Today’s Advent Offer (9.12.2014)

Hello everyone,

today’s advent offer for EU server includes:

- SU-100Y + slot
- large caliber tank rammer

Price: 16,90 USD (13.75 EUR)

Meanwhile on Russian server, today’s offer is: 50 percent discount on crew training and re-training

A word of advice to you: soon, the Christmas marathon will start and common premium tanks like SU-100Y will be on like 30 or 50 percent discount. I strongly suggest you wait a week or two.

FTR Contributor Review

Hello everyone,

it’s time for weekly contributor review. This time, following people donated via Paypal:

Johan M. (Sweden)
Daniel A. T. (Romania)
Ciliaris (Norway)
Glenn W. (New Zealand)
R.Z. (name redacted at the request of the contributor, Israel) – thank you for a very large contribution, much appreciated! :)
Radek M. (Czech Republic)

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.

Now, for the Patreon cycle:

Out of the 593,59 USD pledged at the point of the cycle activation:

- 520,10 USD came in successfully (the rest didn’t go through for some reason on the contributor side, insufficient funds on account etc.)
- out of 520,10 USD, after the Patreon and CC fees and all that, 469,88 USD were left for FTR – much appreciated! The list of contributors can be viewed here. Once again, huge thanks for the support to all of you :)

8.12.2014

Check out the Chieftain’s Hatch article on the Ripper camouflage (written for Xbox WoT)

- A-32 will not get its highpenetration HEAT shells back (SS: IIRC A-32 is RU exclusive)
- Storm states that IS-4 armor (during HD rework) will be somewhat improved
- Evilly states that Xbox WoT doesn’t have the same number of players as the PC version, but WG’s not complaining (SS: in the sense it’s not considered a failure)
- developers confirm, that the Panther 88 and other premium vehicles, intended for the premium shop, will not be possible to test on the test servers in the future (funnily enough, in the same thread a day before, the same developer replied that it will appear in the next iteration of the test, later he changed it to the answer outside the brackets)
- M56 Scorpion is still being balanced
- developers confirm: Individual Missions tanks (StuG IV, T28C, T55A and Object 260) do NOT earn more credits (like premium tanks). They earn “as many credits as regular vehicles”

Posted in Q&A

US Server Forbidden Mod Q&A

Hello everyone,

probably for the sake of clarity, Wargaming NA decided to make a Q&A thread, where players can ask whether that respective mod is legal on US server. While in general terms the same conditions apply for all servers, please note that something being illegal on one server does NOT mean it’s automatically illegal on other servers – no idea why this is not unified, Wargaming is just funny that way.

From the thread:

- Warpack is illegal (duhhhh)
- the Battle Assistant (the arty mod) is legal
- XVM is allowed
- sniper-mode zoom-in and zoom-out mod is not allowed, except for replays for free camera

Explanation for the zoom mod from WG manager Pigeon_of_War:

This goes back to our Lens Scope prohibited mod rule. If you can zoom with your Sniper mode so much it removes foliage from the position you are in or the position you are zooming, it is Prohibited. These mods do exist and it seem to be caused be a mix up in someone coding it (accidentally?) so that you can zoom so for that it incidentally causes the foliage to be removed. Just note, it’s Prohibited if it removes foliage. Regular Zoom Mods that allow you to just increase the the area you are currently looking in are fine (for right now, we do reserve the right to change this at anytime, of course

So if you have an account on US server, you can ask whether a mod is legal or not. Haven’t seen any such thread for EU.

Panzerkampfwagen Škoda T23

xxx

Hello everyone,

it’s always exciting to see some new unpublished drawings come to light – stuff that was never shown in any book or anything. In this case, it’s the Škoda T-23M (designated on the drawing Am 41738 from September 1940 as Panzerkampfwagen T23). This drawing was borrowed with kind permission of Mr. Vladimír Francev and Mr. Jiří Tintěra from their personal collection. I usually don’t use watermarks, but in this case, since it was not posted anywhere else, I will.

Anyway, the backstory for this tank – in detail I wrote about it here. Summarized: this tank was the final development of the original Škoda Š-IIc (T-21). A prototype was built and tested, but was never accepted in German service. T-21 was instead produced and improved in Hungary as the Turán medium tank. The Hungarian development was their own, the only thing in common with this vehicle is their common ancestor, the T-21.

From the official German vehicle summary (accompanying the drawing, late variant – early variant had less armor and was lighter):

Weight: 18000 kg
Engine: Škoda 15 liter V8, 260 horsepower at 2200 RPM
Power-to-weight: 14,44 hp/t
Maximum speed: 45 km/h

Continue reading

Straight Outta Supertest: Upcoming Map Changes

Source: VK Wotleaks community

Hello everyone,

according to the supertesters, WG is planning to rework (in some case, heavily) certain maps, possibly in patch 9.6 (but this is not sure). These maps include:

Prokhorovka, Karelia, Steppes, Swamp, Siegfried Line, Live Oaks

Siegfried Line – the changed spots will be following – white lines show the changed spots:

fC_S_uIOC6I

Live Oaks – spot marked as 1 will be covered with houses and spot marked as 2 will have a small hill. Both changes are designed to make the north-eastern base harder to scout. Changes at point 3 are not known.

kKALGY98bzM

History Channel’s “Never Surrender” Document Sponsored by Wargaming

Thanks to Daigensui for this one.

Hello everyone,

those, who like to read about history – seriously, I mean – know of the poor repuation of History Channel, when it comes to real historicity. It is thus no surprise to find out that the History Channel’s “Never Surrender: The World Wars” show, that tries to appear “historical”, is sponsored by Wargaming.

And here’s a trailer for the series. It starts innocent enough, but just wait…

 

 

Why the fuck is there a World of Tanks footage in a historical show trailer? Why are there completely unrelated vehicles? Gosh… no wonder History Channel has such a poor reputation.

Tiger II To Have Authentic Sound?

Thanks to Martin K. for this one. The museum at Saumur on its youtube channel published another video – this time sound recordings from the Tiger II sound. Apart of having the sheer delight of seeing this monster moving (the only one in the world), it’s reasonable to believe that the guys recording the sound are from Wargaming, so we might in the end have a truly authentic Tiger II sound as well!

Okay, a tidbit that might be interesting for you. Recently (not sure when, but can’t have been long ago), Wargaming apparently – according to the words of of a Wargaming employee (no names for now) – 3D scanned the AMX-30 in Saumur (for some strange reason, WG scanned a middle-late production vehicle apparently instead of the prototype, which is there also – why? No idea). So in case you were wondering, yea – the next branch is probably the French AMX-30 one (heavy tanks on the other hand – not in 2015, or probably ever).