I have been playing War Thunder since 1 August 2016, and I have purchased 11 crew slots for every nation. Even with that many slots, official BR changes regularly force me to rebuild my presets, especially at crowded BR ranges where one lineup may contain far more viable vehicles than there are practical crew positions.
The main problem is that the research progress toward a free Ace qualification is tied to the exact vehicle–crew combination, rather than following the vehicle itself.
When a vehicle is moved to another crew slot, the accumulated progress is not technically deleted, but it remains attached to the old crew. For the reorganized lineup, that progress is effectively stranded, and the player must begin accumulating Ace qualification research again on the new crew.
The upcoming change to the Super Hellcat from 6.3 to 6.7 is a clear example.
My current Super Hellcat crew has accumulated:
850,878 / 1,140,000 RP
toward the free Ace qualification.
However, my 6.7 preset is already crowded. To place the Super Hellcat into an appropriate 6.7 lineup, I must rearrange several vehicles and crew slots. The least damaging solution I found is to move the M56 to another crew, but even that strands:
168,058 / 480,000 RP
of Ace qualification progress.
Moving the Super Hellcat itself would be much worse, because it would strand more than 850,000 RP accumulated through normal gameplay.
The same problem exists in aircraft lineups. My Yak-9UT currently has:
554,860 / 570,000 RP
toward a free Ace qualification. It is only 15,140 RP away from completion. If a BR or lineup change requires me to move it to another crew, almost the entire progression becomes unusable for that new assignment.
This creates an unnecessary penalty for adapting to balance changes that players did not request or control. Players are expected to reorganize presets after BR updates, but the current crew system punishes that reorganization by making long-term vehicle-specific progression dependent on maintaining the same crew slot permanently.
I am not asking for general crew skills to become transferable. Skills such as Keen Vision, Reloading, Agility or Vitality can remain attached to the individual crew.
The requested change concerns only the vehicle-specific progression toward Ace qualification.
Proposed solution
Ace qualification research progress should follow the vehicle, rather than the exact vehicle–crew pairing.
When a vehicle is assigned to another crew of the same nation:
- its accumulated Ace qualification RP should transfer with it;
- completed Ace qualification should remain available for that vehicle, provided the new crew has the required qualification;
- crew skill levels should remain unchanged and crew-specific.
A more limited alternative would be to provide a temporary free crew-transfer period for vehicles affected by official BR changes. However, making Ace progress vehicle-based would be a clearer and more permanent solution.
Official BR adjustments will continue to change the composition of lineups. Players should be able to adapt their presets without sacrificing hundreds of thousands of vehicle-specific progression points accumulated over many battles.
Ace qualification progress should represent experience gained with the vehicle, not a permanent obligation to keep that vehicle in one crew slot forever.