I can help the discussion more by elaborating why I think this way. I come from a time period when every main tech tree represented only its intended singular nation, and each nation had its own distinct matchmaker to faciliate that immersion that you’re roleplaying a nation militarily and historically. For example, Japan’s matchmaker mainly centered on Pacific maps and sometimes Khalkhin Gol against the Soviets (was only possible with lower tier props). Understandably because that’s how it was in real history, there was a bitter rivalry between the US/UK and Japan, especially on the Saipan and New Guinea maps, and it was a lot of fun whenever you won on either side.
Every nation was really unique, it was easy to feel protective or tribalistic towards your main nation of choice. It wasn’t even that bad that for example Japan was lacking in the top tier meta, because it’s simply Japan, it didn’t advance rapidly like the other nations after WW2. Funnily our biggest issue back then was playing in mixed matches whenever they did happen because they weren’t flavorful or historical and they interrupted the flow of specific nation-oriented tactical gameplay.
Through this lens, I believe we were really excited to see newer nations, and I’m glad we saw Italy and France in that light while it lasted, but now I’m no longer excited in the same way for Poland and Yugoslavia. National tech trees really mean nothing now, unless they make drastic changes which I hope for in the future.
Yeah not a fan of half nations either. I do like the concept of subtrees, just not the implementation. I agree there is nations that simply can’t form a viable techtree, and that combining nations helps with lineups and content balance mechanically.
But I don’t think this is an excuse to ignore national identity for the involved nations, that’s what needs fixing in my opinion.
I was really excited when subtrees were first announced with South Africa, just disappointed when I saw how they implemented them.
That said not every nation that can be added is a half nation, there is some great full nation options out there that I’m in full support of again.
there’s your answer
the only mig31s with flares are the MiG-31M and a MiG-31BM that was spotted last year with what seems to be countermeasure dispensers:
I know, those are UV-3A dispensers, the same ones referenced in the regular MiG-31’s specs list in the screenshot from Gordon’s book. Look at the other spoiler and read under “ESM”
I’m probably more in support of subtrees than you are, but I like this perspective and I especially agree with that last part.
As excited as I am about new nations, even as subtrees, this excitement dies down a lot when Gaijin treat them as convenient places to grab some extra content rather than nations. For example Thailand has a very distinct and interesting history with aviation, but when condensed into just a handful of aircraft in another nations research lines, this just doesn’t come across the way it should.
If you want my detailed opinion on what I think subtrees should be, you can read my suggestion about improving the current system.
I’m ok with subtrees so long as they rework them properly. This is my take on them:
But I also think that if they had the courage to add a nation like Israel that only starts at tier 4, they should have been able to add Hungary, Romania and Czechoslovakia independently.
And I just added the suggestion to my other reply… Good to know you read it already and thanks for leaving the feedback. You’d be surprised how much just about every reply on that topic helped refine the idea further!
Because War Thunder is a line up based game with only two modes not needing one and Japan had major gaps.
It was also the only nation allied to Japan during WW2 so it was the best pick before going to nation the only had good relations for part of War Thunder Like they had to.
Sigh, do we really need to have this conversation again ?
The reason why we have Thailand in Japan is because it helps to bulk Japanese air up at top tier imagine Japan without any subs. No Malaysia, no Thailand, no Indonisia Japan would be dead in the water with only F-15’s and the F-2 that it not even a rank IX either nor any CAS. Thailand fills Japan’s CAS issues, Malaysia & Indonesia solves Japan’s rank IX issues, are we now on the same page again ?
The clutter at rank VII can be replaced by FA-50 and Malaysian Hawk, rank VIII has no problem (If you think, spam a few more F-2s), Albatros and F-84 could be replaced by T-1A, Alpha Jet with the T-1B.
Which leaves only the Alpha Jet upgrade I cannot replace, and the group of zero tanks around 10.7 can stay without a CAS.
I get a few more Japanese vehicles, drop some copy paste clutter, and a sub tree is a sub tree anyway you get your Malaysian skins
