Real-World Military Realism vs. Artificial Nation Isolation
Multi-Origin Inventories are Modern Military Reality: The claim that mixing vehicles from different nations ruins immersion or doctrine ignores how real-world armed forces operate today:
India operates Russian-made Su-30MKIs and T-90s right alongside French Rafales and US Apache helicopters.
Poland fields US M1 Abrams, South Korean K2 Black Panthers, and German Leopard 2s in the same land force.
Egypt, Greece, and Malaysia fly Russian, Western, and Asian aircraft within the exact same military framework.
Simulating Real Military Doctrines: A custom preset isn’t an artificial construct; for millions of players whose home nations aren’t represented with a dedicated tech tree, it is the only way to accurately reflect real-world military inventories without forcing Gaijin to construct cluttered, copy-paste sub-trees.
Sub-Trees Have Already Shattered “Nation Purity”: Gaijin officially integrates sub-trees that place opposing military doctrines into the exact same national tree.
Case in Point (Japan & Regional Sub-Trees): A single lineup under a single national banner can already field domestic Japanese armor like the Type 10, US-designed attack helicopters like the AH-64 Apache, European armor like the Leopard 2, and Eastern-bloc platforms like the Oplot or Su-30 variants.
The Core Contradiction: When the official game design routinely forces Soviet, Western, and Asian hardware into the exact same hangar deck under one country’s tag, claiming that Level 100 custom presets destroy “faction logic” or “national identity” is a complete double standard. The precedent for mixed-doctrine lineups has already been set by Gaijin itself.
Genuinely the only way I can even play top tier and even high mid tier is because I plugged a keyboard into my Xbox, that’s the only way, not enough binds on the controller, and even the ones on the controller are buggy and don’t work like they should.
We aren’t talking about real world, we are talking about a video game, one where players will do whatever they can to get the advantage.
I don’t feel like responding to AI but I understand why you’re using it
Yes, a custom preset would be nice for people without their country represented in game, but changing the core of the game for a fraction of the players is not the way to do it. If you want vehicles from your country, choose what tech tree matches your wants as well as you can and grind it, don’t expect the game to change for you. All in all, this isn’t a real strong argument for adding it.
Copy paste has ruined it, not sub trees, if you think sub trees shouldn’t be in the game that goes against the point you just made in the last paragraph.
I don’t support most of this last years additions honestly, they added way too much way too quickly, they bit off more than they could chew and now us, the players, are paying for it.
Thanks for the grounded reply. First off, I appreciate your understanding regarding the text style. English isn’t my native language, so I use tools to organize my thoughts clearly and make sure my tone comes across as respectful rather than hostile or argumentative. I’d rather keep the focus on a healthy discussion.
On “Video Game Realism” & The Meta
I completely agree that War Thunder is a video game where players constantly seek competitive advantages. However, there is no “unbeatable formula”—individual vehicle stats, BR caps, and weakspots remain identical no matter which preset launches them. If a combination feels overwhelming, vehicle balance is Gaijin’s responsibility to adjust. The game is already deeply asymmetrical right now, with a massive chunk of the player base stacking dominant nations just to secure wins. Custom presets don’t break balance; they simply grant operational flexibility to players who have already put in the work.
The Representation Gap
Telling unrepresented players to “just pick the closest tree and grind it” comes naturally to those whose home nations are already fully featured in the game. But settling for a 50% or 60% compromise across isolated trees never truly fulfills that experience. Asking for a mechanic that respects long-term effort for these players isn’t asking for special treatment—it’s asking for a way to use what we’ve already earned.
Sub-Trees & Copy-Paste
I’m not against sub-trees either—they serve a purpose. But building a full sub-tree requires Gaijin to insert mandatory copy-paste vehicles to bridge tier progression so a nation isn’t left incomplete. While that copy-paste grind doesn’t bother newer players, it heavily exhausts veterans who have already researched those exact same assets elsewhere. Custom presets bypass the need for tree bloat altogether.
Burnout and Game Fatigue
I completely sympathize with your frustration over the game’s recent direction. Even with over 5,000 hours played, I barely touched War Thunder in 2025 due to pure burnout and a lack of endgame purpose. I only returned recently because I found a national tree that covers about 70% of my home country’s inventory by luck. But I’m advocating for the players who don’t even have that 70% option, and for giving max-level veterans a reason to stay invested after thousands of hours.
This response i write myself in native lenguaje and use the tool to mere translete it and making my messege clear :)
Also i would like to improve, the “endgame” so this post is also for debating, i would love to this post comes put with a suggestion to make an improvement for the QoL of the lategame.
Also, I really want to improve the endgame experience, which is why this post is meant for open debate. I’d love for this discussion to end up producing a solid Quality of Life (QoL) suggestion to help late-game players.
Well its kinda… Not okay to gatekeep such a great feature? Plus the game has its own system with “sides” so having multiple of them kinda breaks it apart.
Tho it would be a good addition to use in arcade battles, its still bad to gatekeep this.
Refined Proposal: Curated National Presets & Gap Solution
After considering community feedback regarding balance, nation purity, and lineup composition, the proposal shifts from an open sandbox to a Curated National Preset System. This refines the idea to better fit War Thunder’s design while solving long-standing tech tree progression issues:
Solving Massive Technological Leaps (The Chilean Example)
The Flaw of Traditional Sub-Trees: Many smaller or regional nations experienced massive historical jumps in military hardware without a smooth, tier-by-tier transition. For example, the Chilean Air Force transitioned directly from P-47 Thunderbolts (Rank III) straight into De Havilland Vampires (Rank V), completely skipping Rank IV piston-engine development.
Bypassing Mandatory Filler: Forcing Gaijin to construct a traditional sub-tree for these nations forces them to bloat the research lines with arbitrary, copy-paste vehicles just to bridge rank gaps. A Curated National Preset allows unrepresented nations to be added seamlessly using vehicles that already exist across different trees, skipping unnecessary filler entirely.
Preventing “Hyper-Duplication” (Variant Stacking)
One Chassis Instance per Lineup: To address fears of players stacking near-identical vehicles, presets could enforce a strict anti-duplication rule. For instance, if a player owns the German Leopard 1A5, the Italian Leopard 1A5, the Swedish/Norwegian Leo 1A5, and the French/Belgian Leo 1A5, they would only be allowed to equip one Leopard 1A5 variant in that specific preset (debatable whether this restriction is strictly necessary, but included as a safeguard against chassis spam).
Zero “Meme/OP/Rat Decks”: You cannot stack multiple identical platforms or exploit niche setups (such as spamming 5 identical 35mm AA platforms). Lineups remain historically and operationally grounded.
Progression Criteria & Mid-Tier Protection
A Natural Milestone, Not Gatekeeping: To populate a Curated National Preset, you must have legitimately researched and unlocked those specific vehicles in their respective tech trees at Rank VI or higher.
Protecting Low Tiers: Restricting this feature strictly to high-tier assets ensures that low- and mid-tier matchmaking, learning curves, and classic nation progression remain completely untouched.
