43 replies to this topic

[twirlingtowardsfreedom]

Hey everyone, for those that don't track discord or avoid it like the plague, you missed out on a pretty great community Q&A event that Ribble and WG put together. Questions were sourced and voted for relevance by the community, then WG collated and issued answers over a series of days. I'll paste in 3 posts; formatting is wonky due to forum restrictions and some paste issues. I tried to include the generic community reaction too. Only altered content is the deletion of emojis due to forum failings. Lots to chew on.

 

(mods, if you have a better version or I missed a thread already on this, nuke away)

 

RibbleStripe02/16/2021

Hello guys! @here comes the first part (out of three) of our answers to the questions you submitted in #ask-wg channel. We picked the most voted questions and combine some of them into one. We hope you liked this way of communication and it will be useful for you.

 

[7:39 AM]

Could we, in future updates, use elite XP to accelerate crew training of a tank ? Because grindind a tier 10 crew from 75% to 100% takes ages. When will we able to convert our beloved elite xp to something useful? We work on making crew training easier in a different way. There will be a discount for crew training depending on current crew level. The higher crew level is the cheaper training will be. Currently elite XP is used for converting it to free XP and accelerating crew skills training. Other ways are not considered.

 +411

-74

 

[7:39 AM]

The Battle Honor system with tons of likes/dislikes currently is totally unuseful. Are there any plans regarding this? Yes, there are. We do agree Battle Honor does not work and it just can't work in real world—every active non-AFK player inevitably gets maximum "stars" in the long run. So, we've given up the idea of evaluating users by after-battle "likes" and "dislikes". Yet, we'd like to keep an ability to evaluate other players' efforts in a particular battle. Therefore, we plan to leave game stats for evaluating skill, rework the report system to flag violators, and make new reactions for expressing your mood/attitude to other players after battles.

+413

-22

[7:40 AM]

Is it possible to have a PvE gamemode for Blitz? We plan to improve tutorial and newcomers' adaptation using PVE mechanics. But creating a full PVE mode is not what we plan to do.

+308

-92

[7:40 AM]

Will there be more Italian, Japanese, Polish or even Swedish Tanks in the future? Of course, we're going to add new tech lines. We'll share more details when the right time comes, more accurate to say when we are ready to test those lines.

+395

-14

[7:40 AM]

Is there gonna be a graphics update or something? Sure. You will be able to check out some graphics improvements this year—if your device is powerful enough, of course.

+388

-19

[7:41 AM]

Will training rooms be improved? Such as getting an option to add bots and a ban list? Because right now, if you make a room and someone who hates you joins it, they will start to spam the rooms chat. And the only real way to make that person leave is to kick them and add a password. This isnt a good solution since most rooms want to be open. So it would be nice to have a feature that would allow players to ban others from their rooms, and in that way the person who was banned would not see the room. Current training rooms perform exactly the way it should be. Banning a certain player from certain room is a very specific feature than won't be used often. The need for bots in training room is quite doubtful. You don't need bots to explore new maps. You need one more player (not bot) to test a new tank's armor. Your skill won't go up if you fight against bots in training rooms. That's why we are not going to rework training room like this.

+203

-187

[7:41 AM]

I have a legitimate question, is there any possible setting that can nullify some of the flashing lights (ex. When you are hit and your screen mildly flashes), I ask this because I was diagnosed with severe 70% epilepsy, and I had Amy lasted two seizure on February 4th which just so happens to be a day before my birthday, and the last thing I can remember from that day is I was playing WOTB and then I was out. I have loved this game for the past two years I’ve been playing it and I still do but I REALLY need a way to stop even some of the slightest white flashes because even those are enough to make me have an epileptic attack. This would be very much appreciated. To be honest we haven't received feedback like this earlier. We recognize the importance of this issue but in order to fix it community assistance is needed. If you experience such issue please send me a message and describe in details what exactly bothers you. It will help us to find a complex solution.

+381

-18

[7:41 AM]

If HE shells can penetrate thin armor then, why HE shells can not penetrate thin objects and hit the target behind of it? According to HE mechanics, such shells explode after hitting the target. If there's a destructible object between you and your target HE shell hits it and can't go any farther after that.

+357

-33

[7:42 AM]

Did you enjoy reading this? To be continued...

+425

 

 

[twirlingtowardsfreedom]

RibbleStripe02/17/2021

Time for second part of our answers! @here we go

 

[7:49 AM]

@Impostor #DeleteGuP and @DzikiDziad asked Would you be able to implement marks of excellence or customization? Will emblems ever be added in the game? like you can stick them on your tank? There are two major problems with WoT-like marks of excellence and clan emblems in Blitz: performance issues and readability/visibility issues. 1. Technically speaking, marks/emblems are "decals", i.e. textures placed upon other textures. Unlike PC video adapters, many mobile GPUs are not that efficient in drawing decals and performance issues occur. 2. It's just too hard to discern gun barrel marks and similar minuscule images on smartphone screens. Some of you might ask, "Hit marks are actually decals, so what's the problem with marks of excellence?" Well, hit marks are not (and can't be) available on all devices, there are some tricky system requirements for them to be enabled. And marks of excellence look like a feature for everyone—otherwise, its existence makes little sense. Also, hit marks use very simple low-res decals while clan emblems would require much greater resolutions. That's why we are currently investigating alternative ways to show off your game achievements in battles as well.

+273

-41

 

[7:49 AM]

@GonnaHetzMe [HEAN | EU] asked Why are you switching to a new sound engine (from FSB to Wwise) with a new update? are you going to change the Game Sounds? Well, FMOD sound engine (FSB is a sound bank file format for FMOD) was good but Wwise is better—it's more powerful and flexible. Yes, we are going to update and enhance all game sounds gradually and the new sound engine will help do that; before, we were constrained by the old one's limitations. Sound improvements will take time. In 7.7, we are just enabling the engine itself with the same converted audio files. Over time, game sounds will get enhanced, new crew voices will appear. That won't happen at once in some kind of Sound 2.0 Update; rather, it will be a continuous process similar to UI refinements we've been implementing lately.

+284

-12

[7:49 AM]

@TheRealAmmo asked will you add permanent missions (not like limited event for week) to the game, from which will it be possible to get premium / collector tanks? For WoT Blitz we've picked a bit different way of earning premium/collectible/special tanks—regular events of varying complexity. And let's not forget about IS-5 from clan supply . Battle missions in Blitz are about regular activity and minor rewards, not exclusive tanks.

+200

-87

[7:50 AM]

@#australian-tech-tree asked will you add Italian, Czech and Swedish crew voices? Yes, we plan to add new crew voices. But we need to complete switching to WWISE at first.

+302

-9

[7:50 AM]

@W4steOfOxygen [PARA1] asked Are you guys planning on working tank suspension like World Of Tanks pc? Yes, we consider a number of options to making tanks look and move more real. Dynamic suspension is one of those options.

+322

-5

[7:50 AM]

@Fonpard#GiveHellcatACamo asked Will there be a possibility for pre-5.5 tanks to come back to the game? I know tanks such as Jumbo or KV-13 were sold for coins, Tier 4 tanks come in battlepass and very few Tier 3 are gifted at christmas, but what about others? Will there be a reconsideration for some of them to come back in tech tree? Those vehicles were removed from tech tree and became collectible in order to make newcomers initial experience and engagement a bit easier. We don't give up this idea and don't plan to bring those tanks back in tech lines. But there are and will be other ways to receive such tanks for taking part in events and other ingame activities and as gifts and bonuses.

+122

-241

[7:51 AM]

@DEADPOOL_FTW asked Is there any plans of reworking the clan rewards system to include exclusive an tank, or a reward worth our time? if so, how will you do it? Yes, there are some ideas about new clan rewards. But here we assume not only new rewards but also new activities taking part in which clans will jointly earn those rewards.(edited)

+291

-5

[7:52 AM]

Third and final part will be posted tomorrow. Stay tuned and have a nice day/night/morning!

+230

Edited by twirlingtowardsfreedom, 19 February 2021 - 06:37 PM.

[twirlingtowardsfreedom]

RibbleStripeYesterday at 9:07 AM

Final episode is @here

 

[9:07 AM]

@_HaiiroNoMajo [GNEIS] and @Face_Behind_A_Turret (WARLORD) asked Will you consider removing tier locked camos? Or the ability to exchange ALL camos for certain currencies, as for veteran players there are hundreds of useless camos built up in the storage. Will WG ever consider allowing us to exchange tank charms and unwanted camo certs for Credits? Keep in mind that the higher tank's tier is the more expensive putting camo on it will be. Universal camouflage will make players overpay for low and middle tiers warpaints. Of course, lots of players have a number of camo certificates the don't and won't use. But we work on converting such certificates and other items into something more useful. We'll share more details in future.

+232

-18

 

[9:08 AM]

@[MFG] Yeetaxor@I'm walking on the moon@WOTkar01 and @Oggiv19 asked Do you plan to change the rating system? When gets rating real skillbased? Like at the big WoT that the best from the team gets points, the middle stays and teh last makes minus. Will rating give other reward such as background, another tank instead of IS 6 fearless all the time? Are you going to implement new reward tank for rating (replace IS-6 Fearless with some T10 for example) Yes, we have a pool of ideas to improve Rating battles. At the moment we discuss them and can't claim certain dates of details. Speaking of rewards, we added a new Diamond league camo for Winter season and players liked it. Right now we're thinking about new prize tank instead of IS-6 Fearless. Don't worry, there will be enough time to collect this tank if you have made progress already. We'll announce new tank in advance.

+195

-9

 

[9:08 AM]

@Wildoneshelper [MET1S] asked Is Wargaming considering changing the number of credits we earn/lose from random battles, particularly for high tiers? The economic model of the game supposes that high tier vehicles should not be profitable. But we understand that taking loss after a very intense battle where you did your best is quite disappointing. We are going to pay attention to such cases and want to reduce the share of battles where players spend more than earn by the end of the year (optimistically).

+207

-12

[9:08 AM]

@Pinaz_1 and @Ceceli asked Will you ever improve matchmaking? Usually players who ask such question talk about skilled-based MM (or winrate-based). We have always been claiming there won't be a MM like this in random battles. We have Rating battles, where MM considers current rating when forming teams. But we don't want it for random battles. Random battles are called like this because random players fight each other regardless their skill or experience. We are aware of all MM issues and complaints (for example, my team is full of newbies and red team is full of pros). Some of you might remember that we had researched that earlier but couldn't find any solution. Now we have a separate team that focuses on MM. It's a very complicated task because first of all we have no right to ruin something that works fine. We are not going to change current MM significantly but will try to concentrate on its most weak spots. We keep working on parameters affecting toxic battle results (7:0, 7:1) in order to reduce the share of such battles. You should not expect any breaking news, we have a lot of data work to do. But we all have to keep in mind that losses are part of the game. We all lose and will lose battles with any MM. Also we should say some words about players who intentionally ruin battles for others. We call them antitwinks. They do everything to ruin experience and break the rules. Sometimes they might look like very incompetent players. Of course can't take any measures to those who don't perform well. But unsporting conduction is unacceptable and causes severe punishment. We detect such players and ban them on a regular basis.

+201

-22

[9:08 AM]

@Adomėlis <3Will there ever be a mode with more than 7 players? Designing such game modes is restricted by technical limitations. Extra players in battles require bigger maps and this will reduce the performance of most players' devices. We don't think it's a good thing to create a game mode for such a small part of community. This is why we prefer to work on new ideas for 7vs7 game modes. But we don't reject the idea of more than 7vs7 game mods because average device performance in community might go up in future.

+206

-13

[9:08 AM]

@EdgyTheLolicon [-TBB-]Is there gonna be a Smasher and/or annihiliator nerf in the future? The Smasher and the Annihilator are premium tanks. We have never nerfed such vehicles and definitely don't want to do that. We admit those two perform better than other tier VII tanks, however the amount of them doesn't affect balance system so much. And we don't think nerf is crucial and necessary in this case. Actually there's no simple solution in this case and we pick the lesser of two evils.(edited)

+88

-424

[9:09 AM]

@3very #GiveHellcatACamo asked Will Ammunition capacity stop being a balancing factor at some point? (biggest ex. Hellcat) Lots of tanks inherited some parameters from PC World of Tanks. According to stats the Hellcat has enough shells for average Blitz battle. But since we see this issue is important for the community we'll increase the ammo limit a bit for M18 Hellcat.

+236

-6

[9:10 AM]

Also we can't ignore growing questions about operations and would like to share our plans and explain our position. We plan to launch a new operation every month. Operations are popular, according to our surveys and stats most players are satisfied with that. But we completely understand if some of you might get tired of regular Operations and events. Our point is operation give you extra stuff and requires nothing in return. You log into the game, play battles, complete missions and current operation provide you some extra bonuses. Some players think like this: there's a new operation, i have to grind missions every day. But we ask you to look at it form the other side: I will play the way and how long I want and get some more stuff thanks to operation. Isn't it a win-win situation? Yes, we offer a premium pass for money. It's made for players who want to get even more rewards and everyone can decide for himself if he wants and needs such pass. And still common pass gives you free stuff for nothing. Isn't this a good deal?

[9:10 AM]

Some players complain that they don't want to lose any chance to collect prizes and operation makes them complete every step. It's all about personal choice again. We just offer a way to receive extra rewards. If you want to take a break and get some rest it's fine. The best experience and the most positive emotions come when you play the game because you truly want it. Also the are collectors, players who want to receive every tank, every visual item (avatar, camouflage or background). If you are a collector and chase operation tank or background you won't argue that getting to level 35 or 80 is pretty easy. And the last thing. Lots of players for some reason equals operation to event, but these activities are completely different. An event requires certain efforts for a certain period of time (for example 100 wins in 5 days). Most players have to adapt their activity level to take part in it. An operation is based on normal regular activity and doesn't require significant efforts. You just play the game the way you get used to and receive rewards for that!

+192

-21

 

RibbleStripeYesterday at 9:18 AM

#ask-wg will be re-opened next week

[Ronin_23]

If they get rid of lucky player I'll be beside myself whenever someone dunks on me.

 

That HE question was such a waste of his time.

 

Skirted the 5.5 question even though it destroyed any reason to play the first half of the game and ALSO makes new players suck more at high tiers.

 

Player trolls are called "antitwinks"?? lol

 

Ignores the criticism of the battle pass which is simply the notification/popup spam.

 

Why did nobody ask about removing red dots from the whole account?

 

 

 

Edited by Ronin_23, 19 February 2021 - 06:47 PM.

[_BobaFett]

Is there gonna be a Smasher and/or annihiliator nerf in the future? The Smasher and the Annihilator are premium tanks. We have never nerfed such vehicles and definitely don't want to do that. We admit those two perform better than other tier VII tanks, however the amount of them doesn't affect balance system so much. And we don't think nerf is crucial and necessary in this case. Actually there's no simple solution in this case and we pick the lesser of two evils.

 

 

I found this hilarious. What an excuse.

Edited by _BobaFett, 19 February 2021 - 06:53 PM.

[j_rod]

I read this as them partly wanting to address real issues that we know affect the game and partly wanting to provide the perception that they’re listening. The first part is important, but the second part is where I think WG may actually be starting to do better - understanding that they’ve had an issue with customer service/feedback/communication and trying to do something about it. All in all, this is is positive. 

 

Sounds like they’re actually trying to address the AFKs/trolls and I’m glad to see that.

 

I don’t agree with their stated lack of impact from the Annihilators, which begs the question - what’s the threshold for actually doing something about a broken premium THAT WAS NEVER TESTED TO BEGIN WITH?

 

I appreciate their response to MM and agree with it. 

 

Wish someone had asked about adding external controllers back. 

[_Crusader6_]

_Ribble via Discord

The Smasher and the Annihilator are premium tanks. We have never nerfed such vehicles and definitely don't want to do that. We admit those two perform better than other tier VII tanks, however the amount of them doesn't affect balance system so much. And we don't think nerf is crucial and necessary in this case.

 

 

 7.5k Smasher players and double that for Annoyingator players -- 

   Compared to 4k players for the T29, and 5.2k for the Tiger I.

 

/hmm

  color me a skeptic.  

Edited by _Crusader6_, 19 February 2021 - 07:11 PM.

[RonaldusMaximus_]

If they call a troll player an "antitwink".. Do you think they realize what a "twink" is in American slang? 

[acrisis]

 ^..^

 

 

Saw that too, don't want to go there ...   

[_Baroness]

OP, thank you for posting this here.

[_TheKidd_]

RonaldusMaximus_, on 19 February 2021 - 07:23 PM, said:

If they call a troll player an "antitwink".. Do you think they realize what a "twink" is in American slang? 

My question is 2 parts... 1) If WG uses the term "antitwink" can we use it in chat and 2) how long before we see the term "antitwink" spammed in chat lol

[math363]

Thanks for posting this here.

 

Overall his answers seem fair and very informative. Can't wait for some of the future changes. 

 

My only issues are with the way he's addressing the Anni/Smashers and the Battlepass amount. There are at least 1 of each tank in every tier 6/7/8 game but apparently, there aren't enough of these tanks to cause a problem. The battlepass is meant to keep players playing. It's just basic human psychology manipulation. I myself can't keep away from the game in fear of missing out. Doing a battlepass every month just shows laziness on their part in making fun events as they used to a couple of years ago.

[7ero]

RonaldusMaximus_, on 19 February 2021 - 01:23 PM, said:

If they call a troll player an "antitwink".. Do you think they realize what a "twink" is in American slang? 

Right.  They should probably Change that sooner than later. In today’s day and age they are bound to get some homophobic backlash for that

[Motorbreath_]

 

Block Quote

 Is there gonna be a Smasher and/or annihiliator nerf in the future? The Smasher and the Annihilator are premium tanks. We have never nerfed such vehicles and definitely don't want to do that. We admit those two perform better than other tier VII tanks, however the amount of them doesn't affect balance system so much. And we don't think nerf is crucial and necessary in this case. Actually there's no simple solution in this case and we pick the lesser of two evils.(edited)

 

 Yeah I didn't want to have fun at tiers 6-8 anyways.

 

I'm excited for the new graphics and audio engine though.

 

 

[twirlingtowardsfreedom]

---

Edited by twirlingtowardsfreedom, 20 February 2021 - 01:29 AM.

[EL_Din_46]

@EdgyTheLolicon [-TBB-]Is there gonna be a Smasher and/or annihiliator nerf in the future? The Smasher and the Annihilator are premium tanks. We have never nerfed such vehicles and definitely don't want to do that. We admit those two perform better than other tier VII tanks, however the amount of them doesn't affect balance system so much. And we don't think nerf is crucial and necessary in this case. Actually there's no simple solution in this case and we pick the lesser of two evils.(edited)

 

Does this remind anyone else of the missile discussion? Granted, it probably reflects how they balance tanks (and maybe some actual Russian bias), but the next sentence has a much different tone. 

[twirlingtowardsfreedom]

j_rod, on 19 February 2021 - 06:56 PM, said:

I read this as them partly wanting to address real issues that we know affect the game and partly wanting to provide the perception that they’re listening. The first part is important, but the second part is where I think WG may actually be starting to do better - understanding that they’ve had an issue with customer service/feedback/communication and trying to do something about it. All in all, this is is positive. 

 

Sounds like they’re actually trying to address the AFKs/trolls and I’m glad to see that.

 

I don’t agree with their stated lack of impact from the Annihilators, which begs the question - what’s the threshold for actually doing something about a broken premium THAT WAS NEVER TESTED TO BEGIN WITH?

 

I appreciate their response to MM and agree with it. 

 

Wish someone had asked about adding external controllers back. 

 

100% agree with your first paragraph here. That's the hope for a future Annhilator/Smasher change too, small as it is. WG *did* eventually relent on the missiles, and Ribble's made it clear that the main reason for that was sustained and loud community objections.

[EL_Din_46]

RibbleStripe has opened the floor for new questions and a second session next week.

 

Have at it.

 

https://discord.com/channels/481445776178806785/808691802592378881/809038976094699520

[sillanos]

Damn never expected dynamic suspention would ever be considerate to come to his game

[boris55555]

twirlingtowardsfreedom, on 19 February 2021 - 08:28 PM, said:

 

100% agree with your first paragraph here. That's the hope for a future Annhilator/Smasher change too, small as it is. WG *did* eventually relent on the missiles, and Ribble's made it clear that the main reason for that was sustained and loud community objections.

you rang?