Hello everyone,

a little bit of insider information from Wargaming againg. Had a nice long chat with the insider over the internet, this is my summary of the conversation.

- Sturmtiger will likely not be implemented (or, almost certainly according to what Storm said) because of the issues with the line. The biggest issue is the balance – at one point, developers considered implementing it as an artillery vehicle, but they are afraid of the massive, massive whine. During the tests, the Sturmtiger could oneshot even hightier tanks and developers don’t want “oneshot derp” on high tiers. Another issue is – strangely enough – the fact that the line has some issues on lower tiers, specifically around tier 3-5. There was a thought of separating StuH 42 from StuG Ausf.G (effectively removing the StuG 105mm derp and making it another separate vehicle), but that was not judged a good idea (for undisclosed reasons).

- Sturmtiger might appear in the game still… as a consumable. Developers are working on an “artillery fire mission” consumable for Stronghold mode. Basically what you’ve seen earlier – you aim the fire barrage at some sector or something and off-map artillery battery starts shelling it. The idea is, this consumable would be available in several tiers and the Sturmtiger fire mission would be the highest one.

- the “fun mode” will be indeed a Chaffee race, actually something like Mario Kart – a wacky race on the Port map with various boosts and obstacles and such

- Minsk (WG RU) actually listens a significant deal to the feedback from American server, especially some employees such as the Chieftain. They mostly ignore Europe to the point of just ignoring some allegedly really good ideas. It’s mostly pointless to propose any changes or suggestions on European server.

- developers are aware of some of the notorious players by name, specifically Garbad is extremely infamous. His vile rants were considered offensive to the point of developers instructing (*someone, couldn’t quite understand*) to get rid of him personally and permaban him. They also blame him for starting a vicious rant trend (“go get cancer, jew”) and such on US server. Way to go, developers, now if you could kindly purge the EU server of cancer wishers and antisemites, that would be nice… :)

- weather was developed, but it was put on hold with no current ETA, due to the fact it messes with the gameplay balance

- a year and a half or so ago, the developers created a system, where players could select whichever garage they wanted (could even “collect” them), it was even tested, but it was scrapped for unknown reasons.

- at one point, hardcapping gold ammunition was considered. The developers however in the end decided not to do it (so this idea is closed), specifically – and I am not quite sure I understood this a hundred percent, but I think I did – to preserve the economy (eg. gold ammo is an important money-maker for Wargaming and also a credit/gold sink).

- KV-1S split was delayed a lot for a several reasons, the first one was the gun – developers didn’t want to mess with the 122mm, but they wanted to keep it on the vehicle. Another reason was this tank’s massive popularity.

- a lot of things depends on Havok. Right now, many developers are actually learning to work with Havok, specifically regarding the environment (maps and such) and tank behavior. That’s like the center point of development. Month or so ago, Havok was scheduled for 9.5, but it’s completely possible it will be delayed further, as it was in the past. Developers also do not want to add many more vehicles before Havok and HD models come.

- currently, Havok increases the game net traffic by 45 percent. The goal is to reduce it to 18 percent. One of the most difficult parts is synchronizing the engine so that all players see the exactly same effect.