hello everyone I'm Anton Vanko and today
my colleagues and I will tell you about
the development history of the improved
physics
we realized that we needed to continue
working on game physics right after the
release of update 8.0 it was the update
when we added the first version of
physics it went down well with players
tanks stopped hanging down from the
steeps so the game became more realistic
we implemented those physics and it
solved a great number of problems when
we implemented it we had an incredible
feeling of euphoria as we managed to
make such a high-quality breakthrough
which would never have dreamed of before
as these physics will be used
we started accumulating many ideas for
things that we can do in the future to
further improve the game we thought
about how we can make the tank anything
realistic like what people see in real
life on parades on the firing ranges and
on movies and so on
was what
we went to the tank testing grounds the
watched and shoot video references
then we watch those video materials over
and over to have a better understanding
of how a combat vehicle should move
in our work we came to the point where
the core for the physics was ready the
tank had already moved correctly and we
could adjust its settings using the tool
that we had developed specifically for
adjusting them the physics were very
close to real life it had a lot of
internal mechanics features that could
be adjusted any way you wanted we could
have any settings from the realistic
behavior of the t-34 in 1943 for example
to the realistic behavior of a race car
the first prototypes of the improved
physics were exactly like this we tried
to make the behavior of Tanks very
realistic sometimes to the detriment of
how the tanks behaved in the game on the
maps
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a very first prototype of the new
physics model was implemented as a
separate application it wasn't built in
the server but it used the physics
engine created for the physics in update
8.0 we started testing our realistic
physics we did internal testing within
the company and with the involvement of
anyone interested well those tests
showed that our physics are indeed
realistic but perfect realism is not
what you need for action-packed tank
clashes so sometimes the tanks moved too
slowly took a long time to turn they
could get started and weren't able to
climb Hills or get to the other places
they can get to now so we eventually
realized that completely realistic
physics were not an option I mean we
could easily have done it and you can
see that in our early version prototypes
the thing was that the players wouldn't
like those changes because the game
would have become much more difficult
for example it takes a while for a tank
with realistic settings to reach its
maximum speed about two minutes some
tanks would never reach their specified
maximum speed
so we chose various iterations of
settings prepared a small group of tanks
and sent them to the first non version
physics common test we gave players the
opportunity to try the improved physics
on the one hand we received a lot of
positive feedback and saw that the
community was very interested in this
but on the other hand we got a lot of
critical feedback most comments were
about the places and positions you could
now reach with the new physics the old
physics didn't allow you to climb some
steep hills you couldn't go there
players got stuck on those parts of the
map before so the new physics opened new
opportunities but at the same time
brought a number of problems to the map
balance there were a lot of comments
about passing through certain areas like
railway crossing thus and so on this was
what we had to work on well the first
common tests showed that the community
wasn't really satisfied with that small
degree of realism we had during the
first common test because realism is one
thing but the loss and dynamics is
another to a greater extent World of
Tanks is not a realistic simulator but a
game with arcade elements it has a
certain degree of historical
authenticity it was very important for
us to find the balance between playable
physics and realism finding the balance
between the physics visual perceptive
component and gameplay component
was a hard task that took a lot of time
but manually adjusting all in-game
vehicles would take even longer
there are about 1,650 different
combinations of suspension and engines
so to adjust them all manually according
to our estimates we would need four
years and since we didn't want to
postpone physics for four more years we
started planning to improve the system
and developed a new system that could
adjust and check any vehicle
automatically so during the period
between the first common tests or non
version tests and last version tests we
were developing the system for
automatically adjusting and checking the
vehicles so following the results of all
tests and adjustments we launched common
tests from time to time to check what
the balance between gameplay and
aesthetics was
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in the following iterations of the
common tests we took the feedback from
our players into account and such main
problems as aiming below the depression
angles when breaking we removed this
option then we started looking for a
reasonable balance and dynamics so that
players could still perform such
gameplay elements as baiting and the
vehicles were not too slow we worked in
that direction there were positive
changes but when we were running common
tests in September and after that we
couldn't find that balance between
enough realism and convenient gameplay
for players
we received tons of feedback we analyzed
it all then we launched two common tests
one after another within a week during
that week we fixed a lot of things we
didn't want to fix but had to we
readjusted that dynamics of the vehicles
doubled the number of research test
vehicles and launched the second common
test right away we knew we were on the
right track because the physics that
brought new features improved dynamics
used more types of terrain and allowed
implementation of new sounds we hadn't
been used before was accepted well by
the players it's better than if we put
players in a real tank simulator and
made them struggle against their own
vehicle against difficult controls the
vehicle dynamics and firing depend on
his control and movement so there was a
big risk of spoiling that feeling and
impression both from the game and the
improved physics in the second comment
test all vehicles were available to
players this test was accepted more
positively we knew that we had abandoned
full realism that we were moving in the
right direction but still there were
many annoying drawbacks players still
felt that the tanks weren't controllable
enough they mentioned some resistance in
controlling the tanks so we needed to
make the controls more dynamic but at
the same time we shouldn't make some
vehicle types too dynamic or not dynamic
enough so physics were ready for update
10.0 but
looking back now it's perfectly clear
that the decision to release the new
physics in an update 10-point Oh Rubicon
was wrong and we're very grateful to
everyone who pointed out our mistakes we
didn't just cancel update ten point oh
and replace it with an update using
another number and without certain
features the thing is that the players
feedback showed us that we were on the
right path towards the new physics but
we needed more time to make everything
work properly and smoothly the physics
available in the update 10-point Oh
tests was very raw with a great number
of flaws and bugs that we have now fixed
and if players didn't plant them out he
would have probably released those
physics and then heroically fixed it
afterwards
so we had more time to improve physics
and the players had more time to test it
in common tests so based on the players
opinions we made sure that we went in
the direction of game play rather than
make it completely realistic World of
Tanks is a project and many people have
gotten used to and we couldn't break
their habits or change them drastically
so in the common test we launched before
the release we tried to take into
account all comments that players sent
us during the year they were about
certain map areas you could now reach
with the new physics wobbling aim when
breaking lower maneuverability and
slower response when pressing a key
so after we launched the common test we
received generally positive feedback
most things that players asked us to
take into account were considered and
players liked what we did
the latest test iterations showed that
the current balance between the quality
of gameplay and beautiful tank behavior
gathered the most positive feedback from
our players so we released it in update
9.14 we'll see how players use different
maneuvers how useful they'll be and
according to the players reactions we'll
adjust and improve vehicle behavior a
work on the improved physics won't end
after update 9.14 we will continue
working in that direction we also know
about other issues that concern you
among the biggest issues are the team
balance the vehicle balance and
artillery we will continue working on a
solution to these problems
you