Hello everyone,

this month, Polish magazine CD Action was released with Wargaming invite codes (500 gold, 3 days premium). Here are two by Gulczas and MagicznyCyborg

DWRTG-4M5B8-Y7MN8-KEYMC-83TU2
DWRTZ-9CYAN-BVUNG-EVYNM-TMA8A

Sorry, I don’t have any more right now. So, dear Polish players, if you have any invite codes you don’t need and want them given away with your name on FTR, please send them to me on fortherecordwot@gmail.com – I will sort them out. Thank you.

Hello everyone,

an extremely interesting post by Tanitha appeared on ASIA forums about how the bots will be punished and detected… well, instead of talking about it, I’ll just repost it. Here it is.

Dear Players.

We currently have 3 systems for which bots are detected, Which currently generates ~15 bots a day being reliably detected. And about 25 a day which are probably bots but not sufficiently proven to be so..
With the bots being perma banned, and the probably bots given a warning.

We now have access to two additional systems which are more reliable than the above..

The two new systems are specifically targeted at smart bots, where our previous detection methods weren’t great on the reliability..

I’ve reviewed the two new systems now, which Ru are currently using.. And decided these will be switched on on Asia shortly..
I will not go into the mechanics of these systems.. suffice to say they will cover the gap in bot detection that was previously there.

Due to the accuracy and thoroughness of the new systems,, one would assume bans to be placed on mass, regularly..
Due to the likely high detection rate, we will be using the new detection system similar to Ru server, and using it as a prevention tool.
In other words, we will “likely” be reducing the sanctions down from permanent to 15 days for first offense, 45 for second, perma for 3rd.

In addition to the above. An update on the captcha system.
Its still in progress, however development had slowed on it.. its importance was escalated again today and is back in motion again.
Currently its scheduled for work shortly, for which I’ve been allocated to assist in its development personally. However its final completion ETA is still not in the short future.

In short, bots nuked on mass, soon, by two new detection systems, for 15 days initially,, sanctions to escalated sharply for repeat offenders.

+ continued detection with the 3 old systems, as per the past, also for 15 days initially, sanctions to escalated sharply for repeat offenders.

Bot detection will continue on the old systems, until the new systems are put in place shortly..

Regards
Tan

Is it true? Does it really work as well as Tanitha says?

Yes. Russian forums are full of whiny little bitches, who got banned for botting. Of course, everyone claims innocence, but then, there is an old saying: “prisons are full of ‘wrongly conficted’”. The captcha development is a nice touch.

And what about EU? Oh, that’s right, no plans to implement this system, as far as I know (and yes, I asked). We wouldn’t want them to start chasing bots now, would we. That would – heaven forbid – add some ACTUAL WORK to their schedule, which is unfortunately totally full.

It turns out that according to Ectar, the system is already running on EU. I apologize for the misinformation.

Hello everyone,

here’s another really small thing, that can have interesting consequences and came with 9.3. These screenies come from Edweird (US server). They come from test server, so we’ll have to see, how that works in live 9.3, but basically, it’s something that was never there before. It seems like on several tanks, stock and elite tracks have a different visual model. In this case, it’s connected with the “realistic track movement” (enabled/disabled) – check this out:

M4 Sherman – stock vs elite

Continue reading →

Source: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/09/23/interview-victor-kislyi-on-wargaming-in-a-single-breath/

Thanks to Mesotronik for this one.

RPS (editor Graham Smith) released yet another interview with Wargaming CEO, Big Boss Kislyi. You can read the full version of his answers up there, but there is nothing really groundbreaking in that interview. Short version:

- Wargaming is 16 years old
- there are cca 90 million of installed copies of WoT worldwide
- the amount of WG games installed goes over 100 mil if you count WoWp and Blitz as well
- 16 offices all around the world, including Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, East Europe, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine
- WG invests in the USA heavily, the offices include San Francisco publishing, Chicago, Seattle and Austin, Texas
- in February 2014, a record was broken – 1,1 million RU players played at the same time, which is like 2 percent of the entire Russian male population
- in six years, WG grew from 60-80 people to 3500

Continue reading →

This time, Chieftain takes on the ISU-152. Enjoy!

Attention! This is important, please read.

Hello everyone,

this is something that was not announced before, oddly enough. According to RU portal, from 9.3 onwards the HD textures for tanks will be downloaded as a separate ZIP file (for 9.3, the size of HD textures is 980 megabytes).

According to the same article, this was done to save traffic and computer space. It has to be done manually (at least the Russians had to) by downloading and installing separate texture pack – why it wasn’t done automatically via the launcher? Hell if I know.

Either way, please note that if your PC is strong enough to run full resolution HD textures (maximal texture quality), you have to manually install the HD textures separately! I am posting this here to make sure everyone remembers that, so you avoid the “WTF, tanks look lowres like shit on my new rig” questions on forums.

To install HD textures:

- you download them in a ZIP file (once it is available for EU/US client)
- you unpack them to WoT folder
- you have to run the client and set the texture quality to maximum

Wow. Manual texture installation, that is some stronk programink – that’s mod/cracked game stuff, not the besterest F2P game level.

Thanks to Rabiesdog for this one.

Hello everyone,

the world was never a peaceful place and never will be, not for long anyway. Some of the conflicts are widely known and reported, but others pass unnoticed and forgotten while the eyes of the world are set elsewhere. Currently, the fight with ISIS and the conflict in Ukraine occupies the media, while in other parts of the world, fighting is still going on.

One of such conflicts is the Houthi rebellion in Yemen, which was going on with various intensity for nearly a decade, growing from a small, essentially tribal/sect riots to full-blown uprising. The latest development is the Battle of Sana’a (capital of Yemen) between the insurgents and government forces, resulting in the resignation of the prime minister of Yemen – as I write this, the battle is still ongoing with hundreds of dead on both sides, despite the Sunday peace agreement.

But why I am writing this…

This photograph was taken yesterday and published on BBC. It shows the Shia rebels with captured Yemen army equipment in one of the army camps. Notice the vehicle. It is a Czechoslovak-made SD-100 (a license copy of SU-100), manufactured between 1953 and 1957 (771 were made in total). Of the 771, 460 were kept for Czechoslovakia and the rest went for export to many countries, including Yemen – 50 vehicles were sold at an unknown point (presumably in the early 60′s). To be honest, it’s amazing to see a vehicle survive like that for so long – it’s literally a museum piece (the grass on the tracks suggests it wasn’t used for quite a while, but it looks better than some of the vehicles left to rot in western/eastern countries).

SD-100 was not very different from the SU-100, there were a couple of tweaks and the production quality was better than on the Russian originals (peacetime production after all). The last documented use of the SD-100 if I recall correctly is the Yom Kippur war in 1973 (by Syria and Egypt) in artillery role.

Hello everyone,

here’s the usual Wargaming patch introduction video. For now, unfortunately, only in Russian. What you can do is turn automatic subtitles on and then have them translated to English. Not too good, but at least it will give you an overview of what they mention. As far as I can tell, there is nothing really surprising in the video.

Inside:

- new light tanks, reworked Murovanka, vehicle rebalance, new Stronghold functions
- LTTB: “much like the legendary T-50-2, same high speed and maneuverability”, but with added firepower, “the gameplay feeling is practically the same as the earlier T-50-2″
- T-54 Light: well-armored and armed light tank, can withstand hits from tanks of its tier
- US light tanks: good mobility and viewrange, guns are fast aiming and firing fast
- M41 has an autoloader for 10 shells, it can destroy in 20 seconds most of tier 7′s and many 8′s, but it is light, low hitpoints, has to be careful in picking targets
- T49 can mount a 152mm gun – base shell is HE, it makes a lot of damage but playing with it is complicated due to low ROF, long aimtime and low accuracy, 90mm gun is for players who like the fire support role
- RU251 is one of the fastest tanks in the game with a good gun, it’s possible to play it as a mobile sniper
- KV-1S split (KV-85 on tier 6), KV-85 gets to keep the favourite 122mm gun
- new HD models
- rework of Murovanka
- new Stronghold functions (“Chancellery”, mercenaries)
- certain map objects now explode (fuel tanks, cars)
- explosion effect was reworked
- new punishments for leavers and AFKers
- new ricochet system
- transmission/engine split
- if a tank drowns while being detracked (forced drowning), it will count as a kill for the person that caused the detrack