FTR's Conclusion on Arty Email Leaks Flawed and so is WG's Logic
http://ftr.wot-news.com/2014/09/03/insider-wargaming-thoughts-on-arty/
Summary:
Players Whine about Arty, supported by Stats (a)
WG sets to nerf arty
Serb rages predicting TD will be whined about
Specific Arty Rebalance Happens (b)
Players Whine about TD's
WG bemoans uselessness of Wotlabs opinion.
FTR Concludes WG know what they are doing! Serb was right! (c)
Points (a) and (b) and (c) listed above can be easily proven flawed or false:
(a) Artillery or TD's in general weren't the issue, Damage Alpha / Burst was the issue.
Gold for Credits boosted artillery that needed Gold Rounds
Map were significantly redesigned between 8.1 and 9.1, why is that not mentioned?
Good Players disliked the RNG of Arty, not just the Damage
Statistics can show there is an issue, they can rarely show why it exists.
(b) Wargaming's Artillery Rebalance was terrible and did not address the main sources of hate. RNG was increased. Damage Alpha/Burst was not reduced, only DPM.
The result was indeed Artillery being able to carry less (lower DPM), and an exodus from Artillery to TD's, particularly by the worst players. RNG became worse. Damage Alpha/Burst remained.
Artillery in Clan Wars is fine on some maps, and doesn't isolate people in coordinated pushes.
Artillery in Pubs isolates players in top-clans or Blue/Purple stats, and they rage after one-shots
XVM proliferation through easy to install Mod-Packs meant more Arty players enable stats.
(c) WG / Serb aren't on top of things, they suffer from Confirmation Bias. The experiment they set up was false, and so is their conclusion.
More examples of WG incompetence followed:
M53/54 at Tier 9 is leagues ahead of the T92.
FV304 was SU26 Round 2, now at tier 6.
Conqueror GC running 100% Gold + flattening of peaks on several maps = domination, arguably OP
Conqueror GC without Prem Ammo? Hard nerf, according to Arty players I asked.
So is the Arty the issue, or Gold Rounds?
Are Tank Destroyers an issue, or their High Alpha?
Are Autoloaders an issue, or their High Burst?
Should Wargaming look at stats or gather consensus from a variety of sources?
Every single competitive game I ever played that had "expansions" resulted in Power Creep and Time to **** issues. What separated BAD developers from GOOD ones was how fast they managed to tone it down.
Wargaming's slowness is suspect, considering they profit from free-xp unlocking.
The key outrage of that exchange is the CONFIRMATION of WoT no longer being a priority, and getting short staffed. (only 6 balancers, are they even full time on those tasks? How often do they play? Are they even Blue/Purple?)
Did the game become cheaper now that it's less supported? NO, we still pay the same, the economy is arguably worse (esp. for pubs without Skirmish).
Instead we fund 5 (6?) other projects. This is the kind of INSULTING behavior that used to Damage the reputation of developers. Your outrage is missing.
TL:DR Wargaming don't know what they are doing, suffer from confirmation bias, and have nearly abandoned WoT balancing in favor of other projects.
P.S. Re: Rioting / Whining vs. "stop playing":
[link] [32 comments]