Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/pc-browser/1/veshhi-mezhdu-zhiznyu-i-smertyu/

Hello everyone,

Wargaming RU posted another quite interesting article. This time, it’s not about the tanks per se, more like about the men, who ride in them. And on them. Since April 2014, an exhibition called “Things between life and death” is shown in Belarus (Grodno, Minsk, Gomel, Mogilev and Brest), showing a collection of soldier items from “everyday front life”. The collection was borrowed from the Swedish army museum in Stockholm. This exhibition was first shown in Sweden in 2010 and – in following years – it moved to Norway, Belgium and Poland.

63 separate glass cases show items, that belonged to German, Soviet, American, British and Japanese soldiers and officers in second half of 19th to first half of 20th century. These personal items belonged to real soldiers (sometimes, the entire set belonged to one man) and thus represent real historical evidence. These are for example the things of John Thomson, member of the Royal Army Medical Corps – cutlery, personal hygiene things, medical instruments, medic armband. Thomson started his service in October 1914 as a Lieutenant, in Spring 1916 he was promoted to the rank of Captain. Captain Thomson served as a doctor in the 6th and the 2nd Battalion of Scottish infantry regiment on the western front. He survived the war and was awarded the Military Medal and Victory Medal.

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Hello everyone,

remember the StuG IV, that was leaked a while ago? German tier 5 premium tank destroyer, yes?

Well, it got buffed on supertest as well. First of all, its gun got buffed or changed altogether, not certain from the screenies. It got changed as such:

- apparently, now limited MM is considered
- gun penetration buffed from 106 to 110
- DPM buffed from 1720,7 to 1860,2
- reload time buffed from 3,836 to 3,548
- ROF buffed from 15,643 to 16,911
- Accuracy buffed from 0,345 to 0,336
- accuracy on the move when moving with maximum speed buffed by 29 percent
- the gun now traverses faster (earlier: 41,7, now 45,9)
- hull traverse buffed from 40 to 44 deg/s
- terrain resistance buffed from 0,863/1,055/1,822 to 0,767/0,959/1,822

The statistics thus look as such:

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Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3502734.html

Hello everyone,

yesterday, a new “Inca Path” map appeared on the supertest apparently. Here’s how it’s going to look – a preview of an unfinished version (so it’s obviously pointless to ask why does it look like shit, it’s not even modelled yet). Sceenies below the line.

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Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3502734.html

Hello everyone,

on supertest, T-34-3 (tier 8 premium Chinese medium tank) was buffed. This is NOT the final version apparently, but it’s a good indicator of what will happen. Stats for 100 percent crew.

- DPM increased from 1694,6 to 1821,1
- reload time buffed from 13,808s to 12,849s
- reate of fire buffed from 4,345 to 4,67
- accuracy buffed from 0,441 to 0,403
- accuracy on the move (when moving at maximum speed) buffed by 25 percent

Source: http://world-of-ru.livejournal.com/3502734.html

Hello everyone,

new tier 2 “premium” tank appeared on supertest. It’s Panzer II Ausf.D (…because, you know, there is not enough clones already). It’s very likely a reward tank, but what for – that is unknown. It’s even possible we are looking at New Year’s gift tank, it’s a perfect candidate (German, lowtier, crap).

Statistics for 100 percent crew.

Description:

Fast modification of Panzer II, intended for light divisions, based on cavalry units. Panzer II Ausf.D had a completely new hull and suspension, the turret was borrowed from Panzer I Ausf.C. The suspension included 8 doubled roadwheels of large diameter with individual torsion bar suspension without support rollers. The tanks with improvend suspension elements and with new drive sprockets recieved the designation of Ausf.E. According to various sources, 200-250 Ausf.D and E vehicles were built.

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Hello everyone,

confirming the previous guesstimates of when the patch 9.3 would come, Russian portal now has “9.3″ countdown.

It says “2 days left”, which means the RU patch will come on Tuesday – and the EU one likely on Wednesday.

Hello everyone,

a new South-American-themed map called “Inca Path” is tested on supertest currently. Here’s how it looks.

Hello everyone,

today, I am going to write something about one specific aspect of World of Tanks (or any “World of” Wargaming product really) – the Free to Play (F2P) business model. Looking at the forums (well, okay, specifically the Czech ones, but the same thing comes up everywhere on occasion), I see a lot of confusion about the “free” part. People do complain that Wargaming shouldn’t charge as much for this and that and that should be for free too and whatnot.

Wargaming is not a charity. It’s a business corporation and it does not exist to entertain anyone, despite how much various Wargaming representatives talk about bringing joy and doing what they do with love and whatnot. It exists to make money. Noone invests millions of dollars in something, that doesn’t bring profit – and so, Wargaming has to charge for something. And that something always brings pay-to-win element into the game – the question is not IF, the question is HOW MUCH.

First, there is this nice little video by Extra Credits again – if you have time, go ahead and watch it (you can skip it, I’ll be describing the effect in the article, but they do it better):

Alright. So, what we have here is the free-to-play model of Wargaming, which they call “free-to-win” or something. In the video, it is cited as one of the good examples of free-to-play monetization and I actually agree. It’s a very delicate balance. You have two aspects of the game, that have to be in equillibrium:

- the ability of the developer to make money off the game
- the ability to play for free with it still being fun

Now, make no mistake. You will always have some pay to win elements, no matter what the developer says and how they argues. What matters is their intensity of course. Sure, you might argue that for example selling “hats” (Team Fortress) might not have any P2W element, but is that really true?

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Source: https://vk.com/newsblog_wot

Hello everyone,

just a quick update on the M56 Scorpion and how it is doing on supertest. Scorpion set of characteristics (including pictures) was leaked earlier, when the vehicle was introduced to the supertest server.

The feedback from supertesters about this vehicle is that with current characteristics, it sucks even against tier 9 vehicles, let alone tier 10′s. The developers allegedly agree, they too are unhappy with the vehicle performance. Current line of thinking is that this tank destroyer will definitely have limited matchmaking – it’s allegedly even possible it will not see tier 9 and 10 tanks in battle at all. This is however extremely preliminary at this point, further tests and tweaks are being conducted.

Hello everyone,

so, the Fury Competition results are here.

Personally, I was really skeptical about the competition and still am about the movie, for various reasons:

- they wrecked the Sherman they used (followed by a Wargaming money drive for its restoration)
- the “LOL SHERMUN WUZ CRAP TEH TIGER BESTEREST TANK OF WAR” trailer
- too much hype
- I don’t like Brad Pitt

Anyway, about the competition. The first funny part is that the “super secret tank” (reskinned Sherman to looke like the one from the movie – not sure which version, the one appearing on the screen, or the way the tank looked after the shooting) is not even in the game (probably gonna be in 9.3 files coming out after this weekend), but whatever.

The winning trailer looks good I guess. I am really not a WoT video expert, but I kinda expected a bit more. But fair enough, why not. What struck me as odd however were the other “trailers”, for example the one, that won third place.

I mean, so there’s the American T20, the M6 or whatever and a Hellcat at the end, what does that have to do with the Fury movie? Absolutely nothing? It looks like an action version of a random WoT video. I know it took probably some (even considerable) effort, but… well, I don’t know.

And what do you think of the contest?