Thursday 30 January 2014

Supertest leak for 9.0 - Panzer IV ausf D

 So in 9.0 we will have 4 versions of panzer IV(5 if we count the hydro) - normal Panzer IV, Shmallturm Panzer IV, Panzer IV ausf A on tier 3 and Panzer IV ausf D on tier 4. I kinda expected this honestly once I saw the Ausf A.



Anyway - armor is weak as you can guess.


Stats fail to impress too, but they are not bad either. It will be good in capable hands, just keep away from enemy HE shells.

Sunday 26 January 2014

Supertest leak - panzer IV Ausf A


Not exactly unexpected I guess - Panzer IV could be split with ease to make for more vehicles. Not that the family is small at the moment anyway, though its lacking a tier 4 version...though they could introduce say ausf B for that too!


Of course, its nothing impressive - actually the grosstraktor could very well be superior to it ingame.


Saturday 25 January 2014

8.11 supertest vehicle stats

Here are the armor schematics and soft stats for the new prem tanks in supertester hands.



First the grobtraktor - tier 3 german heavy. Alas - it will be tier 3

Yep - food for MG tanks and well, anyone who can fire HE shells.
 On the other hand - decent mobility, high health - 320, and 75mm L/24 which can deliver some HE pain on its own, especially when combined with low aim time - 2.1 seconds and 12 degrees of gun depression. The grobtraktor certainly won't win games by itself, but it will certainly claim 2-3 kills with ease.


T23E3 - alias - the designated brawler med. - high rate of fire, reverse speed equal to the forward speed(!) 10 degrees gun depression combined with decent turret for some hull-down action.

 Power to weight ratio could be better, so I'd suggest taking relevant modules/skills to improve mobility.

Finally - the T95E6
 Nothing too impressive armour wise - only the turret front can be expected to bounce shots.

Its faster than pattons but with lower power to weight ratio. DPM is decent but the gun accuracy and aim time are a bit worse than on E5 and pattons respectively.

Overall its not bad, but its not outstanding either. Acceptable as CW reward.

Tuesday 21 January 2014

Paper model ELC AMX






The first model tank for 2014 is the french ELC AMX.
And here's the link for it!
https://worldoftanks.ru/dcont/fb/media/models/018_elc_amx_v01.pdf


Have fun modeling!

The new medals in 8.11


New patch - new medals! Some old ones will be moved to the special category too. The sniper medal will have to go - replaced by the Sniper tanker medal. Difference in achievement - most damange in team, at least 1000 damage, at range 300m+, with 85% accuracy and 80% penetrating shots. Random battles only.
Now the old sniper medal could easily be farmed - say with an MG tank and point-blank shots. This one rings true to the meaning - you have to be a sniper.
 Main caliber - be the damage dealer, at least 20% of total enemy health, at least 1000 damage. Random battles only.
 Last survivor on map - no SPGs allowed. Well, this one is pretty straight forward.
 Win streak medal for 3+ victories in random teams
 Marksmanship - 100 times first by damage in battle
 Armored fist - that one's for the steam rolling - Win while losing no more than 1 vehicle.
Excellent preparation - another streak medal like the Marksmanship, this one is about 100 times on top for experience in battle.


As they say - out with the old, in with the new. This also gives Wargaming even more options for events (earning king of the hill might be tricky and cause the occasional team killing....)

Reason why RU servers got the siege of Leningrad event



The event allowed some ridicilous credit production to be achieved - up to +70% credits for all vehicles, prem tanks included. Needless to say that allows some serious dosh production, 200-250k would be the norm for my KV5 per battle. One could make several millions credits per day with ease.


Anyway - reason for that is...marketing.

Yep - marketing. As you should know RU server management proudly announced reaching yet another milestone - 1 000 000 players online simultaneously. Yep - thats right 1 million.  Now Wargaming can boast yet another record, for the meager price of giving RU players a bone...well more like a huge chunk of ham with honey-mustard on it. And well, who would't skip a work day to inflate his account with credits or teach the wife/kid/dog how to click Battle and shoot the tanks with red icons? (Dog might have an issue there)

 Shame about EU, US, and SEA servers...but thats life :)

I dunno, folks, anything we are unique with that we can use to get something similar? Except the fact that we pay per player a lot more than RU server?


Anyone?

Monday 20 January 2014

Nation versus Nation battle mode

So...nation versus nation huh? You'll finally get to put your panzers versus t-34s, churchills against shermans etc.

Basics are obvious - teams are formed out of tanks of one nation only. Japan and China can't play it - since they don't have all branches of tanks available.

That leaves us with US, USSR, Germany, France and Britain. As with other special game modes in World of tanks it will likely be available after tier 4.


Let's see where does that leave us?

Tier4-6 battle - Germans get Vk-s, panzers and the occasional hummel. Soviets - t34-85s, SU-100s and KV1S. French ? ARL44, BDR - amx 12t and some elcs for good measure. M6, various shermans and hellcats for US teams - churchills, cromies and crusaders for brits with some AT2/8s too. Needless to say from this set up - french teams will be used as a punch bag by everyone else. Soviet teams will rule supreme due to KV1s EVERYWHERE, and germans brits and yankees being average as usual.

Things change in a tier 10 battle though - How about a team made of bat chats, foches and 50B? Not so fun anymore, is it? Not sure how is this supposed to balance out, or if it is supposed to balance out at all. After all - war is not fair. Test server comes soon so we will be able to check it out.

Saturday 18 January 2014

8.11 patch notes

- Supertesters get three new vehicles for testing: T23E3 (US tier 7 premium medium tank), T95E6 (US tier 10 reward tank), Grosstraktor Krupp (tier 3 German premium medium tank)
Maps
- new map “Windstorm”, 1000x1000m, European winter map, semi-city map
- fixed some game elements on the following maps: Erlenberg, Redshire, Highway, North-West
- completely removed the Port map from all the game modes
- added new map “Ruinberg on fire” – Ruinberg with rain and fires going
- added new map “Winter Himmelsdorf” – winter version of general Himmelsdorf
- fixed the bug where you can enter the building inside the cap circle in Himmelsdorf Encounter
- improved the game performance (SS: FPS) on maps Fisherman’s Bay, Serene Coast, Severogorsk and Ensk
- fixed the excessive brightness of some effects on certain maps

Mechanics and fixes
- added new mode, “National battle”, in which the teams are balanced based on the nation of origin of the tanks
- added new group operations with the crew: mass retraining of the entire crew on the new tank and the one-click return of the old crew
- added the option to disable the battle chat (only text messages – you will still see the “command wheel” commands and pings)
- added the option to view the chat history
- added new icon for the situation when the tank is on fire, analogical to the drowning icon
- added the option of disabling the killcam (viewing the tank that killed you)
- the mission/discount window – some improvements were added
- when you rightlick on a tank in your garage, new option was added to go straight to that tank’s statistics
- research window now has an option to go to that tank you are viewing in the hangar
- added the option to activate fire extinguisher by left-clicking the fire icon in the left lower corner of the screen
- after the destruction of your tank, the camera will now first cycle to the tank of your platoon member and other tanks after that
- added the reload time remaining to the “reloading” message (from the command circle)
- added new markers to the aim reticle settings
- fixed the bug where the mastery badges “disappear” for many players
- fixed the chat and voice chat in team battles
- fixed sharp drop of FPS on some PC configurations, when looking closely at some of the Japanese tanks
- fixed the way visual camo works: now, if you buy camouflage pattern for gold, it gets stored and you can return to it later if you buy other camo of the same type
- added new “Hero of the Battle” medals: “Main Caliber” (for doing damage) and “Tanker-Sniper” (for doing damage at distance over 300 meters)
- the “Sniper” medal was moved from “sniper” to “special” category, in the achievement window you will be able to see how many Sniper medals you got and on what vehicles. It will not be possible to recieve Sniper medals anymore.
- added several new awards especially for team battles
- added the option to actually see you fulfilled the conditions for the mastery badge, even if you already have one for that vehicle
- optimized the motion blur effect
- added the modifiers, influencing the skill level of the crewman to the crewman personal window
- ricochets were reworked graphically
- Raisenai Heroes medal was visually reworked
- fixed the replays mechanism (they sometimes were saved with bugs or not at all)
- fixed the speed meter when the tank is moving backwards
- insignia of tankers of all nations brought to one standard
Vehicle changes

- fixed the bugs in size of Type 59, T-54, WZ-120, Nashorn
- fixed the armor of Foch 155, Foch and AMX AC 48
- rebalanced some parameters of following vehicles: Foch 155, T110E4, T110E3, Object 268, WT E-100
- increased the profitability (money-making ability) of following tanks: Lowe, T34, 112, T-34-3, FCM50t, M6A2E1
- MM weight of artillery reduced by 10 percent
- following tanks have the suspension damage model detailization standardized: T29, T32, T34, M37, M41, Chaffee, Pershing, T92, Hellcat, M4A2E4, M46 Patton, M103, T57, T110E5, T26E4, T110E4, T110E3, M44, M53/M55, T69, M60
- M44 was drowning too early, it was fixed

Tuesday 14 January 2014

Wot funnies 14


When I proposed to my girlfriend in french she was delighted and said it was the most romantic thing she's ever heard. I hope she never starts learning french, because I actually said "Main gun damaged" and "Optics destroyed"

Only place you'd see snow this year in EU? Severogorsk.
 Before getting E-25 I asked my clan mates for opinion.
This one convinced me "Even your own team hates you."
 Question - How many premium tanks do you need to be happy?
Answer - One more.
Gold shells are like bribes. You are totally against it until its your turn at the trout.

Thursday 9 January 2014

Bunch of supertest leaks

It seems 2014 will be the Year of premium tanks. Not new nations or trees.


Lets see what we can learn.
T95E6 will have a crew of 4 - commander will be radioman too.


The Grosstraktor - Loltraktor's big brother - armed with short 75mm. Not sure if it will be tier2 or tier 3. It will be great on 2, not so much on tier 3.





T23E3 - yep thats the old T23 returning as a US prem  tank on tier 7. It will be armed with a 76mm gun however. I doubt that will be an issue - Ersatz Panther is doing fine.


Not a word on japanese heavy tanks...or TDs or LTs or anything... Hmmm