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Disclaimer: I personally don't regard all of these as major problems, just nuisances at most. I only made this poll to get a general feeling of what the Community views as problems, as well as what they think will improve the game.
Below are brief descriptions of WoT's major "problems", as well as my proposed solutions.
Premium Ammunition: A secondary ammunition type that exceeds the effectiveness of standard ammunition (primarily in penetration, but can also be in other areas such as long-range effectiveness or over-matching), and its sole balancing factor is its price tag. Given that it is impossible to use large sums of premium ammunition without running out of credits, any player who doesn't spend any money on the game (either through buying credit reserves, premium account time, and premium tanks for grinding credits, buying gold to be used on purchasing premium ammunition or premium tanks, or straight up buying credits) is unable to take advantage of a mechanic that makes performing well much easier, therefore making premium ammunition the definition of Pay-to-Win.
There is also the fact that it makes balancing armor extremely difficult, and example being any armor value at tier 10 around 300 millimeters effective, which is almost impossible to penetrate with any standard shell, is easily bypassed by premium ammunition.
My Solution: The best and most efficient way to fix this would require a major rework of the ammunition type, if not straight up removing it, and this would be to still allow it to have greater penetration, but the penetration difference between it and standard ammunition wont be nearly as drastic (it wont exceed 20 millimeters of additional penetration), and it would have decreased damage in comparison (by 30%-45%) While this would take a while to fully test and implement, it would make the game much easier to balance and would also make it seem more inviting to new players, since pay-2-win mechanics are despised across the gaming community *Cough* Battlefront 2 *Cough*.
OP Premiums Tanks: Over time, WG has introduced multiple premium tanks that outclass equal tier, or even higher tier, vehicles (examples being the Skorpion G, the Obj 252U, the E25, and the Pz B2) and the only approach WG is currently taking to counteract this is by simply not selling them anymore, although they haven't even done this for certain tanks. However that doesn't solve the issue, it just keeps it from growing (think of it like stopping the advance of a wildfire, but refusing to put it out).
My Solution: The best way to solve this would be to nerf said overpowered vehicles, and in the process compensate owners with either complete refunds, or (if WG plays it smart) in-game currency/items of equal "value" (gold-wise). By doing this, WG would get a better reputation as a company that values game balance over profits (kinda), and it wouldn't have to be afraid of selling the previously overpowered premium tanks, since they wont be overpowered anymore. Also, to prevent the future introduction of overpowered tanks, WG should allow players to test them out before they are put on sale, either on the test server, or through the use of rentals on the live server (although these would likely be given only to players who invest a decent amount of time into the game, since they tend to recognize overpowered tanks more).
Matchmaking: The matchmaker, while it was greatly improved in 9.18, still isn't satisfactory in the eyes of the player base due to the extremely amounts of bottom tier battles players experience on a day-to-day basis, and the cause of this can be traced to update 9.19, which made the matchmaker prioritize 3/5/7 battles. The problem with this is that in a 3/5/7 battle, the majority of players are bottom tier, and if most battles a player gets is 3/5/7, then they are much more likely to be bottom tier.
My Solution: This is probably the most simple solution to any of the problems listed (which makes me wonder why it hasn't been done yet), and it involves simply reverting the changes made in 9.19. In fact, the matchmaker should prioritize equal tier battles, followed by 5/10, and 3/5/7, so that there isn't a large amount of tanks of a single tier populating the matchmaking queue. However, this priority shouldn't be too extreme, since constantly fighting one tier would get boring over time due to lack of variety.
Artillery: Artillery has always been one of the most controversial classes in the game due to the fact that they can shoot nearly anywhere on the map without any fear retaliation. While artillery doesn't one-shot tanks anymore (although it does happen on occasion), it is almost as annoying as it was previously thanks to its large splash radius combined with high splash damage, as well as the stun mechanic, which makes getting shot at by it one of, if not the worst, experiences in the game. Artillery is also troublesome to those who play it, since their guns handle horribly thanks to extremely bad dispersion values combined with long aim times, and their lack of accuracy makes it even more frustrating to play.
My Solution: What I would do to make artillery less hated and more appealing to players would be to completely rework its mechanics. I would greatly decrease shell arc making it so that they cannot shoot over objects nearly as well as they do now, as well as decreasing their splash radius and splash damage, while also removing the stun mechanic. I would also completely rework how they aim. Instead of a top-down view, artillery will now have access to sniper view just like every other tank, but they will still have access to "Siege View", which is activated by pressing G, but now entering this view will greatly decrease your range and shell speed, making harder to shoot at long range. Aside from these "nerfs", I would greatly increase the hit-points of all artillery by 100%-200%, depending on the tier, and improve their rate-of-fire, accuracy, and aiming time. This will make them more akin to tank destroyers, however while they wont be as good at sniping have access to and Armor Piercing ammunition types, they will be able to do damage reliable thanks to strong HE shells, and they will still be able to shoot over some objects (like small hills/rocks). Also, these changes will make them better equipped to play more aggressively, as well as to better defend themselves, since higher hit-points means they can survive longer.
Pen Rolls: Despite pen rolls not being nearly as infamous as some of the other problems I previously mentioned, it is still very troublesome and is one of the worst forms of RNG in the game. The way pen rolls work is that your shell can potentially have a 25% variation in penetration, which is quite a large difference if you think about it. This is a very scary prospect if you think about it, since for example a tank with 200 millimeters of penetration can bounce off one with 151 millimeters of armor (think of it as a Tiger 1 bouncing off the flat turret front of a Churchill VII), or a tank with 200 millimeters of pen penetrating a tank with 250 millimeters of armor (think of it as a Tiger 1 penetrating a Type 4 Heavy), and while yes these would be rare, the fact that they can happen is ridiculous. Another, more practical example is a is a Lowe shooting a O-Ho at a flat angle, since while it should be able to pen any part of its front (with standard ammo) over 60% of the time (234 penetration vs 200 raw armor thickness), it can easily get several low pen rolls in a row, which could be the difference between life and death.
My Solution: While Pen Rolls are a necessary concept for this game, the current variation is simply way too high and must be decreased. I would decrease it to 10% variation, as while this would allow some tanks to pen vehicles with armor slightly thicker (by roughly 5-10 millimeters) than their penetration capacity, it wont allow for completely ridiculous scenarios to occur, and would make shot you would expect to penetrate much more common.
If I missed any problems, or if you would handle anything differently, feel free to say so.
Edited by Crabybaby, Jan 12 2018 - 01:28.
