The Second 'Armored Warfare' Post

It's done, and I'm back...

As the title says, this is the second Armored Warfare post in this blog. Kinda funny, actually... after all this time, there's only been one made so far... back in 2016.

One of the reasons for the lack of Armored Warfare posts was that I only play PVE modes in that game. The ping in the game was enormous; 100+ milliseconds, so that was enough to made me NOT want to try PVP or Global Operations.

So playing PVE only will result in endless loops of the same scenarios, as there's not a lot of content there. I mean, there's the Special Operations... but even those will have about 2-4 'campaigns' or parts, and will usually last for about some months before the next Special Operation batch arrives. All of this happened last year, though.

The normal PVE 'contracts'... well, there's quite a number of them... now, that is. Back then there wasn't much that was offered, about 5-6 contracts, and they don't rotate, meaning that you'll be stuck playing that same contract until the next day.

Anyways, enough of that... it's time for the test recordings that I did recently. The first one's gonna be the result of using the in-built battle viewer that's in the game.

That shot that was fired a few seconds when the battle started... that wasn't a 'real shot', as I clicked the mouse button at that point of the recording, which for some reason results in the cannon firing.

I might not be explaining this properly... but in simpler terms, that was a 'ghost shot', didn't happen while I was playing, but happened here in the replay as I clicked the mouse button.

There's quite a lot of missing features when using the battle viewer. Some of them might be really obvious, if you've seen plenty of World of Tanks replays before.

The cursor broke at one point, which was really bad... had to switch to another player to fix that. It also only tracks the player's movement when you go into 'sniper mode', where you're zoomed in to make more precise shots.

I guess the only use for this battle viewer is to see other player's perspective, and to also get scenic shots or moments... I guess. They just seemed to buggy for me... as in one of my earlier recordings, the vehicles sometimes would just stay at the spawn point, even though they clearly moving during actual gameplay.

There's more bugs than that though, I bet...

Anyways, on to the next video [which was recorded first]; record n' play. I play the game while it was recording...

And here you can see the immediate differences. Plenty, I can tell ya...

The obvious one would be the loadout at the mid-bottom of the screen; what ammo I was using at the time, the capacity, the consumables brought... y'know, essential stuff you need to see in games like these.

Then there's the dialogue in the game; you can see all of it. Everything from the tank crews, the tank commander currently in used and also the contractor's instructions / information.

Plus... the cursor doesn't 'break' at all, as this is live gameplay. Recording this while playing doesn't impact the game that much, about 5 FPS loss... from what I've seen.

So overall, record n' play wins. No surprises there...

There's a problem that both of them share, though... that is the mission info screen [or 'loading screen'] can take a long time to load when the game is being recorded. It contains some info too that must not be left out... like debriefing info and backstory, for example.

Not included here as this is just a test... end battle results were also excluded.

Downsides to using the record n' play method? Gotta record it juuust before the game starts, which means while the game is still at the loading screen. Then there's the 20-30 waiting time. This also means that I'll have a ton of replays piled up, eating away precious disk space...

Ah well, it's what I've chosen to do anyways.

Not sure how or what to put out next for Armored Warfare... I guess I can make videos about the Special Operations, but we're currently at the third batch. Well, we'll see what happens...

-Panzer Fist-

Multiple Tries, Same Results

sigh...

This is seriously getting annoying...

Well, I'm supposed to have something posted through the past couple of weeks, but that didn't happen now, did it?

Having a hard time getting a smooth enough recording of Armored Warfare, and I'm still unsure whether it's the computer or the game that's giving problems. I hope it's not both.

Just as stated from previous posts, the problems were video skips and minor freezes. Game ran fine even while playing (alongside recording) and it's at least better than using the in-built battle replay system that the game has.

I'm gonna leave the bitching for another time [or just not gonna bother with it] as I'm gonna see what I can do. Had some free time now, so now's the best time to use 'em... hopefully, it won't be long till I have something done.

-Panzer Fist-

Inactivity N' Last 2018 Post

A month without updates...

Well, this is gonna be the final 2018 post... and what a way to send it off...

Well, I DID have some posts planned a few days back for this blog... about 2-3 videos on Armored Warfare. Things just didn't go according to plan.

The in-built 'battle recorder' is wonky as all hell... not to mention that it takes a significant chunk of space on the hard drive... megabytes compared to World of Tank's kilobytes of a 'replay file'.

Oh... and to makes matters worse, you can only access the replays when you're in the game itself; you can't open it externally.

But the best part is yet to come... the battle replay skips frequently, and I'm pretty sure that ain't my computer's doing... so the only way I'm getting replays out of that game is the old-fashioned 'play and record'...

...A.K.A "fuck it; we'll do it LIVE!"

Hmph... maybe I should just record another game instead... too much hassle to deal with...

Also take the fact that I was busy from Christmas Eve all the way to New Years... things should be a bit better now, though... although that won't last long.

Anyways, that's my last 2018 update. 2019's gonna be a tough one; I have many personal things that needed to be done, and also serious problems that needed to be addressed and fixed. Oh, and can't forget about studies... although I have a good feeling that will end well for me.

It's been a really bumpy 2018... here's to a bright 2019.

-Panzer Fist-

2 Months Gone... Again...

Well, now it's on to this blog...

Argh... been gone for 2 months, and not even a peep. Well, no excuses this time, though... as I haven't really been playing World Of Tanks since September.

Felt burned-out, especially since playing the Tier IX and X French Heavy Tanks... not to mention the Caenarvon Action X marathon. Seems like I get tired/bored of playing the game after a few rounds, even when I had good matches.

Motivation is at all-time low... dammit. Maybe I need to try something else for a change? Perhaps that'll make things better; keep my mind off WoT and have something else to do instead.

Question is, what should I post here?

Metal Saga is still on-hold, as that requires a ton of time set aside to be able to work out... so that's a 'No' on that part. Armored Warfare might be nice... it's been too long since my last post on anything AW related.

I'll figure something out. Just need to get these busy periods outta the way, then I'll have some time to myself... hopefully. So it looks like we'll just have to keep our heads down till the next post... so until then, just chill... for now.

-Panzer Fist-

Long Gone...?

And now I'm here...

Just done placing an update over on the other blog, and there's an explanation as to what I was doing during September. Lemme just place it here....

"And now, the explanations...

So what took me +3 weeks to get just one video out? Well, turns out I ran into some "technical difficulties" when I finally had some free time to do the video edits/processing; the damn software ran into some errors that took me quite a handful of work to get it fixed.

See, I'm no longer using Windows Movie Maker for my edits... it's great, and provided me with the basics that I needed. But it also has a major drawback: constant crashing/lags and a significant drop in video quality once processed, no matter how much you adjust.

Been using another software, it's been a pleasure to use thus far.

It does hang/crash occasionally, but it at least it's not like... for every 30 minutes or so. Plus, I can do plenty of other stuff that I can't do over at WMM... it's just a massive upgrade for me.

Anyways, the problem that I ran into prevents me from even launching the software... so figuring out the problem is much more tougher there. Too many days spent doing nothing but searching for solutions online, making sure they're legit and not outdated.

I could just use WMM back again for video processing, but I'd rather not suffer through the pain I had from previous uses just for that.

Found the solution at last, but it requires adjusting some other software that the video editing software uses. No problem there...

...except that it broke plenty of other things instead. *sigh*

Well then, now we got a multitude of other software problems to handle. Plenty of re-installs and restarts later, everything seems to be working as intended. But that's not the end of it...

Nvidia decided to fuck up for some reason, preventing me from using it's 'record current game/program' feature. Then we got the computer's fan 'software problem' to fix as well...

These past two weeks has been a pain. I felt like a damn tech support, except I have questions, but I had to find the solutions myself and also fix them. At least everything's back to normal again... I hope.

Aaannd by then, it's already the 29th of September. Took about 3-4 hours to get this video processed, and was already late in the night [or early in the morning?] at 4 AM. Time to hold off the post till tomorrow, then..."

Now, I had nothing to post about for this blog during August; was pretty much just me playing the AMX M4 51 to get the Tier X tank. Finally got em', but I still have some ways to go to unlock the bigger gun.

The only free time I had during September was from the 14th to the 30th, and we all know how that went...

Was supposed to spend that time making a bunch of DF2 videos. There's still nothing much over at World Of Tanks, just still grinding as per usual. There was that 'British Challenge' that went on, but that's not too significant to post about; just pretty much play as per normal and you get to complete each stage as you go along.

Now the busy period's back, not to mention the upcoming exams. We'll see how this goes... hopefully I have some stuff to post once in a while.

Well, that's all there is to it. Unlocking that second gun for the Tier X will take some time, so only time will tell... so don't hold your breath for the next post to come around...

-Panzer Fist-

'Frontline Mode'

Ah... finally, some free time...

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.

Frontline Mode: Regulations

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...

-Panzer Fist-

Late July Update

And here we are again...

Busy with IRL shizz; school projects' been piling up and work isn't helping much, either. Whatever free time I have I spend it on Reddit.

Yep, that's where I go to now in my spare time... can't even remember the last time I've actually played any games.

But it's not all bad news, though! I managed to get the World Of Tanks replays recorded, at least. Already had one up on YouTube, and the other will have to wait till tomorrow as I'm freakin' tired already right now... 

It's 4AM here, I have classes the next day and here I am...

Anyways, this is just a late update to before the month ends. Definitely gonna get the next post done ASAP, when I have the time. So until then, stay tuned.

-Panzer Fist-