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The Game Screen
The Game Screen
You can see me hiding here behind the rocks. Hiding behind rocks is a great way to prevent artillery from hitting you. Anyway, let's see what this screen is all about.
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The FPS (frames per second), ping time and lag status is displayed here. As a reference, my FPS runs between 50 to 70 on my desktop computer, but on my notebook it drops to about 30. Obviously the higher the FPS, the smoother the gameplay. FPS is affected by computer specs and graphic settings. On my notebook, I had to change my graphic settings to low or the FPS was too low and made it unplayable. My notebook specs is a Core 2 Duo, with Nvidia GeForce G102M (512 MB) and 4GB RAM.
As for the ping time, the lower the number, the better. Although I'm using a 5MB home broadband connection, my ping had always been around 260 to 300. Even if I connect from a cybercafe (in Korea), the ping time doesn't improve, whereas players from Europe have ping times of around 80. This indicates that your location plays a part too in server connection speed. However with ping times of 280, the game is still smooth enough to play.
Finally the lag indicator. Green means good, red means bad. Don't bother to play if its red.
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The scoreboard - in basketball style. It shows how many points each team has.
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The team list. This is probably the most mysterious part if you're new. Again I will not mention what is obvious as you've probably figured out the player names, number of kills and so on. What's not so obvious is you can tell the tank type by the color markings.
- Light gray - tank
- Dark gray - tank destroyer
- Brown - artillery
Another thing is the tank tier. You can see I'm number two from the top, and the list is sorted from high to low. Since a Leopard is a tier 4 tank, so I know I'm up against between tanks from tier 1 to 4. This understanding is important, so now I know this is my round to kick ass - so I'll actually fight in this battle eventhough I'm in a light tank. If I'm somewhere at the bottom, then I'll proceed cautiously, and will probably play a scouting role, coz I know I simply can't hurt a lot of the tanks on the list.
So why do you sometimes appear at the top of the food chain, and at other times at the bottom? Many players say its a balancing issue, and that's right in many cases.
World of Tanks uses a match making system to match tank tiers together - so a tier 1 tank never goes into battle with a tier 9. But I believe there is still another paramater, which I think is dependant on player's performance. I notice that if I do particularly well in previous battles, then I'd always appear at the bottom. And if I do badly, then I'd appear at the top of the list.
My guess is this is a balancing system, so if I've been doing pretty well, then they'd put me at the bottom so it becomes more difficult and I'd probably die. And if I keep getting my ass kicked, then they'd put me at the top of the next round so I have a better chance of winning. Thus, this evens out the odds so a player usually ends with up roughly 50% victories and defeats. Since I'm number two on the list, so I must have been doing badly :P
I find that its much easier to win playing with a low level tank such as the Panzer II (or Luchs), since you're never up against tier 5 or higher. But if you play as a Leopard, you can be matched against tier 9 and above (Tigers, Tiger 2, IS). It doesn't matter as much whether you're good or not - a Leopard has no chance against a Tiger.
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Shows the distance, player name, tank type, and health to the target.
To enable auto targeting, right click with the crosshair on an enemy vehicle. Your gunner will automatically aim for you. To disable auto targeting, right click again on an empty area.
Your remaining ammunition and health bar is also shown here.
Lastly the small circle, which seems to get smaller when you leave it alone is the aiming spread. It simply means your shell will land anywhere in the circle. This has to do with your gun accuracy stats. The more skillful your gunner, the faster the circles closes in to the target.
When you point your cursor on the target, the outline will be highlighted only if you have a direct shot at it. If you don't see the outline, then it means your shot is blocked by an obstacle.
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The chat system. To send a message, press Enter. Then type your message.
- To send to your team only, press Enter.
- To send to everyone, press Ctrl-Enter.
This was a bit confusing at first. You need to Press Enter first, type your message, then Ctrl-Enter to send to everyone.
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