Strategy Informer  

If only they'd fix the silly tier spread in the matchmaking first, that way most tanks could be fun to play. The way it's now it's just a grind towards the tanks that are strong enough to never be just cannon fodder for others again.

They are increasing the effects of a slope, I wonder which tanks will benefit from that the most?

They are also nerfing the 3600H's gun, the only German in-game tank that was ever considered to be better than it's Russian counterparts, how obvious.

I'm playing this game on and off but i usually get tired of it's quirks within a month and need a long pause.

I'm afraid the tier balance, or lack thereof has kept me away, and the camping by the heavier untis just waiting for the smaller tanks to venture out to CTF.
I've seen some of the new cammo and I have to wonder. What is the Panzerkampfwagen Tiger Ausf. B (Tiger II) doing in desert cammo? All a bit "What if..." and too fictional for me.

The matchmaking HAS been improved. I hardly get any matches at all outside of reasonable brackets. Still a bit heavy on arty sometimes.

And I'll say to you what I said to everyone else. If the Russian tanks are so blatantly overpowered, why are at least 50%, usually 66% of all tanks in a match German?

Also , the 3601(H) gun...which gun is that? There's a lot of them and I know for a fact that the best one is not getting a nerf at all. The 88mm gun is untouched.

Get your damn facts straight please.

The other persisting inaccuracy, not just in this game is the popular use of the Panther Medium tank (developed to counter the T-34) constantly labelled the Panzerkampfwagen V Panther Ausfuhrung, or simply Panzer V. The "V" was dropped in Feb 944 at the orders of Hitler yet it is still called the Panther V in every game I've used it in. That and the fact that while cheaper than the Tiger I, and only a tad more costly than the Panzer IV it was prone to constant breakdowns and was terribly unreliable. If the tank were to be reproduced faithfully, you'd break down halfway through a match and require a repair tank (usually a modified Tiger I, post haste).

One of the later models had some serious transmission/dricetrain problems, that's true. On calling it the PzV, well that's just common sense, whatever that nazi maniac had to say on the matter.

However I don't think the reliability is an argument at all. Every single tank in the game broke down occasionally and some were completely impossible (schmallturn on PzIV). I don't care about stuff like that, it's irrelevant to a game.

So basically I don't mind the innacuracies, I never expected total authenticity from the game. It's just a game after all. I think it's silly to let something like that keep you from enjoying any game.

http://overlord-wot.blogspot.com/2011/10/thoughts-on-upcoming-70.html

"...Conical gun will be nerfed on VK3601H, Tiger is getting this gun as it is now"
It sounds to me as they are nerfing [something]. That gun has fantastic penetration and ROF for it's tier with godlike accuracy even if the damage is a bit low. Granted i'd take the 88 over it any day if i'm among the top tanks in the team.

And why do most people have German tanks? Cause they're German tanks, that's why :).
Who knows about the IS and IS-3 tanks outside of tank nerds? How about the Tiger and King Tiger? German tanks are basically part of the pop culture, there's the reason.

The match making has indeed been improved, but the tier spread is still way too high. If i was never facing tanks more than a tier higher than me that would make most tanks fun to drive (except a few DUD's).

Until you reach T8 you are just cannon fodder way too often. A third of games is way to often, a quarter of games is way to often, 10% of games is still way to often. It should never happen.
Playing together with tanks you can't hurt even when shooting them in the ass cause it bounces most of the time is not fun for me. It doesn't matter if it happens 10 out of 100 game or 1, it should never happen.

I know i'm not the only one with this opinion cause a few buddies of mine stopped playing the game mostly because of this reason, it wasn't the only reason but still the main one.

And how about this:
"...we are reducing the normalization parameter of AP and APCR shells, therefore the effectiveness of sloped armor will see an increase"

It's kinda obvious which tanks will benefit the most here and it's not like they aren't bouncy enough already. T-54 that bounces even more? Great. How bout the Object 704? Even better.

They do seem to be improving the Tiger tank a bit though(together with some other tanks), so there is at least one plus in this patch.

I apologize for the wall of text but i have a very strong love-hate relationship with this game :).

The conical? You need gold ammo before that things any good, which costs real money. Hardly a loss if you ask me. Also they're adding it to the Tiger as well, so I really don't see how that's a loss at all. The 88mm is a better gun.

On the popularity argument, that doesn't matter. If the Russian tanks WERE overpowered like you keep saying they are, you would see more Russian tanks. Or are you seriously arguing that 66% of all the players, including high-tier players and obscure never-developed prototype players are purposefully playing inferiour tanks because "they're cool"? I don't buy that.

I play Russian and German myself and the Russians are not overpowered at all in my experience. Their mediums are underwhelming (excepting the oft mined example of the T-54, which isn't as good as people think anymore), the Germans have better TDs and arty. The only thing they have going for them are hard-to-kill heavies as opposed to the slightly softer sniping heavies on the German side.

On the tier spread, that's just being unreasonable. Hardly an interesting match if there's only 2 tiers in it. I really think it's fine as is. Sometimes you come across some tanks you can't realistically kill, so what? That's part of the game and I like it. It adds some elements of caution and the need to play more tactically. That is a good thing in my opinion. It's also part of the game as designed, if you don't like it then maybe it's not the game for you.

On the sloped armour, honestly I don't have the numbers to make a proper judgement on that. On a "feeling" basis, I think the sloped armour itself is probably fine as is. But some of the tanks that rely on their slope are indeed quite vulnerable. The T-34 and T-34-85 for instance, their armour should be superiour to the PzIV, but it never feels like it. The Panthers come to mind as well.

I concede on the conical gun, as i said even myself i prefer the 88, but why is it the getting nerfed in the first place.

The popularity argument stands. Most people that are a bit into tanks but aren't tank nerds mostly know the German ones so that's what they choose. How many AAA movies have Russian tanks in them vs German?
When I and my buddies started playing early in the beta we went German purely for the reasons mentioned. I know my Tigers and my Shermans but the IS tanks were more or less meh to me. Most people are like that. The tank knowledgeable few are exactly that, few.

When i reach T10 and realize my Mauss sucks i'm kinda stuck i wont go grind the is-7 from scratch again. But I partly concede this point as well though as the addition of the E series made Germans relevant again, which they were not before.

Well i'd argue the object being by far the best TD in the game but that's just opinion i guess. And the t-54 bounces too much already. Low tier tanks are irrelevant, they are all just canon fodder anyway but at T8+ it matters a lot. I'm having incredible difficulty against T54 and it doesnt matter if i'm driving the Panther2 the Pershing or the T-44, that thing simply bounces too much, I had games when all my shots bounced and i got killed without causing even the slightest of damage, and now they're going make it even stronger. Same with object, it has 120mm armor and my Is-4 would bounce half of the time (from beta).

I remembered of another gripe :). Randomness.
I played a game yesterday and i shot a 1% is-4 in the ass from 30m with a fully upgraded su-100. Critical damage. Well thank you very much game for deciding he's going to live after i made all the effort and risk to sneak behind him. What does skill matter when the game decides things randomly? This is not the only case, it happens a lot to me for some reason :).

The tier spread being bad i'm never going to concede :). It's not fun for me and that's that, and i'm aware this nothing but personal oppinion. It's like someone in BF using god mode, it would be called a cheat, but here it's a game mechanic :).
This only means what i already said in a previous post -> the game boils down to being a grind towards a high enough tier tank so you're never just cannon fodder for the 3/4 of the enemy team. When i was running around in my old is-4 it was a completely different game from the cannon fodder games. All tanks could feel like that, and they actually do when the tier spread is low. I love the 3601H when no tank is more than a tier higher, not so much when my only purpose in the match is to be cannon fodder for others.

One way this could be 'fixed' is if a damage to a much higher tier tank would give you A LOT more experience, not the way it's now where you get a certain bonus, but seriously a lot more. Taking down an 40% is-3 with a 3601H is an absolutely HUUUUGE achievement, why is the reward not? When the hero in a movie defeats a vastly superior foe he usually gets the girl in the end, why i'm i rewarded with just another 200exp or so?

I've quit playing and then came back 4-5 times already but i've decided i'm going to stop playing for real this time. Probably :).
Like you said the game simply is not for me. I love the game, but i also hate the game, and the love is not strong enough to keep the hate away anymore at the moment.

Eh, another wall of text. But this only shows that i care :).

I have to say you're attitude to lower tiers is just incomprehensible to me. Tier VI and under is where all the fun is at! I'm not even bothering with Tier 8 anymore. Not to mention that without a premium account, it takes all eternity to get there and you'll be losing money by the fistful.

On the T-54. It ONE tanks. Every single other tank in the Russian medium line is pretty mediocre. That doesn't work in favour of your argument at all. I will agree that that one tank appears a bit unbalanced at times. But the rest of the tree could actually do with a boost.

Randomness. Well I don't mind the rolls myself, but I will certainly agree that the no-damage criticals are ridiculous. Taht's one aspect of the game I almost can't stand myself. Average damage and penetration is fine to me, but those good-for-nothing criticals are annoying as hell.

Tier spread. I can understand that you personally don't like it this way, but it's not a design flaw. You also seem to be forgetting about all the times you were the one at the top of the board. I think it's a good thing you can't always kill any other tank, it's part of tank warfare really. That moment of OMFG THAT'S A KV-3, run awaaaaaay!

I agree on the added bonus to above-tier damage.

I like the game, will probably keep playing it for a long time. (though most likely on-and-off).

One last question though: How the hell did you not realise sooner the game isn't for you? I mean seriously, you must have played WELL over a thousand matches to get those tanks.

Maybe there's the difference, i'm a premium player and i have absolutely no problems with silver, it's not even a passing concern. I always make profit at the end of the day (most of my tanks are T8 mediums).

Low tier battles would be fun if i didn't have to face Jagdtieger in my su-100, they would be fun if they really were low tier battles :). It would be even more fun if i weren't in games with arty that can one-shot me with a MISS. I just like a fair chance that is all.

T-54 really is only one tank, but it's the one that matters the most ( to a fellow medium player). Top tier tanks should be the most balanced of all, not the least. But i guess the E-50 kinda fixes that as well. Except now there are two tanks on the field that my panther2 is helpless against :).
Object is another one that is only going to get stronger, as if it doesn't bounce too much already.

I have played WELL over a thousand games in the beta and then another batch or two of WELL over a thousand after the release :).
I hoped they would change the game and like I said I play it with month long pauses so i didn't get burned out.

It's a love-hate relationship. I LOVE the game when the battles are spread over one tier at most, really love. WOT is's one of my most played games ever.

The hate part comes from the games when i'm the total underdog with only 2-3 tanks i can realistically do anything against, and it's not like those few will just appear right in front of MY gun either.
The stealth tanks are a bit lame as well, they really need to update their spotting mechanism. I'm also tired of arty not being a support platform that are instead satellite view snipers. The randomness has already been mentioned.

I'll probably come back in a month or two, but i seriously need a break from the game.

How much actual money do you spend on this game? If you don't mind :)

Also, if you want matches were anything can kill anything, play tiers 1-3. Those are also fun as hell anyway.

Not much, just for the premium and some occasional xp conversion. I don't use gold ammo.

Back to the original topic header about camouflage, and yes Roderick being painstakingly "anal" about factual specifics (XD), what the hell is a Tiger II doing in desert cammo?
As a WWII historin, I do tend to get hung up on factual discrepancies.

What the hell are Russian tanks doing fighting US tanks?
What the hell are those nonexistent prototype tanks doing?
What the hell are self propelled guns doing?
...etc.

This is not a game for WWII authenticity buffs. It's a game for tank/WWII lovers that just want to play with some toys :)

Oh, it's all about having fun. I missed the point entirely, probably because I spent every round looking at my burning hulk after 5 mins:)
Anyway, I'm sure it's better than it was when I played it, but the gameplay isn't enough to draw me back for another go.

Well, there's plenty more victims around, so I don't mind :P

So it WAS you turning my little crawler into a Ronson.

I use the same name, so you'd know :)

So was I...so you'd know too. Perhaps I should get back on have a show-down with you:)
Promise not to cheat:X (fingers crossed, that is).

I almost never pay any attention to names, except when i get killed out of nowhere and i want to know what happened. So we might have had an 'encounter' without even knowing it :).