Hello everyone, please note that the 122mm HE Soviet shell alpha buff is unintentional and will likely be cancelled.

- according to Storm, the statement that limited MM is one of the premium vehicle characteristics is incorrect, as large part of the premium vehicles have normal MM
- Storm states that nerfing limited MM to regular MM happened only once for a premium tank – with Type 59. The tendency for premium tanks is more like the opposite, as it was recently with the AT-15A and M6A2E1
- WoT is using Scaleform for UI ever since beta test
- Archer will likely play the same way as the Crusader SP (SS: going faster backwards than forwards)
- Storm confirms that more than half of Waffentragers E-100 don’t even finish shooting their first clip before they are destroyed
- for now, there are no plans to buff M48 Patton
- the best ETA available for the Sixth Sense rework is “next year”, it will most likely come with the complete perk overhaul
- Storm states that the importance of perks will most likely not be improved, because it would make old players with many perk crews overpowered
- Storm states that the HD model experiments were conducted on IS-4
- the Havok got delayed, because developers “were ashamed” to introduce only small object destruction in first round and went to work on building destruction instead and now they are “stuck on the issue of performance”
- Storm states that if artillery gets “normal accuracy” (SS: as in, pre-nerf one), it would have to be compensated by alpha reduction, aimtime and shell flight velocity, which is something the developers really don’t want to do
- developers considered the variant, where HE shells would be split into normal HE shells and artillery HE shells (with reduced damage), but they considered that unrealistic
- according to Storm, there is no guarantee that patch 0.9.9 will be followed by 1.0.0, it’s completely possible to have 0.9.20 for example
- there are no plan for complete tier 6-8 rebalance in connection with new vehicle introduction

Continue reading →

For bigger news, see the previous Storm post. Otherwise, not much today.

- Q: “Noone needs FV4005 when it will oneshot everything!” A: “How terrible!”
- apparently, in 9.5 (with the introduction of FV4005), FV215b (183) will be rebalanced (SS: according to hints, made slower and more armored)
- for now, it’s not sure whether FV4005 will have a fully rotating turret
- right now, modellers are working on HD models for cca 150 tanks
- HD maps are also being worked on

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/306190.html

Hello everyone,

Storm talks about 9.5 and other matters in his latest microdigest:

- British MT/TD branch will have a tier 10, it will be the FV4005 Stage 2 (183mm without an autoloader). Yes, there will be two “oneshots” on tier 10, they will be divided by gameplay – one will be slow and armored (FV215b), the other relatively mobile and unarmored (FV4005, the turret is 14mm thick all around)

- there will be NO existing tank reworked into HD models in 9.5, there will only be new vehicles: 11 British vehicles and several new tanks for supertesters
- the 9.4 test sounds will NOT be implemented. On some configurations they have performance issues and the developers don’t have time to fix them, so the sounds will remain as they were in 9.3. At the same time, the public opinion on them will be taken into account and the sounds will be reworked.

From the discussion:

- Q: “Patch without HD tanks? I will cry!” A (Storm): “Crying right beside you :(((”
- Havok? “I can’t say anything. We are working mainly on performance and optimization now.”
- the British tanks in 9.5 are 11, because there will be two tier 5 (SS: Sherman III and Archer) and tier 6 (SS: Firefly and Achilles) tanks
- FV4202 switch ETA? “Noone knows”, won’t be in 9.5
- statistics do not show that platoons end up more often on the bottom of the team
- Action X and Chieftain were not balanced yet
- FV4005 Stage 1 was not implemented because “there are enough waffentragers for now”
- Sixth Sense rework will not come in 9.5, but “much later”
- strangely enough, T95 will not come in HD (the British will) – “we really needed that tank and we didn’t manage to make the HD model”

Hello everyone,

check out Listy’s articles on one of the best StuG aces and about personal soldier armor

- apparently, the feature where top three players of losing team get extra credits will not be implemented
- Chi-Ri had several variants of suspension, it’s possible that one of the heavier ones with 88mm will be added to the heavy Japanese tank branch (SS: SerB is mistaken here. The 88mm Chi-Ri is a fake, started by American engineers exploring the Japanese vehicle plans after the war)
- Chinese-used Chi-Ha did not have any special Chinese designation
- apparently, SerB is participating in alphatesting of WoWs, but he’s hiding
- when removing interface in battle (pressing V), FPS goes up a lot? “Most likely your card doesn’t do well with Scaleform – that’s a Flash-like engine, widely used for interface creation. Please note that we are not responsible for Scaleform-based mod optimization.”
- Storm realizes that STA-2 (upcoming Japanese premium) is worse than STA-1, but “unfortunately, we haven’t simply found any other candidate”

Continue reading →

- Confrontation mode will return when it is rebalanced
- acting on XVM win prediction is “self-deception” according to Evilly – even 45-46 winrate players can carry a game
- troll platoons will be fixed
- apparently, developers were planning a system, where you get notified, when someone you reported gets banned. This function however is tied to the “new chat” system, which is not developed yet.
- regarding the question above, Storm states that the developers are working on a chat system, unified for all three games, the server side is ready and it’s already partially in use in WoT

Continue reading →

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/305947.html

Hello everyone,

Anton “Evilly” Pankov (WoT producer, which means not just random community guy) is asking players a bunch of questions, let’s help him out a bit! In case you are interested in answering – go ahead. Offtopic, trolling and profanities will be deleted (and punished by RO), so please be reasonable. You wanted a say in WoT development? Well, now he’s listening.

1) What do you think is wrong in current random battles? (Evilly: no skill MM) Anything missing?
2) What are your goals in random battles? (grinding, high stats, farming missions…)
3) What do you think about garage battles in random and garage battles in general? (on tier 10 for example) – if you like it, why? Aren’t you afraid of leavers?
4) What do you think of a FFA (free for all, deathmatch – not duel) mode? On tier 8,9,10
5) What do you think of a team PvP Battleground mode with checkpoints (MOBA without AI)
6) What mode (solo or platoon, not requiring teams) is according to you the most suitable for tanks? Offer your own
7) If you want to, make a proposition for your own mode for random battles (like assault, encounter etc.)

So, here’s your chance to shine. I will link it to him if the comments are any good.

- Storm confirms: Sixth Sense will not be simply a perk, it will be radioman’s “ability”, that will work always
- a player was complaining, that the role of armor in the game is decreased by vehicles (guns), that are too new, being introduced into the game. Storm states that it’s not about the age of the vehicle, but only the gun’s penetration. Whether gun penetration will change Storm cannot say for now, he needs to analyze additional statistics. He thinks that he’ll recieve the statistics soon.
- Storm played a lot on new Murovanka and he thinks the map improved, you have more freedom to act.
- Q: “Maus had 265mm frontal armor, buff!” A (SerB): “That’s complete crap and ignorance on the matter unfortunately.”
- SerB states that the situation where you have the Intuition loader perk, that activates as soon as the countdown reaches 0 when you switch shells during countdown is correct
- 9.5 will come around New Year apparently

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

here’s an interview video with Anton “Evilly” Pankov, WoT producer. Inside:

- the project World of Warships will “finish the trilogy”
- WG has several projects they are not talking about yet beyond that
- regarding the alleged drops in WoT playerbase, Evilly states that the peak was in January (over 1 mil online), then it dropped due to summer and issues with 9.0 and now the playerbase is returning
- third CW campaign will start soon (on RU), its reward will be Object 907, but it’s possible there will be a choice from three tanks (907, M60 and VK7201)
- developers are planning further development of CW and Stronghold mode
- for individual players, the next big thing will come in 9.5 – individual missions
- individual missions will be more complicated than current missions, they will also have more valuable prizes
- FV4202 change to premium will not come this year, but in first quarter of 2015
- FV215b will be replaced by “Chieftain prototype” (SS: as far as I know, this is wrong – Mk.II is the right answer)
- FV4202 will not be given out for free automatically, there will be a mission for current tier 10 FV4202 owners, when you complete it, you can get the premium one
- German Panther 88 will come at the end of this year, it will be followed by Soviet tier 8 premium medium tank (SS: T-54 Model 1945) and Japanese tier 8 premium medium tank (SS: STA-2B)
- no plans to make a movie about Wargaming for now
- roaming is already functional (developers are sometimes playing on EU or US server), there are no plans to introduce it for now however, developers want to first find out how to monetize it etc.
- Evilly confirms that Russian players are better than Europeans or Americans
- developers are monitoring other games (AW, WT)

- SerB confirms that the current VK4502B will be replaced by Maus prototype. The rear turret tank will then either become a premium tank, or will turn into the alternative hull for the existing VK4501A
- SerB states that the problem with the previous issue of historical battles was in getting enough players for both teams. Now WG is working on PvE historical battles.
- no plans for historical battle PvP mode
- the account statistics reset for gold was just a rumor
- the characteristics of the Fury Sherman are worse than the characteristics of HD M4A3E8 will be

Continue reading →

- apparently, all the servers (including ASIA) will have the M24 Chaffee Sport crews, left over from Chaffee race event, retrained to regular Chaffee for free in 9.4
- Storm wants to apparently nerf the camo a bush provides to your tank by 20-25 percent
- there will apparently be a video, showing how the new gun sounds were recorded
- there was a “funny” episode in World of Warships development – at one point, there was a piece of land with some indestructible houses. Everything was fine, but the developers discovered that the FPS is dropping a lot, whenever these houses appeared on the screen. The issue was investigated and it was found out that inside one of the houses there was a bathtub and inside it, there was a model of a small plastic duck swimming, which would be a silly joke from one of the artists, were it not for the fact that the duck had around one million polygons…
- Storm confirms that the 9.4 gun sounds are the same as the ones from 9.1 Test 1, excluding high calibers. Some other filters were applied as well.
- developers are currently working on 9.4 Test 2
- developers are working on implementing polls and votes to WoT interface
- new HD tanks? “When they are done”
- developers now admit that the feedback on the new sounds is negative, they however are not sure, whether it’s just because those who like them stay silent and those who don’t whine
- from now on, every test client round will not be downloaded as a patch, every test will downloaded separately as a complete client (cca 7,7 GB). This was decided because “unfortunately, a huge part of playerbase was not able to follow the patching instructions”
- Havok coming this year? “It’s possible, but no guarantees”