4Game

Wheeled Vehicle Rebalancing

Greeting commanders, In one of our previous developers streams, we announced that we are working on rebalancing wheeled vehicles and today we want to talk about these planned changes.

Description of the Problem:

One of the key problems for most players is that the wheeled vehicles survive for too long despite being under massive enemy fire while actively spotting. This is due to both their small size and their high mobility and dynamics. Another aspect is that the wheeled vehicles are almost impossible to immobilize because they do not stop when their suspension is damaged. Instead, they simply slow down a little. The effect of damaged wheels on vehicle dynamics is relatively low. For a noticeable effect, several wheels should be damaged. All this creates a situation in which a player, in order to effectively engage a wheeled vehicle, should fully focus on a single objective at the cost of ignoring other aspects of the battle or forgetting other missions. A small window for causing damage, the difficulty of making an accurate shot, and other random factors make destroying a wheeled vehicle a non-trivial task. If we assume that the opponent is a very experienced player who can maximize all the advantages of a wheeled vehicle, then it becomes very difficult to counter this vehicle type. In order to balance the wheeled vehicles and reduce their survivability, we want to do the following:

● Increase the effect of damage to the suspension to cause the vehicle's behavior to change, slowing it down

● Slightly reduce the characteristics of the imbalanced vehicles by reducing their firepower and mobility

Adjusting the Mechanics:

We want to approach the problem described above from two directions. First, we’ll make changes to the mechanics of causing damage to wheels. Previously, a damaged wheel affected only the dynamics, not the current speed, of the vehicle. So if you kept moving without losing speed, the damaged wheels wouldn't affect the behavior of the vehicle too much. But if you slowed down (for example, when making a quick turn), the damaged wheels would cause lower dynamics, making it more difficult to build up speed again.We want to test the adjustment of this mechanic. Now, if the wheels are damaged, both vehicle dynamics and speed will noticeably decrease. Damage to a drive wheel will reduce the overall power of the vehicle, and damage to a traction wheel will affect the speed. Considering that almost all wheeled vehicles in the game have all-wheel drive, damage to any wheel (both retracted and lowered) will cause a reduction in dynamics. However, the speed of the vehicle will decrease only when the damaged wheels are currently touching the ground. Moreover, damage to the first wheel will have the greatest impact on the vehicle's speed and dynamics. For each subsequently damaged wheel, the overall effect will increase, but less abruptly.

A simple example: The Panhard EBR 105 moves at a speed of 95 km/h. After taking damage to the first wheel, it quickly loses speed to 68 km/h. And after taking damage to another wheel, the speed drops to 52 km/h. This will make the vehicle much more vulnerable, thereby reducing its chance of survival when under heavy enemy fire. 📷

Rebalancing Technical Characteristics:

The second aspect of the test changes to the wheeled vehicles is the rebalance of their technical characteristics. We want to slightly decrease the gun handling parameters, as well as the acceleration and top speed of some vehicles. Our goal is to maintain the distinctive gameplay of wheeled vehicles without causing them to resemble a branch of tracked light tanks. We expect that a small decrease in the technical characteristics, in combination with the change to the mechanic of causing damage to the wheels, will have a sufficient effect on reducing the battle performance of these vehicles. You can find the list of changes below. Please note that the adjustments are not final.

Panhard EBR 105

Dispersion during movement: 0.06 -> 0.08
Dispersion on hull traverse: 0.06 -> 0.08
Dispersion on turret traverse: 0.03 -> 0.04
Aiming time: 1.2 -> 1.4
View range: 350 -> 340
Engine power: 750 -> 720
Top speed in Rapid mode: 95 -> 91
Reverse speed in Rapid mode: 70 -> 65
Chance of engine fire: 0.1 -> 0.15

Panhard EBR 90

Reverse speed in the Rapid mode: 85 -> 83
Reverse speed in the Rapid mode: 85 -> 83
Engine power (top): 580 -> 560

Conclusion:

We believe that such changes will affect the overall performance of the wheeled vehicles in battles. The role of the vehicles won't change. They'll remain effective at active scouting, but they'll cause less damage to enemies (especially from a distance) and lose a little from their dynamics and top speed. You'll have to play more carefully in these vehicles, and the consequences of taking damage will be more serious than they are now. Please note that this is only the first test iteration of the planned changes. Note that all the above adjustments are not final.We look forward to your feedback!

Source: http://forum.worldoftanks.eu/index.php?/topic/747046-wheeled-vehicle-rebalancing/

Ps: As I got an exam in 15 mins I can't really do anything neat with the article.

PPs: I was able however to prepare a video yesterday evening which you can view here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f184KpWUzBI&t=3s

Edit: Okey, did a tiny bit of formating, hope it works out!

Cheers.