So I have seen streams and leaked data about the new WoT Sandbox Server and I have formed some opinions about their ideas.
I must start this off by saying that I understand what they are trying to do (and also that this can all change). They want to increase the value of view range and increase the importance of light tanks. I also understand how they want to decrease the usage of premium rounds which decrease the importance of armor. They also decreased the traverse of most tanks in order to slow down the game in order to improve the ability of medium tanks to flank. So here are my points:
Speeds and Traverse
They decreased the overall top speed and traverse of all tanks (not lights). This has slowed down the game a bit, but not to the extent of many people, for example, Quickybaby. I would say that he blew the problems way out of proportion. The game did not take that big of a hit speed wise. It is now fast in a different way, there is a lot more time to plan your maneuvers. I however, don't see how Wargaming sees this in the game because I pretty much thought that the old versions of the game were fine in this respect. I also see how they wanted to distinguish the lights from the medium, especially at higher tiers. I however, don't feel that they needed to nerf the top speeds, but maybe just mess around with the ground resistances or soft statistics.
Armor and Shell Penetration
The armor in WoT is arguably losing value as more and more HEAT is being thrown around the battle. I see how they nerfed the HEAT shells in the game to reduce the usage of shells with excess amounts of penetration. They actually did pretty well with this, as they also nerfed the APCR penetration over a distance compared to AP. The issue I take with this is how they nerfed accuracy as well as AP ammunition. They wanted to "decrease the cost of making mistakes" but all they managed to do was to promote a game that consists of juggernaut heavies taking hundreds of hits at long range with arty barely able to do any damage. This creates a game that promotes low level players to play heavier tanks and more experienced players to play mediums that are, in some ways, unable to kill the heavies (and stronger TDs). This will eventually promote a game that includes mostly strong heavies and large TDs, but will include about 1/4 mediums and faster tanks. This does not currently represent the number of mediums that are re-searchable, compared to heavies and TDs. This could prove to create a completely different game, with many skilled players preferring the previous metas of WoT, even if it is medium tank dominance.
View Range and Light Tanks
The overall idea of nerfing the view range globally is a good one, and promotes more active plays and aggressive peeks. However, giving light tanks more view range does not help the game as the real problem lies in the map pool. Most maps only contain a good area for mediums to brawl (mediums with armor keep in mind) and heavies to fight on ridges and in cities. TDs are also very good for holding alleys and giving long-range fire support. Even if lights have fantastic view range, there is little they can actually do because of the lack of accuracy on tanks, as well as the lack of artillery damage.
Artillery
Artillery was heavily nerfed on this server. It was given a sort of "debuff" that hurt tanks which I can say is extremely annoying and does not promote dynamic plays at all. Their damage has also dropped off a lot, which makes them less rewarding. What I think they need to do is get rid of the "debuff", and boost artillery rate of fire by 10-33%. This will allow arty to hit tanks for amounts of damage that add up, as well as not instantly one shot everything. Many people call for the addition of "smoke rounds" or "illumination rounds" which would not be used much in the majority of game modes (i.e. random battles).
Too Many Variables
Wargaming is trying to test a Global Rebalance which will improve the state of the game. In order to do this, they need to evaluate and access each change to the global client before the make it, and make each change one at a time. What they are basically doing is mixing 10 different chemicals just to see what happens, instead of trying to access what each chemical will do, and test them individually in order to find an appropriate product.
My Thoughts on Fixing the Server
- Keep AP the way it is, and don't nerf snipers
- Armor is fine without premium rounds and artillery that can one-shot heavies
- View Range is only important on maps that aren't close quarter fights anyways, buffing light tanks won't solve the problem unless maps are fixed
- Test one thing at a time
- Mistakes should be punished
- Tanks do not need drastic speed nerfs, only small ones to seperate mediums from lights and heavies from mediums (TDs are actually quite good on the live server)
Thanks for reading this far if you did!
-Spirtwalker
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