We talk of world domination, destroying buildings and burning your enemies to ashes!

Welcome to part two of our interview with Mike Zhivets, Technical Director for World of Tanks! In this part, Zhivets discusses fun topics like setting enemy tanks on fire, destroying cathedrals and conquering the world! Nothing "tanks" better than a tank!

ZAM: We read that you start out with a small, funny level 1 tank. How will it be funny? It's not pink is it? How many tanks can you eventually own in your garage?

Zhivets: You will understand why we call it "funny" when you start playing :). By the way, military history lovers, who form a very big part of our community, would eat us alive if we made those starting tanks pink : ). MS-1 and Leichttraktor look really funny and defenseless compared to other panzers placed "higher" in tech tree. However, the leveling-up goes extremely fast compared to other MMO projects and players can shift to better panzers and get out of the sandbox within a few hours of playing.

Your standard hangar includes five slots where you can put your panzers. You can collect all types of fighting vehicles available in the game from any nation. We give players the possibility to expand their garages and achieve additional slots. Thus, players can have dozens or even hundreds of panzers on hand.

ZAM: You earn experience and credits to progress. How does leveling up and buying things work?

Mike Zhivets: As I've already said, each player starts with the 1st level tanks as Leichttraktor and MS-1. By taking part in battles, the player earns experience and credits needed to upgrade their tank, research and buy a panzer of a next level. There will be around 40 panzers representing each nation, so the player can progress from MS-1 to a monstrous IS-7, the top super heavy Soviet tank of the 10th level.

The system of modifications works similarly to the pimp-my-tank concept. Every unit has about 10 historically grounded modifications to be completed in order to max out your vehicle. The player can change his tank's turret, tracks, engine and main gun. Thus, a heavily upgraded tank is completely different from what you have at the beginning.

With enough credits and experience available, you can buy new vehicles and place them in your garage.
Players will also be able to level up their crew members. Every tank will have a tank crew, and every member of a crew levels up individually. The way you level up your crew will directly affect your panzer's effectiveness on the battlefield.

ZAM: We read that you have a multilevel damage system and tanks will have historically accurate soft spots. Do these soft spots function like headshots, where one hit equals a kill?

Zhivets: We have implemented a very sophisticated damage model which allows using peculiar tactics against different vehicle types or even deal higher damage to a particular tank model knowing its weak points. The "softest spot" of every tank is its rear and ammunition rack. Hitting a panzer's ammo rack you can blow up the enemy straight away or make it burn slowly, making the enemy "dying" in agony. I should confess that it is a very nasty situation for every tanker.

The damage caused to the engine makes it work at half power; a damaged radio will provide a reduced communication range, an affected turret will lead to turret rotation rates decrease, etc.
The same refers to your crew - the loss of your gunner will lead to firing accuracy decrease; with your loader knocked out, your tank will recharge slower.

Some modules, like tracks, can't be knocked out completely, to prevent situations when two disabled panzers are stuck on the opposite sides of a map.