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May 24, 2013

24.5.2013

- Storm on removing the tracers in 0.8.6: all the tracers for all the vehicles in all the cases (spotted/unspotted) (with the exception of arty, both spotted and unspotted) will be disabled, in the arty "satellite" view, the area in which the arty player can see the tracers of enemy unspotted arty will be reduced (SS: harder counterartillery)
- the subcaliber/HEAT nerf will affect also the vehicles, that use subcaliber shells as silver ammo (hightier meds)
- the upcoming profitability buff of hightier tanks won't apply on tier 8 premium vehicles
- vehicles that are getting XP buff (arty, TD) won't get a retroactive XP refund for crew XP lost because of the earlier low XP modifier
- the current information policy (SS: patch notes available in advance as it is now) will continue for the following patches
- new Nvidia 320.18 drivers weren't tested by WG yet
- it's "impossible" to impelement functional (even coaxial) MG's (SS: that would work the way guns do)
- AA tanks with twin-linked weapons won't most likely appear in the game
- apparently, multi-rocket launchers such as Katyusha (tracked) won't appear in the game
- tracers aren't taken down to make them better visible
- the hull modules won't come in 2013 and they won't be exclusive for TD's only apparently
- devs are still considering to implement the option to disable your least favourite maps

And a few answers from Storm from his blog:

- currently, the bushes (which sometimes reduce FPS for some players) are still not optimized
- devs are still discussing making your stats hideable so XVM and other such mods won't see your winrate and other stats
- Sexton I won't come to the store in 0.8.6, more tests in the new arty system are needed
- test server capacity will be improved, but only slightly (the previously announced increase in test server capacity in 8.5 was cancelled for some reasons)
- the T-50-2 / MT-25 switch is planned for 0.8.7
- lowtier premium tanks will have their income also buffed
- the new XL spall liner for superheavies will be cca 1,5 ton heavier than the current large one
- anti-aliasing is slowly being worked on
- it's possible the spall liner will also be buffed by reducing the chance of module/crew damage
- the sound gameengine is completely new, it's not the old one, only rewritten
- the name changes for French tanks are little things, such as the dots in the German patch
- there will be no "Art of War"-like competition for 8.6
- E-10 TD will come too (later)

What Russians think of EU players....

Source: http://world-of-kwg.livejournal.com/197077.html

Well, this won't be a translation, more like a comentary from me. This article came out on the developer blog (that alone counts for something I guess) and its original title is "Europeans are so stuuuuuuupid....". The author is probably not a WG employee - sometimes, players post stuff on the developer blog too (usually it's moaning about this and that, recently, it was for example yet another variation of "gief skill MM").

A few notes from the article then:

- apparently, there is a "legend" on RU server that EU players are bad. I played a few battles on RU servers (just for the heck of it) until like tier 4 and I was not impressed, it was absolutely the same. Hm... maybe the difference kicks in on later tiers? Somehow I doubt that. More aggressive, yes, that's for certain.


- the Russian author actually states that one of the social/game aspects of the server is that in the EU, mentally challenged (as in, clinically retarded) people play, because even they can afford a computer (apparently, unlike in Russia). This also goes for physically disabled people too. In other words, according to the Russian player, a defining aspect of EU server is that we have mentally disabled people playing and they don't. *shrugs* The author also sort of blames the overall game quality on the fact that even very slow people with physical disabilities can play. As an example, he gives a deaf person.

- the author also observes that (apparently, unlike in Russia), a lot of elderly people play WoT on EU server. Personal observation: maybe this is where the Russian gameplay aggressivity comes from - since their playerbase is allegedly somewhat younger. With that being said, I find it strange that a few sentences after this, the author actually bothers to bring up very young players (kids) as a factor... odd

As a conclusion of this part, the author states that instead of "lol, retards play on EU server", the Russians should think about the fate of disabled people in Russia. Now, I know practically nothing of Russian healthcare, but judging from this comment, their social system must be appalling.

- another observation the Russian player makes is that in general, EU adult players have less free time than RU players, but they have more money to spend. Well, this is obvious, EU server is allegedly the "milk cow" for Wargaming, where a lot of profit comes from (definitely more per capita than from Russia). A bit offtopic: you all probably know what I think of EU community staff, but we all must admit that pre 0.8.6, the communication improved significantly, with new info being revealed in english several times a week, nicely in advance. Whether this was truly a Wargaming goodwill or simply a virtue of necessity, forced by the fact the supertesters would leak everything anyway in advance, well... that's another thing.

- the author also observes that on EU server, it's common to see many hightier vehicles in randoms on the day of their introduction, reflecting the fact that a lot of people simply buys free XP. Apparently, it is not so on Russian server.

- the author also notices anti-Russian stereotypes (that players react aggressively on azbuka in chat) - this is obviously the result of the fact that three biggest WoT communities are the Polish, the Germans and the Czechoslovaks, neither of which are very fond of Russians, with Polish and Czechoslovaks being very aggressive towards them (for obvious historical reasons). Nations with more positive attitude towards Russians, such as the Bulgarians are not as common in WoT.

- the author also notices that while a bit isolated and sometimes ridiculed, the Polish are doing very well in the game and the legend of all of them being noobs ("Siemka" is mentioned) is false. It is my impression from the article that the Russian legends of low quality EU hightier battles are considered as false also.