We currently have a situation in War Thunder where the heavy BR compression leads to rather modern vehicles over performing conventional tanks when fighting against thick armor.
I think this is a commonly known problem of the game (even though it isn’t gamebreaking)
So I would like to have the tech trees split between modern and conventional.
But instead of just splitting the tech trees into 2 I would like to add a 3rd “transition- rank”, so the tanks that are modern but just not as much wouldn’t be let out.
In this example I try to show how it would look in the 3 main nations. The BRs are highly optional, I did change a few but this is just about the concept of not only splitting the tree in 2 but also using a “transition rank”
Green (Rank IV) = highest conventional rank
Cyan (Rank V) = transition rank
Blue (Rank VI) = lowest modern tank
Ofc certain tanks can be moved, I didn’t put very much effort into picking the perfect rank for every single one
Funktionality:
Rank IV would be the “conventional toptier”, but could potentially be matched into battles with rank V. That would be treated like an uptier so only 25% of players can be from rank V versing rank IV.
Rank V can either be matched into rank IV + V, just rank V or rank V + VI battles.
Rank VI can never be matched into battles with rank IV (the same system as it is in the game already)
Pros:
Fully conventional battles being possible (no huge technological gap between vehicles, matches with no cars speeding around)
Decompression with certain tanks (Jagdtiger, Object 268)
“bad” modern vehicles in the transition ranks having the ability of facing conventional tanks
Playing the heaviest tanks in War Thunder would finally make sense again.
There is cons, I obviously don’t see that as critical, though:
(I mean, if I did I wouldn’t be pro this whole idea)
slightly longer waiting time for matchmaking: → it will probably still be bellow 10s at these very popular ranks
Potential gaps forming especially in smaller tech trees:
→ I don’t have the fear of missing out on certain areas with certain nations, we already have that with Israel and lowtier
Not every modern tank could be removed from the conventional tree like the M51, all the Swedish HEAT launchers etc.:
→ these vehicles are so bad already that it doesn’t matter anyways
tanks in the transition rank with low BRs would mostly be used against higher BRs what would make them less usefull:
→ We are talking about light tanks with HEAT like the Scorpion or T92, these tanks don’t suffer as much having to verse higher BRs.
Nowadays, when being uptiered most of us automatically prefer the more modern tanks in our lineups already, that’s because we know they can handle fighting against higher BRs the best.
A T92 doesn’t care much about if it fights a M26 or a M48. I don’t think there is going to be that much of a change for these light vehicles that sit at the very bottom of transition rank
the problem with this system is that, some tanks would become perma meta, and others would become perma DOA.
Those at the bottom of a “bracket” would become totally unplayable as they would face nothing but uptiers and those at the very top would always steam roll. As you said, some nations would simply have no answer/counter.
The better solution, and the solution I really dont understand why they dont use for air and ground RBs as it already exists in game and works very well imo, is the system used for air sim.
You go to queue, you see the bracket, sometimes you’ll be at the top of that bracket, sometimes in the middle and sometimes at the bottom. Entering the match, you know before hand what you will likely be facing. Dont like what you will be facing, switch vehicles. Every 48 hours (I would propose a smaller timeframe perhaps for RB) the bracket changes and so which vehicles are meta change. Suddenly vehicles DOA because they face nothing but uptiers can actually face things at their BR or lower and thus become good.
Simple. Works great in Air Sim and I feel that the balance is overall much better.
Nothing would be unplayable like the GSB system. Just if you really wanted to play something such as a 7.7 tank and the current bracket for that tank was 7.7-8.7 you would know every single match would be an uptier. Unfortunate, but can still be played. Rather than the current system where you have a 99% chance of facing 8.7s and a 1% chance of facing 6.7s.
But the flipside is that maybe you load up, decide you want to play said 7.7 tank and its in a 6.7-7.7 bracket and its just pure downtier every single match.
Also, you would be surprised by the number of vehicles that you may have long since abandoned because they were useless if you got even a slightest uptier now suddenly really playable and good again in certain rotations
I think that it’s better than some planes being nearly unplayable due to bad MM, compression issues.
For example, 9.3 is a very interesting BR in air RB, but any uptier beyond 9.7 is awful due to facing planes that outperform you, while also having missiles you can barely dodge. It’ll also help 12.7/13.0 planes because they will no longer face top tier most of the time.
This is basically creating a new top tier. There is very little sense in this. Although vehicles with HEAT can usually easily penetrate vehicles with heavy armour, that is often their only benefit. Heavy WWII era vehicles usually have the advantage in reaction time, stability, armour and survivability, turret traverse, and the post-penetration effect.
It may not be historical, but it is balanced as it is currently.
“A T92 doesn’t care whether it is fighting M26 or M48”
Yes, it does. M48 has much better turret traverse, mobility, optics, etc. It gives it a massive advantage. Not everything is about armour.
The only issue with this is that it creates permanent meta-tanks, admittedly it would just be what top tier was back when gaijin was still saying they weren’t going beyond the Korean war but it would just be IS-3 and Centurions as king (especially as Tiger 105 is long gone and maus just isn’t competitive).
I do firmly like the idea of SPGs like the PZH2000 and VIDAR being the hell away from ruining my 1956 lineup though
How should they take this into account for br changes? I would imagine most vehicles would end up with inflated stats due to most people only playing whatever is “top tier”.
No, it’s not their only benefit and that’s exactly what I have a problem with. They often are among the fastest vehicles and have a quick reload.
If you don’t just rush the enemy head on, you will not have a disadvantage in that. You are literally describing people being dumb with light tanks as a disadvantage of these tanks themselves.
Idk what you mean by that. Is it the lower speed of heavy tanks what you are trying to sell as an advantage?
And that only against other conventional tanks which is exactly the problem I have already described. There is no advantage against HEAT or APDS.
I don’t even know where you take this from.
That’s the only advantage they have. And that’s not enough, I don’t want to play heavily armored tanks just to have the post pen effect as my only advantage…
You are right, no everything is about armor. I was exaggerating but the point I was making is that modern tanks can deal with uptiers way better than older ones, and that point still stands.
It would create a new toptier, yes. The IS3 would be the Leopard 2A7v of the conventional era.
Look at current toptier. Nobody wants to play the 11.0 - 11.7 stuff.
I do not believe they would become unplayable but they indeed would have a massive disadvantage. I think it is comparable to current 1.0, though.
That’s a bad idea… This would take away the freedom to play whatever you like entirely, you would have to play what the game dictates you to.
Yeah. Its one of the reasons i stopped playing ground sim.
You basically only have a couple tanks to choose from. And this would be the same.
I would hate to get on thinking “i havent used X in a while. Maybe i should play it today” and see that today is the day that it gets only full uptiers.
