Hello everyone,

so, this is it. After months and months of waiting, another patch with new vehicles is finally here. In the immortal words of Tychus Findlay: “Hell, it’s about time!”

The best part of course is WHAT new vehicles are we getting, but I’ll get to that. First things first.

The installation of the patch was uneventful and the server wasn’t even overloaded with players (that will come tomorrow I suspect), so I got on straight away. No problem. After logging on, one interesting thing immediately caught my eye: there is a small tutorial screen, explaining the new garage interface. Rather practical I’d say. No worries though, the interface is relatively intuitive, although I did have to look around once or twice. Old habits die hard and when you get used to click on one place for years… well, you’ll see. This is how the interface looks:

Well, I wasted no time and got straight into testing the new vehicles. I even made some videos, but that will come tomorrow, in feedback part 2 (takes a while to edit), so words first. The new vehicles I tested are:

- Chaffee, T37, M41, T49
- LTTB, T-54 Lightweight
- RU251
- KV-85, KV-1S

The complete list of changes in the test patch can be found here (including list of vehicle changes, which is good). Detailed vehicle info (numbers) can be found here:

- light tanks
- KV-1S, KV-85, T-34-85M

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

9.3 Test started updating. You can get the test client here:

http://dl.wargaming.net/wot/ct/files/WoT_internet_install_ct.exe

Hello everyone,

it’s September again and with it, yet another sad anniversary of the German (and Soviet) invasion of Poland. Often, as a result of propaganda, the defense of Poland is depicted as chaotic and incompetent, but the chaos of war was present on both sides of the invasion. On the other hand, both sides did have truly exceptional units – and on Polish side, it was the 10th Cavalry Brigade (also called “Black Brigade” because of the color of their leather coat uniforms) of Colonel Stanislaw Maczek, one of the best Polish units of the short but brutal conflict in Poland. Its history is also an example of the fact that Poland too had brilliant military commanders, just as skilled in the craft of war as Rommel and Guderian were at that point.

Ironically, the raison d’etre of the unit was to prove that armored and mechanized forces are not as useful as everyone claims. The brigade was transformed from a cavalry force to a mechanized one on 30.4.1937. Its formation was shrouded in secrecy, with not even some of the officers knowing what’s going on, when the brigade suddenly started getting rid of its horses and replaced them with motorcycles, armored cars and tankettes. This was a step many of the “traditional” Polish officers abhorred, as it meant getting rid of their beloved animals.

Continue reading →

Hello everyone,

those of you with sharp eyes probably already noticed this bit in the 9.3 video:

In case you are wondering, what’s on the screen (apart from the playing T49 and the T-28 on the right side):

- the left tank is T54E2, a non-autoloader version of the T54, that was originally to be in the second American medium line (the T95 one, not the T57 Heavy one) as tier 9 apparently. The model is very old, like two years, it was shown several times. Currently, there is no ETA on that tank (or, whether it will be in the game at all).

- the other tank is AC4 Sentinel “Thunderbolt”, carrying a 17pdr gun – an Australian tank. Also a very old model that has been around for a while, currently there are no plans for it (technically it is a tier 6 vehicle like the Firefly). Possibly a premium.

Hello everyone,

English version of ASAP video with Miroslav “Veider” Kargin.

Inside:

- new HD tanks T-34, IS-7, ISU-152, M3 Lee, M5 Stuart and Jagdpanther
- M24 Chaffee also reworked to HD and rebalanced, got new improved maximum speed (70 km/h)
- KV-1S split to KV-1S and KV-85
- new LT’s (Soviet, German, USA)
- T57 Heavy was rebalanced, T92, Object 430 as well
- Murovanka was reworked heavily
- hangar interface was reworked
- new effects of explosions (check out the video, cool stuff)
- the anti-AFK/suicider/leaver system
- bonus for “tanking” (for shells blocked by armor), for heaviest vehicles it will provide up to 10 percent bonus to current XP, this bonus will be disabled for arty and light tanks
- engine/transmission split (transmission damage works like engine damage – same effect, only without burning)
- stronghold improvements (new tiers) and others (see the video)

Hello everyone,

according to Evilly (RU developer – he got promoted apparently), test will come tomorrow (“If we manage to check everything”).

Hello everyone,

under the original link, Ectar explains the reasoning behind the new 9.3 anti-AFK and anti-suicide system. I think it is worth reposting, because there is a lot of truth behind what he wrote. Here’s what he wrote.

This system is set up to take action against people not playing, there is a key difference here. If I play 5 aside football with you and you stand still for 10 minutes (and you’re not a goalkeeper) you’re not playing and I don’t want you on my team or benefiting from our success. Likewise If you enter a team based computer game and go afk multiple times or quit multiple times before the battle is done, you’re not playing and I don’t want you on my team or benefiting from our success.

If you want to defend passive play then you don’t play passively every game by sitting still. This system won’t punish people who play hyper passive. It will punish people who are blatantly abusing the game mechanics by not actively taking part in the game. – You can justify playing cautiously in a few matches, heck you can even likely throw up specific examples. You can’t justify it for every battle and it’s those types of players this system is set up to deal with. I find it rather sad in a way that when we take measures to do something about repeatability being afk or not participating. We’re still wrong for doing something just because it’s not XXXX player’s specific idea how to deal with people.

When this system is implemented, If you don’t want to be punished from leaving the game early – Don’t leave the game early! You still have the choice to leave the game early if you want however it will come with consequences. If you don’t want to be punished for being AFK multiple times… Don’t go afk! If there is something external causing you to be away from the PC all the time or away from the game then perhaps that’s not the best time to be playing a team game..

Life is full of decisions, many of them however have consequences and repercussions. Eventually you’re going to have to deal with those choices wither you like it or not.

And as a bonus, you don’t have to worry about looking at a Soviet commissar, because apparently, the pictures of the warning screen will be server-specific:

Source: http://worldoftanks.asia/en/news/pc-browser/21/premium-tanks-new-features-added/

Edit: they pulled down the article (apparently it was posted too early). Screenies at the bottom of the post.

Hello everyone,

all premium (and reward, including CW reward) tanks will recieve an interesting buff, specifically two bonuses:

- 50 percent bonus to crew XP
- bonus to XP income, depending on tier as such:

These changes will be applied via a micropatch on 12.9.2014 (for ASIA at least). Very nice!

Continue reading →

Source: http://www.army-technology.com/features/featureworld-of-tanks-developer-on-rebuilding-lost-legends-4359918/

Hello everyone,

the army-technology portal published an interview with Richard “Challenger” Cutland, the EU employee responsible for… well, I have absolutely no idea what he does apart from going to meetings with players but apparently, according to US history expert Chieftain, he does a lot, so that’s that.

It’s mostly a “we love tank history” article, not that much about the game, but about the attitude of Wargaming towards museums and such. Short version:

- Richard Cutland has 30 years of real tanking experience in British Army’s Royal Tank Regiment on Chieftain, Challenger I and Challenger II tanks
- he joined Wargaming as a “miliary specialist” in 2012
- attitude of Wargaming towards history is very positive
- in WG service, he got to drive AMX-13, Tiger I and T-72
- future plans for real life tanks: restoring a T-34/76 in belarus, lifting a KV-1 from the bottom of the river in Voronezh, restoring the Maus
- Maus restoration will be difficult and problematic due to the sheer size of the vehicle, its poor state (everything inside is missing, it’s just a shell) and lack of parts
- Wargaming works with museums by bringing new people interested in history to them

Regarding the future of cooperation with Bovington:

“Bovington’s got a large, mobile fleet, and to keep that on the road for things like Tankfest is quite scarily expensive. We are going to run a series of specials; what that means is there will be a premium package available on the game, with the proceeds going to help Bovington restore their current fleet of operational vehicles. Their Comet is in dire need of a mechanical overhaul. There’s the M4 Sherman as well, an incredibly well-known vehicle that’s really popular. That needs its tracks replaced amongst other repairs before it can get roadworthy again.”

- it’s possible Wargaming will have (pay for) some sort of warship restored in the future

Hello everyone,

recently, an open letter from the developers to members of gaming community was published. Its purpose is to make “community a cleaner place”. To quote it:

We believe that everyone, no matter what gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, religion or disability has the right to play games, criticize games and make games without getting harassed or threatened. It is the diversity of our community that allows games to flourish.

If you see threats of violence or harm in comments on Steam, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Facebook or reddit, please take a minute to report them on the respective sites.

If you see hateful, harassing speech, take a public stand against it and make the gaming community a more enjoyable space to be in.

Thank you

The author should start playing World of Tanks. He’d go crazy within hours. Either way, it’s a… nice gesture. There are over 600 signatures under it, including the one belonging to one Matt Parker from Wargaming Chicago (whoever that is, the people are mostly Americans though). I find it decent. Let’s celebrate this proclamation of decency with the best quote from Wargaming developers!

Storm: “Suffer faggot, your suffering makes us happy!”

Nah, seriously, I like Storm and SerB for being direct, it’s much better than endless buttering and sugarcoating.