3541

I did exactly that–twice, even–but still no voices. It’s odd.

3542

:-(

Not sure what could be going wrong. If you restore files back to the new annoying voice does that work, or is it permanently messed up?

3543

Bought the Pershing, and definitely not having fun with it. I’m running 1-5 on it.

I’ve got the second best gun and the fully upgraded engine, but still running with the stock turret.

It feels very sluggish. The T20 was much faster and more maneuverable. Last match, a VK3601(H) and I advanced together, and it didn’t look like my Pershing really had much better maneuverability.

The best gun is a tad bit better than the best T-44 gun so that should be nice. 5 more mm of penetration, 10 more damage, 1 more round per second, quite a bit more accurate, with a 0.5 second better settling time.

It doesn’t feel particularly tough either. Whereas my T-44 seems like it can take quite a few hits. It looks like theoretically the Pershing null is thicker, so I’m not sure what’s up with that – maybe just perception.

Anyway, overall quite disappointing, particularly given that I enjoy its predecessor the T20 quite a bit.

[Edit] Okay, I’ve got 12 battles in with the Pershing now, and think I’ve got a bit of a better feel for it. It plays kind of like a Pzkw IV, which is to say it’s got a decent gun, is reasonably tough, but isn’t very good at mixing things up or at fast scouting or raiding activities.

The T-44, T20, and to a lesser extent VK3002DB all feel like they can do everything a light tank does, plus they’re tough and pack a good punch. The Pershing isn’t slow, but it’s not fast either. It just can’t move as quickly and isn’t as agile as a T-44 or T20. Not quite sure what it excels out, but I am doing better with it, since I stopped trying to drive it like a T-44 or T20.

3544

It’s pretty clear that working with all these types of tanks from all these nations makes it hard to come up with in-game balance that makes each vehicle unique enough to be meaningfully different, yet keeps everything in relative harmony. I guess it’s the same as balancing umpteen race/class/skill tree combos in a traditional MMO, with the added complication that for many people the labels you slap on your characters have historical and empirical baggage.

3545

Today, for some reason, the old voice guy is working though I did nothing further to the files in question. No idea why, but I’ll take it. It’s occasionally useful to hear “that bounced” or “ricochet” instead of thinking you missed, as you can switch to HE if you’re just pinging your target.

3546

Something amusing just happened to my S-51 on Malinovka, something I haven’t personally seen before. My team started on the south side, and I deployed in the SE corner area. As is usual, flankers from both teams headed up the hill to the far NE, where one of our faster mediums spotted a Tiger and a T29, very close together.

By the time I was ready to fire, the T29 was at about 70% health, and the Tiger was almost undamaged. Neither was moving much, relying upon their armor to protect them from the foes they could see. I let the targetting reticle shrink to its smallest size and dropped a shell right between them. Boom–they both died from that one shot.

I’m not foolish enough to think that’s never happened before, but I’ve never witnessed it during 2200+ release battles and at least 1500 in beta. Judging from the surprised comments in chat, no else in that battle had ever seen it either.

3547

The other day I saw a Ausf B kill two tanks with one shot. He fired at a medium that was right next to him, the shell passed through it and hit another tank behind it. Both died. Suffice to say it was fairly epic.

I’ve seen a few arty double kills, but they’re pretty rare since they usually rely on people being really close together and really large arty firing at em.

3548

Yep. For some reason the 6pdr on the T82 is different (and better) than the 6pdr on the M7. Go figure

3549

That 6lber/57mm on the T82 is wicked good.

3550

*grumble8 grumble REINSTALL grumble use remaining gold on 7 day premium pass (for price of three day) grumble

3551

Sometimes I think the real bummer in this game is the prevalence and viability of the so-called derp guns. They work in game terms, sort of; their low rate of fire and poor accuracy make you juggle the trade-offs in massive alpha-strike damage. But man, they are really frustrating when combined with the crappy spotting and camo system and the lack of lethality for high-velocity smaller caliber shells.

Not that I haven’t used them myself…in beta I found the KV derp a hoot, and the 10,5cm on the StuG was a literal blast. But since then I think the only one I’ve used is the 75mm mini-derp on the American lights, and the stock 152 on the SU-152 (which given the tier its in really isn’t a classic derp at all).

In other news, the upgraded turret on the Pz IV still looks homely.

3552

I presume the tradeoff with the short howitzers like the StuG 10,5cm is that they can’t penetrate at all – so great for blowing the hell out of lower-tier and possibly same-tier tanks, but useless against higher-tier heavies. Or so I assume, as someone who has never played with one of them. The KV guns though IIRC have both very good penetration and damage.

The poor Panzer IV does not look like a Panzer IV in game. The Tiger I & II look great, the Sherman variants all look like Shermans, the T-34 looks like a T-34, and the Panzer IV looks like some strange unreal WW2 beast (not unlike the VK’s I suppose). Which makes me as a WW2 buff rather sad.

3553

its not a difficult hack to substitute the pzIV upgraded turret 3d model for its unupgraded counterpart. It makes pz4s look like pz4s again, but theres a tactical disadvantage to that: you cant tell a dangerous pz4 from a harmless one :P

3554

The derp gun on it is fun too. 410 damage at tier III with 53 pen? That’s dangerous to tanks several tiers higher, not to mention its own and below. I’m not even sure if i want to move up to the next tier, and instead max out this tank first.

So far I’m liking the american TDs better than the germans.

3555

Heh, yeah, it’s useful to know they’ve got the long 75, which can hurt you pretty bad.

3556

I’ve been playing with the T29 for a while now (just unlocked the 105mm, don’t have either of the engine upgrades – which don’t look that good anyway – and I’m planning to avoid the winged turret).

Any thoughts on what the higher tier American heavies (T32, T34, T30) are like? Should I keep pushing up, or go back to pushing up the Russian and German heavy line?

3557

I’ve played a few matches with the derp gun on my KV and I kinda hate it so far. Maybe I haven’t really figured out how to use it yet, but there’s nothing worse than being out of cover, missing or bouncing a shot, and then having a full minute with nothing to do to defend yourself with besides running away very slowly. I guess I need to be better about always being near rocks and other friendly tanks?

3558

I don’t know about you, but my experience has been that both the engine upgrades for the T29 are pretty essential, or it’s just a big ass slug. Whatever the numbers say, those upgrades turned the tank from barely passable to really fun, for me at least. Now I’m just grinding the last half to the next heavy.

3559

It definitely is a big ass slug without the engine upgrades! Moving around is definitely rather painful.

I’m a bit worried though, as they don’t look like very good upgrades. The first upgrade goes from 720hp to 760hp, so only a 5.5% boost. Same for the second upgrade. And that second upgrade is a heck of a lot of XP. Taken together they are over 1/3rd of the XP needed for the next tank. Although looking it over, it looks like they both carry over to the next tank, so that’s helpful.

3560

Honestly, the numbers you’re shown are fairly meaningless. The developers have fiddled with the in-game reality to the point where the statistics you see on the outside are more or less cosmetic - at best indicative, at worst utterly misleading. ie, the T29’s turret officially has the same armor as the T30, but in the game, the T30 is more difficult to penetrate.