What Patch 9.0 did to FPS

Source: http://gamegpu.ru/mmorpg-/-onlayn-igry/world-of-tanks-9-0-test-gpu.html via Wotleaks VK community

Hello everyone,

the abovelinked Russian site made an article about the changes in graphics in 9.0 – and how the FPS changed on the same settings. The differences are… impressive. The resolution measured is 1920 * 1080, the configuration of the computer is Intel i7-3970X 4,9 GHz, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD.

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SU-85I Engine Underpowered?

Hello everyone,

today, a player Frag_Attack sent me a picture of the SU-85I engine in the game, claiming the engine to be underpowered. Here it is (in German, but I am sure everyone can figure the numbers out)

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The HL120TRM in Panzer III has 440hp and in SU-85I, it has 300hp. As you probably know, SU-85I came to be as a conversion of captured Panzer III hulls, using the original engine. So, is the SU-85I engine underpowered, compared to the real one?

No. It’s the Panzer III engine, that is overbuffed.

Check this out – the ultimate source on German tech, Panzer Tracts – this is from PT8, StuG Ausf.G entry:

120trm1

This is from Panzer III Ausf.H entry (PT 3-2):

120trm12

The engine is also rated for 300 horsepower at 3000 RPM (Schiffer, Doyle). So, the value for SU-85I is correct. What todes that mean for the Panzer III? Well… exactly what you think it does. Rebalance.

Several German engines in the game are overbuffed and with the upcoming changes to Panzer III in 9.1 (they were scheduled for 9.0, but they got postponed), chances are they will be brought to their historical values.

Tier 10 RU Server Winrate

Hello everyone,

we all know that RU server has the biggest influence on vehicle balancing (simply by the virtue of being the largest server cluster) – so, how do tier 10′s look over there?

stat9

stat10

I guess there are some tier 10 candidates for buff after all…

European Tree part V – Yugoslavia

Part I – Introduction
Part II – Italy, Czechoslovakia
Part III – Hungary
Part IV – Sweden

Hello everyone,

today, we are going to talk about another quite original branch or branches, that could appear in the European Tree – the Yugoslavia ones. There is an old myth running around that the “smaller” nations had no original tanks of their own – I hope that in previous parts, we debunked this sufficiently and today, we will continue to do so.

Unlike relatively rich Sweden’s tank development, Yugoslavia’s tank development was born out of necessity to counter both western and eastern tank designs with indigenous resources due to the precarious and complicated situation after the war. Where Sweden simply developed their tanks because it was advantageous for them and Czechoslovakia was satisfied with improving Soviet armor from 1950′s onwards, Yugoslavia had to make do with a mixture of American and Russian vehicles and go on from there, developing an entire series of their own original medium tank projects.

This time, I will be drawing upon the work of Yugomaniac and Bojan, both well-known for, amongst other things, proposing a Yugoslavian branch for World of Tanks. Early Yugoslavian designs are very closely tied to Czechoslovak branch (some of the tanks being basically entirely Czechoslovak, made however solely for the purpose of export to Yugoslavia). Here’s a variant of Bojan’s and Yugomaniac’s tree – another proposed variant would completely lack low tiers, starting straight from the Czechoslovak branch. Obviously, that’s something that should be avoided.

mv53

Unfortunately, there is not that much info I could find about these vehicles, not nearly as detailed as the Swedish tree – more research is required I guess.

Continue reading

Bad Apples…

Hello everyone,

you know what always surprises me? Bad apples in good clans. Let me tell you how I mean that. I guess we all can agree that in World of Tanks, I am an average player – but it wasn’t always so. In other games, such as WoW, I used to be pretty good and that allowed me to “peek” into what – and more importantly, how elite guilds – or in this case, clans – think. And yea, there’s of course the stint with R1SE and all that.

You know, I get it to a point. This is a competitive game (at least from certain level on). In order to succeed, you do need a healthy dose of aggression – no room for the meek on the top! That was always true everywhere and always will be. I myself had pretty nasty rages from time to time, calling people morons and fuckers for doing something extraordinarily stupid, getting me killed etc.

What I never understood is the way that this aggression gets twisted in some people and that their clans tollerate these twists. Take ABSOLUT PANSAR [A-P]. Well-known clan, good reputation (well, I think at least), good players.

And yet…

1

….a retard and a teamkiller to boot. And this is a fucking RECRUITER for the clan, not just some random guy. Bravo, A-P.

I always somehow thought that the higher on the ladder you go, you get more aggressive players, yes, but you also get “professionals” with a corresponding attitude – you know, cool guys above the idiocy of some random games. Not nazis, teamkillers and morons. Sure, you might say, he got “provoked” (however subjective that might be) – but ask yourself, does any sort of noobishness from your team (and yes, I fully admit there are some very special kinds of people in random battles) justify such a fit? I don’t think so.

I don’t know. I discontinued the Hall of Shame, but perhaps I should start a special category, like Jingles’ “wanker of the week” – “morons of the month” or something.

Opinion of Munster Tank Museum on World of Tanks

Thanks to Sander B. for this info (guys, leave nicknames when you write me :) )

Source: official Munster web pages (in German)

Hello everyone,

today I wrote an article about the RU251 and the negative attitude of Munster (and other German institutions) towards World of Tanks. What I didn’t know was – there is even an official Panzermuseum Munster statement (link above) regarding World of Tanks. I will translate it from German then (not literally, but to keep the meaning). Some parts I ommitted, as they basically repeat the same – if any German would be so kind to translate it better (did my best), I will be glad to fix my own translation. Also, keep in mind this was written some time ago, apparently after the great accuracy buff last year, in April/May.

Tank Museum and World of Tanks – a complicated relationship

In May, the tank history in the museum will be experienced in a different way: there will be cheer, laugh, hundreds of tanks will be destroyed for the general happiness and fun. In the May weekend, company Wargaming will build a promotion stand here. In this stand, their game (and the mainstay of the entire company) “World of Tanks” (furthermore only WOT) will be advertised and available for playing on like a dozen computers.

………. (explanation of what WoT is)

In principle, World of Tanks brings only such content, that goes directly against the values (SS: literally statements) the tank museum tries to convey:

- clinically clean battlefield: you cannot see any people, be it soldiers or civillians. Pain and suffering, death and mutilation, that’s no problem. The war is only a “tag, you’re it!” game and when your tank gets destroyed, you hear them say stuff like “This vehicle had it, let’s get out”. Only occasional statements, such as “they killed our driver” indicate that there’s a war going on after all.

Continue reading

Merkava in World of Tanks?

Edit: comments disabled after some very nasty outbursts. Gonna go through the filth later to see if there is anything ban-worthy. I am very disappointed in some commenters.

Hello everyone,

a very, very long time ago (like mid 2012 or so), there was a discussion about the possible Israeli medium branch in World of Tanks. One of the ideas kicked around was to actually have a Merkava on tier 10. Now, I know what you thinking – that’s a ridiculous idea. Merkava would never fit, right? Well… yes and no.

Merkava-1-latrun-2

Above, we can see the Merkava Mk.1 from the Latrun tank museum. It’s the first model of this famous Israeli vehicle, entering service in late 70′s. According to wikipedia, Merkava was developed from 1973, making it too new for World of Tanks (even if it could fit characteristic-wise). Or is it?

According to the book “Merkava – a History of Israel’s Main Battle Tank” by Marsh Gelbart, the development actually started in 1970, with the first prototype coming in 1974. This is a mock-up turret variant, dated 1970:

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Continue reading

Veteran Charity Event – Closure

Hello everyone,

it is finally here. After months of organizing and work, the Veteran charity event (to which some of you contributed) is finally, concluded, all the money collected was used for buying the things the veterans need, contracts were closed, things were distributed and now it is done. It actually took five long months due to various complications, including health issues of some of the veterans and other matters we had to attend to.

Well… I say “we”, but most of the work was done by Clearevil and carramba66, especially Clearevil was the “ground trooper”, who went with the Veteran association (ČSLO) members to visit the veterans themselves and oversaw the entire thing. Here’s a “closure” video, made by carramba66… I hope you like it.

 

 

Translation of the Video (spoken by carramba66)

Five months ago, we asked you, World of Tanks community members, to contribute to the charity we organized in order to help Czechoslovak tankers, WW2 veterans. When we organized the charity, we assumed that we would collect 400-600 Euro, which we will use to buy for example medical accessories for one of the veterans. The amount of money collected however exceeded original estimates several times and so, thanks to you, we could help not one, but fifteen members of Czechoslovak tank units from both the western and eastern front.

Continue reading

Weekly FTR contributor review

Hello everyone,

once again it’s the time to thank the contributors, it’s you who keep FTR running after all! This time, following people donated via Paypal:

Sean C. (United States) – thank you for considerable donation – much appreaciated :)
Lars R.T. (Denmark) – thank you for a large contribution, mate!

The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service

http://www.patreon.com/silentstalker

This is the Patreon account of For the Record. In case you read this for the first time and feel like contributing, here is an explanation what it is, how it works and how to contribute. You can find a list of all those, who pledged and help to keep FTR running here.

Thank you all!

RU251? Not anytime soon…

Hello everyone,

as you all well know, the RU251 tank was announced a very long time ago (January 2013!) as the upcoming German tier 8 light tank. It’s been a year and the vehicle is still not there, leaving the German light tanks end with the less-than-popular Aufklärungspanzer Panther.

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Now, I made some inquiries regarding the fate of this tank, because this is not the first time this has happened. Basically, Wargaming has been trying to get any info on that vehicle for ages, but it was rebuked several times by German government. This did not only happen with the RU251 by the way – the same thing happened with the Leopard Prototype B, that’s why we don’t have it in the game and that’s why it’s very unlikely this vehicle will become German hightier premium.

As I said, I asked the EU player Madestcat, who made some inquiries.. Don’t ask for details, but he asked here and there and the answer he sent me was this:

Auf Nachfrage habe ich folgende Info erhalten: Der RU 251 steht auch in Trier und wird demnächst restauriert. Aber auch für den RU 251 wird Minsk keine Genehmigung zur Untersuchung erhalten. Es gilt das gleiche Verbot wie für den Leopard Prototyp B. Tut mir Leid. Das deutsche Verteidigungsministerium will nichts mit Kriegsspielen zu tun haben. Ich kann da leider nichts dran ändern.

“Upon inquiry, I recieved the following info: RU251 currently also stands in Trier and will be restored soon. But Minsk will not recieve the permission to research it. It’s the same ban, like for the Leopard Prototype B. I am sorry. German Ministry of Defense wants to have nothing to do with war games. Unfortunately, I can’t do anything about that.”

This info corresponds to other info I recieved from other sources. Even Yuri Pasholok noted that the attitude of Germans towards Russian researchers is less than warm currently as it is. Wargaming will either have to do with available photos (there are very few) or should start looking for another candidate…