Developers posts on forum

Ectar:  

Ectar:  

Ectar:   Nope. Bonuses/discounts don't stack.  The only exception to this is when a mission is combined with a bonus. (For example Top of the Tree gives 30% extra credits and there is a weekend mission that gives you double credits for completing an objective - both bonuses are applied but applied separately to your result)

Ectar:   Your answer has been bolded and highlighted

Ectar:   As we continue to advise players from various different countries every time this question/demand pops up - We're always watching the server stats both in terms of visits to our portal/visits to the forum and the location of players who log into the game. If we see that there is a potential need to create additional support for players of a certain country/language then we will do so.    People from all over the world play various different online games and if you visit their websites you won't find the forums split down to every single different EU country. A few examples would be World of Warcraft, League of Legends & Dota 2. It's always done on statistics not just on player requests I'm afraid (otherwise every EU language would request/expect their own forum).   If it's any help we'll likely have a community event in Finland at Parola in October, so please don't think the Finnish Community is ignored.

Ectar: Think I'll be picking up the Panther again this weekend and maybe the Pershing. I miss both of those tanks.   Any particular tanks you guys are thinking of getting?

Ectar:   I'm not going to go into detail otherwise everyone from the forum who's suddenly a global and regional content manager will then start giving their advice. Rest assured it's not as simple as everyone likes to think it is otherwise there wouldn't be any issues and we'd just magically do what players suggest. Another thing you have to consider is we also post to 4 different products now.  You can't seriously think for a second we delay news just to annoy players do you? Of course not so there is other things sadly that are sometimes out of our control.  From what I recall we've only once in the past 2 years failed to get the weekend special announced 24 hours in advance. The article will be up today and players will know what to expect for tomorrow.

Ectar: Can you guys please at least look at the picture before chipping in your comments. Some of you are making yourselves look a bit silly...   At OP, the game mechanics are designed as such so that if you play on a standard account, higher tiers are intended to be profitable unless you're winning a match without dying, doing lots of damage and not missing shots.  That's why lower/mid tiers get increased credits so that you can support the high tier play.  If it was profitable for everyone to play high tiers on a normal account without losing credits, after a certain point/time barely anyone would play mid tiers (and premium account players would be raking it in).  It's tough to take but that game mechanic is never going to go away and it's been like that for quite a while.  

Ectar:   As with every single test server to date, when it's ready to download we will announce it.  If there is no announcement then the test server is not ready to be deployed. It's been this way for as long as the game has been running and it will continue to be that way.  Sadly sometimes things can change which means either the test server is delayed, or at the end of testing the live update is delayed. Once things are confirmed and good to go we always let players know this via a portal & forum announcement.

Ectar:   Best place to ask questions like this would be - http://forum.wotblitz.eu/ The question has been covered a million times. It's coming to Android very soon, once it's available players will be made aware.

Ectar:  

Ectar:   This guy gets it!  

Ectar:   Recently there has been a lot of article stacking near the weekends sadly so sometimes news articles have to be shifted. We're working hard to get news articles published in advance but for some articles it's not exactly an urgent priority. Knowing 2 days or 1 day earlier doesn't make a massive difference when it comes to weekend specials. The main reason anyone ever gives is basically "It would be nice to know".  I know everyone likes to think publishing news articles is easy but when you're doing it in 7 languages and co-coordinating with at least 2 other regions in different time zones who don't have to worry about translation, it's not as easy as you think. For every player who says they don't care about the other regions, there is just as many players who complain the other regions got the news out first.

Ectar:   I agree at higher tiers players should have a better grasp of the game, but that's not what this topic is about and I'm not going to get drawn into a discussion here about win ratios etc. 

Ectar:   Again it's not about skill based matchmaking. My analogy was purely to show how in a team based game, the player going out of their way not to play is a guy we're going to do something about.   The 42% win ratio guy compared to the 64% win ratio guy and how the 64% win ratio guy wants everyone to be on his level in a random match... Totally different subject.

Ectar: To double clarify some important points here;   Previously premium tanks only boosted your credits for a match (unless you used accelerated crew training).  Now they boost your exp received after a battle AND boost the crew exp.  Note this is not free exp and if you wanted to use the exp from your premium tanks elsewhere you would still need to convert it normally (and yes accelerate crew training works alongside this change). The Tier X vehicles, the VK 72.01(K) and M60 do not have increased credit rate.    

Ectar: Greetings players!   Thank for you taking part in the testing for update 9.3 we apologize if you're experiencing problems. To allow easier navigation and orientation of this section, please be aware of the following rules: Avoid Off-Topic posts and threads. Check if the bug is already reported. If it is, add your report to the existing thread. For bugs regarding graphics or game crashes, add a listing of dxdiag file in spoiler. For map bugs such as visual issues with the environment, or a location where your vehicle is unexpectedly stuck,  add a screen shot of the location so it's easily identifiable. Try to provide as much information as possible about what you were doing in-game when the bug appeared.

Ectar: Greetings Commanders!   As many veteran testers will notice, for this round of testing we are not setting the categories for players to provide feedback on. This time the categories and hot topics will be player generated. To help you all navigate this forum section as a result of that, please take the following advice into consideration.     If you're reporting a bug or problem you've encountered, please use this forum section. Please only provide feedback if you have actually tried the changes on the test server.  Respect the forum rules. As always normal forum rules apply to this section so please don't get drawn into petty insults if you and another player have a different opinion on any changes.  If you wish to leave feedback on a specific aspect of the test server - please check to see if there is already an existing topic and then add your voice to that subject. Don't spam or go off topic. If it's not related to update 9.3 then your post doesn't belong in this section and will be removed. Try to be as detailed as possible with your feedback. "It's crap" or "I don't like it" is not very helpful.  Explain and describe what you like or don't like. 

Ectar: Patch Notes for Version 9.3 Common Test 1   Next version of the Strongholds mode implemented with new functionalities, as well as updates to existing features which are available for testing. New high-tier light tanks added: U.S.A.: T37 (Tier VI), M41 Walker Bulldog (Tier VII), T49 (Tier VIII). U.S.S.R.: LTTB (Tier VII), Т-54 Lightweight (Tier VIII). Germany: Spahpanzer Ru 251 (Tier VIII). The M24 Chaffee Tier V American light tank fully rebalanced. The KV-1S Soviet heavy tank fully rebalanced, Tier changed from VI to V. Old model of the tank replaced with HD quality visual model. The KV-85, a new Soviet heavy tank, added to Tier VI to replace KV-1S. The T-34-85M, a new Tier VI Soviet medium tank added for testing. Models of the following vehicles reworked in HD quality: Т-34, IS-7, ISU-152, M5 Stuart, M3 Lee, Jagdpanther. Enhanced Suspension module for the M46 Patton tank added. Pz.Sfl.V Tier VII German tank destroyer renamed to Sturer Emil. Suspension durability for Tier V–VIII light tanks increased. The Murovanka map fully reworked; dimensions of the map increased from 800х800m to 1000х1000m; some features of gameplay on the map rebalanced. Visual effects of explosions and burning added for the following environmental objects: tankers, barrels with fuel, cars, canisters, munition boxes. Design of the top panel of the Garage reworked. Following effects of vehicle destruction have been overhauled and expanded: ammunition burning, ammunition exploding, fuel exploding, destruction by ramming and by falling, knocking out of crew, vehicle “drowning” and basic vehicle destruction. Information about the quality of connection in the server selection menu added Chat panel in the Garage reworked: new style of buttons, new mechanics of tab opening, panel scrolling, online player count and the count of players in the Contact list. Interfaces of battle mode selection, Platoon creation and the Invite Players screens reworked. Disciplinary penalties for the following instances of unsportsmanlike conduct added: inaction in battle, exiting the battle before vehicle is destroyed, self-destruction. Awards from the Battle Heroes category can now be obtained by multiple players. Set of easily-obtainable awards added: Shellproof, Battle Buddy, Spotter, Fire for Effect, Fighter, Duelist, Demolition Expert, Arsonist, Bruiser, Hand of God, Eye for an Eye. Added bonus to Combat Experience which rewards vehicle non-penetration/ricochet, applicable only when an enemy shell hits the vehicle’s hull (original trajectory of the shell must cross the hull), but does not reduce its HP. Mechanics of a shell’s ricochet after it hits a vehicle reworked: now it continues to move instead of disappearing. Sound filter inside the vehicle’s turret reworked. Removed following awards for the Historical Battles mode with no progress bar: Guardsman and History Maker. As a result of statistics analysis, excessively high values for obtaining Marks of Excellence lowered. Tier VIII–X vehicles with transmission in the front are no longer set on fire when a shell hits the transmission. Effect of tracers on ricochet improved. Some memory leaks in the battle fixed. Some crashes and hang-ups of the game client fixed. Performance of the game client on some PC configurations improved. Playback of sound effects optimised. Consumption of video memory reduced. Fixed issue where a player could not send a complaint about an ally with the reason “Inaction/Bot” in the battle results window. Fixed issue where shell tracers were displayed on the opposite side of the vehicle after non-penetration. Fixed some issues with the interface in Strongholds. Fixed brief rotation of the vehicle upon its spotting in some cases. Fixed issue, where, upon spotting a vehicle, its tracks were displayed first, followed by the vehicle itself. Fixed foliage display on medium and long distances with SLI enabled on standard graphics. Now if a vehicle drowns after its track has been hit, the vehicle will count as destroyed by the player who hit its track. Fixed issue with the screen resolution reverting to its default setting after a game client restart. Fixed issues with a tank’s turret falling through the ground after being torn off. Fixed some issues with interface in the Team Battle mode. Minor bugs fixed in visual models of the following vehicles: Tiger I, M7,M103, SU-100. Display of Emblems and Marks of Excellence fixed for the following vehicles: M18 Hellcat, T34, SU-122-44. Fixed issue with the 120 mm AT Gun T53 mantlet armoring on the T95 tank destroyer. Fixed issues with incorrect display of penetration marks on mantlets and guns of several vehicles. Fixed minor discrepancies between damage models and visual models for the following vehicles: StuG III Ausf. G, Panther, M8A1, SU-152. Display of exhaust fumes for the M44 SPG fixed.     Matchmaking chart for 9.3.    

Ectar:   One small mistake won't get you punished no.  If you do it in every 4 out of 5 games however that's likely going to be causing you problems and I hope you quickly learn from your "mistakes" like that.  As I said the system is there for repeat offenders.  I admit I've drowned sometimes by messing up river crossings or backing off a cliff by accident (I've even done it on livestream) but those incidents are very few and far between.  

Ectar:   Players in Ukraine would get the image and warning message based on whatever server they are playing on. It's server specific, not country specific.  

Ectar:   Skill based match making is another discussion for another day.  This system is regarding afk players and players who deliberately self destroy their tanks.  

Ectar:   Well he looks kind French too. It's more really a generic allied officer with a black beret.  If it's any help he's not angry with you, just disappointed... I can understand people wanting it to be a bit more personal/cool but please remember this message pops up as a warning when you're doing something bad. It's not intended to be a cool easter egg or achievement. 

Ectar:   This system is set up to take action against people not playing, there is a key difference here. If I play 5 aside football with you and you stand still for 10 minutes (and you're not a goalkeeper) you're not playing and I don't want you on my team or benefiting from our success. Likewise If you enter a team based computer game and go afk multiple times or quit multiple times before the battle is done, you're not playing and I don't want you on my team or benefiting from our success.  If you want to defend passive play then you don't play passively every game by sitting still.  This system won't punish people who play hyper passive.  It will punish people who are blatantly abusing the game mechanics by not actively taking part in the game.  - You can justify playing cautiously in a few matches, heck you can even likely throw up specific examples.  You can't justify it for every battle and it's those types of players this system is set up to deal with. I find it rather sad in a way that when we take measures to do something about repeatability being afk or not participating. We're still wrong for doing something just because it's not XXXX player's specific idea how to deal with people.  When this system is implemented, If you don't want to be punished from leaving the game early - Don't leave the game early!  You still have the choice to leave the game early if you want however it will come with consequences. If you don't want to be punished for being AFK multiple times... Don't go afk! If there is something external causing you to be away from the PC all the time or away from the game then perhaps that's not the best time to be playing a team game.. Life is full of decisions, many of them however have consequences and repercussions. Eventually you're going to have to deal with those choices wither you like it or not.

Ectar: Regarding the image of the stern officer type guy. For the EU server is a rather angry looking man in a uniform similar to a British Commander and the NA server will have an angry looking American General.   We'll have our article up in the next few days

Ectar: When items are on discount, that means selling them will also sell them for the half of the discounted price.  It's always been that way. The solution is to sell them once the discount has passed.

Ectar:   No, it means this is a forum for World of Tanks and other games are not to be discussed in our main forum section.  I'm not deleting the topic and I specifically left the link in the General Discussion section so anyone following the thread knows where it now is.  I don't care what game you discuss in this section, I'm all for people talking about stuff and sharing their views. I just don't want our General Discussion section which is set up for people specifically to talk about World of Tanks, to be filled with threads about non Wargaming games.

Ectar:   Fair point, but then the main point of the NEC was still for manufactures to show off their latest product right? You also have plenty of NEC shows where XXX manufacture didn't turn up for whatever reason.  That doesn't mean the manufacture doesn't care about it's customers. Choosing which events to go to throughout the year isn't as easy as you think it would be, nor is planning them. I assure you after almost a year in the role of Community Manager now, there is lots of different things that happen behind the scenes regarding what events we're able to attended or not and in which capacity.

Ectar: Moving to off topic section - "General Discussion" is for World of Tanks only.  No problem with you guys discussing other games but our main section of the forums isn't the place for that - Ectar

Ectar:   E3 is a not a consumer event, it's a industry only event that's not really open to the public/regular consumer/player. It's something that exists for people in the industry to meet and greet, promote their products to other companies, retailers and investors etc. Whilst Eurogamer is a big event for the UK, it's not quite the same scale as PAX and Gamescom or has the same direction. I checked to see if it was possible that we could go to Eurogamer but it's main focus is primarily upcoming games and console games. Our console game has been out on the market for a little while now and the only other place that World of Warships may feature is Igromir 2014.   We've been in the UK twice this year to Wicksteed at War and also at Tankfest (where we've attended for the past 3 years). We'd love to do more events but there is only so many places we can commit to each year.

Ectar:   nRicochet our German Community Manager organizes any events in German so he will be in attendance. I'm not sure what other members will be there but it should be announced on our portal closer to the time. (Only on the German section)

Ectar: moving to off topic section,    1 - It's a rant thread 2 - Someone with over 33,000 battles should not really be posting in the "newcomers" section to vent about matchmaking as you should know more than most players how that works.   - Ectar 

Ectar:   Down the drain? You're looking at this the wrong way. In previous missions players have been required to do damage in heavy tanks, or damage in medium tanks. Other missions have required players to play only German tanks or Soviet tanks for example - End result is it's always going to be "unfair" to certain group of players and that's not something that will ever change. If you don't own Japanese tanks the incentive is there to pick up some. If you don't want to play them it's your choice but please don't make out that we're taking 300k credits from you or that you've "lost" them. You have an opportunity to gain them. It's not a gamble and you won't have 300k taken away from you if you don't succeed. You can't lose something you never had in the first place.  I can understand it might feel that way but it's looking at things totally the wrong way you're losing only the opportunity which is there to take, not the reward you never won.  

Ectar:   Whilst some people may feel the polls show nothing, they at least are showing numbers to back up the claims. As Phoobar points out:  

Ectar:   A recent survey of almost 2000 players showed that saying such terms as "vast majority" or "everyone" is taking liberties.  As the survey showed:  

Ectar:   Now sure you can say "less that 50%" or "more than 50%" to give a different impression of the figures and a bit more weight to the statement, but the amount of "I actually quite like arty" players are almost just as high as players who don't like arty.  "Where are they all on the forums you may ask?" - Well they're playing the game and enjoying their arty. Why would they post in a thread to defend arty when they can see at a quick glance how straight up insulting and rude some players can be when talking about arty, comparing it things like cancer for example and thinking that's totally to say.

Ectar:   Official word is no, we won't be attended Milan Games week. Sadly it's not really possible to visit a country twice in one year if it's not one of our fully supported languages. It's possible we could attend next year however it means we likely wouldn't do any museum visits. 

Ectar:   They may not be new player friendly but then you're never going to learn something if you don't try. You can get the 300k by working on the other missions which will help you learn the tanks and there is plenty of guides on our forums to help players learn these tanks.  The alternative of making the mission for tanks that are "noob friendly" then means everyone would be able to get the mission completed easily and well, missions are intended to require a little bit of work to achieve  them as the rewards increase.   You're generalization of players who use Japanese tanks is a bit off, especially when you're confusing sigs with anime images as "Chinese cartoons". I play German tanks but I have no interest really in German culture for example. I also happen to like mecha anime but that doesn't influence my choice in playing Japanese tanks. The only reason I personally play some Japanese tanks is because I want the STB-1 as it has similar characteristics to the Leo 1 and Fv4202, both tanks I really enjoy playing.

Ectar:   Well it's lucky then that we also have:   Triple Experience for the First Victory of the Day 50% discount on all standard Japanese vehicles, Tier III - V 30% discount on all standard Japanese vehicles, Tier VI – VII   That way if you don't have Japanese tanks they're easier to pick up with discounts and everyone can benefit from 3x first win of the day.     Along with the 300,000 mission reward, the Onigiri and Automatic Fire Extinguishers you collect can be sold for additional profit meaning even more credits.

Ectar:    I mentioned earlier about Serbia. We had a presence at Croatia last year for the Infogamer event in Zagreb during November. It's possible we'll be there again this year.  

Ectar:   Well 3 years ago would be to promote the launch of the game.  The community events we do are about reaching out to players and bringing them together, getting to say hello to you guys in person and having some fun. It also helps raise awareness for places like local museums and gives players an opportunity for a nice day out. As some examples of cool events that have stuck in my mind: In Sweden we had vehicle rides, a demo of the S-Tank and a Q&A session. We set a record number of visitors that day.   In Poland players have had a lazertag tournament and had a quiz with in-game prizes. In Bastogne, Belgium last year they had an IS-3 demo!   When we went to Italy earlier in the year however it was a Warplanes themed event.  We're aware there is still multiple countries, events and venues we can attended and we're trying to gather as much information regarding these events for future opportunities.  There is always so many different things going on at the same time it's really difficult to make a choice. Including our supported languages we have about 30 countries to cover. That's why we have thread like this on the tanks forums and this on the Warplanes forum so players can help us know more about their countries shows, expos and museums etc.  

Ectar:  

Ectar:  

Ectar:   The Truck is something brand new to us and initially the main goal was to visit the countries of our supported languages. It's one truck and it can only be in one place at any given time.  When you factor in the travel and set up time we were keen to avoid any issues where there may be issues getting the truck there in time.   Organizing events for counties outside of those supported languages come with a variety of issues, first and foremost being a language barrier issue as they don't have dedicated community teams.  The "English team" is the team who are responsible for organizing events in all the European countries which are not officially supported.  So far we've been to Italy, Netherlands, Sweden and Hungary.  Serbia is still somewhere we want to visit along with possibly Finland and Romania.  These events take time to plan and there is a multiple different things that can cause delays in getting them set up.     We will be doing a review of all the locations we visited at the end of the year and then looking at where we can go next year.  We always want to do as many events as possible but please understand we can't be everywhere at once nor can we attend events at short notice.   I made a mistake in mentioning dates and timescales for visiting Serbia and I can only apologize for that. It's still at the top of my list for somewhere to visit and I'll be working with Erissa to see what we can do.

Ectar:  

Ectar:   Well played sir, well played.

Ectar:  

Ectar:   A really important point to note is that only the first prize is limited to players from a country included in the Visa Waiver program or players who possess a valid travel visa to the United States of America.  All other prizes are still available for the entire community who have the potential to win them.   The first prize trip to the movie premier is not something where there is any flexibility in with regards to *when* the winner can go. We cannot run risk of someone not being able to get a visa in time or have any potential travel issues with having to rush everything at the last minute.  We had to make a call and sadly this was the only solution due to the time-scales involved. This is why we made sure that all other prizes are still available to players not included in the Visa Waiver program or who don't have a valid visa to the USA.   The Special Secret Tank?  It's not in-game, has never been previously released, and you won't find any images of it on the web or on any fansite. Keep guessing guys       

Ectar:   That's a fair point and one I shall make sure is fed back up the chain 

Ectar:     My entire post wasn't a reply to you.  The last 2 paragraphs are to address the wider audience. I'll go back and put some more like breaks to show they're not directed at you and I apologize for any confusion. There is no need to make petty comments like that to try and rustle my jimmies. I haven't had any direct input into specials since one called Six Nations.   To address your other point, a mission that rewards 22,500 credits might not seem much for someone like yourself with over 37k battles (grats on that btw, it's quite an achievement) but to less experienced players the free consumable that they can either use or sell is appreciated and are used.  As I said previously the missions are never going to cater for everyone. It's human nature to want maximum return for as little investment as possible. That's not really something we can control however we never say "Wait till next week".  What I do say is "Wait till the month is over" but people rarely take notice of that.  

Ectar:   Well when you consider that consumables are normally 3k a pop and it's quite common to use 1 or 2 in a battle depending on the tanks you play (I'm looking at you British Mediums and my Leo 1) getting anything that you would normally pay for, for free, I'd say is a benefit.    

Ectar:   Possibly, but it's unlikely to come along in the middle of a month with no significant holiday/anniversary/public event/historical date attached to it.  It's a fairly big boost much like the 2x exp for every battle. (Which never existed more than 6 month ago I'd like to remind players).  

Ectar:   To quote a good friend of mine from earlier in the week:  

Ectar:   We have a limited amount of things we can offer as rewards. Gone are the days of players earning a few million credits over a weekend due to missions.  

Ectar:   Welcome to my world   

Ectar:   Interesting theory. :)  If it's not the 5x exp that brings out the bad players, it's the equipment discount, or it's the 2x exp for every win, or it's the 3x crew exp, or it's the high tier discounts, or it's 90% discount to change the crew names.... I look forward to reading the forums on Monday and seeing what people have blamed this weekend for why they can't win matches.  May the odds be forever in your favor!   

Ectar:     Because the 2 events you've already had this month didn't have much in the way of discounts or bonuses right?  Or is this another week where players are expecting things like content within an anniversary special and gamescom special to carry on for the next week?  We can't keep topping the previous week's bonuses and discounts. That's a totally unrealistic expectation from players.    Only last week we had: x5 Experience for the First Victory of the Day 30% discount on all standard vehicles, Tiers VI-VII 15% discount on all standard vehicles, Tier VIII Looking at the feedback for that event the discounts and bonus was completely overlooked for people instead focusing on the missions.  It's starting to get the point now where no matter what is offered, unless the bonuses are extravagant, the missions are easy and the discounts widespread across all options, the special is instantly dismissed as being rubbish.          I'm pretty sure last weekend everyone took advantage of the 5x first win exp and discounts on the tier VI to VIII, yet reading the forums you'd think otherwise. We're never going to put all discounts and bonuses in a single week and as I keep telling everyone week in week out, the events are planned a month at a time and stuff needs to be spread over that month. Weekend specials will never be able to cater to everyone's individual circumstances.  Sometimes there is discounts/boosts on tanks you use/want, other times there is discounts on features you want like garages or barracks. Sometimes there is nothing discounted/boosted that you want. That scenario will never change and this is why we have things like 3x first win or 2x crew training so everyone regardless of the tank they're playing can get something.   If your only feedback is something like "Huh, won't be playing this weekend" then fine, take some time off, it's good to get out once in a while. Weekend specials shouldn't be the sole reason for someone to play the game or not. If that's why you're playing then you're never going to be satisfied as you're never going to have bonuses specific to you each weekend.