A recent trend that is starting to become an annoying habit for me in Armored Warfare is dying or the more frequent use of repair kits.
To me, a truly satisfying PvE battle is where everyone lives, all the secondaries are completed and I don't have to touch a single consumable to make it through to the end. However, with artificial opponents severely punishing minor to major gameplay mistakes through a much improved aim and a steady barrage of missiles, players drop like flies, including me. In the pre-2.0 days, this was almost a non-existent issue, but now, the stubbornly accepted norm.
I do realize that some of my own errors in judgement/overconfidence are the cause of my own untimely demise, but one can't ignore the game has changed a lot over this last while and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Still, I was given a rare treat in this particular sortie, where it felt like the hands of time were rolled back to something that felt like a pre-2.0 situation....
....especially given the fact it was in the tier VII Chinese Type 98....
It's funny when something goes awry, after taking it for granted for so long....
I am sure I have made mention before about how I film the Armored Warfare action for videos I upload to my YouTube channel. Most of the time, I click on the capture program during the battle queue screen and let it all unfold. Rarely, I will go back into the replay folder and create something from there, but it has to be something truly special or couldn't be saved under normal circumstances.
Even then, I do have backup options. My first choice and ideal program is Nvidia Shadowplay. Since my laptop has a Nvidia graphics card and drivers, just makes sense to use it. Easy on the system resources and framerate doesn't take a serious hit. However, there is an issue with trying to start it up if an update has been released and not installed (not sure how they do that) or if I Alt-Tab from the game and attempt to capture something after that.
The second option (and the only other one that works for me, despite lengthy testing with other programs) is the built in capture that come with the game. When it was first released, there were some issues, but over time, they have improved on it greatly. Imagine my surprise at the painful results when I ran it during this Challenger 2 battle....
Now, unlike some other folks out there, I don't fly off the handle and ready up a finger to point blame without trying to get all the facts together. First thing after the battle completed was take a look at the system resources that were in use (Alt-Tab then Crtl-Alt-Delete to bring up the Task Manager). Everything looked well within normal operational parameters. Was it a software issue? Did I miss an update?
My answer came in a almost comical way. My battery warning indicator flashed that I was below 10% of available power.
Let me explain here. Without going deep into the technical specifications of my Dell laptop, trust me when I say it is more than capable of running this game and multi other tasks, at the same time. For heating issues (haven't encountered them, as of yet) I was proactive enough to pick up a powered cooling pad around the same time as acquiring the Dell. Also, I read up on and educated myself on the increased power consumption of gaming versus normal battery use discharge, so I always have it plugged in when attempting activities in the virtual realms.
Which is all well and good, if the wife doesn't turn the power bar off, to save money while the family sleeps and/or leaves a note explaining this so when the household does wake up to compute, the power bar can be turned back on.
I guess that old adage about "assume" came into play and got me.
Today marks another update in Armored Warfare, but an incremental one. Read those details here. Coming in around 500ish megabytes, it will take a while for those on a slower connection. For me, about a half an hour (unusual morning slowdown on my end). Installation went fairly quickly, a noticeable difference over the last update of this type.
And with any other update day I have experienced, some folks are a little slow to download the latest version (school, work, aliens, etc). So I wasn't to overly surprised to find the upper tiers were lacking any serious population, but the mid tiers were most definitely occupied.
Why not try out the new changes with the sturdiest mid-tier premium I have?
I am not usually the negative type, but I do believe I have just experienced a culmination of everything currently wrong with Armored Warfare, in one battle.
Since my.com dismissed Obsidian Entertainment and released their revised vision of the game through the subsequent updates and patches, the game has certainly changed. And for some, not necessarily for the better.
Granted, they have added a few new vehicles, switched up the dealer lines a little and produced a few new maps, which can freshen up the situation a touch. But, the tradeoff has been some major changes that some see as being completely unwanted. I am starting to agree.
Take the Terminator Reaper, for example. First released as a tier VI premium Armored Fighting Vehicle, now it's a tier VIII Tank Destroyer. Those who saw the value of buying it then are enjoying it now. Well, some are.
The Terminator Reaper is suffering from the massive overhaul performed on the ballistic values affecting it's auto-cannon, among other things. Posters on the forums claim this and more was needed to "balance" this over-powered vehicle. I don't agree and I am not about to list of my reasons to counter their statements.
Instead, I will just post this video, letting this experience explain it all, to those who know what to look for....
I still have a long ways to go before I reach my original goal of parking a T-90MS in my Armored Warfare garage.
Part of the reason for this is I have been attempting to play it out in PvE mode, which nets much lower returns from battles. I have queued up for PvP sorties recently, which turned into nothing more than a very long wait for nothing, except for the timer surpassing previous benchmarks of idledom.
While others make their claims that PvE is "easy mode," sometimes I agree, other times, they have no idea what they are talking about. This battle, despite being on Medium, was starting to feel a little too close for comfort, with the artificial opponents making exceptional use of their pinpoint, nearly never miss aim. I have played on and created videos from my adventures on Hard, where the bot hordes over power us poor human players by their sheer numbers, concentrated firepower and variable skill levels.
I have seen, over and over, the case the true game lies with PvP, only human on human combat matters, period. Other than much higher rewards dueling enemy humans on a win, I am not about to argue against their opinions on which mode is better. However, more out of circumstance than design, I do know which one has the most players and the shortest wait time when I load up for a battle.
Before World of Tanks, few people had even heard of the Soviet IS-7, save for avid tank enthusiasts and/or armored vehicle historians (both professional and amateur).
Despite the fact that the real, lone surviving IS-7 is on permanent display in the Kubinka Tank Museum, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people around the world have owned and used the virtual version. To give due credit, World of Tanks has brought a lot of obscure and mostly forgotten vehicles into the spotlight of modern awareness.
When I played World of Tanks in the past, I would occasionally use my own IS-7 on the rendered battlefields, with mixed results in outcomes and rewards. However, I have long since moved on from that title, without regrets (I do miss some of the vehicles I have left behind). When word came down last year about the IS-7 finally making it's debut in Armored Warfare, I was thrilled. Even though it is fairly low on the tier scale compared to World of Tanks (a top Heavy Tank at tier X, compared to a Main Battle Tank of tier III), a lot of the qualities I had gotten used to seemed to be transferred to Armored Warfare.
Both versions have a main cannon that delivers a wicked punch, if it hits the intended target. Tough armor to challenge an opponent to aim for just the right spots. The list can go on....
For this battle, I am trying it out in a new role as a Desert Cruiser....
It would seem the latest event in Armored Warfare, the Storyline Campaign, has revealed some sobering numbers. Just over 500 players completed all three main objectives of the main event, 151 completed the Desert Rush bonus objective. Read more about that and the thoughts/opinions from the NA/EU playerbase here.
Far from being a definitive "State of the Game" sign, it does show a grim sample size from the current situation surrounding the health and well being of Armored Warfare. Although the 151 player count for Desert Rush won't change, the 500+ player count for the main event could go up, slightly, before it's all said and done.
Why such the low numbers? This could very well be a gauge of the amount of new/retaining interest the game has, fallout from the controversial changes to the design team and the content found in the last batch of updates. Also, due to the restrictions, namely the specific vehicles to be used, in conjunction with the with the limited gamemodes where those activities would be considered valid, many just didn't even bother.
Now, there is another bonus objective and it makes playing a lot more worthwhile, in my opinion. The restrictions have been relaxed greatly and appears to be fairly easy to manage, if one has the time to do them. Read more, including how to access the counter on the profile here.
And good things (depending on your perspective) keep on rolling in.
For a limited time, the tier VII premium Object 187 Soviet/Russian Main Battle Tank is part of an offer, check that out here.
As tempting as it looks on paper from me, I think I will hold out for a sale, or all the currently unavailable tier VII premiums to make an appearance )hopefully, both). In the meantime, let's roll out the Challenger 1 Wolf and see how it fares since the latest hotfix patches....
Without taking a serious look at my ingame statistics, I would confidently guess the premium tier V Chieftain Mk. VI Leader is my most played vehicle in Armored Warfare. Without a long and lengthy rehash of the whole history of how I got one and some of my adventures with it along the way, I can safely say there is something terribly wrong with it now.
If a person were to search the forums for comments on the Chieftain line, one would come across a lot of negative posts and responses. Right up until today, I would have just quietly laughed to myself and played on, collecting decent credit and reputation returns for it's tier. However, I am starting to see what they were talking about and sadly, have to agree with their previous and current findings.
Based on a recent development, namely the first time ban in Armored Warfare for yours truly, I have decided to rethink my whole playing strategy going forward.
First, my biggest mistake was using assets armed with highly inaccurate auto-cannons in PvE Hard mode. After reviewing all of my videos and replays, I have discovered I have dealt out a lot more "friendly fire" than I realized. Not one of them was an intentional, aimed shot, but the after effect of a ally moving to a position directly in front of me, ruining my bead on the target, coupled with a slow reaction time and taking that damage instead.
Going forward, I will only use single shot equipped vehicles in PvE Hard, which have a more accurate aim and offer a better control on holding the shot back if a friendly decides to relocate directly into my view.
Second, if an event or mission doesn't line up with my agenda, I am just not going to do them anymore. Despite the potential of interesting and mysterious prizes, my progress is getting sidetracked with vehicles I am not interested in playing at this time, nor want to get just to complete the tasks for an unknown reward.
My previously mapped progress offers up a real and tangible goal, who knows what I could have wound up getting if I continued to participate in other ventures.
Now that I have laid down my ground rules, it's time to get back on track with the T-90A....
Something I have read about happening to others on the Armored Warfare forums has finally happened to me. A one hour ban for....just read the reason above.
The story from my perspective, I was using my tier VIII M2A3 Bradley in another attempt to win a battle for the Storyline Campaign event. The map was Red Opossum on PvE Hard and I knew something was going to go wrong from the get go.
First, NVIDIA ShadowPlay failed to load, so I couldn't capture the battle as it was taking place in real time. No big deal, if the battle was that good (or if circumstances like this should happen) I can always restart my laptop and create a video from it. Secondly, one of my allies developed this habit of rolling right out in front of me, just as I was zoomed all the way in to deliver the most carefully aimed damage I could with the reticle bloom expanding and contracting after every shot.
I am quite sure they took a few of my shots at the first objective, since this is where they drove out from my right, going left in front of me. I was frustrated to say the least, but the battle continued. Then we moved on to the second objective and it's hard to gauge where my shells were going from my position. However, it was when the third objective had been reached and I just get into a decent position....
One of two things, either the player I shot at took too much damage and the automatic system kicked in, or the player reported my them-self, for ruining their good time.
Sadly, the replay option won't load during this "banned" period, I have tried a few workarounds to no avail. So, I will update this entry when the ban is lifted and created a video from my short time in that battle, just to see and share from a fresh perspective what happened.
***UPDATE***
While waiting for the ban to expire, I received an email notification about the incident. Perhaps my old eyes are reading it wrong, but I was quick to pick up on the accusation of being a "repeat offender," despite this being the very first time anything like this has happened. I have no doubt others have collected the very same notice, no matter how many times they "break the rules."
With the ban lifted, the very first thing I did was create this video from the replay. Although I can't remember how to zoom in, much like I do when playing the game live, it should be pretty obvious from the angles I have selected what actually happened.
At any rate, my participation in this phase of the Storyline Campaign has come to a close, partly from the aiming mechanics of an auto-cannon, especially the on mounted on the Bradley and it's current crew level. Although I could take the low road and try to put all the blame on the player who took damage from me, I am the one who is ultimately responsible for not having a better awareness of my surroundings and pulled the trigger.
Just a friendly reminder, you have a limited time in Armored Warfare to pick up one or two of the three offered bundle packages, containing hard to get special vehicles.
Despite the controversial way this vehicle made it into some players hands (codes were even sold on European versions of Ebay, for well above a fair market value), it seems the wait has paid off (literally) and I finally acquired one of my own. I have this feeling others have been waiting for this vehicle to make an appearance for purchase too. Question is, was it worth it?
For a limited time in Armored Warfare, three bundles packages are available for serious collectors or players who just missed out on acquiring these special vehicles the first time around.
As you can see from the picture above, I went with the cheapest of the offers, simply because it contained the two assets I really wanted. One of them I have been waiting for a very, very long time now.
I had this original plan of saving up all my Gold, adding more to the amount through the Daily Login and cashing in on a later Christmas/New Year's sale, a new stablemate for my tier VII premium Challenger 1 Wolf.
However, since the changes with Update 0.19, my tier V Chieftain Mk. VI Leader has been rather lonely. With the former tier V Chinese WZ-1224 being moved out and up to tier VI, I decided to now fill that vacancy by purchasing the rebalanced and redesignated ICE Edition T-72AV premium MBT, a vehicle I have been waiting for the opportunity to finally get....
I do believe the M2A3 Bradley, as implemented in Armored Warfare, is a very situational vehicle.
Based on it's current armor attributes, clearly it isn't a frontline fighting asset, nor does it posses the speed and maneuverability to race around the battlefield, surprising enemy forces. It's main cannon is mostly ineffective against the thick armor of most adversaries it will face, but it can still deliver enough damage to be annoying and if the shot lands just right, even cripple an enemy long enough to be finished off by an ally.
About the only real thing the Bradley has going for it is the missile system. Despite the long reload, even with a skilled commander to chip that time down just a tad, the fire-and-aim-to-target missiles can be very devastating, when they hit the right spots.
To make up for the severe deficiency in armor, I experimented with using cover on this moonlight map. All was going quite well, until I made that one, fatal mistake....
Another loose end in this post-2.0 Armored Warfare era I wanted to take care of was the final progression through the tier VII Type 98. However, it seems this latest update wasn't too kind to this Chinese vehicle, from my perspective.
While others complained about quite a few shortcomings with most of Zheng Fang's offerings in the pre-2.0 days, I did rather well up the line. Granted, the Chinese steel wasn't nearly as invulnerable as Western or Russian assets, but it was still tough enough for me to get most of my jobs done.
Now, I have grown disappointed with how the vehicles have lost some of their durability and battlefield effectiveness. The main cannon still hits pretty hard, but reload times turn glacial if the turret takes just about any kind of damage. And don't get me started on the armor, because lacking any advanced protection against anti tank guided missiles, the Type 98 specifically is suffering in this age of "missile spam" from artificial opponents with "never miss" aim.
It took three battles to collect on the Daily Bonus, The first two were frustrating defeats, due to the Type 98 falling short of performance and result expectations, coupled with teammates who exhibited indicators they were not interested in wining. By the last battle, things were looking very promising, right up to the end....
Now that I have completed ten victories in the tier VI M1 Abrams (making some pretty good progress too), it's time to move up to the tier VIII M2A3 Bradley and carry on with the same amount of action and results. Although I don't have the qualifying tier VII Leopard 2, I will make do with these two vehicles for this first round of the Storyline Campaign and collect whatever rewards come my way.
I freely admit (on numerous occasions now) that I am an armor-dependent player, meaning I use the thick skin of certain vehicles for aggressive moves, or help save me when I make a terrible error in judgement. Although this has served me rather well, it's good to step out of that comfort zone and experiment with different options.
Infantry Fighting Vehicles, the Bradley in particular, were not specifically designed for head on, vehicle to vehicle combat, as their designation clearly states. Although they can be used in a fire support role against enemy machines, their primary function is to offer transport and engagement protection for ground troops.
Since Armored Warfare doesn't have the simulated human element ingame, it's nothing but vehicle on vehicle action. While Main Battle Tanks are still at the top of the food chain, despite numerous updates to bring down their dominance on the battlefield, other vehicle classes have seen their effectiveness marginally increased, allowing them to make slightly more meaningful contributions.
However, the brawny playstyle of MBT's doesn't transfer well to IFV's, where brains have to make cautious use of thin armor and lackluster weaponry....
Despite the June month long Storyline Campaign taking place in Armored Warfare, I have still found some time to continue my progression towards my original game goal, the tier IX T-90MS. In this battle, I got rather lucky to fight along side not just one, but a platoon of two upgrades over my current vehicle choice....
An interesting bug or glitch I have seen in Armored Warfare before, Starry Night with a daylight sky. If anything, makes playing on this particular map a lot easier than the usual dimly lit conditions it's supposed to have.
My time in the tier VI M1 Abrams is coming to a close soon. During this Storyline Campaign, I decided to put in ten days worth of play in this vehicle, then I will contemplate on performing the same duration of taskings in the tier VIII M2A3 Bradley. Despite the coy responses to inquiries of the ultimate prize, I have resigned myself to use only what I already have, forgoing any desperate attempts to acquire other assets for some unknown reward.
This is supposed to be a fun escape from reality, not some unpaid job with mysterious prizes that might not equate to the effort to achieve them. At least, this is how I see it.
Here is the Abrams in a surreal lit night battle....
One line in Armored Warfare I never really bothered with is the Abrams. Since I am not an American nor never served in that country's Armed Forces, I don't have any patriotic connection to the machine and have never heard about any great battles it has been in (I watched the news broadcasts from the first Gulf War when I was much younger, containing snippets of a few in action).
To me, it was another series of tanks in the game that I was planning on getting around to playing, eventually.
However, with the somewhat tempting rewards through restrictive play requirements for the first installment of the Storyline Campaign, I figured now was as good a time as any to make some serious progress through this line, starting with the M1. Although I dabbled with the Abrams before in the pre-Update 2.0 days, it has certainly changed from what I considered to be a "unremarkable" vehicle into something a lot more durable and deadly....
One thing that annoys me with Update 2.0 is this big reward screen from the Login Bonuses. A minor detail, I suppose, but not completely necessary over the previous notifications.
Another annoyance for me is the way near-certain-victories have been quite literally, thrown away. For quite some time, I have noticed too many games came down to the timer on the verge of running out
and players putting a lot of faith in those last few fired shots to end
the battle, discovering they came up way too short on the damage rolls
to secure the victory.
One thing I noticed almost immediately with Update 2.0 for Armored Warfare, the visuals are off.
The most obvious example of this can be seen in the changes to the garage, but I picked up on it very quickly in battles. The best way I can describe this is watch a classic cartoon from many years ago, like Mickey Mouse, Bullwinkle, Pink Panther, etc, then watch a more modern incarnation/remake.
The same, yet different.
I just can't put my finger on the changes, is it the lighting effects, the detail changes, rendering speed or a combination of subtleties from all the above and/or other things I haven't listed. Perhaps, you can spot the differences on your own. Here is a battle, pre-2.0 of my IS-7 on Anvil this last April....
....and a post 2.0 battle with my Terminator Reaper from today....
At any rate, another thing to get used to, I suppose.
Update 2.0 has been received with rather mixed feelings in the Armored Warfare community.
To start things off, the garage changes. Pictured up top is the way it looks now....
....and by comparison, how it looked just a short while ago.
My personal opinion is that I miss the old layout already, but that feeling comes from seeing it, mostly unchanged, from when I first started playing, almost two years ago now. From my perspective, it appears to be a customized version of....
....World of Tanks Blitz.
Depending
if they change it again or back (I doubt that, history has shown that
Eastern Europe/Russian developers see any kind of programming "rollback"
as a failure, not a correction), it will take time to get used to how
the new user interface works and where everything is.
The size of the update was....acceptable and didn't take the full amount of download time as advertised, but the installation made up for that. After the sitting and watching for 30 minutes, I wondered off to do something else
Next up is the highly anticipated arrival of the Storyline Campaign. The buildup for this event was definitely well teased and now that it's here, many are not too happy with the restrictions and initial rewards. To add insult to injury for some, there is an option to "buy your way into" if a player doesn't have the assets to qualify through normal, progressive gameplay, check out that bombshell here.
Despite the visual and interactive changes, the one thing I was most curious to see was how the game would play now. I dusted off my M1 Abrams (acquired back when I gambled on getting a free, premium XM1) and took off for a battle that would qualify me for the Storyline Campaign....
