World of Tanks

[Nebu]

The German medium line is also quite good.  I play my 3601 a lot and really enjoy it. The PzIV is a derping machine with premium rounds too.

[Mortriden]

Ran into Ab on Saturday night.  We got facerolled on Campinova.  In-game name is Valhalla01. 

I will also second the VK3601 for the "best" Tier 6 medium.  I have played all of them except the E2 and the VK seems to have the best balance.  My favorite is the E8 though.  It's faster and is nice flanking tank.  For just pure OP goodness... yeah, the M4 or PZIV with the 105mm gold firing derp gun is just too much fun.  Be sure to put Vents, Rammer, GLD in it.  Being able to out aim, out shoot Tier 6 Heavies never gets old. 

[Tmon]

Alienware has 5000 more gold codes if you missed out first time around http://www.alienwarearena.com/giveaway/world-of-tanks-bonus-code-giveaway/

[Shannow]

Only 184 left.....

[Simond]

RNG: http://youtu.be/5SBqk9saiYo

The lemming-like behaviour/greed of the people trying to get the killing shot on the sunken-but-not-yet-drowned tank is astonishing.

[Shannow]

It's fucking hilarious is what it is.

[Merusk]

Only 184 left.....

Booyah.. snagged one. Thanks.

[Simond]

Every game of WoT ever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66jRBSdXPbk

[Teleku]

As someone who likes playing arty quite a bit...... Yeah.

[Simond]

http://ftr-wot.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/full-list-of-086-tech-changes.html

Alas, poor gold-shooting derp guns (and arty).

[Merusk]

I'll still carry gold rounds because I can buy them for creds and the credit grind to a my T9 Pershing and T10 US tank is too fucking long to bother saving.

Hell, I may just start carrying nothing but gold on my non-premiums and farm creds with the premiums.

[Nebu]

Alas, poor gold-shooting derp guns (and arty).

FUCK seal clubbing M4 and PzIV players.  I'm sick of that shit. 

The SPG changes are ill conceived.  Making SPG fire more random is just dumb and does little to fix the underlying issue.

[Strazos]

Eh, I didn't think it was that bad - inaccurate as heck from range.

Then again, I derp 100% of the time in my M4, PZ4, and E2 Jumbo. So, this kind of sucks, especially on my E2 where I have something like a 65% win rate.

I don't even use a whole lot of gold rounds - I mostly just spot them in if I need to slug it out with a fat heavy.

[kildorn]

They aren't all that inaccurate at most engagement ranges. They were pretty much rendering the tier 5 range unplayable was the problem. Trying to play any new line without free xping past the derp platoons was enough to drive you from the game for weeks.

[Brolan]

They reduce pen AND increase cost of gold rounds?  Do they WANT to kill their business?  Did they think this through?  Why would anyone buy gold rounds now?

[Sir T]

They have to balance that against the people who will quit because they are sick of detonating to some jackass fitting PTW bullets while thay can only go PLING back to them. Sometimes that's a hard balancing act.

[Nebu]

They aren't all that inaccurate at most engagement ranges. They were pretty much rendering the tier 5 range unplayable was the problem. Trying to play any new line without free xping past the derp platoons was enough to drive you from the game for weeks.

I'm also starting to feel this way about 5 arty matches in my tier 9.  It has turned these matches into running to a safe spot and waiting for a scout to kill arty before you can even begin to play your tank.

[Sir T]

Sounds like a proper "fix" for arty would be limiting them to 3 per map...

[disKret]

Sounds like a proper "fix" for arty would be limiting them to 3 per map...

I don't know why but they are trying to avoid this solution cause... but then arty players will wait longer for their battles to start.

[kildorn]

The fix to arty is to make it more accurate/faster but less instantly lethal imo.

The current notes switching it to be high damage but completely random as to where it hits is just.. shit gameplay, both for the arty player who can't reliably hit things he's got dead to rights, and the tank player who randomly explodes because an arty shell hit him dead center.

[Brolan]

They have to balance that against the people who will quit because they are sick of detonating to some jackass fitting PTW bullets while thay can only go PLING back to them. Sometimes that's a hard balancing act.

It's not that hard.  They just have to ask who is paying for the game and who is not.

[apocrypha]

It's harder than you think because if the people buying gold ammo have nobody to shoot at then they won't keep buying the ammo.

The key to a successful F2P model is to keep both the free players and the spenders engaged. Just catering to the spenders at the expense of the free players will result in a rapid exodus of one of those groups.

[Tmon]

The charm of the tier 5 gold slingers is that you can afford to pay for the gold ammo with credits and still stand a good chance of making money, especially if you bought the ammo during one of the sales.  The last ammo sale I spent around a million credits buying gold ammo for some of my premium vehicles and a few of the tanks that I'm going to be stuck in for a while like the 20lbr Centurion  7 and Conqueror.

[kildorn]

The charm of the tier 5 gold slingers is that you can afford to pay for the gold ammo with credits and still stand a good chance of making money, especially if you bought the ammo during one of the sales.  The last ammo sale I spent around a million credits buying gold ammo for some of my premium vehicles and a few of the tanks that I'm going to be stuck in for a while like the 20lbr Centurion  7 and Conqueror.

This. There's a reason the visible issue is the tier 5 derps: they're not actually using gold for those rounds.

As for the global gold round changes: we're lacking the math to know if this is good for the game or not. The question is how many premium accounts are you losing versus how many gold rounds are bought with gold.

I know I personally stopped my premium purchasing habit and walked away from the game entirely about two months ago.

[Simond]

Accuracy changes explained in one image:

[angry.bob]

The fix to arty is to make it more accurate/faster but less instantly lethal imo.

The current notes switching it to be high damage but completely random as to where it hits is just.. shit gameplay, both for the arty player who can't reliably hit things he's got dead to rights, and the tank player who randomly explodes because an arty shell hit him dead center.

There's a lot about arty that needs to be fixed, but none of it is in the form of nerfs. First off, what the fuck with the experience needed. With the 50% reduction in XP artillery players have to accept, the ammount of experience needed to go from tier 7 to tier 8 is equal to or more than going from tier 1 to tier 10 in any other line in the game except the TD's. The higher up you go, the slower the things fire. And I mean slowwwww, for both aiming and loading. Anyway, I'm sleepy and too tired to finish. The point is, playing arty is a bitch and people who think it needs nerfed at all, in any way need to grind up through an arty tree. It'll really put the 1 in 20 instakill they get into perspective.

[Sir T]

Yeah I ground up to a Grille, But looking at the stats and one match with the next tier up convinced me that going further was not worth it. If I was going to do it again it would be the French line simply because the turret on the end tank means that I would not have to wait 10 years for the circle to shrink.

[kildorn]

The problem with using the XP grind as a balancing point is that A) it's not fun, and B) it eventually ends, and having something overpowered blocked by a long grind is still terrible design.

I've played arty, I think it needs a damage nerf and a severe accuracy and reload time increase in order to make the gameplay fun and interesting from the arty standpoint, and to make the target side not be a pile of random one shots.

As is, arty is lucky to hit things at times (crew being a huge determining factor in this) so they see it from the "fuck, none of these shots land" standpoint, and everyone else sees it from the "so I was moving at top speed and juking, and suddenly I'm at 5% health and on fire. Fuck this game"

It's just bad game design as it stands.

[Simond]

Good job that the arty & TD xp penalties are going away in 8.6 then!

[Ginaz]

The problem with using the XP grind as a balancing point is that A) it's not fun, and B) it eventually ends, and having something overpowered blocked by a long grind is still terrible design.

I've played arty, I think it needs a damage nerf and a severe accuracy and reload time increase in order to make the gameplay fun and interesting from the arty standpoint, and to make the target side not be a pile of random one shots.

As is, arty is lucky to hit things at times (crew being a huge determining factor in this) so they see it from the "fuck, none of these shots land" standpoint, and everyone else sees it from the "so I was moving at top speed and juking, and suddenly I'm at 5% health and on fire. Fuck this game"

It's just bad game design as it stands.

I've been one shotted numerous times in tier 8 heavies and nearly one shotted just as many times playing tier 10 heavies.  Thats not fun.  At all.

[Mortriden]

Arty is the most divisive aspect of this game, nothing else approaches it. 

My opinion is also that arty needs to be re-tiered to create 10 tiers, reduce the alpha (a LOT), increase the accuracy (slightly), and increase the fire rate.  In my mind an arty shell should hit roughly as hard as a Heavy tank shell, but be more inaccurate, and fire a little slower than a Heavy.  Lastly, I really feel very fucking strongly, that there should be a three arty limit on each team.  I don't need five firing at everyone.  In that level of game, especially at Tier 10, it becomes a "please don't shoot me" game instead of a tank game. 

[Merusk]

I've always been ok with it because while it's a tank game tanks aren't invulnerable pwn machines.  Let's add infantry with TOW or Mines or sticky bombs.  Suddenly you're blowing up a lot more.

It's a defensive part, as said, and most of the time you can position to be covered from it.  I'd agree to a 3 arty limit, simply because it leaves some avenues open.  4-5 arty with the maps as deisgned means they can cover every spot and it's campfest and 'which side will get bored first' is the rule.

[Strazos]

Eh, arty should rightfully more powerful than a heavy tank - it's kind of their point.

I just get peeved with my direct shots from my upgraded tier 6 arty plinking a tank for less than 300 damage.

[Simond]

Phontomen's take on patch 8.6: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJ6zt6NRlzw

 

[apocrypha]

Wargaming drops all "pay to win" items.

"We strongly believe that you can't provide a truly triple-A free-to-play experience without absolutely making sure all combat options are free of charge to all players," the company's Andrei Yarantsau explained.

...

"This isn't just about the game economics of World of Tanks," Yarantsau continued. "We aim to completely overhaul the free-to-play concept that exists as a whole in the gaming community by getting rid of the idea of 'pay-to-win', ultimately helping lead what we consider the roll-out of 'version 2.0' of free-to-play gaming."

This pleases me, I hope it catches on. Although not every game and/or company are as big and successful as WG are, it might be seen as too risky for the bottom line for many.