Hi, my name is Slava Makarov.
Today, I'll try to tell you
what is going on with Sandbox,
why it turned out the way it did,
what its goals are,
why you shouldnít be worried
about what you saw in the Sandbox
at the beginning,
what balance we'd like to reach,
and how we'll arrange everything
in a way youíll like.
WoT Development Sandbox
Of course, we gathered a lot of negative feedback.
But if you knew
what alpha testers of World of Tanks
told us privately when they saw
our very first prototype, which turned
into quite a successful project
Well, I havenít learned
anything new from this.
Yes, no miracle happened,
we didnít roll out a perfect balance
that everyone liked at once.
We couldnít do it, miracles donít happen.
Naturally, the launch of Sandbox
didnít go exactly how we planned.
We had some technical issues,
but we dealt with them,
and, in general,
Sandbox launched successfully.
This is the main idea.
We really didnít want to release rubbish,
thatís why we showed the players
the current situation at this very early stage.
Usually, we donít even show the game
to our super testers at this stage.
So, itís kind of an experiment
with open development for us.
Itís clear that the balance there wasnít ideal.
The first iteration
can be considered a pre-alpha version,
or even an alpha build,
so, itís one of the very first versions.
Some tanks are too strong,
some others suffer a bit,
but this is perfectly normal.
Thereís a notion of an artillery bracket.
First you overshoot a shell,
then you undershoot it,
and then you understand
what distance your target is at and fire there.
So, what we have now done to Sandbox
is an intentional overshoot.
The second version is much, much better: we fixed vehicle stun
and improved the tanks that suffered the most.
So, the first impressions
were mostly positive
despite some very clear mistakes.
Why do I say clear mistakes?
Because itís one thing when you know what doesnít work right
and you need to fix it for another version,
and itís another thing
when you donít know what doesnít work.
So, everything is okay in our case,
we know what doesnít work right,
weíre fixing it and moving on.
WoT Development Sandbox
Players were resistant
to the new artillery mechanics.
Obviously, we changed the artillery
too much, as well as other vehicle roles.
Its stun is excessive,
and it causes very little damage.
We can already say
that both stun and damage reduction work.
But we need to find
that balance where artillery
has enough damage,
doesnít instakill targets,
and doesnít stun them too much.
This is fine tuning.
One important thing: splash damage
was significantly increased for artillery.
Due to this, it might not cause
too much damage,
but it covers a greater area.
This depends on player skill.
Whether they will cover,
for example, two or three vehicles,
and each get a 300 HP hit,
for 900 or maybe 700 damage in total,
or they will try to fire at single targets.
This adds a tactical component.
Look, weíve slowed down
the game significantly.
Again, we did it deliberately.
The game needed to be slowed down.
The question is how much.
Now weíve slowed it down to the point where playing
is not convenient anymore,
so we will roll it back up
to the point when the game is slowed down,
but the vehicles are still convenient to play.
This first version of Sandbox showed us
that even though we didnít want to do it,
we also had to make changes
to the maps in the first iteration.
Thatís why we will add
the slightly altered current maps
that are more suitable to what happens in Sandbox.
Yes, there are maps
that encourage superfast defeats,
rushes, and the unequal distribution
of vehicles in a team.
Now we have plans
to make small changes to three maps.
And after we see
how the audience takes to it,
we will work on other maps.
And yes, we do it separately
and independently
from the current rebalance.
We plan to add these maps to Sandbox,
receive the playersí feedback,
and then add them to the main server.
WoT Development Sandbox
So, about the roles
and why they were made this way.
The thing is, they are unclear
to players at first, but not to us.
So, when players see
the AMX 50B, IS-7, and Maus,
they see three heavy tanks
that differ drastically from each other.
Theyíre completely different.
So, thatís why we introduced a role system,
vehicle classification, so that players
understand what exactly theyíre researching.
In fact, this is one
of the main balance things we have realized.
When a vehicle can successfully play two roles,
it turns into an overpowered vehicle.
So, multirole vehicles
have to be nerfed significantly
regarding their general characteristics.
Perhaps, some vehicles
that can perform two roles,
not to 100%, will appear.
For example, it might be
50% an assault vehicle and 50% a cruiser vehicle.
Itís quite possible and we can do it.
Medium tanks that can play the scout role
walk the fine line between two classes,
and another problematic type of vehicles
are the low and well-armored tank destroyers.
We should be very careful with these two types.
Maybe some other vehicle types
will reveal certain problems, too.
For example, the E 50 M
is a vehicle with a borderline role.
Itís armored quite well.
It has a strong upper glacis plate
that almost nothing can penetrate.
It also has quite weak turret armor.
But itís not easy to penetrate
due to its gun mantlet, angled armor,
and reduced accuracy.
And the tank has a good gun.
But it doesnít fire well
from long distance now
because we nerfed APCR shells.
The APCR shells have
the highest drop in penetration
depending on the distance.
Itís also mobile enough.
Not that it rolls like a super light tank,
but itís quite good.
And itís well-armored.
So, we get a borderline vehicle
that can absorb and cause damage,
but itís not the best
in both characteristics among other vehicles of its type.
So itís a hybrid vehicle.
With certain borderline characteristics.
It has a mixed role.
We call it a hybrid.
Some tanks were just bad.
Besides several tanks with two roles,
we got several tanks with no roles at all.
And again, this is a normal result of the process.
We didnít fully understand
what characteristics would influence what.
Itís impossible to make ideal roles
for all tanks in these conditions.
Since we made a mistake,
we will rework these vehicles,
adjust them to suit a certain role,
and analyze and discuss these roles once again.
Of course, we also understand
that there are a lot of rumors about Sandbox.
And most people now
take to Sandbox quite aggressively,
because many vehicles
they are used to behave differently now.
Thereís no pinpoint solution to our problems,
because they are complex.
We need to remake a lot of things,
tune something here,
adjust something there,
and one thing entails another,
so we need to rework everything at once.
Players continue to send us their feedback
like ìhey guys, look,
you made nice features for the artillery,
why donít you release it now?
Theyíre so cool, they help us
solve some artillery problemsî
or ìI like how the Foch 155 looks now,
letís release it separately.î
The current balance in its current state
will never be released under any circumstances.
You need to understand
that the current features and characteristics
of certain vehicles couldnít be transferred
to the main server,
because they now exist
in a totally different ecosystem,
in the Sandbox ecosystem.
And we donít know yet,
for example, how the new artillery features
will work without the Sandbox balance in general,
how they will work on the main servers.
If we add the current artillery
from the Sandbox to the old balance,
it wouldnít be great.
Because now players will just hide in the bushes,
the artillery that annoyed them before will stun them now,
so the players will continue hiding,
thinking they canít move,
like ìWell, Iím stunned, right?î
Thatís how it could be.
Well, the best thing
you can do in the Sandbox is play,
tell us about your impressions,
and then play more.
We read your feedback, and analyze it,
itís also gathered from the regional forums.
Everything reaches the developers and is read.
And the developers also play the game.
Thatís why when weíre asked
what we want to achieve,
we have a very clear answer:
we want to make players happy
with the vehicle balance.
This is one of our tasksóto increase the number of playable tanks
and reduce the number of unplayable ones.
What we want is for every vehicle
to have a right and wrong way to play it,
and if you play it right,
youíre doing a good job.
This is one of our main tasks.
WoT Development Sandbox
Sandbox has been running for some time now.
During this time, weíve gathered
a lot of statistics from the server
and analyzed the feedback thoroughly.
We want you to continue telling us
about what you like or donít like in Sandbox,
what vehicles are tuned well
and what requires more work.
Based on statistics, your feedback,
and your opinions, we aim to make
the best version of the balance.