Transcript of the «WoT Blitz! We are 1 year old! ” Stream
Source: World of Tanks Polska Facebook – best portal for Polish players
Beware, a lot of letters! :D
In the studio, the Project Manager of Development, Alexey Alexeev, and the Director of Global Product Handling, Andrei Ribovol, answered some questions.
-We consider different options for the number of players in a team – from 10 to 7. The option to have 15 players per side is not considered, because the performance does not allow it.
Q: Why not implement Arty?
A: Because Arty would be very unconfrotable to play. There is no place to stand (small maps), nowhere to shoot, it would be quickly detected and taken care of. We carried out tests with Arty, but in the end, we decided to abandon it.
Q: What is in your opinion the biggest and most important in-game innovation from this year?
A: The biggest achievement was the launch of the game itself. We have opened a new game niche, fast PVP game for movile devices. We are very pleased of that. Our biggest challenge was to adapt the game management to a touchscreen. Lots of action, but only 2 fingers! Also graphic changes, making the game good for mobile devices.
Also, the content expansion. We started with 3 nations having 3 tank lines each. Today we have 4 nations and we added more tank lines. Moreover, we were able to release the game on a completely new engine and combine it with a large-scale technology as the BigWorld. Also, we significantly increased the performance on all devices.
Another great innovation was a new learning system, because we started with an audience that is already familiar with the concept of tanks but not very loyal to the new players, because they know nothing about tanks.
Q: What about new features? Which comes with the ideas, and which does implement them in-game?
A: – We have a committee that is responsible for the development of the stuff and the priority of the projects. These tasks get some priority and we are working on them. Similarly, we listen to the community, report their opinions, and list the implementation in order to see where a new version will lead. Once all parties have accepted, the new update falls into development. There is also a thorny path. There is the server side and there is the client. After all is done how I want to – it enters production.
– We have our own specific character, the game is running on 4 clusters and it is operated by four teams: RU, Asia, EU, NA. Especially when there is a new patch we get a huge amount of feedback from the players. We consider these things and determine the priority for any region.
Q: How big is the development team in WoT Blitz?
A: – If to speak directly about the development – the game takes about 70 people, even a little more. This includes the development of client and server, and the artists who painted the maps, models, etc.
Q: What other targets developers set themselves for 2015?
A: Now we want to make the game more interesting for those who are already playing our game, it’s clans. Of course, among other things, the constant optimization.
Q: What was the most difficult thing when moving tanks on mobile devices?
A: Usually the PC is some good iron and it has a lot of memory. If you look on a mobile device at the start of development – iPad2 all the specifications are sad, and if you look at Android – sad specifications too. We tried to do as much as possible – making the game beautiful with a small amount of memory. When we released the game for Android a major challenge for us was to optimize the game so much as to squeeze the maximum out of the device. So many Android users could play.
Q: In the PC WoT version 7 nations are represented by this day. Should we expect all these nations in the near future in the game?
A: Towards the end of the year, we will introduce a new nation, it is difficult to say what nation, but it will appear.
If you go back to the complications – they came with the introduction of new HD models on the PC game. As before, we took the high polygon model, and changed it to a low polygon model. With the new HD models this can be done.
Q: Will there be graphical settings?
A: We are working in this direction.
Q: Do you play your game?
A: Ribovol: Of course we play, I played some Soviet tanks but now I moved to the British.
Alexeev: I play tier 8 premiums, saving up money, but I loved the T-54 and IS-7. Maus is only „pain and suffering”.
Q: Will chat improvements be implemented?
A: Soon™.
-I think old voiceovers will return.
-More players per team and game will not be possible, because it limits the performance of phones and tablets.
-We do not plan to have +1/-1 MM.
–The gam will continue to support those devices that have already been withdrawn from sale for a long time?
– Yes, they will be supported.
Q: Will there be any dynamic performance increase in the garage?
A: Yes, there probably will be.
-There will be training rooms included – the interface is not finished yet but the server side is already prepared;
Q: Will there be a change of crew skills once the high-tier light tanks are introduced?
A: When we introduce those tanks, I think that there would be changes.
-voiceover does not have a big priority.
