Source: http://www.inside-games.jp/article/2013/11/14/71982.html
Translation: Daigensui

Hello everyone,

according to the translation of recent Japanese interview with Viktor Kislyi, the ETA for patch 8.10 (that will bring the Japanese tanks) is mid December. That means the test server will start quite perhaps in a week or so.

More info from the interview:

- going to “invest” a lot in E-Sports due to the competitive nature of the Korean market
- Japanese Teams for WoT competitions are pretty strong, due to (1) competitive (2) military fans (3) G&P
- F2P is the way of the future, V.Kislyi doesn’t want pay to win
- WoT, WoT:B, WoT 360, WoTG, and WoWP will be released to the Japanese market, but not as a separate server, the Japanese will play on current ASIA (former SEA) server

Just so you know, guys, I got told by WG RU that the annoying portal bug with switching languages will be fixed with the 8.10 patch, they developed the fix already but something (unspecified) prevents them from deploying it straight away.

- SerB will not publish how many players can RU server handle before it gets overloaded
- Hunnicutt archive digitization: “when it’s done it’s done”
- the devs haven’t found any new tech usable for WoT there for now
- price of the archive? “no comment”
- T110E1 and T110E2 are also mentioned in Hunnicutt’s “Firepower” book, but there’s not much on them there
- according to some player, the devs promised to remove the “shift” (SS: the term used is “rising”, sorry I don’t know what it could be) of the arty aim circle when the tank they are aiming at disappears. SerB states this won’t be changed and they promised no such thing
- apparently the suspension collision model will not be made more detailed in the future (SS: as in, currently the tracks are like one huge hitzone, they won’t be changed into segments), if I understand correctly

There was also (for a Japanese portal) an interview with V.Kislyi. Since I don’t speak Japanese and google translate produces… mixed results, I’ll ask a native speaker for further explanation. In the meanwhile, here’s what can be gleaned from it (via Russian source):

- WoWp will appear in Asia during next Fall. There will be a short beta.
- Japan and Korea both put main focus on cybersports in computer games
- V.Kislyi likes Girls und Panzer and there are plans for a long cooperation, there are apparently plans for several seasons
- V.Kislyi likes to watch anime, he watched many movies from Studio Ghibli production

According to the data of Slava Makarov, this morning (around 8 AM) there were already two players with tier 10 aircraft in WoWp, winning the Russian “get to tier 10 first” competition.

- there are many more tier 10 candidates for various nations
- there are more paper plans for “supertanks” like Maus available
- according to SerB, trees (SS: coniferous) and bushes provide the same camo bonus
- WT E-100 has worse camo than Maus and E-100? “How terrible”
- the top of the upcoming British medium branch will be a British medium tier 10 tank (SS: while this might sound like a case for Captain Obvious, it is not, as a lot of people expected the Chieftain to appear there)
- apparently, the car models (destructable objects) in game do not necesserily correspond to real vehicles, it’s possible we will see more truck object models in the future
- Q: “I’d like the tiers of vehicles in both teams to mirror one another” A: “This thread is not called ‘my wishes’”
- it’s possible Vickers MBT (Vijayanta) will appear in the upcoming British medium branch
- optional hulls will mean also different internal layout of modules for each hull (SS: for example later Panzer IV’s had more internal fuel tanks, so the – as an example – late Panzer IV hull will have more fuel tanks inside)
- if you take a regular tank (not arty) and shoot in the sky straight up, sooner or later the shell will fall down again
- tanks with M-65 gun (such as Object 770) will likely not appear in the game
- it’s possible IT-45 and IT-76 Soviet tank destroyers will appear in the game (SS: in case you don’t know, it was Basically a Soviet attempt to build a Hetzer – a cheap low turretless tank destroyer)
- pre-production T-54 (1945-1946 pattern) doesn’t fit tier 8, it’s too strong for it
- it usually doesn’t make sense to actually report a teamkiller for teamdamage too, but in some special cases (undefined by what) additional reports are taken into account
- HEAT principle in game (mechanism) won’t be reworked
- Object 705A will not appear in the game, because if it was implemented, high tier battles would consist of 12 vs 12 these tanks (plus a few arties)
- it’s however possible that Object 705 (rear turret IS variant with 122mm BL-13) will appear
- according to SerB, WoWp start was “normal” (SS: as in “fine”), apparently, Soviet planes are not underpowered

And a few more answers from Storm:

- Redshire and Highway won’t be removed from the game before they are reworked
- anti-tank obstacles and more cover from debris will not return to Himmelsdorf
- lately, average shooting distance in the game has increased
- the Hunnicutt Archive purchase was apparently mediated by Nicholas “Chieftain” Moran

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/257546.html

Hello everyone,

Storm posted another “microdigest” post about what’s going on in the development department. Here’s what Storm writes:

We are preparing everything slowly.

Not so long ago an interesting thing happened: we bought Hunnicutt’s personal archive: 800 microfilms, 24000 photos. Now we are digitizing it. We are expecting some news on the star-and-stripes armored tech.

It’s also worth noting that all those polls about maps we made are starting to bear fruit. In the next patch, there will be gameplay corrections on some maps players keep crying about. I will say straight away that those fixes will not concern the most “painful” maps like Redshire and Highway (that will happen in the patch after this one), but they will concern those maps where it is possible to make fixes quickly:

Karelia – the map is more levelled and more similiar to the old version
Airfield – fixed the (winrate) imbalance between respawns (bases)
Steppes – fixed the (winrate) imbalance between respawns (bases) that was more than 10 percent
El Halluf – we attempted to reduce camping
Mines – fixed the imbalance between respawns

Either way, all that is planned. It’s possible not everything will make it to the patch. Tests will show.

Continue reading →

Not much today. As you might have already guessed (since it’s Wednesday and since I posted on the FTR FB about it earlier), there is a problem with the FTR QA. It’s almost certainly cancelled. The reasons for it have nothing to do with me or FTR, it’s an internal WG RU thing (yes, I know the real reason – I got told, but I will post it only if it becomes public knowledge, as it is internal WG info and I promised discretion).

Right now, I am waiting (and hoping) we get to recieve the answers at least for FTR QA3, but it’s out of my hands. Just to be clear, I am grateful to all the WG staff for answering the previous questions, I know this stuff takes time and effort. I am also grateful for your patience, dear readers. Thank you all, it was fun while it lasted.

I have a contingency plan, but I am going to need a few days to figure the stuff out. For now, let’s wait and hope we get the last batch.

Regular QA from Russian thread and developer blog:

- SerB confirms that the AP and APCR (subcaliber) shells will soon penetrate destructable objects and will fly further with some loss of penetration
- multigun mechanism and multiturret mechanism both have been shelved for very far future, because there is little need for them
- apparently (SS: if I understand this correctly), making tank corpses (wrecks) penetrable (SS: as in, you hide your hull behind a corpse and a powerfull shell can – if the corpse is for example a light tank – penetrate it and hit you standing behind it) was scrapped
- tier 7 and 9 tanks in CW’s or companies are not planned for now
- no British rebalance is coming anytime soon
- you will be able to add camouflage to roadwheels too in the HD client

- if you end up alone (for the purpose of getting Kolobanov’s medal) with another guy on your team who is AFK and did quit the battle (but his tank wasn’t destroyed yet), you won’t get the medal
- Fokker Dr.1 triplane is too old to appear in WoWp
- regarding the shared chat between WoT and WoWp: apparently, chat bans will be shared too
- only stuff obtainable for gold will be common to WoT and WoWp, credits won’t
- there are enough tanks left for at least 3 years more

Continue reading →

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/2797748.html

Recently, Veider and Anton “Evilly” Pankov answered a bunch of questions. Please note that while Veider’s info is probably correct, there might be some errata later on. Summary:

- the question whether to allow crewman specialization retrain (SS: for example radioman to driver) is still being discussed, but likely it will happen
- there will be no map filter (disabling the maps you don’t want to play): this idea was scrapped because of the server load
- there will be an official “alliance” function in the Clanwars interface, it will be implemented next year (around the end of next year), it will incorporate common chat channel for alliance members, some bonuses on the map when passing your chips through allied territories

Continue reading →

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/257159.html

Hello everyone,

another short post by Storm about what’s going on in development for 8.10:

- if all goes well, next patch (8.10) will bring projectiles flying thru destructable objects such as fences and walls
- fixed a bug where in the tooltip for the loader on IS-7 it was displayed that the crewman can’t train radioman skills, apparently this bug caused a lot of butthurt
- fixed a bug where the average XP for crewmen was displayed as two times lower than on the tank itself. It’s a visual bug, not the crewmen getting less XP, don’t worry :)
- increased the turret rotation speed on Maus by 2 degrees/sec (eg. by almost 15 percent)
- changes for Lowe: upper side armor is 20mm thicker, -2,5 tons of weight, +40 shells in ammo rack, depression buffed by 2 degrees

The Japanese are being worked on, maps are being reworked – work is in full swing.

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

Chieftain wrote an interesting post about gun characteristics. You might wanna check it out!

- ISU-130 (ISU with 130mm gun) won’t be implemented for now
- T-35 with additional spaced armor and 122/130/152/180mm guns is complete garbage according to SerB
- T-100 might appear in the game (but not with KV-2 turret)
- Soviet Panzer IV with 57mm ZIS gun has zero chance of appearing in game, no info on other two Soviet rearm projects (Panther with 85mm gun, Tiger with 100mm D-10T, yes – that plan existed)
- project variant of ISU-122 with 150mm frontal armor won’t appear as an optional hull
- shell velocity does not combine with the tank forward speed in the game (SS: as in, if the tank moves forward at 1 m/s and the shell flies at 300 m/s, this shell won’t fly at 301 m/s)
- the fact that T69 reloads its autoloader for 26s, T54E1 for 33s and T57 for 25s is due to the fact the T57 autoloading mechanism was more advanced

Continue reading →