Thanks to Barilzar for the link and the translations from French.
Hello everyone,
this is a translation of an article (or, rather, a picture gallery) of the new Wargaming EU offices (seen from stylistic point of view) with the comments from Jean Nouvel, a well-known French architect. The article is about design and architecture mostly, Wargaming name is there just to “sell it”, but let me tell you, seeing the pics in connection with today’s “insider” post about WG EU not being able to afford good translators… you know, I can see why.
Photo 1/28
“The Horizons tower” (la Tour Horizons) in Boulogne-Billancourt was built by the ateliers Jean Nouvel*. The construction work started in Feb 2009 and was completed in Nov 2011. * (means Jean Nouvel Workshop, but it’s a kind of posh name for an architect office; you know, the guy is french AND trendy…)
as you know I usually don’t use FTR for personal messages to specific people, but I will make an exception in this case. Those, who are on EU forums as long as I am (over two years now) probably do remember one of the more interesting forum dwellers, Ed Francis, aka Edfrancis001, a (well deserved) community contributor, an author of many historical articles on EU forums (example) and a man known for his passion for tanks and their history.
Unfortunately, today, I recieved an e-mail from his brother, Ben. I hope he won’t be angry for me publishing it, but… here goes.
Good Morning
This is Ed Francis brother Ben
As some of you may know, my brother after a long period of illness was taken into hospital in a critical condition in June after multiple blood clots damaged his lungs and heart. despite the odds he has survived and is slowly recovering in care. he is worried about any projects or outstanding work he had left unfinished but not able to go into detail at this time.
I’ve sent a round robin email from his account just to let everyone know where he is and why he may not be answering his emails or replying to queries etc. if there was anything outstanding or something he was working on please let me know and I will pass on the details, but for now its rest and rehab.
Thanks in advance for your patience and hopefully he will be up and back to his old ways soon
Ben Francis
So, without any more comments – best of luck, Ed, wishing you all the best and get well soon!
the Wargaming insider is back, scouring the internal channels for bits of information. This time, he decided to talk about the differences in content between WG EU server and WG RU. Actually, this entire thing is quite complex and the talks about it span last 2 years, so – as he did put it – it’s very difficult to actually cover the entire issue. Some parts of it we have also figured out on our own, but it’s nice to have it confirmed from different sources. Please note that this article is not also the “ultimate truth”, but an interpretation of what the insider did read and hear over last months and years, merely an explanation.
One of the main reasons of the content amount difference is Soviet Bias. Yes, you heard right, it does exist, but not in the form of what you usually imagine under the term (the Insider called it “sovietism”, but I think the Soviet Bias is more comprehensive). Basically, it’s a Russian market specific element, where the customers expect and demand the seller to celebrate and praise their past, specifically the Soviet era, because of the “RUSSIA STRONK” notion, that is still present in the many Russian players’ minds. The Insider notes that the typical example for this could be the book, written by SerB, called “Yesterday there would be War” – in Russia, Sergei “SerB” Burkatovsky is a well-known sci-fi author and a typical example of a very specific sci-fi genre, that is popular there – about men falling through time, preventing (in this case) the German attack on Soviet Union in WW2. The book itself is mostly junk (it has mediocre reviews), the Germans are depicted as idiots and the abovementioned “Russia Stronk” element is prevalent.
Part 1 of Swiss tanks gave a quick run down of some light and medium tank options for Switzerland. In this part we’ll have a little look at some of the tank destroyers, the most famous of which is the G-13, ‘The Swiss Hetzer’. There is more than just that, but because there is so much, it will have to be in more than one article. So expect a part 2b with the post-WW2 tank destroyers.
- Chrysler “K” Tank as a premium American heavy tank? Tanitha: “I’ve not seen any development for the tank. But i’ll gather some more information on the tank and send the details off to the development team for their consideration.”
- the marks of excellence exact formula is very complicated and won’t be released
- no news on the Porsche heavy tanks characteristics changes
- it’s possible that all the tanks will not be reworked to HD in 2014
- it’s not possible to say yet, what branches will appear in 2015 (SS: yes, 2015)
- multiturret/multigun mechanism in WoT? Tanitha: “Its been considered in the past, but penetrating tanks isn’t always easy for a tanks main gun, mind about the usually smaller secondary gun. I’m not aware if it currently being developed.”
And from Russia:
- Sturer Emil shortcut will be shortened into “St.Emil” or something like that to avoid the awkward Pzsfl.V
the question “do you know when the WoT wikipedia will be back” is one of the most common I’ve been getting over the past months and unfortunately, there was never a proper answer – and if there was, it turned out to be false, as the ETA’s were changed over and over again. This time it’s for real hopefully – Tanitha on the ASIA forum confirmed that the WoT Wiki (English) is returning tomorrow, 9pm SGT (+8 UTC), which means 2PM CEST.
today, Golem501 asked me a question about a minor, yet interesting thing. In this thread it was discussed: there are two screenies from 2014. First one is from May 2014:
Second one is from June 2014 – same player, same vehicle:
One has yellow ribbon under the Ace mastery badge, the other doesn’t. Why? Well, I asked on RU forums and…
It’s a bug, as Storm confirmed some time ago (the person who answered it referred to this answer of Storm) – the ribbon is always supposed to be there. The bug is apparently pretty old, since Storm was referring to it in October 2013. Oh well, just one of the “WTF is going on” things.
remember World of Tanks: Generals, the card online game based on World of Tanks? In October 2013, first preview was published and ever since, there were very few news, the game is still being developed however. Today, a post appeared on Russian forums, apparently by an alpha tester (the game is currently still in alpha testing stage), basically confirming what was in the preview (if you haven’t read it and are interested in WoTG, you should). You can follow the game on its site.
To summarize the post:
- gameplay will take place on a 3×5 board field, the principles kinda resemble Heroes of Might and Magic III and V
- there are other screens, such as the hangar, the research and achievements
- currently, there are three nations: US, Germans and Russians, each with unique gameplay style, when the game is released, there will be 3-4 more (roughly like in WoT)
- each nation has cca 70 cards available
- apart from vehicles, there is a special type of cards (“orders”, if you ever played Magic the Gathering, it’s like Spells)
- the amount of cards is limited to 40 per deck, variability is very high
The game also has according to the author of the post following advantages:
- no “OMG noob team”, as there are only two players, you and the enemy (so theoretically winrate is up to you, the alpha tester winrate record is 82 percent after 5k battles)
- no stupid RNG, no disappearing shells, ricochets and such, the only random thing is the order of the cards in the deck in battle and even that can be influenced
- works on every really bad computer
- very easy to create mods for it
- very “addictive” time killer, can be played in office or school
- you can make the enemy rage by creating really nasty combos
- there might be historical PVE campaigns
- there will be also tournaments (after release, when it’s done it’s done), balanced by skill
- there is no randomization of cards like in Heartstone – if you want it, you unlock it
I recently recieved an e-mail, asking about the Let’s Battle magazine and its fate. Remember it?
It was that Wargaming magazine intended for mobile devices only. First (and only) issue came out back in February and ever since then, nothing, nada, zip. So, I went and asked Tanitha on its fate. Here’s a direct quote:
As for WG Magazine, there is no plans currently to scrap it, but its not in production at the moment either.
So, as you can see, not scrapped completely, but also not in production, which I think means it was shelved. I mean, what good is a magazine that comes out every half a year (at best)? Either way, there you have it.
