1.6.2014

- apparently there is a rare random bug, where when you put full cruise control forward, the tank starts going backwards, Storm states he hasn’t heard of this bug
- the are no plans for now to rework the tank damage system (SS: a player is complaining for example about full damage penetrations of commander copula etc.)
- more complex (different?) damage system could appear in some form of hardcore mode, but Storm states that in WG internally there is no agreement on such a mode (SS: as in, no plans for now)
- tier 8 tank MM will not be modified (SS: some player was complaining that tier 8′s get too much in battles with tier 10′s and so on)
- no plans to buff T28 and T95
- the fact that Soviet gun S-54, S-54S and several US 76mm guns have different gold and silver ammo damage is a mistake, it will be fixed
- after battletier 12 was removed, Storm currently considers the MM situation as normal (SS: some player wanted to remove battletier 11 as well, this will not happen)
- the 9.1 Test 2 sound volume is the same as in 9.0
- Storm states that the drop in online playerbase on RU server is the same as last year, it is influenced by the start of holidays and good weather (SS: as in, no real drop due to War Thunder)
- Q: “What are you planning to do with too many TD’s on tier 10?” A: “Nothing. Such cases (SS: as in, a player showed a screenie with like 8 TDs in each team) are not systemic. (SS: as in too common) We will balance individual vehicles.”
- there will not be a “global rebalance of all vehicles” – there will be changes, but not “global ones”
- tank rebalances will come “when it’s done it’s done”, and “no promises”

Posted in Q&A

Straight Outta Supertest: The Pit

Source: WoTLeaks VK community

Hello everyone,

apparently (although this info is NOT confirmed), Wargaming is working on a new (yet unnamed) map, code name “the pit” (or “the hole”).

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This new map is very small (400 x 400 meters) and is allegedly being made especially for low tiers (1,2,3). The reason behind it allegedly is that Wargaming wants the new players to “feel the action” straight from the start, because the fighting starts very soon after the battle commences and the fighting distance is very short. The spawn points are allegedly at the south and north of the map, the bases are in upper right and lower left corner.

Swedish Tanks – Part XII: EMIL 1951

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/
Part XI: http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/05/17/swedish-tanks-part-xi-ls-50/

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In 1951, the Swedish army decided to start a new tank project with the goal of replacing the obsolete Strv m/42 medium tank. Previous ideas for new tanks after WW2 had often been outdated and too light for the modern battlefield. The new project was to be based around the ideas that emerged in 1950 during the development of the Lansen light tank, mainly that a modern tank would need to be heavier, better armed and protected than previously thought. Another thing, that influenced the project, was that the technologies such as autoloaders and gyro-stabilization became more viable. These factors resulted in the EMIL 1951 proposal, which was to mark the start of Swedish heavy tank development.

The requirements for the proposal made it clear that the vehicle was to be able to function as both an infantry support weapon and a tank destroyer. To make this possible, the tank was to mount a 12cm autoloaded gun. This would allow the tank to firerapidly, it would give it good high-explosive round performance and better performance with HEAT rounds. There were also considerations for subcaliber rounds, but the main ammo types considered were the HEAT and the HE rounds. The idea of a tank sharing the TD and medium roles had been considered before, but only now was such a vehicle possible within the weight limit, set by the Swedish army. The use of an autoloader made it possible to reduce the crew of the tank to 3. The requirements also made it clear that the new tank would need a lot more armor than previous Swedish projects. The main worry was the appearance of the Soviet IS-3 and its 122mm gun. To keep the weight down, the heavier armor of the tank was put on the turret front, here it reached a maximum thickness of 200mm at the gun-mantlet (with 150mm and 125mm sloped armor at the rest of the turret front).

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WG EU As Usual: IS-7

Hello everyone,

so, you have probably heard that the IS-7 will be the next top of the tree. That is certainly… unexpected, since IS-7 was a top of the tree tank once already, while other tanks (Chinese I think?) were not. WG EU as usual, right? But wait, there’s more.

Looking at the announcement page. Damn, I had no idea IS-7 is a medium tank now!

roflmao

Oh, that all? Not quite.

rofl2

That’s funny, I always thought IS-7 uses Class III ventilation. Not a terrible mistake, granted, but considering how WG EU whined in the past about not being able to post this and that on portal because “accountability”, sure sounds weird. And to top it off, they knew about the mistake and it was supposed to be fixed in yesterday.

rofl3

That’s probably the longest “a few minutes” ever, since this was posted like 12 hours ago :) These mistakes aren’t really serious, we all know that – but they are very symptomatic. I wrote recently that the WG EU content department sucks, this is just another proof they do and how much.

31.5.2014

- Storm states that the crowns of standing trees do provide a camo bonus, just as they did for 4 years now
- IS-3 will not appear in historical battles
- 9.2 will NOT bring Havok, but it will bring new HD tank models
- no plans to make T-50-2 a premium
- WoT map Stalingrad is 900×900 meters big, it will come “when it’s done”
- no plans to buff IS-6
- it’s not possible to download 9.1 test sounds independently and add it to the 9.1 live game
- no plans to buff IS-7 DPM
- Russian players will most likely not the same gold-awarding missions, as there were on EU server

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Posted in Q&A

WG “Cybersports” Stream QA

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3318969.html

Hello everyone,

recently there was a stream with Alexei Kuznetsov, leader of the WG cybersports department and he was answering the player question regarding cybersports and Wargaming.net league. Maiorboltach from the WoT LJ community made a summary of what was said, I am not sure how much this is related to non-RU servers, but here’s a translation:

- in the Golden Series of the following season (RU cluster) there will be 12 teams, not 16. LAN finals will be attended by only 4 teams. This change was made to increase the competitiveness of the teams and the attractivity of the matches in general, WG hopes there will be more interesting and good fights
- EU cluster will only have 2 WG League seasons
- also, based on EU cluster, there will be an All-Stars tournament of all regions (for now RU, EU and NA are confirmed). This tournament will appear between the seasons and will be a regular event.

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Posted in Q&A

WoT Platoon with a Girl? That will be 12 Euro, please

Thanks to Dejv for this one.

When it comes to World of Tanks, there is not a whole lot that would surprise me. Or make me smile in amusement, because I have this stupid feeling that I’ve just seen it all. Yet, from time to time, there are things that prove me wrong. This is one of them.

Ever heard of powerlevelling services? I assume that you did, if you ever played other MMO’s, such as World of Warcraft. But, just to make sure, here’s what it actually is: “powerlevelling” is usually a service, where you pay another person to play your game account for you in order to reach some goal (for example level up, or, in WoT, unlocking a branch, getting certain amount of credits and so on). In order to do that, that person needs access to your account, so you can imagine how giving anyone your username (e-mail) and password is NOT a good idea – don’t EVER try it, 99,9 percent of such offers are scams. As a part of such service, the site usually also sells “high level accounts” – you can imagine how are they getting them.

But, back to our surprising case. There is this site, called http://wot-leveling.com/. It’s oriented on Russian server, so I won’t be doing them any favours by disclosing their existence to predominantly EU and US server readers.

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Kharkov Map – In Real Life

Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/1/fan_video_05-31/

Hello everyone,

this is one of the more interesting posts, featured on the World of Tanks RU portal – a fan video by the Russian player “Compmaniac”, who currently actually lives in Kharkov. Since the map “Kharkov” is coming to World of Tanks in patch 9.1, he made a video, comparing the ingame map locations to the real city of Kharkov, its landmarks and streets.

 

 

The video is obviously in Russian, but the pictures are interesting as well, it includes the massive building of Gosprom (also known as the Palace of Industry), the big round “Liberty Square”, the Kharkov University complex and the Chichibabin street.

The map is apparently based on the German air recon photo from 16.12.1941. The video actually contains a lot of interesting info about Kharkov, too bad it’s not officially translated in English. Oh yea, I forgot, WG EU… too much work I guess.

Edit

The_Grue was kind enough to provide the translation on what was said in the video. Thank you!

We are in Kharkov, this video is about the map that comes out in 9.1 and this is the first map modeled after an existing city. Let us take a walk around the places that have any significance in the gameplay – where battles will commence – and also the places that are notable in real-life Kharkov.

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