EU tree: Swiss tier 10 TD project

Hello everyone,

I found recently (while looking for other vehicles) a new project (quite interesting actually) that could fit the tier 10 TD slot in the incoming EU tree. Introducing:

MOWAG Taifun prototype



History:

The Swiss company called MOWAG is not a newbie on the field of weaponry. In the 60's, it competed for the German Marder IVF program with its own prototype and later it built several prototypes for the German Kanonenjagdpanzer program. From there on, the company used its considerable experience in creating a line of light tank destroyer designs - the Gepard and the Taifun. The Gepard (looked a lot like the German Kanonenjagdpanzer) was not successful in entering the service and neither was the other similiar project, the Tornado (designed as an IFV). The development of both was privately funded, because the company expected Switzerland to start replacing the old AMX-13 tanks (classified in Switzerland as TD's) and the US M113 APC's. In the end, only a pre-prototype (functional model) was completed and the vehicle never entered service. It can be regarded as one of the last real tank destroyers and most likely (along with the S-Tank) one of the last turretless "oldschool" Jagdpanzers.

The Taifun was basically a development of the Gepard (Tornado) chassis. It was a very light vehicle  - its armor (50mm?) protected the 4-man crew basically only from HE shell fragments and from light autocannon fire (it could withstand only 25mm shells however). The armament consisted of the classic 105mm L7 clone (however, an upgrade to the Rheinmetall 120mm L/55 was considered - not an option for WoT though). The considered turbocharged dieselengine was a 575hp Detroit Diesel 8V-71T - the same to be fitted to the ill-fated Tornado IFV. Combined with the light chassis (estimated 25-30 tons), this vehicle could move fast. Real fast.

In World of Tanks?

As you can see, this vehicle looks badass. It's like the ultimate Jagdpanzer IV on steroids. And crack. And heroin. While the project itself was developed in late 70's (yes yes, I see you all rising your eyebrows now), its roots actually run into early 60's. The chassis is old - it's basically the same (although modified) chassis used for the 60's Tornado - and that's not so bad. The armor is obviously very thin (think 30-50mm), but - as mentioned above - the vehicle is very light and has a very powerful engine, therefore it will be fast. Really fast. Cca 70 km/h on the road is expected and that's just the "basic" powerpack. With upgrades, it could be the tier 10 Hellcat-meets-Jagdpanzer. The main gun is adequate - the ubiquitous L7 is already in the game and despite the fact it would be fitted with advanced sights and other 80's thingies in real life, one can easily imagine this vehicle having Leopard 1-grade optics. Naturally, in order not to get oneshotted by pretty much anything, the suspension would have to be really nimble, which is actually something totally new - we don't have that in the tier 10 TD vehicles.

Stats:

Crew: 4
Armor: 30-50mm (estimated)
Weapon: 105mm (L7 clone?)
Ammo: estimated 50 rounds
Speed: cca 70km/h
Weight: estimated 25-30 tons
Powerplant: Detroit Diesel 8V-71T, 575hp

8.3 matchmaking (MM) table

In Russian, the order from up to bottom at each tier is: LT, MT, HT, Arty, TD

20.1.2013

- special statistics for CW battles? "Possible, but not soon"
- SuperPershing was modelled after the book from Hunnicutt plus the data provided by the experts from the US WG office
- apparently the second WZ-132 engine (that differs from the stock one only by 10kg weight) is okay the way it is
- if you destroy an enemy tank without anyone spotting him (for example by firing at tracer source), it counts as if you lit it up yourself for the sake of XP award
- the platoon and company hangar interface will be changed a lot to provide better functionality
- SerB is answering players' questions voluntarily - if he gets annoyed or tired, he'll stop
- German 2nd TD branch is partially modelled already ("it's done when it's done")
- Q: "Was Jagdpanzer VII Jagergepard considered for implementation?" A: "Yes. No comment for now."
- regarding the implementation of more very exclusive vehicles (Panzer IV/V, A-32 - style): "If needed, we however don't focus on exclusivity"
- E-50-, E-75-based and postwar German TD's? "We won't comment that for now in order to avoid questions like "when?!" "
- In the Russian movie "Приказ: огонь не открывать" (Order: do not open fire) (about the Japanese-Soviet war), Soviets made fake Japanese tanks. SerB states that they are based on the MTLB chassis and it's hard to say what Japanese tanks are they trying to imitate.
- tank crews have 1hp, that's why almost every shot that kills a crewmember continues further (with full strength) (SS: I hope I understood this correctly)

Last night's server crash....

Last night's server crash....

....was apparently caused by "hardware failure".

Overlord comments:

Q: And EU server has crashed again,same shit happened last week too :(

A: Hardware failure. Its not related to the capacity.

and

A: It wasnt scheduled. One of the servers went out of the order. Guys are investigating the reasons. Prem accounts are compensated when certain downtime threshold is met.

 

Storm on the topic of maps - part 2

Storm on the topic of maps

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/144047.html

- Dragon's Ridge and Serene Coast will be removed from the map pool for re-work in 8.4
- some maps' terrain will be revolved (to be less "bumpy"), namely Prokhorovka, Abbey, El-Halluf and Ruinberg (specifically the holes in the streets are the issue)
- Redshire and El-Halluf will have their gameplay changed
- Swamp and Komarin will return, after they are re-worked visually

From the discussion (not much there really)

- apparently, there two different teams in the map department: one does the maps purely visually (artists), one cares for the gameplay. In the past there have been interviews with the first team, that does only the art part, leading to player rage that "WG doesn't care how well the map is played as long as it looks good"

AND offtopic: TXAA antialiasing is not yet developed

PS: If you speak (or - write) Russian, you can leave your opinion there.

World of Tanks DDOSed

Apparently, the saturday night WoT lagfest is caused by a DDOS attack, it was mentioned on the general ingame chat by one of the moderators. Seriously, who the fuck bothers with that shit...

Update:

Kacsa1 - Hungarian moderator on this topic (source):

19.1.2013

- El-Halluf won't be removed from the map pool for rework
- Serene Coast is scheduled for rework (SS: in 8.4)
- it's possible low tier Chinese tree tanks such as the Carro Veloce CV-33, Japanese Ha-Go and Panzer I will be introduced
- IS-3 will most likely not be introduced as Chinese premium heavy
- the small pictures (icons) of the tank in the hangar are supposed to be made according to how the tank looked in real life
- it's possible the assault mode will have the battle time increased from 10 minutes (but unsure)
- no 105mm L/100 gun planned for the E-50M ("it looks like a fishing pole even on E-100")
- Canadians tanks - it's 100 percent sure they won't get their own tree, but they might appear in the British tree in the Commonwealth part
- T-43 icon won't be changed (SS: some player complained the gun on the icon is unhistorical)
- regarding the fact how will the Japanese Chi-Ha named when the "Chi-Ha" ingame name is in the Chinese tree already: "we'll see"
- German TD "Elefant" won't be introduced as a special vehicle (premium or otherwise) as the differences between Elefant and Ferdinand were very few
- the 75mm Konish gun for the Tiger? "not for now"
- E50M shell prices weird? "ingame economy reasons"
- accumulated XP from tanks won't be freely transferrable
- a "duel" mode (2v2) was mentioned.... (SS: really unclear, probably just a rumor - "If this is implemented - I'll let you know")
- Japanese premium tank in advance before the tree itself? (SS: like the Type was for Chinese and Matilda BP for the British) - "unclear" (as in not decided yet)
- more clan functions planned (when it's done it's done)
- the Soviet gun copy on the Type T-34 weights more than the Soviet original - it's probably just a typo in description
- no real additional details on the German TD branch (supposedly it comes after the German medium branch)
- SerB and Storm prefer to walk and to go by train, SerB has an old Moskvich in the garage and doesn't feel the need to buy a better car
- it's possible that tier 7 arty will not become tier 9 automatically, compensations for "expectations" are unlikely
- private messages within battles are unlikely, in order for the message not to interfere with the battle itself
- the rumor that WoT will move to different engine are false
- identical turrets of the Chinese IS-2? "If you don't want it, don't research it"
- there will probably be free camera in replays