To a certain degree, but not to the degree that these things fall into it. QoL changes/improvements as a general usage term tends to mean things that improve basic functionality/etc while not fundamentally altering the game/mechanics/balance/etc. That is to say, not mechanics changes, progression speed changes, balance changes, gamemode changes, and so on; these are all major/normal game changes. QoL is more like tidying up the game as it currently exists.
I generally dislike being pedantic, but this paired with OP’s “all the things I personally want would be objectively better for the game and should happen regardless of how infeasible” and that all-too-common “we / the community” in place of “I” tends to bother me.
I can absolutely agree with this. Crew skills and related systems are some of the worst offenders for basically-pay-to-win in the game, and absolutely need a rework. The issue is it runs into the it’s-part-of-the-monetization wall.
On the more potentially-realistic side of things we could ask for, I nominate Expert/Ace applying across all crew slots, and the ability to remove crew skill points. I would actually consider both to be great examples of QoL improvements, if not for that monetization issue being tied into this.
But on that note, I would probably spend quite a lot of GE on Aces if it was a permanent upgrade for the vehicle (instead of by slot), which, well you can argue that doesn’t help the P2W issue but it at least is a point in favour of the “it would still general money” angle, which realistically must be considered. As for removing and reassigning crew skill points, there would have to be some kind of system to prevent abuse (as in, removing all your Air points to put into Ground whenever you switch modes), so maybe some sort of SL cost per amount of points returned to the pool, as an idea.
For boosters not expiring, again it would be a QoL improvement if not for being caught up in monetization. Not of the boosters themselves, but because by hoarding them people could effectively speed up their research literally at all times, at least for a given new vehicle/etc. I would like to see it, but I fear it would come alongside research speed being taken away in some other way.
As for map stuff, there’s two things. Removing “sniper spots” tends to almost always been “massively overbearing power positions”, so I tend to consider them improvements.
Especially if it’s a “flank into power position” type situation, as that essentially boils down to wanting to be able to have a massively advantageous position, often towards the enemy spawn and virtually always into their flanks where they’re not looking, in Ground RB that has the “wonderful” combo of third-person seeing over cover while you’re literally invisible, no enemy markers (itself fine) so the enemy team is at a massive disadvantage in using “natural teamwork/communication” (what online PvP games are built on) to detect you, and for good measure optics inside gun barrels and same-on-every-tank reticles for easy pixel sniping.
Add in a position you can get to without being seen, which then also gives you an advantage even after opening fire (not how flanks are supposed to work, in a balance sense), plus the inherent steamrolliness of the spawn point system (instead of free or set spawns like every other mode), of planes having insane visibility due to their own third-person (I’m not opposed to CAS, mind) and again lack of markers/targeting to communicate (Naval RB has targeting but no markers, for example), and so on.
Ground RB is probably the worst offender for “gameiness” in WT, because of all this put together; taking out overpowered map positions is the least the devs can do to improve this.
As for smaller map sizes, this continues to be misrepresented around here (and reddit, but more so here) as being something universal, when it’s actually only the single-cap maps. It’s always been weird that single-cap maps have the same borders as three-cap, so if anything it’s also weird it’s taken this long to fix it.
I would also like to say that I (almost) exclusively play WWII vehicles, and would personally prefer a tank-only mode (as in, only WWII and only tanks), but those personal preferences don’t really align with WT’s design and vision, so I don’t argue for them.
