What would you do i you, if you were in charge of Development for the next 12 months

Sim is what the game should be none of the arcade, should be RB and Sim only

Start off in RB, get used to the game, migrate over to Sim once capable

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graphics +others: Add a jeep or its equivalent to all nations, add a recoil visual effect for roof mg, add infantry (only as a visual effect, no points/score given for running them over/shooting them, not controllable, just purely as a visual effect to make the game feel more alive)

I would implement a new system other than the earnings based system they’re currently using as we all know it’s incredibly flawed. This will show up the vehicles which are struggling, and also needs to show up vehicles noone uses.

Based on the results of that, a change to .7 BR spread and huge decompression.

Compresion is the number 1 problem in this game at the moment. It’s pretty shocking they let stuff go on for as long as they do.

Game modes definitely. Current gameplay is getting stale.

A Objective defense mode like Battlefield Bad Company’s MCOM defense where an attacking team has to take 2 objectives before their spawn tickets run out to push the defending team back to the next 2 objectives, The defending team doesnt have spawn tickets but for balance sake has a longer respawn time.

And a “total war” mode with naval, tanks, and air all at the same time. Due to this having to be a bigger map size it would have to have smaller teams, but would be interesting if it had 6+ objectives that when capped spawned in AI bots to help.

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Sim is never what Warthunder is intended to be, realistic is.

Although I do agree that arcade should be removed.

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For Air Realistic Battles

-Massive BR decompression even at the cost of increased queue times. It could be a toggleable option

-RB EC mode overhaul with respawn (like ground RB) as a separate game mode of the dumb and simple AirRB TDM that is what we have right now. Air Realistic, Enduring Confrontation - Suggestions - Devs / Passed - War Thunder — official forum

AirRB spotting system changes:
-Removal of missile diamond spotting system
-Removal of third-party spotting (having ESP-like abilities if your teammate across the map spotted someone). Instead, grid zones or something like that would be painted if your team spotted an enemy nearby.
-Blind hunt and similar orders can’t be deployed when less than 6 people are alive.

Another change I’d try figuring out how to do (hopefully without reducing performance for people on console/low-end PCs) is more destructible environments. I kind of hate how you can knock down and shoot through certain walls and fences, but some buildings are completely immune to even APFSDS shells despite the very thin walls. Degradable cover might make some engagements more interesting than the usual “hide behind a building” campfest.

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  1. I would switch around some BR’s and maybe change the max. Up/Downtier to +/-0.7 (As of now i think its like in 0.3 Steps so 0.7 doesn’t really work so has to more like 0.6, at least not a full +/-1 Up/Downtier anymore)

  2. I think close the Graphics look good but the LOD is quite low + further optimization

  3. Flesh out minor Tech Trees and correct technical Stats, missing features and so of existing Vehicles

  4. Definitely some new Objectives; i think a whole new Gamemode would take more time to figure out and would increase queue time of existing Arcade and Realistic so has to be something new to do in those Modes - first thing i do would definitely be adding a Third Spawn Point on some larger Maps / where possible and increase the Spawn Area.
    And some new Maps with an fourth Objective like on White Rock Fortress you could have an Objective at each North/West/South/East Point, on other Maps could be layed out differently.
    And add some interesting things to do like an Cargo-Train moving around which can be bombed

  5. For Economy i would first copy Warframe’s Daily Rewards i.e. make the Daily Rewards better where people can get GE-Discounts.
    RP / SL itself i wouldn’t touch but i would change the RP Requirements for Vehicles, like an Top Tier Vehicle shouldn’t cost 400.000+ RP each…maybe more like 250.000 RP.

  6. Historic Camouflages and Decals should always be available to be grinded freely or at least for 200GE and not behind FOMO Events / Marketplace. Some Nations like China have like a handful in total of available Decals whereas USSR / Germany get over a dozen for free - and again China as an example they don’t even get their Digital Camouflages on most Tanks, only two who have it for free / 200 GE, a few others who have it on Marketplace and others don’t at all. They also only get like three-four Camouflages whereas each US/USSR Tank has like a dozen.

  7. Immersion. This is important. Up to 6.7 BR you should only get themed WW2 Maps and not…Sun City…the Map itself isn’t a problem but that it is set in modern time which feels weird driving around in a Tiger on…and i know some Cold War Vehicles need to be placed low in BR too else they suck but if possible it should be minimized at least like an VIDAR or PzH.2000 / PLZ05 has no place fighting against an Jagdtiger (in Arcade its not even full Uptier away)

  8. Mictotransaction and their pricing - more Camouflages and Decals for GE instead of FOMO Event / Marketplace.
    I would sell Top Tier Premiums like the Tiger-Bundle…in a bundle with two Vehicles in it. This would not only make more people buy them as its more valueable, more for your buck but also decrease the ODL Problem - for example instead of buying an ZTZ96A(P) for 70€ you get the ZTZ96A(P) and QN-506 in it for ~40 to 50€, for USSR you get the T-72AV(TURMS-T) together with the 2S38 and T-80UD with something else. And so on. I very much believe this would greatly boost Sales of Premiums while also reducing the ODL issue, Win/Win. And its not as ridicilously overpriced / predatory. A single digital Vehicle simply shouldn’t cost more than a newly released Triple-A Title over a hundred Devs worked on for years. Like honestly, Black Myth Wukong, Elden Ring, Baldurs Gate III are cheaper than a single Top Tier Premium here…

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As a player since 2012, for me the biggest issues aren’t brs or that nonsense pantsir-discussion.

  1. Economy

It is better than 3 years before, but it is still shit considering the amount of possible vehicles to grind. Not even RP, but SL-income needs a slight buff. Or reduce the repaircosts, for it is unrewarding getting your earned SL cut in half or more after dying with the wrong vehicle.

And for me the most important:

Harsh economic punishments for 1-Vehicle-Spawners. Get your Deck filled, or pay a SL multiplier for each time you die in a one-vehicle-deck. U only have one Vehicle? Then start grinding at your current tier like everybody else.

Not only ist at hightier always that team winning (and therefore making much more profit), that has less of such troglodytes, it is reducing the matches to around 5 to 10 min. At best.

Not to speak of the betrayal of all your teammates, wich, too, want to have a good time.

I know, gaijin will never lay their hands on their cashcows that buy hightier premiums with zero experience, but to Dream shall be allowed.

Maybe a little tick-box for the matchmaking would work. If enabled, you would only be matched up with people with full line-ups.

  1. More Gamemodes / improved Gamemodes

More variety on existing maps, regarding the cappoints the team has to fight for.

Make one Team defend, the other team attacking.

Add more stuff in AirRB to destroy (more bridges, trains, encampments etc.) And make them objectives.

More historic events in AirRB.

PVE-Content for AirRB/SB, that is actually take part in grinding and is economically worth it.

More historic little events (like pages of history, i like those a lot!)

  1. Gameplay

Redesign of basically every spawn-zone at all Ground-Maps. Make Spawncamping or Spawnstomping a bit harder.

Fix the Soil conditions at some maps. Sometimes you can drive in muddy terrain at 40-50 kmh and sometimes you are reduced to 20-30 with the same vehicle.

Let people in Air RB spawn their entire lineup like in Ground RB. Would be less punishable and more rewarding, without shorteing the endless grind.

Very harsh punishments for Teamkiller in AirRB. Shit happens, but those Takeoff shittery has to stop. 2 or 3 times in less than 3 days, get your ass banned. Maybe the above mentioned timer would be of use there too.

Economic punishments for people crashing at Takeoff in AirRB in higher tiers.
There simply is no excuse for being unable to take off. And if there is, u have to endure it.

I am sure there would be more, but i am work and procrastinating for too long 🙃 so that are my 2 cents so far.

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It’s a bad idea for war thunder. Kamikaze drones are an infantry weapon and war thunder has no infantry. Tanks would have issues shooting them down, and jammers would make them useless if added.

Apologies for reviving this thread, but it looks like Infantry may be making its way into War Thunder. If that happens, drones could become a much bigger feature than they currently are in the game, just my 2 cents.

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BR spread, quality of life (removal of non working features mainls and implementing proper patch notes reflecting EVERY SINGLE change) and replacing the entire sound engine with one that actually works

Oh and instantly fire whoever is responsible for changing map object interaction literally every single patch so we need to relearn what Mgs can and can not destroy evewr 3-4 months

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Alright, here’s what my plan would be.

  1. For the next year, all “new” releases are postponed. No new vehicles, no new gamemodes, no new anything, for the entire year. It’s on hold.

  2. We start with the game engine itself. This engine has been around since 2012, and we’ve been stacking more and more stuff on it beyond its original design goals. But we know now what we want it to do, so we go back over it, and either completely refactor it or start from scratch, using everything we’ve learned to revamp it for the modern day. This should not only make the server load much easier, but also reduce errors, make it run smoother for the clients as well, and future-proof it for the next 10-15 years. For example, revamped track physics, which albeit will never be a perfect recreation and still live-capable, there have been good advances in models and algorithms since tanks were first added that would make them more accurate.

  3. Following this, revert physics nerfs, like traction nerfs, and let tanks do what they’re designed to do. They’re designed to climb, and crawl, and traverse. Let them do that, don’t go skating everywhere. The engine revamp should also allow for bigger maps, bigger matches, and might make something like Ground Enduring Confrontation and proper indirect fire much more reasonable. That’s not to say I’d get rid of CQC matches, but I’d probably separate that out into a different gamemode. In addition, the improved engine headroom should also let us look at things like projectile physics more closely, probably letting us improve volumetrics, hitboxes, and shrapnel hitscan mechanics.

  4. Following from the engine revamp, this will also allow for graphics improvements as well. Now, I personally don’t have much complaints about the graphics myself save for some nitpicks, but I’m only running a 10yo 1080p rig, not some 4k monster with raytracing, so I’ll let others speak for that here.

  5. Sound. For this, I’d actually be throwing a not-insignificant amount of money at AngeTheGreat and his Engine Simulator, since he’s probably got the most promising progress on that front (his v1 sim was so capable of live sound that someone used it on an e-moped.) If for some reason a client computer can’t handle it, then we can roll back to samples. I assume it would be a similar level of work to do the same for guns, bombs, and drivetrain noise, but again, I’ll let the professionals speak for that.

  6. Economy and Matchmaking (and BR). This one is probably going to also take the longest, after the engine revamp, because firstly changing physics and reverting those nerfs will dramatically change gameplay meta, and therefore the data you’d use to adjust economy and matchmaking, and secondly because there’s a lot of subjectivity in those adjustments, and the well is already full of ricin. I would, in fact, probably add skill-based matchmaking, but it would have to need a lot of tuning in order to fit the needs of WT, and therefore probably would only very loosely resemble the SBMM that most people think of. This step alone could take up at least an entire year on its own, so it would probably be outside the scope of this thread (having only one year to make all the changes I want.)

  7. Completely revamping the communication channels between the team and the players. I’m talking bottom-up. I know the team tries very hard as-is, and I do appreciate you all very much, but the history of WT and Gaijin shows it’s just not where it should be, especially compared to the communication devs like those for Universe Sandbox, BeamNG, ATS/ETS, etc have with their base. Yes, I realize there’s a large scale difference between Beam and Gaijin, but that doesn’t mean we can’t learn from them. There are so many PR failures, controversies, and catastrophes that could have been avoided if Gaijin acted less like a corporation and more like someone who actually cares about what they’re doing because they love what they’re doing. We love you, man, and so it hurts so much to see a love project become just another way for “Line Go Up.”

TL;DR:

Comprehensive rebuild year: freeze new content, overhaul the engine from the ground up, restore proper physics, expand map and simulation fidelity, modernize graphics and sound with physically generated audio, then re-evaluate economy and matchmaking once the new baseline is stable, and finally replace Gaijin’s current communication model with transparent, continuous, developer–player engagement.

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Quality of life

A good chunk of those twelve months would be prioritizing bug squashing and reworking naval maps.

The remaining months would be fixing damage models and vehicle/weapon/shell adjustments (both a mixture of historical accuracy and balancing alongside movement physics change/reversions).

The ‘big’ project being a complete rework of tutorials to better explain mechanics to players. (Again, specifically Naval but I’m pretty certain the others could get some additional work)

The biggest thing WarThunder needs right now is health updates, as well as shifting most of the game’s focus to buffing Minor Nations.

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  • Return RB Matchmaking so it’s no longer Arcade+
  • Retool Matchmaking to be split by lineup/selected vehicle, a GDR MiG will not be on the same team with Soviet MiGs and West German CL-13 Sabres. Same for PLAAF MiGs/RoCAF Sabres/Finnish+Hungarian MiGs etc.
  • Make Flare/Chaff like Parts and FPE for tanks where it’s really quick to research
  • Have rolling events like Bullet Hell/Tank Only and classic events like Korean Era/MiG Alley, Historical Battles every 4 days.
  • Vehicle grind events hard capped at 20,000 points/2 days
  • Retest Break mode in Tank RB since it was never tried with the new Spawn Points/Protection features
  • Rework Tank Assault to thematic PvE missions that were tested a few years back
  • Rework Air Assault to include ground attack waves and AI fighters so it’s not just chasing bombers, also both gamemodes take at most 20 minutes instead of ~30. Add new MM split for top jets while working on a replacement.
  • Split Heli PvE into 3 tiers, 4-6 players per lobby and triple the rewards
  • Naval… idk lol; test new gamemodes where you have to earn SP for battleships, rolling EC, have GE battles/double SL+RP weekends whatever to get as much feedback and interest as possible

there’s a lot more, but that covers the essentials

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Cut the grind by half. Implement an option to have the same controls as Ground Battles in Naval.

  • Remove 90% of copy paste, and only keep essential vehicles like Fr/It Shermans. And when I say removed, I mean completely gone from the game, with any research or sl spent refunded.

All of Russia’s premium lend-lease vehicles.
Every non-U.S. M44 and M55
Pretty much every Japanese U.S. vehicle
Etc.

The only real exceptions outside of necessary vehicles would be things like Thai Stingray, and British Mustangs where the nation has actually significant ties to that vehicle outside of just buying a few hundred long after it became obselete.

  • Complete rework of how CAS SP works in GRB.

First off, every vehicle would have a different base cost based on flight performance. These would be the base costs before armaments are calculated.

Light fighter 600sp (Yak,-9, Spitfire, Zero)

Heavy fighter 550sp (Fw 190, P-51, Hurricane)

Light attacker 500sp (Do 335, Il-2, B7A2)

Heavy attacker 450sp (A-26B, Me 410

Bomber 400sp (Pe-8, B-17, Canberra)

Helicopter 300sp

Spawning a plane will increase the cost for spawning any other plane (regardless of attacker or fighter) by 1.5x. Helicopters without guided munitions won’t be effected by the 1.5x, but with guided munitions will.

The higher class a plane is, the more expensive armament is. For example, one 1,000lb bomb would cost more on a Corsair than on a Dauntless.

Costs for autocannons, rockets, missiles, and bombs would also need to be recalculated but Idc to go in-depth on that.

  • Hard divide between rank 5 and 6

How this would work is that any vehicle at rank 5 would never face any vehicle at rank 6. Rank 5 would end with vehicles like the Maus, ZSU-57, and M60, and rank 6 would start with vehicles like the M60A1 (AOS), ZSU-23-4V, and M48A2 G A2.

This would allow rank 5 heavies like the T32, Maus and IS-3 to decompress and stop terrorizing things like the Jumbo 76, without getting eaten alive by mid cold-war tanks.

The highest br rank 5s like the Maus would likely end up at 8.7 with the lowest BR rank 6s like T-55A at 9.0.

  • Map cleansing

A large portion of maps like Campania, Frozen Pass, Japan and 38th Parallel would get removed from Warthunder entirely.

Another large portion would be temporarily taken out of the queue for reworking, e.g Severesk-13, Ardennes and Abandoned City.

All maps added in the future would have an old version and a modern version, much like Flanders. Unlike Flanders however, the modern version would be far larger, instead of just having some props swapped out for modern ones. Kinda like Eastern Europe and European Province.

All (winter) versions of normally non-winter maps would be removed.

  • Bug fixing and QoL

The remainder of the 12 months would be bug fixing, especially flight model fixes for things like Harrier, and QoL updates like improving ui and improving optimization.

Also, the U.S. would receive about half a dozen Jeeps and Humvees to cover almost every BR.

M2 Browning Jeep at 1.0

75mm recoilless rifle Jeep at 2.7

dual bazooka Jeep at 3.7

106mm recoilless rifle Jeep at 5.7 (maybe higher)

TOW Humvee at 8.7

Javelin Humvee at 10.3 (also maybe higher)

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Hit pause on any new (top tier) aircraft additions after the December update for at least 3 major updates. If shiny trailers are still needed, instead of new vehicles, showcase new technologies or maps (or both) instead.

Focus on earlier tiers initially, filling in gaps where necessary and making a concerted effort to go through the mountain of long overdue accepted bug reports.

QoL improvements. If it’s something that inconveniences, make it less so.

“Once in an update cycle” events are no longer super rare, but are available more frequently. Examples include SEAD, the recent Bullet Hell, etc. Basically, anything well received by the community should be available more often.

Invest some resources into researching (:P) possible avenues to implementing a framework to eventually introduce much bigger maps into not just War Thunder but other Gaijin products (but really, mostly war thunder as this is what we play). Not expecting anything wild like 1000x1000 km, but something sizeable—a conservative 300x300 baseline instead of the small (at least, in top tier aircraft) 130 x 130 km we currently have. The solution itself is simple, however massive effort is needed in the optimisation stage of it all (which is in itself a headache to do to account for literally anything that can run war thunder).

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What i’d do… keep the models and the modeling team.
Remake the gameplay (the trash aspect of the game) and everything around it… proper modes.
Actual maps for the ground …
Actual missions for air…
Dogfight modes. …
Actual balance.

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