WoT 1.0 OST (Main theme & and maps’ OST)

As update 1.0 with its shiny looking HD maps and music is closing in faster and faster, a full OST of map soundtracks appeared.

Timecodes:

00:01 Wargaming.net – Main Theme WOT 2018
02:07 Andrey Kulik feat. Andrius Klimka and Vyacheslav Skadorva (WG) – Mountain Pass (Battle)
06:01 Andrius Klimka (WG) – Mountain Pass (Intro)

Wargaming to pair up with Graphine

Wargaming upcoming titles will be powered by Granite. Probably to improve their position with loading tank textures, a problem that has been haunting WG for years, and to get better position to release other HD textures, like on maps, HD paired up with Graphine, buying their Granite solution and collaborating with them.

Graphine about their work with Wargaming:

“We collaborated with their team in the past weeks to bring new features to our Granite SDK so that we can meet the requirements they have with their engine and production pipeline. Within a very short period of time we brought some major features to the SDK that you will all be able to benefit from. We realize that this is how we improve the fastest and probably what we like the most at our job: when we can tune our technology and make it better thanks to direct user feedback and suggestions.

We’ve actually added so many new features to Granite SDK that we’ll be shipping a major update in a few weeks: Granite SDK 4.0. Two new features stand out: First, we’ve integrated a mipmap streaming system that blows away any other system in terms of performance, scalability and controllability. You will be able to stream 100% of your texture content with Granite and have the most efficient resource use for each and every texture asset. As a second main feature, we’ve removed large files from the game production process to minimize the network and storage pressure when collaborating with a large team.”

Source: http://graphinesoftware.com/blog/wargaming-upcoming-titles-will-be-powered-granite-sdk

Daily Q & A 25. 6. 2016

• Why is the stabilization on Sandbox nerfed, even when the dispersion of the aim circle was increased already?
  Murazor: Not every tank has its stabilization decreased, some vehicles got it even buffed. The stabilization is balanced so that a player can hit the silhouette close range without problems. I can’t say that it’s ideal right now but that’s why we are collecting statistics. All heavy tanks got their maneuverability nerfed, too, so heavies can be circled easily now – these are all pieces of the new roles and balance.
• Do you plan to invite new people to Sandbox?
  Pankov: Of course, we try to invite new people each week, of all kinds – not only the ones with good stats. It’s summer now and quite a few players who were invited are not playing, but we believe that interest in Sandbox will be kept high, since how it all works out depends on the players.
• Artillery has higher accuracy now, isn’t this unnecessary?
  Murazor: Artillery now can’t one-shot anyone, so the decision was made to improve precision, so they could hit better. Stun is a new mechanic and isn’t balanced completely yet. There’s the possibility to reduce stun duration and effect. Yes, it’s annoying, but you still can drive forward and you are sure you won’t be killed in one shot. Another feature that we’ll test is the prohibition or limitation of artillery to join platoons.
• What about tanking bonus?
  Pankov: It’s being developed slowly. In the moment that we were ready to release it, it was absolutely unbalanced, gave too high tanking bonus, and we just couldn’t do it right. The same thing happens with the bonus from artillery assist, these are both mechanics where you get rewards without doing damage.
• Why does T110E3 have 120 mm gun?
  Murazor: Because we have too many tanks with high alpha. There shouldn’t be that great armour and that great alpha, but we don’t like the T110E3, it’ll be buffed again a bit. You should remember that with the balance change, there won’t be many tier 10s in one battle, and how would you fight a tier 10 with an excellent armor in your tier 8 tank?
• Are there any plans about the maps?
  Pankov: A part of the maps with problems will be added to Sandbox, but for now we focus on tanks’ characteristics, later there will be more changes.
  Murazor: Some of the problems with maps will solve itself with the introduction of the new balance, since the new roles and artillery changes will cause players to behave differently on the old maps.
• Is stun the only feature which artillery will have?
  Murazor: Yes, there won’t be smoke or illumination rounds. We discussed this a lot and it won’t come, because while e-sport players would be able to do great with these, random players won’t. There would be smokes landing on allied tanks or illumination shells landed incorrectly.
• Why is it forbidden to stream Sandbox?
  Pankov: We are not ready to allow streaming, because we are not ready to show that everything is okay and working as planned. The changes are very rough and could scare players who are not familiar with Sandbox server. This is a very important project and there will be both official and unofficial videos coming.
• Arty is now dealing lots of damage to allies because of huge splash. Will this be changed?
  Damage to allies by arty will be punished, nobody can shoot few allied tanks to stun one player. This system is being developed. If arty marks that it will shoot a certain place and an ally drives there afterwards, penalties would be strange and unfair.
• I read that balance is being done for tier 10s, and then it will go down, but there were opinions that tier 6 and lower will not change – is that correct?
  Murazor: It’s not true that it won’t be changed, but there will be less changes on lower tiers. Roles are more about higher tiers. There will be low tier changes, so that it’s more comfortable to play them.
• Tier 8 platoons are always at the bottom of the list – do you know about this problem?
  Pankov: Yes, we know, this is because the matchmaker tries to match platoons with platoons and if it doesn’t find a tier 8 platoon, it will search for tier 9 and 10 platoons. We will try to fix this in the new MM, where there are 30% low tiers, 30% mid tiers and 30% high tiers.
• Are there plans to change +/-25% RNG?
  Pankov: We think this is okay. There are no serious problems even in e-sports with this value.
• How long will you test Sandbox?
  Pankov: This testing is new and risky. The team will work until the players playing in Sandbox say that the game is now better and they like the tanks more. But if it comes to testing and testing and the players say in the end that the balance on the main server is okay and nothing has to be changed, we won’t release balance 2.0. But we hope this won’t happen.
• Forbidden mods, “cheats”, what will happen with them?
  Pankov: We banned a big amount of people with forbidden aim mods before the football mode. We found a method to identify and punish them and will continue to do so in the future. We are working on a tool that will detect all forbidden mods.
• Are there any plans to do anything about the Global Map, to attract people?
  Pankov: Yes, there are plans, but for now the priority are random battles and the balance in random mode.
• Do you watch your competitors?
  Pankov: We consider them colleagues, not competitors. We’re closely watching their projects development, but taking something from them or simply copying would be unfair and not okay.
• What about personal missions?
  Pankov: We know that people want personal missions, we’re considering how to make them different from the current ones (there are no plans to disable the current ones) and how to create them so that more people can complete them.
• Light tanks are not comfortable to play right now, what are the plans with them, except for dynamics and view range?
  Murazor: The role of scouts will return, that’s a given, but the problem right now is that LTs are not doing any damage because it’s hard to play in the new balance with tier 9s and 10s. I can’t promise anything for now, we’ve tested various variants, and nobody knows what will appear in the end.
• Will the MacBook client get fixed?
  Pankov: This is important thing, we encountered serious problems after 9.15. We’re considering doing our own client for Mac instead of using a third-party version.
• Will the balance 2.0 include new perks?
  Murazor: It will, but is in planning phase right now.
  Pankov: The topic of perks was talked many times, but we want to finish the work on balance first, and only then add the perks.
• What will happen with gold ammo?
  Murazor: We want to reduce how toxic it is. We plan to increase the tank’s survivability, and there are many options which will all be tested in Sandbox.
• About setups and balance – will you adjust setups so it doesn’t happen that one team has 7 TDs and the other has none?
  Murazor: The MM is currently being worked on. In the best case it will fix all these problems. One thing is certain – MM will balance equal numbers of tier 10s, 9s and 8s.
• Do the developers plan to remove the 15 m bush cover?
  Pankov: We’re currently satisfied with this. When we get to better balance, we’ll see how this parameter stands with the new rules.
• Aren’t you afraid that players will become confused by the new roles?
  Pankov: Yes, we are. We will work on it in a way that it’s as understandable as possible, via information in the client, etc. We will switch to the roles gradually, so that players will be comfortable. The roles are additional information for the player about what strong and weak points the tank has, because classes are a loose historical concept – heavy tanks sometimes behave as mediums and mediums as heavies.
• Why don’t you want to implement +/-1 MM, like in Blitz?
  Pankov: We’re not afraid, but we think it wouldn’t work out for now. We are balancing for +/-2 and don’t want to introduce unnecessary limitations since tier 10s would play only against tier 10s, but as it stands even a tier 8 can cause them problems. The situation isn’t completely hopeless when you’re in a tier 8 fighting a tier 10. And fighting in +/-1 would be kinda boring.

Source: http://wot-news.com/main/postmsg/202354/38613/3/otvety-razrabotchikov-25062016

Short blog absence

I will be visiting an anime con for the next two days, so expect the next updates to pop up roughly on Sunday / Monday.

N/A 2. 4. 2016

Nothing overly interesting today in regards of news.

Wargaming and communication

The thread is about the lack of communication from WG developers. In the thread, a player compares WG with a borschtsch company. “It’d be as if all your customers told you every day you need to put less carrots or more onions in your soup. Would you react after every comment? Well it’s the same for WG”.

This is mal_h’s (general WoWs manager) answer:

“The analogy is rather good, but at the same time, we don’t want to offend anyone. Players make suggestions out of interest for the game. I instantly discard some of the suggestions I read….I’d like to explain in details why the suggestion cannot be accepted, and could even be more harmful than helpful to the game. I start to write, but then I realize that the person I’m writing to will not understand what I’m talking about and will only get irritated thinking that I’m showing off. Let me make an analogy with the “Orange revolution”. It happens when problems inherent to a society are artificially inflated and instead of trying to solve them, the society plunges into self-destruction. In those situations, there are always opposing groups. In this case, there are two groups, one from Ukraine, one from Russia.

They are incurable. They don’t need anything or report to anyone, they just need destruction. They don’t know what it is to work to earn money. It is even more frequent on forums as people are hidden behind a nickname.

It is important to see this and understand it. They destroy game communities, not on their own, but by manipulating sensitive persons. That is why we have a hard time discerning who is who. Whom is it worth speaking to, who isn’t. That’s why it’s hard (sometimes even useless) to speak to people who are overwhelmed with negative emotions. When the forum finally reaches the point where any dialogue turns into a slaughter, who will be the victims? The constructive part of the community will be the first victim. And no Community manager or developer can do anything about it, no matter how hard they try. Only those who really like the game, those who understand what is happening and can make the difference between the terminators and the victims, will be able to bring the forums back from the point of no return.

I’d like to change your Bortsch analogy into an airplane analogy. The game is at least as complex as an airplane. And experienced passengers’ advice is valuable but not always implemented. We gladly listen, think, speak and explain. But without your help, we can’t make the difference between passengers and terrorists ready to blow themselves up. You’re the only ones able to do that.

By the way, here’s a video showing the evolution of WoWs over the course of its many versions. (It’s in Russian but it shows some nice screenshots for those who don’t know how it looked like before). VIDEO”

A player’s answer to that : “It’s a good analogy (with the plane) but to know how passengers can be more comfortably seated, you need to ask them and not decide for them. For instance, nothing was done or is planned for the interface (I’m not talking about TB, RB functionalities). And the old one doesn’t work that well.”

mal_h: “I will likely trigger a new wave of angry mob but I’ll try to explain. Be patient and try to hear me out. Let’s keep the plane analogy that works rather well.

You pretend it’s obvious “passengers know best how they can be more comfortably seated”. Well let me take the role of the passengers (we all were once in their shoes), how can we be seated more comfortably?

This will be a perfect analogy for the suggestions found on the forums, I will be the passengers and you, the aircraft developer.

1. There should be enough room for tall, small and corpulent passengers.

2. There should be enough room for passengers to stretch their legs and adjust their chair in a lying position.

3. Air conditioning and light switches needs to be easily and comfortably reached by tall, small, corpulent and thin passengers.

4. Every seat should be near a window and the window should be centered so the passenger can easily look out of it.

5. Seats must have armrests and an adjustable headrest, and preferably be equipped with heating/air conditioning and massage. As usual they should fit tall, small, corpulent or thin passengers.

6. Seats must be next to an aisle so passengers can get up or sit down without disturbing others.

7. The heating and air conditioning system need to provide specific air humidity, temperature and pressure.

8. Spaces between rows must be large enough so passengers can easily pass each other (including corpulent passengers).

9. Luggage compartments must be large enough to contain all types of luggage.

10. Cumbersome luggage should be loaded and unloaded quickly and should not have any damage, be placed on top of each other or be dirtied.

11. Windows should be large enough and preferably square for passengers to see outside easily. Preferably, it should have a sliding panel to have some ventilation.

12. Seats for children should be separated from the others with soundproof partition.

13. Passengers should have the option to choose their neighbour – man or woman, nationality, religion.

14. Meals on board should take into account each passenger’s health, tastes, traditions, including religion. Meals of every kind should be provided, kosher, halal, gluten free, vegetarian, even human meat for cannibals.

15. Obese people should be able to expand their seat to a size which they’re comfortable with.

16. Flight cost should be appropriate for all passengers, preferably free.

17. Purchase of a premium flight should provide a flight twice as fast and its price should be affordable for all social classes.

Well, with all the suggestions I got from the passengers, there should be 78 points in total but I think that 17 is enough.

Now tell me, as an airplane developer, how you will fulfill all of those wishes and if you can do it by tomorrow?

And tomorrow, I’ll start to complain about your laziness, your stupidity and your greed.

I’d like to mention two areas in which, according to my long experience, everybody seem to be an expert: 1. Interface. 2. Game design.

A few words about the interface.

The interface is how the game interacts with you, in other words, it’s the game itself. In order to change it, we usually have to change the game. Let’s take the plane analogy once again and talk about windows. They are the plane interface with passengers. And they are also part of the plane. See point 11 (above), why aren’t windows centered with each seat? I have to tilt my head to see something? This interface is crap! And the form is strange and not to my liking. It should be square, centered with my seat, with a sliding panel in case my neighbour farts.

Everything evolves and some of the points I listed above are without no doubt already implemented in airplane services in one form or another.

And we’re making sure the game is evolving. Once again, go watch the video I linked to see how the game evolved.

Moreover, I’m very grateful for all the players who post their suggestions and don’t get angry if we don’t respond to every one of you, we are several thousands less than you are and we have to develop a game on top of that. We make the game according to our capabilities and your advice.The more emotional conversations become, the harder it is for us to develop the game and answer to your suggestions.

It’s possible that I’m becoming a Buddhist but I think together we can improve the communication between us, both in form and content. At least, on our side, we will try.”

Source: http://thearmoredpatrol.com/2016/03/19/wows-qa-2-19th-march-2016/comment-page-1/#comment-15722

N/A 17. 3. 2016

Usual update about nothing interesting happening in WG development news. I’ll start labeling it N/A in the post name, so you don’t have to visit if you see it in your reader or anything.

WG EU asks for another feedback

Link: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/558909-if-you-could-change-3-things-in-world-of-tanks/

Ectar asks for more feedback, three things you’d like to see changed with following limitations:

• No one word reasons. Please expand on your thoughts without answers like “Because I don’t like it” or “because it’s bad“.
• No unrealistic suggestions, please think of things like the core gameplay, UI and experience (For example: Removing arty or any other class of vehicle is unrealistic and not going to happen).

“Your feedback could be related to any aspect of the game, such as Clan Wars, eSports, Matchmaking, Map design, UI and Chat, Battle Mechanics etc etc. Again please try to keep your suggestions realistic and think of the bigger picture and how it would effect the game in general. Things like “Make tier 9 tanks cheaper” just because you’re on tier 8 at the moment isn’t really the kind of ideas/suggestions we’re looking for (as that’s a very specific individual concern).”

13. 3. 2016

Nothing interesting appearing today, sadly.

6. 3. 2016

Nothing interesting today, calm before patch. If you want some WoWs goods and feel like installing Razer software, head this way: http://thearmoredpatrol.com/2016/03/06/wows-codes-giveaway/