55 thoughts on “Storm – one more Post about the Hotfix”

1. - 9.1 will not bring any new HD models, it will concentrate on fixing issues on 9.0, this is for various reason, including implementing feedback from 9.0
   —————————————————————-
   Then in 9.2 they will introduce shitloads of new stuff, which based on history will f*** the game up even more, so 9.3 could be a bugfix patch for 9.2 ;)
   I somehow don’t get it – how SO MANY bugs get to Live server.. especially that SLI thing. Didn’t any single person with SLI config mentioned any FPS decrease in all those rounds of tests? HOW??

   • This ^^^ might be interesting:
     did you faced these bugs on Test server? I don’t mean the fps drops, these are bad but not critical. I’m taking about CTDs, long freezes etc.

     • I didn’t have any of those FPS/freeze/lag problems in Test server, nor do I have on Live. And on test server I didn’t try middle tier battles, which do have the nasty CTD bug now present on Live server. So I have no idea, were they on Test server at all!?

   • “Oh, I crashed. Must be WG’s fault, let’s not give them any feedback. They’ll fix it.”

     • Yeah and when they don’t people are pissed.
       It’s not always WG’s fault, they develop and test it, but the game may be bug-free on their machines, while on a lot of others it doesn’t work. And here the responsibility falls onto the test server and the PLAYERS, WHO SHOULD REPORT BUGS IN DETAIL and not just bitch about FPS losses while playing premium tanks in the test server.
       If you encounter a bug on the test server, you should report it, along with your computer specs and game settings, only then you help the devs fix the bugs.

       • That is just WRONG.

         It is the sole responsibility of the Company to create product that is usable and bug free. Professional SW companies use large QA departments to thoroughly test their SW before it is released.

         What WG has done is they have outsourced testing to players who use their own time and effort to test their game. And players do it for free, generating a shitload of monies for WG. Players have ABSOLUTELY NO RESPONSIBILITY to report anything to anyone. Unless they are paid to do so.

         • except they do. and some bugs are only exposed when the idiots who play this game try stupid stuff.

         • Do name at least one of the big entertainment software companies that doesn’t have to patch their game well after it is released. Please. Humor us.

           • They did before the consoles were connected to the internet, as you cant patch a cartridge.

             • And any and all bugs – even ones that rendered the game completely unplayable – remained unpatched, while any time you have a game on a system where the system can connect to the internet, you have the Developers being able to fix bugs that they missed during development.

               Unless you’re saying that old NES and SNES games were always bug free, in which case I assure you they weren’t.

               • I am ERROR.

         • Please tell me how it’s different when you play normally or when you play on the test server?? You are spending “time and effort” on your own behalf, noone is forcing (OR paying) you to do it. The test server is the way “of the Company to create product that is usable and bug free”, and sometimes there are bugs too on the normal patch, because there are millions of players with millions of computer configurations, dammit most people STILL RUN WINDOWS XP! And those people are definitely outside the group that the devs are testing, so they better provide info to enable the devs to support them or continue to barely hang on on their shitty sistems.
           You know why are “modern” games bug-free and all this shit? because
           1. They run on consoles, which means there is one single configuration to test on and the QA department consists of one guy playing and XBONE or PS4.
           2. They are intended for a limited playerbase, like only for people with computers better than X. Hell, most new AAA titles don’t run on XP anymore.
           3. Because companies have EVEN MORE money, like the goddamn EA.

           And guess what? They DON’T run better! Look at the new Simcity and what a fucking disaster that was. Don’t do the “everything is better than WG” shit because there are many worse companies, like EA, who force titles out when they’re not even finished.

           so now please provide an example of a company that does all you listed. Please do support your statement with PROOF.
           Oh wait, you can’t. There we go, your argument falls apart.

           • I have been professional sw developer for over 15 years and have “some” insight how stuff works. First of all, testing is not just “one guy playing on XBOX”. Proper testing requires understanding of Quality Assurance, testing processes, error veification, something as simple as creating a valid error report and whatnot. It is not something that can be left for some kids to do. When testing is left to unprofessionals to do, you get crappy quality.

             Second, professional sw companies have very large QA or as you say “testing” departments. Many cases testers number up to one third of total headcount and some cases even over half. And they produce better quality products. But then again, they don’t rely on kids and amateurs to do quality assurance. And if EA pushes out unfinished products, that is (more or less) calculated risk By management, not failure of quality assurance.

             • Looking into the gaming industry alone…. Do you not realise HOW MANY games, do their testing through players? 90% of “Free to Play” Online games, test their product through closed alpha, closed beta…. with UNPAID GAMERS.

               Microsoft test their XBOX LIVE updates with UNPAID GAMERS.

               Big companies INVITE GAMERS to their headquarters for BETA TEST sessions.

               Most widescale testing done in the -gaming industry- is done so by unpaid gamers. Wargaming is not singular in this regard.

               • Closed beta tests are far different from testing every patch by users for free. WoT is beyond from being in beta test phase.

             • You talk more like a Public Relations guy, lots of words and no information.
               If it is the risk takin by management (like simcity by EA), why can’t the same excuse be used for defending WG? I mean come on, look at all that pressure. On one side, players whine about when the patch will be released. And if it is released too early, players will whine about the bugs in it (they whine about everything anyway, ungrateful cunts they are).
               So in this careful balance, where is there time for the QA dept. to properly test everything? I’ll tell you’ there isn’t.
               And then you come in saying “professional companies” do all this perfectly, and I ask you to provide me an example. You just defended EA, so it’s out of the question. Show me a company that has no flaws, that releases perfectly developed games.
               I have one: Valve. Over the years, Valve has been getting increasingly better and better, but not perfect. They run Steam and while great, Steam works poorly sometimes and the recent opening of the floodgates, letting EVERY game be sold on steam clearly left a dark mark on Valve’s shiny face.
               Mojang? Minecraft has so many bugs that some have become features they can’t remove, yet noone complains over that.
               So you see, nothing is perfect and nothing has to be. I play Feed the Beast minecraft modpack, and the 193 mod client barely holds on, every third message on the console displays an error. The game is buggy as hell and my server crashes every second day, but it still works and is great fun to play, much like WoT. Besides, it runs on Java which is shittily optimised (it burns 5 gigs of ram, for satan’s sake!) anyway, so there isn’t any room for optimisation.
               I give WG credit for developing their own engine, which is great despite some bugs. And I’m not even experiencing any of them (except for the crashes), which proves it works as it should at least on SOME systems, so QA did their job providing stability for middle-to-high end hardware. If you run on XP, you don’t deserve high graphics or HD settings, because the world has moved on and so should you. I mean even Microsoft pulled support for XP. When it comes to something less than 5 years old, WoT runs great and there’s little reason to complain, and the rest is being worked on (the crashes).

         • … ahem…. Bethesda….. Skyrim.

           That is all.

     • This. they can’t fix stuff if they don’t know what’s broken.

       “I crashed, fix it naow!!!”
       “how? We don’t know what’s broken”
       “just fix it!”
       “…”

       or

       “I crashed with tank x on map y, with computer z, here’s a replay”
       “thanks for the useful info, we’ll get right on it”

       • “I crashed with tank x on map y, with computer z, here’s a replay”
         “how terrible, dont play with tank x on map y, with computer z”

       • I just wanted to know, whether the CTD’s were introduced before or after the final test round.
         It might say more about usefulness of the test :-(
         There can be 3 possibilities:
         - bugs present, not reported
         - bugs present, reported, not fixed
         - bugs appeared after final test round.
         2 out of 3 are against WG.

         I have a strange feeling, that WG wanted to release 9.0 to their ‘birthday party’ at all cost.
         Not tested properly. The players could live with 8.11 easily.
         ‘Constructive pressure’ on WG might help both sides during next patches.

   • When people test they apparently do not realize they have a responsibility to REPORT the bugs. Some of us never see the bugs as we run different setups, but those who do need to report them.

2. I have problem to play at 9.0 in 2560×1440 resolution and i have an R9 280x Toxic!!!
   Is this a troll?

   • OC ur CPU ? … Dont tell me that u have quad 2,4ghz ..

     • i have i7-4770k with hyper threading at 8 cores and 4.2 ghz so?

3. - details on LT buff will be disclosed
   later, the goal of the buff is to make
   the LT class more popular and easier to
   play

   Dont lose camo when shooting will do the trick?

   • A tighter MM sprad would do the trick.

     Most people have no idea how the camo system actually works. Changing the camo characteristics when firing would still be extremely hard for most players to exploit.

     • On the other hand it would be most exploited by unicorns, making the LTs even more unbalanced.

       • Remember SerB’s words, which went something like “If you are good at the game, you have the right to pwn”.

       • Pretty much this. Giving LTs the same edge that they consider to take away from TDs for *obvious* balancing reasons, would be a fucking travesty. LTs are basically fine, even with the extended MM characteristics and having 20m less view range than the most dangerous targets you might work against, is a non-issue if you know your business to some degree. LTs mainly suffer from being outcamoed and outspotted by TDs (only spotting them long after they got spotted by them) and brawler map-design.

4. Why SU-85 with 122mm when the SU-100 has it making it also the SU-122

   • Then there is the SU-152 with 122mm and SU-122-44 too =)

   • Because the SU-85 with a 122mm gun carries a howitzer, while the SU-100′s 122mm gun is a D-25 variant.

   • su-85 was made from a t-34-76 carcass while su-100 is on a t-34-85 carcass with a diferent track

5. - more tanks will appear in historical battles after the option to have special tank characteristics for HB mode only is implemented, so that the performance of “lowtiers” can be improved (SS: there is a plan for tanks to have two sets of characteristics – one for random, one for HB)
   So instead of balancing one game, they’ll have to balance two simultaneously. Can’t see how that can end well.

   - the thick Panther gun bug was not fixed yet
   Scratch the thick gun, why the game is displaying the lod4 model on medium distance? The stug next to it displays correctly…

   - developers are studying the issue with long waiting times for lowtier tanks in historical battles
   There’s nothing to study there. The thing they have optimised for anything goes doesn’t work well with the rigid rules of HB. Some way to alleviate the problem would be to try to match any and all available vehicles from garage (maybe with a way to exclude some of them), instead of a single one the owner happened to join the queue with.

6. “mass used tanks”? what is the difference between leo 1 and IS3?

   • Confused here too :/

   • “mass used tanks” as in T-34 / Panzer IV and not IS / Tiger?

   • You seem to got it wrong, with mass used tanks mean tanks like Pz. IV, T-34, etc. so basically a player can use a Leo 1 crew on a Pz. IV… if this system gets implemented.
     The mentioned IS wasn’t mass used, T-34 on the other hand was, which means a player could use a T-62A crew on a T-34… if this system gets implemented.

   • The fact that IS-3 wasn’t widely used. Not in USSR at least, it was too late to be in WW2 and in the cold war it was already replaced.

   • By mass used they mean PzIV being able to use other crews such as the Leopard 1 crew or even a Pz III/IV crew.

     While IS which was not mass used. Used yes. Used as often as Pz IV no. So it can’t use other crews such as KV-1, IS-3, IS-4

     The higher tier tank was not the one being referenced by mass used it was the lower tier tanks.

7. “Marders were ommitted, because they suck at that map”

   Yeah, there are only so few bushes on that map to hide in.. … … oh wait…

   Well, for SU-152s the Marder would have to take a flanking position and that’s impossible on
   that map… … oh wait…

   I mean I get that probably only a hardcore Marder fan would drive one and it would take a considerable
   amount of effort to even do well in it, but… I would drive mine.

   Marder Life > StuG Life :P

8. - lighting will be reworked, optimized etc. (SS: as in 9.1)

   WOHOOO!!!
   No more rubber, plastic tanks ?

   • The thing is that the cirrent lighting is made to work with HD tanks. If you check, the HD tanks look incredible in this lighting while others don’t, but the rest will slowly be chsnged to HD too and when it’s all HD it will look fabulous.

     • No they dont.
       Its just more polygons and rubber plastic toy tank in HD…

       They do look incredible in garage – where there are 3 light sources. Unlike in battle where there is one.

       It’s hard to describe, but the lightning is really much much worse than 8.11
       playing on gtx770m, Ive already tried different drivers..
       They really look stupid… no shades, reflections, nothing.

       • Well I, running on GTX560, have everything. The lighing IS a lot more flat, and it’s tank-dependent – my IS is shiny-green, while IS-3 is flat dark green. We’ll see I guess, but the HD models do bring it closer to reality – not every little bump has it’s own shadow you know, IRL light is a lot more dispersed, because there is one light source going through a filter (the atmosphere), so it doesn’t bring the details out quite like the sharp focused garage light.

9. I play on a weak computer.
   I have around 24k battles. I play at around 15-25 FPS with 100-120 Ping.
   I had an issue with mad ping spikes to over 500-700 for around 4-7 days and sent a Diax Log to support.

   Their reply?
   I am shocked that u can actually play with that computer.

   From what I have read, the vast majority of players are not hardcore gamers with hardcore gamer setups. And WG is too fixated on upgrading the minimal requirements to continue playing. They are forgetting that most of their customers are in fact on weaker computers, so they just may lose a lot of business by committing the most daft “crime” every patch.

   “If it ain’t broke, DON’T FIX IT!!!!!!!!”

   • well honestly…
     In my opinion.. I dont see any problem with the requirements.

     Its 2014 for gods sake.
     Why should be game developers held back by people plying on calculators or tamagochi ?

     You can get 40-50 fps on low details on a 10 years old PC.
     You can buy fairly decent PC for 200-300eur… by “decent” I mean the one that will squeeze more than 15-25fps out of this game.

     Dont buy ingame gold and buy PC.
     Or dont play. I really dont nderstand the rage about performance.

     Dont get me wrong, the engine is crap and the game runs like shit. But its people playing on Celeron 200MHz + 4MB Riva TNT Gpu who rage the most.

     I play on 4 years old notebook, all maxed out 45-60fps @1920×1080 no problems at all.
     Sure 45 is not the best as the laptop is capable of much more, but its still not bad for the crappy engine WOT has.
     If you wanna cry about performance, first get a PC that can at least run MS Office…

     No offense meant at all.
     Just saying you cannot realistically expect the game to look better and better and still run on 15years old PCs.

     • +1 WoT shouldn’t remain the last reserve for when no new game works anymore. Like “oh I can’t run Crysis, I’ll just play WoT”, that doesn’t work anymore, everything is moving on.

   • Why you think there are minimum requierments?
     Sure may some people have luck and can play fine with older hardware,
     but it doesnt mean WG have to support those.

     If i play a game on my PC, which runs below specs
     and i doesnt run fine, “I” have to deal with that.

10. will the hotfix fix the explosion of allied tanks at the end of the battle?

    • That is awesome, they need to keep that :D

    • What ? :O
      I haven’t noticed that.

    • that happens when players on you team quit the battle early

11. “- developers are studying the issue with long waiting times for lowtier tanks in historical battles”

    Well you don’t need a degree in science to figure that one out. The wait queue is full of SU-152′s and Tiger II’s. Cus they are Top tier tanks regardless. How many go in there as a tier 5 or 3? It takes ages to sort out those Tigers all the time before the T-70 can get his shot.

    • the other sad thing is, I play german tanks only.
      I have never played single HB yet.

      Every time I join queue, its like 6 soviet tanks, 70 german tanks waiting.
      After 10-15 minutes in queue I usually give up.