Weekly FTR Contributor Review and Technicalities

Hello everyone,

once again it’s the time to thank the contributors, it’s you who keep FTR running after all! This time, following people donated via Paypal:

Yunfan W. (USA)
Derping4Dollars (USA)
Myles S.-G. (United Kingdom)

Thanks a lot, guys! Just a small notice regarding the WoT gifts. Recently, player “crash_core” sent me a gift in the game – 30 days of premium no less! While I very much appreciate the notion, I must respectfully decline the gift. The reason for it is that I simply wouldn’t use it up as I don’t play that much lately and thus your money would go to waste. Thank you, I do value the sentiment, but I am currently not accepting any WoT gifts.

Also, since we are talking technical things, I know I said before I’d go to this year’s Gamescom, but I changed my mind. The reason for it is that I am returning from another trip abroad on the day it actually starts and I expect I’ll be very tired. Plus, there is not much for me to see there, I am banned from WG EU “invite events” and already one guy was kind enough to offer making a writeup of anything interesting that will be said there, so you won’t lose any info.

The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service

http://www.patreon.com/silentstalker

This is the Patreon account of For the Record. In case you read this for the first time and feel like contributing, here is an explanation what it is, how it works and how to contribute. You can find a list of all those, who pledged and help to keep FTR running here.

Thank you all!

28.7.2014

The Russians have patch 9.2 tomorrow, as announced earlier. EU should follow on Wednesday, but I haven’t got that confirmed.

Patch 9.2 release notes – I don’t see anything too new there, the FV215b 183mm HESH pen nerf to 230 is there. WT E-100 got an accuracy on the move nerf (25 percent), one 128mm shell removed, reload for 128mm changed from 60 seconds to 58 seconds.

Developers write about the WT E-100 nerf:

“This vehicle is one of the most dangerous opponents in the game. The firepower of WT E-100 allows you to destroy head on any enemy tank. But at the same time, the vehicle is quite vulnerable: it is large and it has thin armor. The developer team focused specifically on the firepower: we decided to remove one of the six shells in the 128mm clip.”

and (regarding generally the Waffentrager line):

“…generally weak armor of these vehicles is fully compensated by their massive firepower. As the praxis and statistics showed, the firepower of these TD’s, the firepower of these tanks turned out to be significantly higher than others of the same class.”

- Chinese “Great Wall” map will not be introduced to EU/US/RU/ASIA servers, as it is not popular even on Chinese server
- VK4502 Ausf.B roof did get buffed in 9.2
- regarding the Stronkhold in 9.2: “We had very good results from the common test. Well, and the mode should always be fixed and improved, otherwise there is no point in implementing it without plans for future development.”
- Wargaming buying Crytek? “There are great many rumors on the internet. Listening to and discussing all of them might make you go crazy. I recommend discussing only official Wargaming info.”
- KV-1S split confirmed for 9.3
- the “Observer” mode will not be implemented into random battles (for the reason of abuse)
- “Observer” player can write in both the team and general battle chat
- “Observer” tanks do take slots in teams (as any other tank does), it’s possible this will change in the future
- if one team consists entirely of “Observers” in training battle, that team will automatically lose the battle as soon as the countdown ends
- it’s possible that in the future, the creator of the training room will have the power to disable Observers completely

Posted in Q&A

Changes to Clan Formula

Thanks to AZMZ for this one.

Hello everyone,

regarding the Clan Rating formula – following changes have been made since its original announcement:

- in the first, general formula, the C coefficient is now 1
- bCoeff1 value changed from 15 to 7
- mCoeff1 value changed from 750 to 2000
- mCoeff2 value changed from 750 to 2000
- bCoeff3 value changed from 2 to 5
- mCoeff3 value changed from 750 to 2000
- mCoeff5 value changed from 750 to 2000
- bCoeff6 value changed from 1000 to 300
- mCoeff6 value changed from 1000 to 2000

Official Observer Mode

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

Hello everyone,

since it’s not on EU server yet: New experimental modre “Observer” will come to the training rooms with patch 9.2. Using it, you can watch the battle from the point of view of various players.

- the mode is available for now only in training battles
- you can follow the tanks yourself, switching between them, you will see both teams on your minimal when in this mode
- you will also be able to see pre-loaded logos of teams in this mode (SS: tournament thing I guess?)

observer_1_1

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“How XVM was created” – Part 2

Source: http://habrahabr.ru/company/wargaming/blog/231065/

Continuing from part 1. Before we go on however, there is something I would like to add to this entire story. Last night, I was contacted by Edrard (you know, the guy from Kiev, who, amongst other things, takes care of FTR tech side). He told me that the XVM story, as written by iBat, is not complete, because iBat, either intentionally or simply by forgetting, did not mention Edrard’s role in XVM creation.

The Noobmeter mod was originally an European mod, created for EU server. The mod was converted into Russian only after it appeared on EU forums and the person who converted it was Edrard personally, along with some other guy. This other guy was the person who actually invented the Russian name for it (Olenemer) and it was Edrard, who programmed the first server part for the Noobmeter mod on Russian side. Edrard also invented the original efficiency rating and was also involved in further development of these mods.

Either way, back to the story.

Assembling the XVM team

As the number of players using the noobmeter grew, the server (hosted on cheap VPS) became overloaded. The result was this:

8877375eac8163c5a10a3a501b8ba6df

About the same time, iBat hired for his own purposes at Hetzner the cheapest “separate” server they had (EQ4: Intel Core i7-920, 8 GB DDR3, 2x 750 GB SATA II HDD). Seeing the trouble the mod was in, he contacted his friend bkon and offered assistance with hosting it. Over next few days, the mod server part was installed successfully, making the mod working relatively well again. Around February-March 2012, a forum for tech support and configuration exchange was estabilished.

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RU251 Historical Characteristics

Hello everyone,

just a quick rundown of the RU251, upcoming tier 8 light tank. The numbers come from a reliable source, its author however does not wish to be listed as some of the materials concerning this tank are actually still considered confidential by the Bundeswehr.

ru251x

The picture above was taken recently. The location of the tank is currently confidential and to be quite honest, taking pictures of it is not exactly something people should do, that’s why the picture is so scrambled. There were more pictures taken and Wargaming has them at their disposal, hence the historical accuracy of the RU251 model in the game.

Empty weight: 24 tons
Combat weight: 25,5 tons
Engine type: MB 837 Aa. (same engine as the Jagdpanzer Kanone, V8 multifuel)
Engine output: 500 horsepower
Power-to-weight: 19,6 hp/t
Maximum speed: 80 km/h

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9.3 Tank Summary

Hello everyone,

9.2 is boring, noone cares about that. But 9.3 – that’s something else. Since I get a lot of questions about the patch and usually it’s the same questions repeating themselves, here’s a summary of the facts we know about tanks in patch 9.3. The testing of this patch should start (according to the “Insider”) a month from today, almost exactly (last week of August). It will bring:

- US light line
- Soviet tier 7 and 8 light tanks
- German tier 8 light tank
- KV-1S split

(and a Hellcat nerf, but not a T49 nerf for example)

US light line

Starts from Chaffee, which will lose its “special LT” status (it’s the last of the original hightier scouts), will be nerfed but it will also recieve normal tier 5 LT matchmaking. Its top turret will be removed and will be replaced by the production variant of the M24 Chaffee (basically, both turrets look roughly the same, the new one has a machinegun or something). The line composition will be:

Tier 5 – Chaffee (model leak, second leak)
Tier 6 – T37 Light Tank (model leak, history of the tank)
Tier 7 – M41 Walker Bulldog (model leak, leaked stats, more leaked stats)
Tier 8 – T49 Light Tank (model and stats leak, history)

So yes, the tier 8 will have a 152mm gun-launcher, without the missiles of course. The line will not be a “blind end”, it will merge with the second American medium/heavy line (T49 will go to the T54).

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World of Tanks Tactics in Real Life

Source: http://historian30h.livejournal.com/243658.html

Hello everyone,

it is often said that World of Tanks is a game, not a simulator, but apparently, this is not the entire truth, since World of Tanks tactics seem to work in real life as well :) The following was recently posted in the “Military Portal of Ukraine” VK group.

ukr1

“Just talked to the recon of the 51st Brigade. They told me one interesting story. One of their soldiers was wounded at Marinka. They are there for quite a while already and they have even stopped calling it “hell” and “horror”, since everyone got already used being shelled. They are shooting almost every hour. Both from Russian side and from our side. Russian green troops are excercising on our soldiers. In the beginning, they simply shelled from distance, now they are so cheeky as to come in tanks and open fire. We do not fire back as long as they don’t cross into our territory. Only our troops are beginning to respond – they give them hell.

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