Yesterday, there was no new info and today, it’s not much better. Developers are hard at work on 9.0 :) But you can check The_Chieftain’s post about General Patton and his obsession with machineguns…
- FOV will be returned to the way it was in 8.10 sooner than in 9.0, Evilly thinks it’s gonna happen next week by a micropatch
- Q: “I come home from a night shift, where I lead a team of 20-30 people and I get killed too quickly in my E-75 by a T-54 spamming gold shells, wtf?” A: “Sorry, we never guaranteed, are not guaranteeing and never will guarantee the immunity from T-54 with D-10TS even to big daddies, leading 20-30 people in real life. Even more so because of the fact that in real life, there were such shells (with even higher penetration) while the armor of the E-75, that was implemented because of the whining of some people, never existed. :)”
- regarding the question above, the gold shell SerB had in mind was the 3UBK4 HEAT shell, that in the game has 330mm penetration, while in real life it had over 400mm, this type of shell could have been used in regular D-10T/D-10S guns, but it won’t be implemented to lower tiers (SS: for obvious – balance – reasons)
- current situation in Kiev influences negatively the development of WoWp and WoT Generals
- Q: “Why in the national battles the first 5 slots are not balanced evenly (as shown in the MM video) and why is there a MM weight difference between teams of 20 percent?” A: “Because deviations are allowed.” and “Under certain circumstances, these MM rules can be disregarded. That’s correct MM mechanism function.”
- LT class changes? “I will tell in patchnotes”
- developers are working hard on 9.0, it will come soon…
- Churchill Gun Carrier from tier 6 to tier 5 and reviewing stock Bishop? “When it’s done it’s done, if it happens at all” (SerB states that he can post his personal opinion, but other people deal with rebalance than him)
- there are no plans for now for variable geometry wing fighter jets in the game (such as the Messerschmitt MEP.1109), but in the future their implementation is not excluded
- the option to view replays from old game versions is not going to be implemented (SerB: “Convert the replay to video”)
- SerB states that regarding the way crew XP counter is implemented in WoWp (SS: it allegedly shows crew XP to 100 percent and not to next percent or something like that), there is a really low priority for implementing that to WoT, because both ways are roughly equally comfortable for the player
- SerB states that there is no “gold shell issue” (SS: as in, an issue of players shooting only gold in randoms), because everyone can do that
- SerB states that the impression tier 9 vehicles get (after the removal of battletier 12) thrown more often to the bottom of the team is false and not consistent with Wargaming’s statistics
- SerB states, that HE shells, that penetrate the armor completely (by their kinetic energy) don’t lose penetration ability over distance or get normalized, because “there is a quite complicated process of penetration, connected with the deformation of a thin-walled shell. Roughly said, limited sturdiness of the shell doesn’t allow for much more penetration even at short distances. Well, and as for normalization, these shells don’t ‘twist’” (SS: by “twist” I mean the process where the shell changes its vector upon impact, based on the construction of the point of the shell)
- FPS dropping on new winter maps? SerB: “How terrible. I checked, both the new maps and the old maps have roughly the same FPS for me. Write to support.”
- when creating a new tier 8 vehicle (or rebalancing an old one), it is balanced for general use, not for team battles
- various new graphic effects will not be added to the old render (SS: the old render is not developed anymore in any way)
- Wargaming doesn’t want multiple “copy” maps (like Summer/Winter Himmelsdorf), SerB states that they will rather try to implement these variants with one map somehow (SS: as in, one map, more texture packs or so)
- there is a possibility that the M47 Patton with L7 alternative hull (!) will be implemented
- BMP and BMD vehicles do not fit into WoT
- apparently, no “mastery” badge rewards are planned (SS: but nothing specifically confirmed or denied)
- the reason FV215b (183)’s gun is designated as 183mm, even though its caliber is listed as 182mm: “Different nominal and actual caliber are in British case very common”
- detracking will not be split into “detracked by breaking the track” and “detracked by having a roadwheel destroyed” (SS: for the purposes of possible movement while detracked)
- currently, in the suspension model, each side has 4 contact points per side per tank (SS: as in, when calculating movement, 4 points on each side are there to make sure the suspension doesn’t “run flat” and it looks good). When the independent suspension gets introduced, this number will apparently rise to 5 – also, these points won’t have to be spread evenly, for example, when a vehicle has irregular roadwheels spread, like the T-54, these points will reflect the roadwheel positions
- T-55 Model 1958 is not in the game, because it’s too OP
- AMX 13 Model 1952 is in the game as AMX 13/75
And from Overlord:
- E25 is not OP
- FOV actually does influence FPS (SS: this was confirmed by Storm too, the wider the FOV, the more power it needs for the same performance)
- Lowe and T34 don’t need limited MM according to developers
- nothing will happen to tier 6 French and Chinese LT’s (in connection with the introduction of US LT6,7,8)
- according to the developers, Matilda has “regular” MM weight (for its tier). Yurko2F states that you can count tanks with special “higher” MM weight with fingers on one hand (“unless you are bad with a cutter”)
- there is no rule in the MM mechanism, that would prevent teams from having many vehicles of the same type (SS: in relation to the 15xISU-152 “confrontation” teams), additionally, the MM (even in confrontation battle) allows both teams’ MM weight to be different up to 10 percent
- apparently, “confrontation” (national battles) MM setup where both teams have 10 vehicles of the same type is considered normal
- SerB confirms that there is a connection between vehicle HD remodelling and the low amount of new regular branches in 2014, in 2014, the amount of new branches introduced will be sharply reduced
- apparently, HD models will not download on weak computers
- if you spot enemy artillery, then it gets unspotted but stands on the same spot and a minute later he gets killed by your arty, you will not be getting an assist bonus for spotting
One undocumented change in 8.11 is that the display of winrate has changed. Where it was for example 52,7 percent, now it is 52 percent. This is intentional.
Also, new Botdetect mod version (8.11b) is available, you can download it here – the list of bots is longer and automatically updated (separate lists for NA, EU, RU and SEA servers, these will be filled in the upcoming days). Tried it, works, today I met a player called “nicitelzadku” (“ass destroyer” in Czech :D) – he was marked as a bot and yes, it was a bot, you can see the replay here (he was AFK until the moment enemies appeared in his range, he immediately started shooting)
- apparently, the historical ranks of tank commanders in WoT are done correctly
- SerB thinks that the Chinese military ranks in the game are most likely 1955 PLA ranks – the info was provided by Chinese partners
- SerB states that the British did some tests on the E-100 hull they captured, the vehicle proved to be quite bad
Oh yes, and one more thing: in his post, Yuri Pasholok wanted this specifically translated and posted on FTR, because he feels I am apparently skipping some of his comments in his posts, when translating them to you (see the discussion of the post, but I won’t translate all of that). And yes, I obviously skip some of the things he writes, those I feel are not necessery. What he wrote (in full):
“For little people, who come here and then post it elsewhere with comments such as ‘regardless of what we think about him’ (SS: he means me), translating only the facts he needs. My family is directly related to winged hussars and had a good laugh about my alleged anti-Polish sentiments. And yes, Doyle did read the comments about me supposedly wanting to replace him, I sent him the link. And yes, I generally very much don’t give a damn, what people think about me. I had quite a bit of fun at some of the outbursts (SS: in FTR comments), so I only profited from the hater sentiments :)”
Well… there you have it, translated as accurately as I could (if there is a problem with the translation, let me know) :)
Check out Listy’s article about Chieftain (Part II)
- Italian heavy line? “No comment”
- Italian ships will definitely appear in World of Warships and there is a chance there might also be Italian planes in WoWp
- the shell spread circle increase with distance is linear (SS: as in, if the spread at 100 meters is 0,3m, at 1000 meters it will be 3m)
- Q: “Why is there spotting damage not in your statistics, when it is important for LT gameplay?” A: “*writes down* And not to forget, ugly glances!” (SS: this is a joke, where whenever players demand rewards for something really easy, SerB answers “And wouldn’t you want rewards for throwing ugly glances at the enemy too?” – in this case, chances are it will not be implemented. Or it might. Either way, low priority)
- there is a chance some tanks will have hulls with additional applique armor (SS: Schurzen for example) as their alternative hulls
- SerB mentions that the top tier of the Italian medium branch candidate could be the Leopard 1 with an autoloader (SS: this was found by Raptor_Fulcrum I think), but no decision in this matter has been taken yet
- Playstation WoT will not come, as WG has an exclusive contract with Microsoft
- WoT under Unix and Linux (with OpenGL support)? Apparently there is some issue with OpenGL. “Time will tell” – this will however not come in following months.
- Japanese superheavy tanks are still planned
- M18 Hellcat is doing fine statistically
- no comment on the upcoming premium vehicles this year
- Sturmtiger fits tier 10 (SS: not in 2014 most likely)
- SerB is not sure, whether the Chi-Ru project is not a post-war fake, but if it’s not, it’s possible it will appear in the game
- according to SerB, a part of the issues with the RU251 was solved
- it will not be possible to pay for gold by Bitcoin. SerB: “No – and you won’t be able to pay with candy wrappers either.”
- apparently, more “old-style” Soviet premium vehicles (slow, well armored, like Matilda, KV-5, Valentine) will not be introduced (“there is enough of them in general as it is”)
- the fact a tank has specialized crew (SS: as in, if a commander is a gunner also, he can’t in real life do both things at the same time properly) or not is reflected in the vehicle’s characteristics
- if there ever is a WoT version for MacOS, Android and *nix systems, it will most likely have simplified graphics, but no more info for now
- Q: “SerB is a writer, he should be writing and not designing games, hire game professional!” A: (SerB): “I shut up before this cool professional :) How is it possible we didn’t ruin the game without listening to you – I have no idea!”
From Overlord’s blog:
- right now scouts rebalancing is being worked on: “It’s one of the balancing priorities to make LTs viable again. Without screwing up the other classes.”
- apparently, the camo effect of bushes and trees will also be addressed
- apparently the lag issue is a “major thing” for Wargaming
- “There is a bug related to mastery badges. We are working on it.”
About bigger maps:
“Actually bigger maps have been tested for quite a while. It’s a complex thing that comprises performance and gameplay. I wouldn’t say, there is a clear plan for this thing right now. “
About too many 15-3 and 15-4 battles:
“This is not confirmed statistically. Just perception.”
About fixing the lag:
“I wish (we all do) it was that easy. When connection issues kick in, it’s always complex . Could be backbone ISP side, could be changes in game/packet traffic, and many other things. Any of the potential reason can also be quite difficult to deal with.”
and
“Traffic volume have increased X-fold since 2011 and situation is now different. The traffic gets huge spikes after each update overloading some/many networks and ISPs. Sometimes it’s difficult to find out on which side the issue is on.”
About MM balance:
“For random matches we ensure equal balancing only for top 5 vehicles. For the rest of the teams the requirements are softer.”
As you might have noticed, the next EU tier 10 on discount is the Jagdpanzer E-100, not the IS-4 (or E-50M), that was predicted earlier (based on the Russian/SEA pattern). That makes the next tier 10 on discount completely unpredictable from now on :(
- apparently, the RU servers are suffering from the same lag issues as the EU ones (SS: good, that means it’s not EU-specific)
- Panzer IV will be grey even after the HD remodelling
- Storm confirms the leaked Panzer IV model as valid, it’s still in the “old quality” as “the last of the Mohycans” (SS: from 9.0 on models will come in new quality only apparently)
- HD Panzer IV model will not appear in 9.0
- apparently, Wargaming HD models will have more polygons than War Thunder models
As for the lags… I have readers writing me every day to write something about them, but I have absolutely no idea, what to write. I have no idea what might be causing them, everyone keeps saying it’s something “along the way”. In Czech Republic, O2 (probably the biggest internet provider) seems to have issues with it – earlier (months ago), I was playing on the same connection at 20-30 ping. Then it jumped to 70-80 for no reason. Then random packet loss, but it wasn’t gamebreaking. Now, I am playing on both servers on 90-130 ping and tons of packet loss. Not much else I can say about it.
Overlord is asking, what do you think of 8.11? You can leave your opinion here
- national battles as “assault” and “encounter” are not planned
- Storm on MM rules (why battletier 12 was removed): “MM tries to spread the tanks equally through their battletiers. That’s why tier 8′s are waiting in queue for tier 10′s in order to create battles of appropriate battletiers. More free tier 10 tanks means less waiting time for tier 8′s”
- machinegun sound in game will not be changed (SS: some player was complaining it sounds weird in 8.11)
- trollplatoons were not solved earlier, because they were not considered a problem
- when assigning a trollplatoon into the battle, MM tries to compensate it by giving the other team tanks with lower MM weight
- SerB states that the cases, where the MM weight of the team with a trollplatoon is lower than the MM weight of the team without it are rare
- SerB states that regarding the mapmaking department, the staff was supplemented by new people. Only one of the leaders of the department resigned. There were two more mapmakers in it, but not a single map from them made it into the game
- national battles MM rules will not be changed
- Storm states that the problems with uncomfortable camera height in 8.11 are apparently caused by bad mods
- WoT for Xbox passed the 60k player milestone according to Slava Makarov
- IS-3 will be remodelled to HD in 9.1
- no camo changes were made in 8.11 at all
- also, SerB published his new (or old, republished – didn’t check) sci-fi book apparently (yes, Sergei Burkatovsky is actually a well-known Russian sci-fi author for those, who didn’t know and no, his books are not in English unfortunately)
Storm: The British voiceover is a “British actor, who was picked by the people from WG Paris office.”
