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War Thunder [Official Site, Steam], the free to play MMO is now officially out of beta with a celebratory sale on their premium accounts to mark the occasion.

They also released a big update the day before, which adds two locations, a ton of new units, generic 3D cockpits for all aircraft and tons of other additions. You can see the full changelog here.

It's a truly huge update, so I might have to have another crack at it and see if it can hook me in now.

It's an incredibly popular game, as of right now over 17 thousand people are playing it according to Steam statistics. That's pretty impressive really, considering it's free to play and it has been in beta for quite a long time.

What do you think of War Thunder, have you put much time into it? Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Free Game, MMO, Steam
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16 comments

Hedaja Dec 21, 2016
Wait. It officially out of beta just now? Oo
I played it for a long time and it never felt like beta. It runs flawlessly on Linux with same performance as on Windows for me.
Unfortunately Gajin didn't do a version for Crossing :(
Teal Dec 21, 2016
Ey I am actually an International team Tech Mod for War Thunder so if you have any esoteric kinda problems to report you can try to contact me and I can see if I can help!

(And yes I have drowned unhealthy amount of time in this game)
Teal Dec 21, 2016
By the way if you care for pure gossip even if based on factual points, a separate studio will use War Thunder's game engine to build a first person shooter based on the same engine and their "System Requirements" section mentions "we will probably add support for Vulkan later on" which strongly implies War Thunder will get a Vulkan renderer as well, eventually. (This isn't based on my tech mod position, I have no insider info on the matter)


Last edited by Teal on 22 December 2016 at 9:27 am UTC
Schattenspiegel Dec 21, 2016
Finally cockpits for all them beatiful aircraft!
Colombo Dec 21, 2016
Teal: Just one thing. By default in Ubuntu is "repeat key after press" or something like that. I.e., if you hold key, it takes it as repeated press.

This however clashes with WT, which does not recognize this option.

Another thing, some destroyed tanks have broken texture or something with my fgrlx drivers. Once I destroyed enemy tank and it spit out broken rainbow that covered my whole vision. But since world is moving from fgrlx, it doesn't matter anymore. I should update to U16 anyway.
TheRiddick Dec 22, 2016
The key repeat issue doesn't appear to be a problem with Manjaro KDE, last time I checked.
liju Dec 22, 2016
I have played some hours with Steam Controller under SteamOS. Game run flawlessly although I could not fly planes well as controller was missing some keys. Is controller fully and natively supported now as game went out of beta?
Sil_el_mot Dec 22, 2016
I've read a lot about that the russian tanks are historically incorrect far better in comparison to others, mainly the german ones. Is this still a thing?
Tuxee Dec 22, 2016
I've read a lot about that the russian tanks are historically incorrect far better in comparison to others, mainly the german ones. Is this still a thing?

I suck terribly with both Russian tanks and planes. Therefore I never understood this "Russian bias" debates. Some single models seem to be overpowered and others are too vulnerable - but you find these in the trees of all nations.


Last edited by Tuxee on 22 December 2016 at 3:19 pm UTC
Teal Dec 22, 2016
I've read a lot about that the russian tanks are historically incorrect far better in comparison to others, mainly the german ones. Is this still a thing?

It's a load of bollocks spread by so called "wehraboos", whom are a phenomenon reaching far beyond the borders of this game's community.

Germany, together with Japan, gets far more "historical leeway" than the allied nations (mostly because they didn't develop any vehicles in the period right after the war) and Germany in particular is one of the most prolific choices both in Tanks as well as Aircraft.
Teal Dec 22, 2016
I have played some hours with Steam Controller under SteamOS. Game run flawlessly although I could not fly planes well as controller was missing some keys. Is controller fully and natively supported now as game went out of beta?

I have the Steam Controller but I haven't tried playing using it, however, like pretty much every simulator, the game requires a LOT of buttons. I am not quite sure you can fit every function on to the controller outside of binding a lot of combos, so I don't think the game attempts to implement a "full" control scheme for it, as it's up to you what you gonna sacrifice.

You can play the game on Steam - have you tried looking for some community based control schemes there?

Let me point out that even though the game is on PS4, it's generally considered better to plug a keyboard and mouse even into that.

So, yeah, it's not a very controller friendly kind of a game to begin with.


Last edited by Teal on 22 December 2016 at 10:19 am UTC
liju Dec 22, 2016
You can play the game on Steam - have you tried looking for some community based control schemes there?

Let me point out that even though the game is on PS4, it's generally considered better to plug a keyboard and mouse even into that.

So, yeah, it's not a very controller friendly kind of a game to begin with.

Thanks for the answer! (:

I will have to check it again. I used some of community schemes which one of them was very good for tank control after little tweaking. I loved the possibility to aim correction using gyro. Nevertheless for planes it was not really good. Will check again. Wondering how the controls of plane has been solved for PS4. My problem is my STeamMachine is in the living room and using keyboard with mouse is very unconvenient for me. I know I can stream the game to a laptop to the other room, but then I loose my big screen. Well I hope I can find community scheme now that solves plane control (:
Schattenspiegel Dec 22, 2016
Best way to use the steam controler in WT is to strap it to your head and use the gyro for headtracking ;-)

Concerning the nation balance: well there have been some rough times but currently it seems quite allright. Would still avoid tier V though since that is usually where things fall apart somewhat.


Last edited by Schattenspiegel on 22 December 2016 at 1:02 pm UTC
devland Dec 22, 2016
How much of a grind is it to play?
Tuxee Dec 22, 2016
How much of a grind is it to play?

Depends on your perception of "grind" (and your skill as player and whether you are on the winning team). It's F2P - you can just give it a try. Anyway, the grind up to tier 3 planes and tanks (approx 1938-1944 era) is mild. The very last prop planes and jets (t4/t5) are a different matter, though I still consider the gameplay on lower tiers more varied.
Korhaka Dec 22, 2016
Keep in mind most people are not playing through steam. This morning I looked and saw it over 60k online.

I would suggest you try all the game modes at least a few times, tanks and planes, arcade, realistic and simulator.

Then of course sometime next year we are getting naval forces, more patrol boats really, with maybe a frigate as the largest for players to control. But with AI capital ships. At least thats what I last heard the plan was.
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