So the recent reveal of Hungarian air vehicles to pad out the Italian tech tree sparked quite a back and forth in the community. On the one hand, people see this as an opportunity to fill the BR gaps in the tech tree so that Italy will be a viable nation to play; but on the other hand, people criticize that the vehicles given are copy-paste vehicles that bring nothing new to the gameplay experience. This is reflective of the recent meme of how there are Shermans or M109s in every tech tree now to essentially fill the nation’s gameplay viability (although it possibly is more controversial in the Hungarian case since they got their own planes to fill that niche like MÁVAG Hélya I, MÁVAG Hélya II, WM-23 Ezüst Nyíl, and Varga RMI-1 as it has been brought up).
So, I want to ask the community: what they value more? Gameplay balance of a nation? Or a unique gameplay experience even if it’s not viable?
What do you value more when it comes to vehicle additions to War Thunder?
I don’t mind giving nations all vehicles that the nation in question used, even if they’re not “unique” on their own.
I couldn’t possibly give less of a crap about “BaLaNcE” and “filling gaps”. I want a Sherman in every nation because that nation actually used it - not because “oh no, I need to fill a gap in my lineup to be cOmPeTiTiVe!”
What I do mind is the endless nation mixing that’s going on in War Thunder…
Even though I am all for “cOpY-PaStE”, mixing nations together into a big mess through “sub trees” and random one-offs here and there from other nations take away the entire point of even having different nations in the game in the first place.
What’s the point in choosing one nation, when they’re just going to mix and match with others?
Mixing the nations leads to a less unique experience, and devalues both the original nation, and whatever sub nations you choose to mix into it.
Choosing a nation to play should come with all of its unique pros and cons. Playing Sweden or Italy should mean just that. If you wanted to play Finland or Hungary, you should have to make the “trade off” of only having their vehicles.
Nation mixing is also not just limited to “sub trees” and “one offs”, there is also the problems with the likes of Germany, letting you freely mix and match Reich, East, and West (later unified) Germany, which should all be individual unique experiences rather than a big hodge-podge.
The elimination of nation mixing would also be a boon for Simulator Battles, so that you can actually make Axis vs Allies or West vs East…
A nation doesn’t have to have a big tech tree with perfect lineups at every battle rating to be interesting.
A nation does not need to be perfectly competitive and viable at every single rank or BR to be fun to play.
The faster and easier access to a wider variety of vehicles that any given player gets, the better. Having the same or similar vehicles in multiple trees, among other benefits, is essentially a form of lessening the grind, which is always a good thing.
Ppl have to admit and learn that there are not that many manufacturers and many vehicles ended up being used by alot of nations, especially in the later parts and after WW2, so you naturally get alot of copy paste.
What drives me wild for example is that the german tank tech tree features alot of west german/nato vehicles, but barely any east german ones that came from the soviet union. Ofc the ones from the soviets would be copies, but it is material used by the nation.