Developers posts on forum

Ectar:   Guess you've never played League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Guild Wars 2 then. All 3 of these games have it as a paid service also and are some of the biggest online games out there. Some other games don't even offer the service such as Planetside 2 & Eve Online (not played either of these games for a while I admit so it might have changed now). I know that when SWTOR was released it didn't have a name change available. If you are a subscriber for SWTOR you get a free name change but outside of that it's via their online store as a paid service for everyone else.

Ectar:   1,2,3 - If you are experiencing any of these issues please contact our support team who can look into this further for you. Our Community Team are not trained in fault diagnostics related to game and are unable to assist you with individual circumstances related to any one of these 3 issues. For each player who reports any one of these issues, there is a huge potential of different reasons that could be the cause.  There is no blanket "Well here's your problem" otherwise that problem would be identified and resolved. - Contacting our support team is key because they need to go through certain steps to pin point your issues. Asking the same questions over and over on the forums won't give you a different answer nor will it resolve your issue. The Community Team isn't a back door to the Support Team. To give you an example; we can't help you with in-game technical issues/account issues much like the support team can't help you with warning points/forum suspensions.   4. Work is ongoing to address issues that resulted from the 9.0 update. 9.1 is pretty much a bug fix patch with various things being updated, refined and adjusted. I'm pretty sure there is various apologies from myself and other members of the community team directed to players experiencing issues directly from update 9.0 and we're working with our support team and those players to identify their issues and how to resolve them.   Now as for the image, do you even know the context in which is was taken or do you know why it was taken?  Can you please link to me any official World of Tanks or Wargaming source where we are using this image to promote our game or our company? If this image makes you no longer wish to play the game, there is nothing I can say to sway you otherwise. I can only hope you treat all other products and companies that you use on a daily basis with the same scrutiny and expectation.    

Ectar:   My point being that the Counterstrike staff wouldn't change your name for you simple because you felt other people were gunning for you "just because you're popular/well known" - If you wanted to change your identity that would be up to you.   There is no "Witness relocation program" style service offered in online gaming. If someone is being harassed then we take action against the offenders who are breaking the rules. Now before anyone starts giving hypothetical situations lets nip that line of thought on the bud. Each case is treated on an individual basis and circumstances vary between player to play.

Ectar:   In an attempt to bring this thread back on topic.   Free name changes for well known players? Not now and not ever.   We won't provide streamers or youtubers with alt accounts or free name changes. You don't see it happening in Counterstrike, League of Legends, Starcraft II or any other major competitive/PvP game.  If players wish to create 2nd or alt accounts they are free to do so but we will not provide unlocked and fully loaded accounts. If you choose to put yourself in the public eye and make videos or livestream, you need to be prepared for all the stuff that comes with that. It's a harsh reality but that's the price of fame.  Youtubers and streamers also need to remember their attitude to other players and their behaviour will also have a major impact on how people react to them.      

Ectar:   To quote directly from our website when The_Challenger was introduced to our community:   Richard was in the British Army for almost 30 years in The Royal Tank Regiment. Mainly because he liked the black beret so much. That’s what he’d tell you.    He started out as a Chieftain driver where he spent more time covered in oil with his head in the back decks carrying out repairs than actually driving, despite what the job description said.  “You had to love Chieftain”, he states. During his years in service in the Royal Armored Corps he completed all his Tank trades- Gunner, Loader and Commander as he progressed through the ranks, serving on the Chieftain, Challenger 1 & 2 and Scorpion in the Armoured Reconnaissance Role. He also spent two years as a Gunnery Instructor teaching new Commanders and overseas students whilst running live firing ranges in the UK and Germany. Being passionate about military history, he later taught Armored Tactics and worked closely with the General Staffs Briefing Team, headed at that time by General Sir Mike Jackson. Richard has deployed on numerous operations including “Op Telic” in Iraq, and has worked alongside many of the Worlds Armed Forces. So yeah, he knows his stuff about tanks.   Attending Tankfest this year will be myself, Obirian, iScending, The_Challenger, Hunter1911 and some additional staff.  We have something pretty cool lined up. It's unlikely we'll be able to hold a Q&A like we recently did at Arsenalen as we will be staffing the booth where visitors can sit down and try to the game. Any one of us however should be able to answer any questions that visitors to Tankfest have about our games. (Or between us we should be able to get an answer). Bear in mind however that some questions can only be answered directly by developers (generally any questions about future content). As I advise everyone at any Q&A session it's not that we personally don't know the answer, it's that it's not our place to comment on things like that as they are always subject to change and our developers can change their plans from week to week.   Looking forward to meeting everyone who is going! 

Ectar:   Yes we plan to go there later this year and will be using feedback from the Sweden event to help us plan it.  

Ectar:   It got home mostly safe. I think it's lost a rear antenna. It's now got pride of place on my windowsill beside my desk.  

Ectar:   We'll be there for both days with something special that should be ready by then

Ectar:   For Tankfest we'll be there.  

Ectar:   A whole load of them will be on our Flickr account by Tuesday at the latest where we host all our community event pictures.

Ectar:   1. Over 700 visitors were at the museum on the day, no idea how many were in the Q&A but the room was packed. - There is no need for a portal or forum announcement because nothing has been confirmed yet (as I made clear at the event), our devs are still looking into various options each of which may have it's merits and downsides.    Plans can change at very short notice in games development and that's why you generally won't see us make an official announcement until things like test servers are up/due to come and we'll only make the announcement when the time is right and we can talk about things more.

Ectar:   You're welcome.  Initially the plans were for about 150 to 200. When we opened the sign ups we had about 330. Usually about 20% to 30% of sign ups don't come if they're not one of the people getting a discount. After checking with the museum we actually had 731 visitors on the day. Sweden you guys rock! Special thanks to those people who traveled from outside of Sweden to come along.   

Ectar:   In a good way or in a bad way?            

Ectar:   You're welcome.  The turn out from the Swedish community was outstanding and smashed any expectations we had, you guys have now the set the bar for other countries to beat! 

Ectar:   We get accused of not interacting, we get accused of not caring, we even get accused of not acting.  When it comes to forum moderation that's never been a task for the community team. We post on the forums yes, but if we also moderated the forums, you'd never see us post which means you'd have zero interaction. "Oh that would be so much better" - You might think sarcastically for for a few moments, but I assure you with no WG reps posting on this forums it would fall apart pretty quick.   This topic was posted by me as many people who are in the WG clan taking part in Clan Wars, know people personally in [FAME] and [KANZA]. We knew we were going to get rolled by one of the 2 best Clans and it was a funny outcome that ment we won. The Fame and Kazna guys who the joke was shared with, took it well. You'll note I didn't post an image that I claimed was members or those clans, nor did I make any comments about their appearance/nationality/intelligence/sexual orientation as it seems many people in the clan section sadly seem to think is ok to do to each other.   I've posted in the past in the clan section and said that smack talk is ok in the clan wars section, it's a competitive mode of the game and smack talk is inevitable. I also said at the time however that people need to still be wary of what's said as that wasn't an ok to go wild. Many well known guys on the forums read the message and accepted that they were kinda responsible for keeping their own people in check. In the end people going out of their way just to piss off other clans are only ruining it for everyone. - Knowing your audience is key here. If you want to be "that guy" who everyone hates, I assure you we can quickly make it so your main account can't post on the forums and any alt accounts won't get near the clan section either.   If you took offense at my message I'm sorry for that.  The truth still stands however. No moderators had posted in this thread and I had passed on the concerns to our moderator team regarding the thread that was highlighted. If a post offends you, report it and our moderators will deal with it. The community team isn't an "on call" 2nd level team of moderation that can jump to a thread every time someone PM's us or tells us to in a thread. Again if that was the case we'd never do anything but moderate as that's what players would do instead of using the report system.   For future reference, putting up a gif telling me to "F off" immediately loses my attention. I'd never dream of speaking to a player like that and can't believe you seriously think it's ok to speak to me like that then assume I'm going to take note of the rest of what you say especially in the tone it's being used in. I've only replied to this thread just to clear up any confusion about why it was posted. It was posted to make fun of the situation that resulted. The WG clan can pretend we "won" but in actual fact we got lucky.  No offense was ever intended and I'm pretty sure from Kazna Kru and Deal With It that none was taken.   I'll make sure when I return from Sweden to have a good pass of the Clan forums looking specifically for people going too far. "You reap what you sow" as they say and I'll make sure people get what's coming to them.

Ectar:   Top of the tree is exactly the same for all regions. Sometimes other regions add events to go along with it.   Top of the tree is 30% increased credits and 30% discount for 3 tanks at the top of a branch.  That's what it's always been since it started on any server. That is "Top of the tree"   "On track" is a discount in a branch from tier II to tier VII that's something we have actually already done in the past with it was voted on by the community and also done via an random draw. - Again everyone is quickly forgetting these bonuses have already taken place on the EU server when the NA server didn't have them.   

Ectar:     It may seem like nit picking and I can understand that viewpoint.  Bear in mind common feedback in special topics is such things as: "It's not fair, there is no garage discount this week but NA has it"  *next week EU has garage discount* "It's not fair, there is no barracks discount this week but NA has it" *next week barracks discount* "What discount TD's?  But I wanted discount mediums. This is no good for me"   Every weekend individual players disagree with the special and make comments like "Well no WoT for me this weekend"  purely because the weekend special doesn't cater to their individual needs. It's also usually the same players posting in these threads to complain about something different each week, or just drop by to find something they disagree with.   The specials will never cater to individual players. The specials will always have regional differences.    In the past we tried to match then and it didn't work.  I know our statement (specifically mine) was different in the past but things have changed now (and can still always change again in the future).

Ectar:   Wargaming are already paying for admission for 50 players and have negotiated a discount for the next 50. Part of the reason for arranging community events at places like Arsenalen is also to increase the museum's exposure and bring in more visitors. The decision to visit and support a national museum should not be based on if you get a discount or not.   When it comes to "doing out homework" it's impossible to estimate how many players may turn up at an event until the event is advertised. Roughly 60-70 people expressed interested from the forum thread and when adding up all the sign ups, we had to close the thread not long after it got to over 300.   We're looking forward to meeting everyone on Saturday.

Ectar:  

Ectar:   Back in September that was the plan, and many events from September till about December WERE the same. It's amazing how quickly that is forgotten.  In 2014 it was decided that each region would go back to doing events for their specific communities because if there was any slight difference in the specials, players would kick off and complain about the differences.  The intention was to have over the course of a month, the same events but to also allow for differences (such as featuring different tanks or using different dates in the month to apply different bonus (for example we do an equipment discount in week 3, and NA does it in week 2..).    Sadly when it comes to specials all some people seem to care about is what's not there. People quickly ignore what's available to them and instead just point out what's missing or what else they'd prefer.   Take the recent Military Parade special as an example:   EU:  From Thursday 8th May at 07:10 until Monday 12th May at 07:00 CEST (GMT +2) NA: From Friday, May 9, 04:00 PDT (07:00 EDT) until Monday, May 12, 04:00 PDT (07:00 EDT)   EU got an extra day for the event. Out of 8 pages only 1 single player commented on it.  - At no point does anyone say "Hey we got more this isn't fair" but players are quick to say "We got less, that isn't fair".  That's not cool. 

Ectar:   Moderators?     Not a single moderator has posted in thread.  I shall pass on your concerns however. 

Ectar:     for EU the Top of the Tree events will always be aimed at high tier players.  "On track" is a combination of Top of the Tree and another special, that NA does.  I'm not sure if the RU region is even doing a Top of the Tree this month meaning they have no high tier discounts or credit increases.

Ectar:    

Ectar:     So rumor has it that Kazna and Fame were too scared to face us and agreed to a draw. Truth?    

Ectar:     Some things are they way they are because they are credit or gold sinks.  Some other things are adjusted to make it easier on players as after all it's a game and not real life scenarios. -  Much like how when your tank is destroyed in battles and even ammo racked - You're back into battle with a small repair cost and we don't ask players to purchase a new tank each time to replace the destroyed one. 

Ectar:     I liked this one myself and I'm sure other players will agree   Fixed charging gold by default on maintenance page when changing gun module on a tank. 

Ectar: Greetings Commanders!   Please note that on Thursday morning (15/05/2014) we will have a short downtime to apply a micropatch to address some issues. The game servers will be unavailable starting from roughly 06.00 CEST (04.00 UTC). The downtime is expected to last for about 1 hour.
Content of the patch:    Fixed some issues with minimum rendering range.    Fixed low FPS when shooting automatic guns.    Fixed performance issues on Hidden Village.    Fixed artefact issues on some graphic cards (square on trees).    Fixed disconnections with FX and Phenom processors.    Fixed charging gold by default on maintenance page when changing gun module on a tank.     Fixed some rare memory leaks and crashes.   As always we are continuing to monitor and address issues that have been reported to us and we're rolling out fixes as quick as we can.  Thanks for your patience and understanding during this time.   Regards

Ectar:   A players reputation normally is never at a minus level before they are selected to become moderators. Moderators have and always will be a target for players who disagree with being sanctioned. It goes pretty much like this:   "Oh you banned me?  Well take this!" *looks for some of the mods past posts and downvotes them* "Yeeeeeahhh! That'll teach you to ban me!    Sometimes followed with:   "Hey guiz! This moderator banned me, lets show him how mad we are by downvoting him/her together!"   As Dongfeng_division stated they in effect "take one for the team" - As the moderator's main role is moderating, they're most common interaction with players is when enforcing our policies which is seen by many as negative interaction.   There is also a few players who just downvote any WG account for random reasons or out of spite.  That I'll never understand because if they're trying to get a point across it's completely lost.   I'm now going to close this thread because: A - You knew it was coming. B - It's a thread that will bring out the worst in some players.  C - Your question has been answered.    - Ectar

Ectar:   A higher discount on the more expensive packages is not likely as we don't want a scenario where it's cheaper to buy a discounted tank than buy gold.

Ectar:  

Ectar:       That's incorrect and it's being updated.  The 5x exp for first win is for everyone in the winning team regardless of their rank/position in the team.

Ectar: I told ya! I TOLD YA!  Have fun this weekend Commanders 

Ectar: Zdravo ljudi,
Hteo sam da vas obavestim o nasem planiranom dolasku u Srbiju.   Prethodni put krajem marta smo planirali obilazak muzeja, a nakon toga i odlazak do bara radi druzenja.Nazalost usled niza razlicitih poteskoca , dolazak tog datuma nije bio izvodljiv i morali smo da ga otkazemo. Nismo mogli da organizujemo drugi termin u aprilu jer smo bili zauzeti planiranjem dogadjaja i okupljanja u Svedskoj i Madjarskoj.   Jos uvek zelimo da posetimo Srbiju (a narocito Beograd) i kada prodju okupljanja u Svedskoj i Madjarskoj u maju, nastavicemo da planiramo dolazak u Srbiju. Nazalost ne mogu vam precizirati tacan datum kada ce se to desiti (kao sto ste vec videli iz prethodnog slucaja gde smo precizirali datum koji nije bio 100% siguran, sto se pokazalo vrlo lose). Sve sto vam sa sigurnoscu mogu reci to je da zelimo da se dogadjaj u Beogradu odrzi u naredna tri meseca.   Trenutno radimo i dogovaramo se sa igracima iz Srbije koji su nam ponudili pomoc u pronalazenju lokacija,  dogovora sa vlasnicima istih i slicno... Obavesticu vas cim budem imao preciznije podatke o svemu.

Ectar:     That topic was updated before the 29th of March to say we wouldn't be coming on that date.  The main post was updated along with a post in the thread.

Ectar: We've spoken the museum recently and parking shouldn't be an issue.   The first 50 players who Wargaming will be paying for have been notified via e-mail. The 2nd 50 players who are taking advantage of the discount admission and lunch have been notified via e-mail.   If you haven't received an e-mail this will mean that on the day you would be expected to pay normal museum entrance fees on the day. For lunch the museum has snacks and drinks available to buy at a small canteen, alternatively visitors can bring their own lunch.

Ectar:     - Maybe - Maybe No.  - There is no plans to ever bring back pre-order tanks or beta reward tanks. They were only available for a limited time which has passed. You had to be in the beta to get the tank or pre-order the game when it was available. In the past the pre order tanks were made available and that was a bad call. Players who pre ordered the game were advised at that time those tanks would not be sold again so as to not devalue their vehicles and their contribution. Pz IIJ is an event tank. That means it's normally only given away in limited numbers for NA and EU players at major events or sometimes at Community Gatherings (depending on the scale).  Pz IV Hydro is a retail promo tank so that means there is no players to ever make it commonly available via the gift shop or in-game store. We don't have any plans for making the BT-SV or PzIIJ available via the premium shop or in-game shop. The BT-SV is a retail tank also and was never intended for general release.   Sadly some times will never be commonly available as we need to keep things back for special events or as something to give added value to a promotion.  I'm sorry if you disagree with that but it's pretty common for everything in retail and sales. Special editions, special versions and unique offers are always something companies do. If you had these things commonly available to everyone it defies the entire point of making them limited/restricted in the first place.  

Ectar:     I never used the Konisch personally. I found the 88 more than enough to deal with anything it came up against. It was actually one of my most enjoyable tanks and I've bought it back already today! 

Ectar:   I'm sure if there is anything you wanted specifically for this weekend you'll likely find it available during the Military Parade special which is a massive event.  

Ectar:   *edit* the 2nd mission isn't working quite as intended/requested. We're checking with head office to see what's up.  

Ectar:     Sadly the news couldn't be published yesterday as it was a public holiday in France. We're getting as much stuff done as we can now. When the end of the month/start of the month is a Friday, things can be quite hectic as there is lots of different articles from different departments that need to be published.    With this event I'm tempted to purchasing my VK3601 back.  Was always a favourite tank that handled itself well with the 88. 

Ectar: E-mail have been sent out initially to the first 100 players.  That's the first 50 who will have their admission paid for by Wargaming and then the next 50 who are able to get the discount admission and lunch, We won't be able to e-mail further players until Friday. Thursday is a bank holiday in France and there is a very small amount of staff in.

Ectar:   E-mails will be sent later today

Ectar: Hello all,    Please note due to extremely high demand for this event we will be closing sign ups at 11:59pm this evening. All players who have signed up will be e-mailed on the 30th of April to advise them of their package and how much (if any) they will be required to pay on the day along with what's included and an estimated timescale of the day's events.

Ectar:   There is no plans to ever bring it back to the premium shop.    The only way to get a Type 59 now on the EU server is to win one of the regional contests or be extremely lucky and win a physical code at a major event like Gamescom. There is no other way. We don't gift them to players, we don't have codes we can give out to players (except the extremely rare ones for major events like Gamescom).      

Ectar: SECOND NINJA UPDATE 30/04/14! We have emailed the first 100 signups now, please check your mailboxes! iScending   NINJA EDIT 29/04/14!
Please note that there is no need to post your details twice! We are in the process of sending out confirmations and we hope to have this done as soon as possible. Please be patient, if you've signed up we will send you an email! iScending   Registration
This is the sign up thread for players who wish to take advantage of our special package price of 140 SEK when visiting the Arsenalen Tank Museum on the 17th of May. For this price you are covered for admission to the museum and also lunch at the event.   As a special bonus the first 50 players to sign up for this package will have the cost covered by Wargaming.net.  If you are a parent visiting with children please make this clear in your sign up so your child/children can be included.   Please note if you sign up for this, you are aware you are required to make your own travel arrangements to get to the museum and if you are not one of the first 50 sign up you are ok with paying the 140 SEK package price. All players who do not take advantage of this offer will have to pay regular museum prices on the day.     At the event players will have the ability to ask questions to The_Challenger, iScending and I via a short Q&A, we will also have tablets available to showcase World of Tanks Blitz to visitors. If you wish to submit a question in advance for one of our games (World of Tanks (PC or Xbox), World of Warplanes, or even World of Warships, please add the question to your submission and we will endeavour to get the answers for you in advance of the event.
For each person who wishes to attend, we need: Full name. Email address. Country of residence. Age. Question for developers (Optional, see above.)
Why do we need these details? 
  We need your name and email to confirm your registration. We need your country of residence as we will unfortunately need to give preference to residents of Sweden: this is essentially so we be more certain you are going to be likely to attend (i.e. if you lived in Hawaii, we might doubt you'd come all the way to Italy!)
Please register with these details by replying to this forum thread. Don't worry, your reply will be invisible to other forum users.    We will e-mail everyone who successfully signs up with a confirmation.    

Ectar:     I just recently purchased my "Bert" TD and will be looking forward to getting it skilled up.  I generally don't use it for random battles it's more normally used for fun community nights.  

Ectar:   If you dislike arty so much remember that an event like this also gives you more of an opportunity to shoot them.  Look at the mission "Lets take them down" - we're encouraging you to do it. 

Ectar:  

Ectar:   It's proportionate to the amount of players on the server and taking part in Clan Wars. Remember the RU server has about 4 times the numbers of players compared to the EU server.  

Ectar:   Normal Clan Wars events are still planned. As you may have seen earlier we're planning to add new features to Clan Wars, so until that is ready we still wanted to have something for players to participate in.

Ectar:   That ammo rack on the Tiger II in Sand River, that was an amazing shot! The slow mo replay with the bullet time made it even better!