Wednesday, August 1, 2012

[WoT] Dusty Shelves: How Tanks Were Born

Below is the ICQ log dating back to December 2008, featuring the conversation between Slava Makarov (currently lead producer of Wargaming.net), Peter Bityukov (hisrorical consultant),  before their meeting with well-known Victor Kislyi (CEO) - "fathers of tanks". That's probably the moment when WoT has been born. :)

So let's get to it. :) My comments are in italics.


Slava Makarov (15:48:37 10/12/2008)
Let's suggest WG to make a mech game on their engine :)
Gigantic androids! that will guard the borders of Russian Federation :)

Peter Bityukov (15:49:16 10/12/2008)
:) btw, have you seen their engine? I mean Bagration (also Order of War - Overlord)

Slava (15:50:39 10/12/2008)
Not yet. I have seen only Inhabited island (another WG's old game, see - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoners_of_Power - Overlord)

Petr (16:07:51 10/12/2008)
The current engine is much better. It does look modern. http://www.bagration-game.ru/ You can check the screenshots here (unfortunately, not anymore :( - Overlord ).

Slava (16:08:23 10/12/2008)
Found it, yup, looks good.

Petr (16:08:33 10/12/2008)
plus it's not the only their engine :) they have got a few more :)

Slava (16:08:51 10/12/2008)
O, yeah! About mechs, huuge, human-like, steam! In the setting of the 30ies!
The Whites (see Civil War in Russia, eg here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_movement - Overlord) won and began to produce motorcuirasses instead of tanks!!!

Petr (16:09:36 10/12/2008)
will try to talk to him now

Petr (16:11:14 10/12/2008)
they have got a few ideas on the new project, Victor said we would discuss it in person. Personally I'm thinking of high-quality navy (Navy Field like game - Overlord), but there is a problem because of NF2.

Slava (16:12:46 10/12/2008)
will have to do it about WWI

Petr (16:14:15 10/12/2008)

NF2's timeline is rumoured to begin since the early XX.  :(
Already thought of that.

Slava (16:14:29 10/12/2008)
one more option is navyfield about tanks

Petr (16:14:44 10/12/2008)
squadron battles would be even more realistic there
I suggested navyfield with tanks to them like one year ago :)
MMO based on Order of War engine
with progression and upgrades
well, we can discuss it during the meeting anyway :)

Slava (16:16:55 10/12/2008)
it sounds nice - we have already got the models
progression scheme would be - lights-meds-heavies

Petr (16:17:14 10/12/2008)
i like it too

Petr (16:17:16 10/12/2008)
yup, plus we can make some lines / branches

Slava (16:17:27 10/12/2008)
yes, side lines like - spgs and rocket launchers

Petr (16:17:33 10/12/2008)
tank destroyers or even infantry

Slava (16:17:46 10/12/2008)
nope, infantry would only complicate things. totally different setting

Petr (16:17:59 10/12/2008)
full of heavy armament

Slava (16:18:21 10/12/2008)
APCs as aircraft carrier? :))) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Armoured_personnel_carrier - Overlord)

Petr (16:18:43 10/12/2008)
:)

Petr (16:20:05 10/12/2008)
some more to the tank idea - additional armour plates, engine upgrades, guns
what's your opinion on navyfield with sailing vessels? does it make any sense?

Slava (16:26:10 10/12/2008)
won't work out because of the wind

Petr (16:26:11 10/12/2008)
with winds and currents
too much for players?

Slava (16:28:32 10/12/2008)
yup, plus we will have to compete with corsairs (series of naval games for PC, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Pirates:_Caribbean_Tales as expample - Overlord)
tanks sound more promising
plus we have got a set of models

Petr (16:39:02 10/12/2008)
I like the tank concept as well

Slava (16:49:10 10/12/2008)

SuperHeavyTank - Maus, IS-7, Conqueror, M103

Petr (16:49:50 10/12/2008)
:-)
aye! and Т-27 too;) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-27 - Overlord)

Slava (16:51:28 10/12/2008)
no, Renault FT
everyone used it
and it was a piece of crap

Petr (16:52:44 10/12/2008)
:-D

Slava (16:53:38 10/12/2008)
don't like the idea of APCs as aircraft carrier since if scouting depended on such small fry, navy would be totally different, but interesting

Petr (16:54:12 10/12/2008)
artillery as aircraft carrier

Slava (16:54:24 10/12/2008)

this is!

Petr (16:54:26 10/12/2008)
probably even heavy self-propelled guns

Slava (16:54:35 10/12/2008)
different self-propelled vehicles and rocket launchers

Petr (16:55:39 10/12/2008)
Priest, Hummel
as for the Soviets
SU-122, SU-152 and ISU-152
could fire being in defilade position
but had little ammo and excess armour
though it might even work well as a unique feature of the faction

Petr (21:00:26 10/12/2008)
Victor will be in Moscow on Friday

Slava (21:00:35 10/12/2008)
niiice

And that was only the beginning. :)

30 comments:

  1. I like this convo. and how things now are part of the game now like the Renault FT, it finally made it to the game. And as said in 2008 is crap. lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hah! Wargaming admitted that Renault FT sucks! I demand a buff for my Renault FT! Add 700 HP and a 150 mm cannon to it!!!
    j/k :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I liked 30's steam mecha idea :)
    I do hope you pick that up at soe point in the future.

    ReplyDelete
  4. we want british tanks - he didnt answer about british tanks in the current soviet tree? is it just going the be british (original) variants of current soviet tanks?

    we were first to use tanks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. In British tree those are going to be upgradeable, as for their Soviet buddies, prolly some/all of them will be removed from the store.

      Delete
    2. just as with the captured frenchies prems

      Delete
  5. lol, i like that discussion on Navyfield.. as me being involved partially in the Balancing of the real Navyfield in EU.

    I really hope these few sentences about NF are an indicator of getting WOB with the same basic gameplay as navyfield has/had.


    Id really love to participate in the alpha if it arrives.. overlord please reserve a seat for a Navyfield balancing vet ;)
    I think i can be useful

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ok, ok. :) Though alpha is not likely to start this year.

      Delete
  6. So because of Slava WoT wont have infantry?

    Slava (16:17:46 10/12/2008)
    nope, infantry would only complicate things. totally different setting

    I dont like Slava -.-

    :D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I kinda agree with him, infantry is not really needed in WoT. :)

      Delete
    2. O.O Thats the answer I wanted to hear *Evil laughing*

      Then why was in the latest blog post a designer who made a soldier, when "infantry is not really needed in WoT"?

      Sorry Overlord..but Gotcha!
      So..When is World of Infantry alpha?

      :DD

      Delete
  7. I would like to see bunkers that would fire at all tanks, or assit in deffence, or be placeable at the begining of the match

    cobra9431

    ReplyDelete
  8. ICQ? Who still uses ICQ in the current time (or even 2008) :P

    ReplyDelete
  9. Great post! Thanks a lot.. nice to see. :)

    BTW any chance that just for the fun of it you bring 30 vs. 30 battles to the test server? It's standing empty most of the time, why not use to test these things... :) I'm sure you'll have a hard time finding 60 QA people to be doing testing full time just on this, where's on the test server you can easily find 20k testers. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Only after we solve all performance issues, that's the problem.

      Delete
    2. any chance that platoons of 4 could be implemented in such big games? i know they were balance breaking in 15 vs 15, but maybe they wont in 30 vs 30

      Delete
    3. Only if we enable 30vs30 battles, not for the current format.

      Delete
  10. When was it decided to make the Germans pay over half a century later by gimping their tanks at every chance? Did you guys specifically look for people who still hate Germany and wanted to write a russian-love-letter via pixels, or were they working for you guys already?

    I wish I could say I'm just busting, but honest to god you guys are crazy. Seriously. Even to this very day with patch 7.5 you purposely gimped German tanks again so they're less competitive than everyone else. The JPZE100 is suffering even on the RU server, bad, like 8% bad. And the E50M has been turned down in CWs for every other T10 medium.

    Seriously, knock this crap off. It's old. I want a competitive game, not a piece of propaganda. I'm just tired of it.

    I hate to say this, but I wish another dev would step up to the plate, a AAA dev at that, and put WoT down. I've had fun, but I can't deal with the bias any longer. At least I'll have Guild Wars 2 to keep me busy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. seconded on the german stuff... im bored checking the patchnoted seeing nerfs disguised as "buffs" (check e100's gun on 7.5).

      Delete
  11. How are the new T10 Mediums performing? Best/worst medium is......?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Quite good on average. In my opinion M48 is in the lead atm.

      Delete
  12. we need a map like paschendele with lots of destructible (dont know if is the correct word) buildings

    ReplyDelete
  13. very interesting..where can I find the Russian original?..I want to translate it into German..

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Overlord,

    I have 2 questions:

    1.Can we expect the second medium lines (I think it's only for Germany and France) this year?

    2.Is the Jagdpanzer E-100 underperforming compared to other tier 10 TDs?

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  15. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By the sound of it, World of Warships is a game that Wargaming.net has wanted to make since the very beginning of the World of Tanks project :P

      Delete
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