[MMO] World of Tanks

[Skott]

I haven't played in a few days. When I get off work I guess I'll have to jump into the game and see what mayhem I can do with my T-59. ;-)

 

[Visaoni]

Yesterday I had a string of great games on my IS (and a few on my KV-3) that lead to me unexpectedly getting the upgraded 122mm on my IS early yesterday.

At first I wasn't very happy with it, but now I think I prefer playing my IS to the other tanks in my garage. It can put real holes in people, and the accuracy is good enough to take 400m shots. I'm having a lot more higher exp/credit games now, actually.

The shell cost can be painful though. Even on games where I do pretty well and pull in over 20k from the game, chances are I'll only make a couple thousand by the time I cover repairs and ammo. Forget it if I use a consumable. And bad games? Those can be really costly. The only way to make any halfway decent money is to have a great game and not take much damage.

Oh, and the accuracy. While it is good enough to take, and make a good number of, 400m shots, occasionally it just refuses to hit anything. I've missed a few 100m shots with a fully zoomed reticle one a relatively large target. The crew is in the low 90s, but still.


Unrelated to specifically the IS, I have noticed one other strange thing the last couple of days. Sometimes I'll get a shot on somebody, and my crew will report penetration (not a critical, actual penetration). However the person doesn't take any damage. What's up with this?

 

[PowerYoga]

Yeah elcs linked to that post as well. I'm not sure that the compressed textures modify the behavior of smoke b/c the post has a separate item for smoke. That post has a file which mods out explosions, smoke, tracers, and environmental destruction effects. Seems like a bit much to be removing; i really only want smoke gone.

Or if ditching smoke is too close to cheating, they should release a "shitty smoke" version like in CS 1.6. Looked godawful but didn't rape your framerate.

edit: if i exit the game before the battle is over, is there any way to see the 'after action report'? I know you get a little msg in the msg log indicating how much xp/credits you got, but I'd like to see how many dudes I hit and so forth too.

edit2: wtf, im face to face in my pz35t with another pz35t. I have the best cannon weapon, 41mm penetration. Distance is like 10-20m. I'm firing into his front armor which is 20mm thick. I'm bouncing constantly. His shots are all penetrating me though. ugh

There are different hard spots and soft spots on every tank. With the auto cannon it's pretty much a wild shootout until one person dies, I find that the little guns have very different degrees of penetration.

In general, aim for the bottom of the chassis or the sides. If you're facing the guy, angle your tank slightly so you get better sloping for a higher armor penetration value. The bounces can very well just be he was angling his tank and you weren't.

 

[Skott]

Last night I was playing my T-59 in one fight and I was in a pack trying to kill another T-59. We got him down to 1% health and then I fired two consecutive shots that hit but bounced. First one bounced on the side and second bounced on mid treads. I was so pissed that happened. Other tanks had some bounces too when it got down to 1%. One of the others finally got the kill but we wasted time trying to kill a 1% tank. I hate when that happens. Kinda funny though in an odd way. Three tanks trying to kill a 1% tank and all you see is bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce...

 

[Visaoni]

Last night I was playing my T-59 in one fight and I was in a pack trying to kill another T-59. We got him down to 1% health and then I fired two consecutive shots that hit but bounced. First one bounced on the side and second bounced on mid treads. I was so pissed that happened. Other tanks had some bounces too when it got down to 1%. One of the others finally got the kill but we wasted time trying to kill a 1% tank. I hate when that happens. Kinda funny though in an odd way. Three tanks trying to kill a 1% tank and all you see is bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce...

Yeah, Type 59s seem to absolutely love to bounce. I have yet to get a gun that can reliably penetrate them from the front. Only way I ever seem to be able to damage them is if they are ignoring me and expose their sides/rear to me while going after somebody else.

 

[Elcs]

Yeah, Type 59s seem to absolutely love to bounce. I have yet to get a gun that can reliably penetrate them from the front. Only way I ever seem to be able to damage them is if they are ignoring me and expose their sides/rear to me while going after somebody else.

8.8cm L/71 or something with ~200mm penetration. Like knife through butter.

 

[Visaoni]

8.8cm L/71 or something with ~200mm penetration. Like knife through butter.

Yeah? I'm looking forward to the 105mm on my T29 then. 198mm penetration should do the trick. Will only take another 30k exp.

 

[pinkfloyd48]

Just got my Lee not to bad can take some damage compared to my m2 By the way ELCS your guide is awsome

 

[Elcs]

Type 59 action - Prokhorovka

Another video brought to you by me. This clip is pretty much the whole match. I've used slow motion footage in the clip at two points which I think is pretty darn cool when you look at what's going on... both others have called it excessive

Enjoy!

Just got my Lee not to bad can take some damage compared to my m2 By the way ELCS your guide is awsome

The M3 Lee is considered by myself and many others as one of the worst tanks in the game. The German soldiers in WW2 even nicknamed it the 6-man coffin.

Prove us wrong

Thanks. I wrote the guides to be helpful and I'm glad that they are.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

I wish there were battle commander positions available, preferably to artillery. It is agonizing to see so much of every battle but be unable to really direct anything

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Thanks. I wrote the guides to be helpful and I'm glad that they are.

Artillery section could use some updating on the tracers, hitting stuff behind a hill, and close in tactics for defending the flag/your position.

 

[Jules]

Type 59 action - Prokhorovka

Another video brought to you by me. This clip is pretty much the whole match. I've used slow motion footage in the clip at two points which I think is pretty darn cool when you look at what's going on... both others have called it excessive

Enjoy!



The M3 Lee is considered by myself and many others as one of the worst tanks in the game. The German soldiers in WW2 even nicknamed it the 6-man coffin.

Prove us wrong

Thanks. I wrote the guides to be helpful and I'm glad that they are.

Don't you mean russians?

 

[PowerYoga]

Yeah, Type 59s seem to absolutely love to bounce. I have yet to get a gun that can reliably penetrate them from the front. Only way I ever seem to be able to damage them is if they are ignoring me and expose their sides/rear to me while going after somebody else.

Honestly, I loved fighting type 59s even with the short 88. I usually lose but I can do so much damage to them that I get a ton of exp/credits with them. This is in a DB.

With any tier 8 gun you should be able to penetrate type 59s reliably from the front.

Elcs... that's some fun t-59 gameplay there. The thing looks so sluggish though...

 

[eLiu]

There are different hard spots and soft spots on every tank. With the auto cannon it's pretty much a wild shootout until one person dies, I find that the little guns have very different degrees of penetration.

In general, aim for the bottom of the chassis or the sides. If you're facing the guy, angle your tank slightly so you get better sloping for a higher armor penetration value. The bounces can very well just be he was angling his tank and you weren't.

I'm pretty sure we were facing at the same angle (so shells hitting at 90deg). Even if we weren't, w/25mm of armor vs 41mm of penetration, you'd have to be turned a whole lot for the "effective thickness" to be anywhere close to 41mm. Unless simple trig is not how you figure whether bounces will happen.

I do try to shoot at the hull b/c I've noticed many tanks have more turret armor than hull armor, but the 35t isn't one of those tanks.

That said, the referenced post was more me getting frustrated than anything. I'm sure I was doing something wrong but I'm getting better, lol. Good tip on the angling my tank; haven't been doing that.

edit: 3 new questions...
1) When did you guys get premium accounts (like i guess how far into the game)? How long a period did you get?
2) Do y'all use gold for anything besides premium accounts? (Maybe maxed crew training?)
3) Since equipment is transferable, when do you usually get that? (Like 3 things are de-mountable. The rest can be demounted for 10 gold which seems fine on an item costing 250-500k.)

I just got my first tier4 tank (38t nA) and I'm starting to wonder about crew/equipment. 50% more crew xp, xp, and credits per game sure would be handy. And spending some gold or credits on upgrading crew skills would be sweet too... but spending real life $ isn't so sweet, haha.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

edit: 3 new questions...
1) When did you guys get premium accounts (like i guess how far into the game)? How long a period did you get?
2) Do y'all use gold for anything besides premium accounts? (Maybe maxed crew training?)
3) Since equipment is transferable, when do you usually get that? (Like 3 things are de-mountable. The rest can be demounted for 10 gold which seems fine on an item costing 250-500k.)

1) I do not use premium accounts...it just isn't worth the $ for me.

2) I primarily use it for ammo on some of my tanks. I have a tier six spg and everything else at 4 or 5. In some cases it is beneficial to have it (ex: light tanks) in at least small quantities.

3) Yup. I use it extensively on all the tank lines I am training. I started using it at tier 4.

 

[PowerYoga]

edit: 3 new questions...
1) When did you guys get premium accounts (like i guess how far into the game)? How long a period did you get?
2) Do y'all use gold for anything besides premium accounts? (Maybe maxed crew training?)
3) Since equipment is transferable, when do you usually get that? (Like 3 things are de-mountable. The rest can be demounted for 10 gold which seems fine on an item costing 250-500k.)

1) I use it on weekends when I know I feel like playing a lot. I used some gold initially for a month, got my is-4 and stopped playing hardcore. Now i'm just lvling up my german line leisurely.
2) Convert exp. I don't bother with maxed crew training, waste of money (real money). I don't use gold ammo but a lot of people do.
3) I started getting it around tier 6. That's when you start keeping tanks for weeks at a time and it's useful to have vents/rammer/etc. Camo net I just get one and toss it on different tanks when I play. I've recycled 2-3 things with gold so far.... mostly medium vent/shell rammers.

 

[eLiu]

3) Yup. I use it extensively on all the tank lines I am training. I started using it at tier 4.

Did you build up like 500k or whatever naturally in tier4? Or did you grind for money? B/c while I'd love to have some of the equipment, it'll be a long long time for me...

And another question: when did you guys start buying 75% crew training? (And 100% if you think spending gold on tihs is worth it.) Or did ppl grind to high crew levels from the 50% starters? PowerYoga suggested 75% training at tier4 which seems pretty reasonable.

 

[Visaoni]

Personally, I'm really not big on spending money on games like this (FTP with microtransactions). Not that I won't spend any money, but I try to limit my overall spending to roughly the same amount I'd pay for a regular (non-MMO) game of the same type/quality. I also tend to buy things that will improve my enjoyment of the game, or let me see some other aspect of gameplay, rather than spending money to grind less.

I will almost certainly be buying some gold in the future, but the only things I will be spending it on are garage slots and possibly premium tanks. Both are one-offs, so I don't need to continue paying to keep up a premium account, or keep stocked on gold ammo. Going from 75 to 100% really doesn't take long - I don't think it is worth the gold to skip such a short period of time. Demounting equipment is another possibility I suppose, but I don't think the cost/equipment makes such a huge difference that I'd be willing to give up a garage slot to do so 15 times (half-off garage slots comes around now and again, or so I'm told).

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Did you build up like 500k or whatever naturally in tier4? Or did you grind for money? B/c while I'd love to have some of the equipment, it'll be a long long time for me...

And another question: when did you guys start buying 75% crew training? (And 100% if you think spending gold on tihs is worth it.) Or did ppl grind to high crew levels from the 50% starters? PowerYoga suggested 75% training at tier4 which seems pretty reasonable.

I guess I did convert some gold at that time to buy some of the equipment, though it was not much as I was already using a spg two tiers higher.

I started purchasing 75% crew at tier 4.

 

[PowerYoga]

Did you build up like 500k or whatever naturally in tier4? Or did you grind for money? B/c while I'd love to have some of the equipment, it'll be a long long time for me...

At that point: no. I didn't bother buying any equipment for my tanks until I hit tier 8. I wouldn't bother getting stuff for that tier just because it's simply not worth the money unless you plan to keep the tank. The equipment would cost nearly as much as a new tank itself...

 

[PowerYoga]

Inspired by Elcs, I decided to make a little T-50 video. It's probably one of the funnest tank to drive... you can see the hairpin turns I'm making in this thing.

Sadly my tank blows up. :|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCry2YTZUjo

 

[Elcs]

PowerYoga: The Type 59 is sluggish at accelerating and hill climbing. You lose your energy in a push.... you're going to be an easy target. Having said that, first match of the day today was on Ensk and I scored 3,392 in my double, picking up Sniper and Steel Wall.

Nice video btw! It felt really weird to see the stock UI for WoT again. I missed my mods

One small suggestion that I'd make regarding your World of Tanks play is possibly switching your repair kit to Slot 5. I say this because the key required to repair the tracks is '5'. As my favourite item to repair, a simple double tap of '55' really gets me moving again instantly.

Gold: Premium and Dismounts. I've also bought two tanks (Lowe/Type 59) for gold. Crew training is probably a waste of gold (imo) and converting free exp? At 1 gold for 25 exp, 2,500 gold is 62,500 exp. One months premium for 62,500 free exp. I love it but I use it sparingly. Gold ammo is a waste outside of clan fights.

Crew Training: For my first ever tank, I crew trained for Tier 5. For my E-50, they are the crew I took from my PzII I think, I got attached. If you have the credits, tier 4 is the spot where you should start crew training from (imo).

Re: crew. My Type 59 crew started off at 75%. After playing 42 matches and earning 36,343 experience, they are now 94%/95% proficient.

Equipment: I bought a Rammer (200k?) for my M7 Medium Tank. When I sold the tank (no gold), I recouped 100k credits for the Rammer which was in with the M7 sale price. So from my perspective, I paid 100k to borrow a Rammer for 84 matches.

 

[PlasmaBomb]

Excellent posts, will have to watch the videos when I get home

 

[Possessed Freak]

Inspired by Elcs, I decided to make a little T-50 video. It's probably one of the funnest tank to drive... you can see the hairpin turns I'm making in this thing.

So many t-50 and 50-2 drivers suiscout. The better ones do a delayed suiscout. The best ones understand that staying alive and pissing off the enemy movements is key. Great video, now do it on campinova and run the gauntlet multiple times against tier 8-9 tanks!

 

[Skott]

Nice vid, Yoga. I love how the T-50 turns and can get up to speed fast. I run mine with gun rammer, Vents, and spall-liner. Someone on the official forums suggested a spall-liner would probably not be good since the T-50 is too small and light to ram arty but I disagree. I can now successfully ram even the big ones without blowing up. Arty splash doesn't hurt as much either. I find it worth it. Others may or may not agree. Personal preference thing I guess.

Gold Ammo - I haven't used it since beta. No plans to. If I were a rich guy maybe I would but in the regular PUG group warfare it certainly is not needed. Can't speak for the company games. I don't play in them. No plan to either.

Gold use - I have used it for buying Lowe and T-59. I have used it to convert xp too occasionally but I'm very select about it. I don't use it to buy 100% crew. I did in beta but not in the release game. I can see where it can be worth it but only if you never plan on selling the tank in question and plan to use it a lot. I will use creds to buy/train 75% crews. I do it for every new crew I get. Earning/farming creds for me is quite easy so no biggie.

Premium - I will always have it. Can't imagine not playing the game without it. If you have ever grinded a KV without premium you will know what I mean. God, that was a beastly slow grind! LOL