those, who follow this kind of thing on forums might have noticed that last week or two, WG staff on EU and ASIA (in this case, I am talking specifically about Tanitha, but there were several threads on EU, including the Czech section) are actively asking players, which maps do they dislike the most.
Based on that very feedback, developers are deciding what to do with the current maps. Now, the fact the developers are unhappy with some of the maps is well-known and the first result of this initiative seems to be the fact that Severogorsk and Ruinberg on Fire are getting removed in 9.5 (apparently completely removed, not just pulled back for overhaul).
I am sure all of you are aware of the Ukraine crisis and the sanctions the western world has imposed upon Russia as a result. This is where it gets a bit complicated, but basically – based on this sanctions, combined with questionable Russian monetary policy, the exchange rate of Russian ruble dropped drastically. As a result, for Russian players of both War Thunder and World of Tanks, the prices actually seriously increased, as both companies have the prices tied to US Dollar.
Unlike Wargaming, that was smart enough not announce this stuff publicly on the portal and simply showed the prices on RU server with the fluctuations in mind, Gaijin (War Thunder producer) announced price increases all across the board publicly yesterday.
The price increases in rubles are significant and that’s putting it mildly. For example, the prices of “golden eagles” (equivalent of WG gold):
150 GE from 29,92 to 44,99
500 GE from 99,03 to 129
1000 GE from 179,1 to 259
2500 GE from 440,05 to 599
5000 GE from 799 to 1099
10000 GE from 1549,04 to 2099
15000 GE from 2199,4 to 3049
20000 GE from 2900,2 to 3999
25000 Ge from 3499,03 to 4899
Naturally, a huge shitstorm arose on Gaijin forums, with players pledging never to buy anything ever again, saying that it’s too expensive etc. I can only imagine the amount of rage such a post would cause on RU forums…
here is the list of missions and discounts, that awaits us, courtesy of the Insider.
First and foremost: there are NO specific tier 10 discounts (“Top of the Tree”) for December and for January, as all tier 10′s will be on discount.
1.12.-1.1.: Monthly Missions
- win 3 battles while driving a tier 5+ tank once per day (must be in top 10 in XP), get 75k credits
- complete the mission above 15 times, get 700 gold
6.12.-9.12.: “Winter Wolfpack”
- x3 XP for first victory
- 30 percent discount on tier 6-7 regular medium tanks
- 50 percent discount on tier 5 regular medium tanks
- 30 percent discount on Panzer IV Schmalturm and M10 Panther
- deal at least 1000 damage in battle while surviving in a tier 4+ medium tank, get 50 percent crew XP bonus
- destroy at least 1 medium tank in battle in a tier 4+ vehicle, get 50 percent crew XP bonus
- destroy 50 medium tanks (repeatable) in a tier 4+ vehicle, get 10 gold repair kits, 10 gold medkits, 10 gold extinguishers
After my articles on Soviet and German armour, I think it’s only fair to sail across the Atlantic and turn our eyes at the manufacturing juggernaut that was the United States. A lot of people know that the US was good at casting armour, and that their armour was softer than that of their European counterparts, but that’s about it. While this is true, it’s far from the whole story.
To begin, let’s go far far back to the 1920s. There are no Shermans, Tigers, or T-34s. The greatest war mankind has ever known has just ended, and everyone is busy developing the latest and greatest killing machine. Huge and slow monsters did not seem interesting to the US Army, and development was focused on vehicles that were quick and agile, but paid for that agility with thickness of armour. For instance, here is an attempt to produce 6-12 mm armour plates that protect against .30 and .50 caliber bullets in 1922.
Condition: grind 50k XP for each nation (350k XP total, premium XP and doubles count AFAIK), using a tier 6+ tank
Reward: T-34-85M tier 6 premium Soviet medium tank.
Each nation (each 50k) is handled by a separate mission. For fulfilling each nation mission, you get 3 days of premium account. After they all are completed, you get the tank.
Edit: According to Evilly, RU server will have another tank and with different dates, so it’s completely possible this mission is EU-specific.
Nothing really going on with testing these days. Internally, WG is still “on track”, the patch 9.5 is scheduled for late December, which means that the common 9.5 will start somewhere around early december and the supertest should start in late November. It’s all very, very tight.
- Q: “WTF devs I live in Volgograd (Stalingrad) why did you not put the house I live in on the map and deleted it to make room for one of the bases?” A (SerB): *sobbing*
- Q: “Developers, currently I am grinding with T-34-3 and I am doing a lot of damage with someone else spotting. If you are going to nerf viewrange, will you give premium tanks some profit compensation for the loss of damage done when someone else was spotting?” A (SerB): “Let’s say we reduce the viewrange. If we reduce the viewrange, damage with someone else spotting will make a larger share from the total damage done. Are you proposing to reduce the rates in order to keep the situation as it is now? Okay, we’ll think about it!”
- Q: “Why are you making unfair missions/events?” A (SerB): “So greedy kids like you suffer”
- Storm states, that if you have a sharp FPS drop when you “light up” (scout) several enemies at once, it might mean your HDD is slow and takes a long time to load the models. Defragmentation sometimes helps somewhat.
- Individual Missions (the ones in 0.9.5 with Object 260, T55A and T28 Concept) will not be time-limited (SS: as in, there will not be a specific time limit in which you have to achieve the objective), but Storm at the same time is warning that you shouldn’t be too happy about that just yet, because the conditions will be difficult.
the following information is based on the investigation into this matter, that appeared in the German section of EU forums, specifically the data by Schrottkiste and General_Jack_D_Ripper (thanks for letting me know, General :) )
That also means the “graphs”, used in the abovelinked WG post are useless, because they do not represent the real training curve. General_Jack_D_Ripper explains:
Before battle crew XP status (right-click and “view image” for full size):
After battle crew XP status (right-click and “view image” for full size):
Crew XP actually gained: 2820XP (or twice for “Accelerate Crew Training”).
Tank XP gained: 940XP * 2(daily) + 657XP for using premium vehicle) = 2537XP -> Crew received 940XP * 2(daily) *1,5(crew-XP modifier for premium vehicle) = 2820XP
Crew should actually have received: [940XP * 2(daily) + 940XP * 0,7(Tier II premium vehicle XP modifier)] * 1,5(Premium vehicle crew XP modifier) = 3807XP
The original WG post advertises, that players need * 2,55 less battles(1,5 * 1,7) in Tier II, while in reality it is 1,5 less battles for ever Tier. As a “bonus”, if a player uses Accelerated Crew Training, 100% of XP “for use of a premium vehicle” is lost.
here’s a compilation of the “best” bits from World of Papoj series (it already has like 18 parts, it started long before I linked it on FTR). Some are a bit hard to follow what’s going on, but some are genuinely funny and since it’s shitty weather outside anyway, anything that brings positive mood is a valuable commodity!
