- DPM buffed from 2029,3 to 2115,1
- reload time buffed from 7,096 to 6,808
- ROF buffed from 8,456 to 8,813
- aimtime buffed from 2,21 to 2,11
- accuracy loss from moving a turred buffed by cca 20 percent
- hitpoints buffed from 1400 to 1420
- repair costs very slightly nerfed
- apparently, the feature where top three players of losing team get extra credits will not be implemented
- Chi-Ri had several variants of suspension, it’s possible that one of the heavier ones with 88mm will be added to the heavy Japanese tank branch (SS: SerB is mistaken here. The 88mm Chi-Ri is a fake, started by American engineers exploring the Japanese vehicle plans after the war)
- Chinese-used Chi-Ha did not have any special Chinese designation
- apparently, SerB is participating in alphatesting of WoWs, but he’s hiding
- when removing interface in battle (pressing V), FPS goes up a lot? “Most likely your card doesn’t do well with Scaleform – that’s a Flash-like engine, widely used for interface creation. Please note that we are not responsible for Scaleform-based mod optimization.”
- Storm realizes that STA-2 (upcoming Japanese premium) is worse than STA-1, but “unfortunately, we haven’t simply found any other candidate”
I don’t usually post just a few pictures like that, but this is pretty interesting. You know we have the M56 Scorpion coming up as an American premium tank destroyer – but other countries used it too. Here’s something rather exotic – it was used by Morocco as well, here are the pictures, courtesy of Saàd, who lives there:
- with the introduction of 9.4 second test patch, Tank Inspector started crashing, when attempting to pull data from the client
- the test introduced a whole bunch of “odd” vehicle files with the letters “IGR” in their file name
As you might have guessed, those two events are related. Hillin (Tank Inspector developer) started digging and discovered those files. The vehicles are the following: AMX 13 90, AMX 50 100, AMX AC.Mle.1948, WZ131, Caenarvon, Cromwell, Centurion, FV304, IS-3, ISU-152, Jagdtiger, KV-2, Panther II, Tiger, Tiger II, KV-85, Sherman Jumbo, STA-1, StuG III Ausf. G, T34 (Heavy), T-44, T49 (Light), T69, T71. They are all in elite configuration and the models are identical to the regular tanks (no changes).
This is how they look in Tank Inspector Pro:
Now, to explain what this means: these vehicles are meant for Korean server (and possibly the Chinese one), specifically for internet café gameplay. Here in Europe, this sort of thing died out, but in Korea, café gaming is a culture thing (as explained by Daigensui). If I understand it correctly, you simply “rent” these vehicles in an internet café and in selected cafés cooperating with Wargaming, you will (apart from the standard premium bonuses) get another 50 percent to XP and credits bonus for your account, as well as gold for a certain amount of battles played.
Whether this is related to the leaked supertest “premium Tiger” in any way, that I do not know, but I don’t think so.
Man, it’s been a while since the last one of these. Let’s see what’s clogging up the ol’ mailbox.
Q: Several sources state that Soviet tank crews were forbidden from opening their hatches in combat and had to fight while buttoned up, reducing their ability to observe the battlefield. Is this true?
A: Not entirely. TL;DR: Soviet tank crewmen must observe their surroundings with open hatches out of battle. When contact with the enemy is made, they must close the hatches, but may reopen them if the target is lost. In urban combat, hatches must remain closed.
last night, the Golden Joystick ceremony took place – perhaps the most prestigious current game award (or so Wargaming claimed, when they won in 2013 with World of Tanks). Wargaming had three contestants present:
- Best Online Game category – World of Tanks for Xbox
- Best Online Game category – World of Warplanes
- Best Mobile Game category – World of Tanks Blitz
So, how many categories did Wargaming win? Well, none. In Best Online Game category, neither WG game was even in top 3 (I guess that’s not really surprising).
But don’t worry, Wargaming, you still win the Golden Donkey award and I am sure that’s like totally more valuable to you guys ;)
- Confrontation mode will return when it is rebalanced
- acting on XVM win prediction is “self-deception” according to Evilly – even 45-46 winrate players can carry a game
- troll platoons will be fixed
- apparently, developers were planning a system, where you get notified, when someone you reported gets banned. This function however is tied to the “new chat” system, which is not developed yet.
- regarding the question above, Storm states that the developers are working on a chat system, unified for all three games, the server side is ready and it’s already partially in use in WoT
Anton “Evilly” Pankov (WoT producer, which means not just random community guy) is asking players a bunch of questions, let’s help him out a bit! In case you are interested in answering – go ahead. Offtopic, trolling and profanities will be deleted (and punished by RO), so please be reasonable. You wanted a say in WoT development? Well, now he’s listening.
1) What do you think is wrong in current random battles? (Evilly: no skill MM) Anything missing?
2) What are your goals in random battles? (grinding, high stats, farming missions…)
3) What do you think about garage battles in random and garage battles in general? (on tier 10 for example) – if you like it, why? Aren’t you afraid of leavers?
4) What do you think of a FFA (free for all, deathmatch – not duel) mode? On tier 8,9,10
5) What do you think of a team PvP Battleground mode with checkpoints (MOBA without AI)
6) What mode (solo or platoon, not requiring teams) is according to you the most suitable for tanks? Offer your own
7) If you want to, make a proposition for your own mode for random battles (like assault, encounter etc.)
So, here’s your chance to shine. I will link it to him if the comments are any good.
as you know, 9.5 will bring the “Firefly line” of medium tanks, combined with a load of British turretted tank destroyers. Yesterday, Storm announced that it was decided this line would have a new tier 10 after all. Well, it’s the end of October and all deadlines for modelling are gone already, so it can really be just one candidate: FV4005 Stage 2
So, here’s a short post to tell you, what are you going to get for a Christmas present. Because, you know how everyone moaned about oneshotting vehicles? Well, here’s another one and this time, taken to extreme.
You see, the FV4005/2 carries the same gun as the FV215b (183). Only it is just as sluggish and it has no armor whatsoever (in brackets, FV215b for comparison):
Turret front – 14mm (254mm)
Turret sides – 14mm (101,6mm)
Turret rear – 14mm (76,2mm)
Hull front – 76mm at 57 deg (152mm at 55 deg)
Hull sides – 51mm at 12 deg (50,8mm)
Hull rear – 32mm (76,2mm)
And no, it does not have an autoloader. The vehicle weighed 50 tons and was powered by a 640hp Meteor Mk.IVB engine, giving it power-to-weight ratio of 12,75 hp/t. Its maximum speed was historically 34,6 km/h. All that in a package, that’s just as tall as the WT E-100 (which implies it will have just as bad camouflage, as camouflage factor is generally derived from vehicle height).
If we are to compare it to the FV215b (183) in the game – the armor comparison is above. To be completely fair, only a small part of the FV215b turret front is actually 254mm thick, but still, it’s quite a difference compared to the 14mm of turret. FV215b is powered by a Meteor 800hp engine, but it’s 10 tons heavier than the FV4005. Still, it has better power-to-weight ratio of 13,4 hp/t with the same speed (34,3 km/h).
What I am trying to say in this post is that the hard stats (armor, speed) are just really, really bad. That means they will be compensated somehow – and I think that “somehow” will be gun handling – accuracy, rate of fire and other balance characteristics. In the end, what I fear we will get is yet another one trick pony, a derp version of the WT E-100 – no armor, no speed, sluggish, but with ridiculous gun performance. Because, you know, that’s exactly what the game needs, a crossbreed between WT E-100 and FV215b (183), another balancing nightmare, that will always either be OP, or useless. Well, good luck to the guys, who will balance this thing.
