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 :)