World of Tanks
 

I posted this at GS.
It's a fun game that you can jump in & out of very easily.



Anyone trying out World of Tanks? (Beta)

I literally jumped right in last night after watching the two 3 minute tutorial videos about the game. (Very basic info) It's a fun game, takes about 8 minutes on average per battle (max time 15 min) One I was in lasted only 3 minutes and only one lasted the full 15.

You pick your nation, USA/GER/USSR then click on your starter tank (light tank = weakest in the game) and jump RIGHT IN, pretty easy.
Within the first 10 seconds I had already shot my first tank! Ok it was a friendly and I shot-out his radio, but hey it was a HIT!!
{Boy talk about a grumpy player }

You shoot using the left key button and I was used to using the left key button to turn in LotRO so my first reaction when the game started was to "turn" and I "turned" three times- hit that guy twice which I thought was pretty good shooting at the time.

Each "battle" location is random (maybe 8 different maps) and the game matches 15 random players together (or grps of 3 if they form a platoon before hand) but it balances out the tank types on each side (3 hvys on each side 3 TD's on each side etc...) The funny part is most games have new players starting in them so at the start of each game you have someone shooting wildly at his fellow teammates!


You start off with the weakest of light tanks & advance up the tree of development from there: you get research & spendable points to spend that you gain through the battles. {Research advancements then you buy it like a better motor, turret, gun etc.} I'm up to a Pz 38T with just a few hours of playing.


It's a Capture the Enemy Flag type of game with everyone starting at their base then a wild start as everyone races to where-ever heading for the enemy's location. I played in @20 battles got 6 kills and died 10 times.

For communication there's a basic text-feature that showed 2 lines of text that I had zero time to read in-combat except when I was already dead. It seems that players use Vent or TS to communicate because there's really no good or easy way to talk or ID who is in what tank or plan tactics as everyone seems to just race around. You can highlight them for an ID but to do so you have to swing your turret and target them and having your turret swinging backwards is not a good idea (no clue how the TD players with no turret would do it).

There are also SPA's which all the other team-tanks spot for, any enemy a teammates tank can see everyone on the team can see, so the SPA can see on his over-view map. The SPA can then usually target and shoot at them with indirect fire. Not sure exactly how that works but it's devastating having 105mm & 150mm fire coming down on you.

Terrain is destroyable; you can drive over fences, trees, wagons and even thru building if you have a big enough tank, or you can blow them out of the way with your gun.
I must have wasted 10 rounds of ammo shooting at a tank I could target before I realized that I was shooting the house to bits that I was hiding behind. It was interesting that it showed I could target that tank yet not shot at it.

Another time an enemy PZ IV was on the other side of a row of wooded houses from me and it took me a bit to realize that all those holes appearing in the sides of the house was due to the fact that he was shooting thru the house AT ME!

I had a fun time and was eager for each battle to begin and start shooting. There were about 2500 players on & 60 battles going while I was on.

I do think there needs to be more depth instead of just the quick wild-west shootout feeling of the individual battles. Of course there might be as I just got in and started running around.. and this being a beta more is probably coming.

I saw someone with a KG_KSU tag as an enemy in the game, is he here?

Guess not. :(

Anyway, I've continued playing the game and it's still fun and can only get better as they add team play, more maps, campaigns, infantry and on and on.

The best part is I can jump in, have a blast and be done with a match in under 10 minutes: very few games have gone 12 minutes much less the full 15. You can then jump right back into another match or go take care of the kids, laundry etc. Then come back and jump right back into a game in less than 1 minute. I've found that most games start within 20 seconds, my longest wait ever has been 90 seconds.

This also makes for it being an addictive game, as you can roll from one game into another in under 30 seconds with a completely different tank:Tank Destroyer, SPA, Light/Med/Hvy Tanks plus new teammates and terrain. (But you must research and buy every tank with points you get for matches) There have never been less than 2100 players when I've been on.

I'd love to see & be on a KG Team. :)

Oh- one of the "interesting" parts is reading all the different player names in the game, from "Alittlegirl" to "Toiletduck" some are funny, some cool and some have me scratching my head wondering what drug that guy's on...

Kerry do you have a link?

Never heard of the KSU (K-State?) guy.

I've tried out 5 different tanks now:

German
Leichttraktor- light tank, 37mm - starting German & looks like a tractor / fast used as a scout. {Ok, but I dislike getting killed in it every battle, used it till I could buy a Pz38..)

Pz 38T - this tank leads to the TD line {I sold the Pz 35T, fun & fast can kill small stuff & SPA's}

Hetzer- TD of course. {This was the tank I WANTED to play in this game but-slow, slow, slow and the narrow field of traverse drives me crazy so I rarely play it now. I might like it if I eventually can buy a 75/L48 or 105mm gun and replace the weak 75/L43}

Strumpanzer I Bison- (SPA) slow moving and slow firing but with a 150mm gun, its fun to play just because of the gun and big hits but vulnerable to everything.


USA
T1 Cunningham- light tank, 37mm gun, starting USA & also looks like a tractor / fast, used as a scout (never fielded). {same as the German starter - just opens up the USA tank line}

T57 SPG (SPA) 76mm gun, quick firing, good armor for an SPA (also never fielded). {Fun fun, fun, fast, quick firing and armor that allows you to return fire after being hit. I've played this the most. I can hit everything but I'm getting tired of just damaging the med enemy tanks every game and not killing them. I'm going to move up to the M37 with a 105mm, designed in '45, used in Korea.


{All the tanks are "real" even if just on the drawing board or a prototype.}

The only problem is some battles have had up to 7 SPA's a match which is over kill, 3 should be the max with the maps & slugfest idea in mind.

Here's the link - should you get in I'm "MithLuin."

http://www.worldoftanks.com/

So...
After a couple of hundred matches and playing nearly a dozen various tanks I've reached the wall in the beta-version. I'll just play now when I have a few minutes between doing other things.

The beta has only 12 maps, only 1KM in size and each match has 30 players (I often see 15+ names I saw in the last "random" match.) Everyone now knows where everyone's advance path is, where you are going to set up ambushes and hide arty units etc.

Games are either extremely close or slow moving, reaching the 13th+ minute or total overruns happening within 2-3 minutes. This is clearly not the fault of the game but the limits of the Beta, nevertheless the "done it all before" factor has kicked in for me.

When it goes live they are supposed to have 25KM maps, infantry and "clan" play where you battle for a country and provinces over weeks or months of game play.

I will definitely be jumping into the game full force again when that happens.

I will give this one a look by the end of the month, when my schedule clears a bit.

Let me know when you do!

I'm back into the game- I couldn't stay away.
It's almost like the draw of "WoW" you want to get to the next "good stuff" and score some kills.

For me, as I mentioned, I wanted to play the Hetzer but the underpowered 75/L43 just made it frustrating to play in this game. But I kept popping back in to play it on & off until I got enough point to upgrade to the 105mm.

The gun was a big improvement and I started enjoying the "sniping" aspect. So... I kept playing until I could buy the StugIII, and am having a blast playing again. I'm working to upgrade to the 75/L48 so I can get the 75/L70.

So far:
Hetzer- battles 99, kills 53
StugIII- battles 30, kills 21

M37 Arty- battles, 92 kills 54
SU-26 Arty- battles 72, kills 21

Now- all tanks are tiered & grouped together Tier 1-4 / Tiers 5-10
The Hetzer is T4 and thus I was battling equal or lower tier tanks in it.
The Stug is T5 so I'm at the low end of that group fighting higher tier tanks but my kill ratio is much higher. I'm also surviving more.

Survival:

Hetzer 31%
StugIII 40%
M37 33%
SU-26 31%

My only issue is too liberal "spotting" between units. Of course this is not counting the unrealistic Arty spotting method (seeing every target your teammates can see) being able to look down on the map.

It's quick and fun and will be much more so when you actually get a team together instead of 15 random teammates.

Interview with the developer.
30,000 players a battling on one massive match?!

The USA servers & the opportunities will lag behind the Russian servers.
No mention of Infantry.

{Thanks Bill!}

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...ew.html/page/1

Kerry--the link did not work for me.

Try now, its a new link.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/g...ew.html/page/1

I just downloaded the program. When I executed it, my AVG spyware/virus software identified it as a "known Trojan/Backdoor". The threat name is "PWS-SpyEye!env.a"

It looks like this software is not getting loaded!

I've become hooked...how does one replenish his gold?

I have AVG and didn't get any warning. Plus my son installed it before me and didn't get a warning either. Hmmm What about you Bob?
I run my AVG etc. daily and nothing yet.

In the last few days I have been having some Lock-up issues with the game. My screen goes "wild with off-colors" and locks up the game & my PC solid. It then usually reverts back to the proper in-game graphics but I'm still locked up and have to hardboot my PC. Not sure if it's a graphic issue or hardware issue with them. I'm having no other problems.

{Which just happened to me- for the 3rd time today- which is why I'm here right now...}


Gold- only way to get more in the Beta is free. You get 250 free per day; when it goes live you have to buy gold from what I understanding. I still have 3K Gold and over a Million EXP points. I'm at the level that researching new tanks costs 30K research points.

Gold is used to buy priemium shells & other $$$ stuff. You can turn in gold for EXP which allows you to buy your Tank slots & new tanks- after you research them.

My biggest gripe is I'm locking up in my StugIII and I get whacked for free with no kills.
I've played 176 games with 133 kills to my credit in it and I was trying to pull ahead in kills:games played. But if keep getting games I just lose in I'l never makeit before they wipe everyone clean.


On another front- I don't know how to set up a clan but is someone here does once again I'm in. I want to see if I can re-name from "Mithluin" to my normal handle when the Beta ends.

I have alot of lock up issues...but attribute that to the 7 year old system I run with...I'm still cruising around in a Pz II, but I'm able to knock out 1 or 2 others once and awhile. Survival allows the accumulation of Exp and the researching of bigger tanks. t5hanks fro the info..I'll look for you out there...Airbornebob ...Out!

It must be my graphics card, I played LotRO and after about 30 minutes the exact same thing happened. I'll replace it this weekend.

There's some sort of player contact deal on the WoT screen, maybe we can set up a friends list with it, have to check that out.

Have you thought of starting a clan, it cost 2500 gold..I dont have it. The creation screen is located where the forums are.

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...rneBob/WoT.jpg

I tried to load again and didn't get the warning from AVG. So, I now have it loaded on both my home and office PCs!

Right now, it is frustrating because all these idiots tend to just rush forward and get themselves killed. There is almost no strategy. No interlocking support lines. The enemy keeps sneaking around the map and nobody is there to do anything about it. In some ways, it reminds me of playing Call of Duty where someone keeps sneaking up behind you and shooting you!

But, i'm having fun and feel that it would work well if we had a group and tried to coordinate our actions.

The game goes Live on April 12th.

http://game.worldoftanks.com/news/ge...-tanks-release

YAY KOZ!

Oh ya, it's frustrating alright which is why Clan play will just kick this game up to a whole new level. Just think of maps 25km instead of 1km we have now and the fun on those!

My kill ratio went way up once I STOPPED trying to play "team." I just got tired of being the only one covering a base or entire map side and then being overran by a horde of med & hvy tanks. Now I play in "platoon" fashion: I just attach myself to 1-2 players who sound or look smart and support them. I still die normally but now I'm fighting with a couple of other players who aren't suicidal.

Clan's.... I'll look at it. But I just dumped a bunch of points since I thought I'd lose it all anyway in the upcoming wipe. @4000 gold & 300K Exp left.

Someone "inside" should find out what the "KG" rule or etiquette is about using the KG name. I have seen 1 player using KG_XXXX.

We are not the only "KG" clan out there just the only true "KG"
the others are all pretenders =)

so...what happens after April 12th? Can we still play "free" or will there be a cost associated with normal play.

It's F2P, so we can still play but no more free gold (250 per day or exchanging Gold of Exp points or buying premium ammo & equipment) so the climb up the ladder to new tanks & standard equipment will be a long, long, long one.

To me it will all depend on how must better "premium" stuff is vs. standard stuff or if you can just play standard only matches. I expect premium players will get new maps & tanks that standard can't get.

I might spend $10 or so if they have specials like they do in LotRO for maps if they are "good" ones.

Right now my graphic card is completely shot; I can't even get a Doc. page to show properly (on my wife's PC now). So I can't access my WOT account.


The "talk" is that players will go "Premium" just long enough to get the tank they want then after that will spend no money for the game. That sounds like me, because it will take extremely long to get @50k for just a nice basic Tier 5 tank (after needing to get 10K for lvl 1 /then another 20k for lvl2 30K for lvl 3 etc...): to get a Tier 8+ could take years for @350k. PLUS getting the needed research points to first "research” them.

So, WoT will have to go to a monthly fee to survive, that sounds about right.

Well I was almost going to get it till the whole fee thing popped up.
I hate monthly fee games.

I'd still jump in and play, who know how long- if ever, they go to a monthly fee.
It's a blast to play.

What's Koz's review of it?

I played with it a little. Seems like an arcade game to me.

I find it to be a lot of fun, but somewhat similiar to a first person shooter. So, I can definitely understand Mark's analogy to an arcade game. In my opinion, improvement is based more on having a better/upgraded tank and on superior technique. When playing solo, there is no real strategy.

Realism wise, its lacking because there are no combined arms. Its all tank vs tank.

Now, if there was a group playing in a cohesive manner (the way we all used to play games like Call of Duty) there is some real potential to introduce strategy.

I can play it for about an hour before getting a headache. Kinda like the shooters!

Again, its fun. I've been playing it quite a bit over the last day and i'm close to upgrading to a PZKW III.

Saw you out there Koz...I finaly upgraded from Pz II to a III, now Im hoping to get to the Pz IV before the wipe

Group play and any real tactics will come with the clan battles.
I wouldn't pass over playing the game until we get to see the 25km maps & the action on them. Isn't there another WW2 MMO set in Europe with a massive map scale? That has everything in it Airpower/Inf/Trucks etc. I just remember one of the complaints that if you die it could take an hour walking to get back to the action unless someone had trained as a truck driver. That just never caught my eye but for some reason I like WoT.

You get the arguments from players that this is "World of TANKS" not "World of infantry or artillery & tanks." I see their point, but I also see the potential to expand the game into something more. Of course then the developers will have to make the inside of buildings & the dynamics of individual soldiers etc.

I like the game for what it is, something I can jump into and play intensely for as long as I want (almost to the minute) and then take as long or as short of a break I like. I can also play each match as I want, from hiding in the back & dropping in Arty to sneaking in my TD to being in the front with a "tank."

The random maps keep the game from getting on my nerves (having to play ONLY on a map I hate). I can fight through a bad map knowing that a better one is on the way (I hope!)

I tried to load the game on my wife’s PC but it locks up each time during the download so I'll have to wait till I get a new graphic card in to play again.

After posting last night, I noticed that I was eligible to upgrade to PZIII. Holy smokes, they dump undergunned pz III's in battles with some real heavy hitters! There are a lot more 1-shot kills now that favor longer guns. My short-barrel PZIII is pretty pathetic in a frontal confrontation so I decided to try to sneak around in an effort to get side/rear shots.

My success wasw pretty limited because it seems that I am spotted almost immediately. Plus, my pee wee PZIII's main gun cannot seem to penetrate the side/rear armor any better than it can penetrate frontal armor. Seeing Marder's take side/rear hits and still function, I wonder if this is being modelled correctly.

What's up with the ultra-accurate indirect fire! In many of the battles, AFV's with indirect fire capability are racking up the most armor kills. I have seen these guys beg for direct-fire AFV's to rush forward to provide spotting.

What tag are you using?

The Arty is completely "fictional" - the top down view is nuts, but it's in the game so... You should have seen the Arty accuracy before it was scaled back. I loved playing it, but with the accuracy being "re-adjusted" it's not as lethal = not as much fun to me.

The instant spotting by all of a team’s units is based on radio comm (better radio = longer map range). I'd like to see that changed to a more realistic model. However WoT is not so much a real tactical "facts" game for grognards as it is just a game, based on some facts for a wide appeal to players.

I see them re-modeling the game as it gets more popular to fix correct many of the game stuff for more true facts stuff.

The armor / gun penetration models might well be "off" to allow more of a game. Like first person shooters, soldiers in those can take multiple hits when in reality (facts) 1 shot would have killed them. Taking more hits before death allows more "play."

But I have no information on how WoT models the armor/penetration; I just know it's fun.
I've also ran into those situations when I can pump 5-6 rounds into something I thought 1 round should have taken out. But still, I don't know what's going on under the hood, frustrating for sure but fun. {I'd be playing right now if my PC's graphic card hadn't completely died yesterday.}

Throwing Tier level tanks 1-4 & 5-9 together is definitely a real killer for those at the bottom (tiers 1 & 5). I play the game just like the Beta is designed for: go out & try and get a kill. (Or for light tanks go spot as many enemy tanks as you can before getting killed)

I'm not that hyped to try and get the top tier tank (10) which is the end goal of the Beta.

I'm still waiting for the real game which is clan war to control "Europe" (or country).
I'm also hoping that they will have selectable options like: "no arty match" or "Tier 3 (etc) only Matches."

Forgot to note Koz- when I tried to load WoT on my wife's PC it locked up solid:
And when I rebooted it AVG gave me that "Trojan/backdoor" warning.

No clue why my PC didn't "alert me" since we loaded AVG & updated it at the same time.

The AVG thing is odd. I got the message the first time I tried to load it. Since then, i've loaded the program on my laptop, home pc and work pc with no issues. I've also had no lockups!

Hey, got my new graphics card loaded and looking good!

Have you guys added each other to the "Contact" list.

Are we the only 3 playing?
Mithluin
AirrborneBob
KG_Koz

When does anyone play? I'm on at all hours but will be busy for the next few days.

I can create a clan, (5300 gold) but am not much of an admin guy.
Would anyone want one?
Could make it "KG" or "Kampfgruppe" or "KG_XXXXXX" (some name or title?)

There is a Kampfgruppe-Lehr (KL) "Play for fun" clan.

I was thinking KG- Lord of the Rings Rocks! (or maybe not, lol)
There doesn't appear to be a minimum of players needed or time frame. Except that I lose all that gold in the upcoming wipe.


They want the clan name shown & an abbreviation for it as well.
They also want a "Motto" & "Tag" (No idea exactly what the Tag is)

Once created the clan name/tag can't be changed...

Look it over and drop some comments.

http://game.worldoftanks.com/clans/new/

This was in the WoT news today-

Thus we offer you three different packages you can choose from:

•HEAVY package: Tank - M6A2E1 (USA), Free slot, Gold – 25000 for only $90
•MEDIUM package: Tank - Pz V/IV (Germany), Free slot, Gold – 18 700 for only $67
•LIGHT package: Tank - А-32 (USSR), Free slot, Gold – 12 500 for only $45
* Pre-order gold is on average 10% off the Release price.
Yikes!

At least the basic is still free to play.
I did just figure out one $$ deal- it's in the number of tanks you can have. You have to BUY each slot beyond 1-2? I'm not sure. I've had 13 tanks- 7 right now after selling some so I didnt have to buy a new slot.

Hey Bob,

I saw you on last night and "sent" a few messages your way. Not sure how that messaging deal works. But I'm guessing that you didn't get a "notice."

Have to open up your contact screen and click on a name = "start conversation."
I had a screen I could type a note into.

I also had to keep opening the contact panel to see who was or was not on- no "friend on line" beep or notice as far as I can tell.

My son was on the enemy team in one match last night- I got in one good solid long-range shot at him before someone else nailed him. (DANG!) :)

I need to keep aneye on the contacts sorry, didnt notice you were there..I progressed to a PzKw III now...might make it to a IV before the wipe

No ideas on the clan name besides it will start with "KG_...." ?
Any real interest in it anyway here?
{On more thought- I doubt if anyone wants to try and get a large sized clan going with enough players to compete on the "world maps." I know I don't want to run one anyway. I'd rather join one than start one.}

Edit- saw a video from the Dev's that said you can actually get to the top Tier "10" without paying any money- it will just take you a long, long time. Getting to Tier's 5/6 can be done normally but after that...

I did like his comment that after Tier 6 they hoped that you would "share a little money" with them to advance quicker since the game is F2P.

His hint to advance is to play a lower tier tank more often (which cost less to buy/maintain) just to earn "credits" for your bigger tanks that cost more to get & repair.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnRx2a0N0nE

I would be intersting in joing a clan with other KG members in it, just so I know some one...

Does anyone here have a positive games played to kills record?
Mine record is 968 games & 574 kills.

I had no idea how I'm "doing" in the game compared to anyone else until I checked one guy in match after he got 5 kills in a TD.
His record @2700 games & 3220 kills.
He's played 40 tanks & has up to the top tank a Tier 10 Maus.

{And the first "oh ho" info from me.}

Which lead me to this: I'd rather play (and play against) WW2 tanks that actually saw combat in WW2 than against tanks that never saw combat in WW2.

Seeing Tigers & Royal Tigers "noted" as being weak in a match vs. some of the massive proto-type hvy tanks is just "weird." Not to mention seeing a light tank roar by doing 60+ mph... Also having my 88mm L/56 gun being "weak" is also disturbing after having to pump in 6 rounds to kill another tank.

I hope the game will offer options on matches as in, "select match Tier size," "no arty" or even "no proto-type tiers."

I did see where they still say Infantry will eventually be included. I’m going to start looking (slowly) at clans information, if I find any that sound like KG I’ll post a link.
If anyone finds some please post as well

Leave the silly arcade game and start playing a real wargame:http://www.norbsoftdev.net/