Hello everyone,

botting is a constant, yet unfortunately underestimated, issue in World of Tanks (detection of bots is actually really not that hard, someone with 300 battles within 24 hours is probably not a human being, it can be verified otherwise). A lots of people seem to think that “a good bot is better than a noob” – a notion, which is actually false and quite dangerous.

- a bot does not learn, while a bad player can improve
- any player speaks their own language and can be told to and advised, a bot cannot – this is not so hard, if you see an exposed flank and a player with a name of something like PragueLoverCZ, there is a good chance this guy is Czech, so you can tell him “Praguelover jed na levo, mas tam nepritele!” (Praguelover, go left, there is an enemy!) – or just “vlevo!” (left), it works
- a bot cheats (you can’t “surprise” a bot, when you appear behind him, the program automatically knows about you), yes, but is not capable of solving any tactical situations

The video that follows is from Russian server and shows exactly the last case. An AT-2 in the video is a bot. An AT-2 is also a pretty tough bastard – a top tank of the team and he is facing only lowtier opposition. With a bit of skilled play, it is fully capable of deciding the battle! But, unfortunately, it’s a bot, so that’s not going to happen. See for yourself how one bot on team (that stays alive because it’s programmed to camp) can screw the entire battle by stupid behavior.

Notice the conflict in the program where the bot can’t choose a target and gets stuck in the middle.

A bot is a NPC. If I wanted to fight NPC’s, I’d be playing Skyrim.

Source: VK Wotleaks community

Hello everyone,

as you know since yesterday, the Murovanka map is going to be reworked and it’s going to be made bigger (from 800*800 to 1000*1000). Here’s how it’s going to look, when both minimaps are compared. Note the landscape changes and additional cover for the southern base.

Source: Wotleaks VK community

Hello everyone,

this is not a hundred percent confirmed information, but it looks like the Murovanka map will get an overhaul in 9.2 For one, it will be made bigger from 800×800 to 1000×1000, there will also be more houses for cover and the landscape was changed a bit as well. A minimap model was leaked:

Hello everyone,

game portal MMORPG.com is giving out invite codes for US server only. This invite code contains:

- T2 Light Tank
- 3 days of premium
- 500 gold

You can get your here:

http://www.mmorpg.com/giveaways.cfm/offer/519/World-of-Tanks-Gift-Key-Giveaway.html

IMPORTANT – this code is NOT FOR EXISTING ACCOUNTS, it’s for creating new accounts only. If you do not need it, do NOT waste it please, be considerate and leave it for someone who does.

Hello everyone,

today, we are going to have a look at what happened after the war in Czechoslovakia in tank industry. A long time ago, I wrote a post on the T-34/85 in Czechoslovak service, now it’s time to continue with the T-54.

While there was certain original medium tank development in Czechoslovakia after the war, it is the undeniable truth that the majority of Czechoslovak tank forces from 1945 to 1989 – and, practically until today – consisted of license produced or imported Soviet vehicles, first the T-34/85, then the T-54, T-55 and finally the T-72. I am saying “majority”, because in certain period (cca early 60′s, but it varied), Czechoslovak army also used the captured German equipment (Panzer IV, StuG, Hetzer, Hummel..) and the western vehicles, obtained from the former wartime allies, such as the Cromwell and Stuart tanks.

T-54A

The T-54 medium tank was intended as a replacement of the aging T-34/85 tank in the Czechoslovak army in the mid 50′s. Generally, it was regarded as the only real solution, despite the fact there were some proposals to actually upgun the T-34/85 to 100mm (including a proposal for an autoloaded version). As it was usual with the heavy industry of that time, the production, proposed to start in mid 50′s at ČKD Prague, was delayed and in 1956, it was decided to start producing an improved version of the T-54, called T-54A. Between 1956 and 1957, the Soviet assembly documentation was reworked for Czech conditions and the first trial series of 10 vehicles was produced in 1957 at the J.V.Stalin Factory in Martin, Slovakia (the heavy production was moved to Slovakia not only to jumpstart Slovakian economy within former Czechoslovakia by introducing heavy industry, but also as an attempt to move the heavy armor production away from Pilsen or Prague more eastwards, so it is not as easily reachable by the American and British bombers).

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

as you might already know, there is a new “guest” cartoon maker publishing his videos on Ranzar channel. Now, I really don’t like the animation style, but this particular video is actually quite funny (and unfortunately very true, we all love TD’s with Romulan cloaking devices disappearing in the middle of the Malinovka field, don’t we…)

Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/
Thanks to 31B442SV5 for this one.

Hello everyone,

do you remember the post where some idiots from Ukraine tried to start up the old IS-3 tank and actually partially succeeded? Looks like this approach became a standard for the “separatist” forces, that now are trying to allegedly raid museums (!) for ancient equipment, that served during WW2. Well, at least according to the dailymail post:

A viral video of pranksters starting up a WW2 tank as it was perched on a memorial has inspired pro-Russian rebels to plunder military museums of arms and ammunition to use in their fight to break away from Ukraine. The rebels are desperately short of any sort of military armament and after seeing the way the tank had started up despite being exposed to the elements for decades, they started scouring museums. There they have found tanks and other armoured vehicles which they now plan to enlist in the defence of the eastern city of Donetsk which has declared its independence from the Ukraine.

‘There is tons of stuff that we can make use of – mortars, heavy machine guns, truck-towed artillery pieces,’ said local militia leader Alexei Kosalokin. ‘This was the stuff our ancestors beat the Nazis with and if it was good enough for them, it is good enough for us.’

But… is that really true? The British news don’t really seem to be the most reliable sources of information. Check this out – from this article:

Holy shit, the Soviets had IS-3 in 1943? No wonder the Germans lost the war! Seriously though – if this description is wrong… what else is wrong? The article has a grain of truth in it though. A few weeks ago, there was a case (and a video) of the separatists using a WW2 era Soviet AT rifle (PTRS was it?) against Ukraine army BMP’s. While this might  sound like a completely silly idea, make no mistake – BMP’s are thin skinned and even a WW2 era AT rifle can actually damage them.

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3345084.html

Hello everyone,

the fact that the Stronkhold mode will have turrets was already leaked. How will they look sitting out there on the ground? Well, someone leaked this tiny picture:

According to the leaker, this turret has 10k hitpoints and “shoots HE shells at close targets”. That’s all we know. For now anyway. Stronkhold mode is scheduled for patch 9.2

Hello everyone,

thanks to Forceman4077 (US server), we now know some more interesting info about the British line. Forceman visited the E3 booth of Wargaming and talked to my favourite WG employee, The_Chieftain. Chief confirmed him in person that:

- the British “LL” Line with Firefly should come this year (no exact ETA yet)
- here’s the interesting part: the line will be a hybrid line – lower half until tier 6 (Firefly) will be medium tanks, the upper half will be British turretted tank destroyers

And yes, it is true, I was able to confirm this info from other sources as well. For “what exactly will the line setup look like” – I wrote about it here with tank descriptions, but roughly:

Tier 6 – Firefly
Tier 7 – Avenger/Challenger
Tier 8 – Charioteer
Tier 9 – FV4004 “Conway”
Tier 10 – FV4005 Stage 2

Lower tiers will apparently include M3 Grant, Sherman I and M2A4 (I am not sure about the M2A4).