Thanks to Slakrrr/Vollketten for noticing, I sure as hell didn’t. Check this out. This appears for a split second at cca 0:46 in the KTTS 0.9.1 video.
Think that’s a Caernarvon? Look again. See the machinegun miniturret in the front? Nope, that’s not a Caernarvon, it’s the A45/FV201 universal tank.
Hello everyone,
credits for this go to player tambardo from EU server, who found it. There is apparently an easter egg on the Kharkov map. When you destroy one of the garages in the A3 sector, inside, you will find a strange vehicle.
This is the Chtz armored tractor (bronetraktor), built in Kharkov in some numbers as a stopgap measure in 1941, when the Soviets desperately tried to put guns on pretty much everything to stop the Germans. Its low quality model exists in the game for quite some time – for purposes unknown. It’s doubtful it will ever be introduced.
This vehicle appeared once already in March in the developer diary videos.
Hello everyone,
remember how I told you about the “soccer” event planned to run during the FIFA World Cup? Well, it looks like it’s all true. On one official picture at Wargaming site (original here), you can see the T-62A “Sport” amongst the tanks in the garage.
Thanks to Frosch1 for spotting it.
Hello everyone,
so, I installed the 9.1 test client after all (the test was expected today, but its confirmation came literally minutes before it went live, hence no early warning). Installation, as always, was uneventful and smooth.
Anyway, after running the test client, you will not notice anything really new, everything is kinda “same old”, but the important features of this patch are
- optimization
- new gun sounds
- new engine sounds for Hellcat and Jackson
- historical battles
So I decided to check the first three by loading up my Jackson and giving it a spin. Pressing battle aaaand… the map loads really fast. Surprising. Not sure what, but in like 9.0.4 hotfix, Wargaming did “something” that fixed the terrible loading times (that started in 9.0) for me.
Anyway, battle loaded aaaaaaaaand…. it’s perfect. No microlags. FPS is smooth, 40-50, I’d say 5-10 FPS increase (I had 40 in “free” areas and 30-35 in “crowded” ones, now it’s 40 in crowded and 60 or so in “free” areas). This is actually really really great :) Also, the bug with the explosion sounds not pre-loading (first explosion lags the game) that re-appeared after one of the hotfixes was fixed again, so that’s good. The game now runs smoothly. Not as smoothly as pre-9.0, but it’s good.
Graphically, one more thing is different, the exhaust smoke and explosions. Both now sort of look more pronounced – hard to describe, but the exhaust smoke looks more like in War Thunder, but in War Thunder, the smoke actually looks like if it’s vapour leaking from a hole in a boiler, here it looks more… I don’t know. Realistic. I like it. The explosions are MUCH more pronounced now – when your tank explodes, you will FEEL it. They are huge. Not sure if it’s realistic (tanks look like they have a crate of TNT inside them), but it sure looks nice.
Okay, gun sounds. The gun now sounds very realistic. That’s a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is the obvious realism. The bad thing is that from Hollywood movies etc., people expect even 76mm-90mm guns to go BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM, while in real life, the gun sounds more like “pooof” – it’s an unusual sound and you will not feel like shooting a mighty gun (even the big caliber sound is quite muffled). The reload sound was added and it’s roughly the way Gnomefather has it. Personally, I think WG could go for more “Hollywood” sound, but it’s okay.
I mentioned that two vehicles (Hellcat and Jackson) do have a new soundset and let me tell you now, it’s BRILLIANT. I LOVE the Jackson engine sound, FINALLY something that sounds like a tank, nothing beats that deep roar of the engine, very, very nicely done. I really like it. Combine it with the good performance of the test client and I think this is going to be just great :) Enjoying it a lot. Please, Wargaming, don’t fuck it up.
Anyway, historical battles, another feature:
Balaton stays, Ardennes and Kursk got removed. Okay. Two new historical battles are Tobruk and Bryansk. I haven’t actually played them (noone seems to play them, I will post separate feedback on them tomorrow if I get to try them), but at first glance, both setups look totally fucked up.
Tobruk:
Bryansk:
I won’t pass any judgements in advance – I will try the battles first, but if you look at the Tobruk setup, the Germans have practically nothing to destroy the Matilda with (that StuG has L/24, the Panzer IV I am not sure about, but I think it has L/24 as well). The Russian scenario on the other hand has the KV-1 and against it, the Panzer IV with the L/43 gun. What could possibly go wrong…
As I said, we’ll see what happens, I’ll post my HB impressions later on.
Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/1/9_1_mark/
Hello everyone,
here is the EU post for the “Marks of Excellence” – basically, kill rings. Since I don’t see it in the EU post, I will add the conditions required for them from the Russian one.
Basically, it is explained on the Russian site that tank kills aren’t always an objective measure of players quality and that in order to judge the quality, other indicators have to be considered: average XP per battle and average damage per battle. XP is already counted within the mastery badges and so the devs have chosen to use the average damage.
Kill marks are recieved for doing more average damage per battle on that respective vehicle than other players:
- 1 mark: more than 65 percent of players
- 2 marks: more than 75 percent of players
- 3 marks: more than 95 percent of players
Light tanks can achieve them as well, as for the purposes of marks, damage done by other tanks from your scouting counts towards this damage as well. The battles count only from patch 9.1 onwards (won’t be awarded retroactively). The statistics are collected on daily basis. The battles taken into account are the last player session and not from ALL the battles since 9.1.
Marks are awarded only in random battles and only for tier 5 and higher vehicles. Furthermore, the players will be able to see their standings in the Achievement window. If your statistics drop, the kill marks will not be removed (just like a mastery badge). These marks can be disabled in settings.
Source: http://worldoftanks.asia/en/news/23/common-test-91/
(thanks, Retia)
http://dl.wargaming.net/wot/ct/files/WoT_internet_install_ct.exe
List of changes – here
Edit: the issue with download is being solved according to Russian developers (last time there was a problem too)
Since the patch test will be really soon (tomorrow?), here’s the ASAP magazine, for now in Russian
Inside:
- new gun sounds, added sound of shell extraction after shot, added new turret turning sound
- Hellcat and Jackson will have new movement sounds
- the sounds are of real vehicles, recorded in museums
- new medals for arty and for team battles
- camo after shot nerf for TD’s (Storm explains that they were OP)
- buff for LT tier spread (top battletier removed), LT’s 4-8 inc. premium ones (Type 64)
- MT-25 and VK2801 get mobility buffs
- no big performance optimizations, a lot of smaller ones though
- new map “Kharkov”, 5 new maps got balance changes
- two new historical battles: Blockade of Tobruk (1941) and Bryansk Front (Summer 1942)
- of currently available historical battles, only Balaton will be removed (or left alone, it’s hard to understand Storm)
- Stronkhold mode will not come in 9.1
- special video on Stronkhold mode will come (unless he refers to the previous Stronkhold preview video)
Hello everyone,
it’s been some time, since we talked about bots and how they damage the game. Quite a discussion started around the topic – so today, we are going to talk about one specific aspect of botting – using bots to get free stuff from Wargaming.
As you most likely know, currently, there is a special event running on all the major servers: get a certain amount of XP in all the trees in the game and in turn, you will recieve a hightier premium tank (Americans get the T34, the rest gets Super Pershing). Naturally, this is a great lure for all the assholes out there using bots and yes, unfortunately, it works very well.
All the data below were obtained by Stormshadow, the EU bot hunter responsible for example for the anti-bot mod.
Meet 8toto1. Our 8toto1 here is a damned botter, that’s what he is. Let’s look at his stats first.
Sharp drop of performance? A clear sign of using a bot, but not a proof of course. Proof comes from three things:
Hello everyone,
the following info has been found in the VSAM (Verein Schweizer Armeemuseum, Switzerland), credits go to Vollketten. I am not sure this was ever published in English anywhere, so – another premiere for FTR :)
Now, you might recall what the G-13 is – that’s right, it’s the modified post-war Jagdpanzer 38t (“Hetzer”), built in Czechoslovakia for the Swiss army. Between December 1946 and February 1950, 158 were built and sent to Switzerland, where they served until 1971-1972, when they were replaced by the Centurion tanks. From that point on, many were sold to the collectors and even more were converted to look like the wartime Hetzers for museums, private collections and movie prop purposes. The majority of private “Hetzers” currently are converted G-13 vehicles.
You can tell the G-13 from a Hetzer by the muzzle brake (German Hetzers used PaK guns, G-13 used the 75mm StuK 40 guns, the Swiss tanks also have different engines). While effective and relatively cheap to build, the Jagdpanzer 38t (I hope history buffs can forgive me the use of the word “Hetzer” – no, the Japa 38t was never called Hetzer historically) was also not exactly high-tech and in many first world armies, it was supposed to be replaced by either tanks, or other, more powerful self-propelled guns (such was the case of Czechoslovakia, using the SD-100 SPG). A question arose, what to do with the Hetzers then, because there were quite a few around.
In Czechoslovakia (and I am adding this so you see that the development went through similiar ways), following proposals were made:
- conversion to ARV’s
- 105mm SPG
- 150mm SPG
- a turretted flame tank, PM-1
In Switzerland, they did not reach the similiar conclusions, but they did consider using the G-13 for a self-propelled gun. The reason for this was simply the fact that the G-13 was available for a very cheap price from Czechoslovakia, while their own artillery-field (SPG) development (the Nahkampfkanone program) proved to be quite expensive. This project from 1946 however did not pass the proposal stage, as the army in September 1946 decided to order all the G-13 in their TD configuration. It is not clear whether this SPG proposal first came from the Swiss, or the Czech side. The Swiss nevertheless continued to work on in until 1947, when the program was cancelled.
The 105mm howitzer was apparently the same type as the one used in Nahkampfkanone 1 (10,5cm Haubitze 42)
And here, in comparison, how did the Czechoslovaks solve the same issue (November 1946)
