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Haswell

Zero to Heroics: An Experience in Complete Free2Play

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OT: I really think that the politicians should do in the RL what you are doing in the game, maybe it should be mandatory for every politician to, every few years, live some months starting from nothing, don't using their wealth, big houses and cars, their network of relations with other people that has power and even their educational qualification if they have one and strive to find a generic work, the money to pay the rent and to feed themselves and their relatives and survive to the harsh life.

It is too easy when you are too rich to forget how many other human beings that are affected by your choices and decision as politician live, as well as it easy to forget how long and painful is to grind trough this game, further more if you don't spend real money in it, when you sit on a huge amount of credits, to the point that having so much of them is not useful at all, having a stockpile of premium time tokens, boosters, insigna and many high level premium tanks in the garage, as well as most of the progression ones already complete.

But at least this game gives to anyone that has enough dedication playing it the experience of how it feels to be billionaire, even if not in the real life, as well as it gives to the RL ones multiple ways to grind fast in the game, buying all the progression tanks, gold and unlocking some locked reputation.

:snrk:

Edited by BumbaX (see edit history)

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"I'm also not getting as many insults and hate mail as I had hoped. What should I do to get that sort of attention?"

It reminds me something that happened to me a couple of years ago. I was in a German Battalion and was platooning with a German Battalion mate. He used to put the national flag on each of his tanks according to the nation that produces that tank, so if he plays an Abrams he uses the stars and strips banner. That time he was using an Italian tank so had the Italian flag on and some other player started to insult him as Italian, writing some "**** italians" thing in the chat.

Now it happens that I am Italian, but playing for a German Battalion i had the German flag on, so that guy actually insulted me believing to insult my German platoon mate :snrk:

(2 OT in a row maybe is too much, if so i apologize, but are both somehow related to what you write).

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It's all good, going off-topic is great entertainment. :sealofapproval:

1 hour ago, BumbaX said:

OT: I really think that the politicians should do in the RL what you are doing in the game, maybe it should be mandatory for every politician to, every few years, live some months starting from nothing, don't using their wealth, big houses and cars, their network of relations with other people that has power and even their educational qualification if they have one and strive to find a generic work, the money to pay the rent and to feed themselves and their relatives and survive to the harsh life.

It is too easy when you are too rich to forget how many other human beings that are affected by your choices and decision as politician live, as well as it easy to forget how long and painful is to grind trough this game, further more if you don't spend real money in it, when you sit on a huge amount of credits, to the point that having so much of them is not useful at all, having a stockpile of premium time tokens, boosters, insigna and many high level premium tanks in the garage, as well as most of the progression ones already complete.

But at least this game gives to anyone that has enough dedication playing it the experience of how it feels to be billionaire, even if not in the real life, as well as it gives to the RL ones multiple ways to grind fast in the game, buying all the progression tanks, gold and unlocking some locked reputation.

This is very true, it's hard for the upper class and wealthy people to understand the struggles of the lower classes. It's easy to forget how hard it is for people to make a living when they lack in resources and network, even more so if they have never experienced hardships before. It's like the philosophical problem of a colorblind person trying to understand colors, you can read and learn all about the color red, but you won't truly know what the sensation of seeing the color red is like.

 

1 hour ago, BumbaX said:

It reminds me something that happened to me a couple of years ago. I was in a German Battalion and was platooning with a German Battalion mate. He used to put the national flag on each of his tanks according to the nation that produces that tank, so if he plays an Abrams he uses the stars and strips banner. That time he was using an Italian tank so had the Italian flag on and some other player started to insult him as Italian, writing some "**** italians" thing in the chat.

Now it happens that I am Italian, but playing for a German Battalion i had the German flag on, so that guy actually insulted me believing to insult my German platoon mate 

I can't even afford decals right now... :QQQQQQ:


Spoiler

 

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And I can not afford T40 to troll the GLOPS :eviltroll:

Even when you are rich there is always some one richer then you, unless you sit at the very top of the pyramid...

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https://eu.alienwarearena.com/ucf/show/139118/Giveaway/armored-warfare-starter-pack-key-giveaway

This still work? It claims there are 5600 or something, still available, although it'd be pretty astonishing if it did work.

Edited by Lenticulas (see edit history)

"Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth."

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Yeah, it still works.  I haven't pointed anyone to it this month, but I have done so this year and it worked for them.

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Not to hijack a thread, but to add to what Haswell is talking about:

A friend and I started a bit of a running joke and it started as a what if you could start all over again like it was when there was the server reset.  I hopped onto it and started to wonder how well  could I do, and like Haswell what does the whole "starting over" feel like.

I have a new character I started to grind.  The only thing I've bought into was the battle path and a coin package because I want to have the Type 10 on the second character as well.

 

This whole new player thing is a complete and utter misery, and there are things I am seeing that I can not understand.

  • One character I ran into this weekend had on one tank 6300 battles in it, with a 62% win rate in PvE and a 39% win rate over all in PvP.  It was the M113 ACAV.  There are others like him.  I was sitting in my chair and started to wonder how was that possible.
  • People are trying to do certain things at the lower tiers that sure don't work at the higher tiers.  As a tier 3, I can not do the roadblock on Dire Wolf by myself in a Leopard 1.
  • There are a handful of retrofits that in order to be successful further on that you need to get, but there is zero instructions on what they are and the easiest path to get them.
  • MM at lower tiers is horrible.  Nothing like having to step up and carry as the only tier 3 in a tier 5 match in PvE.
  • Certain tanks at the lower tiers are absolutely horrible for the "new player" experience.  The York just needs to get nerfed into a hole and have the hole back-filled with rebar and concrete then nuked from orbit after being in a tier 3 and having a pair of these things in a match as the only tier 5's.  THEN....then because of this, as an old player and knowing all the tricks I step it up a notch and that momentum keeps going into the following matches and pretty much could make others miserable.
  • There are some mechanics that the AI does like the snap shots from Swingfires that would push me away from the game if I didn't know any better.  Literally just starting to crest the hill, gun barrel not even visible and theres a missile in your face.  Swingfires need to be in the same hole as the York.
  • Without having premium to help, or boosters to help get the XP and reputation, going from tier 3 to 5 can be rough if you don't have any experience or understanding of the basic game mechanics because of match making.
  • I'm barely breaking even overall with credits.  Even if you can get out of a tier 3, its not about if you could its more about if you should just on credits alone.

It's helping to bring AW back into a perspective that I hope the devs could address, but I know that even if they were going to its down on the lower end of things they might have to address.


 

"If you were not birthed with claws or fangs, store bought will do just fine."

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The York is a favorite to pile one as OP - and it is absolutely OPAF - but honestly for a new player the DCA is just as bad in the hands of a veteran.  The main difference is that the York has useful armor, which makes it better for mediocre and average players.  (That and it was easy to get and is a premium, so people play it more often for the extra credits.)

Anyway... the experiment that you guys are running is how I played the game when I started.  Totally FTP, no purchase whatsoever, just grind along and see how things go.  I don't believe that I bought any gold until I was past Tier 6 and into Tier 7, at which point I started hurting for credits so bought a VFM Mk5.  That sustained me pretty well until I reached Tier 8 at which point I needed a better credit earner so bought an AMX10-RCR and played the crap out of it.  Still my most-played vehicle to this day even though I haven't really used it much at all for probably 18 months.

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Nice experiment & post Haswell! I guess I'm one of those examples which you describe, maybe aim at (newbie & F2P for now, https://armoredlabs.net/index.php?/topic/393-hello-new-guy-here/). I found some useful tips already here. Also I quickly realized how much I still have to learn because half the text I don't understand :classic_blush:

Most important lesson for me at this point is that I should definitely NOT try to get to tier 10 as fast as possible. With limited game time (~10h/week) there is no point trying to rush because it will take ages anyway. Thats fine for me as part of the gaming experience is to discover new things and unlock stuff!

I've played for a bit over a week now and after a few battles in tier 1 (PvP & PvE) I moved up to tier 3-4 (MBTs) and played mainly PvE to get the various modules unlocked. I have some questions for experienced players and I guess here is as good of a place as any to post them...

The PvE mode, I quickly started with the hardcore mode as the other was very easy, but hardcore still seems rather simple (in tier 3-4). I do quite alright and usually I'm in the top 3 of my team, depends a bit on tier level of my tank versus other tanks and sometimes you just get a few guys that are too fast and take most dmg. In this thread I notice you guys know all PvE maps and the bot's positions already, after a few battles I also got to know some parts already as well. Does PvE (hardcore) get more difficult at higher tiers? Seems a bit boring if it doesn't to be completely honest.

I was thinking to unlock modules for tier 3-5 tanks in PvE and then invest in some equipment (called different here I think) for a few tanks I like to play in PvP. In the meantime I want to unlock some other tanks in PvE (maybe other classes) and get some experience, credits and fun/challenge in the PvP gameplay. Do you guys think this is a smart idea?

Today I played some PvP (random) in tier 3 just to try. Since my tanks & crews are still very basic I get outspotted by everyone. I would like to have a bit better viewrange (and/or camo) but does this make sense on MBTs? If I invest in vision equipment, will I spot enemies or is my base viewrange just too low to be effective to spot?

Another thing I noticed from your post is that there seems to be quite some optimization which you guys target (to have the most suitable commander for a specific type of tank for example). To what extent are the last few % usefull for average, casual players? If you don't mind not being the best but aim for say top half of your team, can you play with worse tanks&crews or is the disadvantage to great and basically ruining the gaming experience?

Final question in the long post, I noticed from your experiment that going up tiers the credit payout gets better. Doest this continue al the way to tier 10, or is there a middle ground for F2P economy (I don't want to put to many WoT references in here, sorry about that, but in WoT you lose credits at tier 9&10). It would be good to know if I should just advance one line to get more credits for other lines or at which tier I should stop.

Any advice/tips/comments are welcome!

 

 

 

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44 minutes ago, GunslingerXXX said:

that going up tiers the credit payout gets better.

All the way to the top, unlike WoT. Congratulations. :->

  • Upvote 1

"Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth."

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On 9/8/2020 at 12:41 PM, GunslingerXXX said:

 

Most important lesson for me at this point is that I should definitely NOT try to get to tier 10 as fast as possible. 

I've played for a bit over a week now and after a few battles in tier 1 (PvP & PvE) I moved up to tier 3-4 (MBTs) and played mainly PvE to get the various modules unlocked.

The PvE mode, I quickly started with the hardcore mode as the other was very easy, but hardcore still seems rather simple (in tier 3-4). I do quite alright and usually I'm in the top 3 of my team, depends a bit on tier level of my tank versus other tanks and sometimes you just get a few guys that are too fast and take most dmg. In this thread I notice you guys know all PvE maps and the bot's positions already, after a few battles I also got to know some parts already as well. Does PvE (hardcore) get more difficult at higher tiers? Seems a bit boring if it doesn't to be completely honest.

I was thinking to unlock modules for tier 3-5 tanks in PvE and then invest in some equipment (called different here I think) for a few tanks I like to play in PvP. In the meantime I want to unlock some other tanks in PvE (maybe other classes) and get some experience, credits and fun/challenge in the PvP gameplay.

 

1. Welcome to the game and the community. I was in your shoes 5 months ago.  I started grinding a single line towards Abrams MBTs (ow) before I discovered vehicle diversity helps a lot.The 2x-for-1st-win-of-the-day bonus encourages players to develop bro

 

ad fleets, and this is a good thing. Some vehicles (especially in their stock state) just don't generate enough damage-per-minute to compete with renowned or prem vehicles. Map knowledge helps a lot. And yes, as you go to higher tiers, there are additional maps that enter the rotation. The mechanics don't change appreciably much, but the objectives for the contracts become more attainable at higher tiers, so there are incentives for progression.

Retrofits are ridiculously expensive to install at lower tiers given the economics early on.... because the grinds are shorter there's less opportunity for return on the investment before you move on to the next progression vehicle. You can get some advantages (camo, view range) by grinding the commanders, which are portable from vehicle to vehicle. I made it to tier 8 before I really started thinking seriously about retrofits.

 

On 7/5/2020 at 11:15 AM, Katsumoto said:

This whole new player thing is a complete and utter misery, and there are things I am seeing that I can not understand.

  • One character I ran into this weekend had on one tank 6300 battles in it, with a 62% win rate in PvE and a 39% win rate over all in PvP.  It was the M113 ACAV.  There are others like him.  I was sitting in my chair and started to wonder how was that possible.
  • People are trying to do certain things at the lower tiers that sure don't work at the higher tiers.  As a tier 3, I can not do the roadblock on Dire Wolf by myself in a Leopard 1.
  • There are a handful of retrofits that in order to be successful further on that you need to get, but there is zero instructions on what they are and the easiest path to get them.
  • MM at lower tiers is horrible.  Nothing like having to step up and carry as the only tier 3 in a tier 5 match in PvE.
  • Certain tanks at the lower tiers are absolutely horrible for the "new player" experience.  The York just needs to get nerfed into a hole and have the hole back-filled with rebar and concrete then nuked from orbit after being in a tier 3 and having a pair of these things in a match as the only tier 5's.  THEN....then because of this, as an old player and knowing all the tricks I step it up a notch and that momentum keeps going into the following matches and pretty much could make others miserable.
  • There are some mechanics that the AI does like the snap shots from Swingfires that would push me away from the game if I didn't know any better.  Literally just starting to crest the hill, gun barrel not even visible and theres a missile in your face.  Swingfires need to be in the same hole as the York.
  • Without having premium to help, or boosters to help get the XP and reputation, going from tier 3 to 5 can be rough if you don't have any experience or understanding of the basic game mechanics because of match making.
  • I'm barely breaking even overall with credits.  Even if you can get out of a tier 3, its not about if you could its more about if you should just on credits alone.

It's helping to bring AW back into a perspective that I hope the devs could address, but I know that even if they were going to its down on the lower end of things they might have to address.

Yes! Yes!  I am so glad vets like @Katsumoto and @Haswell are taking the time to experience this reality. I think we all are interested in expanding the player base, and the foibles at low tier are indeed pretty painful - particularly when you get to tiers 4-7.  I used to dread Yorks because there wouldn't be much damage left for the low-tier MBTs... now I tolerate them. Getting killed by swingfires (and bot ATGMs  generally) happens all too often.  Getting out of tier 3 on credits alone is painful, but actually a good "character building" exercise to prepare one for the longer grinds ahead. The frustration was that there was the mystical allure that the next tier would somehow be better or more fun to play... and then you get a stock tank like the Starshi* which is more clunky than the T4 Megach you just left. Ugh.

Credit-wise, the economics at low tier are OK if you skip consumables and retrofits. limit to 1 respawn/PVE match, take the daily bonuses, and grind vehicles every day for the 2x first win bonus (even past renowned).

I suspect the devs are focusing on high tiers with the rebalance, but yes, I believe optimizing the low-tier dynamics is essential to expanding the player base.

DVC,

QR

 

 

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On 9/9/2020 at 8:21 PM, Quantum_Ranger said:

I am so glad vets like @Katsumoto and @Haswell are taking the time to experience this reality. I think we all are interested in expanding the player base, and the foibles at low tier are indeed pretty painful - particularly when you get to tiers 4-7. 

 

Not sure how Haswell and Dima are doing, but I'm now 6 months in and finally unlocked T9. Economics are stabilized... Finishing enough contract points to earn vehicles, and this provides some additional credit income. Although I am not Bill Gates, there are enough credits to purchase what I want, when I want, especially at the middle tiers... now choices of vehicles and upgrades are determined by playstyle and features, and less by what I can afford.

So now I think it will be the social element that will keep me interested through the long grinds... but the pressure to grind progression is also a bit less because I have some steady income and entertainment from the prem vehicles.  

DVC, 

QR

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