Concerns from a Low to Medium Tier Player

[Knight_of_Tara 23]

It pains me to write this. It absolutely does. Because the simply truth, Gaijin, is that I love your game and I want to be able to play it as long as possible. So far, I have spent just under 5 months time (3,520.7 hours to be exact) t otal playing this game and have played since at least 2015/16.

 

I am a collector. My favorite hobby is collecting vehicles in this game. As a result, I do not want to even think about how much I have spent on this game. Far too much probably. But I have no regrets. I am happy to support this wonderful game that I have immensely enjoyed over the years. I have bought many premium vehicles and almost all of them from Rank 3 down. I have a deep appreciation for all of the vehicles that you guys have added to the game. An appreciation that I feel you do not share anymore, which leads to my own frustrations with this game. These may not be shared by most but I will share them regardless.

 

I am a World War 1/2 enthusiast. Have been since I was a kid. Thus, while I like a lot of the vehicles in this game, my favorite areas are Ranks 1 - 4 (up to 5 in naval). These days, I mostly play Rank 3 Ground. Again, I am a collector and I want to get as many of the event vehicles as possible. Rank 1 and 2 do not help me in that regard.

 

Now, I understand why Rank 1 is excluded from counting toward tasks and events (in general). Rank 1 is easy mode. It is designed to help new players become familiar with War Thunder's gameplay and mechanics. Fine. I get that.

 

But why is Rank 2 excluded? At this point, beginners are well versed with how to play and this is one of the places where the game is the most enjoyable, while still challenging. It is not any different than Rank 3 in that regard but for some reason, Rank 2 simply does not count and cannot be used for what I need to use it for. I love my Rank 2 collection but I feel like I am being punished for loving them. I cannot use them effectively anymore. Events and tasks have rendered them all useless to me. So, they sit in my hanger, rusting away, unappreciated and uninvited. Effectively gate-locked.

 

It has happened that Rank 3 lineups that I cultivated for years have been dramatically changed not by my choice, but by you making, in my humble opinion, unnecessary changes that have really annoyed the hell out of me. For example, I had a great German Rank 3 lineup that included an even mix of SPGs and Medium tanks. That balanced lineup was shot to hell when the Panzer IV H and J where both moved to Rank 2 for reasons that I still struggle to understand, despite no drastic change to how they function. At the time, I said in this very forum: "Their usage will sink to a fraction of what it once was, especially during events." I have since been proven correct. I see them far less in battle since then. But they kept the premium Panzer IV J at Rank 3. Forgive my cynicism but I wonder why.

 

This raises the specter that I fear the most. I simply do not play Rank V and further. I don't want to and I am not familiar with many of the mechanics of the higher ranks. If that means I suck at this game, fine. Rank V is simply beyond my comfort zone and wish that could be respected as my choice. Rank 3 is my comfort zone and I want to stay there. But what if they start doing to my current Rank 3 lineups what they did to my Panzer IVs? Or worse, make Rank 3 no longer count toward tasks and events? Clearly Gaijin has been pushing more and more monetization and it is the higher ranks where their real bread and butter is made and they are pushing their veteran players to go higher and higher, slowly, gradually. Maybe some have not noticed but I have and I feel like I am slowly being pushed toward a cliff and this is feels like it is because my participation is simply not cost effective for you anymore. I have put plenty of money in already sure but it always feels like Gaijin is always wanting to squeeze more out of me. I love the World War 2 combat and I just want to keep doing that but I feel like I am being punished for it. Even now, Rank 3 counts for less progress in event tasks (you get 0.8 points for every 1 point you get while playing) than Rank 5 and higher. You clearly want me to go to at least Rank 5 but I don't want to. I won't do it. At least not now.

 

I see where this is going and I fear where this is going. How long do I have until World War 2 gameplay (your roots) is, for all intents and purposes, effectively phased out of the game?

 

Anyway, these are my concerns, such as they are, Gaijin. You say that you are open to suggestions. But the Panzer IV debacle makes me feel like you are not and are willing to just brush this concerns aside. You also say that "In any game players play only when they have fun." I agree. So let me have fun with the vehicles I want to play.

[Delta-Wing 13]

I agree that it would be better if we could use some of the more iconic WW2 vehicles to actually do missions with like the Pz III, Pz IV, and early T-34 and Sherman variants, but the better way to do this would probably be some more BR decompression lifting most of these vehicles into Rank 3, or moving back to the old system of allowing vehicles above a certain BR rather than allowing all rank 2 vehicles since at the moment there are a lot of rank 2 vehicles with a very low BR.

Unfortunately gaijin is still unlikely to decompress BRs for fear of longer queue times (not that that is an issue at lower BRs right now but it is an issue at higher BRs particularly for air battles and any decompression would have a knock on effect)

[_J_ackal_ 284]

How can you check your total time outside steam? The website only accounts the in battle time iirc.

[Knight_of_Tara 23]

57 minutes ago, _J_ackal_ said:

How can you check your total time outside steam? The website only accounts the in battle time iirc.

 

My time is from Steam.

1 hour ago, UnknowenPlayer said:

I agree that it would be better if we could use some of the more iconic WW2 vehicles to actually do missions with like the Pz III, Pz IV, and early T-34 and Sherman variants, but the better way to do this would probably be some more BR decompression lifting most of these vehicles into Rank 3, or moving back to the old system of allowing vehicles above a certain BR rather than allowing all rank 2 vehicles since at the moment there are a lot of rank 2 vehicles with a very low BR.

Unfortunately gaijin is still unlikely to decompress BRs for fear of longer queue times (not that that is an issue at lower BRs right now but it is an issue at higher BRs particularly for air battles and any decompression would have a knock on effect)

 

Any of those would be an more acceptable alternative to the current system. It doesn't make sense that I can effectively use some 4.3 BR vehicles (like the KV-1B and the Sturer Emil) because they are Rank 3 but not other 4.3s (like the Stug III G or the German T-34) because they are Rank 2, as an example.

Edited May 23, 2023 by Knight_of_Tara
Addition.

[Delta-Wing 13]

Another good reason for this change is that at the moment a new player has to get all the way to Rank 3 (which can take new players quite a long time) before they can even participate in events like the battle pass, which excludes new players from getting the free event vehicle from the battlepass that would otherwise be a great way for new players to get an interesting vehicle that will also help them with the grind.

Also this would allow players who want to invite their friends to the game to actually play with them and guide them through lower ranks without sacrificing time they would like to spend grinding events/ battlepass.

[Findrayl 0]

Well even rank 1 should be fine.....if you are willing to invest the time, you should be able to get the reward.

 

 

Or let me simply buy the stuff for gold ( at a acceptable price).

Edited May 24, 2023 by Findrayl