3061

Or just their cultural approach to these things. I think some communities of gamers are more inclined to be very concerned with fairness and individual equity, more than others. American developers tend to obsess with anti-cheat mechanisms, which often result in equally annoying behaviors (cf. PunkBuster).

3062

I don’t really see how bright colors can give one some advantage. Is the huge red icon on top of the enemy tank not enough of a help?

I am kind of indifferent about these skins - they simplify the learning curve for the new players and are mostly useless for the experienced ones. So the newbs will learn faster where the weak spots are, big deal, it’s not like it’s a big secret that shooting viewports is a good idea. And new players have enough challenges to deal with.

I don’t think it’s a cheat - it’s a learning tool. :) I was learning these weak spots by looking at painted screenshots, users of this skins can do it in-game. Big deal.

3063

Yeah, I sort of agree with this. It feels a bit cheat-y, but people can already figure this stuff out through memorization and I’m always for minimizing memorization in games (in no small part because I’m terrible at it). I also have yet to get a gun/crew good enough to take advantage of hitting such small areas.

3064

I think that the developer’s decision to use somewhat “arcadey” weak-point and damage mechanics, combined with the copious use of fictional tanks, supports calling attentions to this information. Dave Markell, you complained on the front page that many of the tanks have rather arbitrary weak points. Anything that spreads awareness of this information probably helps the level of play. Just looking at images taught me that I need to be careful not to expose the side of my T1 with the ammo box.

Weak spot knowledge is doubly important given the NA server’s terrible matchmaking. Knowing weak spot locations doesn’t really even the fight, but it at least gives you something to aim for…

Personally, I would favor locking down the skins, but adding some sort of “tank weak spot model viewer” in the garage, and having the area directly under the target reticule change color based on the component being aimed at. (It already changes color to show penetration chances.) It seems a good compromise. I don’t want to play an ugly game to be competitive, but I also don’t want to have to train Eidetic Memory to V to be competitive, either…

3065

I did, but my complaint was from a balance perspective (German armor had far more of them that were far weaker all through beta and launch, until the last patch). The balance between countries is much improved now. And while I know many of the current weak points, I certainly don’t know all of them, which is where the Hitzone temptation becomes powerful. It’s a shortcut for skill that’s tough to resist.

3066

True, if the game actually modeled camo instead of having an arbitrary and rather binary seen/not seen system, colored skins would be more useful. In general in these sorts of games, including FPS, I ignore the cheaters. I figure they’ll cheat and “beat” me no matter what, so I don’t worry about it.

Though it is hilarious now, because of the publicity about hacks, that when someone gets destroyed half the time they scream “Hack! Reported!” when in fact they were just out of positioned and got pwnd.

3067

That happened to me yesterday. A KV-5 moving in an open field got ripped apart by my camo’ed ISU-152. After he died, he started screaming “Hack!” in the chat channels and said he was logging out to send the devs video proving that I cheated. My response was obviously bored indifference, since he was about 300 yards away in plain view.

3068

The most pathetic cheat claim I saw was a T-29 on my team. He was around 1/3rd health on Westfield. Only 2-3 tanks left on each side. He decided the smart move was to try to cap. This was on the side where the base is most surrounded by heavy woods. He slowly turns in circles on the base and proceeds to get blasted by IIRC a T-34-85. He then claims the other team cheated.

Dude, you are transmitting to everyone your exact location within about 20m, you are surrounded by heavy cover and you are in the clear and moving to make yourself most visible, and then you are slowly turning so that regardless of where your enemy parks they will eventually be able to cap you in the ass. And you think someone had to cheat to beat you? Really pathetic.

3069

I was in Komarin, the one with the island, as a SU-100. Guarding our base from the other side of the river. A T-29 was behind me and in front of a big rock. He got nailed by a ISU-152 or an IS-4, can’t recall which, and then screamed hack. He went on about being hit through the rock, when in fact 1) his ass was exposed from either direction, and 2) he was hit in front of the rock, as everyone else could tell.

Then, in Westfield, I was in a T-34-85. I went with an Easy 8 up the middle, we paused in the little village at the bottom of the valley, ambushed a slew of bad guys, and then rolled into the cap. As we rolled in I saw an arty in the woods, having just fired and readjusted its position. Naturally, he was very visible. Popped an 85 into him. Hack! No way you could have seen me! Etcetera.

3070

That all said, the game has some weird mechanics which would help things out if clarified…

One match, on Campovina, Tman and I were on the top right flank(far side of the pond) facing south. He was deep in the bush, in arty, i was near the fringe of another bush about 100 m away in a KV. We saw a KV-3 slowly trundle up from their base, and sporadically appear as he moved towards us. No one on our team was closer(everyone was camping at home). We discussed who was spotting him, since neither of us seemed in good spotting condition. He eventually killed both of us(yeah team!) and when we checked the AAR, neither of us got a spotting note for him…hmm wtf? Who spotted him then…

3071

Exactly. Which is why screaming “hax04rs!” is ludicrous. Chances are it’s crappy coding, poor design, or bugs.

Oh, and another priceless one. A guy in a Lowe, a Premium tank and an expensive one at that, was complaining that only people paying for Premium actually got to kill other tanks. He was ticked that not only did he die, but he bounced five shots off another uber heavy.

3072

Quite possibly spotted much earlier in the match, say in the initial shootout at the start of the game. If the KV-3 had shot at someone across the open field, was briefly visible, and then later moved to the flank, neither one of you would have gotten first spotting credit in the after action report. I don’t know about KV-3s, but you can sometimes spot KV-1s across the field when they are just moving about, even if they haven’t fired.

3073

I have killed tanks I couldnt see a number of times, usually they are targets I was shooting at already that I lose spot on so I fire at the same location again if they were stopped or take an educated guess if they were moving. I have also killed people simply by shooting at likely hiding spots. My best match ever in an M6 I had just mounted the 90mm on I got 7 kills, 3 of them on tanks I could not see when I finsihed them off. That gun is murderous vs tier 5-7 tanks.

3074

Me too. I often shoot a second time at tanks that I previously spotted that disappear. – especially if I’ve got an idea of which direction they’ve gone, or if I managed to de-track them. Works best with a fast-firing gun like the 76mm M1A2 which can fire every 2 seconds. I do like the 90mm M3 gun available on the M6 and T20 though. Very good accuracy, good penetration, good damage.

What’s the speed like on the M6? Is it as slow as the T1? I’m trying to decide my next move on the tech tree and I’ve got a T1 and a fair bit of experience into the M6 unlock on it. I haven’t really enjoyed the T1 that much though. The T29 looks pretty solid at least from fighting against it, but if the M6 is basically like the T1, I don’t know if I really want to go through that, at least not right now.

3075

The M6 is a mild improvement. It’s a little faster, a little tougher, and it punches a little harder. It does quite well against peer threats but your going to get into trouble tackling higher tiers. That’s the thing though, it’s just a really solid design. It may not have any knockout strengths but it doesn’t have any serious flaws.

3076

It plays like a bigger, slower, upgunned and slightly tougher vk3601, really. It’s all around good but can’t pack a gun as good as the kv3. Then again the kv3 is apparently moving up a tier.

3077

I just got through the M6 to the T29. Fully upgraded with the 90mm, the M6 is actually quite a good tank I think. The 90 can do some serious damage, especially from the sides and rear, even on higher tier heavies. Its traverse speed isn’t great, but it’s fairly nimble for its bulk. Side armor is problematic but better than the T1. It’s ugly as homemade sin though.

And yeah, I often fire blind into bushes where I recently saw a tank. Many folks simply don’t move once they fire, and I’ve killed a lot of tanks that I couldn’t see at the time (though usually I saw them just prior to firing).

I’ve also used blind fire arty to hit known arty camping spots, and occasionally I get a kill that way. There are only so many “normal” spots for arty on most maps.

3078

What’s the word on the JagdPanther? Pre 0.6.4, I heard that Camo skills and Camo net was useless on it. Something about those increasing a percentage of the vehicles integral camo value and the JagdPanther’s value being extremely low. Is this considered a good TD, and should I use camo skills and camo net on it?

3079

It’s an amazing TD, especially after the latest patch, especially after driving the JgdPz IV. My win ratio in it was around 72% (edit: although it did go down to I think 68% in the end, when my friend leveled up to the IS-3 and started dragging me into higher tier matches), while it usually hovers around 56-60% for other tanks. It’s maybe my most favorite tank of all. Although fully upgraded Ferdi is also very nice. :)

But it’s a very different kind of TD from every other TD you’ve driven before and you have to realize its weak and strong points or you might have some frustrating times. The stealth factor gets severely reduced as you move from JgdPz IV to JgdPanther, that’s why I say this TD is different. It’s more of an assault TD than a stealth sniper kind of TD. And it has tools to do its job very well.

Yes, 6.4 had fixed camo values but they are still not that high for the JgdPanther, Ferdi and JgdTiger. Tests show that fully camoed SU-152, for example, will not be visible until 50 m, it’s about 150 m for the JgdPanther. So it can hide but not as effectively as other (lower German and all Russian) TD’s.

Another thing introduced by the 6.4 is the how a tank becomes very visible when it fires. It’s a good and a bad thing depending on how you look at it. TD drivers are used to sitting in a bush and firing away. This will rarely work nowadays (without going into detail, like double bush, 15 m radius, etc.), which kind of negates the stealth differences mentioned above because it is unlikely you will be sitting there without firing letting the enemy to get closer than 200 m to you. Tests show that all high tier TD’s (I haven’t seen tests for low tier TD’s, they might behave the same, don’t know) become visible from 445 m when firing.

As a result, IMO, JgdPanther is better played as an assault/close support tank. Its sloped front armor allows to bounce a lot of shots. Fully upgraded, it’s very mobile (it’s faster than the IS, for example). It’s a lot like driving a medium with no turret but with better armor and gun. Use hard cover (rocks, houses, etc.) and mobility to avoid getting shot at.

Although, if need be, JgdPanther is also an awesome sniper - the 105 mm is the second most accurate gun in the game IIRC.

There is no uniform opinion on which gun to use - long 88 mm or the 105 mm. Their penetration is about the same (203 vs 200 IIRC), the 105 hits about 50% harder but the 88 reloads about 50% faster, so the (ideal) dps is about the same. They both are very accurate (the 105 m is slightly more accurate). The 6.4 patch has improved the 105 mm gun a lot and made the choice all more difficult. One thing against the 105 mm is the shell’s price, it’s 1000 credits vs. ~250 for the 88 mm. Personally, most of the time, I prefer hard hitting guns so I was using the 105 mm and it does make good money when you get used to it.

Having said all that (and given the way I play high tier German TD’s), I decided against training the camo skill first on my German TD crew, I trained the repair skill. I also don’t use the net on them anymore, instead I equip the rammer, binocs and the liner.

3080

I find the rammer the single most important piece of gear I buy, in terms of modules. Increased rate of fire is always good.