Weekly FTR Contributor Review

Hello everyone,

once again it’s the time to thank the contributors, it’s you who keep FTR running after all!

This time, following people donated via Paypal:

Stoertebecker (EU server, Germany)
SlabakBG (EU server, Bulgaria)
Taggeth (NA server, United States)

Thank you, guys, I really appreciate it, as always.

The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service

http://www.patreon.com/silentstalker

This is the Patreon account of For the Record. In case you read this for the first time and feel like contributing, here is an explanation what it is, how it works and how to contribute. You can find a list of all those, who pledged and help to keep FTR running here.

Thank you all!

27.10.2014

For bigger news, see the previous Storm post. Otherwise, not much today.

- Q: “Noone needs FV4005 when it will oneshot everything!” A: “How terrible!”
- apparently, in 9.5 (with the introduction of FV4005), FV215b (183) will be rebalanced (SS: according to hints, made slower and more armored)
- for now, it’s not sure whether FV4005 will have a fully rotating turret
- right now, modellers are working on HD models for cca 150 tanks
- HD maps are also being worked on

Posted in Q&A

Storm Talks About 9.5

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/306190.html

Hello everyone,

Storm talks about 9.5 and other matters in his latest microdigest:

- British MT/TD branch will have a tier 10, it will be the FV4005 Stage 2 (183mm without an autoloader). Yes, there will be two “oneshots” on tier 10, they will be divided by gameplay – one will be slow and armored (FV215b), the other relatively mobile and unarmored (FV4005, the turret is 14mm thick all around)

fv4005_stage2__001

- there will be NO existing tank reworked into HD models in 9.5, there will only be new vehicles: 11 British vehicles and several new tanks for supertesters
- the 9.4 test sounds will NOT be implemented. On some configurations they have performance issues and the developers don’t have time to fix them, so the sounds will remain as they were in 9.3. At the same time, the public opinion on them will be taken into account and the sounds will be reworked.

From the discussion:

- Q: “Patch without HD tanks? I will cry!” A (Storm): “Crying right beside you :(((”
- Havok? “I can’t say anything. We are working mainly on performance and optimization now.”
- the British tanks in 9.5 are 11, because there will be two tier 5 (SS: Sherman III and Archer) and tier 6 (SS: Firefly and Achilles) tanks
- FV4202 switch ETA? “Noone knows”, won’t be in 9.5
- statistics do not show that platoons end up more often on the bottom of the team
- Action X and Chieftain were not balanced yet
- FV4005 Stage 1 was not implemented because “there are enough waffentragers for now”
- Sixth Sense rework will not come in 9.5, but “much later”
- strangely enough, T95 will not come in HD (the British will) – “we really needed that tank and we didn’t manage to make the HD model”

Posted in Q&A

“How we make WoWs: Export Automatization and Content Verification” – Part 2

Source: http://m.habrahabr.ru/company/wargaming/blog/241083/

Part 1 can be found here.

Looking under the hood

In our game studio, we actively use Python scripts. We tried to make the entire exporter using them. Naturally, Python is not suitable to work with large sets of binary data, such as vertex buffers, index buffers etc. The data model and serializers of such buffers were implemented using C++ in the form of a library (.pyd), which in a way “wrote into” the data model under Python. The entire business-logic was made in Python.

The exporter framework was planned to be used not only during “manual” export from Maya, but for any tasks where its functions could be re-used, such as the automatic verification of content. When it comes to any developer tool, we need to have it interfaces (API) for Python, a command line and UI tools.

Continue reading

Hungarian Branch in WoT – Part 4: Tas medium tank

Author: Karika

Part I
Part II: Light tanks
Part III: Turán medium tanks

Kp92DXT1

In this part, we’ll take a look at how could the Hungarian Tas medium tank be implemented into WoT. Everything is the same as in the previous articles: I will try not to predict game parameters (health points or alpha damage) and the balance parameters (radiorange, RoF, etc.) would not necessarely be implemented as I listed them below.

Please note that these are only the historical characteristics, the would be implemented tanks could get unhistorical stuff as a last resort, if the game balance requires it.

Unfortunately, Hungary did not produce a tank, which would perfectly fit in the in-game tier 6 slot. Therefore, to avoid implementing non-domestical or unhistorically overbuffed tanks into the Hungarian tech tree, I separated the Tas medium tank into two. In my opinion, this is the least bad solution. Let me show you my idea:

Continue reading

Meanwhile in Russia…


 

In the south of the Krasnoyarsk region, a farmer by the name of Ivan Ivanov is using an old T-62 tank (or so they claim, I think it’s just a T-54/55) to plow fields (he gets hired by other companies to do it for them). The vehicle is capable of reaching speeds of 20-22 km/h on the field. It was actually the dream of his father to rebuild a tank to farming equipment, the conversion was home-made by the farmer himself (by removing the turret and installign a Kirovets tractor superstructure) and proved to be an excellent piece of farming equipment, exceeding a regular tractor several times. It consumes 70 liters of fuel per hour, which is, according to Ivan Ivanov’s customers, economical, because a regular tractor would take 8 hours to plow the same field a tank can plow in one. Ivanov got the tank after the 90′s army reduction as surplus.

Invite Codes

Hello everyone,

a couple of invite codes from adsads, one person who wanted to stay anonymous, sabaluigi and all the rest of the guys (I tried to redistribute some codes based on the demand)

MK8TX-DG4SZ-K8ANS-T7DW4-WMWZP
MK8TM-6XRX7-NG243-AR3SP-K7EGT
MK8T6-5DASR-Z3P3K-U6ECC-DDVUV
MK8T9-ER2YF-KPDA3-BE5DH-G5RYD
MK8TY-BDHPK-UTPYR-CNBTT-EC9XX
BNV73-TWBHM-RDXK2-N3THW
BNV7U-N9W6U-NS532-ZMSAY
BNV7Z-BNH23-AWP8B-2U8SA

Straight Outta Supertest: M3 Grant

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3570808.html

First of the upcoming Firefly branch vehicles for 9.5 is the M3 Grant.

98783_900

Description:

American medium tank M3 of the first series, built specifically for the export to Great Britain according to the customer’s needs. In British army, he recieved the General Grant (Grant I) designation. 1685 tanks of this type were built in total.

The statistics are for 100 percent crew.

Tier 4 MT
Hitpoints: 320
Engine: 410hp
Weight: 29,975 tons
Power-to-weight: 13,68 hp/t
Maximum speed: 39/16 km/h
Hull traverse: 42 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 0,959/1,055/2,205

Hull armor: 50,8/38,1/?

Gun: 75mm M2
Damage: 110/110/75
Penetration: 90/102/38
ROF: 17,381
Accuracy: 0,451
Aimtime: 1,73s
Depression: -9/+20
Traverse: 30 deg

Gun: 75mm M3
Damage: 110/110/75
Penetration: 92/109/38
ROF: 20,857
Accuracy: 0,393
Aimtime: 2,01s
Depression: -9/+20
Traverse: 30 deg

Gun: 6pdr Mk.III
Damage: 75/75/100
Penetration: 105/170/30
ROF: 26,071
Accuracy: 0,403
Aimtime: 2,21s
Depression: -9/+20
Traverse: 30 deg

Viewrange: 325
Radiorange: ?

Continue reading

Straight Outta Supertest: STA-2 Changes

Source: FTA VK community

Hello everyone,

on the supertest server, STA-2 upcoming tier 8 premium Japanese medium tank was buffed thus:

- DPM buffed from 2029,3 to 2115,1
- reload time buffed from 7,096 to 6,808
- ROF buffed from 8,456 to 8,813
- aimtime buffed from 2,21 to 2,11
- accuracy loss from moving a turred buffed by cca 20 percent
- hitpoints buffed from 1400 to 1420
- repair costs very slightly nerfed

New vehicle statistics are like this:

Tier 8 MT
Hitpoints: 1420
Engine: 500hp
Weight: 34 tons
Power-to-weight: 14,71 hp/t
Maximum speed: 45/20 km/h
Hull traverse: 44 deg/s
Terrain resistance: 0,959/1,055/1,918

Hull armor: 45/35/?
Turret armor: 70/60/?

Gun: 90mm
Damage: 240
Penetration: 185,9
DPM: 2115,1
ROF: 8,813
Accuracy: 0,355
Aimtime: 2,11s
Depression: -10
Turret traverse: 43,8 deg/s

Viewrange: 380
Radiorange: 720

26.10.2014

Hello everyone,

check out Listy’s articles on one of the best StuG aces and about personal soldier armor

- apparently, the feature where top three players of losing team get extra credits will not be implemented
- Chi-Ri had several variants of suspension, it’s possible that one of the heavier ones with 88mm will be added to the heavy Japanese tank branch (SS: SerB is mistaken here. The 88mm Chi-Ri is a fake, started by American engineers exploring the Japanese vehicle plans after the war)
- Chinese-used Chi-Ha did not have any special Chinese designation
- apparently, SerB is participating in alphatesting of WoWs, but he’s hiding
- when removing interface in battle (pressing V), FPS goes up a lot? “Most likely your card doesn’t do well with Scaleform – that’s a Flash-like engine, widely used for interface creation. Please note that we are not responsible for Scaleform-based mod optimization.”
- Storm realizes that STA-2 (upcoming Japanese premium) is worse than STA-1, but “unfortunately, we haven’t simply found any other candidate”

Continue reading

Posted in Q&A