Source: Dom1n, Polish community
Hello everyone,
remember that nice “screwup” with the Leopard and the sheep on the last wallpaper? That was actually pretty funny, wasn’t it :) Well, this isn’t.
Wargaming artists are using copyrighted material for their wallpapers without author’s consent, apparently.
Hello everyone,
today we will have a look at one of the armored forces, that gets often neglected by literature and usually deserves no more than small articles behind the Axis section: the armor of Bulgaria.
After World War I, in which the Bulgarian kingdom fought on Central Powers’ side and lost, its army was severely weakened and – as with other former Central Powers – forced by the Allies to accept certain conditions, limiting the number of men and weapons, while other types of weapons (including armored vehicles) being banned outright. The Allied committee, that oversaw the disarming of Bulgaria, openly favoured Yugoslavia and Greece and the terms were very strict. This, combined with the regional specifics (Balkan peninsula always was a powderkeg of sorts), planted a part of the seeds, that would eventually grow into the most destructive conflict in human history.
Hello everyone, Alex78i, who sent me earlier the photos from the Bucharest museum, went to Pivka (Slovenia). You might remember that we had a while ago a bunch of pictures from there too, these however show the vehicles from bit different angles.
T-55 at the entrance
Apparently, SerB is somewhere, where the internet is of low quality, so we can expect few answers. As promised, this is from last night:
- German armor too thin at welds (meeting point) of upper and lower frontal armor? SerB considers it a conspiracy theory
- BT-7 is not equipped with a historical 76mm gun ingame, because for that it would need 3rd turret – if it is ever added, SerB will think about it (and this concerns T-26 too)
Oh yes, and new Listy’s war article, quite interesting:
http://overlord-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/07/holding-at-hondeghem.html
Remember the articles about Romanian armor?
Part I – Pre WW2
Part II – Bucharest to Stalingrad
Part III – Crimea to the end
Player Alex87i from Romania was actually so kind as to go to the Bucharest army museum and take some tanks pictures. Let’s have a look at them:
FT-17
The Soviet light tanks are being reshuffled from patch 8.6 to patch 8.7, as many of you already know. The ahistoric T-50-2 is going away, being replaced by the long-awaited MT-25. The T-50 is also being nerfed. Let’s look at how all of these adjustments fit into the pages of history.
The T-50 was meant to replace the T-26 as the RKKA’s infantry support tank. The task of designing it and building two prototypes was given to two factories: factory #174 and the Kirov factory. The results were somewhat different. Let’s look at what the two factories ended up producing.
Factory #174 followed the order more closely than its competitor. Its design was 13.5 tons in mass, was fitted with either a 300 hp or 250 hp engine (later upgraded to 350 hp), and had a maximum theoretical speed of 50 kph (trials showed a maximum speed of 52 kph). Two prototypes were built to these specifications, indexed T-50-1 and T-50-2. Later, the requirements for the tank were increased. The mass went up to 14.5 tons, and front armour was increased to 50 mm, both on the hull and turret. A subsequent order increased that requirement to 55 mm all around.
Riding on the success of the KV series, Kirov factory’s project bureau was a bit of a prima donna. Its design deviated from the project specification, which #174′s engineers took issue with. The result was a tank that weighed 13.8 tons, and was capable of reaching 65 kph on the same 300 hp engine as the #174 prototype. Kirov’s prototypes were not accepted into service, but fought to defend the factory during the Siege of Leningrad.
Kotin did not give up on his design, and proposed a new one: a 25.5 ton tank equipped with 60 mm of sloped armour, a 76 mm gun, with a maximum speed of 40 kph. Since this was basically a T-34 on torsion bars (and factory #183 could make a better T-34 on torsion bars), the project was rejected.
The MT-25 has nothing to do with any of these projects (as is correctly indicated by its research path). The tank was intended to take advantage of breaches in the enemy’s defense. Like the T-34, it was meant to tear through, and cause as much chaos in the rear as possible. In order to achieve this, it was planned with very high speed, maneuverability, and resilience (damage to half of the road wheels did not immobilize the vehicle). The maximum speed of this tank was 100 kph. The tank’s armament was a “47 mm gun and 3 machine guns”. It is unclear what 47 mm gun the designers had in mind. The schematics show a cannon highly reminiscent of the L-11 gun, the same as was mounted on early T-34s.
Now, let’s see where the in-game vehicles fit in. Let’s start with the obvious one, the MT-25. Its speed is drastically reduced from historical. I don’t have data on its armour layout, but the armament seems feasible. Anything carrying an L-11 could carry an F-34 or ZiS-4.
The T-50s become a bit more problematic. There are several historical designs, and several in-game ones. Let’s mix and match.
The pre-patch T-50 has a maximum speed of 60 kph, with engines ranging from 300-550 hp. The tank weighs 13 tons. The armour of the tank maxes out at 37 mm. This appears to be the initial factory #174 vehicle, before any of the upgrades, but with a fancy new engine. It is plausible that, with such an engine, it would reach 60 kph.
The post-patch T-50 has a maximum speed of 52 kph, with the same armour. The engines have been scaled back. Not only is the prototype engine gone, so is the “top” historical 350 hp one. Wargaming rounds up the tank’s mass to 13.5 tons.
The T-50-2 is interesting. Obviously, it’s quite a bit faster than any of the T-50s (even the Kirov factory one!). Then again, it gets that fancy 550 hp engine. The historical blurb seems to suggest that the T-50-2 is Kirov’s prototype, so perhaps doubling the horsepower squeezed an extra 7 kph out of the design. As with the #174 design, none of the armour upgrades have been added.
Where does this leave us? Well, it leaves us with the two best T-50s missing: Kirov’s (with its 65 kph speed limit) and #174′s (with its 55 mm of armour at the same 52 kph speed limit). Maybe Wargaming is saving them for the moment where upgradeable hulls are implemented. Or, perhaps, an entire new Soviet light tree! With a little extra shuffling and finagling, it would be very possible to shove the upgraded #174 design into a tier 5 light slot (with medium matchmaking, like the Crusader), the Kirov T-50 into the tier 6 slot, and continue with crazy Soviet light tank projects from there.
First and foremost, a reliable WG source confirmed that the “galaxy tech tree” is just a hoax, no such thing is planned.
- Sturmpanzer Bär is decribed in sources that are serious enough to use, according to SerB
- separate server for “boss fights” á la White Tiger is not planned (SS: some time ago there was an event where 15 T-34/85′s fought one White Tiger tank, controlled by a WG employee I think)
- theoretically there is enough material for 5 German TD branches, but that’s not planned for now
- SerB on War Thunder tanks: “I am interested in how you can make a mass-played hardcore simulator. And, yes, how much of the hardcoreness/historicity will remain in it in the end.”
- rear-turret Soviet tanks: A-44 (3 pieces), Object 416 and Shashmurin’s tank
SS: Shashmurin’s rear-turret tank was an IS-2 alternative project (“IS-2M”) by N.F.Shashmurin from 1944. It looked like this:
- no plans to introduce Panzer IV with sloped frontal armor wand with 88mm Panther Schmalturm, because SerB thinks they were apparently fake and states that “reconstructed” tanks will be used only to fill tree holes and that there are no tree holes around tier 6 in German medium tree (SS: actually, Panzer IV Ausf.K (Ausf.H with sloped frontal armor) from January 1943 is historical, you can find it in Panzer Tracts by Doyle):
- SerB states that the high damage of British hightier HE shells is intentional specific of the British tech tree
- the FV215b 183 HE shell penetration is lower than one would guess from its caliber, because “those are conventional marine shells”
- “no more than usual (on other tanks)” amount of players use gold shells on FV215b 183
- new awards? “when it’s done it’s done”
- developers are implementing roaming, because “it’s interesting to play ‘over the hill’ (SS: as in ‘on the other side’, somewhere else) for a while”
- rocket and flamethrower tanks will be implemented in the future
- SerB on amphibious tanks: “Performance-wise, amphibious tanks are generally inferior to regular tanks. Their only advantage is that they can cross bodies of water and attack at unexpected places. On 1x1km maps, this is practically useless – all the space is covered, so this feature is waiting for bigger maps.”
- there is an idea for a “thanks system” (SS: as in the opposite of ingame report system – you’d thank someone), but it’s not implemented yet, because it depends on other game features implementation
- SU-122A moves worse than SU-76, despite it being lighter and having more powerful engine, simply because it’s an arty (balance)
- WoT Blitz (for mobile devices), there might be an “improved” version for Ipad4 instead of Ipad2, too early to tell
- the accounts of WoT and WoT:B will definitely not be synchronized, it’s two different games
- another team than the one of WoT develops WoT:B
- WoT:B is now still in pre-alpha stage
- WoWp battles are very short, because SerB states that according to tests, prolonged battles in 3D space are tiring
- A-44 with 107mm can be considered a heavy (SS: if I understand this correctly), IS-2M (“Shashmurin”) however is not T10 material
One more piece of info: remember that mod, that disables the dynamic camera shaking after shooting? Well, in 8.7 test 2 (and therefore most likely in full 8.7 itself), Wargaming made some modification that disables this mod. It’s no longer possible to disable the dynamic camera shot shake.
Hello everyone,
yesterday, a supertester leaked that a new Chinese (Taiwanese) Type 64 light tank is being introduced to World of Tanks. Let’s have a look at it.
Type 64 is basically a M42 Duster hull with M18 Hellcat turret on top of it. You can probably see where this is going: extremely light armored vehicle with a 76mm gun to boot. In World of Tanks terms, it will be very agile and fast. Here is a short description of the vehicle, found on the internet:
The Type 64 light tank is similar to the US-designed and built M41 series in automotive and mechanical details and has the same dimensions, chassis, engine and transmission but an improved electrical system.
The hull is of all-welded steel construction as in the M41 but incorporates advanced welding techniques in its manufacture and uses a new high-hardness alloy steel. This provides protection from small arms fire and cannon attack.The all-cast three-person turret has the same layout as the original M41 although slight alterations have been made to suit the medium stature of the local tank crews. An additional layer of laminated high-hardness alloy steel armour plate is bolted/welded onto the hull and turret sides to provide greater protection against HEAT and APDS projectiles.The Type 64 is armed with a 76 mm rifled gun as in the M41 but it is made in Taiwan and claimed to have a performance superior to the original 76 mm M32 gun. A 7.62 mm machine gun is mounted coaxial with the main armament and a .50 (12.7 mm) M2 HB machine gun is mounted at the commander’s station for use in the anti-aircraft role. Both these weapons are made in Taiwan and the 7.62 mm coaxial machine gun probably resembles a modified version of the US-developed M60 series weapon.Taiwanese sources state the Type 64 has an improved fire-control system. Ammunition stowage is probably identical to the M41A2/M41A3. Later Type 64 tanks may incorporate laser range-finders, ballistic computers and passive night vision equipment. All of these have been developed by the Sun Yat-Sen Scientific Research Institute of Taiwan.
In World of Tanks terms:
As mentioned before, it’s going to be light and fast. Mediocre gun and nonexistent armor will be its drawbacks, but the vehicle might have decent depression. Personally, I am curious, whether WG will implement the special Taiwanese decals for it (like they did for Leopard and Indienpanzer). Looking forward to it.
Characteristics:
Weight: cca 25 tons
Crew: probably 4
Armor: Hull front – 25mm, hull sides – 9mm
Turret front – cca 76mm, turret sides – 30mm
Weapon: 76mm (M32?)
Engine: probably 500hp Continental
…..because we all know it’s the evil Europeans leaking stuff :)
Source: http://www.reddit.com/r/WorldofTanks/comments/1i5u72/leaking_some_info_about_343_and_other_things_from/
A Russian supertester unveils some new facts over the supertest…
T-34-3
I heard you guys like any extra info you can get. First let me post some stats and excuse me if I make some mistakes in my English because I am Russian. Sorry if any of this was posted already.
Gun 122mm D-25TA acc 0.46 shoots 4.17 times a minute 3,4 aiming time average penetration 175/300/61 damage 390/390/465
Hull armor 90/50/50
Turret armor 190/120/60
Turret Traverse speed 46
Traverse speed of tank 46
View Range 380
Tiers it gets thrown to : 8, 9 and 10 too.
My opinion about tank-it is a poor mans type. I only played 8 games in it though. The gun depression SUCKS. It is a lot worse than on type and it is worse than it was on private test server too. The mobility of tank is good. Armor is kinda bouncy but you should not count on it. Gunner and driver die very often. Every 3-4 front hit on me kills one of them. Didn’t like it very much overall. By the way it was added to our accounts only today despite the news saying it was added a week ago.
Cybersport mode
About other new things: Cybersport mode. Currently being tested on Airport, Lasville, Ensk, Fiordes and some map the name of which I don’t know in english(Степи) (SS: Steppes)
New tanks and maps
New tank Type-64, most likely a level 6-7 light tank , I haven’t played on it yet. T-44-122, everyone knows about it already probably, level 7 prem medium. Some german level 4 premium heavy Durchbruchswagen 2. New iOS app 1.5 that will be released soon. Many new maps that are or were being tested. For example “Dead road”, “Foothold of Jupiter”, “84_WINTER_A(it just doesn’t have a proper name yet I think)”
Supertester’s job
Interesting facts about supertest: We get up to 34k gold a month for supertesting and the ability to buy tanks that nobody else can buy, ie type59 or KV-5. Also we have a special forum divided from the main one. While testing new premium tanks, if someone from your own team shoots you, he will most likely be banned if you report it in special forum.
And, Q&A for the supertester:
Q: How can one become a supertester? Do u get paid? How long do u have to work every week?
A: I made an application on main forum for fun and it took 6 months for them to check it and invite me. I only get “bonuses” like gold and special abilities like buying tanks that can’t be bought and testing tanks like E25 and 112 first on the main server. I have to get 7-8 points every week and every point is around 50 minutes of testing. You also get 2-3 points for every feedback.
Q: So wait, you can buy say a Type 59 on the main server? What other special tanks can you buy?
A: KV-220, tetrarch, M6A2E8 or whatever it was called. We buy them for “points” accumulated for testing, not gold by the way.
P.S. Also there is a system with which those that test regularly and good can get those tanks for absolutely no price at all. Just for free. For example if a tank costs 50 points and you work enough for 50 points for three months, you can get that tank for nothing.
(SS: this applied for RU supertesters only, even when there was a EU supertest actually)
Q: Do you have access to the new physics engine? Any news on multi core processor support? Do any tanks get any noticeable buffs/nerfs?
A: I don’t think there is any new physics engine. I don’t have access to it even if it exists. Nope, but I think SerB said the client already supports it. I am not sure about it though, sorry. Yes, 34-3 had gun depression almost like type59, now it is worse. And some tanks get noticeable buffs because WG is afraid to make OP tanks now and early iterations of them really suck. For example PZ4 Hydro lost 95% of all the test battles and they are now buffing it.
Q: What’s your favorite tank that hasn’t been released yet? Any buffs to old tanks (maus is7)?
A: 112 I guess. It is different from IS6 and is a good tank. A bit OP maybe, but definitely not in the armor department. Armor is a lot worse than on IS6. Pantera and Pantera II will get…rebalanced probably.
Q: PZ4 Hydro? Tell WG to make the sideskirts on the Schmalturm functional and solid steel (non-mesh). Tired of being 1 shotted in that tank
A: Hydro is a new prem too, but it is not going to be released any time soon imo. Schmaltum had them functional in the early tests I think but I might be mistaken. Anyway it was suggested to make them solid and declined already
Source: http://wot-news.com/main/post/07122013/1/Novoe-derevo-razvitija
Backstory: some Russian guy went to (IIRC) do interview with SerB&Co and was allowed to wander around the WG building and “found” out some documents (signed by SerB no less), lying on some random desk. They allegedly show a new tech tree design.
Honestly, I think it’s garbage and trolling, I am pretty sure no reasonable company would let people just wander around, taking pics of random internal documents. Plus, the “new tree” is full of bullshit, like the April 1st Soviet ball tanks, or T-37A on tier 5 (if you zoom in, you can se it).
