16.06.2015 Q&A

The major news today is Storm getting tired/pissed with players constantly whining. He decided to stop giving any answers at all through the usual channels. However, to be fair, he made also a poll to find out whether players want more answers the same way as until now or not. So far, 62 percent are in favor of current answer system, 14 percent are mostly satisfied, 12 percent are not happy with vague answers and would prefer Storm to not write if he can't be concrete and 12 percent don't want him to write anything at all anymore. In the comments of the said post however, Storm continued to answer the same way and seems happy to do so. (RG: Storm, That's just the way it is)

- KV-4 isn't imbalanced because it has full MM - if it had limited MM, it would be;
- Q: "Return SerB and Zlobny to development!" A: "I cannot say anything. Too internal info."
- the perk/skill overhaul is not concrete yet, developers are simply thinking about various options;
- T-54 prototype will not be buffed;
- Storm admits he plays only very little;
- Storm reads practically all the Russian feedback posted on Livejournal;
- Storm states he would love to answer more questions where he knows the answers but he cannot (is not allowed to);
- According to Storm the current MM weight system with 10 percent tolerance (difference between teams) has issues that need to be fixed;
- The post-battle info is bugged, the system doesn't transfer correctly the data about who killed what tank, it will be fixed. The type of battle will return as well (will replace the 9.8 version with the pre-9.8);
- The time limit between feedback and reaction to it (for example adding features) is 3 months at least (unless it's a bug);
- Interface issues fixes will be implemented in 9.9;
- Improved anti aliasing and a large pack of optimization will come in 9.9;
- The new anti-aliasing will be "the same as in the Witcher" (modified TXAA, it doesn't eat a lot of FPS but improves the picture nicely);
- The most pressing issues of personal missions were already fixed, now the further PM development is pushed back a bit by other tasks;
- Storm reacting on a player saying that he moved to War Thunder: "It's good that there's a choice. I am serious."
- Swamp will be fixed/removed in 9.9;
- The Domination mode will be developed in the future further and it will come in other forms, Storm cannot however say what forms;
- Developers are currently satisfied with personal missions status, there are currently no plans to develop them further.


And some info about Xbox One WoT:

- The Xbox version was installed more than 5 million times;
- Xbox One and Xbox 360 players will play on one server together;
- Both consoles will share progress, tied to Xbox Live;
- There will be 4K support.


And the daily, oh dear, "A Dude" made this today:

Armored Warfare: M41 Walker Bulldog in Development

Hello Warriors,

Armored Warfare is happy to announce that they are currently developing the M41 Walker Bulldog as an tier 2 and they made some screenies available, what do you think?

World of Tanks TV Commercial

And this is why I don't own a TV:

(He should have been given a tanker helmet at least, oh, and a sword so he can driver closer and hit the enemy with it.)

WoT Xbox ONE trailer

Hello Warriors,

check out the WoT Xbox ONE trailer from E3 2015:

Domination: Second Stage

Hello Warriors,

the second stage of the Domination event is here and there are some changes:

• Flags per map were increased to 4;
• Mines and Sand River maps were replaced by Himmelsdorf and Karelia;
• On 10 vs 10 one flag now counts 10 points (35 points previously);
• On 15 vs 15 one flag now counts 15 points (50 points previously);
• The event is now available for Tank Company battles.

Source.

Yuri Pasholok's Digest

Hello warriors,

Yuri Pasholok, Wargaming's history consultant answers some of the interesting questions tied to real life tanks. Here's a chance to learn about history with World of Tanks.

Yuri Pasholok, thank me later ladies!

- Object 142 is an unsuccessful prototype, a mix between Object 140 and T-54B

- This is the upcoming tier 10, "Type 2605"

 - From historical point of view its sketchy drawing appeared in some engine cooling document. The Japanese themselves have very little info about the Japanese heavy tanks. The only real drawings exist for the Mi-To.
- The fact that Leopard 1 in WoT has higher stealth factor than in real life is most likely balance-based
- The newest tank in the game is AMX 30B or STB-1 (Yuri Pasholok is not sure which AMX 30B exactly is in the game)
- Some German branch suspension module names are possibly not historical and were made up for game reasons
- There is a project of artillery Panther with roughly the same gun as the Brummbär had in the turret (some form of sIG 33)
- Ingame Panther has enough guns as it is, there is probably no need to introduce the autoloaded 75mm KwK 44/2
- The T26E4 Super Pershing name in the game is historical - at first the vehicle was called T26E1-1 and later it was renamed to E4
- Batchat 155 55 has American chassis but it was developed by the Batignolles Chatillon company and therefore it bears the company name
- There are no photos of M47-based BatChat artillery freely available, the vehicle is based on historical text description
- It's theoretically possible to introduce Somua SM but Yuri Pasholok states the research should be finished for proper result
- T-62B with 122mm D-83 in the game? "That is a question for balance department"¨
- The "Model 1946" T-54 in the game (stock T-54) doesn't really correspond to the real "Model 1946" as per Russian sources. That's because it was apparently wrongly named but in principle it's not such a big problem as the "model" (obrazec) convention doesn't really have to refer to one specific vehicle and can refer to "any" T-54 from 1946.
- There apparently was a project to build a T-54 with the 122mm M-62 gun
- "Shashmurin's IS-2M" is incorrectly named, it was an IS-2 modernization project with rear turret upgrade while the IS-2M is the IS-2 modernization program from the fifties
- It's possible to introduce ST-II (twin barrel ST-I) if the game ever supports multi-gun mechanism
- The Sturmtiger with 88mm gun is most likely a fake
- IS tank program appeared as an alternative to the KV-220 (T-220)

3D Printed RC Tiger I tank also a functional PC

Now this is amazing!

A regular Quakecon attendee, Adam Owen who has won various contests in the fabrication category decided to 3D print a RC Tiger I that also doubles as a fully functional PC.

This lad designed the model entirely on his own using reference photos that he found online and estimates that it took him over 300 hours to print all the necessary parts, just each tank track is made of +200 individual pieces.

Here is it in action:

New engine sounds for War Thunder

Hello Warriors,

one of you, Enrico Micheli posted this video in a comment section and made me giggle:

Now we know who is behind the engine sounds of War Thunder.

Storm's Q&A

- According to Storm the known Russian videomaker Murazor is "producing crap as usual" (Murazor made a video where he criticized WG for not implementing the Xbox One graphics to the PC version of WoT);
- Storm "does not promise" significant graphic improvements in WoT this year: "we are focused on something else";
- Storm does not remember discussing the option to use the same crew for 2-3 tanks, it is not planned;
- Havok: "when it's done it's done";
- IS-3 is more popular than KV-1 on RU server;
- It's possible that KV-1 in HD will come this year;
- Storm cannot estimate how realistic would it be to export the Xbox One client to 64bit Windows;
- Storm is not happy that "unfortunately many people spend time corellating Wargaming promises and failures: it's a Big Office problem";
- KV-5 buff? Storm states that he saw its statistics half a year ago and he doubts anything changed since then. If it was buffed, it would be imbalanced.
- KV-5 is doing fine statistically and is in top one third in effectiveness on its tier;
- Currently, KV-5 is not imbalanced, it is "seriously the same as other premiums";
- According to Storm, PC World of Tanks will have better graphics than Xbox One version and it will not take forever;
- Storm is looking forward to Fallout 4;
- Q: "When do you plan to switch IS-6?" A: "Why switch it?";
- Storm on HD models:

"HD tank models are difficult to produce. They have to be realistic. They get fixed many times over, they get reworked and switched many times between the outsourcer and the customer. HD houses and stones are simplier to model by several orders of magnitude. I think that they will come faster."

- Jagdtiger 88 and Tiger II are both already being reworked to HD;
- Developers wanted to make the HD models realistic from the very start but Storm admits it might have been easier to do them from the start;
- HD T34 is also being developed;
- Developers do not plan to switch Bigworld to another engine, they plan to develop it further;
- "Almost nothing is left" of the original Bigworld graphics engine, everything was reworked and improved;
- New modes, improved matchmaker, artillery rebalance and new features - Storm: "Three things of this list are being worked on right now";
- There "is now way back" when it comes to HD models, developers cannot leave one half with low quality;
- Storm confirms that WG is working both on new graphics and MM improvement;
- Storm on why Xbox One WoT will have 400 HD tanks straight away: "The content requirements there are lower and their tanks will have lower quality than our HD tanks. They reworked the tanks to HD regardless of historical references, they simply added more polygons to existing models. We are reworking them by completely reassembling the reference pack for each vehicle. Maybe our variant is not the right one but it is what it is."
- T-54 turret will not be reworked further;
- There are plans to rework the T-54 HD model because it seems to be inferior to other HD models in quality;
- Storm states that whether to rework everything at once or to spread content over multiple patches is one of the most complicated questions;
- Storm states that multiturret mechanism is mostly pointless as usually it is so that one turret has a powerful gun and the rest has some peashooters and Storm doesn't know what good they are for anyway. Multiturret mechanism is overrated according to him but it will be implemented at some point in the future nonetheless.
- Additionally, multiturret mechanism needs a large rewrite of a huge chunk of base code. There are like 10 multiturret vehicles suitable for the game and most of the additional guns cannot seriously influence gameplay, that's why it was postponed.
- WG has "many ideas" about perk and skill rework, including a complete crew system overhaul;
- Storm is playing a lot of internal testing sessions, he has little time to play random battles;
- Storm agrees that the current situation is that bloggers and videomakers are agitating their readers into pointlessly attacking Wargaming and its employees. Storm: "WG accepts criticism normally - but criticism, not shit throwing";
- Storm on why is is sometimes vulgar to players: "you get the same answers as the questions you ask";
- There are no "bonuses" (in RNG or elsewhere) in the game for experienced players.