mmm
ahh yes
That definitely doesn’t stop vehicles like the premium Su-30 from being undertiered, the Su-27SM from being undertiered, etc
Why?
because the average player using them is a complete nitwit.
Aren’t you the guy that wanted the Su-30MK2 to be 13.0?
what? definitely not me
tbh performance based balancing is more useful for ground gamemodes where lineups are a thing because they add so much complexity to a vehicles performance that peer-peer comparisons cant capture properly, in air they probably could manage closer to a peer-peer comparison for BRs
but also it is unfortunately the nature of free to play video game that gaijin does actually need to cater to the average player and cant just ignore them, hence why the game is balanced around them
So assist them in ways that don’t ruin the game’s balance
Like adding tutorials
when a significant portion of new players goes to germany and insta grinds for the tiger, there is only so much that tutorials can actually help with (especially for 13 year olds), like for those players to actually be helped the game would need closer to like university level lectures than simply tutorials, and theres a reason from the depths isnt the most popular game in the world
it’s still better than handholding them.
Handholding players just leads to them expecting to get handheld more. After all, why git gud when the game makes it easier for you so you can still do “well” while being terrible at the game
Balancing by stats leads to overtiered vehicles like zeros and the IRIAF, and undertiered ones like Su-30 and clickbait (although clickbait realistically even statwise should go up)
unfortunately kinda just untrue for this situation, long boring tutorials are provably like the worst thing for early player retention which is like one of the most important numbers for a company like gaijin and unfortunately for us this game does still need to be run like a business
Tutorials do not need to be boring, or long
Hell, even just regular tooltips should work.
Anything but the outdated and objectively terrible guides we have rn.
Which the average person won’t even find because they’re hidden around a weird menu
Bad teammate really crazy, But if you best and your vehicle best ; you can alone win (at least >60)
This. This a thousand times. This etched in metal and stone for all future generations.
No vehicle in the game plays itself
Capability is not just a function of technical characteristics (and player skills) but also map sizes, layouts, presence or absence of elevation, win conditions, presence or absence of supporting lineups (and same on the enemy team) etc
To those functions you must also add the quality of your team mates! That is the nerf. Try and play the Tiger II for a long chunk of time and see what the MM pairs you with. Yes the vehicle is absurdly strong, BUT that doesn’t reliably compensate for the fact that you’ll have to carry the asses of a bunch of FNG level 16s whose second best vehicle in the lineup after the Tiger II is the Pz IV J… You think that won’t impact your performance and effectiveness? You did well in that session but if you play it for a while, the MM will start giving you seals to carry in ever increasing numbers. And you can be very competitive anyway because the vehicle’s great… But that’s the point of balance.
Vehicles are not moral agents, players are. So balancing by players and not by vehicles is the sensible move from a fun POV.
Vehicles are not paying customers, players are. So balancing by players and not by vehicles is the sensible move from a commercial POV.
Capabilities are hard to quantify in any case given that you must first assign arbitrary weights to which characteristics matter more than others, rather than cut the gordian knot it would simply generate x10 the discussions we have today.
For example I think the two standout features of the Maus are the coax and the reverse gear. But so many Maus players make no use of the former and very little use of the latter, so when you look at the player base collectively, their impact on the vehicle’s performance will mostly be limited to the outliers who bothered to L2P.
they have been adding tooltips every now and then but what kinda tool tips are you suggesting here?
the problem is like 90% of the tooltips that i can think of that could be useful are not always useful and sometimes contrary to what is useful depending on the tank or situation
so glad finally someone gets it
Goes both directions, it’s even more unfun to fight an equally skilled player and be at a massive disadvantage because the majority of people in that lineup(tiger 1/2, turum 3, t58, bmpt) have brain damage.
A BMPT at 5.0 would be the single best selling vehicle in the game by a huge margin, so it’s a more sensible commercial move, right?
I find that hard to believe when there are clear metas within competitive play, it seems that the top players have already quantified which characteristics are valuable when selecting lineups for organized gameplay.
It only looks unbiased if you look at player statistics without any context. There’s a huge chunk list of vehicles that are over/under tiered using gaijin’s current system, and it more or less has been growing evey update.
yeah but we unfortunately play a free to play game that doesnt really have much choice but to cater to assumptions that average players are all that play the game
yeah but that just wouldnt happen would it? and even if we did live in some fantasy land where it did happen it wouldnt exactly stay at 5.0 for long
youre ignoring a LOT of nuance
statistically flawed maybe, not biased
and anyway, id love for you to provide one other method of balancing that is less biased than averages from very large datasets
The difference between you and this hypothetical player is that on average you will have better team mates than him, sometimes much better team mates. Hell, statistically alone you’ll be in the side that has a positive WR at that BR instead of a negative one. Since WT matches are 16v16 and not 1v1, that’s a very important distinction.
False analogy. It would drive people away from the game en masse. What is Gaijin’s commercial strategy?
F2P players (the majority) might not pay a penny, but they fill lobbies, leading to short queue times.
Paying players are a small minority but are sufficiently willing to spend to support the developer.
Everything that is not geared towards player retention is geared towards monetisation, and everything that is not geared towards monetisation is geared towards retention. Selling the BMPT at 5.0 may generate good income in the short term but it nukes retention, and when eventually every match above 5.0 is composed exclusively of BMPTs fighting each other, the commercial value gets tanked too.
Gaijin are not stupid. The game is set up this way for a reason.
If you want the bulk of F2P players (many of them relatively inexperienced and unskilled) to stay in the game, you have to cater to them. They are also the likeliest source of new purchases in the future. Players who are already skilled and who have already spent money are not the priority, because we are at the end of the funnel.
And frankly, from Gaijin’s POV it’s alright if a lobby is filled with Tiger Timmys that can only manage a 0.5 K/D in the Tiger E because it’s under-BRd, because it gives better players cannon fodder to farm, too.
In tournaments and SQB, sure. Your mistake however is that you are not considering that GRB takes place under very different conditions. I always say that playing GRB is like spending a day at the zoo. In GRB you can get away with all sorts of random crap and meme plays that would simply get you nowhere in a competitive match.
Game is already ruined by bad matchmaking and now more ruined matchmaking because introducing new USSR 6.7 packs that perfectly works fine in 7.7br. I see horrible players who don’t know anything in battle thinking they tank is “Maus”
it also forces several vehicles to end up far too high. Look at the vampire and venom or the russian copy of the B29
Or my main example: F-14A IRIAF
i wouldnt call a tomcat too high. they were violently oppressive when they were lower
IRIAF is literally nothing but a 1-trick pony reliant on the enemy being dumb
It was mediocre already at 13.3
It’s just a terrible plane at 13.7
Genuinely nothing good going for it.
Most 12.7s can engage one easily and still solo it
I’d expect the same for 12.3 aircraft besides tornadoes
forced 11.3+ to never leave the floor for months. Even if standalone it wasnt great, the spam for the free tomcat incident ruined high tier air for months