Welcome to my website! Explore how the aircraft in the MMO War Thunder rank up against eachother in a racing setting. Online there are all sorts of videos pouring over every detail of an aircrafts given performance in a fight, but theres little to no commentary about these vehicles in other contexts. Which is why ive decided to 1. record the data and 2. make this website. I could have recorded a video pouring over methodolgy and testing, and actually I have. But if I want to update my data and add new vehicles that werent in that previous video and still make it public id have to make a new video. Which sounds like quite a bit of work. Besides its hard to really talk about every last detail that I discover while gathering the data. So ive decided to learn html, css, and javascript and make a website to host all the information. Eventually I hope to include every tech tree vehicle in the game in this website, however that'll take a significant amount of time.
Testing methodolgy
Every aircraft tested flew the exact same path. Below is the map:
The timer starts the moment the plane has passed over the starting line at speed. The starting line is the large bridge just south west of the "A point spawn" or Essen-Mulheim Airport. Its important the aircraft be going at speed because this is the longest and straightest part of the whole track and they need to maximize energy going into the first turn.
Every test the airplane is kept extrmely close to the water and is always kept between the trees. In a true multiplayer race its most important that these rules be followed, lest someone gets an unfair advantage. The finsh line is NOT a set bridge or set invisble line, but rather it is the percise moment the aircraft is flipped around AFTER it has reached the "RETURN TO BATTLE" warning. How can this be achieved percisely? Well, I am human, and my "teseting rig" is as robust as I can make it, following my methodolgy as closely as I can. I record the times on my phone with the timer app. Is this perfectly perfect 100% of the time? I cant say with certainty that it is; however this is why I gather five data points for each category and average them. So hopefully my math skills make up for my inability to be absolutley perfect.
Lastly im collecting five data points with MEC and AEC.
| MEC (Manual Engine Control) | AEC (Automatic Engine Control) |
|---|---|
| Requires several keybinds | Doesn't require any keybinds |
| Allows for fine control over several engine parameters | Doesnt allow for any control over the engine. |
| The pilot controls the cooling and thrust. | The game algorithm controls the cooling and thrust. |
During AEC tests I WEP until the temperature numbers are flashing red, then I continue under typical military power or 100% thorttle until the numbers return to a yellow number. Then I can WEP again and the cycle repeats. This closely simulates what a real player would have to do in order to finish the whole race, otherwise they would burn up their engine long before the finish. Likewise with MEC im manually controlling the oil/radiator controls, balancing performance and temperature along the way. When the temperature numbers are flashing red I must open the cowl flaps, come off WEP, and use military power; same as AEC. However, should I choose too (if I believe I can get a speed or time advantage) I can stay in military power and keep the cooling flaps tucked for an aerodynamic boost over the AEC test. Or I can open the flaps all the way and cool the engine as fast as possbile before returing to whatever previous setting I was running. In the MEC tests I was racing as fast as possible, doing whatever combination of cooling % and throttle to get the plane over the finish line asap.
If you wish to watch a video on the intial data collection I did back in April you can click here