Yearly Archives: 2013

The Legion – part II

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Part I here: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2013/12/27/the-legion-part-i/

In the pale moonlight

Right before the midnight (still on 3.6.1918), the flanking of Lt.Gayer started advancing. It was a cold night with clear skies, everything was silent and the Czechoslovak had to move slowly and carefully not to draw attention. After 20 kilometers of such march, the group has reached the Voskresenske village.

lipyagy

During the march, the group stopped every five kilometers to rest, so the men wouldn’t be exhausted, when they reached the battlefield. The men were clenching their rifles, everyone knew about the defenses and was ready for a tough fight. During the advance, a horse courier from Lt.Čeček caught on the group with good news: the Legion rearguard repulsed a bolshevik attack from Bezenchuk a few hours ago, routing the bolsheviks and sending them running. This news helped to lift the morale of the unit greatly and everyone was eager to prove their worth fighting the bolsheviks.

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8bit Tales – a little explanation

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Hello everyone,

you might have already seen the 8bit Tales Santa post on the portal. It’s kinda cute as always (I like these video series). Just a little explanation however. At cca 1:10, the Maus “boss” gets killed and a ghost of a deer flies up from it:

8bit

Why a deer? That makes no sense? Unless it’s reindeer, but why would a reindeer be a Maus? Anyway, what I think this means is – the authors of the video are Russians. In Russian, the word for a noob is “olen”, which literally means “deer”. This is the point of many Russian World of Tanks jokes: if you see someone with antlers photoshopped on him, it is a reference to the “deer” (meaning he’s a noob).

By the way, you might have noticed some other Russian jokes with another animal, this time a crayfish. In Russian, the word for a troll or an idiot (in WoT slang) is “rak”, which means “crayfish”. Lots of jokes come from this too.

Both the deer and the crayfish appeared even in an official trailer for team battles, this is how an average Russian World of Tanks team looks like apparently:

TqcP2Pb

Interview with Storm from a Czech WoT magazine

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Hello everyone,

what follows is the summary of an interview with Michael “Storm” Zhivets, that came out in the Czech WoT monthly magazine “Deník Nooba” (Diary of a Noob) ran by Carramba66 (the same guy who made the veteran charity happen). Its second issue is now out and if you can read Czech, I can really recommend it (it contains e-sports posts, reviews, historical articles and such). You can get it from this post.

As for the interview, it’s a bit older (from the beginning of December) – the issue of the magazine was supposed to come out earlier, but there were some delays in production. Either way, here’s the summary:

- Storm started in the Minsk game studio called Arise, that merged with Wargaming in 2007
- when looking back, he wouldn’t do any significant thing on WoT differently, apart from being more prepared for the huge influx of players (the servers sometimes weren’t handling the popularity of the game)
- his big hobby is fishing
- PEGI and ESRB ratings are very important for Wargaming, without them, some regional markets would remain closed – but as for the missing crewmembers, Storm states that the original goal was to make a game without violence elements
- roughly 75 million people around the world play World of Tanks, including women and elderly folks
- the fact Germans already have Panzer 38t and 35t will not damage the quality of the Czechoslovak branch, especially since there are other “copies” between the trees (Storm mentions “twins” in French and German tree)
- European tech tree will not come earlier than 2015
- the names of the tank crewmembers for EU tree will correspond to the country the tank was built in
- Storm states that while WT E-100 is very strong, it might face the same effect as FV215b 183 (SS: that means that while a lot of players consider the vehicle OP, statistically it’s balanced), he admits it might be rebalanced after a few months
- historical battles will appear in first half of 2014, WG is actively working on them
- no list of historical battles’ tanks is planned for now
- apparently gold ammo will be limited in historical battles (only to a certain number of rounds, so players don’t spam it)
- there will be new bonuses for the owners of premium accounts, but it’s too soon to tell
- there won’t be direct QA with Storm and SerB on EU server (the way Russians have it)
- next year, global graphics improvement for WoT is planned (improving the number of polygons, the quality of textures and 3D models)
- there will be 2 kilometer and even 4 kilometer maps
- spotting system will not be cancelled, but it will be reworked. For starters, the amount of camo factor will depend on how many spotting checkpoints are visible (SS: as in, if a tank shows only one spot checkpoint, for example the roof, it will be less visible than a tank just standing in the open)
- Storm confirms that APCR ammo does lose penetration over distance faster than AP

Posted in Q&A

WG EU: Double XP working properly

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Hello everyone,

just to let you know, there have been a few guys contacting me about an alleged fail, since the double XP mission (that was promised yesterday) doesn’t exist in the mission list. I’d just like to let you know that the double XP works just fine. Only it’s not done via a mission.

You see, in order to make the double XP count towards the IS-6 goal, someone would create a special type of mission and probably override a whole lot of the previous rules otherwise. So, in order to avoid all the hassle, Wargaming invented a rather elegant solution: first battle double XP’s did count towards the IS-6 goal even before, so they simply blocked their resetting. Basically, the game now considers EVERY won battle to be the first victory of the day.

That’s why there is no new mission, that’s why they had to cancel the x5 victory bonus and that’s why it counts only towards victories. If they wanted to make EVERY battle to be double XP (even losses) and to make it count towards the IS-6 goal, a fair bit of programming would have to be involved. This way, it doesn’t have to be.

Update: 2x XP will count towards the IS-6 goal this weekend

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Hello everyone,

as you probably heard already, Wargaming gave us an unexpected bonus: this weekend, you get double XP for every battle you win (so if you lose, you ain’t getting shit). The Christmas event bonuses were changed thus:

¨

28/12 – 30/12 x2 experience for every victory!
30/12 – 31/12 x2 crew experience
31/12 – 02/01 x5 experience for the first victory of the day
02/01 – 04/01 x2 crew experience
04/01 – 07/01 x3 crew experience
07/01 – 18/01 x2 crew experience

Considering hardcore people like Lonigus already claimed the IS-6 (he did so today in fact), I guess it’s the right boost for everyone not as hardcore :)

27.12.2013

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- SerB states regarding old (0 battle) accounts occupying “nice” names that there most likely will be a system, that will be renaming them automatically
- apparently SerB doesn’t think that the IS-6 competition will create a flood of IS-6 tanks, like it happened with Type 59 before
- there will be all three map types (desert, summer and winter) for lowtier tanks
- Q: “How much smaller are the tanks in game than they are in real life?” A: “That depends on your screen. On a 20 meter cinema screen, it would be roughly 1:1″
- the average life span of a tank in WoT battle is cca 4 minutes, for a plane in WoWp it is cca 2 minutes, as for the classes – the longest lifespan belongs to arty, the shortest – hightier scouts
- Wargaming participating in/sponsoring the Tank Biathlon? “Not even PR department deals with such stuff, that would be GR (Government Relations) department, which is even further from the development department than PR”
- turretless tanks will not have apparently anything flying off during an ammo rack explosion
- there is no plan to hand out 2-3 perk crews in connection with historical battles, you will have to grind them yourselves
- Storm adds regarding the War Thunder damage model that something like was tested some months ago internally for World of Tanks, the tests did not yield good results (“without perspective”), but states that even such a damage model will find its fans
- historical battles will have the same game mechanics as random battles (SS: eg. no hardcore mode or oneshots)

Posted in Q&A

WG ASIA (SEA): double XP bonus to count towards IS-6

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Source: http://worldoftanks.asia/en/news/49/2-exp-all-victories-secret-special/

Tank Commanders,

We have received reports that our Combat Missions: Extreme has been very well received. Many of you have begun to work towards completing said missions, and the chance to receive the IS-6 Heavy Tank as a reward.

However, the going has been tough, and we would like to give you a boost. Because of this, we have decided to give you a boost with a secret special: for this weekend only, ALL of your victories in the battlefield will gain 2x EXP. Furthermore, this EXP bonus will be counted towards the mission requirements needed to get the IS-6 reward!

…..so, can we get that too? Or is it “no bonus for you, capitalists” again?

The Legion – part I

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Hello everyone,

this historical post will not feature any tanks (although there are armored cars and trains), it will instead be about one of the most glorious military chapters of Czechoslovak history and – without any overstatement – one of the most daring military undertakings in history of wars, the struggle of Czechoslovak legions in Russia after the end of WW1. This campaign has everything: stunning victories, crushing defeats, suicidal bravery, glorious last stands and a small “underdog” army fighting (and defeating) the forces of entire Russia. So sit back and enjoy.

The history of the Legion formation is actually quite complicated and we will get to that in detail perhaps later. Suffice to say that as early as 1914, Czechoslovak volunteers were gathering on the Russian side of the conflict in order to fight the Germans and Austrians. These men had no love for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy and were supported by the “exile” Czechoslovak leadership (including T.G.Masaryk, a legendary figure, who would later become the first president of independent Czechoslovakia). At first, these men were viewed with suspicion by the Russians, but after 1917 battle of Zborov (one of the most glorious military moments of Czechoslovak history), they rescinded the limits imposed on the Czechoslovak units and what started as a company grew quickly into a regular army, that – at the peak of its power – had around 100 thousand men at arms, including its own armor (cars and trains), air force and artillery.

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World of Tanks recycling

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Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/2895314.html

Hello everyone,

this might not be something new for some of you, but those not oldschool enough might have not heard. Wargaming is generally an eco-friendly company, because it recycles – this is not a bad thing actually, it’s just a statement. Take for example the following case, posted on RU forums by Maiorboltach. Before World of Tanks, Wargaming produced a strategy game called the Order of War. Order of War was somewhat successful – but this is another matter entirely. Anyway, check this out.

Order of War victory theme:

 

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