[ALL] Merry Christmas Everybody

Let tanks, planes, ships and all other good stuff be with you all the time.

Overlord

[WoT] Update 0.8.10 Live

How do you like Japanese tanks and improved visuals?

Any other feedback on 8.10 update for World of Tanks which is already live will do as well.

Robotnik!

Note: Many thanks to Wargaming's Cannoneer. Whom found several Russian sources on this subject, when English language sources failed me. Consequently I've had to translate the sources, and any errors are down to Google translate playing word soup with the source material.

 In 1920, the Czech writer, Karel Čapek published a play that mentioned a new concept, that of the "Robot". Little did he know less than a decade later one of the worlds armies would be developing a robot tank. These robots actually saw combat in the opening days of the Second World War. Today we shall look at their brief combat history.

In February 1930 the first of a series of tanks that became known as "Teletanks" was tested. The remote control equipment was fitted to a Soviet MS-1. However the high center of gravity meant that the tank would often veer off to one-side. Most Soviet tracked armoured vehicles were tested as Teletanks, eventually the T-26 was selected.

The idea behind the Teletanks was that the remote controlled tank would advance on the enemy lines, and lead the assault, but not risk the crew to enemy fire. The name Teletanks implies some kind of remote monitoring by Television cameras, indeed the first experiments tried this. However Technology at the time was too limited, so the Camera's were dropped from the design. By the early 30's the basic system was decided. A box of 20 buttons, in five rows of four was mounted inside a T-26 tank. These were the command tanks, designated as TU-26's. The remote control tanks were TT-26's.

The boxes would send a radio signal to the TT-26 each time the button was pressed, each button corresponded to a set command. When the radio antenna, located behind bullet proof glass, on the TT-26 received a command it would cause a compressor to fill a balloon with air. Which in turn would move a lever, and so a series of simple pistons would carry out the command.

Due to the tank only being able to operate within visual range of the TU-26, weapon sighting was considered. As the aiming had to be done from a distance, the weapons fitted to the tank were a machine gun and a flame-thrower. The projector could also fire out liquid chemical weapons should it be needed. A smoke generator was also fitted, to provide cover for advances. Finally as a safety feature the TT-26 would automatically shut-down if it went out of radio control range.

The TU-26 command tank was a normal T-26 tank, only with the additional control equipment fitted. So as well as controlling the Robot, the command tank could cover it with its 45mm gun. To protect the secret nature of the tank the command tank could destroy the TT-26 should it become damaged or be in danger of getting captured.

Teletanks were produced for three years from 1935 at factory 174 based in Leningrad. During that time only 33 sets (one TT-26 and one TU-26) were completed. Those tanks were formed into two battalions and an independent company. These were the 152nd and 217th Separate Chemical Tank Battalions. The 152nd took part in the Western Ukrainian campaign of September 1939, but was never used. Later it was stationed near Rovno, where it was bombed by the Germans during Operation Barbarossa.

During December 1939 the Soviets launched an attack on Finland. At Hill 65.5 the Russians ran into Bunker SJ-4, also known as Fort Poppiusa. Part of the Mannerheim line the fort was a complex of bunkers overlooking a valley, at one end of the valley the ground became very boggy, at the other was a lake. In this valley in a five day assault over 1800 Soviet soldiers were killed, and the Red Army soldiers began to call it the Valley of Death.

On December 17th the Teletanks were to be used as designed for the first time. The 1st company with three TT-26's was to scout the Finnish position. Hoping to draw enemy fire and give away the Finnish positions so they could be targeted. The tanks crunched across the thick snow towards the enemy hill. However that snow also camouflaged and covered a line of dragons teeth. All three TT-26's became beached upon the obstacles. Unable to move the Tanks opened fire with both flame-throwers and machine guns, hoping to goad the defenders into giving their locations away. The Finns failed to take the bait. That evening two of the TT-26's were recovered, the other one was stuck fast and couldn't be recovered.

Elsewhere along the line five Teletanks were deployed to support an assault by Russian infantry. Here the snow cover was much thicker and the Teletanks managed to drive over the dragons teeth. However all five were quickly, and easily destroyed by Finnish Anti-tank guns.

On the 10th of February 1940 a new plan was hatched. Three TT-26's were stripped of their turrets and weapons, and filled with as much explosive as could be packed in. Each tank now carried well over two tons of explosives, these tanks were named simply "bombs". Near Hottin lay a large concrete bunker. The three "Bombs" were directed towards it. The Finns saw the approaching tanks and opened fire. Again he poor armour of the T-26 failed, one of the "bombs" was hit and penetrated. A colossal explosion tore the tank apart and disabled the other two.

The final taste of combat for the Robots was between February the 14th and 18th. During this period the tanks were used to try and destroy Finnish minefields, presumably with their flame-throwers. Four TT-26's were lost to hitting mines.

Earlier in February the OKMO plant in Leningrad, had unveiled the next generation of Teletanks. It was an officially produced "bomb". The armour had been reinforced with an additional 50mm, and it had a detachable container with a 700Kg explosive charge. The first of these arrived in Finland on the 28th of February, even so it didn't see service. It was tested against Finnish bunkers after the Soviet breakthrough. In one test the charge blasted apart five of the sturdy dragons teeth. In the next test against Fort Poppiusa, the charge destroyed the bunker.

The story of the 217th Battalion isn't quite over yet. As the Germans approached Moscow in late 1941, the battalion had been brought back up to full strength. There was no need for remote controlled tanks for attacking heavily defended lines in the new Blitzkrieg war. So the special equipment was replaced by 45mm guns, and the tanks manned with crews. The TT-26's fought their last battle as normal T-26 tanks defending the Russian capital.

[WoWP] First Post-Release Update

First post-launch update for World of Warplanes is now live for EU&NA servers, bringing:

• Focke-Wulf branch for Germany
• Two brand new maps - Adriatic & Fortress
• A set of tier 5 prems - 5 units
• New achievements (11)

And most importantly balancing (including high-altituide aircraft nerfing) and camera adjustments.
So, how is the gameplay right now?

History Feedback

I've been writing articles here for a few months. So far we've covered every type of combat (Ground, Air and Sea) from 1914-1983.

While the readership has been steadily growing, I have noticed some trends. So I wanted to take this time to gather feedback from you, the people who read my material.

The subject of the articles is something I wanted to ask about as well. Looking at the amount of readers it shows up something a bit odd. The two best performing articles had about three to four thousand readers. The last two articles have had under 500 each.
Now at a glance you'd say its because of the subject matter. However theatres other thank tank based have done well in the past.

So in short, what do you want to see articles on? Or any other feedback on the history articles I've been writing. This is the time and place to speak up and effect what happens to the articles over the next year.

Thanks for your time.

Furious Migs

During the Korean war the Royal Navy contributed three carriers to the UN Mission. On board these three carriers were Hawker Sea Furies and Fairey Fireflies. These were flown off the carriers HMS Ocean, HMS Theseus and HMS Glory. The Australian carrier HMAS Sydney also embarked the same planes. Against these propeller driven planes the North Koreans had MIG-15 jet fighters and Yak's. The Migs had about 200Mph speed advantage, also they packed a cluster of two 23mm and a single 37mm cannon. The Royal Navy aircraft weren't exactly unarmed though. Both types carried four 20mm cannons. What the North Koreans lacked however was experienced pilots. The Royal Navy still had a massive pool of experience from World War Two.

In the early days of the Korean war the Main North Korean plane were Yak fighters. This led to an unfortunate incident were a Hawker Sea Fury was mistaken as a Yak and shot down by a B-29. From then on Black and white Invasion stripes were added to all UN planes. This still didn't always help. On one occasion a British pilot, Commander Giles Binney, was flying his Firefly, when he was bounced by a Jet fighter! After making a savage attack that managed to put one small hole in his wing, Cmdr Binney spotted the plane as a USAF Thunderjet. He followed the plane back to its base, and once on the gorund tracked down the pilot. He found the American pilot boasting how he had shot down a Yak. As you can imagine Cmdr Binney had some choice words to say to that.

However the lack of Migs led to a propaganda opportunity. The USAF dropped a series of leaflets announcing how they could bomb targets, with the Migs being "too scared" to do anything about it. Presented with a potential loss of face the North Koreans started flying their Migs into the combat zone. Normally in groups of eight. The first encounter was a mixed package of aircraft from HMS Ocean. The Furies and Fireflies got attacked by eight Migs. The Migs made one pass without results and left the area. The next encounter was a much more deadly fight.

On 0600, August 9th, 1952 a flight of four Sea Furies were flying cover for Fireflies engaged on a raid to interdict railways near Chinnampo. The Sea furies were from 802 Squadron, and were flown by Commander Peter Carmichael, Lieutenant Pete Davies, Sub-Lieutenant Brian Ellis and Sub-Lieutenant Carl Haines. The Furies were loitering over the target area at about 4000 feet. They had been holding for about twenty minutes when Sub-Lt Haines spotted shapes moving at higher altitude against the daytime moon. These turned out to be a package of eight Migs. Yelling out a warning of "Migs, 5'oclock!" the Sea Furies split into two pairs separated by about 400 yards. Cmdr Carmichael led one section with Sub-Lt Ellis. Lt Davies led the other. All four pilots started "rubbernecking". Twisting their heads to look all over to spot the enemy. They also ditched their drop tanks, although one hung up on Sub-Lt Ellis' wing.

The Migs launched a classic attack, the first dived out of the sun shooting at Sub-Lt Ellis. Here a peculiarity of the Mig saved Sub-Lt Ellis. The differing ballistics of the cannons mounted in the Migs nose meant at long range the shots would often pass over and under the target. Sub-Lt Ellis saw tracers flashing past his aircraft and yelled out a simple Command of "Break!". This caused both sections ot start doing a scissors manoeuvre, where both aircraft weave towards each other. As they did so both sections turned into the attacking Migs. One Mig went head to head with Lt Davies' section, and both pilots scored hits on the Mig. It broke off and limped away with smoke coming from it. As second Mig ploughed through both sections, with all four pilots riddling it with 20mm shells. As the Mig passed through the formation it peeled away and crashed into a hillside below.

As he completed another tight turn Sub-Lt Ellis was surprised to see a Mig hurtle past him with its air brakes out. It had almost slotted in on his tail, and it was only his last turn that had saved him. However the Mig pilot was dumping his speed and closing up on Cmdr Carmichael. Sub-Lt Ellis rolled onto the Migs tail and emptied his guns at it. He registered hits on its wing, and the Mig pilot immediately realized his mistake in trying to dogfight with slower more nimble aircraft, so brought in his air brakes and accelerated away. He was last seen limping away at a much reduced speed escorted by the other Migs.
The results of the dog fight are confirmed by communist reports, sating they lost one Mig, and two damaged.

Other propeller planes are credited with shooting down communist Migs. Captain Jesse Folmar in a Vought Corsair shot one down, but was himself shot down shortly afterwards. Cross checking with communist sources show that nearly all other claims of "probables" are false. However there is one propeller driven plane that racked up a larger tally of Migs than all the others combined. Boeing B-29's have 27 Mig kills to their credit. However cross checking shows the number is about four.

Migs attacking a B-29

Note: This article is in part pulled together from personal recollections from several of the pilots. These accounts were written years after the event. Some of the pilots disagree with each other about the exact circumstances. But please remember that we're talking about people trying to remember what happened while throwing your aircraft about at 400MPH, with 12 other aircraft in close proximity, all the while scared for your life. To add to it all the Sea Furies were not fitted with gun camera's. So I've added all the accounts together and matched occurrences to get as close as I can to what happened.

[WoTB] US Tech Tree Announced

US release tech tree for World of Tanks Blitz

For now without prems.

[WoT] Public Test of 0.8.10

While 2nd iteration of v. 0.8.10 update is being worked on, what are your thoughts on the upcoming patch so far?

As a reminder, it's a mostly content update that brings:

• New Japanese tech tree
• 2 new Soviet meds
• Type 3 Chi-Nu Kai Jap prem
• Type 64 Chinese prem light
• Japanese map - Hidden Village
• Reworked maps - Karelia, Mines, El-Halluf, Airfield, Steppes
• Shooting through some objects is now possible with AP / APCR shells
• New maps added for team battle mode
• Graphic/visual improvements - how is performance by the way?
• Reworked lighting and light sources for all maps. Reworked brightness and contrast. Improved texture precision
• Reworked mist/fog
• Added moving shadows of clouds
• Reworked "bloom" effect
• Added sun-rays (god rays) effect and lens flare effect when looking at the sun
• Added motion blur when moving camera 
• Added full-screen filter settings (different brightness, colour, and contrast options)

Some screenies for those who haven't yet seen all the beauty:

Despite the Elements

History is filled with stunning stories of survival. Today we shall have a look at one of them. A man fate just couldn't kill.

Aged just 17 Nicholas Stephen Alkemade joined the RAF at the height of the Battle of Britain. But he wasn't destined to fly Spitfires against the Germans. His first posting was to the RAF Air-Sea Rescue service. The launches used by the RAF had a pair of aircraft style machine gun turrets for defence. Its almost certain that Alkemade would have been trained in their use. He later transferred to Bomber Command, and joined 115 Squadron as a gunner. By this time his rank was Flight Sergeant.

During the Battle of Berlin Bomber Command launched massive attacks against Germany. Unlike the US bomber operations, there was no set formation, due to the impracticalities of maintaining close co-operation with other aircraft at night. Instead the bombers formed a stream that headed for their target. This did end up giving an element of mutual protection, as the German attackers never knew if another bomber might spot them and engage them.

On March the 24th 1944, Bomber Command launched its last major raid against Germany. From then on the RAF's aircraft were to concentrate on preparations for D-day. 811 aircraft were dispatched for Berlin. 115 Squadron was amongst those in the attack. This was F/s Alkemades 13th operation, in a week he was due to take leave to see his girlfriend. The Squadron had nearly completed the process of converting from Lancaster MKII's to MKIII's. However F/s Alkemade was assigned as rear gunner to the MKII Lancaster S for Sugar (serial number: DS664, ID code: A4-K).

Taking off from RAF Witchford at 1848, S for Sugar climbed to 20,000 ft, and ran into problems. Little did the bomber crews know but the weather forecast they had been given was very badly wrong. Strong winds buffeted the bomber stream spreading it out, and pushing it off course. By the time it reached Germany the stream was spread out over an area 20 miles wide and 70 miles long. S for Sugar paid the price for that mistake. Blown off course and over Frankfurt she was hit and damaged by flak. However the pilot, F/s Newman, decided to press on. Arriving over Berlin they released their bombs, some time about 2330. But again the winds played havoc. The stream was so far off course they missed their target bombing well south of the aim point. Then the Wild Boars fell upon the bombers.

Wild Boar missions were German night-fighter operations to destroy the bombers. After RAF had started deploying countermeasures to the German radar, the Luftwaffe had realised that over a bomber target there were thousands of sources of illumination. Search lights, flares, even fires of the target would light up the sky to give near daylight conditions. On the 24 of March about 100 night-fighters were flying over Berlin when the bombers arrived.

One of those was Oberleutnant Heinz Rokker, flying his JU88 night-fighter. In the previous 90 minutes Oblt Rokker had shot down his 18th and 19th Kills, in the form of a Lancaster and a Halifax. That's when he saw S for Sugar. At 2348 he launched his attack.

His first burst of gunfire hit the Lancaster in its starboard engine, immediately causing the wing to burst into flames. The same salvo had hit F/s Alkemades turret, smashing away the perspex dome and starting a fire in the turret. F/s Alkemade spotted the Ju88 as it opened fire and returned fire. The long burst of .303 ammunition hit Oblt Rokker's starboard engine causing it burst into flames. Oblt Rokker peeled away from danger by diving, flames streaming from his engine. Oblt Rokker survived the war, so he must have managed to land his damaged plane, but so far I've not been able to find the details of the rest of his journey. I do know he scored no more kills that night.

However S for Sugar was doomed. Engulfed in flames she was falling from the sky. F/S Newman screamed over the intercom "We have to jump! Come on, out, out!" Nicholas reached for his parachute, which would normally be stored behind the turret, for there was no room inside for the gunner to wear it. However a cannon shell had shredded the Parachute!

With flames from the burning hydraulics beginning to lick his face, and his clothes and oxygen mask smouldering in the heat, Nicolas had a stark choice. Burn to death in the crashing Lancaster, or leap, and die 18,000 feet down. "Better a clean and fast death than being roasted" ran through Nicholas mind and he threw himself out the smashed gunners position. Falling on his back, slightly head down he had a feeling of being suspend in the air, as though in a soft bed. As he passed through the cloud layer he passed out. Plummeting he quickly reached terminal velocity of 125mph, then finally his unconscious body hit the ground.

Nicholas first sensation was cold. He awoke and looked up at the sky, checking his watch it was 0310, and he was alive! Looking about him he could see some broken Fir tree branches, and he was lying in a thick drift of snow. The cushioning effect of the tree's and the snow had miraculously saved him from his fall of 18,000 feet. He hadn't escaped totally uninjured. He'd suffered sprained and twisted back and knee, had a deep laceration to the thigh and a concussion. Unable to move, he now faced death from exposure in the cold German forest. All British airmen had a whistle attached to the collar of their flight suit, so they can find each other if their plane has to ditch, so Nicholas started blowing on it.

About half an hour later a party of Standschutze followed the sound of the whistle and found F/s Alkemade still lying where he had fallen, smoking a cigarette. With sign language he told them what had happened, and they clearly didn't believe he was aircrew, as they asked for his parachute. But they took him into custody. As the Germans lifted him up F/s Alkemade passed out.

When he awoke he found himself in a hospital. Again he explained what had happened. It became clear the doctors thought him deranged from the blow to the head. Eventually when healed he was sent to Stalag Luft 3 POW camp. Where he was kept in solitary confinement as a spy. The Germans continued to question him, believing he had buried his parachute after landing, and insisting he was a spy. Luckily for F/s Alkemade a German Lieutenant became curious about his claims. So the German went looking for S for Sugar. When he found the bomber, he checked the parachute, which was still where F/s Alkemade had claimed, further investigation showed that F/s Alkemades harness matched, and the Germans promptly released him from solitary confinement. To help with any further doubters the senior British officer in the POW camp, paid attention to the Germans evidence and signed off on a certificate to the truth of F/s Alkemades story.

Nicholas was repatriated to the united Kingdom in may 1945. After demobbing he went to work in the chemical industry. During his career a 100Kg iron girder fell on his unprotected head, and he suffered a cut to the head, but was otherwise unharmed. He also took a electrical discharge that knocked him unconscious and he fell into a pool of chlorine. He lay there for 15 minutes until rescued, still alive. He finally died, aged 64, in 1987.

[WoWP] We Are Fixing Stuff

Below is the response of the World of Warplanes Dev team, including Lead Producer - Anton Sitnikau, on a major feedback topic - One Thing That Breaks It All. I'm just quoting what they said. :)

1. Respawn (long waiting time, transition time / battle time ratio)

For relatively high-spec systems battle waiting time is now about 40s, including 30s pre-battle counter. 

At the same time average battle duration - is 3.5 minutes. 

We do accept that this is an issue. And it is being solved at this time in several ways:

Firstly, with the help of optimization. It's definitely not the easiest way, since the amount of data to be loaded before battle us huge. That's why we don't expect a major improvement in this area. It's loading time that made us introduce pre-battle counter in the first place - it is required to ensure that are players have managed to load.

Secondly, by increasing the time players spend in battle. This is where conceptual stuff comes in. Let's consider the options.

It would make little sense to introduce respawn for the current game mode. Respawn would severely decrease the importance of each destroyed aircraft. It's not clear how to refill bombs and rockets either - same goes for destroyed ground targets. 

We do want to introduce respawn - however it has to be a separate game mode. I will get to game modes a bit later. 

Battle duration is also affected by ramming. We don't want to dump ramming completely - self-sacrifice is a part of team-play. What we do want to do is to give players more chances to destroy enemy in head-on attack before ramming happens and decrease the necessity of ramming. 

2. AA are useless (up to tier 7/8)

We are continuing to balance AA guns. Avg damage inflicted by AA guns has decreased. One of the reasons for that - change of firing algorithm. Now intense manoeuvring gives more chances to avoid being hit. We are planning to increase damage of AA guns. We are also working on a special UI that will show areas covered by AA guns. 

3. Tier balance is terrible

Well, it's not that terrible, however we are not satisfied at this point. Generally speaking, we have got two major leaps: going from tier 3 to tier 4 (can differ across factions), and going from propeller planes to jet planes. Our balancing dept is now busy with making these transitions smoother, however we won't be able to eliminate them completely. These big leaps in history of aviation can't but impact smooth in-game progression. We can't avoid it without serious historical compromises. 

4. Mouse control (lack of direct feel)

A lot depends on settings. Try using Vector or Hybrid presets instead of default one.

5. Not being able to see the altitude of targets and friends on the minimap

We have decided not to display altitude on the minimap to avoid mess and overcomplication. Right now we have got so-called strategic map in development. This enlarged map (M-button) has much more space to display useful information - aircraft altitudes, crash sights, AA-gun areas, etc

6. Hangar UI (Slower that WoT, "Where is Barracks?",no ammunition on main screen, differ the WoT)

Hangar UI will be reworked. At this point both sides - WoT and WoWP teams - agreed to make the UIs closer to each other. Installed modules, consumables, ammo and "battle!" button are going to be displayed on all screens. Moreover, we have managed to improve UI performance a lot: most of the delays and glitches were related to updating information for in-game store. The store itself is still rather slow, and we are working on this.

7. Heavy fighters are way too powerful (World of Heavy Fighters)

We are planning to introduce more differences between classes and highlight them. As for heavy fighter, we are going to implement several changes. First, we are not going to use the coefficient that decreased the damage when shooting down-up any more. Second, high-altitude planes will get additional penalty in manoeuvrability when flying low. Third, we are going to provide more possibilities for low-altitude aircrafts to avoid boom-zoom attacks.

8. Progression trough tiers too slow

It’s not entirely true when it comes to overall pace picture. If you played Tanks, then you’ll see that our progression is much faster. The principles of earning exp and credits are a different story though. We’ve found and fixed the issue that led to incorrect calculations in situations when a higher tier enemy was taken down.

9. The fact that kamikaze gives a frag

Sometimes ramming is a conscious tactical decision for the sake of the team. I have already mentioned that we are going to increase the chances of avoiding a clash but we are not ready to eliminate this game element.

10. Maps are too small

We conducted experiments where low tier aircrafts were on maps of high tier aircrafts. The results were not 100% positive. It takes long to reach the opponent, pretty hard to find them. We believe that the maps are appropriate for the current battle mode. For other modes, especially the ones involving organized teams, we are planning to use maps of the existing size as well as enlarged ones. 

11. No Clan Wars

We were planning to start clan system right after the release and start clan wars slightly later. However, we changed the concept during the implementation (we are going to provide more details on that later) and the deadlines were changed, too. Unfortunately. We do understand how important clan wars are. Basically, that was the reason why we put them off: we can make them better than we planned according to the initial concept.

12. Need Garage battle mode

Garage battle mode is not our highest priority at the moment. The second random game mode and battles for organized teams are the things we consider more important as for now. These two types are more in demand and less risky.

13. Attack Aircraft (Ground Attack) are useless (Destroying ground targets must affect gameplay)

We agree with the observation that in the current iteration of the main game mode the role of attack aircraft is less significant than it used to be. At present we are sending off to test some experiments (to public test) aimed at increasing its significance.

14. Having to ride my shotdown fighter into the ground before I can right click to watch from another plane

In version 1.2. (first update in 2014) a new camera system will be added to the game. No more suffering for players! Basically, the system is ready, just not implemented yet.

15. Very high impact of current hight vs optimum height has on aircraft performance

The impact of altitude system will be re-balanced in the few upcoming updates. What we released was the fully-functioning mechanics of altitude influencing aircrafts behaviour. Further development, adjustments and balancing will be taking place in more than one update. Plus, we are planning to notify players about altitude (in garage etc.) 

16. Need Missions and New modes

A new game mode is being developed at the moment. Missions and quests are planned for the very near future. 

WoWP dev team via Overlord

UPD. On 1.1 update that is being publicly tested right now:

• mouse controls will be different
• Focke Wulfs will be different 
• There will be less bugs