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If you read the official forums you’ve probably heard about the XVM mod.    This mod shows you ingame, statistical information and gives a win/loss prediction.    I decided to install it this weekend and try it out.

First, it’s definitely a grognard’s tool.    It clearly has a ton of features if you want to dive into editing a config file like a madman, using a text editor.     I only got as far as playing a few games.    Took me far too long to figure out how to get it to work – I am doing this as I’m distracted by the normal family things happening when everyone’s home.    But eventually I started a battle, and found a screenful of extra information to mess with.

Here’s an example screen

(Shamelessly stolen from here)

Right at the top is a win rate prediction – which is done by either your tank, or by your global account.    They have a server that scrapes player data on a weekly basis, so you can’t expect to see this change during your session; and it apparently draws this info and makes the calculation.

Each player gets three pieces of information added to the screen :

  1. Win Rate (as a full %).   I’m 50%.
  2. Efficiency (As calculated by these guys) in battle.   I’m 1120.
  3. Number of games played (in k’s).   I have 9k, because it rounds up my 8830 games.

It seems like this is useful information to have in the battle.    If I know the guy hollering out to rush the middle with everyone, has less than 1,000 battles, he probably doesn’t know what he’s talking about.    On the other hand, the guy with 13,000 and 56% wins might have a point.

Seems most of the features are controlled by the config file you use.   I used a standard one that came with the download of the mod.   They use a color scheme as below :

  • Deep Red (Bad player)
  • Lighter Red (Below-average player)
  • Yellow (Average player)
  • Green (Above Average)
  • Purple (Cream of the Crop)

Properly cropped, shows all of the colors well

It’s kind of fun information.     As far as I could tell (I didn’t write anything down), the prediction was correct in my last 15 battles each time.    It might not have been correct when it’s saying you have a 51% chance to win – but always on the bigger numbers.

I played a battle on the Mountain Pass, and we supposedly had a 70% chance to win.    I rolled out along the north pass, and watched as five of our players promptly got knocked out, no enemy casualties.    But we came back – I took out four of the enemy with my SU-85b cannon of death; the enemy really did not know how to assault the north.   I assisted with three more, helped arty spot two, and we were rolling in on the base when I realized there were only three enemies left, five of us, and we were going to win.   And we did.

So much for saying I’d never use a mod.   If anything, I’m going to tweak my config file because I don’t love the color scheme, and I am unsure of the ranges (What does it mean to be purple ?).