World of Tanks

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Jeez you guys. I regular float around 1 million creds, give or take.

Bums.

[Exonerate]

There's probably no voice chat because the servers are hosted by the developers, and voice takes up bandwidth.
Got my T-43 and I spent all the free EXP I had been saving up for the turret... Only to find that I needed to research better suspension first to mount it. They need to add in some feature that allows players to compare their tank with various pieces of equipment before they research and attempt to equip it.
I witnessed the most ridiculous ending to a round yesterday. Both sides are down to one tank - our team has a Ferdinand and the enemy team has a Tiger at half health. The Ferdinand starts capping base, but then the Tiger charges the Ferdinand head-n and somehow manages to flank him. The Tiger hugs the Ferdinand tightly from behind and pumps in round after round and a collective groan goes through our team because it's pretty obvious the Ferdinand is fucked. Then... silence. The Tiger has stopped shooting and it takes us a while to realize he must be out of ammo. The Tiger attempts to ram the Ferdinand but quickly gives up this strategy because he needs to back up to gain enough speed to do it, and doing so gives the Ferdinand time to turn around and shoot him. So he sticks to his old strategy of bumping and grinding the Ferdinand. This goes on for sometime while the Ferdinand is capping base, but then the idiot manages leave the cap area, losing all cap progress. There's still three minutes on the clock, which is enough time to cap... but no. The Ferdinand wants to kill the Tiger, which is fine, but unfortunately, he's incredible incompetent, trying to spin around in a open field while the Tiger hugs him for dear life. The entire team is yelling at him to back up against a wall so the Tiger doesn't have the chance to get behind him, but for unknown reasons he refuses to do this. The next three minutes is the Ferdinand trying to draw a bead on the Tiger like a fumbling idiot and failing. The game ends in a draw as the timer runs out.

[wautd]

I witnessed the most ridiculous ending to a round yesterday.

Haha, that was brilliant

[Mr Bean]

I've see odder. I've seen a Su-18 win a round by himself or almost win a round. It was a typical Tier 2-4 mashup and I went down in my Luchs about five minutes in (Damn lucky shot arty as I was speeding at the time). One by one our tanks wander towards their base and are picked off. Match draws to a close with a single Su-18 VS 6 tanks.

They then proceed to one by one drive into our main for the cap, the Su-18 hidden in a bush at the back kills the first three no trouble. The last two smart up and work together but the Su-18 one shots the first tank and the second tank misses time and again on the oh so slowly moving Su-18. He goes for the ram and gets a 76mm shell in the face for his troubles. All that's left is two Su-18's facing each other 4 minutes left on the clock and to our horror both were out of ammo.

That was one of the saddest fights I ever saw as both could not get up a big enough turn of speed to ram but since the enemy Su-18 was in our cap zone it did not matter. A lucky deflect managed to reset the cap timer twice but with 10 seconds left he manage to run rings around a dead Panzer II, preventing the ram and winning it for them. Our Su-18 ended the fight with nine kills but still lost it.

[Mr. Coffee]

I just killed an Su-85. The player's name was JesusHChrist. This is the second time I've killed Jesus... Thank fuck Mel Gibson doesn't play this game, huh.

EDIT: Which one of you is UberPloober? Stop being an antisocial fuckwit and say something in the SDN channel already, jackass.

[Stark]

I hate to say this but there are probably many people who post here playing the game who have no interest in talking to anyone in the SDN channel.

[Mr. Coffee]

I hate to say this but there are probably many people who post here playing the game who have no interest in talking to anyone in the SDN channel.

Yeah, turns out most of them not only talk, we regularly get on voice coms to coordinate when we run in platoons with each other. It's really is just him and one other guy that never talk.


Anyways, new happiness found in WoT. On maps with lots of houses in some of the yards you see dog houses. Turns out when you drive over them you here this yelping noise. Now all they need to do is have some old guys cussing in russian or german when you run over the outhouses.

[Stark]

So... because some people want to talk to SDN people, that means... all of them do? If someone posting here was playing World of Imba how would you even know, unless they were talking to you?

And seriously, I don't dare the forums but do they ever plan to make this game either balanced or realistic? At the moment it's laughably unrealistic and is full of broken balance, which is really the worst of both worlds. These ARE the guys who made an installer that crashes explorer, so it's not as obvious as you might think.

[Mr. Coffee]

You're actually expecting the tank equivelent to EVE to be balanced? Really?

[Stark]

In what sense is it the 'tank equivalent to EVE'? It lets you change shit around, just like pretty much every shooter in existence these days, and this system is extremely poorly thought out. It's nothing like EVE at all, and it should be pretty easy to balance if they decide they want either FPS style or realistic style (and shit they could just make it different gametypes). At the moment you have a system which is detailed, yet hopelessly unrealistic, fast-paced yet horribly balanced.

So I say again; is there any reason to expect it to ever improve? It is made by a bunch of clueless monkeys, so maybe they like the current terribleness. I'm not even sure why they have hitpoints, given their damage model, so just embrace the FPS playstyle and run with it.

[Mr. Coffee]

No, really, you're expecting it to be balanced and realistic. A PvP game... That's in beta...

Really, could you get a new gimmick already, bro? This constantly imitating Zero Punctuation shit's kind of getting old.

[Stark]

Your inability to answer a question never gets old, by contrast.

The game doesn't have to be balanced and realistic, it'd just help if they had a clear idea of the style of play they wanted. Its very clear now that they just threw a spreadsheet of stats at the game, so I'm curious if there's any reason based on forum chatter that they're going to clean this up in either direction. Have any of the updates tried to address the laughable matchups? The poor matchmaking? Do they want it to be a fast-paced game or a commander's cupola simulator? What's the pace of updates and stat changes? Why do they go into so much detail when the results of any given encounter are so incredibly gamey? These and more questions are important and interesting, beyond any parochial desire to defend a game for no reason.

Countdown to Coffee ignoring post contents to be butthurt 5....4....3...

EDIT - oh and lol. This is why I'm curious what kind of feedback and competence can be expected from the developers; they seem pretty hopeless or poorly funded.

[Mr Bean]

I'll take a stab at that. At least on the physics side of things penetration tables and angles have been followed very closely. If tank A can't penetrate tank B at X range then it sure as heck does not penetrate. The only game section is the what if after penetration. Prior to penetration how well the German 75mm L/70 gun penetrates at 500 meters is line with what real life preformance was. The angle of the shot decreasing the impact and it seems the location based damage is mostly spot on.

Except... it's again what happens after that seems to be dice rolled. For example I know where the T-34 ammo storage box is. Going point blank with a German 50mm I should be able to get a easy kill shot by putting a shell into that exact spot on the tank. However conducting any kind of test is hard, this being a massive PVP game with no offline lan play. So what tests I can run (Keep it in mind whenever I run into a T-34 and then suicide charge for the point blank shot) it seems it penetrates just fine but starting a fire or making the tank go kaboom are a total crap shoot. I've destroyed enemy tanks with extreme long range shots in one hit (Side shot from a Russian 45mm VS a Panzer IIIM at roughly 500-600 meters) yet preformed that same feat at 50 meters and it takes seven shells to kill them.

[Mr. Coffee]

Who's the butthurt one? The long-winded Yahtzee wannabe or the guy heckling the long-winded Yahtzee wannabe?

Seriously, the game play is pretty straight forward, you drive your tank around and try to kill the other guy's tank with out getting killed yourself, and you've only got two objectives, either kill the entire other team or capture their base. The only thing that's really unbalanced is the matching system. Everyone says artillery is out of wack, but artillery is ridiculously easy to evade or hunt if you're not a complete tard. Heavy tanks? No problem, go for their sides or flanks. Can't hit anything? No problem, train your gunner and learn to lead your targets.

Seriously, you're expecting a game from a small time developer that's still in closed beta testing to be polished?

[Stark]

Learn to read.

I don't dare the forums but do they ever plan to make this game either balanced or realistic? At the moment it's laughably unrealistic and is full of broken balance, which is really the worst of both worlds.

Turns out I'm asking people to share their thoughts about the game's issues and how the devs are reacting to them, especially regarding what style of play they intend to aim for. Your attitude problem is, sadly, irrelevant, and after pages of 'xyz imba' and 'wow abc is a bit of a problem' to turn around and say its okay because its a beta is to totally miss the point of asking how the beta is progressing and what the goals are.

I'd particularly like to hear why they have hitpoints, since the system damage is good and interesting, and all hitpoints do is devalue it.

[Stark]

Except... it's again what happens after that seems to be dice rolled. For example I know where the T-34 ammo storage box is. Going point blank with a German 50mm I should be able to get a easy kill shot by putting a shell into that exact spot on the tank. However conducting any kind of test is hard, this being a massive PVP game with no offline lan play. So what tests I can run (Keep it in mind whenever I run into a T-34 and then suicide charge for the point blank shot) it seems it penetrates just fine but starting a fire or making the tank go kaboom are a total crap shoot. I've destroyed enemy tanks with extreme long range shots in one hit (Side shot from a Russian 45mm VS a Panzer IIIM at roughly 500-600 meters) yet preformed that same feat at 50 meters and it takes seven shells to kill them.

I've seen a lot of this stuff too. Hitting pretty much any early-war light tank in the rear with a 45mm and doing 30-40hp damage and no system failure is just crazy, and the randomness on damage effects is probably why at the low end people go for things like the 20mm, since each shot has an xyz chance of procing a fuel fire or whatever. Given the numbers, I expected light tanks with 45mm to be competitve (and they are at extreme range), but lethality seems quite random.

[Mr Bean]

I've seen a lot of this stuff too. Hitting pretty much any early-war light tank in the rear with a 45mm and doing 30-40hp damage and no system failure is just crazy, and the randomness on damage effects is probably why at the low end people go for things like the 20mm, since each shot has an xyz chance of procing a fuel fire or whatever. Given the numbers, I expected light tanks with 45mm to be competitve (and they are at extreme range), but lethality seems quite random.

Not to mention the various shells should have greater and lesser chances for the secondary damage. HEAT for example should be a good tank ammo choice if you want the option to murder the entire tank crew yet leave the tank alive. Tank loss by crew death does not apply. It's one thing to shoot the tank so full of holes as to be totally dead. It's another thing that some shell types (HEAT, APBC) stand a great chance of penetrating and then gibing the entire crew. In that fine balance between going through out both sides of a tank, and going through a tank and taking a tumble tossing shrapnel everywhere inside.

[Stark]

I think they tried something like this with the HE, which is unlikely to penetrate but is good for systems damage, but it doesn't really seem to work properly.

[Mr. Coffee]

Turns out I'm asking people to share their thoughts about the game's issues and how the devs are reacting to them, especially regarding what style of play they intend to aim for.

Not sure what you mean by play style here. Are you talking about how the game is to be played or how the players themselves actual play the game? If your talking about the former, you're the tank commander/driver/gunner/radioman/loader all at once and the basic concept really is "drive tank/shoot tank" and the objectives are either "kill everyone on the other team" or "capture their control point". If you're expecting an actual tank simulator then you're going to be disappointed. If you're looking for something that's more like a third person shooter with tanks instead of Beef McHardslab vs Generic Terrorists/Aliens then this game's more your speed.

If you're talking about what the actual player does, you've a few different choices that mainly depend on what you're driving. You can snipe, you lumber up and brawl it out, you can scout, ect. They're also a couple of few equitable items you can purchase for your vehicle to aid in what ever play style you favor. Wants to remain hidden so you can snipe or ambush better? Buy a camo net and equip it. Want to have better protection against HE shells or ramming for wading into the enemy and brawling? Buy a spall liner. Want your gun to reload faster, get a gun ram. Got your tank fully upgraded and want to get more performance out of it? Train your crew up.

Me, I like either sniping fucker's from range with my VK36 or speeding into the enemy's rear area to fuck up their artillery players. I get a lot of sniper and scout medals some reason...

As far as improving or patching, they're supposed to be releasing the US tank tree with the enxt large patch. Not sure sure if they'll do anything about the arty, but I hope to fuck they fix the damned matching system.

I'd particularly like to hear why they have hitpoints, since the system damage is good and interesting, and all hitpoints do is devalue it.

Only thing I can figure for why they have hit points is as some sort of measure of hull integrity. The damage system is pretty neat though. Things like the difference in armor between front, side, and rear and even some modeling of shot deflection off of sloped armor make the combat a bit more than just point-click-boom (unless you're in a light tank some something like a VK-45 or a JagdTiger looks in your general direction). Hell, sometimes having the biggest gun or largest tank doesn't mean shit. I've killed Tiger IIs with a fucking PzIV using a 75mm gun. I've also been in matches where I've gone against top tier super heavies like the Maus in my Vk3601 and my 88's shells couldn't penetrate at all, but using HE shells I could blow off his tracks to pin him down long enough for my teams heavies to wear him down.

On a side note, it's hilarious how many people playing this game don't know how to slew their tank to speed up their turret traversal.

[Stark]

The conefire thing they have for accuracy/stabilisation/etc doesn't really seem to work either; the light tanks swirl around like cavalry with rapid fire guns missing a lot and the heavier tanks sit back and railgun everyone. Maybe the maps are too small, or the targeting system too effective against visually obscured targets (I haven't noticed any cone changes when targets are behind trees or whatever, and sometimes the psychic lockon even works through houses).

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Conefire boils down to your gunner's skill. My PzIII is 116% effective, compared with the default 55% or 83% (from training to 50% or 75%, plus commander bonus), and it rarely misses unless I aimed poorly. A lot of the people sitting around in their heavies have been doing it a lot, so as a consequence their crews are very high skill. Most people who zoom around in lighter tanks, by comparison, probably haven't been in that tank long and don't have a very good crew.

[Serafina]

Well, the only people who train up their light tanks are those who
-like light tanks
-have a light tank of the highest possible tier.
Such as me, i upgraded the complete crew of my A-20 and already bought two upgrades (fans for crew-skills and anti-explosive/ramming armor). And it kicks a lot of ass. With a crew skill of ~95% and a rapid-fire cannon i nearly always hit my targets unless i am moving and the target is far away.

Oh, and does anyone know what upgrading my suspension does (not the tracks, the expensive upgrade)? Does that improve my speed, agility or acceleration or is it only in case you need a higher load limit?

[Highlord Laan]

My PzIII's crew is at 94%, added a Spall Liner and a rammer for it's 75mm. It's a fucking high speed terror in places like Ensk and Himmelsdorf. I also make sport out of running down Leopards and gutting them.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Eh, I train up my alt-tanks that I use to play with lower level players, but then I make enough to offset it so....

[Lonestar]

Where's the SDN Channel?