Q&A with Slava Makarov

-Message to Russian bloggers/readers: I’ve noticed your interest in it so I talked to the lads who are answering the National Q&As and you are welcome to stack the Qs from your communities and post them in the respective comment sections. You will be answered. Stay cheeki breeki. 🙂


Hello,

Slava Makarov’s Q&A:

-What employee changes were there after the Rubicon update?

WoT development management was replaced. Currently, Slava Makarov acts as the Creative Director.

 

-What’s your attitude toward arty?

The vehicle type should be redone in its essence. This is being experimented with on the Sandbox server.

We will not rush the introduction of changes from the Sandbox. None of the current changes will go live without improvements.

 

-Does the issue with super fast defeats exist?

Yes, and this is one of the main topics in testing on the Sandbox server.

 

-Will you educate players on how to play?

The task aimed at educating players, at least in terms of basic combat tactics, has started.

 

-How will you address the issue of repeating maps?

The issue with maps is a big one. It should be investigated and analyzed. Old maps may be removed or overhauled. The department that is currently making maps are doing their job really well.

 

-For the new matchmaker to work correctly, Tier X light tanks are required. These vehicles are being worked on really hard.

 

How will you address the issue of premium shells purchasable with credits?

It is imperative that this situation is addressed, but the problem mainly originates from the inflation of the overall penetration and excessive visibility ranges, rather than from premium shells themselves. This is the cause that we will try to fix.

 

-Will the new balance be ready by New Year’s?

-Too soon to tell just yet. We are actively working on it. We’re looking for good solutions and performing fine-tuning. We may test some new mechanics using the old balance.

 

-What to do with slow tanks?

There was a suggestion that such vehicles should be made faster.

 

-What is the current role of Michael Jivetc on the project?

Michael currently helps to figure out the condition of the project. He will not play any crucial role in the project in the future.

 

-Will the +/-25% scatter in penetration and shell damage change?

We can return to discussing this point after all the questions with engagement distance are solved on the Sandbox server.

 

-What will be done to personal missions?

Personal missions will be reviewed and those that are not working will be fixed. Slava thinks that the idea of personal missions in itself  is good. Implementation of some of them could be better and this is what he is going to focus on.

 

-Slava believes that this was the right thing to nerf the T-22 med. He was the originator of the idea. The vehicle was conceived for motivating players to play in the new Rampage mode. This is a bad idea to motivate players through the reward in form of an overpowered vehicle.

 

-Slava, what do you think about the Master of Orion release?

It is a normal 4X game that is suited for massive audience.

 

-Slava, tell a bit about Tanks 2.0?

We should first address all the affairs with the current version, and only then switch to the new one.

 

-With you introduce +/-1 battle level rules?

The new matchmaker may help to solve the problem with comfort of play. The new matchmaker is planned to have a restriction on creating Platoons consisting of SPGs, as well as a more defined tier distribution pyramid within a team.

 

Currently, Slava is responsible for the creative part of game design. In addition to game design, there exist other aspects of project management, such as marketing-related matters. The latter will be handled by a new employee who was part of the old team. Responsibilities of Anton Pankov have also been extended. Half a year is a normal term within the project’s development processes. The September patch is already locked. The results of the team’s work will be evident by the end of the year.

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Q&A with Slava Makarov

61 thoughts on “Q&A with Slava Makarov

      1. Ragnarokbazil says:

        Alright I have the time to play sandbox and test only real thing I play on wot now im no loner interested in live servers that’s been uninstalled since last patch but the sand box ill keep on playing that is still installed .

  1. wfschepel says:

    At least it is good to hear that none of the SB crap will make it to live. I appreciate the need to test extreme values, but I can’t say it resulted in an enjoyable game.

    1. Ragnarokbazil says:

      I loved the new arty it felt supportive very supportive 2 heavies and 1 mad on our side had 1 HP and we only had me in my gw arty and the con gc we had to fire once every 15 seconds so we could keep resting the cap boy best fun I had.. And knowing we were safe from being spotted by a heavy man it was a blast of chips. Id reinstall wot if they kept the changes it made tier ten so enjoying

      1. DZ says:

        I thought u quit for good, never to come back..I guess this is typical of the people who rage in pubs, and scream the game is unfair to me, and me only?

      2. RagnarokBazil says:

        No they took away my only tank i enjoyed to stay and took skill to drive but sandbox was the only game that stood ou from the rest

  2. “-What to do with slow tanks?

    There was a suggestion that such vehicles should be made faster.”

    April fools mode 2017 : T95 race.

    “-Slava, tell a bit about Tanks 2.0?

    We should first address all the affairs with the current version, and only then switch to the new one.”

    I really hope this is gonna be some kind of expansion of the current WoT. Maybe tier 11+ that would require current tier Xs to unlock (like AW’s tokens) but would have their own completely separate matchmaking.
    Because if they make a NEW game again … Also the way he said this could be understood as “we fix WoT then we leave it as it is and make the new game”

    1. John says:

      It would be nice to see it as an expansion but it seems unlikely. WoT is a huge game as it is (16+ GB) and adding tanks from the 60’s+ and significantly altering game mechanics for those new tanks would make the game eat up too much space. I don’t think they will abandon WoT, they just want it to reach a well balanced state that both the developers and players are comfortable with. Then they can keep a small team on WoT for bug fixes and minor patches while a large team develops 2.0.

      1. What bothers me with a new game is needing to restart everything from scratch, and mostly if you still rely on premium tanks to farm credits, having to rebuy things.

        And seing how they lied with WoWs and the “gold and premium time shared for all games” (still waiting dor my WoWs gold to join my tanks… They did it with WP and promised it with WS…) you will not be able to have any headstart from your WoT 1 account.

  3. GU7 says:

    I’ve found sandbox to be more frustrating than enjoyable… But that is what the Test server is for, to test values first before the initial release.

  4. what did we learn from this Q&A then?

    nothing much its all vague and non committal as usual – while WOT carries on with same old broken Maps, Arty, Match Maker (how can they call it a Match Maker with turbo slaughter 4 minute 1 sided games (easy! don’t care

    looking forward to the same non committal nothing changed Q&A in February 2017
    and the belated confession that the Sandbox was just another dumb mistake of an idea of WG cunning clever plan that all battles in WOT are corridors/ city maps in heavy tanks only

    1. Rombat says:

      M&M is broken because they put so many things in it…and it is almost imposible to handle all this stuff they want to in it…for example…you choose the mission to kill three arty’s or to kill 2 heavy’s with 2 tier higher…so matchmaking must work in putting you in a match without 3 arties or to make a laugh at you it puts 3 arties in your team and in enemy team 2….those who have to kill 2 heavies with to tiers higher are put only in mm +1/-1 or are put in enemies team with no heavies….you have a scout and you should by mission to spot 8 tanks,,,but mm put you in a city map..etc…etc…normaly with so many commands and variables mm is clacking and broken…you got only 3-4 maps that are repeating over and over again…and you got unballance teams where enemy got a pack of heavies and you got a pack of meds on a city map…etc…

  5. Anonymous says:

    The players demanded a fix to the MM and WG’s response is to just rebalance everything first and then fix MM. The vehicles were never a big problem, it’s the terrible MM where u go against a team with half heavies and ure stuck with 2, or the repetitiveness of same few maps. I personally don’t mind a quick loss in this game. It’s better to lose in 5min. instead of 15. I don’t want my tanks locked into a losing battle. This feels like another year of fixes being wasted on a single project that they admit may not make it to the public servers. Just fix the MM

  6. jakub_czyli_ja says:

    Glad to read that WoT is deep in the ass and goes deeper.
    Idea to shorten engagement distance is really retarded, and whatever they will do for that, will bury WoT deeper – it won’t simply work for anyone. Maybe except Russians.
    Still they refuse to admit real problems, mainly retarded MM designed to fuck players instead to entertain them, and RNG. Way to go, WG.

  7. Swatdennis says:

    “-What to do with slow tanks?”

    ‘There was a suggestion that such vehicles should be made faster.’

    NO SHIT, OR MAYBE MAKE FAST TANKS SLOWER?

    But realy, what an answer is this, if I had kids that were around the 4 year mark, they might have come up with better solutions to this problem….

  8. Someone says:

    Premium shells issue ? Remove them completely. One of the best ideas AW ever had.

    +/-25% scatter in penetration and shell damage change? Reduce it down to 10% for AP, 15% for HE. Another great idea AW had.

    OE might not have made the best game out there, but they sure had some good ideas, they should be adopted. Arty balance in AW is another thing that should be in WoT as well.

    1. Removing premium rounds isn’t the way to solve the issue, limiting the number you can carry and also only avialable through gold would be a simpler fix. While AW doesn’t have a defined “premium round” there are still rounds that have a higher penetration value then others

      You cant take the arty balance from AW and implement it into WoT, It just wouldn’t work. You have modernday small calibre artillery with an auto-loader system verse artiller that is single shot, manually reloaded and uses shells over 200mm.

      1. In AW the shells with higher damages have less pen (heat) and higher pen means less damages (AP***). And hesh doesnt mean “HE with AP pen #balance” but “HE with more crew damages”. And you can afford all types of shells without needing premium account/tanks unlike in WoT where it’s a hidden pay2win mechanism (sure anyone not using any premium stuff can go full gold in E-100 or T-54 or anything. Suuuuure)

      2. OrigamiChik3n says:

        Making “premium” shells available for gold would only create a rift between casual players and those who either participate in CW (and are good at it) or are willing to spend real money. I believe, buying advantage for money is called “pay to win”.

      3. Making them buyable for gold would be pay2win but there would be much less spam than there is now because it is so expensive nobody would spend 10€ per game to play there T-54 full noskill. Rather have some players able to shoot a bit gold if they pay and some not able to, than some players able to fire nothing but gold (because they pay. Its already a pay2win), and some able to fire only a bit (because in that case tanks with any armor simply dont work…).

        Less gold is still better than full gold. But it is not a good solution. Gold needs to be rebalanced as much as arty needs to be, because it is part of the gameplay and needs to fit in without breaking it.

  9. SMGJohn says:

    “The issue with maps is a big one. It should be investigated and analyzed. Old maps may be removed or overhauled. The department that is currently making maps are doing their job really well.”

    Must be why they make so many new corridor maps….
    I hope the rebalance comes soon, I want to play WoT again but right now it just is no fun, hopefully they will manage to fix it and do it right, I still have hope however insane that might sound.

      1. Nocomment says:

        Or of course they could make some maps where the slow tanks didn’t have to drive halfway across the map to shoot at 50m ranges.

    1. Someone says:

      I remember when I met the mighty Doom Turtle.

      First time I was in my IS, in a T9 battle in a city map. The T95, having 1200 hp left, broke formation and tried to go on a street, to hold a long line. I spotted his move, and went right after him. I was hit once by one of his ally, but then i had his ass. One shot, 400 dmg + engine on fire. I rammed him making it impossible for him to turn around. 10 secs later I put the second shot in his ass blowing him away.

      Second time I was in my T29, the map with the castle on lower left side. The T95 was near the northern bridge looking to stop our advance from the west. I sat in hull down keeping him busy all game long, while shooting at his cupola. After several shots, I managed to kill him frontally, from quite a distance while he never scored a hit on me, thanks to my uber turret.

      Third time I was in Panther, and I circled him very easily. I would have taken him down easily, but I got killed by my own arty a-hole with one shot.

      T95 is a worthless piece of shit which can be very easily killed by any tank, if you know what you’re doing.

      1. and if the T95 driver knows what he’s doing he wouldn’t have struggled so much. Honestly it sounds like you went against people that don’t know how to make effective use of the tank

      2. Seriously, don’t underestimate a T95 driven by someone that is competent, it’s far from a piece of shit that can readily humiliate a cocky MT

  10. Mash says:

    Lol… Arty needs no rebalance… Or do you really think that 21cm shell weighting around 90kgs in real life should do no more than 200 hp damage to a tank??? Lol

    1. “we will try to make the game as historical as possible while keeping the balance” aka “either its historical and breaks the balance either its “balanced” but not fun to play while still being complained about because people will always complain anyway”.

    2. Anonymous says:

      yeah a 21cm shell should pretty much evaporate a tank, the problem is, that there’s no way you would ever hit a moving tank in indirect fire IRL. WW2 arties did not have GPS guided shells you know… 🙂

    3. Huhh, most tanks get knocked out when they get penetrated by a shell. So what you said is pointless, real tanks don’t have a life bar. The game needs to be balanced, historical accuracy comes later

    1. Anonymous says:

      Problem with maploops comes from potato WoT servers. For some reason it takes less computing power when there’s less map running in the rotation. At least they said it once in an old interview.

  11. arthur wellsley says:

    “The issue with maps is a big one. It should be investigated and analyzed. Old maps may be removed or overhauled. The department that is currently making maps are doing their job really well.”

    The oldest maps are still the best maps. Prokorovka/fiery Salient and Malinovka.
    Why?
    Because they are open and allow spotting and view range to be effecftive.

  12. G13M says:

    “-How will you address the issue of repeating maps?”

    Is this question about duplicate maps with different seasons or ambiance (like Fiery Salient)
    or the fact that the map rotation is really bad?

    Usually there are only a small handful of maps that you see in a given session. Yesterday I got the same map 3 times in a row. I know they’ve claimed there are technical issues that cause this but I wish they’d figure this out before they change duplicate maps of different themes.

    1. Nocomment says:

      “I know they’ve claimed there are technical issues that cause this but I wish they’d figure this out before they change duplicate maps of different themes.”

      The only technical issue is their inability to add the following logic when building the teams.

      If player’s last battle map *nn = current map don’t select the player for that team. (try another map)

      nn the number of battles since that map was last played.

  13. димо says:

    tanks that need privileged mm: toldi III, pzIID, grosstraktor
    and fix that terrible gun depression on Lt.vz38 top gun

  14. tango35 says:

    I’m wondering high WG is going to reshuffle and balance the light tank trees in their attempt to move light tanks into tiers 9 and 10. We already know WG is going to nerf the view range of the lower tiers. What do they propose to do with the rest?

  15. The smart guy says:

    -What to do with slow tanks?

    I got a Question:
    Why not give them a speedbost on start.
    Like 2mimutes, all slow can reach 35mph or some % engine based boost.
    (Its 100% automatic, can’t be saved up)

    Kinda overheating engines.
    So t95 can reach combat zones, but remains slow during the real fight.

    Rita, plz.forward this 🙂

  16. Beepstar says:

    The key to premium rounds is balance. Currently they are just all round better. Maybe something around balancing the rounds perhaps using pen/alpha/velocity + crit chance modifiers to make each shell type advantageous in certain situations but not in others.

    1. Anonymous says:

      The initial Sandbox idea seemed to be to keep high pen but greatly reduce alpha on Premium rounds. I don’t think it will resolve the issue, people will still use Premium to pen regardless of armour, but at least it won’t be as deadly. I agree with others that the best – and most realistic! solution would be limiting the number of Premium rounds any tank can carry. maybe 20% of the total, maybe even 10%. Even that would be more than historically accurate for most armies, but the problem – and the complaints – will be that real tanks didn’t usually meet tanks 2 tiers above themselves, and when they did, they lost…

      1. I’ve talked about limiting the number of premium rounds a tank can carry with other players, and the thing is that some tanks need a bit more apcr to remain competitive, like the Comet. So the overall balance needs to be taken into account. The thing that I keep seeing is a lot of players spamming OP ammo to easily boost their wn8 or to get Marks of Excellence, but you can always ask a few honest players about it

      2. Anonymous says:

        Certainly there are tanks that need Premium ammo, especially when bottom tier, but that in itself should be an issue addressed by the rebalance.

  17. jesusvsainz says:

    -How will you address the issue of repeating maps?

    The issue with maps is a big one. It should be investigated and analyzed. Old maps may be removed or overhauled. The department that is currently making maps are doing their job really well.

    BAD IDEA , most of the new maps are terrible… and the few fun to play maps left are the old ones

  18. Anonymous says:

    Wulf Corbett here, being Anonymous…

    Question for future Q&A – the camouflage/emblems screen still shows modifiers for Crew skills, although they’re not used. Are there any current plans to reinstate this idea in a better managed fashion?

  19. Nguyễn Nhất Trọng Duy says:

    Can we make a ticket system for personal mission.Like the mission too hard and i want to bypass it by paying gold or credit.

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