What other Online Games besides MWO do you else play?

How easy is it to get into as wouldn't mind trying it?

 

@Remarius Less arcade than WoT, but just as much a grindfest.

 

@Remarius, the game is easy to pick up. Each nation that currently has ground forces comes with 2 or more free tanks, often light tanks.
I'll do a brief pro-cons list and then if you've any more questions I will go into some detail.

Pros

• No HPs, great damage model.
• Graphics are excellent (Tanks lose armor plates, pen holes, get dusty and covered in dirt. Ground is deformable)
  
• Battlefield feels alive (AI tanks help, planes fly over, arty flattens buildings, etc..)
  
• Massive variation in objectives (Generally there is between 1 - 3 capture points)
  
• Random events during battle. Capture the downed plane, destroy enemy reinforcements
• Earn enough points and you can go fly a fighter, ground attack or bomber (also a con..)
• You can aid paltoons tanks being reparied (assuming you have a repair kit)
• You can tow disabled/stuck/flipped friendly tanks.
• Large variation in vehicles, light, medium, heavy tanks. Tank Destroyers and Selfpropelled AA.
• Lose all your tanks and you can quit and start a new battle straight away. No waiting for tanks to return to hanger
• You can rearm your tank or repair without a repair kit in a cap point.

Cons

• Can get one shot, if to many crew die or ammo/fuel/engine/radiators explode.
• You need to learn the internal layout of each tank, otherwise you can consistantly pen but do no real damage. Damage cam is very hand for this it shows where your round penetrated and what vital components it hit, if any.
  
• Early on crew are very squishy until you level the vitality attribute (A must for gunner and loader early on).
• AI tanks are more of a nuisance than a real threat.
• Team killing is largely unpunished and frustrating as fuck.
• No daily x2 instead you get a random reward each day, which gets better if you login every day. But they can be be used up on a loss. (I've lost a game with a 300% xp bonus and gotten 4k xp, won a game with a 300% xp bonus and got 16k xp. Without premium time).
• No repair kit or fire extinguisher on new tanks. So possible to get crippled and have to abanodon early on. Always research repair first.
• Loads of ammo types and no real explination on how they work without getting off your arse and finding out.
  
• Some nations have very small tech trees forcing you to research/buy tanks you do not want to progress to the next tier.
• Human planes are like WoT arty on roids. Out of no where you can just get bombed/rocket and you have next to no defense against it.
  
• If you fly a plane your leave your tank unmanned on the battle field. Makes for easy pickings.
• Artlilery is far to spammy. Once unlocked you can spam 3 artilery calls and earn more during the battle. It is also too effective imo.
• Each tank has a battle rating, so if you are not careful it is possible to unlock a high battle rating tank which will then drag all your shit tanks up and you may end up completely outclassed during the battle.
• You need to research and buy 6 tanks at each tier level before you can move on to the next level. Sucks if you don't want any more particular tanks or SPAA.

The current game seems to favour early tech Americans, M4 Sherman just eats other tanks with its HEAT rounds. Russians are also pretty good with their T34. Germans really struggle early on IMO, although they have very good guns for the most part their front hull armor is very poor and they have an annoying habbit of storing ammo at the front of the fucking tank, so a central frontal penetration tends to make them explode.

Germans and Russains have the most choice though, so are your best bet if you want to avoid playing AA. America should be getting Tank Destroyers in the next patch, no eta that I am aware of.

Overall, it is a very good game and has kept my attention pretty well.

Sorry for the brain explosion, I'm just writting it as it pops into my little brain

@PyckenZot, the grind only really kicks in at T3 imo. I've got T3 germans and nearly all T3 yanks. Not touched Russian tanks.

 

Wow brilliant summary Whoopie!

 

@WhoopieMonster Mind giving me a suggested order to level up tanks if going German?

 

@Remarius, I'll do some research for you when I get home. It really depends on your play style and merging that with the appropriate battle rated tanks.

There are currently three different difficulty modes in Warthunder.

Blurb taken from here: http://wiki.warthunder.com/index.php?title=Category:Game_modes

I would strongly recommend arcade mode while you get used to the game, the queue times are also the shortest by a very long way. But it is cool to line up along side fellow german tanks and take on a variety of Russian or American tanks.

In arcade mode you get 3 respawns, but certain tanks are also limited to a number of respawns. Heavies for example typically do not get any respawns, so once that tank is destroyed then you cannot use it again in that battle. Because you have 3 respawns in arcade mode your battle rating is calculated based on the three highest rated units in your selection. Initially I do not think there are any tanks in the lower tiers that are greatly higher than those around it so I wouldn't worry about it just yet!

 

Be also aware that the loss of the leading indicator is a HUGE difference in realistic. You have to determine range, transversal, gun elevation,... challenging but rewarding

 

This. It cannot be overstated just how much harder the lack of a leading indicator is. Each shell size and type will fly differently and require a different level of leading mastering this is both difficult and rewarding, as PyckenZot pointed out

 

Vergere's list is pretty solid. I would say that there are enough German tanks to completely avoid the SPAA line if you should so wish. You will not need any AA to get all the way to German T5 tanks.

Tiger and Panther tanks more than make up for the shitty early game German tanks.

 

Odd questions as I've just done a couple of battles in the starter German tank and a few in some English biplanes.

How do you get skillpoints in the planes as I don't seem to get any but seem to get plenty on tanks? Vice versa my tank development seems to be very sloooow whereas I've already got several new planes to play with.

I presume that I ignore the scaling of skill points for tanks and just pour every point into vitality for the moment?

Is there any point to firing unless you get a green or yellow indicator? Struggling desperately to find any unless I'm behind them and even then I can fire repeatedly into a green spot and it doesn't seem to do much.

At what point should I get new crews?

Rather confused....

 

To my opinion, War thunder is a great game for planes real good, but for tank ground forces is for me a total failure, no fun, for me ground forces is the world of warplane of the tank games, a big fail.

Planes games -> War thunder
Tank games -> Word of tanks or perhaps Armored Warfare when it ll be release.

 

Slightly confused over how many crews I need and how the game determines my BR - it automatically trains the Stug IIIA and I didn't notice it had a BR of 2.3 until I bought it. I've "retired" it so can I presume it doesn't get factored into who I fight?

I'm currently using the Pz 38(t) A, Pz II C free premium you get then the Pz II C (Reserve). I have a crew trained for the Pz II C premium and reserves, with another for the Pz 38(t) A and Stug. Can I presume I get to bring 1 tank per crew then just "reserve" tanks or backup ones I've bought?

 

Anyone playing the new Unreal Tournament alpha?

I used to be a beast, but now I am wasted in a matter of seconds, old games were really harder

 

@Vergere @WhoopieMonster

Can't decide how I feel about War Thunder tbh. I'v finished all the parts for the 1.0-1.3 BR Pz.38(t) A, Pz.II F, Pz.IV C, Flakpanzer I and the free premium Pz.II DAK. Working on the 2.0 Pz.38(t) F, Pz.III E and Pz.IV E while researching the Pz.III J. I'll research the Gepard next then work up the BR 2.3 Stug, PZ III J and Gepard.

Edit: The Flakpanzer was awful except against the one plane I saw and shot down. Can't imagine how much pain levelling that line will be.