New World of Tanks HD maps video

World of Tanks North America released a new video showing the latest HD map updates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOd65TpsLcY

Overall, I like the appearance of the new maps.  The current maps do look dated, especially at higher resolutions.  The new maps make World of Tanks look like a more modern game.

I saw the ship on the Himmelsdorf map and I wonder if its the Tirpitz, Scharnhorst or another German ship? If you think you know what class of ship it is, comment below with information about why you think its a certain German ship class.

How to change your field of view setting for 21:9 and other non standard aspect ratio monitors in WoT

The Ultrawide 3440x1440 and 2560x1080 monitors are becoming more popular.  According to the Steam Hardware Survey and other resources 21:9 aspect ratio monitors are greatly increasing in popularity.  However World of Tanks does not properly support the proper field of view for 21:9 aspect ratio monitors which can lead to the edges of the image appearing distorted and/or parts of your field of view being cut off on the top and bottom of the screen that would be visible when using the 95 Field of View (FOV) setting with 16:9 aspect ratio monitors.  When you use the 120 FOV setting, the edges of the screen still appear distorted.  However 120 is the limit of the in game slider in the graphics options.

Another issue is some player who stream World of Tanks play the game in a window and not in full screen mode so they can monitor the stream and have other streaming related apps open on the same monitor.  Sometimes the window size they sue for World of Tanks is a non standard resolution if they resize WOT to take up a certain space on the screen.

I found a fix for this issue that takes only a few minutes and can be done by using notepad.

Step 1:

Open file explorer and go to:
C:\Users\**Your User Name**\AppData\Roaming\Wargaming.net\WorldOfTanks

Full Size Image Link

9.18 Matchmaking Bug

It appears that not only are tier 8 tanks hampered by the post 9.18 matchmaking and only get to be top tier 15-21% of the time when they were top tier 35-41% of the time pre patch 9.18.  In addition to that, there is another matchmaking bug.

The tier 8 solo platoon bug has been confirmed to be on the NA server as well as the EU and RU servers.   If you create a platoon, don't invite anyone, then play tier 8 tanks you get tier 8 battles over 50% of the time in tier 8 tank.  Some players are reporting that they get tier 8 battles 100% of the time.  Post 9.18 tier 8 tanks were getting tier 8 battles about 20% of the time in the 7 PM to 11 PM time frame.  The bug more than doubles your chance of getting a tier 8 battle in a tier 8 tank post 9.18 and sometimes gives you all tier 8 battles depending on the server population.

One EU streamer did this for about 4 hours yesterday and got almost all tier 8 battles in his tier 8 tanks.

This bug also seems to work with other tiers with mixed results.

Wargaming management in Mink stated they are aware of the bug and plan to fix it.  There is no estimate on the fix time frame though.

My Evaluation of the World of Tanks 9.18 Changes

Wargaming recently released the 9.18 patch on the NA server.  The patch was released even after many players saying on Sandbox and Common Test that there are some issues they didn't like and need to be worked on.

Here are the changes:

• Reusable Consumables
• Improved Matchmaker
• Light tank branches extended to tier 10
• SPG/Arty Changes

Gaming monitors: 4K vs 2K vs 2K Ultrawide

Last year, I was shopping for a new monitor for my PC.  My 1920x1200 Samsung monitor was showing its age and the back-light started getting dim.  I looked at 1920x1080, 2560x1080, 2560x1440(2K), 3440x1440, and 3840x2160(4K) monitors.

After looking at all my choices, I ended up with a 3440x1440 100 Hz Ultrawide monitor with G-Sync and an IPS panel.  The ASUS PG348Q.  I went with 3440x1440 for several reasons.

My first reason is the ability of the human eye to see small details.  I sit somewhere between 30" and 36" away from my monitor.  With a 3440x1440 monitor at the 34" monitor size, the pixels are smaller than the resolution someone with 20/20 vision can easily distinguish when they are 30-36" away from the monitor.  At 30" away the human eye can see the equivalent of 0.222mm dot pitch.  At 36" away the human eye can can see the equivalent of 0.266mm dot pitch.  A 3440x1440 monitor is right on the edge of visual acuity for most people at that distance.  Now if you sit with your face 18" away from the monitor a smaller dot pitch may help, but if you have to sit that close, you may be blind and not able to distinguish the difference anyway.