Hello everyone,

following is the account of all we know about the Czechoslovak hightier TVP project, at least the rough outline. It is clear that proper research into this will take more time, but we’ll get there.

Summary

The development of post-war Czechoslovak tanks started very soon – by the end of 1945, where VTÚ (Vojenský Technický Ústav – Military Technical Institute) filed a report to MNO (Ministry of National Defense) and to the local Red Army committee on the state of current tanks and other armored vehicles development. This led to series of proposals I will deal with later, culminating with the TVP project (Tank Všeobecného Použití – Tank for General Use). TVP was heavily influenced by both Soviet (cast turret) and German development (gun mount, welded turret version, mantlet) and drew from the best of both worlds.

1945-1946 specifications and first Škoda proposal

Based on the abovementioned report, on 17.10.1945, the 1st Department of Army HQ submitted its ideas about the new medium tank to VTU. The requirements included:

- 30-33 ton weight
- 5 man crew
- 8,5 to 10,5 cm gun with 80 shells and with a coaxial Vz.37 or BESA heavy machinegun, with another MG of the same type used as bow machinegun (3600 rounds for both MG’s)
- armor plates – RHA plates of following thicknesses: 65mm, 40mm, 30mm and 20mm
- 450mm clearance
- ground pressure of 0,5kg/cm3
- a diesel engine
- road speed of 50 km/h

Interesting fact is that the vehicle design itself was to be selected only after selecting the gun itself (the tank was supposed to be “built around the gun”), based on comparison trials of all the guns available. In December 1945 to February 1946 (Dubánek here mixes the dates, an obvious typo – I fixed it), the VTU representatives considered the 88mm German AA gun (the AA role is specifically mentioned, but it’s possible the author has the KwK 43 L/71 in mind – in post-war Czechoslovakia, the PaK 43 and 41/43 were adopted due to the lack of native or Soviet AT guns as PTK vz.43 (protitankový kanon – AT gun, vz.43 – 1943 pattern) with shell velocity of 1000 m/s or a 105mm gun (900 m/s) to be viable, as during tests, both were able to penetrate 100mm of armor at 3000 meters (60 deg – means 30 deg using German angle methodology, at that point Czechoslovak army was using the German trial methods, unlike the pre-war ones, that were very obscure).

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

many of you have already heard about the shitstorm on Youtube. Basically, Youtube, along with certain gaming companies, has started claiming game footage videos (letsplays, reviews with trailers in them etc.) as copyrighted material, stripping the youtube personalities who do them (streamers, reviewers etc.) of any ad income from their videos. It has reached such a ridiculous extent that same indie developers are stripped of their rights to their OWN videos. If you are interested in the issue in detail, here’s an article about what’s going on (thanks to Potoroo on US forums for posting it).

Luckily, Wargaming does not jump the bandwagon. Here’s a post by Ectar from yesterday:

So, there you have it. Wargaming videomakers and streamers are safe. Honestly, I am glad and I appreciate the step Wargaming (I assume this is an entire Wargaming initiative and not only WG EU) took. Let’s hope it lasts.

Hello everyone,

thanks to Jayz536 for letting me know: the VK7201 “Failowe” will be apparently start tomorrow (20.12.2013), if it hasn’t already, according to Hypnotik (US staff).

Hello everyone,

just to let you know, RU server will get the patch on schedule on 20.12.2013 (EU/NA gets it on 23.12.2013)

RUSSIAN client (for our Russian readers) can be downloaded here:

http://dl.wargaming.net/wot/ru/files/WoT_0.8.10_ru_install.zip

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/2871920.html

Hello everyone,

Maiorboltach from Russian LJ brought us interesting statistics for World of Tanks in 2013.

- in December, World of Tanks registered 75 mil. registered players worldwide
- online peak (for all servers?) this year was 1,152,261 users
- 17 billion tanks were destroyed in 2013
- 201 billion shots were fired in 2013
- the amount of WG employees worldwide exceeded 2200

Hello everyone,

today, we are going to have a look at what Russian players AndrasD and Devilhunter did to find out the camo value of vehicles in game. Original thread can be found here, but I won’t put everything they wrote here (it’s some very detailed analysis), I will stick to the most important parts.

To begin with, in 0.8.6 the camo system changed somewhat and old camo values could no longer be applied (the factor got hidden even for the tanks we already knew the camo factor of). That meant that datamining was no longer viable in order to find what type of camouflage that respective tank has. That left testing as the only real option. The players mentioned above thus devised a following system – I won’t pretend that I understand how exactly it works, but the general idea is following:

You take the viewrange of a vehicle (please keep in mind however that maximum spotting range is 445m), you deduct 50 meters from it (the range where you get spotted automatically) and the rest, you apply the “camo percentage bonus on” (or camo factor) by deducting the percentage from the (viewrange – 50m). Basically, if a vehicle has a standing camo factor of say 10 percent and you are spotting with a 350 viewrange tank, that means the vehicle will under ideal conditions, you first deduct 50m: you are left with 300 – and then reduce the 300 by ten percent. In other words, you’ll spot the vehicle at 320m instead. That’s of course without camo net, bushes and all that other stuff.

In reality, it’s much more complicated than that, so the following tables are meant only to show you what vehicle has relatively good camo and how its camo does compared to, say, Panzer IV or other vehicles of its tier – or how shooting influences the camo factor (note that for example standing WT RhB has very good camo factor like StuG, but when it shoots, it drops significantly).

Japanese tank camo is at the end of the list, Soviet new med camo is there too. All camo measured for top gun and top turret.

Germany

Type   Tier     Name                       Standing      Moving         Shooting   Gun

LТ      1       Leichttraktor              13,4%         10,1%          3,4%       3,7 cm KwK 36 L/46.5
LТ      2       Pz.Kpfw. 38H 735 (f)       15,7%         11,8%          4,0%       3,7 cm SA 38 L/34
LТ      2       Pz.Kpfw. II                15,1%         11,3%          3,4%       2 cm Flak 38 L/112
LТ      2       Pz.Kpfw. I                 16,2%         12,1%          3,8%       2 cm Breda
LТ      2       Pz.Kpfw. 35 (t)            15,2%         11,4%          3,9%       3,7 cm KwK 38 (t) L/47
LТ      3       T-15                       19,7%         19,7%          5,9%       3,7 cm KwK 38 (t) L/47
LТ      3       Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. J        17,4%         13,1%          4,9%       2 cm KwK 38 L/55J
LТ      3       Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t)            18,0%         13,5%          5,2%       4,7 cm PaK 38 (t) L/43
LТ      3       Pz.Kpfw. III Ausf. A       18,0%         18,0%          5,2%       5 cm KwK 38 L/42
LТ      3       Pz.Kpfw. II Ausf. G        18,6%         18,6%          3,9%       3 cm M.K. 103
LТ      3       Pz.Kpfw. I Ausf. C         19,0%         19,0%          5,3%       7,92 mm Mauser E.W. 141
LТ      4       Pz.Kpfw. 38 (t) n.A.       17,6%         17,6%          4,6%       5 cm KwK 39 L/60
LТ      4       Pz.Kpfw. II Luchs          17,1%         17,1%          3,6%       3 cm M.K. 103
LТ      5       VK 16.02 Leopard           16,9%         16,9%          3,5%       3 cm M.K. 103
LТ      6       VK 28.01                   14,3%         14,3%          3,0%       10,5 cm KwK 42 L/28
LТ      7       Aufklärungspanzer Panther  10,9%         10,9%          2,8%       7,5/5,5 cm Waffe 0725

Hello everyone,

I am pleased to announce the cooperation between FTR and Rita Gamer. For those who don’t know, Rita is a streamer on Twitch (a very active one) – and I somehow felt lately that something is missing on FTR. Something like an endorsed streamer.

Now, I sometimes watch Circon (he’s really cool), but he’s really famous and all that and truth to be told, I wanted to cooperate with someone new. Relatively speaking. Obviously, that rules out Jingles (those of you who read FTR frequently know what I think about him anyway) and Quickybaby (WG EU endorsed… ugh). But Rita is perfect – she plays well and it’s fun to watch.

So, from now on, you’ll be able to watch her stream by clicking the STREAM button on the upper bar (link to it is also here). Go check it out :) Rita also has a Facebook fan page, so that’s nice too. In the future, there might be some events together, I’ll be passing her some info I haven’t published yet and all that. Worth watching.

Enjoy!

Source: http://www.about-larnaca.info/2013/12/wargaming-buys-rotos-president-building.html

Wargaming, an online game expert and among the 3 major shareholders of Hellenic Bank in Cyprus agreed to buy “President” building of Rotos Developers for €20 millions. The “President” building located in the Demosthenis Severi Avenue, Nicosia is of 75 meters height and will be covered by a large disk photo-voltaic panels.

Supertall building is unique in design and technology. The high quality metal used for the construction of its skeleton, its energy efficient structure, automation machines for energy reduction and its photo-voltaic system make “President” the first energy efficient building of A class in Cyprus.

Rotos Developers, is proud for having such an innovative and unique building in its records and thanks all colleagues who contributed to the creation and implementation of the project, the company says in a statement.

The building is expected to be ready by May 2014.