Gamespot.com: World of Tanks developers expanding to Southeast Asia

Wargaming.net to open new offices in Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand

World of Tanks is now even more global, with developer and publisher Wargaming.net planning to expand its operations to Southeast Asia.

The company will be opening offices in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Thailand. The regional headquarters will be located in Singapore, with its main responsibilities being regional promotions and activities coordination. Southeast Asian gamers will be using the Singapore server group when playing this local version of World of Tanks.

World of Tanks was reviewed last year with positive acclaim. Critics have praised it for its accessibility, layers of depth within its genre, and its variety of different vehicles for players to unlock and use on the battlefield.

I wonder what impact this will have on the future tanks we can expect in WoT?

I am looking forward to new trees and premiums. Lately, I have found tanks of more recent decades and nations alluring:

There is the Vijayanta of India:

And the Chonma-ho or Pegasus of North Korea:

Remember, it is World of Tanks, not "World of WW2 Tanks."

-FKD

R2D2: Where to place

To all vehicles (*cough* KV-5 *cough*) and space ships using an R2D2

The makers of R2D2 have asked me to send this friendly reminder. R2D2 is a great asset to your combat experience. However he, I mean it, is also a very sensitive device. Please do not place him out front, where he will get shot. Put him some where safer, like, behind glacis or angled armor.
Note the following:

Proper placement of your R2D2 combat assistant:

Note in the pic above, the R2D2 is at the top of the sloped armor of the X-Wing fighter. Rounds will most likely skip over his head. He will continue to function normally, throughout the duration of combat.

Improper placement of your R2D2 combat assistant:

Note in this pic, that the R2D2 sits out front, in front of everything. He will die quickly. He will get shot at first. This is improper. Do not do this to your R2D2.

Thank you for supporting the R2D2 combat assistant program.

-FKD

The In-Game Complaint System

Wargaming.net has provided an explanation of the in-game reporting system.

The 4 choices have been a bit vague (see link above), well, at least one was truly vague: "Unfair play."  Tf zactly does that mean?

After reading the blurb, my thots:

The game masters will arbitrarily act on player reports, unless there's tons accumulated on a specific player.

A player receives an informant ranking. The ranking decreases for false complaints, increases for justified complaints, and remains unchanged if complaint reports are unprocessed. Low ranking informants will be penalised. The number of complaints per player a day (a battle) is limited and depends on the ranking.

And/or, otherwise, if I report enough players that others do not, it can go bad for my "ranking" in the report system.  Lemme get this straight ... this reporting system has blowback?  Even Mario Van Peebles would have a problem with this....

I have been reporting players afk as "unfair play," as I thought that was the only choice for being afk (I am boggled that there is not an afk choice). But I will no longer.

Questions:

1. Will wg request replays? Do they keep them now? Can they make their own?
2. Do gms observe battles? Spot check? Do any sort of "foot patrol?" They should -- they do in the forums....
3. Are there any plans to hire more game masters? Warm, human bodies simply do a better job than any automated reporting system.

tl;dr: Why bother reporting someone when doing so runs the risk of harming my rank in the reporting sytem?

tl;dr2: It all just feels like placation.

tl;dr3: Hire more game masters....

tl:dr4: If I wanted to grief, having read about the reporting system, I would feel that I could get away with a lot....

What players look for instead when wanting to report (my additions are in underline):

Insult or provocation
A complaint referring to chat logs: bypassing swear-filters, personal insults, etc. Multiple complaints will lead to examination of player’s chat longs.

AFK:
A player never left spawn point since map started, and remained immobile, not even turning the turret, for the first 5 minutes of the game [the duration is subjective; I just picked 5 minutes]

Griefing:
A player has intentionally blocked or shot you, etc., whether doing damage or not. Their actions directly impacted your game play. Or, they told the other team your location via chat.

Unfair play
A complaint referring to intentional blockings of team vehicles. Passing onto enemy information about team location and damage conditions is considered to be a violation. [Scratching this one since it is too obscure]

Team damage
Intentional infliction of damage is tracked automatically. A report would be considered as credible if it points at an obvious team-killer or team-damager in terms of the automated system (if there is no way to check a specific battle).

Bot (Please be aware player may be lagging)
A player must be checked in terms of her/his presence in a bot-master search system. With a significant number of complaints against a player it makes sense to check her/his battle performance (average experience, number of tanks destroyed, damaged, etc.). [This one needs the parenthetical I added]


In the end, the reporting feels, pretty much, like this:

Wolf Packs Don't Stop....

That is, they don't stop attacking.  They should swarm, circle strafe, focus on one...

I'm using a case example here to discuss how I think wolf packs should behave. If you know this, good. If not, read on.

tl;dr: gather-up, pick-terrains-with-most-cover, move-together, never-stop, focus-on-one, do-not-give-them-time, do-not-give-them-range-of-field.

Map: Steppes
Tank: T59

Us:

5 - Type 59
2 - Panther II
1 - Panther I
2 - Pershing
1 - Patton
1 - T32
1 - T95
1 - IS-4
1 - Lowe

VS

Them:

2 - T34
1 - VK4502PB
2 - IS-3
1 - Lowe
1 - ISU-152
1 - Type 59
2 - Tiger I
1 - Tiger I P
3 - KV-3
1 - T-50-2

I thought everyone saw what I did: massive, super-massive, medium rush left, to rocks: provides cover, swarm victims, neutral heavy advantage, it gives cover from fire, meds easier to maneuver around hills and rocks than heavies, heavies needing range of field instead of maneuver, etc.... Plus, their heavies will have a hard time getting back to defend if they went to a predictable, opposite-side of map, valley push, and we can rush cap and win!

At countdown I yell, "Medium rush left!!!" And ping over there.

Map starts, I hit RSG and ... by myself, head left. I see the vast majority of all the rest of our mediums head right. I give, and go with them, thinking, "well, 99% of random bats have majority push left, their heavies will want to push left (their left) into the valley, if we run into a bunch of their heavies, it'll be tough, but if we swarm, and/or, if they pushed mostly right instead, could do, as long as we don't stop."

Our few heavies went left into rocks.

To recap:
1st: The worst place to go with medium swarm IMVHO on Steppes, is valley/opposite rock-hills, giving range of field to enemy. Mediums do best in a pack, swarming, circle strafing, etc.
2nd: The worst thing to do in a medium pack is not to swarm, but get into a duck-&-shoot, peek-a-boo fight with them. Key is for all of us to focus on the biggest tier we encounter, take it out, move on to next -- so many of us they will not focus on just one, and we're shufflin', etc.

As we get to their side of the map, coming up from valley, red lights begin rising -- it ... is ... their ... entire heavy battery. Still, we need to swarm. I lead, having taken the higher plateau and with RSG, I'm near even with our leaders if not ahead. I see the VK4502PB separated from the pack. There's a minute or so before the other can clear the slight hill to level fire if on him, and I move in. I begin circle-strafing. I look, and what is the massive pack of mediums doing I brought with me? They have full, tilt, halted in the valley, waiting for peek-a-boo and duck-&-shoot.

So, having gone to the wrong part of the map, they now do the thing they shouldn't, and do not swarm and take out the VK4502PB.

I stayed in the thick too long: engine gone, gunner gone, 2 hp. I join them in their duck-&-shoot/peek-a-boo.

Needless to say, the enemy heavies prevailed, and decimated our medium division with not enough of them taken out. Our vaunted wolf pack died ... like melting snow on hot pavement.

Amazingly, we won, but it got down to the T95 and one last camping Pershing, who did nothing to help the T95 vs the 2 last heavies.

T95 finished Top Gun. He had gone right, then came back middle and pulled it off some how.

Panther Ausf. G

Or, specifically:

Germany 1/72 German Pz.Kpfw. Panther Ausf.G (Sd.Kfz. 171)

I've not touched it in months, and longer, as my "shop" is currently in transition.  To do: decals, clear-coat, finish diorama, etc.  I have left spare tracks off and made other decisions along the way, such as _not_ gluing mantlet, instead, designing a mechanism to make it movable, _not_ gluing crew hatches (as you can see in pics).

The paint design is based on the Bovington, England Panther:

This model was done 99% by hand -- and that means mostly paint.  Only the base white trim was sprayed.  I spent waaay too much time hand painting, touching-up, sanding.  I have since gotten an Aztec spray gun which should make the next one much easier:

Wyatt Earp & Doc Holliday: Gunfight at Lakeville

A Battle in the Tiger II with an IS-3 Ally


Map: Lakeville
Tank: Tiger II


Map opens with a T59 on my team TKing a Hummel. This sent the team into a flaming tailspin as the T59 says tersely, "he was in the way." I dismiss my own rage at the crime, and realize there's the Dalton Gang to contend with, and I only hoped the team wouldn't dissolve into a responsive TKing mess. Things managed to calm down. Top tier was 8: me, an IS-3, a 45P/A, Ferd & 2 T59s vs. two T32s, a KV-5, Tiger II & two T59s. Me and a single IS-3 go town with no others. I take upper road solo while the IS-3 heads bottom. I go into full defensive mindset at 1st building corner, as I realize we are too weak in the east to do much else. Most of the team has gone valley. With an opening TK and extremely weak east push, this looks like a loss in the making.

I face-off vs. one of the T32s, a KV-5 and a 3001P. T32 wisely hulls down, at far end of upper town road, only showing me his turret, and KV-5 does little effective besides snipe with weak cannon for the first four or five volleys, before finally rushing me. The 3001P snipes from beside the T32, but misses nearly every time.


I knew I had to take out the T32 quick, as I'm alone, and not sure the true number of enemies in this urbania, and his is the most worrisome gun. I ignore the other two tanks, and aim carefully at his commanders cupola with my Doc Holliday shotgun, AKA, the trusty 105. I land four consecutive rounds that damage the T32 nicely, as they surprisingly remove 15 to 20% hp with each shot. By the time the KV-5 decides to rush and bring encroachment, the T32 is down to 10% and I'm at 75% (the T32 bounced mostly off me -- I kept hull angled and angled turret btwn shots). Just before they rush, the 3001P exposes himself over the hilltop of the road, and I remove half his life.

As the KV-5 and 3001P make their run at me, the T32 is now scared and not exposing or shooting, and I have time to plant 3 shots into KV-5's front, taking about 1/3 hp or more. He fully flanks me, and I cannot ignore him, this causes the T32 to get brave and make the long run toward me as well -- I've pulled around the building entirely to fight the KV-5, and I ignore the 3001P completely. My full-flanked-fight with the KV-5 has the 4th round land into his side, setting him afire, and I'm happy to see his HP now tick-off well below 50% as I'm reloading. The T32 has now cleared the building corner, and is ready to join-in the feeding frenzy. All three continue to eat at my HP and damage modules, but the Tiger II, to quote from the movie, "Das Boot": "is incredible." It bounces many of their shots, keeping Doc Holliday in the fight, like some sort of undead, amazingly staying alive.


I gamble the KV-5 does not load HE as I might do in that tank, and his gun is therefore much less worrisome. The T32 then finds that I have decided to entirely ignore the wounded KV-5 and fully engage him instead. Now, at near point-blank range, he realizes that Doc Holliday ain't dying too easy, and is turning his shotgun on him again. Wide-eyed, he makes a useless retreat, giving me full perpendicular penetration into his front hull, and at 10% he now egresses life in this battle. I turn back to the KV-5, who sits nearly facing away from me, giving me his side and rear, and makes no other maneuver for the remainder of his life. At his 3%, I swear at Odin and Thor, as I bounce three shots off his flat, rear-side at dance-floor range, before the IS-3 comes sauntering from town bottom, and completes his death, but not before eating another kill point with the 3001P. Having used repair on engine, and med kit on my gunner, that ordeal is over.

Me and the IS-3 (who is at 100%, like some sort of Wyatt Earp, and who will finish the game with Top Gun, making me ever the sickly Doc Holliday), now head back down the lower town path. He has had a nice meal of lower tiers in the bottom of town, while I fought for my life, hacking-up lung, in town top. I am torn since I gravitate to defense, and the match is basically tied. As we are about halfway through town, the teams trade deaths. Two enemies have pushed the middle mountain road. Wyatt and Doc damage both, as defenders finish them. Now, I see a red diamond nearing our base, on our side of the town. I decide to turn back, and leave full eastern push to Wyatt Earp.

As I come out at the lake road, the VK3601 is fully lighted. He is bearing down on our last artillery, who survived the earlier, opening T59 TKing plague. Before I do him any harm, he is 100%, and oblivious to the 105, sawed-off about to befall him. I take careful aim and land two rounds into him, the first removing over 50% hp, and the 2nd finishing him.


Wyatt, I mean, the IS-3 has decided to take the upper east town road again, and I move down the lower toward enemy base. Our valley defenders have done their job, and now we are clearly ahead in kills. As I leave the final building, I alight the base defenders, and an artillery round disturbs the cosmos all around me. Now I am clearly below 1/4 health. Pale-faced and hacking horribly, Doc now sees the Hummel who added to his misery, and clears away the vast majority of his hp with a single shotgun blast consisting of a roll of quarters. He then is destroyed by the ever-mopping-up IS-3 Earp, coming from top road, and loved by the gods of the old west. The Dalton Gang Hummel, however, has brothers too: a Grille, is over the ridge from me. Amazingly, I damage him down to single digits without killing, but the IS-3 gets him as well, and continues to live his charmed life, with all hp intact.


I come into the circle as the IS-3 is leaving the far side of it, and as our valley allies kill the last Dalton T59. Now, only a brave, dressed-in-all-black, T29 remains of the enemy, making a final stand in the far northwest corner, but with full range over his flag. The IS-3 has hurt him. I come up, and land a round into his front, and place Wyatt Earp-IS-3 between the T29 and me. But the Dalton T29 can smell a kill with Doc Holliday, and manages to get around the IS-3 and take my HP now down to single digits. I land another round into him, as the IS-3 completes his Top Gun.


Confederate, Sniper, Steel Wall, 3,839 (x2) and 62k credits. Lots of fun as I only wanted to do my daily double, but as you can see from the vast amounts of text, I had fun, love the Tiger Royale, and as of 1/29/2012, love WoT still....


As the battle drew to a close, the IS-3 rolls up to me and says, "Doc, now that this is over, let's get you to that sanitorium, you're a good friend." And I replied, "go to hell...."

Wyatt Earp
Doc Holliday
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral 

SWTOR: Don't dart me bro! the Bounty Hunter's asplosive dart.

My Bounty Hunter trains in asplosive dart:

So glad my trainer is a hot blue chick.  Notice how she's acting all cool, looking away.  Love it when they play hard to get....

My first face-melting with the asplosive dart:

And here we see what happens when droids present their melty faces to my asplosive dart!

Yes, it ground their bones quite nicely....

And finally, listen to how girlishly ecstatic these Battlefield 3 players are when a bunch of SWTOR Bounty Hunters use asplosive darts in their game:

They became girls at the powa of Bounty Hunters' asplosive darts....

So, any more questions about a bounty hunter's asplosive dart?

I didn't think so....

(I just realized I called it "asplosive dart" every time in this post; for the sake of google crawler, I shall now rectify that:
explosive dart
dart explosive
the dart that's explosive
yea, dart, explosive, that one
don't explosive the dart
so baby dart to me explosive
explosive dart butt
the explosion dart of narnia
you think that's explosive dart you're breathing?
don't make me explosive dart. you wouldn't like me when I explosive dart
with great explosive dart comes much responsibility
robert downey explosive dart
lady gaga says, "i'm on the edge of explosive dart"
mama says go to explosive dart i says "no no no")