Sunday 31 May 2015

31.05.2015 Q&A

Want a mod that disables the messages of dynamic platoons being created in enemy team? Here it is: https://www.dropbox.com/s/3e84f0i1gt5dwdf/dynSqadFx.zip

- There are no huge changes planned for now that would allow the developers to call a patch "1.0.0" and that's why numbers will continue like 9.10, 9.11 etc.
- Developers are working on new physics system;
- Developers are still working on Havok ("new destruction system");
- Developers as a joke wanted to make a test server with the earliest released version of the game on 1st of April but the version is so obsolete that it was not possible to start up;
- IS-5 will appear in random battles soon, it won't be sold but given for CW event;
- The process of balancing the IS-5 was standard;
- Developers are considering making the punishments for committing suicide and drowning stricter - to be on par with leaving the battle early;
- Developers are working on "compaint system 2.0";
- Developers are not planning an "afterburner" consumable (short bursts of speed) even though this consumable was tested once long time ago;
- The Domination was supposed to come out on 28.5.2015 but it was delayed until next week;
- Q: "In last six months several dozen CW vehicles were leaked even though CW is played only by 3 percent of players, why?" A (Storm): "Several dozen? Name one."
- Q: "Storm, you said before that you wanted feedback but where were you when we gave feedback on personal missions during their entry" A: "The results of the feedback can be seen in 9.8 for example. Yes, we are slow :( ";
- Q: "Storm, don't you want to take the bag of money you made and travel to your dream destination some far away?" A: "Difficult question. World of Tanks is basically my dream come true. Enjoy myself - makes no sense without any meaningful activity and I don't know how to do anything well apart from making games."
- All the KV-4 projects were planned with 107mm ZIS-6 gun;
- There is "no chance" of MBT-70 appearing in random battles;

Armored Warfare: Wartime and post-war Czechoslovak



Afternoon warriors,

Just finished my usual Sunday reading while hugging a Tribble in one hand and my "Bubble Bobble" cup on the other in the confort of a blanket caccoon and kitties sleeping on my feet (all about enjoying the small things). My choice for this week was the AW article from SilentStalker about the Czechoslovak armor development after the war: http://aw.my.com/us/wartime-and-post-war-czechoslovak-armor

Do. Recomend.


Yuri Pasholok Q&A

Hello warriors,

Yuri Pasholok (WG historical consultant) made another "interview" with FTA VK community. Here's what he said:

- Regarding the KV-4 and its rework to HD: the KV-4 project in the game is historical, it was proposed by a designer named Dukhov and it's goal was to use as many elements of KV-3 as possible in order to speed up the KV-4 production. The preliminary historical parameters of the vehicle can be found here: http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/2653499.html - they are preliminary but as you can see, this KV-4 version is lighter than the others. It would make no sense to change the vehicle into some other project in HD, especially since some KV-4 proposals resemble SPG's more than tanks.
- When reworking vehicles to HD, WG is using materials collected during last couple of years as much as possible;
- There's no point in replacing T110E5 with MBT-70;
- "Several dozen" well armored hightier vehicles are available for implementation but whether they will be implemented is another matter. Yuri Pasholok states that not spamming new regular branches is the right approach. According to him the game needs principally new game modes instead. New tanks implemented should be interesting or at least unusual - there's basically enough of those amongst hightier vehicles;
- It's theoretically possible to build a Sturmpanzer branch but whether it will be done is a question for game designers;
- There are almost no data on IS-4 based tank destroyer. There was a whole bunch of vehicles based on Object 701 (including Object 712, a bridgelayer), but there's no drawing available for the TD, only some schematic of 152mm guns mounts developed by the design bureau of Plant No.172, it's possible they are related;
- Swedish tanks are fine, they can build an entire branch. Italians are a bit worse off but principally they can build at least an entire MT branch;
- When asked whether "fast" Japanese light tanks exist, Yuri Pasholok replies that those tanks are basically the ones already in the game (Ha-Go, Ke-Ni, Ke-Ho). Ha-Go for example is originally a cavalry tank. The Japanese tank design school is very specific. It was heavily restricted by the vehicle weight requirements because the marines received the same tanks and their assault landing ships had the carrying capacity of 16-17 tons. The Japanese tanks were principally not bad, they were very comfortable from the crew placement point of view but the Japanese focus on navy and air force was noticeable.
- There are historical plans for another French light tank (Char 13t - 75) but there are no plans to put it into the game;
- There won't be a third Soviet heavy branch ("there were two main design bureaus, hence two main branches");
- The French heavies without autoloaders that were previously planned are "at least unusual". Yuri Pasholok is of the impression that the French in fact infected the Germans with their megalomania. The French had three projects of 150 ton weight category for example and two actually had full-scale mock-ups built. The number three means that three different companies made them - FCM, ARL and AMX.
- It's theoretically possible to introduce Shashmurin's KV-4 design as a TD (as well as two other designs that would fill that role);
- Regarding the ingame Borsig and WT Pz IV designs - most of it was just paper but the six-roadwheel Borsig type suspension was built;
- Whether M4 with FL10 turret will be implemented is a question for game designers not historians
- Chinese TD's are based on Soviet vehicles and their Chinese copies. However there are some unusual vehicles as well.
- Implementing the T58 Heavy Tank  would make no sense at this moment;
- E 10 will "not come before than Strv 103";
- It's possible to introduce the ZiS-30 TD into the game from historical point of view;
- Apparently the Object 726 would be too overpowered for WoT.

Saturday 30 May 2015

30.05.2015 Q&A

Not much for today:

- In 9.8 the IS-3 characteristics were not touched;
- Regarding the unveiled untextured Type 91 Japanese heavy tank model - player: "It looks like made from drywall" Yuri Pasholok: "It drives like that too."


And the daily, I know is a old one but this type of humor always manages to crack me up, nothing against French tanks although... the FCM36Pak40, AMX CDC and I are inseparable:

 

Temporary premium tanks confirmed

The temporary premium tanks or "tank renting" missions just got confirmed today on the Russian Wargaming Youtube channel. We will be able to rent the Lowe and IS-6 for 3 days.
It was also implied that a rare tank would be sold but we already know its the A-32 for RU.


Isn't Olga "Ola" so pretty? *smirk*

Pütnitz Museum photos

One of you, Tim V. (thank you sir!) wants to share some of his photos from his visit to the Pütnitz museum from nothern Germany. He says that every year they hold a "meeting" for vehicles from the soviet union and other eastern bloc states.

(For those who are in mobile, this post is picture heavy)




Armored Warfare Q&A W/ SilentStalker

Afternoon warriors,

yesterday streamed Armored Warfare while platooning with SilentStalker and when the servers went down for a short period we decided to make a Q&A  like good old times:


Let me know if you would like more of this in the future, would definitely work it out better.

Friday 29 May 2015

The Japanese heavies are coming

Hello warriors,

this is the first screenshot of the tier 3 Japanese heavy tank, Type 91. The Japanese heavy branch will start from the tier 2 Type 89 medium tank followed by this one. The vehicle was not mass-produced, only one prototype was made. The branch will come out in late summer.



29.05.2015 Q&A

Here it is:

- Storm confirms: WG now works actively with modmakers. XVM authors already fixed their mod for the Domination;
- The option for players to select the medals they want to show on the first tab was not yet developed;
- Storm confirms his opinion that over 60 FPS it doesn't really make much difference. When confronted with examples of games that gave advantage with maximum FPS, Storm states that these games have client-based physics and this physics system was dependent on frame rate;
- If you want your maps to load faster and are running the game from HDD, you should defragment it. Storm: "It can seriously help."
- If you see missing (black) textures in the patch 9.8, it's obsolete mods (specifically Jove's modpack)
- Apparently the Super Pershing will stay how it is now in HD;
- The "big penetration nerf" in the future will likely not concern premium vehicles (only tier 9 and 10 vehicles will be nerfed);
- Super Pershing front was "seriously buffed" according to Storm.


And the daily:
Source.

New Ranzar video

New Ranzar is up, this one is a bit dark but love it, specially that Serb!


Armored Warfare with Jingles

Yesterday did a couple matches  together with the Mighty Jingles in Armored Warfare and he decided to record it.
 Many of you been asking me to convince him to be back on streaming but in my opinion this is even better, just due to the fact that there are no streamsnipers ruining our experience and you can actually see him having fun and enjoying the games:

Svetlana Polovnikina on how WG interacts with playerbase

Hello warriors,

recently a lecture took place during one game conference where Svetlana Polovnikina from Wargaming talked about how Wargaming listens to its playerbase's feedback.

Her main points were:

- The developer has to know the opinion of the playerbase because he can no longer look at the game from player's perspective - he knows too much about its internal mechanics;
- Information about player opinions from open sources (including forums) is not reliable because it represents individual complaints, you need to have large polls to truly know the opinion;
- To ask players on the main game site is also not reliable since the sample will not represent the entire playerbase (not all players visit the game site);
- Developer questions "what and how" are answered by statistics. Questions "why" are answered by asking players;
- Analysis of poll results only makes sense in combination with statistics analysis since the player opinions change on short notice;
- Polls are effective only for getting opinions for specific issues, problems etc;
- According to WG observations the more experienced a player is, the more prone he is to rate the game negatively. That's why whenever there's a negative feedback, the developers always check who the complaining players are;
- Computer game playerbase is very loyal - few other fanbases are giving as positive feedback;
- Feedback is collected from many different platforms;
- The most difficult is to get the real opinion from leaving players.

A-32 on RU server



Brief news: The A-32, a pre-order EU tank that was in-game for three years will be sold on the RU server for the first time.

Yuri Pasholok Q&A

Hello warriors,

one of the owners of the Faster than All VK page went as a volunteer to work with Yuri Pasholok on the restoration of vehicles in Moscow. During that time he asked him some interesting questions. Here's what he learned.

- Current T28 (turretless) is supposed to be replaced by a T95 prototype. The thing is, there are now drawings of the said prototype, only documents and descriptions. Based on these documents it's something like the T28 HTC, only with  tracks. It is almost like a T95 armor-wise but with terrible mobility.
- The Mammut name is based on reality after all, the name appears in documents. As for the Mäuschen, that was how the vehicle was called in mid May 1942 (the variant with 150mm and 75mm guns);
- The IS-3 with autoloader loading mechanism is comparable to the one of the Object 279, Object 770 and Object 277. It's practically polo-automatic, the loader doesn't have to haul the shells around. The casette mechanism is missing from World of Tanks for balance purposes.
- The developers at Chelyabinsk were working on an Object 777 variant with an autoloader and oscillating turret. WG knows about it but considers introducing such a vehicle to the game to be "dangerous", they opted for the regular variant instead;
- It's theoretically possible to introduce Object 279 into the game but it would have to be nerfed to the ground, especially its impenetrable hull;
- Historians proposed to introduce the 150mm gun for the Maus into the game but this plan was denied (for gameplay reasons, to make Maus and E-100 different);
- The Japanese heavies will come but the most popular of them, the O-I, is only good enough to appear on tier 7 or 8. What will be the tier 10 is a mystery from historical point of view. A part of a track was found in Japan with the width of 80cm, which is too much for any known Japanese projects. Apparently the track is a part of a prototype that ended with building a turret. The turret was then used as bunker on concrete stand.

It's the turret from this photography:


Armored Warfare: M2 Bradley IFV

Armored Warfare just introduced the M2 Bradley Infantry fighting vehicle, check out its trailer:


And if you are not familiarized with this vehicle I recommend you to take a short read as well: http://aw.my.com/us/news/general/introducing-m2-bradley-ifv

Japanese Tiger

Morning lovely warriors!

Check out this picture of the Japanese Tiger, isn't it beautiful? Pity it will have the 88mm L/56 gun but then again, will be a tier 6 so its excused.


Made by Milkyman, he can be found here: https://www.milkym4n.com/

Better late than never.
Sh!t happens. :)

Thursday 28 May 2015

28.05.2015 Q&A

 Here it is:

- Storm admits that the post-battle results window in 0.9.8 is "unfinished" and will be fixed;
- Storm states that the best place to hit HD IS-3 is lower front plate (the turret roof weakspot is still there but it got much smaller);
- AMX 50 120 depression/elevation was not nerfed in HD;
- Storm confirms that the woman crew 0 perk mechanism was fixed, the first perk after the 0 ("BIA") perk now takes as much XP to level up as if it was the first perk;
- One player was stupid enough to post his problem with clan interface using his own clan that is called after Waffen SS unit - Storm was not amused (ban + clan disbanding) (RG: Very good call on that!)
- Regarding fighting banned mods, Storm states that making the client check the mods running against a list of banned mods would be pointless, that kind of protection would be broken within days;
- Same goes for only allowing "authorized" mods, it would get broken;
- Storm confirms that when downloading a SD client, you are still using the same textures as you used unless your texture quality was set on maximum. In other words, anyone who is not using maximum setting should select SD client in order to save space and download capacity;
- Storm confirms that the Domination mode will be like an event (football, races, Karl) and a temporary one, it was indeed delayed because of mods not working in it (XVM), Evilly confirms this info as well, mods are now affecting WG schedules.
- HD Type 59 and HD T-62A will have roughly the same armor as they do now;
- Developers are working on finding the cause of "twitching arty aim circle" bug in 9.8, so far without results. The current version is that it's simply bad connection of affected players and not a bug;
- Evilly confirms that personal reserves will be added a bit later.


And the daily (missed doing this :P ), Tanks from Norway, Ikzor shall be proud!

Thank you Abdool!

M48A2/T54E2/T123E6

Hello warriors,

as announced earlier, these are the stats of the new upcoming tier 10 CW reward tank that will appear in the 0.9.10 patch, M48A2/T54E2/T123E6 tank - yep, all three are a part of the vehicles's designation. It's basically a M48 hull, T54 turret and a 120mm T123E6 gun.




Description:

M48A2 is one of the American M48 medium tank series. This vehicle was a prototype. It existed in several variants different from each other by their turrets and guns. This tank represents the M48A2 hull armed with a 120mm T123E6 gun in the T54E2 turret. It was never mass produced.

Tier: 10 MT
Hitpoints: 2000
Engine: 825 hp
Weight: 49,714 tons
Power-to-weight: 16,59 hp/t
Maximum speed: 48,3/20 km/h
Hull traverse: 50 deg/s
Turret traverse: 39,6 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 0,767/0,863/1,726
Viewrange: 400
Radio range: 776,9

Mammut update

A little update,

Alexei Inaki Ilyin confirmed that there would be either a tier 8 Mammut with 128mm gun or a tier 9 with 150mm.

Which one you think would be the best (according to the tiers)?

Armored Warfare: Early Access Trailer

Little voice in my mind was telling to take a look at youtube, and yep, was missing this... Check out the Early access trailer from Armored Warfare, just love it:


M48A2/T54E2 on supertest today

Hello warriors,

according to Aleksei "Inaki" Ilyin, a vehicle that will appear today on supertest will be the M48A2/T54E2 hybrid (hull and turret), a tier 10 event tank with 120mm gun. The hull will be about as good as the one of current tier 10 (identical), the gun will be a classic 120mm American gun. Mobility wise this vehicle will be similar to other American high tier mediums.




Very Stronk famous tanker!

This one left us laughing here...

One of you, Bernardo "PzBarkhorn" Bringhenti, was  enjoying his time while reading about various famous WWII tankers on the internet. As usual, Google gave him a listing with associated names and he noticed something peculiar... there is a British spy in this list!


Storm's Q&A

- Regarding the 9.8 bugs - player: "So WG has 'best QA' in business, huh?" A: "No need to write such garbage here";
- Storm was defending the name "Mammut" on the forums but according to Yuri Pasholok, the name "Mammut" is fake because it's not on any of the documents. It's not certain where its source (Michael Fröhlich and his book on Maus) took it from.
- According to Storm, more than 60 FPS doesn't make much sense because above 60 FPS the brain can't tell the difference anyway;
- Some players claimed that reworked Karelia has some stones transparent (can be shot through). Storm states that to fix this sou should put landscape quality at lest one degree higher than minimum;
- Various marathons ("get 150k XP, get a tank") are not decided by developers but by the publishing department;
- Q: "I wish that the person who decided to put guns above 150mm on tier 7 arty would suffer" A: "I strongly suggest you calm down and not post personal attacks. Only warning."
- Spotting system was not touched in 9.8;
- Q: "How will you deal with banned mod?" A: "Unfortunately there is no universal solution."
- "Domination" mode on 9.8 is delayed, according to Storm: "It's because of mods. XVM doesn't work with it because the UI got changed somewhat in it." (so mods are now causing content delays?)

Super Pershing Buffed

 Good new for the Super Pershing cry babies (like myself ;P )!

The Super Pershing with the garage is the SD version (from before 0.9.8), the other is HD. The armor displayed is without spaced armor. As you can see the previous one had a huge space behind the turret (green zone) while the new one has that space covered by armor (completely unhistorical) so the turret got in theory a massive buff.



"Mammut" in WoT

Hello warriors,

from supertest comes a picture of the Mammut (clearly an unfinished model) in battle. Not sure why but this is how it looks.


Wednesday 27 May 2015

Type 59, T-62A and M46 Patton Renders

Hello warriors,

here's Type 59, T-62A and M46 Patton in HD. These are renders, the texture quality will be lower in the game.



26.05.2015 Q&A

- Storm doesn't agree that the shadows under tanks (that you cannot disable now) should be possible to turn off ("it's made so that the tanks don't look like they are hovering in the air"). In fact, quite the opposite: "When we improve the shadows to have better performance, we will make it so that they won't be possible to switch off at all on any settings."
- Storm confirms that the minimal shadows that cannot be disabled under the tank have no influence on FPS
- some players do not like the change to the post-battle window (specifically that the name of the map and mode disappeared), Storm took note
- shadows were not touched in 9.8
- some players are annoyed by the automated announcement of dynamic platoon creation on enemy team, Storm answers that he honestly doesn't consider this a problem, there is no way to disable this message but Storm will monitor the forums and if there are lots of annoyed reports about this, it will be reviewed
- Type T-34 and Type 58 tracks have different colors, this will be fixed
- HD M10 Wolverine received a new top engine (it was apparently not properly announced)
- Storm reacting on players complaining on 9.8 bugs: "Where were you all during 9.8 testing? How come all was okay back then?"
- Storm confirms that it's completely possible for dynamic platoons to break the rule that both teams have to have the same amount of platoons
- according to Storm the credit bonus personal reserve missions were removed because the developers don't want to break the game economy and players are earning enough credits as it is
- in the future, developers will check whether popular mods are working with their patches (to make sure they do)
- T-62A changes when it comes in HD? "Wait for the test, more I cannot say"
- personal reserves will be activated before 9.9
- the archive (game files) reformatting in 9.8 is a part of the game optimization process, maps are loading faster
- Storm on XVM creators: "I am not diminishing their merits. But saying that they are fixing all the issues of the game is wrong" (context: players were whining that they HAVE to install XVM because without it they are missing critical features)
- Storm states that the chat displaying links as smileys will not be fixed, it's intentional
- in 9.8, the "Sisterhood of steel" perk was fixed, now it is really a 0 level perk
- the circle render range was never promised for 0.9.8 according to Storm. It will come but later.
- Storm states that 90 percent of game crashes during map loading are caused by mods
- there is nothing new regarding ultra-HD textures for now
- developers are still working on extra XP for tanking
- the "thank you" function (for good teammates) is not planned for now
- there is apparently a bug in 9.8 where dynamic platoons get identical numbers as regular ones, this will be fixed
- progress indicator for individual missions in battle is planned
- apparently there is a bug in 9.8 where the arty aim circle twitches nastily, Storm is aware of the issue now
- in 9.8, when you complete the 15th individual mission, you cannot select an other individual mission of the same class (for another vehicle) before you accept the reward (the "girl") - this is intentional
- session statistics and damage log in the game? "There are reasons why these things are not implemented."


From a podcast interview regarding CW 2.0:

- there will be an "absolute" category clan tournament soon, it will be announced in June (transcript says July but that's likely a typo)
- when you capture a province, it will lose 1 level of upgrade
- CW 2.0 will be split into seasons
- the first test of CW 2.0 consists both of veteran players and noobs, all in all around 100 clans participated in the test
- CW 2.0 open beta will be in summer, it will be released after that
- when attacking a Stronghold belonging to a noob (bad rating) clan, good players will not be able to use artillery strike and air strike but the noobs will
- it will be possible to farm influence in Stronghold mode

Armored Warfare: Czechoslovak armor before WW2



Check out this article from Armored Warfare about the Czechoslovak armor pre-WW2: http://aw.my.com/us/czechoslovak-armor-ww2

Very good read as usual but then again, it was written by SilentStalker. :)

WW2 weapons alive and well in Syria

Hello warriors,

here's something interesting. You probably heard of the major Sturmgewehr 44 cache found in Syria and used by the terrorists. Here's another relic from terrorist use: the 105mm German LeFH 18 howitzer that was used before and during WW2 by nazi Germany, as published by Washington Post:



I really wonder where do they get the ammunition for that...

Wargaming profitable more than ever

Hello warriors,

not so long ago Wargaming announced its strategic partnership with casual mobile game producer, Melesta. This trade only confirms that according to all the indicators, Wargaming is doing better than ever. Early 2015 report by the SuperData company estimates the profits of Wargaming as such (in millions of USD):



In 2014, World of Tanks entered the top 5 most popular free to play MMO's in the world. This is a data table by company Newzoo, showing Wargaming on 4th position.


According to Wargaming itself, World of Tanks has 110 million registered accounts worldwide. It will be interesting to see how well does World of Warship do in the stiff competition.

Armored Warfare Early Access starts today

Hello warriors,

just a quick piece of info: the Early Access phase of AW starts today. There was an announcement with all the conditions on the AW portal last night.





The first round of testing runs until 3.6.2015, here are the testing times:

EU Server:
6pm – 9pm CEST on weekdays
5pm – 10pm CEST on weekends


NA Server:
8pm – 11pm ET on weekdays
7pm – midnight ET on weekends




Tuesday 26 May 2015

New World of Papoj

Very good World of Papoj this week, giggled at a couple of them:


26.05.2015 Q&A

 On EU server, patch 9.7 will be released tomorrow. You can read about it here.

- Storm confirms: Mäuschen will be the replacement for VK4502B, not Mammut
- Mäuschen replacement: "when it's done it's done"
- some vehicles that are present in WoT had canvas (or other fabric) over certain parts of them (notably the mantlet). Storm states that this is not in the game because the fabric texture doesn't display properly, this will be fixed in time
- in 0.9.8 a RU player reports an issue where he gets some weird text spam, claims he has no mods. Storm states that everything's alright on his end
- even with shadows turned off the one shadow under your tank cannot be disabled
- apparently if you leave a dynamic platoon during battle, platoon-based personal missions should still count

Tier 8 "Mammut" on supertest

Hello warriors,

the Mammut tank from yesterday has a new version on supertest today - a tier 8 one. Armor is the same (see linked post), characteristics are as such. The gun was switched from 150mm to 128mm apparently (either that or 150mm alpha was reduced for "balance reasons").


Characteristics (100 percent crew)

Tier: 8 HT
Hitpoints: 1750
Engine: 720 hp
Weight: 120 tons
Power-to-weight: 6 hp/t
Maximum speed: 20/15 km/h
Hull traverse: 18 deg/s
Turret traverse: 20,9 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 0,767/0,959/1,726
Viewrange: 370
Radio range: 740,4

Hull armor: 100/80/?
Turret armor: 120/120/?

Gun: 128mm KwK (?)
Damage: 490
Penetration: 210
ROF: 4,171
DPM: 2044
Reload: 14,384
Accuracy: 0,384
Aimtime: 2,68s
Depression: -8

9.8 problems on RU server

Hello warriors,

according to even Wargaming, 9.8 patch that came out today on RU turned out to be problematic. According to the post on Russian portal, the Stronghold mode is experiencing issues (specifically the planned battles in calendar are not displayed). Developers are working on a fix and the central server will be resetted.

Whether this will affect the deployment on EU and NA is not known.

IS-5 event coming

Hello warriors,

as confirmed earlier by the Russian developers, the IS-5 will be a CW tank. Now we also know when it will come:






Fluke (CW dev): "If all goes well, we will announce the event on 1st or 2nd of June"

MCM London Comic Con May 2015

Morning lovely warriors,

on the past week I've moved out together with my kittens. I'm now single (not ready to mingle) for the first time in over 5 years, excited for what the future holds and happy for what Ive been making my present. Been on the road having great adventures (maybe one day will tell them :P) and managing my new place to be able to work since then (a very close and trustworthy friend been keeping the blog afloat while I was away <3) but this past weekend decided to experience my first "nerd fest" at MCM London Comic Con together with the Mighty Jingles:


It was amazing! I love how friendly the cosplay community is, they don't care if you are short, tall, chubby or skinny, they are there for the costumes and even those who are clearly the type that would get bullied at school or work blossomed while role-playing their characters.

I will definitely be back but next time will be cosplaying, haven't yet chosen what so give me a hand in the comment section, this is what I have in mind for the moment:
  • Star Trek Original Series Officer with dress uniform (maybe as a Vulcan or Trill specie)
  • Battlestar Galactica Female Adama
  • The Legend of Zelda Midna Princess (Chibi/imp form)
  • G.I. Joe Baroness Cobra Commander
If you also have ideas of what I could cosplay besides these do share them as well!

*hugs*

Myths about "Mammut"

Hello warriors,

that didn't take long: Russian players started spreading rumors about the upcoming tier 9 "Mammut" tank. I will post this here just in case any make it to the EU/NA server.

The first news that emerged was that that Mammut will replace the VK4502B instead of Mäuschen. Nope, Mäuschen is still the replacement. The "Mammut" is an event tank (tier 9 CW/special event/whatever). What the purpose of the game will be we might learn soon as Aleksei "Inaki" Ilyin (one of the producers) stated Wargaming might release more info today.

Interestingly enough, according to Inaki its tier is not set yet completely - it's possible that this vehicle will be either tier 8 or tier 9. Unfortunately, it's also not a replacement for the (seriously unhistorical) VK4502A.

Some videomakers (Jove) started also spreading that this tank is completely fake, made by Wargaming. Nope, it existed, you can read about it here in Thor_Hammerschlag's article.

The Mammut is most likely a CW tank as it is too early to implement tanks for next round of individual missions but it could be something new entirely.

Monday 25 May 2015

25.05.2015 Q&A

 Russian server will be testing the CW 2.0 from 27.5.2015 onwards. Russian server 9.8 patch is coming tomorrow with Domination coming on a day later.

- Russian 9.8 patchnotes included a strange entry: "individual discounts for premium account". According to Storm this is a result of a description bug in the game that led to the wrong entry in test patchnotes. On the other hand, another developer on the official forums says something else: "This new feature will help active players levelling up new vehicles by giving them individual discounts on premium account using some vehicles of certain tier. The discounts are not limited by time. More info on this later"
- Storm states that there isn't a "whole bunch of game modes" in WoT because it would mean 30 minute battle queues
- the MM has one minute to create a battle using all the rules, after one minute the additional MM rules start to be "softened"
- Storm admits that the MM has problems: "There are problems, their solution is one of the things that are in the development queue"

Oh and this was posted by one of the devs on RU forum (text says "Wild hunt")





Supertest statistics

Hello warriors,

ever wondered what the mythical "supertest" is and how many players are there testing vehicles?

Supertest is an assembly of regular players (not experts or professional) testing various WoT elements internally for Wargaming. In theory they are all under non-disclosure agreement but from the previous posts you can see how well that is working. Supertest is exclusively RU-server. There used to be an European supertest but it was closed two years ago after series of leaks.

The following post (leaked from supertest internal forums) shows the numbers and distribution of winrate amongst the supertesters. There are apparently 629 supertesters in total with such winrates (Marokko is supertester leader):


9.8 Overview

Hello warriors,

here's the official 9.8 update video (in Russian for now). The patch is going out on RU server tomorrow with Domination mode starting on 28.5.2015. English subtitles are available.






HD T110E5

From the Wargaming video...


"Mammut" tier 9 on supertest

Hello warriors,

another German tier 9 heavy tank made it to the supertest, this time it's called "Mammut". It is one of the Maus predecessors, you can read about it here. Please note that this is an event tank, NOT the VK4502B replacement. The model seems... unifinished.





Description:


A version of the Maus tank from 4.6.1942. This 120 ton predecessor of the superheavy tank remained one of the stages of the Maus project. It was never built and it did not participate in combat.

Characteristics (100 percent crew)

Tier: 9 HT
Hitpoints: 2000
Engine: 720 hp
Weight: 120 tons
Power-to-weight: 9 hp/t
Maximum speed: 20/15 km/h
Hull traverse: 18 deg/s
Turret traverse: 20,9 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 0,767/0,959/1,726
Viewrange: 390
Radio range: 740,4


9.8 Super Pershing: nerfed or not?

Hello warriors,

here's another video with penetration testing. Was the tank nerfed? Or wasn't it? I'll leave that for you to decide.


Reminder: 9.8 removal of premium tanks from shop

Hello warriors,

just a quick reminder: as was confirmed earlier, Sexton I, SU-85I, Ram II and Panzer IV Schmalturm are getting removed from the ingame store when the patch 9.8 come (they will be available in the premium shop until 8.6.2015).

According to RU server sources, the 9.8 patch might be coming tomorrow to RU (which means EU this week). If you want to purchase any of the vehicles above for gold and not money, now might be a good time to have a look at them - especially the Panzer IV Schmalturm - keep in mind that when it comes in HD (which should be according to developers relatively soon), it will receive the Schurzen (side armor) as a part of its hitbox.

Storm's mini Q&A (pretty useless)

- Q: "When will the issue with gold shells be exactly resolved? When will you hardcap them or make them more expensive?" A: "Never"
- Q: "T32 in HD sucks and it's too easy to penetrate!" A: "How sad"
- Q: "Why did you stop with gold-for-password-change events?" A: "I don't know."

About HEAT rounds:

- Q: "Did you change the HEAT shell normalization?" A: "Yes. It was 0 degrees and after long discussions we decided to change it to 0 degrees." (yes, from 0 to 0, not a typo, just Storm being sarcastic)
- Q: "Don't you fear that you'll lose the playerbase after such big decisions? :)" A: "What can I do. Sometimes it's worth taking a risk."
- Q: "And maybe you could multiply the normalization by two?" A: "Also an option."

Japanese Tiger visual model details

Hello warriors,

the Japanese Tiger in the game (Japanese heavy tank premium) is apparently not modelled historically correctly. An analysis came from Eun Sun Ae, a Japanese/Korean historian - based on the two published photographs of the Tiger the Japanese tried to purchase as well as some unpublished ones from Japanese archives. The notes have been summed into a picture, I think you'll find it interesting:



Sunday 24 May 2015

24.05.2015 Q&A

- 30750 AMX 13 57 GF tanks (the Warsaw Grand Finals version) were sold in total
- according to the Insider (unconfirmed info), developers are looking into making the artillery HE shells work differently from other HE shells (different mechanics to make the gameplay more interesting), this is however not even a project yet, just a line of thought that may or may not be accepted
- developers (Storm) have no interest or authority to deal with support tickets, that's what support service is for in the game
- it will be possible to disable the battle performance badges coming in 9.8
- battle performance badge for damage dealt will not be displayed if you deal damage to an unspotted enemy
- platoon achievements (medals) will work even for dynamic platoons

And to make your Sunday evening better, here's something (thanks to Lostwingman)

ESL bans players for random-legal mods

Hello warriors,

this weekend was very eventful in e-sports as in an unexplained step ESL has decided to ban a large number of players (including some top teams) using even completely legal mods from ESL for two years (from e-sports) and for one week (in the game). The mods that the players were banned for include XVM, Aslain's pack and Oldskool mods.

Previously, ESL banned the use of cheats (Warpack etc.) and mods that are forbidden by Wargaming using this list (see "Creation of derivative works" section, points 5.1 to 5.10).

When asking ESL support about the incident, the players were simply told not to use any mods and that nothing can be done about it. Yesterday, ESL administration issued a statement that the bans were legit and that they won't be overturned. The reason this happened was that WG or ESL staff developed and issued an anti-cheating tool (external resident software) that detected the presence of illicit mods but did nothing - until now, when everyone was simply banned all at once, which means that if you used a cheat mod at any point while the software was running, you'd get "on the list".

As of now it seems clear that the decision will not be overturned and a large number of players will continue to be banned for two years. Several notable WGL PRO players said that they are actually fine with the decision as well - the outrage is not completely universal.

The entire affair once again shows how bad it is not to have clear guidelines about what is allowed and what is not. Some administrators clearly consider tolerated modpacks to be cheating and quite honestly, modpacks that involve things like enemy reload timers, fallen tree indicators and other such things should be considered so. It is up to Wargaming to set the rules more clearly.

Super Pershing 0.9.8 mantlet nerf

Hello warriors,

here's a comparison of the turret durability of the SD Pershing (0.9.7) and HD Pershing (0.9.8 test). If you remember, Storm wrote that the 0.9.7 Super Pershing has an unintentionally durable turret and that while this was not what the developers wanted, it won't be changed because the SP is a premium vehicle and WG doesn't

According to the test posted on Russian forums (SP mantlet versus T34 gun) however it was changed and the mantlet was nerfed - now it is much less durable.




And what is your opinion? Was the Super Pershing in 0.9.8 nerfed?

Final Object 777 stats

Hello warriors,

the Object 777 was changed one more time. According to the supertester leakers, these stats are final until the 0.9.9 common test, in which the vehicle will allegedly appear in supertester hands.

- DPM was buffed from 1995 to 2238,3
- reload was buffed from 13,233 to 11,795
- ROF buffed from 4,534 to 5,087
- accuracy buffed from 0,374 to 0,345
- aimtime buffed from 2,88 to 2,59
- significant buff to accuracy on the move
- gun depression buffed from -3 to -5
- hull traverse buffed from 27 to 28
- ground resistance buffed from 1,247/1,534/2,685 to 1,151/1,342/2,493



So the current stats are:

Tier: 10 HT
Hitpoints: 2100
Engine: 850 hp
Weight: 49,8 tons
Power-to-weight: 17,07 hp/t
Maximum speed: 50/16 km/h
Hull traverse: 28 deg/s
Turret traverse: 24 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,151/1,342/2,493
Viewrange: 390
Radio range: 850

Hull armor: 132/115/?
Turret armor: 258/225/?

Gun: 122mm M62
Damage: 440
Penetration: 258
ROF: 5,087
DPM: 2238,3
Reload: 11,795
Accuracy: 0,345
Aimtime: 2,59s
Depression: -5


Saturday 23 May 2015

23.05.2015 Q&A

Hello warriors,

I hope you are having a nice Saturday. Everything that was new was posted in the earlier posts. So have a StuG III pulled from mud instead:



SCR 508 radio in operation

Thanks to CM_Kruger for publishing this

Hello warriors,

radios are often underrated elements of the game and few people pay attention to them from historical point of view. Have you ever wondered how such a radio actually looks in real life? Here's your chance to find out:




This is the SCR-508 American radio that can in World of Tanks be found on following vehicles: M5 Stuart, M7 Priest, M4 Sherman, M7, M10 Wolverine, T1 Heavy Tank, M24 Chaffee, M36 Jackson, M6, M4A3E8 Sherman, M4A3E2 Sherman Jumbo, T21, T25 AT, T20, T25/2, T29, M26 Pershing, T28, T32, T28 Prototype, M46 Patton, T95, T30

As you can see, it's pretty common so whenever you see that module in the game, you'll now know what it looks like in real life.

Ranzar... reloaded?

Hello warriors,

here's the "new" Ranzar video from Friday... if you have this deja vu feeling that you've seen this before, you are right. It's a mashup of older videos that were already posted.




"Developer Hour" radio stream

Hello warriors,

here's a transcript from the "developer hour" with Aleksei "Ork" Plotnikov. The topic was "Clanwars 2.0"

- last event for CW 1.0 will have IS-5 as a reward, the amount of players rewarded will be higher than usual
- official detailed news about CW 2.0 should come on Monday
- if all goes well, the CW 2.0 test should be started on 28th of May
- CW 2.0 statistics will be stored separately from other stats
- after the CW 2.0 release, CW 1.0 will be closed
- the development of CW 2.0 started a year ago and took the wishes of players in account
- "artillery strike" and "air strike" consumables will appear in CW 2.0
- the profitability of various provinces depends heavily on various factors, it will start on 100g (tier 6 provinces), 200g (tier 8 provinces) up to 300-500g (tier 10 provinces)
- CW 2.0 will bring the option to upgrade provinces for "influence" - you invest the "influence" currency in order to make the province more profitable
- provinces will be possible to be invaded through "auctions" - the participants of auctions will not know each other's influence bids. The highest bidder will then fight with the province owner.
- it's still not decided which maps will be used for CW 2.0
- CW 2.0 will be a "strategy for clans, a browser game that will allow the clans to receive various benefits
- in CW 2.0 there will be a new type of rating (elo rating), each clan will have their own rating displayed in stats and based on that the quality of the clan will be judged
- instead of stacks of chips there will be divisions. It will be possible to upgrade the divisions.
- there will be an "air recon" consumable that will show you what forces does the opponent have in neighboring territory
- all the upgrades will be paid for with new currency: "influence"
- it will be possible to upgrade the profitability of a province by 10 degrees (in 10 steps)
- if the basic (initial) profitability of a province is 240g per day, it will be possible to upgrade it to 1700g per day. If the basic (initial) profitability is 1000g per day, it will be possible to upgrade it to 2700g per day
- when the CW 2.0 release is nearer, developers will tell us about the CW 2.0 reward tanks and other boons

Storm's extra Q&A

Hello warriors,

a bunch of info from Storm from various sources:

- for now, there are no plans to add "highest spotting damage" to the list of highest values ever achieved in your profile, it's because developers are working on "many bigger features and there's no time for little things"
- IS-6 has the same profit modifier as other tier 8 premiums (doesn't earn less money)
- there will be a lot more info on the Domination mode once the 0.9.8 patch is released
- "Domination" will have many more versions tested
-  IS-4 buff? "If IS-4 has bad stats, we'll buff it" (but current wot-news numbers do not prove it actually has problems despite its 48 percent RU winrate)
- official IS-4 winrate will not be disclosed
- Domination sucks and doesn't fit the model of the game? "How terrible"
- STA-2 will definitely not get limited MM but its stats will be reviewed
- Free for All mode would suck in WoT according to Storm, it was the current random mode format that brought the game its success
- Q: "Will there be new premium tanks that are comfortable to play?" A (Storm): "There will be new premium tanks. Of course they will be uncomfortable. After all, every released premium vehicle is shitty if you believe what they write on the forums." (Storm later adds that there will be new premiums but it's really hard to predict how will players react to them)
- developers have not figured out yet how to implement the HE shells so that they count towards blocked damage
- it is unknown when female crew voiceover comes ("this issue is brought up regularily and laid to rest immediately every time")
- this year there will definitely be more new physics testing
- when asked what's the sense of dynamic platoons since platoon effectivity lies in voice chat and dynamic platoon members are not on Teamspeak or anything, Storm counters that the default WG voicechat works for them
- the VK4502B will be replaced for Mäuschen "this year"
- Storm confirms that 9.8 release will come soon
- E-100 is doing fine statistically, there are no plans to buff it
- regarding the (old) engine/transmission split, Storm confirms that not all vehicles were reworked this way - only the hightier ones. The rest will be reworked when they come in HD

0.9.8 ETA

Hello warriors,

a bunch of quick info: according to wot-news.com, the patch 0.9.8 will come to RU server on 26.5.2015 with the Domination mode being enabled from 28.5.2015.

Friday 22 May 2015

22.05.2015 Q&A

- Q: "Why doesn't WG solve the issue of tanks getting stuck and not being able to move?" A (Storm): "What other tank games that are not 100 percent arcade don't have issues with tanks getting stuck? No need to answer, I will answer myself: all such games have this issue. We are waiting for new motion physics - it is not delayed, it's being actively developed. But not even that solves this issue 100 percent - there will still be some places where you can get stuck."
- Storm, when asked why there are no realistic gun sounds in WoT: "Realistic gun sounds are not exactly awe-inspiring and the majority of playerbase does not like them too much."
- developers are currently working on changing the gun and engine sounds "to be as realistic as possible but impressive at the same time". Storm adds: "It's difficult work, you have to wait."
- WoT will not be overhauled exclusively for Dx12: "there is no certainty that Dx12 will work normally on weak PC's"
- developers are not working on Dx12 support for now but it's possible it will come in the future
- it's possible that the planned penetration nerf will bring compensations in other gun characteristics (such as accuracy)
- exact penetration changes for specific tank guns were not decided yet, only the general concept was
- it's too early to tell whether it will be possible that the same gun on different vehicles (for example TD and HT version of the German 88mm L/56) will have different penetration in each version
- it is possible that the penetration nerf will come with a vehicle XP- and credit-earning buff to compensate for the less overall damage dealt by nerfed shells
- damage is not a "historical" parameter
- developers don't want to say which branches of regular vehicles will come in the future
- developers will not disclose which supertest-leaked tanks will be rewarded for what (premiums, CW, event etc.)
- "movie" tanks (like the Rudy) have the issue of their elements (crews, names etc.) being copyrighted
- shells in the game are not material objects, they can't shoot each other down, they exist only as points

Personal Reserve system in 9.8

Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/pc-browser/1/9_8_common_features/

Hello warriors,

this WG RU post contains explanations of the personal reserve system.

Personal reserves will give players bonuses in random battles. They will be gained by performing certain missions that will be available in June. They will give three types of bonuses:

- bonus to crew XP
- bonus to regular XP
- bonus to free XP

After you complete the missions, the reserves will be placed in a "storage" (for limited amount of time). There will be three "reserve sizes"

- small (inreases the gain by 7,5 percent)
- medium (increases the gain by 7,5-12,5 percent)
- large (increases the gain by more than 12,5 percent)

If you activate more than one reserve of the same type, they do NOT add up and the smaller (!) bonus will be used (so if you activate small extra crew XP reserve and a large extra crew XP reserve, you'll get a bonus for the small one only).

The extra XP you gain will be shown in the post-battle statistics in a separate column.  Reserves only work in random battles and only for a limited set of time (small: 2 hours, medium: 4 hours, large: 8 hours).

Militracks video

Hello warriors,

last weekend the Militracks event took place in Overloon, Netherlands - it's actually one of the largest military events when it comes to German vehicles. If you couldn't participate, here's a video of some of the vehicles:


Comparison of War Thunder and World of Tanks IS-2

Source: http://war-tundra.livejournal.com/3012294.html

Hello everyone,

War Thunder player Harumambaru made an interesting comparison between the WT and WoT IS-2 that shows the differences between the two games nicely. Of course he was comparing an older model from WoT but still. Check this out:











Thursday 21 May 2015

21.05.2015 Q&A

 Hello warriors,

very little new today apart from the Q&A earlier today:

- IS-4 will not be buffed for now
- 0.9.8 test 3 is already running

But in unrelated news the Object 777 on supertest got buffed:

- DPM increased from 1835,4 to 1995
- reload time decreased from 14,384 to 13,233
- ROF increased from 4,171 to 4,534
- aimtime buffed from 3,26 to 2,88
- accuracy on the move buffed by cca 10 percent or so
- hull traverse buffed from 25 deg/s to 27 deg/s
- terrain resistance buffed from 1,247/1,726/2,973 to 1,247/1,534/2,685

So the current stats are:

Tier: 10 HT
Hitpoints: 2100
Engine: 850 hp
Weight: 49,8 tons
Power-to-weight: 17,07 hp/t
Maximum speed: 50/16 km/h
Hull traverse: 27 deg/s
Turret traverse: 24 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,247/1,534/2,685
Viewrange: 390
Radio range: 850

Hull armor: 132/115/?
Turret armor: 258/225/?

Gun: 122mm M62
Damage: 440
Penetration: 258
ROF: 4,534
DPM: 1995
Reload: 13,233
Accuracy: 0,374
Aimtime: 2,88s
Depression: -3

"Become the Czechoslovak crew face" competition

Hello warriors,

Wargaming prepared something very special that hasn't to my knowledge been done before. As you already know, Czechoslovak tree is coming and Wargaming is looking for faces for Czechoslovak crews. They opened a contest where (Czech and Slovak) players can upload their real life photos. Some of the winners will become the faces of the Czechoslovak crews (30 men, 10 women so yes, there will be woman crewmembers).

Players fitting the criteria can submit their photographs to this thread.

Apart from the fact you can consider this an official EU confirmation of the Czechoslovak tree, I think it's really a great idea to have players participate in such contests.

This is an example of how the photos should look like:






Unfortunately the contest is for Czechs and Slovaks only but maybe there will be some for other nations in the future.

Armored Warfare: New map and PL-01

Hello warriors,

Armored Warfare today unveiled a new (Balkans-themed) map in a trailer.



But there is more!

Map changes in 9.8 by Locastan (part 2)

Hello warriors,

here's one more map change Locastan. Airfield changes involve only one extra big rock in the center of the southern beach and Murovanka changes are not visible from this high above. The Westfield changes are however quite significant:


Russian WoT forums disable negative post reputation

Hello warriors,

Russian World of Tanks forum administrators have decided to completely disable the negative reputation on forums and leave only the "positive" green arrow. The declared reason is the "fight against negativity". The Russian players seem to be quite happy with the change and many mention that it's going to hurt negrep forum trolls.

Others however point out that the developers were tired of seeing a lot of negative reputation on their posts. It is not known whether this change will appear on EU and NA forums or not.

Map changes in 9.8 by Locastan (part 1)

Hello warriors,

Locastan prepared pictures of 9.8 map changes and was kind enough to share it. Here they are!

Karelia



Armored Warfare vehicle trees

Hello warriors,

yesterday the Russian closed beta (Early Access) started and the NDA was lifted. Therefore we already know what vehicles are present in the first round of the CBT test. Here are the initial two "trees" (dealers). The initial test has only 6 tiers from 8 total available. Higher vehicle tiers will be unlocked later.








"Tank Wednesday" stream Q&A

Hello warriors,

yesterday in the evening there was a stream on RU server called "Tank Wednesday" (with developers). Here's what was said in it.

- the "Domination" mode will be a temporary mode that will last 1 month. It will be released during summer holidays, this will be announced soon
- flag capture in the "Domination" mode didn't work very well, as a result some maps were removed from the mode
- the "Domination" mode was implemented to test the garage battles mechanism and some other features
- devs have developed the feature where during loging you see the ping of all the servers of the cluster but for now it will not be implemented: "use autologin"
- WoT premium system will not be changed: premium account for X amount of battles or for several hours only will not be added
- developers are not working on night battles or weather
- developers confirm the upcoming nerf of both credit and gold shells. After the nerf, the TD's will be the vehicles with highest penetration still - the "strange" penetration nerf that was leaked from supertest was actually an internal test variant that the devs decided to test on supertest. It's too early to tell how exactly will the nerf look like. One thing is for sure: "huge number of vehicles" will have their penetration rebalanced
- the nerf of credit and gold shells will come at the same time but only when the developers have enough data to implement it, they will test like half of all the vehicles. It will come in distant future.
- developers are working on historical battles, they are aware of the fact that nobody wants to play lowtier tanks
- the rework of perks and skills is already prepared as a whole concept but the developers didn't start working on it yet
- by 11th of May, 500k people on RU server were chatbanned
- Roaming will definitely not come - for multiple reasons, one of them is "purely technical"
- Chat 2.0 is in development
- developers will continue to promote platooning by new events, missions etc.
- currently the developers have three maps ready for release which will gradually be implemented into the game: Berlin (city map), Paris and Studyanki (Polish-themed map)

Wednesday 20 May 2015

20.05.2015 Q&A

It's possible that today, third round of 9.8 test will start. Patch 9.8 will come in May "if everything goes well". It's not certain that the Domination mode will come in 9.8, maybe it will come a bit later.

From an interview with Andrey Yarantsev, WG vice president:

- in April, Wargaming entered a partnership with other Belarusian game developer, Melesta Games (casual and mobile game developer, its best known game is Farm Frenzy with 300 million installations). Basically it means that WG will be the producer and Melesta a developer
- the fastest growing segment of the game market are mobile games, WG is putting a lot of attention there, it's one of the strategic goals of WG
- total revenue of mobile applications in 2014 exceeded 25 billion USD
- the cooperation talks were pretty short, they started in December 2014
- the goal of this cooperation is to make popular mobile games
- Wargaming is aware that the World of Tanks success will likely not be repeated but their goal is to make a game that will get close to that success. World of Warships is looking good so far.



T110 guide video

Produced by Wargaming - enjoy :)



MTLS-1G14 is coming to Xbox

Hello warriors,

remember the MTLS-1G14, the twin gun devil that appeared years ago in World of Tanks but was never released? Well, it's coming now... but only for Xbox. It will be apparently sold there at the end of the month. Xbox version generally gets a lot of cool features.






For those who don't remember: this is one of the three super-rare tanks (well, it was back then) that was made roughly 3 years ago (the others were BT-SV and Panzer II Ausf.J). The others became the bonus tanks for German and Russian gift bundles (only to be actually sold not so long ago) but the MTLS was never released due to the fact it was never properly balanced, the two guns were either OP or useless (very low penetration, even with gold ammunition).

Wargaming looking for "volunteers"

Hello warriors,

Wargaming RU started an interesting site. They are looking for a couple of volunteers to help with the game. This program was active for a while already (there are "community helpers" on RU forums) but they did not have a separate site before. You can read the announcement here.

By the WG definition, a volunteer is not an employee (unpaid) who however does perform tasks assigned to him by Wargaming. These tasks include:

- moderation of chat
- moderation of forums
- helping players solving their issues (usually this involves anwering easy or obvious questions and pointing players to support)

Volunteers on RU forums do not receive money but they do occasionally get gifts such as exclusive vehicles. Please note that this is unlikely to ever appear on EU server due to the European labor laws that are very strict on any unpaid work.

Tuesday 19 May 2015

One more Object 777 picture

The Object 777 caused Russian players to be ecstatic as this vehicle was very much requested by the Russians. Some speculate it might be a part of a special Christmas "marathon" to get it, others speculate that it's a new CW tank.


19.05.2015 Q&A

Unfortunately, there's nothing new here apart from really small things (like how Storm is with Wargaming 7 years or so already).

So here, have a pink tank with a dick on top. Because why not...



Cleaner chat in World of Tanks

Hello warriors,

Wargaming RU is continuing its campaign for cleaner chat by punishing players who swear more strictly. As a part of this campaign, they are demonstrating how the amount of swearing in battles on RU server was reduced as such (from 27.4. to 17.5.)






This picture is is described as: "dynamics of toxicity level changes in combat chat of WoT RU". It's not really clear what the numbers actually represent - that 11 percent of all messages were toxic?

Mason! Numbers! What do they mean?!

In any case, Wargaming continues to fight other issues as well by:

- banning 775 botters
- banning 226 participants in rigged battles
- punishing 31783 players based on reports from the ingame "complaint" function

Object 777 on supertest

Hello warriors,

this is the upcoming tier 10 Soviet heavy tank, Object 777 Variant II - from supertest. It's not a regular vehicle, likely a CW tank.




You can read more about its history here.

Description:

Object 777 was a unique heavy tank project. It was designed by the Kirov plant in Chelyabinsk. In 1953, the drawings and a mockup were made. The project incorporated a cast hull and a streamlined turret. It was planned to use the M-62-T2 gun on the tank but the work on the tank stopped in the designing phase. It was never mass-produced and was not accepted in service.

Tier: 10 HT
Hitpoints: 2100
Engine: 850 hp
Weight: 49,8 tons
Power-to-weight: 17,07 hp/t
Maximum speed: 50/16 km/h
Hull traverse: 25 deg/s
Turret traverse: 24 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 1,247/1,726/2,973
Viewrange: 390
Radio range: 850

"Free for All" and "Team Deathmatch" coming?

Hello warriors,

as you know, Viktor Kislyi promised during the WGL finals that something "big" would come soon. Now the Wotleaks server is reporting that "reliable sources" (which generally means supertest leakers) say that this "big" thing would actually be two new modes:

- free for all mode (everybody against everybody)
- team deathmatch (on special maps)

It's possible these modes will appear in upcoming patches. Not quite sure how "team deathmatch" would be different from the already existing modes (perhaps other tier limits?)

HD M46 Patton changes

Hello warriors,

as you already know, M46 Patton in HD appeared on the supertest (here are the armor changes). Its characteristics however changed too, as such (statistics for 100 percent crews):

- DPM buffed from 2624 to 2711
- reload time buffed from 8,918 to 8,63
- ROF buffed from 6,728 to 6,952
- accuracy buffed from 0,384 to 0,374
- aimtime buffed from 2,21 to 1,92

Accuracy on the move or any other characteristics were not changed at all.Description got a bit longer though, now it reads:

"The M46 is an American medium tank from the second half of the 40's. Its military designation was "General Patton" (in honor of George Patton) but the name is usually shortened to "Patton". This was the first tank built in the USA after the end of WW2 and it was developed in 1948-1949 as a modernized version of the M26 wartime tank. It was different from its predecessor mostly by its engine and its considered to be the first of the "Patton" tank series - American medium and main battle tanks produced until the early 80's."

Monday 18 May 2015

18.05.2015 Q&A

- Storm confirms that more motion physics tests will come in forseeable future (after 9.8 comes live)
- there isn't all that much info being published by Storm because now the info releases are "carefully regulated"
- WG already prepared new sound engine but "there is no sense in implementing it without new content"
- release date of new sound engine (and new sounds with it) is not yet determined
- Storm is actually 37 years old
- Storm confirms that 0.9.9 patch will be followed by 0.9.10 (and 0.9.11), not 1.0.0
- penetration nerf will not come in 9.8
- Chieftain and FV4202 switch will not come in 9.8 or 9.9 but in "one of the upcoming patches"
- patch 9.8 will come "very soon"
- while the platoon requirement for personal missions will be removed in 9.8, the missions will still be much easier to do in a platoon
- there will be more new maps in the game but WG won't confirm when exactly

KTTS (ASAP) 9.8


Hello warriors,

here's the ASAP video for 9.8, for now only in Russian. Not much you did not know already.



Inside:

- new gameplay mode ("Domination")
- changes in some personal missions
- changes on several maps
- buffs and nerfs of roughly 20 tanks
- combat effectivity ribbons
- changes in Stronghold mode: now the tier 5-7 Strongholds will use "e-sports" setup (tier 8 tanks)
- Komarin is removed from random battles
- Hidden Village will only appear on lower tiers
- dynamic platoons (in battle)

RNG video (Part 35)


Armored Warfare Q&A 4

Hello warriors,

here's another round of questions and answers about Armored Warfare.

Question: Does AW consider making the UI customizable, such as reticle shape and color?
Answer: While UI customization will initially be limited to just turning different HUD elements on and off, we do have plans to introduce increasing levels of customization over time. Initially we will add adjustments such as reticle color or shape, but we eventually hope to offer the ability to select from different color schemes for the whole UI and possibly enable support for community reskins of the menus and HUD.

Question: Will there also be a software development kit for AW?
Answer: We are not planning that at the moment.

Question: Can we expect user created skins in Armored Warfare?
Answer: In the Early Access phase modifications will not be allowed. It will not be possible to replace model files within the game as those will be covered by protective measures.

Question: Will it be possible for players to trade tanks or gold amongst themselves?
Answer: No, we are not planning such a thing. Although this would be an attractive feature, it has many drawbacks including – amongst other things – attracting a large number of account hackers, scammers, and gold selling spammers, an issue known from other games to make the life of both players and developers much more difficult.

Question: Is the 15 player team size for random battles final?
Answer: Yes. After multiple rounds of testing and experimenting with various sizes, we have confirmed that the 15 player size is ideal for our needs and the best gameplay.

American tank concepts

Source: http://www.com-central.net/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=17240

Hello warriors,

recently a bunch of interesting pictures appeared on the abovelinked forum. They represent various concepts from the 60's for new, upcoming tanks and are likely all made by the design bureau in Detroit.







Another case of ghost shells

Hello warriors,

the ghost shells seem to be much more common as of late. For the lucky ones who haven't encountered this: a "ghost shell" is a bug where the shell simply passes through the target without doing any damage. It is usually associated with packet loss and desynchronization but in some cases (a few patches ago) there's a bug in the game that makes them appear much more than usual.

Here's another example of a ghost shell:




And here's the replay for this battle.

Have you encountered the ghost shells yourselves? Let Wargaming know!

Russian opens public proving grounds at Prokhorovka

Source: Russia military Facebook page

Thanks to Daniel Samson for this one.

Hello warriors,

Russia is opening a new public tank proving grounds at Prokhorovka, the site of the legendary WW2 battle. It will be the first tank proving grounds open to public. The post says:

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin has opened his country's first-ever tank park, or tankodrome, on the territory of the village of Prokhorovka in southwestern Russia, the site of an iconic tank battle in World War II.

Russia's first-ever tank park, or tankodrome, has been unveiled on the territory of the southwestern Russian village of Prokhorovka, the site of a legendary WWII tank battle between the Red Army and Nazi troops; the opening ceremony was attended by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, sources said.


"I am glad that the idea we discussed during a meeting of the Victory committee chaired by the President has begun to take shape in reality," Rogozin said.

"We certainly want to go ahead with this project, because no other country endured what this land endured during those most horrendous years. We will always remember the feat of our loved ones," he added.

The tankodrome, which has an area of 11 hectares, is Russia's first-ever demonstration range that will be available to the general public.

It accommodates about 1,300 spectators, who can watch armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and armored patrol cars roll across difficult terrain, hills, water, a ruined urban landscape and a big bridge. The park’s fleet comprises a total of 12 vehicles, with seven of them serving as stationary exhibits.

The tank park is part of a large-scale military museum currently undergoing massive expansion in Prokhorovka, located in the Belgorod region.

The next phase is the construction of an indoor exposition, where a wide array of armored vehicles will be on display and where an amusement park is due to be built.

The decision to create the museum of armored vehicles was taken during last year's meeting of the Victory committee chaired by Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 12, 2014.

On that day in 1943, the Second World War's largest tank battle between Red Army and Nazi forces took place near Prokhorovka; it was part of the legendary Battle of Kursk. With both sides losing hundreds of armored vehicles and thousands of men, the battle finally helped the Soviet Union obtain a strategic advantage over Nazi Germany.

Sunday 17 May 2015

17.05.2015 Q&A

Very little new info today. Storm provided only one explanation:

When a 120mm shell it hitting a 40mm side armor + 25mm track armor, the armor thicknesses do not add to one another when it comes to the three caliber rule: the rule is checked for each layer separately (which means that in this case it applies to the side armor)


There's also one more picture of the AMX 50 120 changes for size comparison: