Hello everyone,
I feel it necessery to address several questions I get asked a lot (only yesterday I recieved cca 120 e-mails, thanks for all of them guys, it's much appreciated, I will dig thru them and respond to every single one eventually).
Translations:
Translations will continue as they did until now. However, there is something I'd like to address: I have nothing against people translating the stuff I write to other languages, but I do not wish that the english tranlation gets copied to official Wargaming forums straight from the blog. There are three reasons for it. First and foremost, I really don't want to see that Ectar coming in that thread I built and gloating about "a lot of helpful content". I see no reason why Wargaming should profit in any way from what I do. At least not anymore.
Second reason is that the translations are often unclear and sometimes require additional explanations for people to understand the background. I can't obviously do that on the forums anymore, I can do it here. Third reason would be me liking to know how many people actually read my stuff and where are they from in general. Don't worry, I won't profit on that in any way, there are no ads here.
I cannot enforce this wish in any way, that much is clear, but you'd do me a favour if you helped me out here. After all, it's not that big of a deal checking the blog instead of that thread, right? Yes I know it's now banned to link my blog in general. Soviet Union style!
Leaks:
Well, I am here in a bit of a pickle. I have some interesting stuff here - also some pretty ugly stuff. But I am currently waiting for response from perhaps the single person in Wargaming I actually still respect (well, not entirely true, there are more people I respect to be honest - Chieftain and Challenger come to mind) and I kinda promised I'd stay away from the leaks to him. We'll see how everything goes.
Aaaaaaaaanyway...
Have a nice evening
SS
Mar 13, 2013
Arty suggestion: Barrage mode
Okay, this is something I've thought about for a while. I was thinking about what would I suggest to actually improve the artillery gameplay. Based on a post I made under the latest entry in Overlord's blog, here's the idea:
How about this: special cooldown mode "barrage"
Each arty vehicle can activate barrage mode once per 7 minutes. It is aimed just as regular arty (thru the arty scope). When it is activated, the artillery vehicle starts a barrage of shells on its target.
This mode would be special: the shells wouldn't count as "ammo fired" (thus they'd be "for free"). They would have double their normal splash, but cause only 1/2 to 1/4 (depending on their caliber) of their normal damage. Their aiming spread would resemble the maximum aim circle of that respective arty - as if it just moved (thus, the shells would cover most of the maximum zoomed-out view in artymode)
Rate of fire would be roughly one shell each 1-3 seconds, the barrage would take 30 or so seconds. When using barrage, the artillery vehicle can't move or stop the barrage and its camo factor is reduced to 0 (eg. it is instantly spotted whenever someone even looks its general direction). Furthermore, barrage shells have distinctive tracers (which would activate when the shell is in mid flight in order not to make the countearty too easy) and sound effects ("hweeeeeee.... boooom") so the vehicles in the target zone know they are under barrage fire and have a chance to clear out.
Basically, the aim would be to create a suppression zone, which no enemy (or friendly!) tank would want to enter. While the damage from entering the zone would be lower, it would be also more certain, given the bigger splash of the barrage shells. It could create an interesting tactical element, when an artillery stops the enemy assault dead in its tracks by covering a chokepoint with barrage fire, or it could possibly break a stalemate (think El Halluf or early Malinovka camping) by covering enemy positions with barrage fire, forcing them out of their hiding spots into the open.
How about this: special cooldown mode "barrage"
Each arty vehicle can activate barrage mode once per 7 minutes. It is aimed just as regular arty (thru the arty scope). When it is activated, the artillery vehicle starts a barrage of shells on its target.
This mode would be special: the shells wouldn't count as "ammo fired" (thus they'd be "for free"). They would have double their normal splash, but cause only 1/2 to 1/4 (depending on their caliber) of their normal damage. Their aiming spread would resemble the maximum aim circle of that respective arty - as if it just moved (thus, the shells would cover most of the maximum zoomed-out view in artymode)
Rate of fire would be roughly one shell each 1-3 seconds, the barrage would take 30 or so seconds. When using barrage, the artillery vehicle can't move or stop the barrage and its camo factor is reduced to 0 (eg. it is instantly spotted whenever someone even looks its general direction). Furthermore, barrage shells have distinctive tracers (which would activate when the shell is in mid flight in order not to make the countearty too easy) and sound effects ("hweeeeeee.... boooom") so the vehicles in the target zone know they are under barrage fire and have a chance to clear out.
Basically, the aim would be to create a suppression zone, which no enemy (or friendly!) tank would want to enter. While the damage from entering the zone would be lower, it would be also more certain, given the bigger splash of the barrage shells. It could create an interesting tactical element, when an artillery stops the enemy assault dead in its tracks by covering a chokepoint with barrage fire, or it could possibly break a stalemate (think El Halluf or early Malinovka camping) by covering enemy positions with barrage fire, forcing them out of their hiding spots into the open.
13.3.2013
- Q: "Why isn't German multilayered armor modelled in the game?" A: "Because such an armor was in no model of the mentioned nation until the end of 20th century" (SS: a player claimed that the E-100 had multilayered armor based on some scheme that wasn't sourcelinked)
- SerB regarding the same issue: "This question has been answered already, the tank corresponds to our data"
- Q: "Do the spotting rays... *insert long and ridiculous question about spotting mechanism*" A: "So what do you think, are our programmers complete retards, or will you leave them a chance for a small glimmer of intellect?" (SS: here SerB started raging and trolling - skipped the following stuff)
- regarding the visibility check rays: "Their calculations are requiring and thus they are done only in limited intervals" (SS: for more details chet wotwiki on how visibility works)
- In 1943, Italians still projected welded hulls. They also bought the license for the Panther, but in the end, they didn't make a "smaller version" of it, they projected a completely different tank (SS: the P.40 - P.43)
- the abovementioned tank didn't copy the Panther solutions (Italian industry technical level didn't allow that), rather only copied the concept (in P.40-P.43 series) (SS: the player was asking about a P.43 with a welded hull and 105mm native gun, possibly with torsion bar or Christie suspension)
This is how it would have looked: the P.40, P.43, Panther
- regarding this wooden mock-up: SerB thinks it's some sort of P.40 ancestor, but isn't sure:
- Italian P.43 with new suspension? SerB thinks the variant where they move the P.43 platform to Christie suspension is more likely given the state of Italian industry than some sort of Panther-like suspension
- there is a chance Churchill AVRE will make an appearance
- the new German medium branch will not come with special new camouflage - it's not yet decided when new German camo will come
- official camo value for vehicles? "No, players would whine 'why does this tank have more than that' etc. It's not on our actual to do list, maybe one day"
- there will be no special maps for hightier vehicles, maps will be done for everyone
- free XP is awarded based on basic XP gain, the x2/x3/x5 first day wins apparently don't count (SS: the answer was unclear, can someone confirm?)
- maximum tank display distance (SS: cca 500m) has not been reduced, it will be increased based on technological possibilities
- plans regarding taking the "popular" nicknames from 0-battle "squatting" old accounts? "No comment"
- it can't be clearly stated whether unlocking the engine or new suspension increases TD maneuverability more, it depends on too many factors
- so far, no data has been uncovered from Bovington about the FV100 assault vehicle, rumored to have been projected
- tier 7 medium T-43 is doing fine without the D-10T gun. SerB states, that the Chinese T-34-1 has the 100mm to perform well, while T-43 would be overpowered with it
- SerB regarding the same issue: "This question has been answered already, the tank corresponds to our data"
- Q: "Do the spotting rays... *insert long and ridiculous question about spotting mechanism*" A: "So what do you think, are our programmers complete retards, or will you leave them a chance for a small glimmer of intellect?" (SS: here SerB started raging and trolling - skipped the following stuff)
- regarding the visibility check rays: "Their calculations are requiring and thus they are done only in limited intervals" (SS: for more details chet wotwiki on how visibility works)
- In 1943, Italians still projected welded hulls. They also bought the license for the Panther, but in the end, they didn't make a "smaller version" of it, they projected a completely different tank (SS: the P.40 - P.43)
- the abovementioned tank didn't copy the Panther solutions (Italian industry technical level didn't allow that), rather only copied the concept (in P.40-P.43 series) (SS: the player was asking about a P.43 with a welded hull and 105mm native gun, possibly with torsion bar or Christie suspension)
This is how it would have looked: the P.40, P.43, Panther
- regarding this wooden mock-up: SerB thinks it's some sort of P.40 ancestor, but isn't sure:
- Italian P.43 with new suspension? SerB thinks the variant where they move the P.43 platform to Christie suspension is more likely given the state of Italian industry than some sort of Panther-like suspension
- there is a chance Churchill AVRE will make an appearance
- the new German medium branch will not come with special new camouflage - it's not yet decided when new German camo will come
- official camo value for vehicles? "No, players would whine 'why does this tank have more than that' etc. It's not on our actual to do list, maybe one day"
- there will be no special maps for hightier vehicles, maps will be done for everyone
- free XP is awarded based on basic XP gain, the x2/x3/x5 first day wins apparently don't count (SS: the answer was unclear, can someone confirm?)
- maximum tank display distance (SS: cca 500m) has not been reduced, it will be increased based on technological possibilities
- plans regarding taking the "popular" nicknames from 0-battle "squatting" old accounts? "No comment"
- it can't be clearly stated whether unlocking the engine or new suspension increases TD maneuverability more, it depends on too many factors
- so far, no data has been uncovered from Bovington about the FV100 assault vehicle, rumored to have been projected
- tier 7 medium T-43 is doing fine without the D-10T gun. SerB states, that the Chinese T-34-1 has the 100mm to perform well, while T-43 would be overpowered with it