First: an invite code for US players (sorry, US server only): http://www.lfgcomic.com/worldoftanks/ (thanks to Mister_Red for this one)
Some interesting links:
Listy’s article on WW1 tank combat: http://overlord-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/06/from-mud.html
Listy’s article on one of the armored trains:

http://overlord-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/06/flight-of-young-eagle.html

Now, back to regular Q&A :)

- damage your shells inflict does not depend on range of the shot (SS: damage doesn’t drop with range, unlike penetration)
- there are no plans for a TD nerf for now – “if it is needed, there will be one”
- Q: “Are you happy with 0.8.6?” A: “We’ll see in a week or two. Payments go up – we’ll be happy, payments go down – we won’t.”
- related to previous question Q: “So, the project will live while the payments keep on coming? (with hope and a bit of irony)” A: “Why irony? That’s how life works.”
- the SAU40, ARLv39, AMX AC48 miniturrets are armed with a variety of weapons, from Hotchkiss MG’s to 20mm autocannons
- when 112 comes out, it does mean that there will be two T8 Chinese heavy tanks on Chinese server (112 and WZ-111): “They need it.”
- SerB thinks that when Westwood made their Soviet double-barelled tanks for Red Alert, they most likely didn’t know about the ST-II tank (SS: twin-barelled 122mm ST-I)
- SerB doesn’t ride bike (but many other WG employees in Minsk do), he uses mostly train to travel between Moscow, Minsk and Kiev
- apparently the difference of British arties from other arties is that “the British arty crews get served tea with pudding”
- this applies to RU server only I believe: SerB doesn’t recommend making forum accounts with “SerB” as a nickname and with SerB’s avatar (or something similiar), because you could be banned for impersonating a developer (SS: and because impersonating WG staff can be uncovered quite easily, right, Kewei? :) )
- SerB doesn’t think arty was overnerfed
- if you don’t like the dynamic camera, SerB suggests you disable it
- tier 8 premium with autoloader? “When there is one, I will tell”

PS: just a reminder guys, if you want to help FTR out, disable your AdBlock :) Thank you.

- Storm himself in’t happy with the 0.8.6 sounds. Some sounds will be reworked or moved back to the 0.8.5 version in 0.8.7 (namely the tank being hit and explosion sounds).
- the T-44 will have the sound of shifting gears and various engine RPM sound on various speed implemented, based on real life T-44 sounds
- apparently, the Russian weekend event with double XP/income for top players is VERY popular
- Wargaming’s statistical data on how many people played/play arty won’t be disclosed
- Type 59 won’t be rebalanced (like the Superpershing)
- the fact whether arty gains enough XP per battle in 0.8.6 will be known after 2 weeks or so (when first statistic results come in)
- Storm states that it is not true that the 0.8.6 brought reduced performance (FPS) for a lot of people. In fact, he says it’s the other way around, 0.8.6 increased FPS for a lot of people (SS: including me), if you have lower FPS in 0.8.6, Storm suggests to write a support ticket and ask there. Otherwise the complaints on FPS drops are normal after each patch.
- upcoming patches will bring new game features and optimalisations
- Pz38H (“Micromaus”) had its MM weight reduced
- general light tank rebalance is not planned
- it’s possible destructible sand hills (SS: not sure what exactly is meant here, but I don’t think it’s the terrain dunes, more like small sand terrain features) will be introduced, but not soon
- dynamic amount of complaints per day (SS: the more you play, the more times you can report someone in game) will not be introduced for now

- Storm confirmed that tank destroyers keep their better camo coefficients than the rest of the vehicles despite camo coefficient’s rebalance to fit it to the vehicle dimensions
- when considering rebalance of vehicles, the current principles stay the same as before
- contrary to earlier reports, the new 0.8.6 shell distribution (AKA “increased accuracy”) DOES apply to arty also, the arty accuracy nerf was actually meant as a balance so that their accuracy remains the same
- King Tiger is “too small” for the superheavy spall liner
- it’s possible to delete the content of X:\Games\World of Tanks\Updates folder safely, those are just old files
- the miniquests (“combat tasks”) won’t be permanent, WG will continually introduce new ones and remove the old ones
- there were rumors that the new map will be called “mansion” – that is not the case
- Storm when asked whether he likes new sounds: “50/50″
- some players were whining about TD’s being the new arties (too many), Storm thinks it’s BS (“Give me 10 screenshots of 10 battles on tier 10, that follow each other, with 7-10TD’s in every team. If you don’t, I will ban you – ok?”
- historical “normalisation” on Soviet guns varied a lot, it was from 0 to 7-8 degrees (SS: “normalisation” effect – improving the impact angle – was archieved by soft-capped shells, that partially deformed upon impact and “chewed” into armor)
- for now it’s not yet decided, whether a special MM rule, forcing the same type of top tanks in both teams will be implemented (SS: so that one team doesn’t have two T10 heavies and the other two T10 arties)
- special map-based MM (SS: for example heavies often having maps with more cover) will not be implemented
- so far, Storm thinks the accuracy wasn’t overbuffed, but he will keep an eye on statistics
- the Westfield bridge was repaired only for the assault mode
- shell distribution within the aim circle IS dependent on the gun accuracy. A gun with 0.33 accuracy will have more shells flying straight to the center than a 0.4 gun.
- official shell velocity data won’t be made public
- British and German tanks won’t recieve any buff to compensate for the fact that now ALL the tanks are reasonably accurate and not just them
- if you hit enemy tracks and recieve “that one bounced” sound, even though you detracked the enemy, it’s not a bug, it means that the shell didn’t penetrate the armor behind the tracks
- Q: “Is it true that at this moment, WoT is more popular than World of Warcraft or Counterstrike?” A: “Depends which parameters you measure.”
- during the announced big rework of game models, both tanks and other objects (houses etc.) will be reworked, but not necesserily at the same time
- the fact some tank has covered tracks by (real life) spaced armor plates doesn’t automatically mean these plates are actually working as extra spaced armor, it’s different with each tank (SS: for example the Schmalturm PzIV side mesh armor doesn’t work), but if it does, then it counts as two layers of spaced armor: one is the plate and one is the track module behind it
- realistic sounds like in Gnomefather’s mod? “We need time to implement such stuff, so we can do it in good quality”
- the reason for the roaming mechanism are clanwars and international championships, roaming in randoms is just a “side-effect”
- SerB states that the current negative reaction on the patch is not unusual: “It’s always like that”, this negative reaction comprises largely of the reluctance to adapt to new conditions
- SerB commenting on the fact that while some vehicles in the game are historical and it’s not a problem, some are not and when players point that out, the reply is “it’s not a simulator”:

“We have a game (a game, not a simulator) based on historical basis. We decide, where the basis ends and the game begins. Yes, whenever we want and however we want.”

- Evilly (RU community chief): it’s still an open question, whether there will be permanent rewards for medals

- the devs are studying the issue with the MM (SS: arty being balanced against heavies)
- VK4502B won’t be buffed, SerB thinks it’s doing fine
- the aim circle won’t apparently be possible to turn on and off
- aim circle is calculated on the server, but the shaking effect is doone by the client (hence it can be turned off) – it’s possible everything will be done server-side at one point, but it’s not certain
- the airplanes collision model on the airport map is fine, you can shoot under its wings – it doesn’t count as a “box”
- SerB doesn’t think that the arty is the most difficult type of vehicle to play for the newbies
- SerB also states that a lot less people than previously will level up the arty branches after 0.8.6 – and that’s a good thing
- When asked when gold actually counts as currency law-wise, SerB answers: “Without going into legal details, gold is an ingame valuable, obtainable for real life money. It has no relation to the gold metal, except for the name.”
- regarding roaming: if you have an account on other server, when roaming is introduced, it will NOT be possible to unify the account on one server with the one on another (SS: in other words, if you are American, but played some battles on SEA server before making a new account on US server, you won’t be able to transfer the tanks from SEA to US account)
- Q: “Guns too accurate in 0.8.6?” A: “How terrible!”
- the delay between the actual detection and the point when the lamp lights up (Sixth sense perk) won’t be reduced
- one of the roaming idea variants is that when a Russian account plays on EU server, the player will have _RU suffix (SS: I have a bad feeling about that…)
- SerB likes comet, but he liked Cromwell even more, he played on it even after he unlocked the Comet
- the reduced shell spread is a final decision, it won’t be removed
- SerB talking about the arty-is-underpowered whiners: “Right now, the arty noobs will be flushed out. After that happens, there will be whine that arty is OP again.”
- there will be no “switch one tier 10 for another tier 10″ possibility implemented
- other territories than Asia will also be made as maps in the future

And, a bonus question by a very “special” Russian player:
Postal_a42: Will there be any special event for 22nd June?
Storm: Don’t you feel ashamed asking such stuff?