Amagad, EU server discrimination? Plus the EU Q&A... ugh

This was posted today on NA forums:

Seriously, RU server has Olga Sergeevna (yea, she's back):

US server has Pico Mause and what does EU server get? Ecturd. Not sexy. Why can't the EU server get some pretty moderator like that?

Preferably someone who's not...

....and who doesn't fix competitions... :)

Okay, on more serious note: the US show is great. The_Chieftain is a great guy and despite what he thinks of me (as you can imagine, I am not the most popular person with WG), I respect him a lot (just like Overlord).

This show is just... I don't know. Funny (so are the short weekly newsreels the US server has). I guess I should be grateful for getting my ass banned on the EU server, without that, I'd never have noticed the US forums. I just wonder what's the real difference between the US and EU forums. From what I can tell, they both have their share of decent people and their share of retards, they both have their legends (Garbad, the T110 thread for the US, "professional pro gamerers" and "garage sluts" for the EU).

What I am really missing on the EU server are short newsreels like the US server has. Back in December 2012, Czechout mentioned that there might be a short videoblog series coming, featuring the EU community organizers. Now, I think that's not a bad idea (back then I didn't like it very much because the idea was to make it about the inner World of Tanks EU office works and not about the game), if it focuses on the game itself, can be combined with the community organizer persona. Like this:

See? It's not that hard.

That brings me again to another sore spot of the EU forums: the Q&A answer thread. This time it's interesting. As usual, most answers were known in advance, but the AMX 1948 was confirmed (that never happened before!). New upcoming game modes confirmed? Well that's odd... because Storm (or SerB) answered not so long ago there are no such plans. The repair costs for artillery were also said to be rebalanced. E-25 - "soon"? How soon? Not in 8.6 I think. Does that mean that 8.7 will be German tank destroyers? And no Swiss tanks for EU tree? What the HELL? Swiss tanks were mentioned earlier by SerB.

I don't know. Confusing. I'll ask a Russian friend to confirm some of the stuff in the official Russian Q&A thread. Standby.

VK 100.01 “Mammut”

Author: Thor_Hammerschlag

Porsche received on 21^st of May 1942 the order to produce a 100 ton Panzer. The initial name for the project was »Mammut« - the German word for mammoth. This was the natal hour of the Maus, the first documented reference of “Pz. Kpfw. Mäuschen” was the 17 of July 1942 ... [2]

Only 2 and a half month after receiving the order Professor Porsche prepared the first design drawing on June 4, 1942. It had the number K 3381 and was done by Ing. Leopold Schmid. The designation from Porsche for the project was “Porsche Typ 205”. The drawing showed a streamlined tank with up to 120mm armor and 120 tons weight. [1]

The turret’s weight alone was 23 tons, carrying a massive 15cm KwK L/40 – with some modifications done to the ammunition. The weight of the projectile was decreased from 43kg to 34kg to increase ROF to 4-5 rounds per minute and the muzzle velocity to 845 m/s. As an alternative, a 12,8cm L/50 with a muzzle velocity of 810 m/s was also considered during the development of the tank. [2]

The powerhouse was driven by an air-cooled 16-cylinder diesel engine, with a comparable propulsion system to that of the Tiger (P) – every track was boosted by a single electrical engine. The ground pressure of the vehicle was 0,92 kg/cm². There was also a shortened variant of the blueprint of drawing number K 8331 [1]. This one however hasn’t been discovered yet. 

This is what we currently know about the earliest of the Maus’ prototypes.

Further values I can read out of the book [1] (without guarantee, the drawings are still too small to read most of the values) - just to give a rough idea of the vehicles armor values. Armor values are based on interpolation, and the assumption that the confirmed 120mm [1] are on the front of the hull.

Hullarmor:

120/100/100

The upper front plate is sloped back at 55°. The lower one is at an 45° angle, both are just as thick. Effective armor values with current World of Tanks “normalization” are 187mm and 157mm respectively. The upper side armor is sloped back at 20°, the lower one is vertical with the tracks and another plate with 40-50mm behind them. The rear is as thick as the sides and rounded.

Turretarmor:

120/120/80

The turret front is just as the Löwe’s covered by a huge gun mantlet. The turret sides are very thick possibly even ticker than the frontalarmor.

This might also explain the weight of 120 t, the armor is all round pretty good and not much thinner than on the front. The size of the vehicle is comparable to the E100, just a lower profile and maybe a bit shorter. [1]

However it’s still quite a bit smaller than the tremendous Maus.

The gun depression is 7° - with the assumption that drawing K3882 shows the same gun depression.

Is there a spot for it in World of Tanks?

Definitely. Zarax already placed it in his reworked Porsche techtree at T8, which seemingly is a good spot for it. The armor is fine at T8, with relatively thick sides it would be quite tough for mediums but heavys of the same tier would have little trouble penetrating it from the front. During the development of the Maus many engines were considered, there is probably one which fits a 120t tank at T8 very well. As speed limit I would suggest 25 km/h.

Also, it offers a good variety of guns. The 8,8cm KwK 43 L/71  is a decent stock gun, upgradeable to both a 10,5cm KwK L/70 (current Löwe gun) or as an alternative the 12,8 cm L/50. (both historically verified, [2])

The 12,8cm L/50 could be similiar to the B-13-S2 (gun of the SU-100Y, T6 tank destroyer) - which also shoots a relatively slow projectile with a large diameter.

Sources:

[1] Michael Fröhlich: Kampfpanzer Maus – der überschwere Panzer Porsche Typ 205

[2] Jentz, Doyle: Panzertracts No. 6-3 Schwere Panzerkampfwagen Maus and E100

24.4.2013

- in 8.6, Pearl River will not be removed for re-work
- in 8.6, new vehicles will be unlocked if you unlocked the same tier pre-8.6 vehicle, because "it's more fair like that"
- devs are considering the possibility to retrain the crew members to another role (SS: for example radioman into a loader)
- a whole page of Storm's answers was dedicated to moaning about the VK3001/3002 HL210TRM engine, apparently, there is some bug in RU client nomenclature
- LeFH18B2 MM spread was not changed in 0.8.5
- apparently, there were some problems with balancing the light tanks, so they decided to disable that MM part, so for now the scout MM is identical to the one pre 0.8.5
- apparently in distant future, lowtier vehicle battles will be implemented into the CW's somehow
- the visual model change of the T5E1 gun in the T123 and T136 T29 turrets is possibly historical (Storm is not sure)
- T18 model will not be changed apparently
- it's theoretically possible that in 0.8.6, new battletiers are introduced
- the missing WoT crew was one of the initial WoT decisions
- used shell casings flying off from the tanks are not planned
- M1921 won't be introduced into the game for now
- there might be rewards implemented for old players after all, "no comment for now"
- there might be new winter and desert newbie maps (such as Himmelsdorf, Malinovka etc.) introduced, but not anytime soon
- in 0.8.6, champion companees will get the possibility to include arty up to (and including) tier 8, but they probably won't get a tier point increase
- if a scout spots the enemy vehicle, arty aims at it, but the vehicle stops being spotted by the scout, the scout and the arty will share the kill XP, if the target is destroyed in 5 seconds from disappearing, after that the arty gets everything
- arty shells damage will change in 0.8.6 "if necessary"
- current maps might eventually get various seasons' versions (for example winter Steppes etc.)
- the bug where you can't close personal chat in garage was not fixed 0.8.5, nor is a micropatch planned to fix that bug specificall
- the Nvidia card bugs are still there (crashes etc.), the problem is "of system nature"
- this year more maps are planned for introduction
- it's possible clan management will get new options
- the fact Leopard Prototyp A is missing Leopard 1's engine is okay, the engine is supposed to be unique

Somua SM - French hightier vehicle

Hello everyone,

those of you, who are interested in French projects most likely know about this vehicle, but let me introduce this beauty to the rest of the good folks reading this blog.

This is the Somua SM project. Works on it begin at the Société d'outillage mécanique et d'usinage d'artillerie (SOMUA) design bureau in 1946, during that time France desperately sought to regain international prestige by (amongst other ways) restarting its tank-producing industry. As you can see on the hull, experience learned from the German vehicles has been used in its design (the sloped armor reminds us of the Tiger II, by which it was heavily inspired). A 100mm gun, installed in an oscillating turret (which was apparently identical to the one of the AMX-50) has been chosen as the armament.

First prototype was finished in October 1951 and trials lasted until mid 1953, but by then politics intervened and it was decided to buy the American (and cheap) M47 Pattons instead.

Not much else is known about this vehicle, including the exact armor thicknesses or weight (it is estimated it will be the same weight category as the AMX 50). In game however it could be a rather interesting vehicle. In fact, we can be reasonably sure it will be implemented at some point, because a long time ago (mid 2012), it appeared in the French tree (before the whole "future tree" concept was scrapped) as a tier 7 heavy tank:

A Tiger II hull with an AMX-50-ish turret? Yes please :)

First 8.5 statistics

Source: wot-news.com

Here, you can see very roughly, how the 8.5 vehicles are doing. What I don't understand is the inclusion of the "T10 premiums" - how the hell did wot-news measure that? Supertester accounts?

Anyway, as you can see, the new vehicles aren't doing bad at all....