Miloš Jeřábek is Development Director of World of Tanks.
Source: Polish portal Gamezilla.
Translated by atikabubu
During the World of Tanks Grand Finals in Moscow, Wargaming announced ranked battles for tier X tanks. We used the occasion and a few hours later, we asked the director of the WoT Development Dpt. Miloš Jeřábek about them
Marcin Strzyżewski: I have to ask every tanker about this – how much battles do you have behind you?
Miloš Jeřábek: At this point it’s about fourteen thousand with a win ratio somewhere between fifty and fifty-one percent.
Q: I wanted to ask you what the next big thing will be that you’ll add to ‘tanks’. During the conference, however, you told us that it would be ranked battles. Tell us more about them.
A: What we lack in the game is an endgame. Something for players which already achieved Tier X. One of our directors, Thaine Lyman, says that a Tier X tank is something akin to a Ferrari in your garage. You’ll most likely not drive it for shopping, because your Skoda will just perform better. Ranked battles should be that exact purpose why you should take your Ferrari for a spin. The new mode is dedicated solely to Tier X and the best players who achieved this level. The system will be seasonal. The first season starts on June 5th on the EU server. A season will consist of four weeklong sections. During each week we’ll be divided into five rank, defining just how hood we are. To get points, you have to be amongst the best twelve players of the winning team, or the three best in the losing team. We understand that sometimes, a player will have a great match and show his skill, but in the end, due to various reasons, his team will lose. A player like that has to be rewarded. On the other hand, sometimes it happens that you win, but you were only a burden for your teammates. In such a situation you’ll lose a point, not gain one. By gathering points one will be able to get to higher ranks. By the end of a season, every player will be rewarded accordinly to their performance and the place in the ranking they achieved.
Q: In the new mode we’ll be earning a new currency – bonds. What can we buy for them?
A: The first thing you can buy is improved equipment, the second directives. Improved equipment are the items we know from the game already, just strengthened, more effective. Of course we’re trying to keep everything balanced here. Directives in turn are personal reserves, just bound to a specific tank. Thanks to this we will be able to strengthen our crew or tank.
Q: Will we be able to use these special bonuses outside of ranked battles?
A: Yes, we will be able to use them in all modes – random battles, clan wars or strongholds.
Q: Do you plan to expand ranked battles to lower tiers?
A: At this moment, we’re focusing on Tier X. Never say never though, because there are internal talks about it, but it’s definitely something we do not want to implement in the near future.
Q: The next big changeS which appeared in the game was the way artillery works. Now self-propelled guns fire faster, although they’re weaker, albeit they can now stun the enemy crew. How did these changes influence the number of people wanting to play arty.
A: From the beginning we knew that we can’t look at the data from the first two days. It was like a shockwave. Every player wanted to jump into their SPG and see what we did to it. At this moment, the data regarding arty usage is similar to what we saw before the update. Arty usage is just a bit smaller than previously. Previously, playing arty was a bit like sitting on a chat, because you talked more than you played. Now we sped up reloading, and increased accuracy and splash radius. Arty now deals less damage, however, the stun mechanics enable us to actually influence the outcome of the battle more times.
Q: Do you see a change in average XP earned by players playing arty?
A: We’re monitoring it all the time. There are differences, but they stem out of the fact that people have to learn how to play arty in the new reality. Patch 9.18 is just the beginning, since we’ll be analyzing the data and fixing the game continously.
Q: The other big novelty is the improved matchmaker. Before the interview I’ve read WoT forums and found player complaining that they ended up in 13vs13 games. How is that possible?
A: Such a situation happened in the first days after the update was implemented. Many people played light tanks and arty at that time, because those classes underwent a lot of changes. The game tries to make a match with perfect parameters. The best one is a team of 3-5-7 tanks. We also take into account the type of the vehicles. Sometimes, however, to achieve a perfect balance, you need to wait for too long. In such a situation the game lowers the bar for a match. The last resort of the matchmaker is to cut the player count. Such situations shouldn’t happen anymore.
Q: Let’s get back to the matchmaker itself. It doesn’t take player skill into account?
A: No, we definitely won’t introduce something like that.
Q: In ranked battles you decided to do it nonetheless?
A: I would be careful here. It’s not a matchmaker entirely based on skill, but ranks instead. Depending on your results in battles, you will advance to higher ranks or drop to lower ones, thus, you will be matched against peoples with the same rank. Everyone will be starting from scratch during a new season. The first battles will decide who goes up, and who falls down.
Q: I asked this question to Wargaming employees a lot of times, but you have to understand that I have to do this again. It’s important both to the players and me. What about Polish tanks? Did anything change?
A: (laughs) As soon as I saw Polish press on the interview list, I knew that I won’t be spared this question. Right now, our historians are gathering all data and projects, and the balance guys are considering all options. At this moment I don’t have anything solid, but you should definitely watch the news and wait.
