Purpose of this blog

Dmitry Yudo aka Overlord, jack of all trades
David Lister aka Listy, Freelancer and Volunteer

Thursday, September 6, 2012

[WoT] Public Test of 8.0. First Try

This week. :)

Rates, credits and stuff:

- all tanks won't be unlocked
- all accounts will be as of date when database replica was created (a few days ago)
- everyone gets 100 000 000 free exp, 100 000 000 credits and 20 000 gold
- x1 rates will be in place

Summary from the 7.5-8.0 patch notes (not all the points mentioned! full version is to come):

- added new USSR TDs: SU-100M-1, СU-101 (Uralmash-1), СU-122-54, Object 263.
- added new premiums (for testing only!): Panther-M10, Pz IV Schmalturm, СU-122-44.
- British Matilda Black Prince added to Store 
- added new "deffered" graphic render ("advanced graphics" in settings) - this will improve the graphic quality big time!
- old "forward" graphic render can be enabled in settings ("standard graphics") - its performance has been increased substantially
- the following maps have been adjusted for the new render and lighting effects (terrain, lighting, sky, and other): Himmelsdorf, Mines, Karelia, Lakeville, Sand River, Cliff, Fjords, Mountain Pass, Arctic Region, Westfield.
- all other maps only had lighting effects reworked.
- changed physics of vehicle movement. Now it's possible to jump from hills, sind in water, push enemy tanks, leap on rough terrain, drift, etc
- fixed bug with sudden turn of both tanks while continuously ramming each other
- fixed most of the known issues with tanks getting stuck in objects and terrain
- added new functionality allowing to add emblems/logos and text on your vehicle (predetermined sets)
- reworked camo system
Old camos sold at buying price
Each tank now has 3 camo types: summer, winder, and desert which are changed based on the map.
Each camo gives 5% camo bonus.
- fully reworked the design of tech trees in UI. Now it's horizontal and contains prems.
- Assault and Encounter battles are now selectable
- added new post-battle stats. Now they are way more detailed and displayed in hangar after the battle.
- new radial command menu added (press Z to activate)
- in after-death mode it's possible to select vehicle to spectate using CTRL+LMB on team list
- reworked special effects when driving through water
- reworked basic UI elements: buttons, windows, backgrounds, check boxes, etc
- improved UI of exp conversion: added filters, total sum of exp to convert.
- in training battle window it's possible to swap teams
- added "improved suspension" equipment for French and USA tanks
- added new "report player options", you can send up to 5 per day now
- reworked rescaling of mini-map and its markers and symbols
- map ping is played only once per indication of a particular mini-map sector
- fixed the effect when gun goes up when swtiching from sniper to 3rd person view near buildings and big objects
- improved firing/shooting sounds. There are 11 categories based on caliber and muzzle brake factor (yes/no)
- added new sounds for tracks. There are 4 categories based on vehicle class. Sounds differ based on terrain and speed.
- added extra sounds when driving on wooden bridges, sand, and other
- added multiple new sounds for new physics: turning, drifting, ramming various parts of the vehicle etc
- improved sounds for "penetration", "ricochet", "detracking"
- other "sound" improvements

- Added 12 new medals

Balancing:

- changed accuracy and penetration of all German 7.5cm L43, L48, L70 guns
- Pz IV: top turret changed, 7.5cm L/70 removed
- T-54: new gun 100mm D-10T2S added
- Normalization of all AP and APCR shells reduced to 4-5 degrees.
- T-54: reserach cost via T-44 decreased from 160100 to 142000
- T-43: Increased armour of top turret.
- Tier 7 and 8 SPGs: substantially increased repair costs.
- Rebalanced multiple tanks. Full details will be available upon the final release of 8.0 update.

More detailed patch notes and more info on public test will be on the websites soon. :) 

50 comments:

  1. Thank you Ovi <3.

    Any chance that we will actually get to know the balance changes as a leak from our dear WG insider? ;)

    Also, i hope they worked another big on the rendering engine. With the last test i was so disappointed after all the claims that performances would have been the same. I lost 30 fps or so instead. Hopefully this will be better..

    ReplyDelete
  2. thx. so much better than google translate.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Overlord can you please say if there are any buffs planned for vk45b?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Please don't say you will OPEN the test tomorrow??
    I already have the update and i am ready to play!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey, we are working on it hard atm!

      Delete
    2. Btw why do we have two different test stages to choose from at login ??
      Test1 and test2 does it mean that u split some of the testing grounds ?? or its just some kind of flaw :)

      Delete
    3. Its 2 servers, aka more capacity.
      I am very sure that both have the same intention, right Overlord?!

      Delete
  5. Active as never .. nice to see that Overlord !! :)
    Keep it UP !!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Old camos sold at buying price
    Each tank now has 3 camo types: summer, winder, and desert which are changed based on the map.
    Each camo gives 5% camo bonus.

    Camo netting or camouflage the exterior paint?

    ReplyDelete
  7. "...and 20 000 gold"
    Overlord, who came up with that stupid idea? I thought this time we would get a gold ammo free PTS...
    or will u at least deactivate gold ammo?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gold ammo free test server? You most be dreaming that won't happen ever!

      Delete
    2. They russian devs already said in the ru forum that they were planing to do it this time(no additional gold , only 250gold a day) ... but seems like they changed their mind:(

      Delete
    3. That is the problem with WG what they say and what they actually do are two very different things.

      Delete
    4. They also said that they were going to boost all the tank incomes tier 8+ since they'd lost so much with less food in the new MM, not nerfing the SPG income.

      Delete
  8. I'm confused by the following things:

    - reworked camo system
    Spotting/view range system changed or just the visuals of camo?

    - fixed the effect when gun goes up when swtiching from sniper to 3rd person view near buildings and big objects

    So now when we point at a wall, where will the gun point to? Horizon level?

    - T-43: Increased armour of top turret.

    By how much...10/20mm or more? :)

    - Tier 7 and 8 SPGs: substantially increased repair costs.

    Substantially. Will the increase be OVER 9000% or more like 15-20%?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. As for the first question, the camo paint jobs are being almost completely reworked. There was a news post on it a while back.

      Delete
  9. Hey Overlord, doesnt the KV-5 get a penetration buff?

    currently it wont be abled to penetrate T8 medium tanks frontalarmor anymore ...


    Regards

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Easier for WG to make new premium tanks to sell, that way the cycle of power creep can continue and thus drive new sales.

      Delete
  10. Hi Overlord
    Can you explain why you didn't go with the "all tanks unlocked, 250 gold/day" idea?
    Seemed like a really good idea to stop the gold ammo spam on the testserver.

    ReplyDelete
  11. - T-54: reserach cost via T-44 decreased from 160100 to 142000

    => 18k exp for what? Will be this differents compensated?

    T-54: new gun 100mm D-10T2S added

    => same spec of this gun?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pen 201 mm, dmg 320 per shot, slightly better accuracy and reduction speed (don't know English for "скорость сведения"). It costs ~60K exp to research, can be fitted in the second turret only and does not leads to anything in a tech tree - I personally think, it has no use.

      Ah! And it has cartridges different then D-54. Lol.

      Delete
  12. > improved sounds for "penetration", "ricochet", "detracking".

    Would that mean that 0 damage penetration shot will no longer be announced as "We hit them (hard)" etc.. ?

    ReplyDelete
  13. - changed accuracy and penetration of all German 7.5cm L43, L48, L70 guns

    Changed how? Buffed or nerfed?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They are german guns take a guess...

      Delete
    2. If i had to guess... they will buff the penetration and nerf the accuracy.

      Delete
    3. all buffed to historical values

      Delete
    4. @butcher
      They are not buffed to historical values. Thats the problem. Even if you take the different test criterias into consideration, they are still to low. If wargaming would simply check the physical basics, they would realize that the used numbers are to low...but WG is... >insert your personal prefernce, why they dont do that<

      Delete
  14. Dear Ovi, I do not understand. As I read on RU Q&A you wanted to resign from giving free gold on test server to stop gold ammo abnormal usage. Now you are giving 20k gold. Some problems with implementations or change of mind?

    In case I sound as a whiner, I admit that great stuff is coming to us :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. How many good news in this update .

    Great Job WarGaming .

    ReplyDelete
  16. Wasn't the T54 already buffed in the last patch? I mean, I have no problem with it since I'm planning on getting it. Also will buffing the L48 a bit compensate for the loss of the L70? The gun choices now seem a bit too similar to the PzIII/IV, you just have less mobility. Maybe the III/IV will lose the L48 since the L43 will do exactly the same job as the L48 does now? I'm glad to hear that it seems the gun of the T25 will get buffed too with this and maybe get an edge over the III/IV.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope
      the T25 gun is not buffed because the gun is 7.5 cm A18 KwK
      it that gun is not buffed

      Delete
  17. - Tier 7 and 8 SPGs: substantially increased repair costs.


    How much?

    And more importantly why? My object 261 already costs more than your average Maus repair cost to repair and has a SUBSTANTIALLY higher ammo cost.

    Decent game (with premium, and I am a fairly good player): Ammo cost: 30-40k, Income, 30-40k. If you die: 27.5k repair.

    These already are the most expensive vehicles in the game to run, tier 7 I can understand, but tier 8? After all those nerfs already....

    I really would want an explanation as it currently baffles my mind...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same question here. Tier 8 arties are the most expensive and non-profitable tanks in the game already; we play them because we love them, but they cost an eye to repair and reload and thus can't be rolled out very often already... So WHY, WHY nerf their repair costs again?? And moreover, "substancially"??? What does this mean? Will my T92 cost me 40k in repairs + 15k in shells, knowing that I earn an average 30k credits per battle?...

      I'd really, really need a reason... Please ^^

      Delete
  18. - T-54: new gun 100mm D-10T2S added

    Can you shed a little light on this? What necessity does this gun fill and why is it needed? Are the stats published on the forums correct? If so, why put out a quasi-identical gun on the table?

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ziggy because there are many many whiners wich dont know nothing about arties and arty safe spots... so they cry cry cry, so WG must make artys hard, expensive and not rewarding to play. Thats all. They think there would be less players which wanna play artys in randoms. But what about to make MM always with 2 (2-3 while in platoon) artys in each team. Problem solved...or even better ban that noobs who crying about artys when they are hitted by arty 4 times in row because they dont cover and also they dont move.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well, if arty is so hard to play and not rewarding at all, why are so many people, including you, playing it? In fact there seem to be so many people who play it that WG thinks it it neccesary to take countermeasures?

      Delete
    2. Yes, because WG do everything what whiners want. If that was true, then E-100 would be the most powerful tank in this game.

      Delete
  20. "- Rebalanced multiple tanks. Full details will be available upon the final release of 8.0 update. "
    Any M3 Lee Change in there? :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. M3 Lee looses its gun and gets Ms-1 gun. Beeing too overpowert we thought you maybe like this

      Regards (not) WG!

      Delete
  21. Just right now downloading some huge update to my WoT test client of 8.0

    LoL , "this Week" .. you mean , "this Day" ?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Dear god. That increase in SPG repair cost hurts. Lost 10k even after we won. ;-;

    ReplyDelete
  23. OVerlord, a quick question:
    i've noticed the IS-4 model now has side skirts, are these functional or just decorative?(and if the latter, why?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. More general question : why has the IS-4 model been changed at all?... I liked the old one... The new one is ugly, and it seems like its armor profile and angles have changed...

      Delete
  24. Also: - Assault and Encounter battles are now selectable
    it's not working for platoons when it's the most important feature

    ReplyDelete
  25. I like the old graphics mof=re, but could you enable the shadows settings?

    ReplyDelete