Thanks to squishystar for compiling all this.
Andrey Biletskiy (the Design Director of WG):
- Their plan is to bring back the majority of the old maps, in exception of „ancient”, perhaps rather problematic maps like Komarin. Working hours are estimated to be about 19 months per map, prototyping included. Making new maps from scratch like Minsk and Studzianki usually takes less time, as replicating an old map to HD per se can take up several months.
- Ever since 1.0 came out, they’re working on fixing „vanishing shots”, which tend to occur oftentimes as they were transferring the millions of rigid bodies (collision detection on an individual object based on the shell’s trajectory) into the HD maps.
Apparently this issue is caused when the rigid body was hit in an unexpected way, in other words from an odd angle, hence the shell appearing as if it vanished or hit something invisible.
An estimated amount of time needed to to fix this is undetermined, but according to Andrey, it can take up lots of time and the team will further look right into it based on the player’s feedback.
- Before adding any new nations, they’re planning to rework the UI of the tech tree as they ran out of room to add any more flags when the resolution is set at the lowest setting.
No timetable determined.
- They’re not planning to add any more SPGs due to the players loathing them.
Nevertheless, it is likely that arty will be seen as a part of the game forever and will therefore stay, no matter what. (cries in Swiss German)
Unfortunately no exact details on the limitation of SPGs per battle were given, as it was quite common to take lots of artillery into battle midst the world wars. (Can’t tell if he’s right)
- British Lights are confirmed to come to the game soon™.
As of now they’re trying to figure out how the tree is going to build up, if there are any new mechanics to add to them etc.
No timetable was mentioned, but I assume that they’re at least gonna be announced by Q2 2019.
- Swedish lights are also being taken into consideration, no further mentionings on that though.
- Wheeled vehicles, not all, but some are gonna have a mechanism where a certain set of wheels will be retracted with a press of a button (similar to Siege Mode), which changes the way your vehicle handles.
For instance:
Mode 1 – Vehicle moves at its regular speed.
Mode 2 – Vehicle moves at a higher speed, but doesn’t turn as quickly.
- Wheeled vehicles will be classified as Light Tanks and will range between Tier V-X. The reason behind the Tier range is that wheeled vehicles in the 30-40s weren’t meant to fight tanks IRL, which means that the odds of having the Lanchester return as a regular vehicle are rather low. :<
- The firepower of the wheeled vehicles will be slightly worse compared to regular Lights, in a way that they’ll hardly stand a chance in a 1v1. However, their speed can be advantageous to outrun/circle around the opponent.
Their view range will also be slightly worse compared to regular Lights.
- Just like a car, when a wheeled vehicle gets “tracked”, it’ll still be able to move with the majority of its wheels intact. However, it won’t move as quickly.
Hence, as described by Mr. Andrey, wheeled vehicles are meant to be aggressive scouts “that’ll be really hard to stop”.
The only thing he worries about atm is how “pesky” they’re going to be. (For obvious reasons)
- There will be a public test (most likely sandbox) specifically for the wheeled vehicles before they’ll hit the regular testserver.
No specific dates have been announced yet though.
- Flamethrower tanks are unlikely to come into random battles (due to the fact that they’re basically ineffective against tanks, in exception of Tier Is maybe), but it’s possible that elements like this will be introduced in future PvE Modes, namely replicas of real battles.
- Frontline is confirmed to return as soon as they figure out a way to have it perform better on low-spec PCs.
They won’t add anything much to it other than a few technical tweaks to prevent FPS drops, however they’re planning to change its economy a bit. (Yesh! ❤)
- Switching between different garages (similar to WoWs) won’t come soon, but is confirmed to come eventually. 3D customization is said to be at a higher priority right now.
No specific dates determined.
- Additional perks of having a premium account are expected to come “very soon”. (Oh dear)
I assume that the perks will be part of the next update which will go hand in hand with Shop 2.0. (Exclusive discounts maybe?)
- In terms of prem ammo, they’re close at coming up with a solution according to Andrey-kun, including some major changes to HESH-ammo, fixing the issues with the Type 5 Heavy (OMG FINALLY!!) etc.
As of now they’re looking for their colleagues at WoT Console/Blitz to see how their tinkering with ammo values has been working out for them thus far.
The first wheeled vehicle WON’T be a premium, but is likely to have its separate branch next to the B.C. 12t.
