as was written earlier, Wargaming is currently testing new physics system on supertest, that includes tipping tanks over on their roof – and…. well, I’ll just leave this here.
Yes, this is going to end well. To be quite honest, I am very skeptical of this. Last thing the game needs are outrageous flips, WT style. I talked to one of the supertesters and allegedly, it’s actually possible to make a tank do a 360 degrees (vertical) flip in the air. We’ll just have to wait for the open physics test, which should come relatively soon.
- a player claims that this area on IS-7 is bugged, that it allows players to penetrate IS-7 even with very low pen. Storm states that it will not be fixed (SS: as in, it’s intentional).
- T-62A was not reworked to HD yet
- a player was complaining that the Lenin statue on Ensk map is not fully destructable. Storm: “And other objects that are not fully destructable don’t bother you?”
- Storm will investigate numerous complaints of ghost shells from replays on RU forums
- artillery viewrange will also be nerfed just like the TD one was
- Storm states that to “reanimate light tanks” was not the main goal of 9.6
- developers haven’t considered for now to give Foch 155 a gun without an autoloader
- after the Foch 155 nerf some time ago, his statistics are “very average”
- not all bugs in IM description were fixed in 9.6, there will be further fixes
Storm, regarding the possible return of 9.5 accuracy: “Next week, we will study the statistics carefully. Right now, according to preliminary data, the difference in hit accuracy is around 1 percent, within the margin of error. We will investigate it further.”
- Storm states that the alleged 9.6 bug where the tanks are “rotating” on the spot more is just a coincidence
- the platoon invite system will be fixed in the future (the 9.6 interface caused some issues)
- Storm is aware of the Tiger P HD model issue, that makes this weird graphic glitch, it will be fixed
- it’s not sure for now whether in the future, the viewrange of premium tanks will get nerfed as well
I think many of you noticed my recent distaste (an understatement) for Richard Cutland, originating in what I was told in person by WG RU people during our meeting in Prague – and trust me, there’s a very good reason for it, several in fact and I am sure they will come to light eventually, either on FTR or somewhere else. I’ll give you even a hint though: the story of why there are no more post-war French medium tanks aside from the upcoming AMX-30 Prototype and AMX-30 in the game (and there likely won’t be any more) is an interesting one and very relevant. If you knew what I know, you’d.. “dislike” him too, but there are reasons why I cannot talk. For now.
Nevertheless, the following content might be interesting to people and that restoration part is quite fascinating.
As usual, Richard Cutland is reading stuff (presumably from a teleprompter) and as usual, there are mistakes. The biggest one I noticed is that he connects the concept of an autoloader mechanism to the oscillating turret. There is absolutely no reason to, those two are completely unrelated, an autoloading mechanism could be added even to a normal turret.
Regarding the depression – “10 degrees is the usual rule” is a complete nonsense. There is no general gun depression rule, the Soviet tanks for example usually had much worse gun depression due to the tactics they were to be using.
Regarding the oscillating turret, Richard Cutland (or whoever wrote the script) failed to mention the biggest disadvantage by far. An oscillating turret, given its nature, is impossible to overpressurize and thus, a tank with oscillating turret is practically impossible to secure against NBC’s. This was considered a major disadvantage and it still is even to this day.
The statement that the 75mm is the Panther gun is problematic. It was certainly an inspiration of sorts, but it is hardly an identical gun. The late (!) gun is shorter than the Panther’s, but only by a bit (L/62 compared to L/70), it has roughly the same amount of performance as the Panther gun (yes, it’s underrepresented in the game for balance purposes). Also it is worth saying WHICH gun, because the original AMX-13 gun had lower muzzle velocity and it was worse than the Panther KwK 42.
Oh, and Richard Cutlend mentions “hollow charge” ammunition for the 75mm gun: “hollow charge” is a term for HEAT – there was no such thing for 75mm (or at least definitely not a commonly used one), the upgraded ammunition was APCR (or even APFSDS).
Wargaming (RU of course) announced that they are working on a documentary movie about the cybersports element of the game (life of cybersports players and such). As far as I can tell, this concerns only the Russian server, but Wargaming is actually asking players (who would like to appear in it) to step forward and send them their resume. There are following conditions:
- the shooting takes place in Minsk and will last for two weeks
- all the players have to pay for their “vacation” in Minsk themselves (travel, living expenses)
- only players with over 9000 battles and more than 60 percent winrate are allowed
- they have to have “clear understanding of cybersports component”
As a part of the movie, the chosen players will be trained by the player SL1DE from the team Na’Vi and there will be a preliminary stage in the “attack/defense” mode. In the end, only 7 best players will remain.
Here’s an interview with some WG e-sports PM by the name of Aleksei Kornyshev. I hate translating interviews literally, so here’s a summary of what’s in it. it’s (shockingly) mostly about e-sports:
- e-sports-wise, WG “matured” in 2014 and introduced new features to WG League
- biggest success for WG e-sports is the launch of the new “attack/defense” mode, which is a joint effort of pro cybersports players and WG game designers, it caused the e-sports battles to be more dynamic instead of campy
- there were no unsuccessful (unmet) goals in 2014 in e-sports
- additional player promotion functions will be introduced this year: in team battles (TB) will have static (pre-made) teams with rating, players will be able to show how good they are in TB and will be able to fight for the title of the strongest TB team in the region
- WG stats show that in TB, players are using all sorts of vehicles and not just “e-sports setups”
- the role of armor in e-sports is not always positive, some say that it negates the tactical element in e-sports
- RNG is not a problem in e-sports, other e-sports games (DOTA 2) have random elements as well
- 2015 WGL Grand Final will be “full of surprises as always”
Internal modules are contained within the main body of the tank. Unlike external modules an AP shell needs to penetrate the surface armor before dealing module damage. HE shells can damage them without penetrating the armor, however they usually inflict less damage due to the majority being absorbed. I am considering crew members to be internal modules – except for a few open-topped TDs the crew are represented by hitboxes entirely within the tank. Internal modules are generally difficult to reliably target – their location varies for each vehicle and generally can’t be determined in battle. However, enough general rules exist to justify studying this area – being able to target engines, ammo racks or gunners especially has a debilitating effect on the enemy tank. I will therefore explain each internal module, where it usually is and what happens when you damage or destroy it. First up: Crew.
the Bovington museum invited back the retired British tank historian, David Fletcher, to make series of short clips, where he talks about tanks. The first tank to talk about is the British A13 cruiser.
I must say, I love the idea. Unlike WG EU’s Richard Cutland, who just reads a script and it’s blatantly obvious he has no knowledge of tanks, save for the one he served on, this man simply KNOWS. Very, very enjoyable.
- individual missions slightly changed the popularity ratios of each vehicle class, but it’s too early to say whether these changes are permanent
- it’s possible that one of the “Prokhorovkas” (Prokhorovka/Fiery Salient) will be removed (the one likely to stay is Fiery Salient)
- Storm confirms that the shells are disappearing after the penetration of the track in some cases, this is not something that needs to be fixed according to him
- after one player complained, Storm checked some bushes in the Airport and Monastery maps and yes, some are bugged (wrong camo values), it will be fixed in the future
- it’s possible that all the limited MM premiums will be removed from the premium shop and ingame store: “Anything can happen. But I won’t confirm anything.”
- HE shell mechanism won’t be reworked to become more complicated as it is now
- HE shell buff? “If we buff tank HE shells, we will also have to buff artillery HE shells and that’s not what we want to do.”
this is a sneak peek into the new 9.7 historical map, called “Overlord”.
According to Wargaming, it’s a mixed map, with one part covered with a village area and the other part with various permanent fortifications, while the other part of the map consists of an open area with enough cover, bushes, trees and landscape waves to cover your approach.
A generic allied landing site from 1944 was taken as the inspiration for this map and it’s worth noting that the landscape perfectly reproduces some of the local Normandy characteristics. The fighting on the map takes place between 5.6. and 7.6.1944, when the allied forces already landed and broke through the defense, but the remnants of the battle are still there, such as smoking wreckage and the beaches are filled with destroyed landing boats. Also worth noting is the fact that this map will introduce several objects unique to it, such as the bunkers, some houses and the new church model.
Raw video can be found here:
The bunker defense line, that can be seen on the map, was made according to German plans for that period. The only exception is the battery of giant defense guns, that in reality was situated 10-12 kilometers from the coast and was only added in order to make the map look cool. Real historical schematics of bunkers were used during the map development. The coastal line however was somewhat simplified, as in real life, it was completely filled with anti-landing and anti-tank obstacles. This simplification was made for gameplay reasons – in real life conditions, the beach area would be unplayable and optimization also had to be taken into account – large number of destructable objects could affect performance negatively.
The map is large (1000*1000) and all sorts of vehicles can find their place on it: MT’s are universal and can use the entire map, heavies can find their directions where they can get in close with the enemy, there are also enough positions for TD’s and arty to use and places where LT’s can scout.
More pictures (warning, large) in the article. Right-click and select “view image” for full resolution. Continue reading →
