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New Balance: Sandbox Test Results

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Feedback & Questions

The New Balance changes which were tested on the Sandbox server consisted of many parts and raised a number of reasonable doubts and questions.

Here are the main questions that we received from you during the testing process.

Shell Rebalance

  • How will it affect gameplay?
  • Will vehicles have more difficulty in battle when playing at the bottom of the team list? Can Tier VIII tanks fight Tier X tanks with the same level of performance?
  • Which vehicles will become more relevant, and which less?
  • What will happen to vehicles with initially low basic shell penetration, like the T69 or T-44?
  • How will all this affect the Premium vehicles?

We understand and share your concerns about these issues. The main idea was to check the state of the balance with increased HP and changed role of armor before an individual tuning of vehicles that may fall out of the general balance. Thanks to this Sandbox testing, we now have the necessary data to proceed with our research.

Changes to HE Shells

You quite rightly pointed out that the new mechanics of causing damage by HE shells did not become more understandable and predictable, which means that this idea was not implemented as intended. It was also a mistake to remove penetration from the parameters of HE shells.

We wanted to rework not only the mechanics of causing damage with HE shells, but also particular parameters of this shell type.

SPG Rebalance

Our goal when testing artillery was to add more diversity to gameplay and decrease the overall duration of the stun effect. The planned SPG changes make sense only together with the shell rebalance, so we will revisit them after shaping a new solution for the shell rebalance.

However, one thing is for sure–armor-piercing shells turned out to be ineffective and were not popular for use in their current form.

It is already clear that the new paradigm of shells and the reworked HP pool of vehicles, together with the mechanics of HE shells and SPG rebalance, require further improvements and are not ready for release in their current shape.

Confirmed Hypotheses

Tech Tree Changes & Collectors’ Vehicles

With the new universal scheme for dividing vehicles by class, the Tech Tree interface has become more transparent and convenient. You no longer need to start researching a new branch from its low-tier vehicles; less effort, experience and time will be required, especially for players who are interested mainly in researching high-tier tanks.

During the tests, your concerns were mainly related to vehicles that would be moved from the Tech Tree to the “Collectors’ Vehicles” section inside the in-game shop, and the assumption that they would disappear from the game for good. However, we’d like to assure you that is not going to happen.

If these changes make it to the release version, all these vehicles, including vehicles from Tier VI to X, will remain in the game and will be available for purchase with credits. There is no reason to rush to research these tanks—you can buy them at any time, even after the update goes live.

Increased Durability for Low-Tier Vehicles

For the Sandbox tests, we increased the durability of all tanks from Tiers I–VI and made the gradual HP increase across tiers smoother and more consistent.

The results fully justified our expectations. Your reports show us that the cost of mistakes in battles reduced, and low-tier vehicles now survive for a longer time. The average duration of battles also increased together with the overall comfort of playing in these vehicles. It is worth noting that we will specify the exact values of the HP increase as soon as we analyze the data from this test.

What’s Next?

Now we have a large number of statistics and lots of feedback from you, the Sandbox server will be closed today while we await the results of the questionnaire. Thank you for filling it in; we hope you like the reward for helping us out!

Subsequently, we will need time to prepare a comprehensive analysis of the necessary changes and decide which to revise first, so the New Balance update will not be released in its current Sandbox form.

A number of solutions tested on the Sandbox turned out to be spot-on, but some of them still need to be adjusted. As a result:

  • We will proceed with the durability increase for low-tier vehiclesTech Tree updates, and Collectors’ Vehicles. Look out for more details in the near future!
  • Other changes, including shells and SPGs, require a thorough review, and will not be released anytime soon.

We are also keeping in mind the vehicles that were supposed to be checked when the New Balance test cut in. We’ll be ready to talk about our future steps and potential updates for all features and vehicles around mid-March.

We would like to emphasize one important message once again: any global changes will not go into release without being tested by the players first.

Thank you again for your participation and all the feedback that is so important for us to keep going in the right direction—for us to make the right decisions.

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15,466 thoughts on “New Balance: Sandbox Test Results

  1. Hang on a second, this sounds like WG actually vaguely listening to the userbase. What parallel universe have I ended up in?

  2. When are they going to fix the broken tanks and nerf the stupidly op ones? The promised us balance for the 430 TWO years ago? They say “wait for ammo rework” and that they cant work on anything else until that is done.

    The reality is that WG is using the ammo rework as an excuse to address blatant balance issues and tank problems. In the meanwhile, their devs certain can work on new premiums, and they gave us TERRIBLE british light tanks…

    Get your **** together Wargaming. That business on the sandbox was shameful for the amount of time you have said you invested. We have other issues to move on with and fix. Stop sandbagging us and gaslighting us.

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