World of Tanks

[Engels]

  More often than not, the so-called under-balanced team wins because they play a little more conservatively.

This. People do like to moan and piss about balance a lot. I've only very rarely seen a really bad mix. One game with one team having 50% arty, for instance.  Even then, stuff like this breaks up the monotony and makes you think out of the box.

Sir T>

Anyone know where to get another Beta key? Got a friend itching to try this out after seeing me play.

http://www.shatteredcrystal.com/index.php/world_of_tanks

Thats where I got mine and I've sent several friends there to get their beta keys too.

[Tmon]

I like to drive a variety of vehicles, and I would say that your most likely going to average about $10,000 a match (unless your in a tier 1 or 2 tank, slightly lower).  Once in a while your going to pull over a 50k+ match in the higher tiers.  It seems you get a lot more credits for straight up damage dealt than kills now.

I am starting to notice the skill level of drivers rise and become more stategic.

My pet peeve is becoming people that complain about balance EVERY match...almost like the are compensating for the fear of failure.  More often than not, the so-called under-balanced team wins because they play a little more conservatively.

The above sounds about right, I rotate through 4 vehicles and after repairs and ammo I make something over 30k a rotation given a normal spread of wins and losses.

My pet peeve is scouts who don't scout, you don't have to charge down the middle and die in a blaze of glory to be an effective scout, but hiding behind a building in the shadow of a tiger2 is not performing your function at all.

[Bandit]

My pet peeve is scouts who don't scout, you don't have to charge down the middle and die in a blaze of glory to be an effective scout, but hiding behind a building in the shadow of a tiger2 is not performing your function at all.

...or when scouts take off immediately before any of the arty or anybody for the matter has a chance to setup.  When I had a leopard, I would usually wait at least 30 seconds before racing in.

[veredus]

With my A20 my favorite thing to do was wait for the main column to head out then drive out in front spotting the enemy for them. The longer you live the more that turn away from the column to shoot at you instead.

[Engels]

Another clever thing to do as a scout is to wait a while. Nothing wins a No Mans Land battle (you know the map, the horrid one with the lake) like having a reserve scout when the other team's blown its load, so to speak.

[Amarr HM]

Another clever thing to do as a scout is to wait a while.

Totally, it also increases your survivability with less tanks to get a lucky or well aimed shot on your tracks.

[Bandit]

Just ignore people who yell at you to go scout immediately, in fact ignore 90% of what people tell you.  I've had plenty of "suggestions" to me, especially in my short time as an arty - "Shoot noob! (whille repeatedly highlighting the map)" when your out of range and your slow-moving arty is trying to get in position, or they don't realize you have a 30 second reload.

[snowwy]

New arty-record....9 on one side, 8 on mine.....my poor IS-3 got blown to bits the second that first scout spotted me, and nothing to hide behind in sight 
This was actually on russian servers. Still a shitload of arty around there. Playing way more there than on beta-servers due to better ping, and the fact that i can not understand a single word of the chat 

[Engels]

Bandit, veredus and I had a whale of a time last night on TS. We saw some arty stacking, but we had fun nonetheless.

[Bandit]

New arty-record....9 on one side, 8 on mine.....my poor IS-3 got blown to bits the second that first scout spotted me, and nothing to hide behind in sight 
This was actually on russian servers. Still a shitload of arty around there. Playing way more there than on beta-servers due to better ping, and the fact that i can not understand a single word of the chat 

I got a little arty retribution lastnight - Took out 5 Grille in one match with an S-51 (which I dont use often).  I didn't use scouts for spotting at all, just trolled the back lines for obvious arty placement and looked for tracers and zeroed in.  Seems almost unfair that a S-51 can shoot all the way across the map and one-shot.

Supposedly they released a bit of a patch today for balancing purposes which is supposed to help with overloads of arty.  In my mind, there should never be more than 2-3 SPGs per team.

[Pringles]

Sometimes I can't stand all the arty, especially since I get blown up in one shot.   Course sometimes I do appreciate when I have a IS-7 distracted shooting at me behind a building and our hummel etc  levels him.

Wish you could play games without them - think it would be a lot more epic with just tanks shooting each other.

[Stillwagon]

I don't mind artillery in the game, in fact I think it adds to the strategy component of the game (agreed that it's crazy when there are more than 3-4 on a single side, though).  However, I do think some balancing needs to happen.  Artillery should be, effectively, defenseless if your tank is right beside them.  Maybe a 15-20m radius where artillery cannot fire?  I've seen way too many occurrences where a tank is blasting away at an artillery placement only to get one shotted with a lucky shot by the artillery driver.  If artillery is going to be as powerful as it is, there should be some significant drawbacks to balance the power.  As it stands, I don't see any downside to rolling an arty.

That being said, this game has been pure entertainment gold for my friends and I.

[Amarr HM]

I don't mind artillery in the game, in fact I think it adds to the strategy component of the game (agreed that it's crazy when there are more than 3-4 on a single side, though).  However, I do think some balancing needs to happen.  Artillery should be, effectively, defenseless if your tank is right beside them.  Maybe a 15-20m radius where artillery cannot fire?  I've seen way too many occurrences where a tank is blasting away at an artillery placement only to get one shotted with a lucky shot by the artillery driver.  If artillery is going to be as powerful as it is, there should be some significant drawbacks to balance the power.  As it stands, I don't see any downside to rolling an arty.

That being said, this game has been pure entertainment gold for my friends and I.

It's not a lucky shot if an arty hits you up close, it's a fairly good shot. Most arty can't hit things under 15m, they just shoot over it. You should play arty for a bit and then say you think they should be completely reliant on the rest of their team for defense.

[veredus]

I agree with Amarr on that. Arty is fine as is but they really just need to cap the amount per team. When there are only 2 or 3 max per team it isn't bad (I prefer a cap of 2), you just have to be aware it's there. It's when there are 4+ and you can't cross an open field with out getting tracked or worse one shotted that it sucks. 

[Stillwagon]

I guess what I'm going for is that arty should be almost 100% guaranteed kill if you are in one-on-one close combat and that isn't the case as-is, at least not based on the anecdotal evidence that I've seen in my games.  In fact, in almost every game that I've been in where one artillery is left vs one tank, the artillery knocks the tank out with a single shot and the match ends.  Given those circumstances, shouldn't the artillery have a very, very small chance of winning the match?  If I had to throw out a number, I'd say that the artillery wins  80% of the time or more when the match is narrowed to tank vs. artillery.  The only exceptions I can recall are times when the last tank is a heavy and can absorb more than a single shot.

Based on their unbelievable power at long range, it seems like they should be gimped far more than they presently are at close range.  But, a smart artillery player will back themselves up against something making it impossible to approach them from any angle but head-on and can then one shot the opposing player with relative ease.

I don't disagree that limiting their numbers will help as well, but I still feel like close range combat should heavily favor the tank.  An added fringe benefit of making artillery far easier to knock out at close range is that it adds importance to protecting your artillery positions.  A winning team would have to devote at least one tank or tank destroyer to fending off would be artillery-hunters.

[veredus]

I think a lot of that stems from the fact that people need to learn how to engage artillery up close. Do things like not drive straight at them, learn how to track vehicles while moving etc. Arty are very easy to kill as is. I love to arty hunt since they are such easy kills when in close. The hardest part about killing arty is getting past the tanks guarding them. Yes they get me sometimes but having tried arty I understand what a hell of shot it is to hit me while moving.

[Numtini]

You also get one shot as arty and then it's like 30+ seconds to reload.

[Engels]

Hee, two nights ago I out-maneuvered a leopard in my SU-7 and killed him with two shots. He was so rotten a driver that I had time for a full SPG reload and then shot him once more to finish him off. He must have been stinking mad.

Of course, 40 minutes later I'm boasting about it it to Veredus and Bandit and sure enough, a leopard comes and shoots my ass off.

[snowwy]

I must be jinxed. Again with the 9-arty opposition.  This time it was 2 su-8's, 6x Hummel and a su-14
This is solely a problem with how matches are set up though. There's just no way to counter an onslaught like that.
For extra lulz they provided our team with 6x KV's.......yeah, great arty-hunters those are  ....to add salt to the wound, it was on Prohkorovka if that is the name. The open grass-field one with the crashed train on one side and a road on the other.
No place to hide               -check
Easy as hell to get spotted -check
Meet only long-range arty   -check

We had 2x su-5 as counter-arty....yeah......change of topic...su-5 is the most shit-tastic wagon of any kind in the game.
It has no range, crap damage and a massiv 14-shell ammorack. I grinded 20k xp on that thing before i just sold it and gave up.
Only way to get through it and unlock the su-8 is to put on the 122mm gun which has 28 shells. Won't get a sigle kill but you may scratch of some paint here and there.
Horrible, horrible thing

[Amarr HM]

Yeh the matchmaking system isn't very good, they actually improved it and it still messes up balance half the time. It's not so much the games where the T10 tanks get misplaced, but the ones where you have too many of one tank type on one team and a nice mix on the other. I see teams of TDs, Tanks, arty and scouts against teams with just tanks and no arty or decent scouts.  Another is a team of 5 KVs against 5 Tigers, KVs are way too highly ranked and if you get a load of them on your team you know you are pretty fucked from the offset.  Ferdinands also mess up the balance being ranked lower than they should be not so noticeable now there's lots of T9 & 10 tanks but I still see them getting paired off with Tigers. I reckon arty shouldn't be able to do full damage to heavies 2-3 tiers higher than them, maybe gradually thicken the top armour on high tier tanks. This could stop arty being the deciding factor in certain matches and maybe you will see less of them due to lower profit margins.

[Engels]

Its odd...with my KV, I kept getting into teams with IS-4s and King Tigers. Now that I have a KV-3, I end up in a lowbie team as the top tank. Without even trying, I racked up 5 kills one game and 7 kills another game. Its like I'm in a low rent IS-7. Raked in 35k each of those games.

The KV3 seems to be a good money maker, too. Low cost of repairs and ammo, plus decent damage, I always at least have 3 k profit, even with a no-kill defeat.

[veredus]

My KV-1S was the same. I got a lot of matches where I was the top tank and sometimes the only heavy.

[kidder]

My KV-1S was the same. I got a lot of matches where I was the top tank and sometimes the only heavy.

What's the difference between the KV-3 and KV-1S?  I know they are on the same level in the tree.  Im working on the russian medium line, but thinking about going up the heavy tree when I finally get the T-44.

[snowwy]

KV-1s is more a mix between a heavy and a medium tank, without any of the benefits imo. About same max speed as a IS, way less armor than the KV-3, and you get the shit guns....
You get the 122mm the KV-3 gets late in the tree, but why you would even want to miss the 107mm and get a shitty 85mm instead...No, just no!
On any tank above tier III i consider the KV-1s free xp, prove me wrong 

[Engels]

KV-1s is more a mix between a heavy and a medium tank, without any of the benefits imo. About same max speed as a IS, way less armor than the KV-3, and you get the shit guns....
You get the 122mm the KV-3 gets late in the tree, but why you would even want to miss the 107mm and get a shitty 85mm instead...No, just no!
On any tank above tier III i consider the KV-1s free xp, prove me wrong 

That said, the KV-1S is fast for a tank of that caliber. Its -sort of- the difference between the 3601 and the 3001 series of mediums on the German side.

[veredus]

I went the KV-1S route and am now in an IS. The difference is do you want to camp and defend or attack? I loved my KV-1S but you have to treat it like a heavy medium I think to get the most use out of it. I usually went with the medium tanks since you can keep up with Panthers and VK3601's for the most part. It's actually a lot faster then the IS and the 122mm is definitely not shit, expensive to use yes, but not shit. It took some getting used to since it was the first gun I used with a reload that long but once I learned to use it, I did well with it. Honestly KVs and KV3s were great to fight in mine since you could drive circles around them and the 122 tore em apart. Good exp and credits for easy kills.

Best advice for now I would say would be to try em both. It's still beta and it's all gonna be wiped anyway.

[snowwy]

Sorry, my lack of training iin writing english is making me look stupid. I meant the 85mm is shit, the 122 is beatiful, but as I said, that's the last thing you'll pick up there. And the 107mm the KV-3 gets is still a superior gun. Slightly less damage than the 122mm(which is the last gun you'll ever equip....til IS-4 that is minus some "small" modifications), 90 on average to be precise, and slightly less penetration. But packs a hell of a punch. And is cheap as dirt to use compared to the 122mm.

p.s. Driving a IS-3 on russian release now, and have loved every second of the 122mm. The 88mm the germans get feel so underwhelming now. Yes, you get some more penetration and faster reloads. I'll still blow you apart :p

[ezrast]

Installed a few days ago and was terrible. Scrounged enough to afford the tier 1 TD and arty, but I didn't earn more credits per mission with them than with the rookie tanks, even before factoring in repairs, plus missions took longer since my MS-1 becomes a fiery death ball at unmatched speeds.

Today, I logged in and everything clicked. I still wasn't doing super great, but I was earning way more credits and usually managing at least one kill each round. Then I looked up and realized that for some reason my ping is <100ms today instead of the usual 400-500. Funny what a difference that makes.

[kidder]

The leichttractor and ms-1 are both fun and can be useful in the low tier games.  Fully upgraded the MS-1 is like a baby T-26, it packs quite a punch.  The leichttractor operates like a baby pzII, it has more armor and a weak gun.  However, I've started recommending to friends who get frustrated with the early game, to grab the AT-1 TD and upgrade the gun.  You will get kills with that for sure.

I was far better with the two newbie tanks after the wipe than when I first started playing, and actually took to playing the leichttractor quite a bit for a while.  Now my rookie tank of choice is the pzII.  In a lot of ways I have the most fun playing in the lower tier battles and the pzII fits my playstyle.

As far as ping goes, when we were playing on the EU servers I had that 300-400 ping, and when they opened the NA servers it dropped to below 100 for me, I'm not sure if I really noticed that big of a difference I think auto aim sorta makes up for any latency.  I've just now started using manual aim more, so if I had been using it on the EU servers I would have noticed the difference in ping.  (In case you didn't know, right clicking on an enemy will activate auto-aim.  Then, just point your reticle on the "target" that is leading the tank you have targeted and pull the trigger, the shell should hit where the tank is going to be.)

[Numtini]

grab the AT-1 TD and upgrade the gun

That's my primary tank since the soft wipe. The T44 is barely break even on premium and financially unviable without it and it's not particularly fun to be shot full of holes as the only medium in a field of heavies. The AT-1 on the other hand, is like some kind of vengeful Goddess on the battlefield. I come away regularly with 5 or 6 kills without even trying.

[veredus]

It seems tier 8 is where it starts to be very hit or miss credit wise. With both my Panther and my Tiger II I can just as easily lose money as make money. Tiger II is awesome though, highly recommend it. Specially with the upgraded turret. Just make sure you face people is all.

[Engels]

I'm enjoying my KV-3, even if it is super slow with the top end gun (more weight). I'm 5 kph up a wheelchair ramp, never mind a steep hill.

Anyone have experience with the IS? I'm tempted to just start training for IS rather than dumping xp into the next KV3 barrel.

My hesitation is that despite the KV-3 being very lumber-some, it gets very good guns and very high profits. I worry that the IS is going to only be marginally more agile while cutting my profits down to nada.

[Amarr HM]

I found that the 2% crew consumable which costs 100 gold, doesn't seem to degrade  

Anyone else notice that?

[veredus]

I never tried the KV-3 but going from KV-1S to the IS was a big upgrade. IS is more maneuverable and faster then my Tiger was. KV-3s are nothing to worry about in the IS either. Obviously KV-3 can hurt but fairly easy to out maneuver them in an IS. It's a great tank and I can make a lot of money with it. After driving both that and the tiger, it's better then the Tiger I. Use the 100mm though for making money. Probably wouldn't hurt to unlock it on the KV-3 either.

[Bandit]

Upcoming changes, no ideas on dates yet....or if there will be any soft-wipes.

The next major update is partly in testing and partly still in development now.

We haven't decided on the exact version numbering and release date yet but are ready to reveal some information on the content of this update.

Main changes:

- New tech-tree - US tanks. 21 researchable tanks + 4 premium tanks.
- American tank crews added.
- Companies / team mode (15 vs 15 battles). (Probability of the appearance - high)
- Clan wars more. Test version. (Probability of the appearance - medium)
- From 2 to 4 new maps ("Cliff", "Komarin", and 2 more).
- Removed "teleports" of tanks at great distances when aiming at them.
- Introduced advanced graphics settings.
- Now for the first battle of the day (24h) player receives doubled amount of experience.
- Reworked interface of the platoon creation.
- Adjusted speed of burning of all tanks during the fire. Now the tank will burn at about 5% of durability per second.
- Multiple fixes and adjustment to match-making system.
- Fixed several places where tank can get stuck on the maps "Himmelsdorf", "Prokhorovka", "Lakeville", and "Hills".
- Changed destruction models and collisions of some objects.
- Removed dog squeals when driving over dog booth.
- Fixed collision-model of tank "Tiger I"
- Fixed repair time of tracks for some tanks.
- Redesign of screens “Barracks”, “Depot”, “Store” to match the general style.
- Some other minor fixes.

Notice: preliminary information. Changes are possible.