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May 18, 2013

Wow...

Public thanks to GradiusZA for the 2500g donation, it's very appreciated :) Thanks mate.

Update: Upcoming changes on FTR

This post concerns the post from earlier today about the changes on FTR. I got an interesting offer I am currently thinking about, so the changes might not come after all, but it's going to take a while to implement. For now, everything stays as it was (with perhaps a bit slower response time as I announced), but if it works out, it's going to be....    interesting :)

So stay tuned.

Storm on 0.8.6

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/195897.html

Basically, what he wrote is that we can expect some more "bombshells" of the "same magnitude", as the stuff revealed today in the patch 0.8.6, that will be revealed next week. Storm mentions changes "game economy and balance".

As always, Storm was (well, is even at this moment) posting in the comments. Info from those comments:

- these changes will be uncovered the following week
- Komarin and Swamp is atm in the process of re-work (won't come in 0.8.6 apparently)
- camo values for tanks won't ever be disclosed
- SU-5 won't have bigger ammo capacity - quite the contrary, WG will make it smaller, but the shell damage will be buffed
- reworked fire extinguishers won't come in 0.8.6
- the economy changes will "hurt"
- Storm would like to tell the players more, but this info has to be published steadily because of translations etc.

Upcoming changes on FTR

Hello everyone,

this is something that's been on my mind for a few weeks already. Simply put, FTR started to take too much of my time and considering I never got anything for it at all, it's not really sustainable anymore.

Wot-news.com and other big blog sites have some income from ads, which I can't really put here, since it's running on blogger.com and moving to my own website is way beyond my IT skills and time possibilities. Another factor is that I will be spending some time abroad and I doubt I'll be able to work on FTR there, but that remains to be seen.

Some of you noticed I made several hints on quitting altogether. Frankly, there was a point I was pretty much decided I'd quit, but then again, I guess that would be a shame, so here's what will happen:

- I will most likely not write many (if any at all) historical articles for FTR (other authors are not limited in any way, they have full access to post anything they feel like whenever they feel like)
- I will also most likely not respond on e-mails, unless it's really important - I get roughly 30 per day and I try to respond (at least with 1 sentence) on all of them, but this is very time consuming
- FTR developer translations will be made as they were now, but I will cut off SerB's trolling completely in order to save time, unless I specifically have some time to kill
- it's possible news will be posted with more delay, I won't be checking the usual sites/forums so often (I am not sure how everything will look).

To sum it up: I am tired of WoT (I hardly play at all) and at this moment, FTR feels more like a second job than a hobby. I don't exclude there will be other changes, if the stuff above doesn't work for me either. We'll have to see.

Offtopic PS: I removed the WG lawsuit post, because it was really pointless without the original lawsuit text itself, which I got asked not to publish.

18.5.2013

- Storm confirms that the biggest map size is 1200x1200m, out of that number the 1000x1000 area is an "active gameplay area"
- current smaller maps (Himmelsdorf) won't be made bigger in the future
- the reason for the tank silhouette not displaying when looking thru a fire of a burning tank is one of the properties of game render
- Storm doesn't know whether the community will be officially informed about banned mods
- arty nerf? "no comment"
- Chinese, American or French gift edition WoT? "Not for now"
- SerB states that Wargaming intentionally doesn't make its maps to resemble real life places (with real life names)
- the implementation of clientside physics is going "well", in time a video will be made as a presentation
- the fate of Panzer IV Hydro and SU-85i is "excellent"
-  the new camo system will take partially concealed tanks into consideration, it won't come soon
- the high shell price for the Centurion I gun is "a conspiracy"
- even though SerB was tempted to introduce Object 167M hull with the 122mm D-83 for T-62A, it won't be implemented, it won't get the 2A27 gun and 780hp engine either
- according to SerB, Object 120 (SS: SU-152 "Taran") is too modern to implement
- no realistic simulator is planned to be developed based on WoT
- principially it's possible to make maps not even-sided (SS: f.x. 1000x500), but there is no need to do that
- according to SerB, gasoline increasing the turret rotation speed is realistic, because the increased engine RPM transfers to the turret rotator via gears. Other power improvement consumables (LL oil f.x.) don't have such effect, because Russian tanks (which use them) have electric-driven turret rotation (SS: this is true. For example in Tiger, the turret rotation speed was directly tied to the actual engine RPM)
- there is "no guarantee" that reward tanks (such as the M60, Failowe and Object 279) will appear for other nations too
- SerB states there were other possibilities for Soviet tier 10 medium spot, but in the end, Wargaming picked the serially-produced vehicle (the rest were prototypes/paper tanks)
- SU-122-44 and T-44 might not have the same amount of suspension hitpoints (SS: in fact, the SU-122-44 suspension has the same amount of HP as the T-44 stock one, T-44 elite one has cca 25 percent more)
- SerB on leaks (whether he thinks there are too many lately): "Yes, generally, there are rumors and then there are rumors. There isn't much harm from them, but if we catch the leakers, we'll take action."
- the devs are collecting statistics on stock vehicles too
- the possibility to reload faster when the tank is standing won't happen, it would encourage camping
- the arties of various tiers will have the same MM as tanks in 0.8.6

0.8.6 changes in game mechanics

SS: Okay, I was AFK yesterday so I have no idea where this came from, I can't find the original post, but it was apparently written by _Quasar_ (EU forums dev) based on Storm's info in advance and people, who weren't supposed to see it saw it over the developer post tracker mechanism (lol, fail). 

Anyway, thanks Trent and Ogogopogo, here goes:

Edit: original source where I got it from - http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/247547-changes-in-game-mechanics-086/ 

(I backedited the post and deleted it by accident, sorry about that)

Dear all,

In this article, we will explain the major changes coming to the game mechanics that our producer, Michael Jivetc (Storm) has shared with us.

Note: The statistical theory behind some of the explanations below has been simplified to make the article accessible to all. For those mathematicians in the audience - please do not judge us too severely.

Changes to gun accuracy

In our opinion this is one of the most significant changes that we are bringing to the game since 0.8.0!

For those who might be interested, here is the statistical theory behind the mechanic. In game, we currently use the normal (Gauss (https://en.wikipedia...al_distribution)) distribution to calculate the values for shot dispersion. However, a limit for shot distribution has to exist, so all extreme values are restricted to the edge of the aiming circle. In simple words, the limits for the most inaccurate gun would still be the limits of the aiming circle.

Currently, in Version 8.5, we have 1.3 sigma set as a limit. This means that approximately 19.4% of shots will land at the edge of the aiming circle.

There were good reasons which this limit was chosen back in 2010, but the game has developed since then and we are ready to move on.

For Version 8.6, we have decided to change the distribution model used for accuracy calculations, by increasing the limit to 2-sigma. This means that now only 4.6% of shots will land at the edge of the aiming circle. That’s nearly 4 times less than under the old model!

We have also decided that the spike on the edge of distribution is no longer required, so the landing points for shells will be distributed equally from the center to the edge of the aiming circle. This means that overall there will be much fewer shots landing directly on the limit of the aiming circle. In other words, the shots will be more evenly distributed throughout the aiming circle.

How will it affect the gameplay?

It means that the accuracy of all guns will greatly increase. Players will notice much fewer shells falling on the edge of aiming circle – in fact such shots will become incredibly rare. We are decreasing the influence of random factors in-game, which means a corresponding increase in the value of player skill.

These changes will apply to all tanks and tank destroyers in the game. We have decided not to apply these accuracy changes to SPGs as it could potentially damage gameplay too much. The change will be compensated for by a slight increase in shell dispersion. If you've already seen leaked information about Version 0.8.6 SPG characteristics, please do not worry. It's not a nerf, just measures to avoid “over-buff”. The overall accuracy of SPGs will be pretty much the same, just more predictable.

New mechanics for HEAT shells:

Currently the way the mechanics work means that the effect of HEAT shells is barely different to normal Armour-Piercing shells. To increase the difference between them, and also to decrease the influence of HEAT shells on gameplay, we have decided to change their mechanics in Version 0.8.6 to make them more realistic:

• HEAT shells will start to ricochet if the impact angle is greater than 80 degrees. (please note that every shell can have slightly different settings). The armour penetration after ricochet will remain the same.
• After penetration, a HEAT shell cannot ricochet inside the tank (as the shell is transformed into a continuous stream.)
• After penetration, the HEAT shell will lose 5% of armour penetration force for each 10cm of travelling distance
• After penetration, the force with which the HEAT shell continues to travel through the armour will take into account the angle of impact between the armour and penetration spot


Overall, these changes mean that HEAT shells will now have ricochets instead of penetrations with 0 damage and less armour penetration values when it meets spaced armor (Maus drivers will love this change).

Note: The tracks of a vehicle will also count as spaced armour for HEAT shells.

New mechanics for camouflage:

Currently, camouflage patterns and camouflage net values work as multipliers in the overall camouflage calculation formula. So if the base camouflage values for a particular tank are low, the provided advantage from the both devices will also be close to zero.

We have decided to change this. From now on, the values for vehicles and camo devices will be cumulative.  This means that now the camouflage net and camouflage pattern will provide fixed bonuses which will only differ based on the class of the vehicle (for example, TD's will receive the highest bonus).

To avoid side-effects with having nearly invisible TD's, it was decided to decrease the overall camouflage bonuses provided by bushes and fallen trees.

Changes to amount of credits and experience points received for battles:

Currently TDs and SPGs receive penalties on the amount of experience points they receive per battle - TDs currently receive 33% less XP, while SPGs receive 50% less than regular tanks.

In Version 0.8.6, we will remove these penalties. This means that TDs and SPGs will receive much more XP per battle

We will also add an assistance bonus for keeping enemies tracked. If you track an enemy and your allies then damage it or even destroy it, you will receive a bonus in credits and XP. The mechanics will be similar to the way the bonus for spotting currently works.