Mmh.. I just dropped out of my second WoT battle.
The first one was like that: I drive forward. I die. I have no idea why or who or even what the objective was ?
The second went like that: I drive forward, I shoot. Game freezes.
And why do I see only the ground shadow of the tanks and their green/red dots?
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I switched graphics to medium. High was running at 40 fps, but at medium I see other tanks and not just their ground shadows.
I also just won my third battle. I was just standing still and when a red dot appeared somewhere I sniped at it. Eventually they were destroyed. Don't know whether it was actually me, though. Then we suddenly had won.
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So far I have figured this out: You drive forward by pressing W. As soon as you see a red dot you press shift to enter snipe modus. Then you press right mouse button to lock target. Then you press left mouse button until either he is destroyed or you are.
If I want to survive longer I hide behind stuff, like houses. This creates a long wait. Eventually, an enemy will drive front-to-front to me and shoot. I shoot, too. I die.
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Upgraded the engines. Finally I can actually 'drive'. Also just scored my first kill. An enemy tank was driving like mad just past me. I turned and shot long enough to eventually destroy him. Pure skill.
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Decided to just drive along in the crowd. Due to even faster engines I can actually do it. Last battle was about fighting my own side, though. They were shooting at each other instead of the enemy. Lots of fun [/irony].
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After 10 battles and a perfect 5:5 win:lose ratio, I decided that WoT is just not for me. Problem is that I consider tanks boring. I've been in the army and had a lot to do with them. Perhaps that's why: tanks are loud (much, much louder than the game could be), dirty, monstrous and much more agile than in the game.
Also, I get overwhelmed when I start up the game. Lots of numbers and options. If I tried to figure out all those numbers and their effect, I would first have to study the game for a week, at least. And there's no tutorial (if there is one, it's well hidden).
But the bottom line really is that the setting doesn't draw me in. To me, it's like a game about the interaction of squares and circles. I just don't care. And thus the learning curve loses me within an hour.
" I decided that WoT is just not for me. Problem is that I consider tanks boring"
ReplyDeleteYup, I think that's a good reason not to play a game called World of Tanks :)
Obviously, you have learned the basic videogame rules of movement and attacking (and using cover). As in most media, the fun comes from learning and applying the more advanced knowledge.
ReplyDeleteWhile the beginner level "sandbox" (not to offend the sandbox genre) only has some pre-war tanks as maneuverable and armored as a fridge, it succeeds in showing the player the basics.
On a second level tank you will already face artillery, tank destroyers and medium tanks. As they did in real life, these vehicles differ in their tactical uses.
Artillery: you will need to either hide or use high cover against artillery shells which fly in a high arc. Your team's artillery needs to have the enemy locations revealed to actually aim at them. You can achieve this by getting visual on them without revealing yourself (or while dodging shells as a faster tank). The artillery also often has limited range and must have a clear trajectory to hit something.
Tank destroyers: they sport better armor in front and low or no armor at sides/rear, while having better camouflage. They may be used as long-range snipers (with a faster reloading cannon) or short-range destroyers (with a high caliber HE cannon). TDs obviously have to watch their flanks against faster vehicles.
Medium/heavy tanks: as a lighter tank you need to use your speed to avoid the direction their turret is pointed at. You can defeat these with ease either by spotting them for your team's artillery or by exploiting their weak spots. As in real life, these tend to be quite varied, but generally you want to hit the drive wheels (to damage the tracks), observation equipment, engine, fuel tanks, turret rotation mechanism.
Also, your opponents might get a bit smarter once you are driving a higher level tank. As most of the game depends on positioning/having intel on the enemy team, you will want to coordinate with your team if your aim is meaningful contrubution and not the macro analogue of stop-targetlock.
P.S. Target locking is only moderately effective once you're out of the sandbox, and only on heaviest tanks. The reasons are: you want to hit the weak parts, not the mass center of the enemy it's auto-aiming at; the shells have their speed, so you often need to track ahead of the target manually if it's on the move.
P.P.S. Hope this helps form a more weighted opinion. Also the irony won't validate if you don't have the opening tag :)
Thanks for the advise, Skyve. I think WoT proves how important the simulation aspect is when you start a game. There's no way I'm going to "suffer" through many 'beginner level' battles just to get to more interesting battles.
ReplyDeleteIf the game was about two countries at war, my opinion might actually be different. But the isolated combat of tank against tank just doesn't hold my attention.
I think what I like about it is that I can play it so mindlessly. I'm not saying there's no depth of gameplay, just that I don't play it with any depth.
ReplyDeletePoint the gun at red dots, click. Things go boom, I go boom. Perfect after a long night's theorycrafting in another game.
I had a very similar experience to Nils... dying within the first few minutes of the game usually to a one-shot.
ReplyDeleteI tried to persevere. One of my Tier I light tanks is fully researched and equipped.
I tried to be more strategic by scouting, hiding and lighting up enemy tanks for the team. I was still getting spotted and one-shotted.
Tier I lights are just too squishy and don't have enough escape tools to make the game fun at the entry level.
After about 70 battles with about a 50:50 win ratio I, reluctantly, uninstalled the game.
Tier I lights are just too squishy and don't have enough escape tools to make the game fun at the entry level.
ReplyDeleteTierI ,2 and to lesser degree 3 are all about pure rushing in and duking it out in little toy tanks.
I bought premium hotchkiss , t2 light and bt2(again) this weekend cause its a nice change of pace from overly tactical tier 10 battles I play every day in clan wars
High tier random battles play very differently , and clan wars is another world ( you will see tactics you never see in pub games there)
There is lot of tactical depth and variety if one progresses past first 2 tiers. It just first tiers are kinda tutorial - how to drive tank, aim shoot. Lots of new players who dont know the maps yet and tank gameplay. Its kinda tank deathmatch. As tiers go up so is knowledge of general population.
Though if one just cant stand tanks the game cannot be redeemed :)