Purpose of this blog

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

Sunday, August 25, 2013

[WoT] Testing 0.8.8

While we are slacking at Gamescom..



How is public test going? Is 0.8.8 big and good enough?

It's feedback time!

64 comments:

  1. Nice Patch! Really nice. Lots of really good stuff is included (eg. service record rework, localised voice overs, german tank rebalance, more new and old maps)

    BUT there is one downside. i cant test the new chinese prem tanks. this sucks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I am loving the new voices, but I am getting a bug with certain tanks where the message system tells me "Error: Vehicle is not ready for battle" when I hit the "Battle" button with specific vehicles, even though the bottom of the screen tells me that the tank is "Ready for battle!" This has prevented me from hearing the Soviet clips because the T-60 is the only Soviet vehicle I have, and none of the other Soviet vehicles interest me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Why add Object 140 as its own tank? The stats differ very little from T-62A and they both use the same gun, Obj 140's turret seems like it could have been the stock turret for T-62A and have current T-62A turret as the upgrade option.

    ReplyDelete
  4. So far had mo time to check new patch really good, but I am surprised by buffs to Tiger (big change of RoF in 88 L/71 and plus 50 HP especially), because I expected only changes in top speed. Curious what will happen with it in second test, because so far players with brain had no problems to make high win ratio in it and now you make Tiger much stronger. If the changes get on live server they will ruin my WoT vacation ;) It wil be very hard not to play, when Tiger will be more powerful then ever. And you also make Jagpanther faster. Temptations, temptations...

    Also I see that you try to make tanks (at least those mass produced IRL) more historical (both in modules and performance). I like it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, that was the plan. I see quite a lot of Tigers in battles now.

      Delete
  5. Sounds are good, especially the nation-"authentic" selection option.

    But still feeling bad about the E75 and E50 engine. What this does is simply the following: E75 and E50 will be slower while climbing hills, especially e75. While down on the slopes they will be faster... This will force E75 and E50 drivers to take cities or valleys. This way these drivers will be "forced" to take certain roles while not taking any hills - not to mention a damaged engine scenario. Migh I add, I will need the XP and the money i spent on the engines... It is always said that this game is progressing towards historical accuracy, but with removing engines and Guns (KV-1S - gun is the only reason i have that tank... and will sell it it the gun gets removed) the game gets not so authentic. - it is like someone goes to the battlefied and just replaces the gun and engine on a tank while saying it is too powerful for you. The tank commander simply woudl have shot that person, simple is that. I mean i know that history can be rewritten, and was several times, but from one patch to the other?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Balance is not smth set in stone especially taking into account general mechanics changes and addition of new tanks.

      That's why some decisions need to be reversed sometimes. Plus, I do admit, that there were some obvious mistakes made at early stages. You do remember I guess, US heavy line, KV1/KV2, etc

      Delete
    2. You have a point there. Still there is lot of questions about how will players will be compensated on the lost engines and guns - will there be xp and money reimbursement?

      Delete
    3. You feel as well tat would not be fair with any player who is driving E50 or E75, right? That is a serious Xp amount. ~60.000 that is not 10 minutes to gather. Money is the least problem with the missions, but that XP will be a bleeding shot for several players. It is like - just for camparison - taking away a tank cew which have 2nd on 100% and replacing it with a basic 75% crew. Taking away people's effort and money they invested in to the game (someone - like me even paying premium) they will feel being -I dare to say- robbed without taking away researched engine (xp and money) without any compensation.

      Sorry for letting all on this oyou but I (and many of my e75 driver frineds)feel exactly as described above. We are asking for at least the Xp compensation if the engine dissapears.

      Delete
    4. I will clarify this, however if it hasn't been accounted for in test version (i.e. right now), there is no chance the compensation will be active for live version.

      Delete
    5. I drive both e-75 and e-50 and am pretty happy with the changes, tried the tanks and they are not as massive as advertised.
      Especially considering the armor and gun buffs for the e-50.

      Delete
    6. Overlord, Please clarify this with the responsible devs., as yous said test server is not the same as live - I'm really hoping for that.
      Am I right, that you can see as well that this is just taking our stuff wthout asking for it and giving no compensation for it - and it is said because im a premium user. I realy would expect some sort of compensation in cases like this when I'm "investing" money to the game more than the average montly premium fee.

      Delete
    7. Overlord, one point I would bring up, the taking of the gun from the T-28. That was a huge nerf for that tank, greatly reducing it's use. We gut the XP back there because it was a huge difference.
      On the E75 the nerfing of the mobility is also a huge blow, and compared to the tier 4 tank, you have to realize, that a tier 8 top equipment research is really a lot of lost effort. Currently I'm not a "premium" player, actually I'm still playing with the Idea of investing for another half a year of "Premium". I also used to buy gold on occasion, and was thinking about trying a new gold tank. I like the game, but feel that we are being smacked for non of our own fault.

      Delete
    8. Storm says there will be no compensation (well, as I predicted since we didn't do it in similar cases before - eg rebalancing module costs).

      Delete
    9. Storm - It is good to know that researching the highest lvl equipment does not worth the time and the experience because it can be taken away later on any time without any compensation. Nice attitude. Next time I will be careful with the research on Tier 8 and above - careful not to max any tank 'cos that time will be wasted like nothing before.

      Delete
    10. Overlord, I found your remark quite interesting.
      I distinctly remember receiving the research cost (in FREE XP) for the loss of the top gun on the T-28 Russian tier 4 medium tank.
      I thought that would be a precedent that can be verified by the MAKERS of the game, who at that time made a very serious decision, but tried at least to mitigate the grievance. I see now that times have changed quite a bit around Wargaming. The Customer is not king, but a peon tossed around at will...

      Delete
    11. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    12. Think I just understood the main reason why there will be no compensation for the robbery. A company who's every intrest is to gain profit will never donate 50k free xp just because it would be the right thing to do. If players will be willing to pay (time/gold) for another 50k why would anyoe give it to them for free (even if it is a compensation)... makes sense.

      Delete
    13. This is a lame choice IMO. Don't forget WT tanks are coming, you can't annoy WoT players too much.

      Delete
    14. I agree with you Sandor Nagy, I too drive an e-75 and was not that long ago when I maxed the engine, and now to find out I just lost like ~60k free exp I used REAL money on, and now WG is not going compensate it. Why dont you delete Type-59 and Löwe, and all the premium tanks whyle your at it, and say "We wont compensate shit"

      Delete
    15. Thanks Nobody Knows! It is good and all peachy that Wargaming now announced the Unified premium account to present what are they willing to offer and how generous they are towards the customers BUT that really doesn't change the fact with the engine "nerf" is just taking away our money without compensation. Like the government of any country would take away a car form X resident - which he eared by hard work - and say "Suck it up!"... A Game developer company, with E1 sponsored team, can't do anthing like this without losing reputation and customers... wait... it can.

      Delete
    16. By the way this Unified Premium account idea was advertised as well when everyone was complaining about the SPG nerf. Is this some kind of Joker Card, which will be pulled out every time when the community is angry about an "unfair" update/nerf?

      Delete
  6. From the German tanks I've tried.

    DBWagen: pretty terrible. That huge flat lower plate is a fire trap and its not all that manuverable either.

    3601: Seems quite good, the konisch nerf is weird though. Especially since the L70 would be just fine on the 3001h.

    Tiger H: Its now a total monster. Decent cross country speed and excellent firepower. I'll probably rebuy this.

    Tiger 2: The engine nerf was not compensated enough by the track friction change. Track friction needs to be lowered a bit more.

    Lowe: I know this didn't get changes but it should. The top speed on pavement is below historical and I hear the gun depression is too. Reduce track friction and buff depression and I'll buy one on the live server.

    E-75: Still awesome. I'm worried about the extra fire chance on the new engine though.

    3002M: Fun tank, mobile, good gun and it actually looks like a Panther.

    Panther: Still sluggish, reduce the track friction some more. Still looks ridiculous, won't be rebuying this.

    Panther 2: Seemed fine, I didn't get much time with this.

    E-50: The armour buff is amazing and the gun is great. Good mobility, overall I'm glad I nearly have it unlocked on live.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tuning is not yet final, guys are likely to change a couple of things before live version.

      Delete
    2. Of course. I think its really close to right though which is good for test 1.

      I am a bit annoyed about the 50k free xp I used on the HL295 though since that engine is no longer in the game at all.

      Delete
    3. Tried some more tanks

      3001h: It was okay, not really anything interesting about playing it though.

      A-43: Way more fun than I expected. The gun is usable because the manuverability is amazing.

      A-44: The very high reverse speed mitigates the rear turret and the Zis-6 is fun as always. Another enjoyable drive.

      I was going to ignore the new Russian meds but they are pretty fun to drive so I might give them a go.

      Delete
  7. Maps are really nice. Tundra is good, reworked Serene Cost and Komarin are really nice, Swamp seems barely touched but I didn't have any problems with it to begin with.

    The german buff is really nice. Some would surely argue that tank x needs a bit more of that and tank y needs less of this, but it's, overall, really good.

    For the new soviets, it's a bit more complicated. Object 140 is fine but lacks distinction from the T-62A, A-43 seems harshly undergunned, A-44 is sluggish and lacks any kind of armour, and T8 is really, really special to play. It plays nearly like a TD but your options when it comes to positions are limited because of its limited gun depression and limited turret traverse. I'm sure some people will enjoy it like some people seem to really enjoy the french ELC.

    National voices are a welcome addition, as is the missions interface. New stats interface seems nice though it's heavily borked in it's test form, keeps making my WOT client crash for some reason.

    Overall, a really nice patch.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Good patch overall, only real problem I have is with the menus when you change modules etc on the tanks I get a heavy lagg I hope it will be optimized when it goes live. My computer is old and I run on windows XP that might be the biggest reson for the lag. I intend to get a new computer soon.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lagging and decreased framerate are two different things with 2 different causes. Lagging is there due to some internet connection issue on any point of the connection from your house till the Wargaming server. While the decreased framerate (fps)is there because your pc has performance issues.

      Tho I experience total random lag spikes during random battles, up to 6-800ms for 10-20seconds then it goes back to the normal 35-40ms. For a control I ask the players in the same battle and they do see the lag spikes as well. So it is from multiple countries in the same battle, in the same time. Pretty much suggests the location of the possible issue. We would need somone to lok in to this as well pelase!

      Delete
    2. Does it happen only on test server? Every time or in a particular time frame?

      Delete
    3. Live server. Radom battles, at random times. That is why im hping for some fix on 0.8.8

      Delete
  9. E50 and panther 2 are to sluggish for me now. I'll switch the latter for tiger 2 and indien. 3601 is nerfed hard imo. Stock turret is now useless, konisch got shit damage, and 88L56 has lol pen for a heavy. Tiger and panther changes are decent.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Not being able to get onto the test server, is it true the National Voices for the UK are just the US ones?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Should be the same ones, yes. Unfortunately, though.

      Delete
    2. You know its stuff like that which gives the Brits the impression WG doesn't like us lot.

      :P

      Delete
    3. Cmon! We are adding Brit aircraft!

      Delete
    4. Don't worry, I agree there's plenty of good commercial reasons why the Brits got passed over in both WOWP and WOWS (even if the Dev's keep rewriting history in the latter, which is really annoying).

      Commercial reasons such as: The WOWS studio already had most of the models and information for the Japanese and US Navies and aircraft from their previous game. And it'd be silly to replicate the work done there.

      In WOT, however (where most of the player base is at the moment) it looks allot more like its personal.

      Delete
    5. Yes its a bit old, but its on the Q&A thread. when I was still posting on the EU WoWS forum I started a thread on it:
      http://forum.worldofwarships.eu/index.php?/topic/150-the-whose-in-question/

      ;)

      As I said its understandable that they include the US before the RN due to time needed for the ships and they already have the models and info.
      Its also true that the USN was vastly bigger for the post WWII and modern era. Equally if you want to say "we're doing it for the huge US market, to make some cash!" Again no issues, the company need cash to make more shiny toys for me to play with, and WG as a whole donates a fairly large chunk of cash to projects I approve of (such as Bovy and the DO17 project).
      But to say the USN>RN for most of the period of the game is a bit of a fib, and to use that as a justification.

      Delete
    6. There are multiple reasons for that. Ships take quite long to go through all the production stages and get into the game - much longer than tanks or planes.

      We won't be able to have 3 starting nations (most likely). So it boils down to two. Therefore it could either be US vs Japan (and we went for it) or Germany vs Britain. Other options wouldn't make much sense.

      Delete
    7. As I said, I get all that, and its fine.
      But to give a different answer, one that flies in the face of history as the justification, that's when people start getting mildly irritated.

      Delete
    8. I would say that this decision has nothing to do with history at all. It's purely production/business thing.

      Delete
    9. Yup, I know. No issues with the economics of it.

      Its just saying its historical, is where the irritation starts.

      Don't get me wrong I'm really looking forward to WoWS.

      Delete
  11. What about the XP Players spent on the Engines for the German Tanks? Will we get our XP back? Some Players like me invested Gold to change for free XP. I could have used those XP on other tanks tho.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Please read my questions above about the same topic. I got the answer that "current satate" that there will be no xp or money as compensation.
      I am frustrated as you. Feel like being cheated of my money and time.

      Delete
    2. I really don't want my money back and I don't care for the credits spent but I really care about the XP that are a pain to grind.
      If there is no compensation in XP, I will think about quitting with WoT and change to another game where you don't get betrayed like that.
      I spent alot of money into this game, but when it comes to a point where it isn't fun anymore or things like this will happen it's time to quit and let the developers do whatever they want.
      I don't have the time nor the willing to pay them anymore for actions like this. I'm really pissed and a lot of other players too out of my clan.

      Delete
    3. I meant gold as well. I have researched the E75 partially from converting free Xp and that took some gold. Totally agree with you on this. My friends are furious about how the patch turned us down and how the developers are planning to dissapoint us by not compensating us for the lost/taken effort we invested in to this game.

      Delete
  12. I have big problems when clicking at the awards section of the new service record, game freezes and then I get disconnected. Mouse is lagging badly when mounting equipment.
    my rig I-3570k with Radeon 6950 and 8 GB of RAM.

    Plus when 8.8 goes live with the Stalin inscriptions you lost me and some friends as paying customers.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm definitely not going to do it, but I wouldn't be in the least surprised if the amount of TK's would go up and tanks with those inscriptions being the primary targets.

      Also when players from the Russian servers can cross servers I, personally, wouldn't be surprised to see a lot more tanks with those inscriptions and possible TK's and hostile behaviour in teams themselves. Has Wargaming taken those things into account?

      Delete
  13. Content wise, it's okay, I'd say.

    What really bothers me: garage lags and crashes (specifically in the new Service Record interface - the game freezes for a second before it loads it, but it happens on other pages too), the battle loading time seem shorter, but the game feels less stable, for me it's no longer possible to minimize it and then maximize again without seeing weird white artefacts on the screen.

    The German rebalance is okay in my book. The new Tiger is amazing, the new German tier 6 is very comfortable too, I like it. I tested the Soviets only briefly, T7 and T8 are extremely uncomfortable for me and I won't play them. Object 140 is sluggish for my taste, didn't appeal to me. Looks attractive though.

    Not sure what you guys did with the FXAA, it's running smoother, but the colors seem... off, like bleached. Not a big issue though.

    Oh and (as I wrote under Listy's article) sorry again for not appearing on Gamescom, was looking forward to meeting you (then again, that was the only thing I was looking forward to in the WG booth).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Regarding performance (service record thing), the update is still far from being polished. Definitely, will fix the annoying stuff before the release.

      As for Gamescom, not a problem. Hopefully, there will be another occasion.

      Delete
  14. It's a bit disappointing that we can not test the new t8 premium tanks on testserver.

    Is it true that they will ony be in the giftshop on the liveserver? so i can't sell my SPersing for gold and buy the new t8 med premium tank :(

    And concerning the SPErsing: if we sell it for gold, will we get some compensation for our gold camo? maybe also get our gold back?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, the system won't account for gold camo. Unfortunately.

      Delete
    2. Ok, thx for answering.

      And i just noticed you can test the new t8 premium tanks on the testserver, yay! :)

      But what about the liveserver, will 112 and t-43-3 only be avaiable in the giftshop or also ingame?

      Delete
  15. Japanese flag is in the category. Does that means that we get them very soon?
    Else it's a good patch and I'll love to play with my new heavy tank.
    My favorit map has returned :D
    Swamp is awesome now with the broken bridge. In the test I was the lab rat (no one thought u could pass the water beside the broken bridge, so I tested it) and the other followed me.
    I'll love this update for sure and I'm talking about it to my irl tank friends!

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

    ReplyDelete
  17. not only you guys p**s on my hard work since beta
    i hate you so much for nerfing my beloved tanks, where i am not OP in them
    ...ok....vk4502 is crap...but e75 was ok-ish...

    when i meet an is7, i die 95% of the time, the damn thing has too few weak spots, where is the damn cupola to shoot !?!, also the new 300++ pen guns make my armor worthless

    ReplyDelete
  18. Fuck your "nationalized voices"
    Its utter crap, only that has been actually added is French and German.

    Chinese is standard on the Asia client, Russia is standard on the RU client...
    And British and American voices is just a fucking joke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nice to have someone with critical thinking here.

      And you expected what exactly?

      Delete
    2. @Kampfwurst
      That's the whole point! All the audio files are already there and some people (including me) wanted to be able to have their crews speak in the language of their respective nation, that's it! Since all the stuff was already there it was quite easy to
      do. German and French wasn't added, it was there too already!

      Working as intended for most players...I really don't know what you were expecting.

      Delete
  19. Boring, more prototypes and paper tanks as usual. The long wait for the Firefly and P40 goes ever on. At least there's national voices, but the British accent is missing.

    ReplyDelete