Saturday 30 January 2016

Fractured Space Free on Steam

Hello,

I'm going very off topic right now but on Steam you can get Fractured Space game for free during this weekend and you get to keep it!



"Fractured Space is team-based space combat fought in gigantic capital ships. With the intensity of a shooter and the big-picture-thinking of a strategy game, Fractured Space is at the forefront of an exciting new frontier for the genre."

Why am I sharing this with you? This team is worth it! I've been playing this game on my free time for many months now but I also got to visit its developer and publisher Edge Case Games Ltd. office last year. I met their CEO, James Brooksby who is a really nice, down to earth, funny guy and is a major geek like the most of us, we went for a lunch and he introduced me to his team.

James B.
To create inspiration, the whole office is such a geek haven, not only are staff allowed to decorate their desks but there are also video/board games, figures from all sorts on display through the whole building. Also, the staff actually plays the game, they team up, play it live. Just like we do, to test things as much as possible.

One of my favourite things in the game is the level of detail from the ships which is just amazing, I couldn't get enough of watching the guys who build the models working. I still haven't quite chosen my favourite ship but I usually tend to go for anything that allows me to fight at a close and personal range like the Enforcer.

This weekend, I may actually livestream Fractured Space, for those interested, we can team up. :)

Homepage: https://www.fracturedspace.com/
Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/310380
Most recent interview: http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/closer-to-the-edge/0161876

WoT's February Calendar

Hello,

hope everyone is having a good weekend. Next month, the World of Tanks calendar will feature the Jagdpanzer E 100:

Other dimensions here.

There is just a very minor thing... Aparently they got the February days wrong (31 instead of 29) and removed temporarly, hopefully will be back soon. :D

FV 4202 (P) on NA for Free

*Edit*
- FV4202 (P) will also be available later in the Premium Shop and tech tree.

Hello,

while on EU from 15 February until 29 February players will have commit themselves and work to earn the FV 4202 (P) by completing a marathon, on NA from February 1 until February 15 players who had the FV4202 (P) in the Garage when the Centurion AX replaced it or who already own the Centurion Action X will have it given for free, for those who are still finishing the grind, there wont be a marathon, instead, WG NA is giving a "On Track" UK MT discounts to facilitate their players grind. Watch:



This is a F* up, apparently the NA team had already plans to do something different than the other servers and the video (of said plan) was uploaded set to auto-publish and forgotten. Now that the cat is out of the bag they had to commit to these course of actions.

I'm not buying it. I checked the NA Youtube page and except for this video they have uploaded 3 other just on the past week, how come that whoever uploads these videos hasn't checked video manager and also, you cant just upload and set a video to auto-publish without premeditate it. If this is not a lie then complete carelessness is the right term for it.
At the end of the day, congrats NA players!

On Track:

Friday 29 January 2016

Stack-Up Livestream

Hello,

Its time for my scheduled livestream. Tonight it will go sightly different. Will be joining a 24 hour charity livestream for "Stack-Up"(a Gaming Charity to support US, NATO and ANZAC veterans) and for 3 hours will be playing and giving out more Chieftain Mk. 6 Codes!

Join us: http://www.twitch.tv/officialarmoredwarfare


Stack-Up: https://aw.my.com/lp/9/?_1lr=0-2100240_2007697

Type 97 Chi-Ha

Hello,

thanks to SoukouDragon! Check out this restored Type 97 Chi-Ha :


Its amazing the love Russians have and give to tanks.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct Report Changed

Hello,

have some good news to give from Ectar (EU EN Community Manager):

"Over the past few weeks, the “Unsportsmanlike Conduct” player report category has been a hot topic. We’ve received a lot of feedback from your forum posts, tickets to Support, posts on WoTLabs, Reddit and other places online. Thanks! Your feedback has really helped highlight this concern. We’ve been working alongside our Customer Support team to gather this feedback and see how we could improve this system.

During our investigations we have identified key areas where we agree a different approach is required:

The current in-game report system is not as effective as we’d like it to be in order to report genuine in-game misconduct, such as: pushing allies out of cover, blocking team mates, or revealing team mate positions or any other abuse not covered by the other categories.
The way Unsportsmanlike Conduct reports have been handled on the EU server has encouraged some players or groups of players to try and manipulate this category in order to get other players unfairly sanctioned.

As an immediate result, we have put in place several changes regarding how sanctions for Unsportsmanlike Conduct are handled and given out on the EU server. We’re also continuously discussing options and possibilities to improve our current in-game report functions for our developers to review. 

Please note it is very important that you all still continue to use the in-game report function to report any kind of misbehaviour you witness in battle, as we rely heavily on these reports to adjust our actions according to the offence.

The voice of the community has helped to shape this process, so we would like to once again thank all players for their feedback and patience during this review, and especially for all the great ideas and suggestions."

He doesn't say what was changed, I will ask when possible, its closed time for the Paris office.

IS-6 & M53/M55 Armor Comparison

Hello,

have a couple more screenshots of the IS-6 and M53/M55  armor comparison between 9.13 and 9.14.

IS-6
A Buff.
-Driver's hatch is now 110 mm instead of 90 mm and its view port is now smaller.
-On top of turret, 2 viewports are gone and the remaining one got shrunk.
-Engine Bay "crater" is now tighter
-Spare tracks are giving an extra 20 mm or armor on the back side of the hull and tracks are now firmly close to the hull body (this is what happens when you take stairs instead of elevator).


M53/M55


A Nerf, armor was kept the same but effective armor has lost some value, also, the recoil spade (or "garden bench" as I like to call) is now being held by necromantic spells (this is normal in arty models).

New HD Models: G.W. Tiger & Sexton II

Hello,

a couple more 9.14 HD screenshots for you.

See previous:


G.W. Tiger 

Thursday 28 January 2016

New HD Model: IS-6 (Edited with better Screenshots)

Hello,

seems like not only the M44 but also the IS-6 armor got fixed on time for the 9.14 patch.
Took awhile to write this one as I was waiting for a source confirmation as the HD aesthetic parts of the vehicle haven't changed and I wanted to make sure that was passing you the right stuff:

See previous:

Stronk EU Costumer Service Center

Hello,

So... WoT EU servers have been down for awhile(they are now back). So I went to check the European Costumer Service Center, don't even know why I even bother...


 Not only server status light doesn't change whatsoever when a server is down, they leave us catching flies when it comes to any sort of technical issue.
I also went around and asked to multiple people from the EU office (that are suppose to be told this things) and even they were kept in the dark, this is not normal!


Meanwhile on the Russian CSC, everything fine as usual:


For those wondering there was a problem with players authentication (not being able to connect) and they performed a maintenance to fix the issue. No compensation will be given for the downtime.

I don't pay much attention to CW and neither have I participated much in them but I assume everything is the same between RU, EU and NA when it comes to its timing. Clan Wars will be frozen until day 30, for those who are having battles today, the results will be held until its back.

That's all folks.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

27/01/2016 Stream

Hello everyone,

things today were pretty quiet, I just wish I could have poked WG with a stick to do something funny.
I have some AW stuff to write about but it involves numbers and I need to merge some data that's being given by their community.


Anyway, its time for my scheduled livestream, as promised today I will be playing AW and will be giving away the Chieftain Mk.6 codes: http://www.twitch.tv/ritagamer2

Some were having the misconception that you need to subscribe to write on my chat but its not true, only thing you need to do is have an account on twitch.tv. Also this wont be the only time that I'm handing codes out, there will be more livestreams and I may try to find a way for blog giveaway, please feel free to add suggestions.

Swedish turreted tank destroyers

Author: sp15

Hello everybody!

its finally 2016 and that means we are closer to the introduction Swedish tree than ever before. Its first branch has been confirmed as planned for this year and I'm rather worried about how the line will turn out to be honest, but hopefully it will turn out decent in the end. Anyway with the tech tree introduction rapidly approaching I've been thinking about some of the stranger branch ideas. And I thought that it would be neat to show off one of them here today.

The branch


Currently turreted TD's are quite a rare sight in WoT, most nations preferred the simplicity and higher protection of casemate TD designs. The few turreted tank destroyer lines currently in the game are mostly made up of vehicles with mediocre armor and mobility but with potent guns for their tier. There are a few vehicles that are more focused on mobility but the top tiers of these lines have both been big and rather slow vehicles.

The Swedish take on turreted TD's (from tier 6 and up at least) has been much more mobility focused, and closer to the American M18 hellcat than anything else. They are all lightly armored vehicles which have fully traversable turrets and usually excellent gun depression. And unlike the existing turreted TD's some are equipped with autoloaders. the reason I say this is one of the crazier branch ideas is that there are several problems with the line that for right now anyhow means its unlikely to get implemented. For instance the line uses several visually similar designs, and only has one or two vehicles that are relatively well known. Personally however I think there is still a lot of potential in the line since it would offer something unique in terms of gameplay. In any case I hope that you find the article a interesting read, or at least interesting to look at.

A World Of Tanks Cinematic Series: Finding Jingles

Hello,

check out this WoT cinematic series from Honest Gaming called "Finding Jingles":



Its amazing the time and effort people put into these videos, it cracked me up a couple times. :D

Wargaming's 2015 Revenue

Hello,

there is some data out on the top 10 grossing console, PC and mobile games in the market, Wargaming is in the list:


"In 2015 the worldwide digital games market totals $61B across platforms, up 8% year-over-year. Following a stellar holiday season for the games industry, total sales reached a record high in 2015. Sales of digital console games showed the biggest jump and were up 34%, despite being one of the smaller categories at $4B annually. The largest category in terms of dollar sales was mobile, earning $25.8 billion and up double digits (10%) from the year before. Sales figures points toward a shift in the industry as more consumers have adopted digitally distributed games and free-to-play. However, not all segments were posting positive numbers, as social games remained largely stable (-0.8%) and subscription-based gaming continue on its downward spiral (-4%)."


I was checking the data from 2013 and 2014, Wargaming always been in the green light, this year wasn't an exception although Wargaming has admitted that with the meltdown of the Russian market things weren't so easy, the Russian team had to come up with ways to reinvent the game to attract RU players back to the game as well as improve retention of existing players. 
And note, this are just earnings from World of Tanks PC, it doesn't a account for their other products, in 2014 WG made in total 500 Million US Dollars and the prediction for 2015 was 590 M $.


Apart from that, on the console department, I was expecting Star Wars Battlefront III to make more revenue, I personally waited nearly 10 years for that game and ended up not buying it, is just too sad seeing Stormtroopers bunny hopping and I feel the game should have been called Counter-Strikes Back! 
Also seems like middle age moms and the casual kids which vocabulary range can only complete the "Do you have games on you phone?" phrase are still keeping mobile games strong.

Sources:
www.superdataresearch.com/
http://www.rbc.ru/
Cyprus meeting resume

Which Tier?

Hello,

Slava and I want your feedback:

If you could play World of Tanks with just single tier tanks and all the battles would be within the same tier (you play only lvl 6 tank and you only fight same lvl tanks), which tier would you choose?





Thank you.

T-44-100 (P) on Russian Server

Hello,

today there was a mini patch, if you are wondering what's in it, is the Soviet tier 8 T-44-100 (P).

Recently Wargaming has created a contract with Rostelecom...

"Rostelecom is one of the biggest national telecommunications companies in Russia and Europe, with a presence in every segment of the telecommunications services market and coverage of millions households in Russia.

The Company holds a leading position on the Russian broadband and pay TV markets, with over 11.4 million fixed-line broadband subscribers and more than 8.4 million pay TV customers, of which more than 3.1 million use the unique nationwide “Interactive TV” product."

...which could have very well exceeded a Billion Rubbles, to put it on our "western" perspective its about 11.686.229.42 Euros/ 12.694.750.000 US Dollars.

Now, what this has to do with the T-44-100 (P)? Well Rostelecom has now a Tariff (package) for the Russian World of Tanks players (except for the Republic of Bashkortostan, Chechnya, the Crimea and Sevastopol, the Magadan region, Kamchatka Krai and Chukotka Autonomous District) and only those who subscribe to it will be able to earn the vehicle, its a exclusive with a brotherhood crew and 3 different camo patterns.


I was reading various Russian sources and according to WoTLeaks (when this couldn't be sadder) if people decide to change tariff the tank will be removed from their accounts. GG WP!


Now are we (EU/NA/SEA and you there in the corner, yes you KR, join us) going to get it? I will browse around for answers but very much doubt.

Tuesday 26 January 2016

Supertest: Lakeville Changes

Hello,

Lakeville has received some changes in Supertest:


1- Area where LT's usually hide have been moved to the center.
2- Terrain has been changed and some vegetation was removed.
3- House blocks are now prominent.
4- Church has been placed in a different angle

Most of these changes are being made most likely incentive players to stop lemming on the 1-2 line and to make the life of those who tend to camp near south base and mid more difficult although those who spawn on south are still able to shoot D8-9 road from middle. Those who spawn north have lost the D8 (3 illuminated area) dented corner which provides some protection between reloads and capping.

Current version:


Topias Koskela made a gif of current and supertest version:


Ramblings

Hello,

there are a couple things I've been wanting to tell you but couldn't find the proper moment:

-First thing, to all Patrons, I sending you a gift on Patreon messages, please check it out. I hope you like it! I genuinely feel thankful for everyone who comes to the blog but you went the extra mile and are the ones that fuel RSR and put the kibble on my cats bowl. I will see to find more things to spoil you in the future.

-Next, Armored Warfare Chieftain Mk. 6 Codes! Obsidian gave me more than I can possibly distribute during a live stream but will do my best to give them all! Next Wednesday will run a AW livestream and start giving them away. I have all vehicles and will try to hop into PVP as well.
I opted to run it over on Twitch because I have giveaway tools that I'm already familiarized with and at the same time you can see things are being done fairly, I will be giving a password for each code and you just need to type it on chat once to be eligible.

-On Friday! I'm back to playing World of Tanks but is going to be a short one, I got invited to participate on a charity livestream to support the troops and would love you to attend, will be giving you more information when the time comes.


-Last, TankFest! I need to warn that if any of you are interested in going to The Tank Museum biggest annual event and haven't bought tickets to start buying them yesterday!
I was on the phone with one of the lads that works there and they are planning to have a full house again this year, the tickets are almost sold out. I'm warning because I don't want someone to come all the way from another country to see me or someone else and then not being able to enter because the place is full like last year. H&S regulations are stronk in the UK and the staff has express orders to not sell more than what's stipulated, not only to follow the law but also to keep visitors safe.

Also, I can tell you yet but this year they will have something REALLY cool happening! Just, trust me!

For those attending, the VCC will be open all day and a comrade Ed Francis will be there, he has made himself available to give a tour to "Rita viewers/readers" (dissidents are welcome too) so what I'm going to do is probably set a time to group up and join you to make things easier for him.


I think that's all... for now.

New HD Model: T28 Prototype, M53/M55, T40 & Type 3 Chi-Nu

Hello,

there is a new HD models for you, they are highest quality as usual.

See previous:

T28 Prototype 

Monday 25 January 2016

25/01/2016 Stream (ended)

Hello,

I hope everyone is having a lovely Monday.
Its time for my scheduled livestream, tonight I will be playing World of Tanks, going to do my grind dailies and then will be hopping over NA to platoon with Viewers.

218 Tanks, EU/NA:  http://www.twitch.tv/ritagamer2

Engage!

PS4 Exclusive: "Scorpions Pass" Map

Hello,

the WoT's exclusive map called "Scorpions Pass", its not only breathtakingly good looking but also has features that the PC version doesn't have, seriously, shame on you WoT PC Map makers, you make this PC mighty user jealous of console peasants! Step up the game!

Size: 1500x1500 meters

Video

Screenshots:

Lego Technic RC Maus Super-heavy Tank

Hello,

remember the Lego T29 with shooting mechanism that I wrote about on past summer? Its creator, "Sariel" is back with another creation, this time he built a Lego Technic RC Maus Super-heavy Tank:


He clearly outdid himself...

"Model of the Maus super-heavy tank. Features drive, steering, elevated cannon with a shooting mechanism, rotating turret, rotating periscope, opening engine deck with a V12 piston engine and radiators, full suspension, lights, and custom stickers."

If you are interested, you can see the specifications and build process of this project over at: http://sariel.pl/2016/01/maus-super-heavy-tank/

I will be paying closer attention to him, just read on his homepage that he has plans to build a Tortoise!

Standard Panzer 58

Hello,

just a tiny bit of information about the Panzer 58 Mutz, I know some of you are aware that exists a second version of this tank, a standard without the camo pattern and were wondering if it will ever see the light of the day, I asked the European staff about it and the answer is no.

Quoting Ectar, EU EN Community Manager:
"It won't ever come, it's like the AMX 13 57.
The plain one was the originally planned one, then they decided on one with special camo. (...) at some point down the line."

This is how it looks like naked

Panzer 58 Mutz For Sale & Overview

Hello,

 from 25 January at 06:10 until 2 February at 06:00 CET (UTC+1) the Panzer 58 Mutz will be sold on the EU server and I'm happy to see that the marketing team finally listened to US, there are 2 packages:

*Post Edited at the bottom*

€59.99

Panzer 58 Mutz
1 Garage Slot
5,500 Gold
1 Coated Optics
1 Vertical Stabilizer Mk 1
1 Medium-Caliber Tank Gun Rammer
Bonus: Crew - 100% Major Qualification
Bonus: 15 exclusive missions*

€32.50

Panzer 58 Mutz
1 Garage Slot


Its final characteristics are as such:

Hitpoints: 1300
Crew: 4 (commander, gunner, driver, loader)
Weight: 35.1 t/ 40 t
Maximum speed: 50 km/h
Engine: 600hp
Power-to-weight: 17.09 hp/t
Hull traverse: 45 deg/s
Turret traverse: 36 deg/s
Viewrange: 380 meters
Radiorange: 570 meters

Sunday 24 January 2016

24/01/2016 Q&A

Hello,

Things are very quiet so took the day to rest, read a book (David Fletcher's "The British Tanks 1915-19") and compile a new Q&A which Slava was very kind to provide. I've also noticed your excitement over Swedish vehicles and have an article written by SP15 about some very interesting designs, I believe that will please you. :)

Short message for Russian blogs/pages: You translated my last Q&A completely wrong and created misleading information for your community. Please if you have any questions, don't be shy and contact me over ritastatusreport@gmail.com , I don't mind help on clarifying things for you!


Here it is:


The ingame report system came under criticism lately. Would it be possible to give other players compliment like in Warships? Also some kind of karma for your stats like in Warships would be nice. Just to add some positivity to the game and the community.
Good idea, why not. But that’s not going to solve the problem of negative comments ingame - the reason for those is mostly huge gap between good players and not so good.

For MM improvement I'd like to see 2 things. Tier 3 and below never seeing a tier 5 tank and never seeing a battle more than 1 tier above or below.
 We plan to simplify 1-4 tier gameplay, this one will probably be included.

Could you ask what will become of super high alpha tanks like jaegeroo, waffen and death star?
Alpha damage will be reworked (less dmg per shot), WT100 needs a replacement badly. HESH shells should have their own separate game mechanics

"And no MM improvement?!"
-"Yes there would be MM improvement. What kind of Improvement are you asking for?"
Personally, I like to see the algorithm be optimized to better balance out tank types and tiers between teams.
Far too often I see teams which either have: A) a huge numerical benefit in terms of the nr. of heavies they get assigned, thus creating an gulf of HP and firepower vs the other team. Or B) lack the above, due to mostly consisting of meds and turretless vehicles. Thus can be easily outplayed in terms of HP + firepower diff between the teams.
Players skill sometimes can make up for this, but that's a random occurrence.

"How about just decreasing the damage of prem. ammo by 50% .<snip>"
-No.  Rebalancing prem ammo is okay tho. Things like 420 pen HEAT will have to go away.

Can Slava explain on this? It is a bit contradicting to read 'no' followed by 're-balancing prem ammo is okay'. What did he have in mind, what direction?
In which direction should we, us players, be thinking in regards to your vision on how this is could be rebalanced?
“Personally, I like to see the algorithm be optimized to better balance out tank types and tiers between teams.”
Not types, tank roles, yes - e.g. every team needs a scout, check or - every team needs an ambush TD on that map, check, things like that are planned but there is another idea that would work together with better role MM - there should be several ways to win a map. On bad maps we have a single spot that basically defines the outcome of the game, so if you need to defend it - heavier team has an advantage, if you need to capture it - faster team wins. That's bad map design, you shouldn't win by default just because your team has more meds and the map is decided by capturing certain hill and that’s it, no other way to win, we need to avoid such a mistake.
On rebalancing gold - gold ammo should be better, but that doesn't always mean better penetration. How about more damage per gold shot? or super powerful HE shell? Let’s say you have a JPE100 with 299mm pen, superpowerful gold HE would be useful so you can kinda cosplay FV183mm. 420mm HEAT? Well, that’s certainly nice unless you’re on a receiving end of said HEAT.
Another example - some kind of a sniper tank that has regular ammo and gold HEAT.
What about replacing HEAT with subcaliber shell with a lot better speed? Say, exchange 330mm pen HEAT with 310mm subcaliber that flies at 1500m/s? So you still have a better gold ammo yet it allows you to snipe better for the price of less pen compared to old HEAT


On the smoke screen subject:
Apparently even KV-1 had smoke emitters installed (not the version working with exhaust, just a smoke grenade attached to the tank)

I also promised one of you, "Hans vonLuck" that would ask a clarification to Slava on the Crew Skill idea that we talked on the Cyprus Meeting:
Well there will be grindable skills such as repair or camo and active skills such as clutch braking for example. Grindable skills work passively, sixth sense for example you do nothing to use it but active skills you need to manually activate, they would work for a short period and there will be a cooldown. Let’s say you can use clutch braking skill to gain gun stabilization for 20 seconds, next time you can use it is in say 5 minutes so you have to pick the right moment, let’s say some kind of engine overload, 20%+ acceleration for 20 seconds - if you need to get close to a TD or if you need to climb an important hill, etc, use it.
Things like master of ramming will go there as well so at some point we plan to convert the skills and crews, there will be just one entity called the captain or commander or leader, something like that.




Saturday 23 January 2016

M46 Patton KR for Sale (NA)

Hello,

until January 31, 03:20 PT / 06:20 ET the Korean M46 Patton will be sold on the NA server for $39.99.


Its nice to see that it only brings a garage slot with it instead of a price inflated bundle, I actually want to get this one for my NA account.


Balanced Fun

Hello,

was browsing on twitter and crossed path with "The Cognitive Threshold in Strategy Games" study from Quantic Foundry where 140.000 gamers worldwide have participated. The Author, Nick Yee has measured 21 games by excitement, strategy, cognitive threshold and fun.

World of Tanks and Master of Orion have been included in the study, this is the result:



Although I agree with the study, it made me giggle that WoT has been placed in the "Balanced Fun" area, specially after being balanced by an SPG because I was clearly camping too hard in the frontline. :D

23/01/2016 Q&A

Hello,

Have a Q&A ready for you, I understand that many been asking why I there haven't been Q&As like before and saying its my fault when its not the reality of things, its simple actually, Storm has been radio silent for nearly a month, even the Russians been crying over that, quoting their words, "holidays are over and gingerbread has gone hard" but he seems to have become fed up of all the whining and crying. And hey, whining and crying is alright, I get it everyday, but the issue is when people do it without bringing any constructivism and in my opinion that's what drove the guy away, although, that doesn't affect me, you see, I have no soul. :D

Anyway, this Q&A has been provided by Slava , I picked the questions from those who were and been the most constructive in comment RSR sections, hopefully (and I haven't asked yet) we could make this a often thing.

[Hedgehog1963] In WWII the tanks of western nations had various means of making smoke, either laying it on their own location or  shooting it across the battlefield from their main gun.  If you look particularly at the British tanks you can see smoke pots or smoke dischargers on practically everything beyond Tier VII.  The Soviets almost (but not quite) ignored the value of smoke from AFVS.  Germans and Yanks so-so.  Not sure about other nations.  This has been  a major omission from the game in my book.  They even have the concept in WoWs with Destroyer smoke screens.  Why not in Wot? I remain a big LT fan in WoT, but it is hard work.

- Smoke screens probably yes at some point, let’s start with artillery smoke shells first. And no, Soviets had an easy way to lay smoke screens with the device attached to the diesel engine exhaust ports

Friday 22 January 2016

Map Feedback

Hello,

Wargaming is asking for you feedback, they want you to vote which maps you dislike the most, this is going on on all servers, I assume they will merge the data later on.

Unfortunately you can only vote on 5 out of 10 while there are 40 +- maps.



EU link: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/549295-map-poll-22012016-29012016/

NA: http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/481793-map-poll-12216-12916/

SEA: http://forum.worldoftanks.asia/index.php?/topic/62266-help-determine-the-future-of-world-of-tanks-maps/#entry1462997

RU: http://forum.worldoftanks.ru/index.php?/topic/1717478-

Wargaming also says: "Please, take this poll seriously, as it is your choices that will determine which five maps the developers will focus on in the upcoming updates."

Armor Comparison: AT-15, Nashorn & T-25

Hello,

got some more armor comparison between current and upcoming patches, added some more details:

AT 15


-General armor values have been maintained but the AT 15 will become more rounded giving the effective armor a clear buff.
-The gun mantlet lost the 76 mm armor bit.
-View ports added but it doesnt change anything besides aesthetics, there is still a 127mm layer under them.
-Left cupola is now all covered  by the 127 mm layer (except top which kept its 38 mm for arty)
-On the sides, clear nerf on above the tracks near the booty, lost its 152 mm layer and the tracks have now some small openings which show the 101 mm layer.
-Nothing to report in the back.


Nashorn

New HD Models: T-25, AT 15, Nashorn & Type 5 Ke-Ho

Hello,

more 9.14 HD models for you:

See Previous:


T-25

Leichttraktor Journey IS BACK

Hello,

some of you may remember the Leichttraktor Journey story on youtube from 2012, Herr_Oberst_Nu, the author is back after all this time with a new story, "Leichttraktor Journey 2":


The feels...

The Unicum Guide: M3Lee

Hello you "cheeky scrublords"!

Sliphanton has published a new "The Unicum Guide", this time he talks about one of my all time favourites vehicles in World of Tanks, the M3lee!


Lost it at 0:32...

Last Wednesday I platooned with him on NA during livestream and it had been a awhile since I had laughed so much, he is really good. :D

Thursday 21 January 2016

Armored Warfare: 0.12.1776 Patchnotes

Hello,

for those who play AW, today you may have noticed that the game was down for roughly 5 hours to implement the 0.12.1776 patch. Although it has plenty of fixes, the main attraction of this update is clearly the Visual Camouflage system, check out its trailer:



Gameplay Mechanisms

Retrofit and Skill rebalance


  • Air Conditioner technology upgrades have been lowered to a 2% crew statistic bonus on all vehicles that have this upgrade
  • The Commander skill "Leadership" has been lowered to a 4% bonus to crew statistics
  • The Commander passive skills "Fire When Ready" and "Fire at Will" have both been reduced to a 6% bonus to reload speed
  • The Commander active skills "Strength in Numbers", "Giant Killer", "Fired Up", "Fire at Will", "Brawler", "Determination", and "Watch It Burn" have all been cut in half, resulting in a reload speed bonus of 6 - 10%
  • The Commander active skill "Feed the Flames" has been reduced to a 20% reload speed bonus
  • The Loader crew skill "Rapid Fire" has been reduced to a 2.5% bonus to reload speed
  • Consumables related to crew statistics (Protein Bars and Energy Drinks) are now mutually exclusive, and will not be able to stack with each other

  • Drawing distance of shadows reduced in order to increase game performance
  • Drawing distance of vegetation on „Ultra“, „Very High“ and „High“ settings reduced in order to increase performance
  • Entering a platoon with a player who is on your ignore list will cause this player to be immediately removed from from the ignore list


Fisherman's Bay Crash

Hello,

on EU, NA and SEA, there are players reporting that Fisherman's Bay been causing them crashes mainly in the in the North Spawn area.
Due to lack of care from staff (except SEA) I asked the players to point out on the map where did the bug hurt them and merged the information I gathered from the 3 servers in this map image:


(Some players reported a single crash on south and another on city but didn't specified exact locations)

This problem is not connected to mods or bad PCs, players who run vanilla or/and have good PCs been reporting in as well, and not only just the game crashes but it also provokes a freeze which can be only fixed with a computer restart.

For those who are having this issue I went on a search for a fix and only could find this:

From "djb_95":

"Well, after many more crashes and trying everything I could think of, I finally found a work-around.
I used to run my client SD with Improved Graphics.
I tried:
1. HD Graphics
2. Update graphics driver.
3. Adjust almost all the graphics settings 1 at a time.
4. Re-downloaded the whole game.

None of that worked.

I finally switched to SD/Standard graphics.  That fixed it."

The devs are not aware of this issue so far.

Unspotted Vehicle Cheat

Hello,

there is currently a hack/cheat mod that renders on the minimap enemy vehicles when they are not spotted, this is how it looks like:



This is not the same as the system that Warpack uses (where minimap will tell your position after you break an object), the theory is that it links data from someone on the enemy team, and provides it to you. How? Simple, if it was snuck in a large modpack, it would have almost 100% coverage, as only 1 player per side needs to have it for it to work.

Something like this can become pretty "interesting" if a entire clan (lets say a 100 of them) decides to use it during low population hours.

My hopes on Wargaming, specially EU on fighting these mods is very low but I need to raise awareness and warn you to be cautious on which modpacks you download. The guy who made this mod (for science) stated that he wont be releasing this but not everyone is so nice.

Wednesday 20 January 2016

New World of Papoj

Hello,

nearly missed this one (Youtube feed can be crazy) but there is a new World of Papoj out:



VK 72.01 (K) & T1 Heavy Armor Comparison

Hello,

have a couple more screenshots of the upcoming 9.14 HD tanks armor compared to the current 9.13:

See previous: 

VK 72.01 (K)

T1 Heavy

New Ranzar

Hello loves,

a Ranzar is back:


Love this one!

World of Tanks PS4 Launch Trailer

Hello,

I've been a bit quiet, cant say much to not startle some but besides being on the works of compiling a Q&A for you and some feedback from you to WG, I've been investigating something which takes time.

But for now,

this is the World of Tanks PS4 launch trailer:


*Edit*
Was browsing the PS4 page and just noticed they have a couple Launch bundles:

Tuesday 19 January 2016

A-20 and AMX 50 Foch (155) Armor Comparison

Hello,

Took some screenshots of how the A-20 and AMX 50 Foch (155) armor compares between 9.13 and 9.14:

This inspector is not very good so I'm just going to give you a preview from the front and post later better screenshots from another which shows things in more detail.




New HD Models: A-20, AMX 50 Foch (155), M44 & Chi-Ha

Hello,

more HD models for you, highest quality available, thanks to WG EU.

See previous:



A-20

FV4202 Mission Requirements

Hello,

the FV4202  missions are finally available:

-From 15 February at 06:50 until 29 February at 06:50 CET (UTC+1)
-Only for players who own the Centurion Action X by February 18. those who get the later later wont be eligible.


Discount

"A Good Fight"


Reward

  • x3 Crew XP

Requirements

  • Random Battles only
  • Centurion Action X only
  • Once per day

Conditions

  • Earn at least 750 base XP in the course of one battle (bonuses for the first victory, Premium account, etc., will not be counted)

Monday 18 January 2016

18/01/2016 Stream

Hello lads and lasses,

Its time for my scheduled livestream.
Tonight I will be playing World of Tanks and later on MrConway (WG's EU Community Coordinator) will join me in platoon.

EU/NA and 218 Tanks: http://www.twitch.tv/ritagamer2

Engage!

Studyanki (Poland) map: Update

Hello,

there is a small update on the upcoming Polish map, Studyanki.

See previous.

In supertest, there are currently 2 versions being tested that differ in the northern part of the map, also, among a couple fixes the most visible is the toned down fog:
1
2

Micropatch: Marks of Excellence (UPDATE)

Hello,

just to warn you that tomorrow if everything goes according to plan there will be a micropatch to fix the Marks of Excellence bug that I wrote about a couple days ago (Basically all the MoEs were given incorrectly after a single battle).

See previous.



Also don't forget, that tomorrow is the date stipulated for the announcement of the FV4202 Mission Requirements.

That's all folks.

‘Stillbrew’ for Chieftain

Author: Vollketten

Many people have heard of ‘Stillbrew’ armour for the Chieftain and its inclusion as an option within the Armored Warfare game has brought it a little more attention. During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) the Iranian forces who fielded a quantity of Chieftain tanks and faced a variety of mainly Soviet Iraqi tanks suffered a number of losses. The British assessment of these losses concluded that the turret front was no longer sufficiently protected against modern or near-future tank ammunition. The turret had originally been designed to be protective against the 100mm Sovet APDS shell like the Conqueror tank fielded before it. By the 1980’s though this was no longer a sufficient level of protection. Something else was required.

Stillbrew Chieftain in Berlin Brigade service. 

As already mentioned the Chieftain turret was designed to protect against the Soviet 100 APDS rounds (Soviet 3UBM6 APDS round from 1966 can achieve about 190mm) and various numbers have been given for the thickness from different sources or from attempts to measure it. Richard Ogorkiewiecz gives a figure of 195mm for the turret front and some well quoted Russian sources show schematics with 125mm @ 60 degree which is 250mm Effective Armour. (250mm line of sight thickness at that angle)

Sunday 17 January 2016

Armored Warfare: Upcoming Chieftain Mk. 6

Hello,

Armored Warfare will be introducing the Chieftain Mk. 6, there is no date yet (more details coming next week) but so far the only information available is that it wont be sold, instead, Obsidian will be giving plenty to go around codes to their favourite content producers who then will distribute it among you, I personally already got my vehicle and took some screenshots and wrote down the statistics for you.

Thanks to Dalus and obj_101 for joining in the screenshot. :)

As you can see, Chieftain Mk. 6 looks just like the standard Mk. 5 but prettier.

Chieftain Mk. 6 Statistics

Note: Because the statistic page updates its numbers I stripped the vehicles of crew skills and retrofits.

Gun: 120mm L15 APDS (Stock Chieftain Mk. 5 gun)
Damage: 339
Penetration: 272 mm
DPM: 2,498

Hit Points: 1.820
Armor Composition: Rolled Plate Armor
Hull Armor: 100/70/ 55
Hull Modifiers (AP/HE/SC): 1.15/ 1.15/ 1.15
Turret Armor: 195/ 120/ 50
Turret Modifiers (AP/HE/SC): 1.15/ 1.15/ 1.15
Top Speed: 48.60 km/h
Acceleration: 9.75 s
Camouflage: 0.045/ 0.045/ 0.045
View Range: 360 m
Depression: -10.0/ 0.0
Turret Traverse: 19.91 deg/s
Reload Time: 8.14 s
Accuracy: 0.11
Aiming Time: 2.14 s
Smoke Grenade: 1

Chieftain Mk.5 (Elite) Statistics for comparison:

Minsk Needs You!

Hello,

One of the official Wargaming channels has uploaded a promo video advertising job openings in the Minsk office, they want to restructure and improve efficiency:



Promo website here: http://gotominsk.wargaming.com/ru/

If any of you are interested but lives far away, Wargaming has the means to ease your moving and accommodation. After accepting a job offer, a Relocation Manager will guide you with the documents necessary and any questions you may have. They also offer apartments where employees can stay until they can find their own place and free medical care which extends to your family if you decide to bring them along.

This is actually a standard procedure for other offices as well, there is a list of all their vacancies around the world: http://wargaming.com/en/careers/vacancies/

Saturday 16 January 2016

E-25 Model comparison

Hello,

while I'm writing some other stuff for the blog, this is the size difference between the SD and HD E-25 Model:

Red: Old
Green: New

Not much of a difference...

Its known that the current E-25 dimensions are unhistorical. Many people who were expecting the HD E-25 to gain its historical size got disappointed, such changes would create a major nerf and we all know how little Wargaming is keen to change premium vehicles.

I recall that my sensei SilentStalker posted some time ago on FTR the real dimensions of this vehicle, so I went to dig for it and I'm reposting it with his permission:

The real data was given by Hilary L. Doyle on his one of his Panzer Tract book series (which is in my list to read, after Fletcher's books of course) and the In-game dimensions were given by Storm:

In-game width: 2,78 m
Real width (PT 20-1): 3,41 m

In-game height: 1,75 m
Real height: 2,03 m

In-game hull length: 4,5 m
Real hull length: 5,66 m


Gifs on how E-25 would look like with historical dimensions (made by Pantheist):

Friday 15 January 2016

15/01/2016 Stream (Ended)

Hello,

its time for my scheduled livestream. Tonight I will be playing Armored Warfare and platooning together with my girl friend Spitfire (she is a nice lass who works from AW) and my boy friend Jingles! (That word tease... ( ͡° ͜Ê– ͡°) )

I have all vehicles unlocked so will be matching their vehicles: http://www.twitch.tv/ritagamer2

Lets do this!