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Mar 31, 2013

Indienpanzer stats

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.ru/index.php?/topic/765592-indien-panzer
Thanks to FrankyK for bringing this to my attention.

Please note this is a RUSSIAN leak. So much for "amagad evul EU testers are leaking...."





31.3.2013

Overlord on the recent EU supertester sacking:

Well, it was a tough decision. Many suffered because of few. Personally I have always been for EU/NA supertest, but things have gone out of hand recently. On RU side things are much smoother. 

 - there are vehicles (guns) that have the strange property that when you aim them at the enemy, the aim circle doesn't immediately start shrinking. This means that the gun is so inaccurate the aim circle was actually bigger than the screen
- Storm regarding the IS-7 speed buff: "dynamics will remain the same"
- there will be some vehicle based on the 38t suspension introduced into the game
- it's possible we'll get a Waffentrager German TD branch
- Leopard 1 will have a historical crew composition
- there will be no dynamic tank names apparently
- SerB on interenet tough guys who wanted to play tough, threatening him on internet: "They are very tough on the internet, but meek during personal meeting"
- Char B1 is doing fine statistically
- SerB regarding new premium vehicles: "There will be such premiums as we consider necessery. Wait for announcements"
- regarding the British turret TD branch: "Wait for announcements"
- "Official WG efficiency rating?" "Yes - that's the winrate, because the point of the game is to win."
- the 3-man platoons and companies confirmed to be available without premium account in 8.5
- another arty hardcap (3 arty per battle) is not planned, "wait for the tier 10 arty"
- there will be an SMS confirmation for phones linked to accounts about password change
- there is a MM mechanism, that balances the times when you play (tier-wise) as the top team player and as the bottom one
- AMX-13/105 is not implemented because it has too advanced rangefinder and electronics
- tank "aging" will not be implemented (SS: as in - a tank with 50 battles gets faded paint, with 500 gets rusty etc.) - "too much work for questionable profit"
- free XP won't be convertible to credits
- arty is not going to lose the green line in satellite mode
- Russian D-25T won't get heat shells
- Jumbo Sherman won't get the 90mm M3 gun
- IS-3 and Panzer V/IV - fixed in 8.5 are minor
- 8.5 test? "when it's done it's done"
- future tank branches will not be announced in advance, because people would whine when the patches don't come on time. Writing that the schedule is just an estimate would not help, people would still whine.
- US light tank branch re-work? "wait for announcements"
- the RU251 light tank is not yet configured properly for supertest
- Ratte will not appear in the game even as a decoration
- what is the role of AMX40? "thick-armored light tank"

EU Q&A "how to" + another round of "the game"

Hello everyone,

today, we are going to have a look at how the Russian Q&A developer thread works and how to use that knowledge, when asking the questions in the official EU thread.

As we all know, the EU Q&A system is incredibly clumsy. Partly, it's because the questions get translated to Russian and then back, partly it's because the answers then get translated to other languages as well, which is retarded and pretty much eliminates the possibility to ask any complicated mechanism questions the Russians ask (and sometimes it's REALLY complicated mathematial stuff for example about the distribution of the shells - interesting too, but NOT easy to translate, let me tell you that), because somewhere in the translation line there's a person that will the answer already once translated to English translate to a third language and in like 50 percent of all cases, you get a different meaning. Trust me, I know what I am saying, because I did exactly this myself last year: RU-EN-CZ. It doesn't work, the person doing the EN-CZ HAS to know the wording of the Russian answer, otherwise you'll screw it up. It requires a lot of doublechecking too, maybe that's why the whole damn thing is so slow.

Anyhow, the rules on the EU site are quite vague and looser than the RU thread itself, without any punishment too. Is that a good thing? No. Why? Because the same people, who answer the RU thread will answer the EU questions too - and naturally apply the RU rules. So, basically, what happens is that when you ask on EU forum a question that would be considered stupid on RU forum, what you get is a) a *facepalming* developer thinking "what the fuck is this shit" b) a clueless player who has no idea he asked a stupid question and then scratches his head as to why his question was not answered.

What is even worse: on RU forum you KNOW your question was "bad" when it gets deleted (there is a dedicated moderator only for that thread, purging the really stupid stuf), or SerB tells you you are an idiot and gives you a 14 days of read only ban (a standard RU punishment for wrong questions), while on EU server you have no idea why your question was not selected: was it bad? Was there no time to answer it? Was it illegal or just stupid? You never know.

The essential thing therefore is to realize that even when it is not written anywhere expressively, the same basic rules from RU thread DO apply for the EU posts. Let's have a look at them.

There are five basic post types the developers hate: bojan, vajn, OVM, suggestions and reposts.

Bojan - in SerBspeak it means a retarded question. There can be any number of these and the term itself is very, very broad. I'll get to various types later.

Vajn - that's a Russian transcription of the English word "whine". Basically any posts like "AMAGAD tankX sux buff it nao!" is considered whining. Any cries for buffs, nerfs, rebalances and such stuff are punished with a 14 day read only ban and they are NEVER answered, ever. Developers never change parameters of tanks based on forum outcry, it's absolutely pointless to suggest that. Whining can be about anything: game mechanics, maps, etc.

OVM - OVM is a shortcut used by SerB for Очень Важное Мнение - "Really Important Opinion" in English. What it means is that SerB (and any other developer) will nearly always ignore your opinion on ingame matter, especially when it comes to statistics. The typical case of OVM is when Player A says: "I played 5000 battles with a tank and measured accuracy for each shot, according to my measurements the shots fly all over the place" (just an example). SerB's typical answer would be "skipped your OVM" - because ANY statistics ANY player ever makes are ignored, always, they are considered that player's opinion, because developers build (and balance) the game on statistics from millions of players. Ergo, one player cannot prove anything statistically from definition.

Suggestions - those are automatically ignored (and banned for in RU thread) because there is a different section for them. Devs don't even read them, they skip straight away as soon as they see it's a suggestion, so don't bother.

Reposts - this is evident. People who ask the same questions that were answered before over and over are banned and told to read the previous answers. While there are no bans on EU server for this kind of stuff, I do have the feeling the Russian developer will ignore questions that were answered a million times already on the RU thread. This is my personal opinion, but from what I could tell, sometimes the developers don't realize how little info the EU server gets (after all, they answer questions every day) and then when obvious stuff gets asked, they start considering the Europeans idiots.



And now the important part: how to utilize this all.

- You do not ask "when". Ever. Developers have a strict policy of not answering "when" questions. The answer will always be either KTTS ("when it's done it's done"), or the question will not be answered at all. "When" questions are answered only in exceptional circumstances, when the developers themselves (!) feel the public should know about a certain plan (for example the latest revelation that 0.8.6 will contain T10 arty). It's also pointless to ask in broad timeframes, in which case SerB usually starts trolling: "Will the tank XXX come in 2013 or 2014?" "One of them".
There is a way around it however. I have noticed that when you formulate the question differently, you might get a same result, even if the answer is not as accurate. The proper wording thus is: "Is there a chance that XXX might appear until the end of the year"? Those get answered.

Wrong: When is the tank XXX coming? (answer will be "when it's done")
Right: Is there a chance the tank XXX

There is another way how to get the "when" answer - and that is the wording "Does it make sense to wait for..." - so if you ask "Does it make sense to wait for tank XXX" and the answer is "yes", that usually mean it won't take a year to implement it. Yes, these wordgames sound stupid, but it works.

- Never ask for buffs and nerfs. This always get ignored.

- Never start any question with "Everybody knows, that...", that will most likely get ignored, because SerB has the opinion that most things that most people consider common knowledge are in fact different from what they appear to be.

- Never make any suggestions. This one is bit tricky. First and foremost - by suggestion I mean pretty much anything, from suggesting "shell drop" or "shell mass" to details of a certain tank. The first type will always get ignored, either as "bojan", or as OVM. Pretty much any suggestion you also make (no matter how clever you think it is) was posted before. Russian server has more players than EU - many more - and some are genuinely smart people, they come up with all sorts of stuff... and they all get banned if they post it in the RU thread. The only type of suggestion I know is worth pursuing are tank details. For example, when you have a book that says that tank XXX has armor thicker and it's a reliable book (I am speaking Doyle-level, not "Tanks for Kids"), you can bring it up. Even so, the Q&A thread is not the way to do it, but you can veil it so: "In book Y, page X, it is stated on schematics Z that tank XXX has the frontal armor 2mm thicker in the game, I'd like to ask how it is, dear developers. Here I present you a scan from the aforementioned book."
Be warned however - in 95 percent cases, the devs will simply reply "our version is historical, sod off"

- Don't ask about obvious and daft stuff. This concerns mostly various plans to "improve" gameplay, that are obviously total crap (for example adding clutch) - remember, if the developers wanted the game to be more complicated, they'd have done so in the first place. So things such as "clutch", "fuel", "engine overheating" and such stuff have ZERO chance of implementation and you are only wasting your time.

- Don't ask very complicated questions. They don't have to be even long (even on RU server, very long questions in Russiang get ignored, because developers don't have time for that), asking "why is tank XXX unhistorical because... *insert two pages of quites*" is the best way to get a "It's historical according to our sources" laconic answer. The same goes for questions about the ingame mechanism formulas - some are known (for example those posted on WoTwiki for spotting range), but most contain a secret element, so all you'll get is "that's classified" or "that's complicated".

- Be polite. The developers are not machines. They do react on politeness. I have seen a case when Storm said "You know, your question is really good, but you're rude so fuck off". Starting a question with "Dear developers, I'd like to ask...." is a good idea. Starting with "Yo fucknuts, check this out" - not so much.

So, this is it. It's not that complicated, but one has to know what to ask. One more thing: I am fairly certain EU questions are not answered by SerB or Storm, but by one of their underlings (my best guess: Marschig), so do NOT expect any slips/deeper insight (by that I mean that occasionally, when in mood, SerB starts to explain motivations, why did they do that and that and what would happen if it was different), that's unfortunately reserved for Russians.

And now:



Let's play the answering game. In first post, I posted my guess on how the answers in the EU thread will look. Now, I will continue with some more.

SqTH: Do you plan to let us set-up the default zoom when switching from 3rd person view to sniper mode ?
(When switching to the sniper mode for the first time during a battle, the zoom is always to the max)
Answer: Actually, I think you have it wrong. The sniper zoom stays on the same magnification you ended with in last battle.

amashi: are you going to implement first person infantry running along the tanks?
Answer: No (btw, this is typical "bojan", you'd so get 14 days RO on RU forum for this)

TheSaBoT3UR:
1-Why does short 7.5 gun sound changing when we change turret on panther? because acoustic? or historical?
2-How wg balance tanks? There is a AMXfoch 155 with %53 win rating and Jagdpanzer e-100 with %47 win rating, does that mean they are balanced for wg? ( asking same question for t57)
3-is spotting system gong to change? ATM scouts spotting us from a hill and going down in a sec, There is 0 chance to hit them and can people do same irl?
4-Is developers really going to answer questions here? if they arent why they are not changing this forum`s name to Pray room?
5-Gold ammos were historical, And they are clearly OP  , If wg really want to make historical game - real fights why there is no HardCore game mode?
6-There is a contest says suicide fast as u can on turkish forums, is it joke?
7-Why Maus cant use his 2. gun? it isnt going to be useless, We can track people or kill people from back with good dpm.Why OP Foch-T57 can use gold ammo but maus cant use 2. gun?Because it is german tank ?

Answer: 
1. Here, SerB would answer "Uzhas kakoy" (in EN "what a tragedy")
2. SerB would answer "everything's normal with them" I think. Personally, I believe Jpz E-100 will recieve a buff in the same patch the German TD's come out (also, Jpz E-100 recieves a buff in 8.5)
3. Camo system is going to change, spotting no (not sure, but this could be considered a "bojan")
4. Idiotic question (remember the "not be rude" rule)
5. OVM  (followed by 14 days RO)
6. Not a question to developers
7. Multigun mechanism will be implemented, but not anytime soon

This is a typical set of questions that would just invite SerB's trolling. THINK before you post.

simeoncho: since ESL is a real big thing and soon we will have 7/42 company, have you eny plans to make 1vs1 maps  for 1vs1 and 3vs3 fun cups ..
Answer: No

SMGJohn: Will the driving experience change when the active suspensions are introduced with Havok for example climbing difficult terrain that usually get's you stuck or higher overall speed over bumpy terrain?
Answer: That's actually not a bad question. My guess on an answer would be "no", because the independent suspension is calculated client-side and nothing calculated client-side should have the effect on the game movement itself (for example, if the ride is smoother thanks to it, it allows to pass the railway tracks more smoothly, thus actually influencing the game). My guess would be that the answer "no" will be combined with some sort of patch, smoothing out the ride overall for everyone, independently on Havok.

RedBear87: Do you already have all the vehicles for the Chinese TD and SPG lines? I know about China receiving SU-76M, SU-100 and ISU-152 from the USSR but these vehicles would fill only tier IV-VIII and I'm completely clueless about Chinese SPGs, could you give us some infos about planned/possible vehicles? Also, can we expect them to appear somewhere during 2013?
Answer: Some. I believe the SPG's are not ready yet. TD's are based on the heavy tank designs, so expect Object 704 and ISU-like stuff. KTTS, not 2013. Guys, don't ask about exact dates, you won't get the answers.

MrCaffeLatte:  (here I have to use numbers for the questions - making your questions comprehensible and easy to differ makes them more likely to be answered)

1) Concerning matchmaking -
When you click 'battle', is your battletier decided regardless of what tanks are available at that time (hence sometimes experiencing long waiting periods even though there are 100+ tanks in some tiers which you could be matched with), or is it decided based on what tanks are available at any given moment?
I'm not expecting an answer for the follow-up question, but I might as well ask. If the former is the case, can the battletier you are assigned be 'refreshed' by exiting and re-entering the queue?

2) Concerning the auto teamkilling sanction system -
Does getting rammed by other friendly tanks (and consequentially damaging them in some circumstances) contribute towards your 'damage log' which may make you turn blue or get banned? Is this contribution significant?

3) Concerning the 'spam reports and you'll get investigated/banned' response on the 5th Jan 2013 RU Q&A (which I could understand thanks to SilentStalker) -
If you are investigated for continually 'spamming reports', does the investigation also involve examining the actual 'spammed' reports one has made? I would assume that to have grounds for banning a player, that player's reports would have to be investigated and so the 'spammer' may be more effective in exacting 'justice' than the player who is frugal with his ingame reports (albeit at the risk of a ban).

Answer:
1) Personally, I don't think the devs will answer this one properly, because it involves internal mechanism, which is not public. Either way, I don't know the answer, sorry. My guess would be it's the latter, seems more logical, but that's just my OVM.
2) Yes. Insignificant.
3) Again, this is something you won't get answer to, devs nearly never answer questions about the sanction system in order for players not to abuse it. In your case, if the answer was "yes", it would actually encourage ticket spamming, so I'd say no, but you won't get told

AnderSP90: SU-152 Taran as the Russian's T10 turreted TD? It would make for such a unique TD (like a T10 hellcat)!!
Answer: No, this was rejected.

Asemah: Did you really think/research about the so called VK2801(DB) for the potential Tier VII German Light Tank before you decided to use the Aufklärungspanzer Panther as the tier 7 Light Tank?
Answer: the answer to this is most likely "no", because I believe the developers think that the tank is fake, but can't guarantee.

skag1: In the media/renders section, there is a render of the STZ-5-NATI BM-13-16 Katyusha. Was MLRS type of vehicles at some point intended to be implemented in the game?
Answer: That was April's Fool 2012

Listy: 1: Has there ever been a legitimate 15 kill game? Even in testing?
2: What are the plans (As in release patches, even if its penciled in with a big rubber next to it) for the:
a)Firefly
b)Matilda A11
Answer: 1. - devs won't know this, nor they will care, not a developer question 2. - far KTTS (as far as I can tell, Firefly is supposed  to come with the lendlease branch, but no ETA there)

PuchaczTrado: Will the WOT premium account be shared among World of Warplanes and World of Warships when those game will reach some open beta phase?. I heard that free XP will be shared, what about credits?
Answer: Okay, here I don't know. I think the answer will be "not yet decided".

Trakais: When can we expect a proper end-game content?
By that I mean functioning Global Map Clan Wars. At the current state there in practically no point in grinding tier X tanks due to
- frequent downtimes of Global Map
- Global Map isn't rewarding, players get more gold by simply playing ESL
- problems with connecting to Global Map battles
- frequent bugs with chip movements, yesterday tons of clans couldn't even put chips after "patch"
Is there any chance PzIII/IV could receive a buff? According to (some link) it is one of the worst (if not the worst) tier 5 tanks, its WR is ~48% and it struggles with fulfilling any distinct combat role.
Are the mudguards on E-50Ms' sides considered as spaced armor?
 Answer: this is another question that will be skipped, trust me.
 1) What endgame content?
2) We are working very hard bla bla bla bla
3) OVM, vajn, 14RO

Gnomus: 1. How many people in WG is working on Clan Wars?
2. CW has been at beta for over 2 years. Is there any aproximate time when it's going to be official version? At the moment it's often broken after updates and every problem/ticket is just passed with "it's in beta" comment with no real support.
 Answer:
1. Hard to guess the answer, I think SerB would start trolling here or say "enough"
2. KTTS (sorry, absolutely no idea)

 j_gagarin: Will we see sometime at end-battle statistics what critical damage we did to a tank? (crew dmg, tracks, ammo rack etc)
Is it because of automated fire extinguisher script that one-button repair/med. kit. was scraped when only one module/screw member hit?
 Answer: 1) - no, 2) you will be able to buy a gold automatic repair kit/med kit for credits

SzaloniChemik: Are multiple gun vehicles (M3 Lee, B1, Churchill) mechanics still developed? If yes, then when we can expect that to be implemented (of course I'm not asking for solid date, just ETA - this year, next)? Maybe there is something that you can share about how this mechanic will work right away (will we have to choose which gun we want to operate, can we change it during battle, etc.)?
Answer: Yes, KTTS (it will most likely not come this year)

Arkean: Will you change the servers to be together as one real cluster so people on cluster 1 and 2 can platoon/play TC together?
Answer: bojan, suggestion - for this you'd get banned on RU forum.  The answer is most likely no, if they could do that, they'd have done it already

Goblin_5: 1. The developers have many times mentioned that the garage info screen won't display all stats because they don't want people to crunch numbers. So would it be possible to add figurative 'values' for some of these stats. For example:

Camo: poor - low - average - good - excellent

Other stats to consider would be acceleration, terrain passability, climb ability, on the move accuracy and ramming ability. This would give players some indicative about what their tank can and can't do without resorting to third party software and then being angry when that data turns out to be inaccurate. It would also decrease the amount of rage when people find out that their house sized tank can't hide.

2. Would you consider it possible to have small articles about mods? Modding is a rather big part of the game and WG having, lets say monthly, highlights about good mods would make more people aware of them and also show what mods are kosher so to say. This would reduce the anxiety about 'banned' mods and encourage budding modders to try their hand at it.

3. Uparmoured T-34 for the USSR?

4. Stug III Ersatz for the Germans?

5. Any chance we might see some of the T95 medium tank models in the US tree? Of course meaning the ones with rifled guns.

6. What is the status of the 'super platoons', or has this mode been scrapped altogether?


Answer: 1. I think the answer will be "no" and "use common sense - big vehicles are hard to hide"
2. We are working very hard to pick mods we like and implement them bla bla bla
3. T-34M? That's planned.
4. Not for now.
5. No comment
6. That was never on table, so it couldnt be scrapped

Elnorka:
1. Do you plan introduce some daily/weekly/.... achievments? e.g get 2 top guns, destroy 50 tanks
2. Will be there some special signs on tanks for free as reward for something? e.g for destroy 10 000 tanks you get sign "weapon of mass destruction"
3. Any closer info about EU tech tree, i am mainly interested for CZ/SK branch. Can i suggest my real name and hope that it will be name for crew
4. Is plan for new crew skills?
5.  Which part of game Havoc physics affect the most?

Answer:
1. I think the answer is no, because that would actually give extra rewards beyond what we have now, which is what the devs don't really want to do. Would be nice tho
2. No
3. Well, let me tell it like this: the supertester leak was a Czech, the Czechout affair, Czech section being a shithole... do you REALLY think there will be a Czech tree? I don't. Also, suggestion... ugh. The real answer will be "as a part of the EU tree"
4. When some suitable are found
5. Not sure what the question means

Hokum15: There is apparently a bug in side skirts on tanks (http://forum.worldof...ns-side-skirts/) the effect is that shots which should bounce due to extreme angle are instead resulting in penetration of the tank hull or overmatching rather than bouncing as they should. Will this be looked into?
Answer: something like this appeared on RU server too, will be investigated

St0ne_Monkey: How many 8.something updates will there be.
What will the major game alterations of the next main update 9.0 be.
Answer: 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, wait for announcement (my guess: tier 10 arty in 8.6)

Mourning76: Will CW get a major overhaul this year and will the changes be new content that can be earned/unlocked? Or will it involve new mapoptions (like ransacking and espionage which were added earlier this year)? Or both?
Answer: Yes, wait for announcement (some stuff was being supertested, not sure what)

Glandolin: 
1) can we expect new maps in next patch or 2?
2) Are you going to add new tank branches in near future?
3) Are you going to implement more "fun" little things to make WoT more interesting? like Historical Battles, or lets say ... Special battles (no base, just destroy all 15 enemy tanks?)
4) how about some "unlocks" ? something to customise out tanks a bit, but not for gold or credits, lets say ... you survived 100 battles with a single tank so you get a sticker "Not going down that easy" on in? just to add more randomness and make the game more enjoyable
those are the real ones I want to hear answers to, but I would like to ask as well: Are you going to change anything about folowing tanks anytime soon? (Matilda, T49, M18 Hellcat, T-50-2 KV-1S, SU-26)
 Answer:
1) Yes (two winter ones)
2) Yes (well, the German medium one *trollface*)
3) No
4) Options are being considered
5) If needed

rzaba: are you planning to release EU or one of European national trees in 2014?
Answer: We'll see (hard to tell - devs won't say exactly anyhow)

mr3awesome: Is there a chance that the Sherman Firefly might appear in 2013?
Answer: My guess is "no"

My god, this is tiring.... anyway, we'll see how accurate I am :)

Mar 30, 2013

30.3.2013

The biggest news of the day is the sacking of the EU supertesters I suppose. That will make a few people... unhappy (check the previous post).

Anyway as for today's news:

- it's possible the shell velocity for each shell and gun will be made public (disclosed, for now it's secret)
- regarding the IS-3 model "fix" from the unofficial patchnotes: Wargaming fixed the "overhang" above the mantlet
- the US premium TD will be implemented, but not fast - Storm states they have no patch to put it in, as all patches already are full (SS: as in they have their content decided)
- the point in the 3001, 3601 etc. tank names (SS: earlier VK3601, now VK36.01) was added because it's historical (SS: the first number indicates the prototype weight in tons, the second is the version of the prototype)
- ST-I model was checked, it's correct
- Durchbruchwagen is still planned for tier 5, will be implemented later
- premium tanks tier 9 and 10? "No"
- the details about the tier 10 "reward" tanks (Object 907, M60, Failowe) will be published later
- the fate of Panzer IV Hydro is not yet decided
- the XP needed to level up the light German tanks will be reviewed, wait with XP decisions until the patch test
- you can't get a defender medal by killing a capper after the base was fully captured
- water does not diminish the effect of a HE shell, it's also not planned
- there is a hidden parameter "quality of the suspension" in the game, that affect the vehicle performance

EU supertesters fired

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/228026-eu-supertest-program-closed/

So, basically all EU supertesters have been fired. Regrettable, but it's the only way they could have dealt with the flood of leaks.

My thoughts? It was basically the only thing WG could have done to prevent leaks. Keep in mind that even though some of the leaks went thru me and my blog, others went thru various Russian sites and blogs, so the issue is by no means closed. Still, too bad.

Silentstalker vs CZ/SK community: how and why?

Hello everyone,

once in a while, I get asked, what's the problem between me and Czechoslovak community in WoT (by Czech community I do not mean all Czechoslovak players in game of course, but some (not even all) Czechoslovak players from the unofficial and official forums). I never really bothered to answer, but seeing as the unofficial community made a thread bout how happy they are I am banned from the EU forums (tbh, ever since my ban, I think I have more readers than before, yesterday I broke the record with nearly 60 thousand hits per day), I think it's time I recount the whole story of what happened. I offer no proof (most of this happened long time ago and was deleted/threads disappeared etc.), either take my word for it, or don't, simple as that.


Those of you, who don't care and don't like HURRRDURRR DRAMA, you might as well skip this article. 





Still here?

You've been warned :)

In order to understand, you have to realize the Czechoslovak World of Tanks community, you have to understand it is split into two parts: the unofficial and the official one. The reason for this is that World of Tanks was very popular from the beginning, but Wargaming reacted slowly and the official section came to be only when the unofficial forum was in full swing. That's why the official section was never as frequented as the unofficial forums (in Czech nicknamed "neofiko"). The unofficial forum even registered the worldoftanks.cz domain (which got stolen inbetween but that's a story for another time). Also, the important thing to know is that the unofficial and official forums were largely hostile to each other (with players from the unoffical forum coming to the official one and spamming ads on their forum over some threads). I shall furthermore refer to the official forum as OF and unofficial forum as UF.

Another thing that you need to realize is that most of OF and all of UF is utterly anti-Wargaming. Any change/problem/decision of WG gets bashed to no end, there is a lot of whining, bitching and practically zero constructive content. If you don't believe me, look in the current CZ/SK OF section, you'll see. Moaning everywhere.

I came to the whole OF/UF conflict around June 2012 (or so, can't remember exactly), because I joined a clan called Steel Vortex (it still exists as far as I know), led by Kvetule9_CZ, a Czech female player and one of the head honchos of the UF (she was a redactor or something). I didn't expect much. The OF community was rather OK at that point, Tuccy and Czechout were doing an okay job. The problem was, Steel Vortex (SV) was in a state of "war" with some other clan I forgot the name of, they broke down later on. One of them (a 40-year old truck driver, a complete retard - yes, I do think he was mentally impaired, he disappeared shortly after this incident, because he got flamed by the entire UF) started insulting Kvetule9_CZ, because of how she looks (primitive stuff, really). So, what I did was the first time I encountered his platoon (on my side) in random, I teamkilled them both, they went moaning on the UF and that was "strike one" for me. The situation got contained, I "apologized", but it left an aftertaste.

"Strike two" came some weeks later. This was a good one, that convinced me that the UF was a bunch of retards. Basically, what happened: UF was tied to this Czech weekly streaming show called Tankodrom (it still exists, by the way). Someone started a rumor, that Wargaming will support this web show with some substantial money (2000 Euro per month or so). As with typical Czechs, fighting for this fictional money started. Basically, they all wanted to get rid of the person who was pushing hard for the complete unification of UF with this stream, so UF gets a share of the money (his name was/still is Argo37). Kvetule9_CZ was quite annoyed and I, in a typical whiteknighting fashion, offered to help. She introduced me as a "lawyer friend" and I pushed Argo37 into resignation. Overall, it was a "victory" and things calmed down, but the fact the entire UF staff fought like animals over the money that didn't even exist left me quite disgusted (the fighting was ugly, with real life threats etc.) - in the end I told everything that happened to Czechout (who I was talking to on regular basis), who made sure UF wouldn't get any WG support (let alone money) ever again and - after some UF member called openly her a whore - made her openly hostile to UF.

As an aftermath, one of the staff on UF made hits that he'll extort Wargaming somehow (there was an issue whether the NDA some people signed was legal or not, all kinds of internet lawyers and morons started claiming it isn't). I changed my Teamspeak nickname and joined in disguise their "secret" TS session, where some of the UF staff ranted about how they want money from WG (!) and that they will sue if they get nothing (!!!) and that Tuccy was a retard. I didn't record the session of course, but it did convince me that UF is just a shithole.

"Strike three" came in autumn. By that I was firmly convinced the UF people are absolute filth, truly disgusting (by the way, Georgee, who started the SS thread, is their head honcho, typical...). Some of you remember the "fake Chinese goldsites" affair. Basically to sum it up - a website offered cheaper gold than Wargaming, because the site was running a credit card scam. A lot of people in Czechoslovak and Polish community (where it is known as "Allegro gold" after some e-auction site I believe) fell for it and subsequently got banned.

Basically what happened: a guy named Kanar (yes, it's the SAME guy from the anti-SS thread) started an open thread (!!!) on UF, where he promoted the credit card scam site with "we get even with Wargaming who is cheating us anyway bla bla bla". A lot of people wrote in the thread about how they bought this cheap gold. I mean... openly! Without any limits, anyone could see who posted there under their game nicknames! It doesn't get more retarded than that. What I did was I told Czechout about the thread. Obviously, people from the thread were investgated and mass banned. They then came en masse whining to the OF. I laughed my ass off at their rage, it turned into a flame- and troll- fest.

That was pretty much enough for me to consider everyone from the UF and half of OF that supported these morons a total filth and I started bashing them openly (with Czechout's support actually, she hated the morons as much as I did).

Proverbial last drop came later in autumn with the "Polish independence" weekend special. I have made some joke "Siemka" threads in my time, but this turned into an ugly anti-Polish and anti-semitic rant on Czech forum - both UF and OF members were bashing the Polish, Jews etc. and MANY people got banned. I joined the flameward on Wargaming's side and bashed the shitheads, kindernazis and other filth. In the end, the Polish community organizer had to come in and apologize (!) for the Polish actually having a special. I have never felt more ashamed for being on the Czech forums, it was just... bleh. Anyway, from that point, I was labeled as a "WG stooge" and "snitch".

In the Czechout affair in January, most of the Czech community sided with Czechout (because - let's face it, she was handing out bonus codes like there's no tomorrow and of course, one does not simply side with Silentstalker). So yeah, from that point, it just went downhill, but yea, that's how the whole "Silentstalker is the satan" started.

The common misconception is that I hate all Czech players or forummembers. I don't. In fact, I don't have problem with most people, I enjoy talking for example with lonigus and others.

I don't claim to be a nice person. Hell, I'm an asshole, most people know that. But given the fact the UF started a thread about me again (hurrdurrimfamous), I see no reason why not to tell my side of the story, since people ask from time to time.

VK2001D and VK3001D screenshots

Source: KrasnayaZvezda, US forums

A note on nomenclature: Most people, who don't read the historical literature were used to the different nomenclature system: VK3002DB, which means "fully tracked vehicle, 30 tons, 2nd prototype, Daimler Benz". The D instead of DB means the same thing: Daimler Benz - just that one system is used by H. Doyle and the other by W. Spielberger. They both work the same.

VK2001D


VK3001D


EU Q&A

Hello everyone,

so, today (or yesterday), a new batch of EU Q&A was open - you know, the thread where you can ask the developers anything and after 4 weeks or so, you get answers for about 5 percent of them. I saw the questions and I was like... "damn, I think I know what SerB will answer to this!"

So, let's play a little game.

I'm gonna answer the questions EU players asked right here and right now. When there are official answers from developers, we can compare it and we'll see how accurate I was. I am willing to bet I won't be far from the truth, given the fact that the answers usually don't differ from the one on RU server.

And yea, I know the system is crappy, but it's all the EU server has. I have the feeling Overlord is working on something better for the EU, but could be just a hunch. So, let's get to it.

Izroda: When will the test server for next patch be up and when can we expect 0.85 to go live?
Answer: Devs will NEVER give you an exact date when the live patch is scheduled. Best guess? Test begins on monday/tuesday and will last two weeks. You won't get the official answers till then most likely.

Whiskey_CZ: Do you plan add to German tech tree more moder tanks? (1945 up)
Now in German tree are only tanks of WW2, in 8.5 we will see first tanks after war in their tree (Indien-panzer, Leopard I,...). You said that you had vehicles for 4 TD line, will be in one of line "Kanonenjagdpanzer"?
Answer: This was actually asked on the RU server several times. The reason why Kanonenjagdpanzer was not introduced is that while it is a late design (1960), its quality doesn't reflect that. It's a tier 6 material at best and that tier is mostly occupied by mid-war vehicles. That's why it's difficult to implement. My guess? There is a small chance it will appear as a premium vehicle, but the general answer is "no".

Yannik1904: Will the "Sturmtiger" be introduced into the game?If yes,when?
Answer: Yes, 2014

Hohladungsholger: 
1.When will you add tier X artillerys to the game?
2. Why have differents tanks with the same caliber of their weapon different shot sounds ( SU-8 152mm----SU-152 152 mm)?
3. When  will the maps "Komarin" and "Swamp" come back to randoms?
4. Are there plans to add british artillerys in the next patches?
5. Could you buff IS-8 cause its frontal armor is rubbish in contrast to other Tier IX heavys. In reallife he had 240 mm I think

Answer:
1. KTTS ("when it's done it's done") (SS: 0.8.6)
2. Because in real life the guns shot different shells
3. KTTS (SS: was scheduled for 0.8.5, was missing from the preliminary patchnotes, so either 0.8.5, or 0.8.6)
4. Yes, 0.8.6
5. WG buffs vehicles as needed.

R4F431: Do you plan on adding bullet drop the players them self must compensate for? because then it will make firing gold shells, or expenisve shells in general a little bit more unsure.
Answer: No, if WG wanted to have that, they would have done that from the beginning. Besides, it would be pointless and confusing.

principat121: Do you plan to modernize the UI in the garage?!
- for example the functions for sorting tanks are worth to reworking! Because when you have a really lot of tanks then non of the existing mechanism is usefull
- or puting whole crews in and from tanks could be intruduced (yes, there are mods, but officially...)
- something I have forgotten
Answer: The vehicle selection and filter interface will undergo an overhaul, it is planned.

builder396: When can we expect independent wheel suspensions to be added, and will this change be only optical or will it actually include driving performance?
Answer: With the introduction of Havok, KTTS (SS: the independent suspension is internally tested at this moment. Wargaming will never tell when exactly is it coming, but rough estimate is Fall 2013)

Smederevac94: Hi WG, 1.Do you have any plans for Tiger 2 speed in the future, because it is little a 28 km I think hi deserve 32 or 35 km. 2.Do you have any plans for E-100 gun (150cm) in the future, because 15 cm gun has the worst penetration 176-294 that is so little.
Answer: We buff vehicles as needed

IgnacM991: 1. Are you going to seriously rebalance and remodel the artillery's role on the battlefield? If yes, then when? SPGs are successfully killing the game on higher tiers ATM! You may have your stats, but it's fun what really matters and even 3 high-tiered SPGs can make a match awful for slower, bigger tanks.
Answer: The number of artillery in high tier battles should drop with the introduction of tier 10 arty.

Dead3yez: Will there be a second US medium line? What characteristics will this medium line have that separate it from the existing US mediums? Is there also going to be a new US medium premium tank available to buy? When can we expect new US mediums?
Answer: Possible, wait for the announcement (SS: WG will not tell you such things in advance, but I think  we might see two more American branches at some point: the Yoh heavy branch and the T95 medium branch, which most likely won't have any really special traits)

Rongkong: Can we expect updated engine-sounds in the near future or do we have to rely on Gnomefather's mod? The actual ones are quite lame compared to the real world sound and i expect the Leo 1 to have an very inapropriat sound as well.
Answer: Okay, here I am not sure how exactly will Wargaming answer. On Russion forum, the question was answered so that the devs are happy with the current  sounds and that finding realistic sounds of tank engines is extremely difficult, as very few are in running condition. Possible, in distant future.

Psysiphos: do you consider adding more expensive premium ammo that has far higher damage AND penetration?
Answer: If needed (SS: this sort of questions is typically either not answered at all, or with "po neobchodimosti" = as needed)

sparkase: When can we expect to get the Churchill AVRE ?
Answer: This won't get answered - and if it does, then by KTTS, or 2014

Elmis66: According to tech tree on webside there's going to be second soviet medium tanks branch. What patch are they planned for and what will differ them from existing ones?
Answer: Wait for the announcement (SS: possibly 0.8.7 or 0.8.8, not sure, but they sure as hell won't tell)

So, let's see how close I get :)

Just a few tips in case you guys missed that:

- never ask devs about when exactly will there something be, they won't answer
- don't bother asking for buffs and nerfs, the answer will be always "as needed", if there is any answer at all
- don't bother making suggestions about mechanics/physics, anything you propose was already proposed ten times over on RU forum (trust me, that's true)
- don't bother making any suggestions that would complicate the game (clutch, shell drop etc.) - if the devs wanted something as fundamental, they would have implemented this in the beginning

If you want to find out, when something will be introduced, ask like this: "Is there a chance that XXXXX might appear in 2013?"

Mar 29, 2013

29.3.2013

- P.43bis might have the same gun as the Semovente 105/25 (most likely nothing longer)
- apparently there were no Japanese SPG's developed based on the superheavy tank chassis, as the tanks themselves were barely properly developed
- regarding the possibility that the top Japanese tank destroyers will be modified superheavy chassis projects with 155mm+ guns - "we'll see"
- according to SerB, new re-worked maps don't have less cover from arty, their surface was levelled in order to allow better maneuvering
- the situation with arty around tier 10 is still not satisfactory according to SerB, but it'll get better (SS: with the T10 arty introduction)
- there will be no 4 man platoon
- completely destructible environment would require several times more powerful servers than what WG now has, unrealistic
- real unit emblems will not be introduced, SerB doesn't want SS "Totenkopf" symbols in game (not even for historical battles)
- when using a repair kit in game, the cost of that module repairs is not included in the final repair costs for the battle, SerB states that using repair kits is more expensive even for hightier tanks, he also states that while the price for module repairs is different for each module, repair kit is always more expensive
- it's planned that when a burning tank drives into water, the water will extinguish the fire
- WG doesn't use much outsourcing when creating ingame models
- 0.8.6: tier 10 arty plus British arty
- Q: "SerB, what will you do with forum trolls?" A: "I'll go feed one"
- there will be a special map screen, on which the Clanwars commanders will be able to draw and explain tactics for their teams
- apparently, the M110 US heavy artillery won't be introduced
- related to AT-2 introduction, other nations' TD's won't be buffed
- alternative guns for arty will most likely not be introduced
- there will be no alternative guns for premium tanks
- Dicker Max doesn't have additional grousers equipment, because they are not needed
- Swamp and Pearl River might have more game modes than just the regular battle

FV215b(183) god of WoT with 15 kills? Not really...

A few days ago a Russian player MACCA_B_TAHKE amazed the world (of Tanks) by archieving 15 kills with a FV215b (183), which only has 12 shells.

Here's his RU page profile (courtesy of Trollin' Along)


Now it turns out the suspicion was correct: the guy is being investigated and the thread that celebrated the game on the RU forums has been shut down. Apparently, the battle was staged - no big surprise there.

Mar 28, 2013

8.5 - Patch notes

Well, this is a bit odd. Someone, writing as anonymous, wrote a comment under the recent daily translation that he hates me because I am arrogant, but that he's going to share this anyway (the post ended up in spam folder).

This is NOT confirmed, keep that in mind, some items are... suspicious.

List of changes in 0.8.5 version in comparison with version 0.8.4: 

- added new German research tree branch, Medium and Light tanks: VK 2001 DB (tier 4 MT) VK 3002 DB v1 (tier 6 MT) Indien Panzer (tier 8 MT) Prototype der Arbeitsgruppe A (tier 9 MT) Leopard 1 (tier 10 MT) Aufklarerpanzer Panther (tier 7 LT)
 - Added new Soviet Light tank branch: T-60 (tier 2 LT) T-70 (tier 3 LT) T-80 (tier 4 LT)



So yea, the Indienpanzer will follow after the VK3002DB, which is getting renamed to VK3002(D).

Also, here's the preview of the 8.5 German tree


Recon Panther preview:


Leopard preview:


Russian light tanks



- American Premium tier 3 SPG Sexton moved to the British tree and becomes available for sale in the Store.
- Premium tanks added to Supertesters' accounts for testing:
British tier 5 heavy tank A33 Excelsior
Soviet tier 10 tank "Object 907"
US tier 10 medium tank M60
German tier 10 heavy tank VK7201
- Visual models fixed for: IS-3, Valentine AT, Pz V Panther, Pz IV/V, Object 263, VK 3001H, Conqueror, IS-4M.
- IS-7 maximum speed increased from 50 to 59.6 km/h
- Shell speed for 17сm PaK K72 gun increased from 850 to 925 m/s

- Added new Asian map: "Pearl River"
- Maps reworked for improved rendering: "Ziegfried Line", "Southern Coast", "Malinovka".
- Visual and gameplay updates for maps: "Redshire", "El-Hallouf", "Karelia".
- Changes made in Assault mode for maps: "Malinovka", "Karelia", "Sand River".
- New color correction filters added for testing in improved rendering mode; maps: "Steppes", "Himmelsdorf", "Live Oaks".

- Premium consumables (medi kits, repair kits) are now available for credits (price set according to gold-to-credits normal conversion rate)
- Platoons for 3 are now available for standard (non-Premium) account users <-- HOT!
- Tank company can be now created by non-Premium account users
- Reduced prices for temporary (credit) camouflages, inscriptions and logos
- Post-battle screen changed and updated
- Notification messages now sent after automatic conversion replaces modules, shells or tanks in new version release process.
- Added new inscriptions for 5 nations.
- Inscriptions resolution increased twice.
- Fixed super-large vehicles getting stuck under ledges and jutting elements (bridges, etc..).
- Fixed rare error with small damage shells getting vanished after hitting a gun with large HP number
- Fixed HE rounds not dealing full damage to external modules after penetrating it.
- Fixed HE shells hit and explode on crew modules of a destroyed open-turret tank.
- Fixed error visualizing shells explosion in the air.
- Fixed rare fuel tank destruction indicator not showing in some situations.
- Destroyed tanks do not consume HE shells damage not. HE shells not always explode on the surface of such tanks.
- Fixed smaller and lighter tank not getting damaged when being on top of the heavier and larger one.
- Fixed inscriptions and logos vanishing after using alt-TAB or changing graphics settings.
- Fixed low memory warning mechanism
- Fixed errors with creating new private chat room: creator did not appear in the list of participants, and closing attempt made that chat window freeze.
- Fixed several Premium tanks modules missing in the Store.
- Fixed description of "Raider" achievement.
- Fixed minor errors in several tanks and modules descriptions.
- Fixed "The Lion of Sinai" achievement description
- Fixed minor errors in battle training.
- Fixed Camo net and Binocular telescope effects fading after an attempt to start to move having broken track
- Fixed "Sixth sense" indicator not showing after instant repeating detection
- Moving effects (dirt and dust from the tracks) performance optimized.
- Reduced surface resistance when moving over some destroyed objects.

28.3.2013

- suspension damage has no influence on "passability thru terrain" hiden parameter
- there will be no alternative German heavy "Lowe"branch
- SerB states that the rumors about secret tank mobility nerfs are just rumors
- entire crew might be killed by a single penetrating (!) HE hit, HE shells that don't penetrate are subjected to the "no more than half a crew killed by one shot" rule
- shells fired in 3rd person view do not fly closer to the aim circle center than in sniper mode (A: "Go play tetris")
- no actual info about the Expert medal (SS: a guy complained that his team, while hunting for the medal, abandoned defensive positions and started chasing the poor target 113 around and lost, SerB answers: "Stop with the 'mommy, why are we such retards' questions, we aren't the ones you should ask")
- the ability of one tank to push another is a complicated parameter, consisting of engine power, suspension quality, weight of the tank and terrain slope - these forces combine and get compared to the motion vector, it's not simply explained
- dynamic parameters in garage don't have high priority
- the bug where very thin fences slow down the tank a lot will be fixed
- subcaliber rounds do have normalisation (the same as AP rounds), normalisation is calculated after it is decided by the engine whether the shell ricochets or not (so it cannot influence stuff like the "auto-ricochet" rule)

Secret English tank project?

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/177843.html
Author: Yuri Pasholok

There was a document found in the Russian archive. It is a report, dated January 1943, presumably gained from spies, about a British tank project currently developed.




The tank seemed really interesting. Its characteristics from the report:

Weight - 60 tons
Armor thickness - sides 65 and 75mm, frontal armor 110mm
Weapons - 65mm gun in central turret, 18pounder gun, two 20mm AA machineguns, placed in two rear turrets
Speed - 20mph (32kph)
Range - 200 miles (320km)

The tank was supposed to have 4 diesel engines from the Valentine tanks with 131hp each, together producing 624hp. Each engine was placed in one corner of the hull. The center of the hull was empty and formed a passage from the driver's compartment to the combat compartment and read compartment. Each engine had a clutch, a transmission, the gear was coupled thru a conical pairing with a transverse shaft. There were two such shafts - one for each side of the tank. These shafts were connected to the side friction clutches. There were 4 such clutches and 4 drive wheels.
The engines, clutches and drivewheels were synchronised and controlled by the driver. Damaged engines can be switched off by the driver. The vehicle was designed so that it could move with only one engine working.

So, Listy, what was that, some Churchill? Pasholok mentions "it's too early for AT-1"

Mar 27, 2013

27.3.2013 part 2

Today is quite filled with WoT news it seems!

Storm on some points from 8.5: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/226909-extract-from-85/

(I was about to translate it, but then I noticed there was an official post on EU forums. Why WG makes its EU branch translate such snippets I have no idea)


- Yuri Pasholok: the T-80 tier 4 light tank could have a Soviet 76mm gun
- there is a rumor going around that the tier 10 tanks (M60, Object 907, Failowe) will be a part of a special Clanwars event, held during the official "CW season closure" (SS: just a rumor, not confirmed, take it or don't).
- tanks will not be transferrable for gold to another nation ("Players make a lot if idiotic proposals. We can't comment on them all, sorry")
- SerB states that the visibility duration (3-10 seconds) for a given tank aren't random, but rather cyclic. In other words, if two tanks light each other up simultaneously, it's possible that tank 1 will disappear for tank 2 sooner than tank 2 for tank 1
- the gold consumable prices for credit will principially be calculated as 50g*400 (credits per gold) = 20000s, but this price is not guaranteed
- VK3601H is transferred to the heavy tank category because "it's needed"
- Q: "New German tanks carry Bundeswehr crosses, yet earlier you said it's technically impossible for a single nation to have two symbols, how is it then?" A: "It's the first step to archieve the goal of having all the tanks carry red stars"
- more shell impact sounds (special sounds for impacts on tracks etc.) will be implemented
- a player on RU server actually archieved 15 kills with a FV215b....


- South American desert map ("Mexico") was scrapped, didn't play well
-


Overlord answers the questions in Russian regarding the World of Tanks Blitz (he became a producer-chief for the mobile division it seems):

- The requirements will be the Ipad 2,3,4, Iphone 4,5 (he's not sure about the 4), for Android port he says it's complicated, but it should work on Nexus 7 for example, it won't work on "budget smartphones" (as in, cheap), it apparently needs Tegra 3 SoC.
- the battles will be realtime 7v7
- the vehicle grind will be faster than in WoT PC
- turret control is still secret
- account will be shared with WoT apparently

There's much more but I'll get to that later, if anyone is interested in this anyway (I know I am not, I hate mobile games, the pad I have I use for work only).

VK7201 Part Deux

Hello everyone,

best of to react before this gets out of hand :) In the morning, I published an article "VK7201 - fake or not", where I wrote about the history of the VK7201. I expected some more outrage, but instead, some people just took it.

Without further ado: I made the thing up.

Well, not totally everything - I mean, the general part about the Lowe tank is true, even the Spielberger's book exists, but there was never any such a thing as "Feldhaubitze auf Infanterieunterstützungfahrgestell" - I made the name "Failowe" up too.

Why did I do it? Because generally speaking, if you cite reputable sources and publish it as "serious material", noone will doublecheck the sources and very few people will question it. And that's what I believe Yuri Pasholok did with this design. He simply pulled it out his ass (god knows why, there were many more historical and interesting vehicles) and when he got called on his bullshit, he started squirming. Neither the Panzer Tracts nor Spielberger's book on special tank variants mention anything about a rear-turreted 120ton supertank with 200+ mm frontal armor and 150mm L/38 (what was considered for the Lowe was the L/40). It's a fake and Wargaming should feel shame for peddling this crap.

Of course, as any good fake, it has SOME part of the truth. The vehicle is obviously modelled as a Lowe variant (turret) by Krupp (internally, it's referred to in WG as VK7201(K) ), the model comes from the early "Leichter Lowe" impressions (VK7001), but as the name suggest, 7201 means "72 tons, 1st design" - so it doesn't even make sense to name a 120 ton tank like that. Could have such a design existed in the mind of some Krupp engineer? Sure, but the fact it could have existed doesn't mean it did. I can understand why Wargaming filled some slots with "less-than-real" tanks such as the E50M - simply because it was needed and no other vehicle was found to fit, but making the vehicles randomly up? Uh... no.

Anyway, that's the end of the rant. I will keep on calling the VK7201 a Failowe - it's fitting, a fake name for a fake tank.

27.3.2013

 First: a screenie from mid March (courtesy of ITDUDE, US server) from an official WG movie, showing some interesting vehicles on the bottom bar:



Now some FaiLowe news

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/177028.html

(Storm made a post practically similiar to the European coming-out in wording earlier - hell, can EU server even write a post first?)

- according to Storm, the new vehicles (VK7201, M60 Patton, Object 907) are planned for summer, Storm states they will not be tied to the "expert" medals
- Q: "What remains is to pray that these vehicles aren't tied to clanwars" A: "Remains, yes"
 (SS: if you are interested in Failowe history, here's an article)

Also, from Yuri Pasholok (source), a possible picture of new Soviet light tank destroyer, it was made in April-May 1942, based on the T-60 light tank (it's just a project, unclear whether it will ever appear in the game).



Regular translations:

Looks like SerB is in trollmood again

- there is a new Nvidia driver build released, it's being tested for WoT stability
- VK3601H won't be changed into a heavy in 8.5
- test server crews won't have multiple perks during tests
- maps aren't being converted to make arties' life easier
- free (undistributed) XP to crew XP transfer idea has been abandoned, because "it's not considered necessery"
- armor buff? "If needed - and we decide what's needed" (SS: this somehow reminds me of the old Czech movie quote: "We - the communist party - decide what's beautiful!" :) )
- SerB regarding the "elite players": "The elite can consider themselves the elite as much as they want, we don't care"
- rain, storm, snowfall, fog, night battles will be implemented
- Sexton stats (price etc.) are not yet completely decided
- Storm doesn't consider OpenGL to be interesting, WoWs won't support it
- World of Tanks Blitz and classic WoT are developed separately
- damaged suspension does not influence tank turning speed
- matchmaker considers the same map in regular mode and in (for example) assault mode to be two different maps
- the Chinese made a ripoff copy of World of Tanks - SerB reacts: "Copyright and right to copy are written the same in Chinese"
- ZIS-5 gun has different penetration on different tanks, because it's a different gun in each case (SS: there were more models, yes)
- KV-220 is named correctly according to WG (SS: some player suggests the correct name should be KV-220-2)
- SerB states that the rumor about the special artyzoom mod showing the enemy arty position after one shot is just a rumor
- the fact that the tank is turning its hull and its turret at the same time doesn't reduce the turret rotation speed
- the camouflage mechanics changes will affect all classes, it's not tied to the fact that the heavies on tier 10 are hard to play
- in alpha WoT, there was the idea to make the detection range (viewrange) better in the direction the driver/commander periscope is aiming at and worse in other directions, it was scrapped as counterintuitive
- minefields in CW are ATM only in idea stage
- improved garage tech filters will come most likely in autumn, the tank selection bar will be completely reworked

WG coming-out!

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/226431-tier-x-tank-rumors/

So, basically what Overlord hinted at a week or two ago on his blog came to pass: Clanwars will get their special tank rewards. Thanks god, the lines leading to those tanks would be... problematic. At least we don't need to speculate anymore about that.

Overlord on Clanwars rewards:



Sounds interesting, doesn't it!

Well, I think it's a retarded idea to link these vehicles to Clanwars. For following reason:

I firmly believe that personal skill should be rewarded. Clanwars are not about personal skill as players, Clanwars are about the fact you get another 100 people to do what you want so you have a shot at conquering a map territory. I really don't see a point in rewarding the fact you can create a mob of (potentially) muppets who win by numbers. I played 3 battles in clanwars - all with a Czech clan that was notoriously undermanned, half of the people didn't show up and at that moment had no real raidleader, who'd talk and prepare strategies. All 3 battles I played were roughly in the "okay, well, Maus and E-100 in the city, the rest do what you can" - and these guys actually captured a territory some time later? *sigh*

I mean - why not give out such rewards to exceptional players? I mean - 70 percent overall winrate from randoms, that's special. Getting 100 monkeys to click at the same time? Not so much. No offense to CW players of course, the amount of dedication you display when playing the same map with the same setup over and over and over... impressive!

Another beef I have is the German "contribution" to this. So, the Russians get a main battle tank. So do the Americans. And the Germans? That's right, no MBT for you, evil nazis, here, have a dinosaur. Enjoy.

Anyway, at least the special rewards for game play come thru. Let's hope this somehow continues to random battles.


PS: special shout-out to Supercharge and her smug comments on "conspiracy theorists", right back atcha :)
PPS: sorry if I offended any clanwars players - tbh, I don't care for clanwars much, but I do admit it takes some dedication and skill, just like World of Warcraft raiding

VK7201 - fake or not?

Attention! After/before (as you like) reading this, be sure to read this: http://ftr-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/03/vk7201-part-deux.html


Sources:
H.L.Doyle, T.Jentz - Panzer Tracts (6-3)
H.L.Doyle, T.Jentz - Encyclopedia of German Tanks (Revised edition)
W.Spielberger - Spezial Panzer Fahrzeuge (German edition)



I promised an article about the history of the VK7201. Well, here's what's I found. Everyone who has read my comments on this vehicle probably knows I consider it an unhistorical fake, made up by Wargaming's chief tank researcher, Yuri Pasholok.

Well, I was wrong. It's fully historical. But it's a pretty obscure vehicle.

First, a short Lowe introduction. The Lowe program was a (relatively early) very heavy tank program from 1941-1942. If you are interested in its particularities, I suggest you have a look at the Panzer Tracts - Paper Panzers. What we need to know for starters is that there were 5 basic Lowe models Doyle mentions, all proposed by Krupp. Here are their parameters, mentioned in Panzer Tracts 20-1:


 The common consensus is that the very early models had the turret in the back, while the later models had the turret moved to middle (this can be verified by checking the table hull lengths, comparing them to the respective gun lengths and then to total lengths of the vehicle). Contrary to popular belief however, there was never such a think as "Leichter Lowe" or "Schwerer Lowe", that nomenclature was made up, all the projects were referred to in VK (Vollkettenfahrzeug - tracked vehicle) nomenclature and later by the name of Löwe. It started as a roughly 75 ton tank, the early projects had the turret in the back, like this:





Later, the turret was moved to the middle into what we know from the game as the Lowe. By the way, if you look at the table and compare it with the ingame Lowe, you'll find out that the tier 8 tank we all know is not historical, it's a mashup of various Lowe models. But that's really not the topic of this article.

So, where did the VK7201 come from? The first hint was that it is internally in game referred to as VK7201(K). Okay, so it was made by Krupp. German version of Spielberger's book offers an interesting theory. According to Spielberger, "an alternative Lowe chassis turretted self-propelled gun was originally started by Krupp along with the first Lowe project".

That was not uncommon at the time: the Germans always tried to use available chassis for more projects. For example, the superheavy Jagdpanzer E-100 on the E-100 chassis, or its competitior, Jagdpanzer Maus (yes, that's not a fake). But this project was rather special. It was concieved with some sort of unspecified 150mm howitzer (Feldhaubitze) in a round turret (unspecified where located, but according to the vehicle length, it can be theoretized it was in the back). The very interesting part is that this project was concieved as an infantry support vehicle chassis (weapons carrier), with superheavy frontal armor. This new type of chassis was designated "Infanterieunterstützung-Fahrgestell" (gotta love Germans and their combined words) - the "infantry support chassis" as a reaction on Hitler's direct demand for the development of superheavy vehicles for both destroying tanks and specialized heavy vehicles for supporting infantry (no doubt under the influence of professor Porsche and his own megalomania).

Plans were made to incorporate an unspecified other weapon. The vehicle was designated at first the VK7201, but later it was concieved the weight of 75 tons wouldn't fit such a heavy projected armor (originally, it was projected with cca 100mm frontal plate, but Hitler demanded as much armor as possible, ideally cca 200mm). The project then recieved a name of "Howitzer on infantry support chassis 'Lowe'", in German: "Feldhaubitze auf Infanterieunterstützung-Fahrgestell 'Lowe'", which can be shortcutted as F.a.I.Lowe (well, it probably wasn't in real life). Yea, you laughed, it's stupid, but historical, sorry.

Not much else is known about this project, not even its engine, so that's most likely made up. Its history presumably ends with the termination of the Lowe project in April 1942. I will later scan the respective part of Spielberger's book.

So, there you have it, not only is the Failowe historical, but so is the name in fact. See, Wargaming introduces only well-researched and historical vehicles. Kudos to Mr.Pasholok for uncovering this obscure and interesting, if silly-named vehicle. Long live the Failowe!

Mar 26, 2013

26.3.2013

Today it was full of trolling and garbage, not even funny = skipped it.

- WoT Blitz game has been announced for tablets. Here you can see the screenies
- it's possible the new German medium branch will not start from the VK3002DB after all, but with VK2801 and the recon Panther - if that happens, SerB states there will be no compensations for VK3002DB XP many people collected for the Indienpanzer
- freshly unlocked (NOT bought in garage) stock vehicles get better MM for a few battles (unclear how many) (SS: I thought this was cancelled long time ago, wtf?)
- the option to disable general chat is not planned for now
- there won't apparently be premium high tier arty for any nation (they found very few candidates, if any, so they decided not to implement it at all)
- gold consumables for credits confirmed (yet again)
- new maps with "assault" and "encounter" mode were considered (SS: as in, more current existing maps transferred into those modes)
- there will be no more measures taken to reduce the amount of high tier arty until the T10 arty is introduced
- Storm states that in 99 percent of cases, branches aren't changed after the patch hits the general test, the only cases of changes are obvious errors
- there will be premium US TD (confirmed)
- new company interface won't be introduced around summer
- Soviets will recieve a premium arty vehicle
- regarding the Failowe VK7201 Q: "Devs, calm me down and tell me this won't make it to the live server?" A: "What don't you like about that tank?"
- color filters are planned, without the possibility to turn off, like in Battlefield
- there will be no tier 10 premium tank (SS: so the premium VK7201 status is just a placeholder, which means there will be a full branch of this crap. My gues: T7: VK7001 T8: Leichter Lowe T9: Schwerer Lowe T10: Failowe), Storm says the info about it will be announced later, it is not planned to be an analogue vehicle to the FV215b (183) and it will not be apparently the top 2nd TD line vehicle. Storm also states the FV7201 tank is not an april's fool (at this point, Storm and SerB got pissed about people asking about vehicle statistics from the supertest leaks and started handing out bans)
- the shell accuracy spread (where exactly does the shell fly in the aim circle) mechanics have not been changed since cca 2010, it's the same for all vehicle classes and it's not affected by having an enemy in your sights
- mine fields will not be introduced in random games, it might appear in clanwars
- Maus won't be removed from the game (SS: Russians start all sorts of retarded rumors)
- 0.8.5 test will not start in March
- the rule that the shell flies the distance of 10 its calibers after the penetration within the tank applies for all guns (20mm cannon shell flies 20cm from the armor)
- in historical battles, vehicles are generally planned not only to have historical modules, but also other characteristics (for example the accuracy and rate of fire of a Tiger and IS was mentioned)
- no wheeled vehicles (difficult to implement)
- premium Soviet medium tank won't appear in 0.8.5 or 0.8.6 most likely
- it's completely possible Britain will get a tier 7 or 8 premium medium tank, "no guarantees" tho
- FV 215b (183) is doing fine statistically
- Leopard 1 max speed is currently set on 65 km/h
- Ruinberg will be fixed (too hilly)

As for the new map, the Russian "In Development" section says the tanks will most likely clash in the villages in the mountains, each of them has a bypass corridor where heavy tanks can fight in cover from artillery, fast tanks can fight around and over the river in the green area full of foliage and ancient temple. Americans already unveiled it officially.

Also, here's the Russian winrate statistics for last 2 weeks or so



From DoM1N (Polish community contributor) we have some screenshots of 8.5 detail changes. Cheers mate!