Source: http://englishrussia.com/2014/02/19/the-snow-tank/
Hello everyone,
so, according to the article above, a student from Altai, Russia built a tank from snow and ice. That by itself would ba hardly noteworthy, were it not for the quality of his creation. The student claims his tank is even of correct historical size. So, what do you think? Must be a WoT fan :)
Hello everyone,
today, we have a guest article by Atilla “Kwagga” Balint (his blog), enjoy!
America’s antitank arm
In 1940, the German Blitzkrieg had been introduced with terrific results on the Western front. Despite their higher average level of motorization, the Allied armies proved to be no match against the massed and highly maneuverable Panzer arm. At the same time, curious and anxious eyes followed the events on the other side of the Atlantic. The U.S. Army saw the combat in Europe the following way. Neither the scattered antitank guns of the infantry nor the allied tanks could stop the timely massed panzers. The fear from the new threat gave a stimulus to a process which lead to the foundation of an entirely new combat arm. Originally, the sole purpose of the Tank Destroyer arm was to deal with the Panzerwaffe of the Wehrmacht, which was then seen as a more or less homogenous armored force.
Hello everyone,
this personal rating formula was reworked in 8.10, but somehow, it eluded players’ attention. Since patch 8.10, the Wargaming Personal Rating formula looks like this:
win – winrate (from 0 to 1)
surv – survival rate (from 0 to 1)
dmg – average damage per battle
bc – total amount of battles played
bc8.8 – amount of battles played from the point of patch 8.8 release
xp8.8 – average XP per battle (without premium account, from the point of patch 8.8 release)
radio8.8 – average damage done after your spotting (from the point of patch 8.8 release)
track8.8 – average damage done after you detracking the opponent (from the point of patch 8.8 release)
- 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.”
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.
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…
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.
- 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)
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.
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.
