- Churchill Gun Carrier from tier 6 to tier 5 and reviewing stock Bishop? “When it’s done it’s done, if it happens at all” (SerB states that he can post his personal opinion, but other people deal with rebalance than him)
- there are no plans for now for variable geometry wing fighter jets in the game (such as the Messerschmitt MEP.1109), but in the future their implementation is not excluded
- the option to view replays from old game versions is not going to be implemented (SerB: “Convert the replay to video”)
- SerB states that regarding the way crew XP counter is implemented in WoWp (SS: it allegedly shows crew XP to 100 percent and not to next percent or something like that), there is a really low priority for implementing that to WoT, because both ways are roughly equally comfortable for the player
- SerB states that there is no “gold shell issue” (SS: as in, an issue of players shooting only gold in randoms), because everyone can do that
- SerB states that the impression tier 9 vehicles get (after the removal of battletier 12) thrown more often to the bottom of the team is false and not consistent with Wargaming’s statistics
- SerB states, that HE shells, that penetrate the armor completely (by their kinetic energy) don’t lose penetration ability over distance or get normalized, because “there is a quite complicated process of penetration, connected with the deformation of a thin-walled shell. Roughly said, limited sturdiness of the shell doesn’t allow for much more penetration even at short distances. Well, and as for normalization, these shells don’t ‘twist’” (SS: by “twist” I mean the process where the shell changes its vector upon impact, based on the construction of the point of the shell)
- FPS dropping on new winter maps? SerB: “How terrible. I checked, both the new maps and the old maps have roughly the same FPS for me. Write to support.”
About the Dakillzor affair
Hello everyone,
so, here it is, the awaited (by some) post about the Dakillzor affair. First and foremost, at first, I didn’t want to get involved in this sordid business, because I asked around and pretty much everyone told me the main protagonist, a player named Dakillzor, is an asshat and deserves what he got.
Naturally, seeing such a negative reaction from a lot of people (some of which I actually respect greatly), I was very reluctant to get involved. I still am, but recently appearing screenshots from Stormshadow (yes, he’s also involved in this issue) convinced me that I should at least post the summary of the whole thing and let you decide for yourselves.
China soldiers too tall and fat for older tanks…
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/china-soldiers-too-big-outdated-tanks-report-062507074.html
Thanks to Aelaeca73 for sending the link :)
From the article:
Chinese soldiers have become so much taller and fatter in recent years that they often find themselves cramped in tanks designed three decades ago, state media reported. A survey found that People’s Liberation Army troopers were on average two centimetres (0.8 inches) taller and five centimetres (two inches) fatter around the waist than 20 years ago, the military’s official PLA Daily reported Tuesday. As a result, it is harder for soldiers to squeeze into a tank designed for smaller personnel 30 years ago, it said. Rifle stocks are also too short for some, limiting their accuracy, it added.
The findings of the survey, which began in 2009 and included more than 20,000 soldiers, suggested an upgrade to the military’s equipment was necessary, the newspaper said, citing Ding Songtao, head of the poll project. “Equipment must be in the right size for the battlefield, as clothes have to be in everyday life,” Ding was quoted as saying. Obesity rates have almost doubled in China since 1980, according to a recent report by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), a London-based think tank. The rise was attributed to diets changing with incomes rising, it said, and lifestyles become increasingly sedentary.
Well, this is inevitable for any nation I’d say. Crew comfort is just as important as any other tank feature, I am sure The_Chieftain could talk about this for a long time…
An Obscure Little American SPG: XM104
So far in WoT there is a total of two premium artillery pieces, however most nations can easily be given a premium arty. America had been at the forefront of SPG development up until recently and could easily have a second SPG branch in WoT, but that is for another article. Today I’d like to showcase the XM104.
The XM104 was a very small vehicle(4.06 m long–including the gun & shovel/spade, 1.75 m wide, and 1.75 m tall) which weighed ~3.9 metric tons. We are talking about a vehicle with similar dimensions to the UE 57. It was developed in the early 1960s as a light, air-mobile, and amphibious artillery piece. Unsurprisingly, the XM104 did not have any armor to speak of besides a supposed variant with a gun shield. The XM104 had a 66 hp M151 engine which could propel the vehicle to speeds of 56 km/h. The XM104 had a crew of 4.
The main gun on the XM104 was the XM103 105 mm howitzer, which was used in the M108 SPG. The earlier trial model mounted a vintage M2A1 105 mm howitzer, which is in all practicality the same gun as the M37′s top M4 105 mm howitzer. Either weapon would work in WoT, it would be WG’s discretion on which to use.
XM103 armed variant(test rig 4)
The XM104 was eventually cancelled and never saw wide spread production. Their were a number of faults with the machine which includes exposing the crew to unsafe levels of CO to being armed with a caliber that was quickly falling out of favor. The XM104 was cancelled in the mid-1960s.
I believe this vehicle is on display at Ft. Sill, OK.
In WoT the XM104 would be a very good fit as a premium arty. It really doesn’t fit into a theoretical 2nd branch and is a near perfect vehicle for tier 5. WG can decide whether to use the M2A1 or M103 armed versions. Either way the XM104 would be a rather unique arty for WG to add to the game.
Sources:
Hunnicutt’s Sheridan
http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/405791.pdf
Thanks StrelaCarbon(NA) for the idea for a XM104 Premium.
19.2.2014
- when creating a new tier 8 vehicle (or rebalancing an old one), it is balanced for general use, not for team battles
- various new graphic effects will not be added to the old render (SS: the old render is not developed anymore in any way)
- Wargaming doesn’t want multiple “copy” maps (like Summer/Winter Himmelsdorf), SerB states that they will rather try to implement these variants with one map somehow (SS: as in, one map, more texture packs or so)
- there is a possibility that the M47 Patton with L7 alternative hull (!) will be implemented
- BMP and BMD vehicles do not fit into WoT
- apparently, no “mastery” badge rewards are planned (SS: but nothing specifically confirmed or denied)
- the reason FV215b (183)’s gun is designated as 183mm, even though its caliber is listed as 182mm: “Different nominal and actual caliber are in British case very common”
- detracking will not be split into “detracked by breaking the track” and “detracked by having a roadwheel destroyed” (SS: for the purposes of possible movement while detracked)
- currently, in the suspension model, each side has 4 contact points per side per tank (SS: as in, when calculating movement, 4 points on each side are there to make sure the suspension doesn’t “run flat” and it looks good). When the independent suspension gets introduced, this number will apparently rise to 5 – also, these points won’t have to be spread evenly, for example, when a vehicle has irregular roadwheels spread, like the T-54, these points will reflect the roadwheel positions
- T-55 Model 1958 is not in the game, because it’s too OP
- AMX 13 Model 1952 is in the game as AMX 13/75
And from Overlord:
- E25 is not OP
- FOV actually does influence FPS (SS: this was confirmed by Storm too, the wider the FOV, the more power it needs for the same performance)
T114 Tank Destroyer
Source: http://shushpanzer-ru.livejournal.com/1819422.html
Here’s something that’s probably not well known. The T114 tank destroyer. It was built on the T114 APC chassis. The T114 came in service as the M114 AFV and was used in the Vietnam war, where it proved to be a disaster and was relatively soon pulled from service.
This is a project to actually mount a turret with a 106mm recoilless gun with automatic loading from a magazine on the right side of the gun. An interesting design by any means. The British experimented with autoloading recoilless guns as well, although they used drum loaders to feed them.
This prototype was apparently developed between 1957 and 1960.
Czechoslovak Turán SPG’s
This is an interesting project, that could be a part of the Czechoslovak SPG branch (if any such a thing ever appears in World of Tanks)
After the war, the Czechoslovak countryside was littered with the wrecks of German vehicles in various state of decay. Some were just burnt-out shells, others were actually quite useable though: Panthers with broken final drives, vehicles that simply ran out of fuel, functional Panzers abandoned by fleeing German crews, in some cases with engines still running. Over the years after the war, these wrecks were collected, towed to repair shops by the Czechoslovaks and – in some cases – refitted and pressed into service in the newly reformed Czechoslovak army, that was equipped with a various assortment of wartime vehicles, from T-34′s to British Cromwells and Stuarts (even with a Firefly actually) the units came with back to Czechoslovakia.
18.2.2014
- Lowe and T34 don’t need limited MM according to developers
- nothing will happen to tier 6 French and Chinese LT’s (in connection with the introduction of US LT6,7,8)
- according to the developers, Matilda has “regular” MM weight (for its tier). Yurko2F states that you can count tanks with special “higher” MM weight with fingers on one hand (“unless you are bad with a cutter”)
- there is no rule in the MM mechanism, that would prevent teams from having many vehicles of the same type (SS: in relation to the 15xISU-152 “confrontation” teams), additionally, the MM (even in confrontation battle) allows both teams’ MM weight to be different up to 10 percent
- apparently, “confrontation” (national battles) MM setup where both teams have 10 vehicles of the same type is considered normal
- SerB confirms that there is a connection between vehicle HD remodelling and the low amount of new regular branches in 2014, in 2014, the amount of new branches introduced will be sharply reduced
- apparently, HD models will not download on weak computers
- if you spot enemy artillery, then it gets unspotted but stands on the same spot and a minute later he gets killed by your arty, you will not be getting an assist bonus for spotting
One undocumented change in 8.11 is that the display of winrate has changed. Where it was for example 52,7 percent, now it is 52 percent. This is intentional.
Also, new Botdetect mod version (8.11b) is available, you can download it here – the list of bots is longer and automatically updated (separate lists for NA, EU, RU and SEA servers, these will be filled in the upcoming days). Tried it, works, today I met a player called “nicitelzadku” (“ass destroyer” in Czech :D) – he was marked as a bot and yes, it was a bot, you can see the replay here (he was AFK until the moment enemies appeared in his range, he immediately started shooting)
T49 Light Tank – US upcoming tier 8
Hello everyone,
now that the fuss about the new graphics is over, we’re going to have a look at the upcoming tier 8 light tank candidate, the T49.
Basically, the T49 was a prototype M41 Walker Bulldog with a 90mm gun (crew of 4). In the late 40′s and early 50′s, it was recognized that a 76mm gun is no longer enough to combat modern Soviet medium tanks, specifically the T-54. And so, in January 1950, a commanding officer of Detroit Arsenal recommended developing a light tank with a 90mm gun, specifically to install a 90mm smoothbore gun on the M41 chassis. This 90mm gun was a new weapon, designated T123. It started as a smoothbore, but after bad tests results, when it came to accuracy, it was modified with shallow rifling, creating the T123E3 gun. Two of these were mounted in the production M41E1 turrets and this combination was redesignated T49. The turret was modified too: it was somewhat higher and it was equipped with a stereoscopic rangefinder. Further modification were made when in the ammo stowage compartment. The gun itself could fire three types of rounds: HE, HEP (HESH) and HEAT rounds.
New FTR graphics
Hello everyone,
after some annoying setbacks, we managed to get the new graphics, made by H4NI (http://88media.hr/) going. How do you like it?
- SS
Edit: Please report any bugs you might have with it. I will read it in the morning and decide what to do.
Edit 2: After seeing some of the bug reports, I decided to rollback to the old template for now, until they are fixed.