World of Tanks

[Furiously]

I'm thinking that might be the most massive patch ever.

[Merusk]

I have just learned there are mods for this game.  Wtf, how did I miss this previously? Goddamnit.

Any recommendations?

[veredus]

Ya. I'll try to track down the link for it but the mod I can't live w/o gives tanks hp bars above them and shows the dmg being done in floating numbers above tanks when they are hit.

EDIT: Found it. It's called OverTargetMarkers  http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/48492-overtargetmarkers/

[Gets]

I use:

OverTargetMarkers
ContoursMod
ZoomOut mod
Hitskins mod (clowncar tanks)
Reload timer
ServerSideCursor mod
Reduced foliage (decreases frames per second, so not that great)

What is cool about OverTargetMarkers is the "Blow up!" marker making it easy to see someone getting ammoracked. But you can do a lot of customization with mods, including making your HUD look like you're playing MechWarrior.

[Tmon]

WoT has been slowly adding functionality from some of the more popular mods, the next patch will incorporate the hit points and bar display from over the target mod.  They also changed the way mods were applied with the 7.1.1 patch that went out yesterday.  They now have a mod folder, were you put the mods so that they won't get overwritten every upgrade.  Not sure how it works since my new PC hasn't arrived and none of the working pcs I own can run the game.  I'm pretty minimalist concerning mods, I used OTM and the reload countdown timer.  Here's a link to the OTM and the Countdown timer with instructions for making them work in 7.1.1 http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/74727-070-overtargetmarkers-and-crosshairs-with-timer-reloading/

[Nebu]

I'm pretty impressed with the game and the development team.  WoT has become my game-to-play-when-I'm-tired-of-my-main-timesink.  I'm enjoying SWTOR still, but drop by WoT when I want a quality pvp fix.

[apocrypha]

Started having the odd game of this again, after not playing for a few months.

Fuck me but it's hard to get XP now! Winning a match with 5 kills and getting 800 xp for it? Ouch.

[Mortriden]

XP is now almost completely based on damage dealt to the enemy team.  There are some interesting "assist" type stuff; such as if you are the tank that has spotted an enemy tank on the radar and a teammate damages them, you get a portion of the experience for the damage as well (I don't think it detracts from the teammate, kind of you get a "bonus" for spotting the enemy when it is damaged). 

You get a very, very small bonus for delivering the killing blow to an enemy tank. 

[disKret]

XP is now almost completely based on damage dealt to the enemy team.  There are some interesting "assist" type stuff; such as if you are the tank that has spotted an enemy tank on the radar and a teammate damages them, you get a portion of the experience for the damage as well (I don't think it detracts from the teammate, kind of you get a "bonus" for spotting the enemy when it is damaged). 

You get a very, very small bonus for delivering the killing blow to an enemy tank. 

It was always like that.

[apocrypha]

Yeah, I know that's how it works, and I'm fairly sure that the difference now is because of the changes to penetration and that whole armour normalisation thing. It feels like I'm bouncing a lot more shots than I used to.

It's a shame because it makes it feel even more grindy than it did before. Although I'm sure the reasoning behind it is to push more people into buying gold ammo.

[Merusk]

More like it's to get people to buy gold to pay for premium, where your xp is doubled.  Fuck that noise, I'll grind away forever in Tier VI knowing I'll never see a tier VII tank other than the Type-59 I bought because it was going away.

[Amarr HM]

Any mention of when the physics engine is being introduced? I may return to try that out.

[Engels]

Anyone else, other than Abagadro and I using the stats mod? Its pretty nifty; it gives you player ratings within each match. It lists percentage of battles won, number of battles played and some soft of 'efficiency' rating. So someone can have a high battle won ratio, but low efficiency rating, which suggests that although they are often grouped with great players, they themselves may be so-so. Or they use tactics that aren't particularly calculable and obtain better results.

The players are then coded red, orange, green and purple. Purple players are the superlatives, either due to over 60% victory rates or high efficiency rating, or both.

Its of interest to note that in my relatively new experience with the mod on, its easy to predict battle outcomes if there's a significant disparity in player quality. I know, shocking.

[Nebu]

Anyone else, other than Abagadro and I using the stats mod? Its pretty nifty; it gives you player ratings within each match. It lists percentage of battles won, number of battles played and some soft of 'efficiency' rating. So someone can have a high battle won ratio, but low efficiency rating, which suggests that although they are often grouped with great players, they themselves may be so-so. Or they use tactics that aren't particularly calculable and obtain better results.

I may never play again.  It's depressing to know that there's a mod that places a big "NEBU SUCKS" tag over my head. 

[Engels]

Many players are in the 'average' category. You wouldn't necessarily stick out like a sore thumb. They don't have an 'abysmal' color code.

[Nebu]

I don't want to be average.  I'm a special snowflake, god damnit!

[Abagadro]

It's pretty predictive from my rough experience.  If I had a bug about it you could write down the ratio of green/orange/red per team and the result and likely graph it out. I would bet it would show a pretty significant correlation.

On the one hand it is a bummer to load in and see that your team is shit, but on the other hand it reduces your expectations so you aren't that stressed as you watch your team evaporate.

[angry.bob]

You don't really need a mod to  tell if your team is crap, it just gives you about 30 seconds of warning. Anytime a round starts and half the teams heads off to "capture" a hill I know we're fucked. Same goes for all the ights and mediums dying in less than a minute. Also, when MM gives us a T30, a T-54, and 2 pershings while the other team gets a Maus, an E-75, and 2 IS-4's.

[Abagadro]

I'll take a skilled T-54 over a crappy Maus any day and twice on sunday.

[Tmon]

7.2 goes live early Friday morning http://worldoftanks.com/news/1150-72-update-release-march-30/

[apocrypha]

Cool. Still not used to the last couple of new maps, Swamp & Fjords, but I've barely played since they were released.

I've not been using the mod that shows your efficiency, but I've been watching my own using the webpage, and it's made me play much more carefully in an effort to increase it. I've gone from ~880 to just over 910 in a couple of weeks, so I guess having that info available is making me a better player...

Had a funny match yesterday. Was in my T29 and most of the rest of my team died in very short order. Ended up with me and a Slugger left against almost all of the other team. Long story short I ended up with 7 kills, Boelter Medal and 2 other medals.... and one of my team mates who'd died in the first 60 seconds but stayed to watch called me a noob for not winning the match. 

[Ginaz]

Cool. Still not used to the last couple of new maps, Swamp & Fjords, but I've barely played since they were released.

I've not been using the mod that shows your efficiency, but I've been watching my own using the webpage, and it's made me play much more carefully in an effort to increase it. I've gone from ~880 to just over 910 in a couple of weeks, so I guess having that info available is making me a better player...

Had a funny match yesterday. Was in my T29 and most of the rest of my team died in very short order. Ended up with me and a Slugger left against almost all of the other team. Long story short I ended up with 7 kills, Boelter Medal and 2 other medals.... and one of my team mates who'd died in the first 60 seconds but stayed to watch called me a noob for not winning the match. 

I was in my Wolverine last night (tier 3-5 match) and all but 2 of my teamates were gone against 8 of the other team left.  We ended up winning with the last 2 guys on my team getting 1 kill each and me killing the rest.  I ended up with 8 kills total, almost all of the damage done by me.  The Wolverine is a beast in that type of match because of the high rate of fire and being able to pen everything tier 5 and under.  Even KVs melt will away pretty quickly. 

[Tmon]

M10 is one of my favorite tanks in the game, I'm really looking forward to the m18, I drove one on the test server and it's like an m10 on speed.

[Furiously]

I'm excited to watch my garage explode with tanks tomorrow.

[Tmon]

I've heard mixed reviews for the new US heavies, since they come with garage slots I won't be in a hurry to sell them off even if they suck.  I did run some games in the t30 on test and it is much better as a tier 9 td than it is  a tier ten heavy. 

[apocrypha]

Yeah I was hoping to have reached one or more of those high tier US heavies in time for this patch, but not playing for several months put that plan out the window.

And I'm heading towards Wolverine myself atm. About 9k left to get on the T40, which is a strange little tank.

[Tmon]

Once you get it maxed the T40 can be a lot of fun, the bad news on your wolverine grind is that as part of 7.2 they modified xp costs on a bunch of vehicles {the changes are listed here http://worldoftanks.com/en/release_notes ) and the wolverine got bumped up to 14430. 

[apocrypha]

That's only an extra 2000 xp though, like 4-5 games, no biggy.

Bit more annoying is the nerf to profitability of most tier 6+ tanks. +25% repair costs for the M4A3E2 and E8? Ouch.

[apocrypha]

Had a chance to play a bit now.

I love the increase of the daily double to a daily triple. I like the indicator on the tank selector to show which tanks have completed their daily triple - no more using Primary/Secondary as an aide memoir! I like the new "Demount" button more than the last iteration but less than the one before that.

The new skills are of no interest to me at all so far - none of them are better than Camoflage or Repair and none of my tank crews have got both of those to 100% yet.

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.

Built-in over-target markers, no need to mod that any more, I like. Also nicely customisable.

Not got any of the new tanks, can't comment on them.

[Ginaz]

I've heard mixed reviews for the new US heavies, since they come with garage slots I won't be in a hurry to sell them off even if they suck.  I did run some games in the t30 on test and it is much better as a tier 9 td than it is  a tier ten heavy. 

I played around a bit with the new US T9 that replaces the T-34 and it wasn't too bad but it was hard to tell if it was significantly better than the T-34.  It looks cooler, imo, if that means anything.  I'm just glad the grind to get the T-34 is going to net me another T8 prem. tank and I get the new tank as well.  The new US TDs are a little underwhelming mostly because they are so fragile.  The Hellcat can be penned and destroyed by T2-3 tanks and probably even T1s.  Its fast as hell and has a decent gun but I don't know if that will be enough to make up for its weak armour.

[Tmon]

The new premium looks like it earns as well if not slightly better than the Lowe.  In four games I grossed 226k credits in the t34 vs 165k in Lowe, both tanks went 2 and 2.

[Abagadro]

The new Italian map is pretty cool. Has more verticality than any other map.

[veredus]

Fully upgraded Hellcat is a ton of fun. As for the new heavies, in my very limited experience playing both of them, (about 5 or 6 battles in each) I'm split on them.  I actually like the M103 better then the T34. It does bounce a little bit more overall and it's a lot more maneuverable. Can't hull down with it like the T34 but it moves so much better that it's not needed as much. On the fence with the T110 mostly due to the gun. All the same advantages as the M103 over the T34 but a 400 damage gun on a tier 10 really kind of blows and your high rate of fire doesn't mean dick in most situations.

[Brolan]

Had a chance to play a bit now.

I love the increase of the daily double to a daily triple. I like the indicator on the tank selector to show which tanks have completed their daily triple - no more using Primary/Secondary as an aide memoir! ...

You realize they always had a red star in the upper right corner to designate which tanks still had their bonus, right?

[apocrypha]

You realize they always had a red star in the upper right corner to designate which tanks still had their bonus, right?

No. Haha.