Tuesday 14 July 2015

Q&A 14.7.2015

Storm confirms that patch 9.9 is bugged. To fix that, the Russians got a hotfix patch today, fixing the issue where destroyed tanks appeared as if they were alive. Another nasty bug was also hotfixed - the battle did not end after the destruction of all the enemies. This was nicknamed "zombie tanks" by the Russians and it caused a massive shitstorm.

- the fact the M6A2E1 was buffed in HD does not mean there's going to be a marathon (an event where you can get it by grinding), it's possible that the producers will decide to actually start selling it
- weather effects don't work for PC WoT - they reduce the performance too much (for a large part of Russian players with crappy PC's)
- Storm confirms that poor PC's work worse with Cryengine and Unreal engine than with Bigworld - WG specifically tested that
- Storm confirms Insider's words: Kanonenjagdpanzer will be balanced further
- new branches are already planned for 2015 and 2016, they do not include other Kanonenjagdpanzer variants as regular vehicles
- in theory it is possible to implement moving water, sea tide, moving clouds and such effects but Storm states that the basics have to be finished first
- developers are working on multicore support
- the switch of VK4502B wasn't rushed, it was first announced more than a year ago
- Storm is not allowed to say what the Object 777 and T-22sr vehicles are for (speculations include second individual mission season for example)
- Xbox One version doesn't have dynamic equipment on the vehicle (stuff that gets torn off when shooting it) either
- the grass flattened under a tank in the Xbox One version works for one map only
- Xbox One WoT can use weather effects because the Xbox One performance is better than the majority of WoT player PC's
- Xbox One bright tracers will not be implemented to WoT PC
- Storm regarding Xbox One WoT sound quality: "If we added the sounds from Xbox One to the PC version, you'd throw so much shit at us we'd be covered by it to the top of our heads."
- DX11 support will come in forseeable future
- there are no plans to change the Scaleform UI platform to anything else
- Storm states that the weak T32 mantlet is not a bug: "It was always like that". Later when confronted with this again, he loses nerves: "Fuck, it was the same in 9.8! This is not even funny anymore. Yes, there are issues but you don't have to pour shit in this topic. The more normal the reports become, the faster will everything get fixed." (the whole thread turns into a farce with players mocking the "9.9 was made with quality in mind" motto, Storm posting an ISIS hymn and people spamming Russian AW codes)
- when the SPIC replaces the AFK Panther in 9.9, the players are keeping the AFK Panther in statistics. This is intentional (AFK Panther stats will stay in your player statistics as "frozen", SPIC stats will count from scratch)
- there is now a bug in 9.9 that makes the picture too blurry on low setting, if you are getting that you have to untick the "Dynamic details" in settings according to Storm. Later however he adds that he might be wrong and that it will be investigated.
- some modern videocards are missing the TXAA setting in 9.9 - it's possible this is tied to SLI
- multiple players report crashes in 9.9, Storm is investigating the situation
- Patton 46 model is also wrong, it will be fixed in 0.9.10
- Q: "WG has best QA in industry!" A: "Everybody makes mistakes"

Meanwhile in Crimea...

Russian army tank on Crimea falls into a ditch with a trailer carrying it. Stronk drivink!

Issues in 9.9

Hello warriors,

Patch 9.9 was deployed today on the RU server and already the Russian players are noticing some nasty issues. Amongst them:

- dead tanks now appear as if they were alive and they remain in battle. Funnily enough, this actually does affect capturing: if an enemy tank dies in your base, he will continue to capture the base and there is no way of stopping it
- players report that sometimes tank models are disappearing or randomly turn upside down
- M6A2E1 has incorrect armor (too thin sides)
- T32 top turret mantlet seems to be screwed and anything can penetrate its lower side:





Storm acknowledges these issues and promises swift fix.

Insider speaks: Cheating, Corridors, Artillery and others

Hello warriors,

here's a new batch of info from the Insider - what's cooking in Wargaming? Let's find out! As always, the Insider info comes without guarantees but it shows some insight into how WG folks are thinking.

- some WG devs were amused by the WT Calliope premium tank (video), calling it pure pay to win
- as 9.9 closes by, a friendly reminder by the devs: as soon as 9.9 hits, don't go running around with mods, wait a couple days at least till the modders make them work again. Even if old mods work, using them may lead to unexpected crashes to desktop without warning. In such cases, it's the mod fault, nothing WG can do, but players tend to blame everything on WG - and when proven wrong they feel like "it's a personal attack"
- Japanese users have been making their own mods and do not release them (for their personal use! and it seems none of them are cheating related) (Insider: "insert stronk sense of honor")

Cheating in World of Tanks

Clan wars are already under investigation for users that use cheat mod packs - RU that is and NA to some degree. EU is still in the middle of what one of the devs calls "a reprocessing purge" (or in more humane way  a "reeducation program"). But it'll get there. Furthermore, anyone into e-sports must remember, no mods, no scope stuff, no overhead camera, tracers or magic OTMs - you must play pure and unmodded 100% vanilla game.

However China is reportedly having the largest amount of "cheat packs" users in the game, almost 1.9 per match. Last time it was checked, EU holds a calculated 0.44 estimate of cheaters per match and NA has a 0.46, SEA holds an unimpressive 0.6 (best is Korea with 0.2). In China it's the Chinese partner that does and it's very lax. RU server has around 0.45-0.56 cheaters per match.