Weekly FTR Technical Post and Contributor Review

Hello everyone,

so, today’s going to be a bit longer technical post, because there are some things I want to write about For the Record.

For one… the contributors. At this moment, I am not really sure how to thank you all, but I would like to do more, especially for all those people, who support For the Record using Patreon – and don’t think I don’t see you, I review the names list practically every week and I do know the largest contributors (Tugboat1964, Kkessu, alex78i, KvetoslavWot and many others) by nicknames.

The thing is… what can I actually do for you?

- platoon and company? Well, apart from me not being a good player in platoons (to put it mildly, I hate them), I consider that a waste of time I could be instead putting into FTR. But sure, I guess if anyone of you is interested.
- keep some news exclusive to subscribers? No. I hate that idea, I think everyone should get everything and that’s it.
- some competitions and whatnot? Well, there was recently the Panther competition, but I consider this a bit pointless as well, after all last time I did that (with my own money no less), several people got offended that I am using the money they donated to finance the prizes for other people. Not exactly a good thing.

Any other ideas? Let me know in comments, because this is something that bothers me. Which brings me to the second point: Panther competition. The winners should be recieving their DVD’s this week (at least the European ones) – if not, let me know, please. Sorry for the delay, there was just a lot on my plate, it’s kinda my fault, I apologize.

As for the rest, well, some of you ask me about my health state, it’s better thanks (ATM I am suffering only from the worst disease of all, man-flu – how terrible). It’s just that I did a lot of thinking lately about FTR again. I mean… I’ve been doing this for ages and I am tired, even though I slowed down a bit (you might notice that the historical articles were cut down a bit, the translations are still the same however, plus the leaks of course) – the notable example of this was the Hall of Shame and the development of anti-asshole mod, connected with it (it’s ready and deployed on Russian server as we speak, the EU version of it will be tied to next Hall of Shame, possibly next week).

On the other hand, it would by a damn shame to throw it all away. About a month ago, I practically ragequitted (if any Rita viewers watch this, you might remember my rant from the stream, I was pretty pissed at Wargaming for reasons that in the meanwhile seem to have remedied themselves, you’ll see), but ever since, I found a way to… let’s say re-purpose For the Record a bit. For now, everything’s as usual, with one small addition.

You know how I wanted to incorporate Armored Warfare news into FTR? Yea well… I can’t do that. The wot-news agreement with Wargaming prevents me. And so, there will be actually a SECOND FTR, this time with AW news. They are far in between anyway for now (as the game is not in beta yet) and reviving the old FTR (remember the blogspot one?) is simple enough. How connected will the two be – I don’t know yet, I’ll sit down and work on it this weekend I think. That’s the plan anyway, we’ll see how it goes.

In any case, sorry for the long post – now for the most important matter: 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:

Mrwanwan (Lithuania)
Glaston (Canada)
Robert G. (Michigan, USA)
Mark P. (United Kingdom)
Matthew H. (Australia)

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.

Now, for the Patreon cycle:

Out of the 577,29 USD pledged at the point of the cycle activation:

- 527,29 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 527,29 USD, after the Patreon and CC fees and all that, 449,89 USD were left for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here. Once again, huge thanks for the support to all of you :)

50 thoughts on “Weekly FTR Technical Post and Contributor Review

  1. Hey SS, has AW started the open beta perhaps? I registered and applied but no news yet..
    If I get into the open beta, plus if the game works ok on my PC, I would be more than happy to help on this second FTR :) For free of course :)

  2. Hey SS, I don’t think it is necessary that you reward “us” (the ones who pledged on Patreon) with anything… I am doing this for the reason that I really enjoy reading your work, and so I want to support you.
    I mean, that is only my opinion, and I would not be angry if you’d find a way to thank “Patreon pledgers” even more, but it is not necessary ;)

    • good point, our Patreon donations are a thanks for your work. no need to re-thank us.
      Keep going

    • Tugboat1964 here –

      I agree with what the other Patreon’s have been saying – you don’t need to thank us – you are already doing that every day by providing the place for the community to meet in an independent way and all the other stuff you are doing.

      I was particularly moved by the opportunity to help the WW2 veterans last year through you and your friend’s efforts – that is something I would never have had the opportunity to do from California!

      Armored Warfare sounds neat – basically I would think that a large percentage of the community is here because they have an interest in military vehicles and tanks in particular. War Gaming is making a great game that is fun to play. We shake our fists figuratively in the air all the time because we are passionate about it and want it to be the best that it can be – true fans. If we didn’t care, then nobody would bother!

      Anyway – follow your interest and your passion – it will show through to us in the community and it will be great

      cheers
      Tugboat1964 – north american server

  3. *Disclaimer: I am NOT a donator*

    Again, take a look at Extra credits on their way of using Patreon for their History Series. So this brings my idea:
    - Early access (NOT Exclusive!) to content (So may be when big leaks like Type 59 will be on sale in the giftshop again), about a day or so.
    -Votes for content – For example, they can vote for what tanks they want to know more about
    - Mini Q&A w/ Insiders (Which will NOT be exclusive, but they get to ask the questions)

    Just some suggestions.

    • Early access: see above, exclusive info (even time-limited) is something I really don’t want to do. Plus, it would be pointless, someone would just copypaste it somewhere else.

      Votes for content – hmm… the point of historical articles is to introduce stuff that cannot be seen anywhere else or is not widely known. If I give you two names of tanks and you can’t google either, how will you decide?

      QA with insiders… hmmmm…… I don’t think I can do that. The “legal” people will not do oficial QA on FTR and for the “illegal” people, it’s dangerous. But yes, you know what, I have an idea. How about a service of transferring questions from contributors to developers?

  4. “several people got offended that I am using the money they donated to finance the prizes for other people. ”

    ” XXX USD were left for FTR ” -> implies that he can use the money people donated to do anything he wants so long as it’s related to this blog.

    how terrible. feel free to correct me though.

    • Not quite, the Patreon donations are to cover the costs of hardware etc about which SS complained some time ago.

      • Upgrading hardware technically counts if you want to be an arse and nitpick fine details :p but i guess you’re right. But he doesn’t need to upgrade hardware every month…

        • Read the post from March 30, 2014 titled “Voluntary Subscriptions Introduced” to find SS’s list of monthly recurring FTR-related expenses

  5. Not being a donor renders me unable to suggest anything due to psychological reasons :3

    But , certain competetions made for the donors themselves wouldnt hurt .

  6. Donators should get an icon of a golden donkey next to their comments! :P

    Seriously though, I don’t expect anything back for my donations.
    They are my reward to you for taking the time to translate and dig up news. Don’t need no reward for giving a reward!

    • The path to freedom is narrow, the meadows and uplands beyond are broad, and rich. You’ll need to do a bit of fucking with people to get there.

  7. I really apreciate your transparancy SS!
    I think the prices you offered were a good idea to ‘thank’ the community, just ignore the crybabies!

  8. I’m NOT a donator!!!

    But it would be nice to spend the weekend with Serb in some fancy hotel on some like in Russia, and talk about nerfing and writing :) :) :)

    So SS can you do it? :) :) :)

  9. damn it SS, now they know i support you and they will teamkill me…..

    keep up the good work

    alex

  10. We don’t exactly want any reward from you, we just appreciate your good work.

    But since FTR is a great website for get infromations about tanks, I hope we could get a seperate section where we could look up the stats of the vehicles, such as armor scheme or gun penetration tables.

  11. Just work your blog. You are getting my money because I appreciate FTR.

    By the way, is it enough?

      • If I get a job, I will give you something! I mean, I come here everyday, and like I said before, it wouldn’t bother me if you would add some advertisements! I mean, you put a lot of effort into this blog, and if you can keep the adds small, untill I can become a patreon, I wouldn’t mind them!

        You’re a good person SS, especially your action for the Czech tankers proved that, and I hope some people who DO have the money read my comment and will provide you with some funds to keep FTR strong(k). Keep up the good work!

  12. AW FTR branch would be sweet. Only problem is the lack of AW news, and the devs only post something new every once in a while and it usually is not much. Either have to wait till beta or go through old infromation and dev QA’s for new posts.

  13. Hey SS, how bout a Tank Design Contest? You decide on the specific criteria’s. The prizes doesn’t even have to be that big at all. See what your followers can think of in making a design.

    BTW, love your work, keep it up!