Tuesday, November 14, 2017

'Halloween 2017'

It's been two weeks too long...

There haven't been any updates or post last two weeks as I was busy scrounging replays for the past two weeks. Old replays recorded before the Halloween update and also some replays from the actual Halloween event as well... quite a lot gathered, and I'm gonna start with the Halloween Event first.

Looks like this year's Halloween event is much more than just a re-skinned garage. No, this time we get something new that hasn't been seen [or implemented] before in World Of Tanks.

Well, technically there were some things that got re-skinned for the event... it's only the map Kharkov [known as 'Dark Crucible' for the Halloween version] and two old tanks somewhat HD'ed for the new game modes and activities.

What are these "two old tanks", you ask? Well, they are the FCM F1 and the Char 2C... and they are actually in the game files since 2012...

Old FCM F1.

Old Char 2C

That's how they looked like back then... but now, they have been revamped! Even has a special mechanic to these tanks, too.

New FCM F1, called "Franken" in-game.
New Char 2C, called "Stein" in-game.
The "new mechanics" the two tanks have are the multi-turret support. Yes, they now can use both guns! The "Franken" has a quick-loading secondary gun while the "Stein" has a rather slow-loading secondary gun, but it's a 4-shot autoloader.

Best part is that they use up no ammo, nor do you have to buy any to use them. The secondary guns follow your crosshair as normal but fires using the "Q" key, or you could double-tap the Left Mouse Button to fire both guns at the same time.

As you can probably see from the tanks, their guns function like battleships. Playing the Franken was rather straightforward while the Stein requires a bit of know-how to play it properly.

So, no more stalling and let's get right into the replays. There's the usual 15 vs 15 battles, but using only these two vehicles only. Pretty fun, probably because of the lack of arty.


A bit of a messy gameplay, but what can you expect from a City Map Slugfest...


And those were the usual battles... but we're not done yet. Oh no... you see, the multi-turret support was just the beginning. They have actually brought up another new mode for the players during this Halloween period, and that is PVE.

Yep, you don't have to check your eyes... it's really PVE mode for World Of Tanks!

It even has a little story to it... but at the center of PVE mode lies a PVE BOSS that you will have to fight alongside other 6 players to kill, and it's the "Leviathan".

In case you're wondering which one's the Leviathan, it's the big one in the middle.

Take that Stein to the side of it as comparison... it's HUGE. It's not a P1000 Ratte, but more like a German-made Ultra Sherman Jumbo? 'cause that's what it definitely looks like.

So, this boss has plenty of guns to cover it's sides and rear. It even has "mine launchers" that shoots an orb-like particle on the ground and explodes if you ran through them, stunning you BUT also locks you in place until the stun duration wears off.

The main cannon on the Leviathan actually switches between High Explosive and Armor Piercing depending on where it's aiming at the players, so it has some level of AI going on over there. But that's not all, as this tank has "minions" scattered all over the map as well... about 14 of them.

You could ignore them as the objective is to eliminate the Leviathan, but minions destroyed drops a "health pickup" that you can use to heal 350 HP for yourself and everyone alive on your team. Useful when fighting the boss tank.

 But the PVE boss itself also has an objective, and that is to reach the "gateway to the mortal realm". It's like a modified 'Convoy Mode' a year back with the '100 Years of Tanks' event... so essentially you and your team are the good [dead] guys stopping the 'Gatekeeper of Tank-Underworld' from getting to the real world to wreck havoc...

So that means you and your team will have to destroy the Leviathan before he reaches this "gate". It's not that hard to take him down, but you'll need a team that knows how to deal with the boss... otherwise, it's failure for you... kinda like how one of first playthroughs in PVE went.


But the tactic is simple; kill only the minions that get in your way to Leviathan and focus fire on the boss from that point onward. Leave the health pickups for dire situations and everything should go well.

Heck, you might even be able to personally land the killing blow yourself if your play right.


But I'm still not done, as during the whole Halloween period you can do simple tasks to earn rewards! They come in these "sarcophagus" and can give you simple things like credits or consumables to expensive items like equipment.

The crew is not transferable, though... so you can't use your own crew as the tanks has their own unique crew members.

All in all, it's a great event with some new mechanics to show. Too bad it won't be used again, as this is pretty much the same as the '100 Years of Tanks' event; wheeled vehicles and 'Convoy Mode' used once and never seen again.

Sad, seeing how they can attract a lot of new players and make a fully dedicated 'PVE Mode'... but that ain't happening.

And that was pretty much everything on this year's Halloween event. I still have plenty other videos to edit and upload, but the next post will be a regular one with no videos of any kind. Just a "discussion", if you will. So stay tune for the next post.

-Panzer Fist-
The Alien