I’ve noticed very conflicting reactions to the premium vehicles being added lately. I’ve seen complaints of “copy & paste” premiums and wanting unique vehicles as premiums (Case of the French f-16). However I have also seen complaints of unique vehicles being offered instead of copy pastes (Case of F-14D).
In my opinion I am more in favor of copy paste premiums myself as it leaves unique vehicles earnable and helps pad line ups. In another example I am also against the F-14D being made a premium as it does feel like it should have been a tech tree aircraft.
What are your opinions?
What type of premium vehicles would you rather see in the future?
Im both for and against. And its more to do with what the C&P is and the context surrounding it rather than it just being a straight C&P.
The French F-16 coming this major update is boring because its another F-16, after just getting both an SQV and Event F-16. So they have now 5x F-16s, where they at most needed 2 or maybe 3. Imo, neither the event not premium F-16s were in anyway necessary and were just lazy. (With NT happening only 2 months later, the Mirage IV would ahve been the perfect event vehicle)
But that F-16 could be replaced with a C&P Mirage 2000-5F, 100% identical to what is in the TT bar livery and its no longer a issue. Nothing is lost from the tree or gate-locked behind a paywall, but you get a premium version of an existing vehicle
The boring part is both when the vehicle isnt necessary upon any argument of “representation” and when its used across multiple TTs. In the same vein, I found the mass F-18 premium wave very boring, but I wouldnt have had any issue with say a Tornado F3 premium that was 100% identical instead.
So both the context of the tree its being placed into is relevant, perticuarly if its not a vehicle even used by the main nation, but also when its a premium that is slapped across multiple TTs. For now it remains slightly unique in that regard as only Israel have a Premium F-16, but how long until the US (that doesnt have an advanced Fox-3 carrier) or Italy (a nation that is missing a similar fox-3 premium) or Sweden who have limited selection of available vehicles for a high BR premium, also get F-16 premiums and now you have potentially 5 nations, all with the exact same vehicle to fullfill a premium role.
Premium versions of existing vehicles can still be a little unique, like for example the Lightning F-53 is a perfect example of what differences should be looked for. In most situations, they are the same, but just with a little extra flavour thrown in
I do agree with the oversaturation of certain vehicles. The F-18 premium should have been a US only premium and the other nations should have received a Copy/Paste of their own nationality. The same thing occurred again with the Su-30 premiums which I was not a fan of.
I believe that when a vehicle is added it should have at least 2 variants, a TT one and a premium one
For example, we could add a Fw-189 A-2 to justify a premium Fw-189.
Or the IA.58A (most produced variant) Pucará would be TT while the AI.58B (30mil armed variant) would be premium.
In cases we don’t see any variants of a vehicle (prototypes) you can add the competitor for it.
For example the soviet I-250 would be TT and Sukhoi Su-5 would be premium.
If historical teams return (axis vs allies, Warsaw vs NATO), then any “lend-lease” or purchased aircraft that would fall under “Copy and Paste” would %100 be premiums.
Captured vehicles removed unless modified by captor.
I should say, my most ideal copy paste scenario is something like the clickbait. Essentially a tech tree vehicle with similar equipment and an interesting model difference. Hell the new PUMA VJTF is a perfect example, no special/unique system that makes it any better than the tree version yet has an interesting unique model.
Though it could be argued it might be better for the health of the game if they added a “Premium” skin system to the game that had similar unique models. Maybe replace the concept of premium all together and add a “Super Talisman” that adds total premium vehicle benefits to any vehicle you want and sell unique skins/models for base tech tree vehicles. You could even do what Gabe N does for Dota 2 and let creators make unique models that people can vote on and just give them a slight commission.
I’m up for the middle, Premium vehicles usually give away some advantage depending on the vehicle obviously, e.g. 2S38 being the only high-caliber Russian autocannon platform while similars could’ve been added like the BRM-3K (57) in the tech tree to give away people unable to affort a Premium vehicle—a tech tree counterpart.
Real examples in-game are the M1 Abrams and the M1 KVT Abrams which has little changes in between except the weight removal of the sideskirts when comparing the tech tree and its Premium variant.
M1 Abrams and the KVT are another good example. The side skirts thing is very minimal and negligible in my opinion. 2S38 is definitely a bad offender for having no current tech tree equivalent yet is insanely powerful. I don’t mind things like the 2S38 in the game but to lock it behind a paywall with no tech tree equivalent is diabolical.
I am honestly shocked they restrained themselves by adding a tech tree variant of the BMPT Terminator and didn’t just lock it behind a paywall.
I do mostly agree with this. Though I think the Clickbait is an entirely separate can of worms in that it could easily be 12.7, but is at 12.0 pretty much exclusively for the purpose of not then being a top tier premium.
But they can also be frustrating as hell with it, like for example the Challenger 2 OES. Could have picked a number of vehicles to fullfill the premium Challenger 2 and they pick maybe the weakest possible version (Massive weight increase for basically no value). Hopefully the ERA can be removed at some point and then it becomes an okay premium at 11.7.
So yeah, a variant of an existing premium is fine, but they just need to pick smart (especially if they want to sell the damn things)
The difference of the clickbait from other Abrams variants will be a bit wider once the new rounds are added to the SEP vehicles. At least there will be a more substantial difference compared to them just lacking better gunner thermals.
I am also indifferent with the Chally 2 OES. I’d rather the premium vehicle be weaker than stronger than the tech tree variant but would obviously be happiest if they were parity with unique paint jobs and visually different and appealing models that looked lived in by a crew. A great example of this would be something like a T72B3 premium with cope cages and a war torn appearance, bits of razor wire hanging from the engine or covered in slate armor, etc…
Yeah, that I do agree with too. Not necessarily against the genre, though not my cup of tea at all, but its just completely opposite to what WT should be. Its the kind of thing that you’d expect for WoT
Yeah if you could get both a Lion and RP Talisman it would fix a lot of problems but Gaijin is likely afraid it could effect their bottom line. I would argue the player good will would bring in greater revenue in the long run but what the hell do I know.
I think you’re missing an extra layer to this discussion.
While I think that premiums should be copy-paste vehicles, it’s also important that trees have a unique feel. That’s a big part of why I think the M1A1 Click bait is fine, but the F-16AM premium for France is an awful addition.
Additionally, these things can’t be viewed in a vacuum. The F-16AM is being added to a tree that:
Over the last two years has gotten 50%+ imported copy-paste ground and air due to it’s new subtree
Is on it’s third subsequent subtree imported premium
Hasn’t had a single domestic ground or air design all year.
I’d suggest adjusting the categories to your poll:
I can tolerate both if it’s done within reason. Such as putting more effort than just slapping a different coat of paint on the place in another tech tree. Such as the Me-210; it could have changed the German text to Japanese at the least.
