Part 1 - Introduction-March
Part 2 - April-May
Part 3 - June
Part 4 - July-August
Part 5 - September
Part 6 - October
Part 7 - November-December
Part 8 - Hopes for 2024-Conclusion (current)
Table of contents
Introduction
- Introduction
- Table of contents
January
- Pages of History (January)
- Swedish Armed Forces Day
- Lunar New Year
- Battle Pass Season 10 “Royal Guard”
- Australia Day
February
- Pages of History (February)
- Victory in Stalingrad Day
- Answers from the developers
- World War Mode news
- Update for the War Thunder CDK
- VR Flights in the PlayStation VR2
- Japanese National Foundation Day
- Valentine’s Day
- Tigor Tshirt/New merch
- First Flight of the BO 105
- South African Armed Forces Day
- Defender Tournament Series
March
- Pages of History (March)
- Finnish Air Force Day
- Update 2.25 “Sky Guardians”
- International Women’s Day
- Fair Play: March 2023
- Tank Football
- CV 90105 (XC-8) Wiki Decal
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Guest Accounts
- First Flight of the La-5
- Lucky Piñata
- Moments of Valour: The Turkish Armed Forces
- 100th Anniversary of the Italian Air Force
- Royal Air Force Day
April
- Pages of History (April)
- Mobile Infantry
- “Edge of Shell” Pack
- Bosses of the Gym
- Atomic Thunder: Soviet Battle Robots Tree
- Repair Factory
- Exowarrior Twitch Drops
- Day of Aviation and Cosmonautics
- Vasily Matsievich’s birthday
- Zimbabwean Independence Day
- Battle Pass Season 11 “Her Majesty’s Hussar”
- Italian Liberation Day
- Israeli Independence Day
- Air Superiority Tournament
- Ingame May sale
- Golden Week
May
- Pages of History (May)
- Polish Constitution Day
- Legend of Victory: BM-31-12 “Andryusha”
- Victory Day
- May sale in the Gaijin Store
- War Thunder Mobile
- US Armed Forces Day
- French National Sailor Day
- The Review Bombing Saga Part I: The Fellowship of the Forums
- Anniversary of the Israeli Defense Forces
- Swedish Home Guard Day
- Answers from the developers
- The Review Bombing Saga Part II: The Two Responses
June
- Pages of History (June)
- Turkish Air Forces Day
- Canadian Armed Forces Day
- D-Day
- 500th Anniversary of Swedish Independence
- Rare D-Day vehicles returning for GE
- Italian Navy Day
- The Review Bombing Saga Part III: The Return of the Economy
- Update 2.27 “La Royale”
- German Navy Day
- First Flight of the MiG-21
- Following the Roadmap: Updated Economy
- Rankings Challenge: 2023 Grand Finals and Twitch Drops
- British Armed Forces Day
- Following the Roadmap: maps for aircraft, flares and repair
- Summer Sale in the Gaijin Store
- Swedish Air Force Day
- JSDF Day
- Canada Day
- Top teams for Grand Final Season I tournament
July
- French Air Force Day
- US Independence Day
- 80th Anniversary of Operation Husky
- Atomic Thunder
- First Flight of the A-4E
- Bastille Day
- Atomic Heart Snail Decals
- First flight of the Hawker Hunter
- First flight of the T-2
- Battle Pass Season 12 “Armour Breaking Ambusher”
- Following the Roadmap: Compensation of Battle Expenses, Free Backups and More!
- Following the Roadmap: Battle Pass available in Simulator Battles
- Russian Navy Day
- In Detail: Air event markers in Ground Arcade Battles
- Bots in War Thunder: what they are and how we plan to get rid of them
August
- Pages of History (August)
- PLA Day
- First flight of the BAC Lightning
- Summer Extreme
- Following the Roadmap: refining landscape
- End of the French Navy CBT
- Soviet Air Fleet Day
- Polish Armed Forces Day
- Following the Roadmap: research helicopters with ground vehicles, marking spawn campers and more
- US National Airborne Day
- A Sound of Thunder: the release of War Thunder Mobile
- MiG-15 enters service
- 80th Anniversary of the Battle of Kursk
- Following the Roadmap: grouping vehicles, rank changes, and improvements to premium vehicles
- Following the Roadmap: Reducing Research/Purchase Cost of Aircraft, map changes & more
September
- Pages of History (September)
- 78th Anniversary of the end of World War II
- Soviet Tanker’s Day
- First Flight of the P-38
- 83rd Anniversary of the Battle of Britain
- 76th birthday of the U.S. Air Force
- Update 2.29 “Sons of Attila”
- Following the Roadmap: Sons of Attila Roadmap implementations and some Postponements
- First Flight of the Mi-24
- First Flight of the Yak-38
- Tokushu Heiki
- National Day of the People’s Republic of China
October
- Pages of History (October)
- Moments of Valor: China
- German Unity Day
- 80th Anniversary of the Battle of the Caucasus
- 248th birthday of the US Navy
- First flight of the S.O.4050 Vautour II
- Following the Roadmap: We’d like to hear your feedback on our proposed Aircraft Destruction Mechanics & Night Battles design
- Trafalgar Day
- First flight of the UH-1 Iroquois
- Twitch drops for War Thunder’s 11th anniversary
- Battle Pass Season 13 “Tropical Storm”
- First flight of the J 35 Draken
- 100th anniversary of the Republic of Türkiye
- Halloween
- Update 2.31 “Kings of Battle”
November
- Pages of History (November)
- 11th birthday of War Thunder
- Dreams Come True: TOG II
- Following the Roadmap: Skill Bonuses in RP & Selectable Night Battles!
- Battle of the Atlantic
- Italian National Unity and Armed Forces Day
- 11th anniversary sale in the Gaijin Store
- Polish National Independence Day
- 74th birthday of the Chinese Air Force
- 68th birthday of the Bundeswehr
- Fair Play: November 2023
- November research changes
- Black Friday
- Results of the Anniversary Tournaments dedicated to 11 Years of War Thunder, plus the “Esport II” Trophy!
- Su-25K Wiki decal
- St. Andrew’s Day
December
- Pages of History (December): The Heroic Nurse
- Winter Extreme
- Following the Roadmap: WT Mobile Login Streak & Keeping you updated with our plans
- Update 2.33 “Air Superiority”
- Christmas and New Years
- Ingame winter sale
- Collecting ideas for the 2024 roadmap
- Fair Play: December 2023
- Gaijin says they “don’t believe” the M1 Abrams had upgraded armor
- Gaijin says they don’t believe that MANPADS missiles can pull as hard as official documents say they can
- Winter sale in the Gaijin Store
- First flight of the MiG-15
Other stuff that happened in 2023
- Secret document leaks
Hopes for 2024
This section is going to be much more scattershot than the rest of the article because from here, I have no set order of things to follow, so I’m just going to be writing these sections as I come up with them in no particular order. This is not necessarily what I expect to happen, just what I want to happen.
A Lesser focus on top tier
War Thunder has been expanding top tier far too fast for my taste. Next year I want to be a year where there is a much greater focus on rank 5 and below. I’d love to see a lot of new top tier stuff for minor nations to increase parity with the major ones, but even then, I want more focus for them on mid tiers and building lineups so they can more effectively compete with the major ones. Vehicles like the T1E1, TPK 6.41 VPC, Asagao (YTE-01), ZTS63 (1980), and Sd.Kfz. 222, among many others, are great examples of the types of vehicle that I hope to see. None of these push the envelope, but they all strengthen the mid tiers of their respective trees.
No more high rank premiums
This one is self explanatory. High tier premiums are bad for the health of the game. It means that brand new players have access to top tier long before they’ve mastered the mechanics needed to successfully play it. This is both bad for experienced players at top tier who now have teams with worse win rates because of all the new players, and bad for those new players who get a bad experience playing top tier and because of that get turned away from it permanently. I’m fine with the rank 7 premiums we already have staying, but I don’t want to see any more added premiums beyond the low end of rank 6. In my view, 9.7 and rank 6 should be the absolute cap for premiums, and I’d like them to generally stay at 9.0 or lower, around the BR range of the F4D-1.
No more high rank event vehicles
High rank event vehicles are a problem for the exact same reason as high rank premiums. Due to them not having premium bonuses, I’m fine with event vehicles being slightly higher in BR than premiums, but I still think they should not go past 9.7 or 10.0 and stay at rank 6 or lower. Included in this is my view that we should see more rank 5 event vehicles that are premiums. Rank 6 event vehicles can be event vehicles, rank 7 and 8 event vehicles shouldn’t exist, and we should have way more rank 5 event vehicles that are premiums.
A return to 6 vehicles for marathon events
The marathon event have actively been made worse over the past 2 years. We now have 4 event vehicles instead of 6. This means that now we can only get either a low tier premium plane or tank, and low tier premium ships pretty much don’t exist outside the Battle Pass anymore. There is no argument for 4 vehicles being better. It is just less prizes for nearly the same amount of effort.
Making it possible to get all 4 vehicles in crafting events without spending money
I’ve talked about this more when covering the Repair Factory event in April, but the idea that you can grind so hard and spend so much time doing crafting events, only to be able to get a maximum of 2 vehicles, is crazy and quite frankly, somewhat insulting. I understand that events exist to be grinded, but in my view, if you grind a whole event, you are entitled to all of the prizes of that event. You should not be forced to pay to get the other half of the prizes that you never got.
No more duplicate decals in marathon events
The issue with this is the same as with the previous section, though to a lesser extent. It’s another way of forcing you to use the market and spend money to get all the prizes from an event even if you completed the entire event. I see that as fundamentally bad and antithetical to my view of the point of events.
A return to 4 vehicles in the Battle Pass
Starting with Battle Pass season 7 “Armored Elephant”, the number of vehicles was reduced to 3 from 4 and the low tier vehicle that was removed was replaced with 10 days of premium account time. Adding premium account time as a reward is a great idea, but 10 days is not worth losing an entire unique event vehicle, especially because you don’t get to choose when you use those 10 days. Instead, they’re automatically activated the second you claim the reward. Having premium account time in the Battle Pass is great, but it needs to be made a separate reward that does not remove the 4th vehicle from the BP, and if they really want to keep it to 3 vehicles and not 4, the premium account time reward has to be drastically increased to at least 30 days.
A return to low tier prizes in marathon events and Battle Passes being coupons
I dislike exclusivity, as I have talked about in this article before. I believe that after an event vehicle is released, it should still be obtainable. It does not have to be obtainable all the time, but there should be a way for newer players to get old event vehicles. The market is 1 way of facilitating that, but the push in the last few years has been towards higher and higher tier prizes only being on the market, with lower tier prizes left out. The low tier prize in marathon events is not a coupon anymore and the low tier coastal fleet prize isn’t a coupon either anymore in BPs. That is bad. High tier prizes cost way more money, meaning that they are harder for newer players to obtain and it makes the issue of exclusivity even worse.
Breaks between Battle Pass seasons
War Thunder has too much stuff going on. Between events, updates, Battle Passes, mini events, and the general grind, it is becoming too much. There needs to be breaks in between Battle Pass seasons. It doesn’t need to be much, just 2-3 weeks, but just a little time to cool down because it is burning a lot of people out, myself included.
A system for returning old event vehicles
For the same reason as the last section, I think there needs to be a system added to return old event vehicles. One idea that I have heard thrown around by some people and that I fully support is adding a blueprint to the Warbonds shop. The idea is that every Warbonds shop, there are 1 or 2 blueprints you can buy for old event vehicles. When you buy the blueprint, it opens up the workshop. From there, you complete challenges to get materials to make parts and you construct the vehicle the same way you would in crafting events. This blueprint would last in the workshop for as long as it takes to build the vehicle and the materials can be earned concurrently with materials during crafting events. This also works as a great way to bring back vehicles that don’t have coupons on the market if Gaijin still doesn’t want them on the market (e.g. the Lorraine 155 Mle. 50).
I must stress again to not give me credit for this idea. I did not come up with this idea. Rather, it is one I have heard thrown around by a few people and while I cannot remember where I first heard it, it is an idea that I very much support. Please do not give me credit for this idea because that is taking away credit from whoever actually came up with it.
Better support for coloring text in lang mods
I will admit that this is an absurdly niche issue and I very well may be the only person affected by this, but this is my article so I get to talk about whatever I want.
Lang mods have a built in coloring system in War Thunder in which you can surround text with <color=#[hex code]>[text]</color>. I intended on using this to color certain vehicle names and it worked, until I entered a battle. In battle it shows the color tag instead of just ignoring that and making the vehicle name the color of the rest of your team. What should be done is make it so the tag is not displayed in battle, but the vehicle’s name is still made the color of the rest of your team and only has its name colored on its stat card and in the tech tree.
Conclusion
2023 was a good year. In fact, it was a great one. It was a year filled with good updates, decent events, and not much that was abjectly game-breaking. But what makes this year truly the best is the roadmap. The roadmap arose out of possibly the single craziest and dumbest situation the game has ever had, but it led to the best set of changes in the game’s history. The sweeping changes the roadmap brought have so drastically changed the game and universally for the better that it unquestionably makes 2023 the game’s best year, independent of any other additions in any major update.
I know I’ve railed on this game nearly as much as I have praised it in this article, but I truly do love War Thunder. War Thunder is an excellent game that I really do enjoy, which is why I wrote this entire article in the first place, why I left a lot of detailed suggestions when Gaijin asked for feedback for the 2024 roadmap, and why I have criticized a lot of aspects of it in this article, especially its events. I want to see the game get better because there is no other game like War Thunder, and no game that even remotely comes close. And because of that, I want to see this game be the best version of itself that it can be.
Before I let you free of the near-endless clutches of this hellish article, I do have a message for all of you. Please stop treating the forum moderators as if they control the actual development of the game. A lot of things that have been said by forum moderators I completely disagree with and think are entirely wrong, but the overwhelming majority of those statements are not things they have made up in their head. This is a job they’re paid for and part of that job is saying what the game’s design and marketing teams want them to say. Those statements may be inconsistent with each other and you may think they are completely crazy, so do I in a lot of cases, but they have to say a lot of those. Similarly, the forum moderators do not get to decide what actually happens with the game’s development. They can forward things to the developers and the game design team, but they don’t actually control development and a lot of y’all need to stop treating them as if they do. This is not to say that they’ve never said crazy things of their own volition, they have, but a distinction needs to be made between things said of their own volition that you entirely disagree with, and things that it is their job to say which you entirely disagree with.
When I started writing this article, I expected it to be about 15,000 words, which would have been roughly the same length as my 2021 in review article, had I ever finished writing that. This behemoth of a project has ballooned to over 6 times that and if anyone has read all of it… why? Why would you do that? Why would you subject yourself to this entire article? Regardless, whether you read the entire article or not, thank you for reading even a small piece of this. I hope you enjoyed it. If you disagree with things I’ve said, I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments, as long as you keep it civil.
Anyway, I hope you have a great day. I’m going to go to sleep because it’s 1:41 A.M. on December 29th and I have to start proofreading this tomorrow and have to go back and add nearly 300 images. I’m pretty sure I have legitimately hurt my left wrist from the amount of typing I’ve done in the last week of this project as I hit crunch time. This article was probably a mistake to write, it consumed way too much of my time, and I’ll see you at the end of next year for another one (maybe).
Part 1 - Introduction-March
Part 2 - April-May
Part 3 - June
Part 4 - July-August
Part 5 - September
Part 6 - October
Part 7 - November-December
Part 8 - Hopes for 2024-Conclusion (current)