Every now and then, you stumble across something extraordinary and this is one of those times. Filed 12th February 1969 by Bernd Schmidt, this very special patent is for a whole family of vehicles, using a common hull. The benefits of a single hull for a wide variety of vehicles are very obvious: the ease of maintenance, spares, repair etc. – and he even specifies that in an emeregency, one vehicle should be convertible into anothery. Numerous alternate configurations are specified and some come with a few unconventional features. And ALL of them are more ‘historical’ than some of the current ingame vehicles. Who knows, maybe a candidate or two for some high tier swaps or some premiums? So we’ll go through all 30 variants he specifies one by one.
just felt like posting this – two days ago I platooned with Rita and while I sucked in that particular battle, Rita did an ace tanker with her StuG. I just felt like posting this, as it was a really good battle.
Seriously though, I thought the term “banana” for the eastern corridor was well used. Or was it on RU server? Can’t remember.
Wargaming RU released another WW2-themed video from the “History of Great Victory” series. This time, it’s the memories of Dmitry Mikhailovich Malyshev, a wartime commander of a T-34/85 tank. Do watch it, the memories of veterans are always interesting and actually, we should record as much as we can, as these men and women won’t be around for much longer. English subtitles are available. The video is of distinctive “Russian” style, but still, worth watching.
In the video, Dmitry Malyshev explains how they trained, recieved their T-34/85 tanks, liberated Brest and captured a German Waffen SS general. He continued to Hungary, where he describes an event how he and other Soviet troops knocked out a Panther and a Tiger. He was wounded in October 1944 and remained in Moscow for the rest of the war.
Do expect many more of these videos this year, as the 70th anniversary of the end of the war approaches. One thing is absolutely sure though – no matter what you think of Russians these days, these men were simple soldiers and real heroes. It takes guts to go and fight for your country.
time for another contributor review. You might have noticed… I don’t know, perhaps more typos lately? That’s because I have less and less time than usually – trying to keep the post standard, but the first thing that went down the drain is proofreading. Working on something very interesting you will see in a couple of weeks hopefully, we’ll see.
And thanks for all the well wishes once again… I actually feel really good these days. The second half of 2014 was really shitty, but it’s better now.
So, today’s huge thanks – apart from all the folks that support FTR on Patreon as usual – go to the following guys, who contributed via Paypal:
M4R4Z (Italy)
cb99 (Sweden)
Eikarrramba (Germany)
SashaBellEntertainment (Michichan, USA)
The best way to help me and FTR is via the Patreon service
- Jagdpanzer E-100 will not be switched for “something real” – and there is no incentive to do so, the vehicle is fine
- various branches (SS: specifically German TD’s mentioned) will not be reworked in order to have all the vehicles in them with the same playstyle (SS: basically, the player wants to switch the TD’s around so the entire branches get a specific “character” – this will not happen, with existing branches anyway)
- T30 will not be “returned” to the heavy tank branch
- KV-4 will not lose its unhistorical top gun
- why was LT buff done the way it was in 9.6? “No comment”
- tier 8-10 penetrantion nerf of some vehicles was not yet decided (it’s not clear how WG will do it)
- the historicity of gun penetration is less important than the importance of the gun (vehicle) being balance gameplay-wise
- damaging external modules does not count as damage done in battle, only damaging the main tank hitpoints does
- IS-7 has historical armor, E-100 didn’t have a turret in real life and that’s why the turret thickness can be balanced however WG wants, Maus armor is based on research of Yuri Pasholok, who said that the values could be different and 200+
- the FV215b (183) armor buff in 0.9.5 is “based on historicity” (SS: wut?)
- Storm states that a player proposal to reduce scout tank hitpoints while compensating that with improving other characteristics (camo, mobility) would only result in unrealistic (“UFO”) tanks
- the replacement for WT E-100 is not the twin 128mm “Flakzwilling” mount WT
- not only the Waffenträger line has balance problems, the earlier considered “Sturm” TD line (Brummbär and Sturmtiger) has them as well
recently a video with developer answers was published by the Russian videomaker Jove and here’s the transcript of it, as usually by Maiorboltach.
- there will be no possibility to remove maps you don’t want to play from your map pool
- in upcoming several patches, there will not be a new heavily armored heavy tank branch introduced in the game
- supertesters are players with various winrates, so that the supertest resembles the random battles better
- currently, WG is investigating the issue of map repeating frequence (“I keep getting the same map over and over”) (SS: yes please, fucking Erleberg in 7 of 18 battles….)
- M48 Patton will be buffed (“when it’s done it’s done”)
- currently, Wargaming is working on “Matchmaker 3.0″. In it, every tank will have a “role” and vehicles will be balanced depending on it.
- WG is currently working on a “league” system for team battles (weak teams will be in second league, strong teams in first). It will appear in one of the upcoming patches.
- XP bonus for “tanking” will come soon
- alternative hulls: “when it’s done it’s done”
- KV-5 will not be buffed
- next version of minimap will bring the option to ping the maps so that only your platoon mates see your ping
Type 120 O-I – the blue line, size comparison with T34 (green) and KV-5 (red).
Type 100 O-I – the red line, in comparison with Soviet T-39 heavy
Type 95 Heavy – the blue line, in comparison with Soviet T-28
For extra lulz – under one of the post, SerB was commenting, asking how they were going to implement it. So I guess we know now what Wargaming is working on for summer, eh?
To that end, to find out what’s going on, I contacted Daigensui, who was working on the previous Japanese line with Wargaming. The problem with Japanese heavies is that info on them is notoriously hard to find – Daigensui for example claimed that the scale on Type 120 was off. Additionally, as far as she knows, no new data have been found. That leads me to following conclusions:
- since Yuri Pasholok reconstructed the O-I drawing, Wargaming found some new materials on their own. Unlikely (they have been attempting that for years), but theoretically possible.
- they just took some very basic known dimensions (my guess: the dimensions of the 150mm O-I gun) and “reconstructed” the rest based on them, which means that the line might not be exactly historical.
- tier 10 was already announced by SerB a long time ago, not exactly a well-researched design either.
With that being said, I have the feeling that a lot of these vehicles might be… let’s say “reconstructed” by SerB’s Design Bureau in Wargaming. Previously, I assumed Japanese heavies would not be the “secret” third line of 2015 based on what Daigensui said (as her and Soukou are very busy and were not able to find any additional info), but with the willingness of Wargaming to “reconstruct” vehicles (to the point of practically totally inventing them, see how vague the vehicle linked above is drawn and described – I mean, basing tier 10 vehicle on a drawing from Russian achive, that came god knows from where), this of course changes the situation and the Japanese heavy line is the new hot candidate for the third line of 2015. This of course also means writing about these vehicles is impossible, as there is simply too little info to go with.
My opinion is that the tier 9 and 10 tanks will almost certainly be 80 percent made up (100 percent if you do not consider a vague Russian report on Japanese heavy tanks based on Japanese hearsay a reliable source). Oh well, at least they look cool.
thanks to ColdZero for letting me know about this. If you’re looking for a good deed to start 2015 with, here’s your chance, guys.
Bastogne Barracks museum is a museum dedicated to the last major offensive of nazi Germany, the Ardennes operation and the American troops defending against the German onslaught. The museum itself has a nice collection of armored vehicles as well, some of them were even featured FTR on more than occasion. The base was the HQ of the 101st Airborne in the defense of Bastogne, it also was an aid station and ofcourse the famous response of General McAuliffe on the Germans’ demand for surrender came from this base: “NUTS!”
Now, however, Bastogne Barracks museum needs your help, as the Belgian army (that operates it) is attempting to shut it down as a part of usual peacetime cost reductions.
In order to prevent it, a petition with an open letter, directed at Mr.Steven Vandeput, the Belgian Secretary at the Belgian Department of Defense, was put together by a few fans of the museum
All you have to do is sign the petition, the goal of which are 10k signatures to make the ministry notice it. The description of the entire initiative is written in the petition link.
Personally, I believe that any World of Tanks player and FTR reader, who cares about history should sign it – there’s not that many of us and we have to “stick together” – next military-operated armor museum to be closed could be in YOUR town after all. While the demands to reduce military costs might seem reasonable in the current situation of Europe, we should not sacrifice history and remembrance on the altar of ever lower costs.
Pictures are from Bastogne NUTS 2014 public event.
