Hello everyone,

today, we’re going to talk about skill MM. Again. I must admit, this topic is not exactly a favourite of mine. But I know someone, who knows a lot about statistics. That’s right, Edrard, the creator of the first efficiency rating – so he really understands this stuff. I asked him on his opinion and here’s what he had to say on the matter (translated from Russian of course). Enjoy!

-SS

Author: Edrard (RU server)

My personal opinion is, that the skill MM is definitely not needed. For one: there are far fewer good players than bad players, in a ratio of somewhere around 1 to 10 and really good players roughly 1 to 100. When it comes to the range from bad up to above average players, the distribution of such players is linear, therefore every time you enter a battle, according to the probability theory, you’ll have basically roughly the same teams. Of course, there is a chance that you will have a team full of bad players and the opponent will have a team full of above average players, but if you take an infinite number of battles, then the amount of such battles will be equal to the kind where you have the above average team and the opponent has noobs. In general, the distribution is always the same. Since the amount of good players is still large enough, the probability of having at least one on your team to be quite high, but let’s have a look at an example.

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Hello everyone,

I have seen the question “why are the names of banned botters not published on EU server” asked many times by many people. Hell, I asked it myself. And so, I wrote a message to Ectar (I think his title now is a “producer”, not sure anyway), asking the very same question. Here’s what he answered:

In Europe as you know we don’t allow for naming and shaming on our forums. One of the biggest reasons for this is to avoid players taking matters into their own hands (From simple things like taking it upon themselves to monitor/track other players, to message them in-game etc etc). Basically it would be rather hypocritical to punish players for naming and shaming on our forums and the we do it ourselves to players.

We are committed to actively taking action against players who break our rules or exploit the game, however we feel it’s in the best interests of the community that this interaction is kept between Wargaming.net and the individual player. As a result of this, a list of player names who have been banned for botting will not be published in EU.

So, there you have it. I personally disagree with the “best interest of the community part”, but that’s my personal opinion. After all, the principle of public trial (including the announcement of punishment) is a valid law principle in all democratic countries – and there’s a reason for that. But, then again, ingame punishments are not public law area, they are meted out according to private law and as such, Wargaming is free to do what they want.

Second announcement concerns the change in premium tank reimbursement policy, which was announced today. The change is simple: before, you could get basically any previously sold tank restored. Now, this option will be available only for tanks sold in last two months (previous restrictions apply). The reason for this decision we can only guess, I assume it’s to reduce the support personell workload.

Hello everyone,

I’ve seen a lot of weird stuff over the time I play World of Tanks, some of it in various RNG videos, but hell, this is extraordinary. So, you probably already tried the Chaffee racing. Let me ask you a question: how many times did you manage to set someone on fire? It’s certainly not common, given how the fuel tanks have 175 hitpoints and your gun does 50 module damage, while the engine only has 5 percent fire chance.

And yet, Kattovish (from KAZNA) managed to do that and not only that. Just… watch.

Hello everyone,

those of you with keen eyes (there were several of you, thanks for the screenies – this one is from Kyle D.) spotted the Sturmtiger again in the recent Developer Diaries video.

So, what is it? Are the developers teasing us again, or perhaps they are showing us what will come in the future?

Sadly, no. According to most recent Storm’s statement (two days ago), the line was scrapped. Sturmtiger will not appear in the game as a playable vehicle (most likely anyway), what could happen however – it could appear as a top tier artillery support consumable in Stronghold mode. We’ll just have to see. Luckily, other vehicles from the branch (SIG33, Sturmpanzer IV “Brummbär”) do fit the game, so it’s possible we will see a limited “minibranch” of those, ending with a merge to regular branch at tier 7.

Thanks to Michal V. for this one.

Well, this lighter design seems familiar. It was purchased from a local “Chinese” (Vietnamese) shop – something tells me, the use of that art was not exactly approved by Wargaming, but it sure as hell looks like a nice present for someone…

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Source: http://www.dom1n.com/newsy/tygrys-italeri-unboxing/

Hello everyone,

last time, we had – thanks to Dom1n’s blog – a look at the Italeri Ferdinand. Today, we are going to have a look at the Italeri Tiger model – or, rather, the special “Wargaming” edition. The images are hosted at Imgur, for full size, just rightclick it and press “view image”.

As with the Ferdinand, the model is not cheap, but it’s of relatively high quality. According to Dom1n, the model is actually much more complicated than the one of the Ferdinand.

The box art is straight from World of Tanks…

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Hello everyone,

October wallpaper is here. Inside the post, you will find more resolutions.

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Hello everyone,

new Wargaming Developer Diaries are out, this time on the topic of hangars. Bad news: only in Russian for now. Good news: there are English subtitles. So check it out.

Hello everyone,

as you probably know, the testing of WoT Blitz for Android platforms is currently in full swing. The following screenshot is from FTA VK community, where a tester shared the picture. The text in the middle says “Destroy enemy tanks” and under it “Autoaim works even in sniper mode.”

So, I guess even the Adroid players will be able to enjoy the thing soon… :)