Bit of a doozy here, but one final Q&A from GamesCom from several WG staff, including Anton Pankov, Vyacheslav Makarov, Andrei Biletsky, Milos Jerabek, Paul Barnet, Murazor and Maxim Chuvalov. Here we go:
-Work on Grand Battles has began quite some time ago, though most of the work has been in optimizing performance considering the large number of players and the size of the map.
-Grand Battles was made largely into a sort of sub-mode in order to not have a huge negative effect on the matchmaker.
-It’s completely possible for the mode to be available to lower tiers. The main catch is that the smaller view and signal ranges can lead to some problems with the large map size. Tanks could spend most of the time trying to find each other rather than fighting. That said, the developers will be open to feedback on the matter.
-The chance of getting into a Grand Battle will depend entirely on the number of Tier 10s in the matchmaker queue.
-The Nebelburg map will be reworked into HD along with all of the other Random Battle maps.
-Regarding HESH shells, we’re not yet sure about how to balance the historicity and the playability. Though we do want to keep them as a feature of the British line.
-There’s a great desire to remove unnecessary guns from some tanks (ie. HE guns from the Tigers etc.)
-The T-54 turret was buffed because it’d started to become obsolete after it was transferred to HD.
-More Chinese premium tanks are in the works.
-There are some interesting ideas about what to do with the KV-5, but we can’t disclose anything yet.
-New HD maps will include elements of Havok. Though they will be visual only, don’t expect buildings to fall down. Though that is something for the future after we find a way to introduce it without negatively affecting gameplay.
-Track marks on the ground won’t just be a generic texture. They’ll be calculated depending on position, speed, angle of rotation etc.
-Vegetation will now respond to shots fired.
-Maps won’t end at the red line now, the horizon line has been extended and makes things a bit more realistic and immersive.
-With that, the red line will now be turned into a red wall of sorts to better distinguish the map boundaries.
-It’s completely possible for us to make night maps now, however we’re not to sure how much they are really needed.
-Ranked Battles are tested on the main servers, as players there will treat them a bit more seriously than common test or sandbox.
-Two maps were removed from the Ranked Battles mode, because 30 skilled players are a bit more likely and quick to find imbalanced positions. So we’ll look a bit further in order to correct them.
-There are already plans to introduce more maps into Grand Battles.
-The 9 square kilometer map for the Frontline mode (Epic Normandy) was made with some new graphics technology, which we released for use in the Grand Battles mode.
-There will only be a few things left from BigWorld when the HD maps are complete, just a few things on the client. The maps ready so far are Mountain Pass, Redshire, Himmelsdorf, Abby, Mines, Cliff, Prokhorovka, Malinovka, Murovanka.
-The approach to improved graphics has been in 3 big obstacles. First was getting the tech to bring the graphics to a 2018 level. Second was optimization. Third being to fit all that to gameplay.
-We’re still not sure about the upper threshold for requirements. The biggest we have at the moment is the equivalent of an 8k picture, but our estimate is that only .5% of players could reach that, and it’d be a 100 Gig client. We’re going to look at a reasonable ultra setting ceiling.
-One of our main goals was optimization. We want no FPS drops for those playing on medium settings on older PCs. For those with top rigs, you’ll probably be seeing FPS increases even on higher settings.
-We wanted to keep the gameplay for maps as close as they are currently. However we did take the opportunity to correct a few problems with some maps. Killing two birds with one stone.
– In addition to new graphics, we are also improving the music. We have soundtracks for all of the new maps recorded. We’re calling it Music 2.0 and it has 2 features: first is a reactive track, which changes to what is happening on the battlefield. Second is a dedicated track for each map.
-Some time in the fall probably, we’ll have a Sandbox test server for players to test the new HD maps.
-For cheaters (and there mods) we think the new mod portal will be a simple and elegant solution. We won’t even have to ban players, as downloading a mod that hasn’t been approved (at the very least for QA, FPS drops etc.) will simply cause things to not work.
“With the HD Changes, the T-54 Turret became obsolete”….Yeah…obsolete…
And what about the fact that with every introduction of a new HD Arty, the Gun gets mounted so high in the chassis, that you miss all of the “obsolete” Russian Tanks on close Range? Of course, that’s not the focus after all. The focus is to make Russians happy.
Good. Dirty arty players should not be able to compete in close ranges.
“-Regarding HESH shells, we’re not yet sure about how to balance the historicity and the playability. Though we do want to keep them as a feature of the British line.”
Huh.
What does the history of the ammo type have to do with its playability? It hits or misses then the game performs a set of calculations to determine the result.
Historically HESH was very good against sloped/curvey armour like those egg shaped turrets. Wonder if that is what they are struggling to come to terms with 😉
Why WoT looks like sh*t? Cause the want their game to run on potato PCs from 2010
Majority of World of Tanks players are on weak systems. Theres not much they can do about that.
This would be a good reason to upgrade their gaming rigs though. A decent mid range PC from 2013/14 can run wot in 1080p on ultra settings at 120 fps. If someone can’t afford 3-4 year old hardware they are seriously doing something wrong in their life….
“The main catch is that the smaller view and signal ranges can lead to some problems with the large map size.”
ALL maps need to be like this. NO tank should be able to have a view range that is more than 1/4 of the map. There should be no tier 8-10 tanks on Cliffs or the smaller maps. Instead of adding Ranked Battles and Grand Battles, how about new maps sized appropriately for the various tiers? How about fixing MM to actually make it competitive?
“With the HD Changes, the T-54 Turret became obsolete”
Maybe if you have had REBALANCE PREMIUM AMMO, it wouldn’t have become obsolete. Heck, so many other tanks wouldn’t be obsolete AND you wouldn’t have needed to buff the armour of the Maus and Type 4/5.
IMHO the Ultra ceiling for now should be 4k at most. as said, barely anyone has 8k, so it’s unnecessary to go that high. heck, even my comp is only 1080p…it’s an antique.
regarding mods, better get Aslain involved. he complies with WG mod regulations, and is a great mod aggregator and curator,so whatever WG plans to do with mods, i think he should be involved.
HESH Is the ONLY thingk Brits have going for them! If they remove/nerf it, than they may as well delete the Brit tech tree as it is :/
“The main catch is that the smaller view and signal ranges can lead to some problems with the large map size.”
~
Most if not all current Tier 8 tanks (excluding the hard nerf to most TD’s viewrange) are close to the same view range as most normal Tier 10’s
WG must know this, right? so T8 tanks can easily play this mode and large map size,
in fact it makes ‘flanking’ now real not just ‘dev bullshit words’ as you now have actual room on a bigger map to escape and try again.
Interesting updates. Silly WG, thinking the T-54 was obsolete. If any tank is obsolete now its the T-34-2. The T-44 is getting buffs so hopefully the T-34-2 will follow suit.
I find it surprising they are planning more Chinese premiums when information on said tanks is hard to come by.
T-34-2 has always been obsolete. Nothings changed in that department
Useless since day 1.
Well one thing I want to say is just why not do grand battles for tier 6 and up maybe and just one tier for each grand battle like only tier 6 for one battle or tier 7 and etc and another thing is why not just buff the view range for everyone the same amount only just for grand battles this is only my opinion on this
I am very happy that they ate making a mod portal as well it’s just about time they do this
Also hopefully they are finally able to do stormy maps like steppes sandstorm or windstrom snowstorm or wide park rain and etc another thing that would be a nice addition to though is to put extra items on your veichle like bushes or sign like you can do in war thunder