18 replies to this topic

[djb_95]

I started playing the game about 5 years ago.  Got hooked almost immediately and have been playing (far too much) ever since.

I've seen a number of changes come and go.  But a constant through all that time has been the endless grind to unlock that next tank.

We've all been there, grinding a tank over and over again so you can unlock the next 'bigger and better' tank - whatever that is.

 

Finally last year I reached an end point of sorts.  I had unlocked all the tanks in the game!  No more grind time required!

What a liberation!  For the last year I've been able to pick and choose which tanks I WANT to play!  I still get a little bit of

the grind when new lines or tanks or added, the Swedish line for instance.  But that is just a sideline that gives me something

else to do.

 

There are 2 big changes I've seen in the last couple of years that really shorten the grind.

 

First is the introduction of 'boosters' available through Stronghold play and the resources you can gain.  In our clan the triggering

of these boosters can impact your grind overall by maybe 5 to 10 percent.  We don't always have these triggered, but when

they are, they help.

 

The second, and bigger change, was the introduction of 'Personal Reserves'.  It took me a while to get the hang of these and

to build up a good supply.  Now, when I play, I ALWAYS have experience boosters going along with varied mixes of crew and

credit boosters.  These things are TERRIFIC!  I estimate that they reduce my 'grind' time by about 40%.

 

Overall between these two changes, I think today I can grind stuff about twice as fast as when I first started playing the game.

You newcomers don't know just how good you have it compare to the way it was 3, 4, or 5 years ago!

 

I still enjoy the game, more tanks to buy, a few Swedish tanks left to unlock.  Back to the grind!  Enjoy.

[Silversound]

Back in my day, we had to walk to school, in the snow without shoes, uphill both ways!

 

I feel the same way you do... +1

 

While I haven't opened them all, I have more than I'll ever want or play again in a lifetime.

 

270+, fully equipped, crewed, and with camo. The grind is over.

 

Yet I keep buying more.

 

I also just started www.WoTReviews.com on Saturday and hope to blog about them all one at a time.

The site is still in the design phase, but I feel good about the basic layout and scheme. Super beta.

 

Why not give WG another five years... lol

[munchgar]

Too bad they give almost no credit boosters compared to exp boosters. So technically we still need to play the same number of battles because it was never the exp that was the issue, it was the credits. Back in the day, credits were easier to grind because there was 50% off ammo sales. Now they rarely even have 25% off ammo sales.

 

What I can say makes the biggest difference is not the reserves, but the mission rewards which give new players a boatload of credits so people don't need to commit to the game and buy premium / premium tanks before getting a hang of the game. Also, what's great is nowadays, T5 tanks are not put into T10 battles. That was hell. I remember the being in a M6 and fighting the tier 10 T30's and maus's....

[conan_the_tank]

i remember back when it was world of wagons.  I had to grind a new donkey so my wagon would go faster.  you whippersnappers have no idea!  those were the days, dangnabit.

[BrassFire]

djb_95, on Mar 20 2017 - 21:29, said:

I started playing the game about 5 years ago.  Got hooked almost immediately and have been playing (far too much) ever since.

I've seen a number of changes come and go.  But a constant through all that time has been the endless grind to unlock that next tank.

We've all been there, grinding a tank over and over again so you can unlock the next 'bigger and better' tank - whatever that is.

 

Finally last year I reached an end point of sorts.  I had unlocked all the tanks in the game!  No more grind time required!

What a liberation!  For the last year I've been able to pick and choose which tanks I WANT to play!  I still get a little bit of

the grind when new lines or tanks or added, the Swedish line for instance.  But that is just a sideline that gives me something

else to do.

 

There are 2 big changes I've seen in the last couple of years that really shorten the grind.

 

First is the introduction of 'boosters' available through Stronghold play and the resources you can gain.  In our clan the triggering

of these boosters can impact your grind overall by maybe 5 to 10 percent.  We don't always have these triggered, but when

they are, they help.

 

The second, and bigger change, was the introduction of 'Personal Reserves'.  It took me a while to get the hang of these and

to build up a good supply.  Now, when I play, I ALWAYS have experience boosters going along with varied mixes of crew and

credit boosters.  These things are TERRIFIC!  I estimate that they reduce my 'grind' time by about 40%.

 

Overall between these two changes, I think today I can grind stuff about twice as fast as when I first started playing the game.

You newcomers don't know just how good you have it compare to the way it was 3, 4, or 5 years ago!

 

I still enjoy the game, more tanks to buy, a few Swedish tanks left to unlock.  Back to the grind!  Enjoy.

 

You gotta be humming this mate.

 

[65Camino]

OP, nice to see a post without any complaints in it and it is good to let new players know that they may have certain things easier than some of the rest of us have, +1 for that. Also, congratulations on the "unlocking" of every tank in the game, that is a lot of tanks. Lastly, with a little rounding of numbers, you are averaging 16,000 games a year or nearly 44 games per day. Extra kudos on the devotion to WoT and your pursuit thereof.

[otacon237]

Yeah I feel the same way, idk why, it's an obsession. It dont even drive them all. I guess when I do, it's nice that I have a crazy wide range to choose from. For me the credit grind is more the problem, got tons of unlocked tanks but not a lot of credits. At some point I plan to stop hoarding tanks and focus on 3 marking and improving my playing ability.

[kihew]

Grind?  I suppose.  Using personal reserves even a mediocre player can earn exp to research tanks.  If you are like me and play premium ammo using earned credits would take forever to actually acquire each tank in the line.  Fortunately purchased gold solves that problem.  As one of the oldest players hooked on WOT (age not time in the game), I enjoy collecting the tanks.  If there is a grind for players like me, it is the eternal struggle to improve as a player (for everything else there's Master Card I suppose).

[Gothraul]

conan_the_tank, on Mar 20 2017 - 21:45, said:

i remember back when it was world of wagons.  I had to grind a new donkey so my wagon would go faster.  you whippersnappers have no idea!  those were the days, dangnabit.

 

Back in my day we had to suffer world of invisible rape lasers and 6 shot 750 alpha auto loaders, kids have no idea how it was back then. Thanks God for 9.6.

[Pipinghot]

conan_the_tank, on Mar 20 2017 - 15:45, said:

i remember back when it was world of wagons.  I had to grind a new donkey so my wagon would go faster.  you whippersnappers have no idea!  those were the days, dangnabit.

You had donkeys? Dang you kids had it easy, we had to pull our own wagons by hand.

[djb_95]

I noticed several people mention that CREDITS are more of an issue than XP grinding.  I think I would agree with this.  I have tons of xp and crew xp boosters, but only a limited supply of credit boosters.

I'm always asking our clan commander if he can turn on a clan credit booster.  

I have all but 6 tanks unlocked, but still have 60 or so left to buy before I have every normal tank in the game.  Anyone lend me about 200 million credits??  lol.

 

The personal missions are something that weren't available 4 or 5 years ago.  I think you can make a few million credits at each of the 4 levels.  That at least helps.

 

They've had 'on-track' missions for a while.  Don't remember when they started.  But they helped too on making credits and getting xp boosts.

 

Lots of ways today to get free garage slots, earn consumables, etc.  I haven't really had to buy consumables for quite a while.  Seems like this is a lot easier than it used to be.

 

Back to the grind!

 

Edited by djb_95, Mar 20 2017 - 23:21.

[djb_95]

I noticed some 'old-timer' references. lol.

 

Now this is no s**t.  I grew up on a farm.  We got our water by throwing a bucket down an old rock lined cistern and hauling it up.

I took my baths in a galvanized steel wash tub.

We had a two-holer outhouse.

When they put in our first phone, our phone number was two shorts and a long on the crank.

 

By the time I was eleven I was spending hours a day on a tractor helping plow, disc, rake, plant, harrow, and harvest.

I slopped pigs in the dead of winter.

Had a pet cow that followed me around in the fields, bumped me with her head until I scratched her vigorously behind the ears.

 

I put up hay in the summer time.  (For those who haven't done this, imagine picking up a 75 pound bag of dog food, toss it 8 feet in the air, then pick it up again and stack it on a moving trailer, then pick it up again and toss it off, and pick it up again and throw it over your head to stack it in a barn in the stifling heat.  Now repeat for 500 to a 1000 bales a day.) I can tell you by the time I started playing football my sophomore year in high school, the city kids hated it when haying season was over.  That's when the country boys showed up for practice.  I could pick up a guy in each hand and just toss them to the side.  Football practice was a vacation for me.

 

When I got older and went to college, I worked road construction in the summer and played in a rock and roll band in the winter to put myself through school.  Got a degree in math and computer science and never went back to putting up hay (unless dad or one of my uncles or cousins needed some help of course.)  Family was important.

 

My dad was one of 12 kids, my mom one of 7.  Dad came of age in the Great Depression.  He road the rails out to California trying to find work, getting run out of town by local sherriffs protecting local workers from competition.  Times were tough.  Real 'Grapes of Wrath' type stuff.  Married mom and went to war.  Landed on Omaha beach on June 12, 1944.  Drove bulldozers and diggers for an aviation construction battalion.  Got a bronze star for clearing a path through the rubble of a 1 road town with his bulldozer while under steady machine gun fire.  Freed up a mechanized division so they could advance.  Came home, bought the farm with my mother, and raised up a couple of kids.  He lived to a ripe old age of 95 1/2.  Still working and living on the farm.  Dropped dead while working on the garage door.  He always said he wanted to go out 'toes up!'  So we made sure he was 'toes up' when they took him away.  True story, as we were entering the cemetery, they had a 2-for-1 sale sign up at the entrance!  Not making this up. lol.  I think dad would of got a laugh out of that.

 

 

 

 

Edited by djb_95, Mar 21 2017 - 00:17.

[Hurk]

you have averaged 42.25 battles per day for 5 years... stop botting. 

[SpectreHD]

djb_95, on Mar 21 2017 - 07:12, said:

Spoiler

I noticed some 'old-timer' references. lol.

 

Now this is no s**t.  I grew up on a farm.  We got our water by throwing a bucket down an old rock lined cistern and hauling it up.

I took my baths in a galvanized steel wash tub.

We had a two-holer outhouse.

When they put in our first phone, our phone number was two shorts and a long on the crank.

 

By the time I was eleven I was spending hours a day on a tractor helping plow, disc, rake, plant, harrow, and harvest.

I slopped pigs in the dead of winter.

Had a pet cow that followed me around in the fields, bumped me with her head until I scratched her vigorously behind the ears.

 

I put up hay in the summer time.  (For those who haven't done this, imagine picking up a 75 pound bag of dog food, toss it 8 feet in the air, then pick it up again and stack it on a moving trailer, then pick it up again and toss it off, and pick it up again and throw it over your head to stack it in a barn in the stifling heat.  Now repeat for 500 to a 1000 bales a day.) I can tell you by the time I started playing football my sophomore year in high school, the city kids hated it when haying season was over.  That's when the country boys showed up for practice.  I could pick up a guy in each hand and just toss them to the side.  Football practice was a vacation for me.

 

When I got older and went to college, I worked road construction in the summer and played in a rock and roll band in the winter to put myself through school.  Got a degree in math and computer science and never went back to putting up hay (unless dad or one of my uncles or cousins needed some help of course.)  Family was important.

 

My dad was one of 12 kids, my mom one of 7.  Dad came of age in the Great Depression.  He road the rails out to California trying to find work, getting run out of town by local sherriffs protecting local workers from competition.  Times were tough.  Real 'Grapes of Wrath' type stuff.  Married mom and went to war.  Landed on Omaha beach on June 12, 1944.  Drove bulldozers and diggers for an aviation construction battalion.  Got a bronze star for clearing a path through the rubble of a 1 road town with his bulldozer while under steady machine gun fire.  Freed up a mechanized division so they could advance.  Came home, bought the farm with my mother, and raised up a couple of kids.  He lived to a ripe old age of 95 1/2.  Still working and living on the farm.  Dropped dead while working on the garage door.  He always said he wanted to go out 'toes up!'  So we made sure he was 'toes up' when they took him away.  True story, as we were entering the cemetery, they had a 2-for-1 sale sign up at the entrance!  Not making this up. lol.  I think dad would of got a laugh out of that.

 

 

That's a nice read. Tank on!

[Gothraul]

djb_95, on Mar 21 2017 - 00:12, said:

I noticed some 'old-timer' references. lol.

 

Now this is no s**t.  I grew up on a farm.  We got our water by throwing a bucket down an old rock lined cistern and hauling it up.

I took my baths in a galvanized steel wash tub.

We had a two-holer outhouse.

When they put in our first phone, our phone number was two shorts and a long on the crank.

 

By the time I was eleven I was spending hours a day on a tractor helping plow, disc, rake, plant, harrow, and harvest.

I slopped pigs in the dead of winter.

Had a pet cow that followed me around in the fields, bumped me with her head until I scratched her vigorously behind the ears.

 

I put up hay in the summer time.  (For those who haven't done this, imagine picking up a 75 pound bag of dog food, toss it 8 feet in the air, then pick it up again and stack it on a moving trailer, then pick it up again and toss it off, and pick it up again and throw it over your head to stack it in a barn in the stifling heat.  Now repeat for 500 to a 1000 bales a day.) I can tell you by the time I started playing football my sophomore year in high school, the city kids hated it when haying season was over.  That's when the country boys showed up for practice.  I could pick up a guy in each hand and just toss them to the side.  Football practice was a vacation for me.

 

When I got older and went to college, I worked road construction in the summer and played in a rock and roll band in the winter to put myself through school.  Got a degree in math and computer science and never went back to putting up hay (unless dad or one of my uncles or cousins needed some help of course.)  Family was important.

 

My dad was one of 12 kids, my mom one of 7.  Dad came of age in the Great Depression.  He road the rails out to California trying to find work, getting run out of town by local sherriffs protecting local workers from competition.  Times were tough.  Real 'Grapes of Wrath' type stuff.  Married mom and went to war.  Landed on Omaha beach on June 12, 1944.  Drove bulldozers and diggers for an aviation construction battalion.  Got a bronze star for clearing a path through the rubble of a 1 road town with his bulldozer while under steady machine gun fire.  Freed up a mechanized division so they could advance.  Came home, bought the farm with my mother, and raised up a couple of kids.  He lived to a ripe old age of 95 1/2.  Still working and living on the farm.  Dropped dead while working on the garage door.  He always said he wanted to go out 'toes up!'  So we made sure he was 'toes up' when they took him away.  True story, as we were entering the cemetery, they had a 2-for-1 sale sign up at the entrance!  Not making this up. lol.  I think dad would of got a laugh out of that.

 

 

 

 

 

Got a little taste of that growing up and it sucked lol, lived out in the boonies far enough where basically there was no utilities at all. People these days have no idea how it is to live like that except in the poor countries and should it hit the fan to where those conveniences were no longer available like it was just after Hurricane Katrina as example it will be truly hell for most. Going to be an eventful time soon between massive layoffs due to automation and the economy going down the drain from years of corruption and miss management.    

[BudTugly]

I vote for somebody to donate that dude enough dough to buy those 60 or whatever tanks.  Unless he's a botter.  Pushing 80k games.......

[Gothraul]

BudTugly, on Mar 21 2017 - 04:29, said:

I vote for somebody to donate that dude enough dough to buy those 60 or whatever tanks.  Unless he's a botter.  Pushing 80k games.......

 

Not a botter with those stats, if anything op is someone retired with time to kill.

[BudTugly]

Yea he sounds sincere so.. gofundme?

 

I might put in a couple bucks.  This guy should get his tanks.

[djb_95]

Yes, I'm a retired old dude with time on my hands.

Actually getting harder for me to play.

My hands shake, getting worse, nothing to be done for that.

And I'm going blind - fortunately that CAN be fixed.  I'll get an operation at some point that will get me back to near 20/20.

But I intend to be around here for some time yet no matter what.

I've got a long term goal to actually BUY all the tanks in the game and have them in my garage.  I've got them researched, but I estimate I need around 200 million credits to finish buying them.  I profit around 500k a day, so that is about a year long goal.  Works for me, and gives me a goal to shoot for.

Enjoy!

 

ps.  I thank you for the thought of funding my tank buying.  But really, for me, the journey is the thing.  Grinding the credits and enjoying each tank along the way gives me a goal and something to look forward to!

 

Edited by djb_95, Mar 21 2017 - 05:16.