Feedback from an Old Guard F2P -> P2P

Falcon134 · May 20, 2023

First of all, I love this game. There is no other that has existed this long, developed so much, and that provides such a wide range of vehicles to play. I started this game when it first came out, and was very different from what it is today. I remember tanks being added, ships, the first jets and more. When I first started I was in my early teens, and could not afford to spend money. I got my first premium, the British Mark 1A Mustang by completing endless free GE offers on an app. That plane is still one of my most used.

Fast forward to the last few years, and I have premium time, and multiple premium vehicles. I understand the servers cost money, and so does development, so I do not mind spending some money to support the game. Importantly, I did not pay because of necessity. I have left many FTP games before because of an oppressive grind. I pay because I want to support the game, and because I want to try new vehicles, however recently the cost/benefit is dropping rapidly. WT is becoming premium vehicle vs premium vehicle, which is ruining the whole point of the game: trying new vehicles.

Given that Gaijin is asking for reasonable feedback, I thought I would provide some from someone who has seen this game develop for over a decade.

RESEARCH: The grind is too hard right now. There are multiple nations, and some of the most popular nations have massive tech trees for each vehicle type. Researching the entire USA tree as a newer player, even one that has premium time and the new F4S is an incredibly daunting task that will take months, if not years depending on activity. If someone joins because of the F-14, or F-16 (plus more down the road) and drops $100 on the game to help them get there…they will not be rewarded. For a veteran player like myself, I want to be able to unlock new nations AND the new aircraft coming to nations I have already researched, and this is becoming impossible as research costs grow.

WHY DO PEOPLE BUY PREMIUMS: People buy premiums to unlock tech tree vehicles. It is incredibly boring playing the same vehicle non-stop for hours on end. It took me 500 kills in the G-91 to get to the Mig-21MF, even though I was already in rank 4/5 Germany. At 2 kills/game that is 250 games. At 10 min/game, that is 41 hours of play, not accounting for games with less than 2 kills, or no kills at all. Then even more grinding to get to the MLA or Mig29. For one nation that is small past WWII, that is not reasonable. People do not buy premiums to play premiums. They buy premiums to unlock tech tree vehicles. Once those vehicles are unlocked, there is a whole new grind to unlock components, and play time to enjoy their new vehicles.

SILVER LIONS: If I have premium time and perform above average, there should be no question whether I will have the silver lions required to buy a new vehicle and train a crew. As it is, there are multiple vehicles I have unlocked, but cannot play because doing so would jeopardize my ability to get the vehicles I really want. This is a HUGE problem. Perhaps I only want to play a few games in, say another Mig15 variant, but I do want to try it. If I do so, I may not be able to get the next vehicle in line. I am pushing for the Mig29 in Germany, and that has left me with multiple rank 6 and 7 aircraft that I have not trained a crew for because I cannot do so and still have the SL to get the 29 when I unlock it. It should be possible for FTP and especially premium time players to earn enough SL to purchase and train crews for vehicles if they play well.

PREMIUM VEHICLES ARE BORING TO PLAY AND BORING TO PLAY AGAINST: This comes back to what makes WT great: the vehicles. It gets exceedingly dull playing match after match against mostly premiums, or with mostly premiums. You could argue most are new players, but from my own long time in the game, I find myself in premium vehicles time and time again. Some of them, like the Mig21s R13/300 are very fun to play. Others are not. See my comment on time required to research to rank 7 using a premium. The overwhelming amount of premiums in the game at high rank is a drag on the game.

WHY SHOULD WT CARE ABOUT FTP: Free to play players are a source of non-premium vehicles for everyone to play with and against. In my opinion, it should be possible for a free to play player to research an entire tree with a reasonable amount of play time per day in about a year or year and a half. This lines up with other pay to progress games. This keeps them interested, and engaged, and keeps paying people like myself interested and engaged playing against them. Free to play players today are paying customers tomorrow. Look at my own experience. I was FTP for YEARS before I spent money, now I am a regular. When I was FTP, the tech trees were much smaller, and it was easier to progress. I did not become P2P because things got more restrictive, but because I got to the Phantom without spending money in the British tree, and wanted to try top tier with other nations while skipping the vehicles I found boring (props). If you drive FTP away by making the game seem impossible, they will leave without spending a dime, and they will spend less time.

SOLUTIONS

1. SL should be less restrictive. Even FTP should be able to afford the repair costs if they perform average, or above average at ALL BR. Premium players should never have to worry about SL. Premium time + premium vehicles should have a surplus to help keep up with fast research times, and to provide a excess SL for when they play without their premium vehicle.

2. Implement ways for FTP players to earn low-tier premiums, or very small amounts of GE. I truly think a big reason why I spend today is because of that Mustang I got for free. It was a ton of fun, and helped lessen the stress of the grind.

3. Lower RP requirements, or RP increase through BRs. OR improve rewards for premium time/premium vehicles. The grind is just too much right now.

4. Add events with bonus rewards for tech tree vehicles. These could either be +25% RP and SL weekends applied to tech tree vehicles, or pick a few vehicles at the same BR and have a war event where these vehicles get boosted rewards for a couple days. For example, Sabres vs Mig15s. Keep the game interesting by incentivizing the usage of tech tree vehicles.

5. Better tutorials. People are going to still buy premiums and that is good. But if I have explain to another F-5C player why their chaff didn’t stop my PD radar missile in a head on… Gaijin has correctly identified a skill problem when people are handed top tier, but has done nothing to make it easier for players they sell it to.

ARK_BOI · May 20, 2023

Damn straight also start listen to community withing limit sometime also not a bad start for improvement for example some vehicles are very good and under BR BMP2M for example because of stats saying they doing bad players doing bad not mean vehicle are bad but how most of players playing that the problem you cannot fix skills problem yes but you should not make them easier just because of that vehicle you need to pay for them in real money

F2P players can become P2P players if they find the game interesting and for the love of God plz stop balancing vehicle with repair cost it not end well game should not punish they players like that

also BR gap as well sometime when players got uptier some vehicles are completely powerless against just because it had a little bit higher BR it for example Milan at 9.7 are completely powerless against SU-25 and A10 etc

Caring every nation equally also important for the last few years every patch will also came with Russian new toys didn't say they can't have it but some minor nation also need something more to help them for example of the recent Pantsir and Yak 141 case that RU already have usable SPAA and they just got Mig29 before why they need the other SAM and top jet? when Japan and Italy didn't even any usable SAM? Gaijin should give it to them first. (and upcoming patch also with RU top premium dispatch they already have base top premium jet) And the excuse about can't give everyone what they need at once yes i understand but why it need to be RU every patch dispite upcoming patch it focuses on France as the name of the patch said so it should focus on France