Purpose of this blog

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

Saturday, May 4, 2013

[WoTB] Any Questions?

As you might have seen WoT news has started its new season. In the first episode it mentioned WoT Blitz, WoWS, and GPG / Chris Taylor.


If you have got any specific Qs on mobile tanks (I saw there were some on the forums), I will be here to provide replies. Fire!



92 comments:

  1. I'd play this game if it would make me earn credits for my wot account. Otherwise I'd say I don't have time for a second virtual life ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Integration-wise we need to make sure everything is in compliance with Apple and Google policies. Right now, can't say for sure what functionality will be in.

      Delete
  2. WoT Blitz will have smaller teams or 15 vs 15?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Up to 7 vs 7 which is planned as the main mode.

      Delete
    2. So there will be rather no platoons in random team.

      Delete
    3. Quite opposite. We are going to push hard on a platoon thing. going to test platoons of 2 and 3. Need to find out what impact on the battle they would have.

      Delete
    4. 3 man platoon, that's 1/2 of the team - huge impact if the enemy doesn't have a platoon

      Delete
    5. So you have to introduce into MM some kind of platoons balancing. Platoon of 2 in 7-players team is like platoon of 4-5 in current WoT.

      Delete
    6. zMe ul, Dead_Skin_Mask

      still have to investigate what the impact of platoons will be. On the one hand teams are smaller, and the influence of organized players can be higher, on the other hand a lot depends on the context - if two platooners are e.g. not sitting side by side in one room, their in battle communication can be a bit complicated. As one of the options, we might tweak MMing as well.

      Delete
    7. random people don't platoon
      they need to have a similar fighting style / logic to be efficient, otherwise it's just random on top of random

      Delete
    8. If you dont use a skill based matchmaker and use platoons, this will not end good.

      Decent players will destroy the enemy teams with ease.

      Delete
    9. Two good players do not have to talk to each other. They are able to cooperate without words. Just keeping together, focusing fire and watching each ones back makes big difference. Specially when there is only 7 guys in enemy team.

      Delete
    10. Quite possible. We are ready to adjust MMing accordingly based on test results.

      Delete
  3. Someone was listening (or, more likely, had worked it out) from my rants about controls. They look.. interesting.

    So how does one fire the Main gun?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You mean what control is used? There is a dedicated button for firing.

      Delete
  4. Will it also be online-only? SOME OF US DON'T ALWAYS HAVE INTERNET!!.

    So what about skirmish? Fighting against bots??
    Every good game has it.. (Tf2, CoD, ... long list)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, just like PC version. Right now we are working on PvP-only modes plus some tutorial with PvE elements.

      Delete
  5. Can´t wait..Looks good for now..but the Controls looks heavy..
    Could you tell me if its possible to play wot blitz on my samsung galaxy s3, or do i need to buy a tblet with tegra 3...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Controls are not yet final. That's why we are not pushing the beta right now.

      S3 will be quite enough, powerful phone. Personally I prefer playing on tablets, however it will work fine on your device.

      Delete
    2. Oh, this will be playable on good smartphones?
      Thought its tablet only.

      If thats true (and if its playable on that little display), i will try it out someday in the far future, when i upgrade my smartphone.

      No arty can really be the selling point of this game for me so far.

      On a sidenote: Will it be possible to play it over an android emulator like BlueStacks on PC?
      There are Win 8 displays with touchscreen too, if the controls are not useable without it.

      Delete
    3. thanks for the answer overlord...nice to know that..but i think i will buy me a tablet...bigger screen :-)

      Delete
    4. Silberfalke,

      Yup, smartphones as well.

      Guess, it should work via emulators, however not going to add keyboard/mouse support for now. Though based on our internal tests PC players didnt have significant advatage.

      Delete
    5. Uh, interesting.

      When you add that support, there would be a ton more players.
      Something you can consider, if you want more guys to play with on the servers.

      How do you manage the premium on global accounts (since we have one for all of your games)?
      Is Premium counted on WoT for Blitz too, or not, and if not will there be a business model in the end, considering WoWP & WoWS, where you can add premium for other WG-Games for a minimal fee if you have one active?

      Delete
    6. If and when we go for windows tablets, will have to work on keyboard support as well. For now, we are going to focus on more typical game peripherals, like bluetooth joysticks and such stuff.

      Well, as far as integration and single Prem account are concerned, it's not clear now. We have to comply with Apple / Google guidelines.

      Delete
    7. Thx, I see.

      Would appreciate an update at a later time.

      Delete
  6. I don't see much point to this but GL, besides WOT runs on Windows Tablet!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The point is to see if mobile market is ready for that kind of games. This is not a downscaled PC WoT.

      Delete
    2. depends on three things:

      1. handling of the vehicle
      (how hard will driving be, how long do you need to learn it)

      2. price
      (tbh it cant be as expensive as wot on PC, that will push ppl away... tabletgames got a community which doesnt pay 10€ as fast as desktopgamers (amount of ppl) )

      3. fun!
      (how long does leveling take, is it hard to win battles, frustration due to some elements)

      Delete
    3. 1. Controls are one of the top priorities and one of the main reasons we haven't started closed bet yet. We want to make them really comfortable and take our time.

      2. Generally speaking, the statement is not true. Mobile players are quite willing to pay in pretty decent amounts. STILL, we are not going to distort our monetization model trying to squeeze money out of the air. Ofc, prices are likely to be different from PC. Plus we are paying 30% commission to Apple/Google.

      3. I'd expect leveling to be 3-4 times faster than on PC (sure thing going to test it during the beta). One of the key design goals is to minimize frustration, because it can negatively affect retention. Can't allow this to happen.

      Delete
  7. Will there be pre-order packages like the PC version?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Havent given them a thought. Not even sure how to do pre-orders on mobile properly, given that the app wont be in appstore till the very release.

      Delete
    2. Could be an idea to have some pre-order bundles that have a code for PC WOT, a bonus for existing players to try out the mobile version, and an incentive for new blood to try the PC version?

      Delete
  8. Something off topic. Any news about world of generals project

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Started Russian closed beta on April 30th. So the project has moved onto next stage. Guys are now working on polishing game mechanics and finalizing UI.

      Delete
    2. any ETA about Europe closed beta? Thanks for info ovi

      Delete
    3. There is no fixed ETA at this stage.

      Delete
  9. Replies
    1. Well, that's the main discussion topic of this block, I guess.

      Delete
  10. A quick review of current WoT MM and skill balancing (that does not exist yet :P): "More frustrating than DOTA, more imbalanced than SC2 Bronze League VS SC2 Platinium" - It's getting BAD :(

    Soooo ... my question:
    How will matchmaking work in the mobile version? ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It will work good :) (guess, that's the best reply taking into account the statement above)

      Delete
  11. Does it only go up to tier 7?

    So far in all videos ive only seen tier 7 and below...

    Also will it use the same maps, or completely new maps?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, regular 10 tiers. Not all the required content has been added so far.

      Completely new maps designed specifically for mobile game. For now we have 4 maps ready.

      Delete
  12. where can I sign up for NA beta testing?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Haven't started the application process yet. Will do that once we finalize controls and have a more polished version.

      Delete
  13. How good can i expect it will work on this one?

    http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-sp/specifications/#tabs

    ReplyDelete
  14. this year you can easily do mobile tank game, next year you can easily port world of tanks on mobile - mobiles are getting decent cpu/gpu performance. imho it doesnt make sens to do a separate game now when you can try to port WOT near future

    personally, I would love to play WOT on phone thats for sure, but not some wonnabe WOT game. i dont want to support and grind two different tank games

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The thing is that "full" port of WoT
      1. will cut off the major part of the devices due to tech limitations
      2. would be to bulky and complicated for a typical mobile game. We won't attract any new users with it.

      Delete
  15. Dear Overlord! There are a lot of strange rumors about the next update 0.8.6 and whole the arty re-balancing/nerfing/tier buffing stuff. If it's not too early to tell us, could you post some official or confirmed informations about these changes ? I don't mean exact list of changes in tank stats etc., just information about what is WG going to do to balance arty around ten tiers and what kind of changes are necessary to do so.

    Cheers, adrpal921 EU

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There will be massive arty rebalancing related to expansion of SPG lines to 10 tiers. These changes will likely be referred to as "nerfs".

      That's all for now.

      Delete
    2. Does it mean that new tier 8 spg will be worse then current tier 8 spg (which I would call reasonable and not a nerf cause they will have easier MM), or that tier 10 SPG will be weaker that current tier 8 SPG?

      Delete
    3. as far as I have seen on the forbidden blog the new T10s will be slightly-massively nerfed compared to current T8s

      Delete
    4. The new tier 10 spgs will be somewhat similar or slightly weaker than the current top tier spgs.

      Delete
    5. Woudn't have been easier to reduce their damage or the penetration of HE shells instead of making them even more unplayable? It sounds like a cheap way of dealing with the issue, balance wise.

      Delete
    6. Easier than what? Making SPGs up to tier 10? Nope, that's a decent decision that would help the game a lot.

      Delete
    7. Will it solve the problem with 5 arties in tier x games? W

      Well everyone that have a tier 8 arty now will get at tier x arty if i guess right, so just as many people will have them, so to make them less attracktive you must also neef income quite a bit, or make shells more expensive, because a desent artyplayer will make enough damage to make i profite most of the time.

      I do wonder why you didn't nerf the economy more before doing something so drastic as it appers you are doing now. You could have justified it with tier 8 arties beeing end tier and should have lower income... like you have done before on end tier tanks.

      Delete
    8. Not directly, since no hard cap will be brought in. However we do expect some reallocation of spgs across the tiers which should assure more equal distribution.

      No need for massive economy "nerfs".

      Delete
    9. The hardcap will come some day, if arty isnt nerfed to oblivion.
      And i dont believe that you nerf it so hard, that its unplayable, since you want to please the arty players too.

      Its pretty simple.
      If people dont stop playing it, you will need to do something about it. At least some day.

      There is no logical explanation why there should be less arty, if it gets not nerfed too hard.
      You have only 2 real choices how to handle it in longterm-view.

      Hardcap is the best solution. Mark my words.

      Delete
    10. Planning to reduce high tier exp costs to increase the dwindling tier 10 population, or do you expect the arty rebalance/nerfs + armor mechanics buffs to work it all out?

      Delete
  16. Question:

    Which studio is developing the WOT:mobile?

    Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A separate Minsk-based studio initially known as DAVA, now it's Wargaming mobile.

      Delete
    2. Ok thanks.
      Any previous games they've produced?

      Delete
    3. Browse AppStore for Dava Consulting.

      Delete
  17. I have 2 questions:
    1) Will WOTB run on Xperia Play?
    http://www.sonymobile.com/global-en/products/phones/xperia-play/specifications/
    2) If WOTB runs on it, will there be extra controles for Xperia Play in the future(after release) because it has gaming keys and other buttons on the lower panel.

    Thanks for taking the time,
    DMKxD

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Not sure that this device will be supported.

      Delete
  18. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Its sad to dont get a new Supreme Commander

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Square Enix owns the rights, correct?

      Delete
    2. Nordic games has acquired what left from THQ, I believe http://www.polygon.com/2013/4/22/4252414/nordic-games-thq-ip-auction-darksiders-red-faction-homeworld

      Delete
  20. Would be better if you made Blitz into a turn strategy/rpg (Panzer General!!!).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And the battles would be 'played out' in full 3D.

      Delete
  21. Hi Overlord,
    I understand that you are responsible for / overseeing all the "mobile" Wargaming.net products. Does this also include the liase with other companies that put out app that collect or use WG / WOT data etc?
    I have been using the Android app "WoT Assistant" for a while now and enjoying it. I recently added "World of Tanks Knowledge Base" by Evgenii Bryl (stating that his team is not employees of WG but all material is owned by WG). One link in this app seems to either jump to my "WoT assistant" app or it is built in? and I can safely free up space by deleting the "assistant" app?
    This is a nice free app. I especialy like the 3d armour and hit skins images.
    Is this part of your mobile strategy, and will it(or something similar) expand to Apple apps and PC too?

    Tony.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Currently I'm working only with mobile games, apps like WoT assistant are beyond my scope of things. I'd not recommend to connect third-party software to our official apps because of potential fraud schemes. WoT assistant uses your account credentials.

      What do you mean by "expand to Apple apps and PC too"?

      Delete
  22. Hi there,
    I have found your blog, which I really like it. Enjoyed to read your posts.
    I was wondering if you would be interested in sharing your posts and ideas on Glipho? It's a quite new social publishing platform for bloggers, where you can connect to every social network accounts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. truth to tell haven't heard of it.

      Delete
    2. Come on Overlord, why are you replying to SPAM? :P

      Delete
    3. Lets see if spam replies to me :)

      Delete
  23. A few questions:
    1/ WoT is about to introducing HAVOK, so will Blitz have this feature too? And will it has at the release (not beta) time around end of this year?
    2/ Will you try to make Blitz's content be the same as PC version or not? If yes, will it get update at same time at PC version about the contents or be delayed few months after official version on PC?
    3/ I heard all tanks' models in Blitz is not copy-paste from PC version but it is made up, so will the tanks' statistic will be balanced same as the PC version
    4/ Maps in Blizt are also smaller so will all the structures of maps can be destroyed or limited as PC.
    5/ In WoT, because the maps are so big so servers can not handle the destroyable terrain. But maps in Blitz is smaller, so will Blitz have the terrain (the ground) destroyable: Holes on ground?
    6/ Will Blitz have premium items (ammo, consumable) in credits?
    7/ Can you estimate the percentage of the progress compare to expected alpha or release stage? (just 25,50,75 is ok)
    8/ Will Blitz have the same Premium tanks or some different? (like Type 59,kv-5)
    9/ About Premium accounts, will the event codes of PC version, like when 3rd birthday of WoT, active Premium for Blitz because it will not make much sense to celebrate WoT's birthday in Blitz, except the part that they are brother which have same mother but different fathers (you and SerB)?

    Off topic: continue from tmac's question: Will WoT Assistant have new update and expand to have more detail information?
    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1. Mobile havok is only starting to work with mobile, so it's a bit early to state that we are going to support anything of the kind. Not giving any ETAs at this stage, this project is a kind of experiment for us.
      2. Not the same. We are going for 3 vehicle classes (less then on PC) and planning to have brand new maps. Vehicle-wise we have enough tanks for like 2-3 years of operation, so it won't be a problem.
      3. Vehicle models are exported from WOT PC, it's not a copy-paste thing, but we do utilize PC content in some way. It's cheaper and faster than do everything from scratch. Sure thing, tanks will be rebalanced for mobile game - we have 3 classes instead of 5 and smaller maps.
      4. Not all of the objects can be destroyed. It's both for performance and gameplay sake.
      5. Computing power of mobile devices won't allow terraforming and full destruction. Not yet at least.
      6. Similar to PC.
      7. close to 25%, I think
      8. Tanks content will be very similar to WoT PC apart from the fact that there will be 3 classes.
      9. That's still under discussion. We have to agree any sort of economy integration with platform owners - Apple and Google, so it's not solely our decision here.

      Sure thing, updates will come for WoTA. Guys are finishing 1.4.2

      Delete
    2. How about ingame-events, do you have to have the same event as WoT PC or you will have different event?
      The same question for WoWP, will you have the same event like WoT?

      Delete
    3. By events you mean specials (discounts, bonuses, etc) ? or smth else

      Delete
  24. @overlord
    hey, might wanna see this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyAznFhh-es&feature=youtu.be

    ReplyDelete
  25. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Looks like a good MMO for mobile devices if controls are good.
    Any progress?
    Will beta be released any soon? Would really love to try it...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pre-alpha stage now. Going to launch internal testing soon.

      Delete
  27. Dear overlord do you know any more about game start?

    ReplyDelete