Thursday, May 17, 2012

[WoT] Digging Through Archives: SU-76 with 57mm automatic

During the development of both each game of World of .. series (all being on different stages, for sure) we have gathered lots of curious materials on tanks, aircraft, and ships. Our in-house military experts are working in archives of many countries, eg among the team in Russia we have got proficient Yuriy Pasholok, a complete military addict,  who has access to the Central Archives of Ministry of Defense (see those red "ЦАМО РФ" letters on the images below) containing some great stuff. Will be sharing some of those from now on. 



Above is the order on research and future production of 57mm automatic gun for light tank destroyer - SU-76M. The vehicle was also intended as anti-infantry one. The document dates back to May of 1945.

Basic gun requirements are as follows:
  • Caliber - 57mm
  • Muzzle velocity - 1000 m/s or 3280 fps
  • Vertical elevation - -10 -  +15 deg
  • Horizontal sector - +/- 15 deg
  • RoF - 70-80 rpm
  • Should be serviced by 1 loader and 1 gunner
  • Loading - both manual and automatic

It was supposed to be not a self-propelled anti-aircraft weapon, but a tank destroyer, somewhat close to basic SU-76 with S-60

Approximately this way:


Tuesday, May 15, 2012

[WoT] New in WoT Digest. Part 2.

This is the continuation of part 1 published a few days ago. Numbers in the headings don't represent priority, they represent order. :)


N7. New physics and maps overhaul

The new movement physics has been in development for quite a while. Testing results, after the completion of the first iteration, showed that, on the one hand, falling from steep hills is obviously great fun, but on the other hand the number of cases when your vehicle gets stuck in an unusual way and can't move has increased big time, and those all were new spots, cause the old ones like tops of huge stones and premises of buildings have been successfully fixed and got rid of. E.g. on Abbey map, there is a particular building one can fall through, getting right to the first floor. And get stuck over there. With somewhat simplified models of buildings, it's hilarious when Tiger tank sits on wooden floor on first storey. And there is a number of similar hm.. not exactly faults, but discrepancies that are to be found and fixed prior to the release of the new physics. The majority of the maps are to be adjusted, eg also on Abbey map, there is a sort of drained bed left from the river, quite a deep one. It's that deep that you can't get out of it once you get there. Disappointing really! In this case, it was decided to create a number of so-called "death zones" marked with special textures, where tanks will experience sudden death be destroyed right when they manage to get there, since there is no way out for them. The required global maps overhaul is currently in progress and is expected to last for a few more months.

N8. EU tree

EU tech tree is a sort of all-star team, comprising vehicles from Sweden, Finland, Hungary, Romania, etc., basically each and every European nation that has produced at least one vehicle suitable for the designated time line. Among those nations there are a few quite big ones in terms of tank production, like Italy, Poland or Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia), we haven't really made up our minds on. There is a possibility that separate trees for at least some of them will be made up. However they still can be incorporated into one common, larger tree. The only real problem with that kind of joint tech tree is that there is an obvious lack of high tier vehicles. Having digged up a bunch of military archives we made the issue less acute. However it still exists. We have managed to complete draft EU tech tree, that's of course raw and not polished at this stage, it can and will be changed hundred of times before the official announcement comes. It's quite safe to say that the tree will get its own (oh yes, it was hard) tier 10 HT, tier 9 MT and TD, and top tier SPG. So the tree is going to be quite branchy, though  getting tighter to the top tiers.

N9. Hardcore mode

Having tried some modifications of it during the alpha back in 2010, with no HPs, crits without saving throws for modules and crews, we have come to the conclusion that it is .. really boring. The idea itself hasn't been dumped completely yet, however the priority is set to low. Even though the basic hardcore variation is not that hard to introduce doing away with HP-system and saving throws, making fire deadly for the crew, etc.

N10. Medals and achievements

The set of medals and achievements is being worked on towards its expansion (and some modification as well) at the moment. So the introduction of mastery badges, which was in my opinion rather successful, is not the final step in this direction. We are planning to introduce some stuff, including things that will be displayed during the battle, allowing to tell noobs from pros assess the performance of team mates and enemies. The details on this will follow later.

N11. New chat system

Upgraded chat system with lots of new functionality, comprising groups and statuses, is currently in the works and can be expected after a few updates.

N12. French TDs

As of now, the use of auto-loader for TDs is still vague, however this hasn't been set in stone and even though at first stage those vehicles may manage without it, the feature can be introduced later. Talking about the peculiarities of TD line as a whole, it resembles the existing French tank lines to a high extent, with pre-war models being heavily armoured and slow monsters, and post-war vehicles with almost no armour at all that are extremely mobile and can bite hard. TDs will be pretty much behave like tanks, which is no wonder since they were based on tanks.

N13. Sturmtiger

The vehicle is somewhat special for several reasons. First of, it fires rockets (which means special effects are required), then goes caliber (380mm is more than any of SPGs currently has) - it causes some balance issues related to amount of damage per round, huge reloading times, and extremely limited ammo (6 rounds). Raise KV-2 with 152mm to the X power and you will get the approx gameplay for Sturmtiger. :) The priority for the vehicle is currently set somewhere between medium and low.

N14. 7.4 update

As announced it will include French TDs and SPGs, a couple of prems, and some functionality including two new variations of standard battle mode and yet not revealed features. Public test will start not before long...

Monday, May 14, 2012

[WoWP] Me-262 HG III: Hochgeschwindigkeit

German aircraft manufacturing corporation Messerschmitt AG started the new program  named Hochgeschwindigkeit on February 16, 1944. The program aimed at development of high-speed modification of Me-262 jet. The research was carried out in several directions simultaneously ranging from Me-262 HG I, slightly different from the basic model, to really drastic metamorphosis - project  Me-262HG III. The latter had been worked on since December 1944. 

One of the main differences between Me-262HG II and Me-262HG III subprojects was the shape of the wings, namely wing sweep was increased to 35° and 45° respectively. Also both prototypes got lowered canopy, borrowed from Me-262HG I. It reduced drag, however made visibility somewhat worse. Me-262HG III differed from "prototype II" in terms of layout of engine nacelles. Having gained aerodynamically perfect form, they were located close to fuselage. This decision, on the one hand, reduced drag, on the other hand, the designers had to rework the construction of left and right gears (chassis). They were made to retract into the fuselage, in addition to that the "much beloved" narrow gage from Bf. 109 appeared on the new creation of Willy Messerschmitt as well. Another problem related to the change of engine layout was loss of air on its way through intake tube (the same issue popped up during the development of promising single-engined fighter - P.1101).

During the development of Me-262HG III several tail assembly and engine options were tried. As a basic decision it was planned to use the same tail assembly from Me-262, also the designers considered V-shaped tail assembly and even a truly exotic layout option with cabin being in rear (fin). 

Normally it was planned to mount 2 Heinkel HeS.011 engines, however this relatively compact motor, making draught of 1300 kg / 2870 lbs, had never been good in mass production thus an option was needed badly. And the alternative was found in most common German jet engine of that time - Junker Jumo 004. On of the Me-262HG III prototypes allowed to mount 2 Junker Jumo 004 engines with draught of 1050 kg / 2310 lbs each. However future modification of that motor promised some outstanding draught of 1800 kg / 3970 lbs. Models with the highest thrust-to-weight ratio allowed Me-262HG III to reach transsonic speed. Me-262HG III project was also used in development of night fighter that was in intended to replace Me-262B.

Unlike Me-262HG I model that actually made it to the sky and Me-262HG II that had been prototyped, the most perfect modification of "Swallow" remained as a scavenging duct model. The project started too late to have a real impact on the WWII outcome.

However there will be a chance to change things in game, piloting the tier 10 German fighter creeping the enemy planes and dominating the sky. 

Me-262HG III in blueprints

Me-262HG III rendered