Ok so…
In terms of vehicles added I have a slightly different take to most, but hear me out.
A big issue has been the constant drive for the next new or unique vehicle.
Years ago, we used to get a lot more depth to the vehicles added. Lots of variants showing the progression of the vehicle’s development, keeping our attention for longer with a tech tree folder without forcing you to grind every single variant. This depth in my opinion is one of the best things about War Thunder.
But we have been losing that. Very legitimate backlash against “copy paste” vehicles has spilled over to being directed at useful variant additions. Suddenly, all additions should be entirely new lest they suffer the wrath of the community.
Copy paste BP/event vehicles are not the same as more variants, even if only marginally different from the others already in game.
Additionally, there seems to be a need for all new additions to fill a new niche or fit the meta, or be deemed useless by many in our community. The prime example is StuG IV, which we still haven’t had. There are many StuG IIIs and other armoured SPGs in the German tech tree around the BR it would likely sit - probably somewhere in the range of 3.7 to 4.3. Another option, another historical vehicle to explore, is not a bad thing!
Now we see entire vehicles being represented by only one or two variants, and that to me is really dissapointing.
I’ll use the English Electric Lightning as an example. We have the F.6 in the tech tree and the export derivative of the F.6, the F.53, as a premium. Would adding a lightning F.1A, F.2, F.2A and F.3 be so hard to add? That’s the depth that’s missing.
Even if we look at the vehicles with excellent depth in the game, we see gaps that would be good to see filled. The Spitfire is missing many interesting variants! The clipped wing Mk.V versions are entirely missing, the Mk.ib would be an excellent event vehicle, the Mk.XII is nowhere to be seen. If the Spitfire was added today would we even get half the versions we currently have? I doubt we’d see the trop versions. Don’t get me started on the missing Bf109 variants.
We’ve seen some expansion on some vehicles recently, against the trend, which is excellent. I’ve enjoyed playing all the new Mosquito variants (I’m almost done spading them all!) and all the new Me210s (which are part of the Me410 family really).
More depth please! WT is nowhere near out of vehicles to add. It would help slow the catching up to modern times and running out of completely new more modern types to add, which WT is getting close to.