E-10 in World of Tanks

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/238509-ingame-e-10-tank/

(thanks to a Russian friend, who did let me know about it)

It's possible we might be getting the E-10 with the "hulldown" supension lowering system:

Explanation: E-10 light tank destroyer (intended to replace the original Jagdpanzer 38t "Hetzer", was designed with a special suspension system, that allowed it to lower the hull into "ambush" position - that way, the vehicle was very low, but couldn't move. My guess is it will be implemented as a "handbrake" with some time to switch from one mode to another and in hulldown position, it will have a camo bonus.

By the way, it has often been said that the Jagdpanzer 38t was never historically called Hetzer. In fact, the name Hetzer belonged to this project, the E-10.

Preliminary (historical) stats:

Weight - cca 10-15 tons
Armor
Upper hull - 60mm (60 degrees)
Lower hull - 30mm (60 degrees)
Sides - 20mm
Rear - 20mm
Engine - Maybach HL-101, 540hp
Weapon - 75mm PaK 39 L/48

Design by Magirus-Deutz (Summer 1944). 3 prototype hulls were made but no prototypes were finished before the factory was captured by the Soviets. 

"112" - new Chinese tier 8 premium

Source: wot-news.com

112 stats: http://ftr-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/05/e-25-and-112-stats.html
112 comparison to IS-6: http://ftr-wot.blogspot.cz/2013/05/112-and-is-6-comparison.html

Storm on 0.8.6 - additional info

Hello everyone,

you have probably seen the newest Storm's post in english. While the translation is not literal, it's sufficient. As usual, under the Russian original article Storm answers some of the questions asked by players. Here's a short summary of what he said:

- ingame version of "noobmeter" (XVM) is still planned, but not soon
- large and XL spall liners will have different prices, the player won't be able to choose between them
- M6A2E1 ("the Alien") income won't be buffed
- the spall liner might be buffed to also reduce the crit chance of crew and modules, but not in 0.8.6
- the XL spall liner was not meant for ALL the vehicles about certain weight, the weight there is just an indicator
- it seems that new Nvidia drivers FINALLY fixed the interface crashing bug

24.5.2013

- Storm on removing the tracers in 0.8.6: all the tracers for all the vehicles in all the cases (spotted/unspotted) (with the exception of arty, both spotted and unspotted) will be disabled, in the arty "satellite" view, the area in which the arty player can see the tracers of enemy unspotted arty will be reduced (SS: harder counterartillery)
- the subcaliber/HEAT nerf will affect also the vehicles, that use subcaliber shells as silver ammo (hightier meds)
- the upcoming profitability buff of hightier tanks won't apply on tier 8 premium vehicles
- vehicles that are getting XP buff (arty, TD) won't get a retroactive XP refund for crew XP lost because of the earlier low XP modifier
- the current information policy (SS: patch notes available in advance as it is now) will continue for the following patches
- new Nvidia 320.18 drivers weren't tested by WG yet
- it's "impossible" to impelement functional (even coaxial) MG's (SS: that would work the way guns do)
- AA tanks with twin-linked weapons won't most likely appear in the game
- apparently, multi-rocket launchers such as Katyusha (tracked) won't appear in the game
- tracers aren't taken down to make them better visible
- the hull modules won't come in 2013 and they won't be exclusive for TD's only apparently
- devs are still considering to implement the option to disable your least favourite maps

And a few answers from Storm from his blog:

- currently, the bushes (which sometimes reduce FPS for some players) are still not optimized
- devs are still discussing making your stats hideable so XVM and other such mods won't see your winrate and other stats
- Sexton I won't come to the store in 0.8.6, more tests in the new arty system are needed
- test server capacity will be improved, but only slightly (the previously announced increase in test server capacity in 8.5 was cancelled for some reasons)
- the T-50-2 / MT-25 switch is planned for 0.8.7
- lowtier premium tanks will have their income also buffed
- the new XL spall liner for superheavies will be cca 1,5 ton heavier than the current large one
- anti-aliasing is slowly being worked on
- it's possible the spall liner will also be buffed by reducing the chance of module/crew damage
- the sound gameengine is completely new, it's not the old one, only rewritten
- the name changes for French tanks are little things, such as the dots in the German patch
- there will be no "Art of War"-like competition for 8.6
- E-10 TD will come too (later)

What Russians think of EU players....

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/197077.html

Well, this won't be a translation, more like a comentary from me. This article came out on the developer blog (that alone counts for something I guess) and its original title is "Europeans are so stuuuuuuupid....". The author is probably not a WG employee - sometimes, players post stuff on the developer blog too (usually it's moaning about this and that, recently, it was for example yet another variation of "gief skill MM").

A few notes from the article then:

- apparently, there is a "legend" on RU server that EU players are bad. I played a few battles on RU servers (just for the heck of it) until like tier 4 and I was not impressed, it was absolutely the same. Hm... maybe the difference kicks in on later tiers? Somehow I doubt that. More aggressive, yes, that's for certain.


- the Russian author actually states that one of the social/game aspects of the server is that in the EU, mentally challenged (as in, clinically retarded) people play, because even they can afford a computer (apparently, unlike in Russia). This also goes for physically disabled people too. In other words, according to the Russian player, a defining aspect of EU server is that we have mentally disabled people playing and they don't. *shrugs* The author also sort of blames the overall game quality on the fact that even very slow people with physical disabilities can play. As an example, he gives a deaf person.

- the author also observes that (apparently, unlike in Russia), a lot of elderly people play WoT on EU server. Personal observation: maybe this is where the Russian gameplay aggressivity comes from - since their playerbase is allegedly somewhat younger. With that being said, I find it strange that a few sentences after this, the author actually bothers to bring up very young players (kids) as a factor... odd

As a conclusion of this part, the author states that instead of "lol, retards play on EU server", the Russians should think about the fate of disabled people in Russia. Now, I know practically nothing of Russian healthcare, but judging from this comment, their social system must be appalling.

- another observation the Russian player makes is that in general, EU adult players have less free time than RU players, but they have more money to spend. Well, this is obvious, EU server is allegedly the "milk cow" for Wargaming, where a lot of profit comes from (definitely more per capita than from Russia). A bit offtopic: you all probably know what I think of EU community staff, but we all must admit that pre 0.8.6, the communication improved significantly, with new info being revealed in english several times a week, nicely in advance. Whether this was truly a Wargaming goodwill or simply a virtue of necessity, forced by the fact the supertesters would leak everything anyway in advance, well... that's another thing.

- the author also observes that on EU server, it's common to see many hightier vehicles in randoms on the day of their introduction, reflecting the fact that a lot of people simply buys free XP. Apparently, it is not so on Russian server.

- the author also notices anti-Russian stereotypes (that players react aggressively on azbuka in chat) - this is obviously the result of the fact that three biggest WoT communities are the Polish, the Germans and the Czechoslovaks, neither of which are very fond of Russians, with Polish and Czechoslovaks being very aggressive towards them (for obvious historical reasons). Nations with more positive attitude towards Russians, such as the Bulgarians are not as common in WoT.

- the author also notices that while a bit isolated and sometimes ridiculed, the Polish are doing very well in the game and the legend of all of them being noobs ("Siemka" is mentioned) is false. It is my impression from the article that the Russian legends of low quality EU hightier battles are considered as false also.

New Korea map pics

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/249470-pics-from-the-upcoming-map-korea/

Description

The Sacred Valley is surrounded by two mountain roads and small path in the middle, which goes through two villages.Mountain roads are highly covered by vegetation and are quite safe way to enemy base.

Pass through hollow is the most dangerous since has few covers, but this is also the shortest way.
Map provide possibility to use a variety of tactics including defence and rush attacks.

Spreading all tanks through the whole map may also be a key to victory.
Slow tanks should better dig in defense and try to shoot enemy when it will be spotted by lights, which should for sure scout the side paths. Otherwise enemy will attack you suddenly using vegetation high camouflage boost.

Manuvarable and fast medium tanks can also straggle for the hollow in the middle, keeping which will provide team with an advantage. Though SPG will be able to shoot almost though the whole map, there will be lots of destructible objects vehicles can use as a cover.

23.5.2013

- all the promo tanks have the same rules as the premium ones, when it comes to crew
- the AMX-13/Chaffee hybrid will go to the nation, "to which it is more convenient"
- whether it is introduced: "no comment"
- if Object 430 is ever introduced, it will be tier 10
- in the next patch, the HEAT mechanic won't be changed further, after that - "no comment"
- British tanks won't have HESH rounds replaced with HEAT
- the turret and hull hitpoint changes reason is better HP distribution when switching turrets
- 0.8.6 won't be the last 0.8.X series patch
- devs consider the "newly researched tanks get better MM" a proper thing
- T-43 lost the 100mm gun (long time ago), both because it wasn't historical and for balance reasons
- 100mm D-10T won't return to the Soviet medium tanks on tier 7
- T-43 won't get an alternative gun in the future

List of superheavy tanks (for the purpose of extra large spall liner):

USSR: KV-4, KV-5
Germany: GW E, JT88, Jagtiger, Jagdpanzer E-100, VK4502 Ausf.B, Maus, Lowe, E-75, E-100, VK7201
US: T95, T110E3
UK: Tortoise, FV215b, TOG II

- devs are permanently fighting illegal mods
- there will be no game mode without arties
- it's possible that Walker Bulldog will be implemented as the US light tank one tier higher than Chaffee
- if you have a spall liner on Maus or other superheavies installed, it will be uninstalled automatically, changed to extra large and moved to depot
- 8.7 will apparently bring US rebalance + British arty (SS: earlier it was said that 8.7 will come very soon after 8.6, possibly within 2 weeks)
- 8.8 will not contain German TD's
- there is no plan to introduce decals for kills (SS: such as the German rings on barrel, or skulls like the fighter planes did)
- Storm explains the XP for detracks: "It will be only for XP, there will be no credit bonus. The detrack bonus will be 25 percent at the most (and not 50 percent like when lighting up).
- there will be more premium tier 8 tanks in 2013, they will be introduced gradually (not all at once)

Also, you might have noticed there are basically 0.8.6 changes out already officially - allegedly, it's because the developers are certain that by the time the "finished" 0.8.6 hits the last phase of supertest, some supertester would leak the info anyway. In this sense, the leaks worked to open the "WG kitchen" a bit more.

The EN translation is not exactly top notch either this time (for example EN "flight velocity of shells for short mortars will be nerfed by 50 percent" RU: "UP TO 50 percent") but it's okay. Big changes then. Here's what Storm commented under his article.

Following changes were done to the economy  - rebalance of gold shell prices:
- with each gold shell, its effectivity was considered (taking into account its damage and penetration) and its price was changed to match its effectivity
- subcaliber shells were sometimes made more expensive, sometimes cheaper
- HEAT shells were almost all made more expensive, because they proved to be cheaper for the same performance of the subcaliber shells
- premium HE shells were practically not touched, apart from some exceptions

- dynamic camera does mean that the camera will stop that nasty twitching, when the tank is going over the railway
- there will be no special opportunity to buy new camos (camo reset + price refund)
- 0.8.6 will come in June
- the Korea map will use winter camo
- Storm has no info on the Nvidia crash bug yet
- France will (as seen on the previously released pictures) have more modern camos
- the E-100 armor nerf reason is "unification" (SS: with Jpz E-100 I think)
- railway tracks were not yet sunk into the ground (as Storm planned to do) in 0.8.6