8.8 Test Server

Hi fellow tankers!

As the test server is up I want to start a discussion about it here.

and I played around a bit yesterday night and today

VK 36.01h:
The small turret lost it's turret turning rate advantage and it's slower it self so at this point i don't like it ... yes it is a heavy but in the moment this is not a buff it is another nerf on the germans.

new russian meds:
did not try them so far but it seems they are good or it's because so many of them run arround there. I will try them on the 2nd test server on this i tried the lines I am going down at the moment to see the things to come.

Super Pershing:
I only played some rounds on the normal server and in my opinion there is no buff and the armor does not look tooo bad ... had some battles with good amount of potential damage received (at least for me 3-5k without being destroyed is good)

New maps:
Sorry only been on one so far (reworked komarin) which I played on the live server also yesterday a few times as preperation for HF's tournament on sunday). Does not look different so far but I had a normal battle on it so not a walk arround.

General:
There is a japanese flag in the tank filters but no japanese tanks so far.

New service record:
I liked the old one more. The new one is graphically nicer ... yes ... but it contains no new information except WG's new personal rating ... which after comparing it to several players is ... weired. But because they don't tell how it is calculated it is worthless in my oinion but when compared to other players it seems it is influenced a lot by battles played.

All i've seen so far sooo space for other impressions down here

Greets
Ronin

Looks like instead of actually implementing a new, useful rating system, they have simply integrated the old Player Rating into the game interface. I have used the official Android app for a while, which also makes use of it and it leans extremely heavily on the amount of games played.

For instance, it weighs total damage done, total victories and total experience gained. There is just no way possible to read skill from this, you are better off comparing service records.


Shame the VK36 got nerfed (again). I'd recently rebought it and whilst a nice tank in capable hands, it was still not easy being matched up against the KV-1S', Hellcats and even a decent Cromwell player on it's own tier. The stock turret was a valid option to the upgraded one, which was fairly unique, but nice to have. You trade the 88 and some hp for better turning capability and a lower profile. Completely valid. I've heard the damage of the Konisch was also brought down to 135, which no longer makes it a real competitor for the 88.

nilzatron wrote:Looks like instead of actually implementing a new, useful rating system, they have simply integrated the old Player Rating into the game interface. I have used the official Android app for a while, which also makes use of it and it leans extremely heavily on the amount of games played.

To me this is totally not a surprise. The basis of the whole business model is a large amount of players. How do you keep people interesed in your game? By continuously rewarding them. That is why even the worst player can grind himself up to Tier X with enough patience.
A rating that would be largely based on performance is not rewarding for a lot of players, because in many cases it will go down the more they play instead of up. A bad player will see his stats decline as he plays in higher tiers against more experienced players. That is not rewarding, so the player might give up. Base it largely on amount of battles played though.... and even a bad player might see his rating slowly rise -> feel rewarded -> keep playing -> keep earning WG money (either directly by buying gold stuff, or indirectly by providing cannonfodder to others).

On ratings:
your absolut right. So it will be still the "classic" WR, WN7 which stay relevant. But i don't understand why they are making a secret about the formula behind it because every other serious rating says look thats it. Well probably they want no discussions about it.

On the VK:
The be honest at the moment I prefere to play the Cromwell over the VK because as a medium it performs better. The turret traverse is hell on the test server at the moment it's 24 deg/s... a KV-1s has 28. The hull travers is 24 deg/s against 30 on the KV-1s. On the gun the konisch got 165/157 (damage/pen) at the moment on the test server it has 157/135(damage/pen). The 8,8 has 220/132(damage/pen) on the live and the test server so far.

Ridiculous. The VK does not need or deserve a nerf. If anything, it should have just received either a sizeable hp buff or a moderate hp and a tiny armour buff to make it a viable heavy. Now to be outmaneuvered and massively outgunned by an already overperforming on tier heavy is nonsense.

I do agree the Cromwell is a much better tier 6 medium, because of it's fantastic mobility. It is also a much harder tank to play, because it is not very forgiving of mistakes.

RoninRage wrote:

On the VK:
The be honest at the moment I prefere to play the Cromwell over the VK because as a medium it performs better. The turret traverse is hell on the test server at the moment  it's 24 deg/s... a KV-1s has 28. The hull travers is 24 deg/s against 30 on the KV-1s. On the gun the konisch got 165/157 (damage/pen) at the moment on the test server it has 157/135(damage/pen). The 8,8 has 220/132(damage/pen) on the live and the test server so far.

Small thing: konisch 157 pen and 135 dmg, same goes for the Panther, we have a tier 7 medium and the 7,5cm L100 has a pen of 198 but a dmg of 135.....like this it will be already hard already to nibble of the HP of a tier 5 KV-1, let alone a tier 7-9....
The VK has been nerfed out of proportions, I liked my VK36 but pretty soon it will be gathering dust in the garage since it will be too hard to engage even lower tier heavies....

As I was about to but one or more premium tanks (was thinking about the weidmann pack) I put this plan on hold. I might use the gold I have for some garage and barack slots but in the near future certainly no gold will be bought, nor premiums in whatever form. SIMPLE AS THAT....

Michael

Hi Michael!

Thanks for correcting my mistake. But I think this does not change a lot even if you take away the KV-1s 122mm you will have hard times against it. And I fear a cromwell may circle the "new" heavy VK without a problem because it can circle a KV-1s.

Hmmm, it was not so much about correcting.....more about pointing out the ridiculous low DMG
I think the 122mm is not taken away from the KV-1s, at least not on the testserver....
You need not to fear the Cromwell....the end of the VK will be swift (maybe not painless)

The short 88 on the VK is also not much of an option

Very very sad that the VK has to go like this....

Back in the old days, i loved my PzIV with the upgraded turret and L70. They nerfed it to the turret with spaced armour and i insta-sold my loved one and moved the 3-skilled crew to my new love, the VK3601.

Just a warning: Seems like every tank I like to play gets a nerf-hammer at some point. Especially the germans. So look out for JgPanther, E-75, T-34-1, Hellcat, T30, T29, KV1S, IS-3.... they will disappear too. /whine off.

Now... I dont know what to do with the crew?
If i keep it on the VK it will be adjusted to HT-crew, right?

What are you guys doing with the VK3601 crew?

The VK without adjustments would have handled fine as a HT, but with these adjustments afaik, its goooooodbye VK.

/B

I don't have VK36 yet, I will eventually get one when I move up the german heavy line. Unfortunately the VK36 in 8.8 will be a shadow of it's former self I think... It doesn't look like it will have decent heavy tank guns (Konisch... same low alpha as 7,5cm/L70; 8,8cm/L56... meh, bad pen. maybe better on VK36 than it was on JP4, but still...; 10,5cm derp... u serious?).

KV-1s changes in patch 8.9 might even buff it for decent-good KV-1s players, but a nerf to bad KV-1s players. 122mm is probably going to be removed (if not, then nerfed), and will be replaced by some 100mm Idiot gun and/or 85DT-BM.

8.8 will just be another excuse to nerf my beloved Pz35t

Played a couple of games on the test server just now. Mostly tried out the new Chinese premiums and a couple of higher tier tanks that I've been keen to have a look at. I set my tanks up the way I would ingame (with the exception of taking a more premium rounds - 50/50 so I can test either). This means regular consumables and I will try to pen without premium ammo.

- I tried the IS-6, which seems like an awesome brawling tank.

- Then I tried the 112 and at first glance it is an IS-6, but better.

- The T-34-3 has a nice gun and great acceleration, but the gun depression is so terrible that a little bump in the street will literally prevent you from aiming at a tank's hull down the road.

- Had a go at the Leopard 1 and really loved it. Very responsive (like, Cromwell responsive) and a fantastic, punchy gun. Did not load premium on it and easily got 4 kills.

- Played a game in the Conqueror and it seems nice. The gun is great. You do need the opportunity to just hang back behind some cover and dodge incoming fire it seems.

- New Komarin looks like a great map. Fairly open with long lines and different avenues of approach, yet lots of cover, some from terrain, some from destructable objects. I was trying out the Leo 1 on this map and it suited it perfectly.

- I like the Missions tab. Gives you a little more to play for than just the tedious grind at higher tiers (which can be frustrating if you are having a bad day).

- New Service record is overly showy (but brings it in line stylewise with the Android app and the website profiles) and the WGR is rubbish.

Tomorrow I will have a look at the VK36.01H and the E-75 (I fucking finished the grind on that top engine less than 2 weeks ago). I also intend to look at the T-54 and the T-62A.

I am still sad about the nerfs to the VK3601. At the moment i consider switching my medium 360% crew over to my VK3002D for the fun i had in that tank.

Review on the 112 chinese heavytank:


And appearantly the SP is on its way out of my garage:


I still have doubts about getting another prem-tank. It ought to be the IS-6, but now i have doubts...

/B

Apparently it is worth keeping the VK30.01H around till after the patch at least. Word has it that if you have it in your garage, you will receive a free VK30.02M with 100% crew, so essentially a free garage slot if the tank is pants.

There could be a point in that since on the test server I do have a VK3002M with a 100% crew in the garage.
Also I am thinking about moving the VK3601 crew to the VK3002D since they're one of my better trained medium crews (before they will be a heavy crew. The 3001H crew can stay and I have a reasonable trained heavy crew for maybe the Tiger II

So if someone can confirm the VK3002M "gift" it would be extremely helpfull!!
Also any idea about when 8.8 will be implemented (I can manage my garage but it will take some proxy by-passing at this moment  )

Michael

Tecuani wrote:So if someone can confirm the VK3002M "gift" it would be extremely helpfull!!

Here we are:

http://ftr.wot-news....-other-germans/

"Basically, if you have a VK3001H in garage by the time the 8.8 patch goes live, it will be transformed into the tier 5 heavy tank (your crew will automatically be retrained), AND you will recieve a VK3002M (new tier 6 medium) for free with a free 100 percent crew, plus one free garage slot."

Test client update, hopefully they have done some re-rebalancing to the German tanks.

Hii

testing if the sign wrks

Anton