World of Tanks

[Mr Bean]

The server split has finally happened. Also they are offering a five times experience bonus for the first victory round each day for the next couple of days.

That's a way to get me back in to play that's for damn sure.

[spaceviking]

I heard in gamechat that the beta was ending soon, any truth to that?

[Mr Bean]

No, still missing two countries worth of tanks (British & Colonials IE Italy, France, Japan)

Nice getting 17,000 xp after one round

[D.Turtle]

I heard in gamechat that the beta was ending soon, any truth to that?

The last that was said is that release is planned for February. It might get delayed a bit, so I would expect it in March at the latest.

The French (who are next), British, etc. will be released after release.

[xthetenth]

I just hope the release version fixes my desktop's issues with it. This is ridiculous. I don't have truly great movies of it, but I have some decent clips. And yes, the trees get knocked down in real time but my tank spazzes out.




Cookie if you guess the voice in the background.

[Ritterin Sophia]

Well I bet it's not a guy from Alabama in the floorlaying business, who owns lots and lots of guns and likes yelling at Naziwankers on the WoT forums, and who posts on these forums with an avatar of Oddball.

[Mr. Coffee]

Well I bet it's not a guy from Alabama in the floorlaying business, who owns lots and lots of guns and likes yelling at Naziwankers on the WoT forums, and who posts on these forums with an avatar of Oddball.

Totally not that guy cause he's an asshole.

[Zinegata]

My IS-3 now has the big gun. And it is good.

[wautd]

Picked it up again thanks to those nice bonusses. Veeeerrrry close to the IS-3 now

[Vanas]

Lurking on the EU side now as the low pings have attracted me. Thanks to the lolXP I've now 'upgraded' from my 3601 to the Tiger. Hm.

Well. I think I need more experience with heavy, immobile turrets, that's for sure. And the Long Gun.

[Rightous Fist Of Heaven]

Got the VK4502 and the 12.8cm for it. It's pretty...mean Took out 33% out of an IS-7 through frontal plate and killed the bugger off with 3 more shots (1 bounced). Frontally the 12.8 penetrates practically anything and is quite accurate even at longer ranges making sniping possible, but it's primarily a gun for short to medium range engagements. At its optimum range, it's pretty easy to dominate even IS-4's or T-54's with this thing especially since the VK4502 is extremely bouncy. If you angle your hull properly when driving it, an IS-4 with the better gun will have difficulties penetrating you frontally.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Got a Panther-2. Not too impressed.

I was concerned with crew performance impacting a more objective analysis of the tank's performance, so I grudgingly transferred my crack Panther crew (100%, 95% repair) to the Panther-2 and put 75% mooks into my original Panther.

On paper, the Panther-2 is exactly what the Panther needs: a little extra on the glacis plate and gun mantlet, some skirts over the tracks and additional side armor, an insane 75mm gun that the L/70 should have been (I've yet to try it, so it may still be a saving grace), and a beefier engine. The problem is that the Panther-2 no longer draws the relatively sane mid-high level matches that the Panther will get some of the time; it only gets put in the superheavy gigamatches wherein only actual superheavies can compete and everything else is just fodder. So the 10 extra mm of armor facings is utterly useless against the 128mm guns that everyone else has (90mm -> 100mm is utterly trivial outside the context of medium-tank engagements, and that context does not exist in T9-10 matches). The super-75 might have the punch needed to get front penetration against most superheavies, but again, it's an "upgrade" only within the realm of medium-tank-world. Even though Panther-2 is technically a fantasy tank, in practice it really doesn't play like one. It's bound to relatively down-to-earth stats and equipment (except the super-75), which is beginning to reinforce in my mind a problem with this game that's been emerging for awhile now: Fantasy tanks vs Real tanks.

The prior absurdity of artillery concealed the issue (much like how warping concealed the issue of light tank viability and the (non-)value of mobility), but now that arty has been properly neutered, the issues of heavy vs. medium and fantasy vs. historical are becoming evident. While I think medium tanks are generally weighted too heavily (why is a regular Sherman put in a match where he and similar mediums are actually outnumbered by enemy heavy tanks of higher tier? A Sherman, a PzIV, and a T-34 have no hope in hell of meaningfully contributing when half the enemy team is comprised of King Tigers and IS-3s), that is a balance fine-tuning issue that requires careful work over time. Primarily, fantasy vs. reality is the issue, I think. Namely, that the fantasy tanks (and historical tanks which have been given very generous fantasy upgrades) naturally overpower "real" tanks. The Tiger is a good example: easily one of the best heavy tanks of WWII, in practice it gets put on equal footing with the IS-1/2, and the T-29. The T-29 is pure fantasy and while it does have weak hull armor, its gun and turret armor put it head and shoulders above the Tiger. While the IS-1 and -2 are real, there's a bit of a mismatch going on there in terms of WWII technology and deployment. And correct me if I'm wrong, but they get some seriously powerhouse fantasy guns. The only piece of fantasy equipment of note that the Tiger gets is just the King Tiger's 88. It is a good gun, and it gives the Tiger sufficient punch to be a threat to IS-3s and T-32s (well, hull shots), but being an almost purely historical tank makes it inherently the underdog in its bracket. Which is pretty fucked up, I think, for such a famously imposing tank.

[Norade]

Doing some power leveling on my American account and I now have the Easy-8 and M6 and both seem to be okay tanks, though they both tend to get stuck in horrid mismatches where they have no hope of doing very much. At least with wacky crazy free exp mode I might get to a T-29 tomorrow and then I can finally try some of the higher level games. It's still sad that I have the most fun in low tier TD's than anything heavier though.

[Mr. Coffee]

At least with wacky crazy free exp mode I might get to a T-29 tomorrow and then I can finally try some of the higher level games. It's still sad that I have the most fun in low tier TD's than anything heavier though.

You're gonna hate the T29 at first. It's got all the maneuverability quadriplegic acrobat, it's slower than a iceage, and the basegun is the 76mm A2 from the Easy-8. On the upside, if you can find a nice spot to get hull down the turret will ping shots all damned day. Get your 90mm gun, then tracks, then the first engine upgrade, sollowed by the turret, the 105mm gun, and then snag the last engine. Once you got it fully up graded it's a fucking beast and taking on IS-3s or Tiger IIs is actually doable (against another T29 or the bigger American heavies you'll have the same problem with bouncing shots if you don't aim low for the hull).

[Bhaal]

The T-29 is a beast of a tank. Even base it's admittedly like driving a glacier it's as tough as one too. The impervious turret is always popular and for a T7 heavy even the hull, which people say is weak, is comparable to the Russian and German equivalents at T7. Once you get the 105mm cannon though you can take on T9 heavies and as long as you're hull down you have a chance to win which is pretty impressive.

[PeZook]

So thanks to the nice XP bonuses I went from being 10k away from the T-34-85 to buying it and a bunch of necessary upgrades (engine, suspension, radio and the first 85mm gun).

I must say that it's kinda nice to be able to actually survive an encounter with a Tiger, and be able to engage Panzer IVs without having to unload ten rounds to kill one. It's still very hard to live through a match full of superheavies, and the matchmaking monkey likes to throw even higher tier mediums into the fray, but the difference in firepower between a T-34-85 and a T-44 is much less than between a T-34 and a T-34-85, so I can at least try and fight and get kills.

It's too bad that to get to this level, I had to grind through all those horrible light tanks. The A20 is an excercise in futility, as it gets consistently thrown into matches with lumbering beasts that kill it as an afterthought.

[HMS Sophia]

Signed up too the beta, I'm just downloading it now. Will probably be on a lot the next few days.
I'm probably going too go with Light tanks or Tank destroyers, does anyone have any tips?
Also, is there a SDN guild out there, or are there any others people have set up?

[PeZook]

There's no separate light tank tree, you are mostly forced to drive lights in order to get to the worthwhile vehicles. Really, it's nothing particularly fun, except in the lower tiers where you are not horribly mismatched against your opponents.

[HMS Sophia]

Ok, so I got the setup file, attempted to install... and now I keep getting messages that some of the files are corrupted. Any advice?
Preferable not re-downloading, but if it has too be it has too be.

[HMS Sophia]

I think they were updating the beta version, because there is now a new file to download.
I got a working file now, I'll be on from tomorrow (noon-ish GMT) if anyone else is playing
See you there

[Zinegata]

There's no separate light tank tree, you are mostly forced to drive lights in order to get to the worthwhile vehicles. Really, it's nothing particularly fun, except in the lower tiers where you are not horribly mismatched against your opponents.

Well you could go straight from traktor to PzJgr 1....

[Ritterin Sophia]

Oh man I loved the PzJgI, that's probably the best newbie AT in the game. Before I got eight kills with my VK3601 my highest amount of kills was six with that adorable little thing.

[Norade]

Decided to grab the 90mm early as I could strap it to the M6 and damn is it impressive versus the other guns I've used so far. It actually allowed me to knock 10% off of a T9 Ausf-B and the front armor managed to bounce a shot from an IS, though the gun type was unknown.

[Mr. Coffee]

T-32 rocks faces. Now onward to a T-34!

[Mr. Coffee]

Ok, to expand on the above... When you first start with the T-32 right off the bat you can upgrade to your highest level engine (it's the same engine upgrades from the T-29 American heavy), which makes going in a straight line easier, but till you upgrade the tracks your turn rate is a lot like the base T-29, which is to say pregnant whales can out manuever you. The base turret will accept the 105mm gun from the T-29, but you need the track upgrade in order to support the weight (same goes for the gun rammer add-on), so first thing you do is spend your XPs on those friggin' tracks. The down side is the base turret has horrible armor (like less than 150 if I'm remembering right), but the upgrade turret makes up for this bay having enough armor that you can bounce Mous shell half the time. Another down side is that the smaller turrets of the T-32 mean less ammo load out, but that's no biggie.

Also, you can't go hull down in a lot of the same places a T-29 can. This tank is short, like maybe half a meter taller than a T-54.

Great tank once fully upgraded, and you're gonna need a gun ram and vert stabilizer on it.