18.5.2014

- there will be new historical battles and balance changes in HB in 9.1, definitely at least one new historical battle
- current maps are made by the same people like the earlier maps, only the map department leadership changed
- developers are considering nerfing FV304
- Q: “Why do you always nerf the vehicle, that is the favourite one of a lot of players?” A: “‘Favourite’ vehicle always means an imbalanced vehicle. Proven numerous times.”
- the idea to have garage battles and alternative hulls was not scrapped

On the topic of historical battles:

- Q: “Change historical battles not by removing hitpoints, but only stop displaying them” A: “Why, so the player doesn’t know what’s going on?”
- apparently some historical battles will be changed, some will stay
- the removed historical battles might return
- special tank stats for historical battles are supposed to solve HB balance issues
- Storm confirms that each tank will have two sets of stats, one for random, one for HB
- Storm admits that the lack of people playing HB is a real problem
- special maps for HB? Storm: “To make special maps only for several percent of players is not very profitable”

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Posted in Q&A

Straight Outta Supertest: Bunkers

Source: VK Wotleaks community

Hello everyone,

a quick and short update about the new CW features the players are allegedly testing. This info is unconfirmed, but it’s quite possible it’s true, as something like that was specified for testing before.

- bomber raid, used as a consumable
- artillery fire mission, used as a consumable

There are no details on how exactly this will work, possibly something like in War Thunder.

- bot-controlled bunkers, allegedly with a placeholder model (E-100 turret on a concrete stand), this is supposed to be connected with the new upcoming Stronghold mode.

Personally, I am skeptical about the entire bot turret thing. There are only two options: either the bot will be “cheating”, compensating for the enemy target speed and direction (eg. his shots will hit very often), or it will work like current autoaim, in which case it will be extremely easy to deal with (bait tank drives around, bot fires at it, misses, second tank knocks out the bot).

17.5.2014

I hope you don’t mind a bit of seriousness first:

As you probably know from the news, there are catastrophic floods in Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Czech news). From FTR I know that there are great many players from the region of former Yugoslavia, so indirectly, it concerns us as WoT playerbase as well. In case you want to help, the best way probably would be to donate to Red Cross – instructions are here. I did.

Anyway, on to lighter stuff.

- some players on RU forum started spreading rumors that artillery will be removed from the game – it’s BS, won’t happen
- SerB states that generally speaking, WG always compensates the players for XP, when they make changes in any branches
- according to Overlord, World of Tanks Blitz will be released worldwide “with a substantial update” (as in, during a bigger patch)

Posted in Q&A

Czechoslovak Post-War AA Gun Tank Projects – Part 2

In part 1, we talked about the LP and halftrack-based AA projects, now it’s time to have a look at the other platforms, specifically the T-34.

Oh, yea, almost forgot. Several people asked me to post a picture of that 88mm PaK 43 on HKL6p halftrack tank destroyer proposal. Here it is:

88

T-34/85 with 57mm R10 AA autocannon

In the beginning of the 50′s, a new platform was sought for the future anti-aicraft vehicle for the Czechoslovak army. Two platforms were proposed to be used:

- the ST-I (Jagdpanzer 38t), that would carry twin 30mm autocannon (30mm PLDvK)
- some sort of halftrack, specifically the newly developed PPT-8 tractor or the HAKO APC (modernized German halftrack), both with the same twin 30mm autocannon
- T-34 with a 57mm gun

As far as I can tell, these projects (apart from the single-gun T-34) never reached any stage beyond a miniature wooden mock-up. The mock-ups survive in the VHU military archives, they were probably proposed by Konstrukta Brno, according to M.Dubánek.

30mm PLDvK on HAKO APC

hako

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Tank You Very Much, Episode 3

Special thanks to Ofperlamm113 for sending the link to me

 

 

You know what I actually wonder? I mean… it’s funny and all that, but making such a video costs a shitload of money (more than you would expect, at least according to US presenter The_Chieftain, who makes the Chieftain’s Hatch show). I don’t know about you, but instead of crushing a stereo with a tank, I would probably prefer more shows like the Hatch, or the thing Challenger makes on EU server, showing tanks from Bovington.

Volunteers Helping to Restore the Kubinka Vehicles

Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/content/remember-everything/museum-volunteers/

Hello everyone,

this is a piece of news that I was wondering whether to repost, but since Wargaming made a very nice summary – why not. It is almost a month now, since the, mentioned in the title of the article began: on 19.4.2014, the restoration of several Kubinka armored vehicles began. This restoration was also supported by Wargaming – amongst, other things, by inviting volunteers to work on those vehicles (in case you are wondering – one of them was Yuri Pasholok), along with representatives of Russian portal warportal.ru. The event was  made to bring the vehicles “in shape” by removing the old paint, rust and mold and repaint them with a new coat.

The vehicles chosen for the restoration were: KV-2, T-34/76, BT-7 (1935 model with cylinder turret, two exist in the world – the other is in the Stalin Line museum, Belarus), KV-1, T-28 (1936 model, only one exists in Russia), IS-2 and PT-76 (not sure why PT-76, since it has nothing to do with WW2).

volunteers_1

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Swedish Tanks – Part XI: LS-50

Author: sp15 (US server)

Part I: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/03/07/swedish-tanks-part-i-strv-m21-29/
Part II: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/03/12/swedish-tanks-part-ii-strv-m31-strv-fm31/
Part III: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/03/15/swedish-tanks-part-iii-landsverk-l-100-and-l-120/
Part IV: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/03/21/swedish-tanks-part-iv-landsverk-l-60/
Part V: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/03/27/swedish-tanks-part-v-strv-m37-and-strv-m41/
Part VI: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/04/08/swedish-tanks-part-vi-sav-m43/
Part VII: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/04/18/swedish-tanks-part-vii-strv-m42/
Part VIII: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/05/08/swedish-tanks-part-viii-pvkv-m43/
Part IX: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/05/12/swedish-tanks-part-ix-tlp-46-and-strv-leo
Part X: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/05/15/swedish-tanks-part-x-strv-lansen/

ZjloUWL

Welcome to what will most likely be the most controversial part of the FTR Swedish tanks series. In this part, I will be discussing the LS-50, which my proposal for Swedish tier 8 medium tank.

During the development of the 20 ton tank, it was brought up several times that a heavier medium design would be needed and these ideas would eventually be interpreted and realized by starting the EMIL project in 1951. Although not completely historical, my idea for a Swedish tier 8 medium is to utilize the requirements for a heavier tank made within the timeframe of the 20 ton tank existence, but before they turned them into the EMIL 1951. The main and in fact only alternative to my proposal would be to use the British Centurion Mk.3, which was historically used by Sweden after 1953, however this clashes with the main re-occurring theme of Swedish tanks, which is small size with low weight. There are also other problems, such as the lack of module choices. Besides the 20pdr type A and B and possibly Mk.3 and Mk.5 turrets, there would be no more module options. And let’s face it, people don’t want copied tanks that are already available in other trees.

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16.5.2014

FTR is not just my translation work or the articles. It’s a ton of little things, going behind the scenes. Usually it’s Edrard fixing a hundred things behind the scenes, this time, special thanks go to Maiorboltach, who told me how to switch off Livejournal’s new shitty interface, that was literally making my eyes hurt and looking for posts was much harder in it. Thank you.

- Christie tanks will come, but not anytime soon
- Storm is not worried about the losses of online player numbers (SS: some tried to put a connection between that and War Thunder open beta, that was released yesterday IMHO) – he states that in summer, player statistics by drop a lot
- Storm states that nothing was changed with FPS in the micropatch, observed FPS losses are placebo
- developers are actively working on serious optimization steps
- Q: “To regulate TD’s you need to remove the sixth sense, it wasn’t there before!” A: “Sixth sense is already very old.”

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Posted in Q&A

Soviet LT8 “LTTB”

Hello everyone,

I found these renders in the Russian Wotleaks VK community, posted by Vitalik Dzizovsky (no idea where they come from originally, sorry). They are player-made and do not necesserily reflect the way the vehicle will look in game, but it might give you a rough impression as what to expect. It’s pointless to discuss any historical statistics, as it is 99,9 percent sure the vehicle will be unhistorically buffed to be able to handle the LT tier 8 role.

evpIwYywMxk

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