The_Chieftain: Tanker-historian-gamer

Check out Militarytimes's interview with The_Chieftain where he talks about his military career and about his job at Wargaming and how he got it: Source.

"How did he land the job of his dreams? By insulting the company's CEO, of course."

Best part of it is a 3 Part video where Nicholas "The_Chieftain" Moran goes in search of the best real-life tank crew at the Army's Sullivan Cup competition at Fort Benning, Georgia.

• Part 2
• Part 3

17.03.2015 Q&A

Here it is:

- It was not decided yet whether limited MM premium vehicles will be removed from the stores or not (RG: Apart from fail platoon I don't see a reason why they should, would instead prefer seeing the matchmaker range of each tank being shown in the game, makes no sense that have to install a mod for that);
- Individual mission choices do not influence what map are you going to get (some player was complaining that he now gets only city maps with light tanks);
- View range TD and arty nerfs are not connected to the change of render range from square to a circle;
- There are no historical reasons why TD's should have more view range than tanks;
- It's a well known fact that visual model has four quality versions (levels of detail) depending on the view range, the collision model however does not change with distance;
- Q: "The only purpose of the penetration nerf is to make people shoot with gold ammo!" A: "We removed it, so you can breathe easy now. Stop writing crap.";
- Potential damage (damage stopped by armor) doesn't count HE shells in its calculations;
- Apparently, the Cromwell Berlin has a wrong visual gun model and the IS-2 Berlin has wrong description. It will be fixed;
- New UI is being worked on;
- Not only penetration nerf was scrapped in 9.7 - all the other "compensation" buffs (like the accuracy on the move for several medium tanks) were cancelled as well;
- HD Type 59 will not come in 9.8;
- Storm confirms: South Coast, Sacred Valley and Hidden Village are candidates for removal from the game;
- The IS-3 in HD post was made earlier (the HD model will come in 9.8) because "many players waited for it";
- It's possible that HD model of King Tiger will come relatively soon;
- Developers confirm: the frontal plate angles of HD model of IS-3 are a bit different than in real life due to the technology used;

How to play with T-62A, Obj. 430 and Obj. 140

Noticed when I'm streaming one of the most frequent questions received about the Soviet line is which tier X Medium is the best, and just so happens, the World of Tanks Russian channel uploaded a new video about the T-62A, Obj. 430 and Obj. 140.

How Wargaming made the HD IS-3

Source: http://worldoftanks.ru/ru/news/pc-browser/1/is_3_hd_model/

The IS-3 HD model in the game was made using a new method called photogrammetry.

The work began with the search of a suitable tank, that could serve as the basis for the in game model. Luckily, WG did not have to look far. They found two IS-3 tanks in the "Stalin line" museum complex near Minsk, which were suitable for the mission. The first step was to take pictures of the vehicle from all sides. This is a rather slow process, because you have to make more than a thousand photos with proper angles, intervals and under correct lighting - but there are more aspects that have to be taken into account.

The photography process itself has two stages - first is the circular photography (you take pictures of the tank from all angles around it). Second stage consists of photographing the details - welds, casting irregularities, surface texture etc. - in the end, all that is needed to model the tank in the game realistically.

Ramsomware targeting World of Tanks players

The old ransomware has now a new tactic for extorting money by targeting it's victims games.

They use a CryptoLocker malware on saves, maps, mods and other game-related types. After being infected with the malware a red window will show stating now your files have been encrypted and only way to obtain the key is by paying through a given sketchy link, the victims that fall for it usually end up with a bigger problem as their credit card info is now in the hands of the criminals.

Map Rework and Removal

Hello warriors,

WG developer Riot_guy on RU forum confirmed: developers are considering removing North-West map from the game, it's possible that it will happen even in 9.7. Other maps currently considered for removal are South Coast, Sacred Valley and Hidden Village.

And there's more. Kharkov is doing fine for now according to developers, but Stalingrad is going to be reworked.

PS: Anton "Evilly" Pankov confirms: no penetration nerf in 9.7

1935-1936 BatChat, APX and FCM designs

Source: http://yuripasholok.livejournal.com/4357521.html

The last time we left off, it was 1934 and the French military was looking for a new infantry light tank. From 14 companies originally submitting their proposals only 7 were left and on 22.5.1934, the military changed its demands as follows:

- armor was to be improved from 30mm to 40mm
- maximum speed was to be 15-20 km/h
- vehicle was to be equipped with a 37mm gun

In the end, only 4 companies remained - these got the production of their prototypes paid by the states. The companies were: Delaunay Belleville, Compagnie Générale de Construction de Locomotives (Batignolles-Châtillon), Forges et Chantiers de la Méditerranée (FCM) and Renault.

There was also the Hotchkiss company, which in fact initiated the entire program of 1933 - the Hotchkiss prototype was built as well, but it left the "infantry" light tank category and moved on to the "cavalry support" category competition, that ran in parallel with the infantry one. It was actually a turretless vehicle with a machine-gun in the hull.

The army wasn't exactly interested in it, but it served as a good demonstrator of the new technologies, allowing Hotchkiss to develop what would become the second most mass-produced French light tank, the Hotchkiss H35.