- Yes
- No
Subtrees are a good way to help existing nations in their efficiency and vehicle variety, while introducing new and exciting nations to the game. They have been a part of War Thunder since the release of update “Ixwa Strike” in March 2021.
Yet, they also come with with a lot of criticism. From gameplay debates criticizing the addition of other nations vehicles “getting in the way” of researching the main nations vehicles, to more political discussions about what subtrees are and aren’t appropriate, especially about nations being “under” another, they have certainly not been for everyone.
But this suggestion aims to improve subtrees and take away as many of these issues as possible.
- If you have any thoughts about it, ideas for additions or improvements, feel free to add those and potentially help improve the game.
Credit to @馮如 for his subtree rework suggestion on the old forum
Many images are dead, but they are preserved here.
What is a “Subtree”?
Spoiler
Surprisingly, this has been a large debate in and of itself, especially recently.
Some consider a subtree to be a specific line of one of the various branches. An example for this would be the right line of vehicles in the British tech tree. Here players sometimes distinguish between (for example) a “Ground subtree” and an “Air subtree”, rather than thinking of it as a gamemode independent nation.
However for the context of this suggestion, I will assume a subtree to represent a nation that is officially stated to be depicted within the tech tree of another. So for example the right line of the British techtree would not be a subtree, but a place where many subtree vehicles sit. Any South African vehicles, even those outside of the ground forces techtree, are also part of the subtree by this definition.
Nation Folders, as the name suggests, improve the subtree system by reworking it from the ground up.
Rather than inserting one nation into the existing techtree of another, the nations have their own distinct techtrees. These are then placed in a folder that is opened up when hovering over a faction in the existing nation selection bar.
Clicking on one of these nations opens that nation’s techtree. This is set up in the same way an existing techtrees are, with separate tabs for Army, Helicopters, Aviation, Bluewater Fleet and Coastal Fleet, provided a respective techtree of the specific type has been added for the selected nation.
Special thanks to @Deathmisser and @patryk107 for helping to improve the concept
Just like current subtrees, these nations still share the same crew slots, lineups and can be used together in battle in much the same way as you can now.
For example, Italian, Hungarian and Romanian techtrees would share a folder in the reworked subtree system, so these nations can be used together in the same lineup.
Research is done in much the same way as it is now. Despite the split tech trees, research remains shared. This means that just like the current game, all vehicles of the same branch (e.g. tanks) have a shared RP pool given to a single selected research goal.
How do I keep track of my research goals across folders?
Spoiler
To help keep track of research goals across nations in a folder, an indicator is added to the top right of the research tree, left of the search bar. This indicator shows the current selected vehicle for research, as well as the leftover RP needed to unlock it and the nation it is from, so that players don’t need to search for what they selected across multiple foldered nations. Double clicking it leads directly to that nations techtree.
How do I unlock ranks?
Spoiler
Rank unlock requirements will overlap nations. This way, once a certain rank of a branch in one foldered nation is unlocked, the same would be unlocked for all nations in that folder.
This allows a player to plan their progression freely so long as their desired path includes enough vehicles of each rank.
Unlock requirements will however stay adjusted to the same level as we have now, not exceeding 5 needed vehicles per rank. This is to allow players to have more freedom when selecting what nations to play.
Special thanks to @Noveos_Republic for helping to improve the research mechanics
To help players keep track of the many vehicles from all foldered nations, there is a new Faction Overview menu separate from the national research trees.
The Faction Overview is a menu to show the combined vehicles of a faction. These are organized into their separate vehicle classes (e.g. Light Tank, Medium Tank, Heavy Tank, SPAA, Tank Destroyer), as well as BRs.
This makes it more convenient to navigate and find vehicles from all foldered nations, which can be helpful when building lineups, assessing the general capability of a faction as a whole or comparing vehicles from different foldered nations.
How do I access it?
Does the Faction Overview display research connections?
Spoiler
Unlike the national trees, the faction overview does not represent the research flow through the familiar arrows. However, the previous, as well as the following vehicle are shown in the statcard:
Inspired by Gaijin's "The previous vehicle must be researched"
Selecting a vehicle in the Faction Overview also gives a new shortcut option to view it in the respective research tree, making it easy to check the exact positions in the research tree and plan out your research.
Special thanks to @AlvisWisla for his original idea
In update 2.51 Gaijin introduced a new system for players to select which nation their techtree will display in the form of the name and flag.
To make this function seamlessly with the Subtree Rework I had to do some changes and improvements to both the suggestion and the customization feature.
What nation is displayed as main / display nation of a faction?
Spoiler
The nation shown in the nation bar will always be the one selected in the menu, while all other nations research trees would be placed in the folder above it.
Example: Thailand is selected, so it displays as Thailand even when looking at the Japanese techtree.How was this handled before the nation customization?
What do the colors mean?
Spoiler
The colors are used to indicate if a nation is a permanent part of a faction, or if it is only here due to a one-off vehicle addition.
- Orange indicates a nation that has a permanent home in a specific tech tree. When not unlocked these will still all be displayed, but greyed out to show they are permanent, but a player has yet to unlock them
- Yellow indicates a nation that is not permanently placed in a specific tech tree. When not unlocked these will be hidden from view, to show they are one-off bonus additions, not a main part of progression.
“If the main goal is to get around issues as subtrees, why not add them as standalone nations instead?”
The Subtree Rework not only affects new nations, but also existing subtrees. This helps fix issues with subtrees that already exist, while keeping all benefits of current subtrees.
Not all nations can necessarily work as standalone trees. Many simply have only limited vehicle options, making a standalone techtree just not viable. However thanks to the benefits of the subtree system smaller nations become viable additions to the game. And all of that while functionally getting to act and be played as their own nations if a player chooses.
There can still be new standalone nations, where the Rework can still be applied to improve the player experience. For example a future combined Korean techtree might benefit from having separate tabs for ROK and DPRK vehicles.
“What does this system even improve about current subtrees?”
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Player Choice; Players have much more freedom deciding what nations to play, rather than being forced to use every nation of a faction to progress.
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Additional Space; Each nation has it’s own techtrees, allowing for 5 vertical lines of space for each nation that can be used to add exciting new vehicles and create more logical and intuitive progression.
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Nation Representation; All foldered nations are treated as equal, distinct nations within their folder. There is no “main” nations that others are placed under.
- Update: Reworked Research System
- Poll: Research System for Foldered Nations (closed)
→ Poll Results - Update: Improved formatting and a new Overview!
- Suggestion Feature: Old Forum Suggestion Archive
- News: Non-Predatory Monetization Options (open poll)
- Poll: Rank Requirements for Foldered Nations Part 1 (open)
- News: How much space is in a techtree?
- Suggestion Feature: RP Discount for Previously-Played Vehicles
- Update: Improved formatting for light mode
- Poll: Rank Requirements for Foldered Nations Part 2 (open)
- Announcement: 800 votes and planned update