Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Change in Scope

It's has been a while since the latest big post back in December 2011.

Many things have changed since then, including my position and scope. Currently I'm involved as producer in two major projects that are currently in development by Wargaming.net - World of Tanks and World of Warplanes.

Thus at the current stage I'm devoting my time and effort to a more generalized and strategic level of things, having less time to some particular details (e.g. balance of tank X), which will inevitably affect the format of the blog and dramatically decrease time spent on forums.

From now on, I will do my best providing the information on how and why we do things instead of focusing on what exactly we do (such stuff can be found on specialized resources like forums and websites). This will minimize the overlap with similar sources.

The aforementioned change means that the blog will cover issues related to both ground and aerial warfare. I would like to keep most of the communications and discussions in one place, ie here. This will also include regular Q&A sessions and insider's posts of various kinds.

During the major break I also had chance to visit Game Developers Conference 2012 in San Francisco, US, which was really helpful and somewhat fun.


Even though some of the talks were dedicated to sort of obvious things with few or no innovative ideas and aimed at students, the majority could find something for their own taste. Looked like Naughty Dog and DICE had the biggest overall number of talks which were very popular.

 Lowly Overlord and mighty Sid Meier.

Prior to flying back home, I also had a chance to visit Tank Summit at one of the biggest private tank collections in the world comprising ~150 vehicles. Really impressive.

                                     T-54/55 "The beloved"

T-34 with 76mm. Really rare stuff, most of survived vehicles are 34-85.

M103 "The newcomer"

Just M3 Lee.

Starting with the next week, the blog will be regularly updated. Waiting for ideas and suggestions in comments.

PS: Hope, you also like the updated design of the blog.
PPS: Not planning to disable OpenID comments, asking everyone to be civilized. Thanks.

67 comments:

  1. Just glad the T34 might be a decent premium and ridding the tech tree of an awful tank.

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  2. Some info about the 7.3 patch would be nice. And more to the point, could you give some basic specs for the T10 IS-4 (I think it should have a 122mm?)

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    Replies
    1. As I have mentioned in the post, from now on I will change the focus and pay less attention to minor details. Thus 7.3 preview is possible, while post on IS-4 isn't.

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  3. its not awful... it just need more skill to be able to face 75 or is4

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  4. is there any chance to try the world of warplanes soon?

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    Replies
    1. Sure thing! The global alpha is already on. I will make a post on it soon.

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    2. Yeah, Global Alpha is out, but i got no invite yet... I am registred since end of October 2011 in the WOWP Forum and i didnt get invited, but people who registred to Global alpha 1 week after The GA Message are in Alpha Test...

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    3. We have started the application February 23, 2012. Prior to that date it was possible to register on forums only.

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  5. On your blog were most times pictures of new tanks/MM tables and so on...what about pics from the second german td line? I think everyone is waiting for some pics :)

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  6. Where can we get the information you where supplying us with here? You said that "(such stuff can be found on specialized resources like forums and websites)." A few examples would be nice. Thank you!

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    Replies
    1. News on the websites (eg patch notes, economy changes), WG TV episodes etc

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  7. Very nice article Overlord, thank you.
    Once again, welcome back and keep up the splendid work.

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  8. Sounds good so far. Maybe brief specs of IS-4 could be included in post concerning patch 7.3. Personally I would really like to be updated on details of 7.3 ie whats going to be changed/replaced, brief specs on new and revised tanks and a realistic release date. It's been a long time since I've seen tech trees and info for Russian tree alterations and I know that they have now been changed so it would be nice to know what the current situation is. The only way I get most of this info is from clan mates that browse RU an US forums an I'm not sure how much I trust that as things seem to change all the time. As far as the release dates go it never seems to be right and we seem to wait weeks or even months for it which gets really frustrating. More info would probably please the majority.

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    1. I would really like to know about this as well. A revised tech tree more specifically. It has been since last April(A YEAR!) since we got a look at the fully revised tech tress. Seeing a current revised tree would be great!

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  9. Holy crap you got to meed Sid Meier! You lucky bastard! :D

    As for you changing focus, is when 7.2 will come out a big enough detail to talk about? I mean, no news today likely means it will not be out this week (I heard rumours about it comming out on friday, but since that would mean you might have to work on issues this could cause through all the weekend I don't really put much faith in those.) It's in test 3 so I guess it's not all that far away, but...yeah. Want to get the new American tanks on real server. The T34 with the T29 gun is just painful. :/

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    Replies
    1. Yes, 7.2 is definitely big enough. However regarding the release schedule thing, I would recommend to visit the respective web site. Such info will appear their first.

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  10. If you refer to your Wargaming.TV episodes, then at least provide them with English subtitles, please. Not everyone understands russian, so do us a favour and dont count us EU players out, please!

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    Replies
    1. Agreed, at least subtitles or better an English voice-over is a must.

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    2. Agreed. I would personally love to just see the video's in Russian with simple subtitles if it would make them available sooner. Love watching these videos.

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    3. Wierdly i prefer Rus+subtitles despite the fact i understand zero russian speech :D

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    4. I THINK ENGLISH SUBTITLES, BECAUSE NOT ALL OF US SPEAK OR UNDESRTAND ENGLISH, WE CAN USE SOME TRANSLATE WEBSITE FOR TEXT INFO, BUT WGTV CANT BE TRANSLATED
      (remember lots of players DONT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH but when is writen can be translated by other ways, at least if there is subtitles we can pause and translate with some translate website as google translate.

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    5. dude, knock it off with the caps-lock, way too much of it

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  11. As why is always the biggest question regarding changes in patches, I'm happy that this is the new focus of the blog.

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  12. You picked fine company to be seen with! Yay Sid! (Oooh - yay Overlord too!)

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    Replies
    1. Seems that the trick has worked out indeed. :)

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    2. hmmm, do we read into that reply...?

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  13. Glad you are back! Missed your updates! I want to see that private tank collection!

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  14. Nice to see you back, Overlord. Don't let the haters and trolls on your blog get to you.

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  15. Hey Overlord, its great to see that you're back! You say that you're going to be on the forums less though. Is someone else going to take over the Q&A forums?

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    Replies
    1. I will still be on WoT EU Q&A, however less often than before.

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  16. Glad you are back. I think the new format will be great. Specifics we can get else where...simply links to existing docs/forum posts. The big picture is harder to pull together. So I'm excited.

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  17. Welcome back :)

    Somethng you may want to write here about, since none (or most of us) never had anything to do with a developing process, is telling us how your "usual" day at work goes on..

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  18. Overlord, could you make a official gameplay video of WoWP? Just to show us how does a normal WoWP match look like. I want to see the FoV and HUD.

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    Replies
    1. Alpha is still under the NDA, however we did publish one video based on actual gameplay footage. http://eu.worldofwarplanes.com/media/show/122/

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  19. Hi, congrat's with your new job role.

    Could you eleborate a bit on your new job role? I mean are you now in a role of 'i want this feature in the game' instead of 'how do i implement and how does it work' kind of job role? Just to avoide you getting spammed with why this and that is so bad kind of questions.

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    Replies
    1. In general correct, though there is a while team responsible for decision making in both WoT and WoWP.

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  20. Welcome back! Nice to see you here again.

    Just too bad that you are now going to be running a generalized blog with obscure details, since this is exactly the stuff we CAN find in the 'official' website.

    The stuff you used to do can't be found anywhere (maybe on RU forum with RU devs), but for EU you were the only one giving answers.

    The Q&A forum is as important as your blog was, you must find someone as fluent in English as yourself and give him the task you used to perform.

    For example I'm more interested in IS-4 as T10 than "Why" you do x or y.

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  21. OMG, he's ALIVE!

    Now give us a few tank previews so we can forgive you for abandoning us.

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  22. Can't wait to hear more about WoWP. I signed up for the alpha and will have my fingers crossed. lol

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  23. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  24. Perhaps if you aren't going to comment specifics you could, in your new role as producer get your replacement to create a blog for us to follow and get our 'heads-up' information from instead, rather than bother you with such frivolities.

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  25. Dose anybody think that in W.O.T that if you kill a friendly that you should have to pay the full amount of there tanks repair bill no matter what it is please give me your thoughts on this matter.

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  26. If world of war planes insists on being an arcade rather than a simulation, you will lose a LARGE chunk of your player base to world of planes, myself included. Just a heads up.

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    1. That's tricky I would say, currently we are trying to achieve certain balance between arcade and simulation. The latter is not suitable for really huge audience we are aiming at.

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    2. Losing a few 1000 die hard sim players because the game is not realistic enough vs a few million casual players because it to hard to play, You do the math. :P

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    3. The difference isnt that high, though!

      have you ever heared about the Flight sim games which are available in store? I know loads of ppl playing them because its actually a dream of everybody to fly.

      If it will be too arcadish, even a casual gamer wont find a point of interest in it. Sim are actually really wanted by the games community. Just check out (you already mentioned Dice) the BF3 plane and helicopter stuff. They are quite well banaced between being simulated but you can see the arcadish elements quite clear.

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    4. We are going to manage without cockpit view and proly landing and takeoff, however adding joystick and track ir support and ability to perform aerial tricks.

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  27. Basicly this blog is useless now? The details you provided were intresting.

    Whatever, good luck with your planes etc.

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  28. Sid and Overlord = SidLord ? :-o

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  29. Do you know will there be more MVP events in the future? Especially MVP platoons. I liked them.

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  30. Nice to see you back here, I haven't time to watch your activity in forum.
    I'm waiting for informations about incoming french tanks (US TD's i already know).

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  31. Great you'r back! Would be interesting to read about new game modes WG is curently developping. How you see them, what are the main difficulties when balancing this mods, how should map be changed and so on.

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  32. I DONT UNDRASTADN ANy THINK JUST T-34444444444444444444444444!
    Seound choice is Omg T-55 Its a true hero!
    Any way can some one explain Overlords blog for me in one setence?!!!

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  33. When will the option to change clan name be available?

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  34. Hello,
    Due to your success as posted in an interview in regards to players/income from WoT, can you tell us how you plan to utilize said profits? Personally, I believe content needs to come out at a much faster and steadier pace. Also, patches like specifics, say "The Russian 7.3" is polarizing. What if you do not care for those tanks, you're left sitting with nothing to do for a long while. I think it should be something like: "Russian Heavies/German TDs" or "British starting lines/French TD or Arty". You need to be more diverse.

    Finally, when/where are our promised new Game Modes that have slipped through the planning cracks?

    On closing, I think with your profits that these things should be rather feasible and expected. Also, you really should consider trying to put forth more effort into the NA/EU regions, as we know, they contain huge gamer bases, with huge wallets.

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  35. Good to see you are back, I note that you got to see Littlefields collection, been there a couple of times myself, truly amazing isn't it!

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  36. Good to see you are alive and kicking, Overlord.

    I'm having a difficult time understanding the 7.2 economy-part of the patch, which (in length) on the main website detailed that they want to be more "in-line" and "provide faster, steadier progression", especially around the mid tiers. Yet the patch notes clearly indicate that the income for mid-tier (especially tier 6, which is quite "mid" considering a tier spread of 1 to 10) are all being reduced across the board. Do you care to elaborate on this? It's a gamebreaking thing for me and some of my friends, who cant bother having a premium account all the time, and usually drive tier 5's and 6's to earn credits.

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    Replies
    1. I think it really deserves a separate post to clarify some things in economy changes. It will come next.

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  37. A Picture from a M3 Lee, +1 :D
    (Cool, Overlords Blog are back)
    mfg Kolaski

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  38. Hi Oli

    Some people claim that with 0.7.2 we got Matchmaker 2.0, but I found no notice in patch notes and I thought that tests showed that new MM needs more work. Could you clarify?

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  39. Overlord next time take a shit before taking a picture with the mighty lol Sid
    not after that
    rofl

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  40. I would love to see a preview of the new German TD's like Sturer Emil, Jagdpanther II and Jagdpanzer E-100. Some pics or screenshots of the new tanks should be sufficient... ;)

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  41. Pretty sad that we are losing a good inside resource at WoT for a pretty lame resource about general WoT and WoWP news. I know you don't choose what WG wants you to do, and I appreciate the work you've done for the community so far, but it seems that WG just gets further and further away from its player base as time goes along.

    Also, my 2 cents on the economy changes: it might be "in the black" overall percentage wise, but if you really look at the numbers, a 50% inrease on that 1000 credits I earned in my Tier 1 tank is more than cancelled out by the 10% increase in repair cost and 5% profit loss on my Tier 7. Just WG forcing more players to buy premium just to play the game above tier 6-7, since apparently multi-million dollar/month profits isnt enough :/

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  42. Ive just been wondering where you guys got the idea for the design of the VK2801

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