade STRV 103 tanks.
The military came up with the requirements.
They wanted a combat vehicle weighing between 20 to 30 tons,
with a gun caliber from 105 to 120 mm,
the ability to ford water obstacles by swimming,
and, more importantly, a rotating turret.
It appeared that the STRV 103 was lacking.
Two companies worked on the project: Bofors and Hägglunds.
The first vehicle of the new branch is the UDES 14 at Tier VIII.
This is a medium tank with quite a traditional design.
It has a very good gun. The stock gun is 90 mm, but the top one is 105 mm.
Already at Tier VIII, players will be able to benefit from the suspension.
The vehicle design will be very similar to the regular medium tanks.
I mean you'll have a turret.
And the tank's silhouette will be quite high, similar to regular medium tanks.
So the only difference in gameplay will be the air suspension feature.
At Tier IX, we have a vehicle called the UDES 16.
It will only have researchable 105-mm guns.
Here we are on the final stretch. This vehicle is very similar to the top one.
Of course, their characteristics are slightly weaker,
with allowance for its tier.
What's interesting, it will have a researchable turret.
Here starts the gameplay with the 105-mm guns and good depression angles.
Players will be able to fully feel all advantages of this vehicle design,
its mechanics and gun strengths.
But enough about Tier IX.
Because everyone wants the Tier X vehicle. Let's talk more about it.
At Tier X, we have the UDES 15, the final vehicle in the branch.
Beside all above-mentioned features and the hydropneumatic suspension,
it also has a well-protected turret, shifted further towards the hull center.
So, the vehicle design is quite convenient.
Another vehicle feature is its 120-mm gun.
Not many medium tanks have such a gun at Tier X.
So the damage per shot will be high.
Regarding its use on the battlefield, it will have no equivalents.
Because a medium tank’s main task
is to reach certain positions faster than heavy tanks,
and do flank raids, and so on and so forth.
This Swedish medium tank should be played similarly.
But it has excellent gun depression angles
that you can use by playing from behind the terrain folds.
And the turret is very well-armored,
so it can even repel hits from other Tier X vehicles.
By the way, high damage per shot
should be a feature of all top-tier Swedish medium tanks.
There are several more common traits.
Surely it's the suspension giving the tank additional gun depression angles.
The armor with not-so impressive thickness.
But these vehicles are sturdier than they seem.
All tanks in the branch will have quite well-armored turrets.
In general, you will be able to shrug off shells
of medium tanks of the same tier and of some heavy tanks.
But hardly any from tank destroyers. The reasons for this are quite obvious.
The hull armor will have decent sloping.
But you shouldn't expose it because its armor is not that good.
The medium tanks won't have such a high reverse speed as the Swedish TDs.
They have the dynamics typical for their class.
In general, all these medium tanks won't be as fast as the French vehicles.
They are more like the Soviet medium tanks.
I mean they are quite mobile, but without any big surprises.
The top Swedish medium tanks contain another feature
of the national tank-building school: they are very compact.
I think everyone remembers the STRV 103B and its small size.
Both in terms of length and height.
So, the Tier X Swede will be of a similar size.
This will be one of the smallest Tier X tanks.
It will be very low and stealthy, and hard to hit.
Soon, the new Swedish tanks will be sent to Supertest
for the first iteration of testing.
First of all, we need to be sure that the new feature
of the Swedish medium tanks will fit into the game well.
We plan to test the Tier X tank first.
We'll see how its 120-mm gun performs.
If all goes well, we'll go down the branch.
If we have any issues with 120-mm gun,
we can just check how the vehicle with the 105-mm gun plays.
We can adjust the damage values.
At the moment, damage per shot at Tier X is planned in the range of 440-460.
It's quite a lot, yeah.
This requires a longer gun reload time,
and we have concerns it won't fit a medium tank.
Since there are no accurate historical prototypes,
we will use balance settings for them.
And depending on the sum of parameters,
we will take decision on the final characteristics
This gives us opportunity
to set up both speed and general mobility of the vehicles correctly.
As well as their firepower and armor.
We hope that these vehicles will be interesting
and bring you enjoyable gameplay.
Keep an eye out for more details.
Share your opinions on the forum and in the comments.
Stay tuned, and see you on the battlefield.