[WoT] New in WoT Digest. Part 1.

With this post I'm starting a series of digests covering some new and to some extent already announced features and content that are planned for World of Tanks in the foreseeable and hm.. less foreseeable future. 

N1. New game modes

This is definitely N1 of all times and currently has the highest priority possible. The development of the new game modes have been broken into several development stages. The first ones in queue will be modifications of the current standard (random) battle mode already familiar to players and. The victory conditions are going to be the same: either base capture or total destruction of enemy vehicles, however some things will be modified.

As for Attack & Defense (draft name) game mode base capture mechanics, there is only one base on the map that belongs to the defending team. The attacking party has no base at all and its mission is to either capture the only base or destroy the defending team. 15 min time limit can and most likely should be reduced for this mode.

Counter battle (draft name) game mode also offers only one base which is located somewhere near the center of the map. Base capture mechanics also is to undergo some changes, thus when tanks of the two opposing teams are in base capture circle, no points are awarded at all. The rest will be the same again with hits on enemies break the capture progress, etc.

The above two variations of standard battle game mode, Attack & Defense and Counter battles, are planned for 7.4. Both are currently in testing.

The next step will most probably be long-awaited Historical battles. This kind of entertainment, being a variation of company battles, is going to be available for organized teams (we do plan some simplifications for individual players of how to find the suitable company). Visually the mode will resemble Clan Wars "in miniature". Expected time of completion a single scenario (battle) is going to be up to 2 hours. Consequently, in terms of time "consumption" and  player commitment, Historical battles are expected to take place somewhere in between Company battles (with 1h per day) and Clan Wars (with 3-6h per day). Currently we are polishing the concept of this game mode to prepare it for the production. The main feature of Historical battles is obviously historical setups of the vehicles, broken into periods. Playing a 1941 battle, there will be no Tigers and IS's available, in 1943 you won't see any T-54s and E-50s... Actually, there will be no T-54s and E-50s at all in this mode :). At first Historical battles are going to be limited by World War 2 time line, later on the period can be extended (eg include Korean War and the respective vehicles fought there).

Looking into even more distant future, can't but mention one more game mode that has been talked about - Garage battles. In this mode you can choose several vehicles to play in one particular battle in succession, one after another. Garage mode will indeed offer totally different experience giving players a chance to actually revenge themselves in the same battle, using another vehicle. If they are lucky and/or skilled enough, for sure :)

N2. Revision of T-50-2   

With most of the in-game vehicles being rather close to their real-life counterparts, there are some exceptions to the unwritten rule. The most vivid example would probably be tier 5 Soviet light tank T-50-2 which in reality was totally different. As for the in-game one, it has got the name of laws-of-physics-breaker.  The real T-50-2 produced by Kirov plant was, truth to tell, a mediocre light tank, especially in terms of mobility. The in-game version does look like a sort of motorcycle, which is really disappointing. The group of our military and tanks experts is currently digging up the archives to find a suitable replacement or even two :) (there are different crazy ideas). The bottom line is that such revision of T-50-2 will most likely happen. Eventually.

N3. French premium HT

All factions, except for French at this time, enjoy their own high tier premium heavies. Soon we will get rid of this unfairness, introducing one of the post-war heavy tank projects (most likely without auto-loader) for France. At this stage we are still not sure whether it is going to be tier 7 or tier 8 to fit the balance.

N4. Armoured Skirts 

Also has already been mentioned before. This is really quite time- and effort-consuming task mostly even not from a coding side, but from modeling point of view.  So taking into account always limited resources and manpower, it was decided that new tanks (everyone wants Brits to arrive, right?) should have a higher priority than skirts, however this hasn't been dumped out of plans completely. According to the current concept, skirts are planned to be introduced as an unique module, like Additional armour, that can be mounted on a vehicle. This would change not only the visual looks of the vehicle (making it really cool), but also the hitbox itself, providing extra protection. There are even more relevant ideas, however with this being a long-term plan, details are to be shared later. 

N5. 30 vs 30 battles

Bigger is better? There is a special project within the team which goes under the internal name "boundless-land". Its goals are: 1) increase of map size and 2) introduction of 30 vs 30 battles. The issue is really complex affecting performance, both client and server sides, to a very high extent. And currently we are still researching the possibilities here, meaning the "enlarged" battles also belong to long-term plans.

N6. Commander's Tanks

This is going to be a separate type of tanks. The concept of Commander's tanks is the following: 

• these are the vehicles with slightly inferior performance than regular vehicles of that tier, to make for that they have got certain special "abilities"
• those who would drive commander's tank will get a commander's chart or map, allowing to assess the situation in battle and give orders to the team
• only these tanks would enjoy special consumables like Airstrike, Reconnaissance, and some other things, representing a form of joint, team weaponry

Since commander's tanks are still at concept, design doc stage, some things may and most likely will be changed during production.

Added after reading comments on forums to clear up things a bit: Commander's tanks are intended for CWs mostly, and probably (if it works out) for companies, not for random/standard battles. 

In the next post I will cover such points as new physics, new tech trees, hardcore mode and other important things.

PS. Latest poll results.

Q. What do you prefer?

• flight sims - 534 / 27%
• flight arcades - 301 / 15%
• mixtures of the above two - 882 / 45%
• don't like flight games at all - 362 / 18%

Total votes: 1943. The next poll is up.