Interested in new version of the region changer mod, that allows you to play on various server using the same client (you still need separate accounts on the servers, it is not roaming)? Here it is.

- the new physics model will be “leaked” by community contributors’ videos on Thursday (day after tomorrow)
- Storm confirms on closed beta-tester RU forum that the issue of servers giving you the same map over and over again is existing, but more than that: it is intentional – it serves to limit the load on the server, it is not possible to fix.
- a player reports that he has an issue in locking the autoaim on enemy targets (takes a lot of effort to lock on), Storm states there were no other such reports (as in, not an issue)
- it’s not possible to choose a map you want to play because the MM mechanism wouldn’t be able to handle it
- it’s possible that the physics test will also start on Thursday
- no comment on whether (and which) limited MM vehicles will be removed from the store
- Q: “AW will kill WOT!” A: “How terrible.”
- special missions to promote “unpopular tanks” (SU-101 etc.) will not be introduced
- tanks being “shifted” (moved) by hits from shells (kinetic energy effect) will not be implemented

Hello everyone,

here’s a whole bunch of info from the “Insider”, he was really busy :) Please note one thing: this is an info, gleaned from leaking WG internal conversations and chain letters, but the summary is insider’s representation of what the developer things. It can be wrong, but I try to doublecheck some of the info with other sources and post only the stuff that actually fits, so it should be reliable.

First, some random stuff

- for Xbox, M6A2E1 arrives on 2.3.2015 (non HD)
- for PC, M6A2E1 will not be sold again (applies to EU and NA), the intent to make its owners stay really special, armor is still planned for rebalance (historical armor) when the HD model appears
- American T18 TD will be converted to artillery during the next big artillery rebalance patch. Artillery rebalance will happen at some point in the future, the one thing that could accelerate it is if the 9.6 accuracy changes prove to be really bad for arty class, otherwise it will take a very long time and has low priority. This change is the work of one of the US staff, likely The_Chieftain (SS: yup, IIRC, the proposed way is T18 – arty, replaced by T3HMC?)
- Minsk is getting tired of WG EU mismanagement of regular-to-unsatisfactory quality of customer service and are already planning something for it, however details are not shared by messages. A meeting is at hand. This means a lot of stuff, as WG will have to make changes to each and every language and their PR/Customer Support systems in order to “weed out” the deficiencies.

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- it’s possible that the frontal hull armor of the Super Pershing is currently incorrect and will be changed (buffed, better angle) when the model is reworked to HD (possibly in 9.7)
- alternative hulls might not arrive earlier than year and a half
- by far not every tank will get an alternative hull
- tank destroyers never reached such an amount that they would account for 30 percent of all vehicles in battles on any tier
- Mauschen (tier 9 Maus) will have the same crew setup as tier 10 Maus
- Himmelsdorf apparently has some buildings that have bugged collision models (SS: this replay, 14:30 to 14:10, shells allegedly stop from invisible barrier – haven’t watched the replay though – Storm will investigate)
- E-25 will not have its size changed
- the shell damage RNG algorhitm was not changed for years, it’s not true that some guns have more shells deal minimal damage than others
- map “Overlord” in 9.7? “I cannot promise anything”
- in 9.6 accuracy nerf, changes to damage done are proportional to the accuracy of the gun (the less accurate the gun is, the bigger the drop in damage done)
- Storm doesn’t consider the fact that some gun models have relatively low amount of polygons to be a huge problem (“small thing with low priority”)

Pretty much nothing today. See you tomorrow :)

- when it comes to success, individual missions “exceeded all expectations”, the “result was really cool”
- the amount of polygons in a model does influence performance, it mostly depends on the GPU

There are rumors that the physics test might start as early as 26.2.2015, but this is not confirmed.

- the decision not to release some content in 9.7 due to WGL is final, it was already postponed for 9.8
- if you get 7 TD’s per team only in 25 percent of battles, it’s apparently not a problem according to Storm
- currently, the amount of TD’s per battle is slowly decreasing ever since last few patches
- T34 premium collision model doesn’t correspond to visual model? “Happens. We will fix it when the vehicle is reworked to HD.”
- Storm confirms that the physics test will come soon, but there are difficulties with the “simplified” model, including issues with server performance, discovered in the supertest phase. The “simplified” variant thus has to be reworked and is not ready yet, so the test will only have one variant of physics, the “realistic” one.
- Storm states that the physics test will come “at the end of February, but no promises”
- Storm confirms that “many” IM conditions will be reworked
- developers are working on HD environment (maps) as well, no ETA though
- Soviet vehicle models as a whole will have a texture/material overhaul, the same goes for German and American vehicles, but not very soon
- Storm considers T29 to be very comfortable to play
- camo system has not changed from 8.6 apart from patch 9.1, in which the camo factor loss when firing a gun on a TD was normalized with other classes

Hello everyone,

every week, Wargaming FM radio runs a one-hour show, an interview with various developers on various topics. Earlier I translated the show name as “developer time”, which is not correct, sorry for that (was caused by the fact that the same word means “time” in Czech and “hour” in Russian). This time, it’s about game-mastering (punishments for breaking the rules) and the developer is a person from the GM derpartment, introduced only as “Kirill”. Here’s what he said. Please note that this deals with ingame report system, so when I write “report”, I mean “complaint in the game”, unless specifically stated otherwise.

- developers are collecting statistics on ingame complaints and it’s possible that the number of complaints will be increased, but the issue with this is that people use 2-4 complaints on one rule breaker
- the system deals with several million complaints every month
- when a complaint is made, it is saved on the server along with chat log, general battle log, damage log etc., everything is written down and WG employees have a look at the sum of information and make a conclusion out of it
- to report one player multiple times is completely pointless, the report will be investigated either way even it you report only once
- earlier, the amount of reports per day was limited to 5
- if multiple players report one player, that one player will be investigated earlier
- the amount of reports does influence the speed with which the reports against that player are handled

Continue reading →

- AMX-13/75 will not be buffed in 9.7
- it’s not yet clear where the AMX-30 “microbranch” will start from
- the tank position “twitching” at above 500 meters distance will not be fixed with the arrival of the render circle
- IS-3 in HD will not appear in 9.7 test, it will appear in 9.8 test
- new (high res) penetration/ricochet decals will be made using “normal mapping”
- it’s not yet clear whether the maxium amount of penetration decals per tank will increase (SS: to be clear – right now, the amount of decals (“holes” and “scratches” from nonpen hits) is limited – after you get hit a certain amount of times, the older holes start to disappear)
- a player brought up a theory (shared by many apparently) that when you are using autoaim, your gun gets suddenly much more accurate (bigger percentage of shots hit). Storm investigated this theory thoroughly, they made tests of accuracy while the vehicle is standing, in motion etc. – the result is that autoaim does not increase accuracy in any noticeable way. Storm thinks the perception of accuracy increase comes from the fact that at longer distances (and with worse ping), the autoaim simply keeps tracking the target better than a player would
- new motion physics is not related to BugWorld update
- new BugWorld update should improve game performance, not reduce it
- the option to assist your allies to get back on their tracks (when the tank flipping on their back will be implemented, like in War Thunder) will not be implemented

- Storm agrees that the wooden barricades on Stalingrad map are “sad”
- in 9.6 there is apparently an issue, where the client disconnects during the synchronization of the account (“personal information”) with server, Storm states that this issue is limited to single report here and there
- how exactly will HD IS-3 armor look? “Wait for common test or supertest leaks”
- general WG politics (like why they left the E-25 unnerfed when WG openly admits the vehicle is imbalanced) are SerB’s decision
- apparently, ST-I has incorrect turret side armor angle. It’s possible it will be improved (buffed) when the vehicle gets reworked to HD
- Type 62 will not be buffed for now
- artillery class will not be completey rebalanced, for now anyway
- A-32 rework to HD has low priority

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- according to developers, the statement that “accuracy nerf made premium vehicles with poor accuracy farm noticeably less credits” is not true
- the upcoming new motion physics will have no effect on game performance, as it is calculated server-side
- Storm doesn’t remember the numbers exactly, but for all vehicles with normal (non-derp) guns, the damage difference between 0.9.5 and 0.9.6 after the accuracy nerf was less than one percent
- regarding the question, why Wargaming doesn’t want to put serious hardcaps on any class including artillery: “If there are more vehicles of one class than we need, it means that the class is incorrectly balanced and we have to balance it correctly instead of introducing artificial hardcaps”
- TD as a class will not be “rebalanced” – Storm states that the statement that every team has 4-5 TD’s on average is false

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- currently there are no plans for tier 10 light tanks
- T34 (premium) will not be rebalanced
- 0.9.6 accuracy change did not bring significant change in the percentage of penetrating shots in the game
- platoon missions to be removed from IM’s? “I cannot say anything yet”, later on however Storm states they will stay
- the physics test ETA is the end of February or March
- the amount of HD models in 9.7 is “less than 20″ (and these models include also the new French HD tanks, so it’s more like 15 reworked HD models)
- developers do have a list of models sorted by HD priority, but in the end, the models are not released in this order anyway, they are rather released “when they are ready”
- the changes to IM’s in the future will include bug fixes and changing those missions that “interfere with team gameplay”

Continue reading →