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What changes await World of tanks in the coming year?
In 2014 we decided to massively rework all of the graphics.
That is to remake all of the tanks and their surroundings.
All of the tanks will have 3-4 times more polygons and texture resolution.
The tanks will look more alive when driving.
Yes, at the moment we have a simple suspension system.
The lower parts of the tracks are flat and go back and forth. It generally gave an acceptable appearance but it isn’t enough.
Now we have every suspension element having its own elastic element
and so making the suspension move independently as it travels over obstacles.
Tell about working with the Havoc engine!
We have remade almost all of the in-game physics.
Meaning we bought a license to the Havok engine and have been meddling with it for about a year and a half now.
The thing is that the Havok is a client-based engine; the server does not know what is happening in Havok; like where debris fly.
So we had to do a lot of linking what is happening to things that are destroyed in the game client to the server.
As a result, when the tanks turret gets blown off and is lying on the ground;
it becomes an obstacle for shells and tanks. It is a normal physical object.
Game modes. In what direction will you continue to develop?
This year we added the Team Battle mode, and for individual players we introduced combat missions.
These are the tools that were greeted with pleasure by the players and we will not give up on them as well as e- sports.
The main goals for the gameplay development in 2014 are the improvement of Clan Wars and the introduction of Historical Battles.
The problem is that the historical battles can’t be balanced
and we have reviewed, played and dropped numerous options during our internal tests.
And finally we have chosen the winning option.
This is to use of mismatched teams. E.g. not 15 T-34 versus 15 Tigers, but 15 or even 20 T-34 versus 3-5 Tigers.
That is just an example.
We decided to play on such unequal battles,
and we think that such unsymmetrical battles will be very interesting for our audience.
This mode will have historical tank models, like the T-34 will have its 76 mm gun and not a 57.
The ammunition capacity will also be made closer to the historical one,
but we will not make a game that makes a player spend more time fighting his vehicle than fighting the enemy.
What will be added to Clan wars?
The Clan Wars was introduced just after the release of the game.
First we made 1200 provinces in the world, but they are still not enough for all of the players wanting to battle.
So we thought, and decided that the fighting on the global map will remain as a top-level clan activity.
And as a mass clan activity each clan will get a fortified region that will bring benefits to the clan’s treasury
and clans can attack each other’s fortified zones to win these benefits over.
Are there any news on Garage battles?
We have a problem with Garage battles, because originally we aim for shorter game sessions.
And the so-called Garage Battles that allow the usage of several tanks need an extended session;
plus such “re- spawn” battles have several other issues.
If your team loses, then you may have no particular wish to re-spawn. So we do not consider re-spawn battles as a part of a basic gameplay.
But as a high-level gameplay option, well, let's say for tier 10s, we might consider such an option.
And once more talking about historical battles; it may be possible to re-spawn in them.
An option for historic battles could be; when there are machines that have greatly inferior characteristics compared to the top tanks,
like scout tanks, they will revive and run. And so spot, die then re-spawn several times.
We’ve considered this and there is some chance we will use this revival option.
How many new tank branches do you plan to introduce in 2014?
To tell the truth we really want to introduce an epic tank to the new branches – a tier 10 Japanese heavy.
The Japanese have a very clear, reliable heavy tank that would fit somewhere around tier 3.
And they also have a pretty interesting vehicle, the documentation for which was recently found by us, that will perfectly fit into tier 10.
And the problem is that the Japanese have no heavy tanks to fit the gap for tiers 4,5 and 6.
So it will be hard for us to make a full and solid heavy tank branch.
The thing is that we are currently improving the quality of the in-game models and this will occupy all of the resources that we have
including internal and external ones that we plan to use.
So I think that 2014 will bring a long pause in the introduction of new tank branches,
but that doesn’t mean that there will be less content.
Whilst remaking the models, we will introduce the hull leveling along with suspension leveling.
And not all of the latter hulls will be obviously cooler and better than the first one.
They will probably decide the role on the battlefield. You can either have a heavily armored vehicle or a more mobile one.
We will try to make these alternative, but more or less equally useful configurations for most of the tanks.
Will new graphics impede those who play on weak computers?
You see, there are two directions to take for the graphics.
First is the maximum graphics that requires a separate functionality like new filters, new lighting and new textures.
And there is the part of graphics that optimizes it for weaker computers.
The fact is we know that almost 40% of our players use systems that are below the minimum system requirements that we’ve set.
But these people are playing and so we must support them so that they can continue to play.
Some optimization parts will be made in the 8.11 update and some parts will be done for 9.0.
Oh, I think I just gave up the update numeration, oh never mind.
Programming has several high-tech areas. These are, for example, high-load servers and high-load channels.
The situation is good for us in these fields, but we are not at the top in terms of client graphics with a highly productive renderer.
We are on an average level now, but we want to be at the top.
Our team is working on this and I think that the 9.0 update will bring us closer to top-notch graphics.
These are our plans for 2014.
We hope that this will be a successful year for you,
not only as World of Tanks players, but as normal people living worldwide.
So I congratulate you on the New Year!
I wish you 60 percent plus victories, not only in the game, but also in life.
Learn more about new in-game graphics and physics from Developers Diaries. Coming soon.