Almost a whole month without a post... what is it this time?
No troubles or problems, actually. Just putting most of my time into drawing practice and picking up 3D modelling, too.
Video was recorded back on the 8th of March, and edited on 21st. Really putting more focus on drawing as I'm more serious in doing it this time... so less thought was placed on updates here.
But enough of that... it's video time! This time we're moving on to Sham. Shouldn't be too hard, right?
On an unrelated note; YouTube videos in 720p 60fps are now not considered HD!
Sham; one of the easiest characters to play...
It's all about keeping distance and taking it slowly...
...yet, why did I play extremely bad all of a sudden?
Was supposed to be a breeze, but I didn't do any practice or familiarize myself with her moveset. Thought it'll be a cakewalk, and ended up playing really aggressively like how I normally would when I use Sora or Star Breaker.
Severely underestimated this...
Well, that nearly ended me multiple times during gameplay... especially when I let my Heat run wild, sometimes even up to the max of 300%...
Playing as Sham should be all about staying away from the opponent as much as possible, while using blockades to make it harder for them to reach you... and also spawning as much minions as possible, too I guess.
A defensive/passive character, but I played extremely sloppy. Quite a lot of misclicks and not keeping distance, relied too much on dodging instead of using blockades and barriers if they get too close.
I mean... constant dodging is okay, provided you're good enough to avoid all attacks... which I'm not.
Figured that the -BONUS- scenes might be a bit too much, so I won't be doing that anymore. Guess I'll keep this more straightforward like the first video. Plus, it's a lot more stuff to add for what may be useless extra weight.
Maybe a different take on the -BONUS- scenes, not limited to showing the different moves the characters have? Like bloopers or fuck-ups that happened?
Not sure about adjustments to the flavor text, though... as sometimes it's hard to see them. Might need to just make them like the standard subtitle style, so that might work. Thought about shrinking the video resolution to get that 'movie bars' feel going on, but we'll see how that goes next video...
A bit of a short post for today, as nothing much goes on. Will continue to try out different things for the videos, see what works best and what doesn't. Unsure when the next post is gonna be up, but I'll try to not leave it up for nearly a month... if I don't forget, that is.
I finally managed to upload the next Acceleration of SUGURI2 Arcade Mode gameplay yesterday... even though it was supposed to be done on the 29th of last month, and the latest it would be posted is on the 1st of March.
I'll leave the ranting and bitching aside for now, as let's focus on more important things... the video! After playing as Tsih, I decided to play with a character that requires a bit more skill to use...
Ah, Alte. Her backstory is rather tragic, and her arsenal of weapons is also one of my favorites.
That Shock Rod is MASSIVE.
A bit more advanced in terms of skill to play using Alte... but not that tough. She's an all-rounder, and most of her weapons have a slight homing effect...this includes the melee weapon; the 'Shock Rod'.
This thing's just amazing; medium-range charge, partial homing and to top it all off... the stun charges!
Her weapons are not that accurate, though... this is why it's essential to activate her 'Searchlight' whenever possible, as it helps make her homing ability function a tad bit better, and also activates the homing ability for some of the weapons/skills that previously didn't have them, like the 'Shock Ball'.
I'm guessing this is due to her having one functional eye... so the Searchlight acts as her second eye, perhaps?
Probably the only character in which I utilize every skill available, aside from Shield and her Accel Hyper move. Her skillset is useful for every occasion; missiles and beams for crowding areas, sentries (or 'Claymores') for area denial, support and barricades...
...her "submachinegun" (looks like a minigun/chaingun) is good at stunning opponents, and also for constant damage. The 'Shock Ball' Hyper is amazing at stunning others, and the 'Salvo Fire' is a combination of beam and missile barrage... which works much more better when there's a Searchlight.
The 'Shock Ball' to 'Shock Rod' combo is still my go-to when playing as Alte. Sometimes I'll use the submachinegun instead of the 'Shock Ball' if I lack Hyper reserves.
My playstyle when I'm using Alte is to use the 'Shock Rod' whenever possible, and sometimes stun them or create a barrage first. Seems to work quite well for me. Some of her attacks are rather slow to implement, though... particularly the missiles.
And now, the behind-the-scenes stuff...
What happened? Why did it take a week before the next video was out? Well, let me tell you the "story" that took place on the 29th of February, the 1st or March and also the 5th - 6th of March...
Firstly... after recording the video, I noticed something strange in the video, specifically the very start... the video would either be glitched green or grey for 2 seconds, lag a bit and finally the sound was introduced in the video.
What happened is that the video got slightly corrupted after the usual recording session, and refused to run on the video editor I normally use...
Video lags, and there's no sound...
So I had to think of other means of getting this done. Thankfully, I had a backup video editing software I seldom use... even though I bought it on sale during one of Humble Bundle's deals...
Notice the weird glitch at the start?
...I think it costs $25, packaged with other video/music editing software...
Originally wanted to just cut out the corrupted parts using VEGAS Pro 15, render the file and use it in HitFilm Express 14... only problem is that VEGAS Pro's rendering speed is abysmally slow; nearly an hour's worth of waiting...
...and then I found out that it will only show the audio section of the clip in HitFilm. Seems to do fine when viewing it on my desktop, even on YouTube when I tried to test it further. Must be some strange compatibility issues among the two software, or my inability to do stuff properly...
So then I was forced to use VEGAS Pro for the edits this time. I preferred using HitFilm as it was much more smoother and the UI made things very easy and fast to do. Another downside of VEGAS is that it tends to crash... a lot.
I had about 5 instances of it happening, and plenty of slowdowns when using the preview to check my works... that was not fun.
Then, the work was done and I just had to render the project! Except that I forgot to extend the project's time limit, and had to render the dang thing AGAIN... both of this alone took 3 hours. FML
By the time I was done with the editing, crashing, slowdowns and just me fucking up at the last minute, it was already late in the night. Or morning, as it was 5AM at that time.
The video quality was horrid during the first render test, so I adjusted the parameters to a visually appealing level (at least to me). This makes the rendering time even longer, and I did check to make sure it was using the Nvidia graphics card to do the work instead of the integrated one... as it will take an hour plus if I used that one instead!
Strangely... in my time of using HitFilm Express, ESPECIALLY after the version 12 update, the program rarely crashes. Exporting of projects also didn't take a millennia to get done and the best of all is that the previews don't usually slow down, unless one uses 3D objects or FX stuff... which I don't use when it comes to these types of videos.
So I saved it and decided to upload 'em to YouTube when I wake up after bed, which was yesterday. And here we are today, with this post. Recording was done on the 29th of February, tried some adjustments on the day after... and only managed to have time to get back to the edits on the 5th of March, as I was busy with work and classes... assignments; just 2 months into 2020!
Since I was using VEGAS Pro to edit, I figured I might as well make full use of it, making the video as similar as possible to the last one. The -BONUS- section was supposed to be cut out, but I wanted to try adding something different, to see how it'll look like. Not sure if this type of stuff will make a return in future videos.
But alas, everything was finished in the end. I don't like what had happened, I preferred to have all this done by 29th February or 1st March as stated before. I'm personally hoping that the same problem doesn't happen again, as when I record a clip, I would want to use it together with a video editing software that can make my work go by faster.
...plus, I'd rather not do another recording session just because the video got corrupted or something. That's gonna take a lot of space, and a retake would lose some of the things that happened in the original video... like obtaining the 1cc star, for example. I did do a practice match beforehand, but like I mentioned in the video, I had no clue what I was doing besides spamming missiles everywhere.
And that should be the end for the rants...
I guess I'll have to do more training this time round... as I'm still pretty stiff when controlling the movements, dodges/dashes and attacks. Seems like I tend to stop my dashes, then attack. Then again, I prefer to play defensively in this game as I don't like to get my HEAT up to above 100% if I can.More HEAT = more damage taken... and if not careful, can get you killed very quickly.
It seems like these 'setbacks' are happening waaay too often... this is some grade-A luck right here that I'm having right now, with how the last video.post also running into problems...
Alright, that's enough of that! For now I'll stick to doing Arcade Mode matches, 1cc'ing them if I can for all characters... this includes previous characters that I had 1cc'ed before the start of all this. So until then, stay tuned.
Hopefully the next one doesn't run into any mishaps... here's hoping for a smooth operation.
Could've been only two days actually, as my internet modem decides to go kaput riiight on the day I chose to upload the edited video to YouTube... what luck. I could've also uploaded it to YouTube immediately after editing, but the edit was done late at night, and it was already 4AM then...
Yea, yea; excuses. But enough of that! The first gameplay video of Acceleration of SUGURI 2, in the flesh... since I haven't played the game in a long while I figured I should do something easy, like an arcade match with a 'noob-friendly' character.
I wanted to play on Easy difficulty, but since I normally used to play the game on Normal I figured I should get myself normalized back to the old difficulty I played with... normally.
Nanora! One of my favorite characters in 100%Orange Juice, Sora and naturally in this game too!
A lotta rocks... a lotta damage!
Now, Tsih is one of the more easier characters for me to play, alongside Sham and Nanako... her playstyle is more 'direct' and you can usually brute-force your way through just by slinging rocks everywhere!
Random fact about Tsih: she's listed as 28 years old. A big surprise...
I don't usually utilize her stealth ability, but it does comes in handy when fighting against Alte... particularly due to her searchlight.
This gameplay shows how much of a scrub I am;sticking to mostly one attack pattern when it works, pressing wrong buttons resulting in wrong Hypers used and sometimes forgetting to use a mix of physical/beam/melee attacks...
In this game, your Hyper bar/meter gets higher each time you do an attack. So in theory, if you attack with both beam and physical attacks it'll go up faster than just sticking to one side just because it works. Yet I still stick to this habit...
When playing as Tsih, I tend to just sling rocks or bash them when the opponent is close... so I rarely use the beam attacks. Why waste time putting up beams when you can just hurl a lot of rocks?
Though having Hyper stocks faster is an invaluable thing to have...
Now that I have some bearings back, I can finally look into trying out other characters, or even start doing the Story mode for some of them. Perhaps try doing them without dying? I remember only 1cc'ing some characters for either Arcade or Story mode. The rest were done only after a ton of continues or were either played on Easy difficulty.
Oh... and "1cc/1cc'ing" stands for "1 credit clear" or "1 credit clearing"; same term as "no continues" used as your clearing the game in one sitting without seeing that "continue" screen which only appears when you lose.
All the characters' Story mode were done in Normal as to get achievements, but with continues used. Some of the characters in Arcade mode were completed in Easy difficulty, if I remember.
Well, now I gotta make a choice then... perhaps I will do all the character's Arcade mode first since I've already started things off from that mode.
I tried a different approach when it comes to the video edit, and tried to add some flavor text at certain times. Not sure if its good or bad, but I wanna experiment with things and see what works for me. So far it seems okay as it's not that intrusive. I won't do panning/zooming shots or inserting extra sounds/pictures as that'll be too distracting. Maybe the end/ranking scene could be cut off?
Well... whatever it is, I have some planning to do for the next Acceleration of SUGURI 2 video. I guess it's time to get a little serious with things now, eh?
Hey, look... it didn't take me more than a month before a new post arrives!
...even though I could've made and posted this 1-2 days ago...
A new game post, and that game is Acceleration of SUGURI 2.
AoS2 Logo.
Technically not *new*, as I played this back in July/August of 2019. Last year was the moment where I started playing a bunch of games from Orange_Juice... they've made a lot of really interesting games, and I never thought I would play a bullet-hell or even shoot 'em up games in my life!
A small indie game company...
Not my first foray into 'bullet-hell, shoot 'em up type fighting' games, as that honor goes to its predecessor; which is Sora. Before I go run my mouth about the game, I might as well show the gameplay test first...
This video is an old replay from when I first started playing the game back in July/August 2019. Not sure how my skills would fare now...
The game ran into problems when trying to record some game footage. The first problem was the need to use another recording software, as the one I usually use doesn't work with this game. The second was screen resolution issues; the game will run slightly slower than usual when recording, but changing it to 1280 x 720 instead of using 1920 x 1080 fixes that.
Anyways, back on track; Acceleration of SUGURI 2. A really fast-paced fighting/shooting game, kinda like a bullet-hell game but with some interesting game mechanics. For starters, you can dodge (or more specifically negate damage) incoming projectiles by dashing through them, but only works for non-physical projectiles, like laser beams... so anything like a missile is out of the question.
Dashing would also produce a 'rainbow ring' like effect which also has a purpose; any projectile that passes through those rings will give you additional power for your 'Hyper' bar and also heals any lost health... but only limited to the red portions only.
'Hyper' is like a 'Super Power' type of thing that you'll usually see in fighting games, and you can have up to 3 of them total. Can be combined with various attacks to produce a different type of Hyper. There's also the 'Accel Hyper' which is the ultimate move that uses 3 Hyper slots.
You can utilize shields in the game, but I generally don't use them. They'll only take half of a Hyper slot, though. Very useful for blocking incoming fire, and also to cancel out other player's Hypers.
Plenty of characters to choose from, each with their own playstyle. They're from the SUGURI and Sora universes.
A really fun game; very fast-paced but also hectic. I find the game to be easier than the predecessor (Sora), but that's probably due to the balances placed as this is a game with online capabilities... while the other is solely a singleplayer game.
This is the most recent game entry in the SUGURI universe, so its the most updated version when it comes to this type of gameplay. I'm slowly making my way through the games, though... so I'll be at a point where I reached the first game made with the same gameplay. Probably should've started with the older games first, but whatever...
My first exposure to Orange_Juice's games was through 100% Orange Juice, which I also started playing last year January... but I knew about the game waaay back in 2013 from looking up game background music (BGM) and original soundtracks (OSTs).
I won't go into the backstories of the other games and my history with them here... as that'll be in their own separate posts. Yup... planning to do the rest down the line, too. There's quite a collection of games to go through, but its not that many.
For now we'll be starting things off from this game. I haven't played the game after some time... so my skills might be worse than before!Well, not that they were great before anyways... always played like a scrub...
I'll try to get my bearings back into this game soon. So the next video would be my first gameplay after not playing for some time... I just hope I don't suck too much...
And also posted on the day where the update is already available on the live server...
Yep, that late. The edited videos had already been uploaded to YouTube about 4 days ago, and the recording was done last Tuesday...
Been rather busy lately, not to mention quite lazy and tired... and it's just the first month of the year! The workflow should lessen after January, as is the case since 2018; the near the start/end of the year is always the most busiest of periods.
...and when it comes to relaxation time/vacations, I tend to slack off a bit too much to the point of forgetting things...
But enough about that! This World of TanksCommon Test version brings us Russian Double-Barreled Heavy Tanks, about 3 of them to the Tech Tree. Obviously not counting the recently added Object 703 Version II which is obtainable through lootboxes. Such greediness...
A double barreled 112...
So, the first things first... the new line consists of 3 tanks, Tiers 8, 9 and 10 respectively... and they'll branch out from the KV-3.
The first tank on the list is the IS-2 II... and from the name, one can guess it's an IS-2 with 2 guns, or with a tutu. Unlike the 703 II however, you don't have the 122mm guns available to use, which is rather odd... considering that it's an IS.
Since it's essentially an IS-2 with another gun, the armor of the tank is still the same as it was in Tier VII... which is not a good thing. The 100mm isn't that bad and there's plenty of ammo to spare... just kinda disappointing that there's no 122mm gun, which I think they conveniently left out to make the 703 II more powerful... not to mention the superior armor it has over this tank.
And now, the IS-3 II; a Tier IX IS-3 with two guns... finally, we get to use a bigger gun!
...although it takes quite a lot of combat experience to get the 122mm gun, though... the last 122mm gun available, that is.
The first 122mm gun is pointless as it leads to nothing, not to mention it's not that much of an upgrade aside from bigger caliber and damage output. you're better off researching the last gun instead.
The 100mm gun still isn't that bad though. Penetration might be a bit shite for this Tier, but ammo capacity is still great... and yes, it still retains the large ammo pool for the 122mm guns as well. So one can have a healthy amount of all three ammo types!
Armor is so-so with that pike-nose hull, but turret armor is okay, unlike the glass double cannon from before. The tank is very looooong, too... like a limo!
And finally we have the ST-II. Pretty much the same tank but with an extra gun...
Now this tank, I don't enjoy that much...
Sure, it's somewhat historical... but World of Tanks threw that out of the window a long time ago. There's nothing special about this tank; it's like a carbon copy of the ST-I. Even has the same ammo pool that the single gun variant has.
And here's the part where I start bitching...
Overall, the tanks don't feel that special. Perhaps the most interesting tank was the IS-3 II, and even then I feel like that should've been a Tier VIII vehicle. The whole line feels very off...
You've got a Premium Tier VIII can clearly perform better than the Tech Tree counterpart, not to mention it looks very similar to an IS-3 but with a flat angled front plate... but at Tier IX we have a Pike-nosed tank. Although I guess that can be overlooked as this particular Tech Tree's focus is on the double barreled gun capabilities...
Hell, the KV line also has it's problems, too.. the last two Tiers specifically. The ST-I is clearly an experiment to an improved IS-4, but it's a tier lower. If anything at all, the IS-4 should've been a Tier IX like how it was back then.
The Tech Tree variant for the Tech VIII tank should've been something else rather than the IS-2 II, in my opinion... maybe the IS-3 II or something similar to the 703 II. The Tier IX could be the ST-II or IS-4 II (a made-up tank?! Preposterous!) and the Tier X... well, I have no idea.
The Tier VIII should have the stock gun as 100mm and several 122mm gun upgrades... sharing similarities to the regular IS-3 variant BUT no BL-9 to make it in-line with the 703 II. This tank will have its damage output go from 250 to 390 and penetration values from 175 to 215.
The Tier IX should have the last (or second last gun) researched 122mm from the previous Tier and some upgraded 122mm choices, which will end with the M62-T2 gun... making it similar to the IS-4 or ST-I. This tank will have its damage output starting from 390 to 440 and penetration values from 215 to 240-ish... shouldn't be as high as the IS-4 or ST-I.
The final tank should have the last researched gun as its stock, and perhaps a 130mm gun upgrade to really bring out the tank. 152mm is overkill as 750 x 2 is devastatingly high for a Heavy Tank as compared to 490 x 2. Perhaps the gun will be more in-line with the IS-7's gun, as damage values of other guns close to 130mm (mainly the 12.8mm from Germans) is around 560... still too high. Keeping the damage values just under 1000 I think is better, as RNG will and can decide if one rolls above just 1000.
Now this tank will have the 130mm's gun with better penetration from its 122mm gun, unlike the IS-7, more like the Object 277... because just 50 (or 100 if doubleshot) damage increase, but is offset with worse penetration sounds like downgrade... not to mention that it'll have much longer reload, aim time and probably worse accuracy.
Speaking of which... this Tier X will have it's damage output go from 440 to 490, and penetration values from 240-ish to 255+... better than the IS-7, but not better than the Object 277... somewhat similar to the ST-I or IS-4.
The ammo capacity will shrink when moving to higher calibers, as it would make sense. So for the final tank, one has to make a decision to use a bigger gun with better penetration or a smaller gun with more ammo pool.
Guess the most comfortable Tier would still be Tier IX, as all it's guns are 122mm, the same ammo pool throughout all guns and is just a progressive upgrade with no drawbacks or second choices... just a bunch of guns to research like the Tier VIII tank.
Well, at least that's how I see this mini-tech tree addition should be. It's somewhat mixed, just like French 'Heavy' Heavies; mediocre Tier X, an okay Tier IX and horrible Tier VIII... but with an exceptional Tier VIII Premium Tank variant. Huh... almost like a carbon copy...
Eh, whatever. I think I ran on for too long, now. Quite disappointing, but not that it matters anyways... the next post is most likely not gonna be World of Tanks, as I've posted quite a number of times that I wanted to try other games... just hoping that they don't fall apart like Armored Warfare did. Let's just hope it doesn't take me a month plus to update...
Ooohh boy, this just keeps getting better and better...
Well... if ya haven't figured it out yet, the damn Armored Warfare recorded footage bunch ran into some problems. Was working fine previously, but decided to show its problems again like last time.
I'd never asked for this... I'm still unsure if it's the problem stems from the game, the computer or both. But now I'm starting to think it's a little of both.
Reason? Well, another game that I decided to record worked fine (most of the time): Killing Floor 2. The game also ran into some recording issues before, but fixed when I decided to transfer the game to a portable SSD.
Supposedly, Killing Floor 2 would function better if it's placed in a Solid State Drive... and for the most part, there were improvements. One of the most notable improvements was that the game loading times got drastically better/faster.
A portable HDD was used to store recorded footage, as it takes the load off the CPU to do two things at once on the same Hard Disk Drive [running the game while recording footage... on the same drive]. At least now the CPU workload is split at least by half.
So... this is the only game to run into massive problems. Either a recent update in both the recording software and game changed things, or I might need to optimize my laptop better...
I did not go empty handed, however. Decided to make the best with what I've got... but I decided to upload one gameplay footage instead of 4, as the other two were unbearable to watch.
The first one had TONNES of stoppages, hiccups and lags... even though it didn't lag the slightest when I was playing the game. The second was just a black screen but with gameplay audio intact. Now who the hell would wanna watch that?!
The third one was the most "stable" one; little to no lags/hiccups, but the recording software decided to stop recording by itself halfway through a match...
I think that ATGM shot from that enemy AFV did something... must've been one of those high-tech "hacking missiles"...
Again, I wasn't experiencing any in-game lags, stutters or any of that... I just noticed that the recording was saved while I was playing.
The fourth one was probably the worst... the video was corrupted, but the game had an... interesting bug.
One hell of a mirage...
I think the ground is turning into glass from the heat...
Hell, this happened while I was in the garage as well...
Radioactive sands...
...as far as the eye can see!
Yeah, I pretty much gave up after I saw these...
I guess it's back to World of Tanks, huh? Well, at least that one doesn't give me tons of trouble... and I also have some Killing Floor 2 footage that worked out well, so there's something.
Anyway... didn't mean to rant there a bit at the start, but this can get pretty frustrating when it happens occasionally. Maybe I'll try some more Armored Warfare recordings down the line, but for now...
...it's best to just move on to greener pastures.Well, at least one that doesn't look like the pictures above, that is.
It's good to be back... and the videos have been uploaded as well to YouTube!
And now... Frontline Mode. It's probably the most successful [and favored] mode since. Too bad it's only available for a limited amount of time before it was pulled off the shelves.
Like an actual war going on...
So what's so great about this mode? Well... for starters, it's player count on the map is massively improved; 30 versus 30 players. The map's huge, too; the size is equivalent of 9 regular sized map in World Of Tanks added together.
It's starting to sound like Grand Battles mode, but there's quite a lot of factors which makes the Frontline Mode leagues better...
So to start things off; there's 9 sections on the map, called 'zones'... and these zones are roughly the size of a regular map in the game. Those zones start off with 10 players on each side, to even out the teams.
The teams are the Attacking team and the Defending team, and they both have their own roles and objectives in this game mode. Starting to sound familiar? Well, that's because we had something like that before; the '100 Years of Tanks' event.
Pure madness this game mode provides... was immensely fun, too.
Except this time you're not defending/destroying the Mark I tanks, but instead these giant mountain guns called 'pillboxes' in the game, and there's about 5 of them.
Both teams start out on the edge of the map; the attackers will try to capture a zone's flagpoint to advance to the next one above it. It's the defender's best interest to prevent the areas from being captured, as not only the areas cannot be re-captured by the defending teams, but the attackers will get bonus match time when that happens... and that's valuable.
Oh, and there's 6 zones available for capture for extra time and advancement. The last 3 is where the gun emplacements are located.
Now, you can probably see how this goes; the attacking team's objective is to the destroy these guns. Not all of them, though... just 3 will do. The guns are also spread out on the map, but on the other side of the map, away from the attacking team. So they'll have to work their way there...
The defending team? They'll have to protect these gun placements from being destroyed until the time runs out. These are the only way either teams can win/lose.
But that's not all!
Each of the zones comes with a respawn zone, and also a resupply point. The first one is only available to the attackers when the zone is successfully captured, and will be disabled for the defending team. The second one functions the same way in terms of capture, but serve a different purpose; it restores a vehicle in the circled area, refilling lost health... ammo, and also restores all damaged/broken components and injured/killed crew members.
You'll have to wait about 2 minutes after accessing the resupply point, though... but it only affects that specific point that you went to, so you can travel to another resupply point in another part of the map to use them again.
But what's this respawn thing I hear you say? Well, that's because you CAN respawn in this game mode... indefinitely, at that too.
Although there's a 'respawn token' system in place to prevent abuse; each player is given one extra respawn at the start of the game, and you're given another respawn token in five minutes. You can collect them up, save them for those riskier moves... but only up to 2.
There's also another thing that prevents abuse; if there's a large amount of players in one zone of the map, it'll immediately be blocked off for others, this is for obvious reasons.
Oh, I'm not done yet...
There's also this 'combat reserves' system in place which works similarly to the clan war 'powers and abilities'. There's a variety of them to choose from...
There's just waaay too much to list here, and I bet I'm not even 100% accurate with all this... so here's the Frontline Mode regulations link, for more precise information.
I urge you to go read up on it, otherwise it'll be confusing in later parts of this post.
And with the rules and systems outta the way, it's time for the replays! Unfortunately, there's only the 'Defending Team' type of replays saved...
Chaotic as hell, pretty bummed out about not receiving the General rank...
But what the heck... we've even lost the match. I wasn't even aware that I had risen through the ranks rather quickly.
A rather decent battle; nearly failed to defend a zone there, near the end.
The game mode was a blast to play... not only is it fun, but also rewarding as well. Getting prestige is one of the rewards in Frontline Mode.
How it looks like when you've reached maximum tier.
The prestige were not difficult to do as all you need is any rank above Private to get some points. The higher the rank, the more you get... so if you managed to reach Major/General almost all of time, then it'll be a breeze for you.
Getting the first prestige was good, and you get some nice rewards out of it, too.
Prestige rewards screen.
Unique camouflage, but it's actually a preset.
Frontline badge, bronze.
And when I say 'badge', I meant the ones you can place beside your name; the ones that are visible in battle...
Frontline badge, selected.
You can prestige about 4 times in the game; ranging from Bronze [1], Silver [2], Gold [3] and Maximum [4].
Prestige tier page.
The 4th prestige gives you a large amount of bonds; 1000 to be exact.Seems too tryhard for my taste...
It was a really busy period for me though, when the event dropped. Exams were approaching, and plenty of other issues kinda bring down the time I can spend playing this awesome mode. Managed to land a 2nd prestige though... just before the event ends.
Maximum tier for prestige level 1.
Updated badge, new set of camo presets and 100 bonds...
Too bad I didn't have time for another prestige...
Overall, it was a good event/mode. Wished it'll come back again sometime in the future, and probably a different map to go along with it, too. A refreshing change for World Of Tanks; and I fully accept it.
Wheew.... that was quite a post... wasn't expecting this much to be written! I'm also aware that there's another event going down, but it looks like I won't be able to participate in it fully... maybe I'll poke in a few times to see what's going down when I have the time to spare.
And that's all for now! Not sure when I'll be able to put up another post, so it's best to lay low; it's less likely to be soon... so see y'all next time...
Yep. This was supposed to be up yesterday, but I had other things to take care of...
Anyways, today's post should come as no surprise as to what it is... and it's the Tier IXFrenchHeavy Tank; the AMX M4 51.
That's the stock turret the picture has; the TCA turret.
So finally we get to the actual good parts of this new mini-line, and away from that horrible mess known as the AMX 65 t.*shudders*
Ugh... that was surely hell for me...
As you can see from the picture above, it starts out with the previous tank's upgraded turret. Getting the Tier IX's upgraded turret [the TCB turret] is probably a good thing to do as it's massively improved over the other one.
Aaaannnd without anymore delays, it's time for some videos!For the first batch, it'll be using the 120mm gun. The upgraded turret was researched back then, and there isn't any replays with stock turret as you can't mount the 127mm gun with it.
Plus, this tank doesn't feel complete if it doesn't have it's TCB turret...
Not sure if rushing in was the best strategy here, but oh well!
The tank's 120mm is similar to the AMX 50 120 or AMX 50B's gun, but single-loaded. It's quite accurate, and with 257 penetration at Tier IX really helps out a lot. Using it was a breeze...
Obviously this tank has those god-awful cupolas at the top, which are immensely weak... there's two of them, by the way. Many players only notice the one with the "searchlights" on them. This means moving around is a must to avoid getting hit there, or you could use your gun to block one of the cupolas... I find it extremely useful at certain times.
All of the armor is at the front, so the sides and rear [both hull and turret] are absolutely thin.Getting hit with High Explosive there will really do a number on this tank.
Typical choke-point city map battle; things got pretty clumsy at the end there...
Even though it has armor of a typical heavy tank, it's still vulnerable to High Explosive... even more if it gets hit on its sides and rear. The 120mm fast rate of fire makes engaging enemies more comfortable as you can put out shots quickly...
...and accurately, I might add. Though not the most accurate gun, but at least it's not derp levels of accuracy... or the ARL 44's level of "stop and shoot" type of accuracy.
And now we move on to update 1.0 replays! Hence why the previous post was about the Encore engine tests.
An epic game, with up to 4K+ damage! They didn't stand a chance...
The reload time for the 120mm gun can be reduced to 10 seconds, just shy of entering 9 seconds if you've got the right equipment and skills. Feels like an AMX 50B's gun slapped onto the tank, just without the autoloader capabilities... and it's great!
The speed of this tank is not as horrendous as the AMX 65 t... in fact, it can shift really well... and can even get to it's top speed with little problems. Useful to know if you like ramming vehicles, like theE 50 M.
I have yet to get this tank...
And now we switch over to the 127mm gun. Supposedly a naval gun, and it's the 'derp' or 'higher damage' alternative to the 120mm.Where the 120mm shines in high penetration,the 127mm has high alpha damage to back it up.
Time for some 127mm gun replays...
Another battle where we steamrolled the entire enemy team... it's rare to encounter such matches nowadays.
Now, the damage increase isn't massive... just 470 instead of the 120mm's400. But still, it can roll up to 500+ damage... if it ever does, that is.
The reload time on this gun is surprisingly not that long, only a few seconds more compared to the other gun. It does has the worst Premium Rounds ever:Armor Piercing with a minimal increase in penetration.
Another surprising thing is that the HE rounds aren't that good... you would think a derp/high damage gun would have enormous HE shell damage, but it's not that much.
How many Himmelsdorf replays has it been? lol
And now one of it's biggest drawbacks shows itself: the piss-poor penetration. If I was using the 120mm gun, I would've been able to damage the last enemy tank in the lower plate. Instead, I have to resort to other methods of elimination...
And because it's a derp gun, it also has horrible shell velocity. Easy to dodge in long ranges, and you'll have to give quite some lead to distant moving targets.
The 127mm gun also has another plus up it's sleeve: it has a larger caliber value. That means you can overmatch more armor than the 120mm gun... it can overmatch 40mm armor whereas the 120mm cannot.
So that means if an enemy tank's turret/hull roof is about 40mm [or even their engine deck/side armor] then you can just shoot it, and it'll go through instead of bouncing off.
I feel like the premium rounds are semi-useless: only brought some as standby for armored targets with no other option of engaging the enemy... like let's say, a well-dug in tank destroyer.
But even then, it might not even be enough to go through their armor...
So there's two different play styles as from before; the fast-firing and high penetration gun for snipers, and the highly damaging and larger caliber gun for close-range brawlers.
A nice diversity in guns, but since this is Tier IX it's okay to use either guns. The Tier X tank on the other hand is a different story...
It won't be long till I get my hands on you...
But that's a story for another day, as I'm still stuck in Tier IX at the moment. Was supposed to have about 40K+ experience, but it was used to get the 127mm gun.
And so now... to recap everything so far!
The Pros:Decent frontal armor, up to 180mm thick... which is about 200+ effective. The 120mm gun is a beast in all regards with great rate-of-fire, reload time and accuracy.Turret armor is also good, too. The 127mm gun can be a hard hitting weapon that can overmatch 40mm armor plates, which can be useful when dealing with certain tanks. It's reload time isn't that bad, either.
It's also a pretty mobile tank, for it's size.Useful for ramming lighter targets, much like the AMX 50B but with slightly lower speed. The turret also doesn't lose turning speed when mounting the 127mm gun, so it can be a nasty surprise to enemies.
The Cons? Well, It has horrible side and rear armor for both the hull and turret, so all the fighting has to be at the front... nowhere else. The massive cupolas are thinly armored, so constant movement is required to avoid damage there. The turret "ears" can be shot with HE ammo to deal some damage as well, much like the Emil II/Kranvagn tanks.
The 127mm's gun has atrocious accuracy, aim time and also penetration, which can limit the amount of things you can shoot at. The tank's massive size makes it an easy target for artillery, as anywhere except the front is weak.
And there's the infamous frontal hull "shoulders"... 150mm and any bit of angling can turn it into a weakness for others to shoot at.
Overall, it's a tank with equally great strengths and also equally great weaknesses. Although it seems to have more weakness than strengths at this moment. I won't talk about them here, but some of my old posts have covered it before... so I'm saving the bitching for another time.
And that's all for this tank! It's a joy to finally get to play a true FrenchHeavy Tank. Has multiple drawbacks, but hey... at least it ain't an overpowered piece with barely any weaknesses.
The next post will most likely be of one of two things: The Fronline Mode or either the Tier XFrenchHeavy Tank. Don't know when they'll be up, hopefully it doesn't take a millennia for them to be made... so see ya'll then!
Aaaand finally I'm back again! It's been too long.
This time there's no excuses; just good ol' fashion procrastination... been busy doing small edits using various editing software to make pictures/GIFs,played some Armored Warfare as there was an update to that game and plenty more...
But enough with the ramblings, it's time for today's post...
Well... this marks the start of the new French Heavy Tanks, if we're gonna continue from the last post. And the first tank for the new mini-line is the Tier VIII French Heavy Tank: The AMX 65 t.
French 110, anyone?
This tank... hooo boy!It's a pain to play, that's for sure. Technically, it's supposed to be the AMX M4 49 for the Tier VIII slot, but since they used that tank for the 'Premium Tank' slot they have no choice but to find something else instead.
What's strange is that they used a tank with a pike-nose hull. They could have just used one without the pike-nose and just buff the frontal hull a bit more, but nope...
It would be something like this... a massive improvement.
It's very out of place... and here I thought Wargaming is trying to eliminate tanks that don't fit in the regular line... I'm guessing this tank will be removed in the future... at least I hope so.
Aaand that's enough for the rants, before I go off too much... so let's get to the videos!
Not sure what to say about this particular tank, but I'll try...
Well for starters, it's got good gun choices. The 100mm gun is identical to the Premium counterpart; the AMX M4 49... but it has much better reload time. The other gun packs a bigger kick, but has longer reload.
I'm not sure why this tank has one of the worse speed in the game, but it does. Even after upgrading the engine it still trudges along at a very low speed, comparable to a superheavy tank.
And now, the next video...
The armor of this tank is pretty... lackluster, and that pike-nose hull doesn't help, either.
Let's say... it's like the 110, but with worse armor and a very obvious [and weak] cupola to shoot... and also that it's slow as hell. The tracks on this tank are very large for some reason, so I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing.
The second turret for this tank is strong, but has more weakspots than the first one. The upside is that you get to mount the 120mm gun, if you prefer using it.
The final video, now...
It's a bounce-fest up in this tank...
Yes, tons of ricochets, bounces and damage absorbed... but still, those are lower-tiered tanks. Tanks tiers VII and up will have little to no problems going through the hull of this vehicle.
My loadout of this vehicle will be the stock turret and the 100mm gun; played like the AMX M4 49. It's hull armor can cause problems but at least the gun's fast.
So now, it's time to recap the pros and cons of this tank...
The pros? Well, it has decent gun choices: the fast n' accurate 100mm or the hard-hitting and high penetration of the gold shell from the 120mm. It's turret armor is good, so you can go hull-down in certain occasions.It also has the gun depression to do that, too.
The cons.... It's hull armor is bad, and not to mention that it's a pike-nose design. As if the hull "shoulders" aren't bad enough, now there's this as well? No. Then it's turret cupolas are absolutely weak; lightly armored that almost every tank it meets will have no problem going through it.
It's a massive tank, so it's a easy target.Mobility's bad as hell, as it traverses like a Maus; just soo slooow... even the turret suffers the same problems, too. And speaking of the turret, it's aim time is rather long... even on the 100mm gun.
So it comes as no surprise that I only played about 40 battles in this tank before I gave up... "Gave up" as in "I skipped this tank with gold"... no choice. I like this tank line, but I can't stand this particular vehicle... The AMX M4 51 and 54 are the ones worth getting, AND playing.
But I guess that's it for this post. Next one's gonna be the AMX M4 51, and it's gonna much more longer [and also less abrasive] than this one here. Don't know when I can make it live, but stay tuned...
Well... now that everything's done, I can get back to posting...
Weew... been gone for 2 weeks plus, huh? This month seems to have a lot of stuff that gets in my way...
Well whatever. The're done for now, so now I can get back to the ol' blog. This post is gonna be the last batch of 9.21 replays I've been saving since last year, and it's all about the Tier VIIFrenchHeavy Tank; the AMX M4 45.
Think of it as a faster ARL 44...
This tank seems to receive a ton of flak, as it's not really an upgrade over the ARL 44. Well, that's where they're wrong.
Anyone remembers the old stock turret this tank had?
Time for a quick comparison! The ARL 44 has a much bigger profile compared to the AMX M4 45, not to mention that it's a tad bit slower to get up to speed. The last gun on the ARL 44, although a powerful Tier VIII gun, has really bad reload, aim and accuracy... you literally have to wait for quite a long time before you can be sure your shots won't go outside where you aim.
The AMX M4 45 has a bit more acceleration, better aim, accuracy and reload time... and it also has more health, too. The gun's the same top gun on the ARL 44, but I don't mind... it still gets the job done.
And now for the videos! There's gonna be 4 for this post.
That 1 HP moment, though... got real lucky there.
The tank's frontal armor is weaker than the ARL 44, which is something to look out for when using this tank. It doesn't have the exposed tracks the previous tier had, so that's something I guess...
Played extra careful in this match, and in the end it pays off...
One thing to remember when using the AMX M4 45; never be the first one to engage enemies. The tank's armor will not hold up well for that kind of engagement. If you're fighting lower tiers with weak guns, then by all means go for it...
...as expected from French Tanks in this game already; their armor is lackluster. Be a support fighter rather than the one to charge in head-on... leave that to those with the armor to back it up.
In this match I played it much more aggressively, and it nearly cost me. Luckily I had some teammates that helped to engage the incoming tide...
The frontal armor although weak can bounce shots well... if angled properly. Then again it only works against low caliber guns, so anything like a Russian 122mm shell should go through with ease.
The gun also feels and acts well in this tank, much more easier to control and aim then in the ARL 44 which requires you to sit still and aim for some time before shooting. Plus, that faster reload time helps when fighting multiple enemies.
...or for kill-stealing purposes, whichever suits your fancy.
It's always a choke-point battle when playing a Heavy Tank in this map...
The high penetration from the last gun also is a nice thing to have. A bit less damage than the other guns from the multiple other nations, but at least you can snipe with it.
It's best to use the top gun rather than the other gun with more damage... If you want to play a tank that deals high damage but with lackluster penetration, then just play the IS instead.
Again, same gun from the ARL 44... so that means no research needed. You still have to research the second turret in order to get the top gun, though. The health of this tank is somewhere in the middle; not too little or too much... more than the IS, but lesser than the Tiger.
So now... the pros of this tank; Gets up to speed faster than the ARL 44... it also has improved gun handling and reload speed over the previous tier. The turret is more armored than the ARL 44, so that's a nice plus. The guns are also carried over from the ARL 44, so no research needed for new guns... making the grind much less painful.
The cons? Well, same guns as the ARL 44 also means that it's effectively a Tier 6.5 tank with not even a slight increase in the penetration or damage. The tank's top speed is actually lower compared to the ARL 44, so that's a weird addition. It has much weaker frontal hull armor so it's much more easier to kill. And for the AMX M4 45, using the higher damage gun is not a good move... unless you mainly shoot Premium rounds from it. It's definitely viable when using it on the ARL 44, but not here.
And so that's all the stuff about this particular tank. Many hate it, I like it. This doesn't mean I hate the ARL 44 though... no. In fact, tanks from the B1 all the way to the AMX 50B are okay in my book, except maybe the AMX 50 120...
This does not include the new line of Heavy Tanks yet, of course. Those are all good, too... except the AMX 65t. That was hell.
This tank is a pain in the ass to use...
Speaking of which, guess what the next post is gonna be about? Well, I'll leave y'all to that... now it's time for me to get to work on the next batch of videos... so I'll be back when they're done. Until then, stay tuned.
