Not much today.

- you can see the number of online people on the server, when you press “Escape”, in the menu
- Storm is aware of the Hellcat track bug in 9.3, it will be fixed
- in 9.3, Churchill III XP is bugged as hell (SS: one player shown statistics with 19900 average XP per battle), this will be fixed

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/302621.html

Hello everyone,

Storm is asking for the 9.3 feedback – new tanks, reworked Murovanka, new AFK punishment system, hangar interface and others.

So, those of you who tested, what do you think?

From the discussion:

- the new hangar interface doesn’t show the amount of people online on the server, Storm considers this not needed
- Storm apparently does not consider the T49 152mm derp “imbalanced” (“You have a gun like that on tier 5″)
- Storm states that noone is really expecting the new hangar UI to work in 1024*768 resolution (lack of space)
- in 9.3, the suicide detection system is apparently a bit bugged: the artillery, that shoots an enemy at close range and the splash kills it too now counts as “suicide”, while it should not be so.

More info in the evening, as usual.

A few “Italian” answers (please note that this does NOT mean they are coming anytime soon).

- for now, there are likely no other Italian tier 10 candidates apart from the autoloaded Leopard
- Italian heavy candidates are P.75, P.40, P.43 and P.43bis, but the P.40 and P.43 (and their subtypes) are (using German measures) more like medium tanks, the P.75 is kinda like Neubaufahrzeug.
- regarding SPG’s and TD’s, Italians have only lowtier to midtier candidates

A former developer, regarding the testing on supertest (specifically the fact, that in 9.3 supertest, one Abbey location became bugged and tanks fall through it):

“The amount of testers on both the supertest and internal WG test is too small to check all the spaces, especially such retarded places where 90 percent of players almost never goes. That’s why in fact we have the common test. What pisses me off significantly more is the fact that even based on the results of the common test, measures are rarely taken due either to stupid bureaucracy or the limits of the engine, not allowing anything to be fixed quick.”

and

“The people have little time to test + they recruit anyone as a supertester these days and they don’t even listen to this weak testing (at least that’s my impression). Or they don’t explain why they left everything as it was, which causes additional butthurt of supertesters and messes up future quality testing, because it promotes the “why the fuck should we care, they don’t listen to us anyway” feeling amongst the supertesters.”

The bug, shown above was apparently discovered by supertesters, but WG did not listen for reasons listed above. The former developer further states that according to him, the supertest outlived its usefulness and would be more useful to be replaced by mass testing events.

- the gun shield on the ingame M56 Scorpion is 5mm thick
- the penetration of the D-10-85 gun on the LTTB tank in game is actually historical
- M6A2E1 now has limited MM in 9.3 (its top battletier was removed)
- the T67 (former T49) turret switch is intentional and historical (now there is T49 turret with T49 guns and T42 turret with T42 guns)
- the way the Soviet heavy line looks in 9.3 is apparently final (SS: not sure why anyone asked about that, did I miss anything?)
- M56 Scorpion is being developed, it won’t come in 9.3
- IS-3 in HD is still being worked on

Continue reading →

Currently, there is no info on the test, but it should come today, possibly in two or so hours. But that’s just an unconfirmed information.

A little fix on the yesterday’s piece of info first – I wrote that Evilly said more premium tank buffs beyond what was already announced would come around the Tanker’s Day (RU event). This was not correct (I did misread it), Evilly wrote that the current buffs (the announced ones) are tied to the Tanker’s Day. These are not however the last changes to premium vehicles, these further changes will be announced later (no ETA).

- Storm was supposed to make the KTTS 9.3 video, but he got sick and Veider had to take over on short notice, that’s whe he looks a bit “unprepared”
- Storm on the appearance of AC4 Thunderbolt in KTTS video: “For now, I can’t tell you anything”
- according to Evilly, “Replay Manager” is a really nice mod, devs will consider implementing it into the game
- the reason why some things are not implemented as game features – instead, WG leaves modders to do them – is that in wrong hands, mods can cause loss of performance in the client. This is the specific reason why the developers did allow the game to use mods. More mainstream good mods will appear in the game in the future.
- according to Storm, there are apparently no problems with the way arty currently is in the game
- there is no “TD rebalance” (of the whole class) planned
- developers are considering completely removing the option to disable shadows (so that there are always shadows), all the shadows would in such a case be static on low details (FPS issues)

- Storm states that it is principially possible to rework WoT (or any game) to a different engine (UE4 mentioned), but the issue is how much time would that take, not whether it’s possible. It’s not an option to simply stop developing the game for a year to do it.
- Evilly confirms that the “bonus for premium tanks” is legit
- tier 10 reward tanks (VK7201) will also get bonus XP and crew XP bonus
- these changes to the premium tanks are not final, apparently more bonuses will be announced on Russian Tanker’s Day (14.9.)
- confirmed: 9.3 test tomorrow
- in 9.3, M6A2E1 will be also buffed
- bonus experience gained by premium tanks will NOT count towards the account average experience, it will be treated as bonus XP for missions (SS: no average XP statpadding for you!)
- the buff to premium tanks was considered for a long time already
- no larget credit making bonus for premium tanks than they have now is planned
- the premium bonus XP will be added to Churchill III 1,35 coefficient
- the additional XP for premium vehicles will add up to the crew XP bonus for premiums as well
- the VK7201 and M60 will recieve 5 percent bonus to XP
- for now, there is no info available on the Italian autoloading Leopard
- Q: “I bought WG shares and they are useless!” A: “Don’t buy WG shares. It’s voluntary :)”

- according to The_Chieftain from US forums, M56 Scorpion (US premium TD) was postponed to 9.5 or 9.6
- WoT Blitz for Android testing will start on 17.9.
- minimum require processor for Android: Mali-400MP, Adreno 320, PoweVR SGX544, Tegra 3 – 1200 MHz dualcore processor, 1GB of RAM
- the graphic settings in WoT will be extended to allow players to disable various elements (bloom and such)
- Cannoneer confirms that Mk.2 Chieftain will replace the FV215b (120). Its upper frontal plate is 85mm thick (under 72 degrees), apparently the (often cited) 120mm value of upper frontal plate is incorrect, it likely comes from the fact that the original Chieftain requirement was 120mm of armor under 60 degrees, while in reality the plate is thinner, but has better angle (SS: 275mm EFF)
- accidental suicide in the new suicide detection system will also apparently be a cause to flag your account with “unsportsmanlike conduct”

Please note that the last article about 9.3 changes was not correct in one point. Birch Gun 25pdr did NOT get removed, its internal ID just changed.

- the “XP for damage, blocked by armor” will not be reworked to incorporate damage done to tracks, because “tracks are not ‘tanking’”
- M8A1 in the game is not called “Scott”, because Scott is the name for M8 HMC and not for M8A1 (which is generally not correct as well, the correct version would be M8 GMC). The turret that was removed from M5 Stuart in 9.3 will be in the game as stock M8A1 turret, turning the M8A1 into M8 HMC (“Scott”) and M8 GMC hybrid, when the M8A1 gets reworked to HD
- T92 Light Tank does not have an autoloader and will not have it in the game (SS: if it gets implemented)
- T92 Light Tank will not come in 9.4 and it’s not a tier 8 light tank (SS: as in, it’s lower), it will not come this year
- the Firefly branch will be a mix of LT, MT and TD’s (LT – M2A4, M3 Honey MT – Lee, Sherman, Firefly TD – the rest)

Continue reading →

If you missed it, check out Listy’s article on the Conqueror turret and – if you are interested how it could be implemented into the game – my followup.

Otherwise, not much today, but the test should start this Thursday.

- Leopard PTA is doing fine statistically apparently

With that being said, please note that currently, FTR is in “limited mode” because of some unforseen issues. At this moment, everything is in the state flux, so I can’t promise anything, I’ll see in a couple of days, ideally tomorrow. Don’t know how exactly will it be from now on, I will try to keep at least the translations daily, but it might not be possible, so no promises.

Thanks everyone for their words of support (and for your financial aid as well), it is appreciated and helpful, but I need to sort this stuff out before I can start giving time to FTR again. I’m sorry, it’s the best I can do for now.