Friday, March 23, 2012

WoT: FTPoTD

Or, World of Tanks: Flying Tank Pick of The Day.... (duh right)

WoT: The Fadin' Fadin's

Irony: it either proves there's a god, or it proves that, well, some things that line-up in life are just freaky.

^getit?^

What am I talking about?  In World of Tanks, you can get an achievement called Fadin's Medal, and it's, well, it's fading....

It's gets better.  It's a medal you get for running out of ammo, but still defeating the enemy.  That is, you're down to your last round, and you kill the last enemy.  Your fading ammo kills the fading enemy and you get the Fadin's Medal for that.


But, it gets ... still better!

And it's ... it's fading.  How so?  You might not get it, lemme keep typing.

Time to reminisce:


Waaay back in the early '80s, my uncle -- who worked at NASA at one point and an elder geek -- talked my Dad into buying me a TI994A, Texas Instruments computer (the makers of the original integrated circuit if I remember).  I fell in love with it.  My uncle had gotten one too, and gave me some software: Parsec and Zork.

I played Zork for hours on end.  Why?  Because, when I discovered the right combination of words it gave me a reward: it let me advance.  It gave me an achievement.  Or, if I were a monkey, a bean.


It satisfied that reward centered part of my brain.  This continued on throughout my geek life, throughout all gaming.  We played for the reward of more frags than our buddy, more gold and cities than our rival computer-controlled civs, more levels and gear in our fav MMOG, and then, catching on, game makers actually began giving us, get ready for ... achievements.  I.e., they finally began naming these things that.

It stands to reason that we are rewarded for accomplishment.  In real life (that thing outside of a video game), we get raises and promotions at work.  We workout and dress well to get that better girl.  We do stuff to our cars and trucks like wheels -- all to reward that thing in us that Darwin explained was based in competition and survival of the fittest.

So, we carry this on to video games, and all games seemingly now have this -- even silly ones, like, in Civ 5 I noticed some strange achievements that were like, anti-achievements.  Like, congo rats!  You were beat 10 times by all the other civs!  Srsly?

But Idt any game has given me, personally, that sense of achievement -- pun intended -- as World of Tanks.  In it, more than any, there is a reward tied to performance.  The achievements look real.  They resemble the medals the men who really operated these vehicles received.  They are shiny, and have names on them of guys from history with stories behind their names.  Some are more common to get, but some are rare.  The rarer the more we want, and, the more disappointed we are when we don't get.

Oh, how many of us have been robbed of that Boelter's?  Oh the agony!!!

^agony of defeat and stuff^

And then there were those times when, I got 6 kills, and no Top Gun.  I pour over the screen shots, trying to understand.  Ah, that other guy had 6 kills too, and he had a bit more experience that game than me, so that's why.

When it makes sense, we move on.

But recently, it didn't make sense

ATTENTION: Prepare for yet another fatkiddown QQ

^haha! last kill last bullet last enemy haha!^

And you open the door and you
step inside. We’re inside our
hearts. Now, imagine your pain as a
white ball of healing light. That’s
right, it’s your pain the pain itself is a ball of
healing light.


I don't think so....


Searching the forums, there's a lot of posts of people going, "hey! I got no Fadin's!"  And lots of people offering solutions:

  • Maybe an enemy disconnected, so you didn't kill all?
  • Maybe you didn't have all ammo loaded, and you gotta have a full clip?
  • Maybe god hates you.  I hate you.  He doesn't like you either
It is none of the above:

Dear Player,

Thank you for contacting World Of Tanks Support.

We are aware of a bug with Fadin's medal and are actively working to resolve the problem.
Unfortunately, we do not currently have a way to manually give you the medal.

Thank you for reporting this to us and thank you for your continued patronage.

Best Regards

Solution time:


Devs at World of Tanks: give support people the ability to manually add these achievements, when it is an obvious bug.

This concludes our solution time....


They should do this, and/or, they should at least promise to do it.

I disagree with the whole, "yea, you shoulda got it, you didn't, sry bro...."

fatkiddown, why do you care so much about an achievement?  Ya, just me, only me, I'm the only one who cares.  Or, wait, no, it's for you others that I'm doing this!

Stfu.  You care too.  We all do.  We all loves our stats and achievements.  Let's stop playing these love games and do eet already....


But, for all those like me who got robbed of this due to a game bug, and with no hopes of getting, I'll provide it here for you.  Enjoy:


Wednesday, March 21, 2012

WoT: The "He Sucks & He Don't" Mod ... AKA, The Win Rate Mod

Boobs and stats don't matter.  I mean, they really don't at all.  "No honey, I love your little boobs." (Or, we could inverse this for the women and talk about weiners).  Size, stats, same thing, dunnot matter.


Let's be honest, they do help, I mean, initially.  Sure, we all like Ricky Gervais.  Funny, funny guy -- proof positive that, if you judge a boob, I mean a book, by it's cover, you'll miss out.  Still, you have to admit, there's a striking resemblance:


Has anyone seen them together?  Could it be ... the same person?

So, the Win Rate Modification for World of Tanks: Yes, after .7.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1.1. came out, I installed it, but not before the mod was truly fixed, although, the dude that put it up claimed he had fixed it, to find out later, he realized he hadn't, but now he did.  I did suffer a night of frustration trying to get it to work before he got it right:

It's ready for press! No wait, stop the presses! No, it's ready again, wait, no, ok, now it is....

Reminds me of Lou:


Needless to say, after all that torture, it does work, and now, I can clearly see the win rates of the people I'm playing with, and against, in game....


I have to say, srsly, this has changed my World of Tanks play more than any other mod (no, I never did clown skins).  Why?  Good question.

I admit and do agree with those that state that when w/r mod shows a player with skills, he does indeed do good in game.  I.e., high w/r + high number of games = better player.  In contrast, someone with low w/r -- in the red -- does do worser.  It's just how it is.  Or is it?...

(Note: the % of wins appears to be inaccurate for new players.  I.e., people under 500 battles, tend to show wild swings in their win rates.  This has to be a caching discrepancy between WoT server stats and the w/r mod stats caching of those figures that are, some how, delayed -- my best guess).

Now, two factors matter here: % of w/r + number of games played.  Simply put, the more games/battles someone has (indicated in that screen shot by the number after the icon graphic and typically followed by a "k" -- no "k" if under 500 games), the more you can trust the % of wins -- that's the theory anyhow.  I.e., "wow" in that screen shot (no, that's not his name -- I wrote "wow" there), with 2k games (rounded) and 56% w/r, will very likely do better than sucks with 44% and 2k games on my team, or so we are lead to believe.

However, I disagree, in part, that you can bank on this as far as your personal ability to win just because of your or the other teams win rates.  I'm still testing, but from what I've seen, teams with great players -- great w/r % -- do and can lose.  The fog and blur of war is simply too great of a factor, it's like weather.  Duh right?  Don't read that too literally.  Of course there's variation.  My point is, just how accurate are these win rates?

I'm not tallying this fact, I've just seen it, and, honestly, think about it.  Like, do good-looking people tend to get better jobs/make more money than ugly people?  Sure they do, but then, look at Ricky O'Donnell above....

But bear with me here.  Do you honestly think I'm telling you what you already know, that win rate is just an indicator of the chances someone will win or lose in battle?  Maybe I am, or maybe I'm trying to point out, that win rate don't mean shiz.  You be the judge.

Finally, I want to add here, it'd be nice if this mod could do a tally-line, average each team's w/r.  I.e., adding all win rate percentages together, and then dividing by 15, and having that on a line beneath, or above, each team.  Just do that, magically, thru your l33t programming/coding skillz k?

As for what does w/r really reflect: it could be, that those are right who state that win rate just doesn't matter.  What if it represents an account where the person played only one or two specific vehicles?  What if they were always platooned?  What if they were -- imagine this -- "carried" by a god-like player forever?  (Note: the concept of "a carry" in on-line gaming is nothing new; it does seem to be something unthinkable in World of Tanks -- it's like, violating the holy word or holy temple if you dare claim someone's w/r is affected by a "carry" or "platoon/clan" /boggle).  Could/can people play with their win rates?  What if the differences between a good and bad and so-so win rate is about like this:


Maybe, it's all of _the_ above.  Maybe some folk's win rate reflect their true level of play, some reveal a "playing" of the numbers to get the best possible, and some are just luck....

For sure, the fewer games played the less reliable, as stated.

Still, I like this mod, and use it, and like it.  I am not knocking it, and I do not think using the mod makes one "bad."  I like stats, measurements, analysis.  I do not think it deserves the same stigma as clown skins.

(What am I, a clown?!?)


What'd I like to see as well (if these exist already, do share):
  • Accuracy rate
  • Win rate for that vehicle only or option to toggle between global and vehicle
  • True number of games (not rounded)
  • Age of account
  • How often the account is played maybe
  • Latency of the player -- unpossible to get I'd assume (Quake 1, over a decade ago, would show this; i.e., you could ping other player's IP address and mod from there)
  • The number of vehicles played by that player
  • How many games the player has in that vehicle
It'd be nice to have these as options.  Yes, again, I come up with modding/coding ideas, and you go do it.

DO AS I SAY WOMAN!!!


Monday, March 19, 2012

WoT: Can you say Wittmann? I mean I mean I mean Boelter's?

My god, or, taht god.  This guy is a god -- a Wittmann's, um, Boelter's every 120.2380952380952 games.


Do I _reeeally_ need to block the name of this guy?  I mean, how on earth is this naming/shaming?  This is the inverse, this is declaring/praising or, respectin'/pimpin' or flossin'/badonkadonkin' (my god I'm white)....
Jk!  These are my stats!  Hahah! no they're not!.  It is like looking at boobs on tanks tho right?


WoT: The "It's OK To Casually TK System"

Let me be the 1st to say (hope I'm the 1st ne how), that in World of Tanks, it's ok to casually team damage and team kill....

Lemme "WoW" it: In World of Tanks, you will melt faces with team killing, if you are a veteran, in a clan, with a moderator in leadership....

Note: I sent the replay of this event to the clan leadership of the guy involved -- a guy with an account dated live start.  I sent it to the commander and deputy commanders of the clan, one of whom/who/w/e was/is a moderator on the forums.  They all read it as my messenger says so.  I have had no reply....

However, I first asked under "Clans: The Round Table" (where it says, "Clan related questions, not relating to clan wars") whether or not it was ok to send a replay to clan leadership.  I did this in part since support would not/did not address my ticket after a day or two -- I only finally got the form letter from them this morning.

You don't need a reason or a rhyme.  Don't like that song lyric that guy just quoted?  Shoot him.  Don't like the fact he just "stole your kill?"  Shoot him.  Dead, but can't shoot him/TK him?  Np, ask your platoon, still living, to do it.

Support will do absolutely, positively, nothing about it, as proof by the ticket I submitted, with title, "no ordinary TK event: platoon coordinated:"

Dear Player.
Friendly fire and team killing is automatically taken care of by the friendly fire automated system which assigns sanctions as needed.
As such, manual reports on friendly fire or team-killing are no longer required.
Additional information on the automated friendly fire and team kill system can be located on this page:
http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/32543-team-kill-autosystem/
Thank you for contacting World of Tanks support, and please do not hesitate to contact us again.
Best Regards,
David Jones
World of Tanks Management
To reply, please log in at: https://support.worldoftanks.com/
Use your registered account email and password.

(I need to say here, that, the 2 guys who did this -- 2 veteran players -- laughed hard at me saying I would report directly to support.  They were correct.  I was wrong for expecting otherwise, or, as they put it: "good luck with that.")

But I understand why wg.net has done this -- turned-over griefing daycare to a program (what are we, in The Matrix now?): support calls.  No, wait, warm bodies to handle support calls.  No, it gets bigger than that: $ to pay warm bodies to handle support calls....


Business is about the bottomline.  If a business isn't making money, then it ain't a bidness -- or won't be for long.  World of Tanks implemented an automated team damage/kill system in order to save money -- simply put, that's it, end of sentence.  Whether or not it's working doesn't matter as much.  Let's face it: it's a PR move, and the code that represents this automated system is little more than simply that -- just a binky to suck on, stuck into the player's mouths....

So, to ask the Morton Salt question (you know, "it works!") ... does it work?


Yes, no, maybe, not really, sometimes, sorta, kinda, meh -- about like the Republican Primaries....


I need to stop right now and just point out the obvious: this is a video game.  This isn't about world hunger or global disease or things that really matter.  Honestly, I feel sorta dirty wasting _this_ much time on it, but you know how it is with us guys: we worship our work, play with our charities and work at our play -- this is me working at my play.

And what _exactly_ happened that's got me so _worked_up_ about the "automatic friendly fire and team killing system?"  (let's call it AFFKS or FFSKT -- "for f*ck sake kill same-team" -- or FFTKS "f*ck friend team kill-me srsly?").

I got TKed!!!


(See bottom of this post for link to explanation on forums)

About now you're saying, "FKD, bro, get over it...."  Who cares?  Go play!  Or, better yet:



I will, am, can, maybe, but I gotsa bleed my own blood first, milk this cow, get this out....

This issue has brought to my attention ... tings.  Tings?  Yes, tings....


Tings, I mean, things like (exit method acting):

So, go ahead and team damage or team kill.  It falls into the great system of the databases of the internets of the worlds of tanks.  You will has a number on your namez and that nummerz will mean  if you r bad r not.  If u r pug player only then you get away with more, but if you are in a clan you get away with less ... no, not really.  If you are in a clan, you get away with more than if you were not -- them clans and people of power got your back.

And let's not forget, that if you misuse or don't understand or handle badly the reporting system, you build bad rank in it as well....

Lemme sum-up here:


--If you casually team damage or team kill, it sorta gives you bad numbers that go back down, sorta like a mild STD.

--Likewise, if you do the reporting system wrong, it sorta gives you bad numbers that go back down, sorta like a mild STD.

Basically, WG.net is saying, "erm, stfu and give us money, I mean I mean I mean, play the gd game...."

So, I sent the replay to the clan leaders of this guy whose account has been around since live date, a possible beta tester to boot, who cooridinated this TK on me (again, I asked 1st if this was ok).  I informed the moderator of this clan too who is in leadership in it.  What did I hear in return?


^get it?^

I need to cut to the chase.  This shiziznits it borked, broke, don't work, doesn't fly, won't pitch a tent....


Alright, bring it home.  Here's some ideas I'm just gonna chuck at Wargaming.net:

  • Turn friendly fire off (no way!!!).
  • Hold clans -- that you charge money to make, so we know you have more money due to clan creation -- more accountable than the average, pug, joe.
  • Hire more admins/moderators/boots-on-the-ground to look into each issue.
  • Give weight to the a players account based on: 1. Actual amount of time playing the game, 2. Whether in a clan or not, 3. Whether a moderator or not, 4. Whether a clan leader or not.
I mean, you're telling me that the guy on day 1 in the lolertracktor who TKs the Cunningham gets the EXACT SAME AMOUNT OF WEIGHTS IN THE FRIENDLY FIRE AND TEAM DAMAGE SYSTEM AS ME?!?  As a forum moderator?  As a clan leader?

This wrong bro....


Now, I realize this will take something that wargaming.net is supposed to be good at.  What will it take?

Coding:
^this^

But I hope they do.  I hope they fix this.

Being a fapping boy for veterans in a clan ran by moderators in a pug game is no fun.  It makes me want to quit the game, more than anything, this has discourged me from playing WoT, a game I have been passionate about and loyal to ... longer than the guys who coordinated in a platoon to TK me, longer than the clan commanders and moderator that run their clan.  I'm yo daddy!!!


Did you hear that wg.net?!?  GETTING TKed By vets in a clan with moderators and ignored and scoffed at and laughed has MORE THAN ANYTHING MADE ME THINK ABOUT LEAVING THIS GAME!!!

But I just don't know how to quit you....



Where does this leave us plebs?  Us non-cool-best-of-all-stats-talented-clans-with-forum-mods-and-stuff-in-our-ranks?

Stay out of the way of pros if you joe
  • Do not taunt dynamite monkey or guys in clans with moderators
  • Do not ask clans people questions on the forums regarding member conduct


More:


If possible, TK, TD (team kill and team damage) back.  Why not?  What will happen?  Nothing.  Not a gd thing.  Not one little thing....

So far, the work to date has seemingly gone into a lot of work to help support.  And I can appreciate that:

-Location of screenshots (for those bazillion support tickets asking, "where are my screenshots? I gotta kiil! I can't find the screnshot! how do I take a screenshot ne how?" support tickets).
-A mod folder (for those, "I installed this mod and now my computer only shows chinese characters" support tickets).
-And, of course, the grandpappy of helping-out-support: friendly fire and team damage automatic system: (for those, "I got shot by a team mate! halp! I'm diez!") tickets....
-Almost forgot, the child of the FF&TDAS, the reporting placebo, I mean, the in-game reporting system.

*Cough*Soylent Green*Cough*


Boy fatkid, time for another grahpic right?  Yes indeed:

^support tiket! get it?!^


And this brings us to an area of blaspheme, of great chagrin, of horror!!!

Name and Shame....

"And the lord god said unto moses: thou shalt not name and shame.  If thou hast in thine midst a name and shamer, thou shalt hand him overest to the hand of an avenger, and the holy avenger of the lord shalt smite him, and being smited, he shall be smote, and burn in smotedness like the heathen of those that name and shame and stuff."

And Moses sayeth unto the lord his godeth, "Oh lord god, what if he who is named and shamed did something very, very, very wrong and unsportsmanlike and he is a veteran player and in a way cool clan?"

And the lord god said, "dun't matter.  I meenit.  Just dun matter.  Don't make me come down there...."

And Moses is like, "hey, was Cain and name and shamer?  Did he shame-name Able?"

And god was like, "oh yea, that n00b, he named-shamed Able hard, and so, I banz0r3d him bad.  He's so banz0rd, that red-textedd thread will remain forever.  Cuz like, team damaging and team killing is fine, but you go and name that guy -- oh man, I come down on you like Chuck Norris...."


So, where are we?

1. Team damage and Team kill all day, no problem.  If you are a moderator, wiki editor, closed beta tester, clan commander, developer, or, especially, these guys:



It's perfectly ok.

But you go name/shame/blame/lame, you bad and go to hell and stuff.

Idk.  I think I'm done now.  I will go into the west, and remain Galadriel....



But, obviously, don't TD or TK me, or I'll blog and I'll blog hard, or, if you like my blog then do eet all time....

Hrm, maybe peeps will TK me more than ever now....


But, you know, more than anything, I'd love to just post the replay and the pricks names that did this, but I cantz, or else, wg.net will quit me.  And I'd mess 'em too much:


Update: I want to add here the fallout of the auto team damage, friendly fire, team killing system in World of Tanks:
  • Players have no qualms shooting teammates or killing them.
  • Players can retaliate, to the full extent of that desire, within a single battle for whatever reason.
  • Players will be hesitant to interact, say words in retort, cross clans people or play to the full extent of what the vehicle they are in might be able to do (in my case, the guy felt that, as an arty, I should know better than to kill a tank he was trying to kill)
  • Players can look for and hunt down those that have TKed them in the past, go for entire clans this way, and the griefing continues
  • The automated system actually encourages, does not discourge, team damage and team killing events in World of Tanks.