economy May 2023 Economic Changes Summary and Findings (With Excel Sheet!)

[GrunnyG 5]

I know it's not one match that matters.  My point was that unless you are really good or have a really good game, you start losing SL every time you play.  And to answer your question, I average about 1K silver lions in my high tier games net profit.  But that's assuming I don't get spawn camped, or if I can manage to down at least one plane or tank a game.

[SKurj 234]

32 minutes ago, GrunnyG said:

I know it's not one match that matters.  My point was that unless you are really good or have a really good game, you start losing SL every time you play.  And to answer your question, I average about 1K silver lions in my high tier games net profit.  But that's assuming I don't get spawn camped, or if I can manage to down at least one plane or tank a game.

 

so do you play lower tiers to save up SL? or play other modes etc?  that is required, premium acct or not...

[wintah 302]

Maybe Dev's should play British GF RB at 8.3 to see the reality of their formula . . . and yes  . . with the lowtier malus which we get !

All other nations in the range and above have significantly lower repair costs and i dont think brit 8.3 Tanks are so evil to explain these higher repair costs.

[SkyesRain7 4]

11 hours ago, Waelse said:

It's same IRL - powerful and advanced vehicles cost more.

Mass production vehicles must have low cost. But things like the Mouse must cost 100 000 to repair, but also must have relatively low br based on service era.

this is not real life this is a video game *face palm*

[wintah 302]

18 hours ago, 暮光闪闪 said:

Maintenance cost system is not reasonable at all and should be cancelled, it makes common players have large probability to lose sliver lions after a battle. It is not proper if the award of a kill can't afford the maintenance cost . What's more, the income of each battle can't afford the price of the new vehicle. Also, the income and award of this game is being reduced all the time, the income of the contract is halved, the vehicle of the battlepass is one less now. Players in the battle now get fewer scores as before and get less reward after each battle. And I can't understand why don't make players earn sliver lions easily.

You have to buy SL or Premiums , thats the idea behind this Formula

[SkyesRain7 4]

10 hours ago, Cpt_Bel_V said:

Repair cost only need to get 30% reductuion across the board...

 

The rest is fine, as it's not the rounds that are increase the cost.

i would be totally okay with a huge reduction to the repair costs across the board if they were to stay in the game that is my only other option that should be done

[WinstonWolfe 326]

Gaijin want to sell more premiums, today premium time not helping much. 

[Cpt_Bel_V 4,790]

1 hour ago, WinstonWolfe said:

Gaijin want to sell more premiums, today premium time not helping much. 

Well if you struggle with premium time, i have to ask you to try 6 months without it, and 6 with it. ^^"

[_RemiliaScarlet__ 355]

20 hours ago, Waelse said:

If repair costs are removed, peoples will use only the most powerful vehicles. OP vehicles must have high repair costs, but based on their technical data, not the effectiveness. 

 

A couple issues with this post.

 

Firstly, discouraging people from playing a vehicle with an economic punishment is not reasonable balance. BR adjustments and nerfs/buffs to the actual traits of the vehicle are.

 

Secondly, the repair economy doesn't just affect the strongest machines, it hits everything, meaning that in order to make a profit, you will need to play in a manner some would refer to as "sweaty", utilizing only the best tactics, using the best vehicles, and playing as competitively as you possibly can, and only spawning in once if the battle looks unfavorable for your earnings, or not even spawning in at all and taking the crew lock. This ensures only the top vehicles and nations will ever be regularly played, this is most evident at top tier.

[星空高过天陶德胜亲爹ATAT 6]

21 hours ago, Waelse said:

If repair costs are removed, peoples will use only the most powerful vehicles. OP vehicles must have high repair costs, but based on their technical data, not the effectiveness.

In the new plan, the BR maintenance fee for T80BVM is 8437, while the BR maintenance fee for Ariette AMV is 8580. It is a joke to limit OP vehicles with maintenance fees. And no matter how high the price of OP vehicles is, the majority will still play with them. Maintenance cost systems often only restrict players from trying interesting but not powerful vehicles, or vehicles they love but are not strong in the game.
Limiting OP vehicles should start with the vehicle itself or BR, rather than causing players to lose more SL (and they have not even achieved this now).

[WinstonWolfe 326]

Top tier plane 1M, expert crew 1M, modifications not sure but around 500K+, slot 300K. To me this looks like months playing non premium lineup, even with premium time. And don't forget that some battles come with negative balance.

 

Income is going down with every patch, this is really big problem.

[AP1028 2]

I agree. 

It seems that Gaijin intentionally makes the economy at higher tiers terrible to make money from premium time and vehicles. An average player with a K/D of 1 cannot break even without premium time at higher tiers.

But that is not fun for anyone. If they want to make money, why can't they just make money by setting a paywall for these vehicles instead of making it seems "playable" at first glance?

I wish they could just put a single paywall for the game or all the vehicles above Rank IV and remove the repair cost so I can use any vehicle I like in any battle freely without worrying about the repair cost.

Removing the repair cost certainly creates small problems like players using their vehicles recklessly such as Kamikazing enemy planes, but it eliminates player's anxiety about repair costs and makes the game more fun.

[Von_Luck 25]

The economy is awful in this game but they are making so much money that it doesn't matter if they run off customers. I've introduce lots of people to the game and they never stick around once they realize how bad the grind is and that they will never catch up or play more than one nation in their life time.

[FlanChan 41]

The grind is absurd, but what baffles me is they're only making it worse? I can only assume thanks to insights they found that there are like a significant (like 10% or something) total players (really old ones) that have like everything researched because all they do is play the game, people with like 20,000 hours or whatever in War Thunder, and they base the research throughline on those players. That's the only thing that makes sense, because...

I get that when they introduced newer tiers, topper top tiers, like the F-14A and so on in VIII, they've been ever so generous to reduce the RP costs and such of old top tiers to sort of have a curve... but, not by a lot. And this is just talking aircraft. There's also ground to consider.

More than that though, since release, since like they obviously had to pad out the trees a bit to stop people advancing too much because they only had so many vehicles, War Thunder now has like an absurd amount of stuff to do. All the big nations have like five different massive trees, there's the smaller nations too.

But the thing is, with these recent changes, it feels like with most vehicles, if you play a game of War Thunder and you do OK in a match, you will either break even, or lose SL. If you did well you get some SL, like 20k or something.

I get that Gaijin needs to monetize the game, because War Thunder is free to play and they make their money for ongoing development costs by getting people to pay for premium vehicles which just let you skip some of the grind, you can pay for premium which helps you skip some more of the grind, and you can directly pay for SL and RP and so on, I totally get that they need to make money, BUT.

BUT I feel like, they need to ease up just a little bit? At least for me I feel like you should always make SL if you go into a match. If you need to raise the costs of things, just to balance that, by all means ago ahead, I don't care, but actually LOSING progress? If I'm just flying a plane I like but I'm doing badly in it? Come on, that's not fun.

This just means I'm overvaluing my premium vehicles so I can actually make progress by not having to worry about progression, and so I only play my premium vehicles instead of the ones I actually want to play.

 

Anyway, not to get too critical, but after doing the math on the F-14A (it'll be something like 10,000,000 SL for me to buy all the relevant planes, and about 4,000,000 RP in research to earn the F-14A, and that's just in buying the strictly necessary vehicles, starting from Tier V) I kind of started to think, you know... War Thunder sort of could tone down that grind a bit.

It feels like a skinner box, like what IS this? Something like a few hundred hours of solid grinding just to fly a plane I might not even enjoy playing, I don't know yet because no test drive, and one I might not even be able to fly anyway because I will almost certainly make a net loss when I fly it? Like are you kidding me? Why would I even want to do that?

I dunno, I don't know what the solution is but that's the biggest takeaway for me, Gaijin seems very concerned with keeping the grind going for all players as much as possible, forever. They want players to earn basically enough to keep them docile and playing the game, but not enough to where they can make serious progress... without paying, of course, and I just feel that in this point in the game's lifecycle they could ease up just a little bit.

EDIT: I also want to mention that, there is like a theory in this sort of game that they WANT you to be miserable, they want you to literally feel bad, and basically pressure you into buying stuff by keeping you feeling bad, like you're always at a disadvantage but the advantage is only one or two purchases away, and I get that to a degree that is just part of the free to play model, but yeah I think War Thunder lately really has an emphasis on making you miserable, making you feel like you're just spinning wheels fruitlessly.

I also think that they've stealth nerfed the rewards of premium vehicles. I used to be able to pull out near 100k from a real good game, now the best I can do is 50k, maybe near to 80k in a real crazy good match. Relative to the earning of normal vehicles, it's probably still about the same % improvement from the 'research tree' but it does speak to a general devalue of your time, but an increase in the amount of time they want you to grind for...

Edited May 15, 2023 by FlanChan

[bananomet 633]

On 14/05/2023 at 09:03, WinstonWolfe said:

Income is going down with every patch, this is really big problem.

The thing is I will not buy SL. Ever. Even if they make the economy so bad that I will bleed 50k SL per battle. I will not buy SL. Period. I will stop playing the game once I hit 0 SL though. I used to play 60-80h per week, now I'm down to max 20h per week. Sort your priorities Gaijin.

[SKurj 234]

4 hours ago, bananomet said:

The thing is I will not buy SL. Ever. Even if they make the economy so bad that I will bleed 50k SL per battle. I will not buy SL. Period. I will stop playing the game once I hit 0 SL though. I used to play 60-80h per week, now I'm down to max 20h per week. Sort your priorities Gaijin.

good thing you never have to buy sl...

[FlanChan 41]

16 hours ago, SKurj said:

good thing you never have to buy sl...

Well, his point is more that... Gaijin's marketing strategy in trying to get a little more money out of the playerbase by giving them greater incentive to buy SL by devaluing their playtime is not going to make HIM budge and give in and buy SL. Which I am sure a fair number of players would agree with, myself included. If the game's no longer fun I'll stop, it won't make me buy more stuff.

In other words, Gaijin probably should take note quickly that their playerbase is dedicated, but only up to a point, and if they push us too hard they could bleed users, then active users, and be left making less money in the long run despite securing capital from frustrated players in the here and now.

[WinstonWolfe 326]

According to this website https://rocketreach.co/gaijin-entertainment-profile_b5c73de9f42e0d39#:~:text=The Gaijin Entertainment annual revenue was %2426 million in 2021.

 

Revenue  is $26 million, did they rly need to punish us even more? To me this looks like decent number.

[Κανάλι Λίλια 137]

To all the players of War Thunder:

I believe everyone has noticed the recent changes in the in-game economy, whether it's for naval, ground, air battles, AB, RB, or SB. Gaijin is continuously pushing the boundaries and testing the limits of its players. If you are familiar with the game "Escape from Tarkov," you probably know the consequences when game developers constantly provoke their player base. As players of this game, we contribute to its activity, and in theory, Gaijin should appreciate each and every one of us who continues to support and encourage this game. However, Gaijin keeps pushing the boundaries and exploiting each and every one of us. This recent economic change is not just a simple adjustment; Gaijin is gradually making it clear that if you don't pay for this game, you don't deserve to play it.

I implore every player here to bravely stand up and resist this behavior. Gaijin has now infringed upon our rights as players, and we cannot, and should not, let Gaijin continue to exploit us in the future. It is time for us players to unite and stand together. We should be a collective, a class, opposing Gaijin's exploitation and oppression towards us. We are here to enjoy this game, to find joy in it, and we should not be working for Gaijin.

I hope that each player will save and spread this message. This post will undoubtedly be deleted, but we should copy it, share it, on any platform, anywhere that allows us to make our voices heard. Fellow warriors, let's fight for our future. Stay strong!

If you are willing, you can sign below. We stand as one!

—From a player on Earth, Liliya

[Lucesan_TTV 45]

I completely agree with you

Gaijin is disconnected from its playerbase

Please Gaijin, stop with this economy update nonsense, let the players ENJOY THE GAME

 

Why trying to MILK US DRY and make this game not enjoyable

STOP with those repair costs, it makes NO sense for players to lose progress as they play

 

You want to balance your vehicles ? You have a BR SYSTEM for that, You can always put them as a higher price to buy, but for the love of god stop with repair costs, rework completely your economy and get rid of them !

Edited May 16, 2023 by Lucesan_TTV

[richthofen122 1,455]

I have seen atleast two Multiplayer vehicle games fail because of this. Lack of Connection with the Community=dead game.

[WINTERWOLF_DWZ 1]

In the new update, changes were made to the economy, some of which are good, such as the sidam 25, it went from 9500 sl to 6000 sl

[WINTERWOLF_DWZ 1]

However the changes in the economy brought a change that made italy irrelevant for top tier, the arietetanks went from having 120% sl drop and 140% sl drop to 110% sl drop

Taking into account that there are tanks with higher survivability, better characteristics and a higher drop rate, it makes the ariete tanks useless both tactically and economically. 

Edited May 16, 2023 by WINTERWOLF_DWZ

[WinstonWolfe 326]

Quite a few vehicles SL/RP modifiers were nerfed. GR1 SL was in Feb 22'nd 675% now 600%, P47D same time 630% now 540% and so on...

 

Few years ago on YT most ppl were showing how much you will make playing a tank or plane, now no one can see it. Looks like CC can't show some critical stats by t&c with gaijin.

Edited May 16, 2023 by WinstonWolfe

[Uncle J Wick@live 407]

On 14/05/2023 at 06:51, _RemiliaScarlet__ said:

Firstly, discouraging people from playing a vehicle with an economic punishment is not reasonable balance. BR adjustments and nerfs/buffs to the actual traits of the vehicle are.

 

I have the same opinion but if you look at the Italian air tree (especially rank II to IV) you see the deadly combination of objectively overtiered planes with way too high repair cost. And if you look back - the G 56 prop fighter had about 50k repair cost. So imho gaijin killed this air tree with repair cost and BR increases. Almost nobody (besides some stupid guys like me) flies in Air RB regularly "non-premium/non-event" Italian tech tree planes as they are outperformed and have higher repair cost.

 

On 14/05/2023 at 06:51, _RemiliaScarlet__ said:

Secondly, the repair economy doesn't just affect the strongest machines, it hits everything,

 

I do not share this pov. The level of impact decides.

 

I mean the basic rule: "Premium beats tech tree" is not only reflected by way better earnings and much lower repair cost for premiums - the community reports high ratios of premium planes in lobbies as standard case as they were simply superior planes. And it looks like there is a kind of pay-to-play pressure at higher tiers as you can't beat a better performing weapon system with better avionics, AAMs, ECMs etc. if you and your enemy have the same experience level.