Patch 9.3 – Separate HD Textures

Attention! This is important, please read.

Hello everyone,

this is something that was not announced before, oddly enough. According to RU portal, from 9.3 onwards the HD textures for tanks will be downloaded as a separate ZIP file (for 9.3, the size of HD textures is 980 megabytes).

According to the same article, this was done to save traffic and computer space. It has to be done manually (at least the Russians had to) by downloading and installing separate texture pack – why it wasn’t done automatically via the launcher? Hell if I know.

Either way, please note that if your PC is strong enough to run full resolution HD textures (maximal texture quality), you have to manually install the HD textures separately! I am posting this here to make sure everyone remembers that, so you avoid the “WTF, tanks look lowres like shit on my new rig” questions on forums.

To install HD textures:

- you download them in a ZIP file (once it is available for EU/US client)
- you unpack them to WoT folder
- you have to run the client and set the texture quality to maximum

Wow. Manual texture installation, that is some stronk programink – that’s mod/cracked game stuff, not the besterest F2P game level.

SD-100 Captured in Yemen

Thanks to Rabiesdog for this one.

Hello everyone,

the world was never a peaceful place and never will be, not for long anyway. Some of the conflicts are widely known and reported, but others pass unnoticed and forgotten while the eyes of the world are set elsewhere. Currently, the fight with ISIS and the conflict in Ukraine occupies the media, while in other parts of the world, fighting is still going on.

One of such conflicts is the Houthi rebellion in Yemen, which was going on with various intensity for nearly a decade, growing from a small, essentially tribal/sect riots to full-blown uprising. The latest development is the Battle of Sana’a (capital of Yemen) between the insurgents and government forces, resulting in the resignation of the prime minister of Yemen – as I write this, the battle is still ongoing with hundreds of dead on both sides, despite the Sunday peace agreement.

But why I am writing this…

_77745396_77745395

This photograph was taken yesterday and published on BBC. It shows the Shia rebels with captured Yemen army equipment in one of the army camps. Notice the vehicle. It is a Czechoslovak-made SD-100 (a license copy of SU-100), manufactured between 1953 and 1957 (771 were made in total). Of the 771, 460 were kept for Czechoslovakia and the rest went for export to many countries, including Yemen – 50 vehicles were sold at an unknown point (presumably in the early 60′s). To be honest, it’s amazing to see a vehicle survive like that for so long – it’s literally a museum piece (the grass on the tracks suggests it wasn’t used for quite a while, but it looks better than some of the vehicles left to rot in western/eastern countries).

SD-100 was not very different from the SU-100, there were a couple of tweaks and the production quality was better than on the Russian originals (peacetime production after all). The last documented use of the SD-100 if I recall correctly is the Yom Kippur war in 1973 (by Syria and Egypt) in artillery role.

9.3 Overview Video

Hello everyone,

here’s the usual Wargaming patch introduction video. For now, unfortunately, only in Russian. What you can do is turn automatic subtitles on and then have them translated to English. Not too good, but at least it will give you an overview of what they mention. As far as I can tell, there is nothing really surprising in the video.

 

 

Inside:

- new light tanks, reworked Murovanka, vehicle rebalance, new Stronghold functions
- LTTB: “much like the legendary T-50-2, same high speed and maneuverability”, but with added firepower, “the gameplay feeling is practically the same as the earlier T-50-2″
- T-54 Light: well-armored and armed light tank, can withstand hits from tanks of its tier
- US light tanks: good mobility and viewrange, guns are fast aiming and firing fast
- M41 has an autoloader for 10 shells, it can destroy in 20 seconds most of tier 7′s and many 8′s, but it is light, low hitpoints, has to be careful in picking targets
- T49 can mount a 152mm gun – base shell is HE, it makes a lot of damage but playing with it is complicated due to low ROF, long aimtime and low accuracy, 90mm gun is for players who like the fire support role
- RU251 is one of the fastest tanks in the game with a good gun, it’s possible to play it as a mobile sniper
- KV-1S split (KV-85 on tier 6), KV-85 gets to keep the favourite 122mm gun
- new HD models
- rework of Murovanka
- new Stronghold functions (“Chancellery”, mercenaries)
- certain map objects now explode (fuel tanks, cars)
- explosion effect was reworked
- new punishments for leavers and AFKers
- new ricochet system
- transmission/engine split
- if a tank drowns while being detracked (forced drowning), it will count as a kill for the person that caused the detrack

22.9.2014

Nothing much today (don’t forget to change your password on EU and US server for free 300 gold). If you are however interested, there are two things I wanted to link.

First is yet another Chieftain’s Hatch article, this time about the Sherman PR from 1942. Some interesting read.

Second is an article by Listy on Overlord’s blog about the British WB1 tank. Never heard of it before? No worries, noone has. I kept teasing Listy about this project for months because it’s his “white whale” – there are scraps of information, but noone knows what it really looked like. Good luck finding more though :)

In two days, Storm is planning a big stream, where he will allegedly (according to RU staff) talk about future features. In Russian of course, but that’s what FTR is here for. Should be interesting (topics will cover for example Havok, gold ammo etc.). He will also be playing WoT on Ru server, of course. Damn, he should come to EU using roaming. That should be fun!

- no plans to unify gold and premium account in WoT and WoT Blitz
- T110E5 will apparenty not be nerfed
- Q: “What will there be in WoT 2?” A: “WoT 2.0? What is that? :)”
- during ammorack explosions, remaining shells are not “used up” – you don’t have to buy them all back even though they all explode. This is so the players don’t suffer.
- it’s completely possible that new premium tanks will come soon
- it’s completely possible some of the removed maps (Port, Dragon Ridge) will return to the game after they are reworked
- there will be no “zombie mode” in WoT, it was only mentioned as April 1st joke
- crew visual models are not planned
- M6A2E1 buff confirmed (it loses its top battletier, thus getting limited MM)
- larger platoons are not planned
- the AFK and leaver punishment system will come in 9.3 – the only thing that was removed was the suicider punishment system, which needs to breworked
- there will be new tier 8 premium tanks
- “many new and nice, interesting things” will come in stronghold mode
- the XP bonus for “tanking” will not appear in 9.3, it will be reworked and it will come later
- Q: “Storm, what is the fate of 7/68 mode? What about team battles for tier 10?” A: “7/52″ (SS: take it how you will)
- apparently, according to Storm, the XVM minimap with tank names option mod is very resource-requiring
- on very weak computers (“calculators”), XVM can cause up to 30 percent FPS drop
- about half of WoT players have very weak computers

Posted in Q&A

WG EU Events in October (and partially November)

Hello everyone,

once again, complete list of EU missions for the upcoming month got leaked, this time for October. Enjoy!

Top of the Tree (1.10.-15.10.) – E-100
Top of the Tree (15.10.-1.11.) – M48 Patton

8.10.-1.11. “Togtober” month event
- be in top 3 in XP in your team in random battle on a tier 4+ tank, get 50 percent more XP
- win 5 games on a tier 4+ tank once per day while being in top 10 in XP, get 1 gold repair kit and 1 gold fire extinguisher
- complete the previous mission 15 times, get a free TOG II + garage slot

30.9.-4.10. “Weekly Missions”
- play 50 random or team battles on tier 4+ tank while being in top 10 in XP, get 5 gold repair kits and 5 gold extinguishers (once per account)

Continue reading

9.3 HD Screenshots

Hello everyone,

if you follow this blog, you have likely seen all the new tank models already. However, this time, I have something a bit different for you. These screenshots are more… artistic than usual, shall I say. There is only one problem – I was digging through the e-mail correspondence and I have not found who actually sent this to me and where :( So whoever you are, mate (Imgur nickname “Opera5387″), do claim credit please, because these screenshots are really pretty.

(right-click and “view image” for full size version)

Continue reading

Meanwhile in Russia…

Thanks to ugly_joe, BlacKHeaDSg1 and Erik for this one :)

Hello everyone,

driving in Russia is dangerous business – apart from the usual things, you have to watch out for tanks falling from trailers as well. On 10.9.2014, near Omsk, a truck driver was transporting a T-72B tank for repairs. He went too fast into a curve, shaking his haul off the trailer. The tank ended on its roof with its barrel buried in dirt near the road. The driver recieved a 500 ruble (cca 10 Euro) fine for not carrying proper license to haul such heavy objects.

 

 

A couple of pictures of the event:

Continue reading