Fixing the Panzer 38t Tank in HD

Hello everyone,

yesterday, I wrote about how to fix Panzer 35t and today, we are going to have a look at Panzer 38t, which is even more fucked up than the 35t. Well, let’s have a look at this mess.

Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t)_11-16-35

As you probably know, Panzer 38t is the Czechoslovak LT Vz.38 light tank, pressed into German service. LT Vz.38 was undisputably the best early war light tank in the world and it was no wonder the Germans were just dying to get their hands on it. Czechoslovak stocks and production of these vehicles helped the Germans to conquer Poland and France, but by late 1941, facing the superior Soviet medium tanks, they were already obsolete. The vehicle was thus moved to second-line service, sold to Germany’s allies or converted to various tank destroyer and SPG desings, including the famous Jagdpanzer 38t.

So, what’s wrong with it in the game? Well… several things:

- for one, the stock turret is completely wrong (I’ll get to that)
- two out of three guns are unhistorical
- the engines are problematic (to put it mildly)
- the armor is wrong (the hull and elite turret visual model belong to a late variant of Panzer 38t, the armor belongs to early variant)

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3500 More Bots Banned

Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/pc-browser/1/no_bot_2/

Hello everyone,

it seems that the new system, developed by Wargaming to fight bots (you can read about that here) is working very well. On 29.9.2014, more than 3500 botters were banned on RU server. These botters were permanently banned after ignoring the previous temporary bans (you have to be special kind of stupid to do that).

It’s nice to see Wargaming taking this seriously. According to Ectar, WG EU has the same system as well, it’s just they are not so vocal about it. Maybe they should be, RU server publishes the list of banned botters openly, that’s a nice idea for EU as well – if that’s legal anyway.

“Desert” Camo in Polish and German (WG EU Fail)

Thanks to Grobmotroiker and Lason for the screenies

Hello everyone,

it’s a really small thing, but it made me giggle, so I hope it will make you smile as well – and everything’s better when smiling :) So, this is a typical example why you don’t use google translator when translating videogame content. We all know the visual camouflage types in World of Tanks – it’s summer, winter and desert. It SHOULD be same for everyone, but it is not.

As you know, two largest communities on EU server are German and Polish one. So, let’s have a look at the Germans.

ttax3coe

So, there’s summer, winter and… “to desert”? That’s right, in German, the word is not “desert” (a big strip of sand) – that would be “Wüste”, it’s “to desert” (as in, when a soldier flees his post). Stronk translatink. But the funny part is, it’s actually in Polish as well:

Desert

Exactly the same thing! Desert (adj.) in Polish would be “Pustynny” or something, “zdezerteruj” means “(you) desert”. Gosh. I wonder how long this has been there. My bet is “from the start”. *sigh*

Chaffee Races Trailer

So, WG EU portal finally made a post about the Chaffee races. That’s nice – although they did cut the original race KTTS so much they completely removed the joke from the video (yes, it’s not supposed to be serious). But… why don’t we get this trailer too?

 

 

(yes, the lady in the audience with the button is Ola) – well, there are English subtitles, but we don’t need them, do we? :) Hmmm… hhy don’t we have an Ola-like character on EU? That Turkish chick was nice for example. Oh and there’s this on RU portal:

f-wot_2_684x243

EU really can’t into PR in a 99 percent male game…

29.9.2014

- apparently, it’s possible to get a teamdamage/teamkill punishment from the race mode (or rather to damage your allies at all). According to developers, this (the ability to teamdamage) is not intended, it’s possible this will be removed
- some mods interfere with the new racing mod. Specifically, older versions of Gnomefather’s sounds cause the game to crash
- locked equipment on your Chaffee Sport tank will be (when the Chaffee Sport is removed) automatically and for free (no gold will be charged) removed and put to your depot at the end of the event
- the 50k XP reward is not a “free XP” reward, it will be transferred to the T1
- the Chaffee race mode is checked for bots strictly (on RU server at least), inactive players and bots will be banned
- the fact that exploding barrels do not deal damage in the Chaffee race is intentional – developers tested it, it wasn’t good with damage
- the fact the crew gets moved to the barracks does NOT mean you will get extra free barracks slots, if your barracks are full, the crew will simply stay as “extra” and as soon as a space frees itself by moving the barracks crew to a tank for example, the crew will occupy it

And a couple of interesting points from today’s leak about skill MM (for those who did not read it):

- on RU server, only 7 percent of players has below 47 percent winrate, 77 percent of players has winrate between 48 and 52 percent
- the “do you want skill MM” poll was sent to 200k players in total, results will apparently be known in November
- Hidden Village is scheduled for a rework (SS: told you so)
- map Stalingrad is planned
- the Bigworld engine is in apparently for an overhaul (SS: they call it “engine upgrade”, it’s possible that the developers here refer to Havok or new motion physics, but maybe other graphic features as well)
- apparently, something called “Black Forest” is planned (likely a new map, sounds interesting)

Posted in Q&A

Fixing the Panzer 35t Tank in HD

Hello everyone,

to my eternal shame, despite being a Czech vehicle fan, as you well know, I don’t play Panzer 38t or 35t much. I don’t generally sealclub, that’s one reason, but the truth is, I am really not that much into Czech tanks, that have German crews (waiting for the Czech branch). But yesterday, I decided to give 38t a shot after a year or so.

Imagine my surprise and “joy”, when I found out that historically, both 35t and 38t are completely FUCKED up. Well… let’s have a look at them.

Panzer 35t

As you probably know, Panzer 35t is the Czechoslovak LT Vz.35, used by the Wehrmacht forces. To that end, it was somewhat modified. What is wrong with it historically:

- the 20mm guns are completely unhistorical, they are there for the balance purposes I assume
- the top turret is fake (unhistorical), there was never such a thing as “Verstärkterturm” on Panzer 35t
- the top gun is partially fake, it wasn’t present until the advanced prototypes during the war
- stock engine has somewhat wrong designation
- elite engine is fake
- tracks could use different designation
- radios are problematic but noone really cares about those anyway

Considering that this vehicle is scheduled for rework when it gets remodelled to HD, here’s what could be done with it to keep at least some historicity. Basically, there are three variants, all of them revolve on turrets, one is somewhat unhistorical and I think it’s unnecessery.

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Chaffee Race is Here

Hello everyone,

as you already probably know, today is the day when the Chaffee race event starts. It will apparently be active until 13.10.2014 if I remember correctly. It’s…. just try it. A few random points I picked up quickly:

- exploding barrels do NO damage whatsoever. Given the nature of how they work in other racing games (an obstacle), I am not sure this is intended or anything, but it’s pointless to shoot them, their explosions won’t harm anyone. Likewise, you can just plough through them.
- the special Chaffee has new engine sound, that sounds really cool. Does the regular Chaffee now have the same engine sound as well? Haven’t noticed.
- the Chaffee slides. A LOT. Almost feels like you are playing War Thunder. The problem with it is that the sliding (unlike in any other racing games, where you have the tyre “screeching”) does not have a distinctive sound effect and so it is relatively difficult to keep the vehicle on the edge of a controlled slide.
- shooting the HUGE red fuel towers or whatever they are does nothing
- if you want to get into the enemy lane, it’s possible during jumps, but you have to time it right
- autoaim works ONLY if you are in the same lane (or in the base), otherwise there is the middle wall preventing you from locking on, this makes the shooting quite harder. It’s possible to lock on when you are higher than the enemy, but then the autoaim will just shoot the wall.
- viable tactic is to stay a little behind the group of opponents (who instinctively run as fast as they can since this is a race) and shoot them in the back, but the road is windy and dont expect to knock out anyone
- detracks are practically impossible, the vehicle tracks repair extremely fast (if you hit them at all)
- altough the aim circle seems really small, make no mistake, the gun is inaccurate and fires all over the place, especially when going fast
- another valid tactic when you are on first spot is have one team member (well, you) go to the opposite lane by the end and ram the opponents. The rammed guy will be stopped in his tracks and the other two almost always stop to get rid of you, your teammates will cap
- cap is extremely fast, takes just like 10 seconds – and there are TWO bases on one another, which means it’s completely possible for both teams to achieve a draw by capping at the same time, that’s why it’s important not to only stand around and cap, but also to shoot the other team capping

Overall, it’s… fun, but I am a bit disappointed by the track and the motion model. The fact the tank slides a lot would be manageable, but any obstacles on the road are practically pointless, they don’t even make you lose speed, explosions do nothing – you just go forward and that’s it. The vehicle accelerates extremely fast as well, any time lost is quickly caught up, unless you just stand around, enjoying the scenery. Unless you do specifically what I wrote above (staying a bit behind), shooting over the center line is mostly pointless, it’s much better to just ignore them and focus on driving than crashing into something while trying to aim.

The soccer mode was better.

A Competition For Turkish Players

Hello everyone,

I don’t do this often (or rather, at all), but I am going to do an exception in this case. This post concerns mostly Turkish players (everyone can technically participate, but it’s all in Turkish, so).

On 26.8.2014, a respected member of the Turkish World of Tanks community, Samet Türkmen, passed away – he was very ill, he had leukemia. His friend, nickname BBOSS, decided to run a competition in his honor. The competition runs until 5th of October, the rules are under the link.

Thus, if you want to honor the memory of a respected Turkish player and perhaps win some prizes, feel free to participate.

My condolences on Samet’s passing.

Insider Talks – Skill MM Once Again

Hello everyone,

what follows is a part of discussion between the developers about the skill MM. It has been redacted by the Insider and by me of course, names and such. It’s here only to illustrate the way the developers are thinking. It’s also very long, so… make sure you have patience.

Developer 1:
All right, new preliminary results… once again, how do we…. Measure…… skill???

Developer 2:
What players’ don’t get is that skill is a variable as well, let’s assume for a moment Mr. 63% wins gets into the ultra-unicorn league, well, now what? He goes and does his thing in the game, therefore, as all skills differ with different players, his particular skill is that so some of the players go around and push a certain area of the map and he takes his shots from a distance and scurries into a flank whenever a breach is open, but while then, “oh no, why is Mr. 63% camping? He must be a noob who purchased his account!”

Skill is also part of RNG, because it’s impossible to measure how any player will behave in different scenarios, there’s no set rules of “oh you are a certain tank so you must behave exactly as you’re told to”, and the tank who breaks the rule and grabs their side by surprise is now a “hated noob because he killed me”
If Players want to live by the knife’s end on harsh matches every day, all the time, most of them will be pleading for a rollback of the system, if they want difficult matches where coordination & cooperation is everything, there’s Clan Wars or Platoons.

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