War Thunder Thread

W8taminute · February 07, 2015, 12:35:05 PM

Wow this is truly disturbing. I was totally unaware of this issue of removing grass, bushes, and shadows on lower graphic settings because I play the game mostly on console and when I do on my gaming PC I set the graphics to max. For the longest time I wondered how could a tank from across the map see me in my little M2 machine gun mounted halftrack hidden in the bushes and trees and one shot me? Now I know why.

On a side note, how many of you pilots have noticed that when one of your tier two or tier three planes get's shot down it takes 5+ hours to repair it even if your repair rating is two or three and your repair rate is 8 or 9? I could swear it was never like this before 1.45 patch.

Silent Disapproval Robot · February 07, 2015, 03:53:53 PM

I've never waited for the repair sequence. I just click the pay for auto-repairs box and forget about it.

W8taminute · February 07, 2015, 05:38:00 PM

Quote from: Silent Disapproval Robot on February 07, 2015, 03:53:53 PM
I've never waited for the repair sequence. I just click the pay for auto-repairs box and forget about it.

I used to do that on the lower tier aircraft because it was generally inexpensive to fix them. As you rise in tier however repair costs increase dramatically. The economist in me says to save the money and let my ground crews repair the aircraft over time for free. This is one of the tricks I use to maintain a positive lion flow. ;)

Silent Disapproval Robot · February 07, 2015, 05:46:58 PM

I probably should as I don't often play more than one or two battles per day but money's still accumulating. Oh well, maybe I'll give it a whirl and then start buying up Tier IV tanks.

Nefaro · February 07, 2015, 07:29:21 PM

Quote from: W8taminute on February 07, 2015, 12:35:05 PM

On a side note, how many of you pilots have noticed that when one of your tier two or tier three planes get's shot down it takes 5+ hours to repair it even if your repair rating is two or three and your repair rate is 8 or 9? I could swear it was never like this before 1.45 patch.

It's been that way for awhile now. I'm not even sure if the repair skills have an effect anymore.

The repair time wouldn't be a bother, but the repair costs can vary wildly. Even with the tanks. For example, my Tiger is wrecked to it's fullest extent every game in which it dies. Costs something like 5500 Silver to repair it after each match, or I'd have to wait around 7 hours for it to repair automatically (whilst taking up a crew slot the whole time). By contrast, my T-34s and tank destroyers can be destroyed in a match and not even need a repair at all or cost only around 2200 Silver to repair.

That imbalance in repair costs/time is true for both aircraft and tanks in WT and has always been a point of contention with the player base. Both before and after launch, the developers radically changed the match incomes and some of the repair stuff but they were only shuffling the Lion income & expenses around in a "can you find it?" shell game. If anything, I think the Silver Lion net has been lowered a couple times since release, overall. :(

I know that doing well playing two nations at the same time in upper Tier 3 nets me little extra Silver while repairing and upgrading, even when a Premium sub. That must be about the break point where a non-sub account stops making in-game currency these days. In beta and just after launch, it was notably higher IIRC.

W8taminute · February 08, 2015, 02:24:31 PM

So they have been playing around with costs and rewards. Just as I thought. Thanks for verifying my suspicions Nefaro. I never really noticed before because I was playing with mostly tier 1 planes and tanks. Now that I have some tier 2 and 3 planes in my hanger I'm seeing the difference.

My B-25 got shot down earlier today in a realistic air battle and will now take 7 hours to repair. Yesterday it got shot down in arcade and it only needed 5 hours of repair. I have not changed the crew's repair rate or rank to see what the differences would be in arcade and realistic.

Nefaro · February 08, 2015, 03:15:11 PM

The repair times are generally a non-issue with me since you'll usually have to pay in-game credits to repair them, if you want to immediately use them again.

The real issue is just how much the repairs cost. It can vary quite a bit between different models at the same Battle Rating, as in my example above where one cost twice as much as the other and was completely wrecked after every match.

I wouldn't have noticed all the match income & repair cost changes if I hadn't been playing since closed beta two years ago. They changed it for the public release quite awhile back (was expected) and then twice more afterwards (the part that disappointed). I don't mind sub'ing for extra rewards, and tend to do it if I plan on solely playing it for a stretch of time, but still having to struggle purchasing new stuff 2/3rds the way through the Tiers while doing so can get frustrating. The combined cost of individual upgrades and new tanks/airplanes in the upper half can get restrictive.

I'm guessing they did this for two reasons. 1) To persuade you to directly purchase more in-game currency to buy stuff with, if you want to progress multiple different advancement lines in the latter Tiers and, 2) To keep the unlock-crazy people from picking everything up too quickly and possibly losing interest after they've unlocked it all.

I still enjoy WT on both sides and don't necessarily have to spend anything on it still. I'll just have a difficult time buying Tier 4 & 5 stuff if I do so without ponying up, being forced to use lower BR/Tier equipment than the highest I have unlocked in order to make more in-game Silver. Fortunately we have Presets that allow us to save different groups of tank or plane loadouts for our crews so switching between a more money friendly set and a quicker grinding one is easy these days.

Nefaro · February 08, 2015, 06:06:51 PM

In other news.. there is a test event for Realistic Battles that removes the HUD names over enemy vehicles. :)

Think I'd rather go Sim mode than this but it's worth a look.

Nefaro · February 12, 2015, 05:42:09 PM

Switched to doing some Realistic Battles on the Air Forces side.

I should probably focus on one nation for awhile, for more than one reason, but I tend to skip between different planes often.

W8taminute · February 12, 2015, 11:29:12 PM

So Gaijin is now charging players 500 Golden Eagles (GE) for country flags. Between the rising costs of repairing your plane/tank, the constant pilot sniping, and now this flag business I'm really starting to think that this game is not for me anymore. Might have to get my plane and tank jollies elsewhere... :'(

Nefaro · February 13, 2015, 08:51:37 AM

Quote from: W8taminute on February 12, 2015, 11:29:12 PM
So Gaijin is now charging players 500 Golden Eagles (GE) for country flags. Between the rising costs of repairing your plane/tank, the constant pilot sniping, and now this flag business I'm really starting to think that this game is not for me anymore. Might have to get my plane and tank jollies elsewhere... :'(

Most of the customization decals were unlocked at open beta release but they've eventually put achievement requirement locks on them. It was a bit annoying to have a custom paint job I'd been using for over a year get taken away but it wasn't as bad as having the cost of everything inching upwards.

As for the national flags being locked down, I'm not sad to see them go. While some people could make some interesting paint jobs with stuff, the ones flying or driving around with massive bright flags painted on their tanks or aircraft could be a real eye sore. I've seen some jarring stuff like tanks with a bright ass baby blue Argentinian flag covering most of it. Won't be sad to see that gone.

My biggest complaint is the Silver Lion income-to-cost ratio once you get near the top of Tier 3, and the disparity between Arcade Battles income and others. You pretty much need Premium in Tier 4 and even then you will lose in-game currency due to repairs in each match you don't do so well in. This can be a problem in Realistic Battles when you have no respawns and you can get one-shotted if attacked from an unfortunate angle. That being said, mid and low tier stuff can be just as fun as using the higher ones.

That game currency cost issue is the same problem with all these free-to-play battle games when you are using the upper tier equipment. I'm just thankful WT doesn't have a wide variety of consumable extras and the special ammo type loadouts only require relatively inexpensive in-game currency. IMO the only real cost in WT is for Premium at higher tiers if you want to play those often and progress at a steady pace. I'm not sure about the Korean War jet income in Tier 5 (don't have any) but the repairs look like you need to shoot down at least one aircraft to break even on premium with some of them, in RB.

They're reportedly going to revise the repair costs again soon. Not sure how that will turn out since the last two times all they did was play the shell game by slightly lowering repair costs and then lowering match incomes at the same time. The end problem is that your Silver Lions don't add up to allow you to purchase all the vehicles and upgrades you unlock with research points, and the game requires you to purchase the previous vehicle in the line to get the next one.

Dread Rlyeh · February 13, 2015, 09:13:20 AM

Apparently they are adding some sort of reward chests/crates for daily play, completing missions, what have you. I think some of the higher level ones can even get you eagles. This might make up a bit for some of the issues you mentioned, W8taminute, depending on how it is implemented.

Up until now, I always read your name as a variation of "Wintermute", as in the AI from Neuromancer. Oops :)

Dread Rlyeh · February 13, 2015, 09:31:40 AM

Quote from: Nefaro on February 13, 2015, 08:51:37 AM
My biggest complaint is the Silver Lion income-to-cost ratio once you get near the top of Tier 3, and the disparity between Arcade Battles income and others. You pretty much need Premium in Tier 4 and even then you will lose in-game currency due to repairs in each match you don't do so well in. This can be a problem in Realistic Battles when you have no respawns and you can get one-shotted if attacked from an unfortunate angle. That being said, mid and low tier stuff can be just as fun as using the higher ones.

I've found the way to keep the lions positive is to 'buy once, cry once' on a premium like the Panzer IV(70) A. It is cheap to repair, *AND* the max repair time is like 2.5 hours. So, I try to play a few matches with a T3 setup to offset some of the higher costs of the upper tiers. Couple that with all the money you can make from the bomber/fighter runs you get from your kills and you rake it in. It is pretty fun too, if you enjoy clubbing seals. The Panzer's gun absolutely wrecks what it is usually paired with and if you hide your belly it will shed lots of shells.

Note, this is for arcade. Don't know how well it would stack up in other modes, but if you are willing to play a T3 arcade every so often you can rake in the cash.

I hope they look at the repair costs (without the shell game business) - 12k for a Ferd, 6k for a M103... what?

Nefaro · February 13, 2015, 10:14:05 AM

Arcade is generally more profitable than Realistic or Sim battles because you get to respawn and shoot/kill more stuff per session.

While you may get double the rewards for successful hits in Realistic Battles, you also get far fewer opportunities with no or limited respawns. Getting 3+ kills in Arcade is common while getting one in RB is nowhere near guaranteed. So you stand to lose a lot in repairs each RB match.

I will switch over to Air Arcade Battles when the mood hits, but I don't enjoy the idea that it should be for making more in-game currency. :-\

Dread Rlyeh · February 13, 2015, 12:07:12 PM

Quote from: Nefaro on February 13, 2015, 10:14:05 AM
Arcade is generally more profitable than Realistic or Sim battles because you get to respawn and shoot/kill more stuff per session.

While you may get double the rewards for successful hits in Realistic Battles, you also get far fewer opportunities with no or limited respawns. Getting 3+ kills in Arcade is common while getting one in RB is nowhere near guaranteed. So you stand to lose a lot in repairs each RB match.

I will switch over to Air Arcade Battles when the mood hits, but I don't enjoy the idea that it should be for making more in-game currency. :-\

Yeah, if you don't enjoy the arcade battles by themselves, it just becomes a currency grind. I've found that as I got older my tolerance for such grinds has rapidly diminished. When I use my free time to game, I want maximum enjoyment out of that time, not working a 2nd job.

Thankfully I'm enjoying the tank arcade battles so far and they provide some nice lions especially on the maps with lots of AI units. Shots in the engine are a guaranteed kill due to fire which contributes to your bombing run points. So fire one shot and move onto another target. Then I will use the accumulated points to bomb harder to pen heavies or some dug in TD.

Once I've got my tanks and modules unlocked I will give the rb/sim modes a try, but I don't want to play at a disadvantage. Also, I'm not playing till they fix the foliage issue. No way I'm turning mine down and I'm not playing vs some 14 year old kid whose jungle map looks like a fairway.