Information Regarding the Thai Subtree and Chinese Vehicles

As you know, we always avoid any kind of politics and focus solely on creating interesting games. All of our ideas regarding new additions to War Thunder, including the Thai subtree, are purely aimed at improving progression and gameplay. There is no intention to create a political statement with anything that we include in the game, as doing so would benefit no one and only cause negativity and discomfort. We do everything possible to ensure all War Thunder fans around the world can play together and have fun.

It boggles my mind that the developers of this game can state something like this, yet act in a manner that is completely antithetical to this.

  • Gaijin claims to be doing everything possible to ensure all fans can play together and have fun, yet they are only seeking to soothe the anger of a particularly loud group of a SINGLE playerbase (note that I take care to note that playerbases are not monolithic.
  • Gaijin claims to be avoiding any kind of politics, but in reality, they are only kowtowing to the politics of a single group. If I am reading this correctly, Gaijin may very well withhold the VT-4 entirely from the Thai subtree because of “sensitivities”. However, isn’t the act of withholding a vehicle in active service in Thailand to cater to these sensitivities political as well? Why is it that Gaijin must bow to the pressure of a particular playerbase, yet literally ignore the wishes of every other player, including those in China who don’t mind the addition of the VT-4?

In past updates, Gaijin has been bold enough to create content for the benefit of all players despite sectarian outcries. For example, we saw a particularly loud group of Indian players protest against the addition of Indian vehicles to the British Tech Tree, even though these vehicles would be under their own flag (as with other subtrees). Yet, Gaijin forged ahead anyway! What is so different about Chinese vehicles that Gaijin acts in a manner antithetical their statement, unfairly giving precedence to the sentiments of a loud group within the Chinese playerbase?

I also want to note that this is NOT THE FIRST TIME that Gaijin has removed content entirely to cater to these sentiments, such as when the Ki-27 camo in the War Diaries event several years ago was removed. And that was when that playerbase was forced to have its own server.

Ultimately, I recognize that Gaijin is in a difficult situation, as War Thunder is one of the very few games out there where nationalist sentiments color the feedback, criticism, and even development of game content. However, I have seen that for nearly all content concerning outside the Asia-Pacific region, Gaijin has purposely forged ahead regardless of controversy to improve the game experience, such as adding the UMPK to the Su-34.

So if Gaijin can be so brave, then, why can’t they be brave enough to add a vehicle in active service with Thailand to the existing subtree?

We want our decision-making process to be as open and clear as possible, so today we’d like to explain our approach to new subtrees and balancing vehicle characteristics in detail.

I appreciate Gaijin for releasing this statement rather than blindsiding the playerbase by withholding the VT-4 and any such related vehicles without telling us. However, if Gaijin goes through with this, I see little reason to believe that Gaijin is acting fairly to the playerbase when they so readily favor a vitriolic subgroup.

Gaijin themselves admit that such sensitivities are in the minority:

We see that even the theoretical possibility of a Thai VT-4 being added to the Japanese tree is perceived with sensitivity by some players, as the tank for Thailand is produced in China

So why cater to them? Do what’s best for the game in its entirety, or at the very least, for the nation that should actually be using it. I hope to be pleasantly surprised next update.

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The thing that confuses me about that is that literally every player-nation believes they are being treated unfairly by Gaijin. I’m not so sure why Chinese players think they are being treated more unfairly.

But yes, Gaijin should absolutely fix the many incorrect modelling mistakes with Chinese vehicles.

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As much as I disagree with Singapore being added to China, I get where you’re coming from. I have similar issues as well, I’ve been progressing China at a snails pace (maybe got one more rank air and ground in the last two years) just because it’s my second nation and I barely have the time for one.

So as far as this is concerned, I do agree and don’t take issues with having a diverse vehicle selection in the Chinese tree. I only disagree with where they are taken from, but not with more additions to China in general.
For what it’s worth, I’m hoping for many improvements to the Chinese tree like fixing existing vehicles and adding new vehicles from PRC and ROC, but also potential subtrees like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, maybe even North Korea depending on what they do with the Koreas.

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I ran out of likes today

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On the bug reporting platform, many issues related to Chinese vehicles are closed within just a few minutes—even though a single issue would normally take longer than that to review. This suggests that the issue managers are not actually reading through the reports, they are not even being “acknowledged”

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At least when it comes to Italian navy, you are very subjective, like rejecting information about rate of fire or postpone armor composition changes or keeping different reload rate for the same Minisini cannons on Italian and Soviet vessels.
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/eaL6xjKCpZSB
https://community.gaijin.net/issues/p/warthunder/i/IlqqKpYCEgJn

I wouldn’t also call it objective when you fixed Ariete tanks weights, but completely ignored information about protection, so now we have a “WAR” kit intended to defend against KE shells which makes it worse than Kontankt-1, but weights 5.5 t, it’s literally a “heavy air” in the game.

I agree that it helped the tree, bringing some meta stuff, although the implementation was rather dirty, focusing on copypaste vehicles ignoring domestic modifications, plus some decisions made were kinda against the tree, like not giving a heavy tank into the regular tree (Tigris). Hopefully in the future we will get more designs and modifications from Hungary and Romania, as well as Italy of course, there are so many to add, go for it Gaijin!

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On the one hand, Gaijin seems to love C&P, but on the other hand, many players also found that the new VT-4 has better protection on its armour and survivability than the old one. Such as the position of the autoloader, which makes players doubt about maybe this tank was for the Japanese tech tree, so they have better survivability, and so Gaijin did not treat the Chinese tech tree equally to the others

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Same

So completely ignored at will hten.

I will also add that many Chinese players are upset with Gaijin’s second response regarding the implementation of Chinese vehicles.

It really just reads as “we know what’s realistic, so take this subtree instead”

10/10

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The whole feelings shit can explode into a communities hating each other by just adding some stuff and it wont get better the longer you do this, just be careful what you add next time where and when. removing stuff from a techtree is also bad solution. its better to be mad at gaijin rather than the communities being hatful to eachother. so they should add the remaining stuff while still looking on the most reasonable concerns, which arent the biggest deal(deleting a whole subtree from a nation.)

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8 hours ago this was posted and 1,2k replies… we getting traction on this one boys

It’s crazy that when steam is private and cater to gamer so much, gaijin decides to be asshole because they can.

Or because they’re russian.

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Someone in the Chinese community created an issue and it was NABed within a few minutes.

Do. Not. Even. Start.

so many open for so long

anyway Yak-9K APHE removal?

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Search up peace carvin, then understand all those programs are a fraction of the military relations between the US and Singapore

At least for the F-15SG the 428th Fighter Squadron let’s it go to the right place. The Leopard isn’t as lucky sadly

As a Singaporean. Singapore should absolutely not go to china. We are not the slightest bit related to china except the stupid and unnecessary infrastructure projects they fund so that china can drown us in debt.

If this went through i regret putting my time, effort and money into this game.
I think another review bomb seems to be needed to wake them up from their delusion.

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If you don’t mind me asking, how would you feel about the F-15SG going to the US?

The real issue is not Singapore and China, but Gaijin’s inaction towards player feedback and deliberate disregard for Chinese vehicle data. Moreover, sending the VT4 and ‘Yamashita’ to Japan on a sensitive date such as the anniversary of China’s victory over Japan in World War II is a blatant challenge to the anti-fascist victory of World War II. Gaijin is clearly shifting the blame, so let’s not be misled

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