I had the chance to sit down with Victor Kislyi, the
CEO of Wargaming.net, while at E3 and he was very eager to tell me some of the new things coming to the World of Tanks, here are some of the things I’ve learned while talking with Victor.
“Everything is the same but it will be three worlds – one for each division.”
Three divisions for Ultimate Conquest - While the current ultimate conquest beta only has one global map, it is the eventual goal to have three. Not three different maps, but three identical maps. Each clan will only be able to participate in one, but there will be three Switzerlands, Berlins, Stalingrads and Londons. Each division will have different rewards. This will give the lesser clans a respite and the tougher clans a greater opportunity for reward. With different Gold rewards for each division, it will encourage the newer clans to stick to the lowest division, and the mega clans to go for broke, fighting over the massive mounds of gold that await in the highest. The divisions will all work the same, same rules, same landing tournaments and same time zones. And to those who have cried since day one about lowering the tier maximums for clan matches: “Maybe yes, again we’re still working on that and since we’re both dev and publisher we can experiment and try things and if it doesn’t work or people don’t like it we can change it.”
“Only see enemy names, not tanks.”
Fog of war for Ultimate Conquest battles – Victor emphasized this is his personal goal to get implemented; it is still experimental within development. Imagine starting a clan match, but not being able to see what types of tanks the enemy wields? You will be required to spot an enemy tank before it’s shown on the scoreboard. This opens up so many different avenues and styles of play, it forces teams to probe and detect which tanks the enemy has before rushing in head strong. With the current system, you know every single tank the enemy has, down to artillery. If a team doesn’t have artillery, your strategy changes. If a team only has heavy tanks, your strategy changes. If a team only has low tier or high tier tanks, your strategy changes. As it sits right now, teams wait to see the strength and diversity of enemy forces before creating a battle plan. Forcing teams to gather intel about the strength of the enemy first will change clan matches for the better, and I personally cannot wait for this specific feature. It is greatly needed. Worth noting – this won’t affect random battles, only clan matches.
Diplomacy and Mercenary systems still to be implemented – Eventually the clan wars will have something like a mercenary stock exchange. This will allow players to fight for themselves, for raw cash and for pride. While currently players and clans can only field users wearing their clan tag for ultimate conquest battles, the mercenary system will change things drastically on that front. Additionally, diplomacy features will extend clan negotiations beyond “he said, she said” tactics. Currently bigger clans can bully other teams around just by promising they won’t attack, but then taking back their word later when it’s convenient. When clans can sign hard paper Non-Aggression Pacts, then negotiations within the ultimate conquest system will have real consequences and rewards. Teams will physically be unable to attack one another after signing NAPs. Also you will be able to declare alliances, and move chip stacks between friendly territories.
“We also started working on the ability for servers to be in one eco-system so RU clans can fight with DE or US clans.”
One clan map for the world - With the future goal of uniting combat between nations, this will very efficiently determine which group of players is the best (or likely who has more players total). This future feature of ultimate conquest will finally give credence to its name “Ultimate Conquest”.
