Balancing perspectives and ... perspectives

Game Discussion Realistic Battle
1

I was recently watching a video where the YT (not gonna name - don’t want to point fingers) was talking about BR compression.

This is a heavy topic. Many different perspectives and many opinions.

Currently I want to gather some knowledge about some of the thinking / decision making process involving balancing.

I want to ask the WarThunder team about how balancing goes behind the scenes.

!!! For any player reading this: We don’t point fingers here, we want to understand and work together with the team to make things better. !!!

  1. How do you define and measure “balance” internally?

Specifically: which metrics carry the most weight (win rate, K/D, average lifespan, damage dealt, capture rate, player skill brackets, lineup synergy, etc.), and how do you separate vehicle performance from player skill or nation popularity effects?

  1. What is the decision framework for BR adjustments?

What thresholds or trends trigger a BR change, how long does data need to be stable before action is taken, and how do you evaluate whether a previous BR change actually improved the ecosystem rather than just shifting compression elsewhere?

  1. How do you approach BR compression at a systemic level?

Is compression treated as a structural design constraint (queue times, matchmaking spread, progression pacing), and are there internal discussions about decompression, BR caps, or alternative matchmaking models to reduce extreme performance gaps within a single match?

  1. To what extent can the community meaningfully influence BR adjustment decisions, and through what structured mechanisms?

Would you consider more transparent feedback loops (e.g., public test seasons, published metric thresholds, or structured proposal formats)? Is there a formal review pipeline where community-submitted analysis is evaluated alongside internal telemetry? What forms of feedback are actually considered actionable? (statistical breakdowns, replay evidence, large-sample spreadsheets, forum discussions, content creator input, surveys, etc.)

I would be extremely interested in finding responses for these question for having some piece of mind over the balancing of this game.

Thanks in advance,
David - CommingInHot a Sukhoi enjoyer

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Whilst I appreciate your efforts “balancing” looks (at least for me) more like a general misunderstanding - it is more than obvious that gaijin has a totally different understanding of “balancing” than the majority of players.

So whilst players see a fair and balanced game/match set up in fights between vehicles with similar combat capabilities (=fair fights) it seems that gaijin sees balancing with a way more holistic approach and determines BRs based on actual combat effectiveness based on plain average results (=earned SL & RP) and strives for the “Holy Grail” for devs: Perfect balance equals 50% WR and SL/RP income within predetermined target earnings - following the ultimate goal to be able to steer the progress of the whole player base.

Therefore asking gaijin to reveal their thoughts & mechanics behind their value setting process will most likely be ignored.

Have a good one!

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Its balanced by how much silver the vic makes

The jet could.have a 0.1 KD but if it bombs bases and makes silver its balanced

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For me, it would be more interesting to know if there is any hidden balancing, such as tanks with suspensions that have an exaggerated roll, or ammunition with greater randomness in damage and penetration to impair their effectiveness, thus preventing them from having good statistics in the game.

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This needs to be in equal parts player stats and common sense. It is obvious when there are 2 highly disproporiate performance vehicles at the same/similar BR and that needs to be corrected.

At the moment they put waaaaay too much emphasis on bare minimum performance, i.e, can this aircraft get 1x base kill? then its fine.

They also seem truly terrified of ground attack aircraft and have multiple mechanics to nerf them and their potential rewards (Diminishing returns, poor gamemode design, high BRs)

Its pretty clear Gaijin cares more about queue times than gameplay quality, which is stupid as hell, but I Would simply keep moving things up until BRs reach an equilibrium. BR cap increases shouldn’t be something we have to beg for for literally years to happen, it should just be the default.

Take the recent decision to move the F-15s down instead of the Su-30 premiums up. They should have just taken them and everything above them and increased them by 0.3 instead and then seen if more is needed.

They dont, as far as I am concerned, they ignore the feedback threads entirely. I routinely post sensible changes (like moving the 3x 11.7 Tornado IDS down to 11.3) that get 50-100 likes and after more than 2 years, nothing has changed

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At least for aircraft, some planes have balance factors that only come up with certain control modes.

Flying with full-real controls vs realistic (autotrim) makes planes behave very differently, as does realistic vs simplified (instructor-lite) or mouse aim(full instructor)

Would think this is inconsequential: People flying AAB/ARB use mouse aim, simmers use full-real.

However, with Aces of Thunder’s release, I’ve come to realize (based on the steam reviews) that there may have been a not insignificant number of players flying in Arcade and ARB using controllers (quite a few reviews go “finally everyone plays on level playing field!” when SB exists which indicates they were trying to play AAB/ARB vs mouse aim with controller or HOTAS).

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IMO Somethings got to change
I keep seeing in game- is anyone else stuck in 12.7- 13.7. Players are noticing

Its that bad moving the f15a has had no effect on the f15a or others around its BR.

Not sure what gaijins issue is as wait times is pure nonsense.

Gaijin doesnt even want to give anything the players ask for. “Buff mig29” buffs flanker instead.
Harrier has a great report made about its lift/ turn rate and other tweeks- ignored for years.

What makes even less sense is that buffing mig29/ harrier will eqate to players spending £££…

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Yeah… Gaijins handling of bug reporting or balance just makes no sense

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Harrier buffed to be able to use viff and dogfight the F5…

Few youtube videos later and the £££ roll in.
Not sure what they are scared of as it will always be slow so jets can just run away.

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Yeah… I just dont think they want to put in the effort

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