Windows World of Tanks

sbarton said:

I'm getting 40+ FPS at 2550x1440 with all High settings. There are a couple of maps that are FPS killers that I'm waiting to get picked so I can see what they do to performance. I have a bootcamp drive (SSD) that I'm using with Parallels 8 that has Windows 8 64bit on it. It's pretty cool that I can use the bootcamp drive as the VM - no more installing software into 2 places.

MacPro 3.3 Hex Core, 16gb RAM, gtx680 mac edition (slightly over clocked).

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As I am not familiar with Parallels, could you explain this some more? You have a bootcamp partition, with I assume some version of Windows installed on it and you are accessing it by using Parallels 8 while running MacOSX? Or did Parallels create the bootcamp partition and then install and utilize the Windows programs there?

sbarton said:

I have a bootcamp "drive" that has "Windows 8 64-bit" installed that I'm booting with Parallels 8. Hope that helps.

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So you are running Parallels 8 in MacOS to access your Windows Content? Does a Parallels 8 purchase include Windows 8? Thanks.

Now that I've got Tier 7 and 8's I'm seeing more Tier 9 and 10 battles. It's not nearly as fun when you are a low tier and on the receiving end of a T10.
It might be my imagination, but I think the most fun is in the 4-6 range. I'm not in a rush to get to T10, as my imagination is that you can loose lots of coin if things go badly while driving a 10. I hate loosing silver, even if it is just earned in-game.

ljonesj said:

Hutn whats your whats your name in World of Tanks mine is larrywjones so you can fire on me lol i am in the first iteration of the m4 Sherman. the game is addictive

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Just curious what is your top tier tank? I'm up to 8's. If you are up at Tier 10, what do you think of battles at that level? Most of the time I play solo on the U.S. East Server but I am in a clan and sometimes do company battles.

PracticalMac said:

I have heard mixed things about WoT.

Big community, nice eye candy, frustrating economics and game play.

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If you want the long version read the "Money in a Free Game" section of the Macrumors WoT Guide.

Here is the short version, you can play for free easily up to about Tier 5 although your progress will be slower than if you pay the subscription which is about $9 per month (6 month sub). This gives you a 50% increase in xp and silver accumulation which is used in the game to earn/purchase items. If you want more than 8 tanks, garage slots will have to be purchased but they are cheap, about $2 each. Do not buy premium rounds. They used to require real $, but now they can be purchased with silver which is earned in game. But if you do this, it will severely hinder your silver accumulation for the next tank or equipment you want to buy. Although they can make a difference, I think they are over rated for the price/benefit ratio.

If you don't want to pay for the subscription, about level 6 you'll start to see loses of silver when your performance is bad, such as getting killed in the first minute of a battle. Many people including myself pony up the cost to buy premium tanks which are rigged by the game gods to basically always make silver, and if you do well, a lot of silver. You can use them to make up for your loses if and when they happen in regular tanks. You can buy a Tier 5 tank for about 7 dollars. See Premium Tanks. Keep in mind that with a $30 gold purchase $1= about 215 gold. So the Excelsior (British Tank), would cost about $7. That's reasonable. Tier 8 tanks are much more expensive, up in the $50 range.

As far as frustrating game play, it can be frustrating if you just charge into the fray. You'll get your ass handed too you. The game requires some tactics. The nature of PUGs (pick up groups) can also be frustrating if you end up on an idiot team, but you'll just have to try it to see if it suits you or not.

garnerx said:

The gameplay is the best thing about it. I don't think it's particularly amazing to look at, it's just a really nicely paced, simple game of hunt and destroy.

As for the economics, you have to play forever to get a decent tank crew, so that's not so great, and you can only skip a certain amount of it with real money.

For example, I paid to skip the first stage of training with one new crew, but the next part - the perks - has take me almost 400 games to build up to 98%. I think it will be another 40-50 games, just with that one tank, before I max it out and can pick another perk to train. That's a massive commitment of time. I'd gladly pay to skip that part.

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What level are you at? Just curious.

costabunny said:

Anyone playing on EU2 will find me as MissBunny always happy to play along if anyone needs a platoon mate

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What tier are you up to? If 10, what do you think of it at 10 vs 5-6?

Dirtyharry50 said:

If Windows is installed on a Mac using bootcamp, Parallels can access that installation on that disk partition and fire it up in a virtual machine while you are in OS X. This offers flexibility in that if something works well in a virtual machine, good enough and if not you can still reboot to Windows in the usual way. So you've got both bases covered allowing you to reduce the times you might have to reboot depending on the game, etc.

Parallels is also able to just create a virtual machine that you can install Windows into if desired instead.

Parallels does not include a copy of Windows. That's a separate purchase.

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Thanks for the info!

garnerx said:

I've researched up to level 6 (US arty) although I haven't bought that tank yet as I like the level 5 version. I've also got the level 6 TOG that I purchased for cash.

I quite like the look of the British tank destroyer that comes after the Churchill I, but it's taking forever to get the xp to unlock it. The grind is just ridiculous - I play for 10 minutes, have a good game and get maybe 500 xp, then it tells me I've got another 45,000 to go.

I think I'm unlikely ever to get past level 6 or 7, much as I enjoy the game. It would be better if it was like Call of Duty, where you actually have some hope of unlocking the really juicy stuff without having to play 10,000+ matches.

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You must be thinking of the Churchill CG, a Tier 6 Gun Carrier. One thing I've noticed is that game play does not necessarily get better the higher you go. Most frustrating is when you jump up a tier and the tank has the same gun used by the previous tank, and now you are 1 tier higher facing bigger tanks. You do get more hit points thought. The primary reason to go up is to reach some notable tanks. Now that I have Tier 8's and can lose 8000 silver in a battle (I have a subscription, if not I could lose 12000 silver) I'm a lot more sensitive to loses. The downside of playing T8s is that you frequently face T10s which are wicked tanks. Personally I think that playing in the Tier 4-6 range is more enjoyable.

Arty play is different. Not nearly as many tactical choices. Sometimes a challenging map due to obstacles. Mostly you just get a more lethal gun and longer load times. Other issues such as armor, speed, etc not nearly as important. For anyone considering playing artillery, the choices seem to be more accuracy (German, french) or more damage (U.S.) maybe others as I am not so familiar. One thing that bugs me about artillery is the load and aim times. I usually equip my artillery with a rammer and enhanced gun laying drive to speed up both aiming and loading. I currently running two arty lines- german and french. I'm currently up to a German Tier 6 Hummel, and a French Tier 4 AMX 105 AM mle. 47. I had a U.S. T3 Priest. It's been a while so I don't remember exactly why I got frustrated with that line...

Right now, my favorite tanks are:

1. KV-1 (Russian T5 Heavy), said to be the most favored and feared tank in the game, especially with its derp*, which may be true if you are Tier 5 or lower.
2. T-34-1 (Chinese Medium, T7) Fast tank with a big gun, reminiscent of the Type 59 a T8 premium tank which I want one so badly, but they are no longer sold.
3. T-29 (U.S. T7 Heavy)- great tank with that brutish tank look.
4. IS-3 (Russian T8 Heavy)- awesome tank, with angled plating deflects a lot of shots, and with a most nasty gun
5.T-34-85 (Russian T6 Med)- for it's tier sports a most nasty 122mm derp or a penetrating 85mm gun.
6. M4 Sherman (U.S. Tier 5 Med)- pretty good tank when fighting at your tier level with a derp. The Russian counter- the T34 has a fast firing gun, but if I had to choose between the two, it would be the Sherman.

*Derp Gun - (For those not familiar )A gun that causes a lot of damage with one shot, usually having a very long reload time and low penetration. Usually associated with short, High-caliber guns that load HE. Artillery guns are not considered derps (e.g. the 'derp gun' on the USSR tank KV-2). link.

garnerx said:

The reason I'd like to see tier 10 is because it's the only way I'm going to get a fair match. Anything else, and there's almost always a mismatch. If I pick tier 5, I'll either get a bunch of tier 7s that I just can't damage, in which case I'm cannon fodder, or a bunch of tier 3s that are completely useless against me. I rarely see all the same tier in a battle.

I know the tank tiers don't have anything to do with skill, but the matchmaking is just bizarre at times. I was playing tier 1 the other day, and one player completely dominated. I checked his stats and he'd played something like 6,000 games with the same tier 1 tank. He hadn't even moved to tier 2, so he'd become expert at obliterating noobs on these five tier 1 maps.

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Interesting what motivates people. Plus that does not mean he's all that good.

garnerx said:

You wouldn't want to run into him on Himmelsdorf when you've only got 20 battles under your belt.

I finally built up all my crew skills to 100% on the FCM yesterday, so I swapped a couple of camo skills for perks (paid money, of course). Having sixth sense makes quite a difference, and it's fun.

Now only another 500-odd games before I can see another perk. Don't know if you've played Call of Duty, but the way they hand out goodies in that game is so much better. You get something after pretty much every match, even if it's just a little badge or whatever.

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Played CoD a long time ago... WoT does give out badges! What does Six Sense do? I mean is it a real difference or something subtle?

Plutonius said:

The whole object is to get you to spend real money and it sounds like the World of Tanks is very successful at forcing you to do that .

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I would not use the word "force", how about "compelled"? They are very good at that. I only seeing you have to purchase one thing- garage slots and those are about $2 each. And honestly I'm not sure how hard it would be to advance above Tier 6 without a subscription. If you do well in most of your matches, it's probably not a problem. What really is a killer regarding silver accumulation is the complex equipment like gun rammers that cost $500k silver, unless they are on sale.

garnerx said:

Sure, but I'm a hopeless games addict.

World of Tanks isn't in the same league as Call of Duty when it comes to parting fools from money. After two months I'm in the top 1 million users on the leaderboard - out of 24 million registered accounts - so I don't think there are that many people actively playing.

I tried to persuade a couple of friends to play, but they were put off by the amount of time you've got to sink into it. 400+ games *in a single tank* just to earn a single perk for your crew is a daunting prospect.

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Regarding crew perks like Brotherhood in Arms, I'm just not sure how much of a difference that really makes in the winning of battles. I believe your crew will do things faster, like say reload the gun faster, and give you somewhat of an edge, but not that much faster. And I believe other factors, like the nature of your team, has a much larger impact on your win rate. I played a couple of days ago for a couple of hours and lost 80% of my battles. Got disgusted and quit. Went on last night, (when I can tear myself away from Minecraft a huge time sink), and won 80% of my battles. There is nothing like rolling through a map in your Tier 8 while dominating.

Usually when I find myself in a match with Tier 10s, I latch onto the top heavy and support him. The IS3 seems to be able to do this and penetrate! Such a great feeling.