World of Tanks

[apocrypha]

Only had 1 game on each of the new maps so far but at first glance they seem awesome. Lots of cover but some open areas too, no stupid marshy areas or vast open hills to promote excessive camping, feels like they'll be a lot of fun.

OK had a few more games on Province now - I take it back, it's a campfest.

[kildorn]

I don't get the new US TD line. It's a slightly faster line until T6 with even less armor? Same guns across the board, same slow turrets. Just a lot faster and wearing about a tenth the armor.

[Ginaz]

I don't get the new US TD line. It's a slightly faster line until T6 with even less armor? Same guns across the board, same slow turrets. Just a lot faster and wearing about a tenth the armor.

Exactly.  That's why I said earlier I'm not very impressed with it.  Even if the Hellcat's turret had a higher rotation speed, it might not be TOO bad, but as it is now is just a fast tank with a decent gun and paper armor.  The other new TDs didn't seem too impressive either.

[Engels]

If you play the new T30 like a support vehicle and reserve your shots till the latter half of the match, you can have some fun. I ran around like a huge eraser, just wiping out the remaining enemy in shot after shot. No real need to aim either with the HE.

[angry.bob]

The M103 is a much better performer than it appears to be looking at it's stats. Playing it like a bouncy, beefy medium and it rapes faces. I miss having a 275+ turret armor though.

Also, they released the info on the esxtended Soviet tree up to tier 13 and announced a new game mode featuring the P.1000 Ratte. That should be pretty interesting. I'm curious how they're going to deal with having T-90s and T-95s being able to fire accurately on the move, armor immune to pre-modern rounds, and being able to one-shot a Maus. Probably where the "It's a game, not a simulation" really gets ramped up. Honestly though, I think modern tanks would be better off in their own game.

[veredus]

Pretty sure those are April fools jokes.

[angry.bob]

Pretty sure those are April fools jokes.

God damn you international dateline.

[Furiously]

The t34 is an amazing earner as a tier 8 gold tank.

[kildorn]

The Hellcat is hilarious, but still kind of pointless. It gets anywhere in seconds, and packs a decent gun (it's the T20's cannon, basically)

The T25/2 however... It's a T23 with shit acceleration, shit turret rotation. Same issue the 23 used to have: the gun is woefully inadequate for it's tier. Not a bad gun, just not useful against Tiger 2's and even has issues with Lowes from the sides.

What I have seen a lot this patch is that they seem to have replaced 0 damage critical hits with 0 damage normal hits. I get a decent number of penetrating hits that do absolutely dick all now.

[Tmon]

One of the things they changed in this patch is that you only get told about critical hits if you take the Commander's perk that lets you know about them.

[kildorn]

That would explain why it feels like the same old "dead shot, told it hit, nothing happens"

That seems like a huge waste of a commander's perk to me, but hey.

edit: I am the 1% (of T20 drivers), Woo!

[Abagadro]

Ya, I miss the Pavlovian "Brrt" when you do a crit hit, but you can still tell that you did it if you have the OTM damage mod.

[Tmon]

You can see damage delivered with the in game implementation of OTM as well, it just doesn't float up like OTM.  To see it go to settings >Markers, then choose hp left/total and check the box that says durability indicator.  The only mod I use these days is one that shows your reload time in seconds, comes in especially handy on my auto-loading French tanks.

[Merusk]

Yeah the in-game damage indicator is nice.

Did they patch in DX11 support as well?  I came back from vacation and fired this up yesterday and was stunned at how much prettier it was after the patch.

[kildorn]

I didn't notice any prettier.

I'm sort of falling in love with the T25/2, in it's completely pointless role. I think playing US Mediums and French Light/Mediums has made me assume the armor stat is just flavor text on the tank specs, so I'm used to running around the map from odd angles to flank things. Completely loath it in city maps, just because being forced to fight fair is a death sentence.

I sadly didn't get a replay of the 7 kill campfest where I was constantly called a hacker because I shot two people through windows (and a matilda who insisted it was impossible that two shot him without some form of hacks). Was a stupid match, but sort of funny for the sheer number of people dying to my forward assault TD. Also, 1% on it, woo! </epeen>

[Mortriden]

Yeah the in-game damage indicator is nice.

Did they patch in DX11 support as well?  I came back from vacation and fired this up yesterday and was stunned at how much prettier it was after the patch.

They patched in some sort of update to the engine, yes.  They did part of it on the last mini-patch and finished it on 7.2.  You should noticed the biggest change on the "death" and explosion graphics.

The T34 is the same as it ever was, with a pumped up earning rate.  I was also able to gross 220k+ in a small handful of games.  Everyone knows it's weak hull armor though, if those damn French AMX's get to your sides your done.  The M103 has better bounce potential than the T34 does.  While the overall turret armor is thinner, it has some truly sleek lines.  My buddy and I fired up a training room with the M103 vs. his IS-4 (with the 130mm).  From the front, every shot he put into my turret bounced and half of the shots into the hull.  Now, every other location that the IS-4 fires on will pen and brutalize...  Bob's idea of using it as a heavy medium is a good one. 

[apocrypha]

Is there a bug on Malinovka that lets you shoot through the church? Saw some guy in a KV-5 today, on my team, shoot & kill 2 enemy tanks that I was playing peek-a-boo with round the church corner. Looked to me like he fired directly through it, from fairly close up. My ping was <40 and my framerate was >60 so I don't think it was a client blip on my end.

[kildorn]

I haven't seen any bugs like that, but I have seen some impossible shots that looked netcode related (like the code suddenly compensates for the shooter's shitty ping) where someone was in the open, got into cover and suddenly took a big hit from an angle they couldn't have been hit from.

[angry.bob]

Is there a bug on Malinovka that lets you shoot through the church? Saw some guy in a KV-5 today, on my team, shoot & kill 2 enemy tanks that I was playing peek-a-boo with round the church corner. Looked to me like he fired directly through it, from fairly close up. My ping was <40 and my framerate was >60 so I don't think it was a client blip on my end.

I've been shot through ranch houses on the south side of the map a couple of times. Each time I was in a spot that they couldn't have had LOS to me and the windows wouldn't have helped them. I've also heard of it happening to other poeple FWIW.

[Furiously]

I know I've used zoomed out fire to target a tank I can't see zoomed in and had shots hit before.  I think it uses "fire from my view" instead of a "fire from my turret" logic when computing if a shot can hit.

[kildorn]

I shot someone through the ranch house and he seemed entirely put off by it, but I did have really crazy shots (like, half his hatch visible through two windows), and even before the patch I've had some pretty crazy trick shots hit me through them. That house is a death trap.

[Merusk]

I know I've used zoomed out fire to target a tank I can't see zoomed in and had shots hit before.  I think it uses "fire from my view" instead of a "fire from my turret" logic when computing if a shot can hit.

I've suspected something entirely different.  That, when in sniper mode, it only checks to see if the muzzle is clear, not the barrel.    So if your barrel is long enough to stick through the wall, such as on the Panzers and KV-5, you can 'shoot around corners' in a way you couldn't in the overview.

Ever notice if you back out of sniper and you're close to a building, your barrel suddenly shoots up so it's not sticking into the wall?  That's what prompted me to think something's screwy with the modeling and the way the camera interacts with things between the two modes.

It's something I wanted to check in a practice game but have never had the ability to.  Those of you with Clans/ friends lists might want to give it a shot and see what's up.

[Furiously]

I am pretty sure shells don't come out of the end of the turret because if you butt up against a tank with a turret longer than your tank they can still shoot you.

[Abagadro]

I've been accused of shooting through buildings or around corners when all I was really doing was looking in sniper mode through little archways or covered patios.  Many of the buildings in the game have them and some people don't realize you can sneak shells through there.

[apocrypha]

I'm sure it was just a bug of some kind. I'm very hesitant to ever label or accuse someone of hacking in any game, mainly because I've been accused of it myself a few times when I've just been having a lucky streak. I got accused of it in WoT a couple of times too, which made me laugh. If I hacked in any way I'd have considerably better stats! 

In other news I got my Wolverine last night. Fun tank! I'm definitely finding that in general I enjoy playing the US tanks most. They seem to be a good balance between firepower, speed and armour. Plus decent gun barrel depression is worth its weight in gold.

[Merusk]

I am pretty sure shells don't come out of the end of the turret because if you butt up against a tank with a turret longer than your tank they can still shoot you.

Yeah, but which side of your hitbox are the shells hitting, the front or the back? 

[Tmon]

I am pretty sure shells don't come out of the end of the turret because if you butt up against a tank with a turret longer than your tank they can still shoot you.

Yeah, but which side of your hitbox are the shells hitting, the front or the back? 

They hit the front of the hit box since shots originate from the front of the turret or front slope for fixed guns.  They only model the gun barrels visually and don't do any collision detection with them so for all practical purposes they don't exist. 

[kildorn]

I'm sure it was just a bug of some kind. I'm very hesitant to ever label or accuse someone of hacking in any game, mainly because I've been accused of it myself a few times when I've just been having a lucky streak. I got accused of it in WoT a couple of times too, which made me laugh. If I hacked in any way I'd have considerably better stats!  

In other news I got my Wolverine last night. Fun tank! I'm definitely finding that in general I enjoy playing the US tanks most. They seem to be a good balance between firepower, speed and armour. Plus decent gun barrel depression is worth its weight in gold.

The wolverine has armor? ;)

It has hilarious angles that cause bounces from the strangest things, but in general you can't take a hit with it. If anything, the US medium line is a great primer for the US TD line. I'm sort of in love with the relatively terrible tank that is the T25/2, but I find it plays best if you are a T20 driver at heart. You're not a brawler, you're not a sniper.. you're kind of an odd midfielder whose job is to flank and stay out of trouble.

But I DID get Invader last night on my T25/2, just because it's a decent enough tank that you can play aggressive as hell if you see an opening. They let me snipe for the first two kills, and then had a flank exposed and let me drive right in and destroy all of their center support. Nothing says love like tracking and killing a JPanther with a turreted TD. Nothing says hate like a T-50-2 damaging your turret rotation speed on one ><

edit: The official forums, aside from being terrible, have a serious hate on for the T25/2. Anyone else played with/against it? I'm sitting happy with about a 70% win rate on it and think it's a perfectly balanced tank, if a bit undergunned for it's MM. I like it a shitload more than my Pershing, which spends a lot of time playing in slugfest games that it can't compete in.

[Tmon]

I think part of it is that the T25/2 historically was based on the t23 and people were hoping to get a back door t23 medium.  I'm not sure why, because the T23 was a bad tier 8 medium.  Another thing about 25/2 is that unlike the t25 which is also tier 7 it doesn't get the 105mm as top gun.  I liked it on the test server when I ran it, but since I have a t30 and like playing my T25 better I'm not running it in live.  It seems fairly mobile and with the turret you can hide in a bush and cover a wide sector without having to traverse and lose your cammo bonus.  The turret is slow but it still gives you a decent chance to deal with a circle strafing light or medium, which can be kind of painful in a non-turreted TD.

[Abagadro]

The 110 is a great tank. Took on an E-75 and E-100 solo with it at the end stages of Malinovka and took both out.

[Brolan]

Haven't driven the T25/2 myself but a couple of my clan-mates love it.

[kildorn]

I'm enjoying it enough that it will probably always have a home in my garage. It's not an amazing tank by any stretch and lacks a really defined role, but it seems to suit my playstyle perfectly in the sense that I tend to use my mediums are highly mobile fire support more than brawlers or snipers.

edit: just for reference, I'm sitting on a 68% win rate with it, and an average XP of 800ish. Cheap-ish to repair and rearm, too. But it can't frontally pen a Lowe to save it's life, or even pen the sides half the fucking time. Hell, I put four bounces into the back of a lowe at extreme range from an elevated position. I can only imagine that the elevation was screwing up the impact angle to cause that. But usually the gun is serviceable (it's the T20's gun +10mm pen)

[Merusk]

So, the one year anniversary event is happening right now. Tons of good things with it. 

If you go to the webpage there's a code for a free 24h of premium.

At the same time they're running a special.  Half-off many tanks, all equipment and cammo options and the first victory of the day for the next 3 days will give 5x exp.  Combine that with the premium code and enter it at the right time (so the 24h carries over the xp reset) and you get 10x exp for 2 matches this weekend.   Plus the price of premium has been dropped for several different time frames.

The unfortunate downside is pubbie groups have been TOTAL and complete shit at all tiers. Not the usual bad but "my entire team things this is quake and is zerg rushing" bad.  Not so bad if you like tooling around at level 2-4 tanks.  Horrible when you're a T7 who gets stuck as lowman vs. a bunch of T9-T10s who explode in the first 2 mins of the match while - somehow- the other team takes only 1-2 losses.   

[Amarr HM]

Thanks I just used that premium code as I'm back playing.

Loads of new changes since I last played, I especially like the perks. It seems so much faster on my machine aswell, I'm getting decent FPS with quite a few settings on. Before I would have turn absolutely everything off to stay manageable.

[apocrypha]

Yeah the random games have been bad the last 24 hours. I ended up installing the XVM mod and I have come to the conclusion that what it calls "average" really, really isn't. I'd guess that 75% of players have less than 600 rating.

The special is cool though - I'm hoping to get to the ARL44 before it goes back up to full price, which I'm hoping will be my first non-shit French tank. It's a shame the stopped doing extra credit specials, but I suppose they want to encourage you to get premium tanks for money making.

I also got to the IS-3 a couple of nights ago, my first tier 8 tank, and am loving it. Would like to get to the IS4 before the 7.3 rework of the Soviet heavy line, but that's a lot of XP.