Wouldn’t say the main problem is gaijin making GRB easier for everyone. That just how GRB is, it suppose to be easy to learn and play. Despite that we still got glue sniffer who fail in every tank they own and cry about the most random stuff ever , leading to nothing be done on here. Scouting is one of the biggest thing.
The problem with scouting that is it granted way too much for barely any down side.
Sit in one place
Look around
Press one button a few time
???
Now your whole team can see where the enemy going and where they are. The best part ? You get actual decent reward for doing barely anything. They turn light gameplay, which could be extremely fun by designing map allow them to actually flank , into some one button gameplay with barely any action. Scouting is pretty much one of the biggest mistake in GRB along with CAS SP reduction make it one of the strongest thing in GRB.
The narrowing of maps, in particular, is an aspect that shouldn’t be ignored. I believe that light tanks would suffer greatly without scouting, given the many one-sided maps today. That’s why the removal of scouting would have to go hand in hand with improving the tactical options of light tanks.
We need more diverse gameplay again, where different tanks can utilize their strengths. A tank game like War Thunder has so much potential in this regard, but what Gaijin is doing is making the game increasingly monotonous.
One of the end results is that unique tanks that aren’t in the meta are becoming increasingly unusable.
Can you give an example of a light tank above like 5.0 that would suffer without these things and isn’t fit for the BR it is at without them? You don’t have to flank in light tanks, just play positions that aren’t long range sniping ones and you will find the sides of tanks, even on your side of the map. And what maps are so narrow and cramped you can’t find a position to play a light tank I can’t think of one, even in small urban maps you just hold a corner somewhere.
I do believe the M18 for example. I know you can play them on a more narrow battlefield, too. What I mean with “suffer” is that oftentimes it would be too hard for the average player to utilize them.
True in a lot of ways. But if all the maps in War Thunder only allowed for camping with light tanks, that would take away some of the fun.
There is no maps where you can’t find a position. But still, there is a lot of maps that aren’t really designed for light tanks. Maybe they have 1 or 2 spots for light tanks but that’s just not enough.
I firmly believe that the lack of options for light tanks is what brought us scouting into the game.
The benchmark should not be “is the tank playable at all?”, it should be “how attractive is the tank to play?”. Because light tanks not being attractive enough was the reason for Gaijin to add scouting.
This is what a typical 9.0 Ground RB match looks like today:
Almost all the important participants in this scene are scouted. There were 2 light tanks that sat at A and scouted all the enemies and just like that their team won the game.
It’s a shame that something like this can happen because:
(almost) solo-wining a game is okay, but only when performing well, not by hiding behind a rock and spamming a key.
They abused the scouting mechanic to the fullest and I kind of respect that but Gaijin should fix it.
Combat there literally felt like Arcade, not a single brain cell needs to be used to find out where the enemy is
Just to make this point more clear. The way maps have evolved is a second major problem this game has.
I have made an entire post about this on this forum, if people don’t know what I mean by that:
I illustrated the core of this issue so that it is more understandable what I mean.
That’s the kind of tactical gameplay War Thunder used to be more about and that I would like to see more again.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be as static as that. But there is always a certain ideal use of maps.
This illustrates a few of the tactical options this map offers, different areas where different types of tanks make most sense. Each of these areas can be decisive if players succesfilly execute their task there. Light tanks don’t need scouting in order to be useful, if played well enough they can operate very offensively, sometimes even behind enemy lines.
I am no active WoT player but I think this kind of tactical gameplay is also present in WoT.
This is lack of tactical options we have in the game right now:
All tanks must operate very similarly in an area where medium and heavy tanks actually have an advantage. That’s why, I’m convinced, we have the scouting feature today. Of course, light tanks need it if they’re only allowed to operate in areas they weren’t designed for.
Of course, you can gain micro advantages with the help of mobility, but it’s no longer at the same level as on many older maps like Mozdok.
Thats the thing. The maps DID have those aspects. You had flanking routes and sniping spots for players who had vehicles like the dicker max. But they slowly shrunk maps sometimes by only a couple meters but enough to close off some flanking routes.
They FIXED big ardennes by letting one team see the other spawn while being protected by a hill. They FIXED 38th parallel by making every exit from spwan a choke point. They fixed normandy by putting spawns on hills that can basically see each other from spawn. They fixed sands of sinai by removing the hill flanking route. They fixed the middle east by removing the A row flank route. They fixed american desert by removing the 1 collumn route. Eatern europe, north holland, berlin, jungle, mozdok.
Dont you get it this IS the game in its fixed state and these changes are why you are having this issue. Light tanks can no longer flank properly so their only option is to look at one of 3 paths to the cap points and scout.
I guess these changes were made in order to make GRB easier. But they have entirely taken away the usability of many tanks.
Of course, I understand the motive behind that. In my mother tongue there is a saying, “the opposite of well done is well meant”. These changes have destroyed a lot of the key elements of War Thunder GRB.
You shouldn’t “fix” GRB by trying to simplify it (especially when there already is a more simplistic gamemode), maybe you should make it more easy for new players to understand the gameplay and maps instead, e.g. by introducing a tool that shows you heatmaps of the last x games, so you can see where people like to go.
As a game mechanic, scouting is meant to jeopardize your survivability and level the playing field between the players of different skill levels. This is Gaijin’s philosophy when it comes to game design. At any moment you could be killed by something you have no way of defending against like for example CAS. Whether it is a good thing or not is subjective but one thing’s for sure is that it frustrates a lot of players.
It completely undermines any kind of tactical play and removes player agency in a battle. There’s no way to plan or play around it.
Once you’re scouted there’s no way to remove it other than just hiding and waiting for it to pass. There’s no way to know if you’ve been scouted at all. You can’t even kill the light tank that scouted you to stop the scouting, you’re stuck with the “Kick me” sticker on your back. It punishes players who play actively or strategically and forces them to take a back seat every time they even think they might have been scouted, else risk being targeted by the entire enemy team.
And in combination with a UAV, light tanks can scout the entire map without even leaving the spawn. Even the top tier AA struggle to shoot down the UAVs which is just insane. And they can scout through walls and terrain even without the UAVs.
If you’re flanking and you fail to one shot a light tank you’re as good as dead.
Scouting is almost completely risk free and gives you and your team such an advantage that I think it should be removed completely.
If it at least dropped on LoS it would provide a way for players to remove it, and reposisition without the entire enemy team knowing where you went to.
Drones are still incredibly strong without the scouting aspect, i use them all the time to scout out an area to see if its safe to move, being able to also scout and keep tabs on people if they are there is just cherry on top.
For instance maybe I capped A on sveresk and dont know if someone is waiting for me to leave the cap I can just pop the drone and within seconds know how many and where they are. If this isnt strong already without scouting idk what is.
If anything drones should be given to every vic and slap a 200sp spawn cost to them, its dumb light vics that already get scouting have this incredible situational awareness tool at their disposal and it costs nothing. Would also stop people from scouting half the entire enemy team as soon as the match starts.
For everybody who still doubts this is an issue:
Just watch random replays, especially between 8.0 - 10.7 and you will see people mainly focusing on scouted targets anymore. People play RB almost like Arcade, this is not RB anymore. Scouted players most of the times have to serve as distraction from not scouted teammates, it’s just completely unfair. The only reason people might not think this is a problem is because they don’t realise when they themselves got scouted, the times when they experience scouting are when it shows them the targets.
No more freedom of movement as it was without scouting, no more ambushes, no more flanking.
SB is the last gamemode that has these elements but the issues that SB has does not make it an alternative.
The rewards for the scouting itself, and the technicalities on how you get rewarded for it. When you aren’t the first to spot it before it gets hit you don’t get as much.
Whilst they’re still revealed all the time, I’m sure this change will make a few people not be as reliant on it as they were prior.
