Japanese Q&A

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Hello everyone,

today, we’re going to do something a bit unusual.

Daigensui from the US server agreed upon doing this. For those who do not know Daigensui: she and Soukoudragon worked closely with Wargaming to make the Japanese tree happen (for EU players: something like Listy and the Nuffield line), so she’s very qualified to answer anything you might be interested regarding the Japanese tanks.

She agreed to answer questions for you guys. So anything you are interested in regarding the Japanese tanks, you can ask in the comments. I will then take sort out trolling and send the most interesting questions to her for answering. Feel free to ask! :)

Mind you, she will not be answering via comments under this article, I will post the questions and answers in a separate post once they are ready (a day or two, depending on how is she with her time).

Edit: questions are closed

93 thoughts on “Japanese Q&A”

  4. What do you anticipate as the projected armaments for the different tiers of heavy tanks? As they are expected to be “mobile bunkers”…

    • Good gun depression. Most of the early tanks had shoulder shoved guns (like the early British designs). They could move the gun independently of the main turret.

  6. Hi, I would like to know a little more about the branch in general:

    This branch is going to be similar to the concept of the leopard 1(low armour but good guns and/or mobility)?
    We will see in a feature a complete branch with heavies,TDs and arty or its impossible?

    Thanks you for your time.

  9. Can you tell us what is going to be the “thing” that makes Japanese tanks special? Every nation has something and I’m really interested what we can expect from this line.

    • One more thing, it is widely know that Japanese classification of medium tanks differed from the standard of other nations. Therefore a Chi-Ha in the Japanese tree is a medium tank where in reality it was only a light tank compared to something like M4 or PzIV. Performance-wise, can we expect these tanks to be somewhere like fake mediums (at least the lower tree tanks) as the Crusader is balanced in the game?

    • Oh me!me!me!me! Pick me!
      I think I know that one!

      Doctrine was officially very much like the German one, mass your armour into one point and stick it to the enemy.
      However, Japanese tank forces were often subordinated to the Infantry arm, so ended up being ordered around by superior Japanese infantry branch officers. Most of which lacked familiarity with armour, and so split units up to support their soldiers.

  14. When it comes to making a full tree with 1 branch for each class, where does the japanese nation encounter difficulties?

  15. why are we asking a woman? xD
    on a sidenote.. .is there even a japanse server?
    now seriously
    can i have the new tanks tomorrow?

  16. Is there a chance the japanese tree will be more complete than for instance the chinese one? I would love to drive every single japanese tank :)

  17. Will these tanks be implemented?
    1.Type 89
    2.Experiment Type 1
    3.Type 5 Chi-Ri 2
    4.Type 61 Kai ( Or will we see the tier 9 ST-A1 gets 105mm? )

  18. Q: -have you ever tried the battlefield 1942 mod “forgotten hope secret weapons” and its japanese tanks?
    -if you did, did you like what they added and how they perform?
    -this could be a problematic question but what is the opinion of chinese players towards japanese
    players/tanks and the other way around? are the servers seperated to avoid confrontations or simply due to
    lack of a common language?
    -will the st-b feature hydro pneumatic suspension to give it its gundepression or will it be done via buffing the
    depression of the gun itselfor (i hope they dont) will they leave it without compensation?

  20. Remembering SS’s original article on the STB1, what unique characteristics are likely to be implemented by Wargaming? Are they seriously considering the hydro pneumatic suspension or are they more likely to compromise and add additional elevation and depression to the gun to simulate its existence?

      • On that note: as it is a common knowledge that there are no girls on teh interwebz (and certainly no tanker girls… interested in things japanese… c’mon, this feels like writing SF), we demand a proof! Oh, and pics or it didn’t happen! ;) But seriously, what is Your opinion regarding rejection of Experimental design. Could it be due to incomplete data (some time ago there was some info, about japanese tank docs being notoriously difficult to obtain)?

  24. - will the mediums tanks get guns like higher-tier frenchs?
    - have you found tier IV and V candidates for the heavy branch?
    - will the japanese have premium captured tanks too?
    - what will happen to the Chinese Chi-Ha?
    and last: – (there was report of Indonesian post-war Chi-Ha´s that used the 6 pdr gun during their war of Independence) – will the 6 pdr gun appear was a Chi-Ha module?

  27. In a previous FTR article, it was commented that the Japanese flag (white field, red circle) was not used in Japanese tanks (with one known exception), and so you (Daigensui) informed Wargaming. Now we can see in the trailer that all the Japanese tanks have this flag painted on their turrets.

    So, what’s gonna happen at the end? Which will be the symbol of the Japanese tanks?

      • Or not, my mistake. Still, since the Japanese didn’t use anything, pretty much, and WG has to have something, the current Japanese flag is as good as any symbol.

  29. Do you use historical sounds? What is your view on WoT sounds ATM, as this regards the future sounds of Japanese tanks?

    Do you follow any anime? Which ones are your favourites? Or at least genres, mostly curious~

    Do you think there will be some in-game WoT x GuP cooperation?

    How popular do you think the Japanese will be? And how playable? Will there be any top tier tank considered useful in CW?

    How much time does it take to help WG prepare a line? What are your feelings about it and do you have something interesting from that that you could share?

    And which one is your fav Japanese tank from the released line and overall (if they differ)? :)

  30. What shell types did they mostly use?
    As in, apart from the L7 clone on the tier10, will we be getting heat-gold or apcr-gold?
    Probably smth not really known, but – may be to the devs and not to Daigensui – any chances of national modules? Kind of like soviets having the 5% boost, germans having the whatever shit that increases terrain passability etc?

  31. What are the characteristics and game-play differences that the Tier X Japanese tank brings to the table which are new?

    What is the characteristic of the tree itself? Is there anything that sets these tanks apart in terms of game-play?
    (ex: Like the French have low armour and auto-loaders, Germans have nice guns etc.)

    PS ALSO OH GOD I CAN NOT WAIT!

  32. QUESTION for Daigensui: Is it possible that there are candidates for high tier Japanese tanks that have autoloaders? If so can you cite the name of the tanks and their specifications and their probability of being implemented in the game?

  33. Dear Daigensui: wich tanks will probably be in the heavie line of the jap. tanks? which armnament will the Tier 10 heavy probably have? :)

    • the main advantage is that they will be new, so they must be better than their older counterparts, that is just WG politics. Maybe they’ll nerf some medium tanks, just before introducing japanes. I wouldnt be amazed if that happens. German autoloaded TDs incoming means – wow, we gotta nerf foch now, coz he’s so OP, he was OP for a long time, and they doesnt give a shit till now. thats sick

  38. I’m rather interested in the Japanese super-heavy designs. Doesn’t seem to be necesarily well armored, but the guns look promising, and we all know how much fun the TOG II style of play can be. :P

    Are there enough possible designs for a full, or at least a partial branch of super heavies?

  40. Based on what little i know of the Japanese Military in WW2 it seems to me that they have invested heavily in Naval warfare which brought about really accurate naval guns that translated over into great land based arty. Will future Japanese SPGs be really accurate or at least more accurate than the present crop of SPGs?

    I remember this being covered by other questions and maybe in a past FTR article but how will the STB1 differ from its contemporaries such as the T62a, Leopard 1 etc.

    Last question, how troll will the STB1′s turret be in your opinion. It looks really well sloped to me and might bounce quite a few shots. Coupled with good gun depression it should be a real beast when hulldown.

  41. Will the light minibranch be expanded in the future or it will stay as it is?
    Why I can research the Chi Ha from the Ha Go at tier 3? Why I can research the Chi Nu from Ke Ho at tier 5?
    Will there be japanese arty?
    Heavies and TDs will surely come at a point. Will we see the O-I?
    I know little about the Japanese history so I’m asking? Who was building tanks? Were there companies like in Germany? Or the state was building them like in USSR?

  44. Did the Japanese capture many American/Commonwealth tanks during the war? Did the Germans contribution heavily to their armoured industry towards the end of the war? Did they ever run any bizarre trials by mounting Japanese guns on captured/loaned equipment?

  46. Q: Way is the heavy line being delayed and not inserted with the medium line at the same time? Still problems with tanks and there implementation in WoT?

  48. What of the rumors that the Japanese built and actually deployed a super heavy tank? I heard it got stuck on a beach so they blew it up :(

    And how many different types were under proposal? Army and Navy had their own versions, right? Would that make enough for two separate lines?

  49. Which tank has the best chance to become the Tier 10 TD for the japanese TT? And if there is no candidate yet, which is the highest tier TD to appear?

  50. Will there be any greater difference in the gameplay between the “Chi” section [ Up to tier VII ] and the type 61 and STA/B?
    ————————————————————————————–
    I have a feeling that it will be like if we would switch from KV-4 to IS-8 D:

  52. I’m rather interested in crew stuff so:

    These tanks seem to not be very spacious and comfortable for their crews, is it so.? Could this be considered as a weakness for jap tanks?

    What is the average crew count on jap tanks? Do they often differ from each other in this aspect or are they pretty much uniform?

    Are there enough tanks out there for jap premium tanks?

    I you could name three possible strenghts of jap tanks in WoT, which ones would they be?

  55. Hello Daidai!
    Just 2 question from me:
    1). As you know, the Chi-ha already exists as a chinese light.
    What differences do you expect between the Japanese version and the captured Chinese version , besides the known Camo rating difference?

    2). Japan was not known for their tanks so I believe they would have a limited number of tank designs (enlighten me if I’m wrong). Hence how many tank lines are possible for the Japanese tree, as in how many tier Xs are possible for the Japanese tree and also counting any ‘mini branches’ that may potentially exist?

    Thank you.

  56. Will there be special equipment for the Japanese tanks?
    Like the cyclone-filter or something like that?

  58. Will japanese tier X tank have bouncy turret (like russian ones) with good gun depression?
    Thanks in advance for the reply :)

  59. What is the Japanese thing? (Russians got high alpha-low accuracy, British high rate of fire, etc.)
    Is there a feature common to all or most japanese tanks which makes the tree unique?

  60. So, my understanding is that Japanese tanks, at least meds and lights, had relatively little armor. Do you know if WG plans on giving them a shitload of health to compensate for it (ala Tiger H) or if they will use some other method (excellent handling, amazing guns, whatever)?

    Also does this means you will stop playing almost exclusively german tanks?

    • Oh yeah, also, will the Tier X have an autoloader? Because an autoloaded small medium at the top of a branch that isn’t one continuous punch in the balls (looking at you BatChat) would be much appreciated.

  62. Q: What kind of elite configurations can we expect from the Japanese tanks? Will they be historical, or will they be “extrapolations” of fitting better guns that were never put in IRL, like the long 88 in a Tiger or the L/100 in the Panther?

  63. NC-27 – will it somehow be different from Chinese, USSR, French tier-1?
    Will there be pneumatic/hydraulic suspension or it will be compensated by relatively big gun depression?
    National food expendable for Japanese crews?
    Tier VIII medium – will it be usable in 7/42 championships? Tier X in CWs?
    Will there be autoloaders of any kind?

  64. Wasn’t the Exp. No.1 (Chi-I) going to be the Japanese tier 1?

    I remember you consistently saying that it should have been the Japanese tier 1 (medium tank), and I personally would prefer that over another Renault FT copy.

  65. 1. Will the Japanese have national crew voices?
    2. Is anything going to happen to Chinese Chi-Ha? I am asking because it’s almost the same as Japanese one.
    3. Are Japanese coming in 8.9?

  70. A while back SudokuDragon wrote an article about the CHi-Ri and mentioned that there were no plans to miunt the 88 L56 in it and the turret was so large in order to accommodate for an autoloaded 75 mm. The same article also mentiones the type 5 88mm gun that could fit into the turret.
    Did the devs ignore those options or is it possible we will see them on the Chi-Ri ingame?

    Are there any problems with finding suitable vehicles for an entire TD branch?

    Are there enough vehicles for additional minibranches?

  71. How many variants of the O-I were there and what were the differences between them? I heard something like 100-ton and 120-ton variant, but nothing specific. Also, which tiers could they fit?