Wargaming.FM interview with Slava Makarov

Thanks to Vlad for translating.
– Thaine Lyman is now leading our product group, he didn’t do tanks at first and we understood that he needs time to adapt, thus I was found in a dusty corner 🙂
The product group we founded started influencing the game since the beginning of the year.
– One can say that I influenced all patches this year, but not by much, though. Starting with 9.16, I had much more influence. I’m working with absolutely everyone right now. We have to fix legacy things etc.
– I haven’t driven the Type 59 for a while, need to try it.
– Sandbox should answer several questions. There are various end points which we can reach.
– We’ll do something about the in-game store interface sooner or later.
– We plan to fix many vehicles. It would be good to fix several things about Britain. There are ideas to change HESH mechanics. The Brits don’t work like we want them to, and we have to do something about it.
– The branch leading to the Maus will be worked on.

– There are extravagant ideas regarding the IS-4, but I cannot tell details. We want to give it – and other top tier tanks – their own mechanics to make them unique. The Swedes are the first step in this direction, and we’ll see if this works out fine.
– New matchmaker is a high-priority task, but will require quite some work.
– If we now introduce 2 SPG limit per battle, the matchmaker will just die.
– The speed of the T95 is being discussed. We want to do something about all slow tanks. But there are people against it.
 – LT branches are being worked on, extended to tier 10. They should come in 2-3 patches.
– Polish tree looks bad, not enough own tanks.
– There are thoughts about game modes, but we will not return historical battles or confrontation.
– Japanese Tiger is kinda meh.
– Why should we nerf IS-3?
 – We have a new MMO in development which is not in the 15×15 genre. If everything goes well, we can announce it before the end of the year. (Seb: most likely Excalibur if TAP leaks prove accurate)

– I never liked the renting of premium vehicles.
– Female voices are definetly no priority.
– Teamdamage will not be removed, I was always against this proposal.
 – Personal missions are high-priority and being worked on.
– We want to and will combat forbidden mods.
– I was always against tier 10+ tanks in the game and will not change my opinion.
– TOG II – you just don’t like the Implerialists. You just take the tank, turn on marching music and then it’s all right 🙂
– We’ll sadly have to continue to remove premium vehicles from being purchased freely. (reffering to vehicles with preferential MM)
– We had a discussion last week to promote players for battle count (e.g. rare vehicles). I won’t disclose the results.