The biggest little changes to World of Tanks

Howdy folks!

I once again got to thinking. Bad habit , I know. Do it once, people expect you to do it again. Anyhoo, I was thinking about what are the smallest changes that WG made to WoT that ended up having the biggest overall effects on the game without many of the current/newer players ever knowing any different.

What is a 'big little' change? They are things that players of today consider normal that were revolutionary for those of us who have played the game since the early days. Small creature comforts that make the experience so much more pleasurable than what it used to be like. So, let us start at the beginning.

100% crews for all Tier 1 tanks for newbies. This was tremendous. No more starting out with 50% crews, and at best having 75% crews until you started hitting the longer grinds at tier 6+, and kept crews long enough to hit 100% to start training skills.

Speakng of crew training – Crew training books. This was tremendous. If you have a premium tank and don't mind grinding a bit, you can spend 2 million credits on a 100% crew to get them 1.5 skills right off the bat for a new crew.

The training grounds/map training for newbies. Yes, it doesn't really help those of us experience players, but for newbies, not only do these modes introduce them to game mechanics and maps, but it also gives them a nice leg up with tons of silver/consumables to help make their tanking careers easier. Just from the map training modes alone, a newbie will earn more than a million silver worth of silver and basic consumables like fire extinguishers and repair kits and med kits. Let me tell you, that is very helpful when starting out.

Referral codes/new account codes. These were not a thing back when I started. The closest we had was the boxed copy of the game that came with a low tier premium tank, some gold, and some premium time. Nowadays, you can get codes that you put in when starting your account, that can give you a tier 5 premium and some premium days. Or you can get a referral code from a friend or acquaintance, and as you level up and complete the referral contract, not only do you get goodies, but at the end, you get a tier 6/7 premium tank of your choice out of a small collection, and the one who referred you gets a choice of premium tier 8's out of a small collection (or 3 million silver if you already have them all).

Rental Premiums. This was a revelation! Not only does it give you a chance to earn some credits with a premium tank, but it lets you try out that tank without putting down a penny! You then get a chance to feel it out, and if you don't like it, you don't have that regret of actually having purchased it and being disappointed.

Boosters. For years, the player base clamored for a way to have premium time in small snippets. Many players couldn't justify paying for a month/3 months/6 months/year of premium as they just didn't play often, and the cost of 1/3 days of premium at a time just didn't make sense. The calls on WG to let players buy premium in 1 hour chunks came across all the forums/servers. WG heard you, and boosters came along! Using three 1 hour 50% boosters for xp/crew/credit at the same time, gives you the same benefits as having premium time, with a much cheaper cost per unit of time. If you happen to take advantage of in-game missions and earn a free premium day, then those boosters add even more on top! The ability to earn them for free from in game missions is just the cherry on top!

In garage/match UI Improvements. Who here remembers that the 'visibility circle' used to be a square that was 707 meters from corner to corner? Heck, who remembers the days back before XVM was a thing, and gave us the max range, view range, and auto-spot circle on the minimap? who remembers having to keep track of who was spotted and remembering where they were last spotted, before XVM had those as mods? Who remembers wondering how much damage you did/bounced, until XVM added that feature? What were once mods that provided tremendous creature comforts, they are now part of the base game. Now everyone can turn on view range circles, spotted/last spotted location indicators, and damage logs in the game. You don't have to go hunting through Aslains or whatever installers, hoping you don't get a virus or banned mod, all because you wanted a multi-row carousel in garage, or the ability to transfer crews quickly between tech tree/premium tanks instead of doing it one member at a time.

Blueprints. These right here have changed grinding more than anything else. Just for doing missions in game for your dailies, for special weekly/monthly missions, or even as rewards from completing enough steps in the clan missions daily grind (basically playing enough to earn resources just from playing), and you get free chunks of XP taken off your grinds. This makes the grind so much easier than it ever was. As an added benefit, as you unlock more and more of the tanks in the game, you are more likely to get blueprints for tanks you really want further down the line. So hot-tip for you newbies – grind every tree/branch to at least tier 5 as soon as you can. That way, any and all blueprints you unlock will be for tanks you really want.

So, what are the "biggest small changes" to the game that I may have missed? What has been added (or in some cases, removed) from the game that makes the game more enjoyable and easier to play now, than it ever was?