World of Tanks Sandbox: Tech Tree Changes in More Detail
6 min readWorld of Tanks Sandbox New Balance has brought big changes to seven of the eleven tech trees. The major changes will happen in the USSR, USA, Germany, France and the UK, but almost all nations will have vehicles relocated from their Tech Tree. In total, 92 vehicles will be relocated.
The simplification of tech trees it’s way to make the game easier to new players by giving them fewer choices and make focus on moving up to Tier V or Tier VI much quickly. Existing players won’t lose any vehicles, researched or not-researched because any vehicle from Tier II to V that isn’t in the Tech Tree anymore, will still be available to anyone who wants them, just in a different way. For existing players, the following will happen:
- Owned vehicles present in the garage, will stay there.
- Unowned vehicles will be available in a new area of the shop called Collection Vehicles.
- Vehicles will only cost Credits, no further need to spend Experience to unlock them.
- All vehicles will still have modules to be researched.
The main advantage will be the fact existing players can just buy any vehicle outright without the need to research them, and of course, spending no experience at all. For new players, the main difference is that these vehicles are only available after a Tier VI vehicle is researched, before that they won’t be able to buy them.
Tier I to V vehicles are not classified as Reward or Premium vehicles, they are still Regular vehicles, meaning while they will have Elite status, they won’t give any additional bonus. Here’s a list of all vehicles that will be relocated by nation and comparison images of the Tech Tree.
U.S.S.R. – 13 Vehicles Relocated
Germany – 22 Vehicles Relocated
USA – 16 Vehicles Relocated
France – 13 Vehicles Relocated
UK – 15 Vehicles Relocated
China – 3 Vehicles Relocated
Japan – 7 Vehicles Relocated
Sweden – 2 Vehicles Relocated
Italy – 1 Vehicle Relocated
What happens to vehicles of Tier VI and above?
It’s still unknow what will happen exactly with any vehicle of Tier VI and above. There are in total 13 vehicles that will be relocated and there are no plans to when and how they will be back. One thing is certain, if you have them in your garage already, you get to keep them, so its always worth grinding and buying these if you haven’t already. Here’s the list of vehicles:
| U.S.S.R | Germany | USA | France | UK | China |
| – KV-85 – KV-13 – T-62A | – VK 30.01 D – Jagdpanther II | – T21 – M4A3E2 – T71 DA | – AMX 30 – AMX 30 B | – Churchill GC – Sherman Firefly | – 113 |
All the above vehicles have been converted into Elite Reward vehicles, this means they don’t have any modules to be researched and they give the same bonus as other Reward vehicles: More Free Experience and Crew Experience, Free transferring crew members without penalty and they lost their Credit price and received a price in Gold. They won’t give more credits per battle, as they are not Premium vehicles.
At the moment, any information about how they will be available is pure speculation, but I do have concerns that Wargaming is going to try to capitalize on these vehicles. By capitalize, I mean profit on them, by maybe making them available on Black Market Auctions, Bond Shop or some sort of Reward Marathon. If you don’t want to have to earn them later on, it would be wise to invest your time grinding these vehicles.
Overall Opinion
While I can see what is tried to be achieved with these changes on the lower Tier levels, I’m not keen on having them implemented. The main reason is that I strongly believe that the simplification won’t have the effect Wargaming is expecting to have. World of Tanks is not a new game anymore, it’s almost 10 years old, Wargaming should be focusing on maintaining the current player base, not making the game much simpler so it’s easier to get new players and in the process alienate the old player base.
Let’s face it, who hasn’t heard of World of Tanks by now? And if they aren’t playing it, are they really going to start?
Second, why remove vehicles above Tier VI, especially Tier X and a respective mini-branch? Yes, the Tech Trees needed some rework, but mainly was some tanks to be moved around and some links to be removed or created, not the removal of 92 vehicles from the tech tree! I really don’t see the point of removing the AMX 30 and AMX 30 B, or the T-62A or the 113, these tanks were there to give players a choice, not to just fill a place.
Together with this, the whole spectacle of not knowing when and how these will be available is quite unacceptable. To add into, Wargaming has no plans to return any Experience used to unlock these vehicles back to players. At the moment in the Sandbox, all the experience ended up in some of the removed vehicles waiting to be converted into Free XP. If this is Wargaming plan, isn’t that yet another way to capitalize on players, expecting them to buy Gold and use it to convert a huge amount of experience?
When I first heard that Wargaming had plans to revisit the Tech Trees, back at Tankfest 2017 in a conversation with Thaine Lyman, I was under the impression that useless modules were going to be removed, some tanks would be moved around and links between branches were going to be updated to make some sort of sense. Thaine is long gone and what we got, was the relocation, that for me is the removal, of 92 vehicles, some of them converted into Reward vehicles that no one seems to know how and when we can get them, and the useless modules are left intact? I understand that it would be hard work to rebalance all these low tiers, but is removing them from the Tech Tree really a solution or is it just kicking the can down the line and pretend the problem doesn’t exist anymore?
To me, these changes are pure laziness and burying the head in the sand from Wargaming, in hopes they won’t have to do anything about it after. Let me know your thoughts in the comment section.
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so instead of fixing actual **** that needs to be fix they they spend their time rearranging tanks trees
bad move, they wasted their time
I think these combined with the new balance change favorising low tier is actually really good for the game.
as of now the game probably have a new player retention of 1/10 or so (meaning for 10 player trying the game only one stay) because the lowtier are a hell hole that you spend several weeks climbing out. it’s full of seal clubers in luchs, leopard, t67 and mathildas that stomp your face hard.
also i know a lot of new player that spent their T6 token on dumb **** like arty kv2 or a high skill floor line and quit the game because they feel useless at mid tier and don’t want to bother with low tier again.
i’m more concerned by what they did with the tier 6 or more tanks, it’s ok if they hand them out “for free” often (frontline, marathons, tank rewards, etc) but i feel like they will be rare and costly
i think this plan it complete and utter bull crap wargaming must be on crack to implement this in to the game if this goes live i’m done with it i will go find something else to spend my time on i have been playing since 2012 WOT has gone through a lot since then but this is getting really stupid now
Could some please tell those of WG to do someting with T54E1 , c’on we are in 2020 and still have only 2 shells and the pen for a tier 9 in this meta .. :O:O ..
The hot question for me is what is going to replace the AMX 30 & AMX 30B?
Looks like I need to get on it and pick up a Firefly.
its WG, they only throw their creativity into more ways to make us spend our cash on Gold. when you understand that, everything else starts to make sense
Nothing is going to replace these tanks. They are just coming out of the Tech Tree, no further branch in there…
When you have a mess and diorganised things its simply to cut off or delete some mess. And in future give back in more organised way . Thats my thinkig. If they dont move them back we will have more prem. tanks than regular if they stay relocated NOT REMOVED. Time will show the way were game is going.
Sorry for my english.
While I can understand some people’s frustration or disappointment with the tech tree changes, I also feel like these changes won’t impact long term players much. Speaking personally, I have researched all lines to at least tier 8 or above, so the low tier changes don’t affect me. Even for people that want to get some of these, they will still be there for credit purchase anyway. I’m kind of confused about the AMX, 113 and T-62A removals, but there is plenty of time to get them. And if you do have them, you get free crew training ability on them, which is a bonus. Overall, I think there are things they should definitely be prioritizing before this tech tree stuff, but I don’t really see any huge downsides at least.
well they did, they buffed the pen
increasing hp of low tiers – Good idea to help them but no attempt to hold back seal clubbing murder platoons. limit the number of games 50k players can spend killing new players or remove the results from their stats.
Trim the tech trees? Not a problem at low tier as they remain available. Higher tiers? I don’t see the point, just leave them there. What does it hurt to have both the T62a and Obj 140?
I am also worried they will be sold in next years black market but I’m more concerned for those players grinding towards them but not there when they get removed. A lot of wasted XP? I’m picking one at a time and grinding it hard while still available.
The ammo re-work is just a mess. Standard rounds often fail to pen OP new tanks so gold has to be used but it does less damage so MORE gold will be fired. HE re-work -Why? its not a major problem nor an urgent one.
Arty re balance-Another one! How many times do they adjust it until they accept its as good as its going to get. keep it as it is but restrict to 1-2 a game.
Wheeled vehicles? A poisonous addition to the game and as bad as arty but no mention of it. Do the same as for arty, no more new ones and restrict the numbers in any game.
i don’t think this ‘new balance’ will kill the game but at least half of it is a waste of time looking at the minor issues.
Concentrate on key points
Gold ammo – Re balancing unlikely to work but OK try it before just limiting the number a player can load
Low tiers- Properly protect new players.
Maps- The game now has 90+kph tanks and still we have tiny maps. Bigger, wider, less corridors.
New tanks- Give the heavies weak spots that can be targeted and dont release OP unbalanced nonsense like the high tier reward tanks.
Sorry i went into a rant!
I know some people won’t think it will work but, we should let our opinions be known. Get into the Sand Box, play it, let them know what you think and keep on top of it. I agree that the current goal should be to keep current players not draw in new people. The current player base will bring in enough new blood ourselves without them denuding the tree. Honestly I would rather see them revisit old maps that are out of circulation and, try revamping them then cutting up the tree.
The big question is… When … have they specified a date yet?
I left WoT 2 years ago n turned to WoWs instead … These planned changes just seems to justify my decision…
So do i loose all my progression with t71 da? Thats going to suck. Well… not much because i dont play anymore, cus p2w Bull****
I second what jl999k says!
They did the same in Blitz, and EVERYONE hated this. I left Blitz for that reazon.
please don´t replace T-62A and KV-13
So i am grinding the KV-2 to get the S-51. any idea if since the S51 is being moved away from the KV-2 line if it will be automatically researched and just need to be bought?
And when i have these tanks in garage . they keep me these tanks?