- SU-76i was removed because it was too strong (gun, viewrange)
- the main reason to use CW reward tanks in battles is the fact they are unique, that’s why it’s alright they are a bit weaker than regular tier 10′s
- the damage difference between AP and HE shells is purely a balance decision
- buff of old LT’s to match them to the new 9.3 ones? “If necessery of course.”
- night battles in WoT? “WoT players have a very poor understanding of what a night battle is”
- apparently, there’s yet another nasty bug in 9.4 – in it, players with premium account are awarded the same amount of XP as with regular account, or actually LESS (visible on this screenshot, lower right corner). Storm: “Oh fuck…”

Time for mini Q&A, because of breaking news.

- Ruinberg on Fire and Severogorsk will be completely removed from the game in 9.5 (the issue with Ruinberg on Fire is that it’s “too dark”)
- tier 10 replacement of the FV4202 (Action X) will come neither in 0.9.6 nor in 0.9.7

And others info:

- regarding the second Tiger in the crew retraining choice – “we tested stock Tiger as a separate vehicle”
- nobody knows what will happen to SU-76i now
- no buff for Super Pershing planned – for now
- Storm confirms that the M53/M55 collision model is still screwed in the hotfix

Apparently the Stalingrad map has a nasty bug, where certain heaps of rubble are visible from only one side and they don’t stop shells. It can be seen on this photo – from the player’s position, you can see the heap clearly, but when the deathcam switched to the tank that destroyed the player (the player is the white body slightly under the central crosshair), you can see that the heap is missing. This bug will be fixed.

Due to the enormous amount of bugs in 9.4, Storm created a special topic for bug feedback (it’s RU specific, so it’s pointless to post your bug reports under this thread). Storm states that when it comes to alleged equipment installation bug (it apparently gets removed under certain conditions), this bug was not confirmed during testing on a clean client.

- there will be a micropatch soon (between 9.4 and 9.5), fixing some of the worst issues, specifically the enemy seeing your chat channel during special battles (CW), the lagging (freezing) minimap markers, the jumping serverside aim circle and the damage from slightly touching the allies (altogether 10-15 bugs will be fixed)
- the M53/M55 collision model bug was already fixed by WG on their side
- Storm spends 25-50 percent of his free time at home reading Russian WoT forums and LJ pages
- the bug, where entering a battle in Stronghold mode gets you stucked on the “loading wheel” is known and will be fixed
- in team battles, voicechat is also bugged (both sides can hear it), will be fixed
- Storm states that Windows XP users getting stucked on loading screen might be caused by mods
- earlier, the ramming system did not work properly, the 9.4 change was in fact a fix. Storm states that the players, who want the old system back just got used to the old, bad one.
- the reload timer lagging on autoloader tanks is caused by faulty mods
- the general viewrange nerf WILL include premium tanks as well
- until the alpha stage of the game, the viewrange sectors were actually split (the vehicle saw more forward than it saw to its sides), but the developers decided not to do it due to the fact that the viewrange felt somewhat random
- the changes planned for the entire TD class are not really a nerf, more like a rebalance. More variants will be tested.
- Storm states that Veider’s statement about “rock-paper-scissors” was a mistake: “He expressed himself incorrectly. We are thinking about the roles of tanks, each of them will be interesting in its own way. That doesn’t necesserily mean that the tank class and its role have to match.”

Storm on the (negative) reactions on the viewrange nerf:

“Dear idiots! Butthurt from a set test numbers we are using in order to answer some questions, yea, that’s really smart. Before you start writing shit, stop, start thinking and better not write anything. In worst case, post pictures with girls and kittens.”

Please note that Veider confirmed that the leaked viewrange nerf is NOT final – they are just experimental numbers (extreme values) to check how the vehicles would fare under such conditions. The only thing that is confirmed is that they are working on viewrange nerf.

- Historical battles will not come in 9.5
- TD’s currently form less than 30 percent of the vehicles in WoT
- developers are apparently considering returning the Confrontation mode (“national battles”) – the temporary solution is to hardcap vehicles to maximum of 3 vehicles of the same type (SS: as in, three E-100′s max) per team, Storm admits that this will prolong waiting times, but not to 5 minutes or something
- Storm admits large amount of bugs in 9.4, currently WG is investigating why that happened
- according to Storm, the number of online players on RU server is the same as it was last year by this time
- new serverside physics will not be split, it will come in one patch
- when nerfing viewrange, developers will take into account that some hightier mediums (Batchat, Leopard) act as scouts.
- Veider states that the logic behind the viewrange nerf is that the developers want to make tanks fit more in their role on the battlefield in order to return to the “rock-paper-scissors” principle
- Veider is aware that the viewrange nerf might cause more “vanishing tanks in the middle of a field” issues, that is another matter WG will address
- the “vanishing tanks in the middle of the field” will be fixed by the following principle: currently, a tank shoots, gets spotted due to camo penalty for shooting, but when that penalty wears off, its camo is improved and the tank disappears. In the future, the penalty will not wear off until the vehicle leaves enemy viewrange zone
- developers are “discussing furiously” the option of reducing the viewrange only when the tank is camping in bushes
- various viewrange sectors (SS: a tank would see forward further than to the sides) would be hard for players to understand and it would be very expensive server resource-wise

Oh yea and another look at the reward camo for CW campaign 3

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3592067.html

Hello everyone,

Russians had a special stream with CW developers, dedicated to 3rd CW campaign and Maiorboltach was kind enough to provide us with a transcript. The guest developers were Aleksei “Inaki” Ilyin and Aleksei “Orc” Plotnikov.

I am not sure which of these points were already published on EU server or which of these points apply to RU version only, should be the same however.

- apparently the third campaign will take about a month, on 25.12. the results should be already known
- in the campaign, you can choose one of three rewards: VK7201, M60 or Object 907 (when the campaign ends, the winners will get a link to a page, where they can get one of those tanks). There will be three days to choose, if the player doesn’t choose within these three days, he will automatically get the Object 907
- if you already have that tank, you cannot get it again (presence in the hangar counts, not the fact it’s in your statistics), you will NOT get a gold compensation
- apart from the medals and tanks, the winners will also get a unique summer camouflage for one tank in your garage of your choice

Continue reading →

Straight from Wargaming (confirmed info): map Simferopol will NOT come, at least not anytime soon. It was decided to mothball it.

- women form no more than two percent of WoT playerbase
- the main playerbase of WoT consists of men from 28 to 35 years
- lately, the number of clans was increasing (for various reasons, from CW to the fact the people want a clantag)
- the info above led to the development of Strongholds, as clanners needed some sort of “ecosystem”
- developers are experimenting with Stronghold mode “bunkers”, created in some sort of building (their strength depends on the level of the building, the bunkers are being tested on Malinovka)
- these bunkers and other SH consumables will be deployed by clan commander via a “tactical tablet”
- current version of premium account/tank XP is temporary, premium tanks (or account, unclear) will be buffed further
- Storm won’t participate in WoWs development “Tanks are 200 percent enough for me”
- Stalingrad will be further fixed (players complained about the “small yards”, Storm added that the map is difficult as it is even without them)
- PvE mode: “when it’s done it’s done”
- 3-caliber rule will not be cancelled (“tell that to players shooting big guns at light tanks”)
- a player proposed a theory, that some of the lags are caused on the client side by energy saving CPU functions (EIST, C-States, Turbo Boost). Storm: “Until you present us with evidence of these “mysterious” lags, it’s unlikely we will do anything”

Not much today.

- new motion physics will definitely not come this year
- Q: “When will the M53/M55 armor bug be fixed? 0.9.8?” A (Storm): “1.0.0″ (SS: yes, that’s trolling)
- Storm likes the Staligrad map
- apparently, there is also a bug, where the reload timer is not working correctly (either with or without mods) on some tanks, the T54E1 in particular. Storm knows about it now.
- Q: “Do you suck dick and like it in the ass?” A (SerB): “Yes, I prefer blacks.” (SS: funny, but I am not quite sure if this is how professionals should reply)

Oddly enough, there’s nothing much going on on supertest – the reason for it is that the official supertest teamspeak crashed and there’s noone to fix it over the weekend.

Also, Russian players apparently made WoT Blitz work on PC using an emulator. Will look into that further (post “how-to’s” etc.).

- Storm confirms that the theory that low hp tanks bounce more shots is crap
- a player was complaining that (unlike earlier), now the position of mouse cursor, when pressing Escape in battle, isn’t as it was earlier (on the “leave battle” button) and he has to scroll the mouse to get to it. Storm stated that they just didn’t pay attention to it, it’s not intentional.
- on the new HD models, the textures are in the new (higher) resolution, but the textures of visual camouflages remain in the old (low) resolution
- hitting a dead tank with a HE shell (arty) does not generate splash, this is intentional
- the decision to remove ultra HD textures was influenced by the fact that practically noone downloaded the HD pack in 9.3 (0,1 players) by the fact that the difference between the (current HD) regular and ultra HD textures is negligible
- developers are still thinking what to do with the SU-76I, nothing was decided yet
- Mountain Pass map will be investigated, heat maps will be checked (there is a suspicion that one side has an advantage over the other)
- Ruinberg on Fire will be removed from the game
- apparently, there is a minimap bug in 9.4, causing the minimap to display wrong enemy tank positions under certain circumstances (enemy left the render range, his icon got “stuck” on minimap and moved only when the player moved and the enemy tank appeared in render range again), Storm was made aware
- 9.5 will come out this year
- Storm does now know, when (or whether) the number of players in clan will be increased
- no plans to buff or nerf arty
- no comment on supertest leaks (AMX-13/57)
- AMX-30 and its “branch” will not come in 9.6, but later (when it’s done it’s done)
- Storm states that his earlier quote about WG not willing to put more paper project into the game did not mean historical paper projects, only WG made-up ones
- T92 Light Tank is not in plans for 2015
- Storm knows about the M53/M55 armour model bug, will be fixed
- Storm states that he didn’t have any problem with capturing on (playing) the Stalingrad map
- the profitability of Object 416 is not lower or higher than the one of other vehicles of the same tier

As I wrote yesterday, there wouldn’t be too much info this weekend. But you can check Chieftain’s Hatch on the 90mm Hellcat (thanks, Dai).

Otherwise, not much going on. Cya tomorrow. Unless there is a new leak. In which case you better check in a few hours.

Hello everyone,

currently, pretty much anyone important in Wargaming is on a developer meeting on Cyprus for following three days (or is it two now? not sure), so don’t expect a lot of news this weekend. Will try to glean what I can however.

- according to Storm, the SU-76i issue is one time case, there weren’t cases like that before
- SU-76i issue was fixed fast enough “for the fire not to spread”. Later, Storm adds: “Unfortunately, mistakes happen.”
- there is a bug where some vehicles in the hangar “sink” into the ground – Storm knows about it, will be fixed
- it looks like the old “automatical switch of gold shells price from credit to gold” bug is back, Storm will investigate
- developers will investigate an alleged bug causing minimap lags

Oh and there’s one more pretty nasty bug as well, but that demands a separate post, so stay tuned. TBH 9.4 really wasn’t a good patch, when it comes to bugs.