As title says.
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When people say a certain BR bracket is compressed or the game is becoming more compressed it means that vehicles of very different capabilities are closer in BR then they should be. OR in other words: not enough BRs which leads to imbalance.
Decompression is the opposite, raising maximum BR and also increasing BR gap between vehicles so that game becomes more balanced.
Some strong vehicles are in a position where if they are lowered by 0.3 BR they would be too strong and if they are raised by 0.3 BR they would be too weak. So gaijin doesn’t do anything. BR decompression would aim to fix this.
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“If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter”
Hello, @M1K3S1K3-psn explained it very well, I just want to give some examples of BR compression and decompression as additional explanation on the subject as I believe in-game examples of this and proposed changes do a good job at visualizing what BR compression and decompression is.
I created a BR decompression suggestion on the old forums, and used an example of why BRs don’t feel that compressed at lower tiers compared to higher tiers, I think stands well today - the Panzer IV F1 and Panzer IV F2 are at battleratings 2.3 and 3.3 respectively. The Pz IV F1 (2.3) and Pz IV F2 (3.3) are functionally the same tank outside of it’s armament, the F2 is less than half a ton heavier and does get some track armor on the front, but the differences between them in armor and mobility are practically unnoticeable. The Pz IV F1 gets an inferior gun however, a weapon that fires 100mm+ penetration HEAT rounds. Meanwhile, functionally the Pz IV F2’s only major difference is a longer barreled version of the same caliber gun, but can fire AP(HE)CBC shells at a little more penetration than the F1’s HEAT with better ballistics, making it superior. But otherwise, this is the only functional difference between the vehicles, two vehicles of the same make with one difference is enough to justify a full 1.0 BR increase, a relatively balanced and fair difference I personally think, both vehicles can hurt essentially the same exact opponents almost with not too much penetration change, but the F1’s gun fires less damaging HEAT rounds and has inferior ballistics, while the F2’s gun fires devastating APCBC shells that are easier to aim, but otherwise functionally identical apart from minor differences. This is, (in my personal opinion at least), an example of decent game balance, where vehicles get uptiered/downtiered to fight inferior/superior opponents, but the differences are not so great that it feels like surprise is the only method of defeating a vehicle a full BR above you, as you fight vehicles that are better in uptiers but are completely fight-able.
Meanwhile, an example of a compressed battle ratings would be higher tiers, I think around 5-6+ is when you start feeling the difference, varying depending on vehicle and BRs. Specific example would be the T-54s, T-55s, and T-62s. At lower tiers, usually only minor increases in armor, mobility, and firepower changed the BRs in a full uptier, or a single aspect of the vehicle with little change in others (example cited was F1+F2). Meanwhile, once you start getting to higher tiers, the differences between vehicles becomes more drastic for even 0.3 and 0.7 BR changes. At 8.0, sits the T-54 obr. 1949 and 1951, unstabilized medium tanks/early MBTs with their best ammunition being APCBC, complimented with later additions of early APDS and HEAT-FS rounds, good but with their noticeable downsides. Regarding firepower changes, the next step up in game is the T-55A, a modernized version of the T-54 with improved systems, primary in-game benefit being fully stabilized, and is equipped with 1970’s ammunition such as it’s best 100mm APFSDS round, a superior round that is hypervelocity and easy to aim, has high armor penetration (~50% more than 100mm APCBC), and does great damage (while not containing explosive filler, frontal shots often 1-2 shot anything and the massive penetration boost means aiming anywhere regardless of armor usually results in penetration, while 100mm APCBC at this battle rating requires much higher precision in aiming with a lower velocity shell). Based on this, one might think a greatly modernized version of the tank could sit 0.7 BR higher or more, but the difference between the T-54 and T-55 is only 0.3 BR, with the T-55A being at BR 8.3.
So what justifies a full BR difference at higher tiers then? The T-54 (1949, 1951) at 8.0 can be uptiered to 9.0, where the T-55AM-1 variant exists, a 1980s modified version of the T-55 with a superior engine, composite additional armor plates on the hull and turret cheeks (which do not cover the full profile of the vehicle, but what it does cover, the turret plates rival the armor of the M1 Abrams in effective thickness), and same weapon top-shell of the T-55A with 300mm+ APFSDS ammunition, incorporated now with a tank that has a precise laser rangefinder and FCS to accurately hit it’s shots at any range; and if that were to fail, the AM now gets gun-launched 100mm ATGM ammunition with very high penetration and is excellent at long ranges and against helicopters. The T-55AM-1 has a very noticeable mobility increase, armor increase, and major firepower increase on a fully stabilized platform with laser-rangefinder and FCS, at 9.0, only 1.0 BR difference from the relic 1949 and 1951 T-54 variants. Which this is undebatably not even the best 9.0, as it’s cousin is the T-62M-1 (0.3 above the T-62 currently) with the even more powerful 115mm gun alongside it’s mobility and armor upgrades.
This is an example of BR Compression, where the farther you get up the tree, the more extreme the differences between vehicles can get. When vehicles get minor upgrades at lower tiers, their battleratings change by 0.3 to 0.7, and massive upgrades in only one or two aspects can justify a full 1.0 BR increase. Meanwhile, vehicles at higher tiers can undergo massive upgrades in every single aspect, significantly increasing their mobility, armor, and firepower by sometimes a factor of +30%, +40%, +50%+ of the characteristics of their previous unmodified variants, and face those significantly inferior vehicles still in downtiers, while minor upgrades of vehicles at the same exact battlerating as the vehicle they’re making obsolete sometimes have no battlerating increase whatsoever. (A tech tree example of this could be the T-72B with Kontakt-1 and the T-72B obr. 1989 with upgraded armor and Kontakt-5 being the same battlerating of 10.3).
Lengthy explanation, but I hope this gives a more visual and in-game example of what BR compression looks like.
What would BR decompression look like then? As already mentioned, it is raising the maximum BR and adding more BRs in between existing BRs, to give more room for vehicle balancing, as well as alleviate the pains of uptiers. So what would that look like with the T-54/55 example given? So that the T-54 '49 and '51 don’t get paired with the T-55AM-1 in the same game, 'more BR’s would be added in between 8.0 and 9.0. Say if you wanted to decompress 8.0-8.3, you would ‘add a BR’ where 8.0 remains 8.0, but there is a ‘new 8.3’ for strong 8.0s and weak current 8.3s, and 8.3 tanks like the T-55A, a large jump in performance over the T-54, would go to 8.7, meaning it would take a full 0.7 BR uptier to be paired with or against it, instead of a 0.3 BR increase. Meanwhile, 8.7 vehicles would go to 9.0, and 9.0 vehicles would go to 9.3, etc.; which also results in the T-55AM-1, a vastly superior vehicle in every aspect, no longer being capable of being downtiered to see tanks like the T-54, meaning T-54 tanks (in AB, or other tech tree versions in other trees like the east german or finnish ones in RB/SB) could not be uptiered to fight essentially the exact same tank, but vastly superior in mobility, armor, and firepower by a large degree. This is because the new 9.0 would be 9.3, because we added this ‘new 8.3’ BR, making it 1.3 BR higher. As for 9.3 vehicles, they would become 9.7, and this would continue onto top tier, where the ceiling of tank BRs (currently 12.7) would increase to accommodate the decompression, making 12.7 to 13.0.
I hope this gives a hypothetical example of what BR decompression would look like. Which it should be mentioned, some decompression has come to the game, as top tier used to be lower than it was. At one point, referring back to the T-54/55 example, 7.7+ was decompressed at one point, as all the T-54s (1947-1951) were at 7.7. Meanwhile, the T-55A, was 8.0, and I believe the T-55AM-1 was 8.3, so this extreme upgrade to the T-54/55 of the T-55AM-1 actually used to not even be a full 1.0 BR different: it used to be 0.3 BR above the T-55A and 0.7 BR above the T-54s. This, for reference, meant that the T-55AM-1, could be downtiered to fight tanks like the Maus and M47s and stuff, with it’s composite add-on armor and 600mm+ penetration missiles, APFSDS, etc. However, some BR decompression happened, which greatly improved the experience of these BRs, and now tanks like the Maus and IS-4M can’t see tanks like the T-55AM-1 and T-62M-1; and more BRs means more precise balancing can occur where it couldn’t be done before. This is what in-game BR decompression looks like.
BR compression does not just effect tanks and BR decompression can work with all branches in game, I just used the examples given because I was familiar with them. BR decompression can affect planes too, (for example, subsonic missile-less aircraft being uptiered to fight mach 1-2 afterburning aircraft with missiles), ships (I know less about but from my understanding, destroyers wreck coastal ships in downtiers, cruisers wreck destroyers in downtiers, and battlecruisers/BBs wreck cruisers in downtiers), and helicopters (there was a time even that early cobras and hinds could be in a slight uptier and face apaches and ka-50/52s with high-efficiency air-to-air missiles and vastly superior AGMs and just cross-map slap you out of the match with almost nothing you could do; fortunately decompression did affect helis too). I just gave tanks as an example because comparing the statistical armor, mobility, and penetration of vehicles is easier to do.
A very lengthy explanation and understandably TL;DR, but I hope for anyone who had more questions on what BR compression and decompression means, that these in-game examples provide insight in what BR compression looks like and what BR decompression means.
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