Excursion of the WoT World: Prokhorovka
Дата: 08.10.2010 03:21:52
merig00: On July 12th, 1943 under the village Prokhorovka took place one of
the largest battles with use of armored forces in the human
history. Soviet sources indicate that there about 1500 tanks
participated in the battle: about 800 units from soviet side and
700 - from german. Other sources give us a little bit smaller
number - 1200 vehicles. It was here where "Hummels", "PZ III",
"SUs", and "34" crossed paths in battle...
Neither side achieved the the initial goals. However both sides suffered major losses. Sources indicate different number of lost units: from 300 to 700 from each side. "It was hell!" - recalls Untersturmfiihrer Gurs. "Tankers were jumping from the burning tanks and rolled on the ground, trying to knock down the flames" - remembers parts of the battle the Hero of the Soviet Union Yevgeny Shkurdalov.
High Resolution
Today, in memory of one of the biggest battles of the Great Patriotic War [merig00: that's the name of part of World War II fought by USSR] - Battle of Prokhorovka, a museum-preserve "Prokhorovka's field" was created. And for the 50th anniversary of the Victory the "Victory Monument" was built. It consists of belfry and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, who are considered symbols of the third battle field in Russia. The museum of the Battle of Prokhorovka history has permanent exhibition on the history of the Battle of Kursk and the battles under Prokhorovka.
The fighting of 1943 died down, and on the "third battle field of Russia" peaceful sky reigns again. Developers of the "World of tanks" could not miss the opportunity to let players experience the drama of this great battles of WWII, recreating the theater of fighting on the virtual Prokhorovka field. Players of the World of Tanks now know firsthand about the massive battles of Prokhorovka ...
High Resolution
We asked Natalia Bezrukova, map artist, and Henry Kravtsov, a leading game designer, to tell us about the process of creating "Prokhorovka". And to tell us about the difficulties and nuances that were encountered during the work on the map.
Henry Kravtsov: The battle for Prokhorovka - the legendary battle of the Second World War, so we wanted to make the map as realistic as possible. We had to carefully study the historical facts, repeatedly view various photos of the area. But the major problem, perhaps, was that the real countryside rather stingy for vivid landscapes.
Natalia Bezrukova: Initially our task was to draw a game map using the plan provided by the game designers. It was in essence only a sketch of the necessary objects on the map. Therefore, all local beauty, which players can observe on the "Prokhorovka" - is a work of map artists.
Prokhorovka" is one of the first maps of the World of Tanks, but after a variety of experiments on the "Karelia" artists have had a clear idea of the difficulties they will have to face.
Natalia Bezrukova: During the creation of "Prokhorovka" we had mostly problems of a technical nature. Game map by itself is a grid, divided into squares, over which, in turn artist "stretches" textures. It was hard to make smooth transitions from one area to another: after all, "Prokhorovka" was the first time we had to do this. Here the lifeless sands are replaced by dense vegetation.
High Resolution
Henry Kravtsov: The railroad, in many ways creates the balance on the map. The railroad is repeatedly mentioned in various sources (there were difficulties with the transporting troops across the railroad). Attacking through the central part of the map is a very risky venture, so players tend to employ flanking attacks.
Natalia Bezrukova: When creating the map, we naturally worked hand in hand with game design. It was necessary to take note of all the comments. So, we had to remove some barriers in the form of stones and destroyable objects. And especially our colleagues from the game design would get "nervous" when they would stumbled upon rocks inside the bushes (smiles).
In general, the location of objects on the "Prokhorovka" were repeatedly changed, some elements were added, just to be removed later.
Natalia Bezrukova: We were constantly rearranging the houses on the map: added new ones, removed others. Added more details: we wanted to create a map that really is very similar to the real-world Prokhorovka.
Henry Kravtsov: "Prokhorovka" is not our first map, so work on it did not dragged on. We managed to create a pretty close to the reality map in a relatively short period of time.
Neither side achieved the the initial goals. However both sides suffered major losses. Sources indicate different number of lost units: from 300 to 700 from each side. "It was hell!" - recalls Untersturmfiihrer Gurs. "Tankers were jumping from the burning tanks and rolled on the ground, trying to knock down the flames" - remembers parts of the battle the Hero of the Soviet Union Yevgeny Shkurdalov.
High Resolution
Today, in memory of one of the biggest battles of the Great Patriotic War [merig00: that's the name of part of World War II fought by USSR] - Battle of Prokhorovka, a museum-preserve "Prokhorovka's field" was created. And for the 50th anniversary of the Victory the "Victory Monument" was built. It consists of belfry and the Church of Saints Peter and Paul, who are considered symbols of the third battle field in Russia. The museum of the Battle of Prokhorovka history has permanent exhibition on the history of the Battle of Kursk and the battles under Prokhorovka.
The fighting of 1943 died down, and on the "third battle field of Russia" peaceful sky reigns again. Developers of the "World of tanks" could not miss the opportunity to let players experience the drama of this great battles of WWII, recreating the theater of fighting on the virtual Prokhorovka field. Players of the World of Tanks now know firsthand about the massive battles of Prokhorovka ...
High Resolution
We asked Natalia Bezrukova, map artist, and Henry Kravtsov, a leading game designer, to tell us about the process of creating "Prokhorovka". And to tell us about the difficulties and nuances that were encountered during the work on the map.
Henry Kravtsov: The battle for Prokhorovka - the legendary battle of the Second World War, so we wanted to make the map as realistic as possible. We had to carefully study the historical facts, repeatedly view various photos of the area. But the major problem, perhaps, was that the real countryside rather stingy for vivid landscapes.
Natalia Bezrukova: Initially our task was to draw a game map using the plan provided by the game designers. It was in essence only a sketch of the necessary objects on the map. Therefore, all local beauty, which players can observe on the "Prokhorovka" - is a work of map artists.
Prokhorovka" is one of the first maps of the World of Tanks, but after a variety of experiments on the "Karelia" artists have had a clear idea of the difficulties they will have to face.
Natalia Bezrukova: During the creation of "Prokhorovka" we had mostly problems of a technical nature. Game map by itself is a grid, divided into squares, over which, in turn artist "stretches" textures. It was hard to make smooth transitions from one area to another: after all, "Prokhorovka" was the first time we had to do this. Here the lifeless sands are replaced by dense vegetation.
High Resolution
Henry Kravtsov: The railroad, in many ways creates the balance on the map. The railroad is repeatedly mentioned in various sources (there were difficulties with the transporting troops across the railroad). Attacking through the central part of the map is a very risky venture, so players tend to employ flanking attacks.
Natalia Bezrukova: When creating the map, we naturally worked hand in hand with game design. It was necessary to take note of all the comments. So, we had to remove some barriers in the form of stones and destroyable objects. And especially our colleagues from the game design would get "nervous" when they would stumbled upon rocks inside the bushes (smiles).
In general, the location of objects on the "Prokhorovka" were repeatedly changed, some elements were added, just to be removed later.
Natalia Bezrukova: We were constantly rearranging the houses on the map: added new ones, removed others. Added more details: we wanted to create a map that really is very similar to the real-world Prokhorovka.
Henry Kravtsov: "Prokhorovka" is not our first map, so work on it did not dragged on. We managed to create a pretty close to the reality map in a relatively short period of time.
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