A collection of answers from the WoT devs, first broadcasted on the Wargaming FM radio on the 16th of November 2018. The questions about the new wheeled vehicles (and new grass) were answered by Alexey ‘Iniaki’ Ilyin (WoT Product Manager) and Yuri ‘Yurko’ Fillipovski (WoT Balance Department Lead)
– The French wheeled vehicles branch in WoT will start from the VI-th tier. One of the machines will be available from the AMX ELC bis.
– In all, the line will have 5 vehicles, and of course a premium tank. The premium tank is already known. All the vehicles will have a considerably low amount of HP.
– Wheeled vehicles won’t be a separate class – all of them were classified as LTs and will be balanced as such. The matchmaker won’t make exceptions, although it will try to place two players within the queue in separate teams.
– The first shown vehicle is of course the Panhard EBR 75, an VIII tier premium. This is a known and popular machine, which was the base for the other abominations higher in the tree. The amount of work put into it is high, and that’s why you have choices of gun and turret.
– The IX tier will be the EBR 90 with a 90mm cannon as the best gun. The X tier will be the EBR 105. The EBR 90 was historical, but the EBR 105 was made based on modernization plans. We tried to make it as faithful as possible to the engineering project and keep it historical. We think that if the EBR 105 was made, it would look identical.
– From a gameplay standpoint we want to know what exactly the players want. We can’t just introduce a historical vehicle like that. An example would be the Kanonenjagdpanzer, which really needed that 105mm gun on tier VIII. We debated a long time which gun to put on the EBR 105, since this wasn’t something to decide in one session. The 105mm gun looks really interesting gameplay wise, as the crowning of the wheeled vehicle tree.
– The VI tier will be a 4-wheeled, 2-axled Panhard 60. It won’t have any new mechanics aside of the new ‘proximity’ auto-aim, where you just click in the vicinity of the enemy tank to auto-aim it. It was decided like that so that LT players starting to play wheeled vehicles have a smoother transition.
– The VII tier will get a third axle, and it will be named Hotchkiss EBR. It will get the new ‘boost’ mechanic, allowing to increase engine revs while stationary and gain powerful acceleration at the cost of reducing engine HP. Most likely two or three boosts will be needed to damage the engine to yellow state, and the player will be notified that it will happen.
– If one wheel gets damaged, the vehicle will move on. It won’t stop in place, but the mobility will decrease, and depending on which wheel gets damaged, speed or maneuverability will be further compromised.
– All vehicles will be AWD
– The suspension’s physics were written from scratch
– Finding the tier VIII candidate was a long process, but we finally decided on the AML Lynx with 3 axles and 6 wheels.
The more wheels a machine has the better, since it will gain more traction and stability. Starting at tier VIII the vehicles will gain two modes – terrain and city. Lowering the central axle(s) will be possible with the X key. You won’t be able to use ‘boost’ on the move.
In the city mode, the vehicle will be agile but slower. In the terrain mode the speed will be greater, but the stability and maneuverability will be worse. Which mode you will use is purely your choice.
– The IX and X tiers will have 4 axles.
– Wheeled vehicles don’t have good in-place turns like tanks, since the turn radius is abysmal. The players will need to get used to it.
– The new auto-aim mode will work using the same principles as the old ones, so it will definitely aim at center mass.
– The amount of XP needed to research the whole branch is similar to the light tank one (about 700k)
– Other nations also have the possibility of gaining wheeled vehicles, even whole branches. For now only the French ones will be introduced, but everything is still under consideration.
– By the time the wheeled vehicles are introduced on the live server, all map boosts will be disabled.
– The first big scale tests of wheeled vehicles will begin next year on the Supertest. For now we’re doing the testing internally, tweaking what we can to provide the best quality. We are in contact with players and we understand what risks the new machines pose.
– When the new auto-aim mechanic will be enabled, the player using it will have a new icon visible only to them for better visibility.
