Tobold's Blog
Saturday, June 04, 2011
 
Gold tanks

It is fortunate that I don't mind spending money on games I like, and that I can afford these relatively small sums. Because my explorer nature always makes me curious about the kind of content that is hidden behind a paywall, and sooner or later I end up buying lots of virtual goodies. So it happened in World of Tanks that after playing a good while without them, I finally decided to buy some gold tanks.

Gold tanks are the tanks in WoT which can only be acquired through the gold currency, which you buy for real money. For reference, €99.95 on the European servers buys you 30,000 gold, thus 1 gold is a third of a Euro-cent at the best exchange rate. There are currently 11 gold tanks in the game, ranging from tier II to tier VIII, out of 10 tiers possible.

The most important thing to know about gold tanks is that they operate outside of the regular tech tree. Thus you don't need any research paid for with experience points to access gold tanks. The downside of that is that you can do any further research on gold tanks either, thus you can neither unlock better equipment, nor can you unlock new tanks by playing them. As a consequence most of the experience points you accumulate with gold tanks is useless, unless you pay more gold to convert it to free experience.

The reason I bought my first gold tank was my clan. They were running platoons in different tiers, and if I wanted to play with the big boys sometimes, I needed a high-level tank. While I was pondering that decision a clanmate pointed out that the tier VIII gold tanks are wonderful money makers. Basically a gold tank earns more credits in a fight, and has lower repair cost. A high-level gold tank in combination with 50% credit increase from a subscription can make over 50k profit in a battle, and still makes 30k if the battle doesn't go all that well.

But while it is profitable, the tier VIII Löwe heavy tank I bought for 7,500 gold isn't all that good. He'll do okay against lower tier opponents, but is much less good than the regular tier VIII tanks, due to their upgraded equipment. So I bought another gold tank for a tenth of the price of the Löwe, the PzKpfw 38H735 (f), Hotchkiss tier II light tank for 750 gold, just for fun. While it will be nerfed in the future, right now this is probably the best tier II tank around. Makes a lot less credits per battle, but kicks some serious ass in its class.

So, gold tanks are available between €2.50 and €25, are useful to make credits, but don't make the regular leveling game of working your way up the tech tree obsolete. I do find the big ones too expensive, but I hear that one needs a credit-farming tank for the higher tiers, so I don't really regret having already bought it.
Comments:
It is fortunate that I don't mind spending money on games I like, and that I can afford these relatively small sums. Because my explorer nature always makes me curious about the kind of content that is hidden behind a paywall, and sooner or later I end up buying lots of virtual goodies.

The makes of World of Tanks agree. This is fortunate, indeed :)
 
I don't mind bought tanks for the reasons you give. I cringe a little when I see a Lowe on my team, though, because I see them played poorly so often. I chalk it up to the likely inexperience (since, like you said, someone who has played enough to research the tank has little reason to buy it.)
 
I have a 38H375 too and they're very nice tanks.

I'm not teribly good at the game but it's fun even for those of us who are a bit rubbish.
 
Your enthusiasm convinced me to try WoT myself Tobold and I am having a blast. I have upgraded my noob tanks to elite status and now I find myself in a strange dilemma. I am actually worried about advancing through the tiers. Everything I read from yourself and others suggests that at higher tiers WoT changes from being an entertaining diversion into a job with farming and forced grouping. It's the old mmorpg problem.

I can hold my own in the kindergarten levels with my upgraded noob tank and I am having lots of low commitment fun. Why should I advance?
 
mbp - The only reason to advance is if you want to, that said, there is no real reason not to, you can still go back and play your lower tiered tanks if you need a break. There also isn't really any forced grouping unless you are doing clan wars. You can only have 3 people in 1 group in a 15 person battle. Sure, that helps, but it isn't mandatory.
 
@kobeathris said "you can still go back and play your lower tiered tanks if you need a break".

That is good to know. For some reason I assumed that once you had advanced tiers you would always be stuck in harder battles.
 
mbp - moving out of the beginner tier means moving in with the specialised vehicles, which adds a whole layer of tactical complexity. Instead of everyone being in a light tank, you've now got to deal with heavy tanks (which can both take it and dish it out), tank destroyers (the original glass cannon) and artillery (which is death on anyone who has been spotted and doesn't move). This makes scouting and combined arms tactics more valuable than they are when everyone's in a loltractor or a T1, which makes for a deeper and more satisfying game... or at least it would if everyone on your team understood concepts like "scouting" and "combined arms".
 
Everything I read from yourself and others suggests that at higher tiers WoT changes from being an entertaining diversion into a job with farming and forced grouping.

Forced grouping? Well, you're always forced into 15 vs. 15 battles, but that doesn't change from tier I to X. You aren't forced to join a clan, unless you want to participate in the clan wars feature.

I haven't reached the point yet where I would consider myself to be "farming", and I'll probably stop playing once I get there. Even playing for free you can play a lot more than tier II before credits become a problem. And experience are always gained, never lost (unless you teamkill). So playing the same tier II tank over and over is as close as you get to farming anyway. :)

Your garage has a number of slots for different tanks. More can be bought for gold. But even if you don't you can delete your level I tank and keep your level II ones, while trying out the level III. You can always go back to level II if you want.
 
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So you had to buy an advanced tank in order in order to play with your clanmates? How is this different from the "elitism" you've harped on in WoW?
 
I didn't have to. It just increased my options whom to play with.
 
Your analysis of the game is great. I, for one, am following your posts. If you need any details or stats to support your findings, or if you have any questions about the game, let me know - chris@wargaming.net
 
I'm wondering... would you classify the WoT gameplay as PvP battle centric game of advancement?

The reason I ask is that I find myself really liking PvP both leveling and endgame in MMOs. So I was wondering if WoT is really PvP with no quests, leveling areas etc.

In fact in future online games I may well gravitate to only do PvP endgame wise.
 
@AG

I consider it very akin to the FPS model of levelling options for load out. The difference being that you are then paired up against a range of people who have chosen a similar stage of load out upgrade.

So more FPS then MMO PVP.
 
Having lowe as farming tank definitely helps earn credits very fast (faster than you can research new tanks) . But with premium account you don't really need farming - I still make money on Tier10 (averaging 10k ).

Most premium tanks are there for variety . Hotchkiss probably being only exception distinctly more powerful (and even then top ms1 gun , m2 light , t46 and bt2 can all kill it with ease)
 
Löwe heavy tank I bought for 7,500 gold isn't all that good. He'll do okay against lower tier opponents, but is much less good than the regular tier VIII tanks, due to their upgraded equipment.

The general consensus is this is not true. The Lowe is pretty close to the Tiger II. The Lowe has more hit points than the Tiger II. The Lowe gun has more penetration than the Tiger II top gun, better rate of fire, and same damage (Tiger II might have better aim but I am not sure). The Tiger II has better frontal armor but the same armor everywhere else. I think the Tiger II accelerates much better than the Lowe and better climb which is very helpful but actually has lower top speed than the Lowe.

The KV-5 on the other hand is a worse tier VIII for clan battles where you will have almost exclusively 8 and higher opponents. The KV-5 however might actually be better for the lower tier opponents and will actually face the lower tier tanks more often in the random battles. The reasons for this is the KV-5 is placed in tier 8 and 9 battles while the Lowe is 8, 9 and 10 battles (Battles tiers are actually different than tank tiers. Battle tiers go up to 12). See http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/10168-match-making-system/ The KV-5 has thicker armor than the Lowe which the lower tier tanks have troubles penetrating even at 90 degree angle. Higher tier tanks have no trouble penetrating the KV-5 but the Lowe has better sloping so at certain angles it does much better even with thinner armor.
 
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