Tobold's Blog
Sunday, February 17, 2019
 
Firing gold

I gave up on the idea that firing normal ammo in World of Tanks is somehow a good idea. I got hit by premium ammo so often now at all tiers of the game that it has become pretty obvious that firing gold is the standard. I especially noticed that the highly rated players all fire gold. Firing normal ammo apparently now is for noobs and losers who can't afford a premium account.

That sort of attitude is pushed very much by the design of the game, where normal ammo tends to bounce a lot, even if you aren't a particular weak tank or low tier. The reward system also favours firing gold: Having less shots not penetrating means you deal more damage, and for more damage you get more xp. This weekend is a 4x XP weekend, meaning you get twice as much xp as usual for the first win of the day with each tank. Firing gold ammo for all those first games really pays out in terms of experience gained.

Gold ammo also does wonders for my WN8 rating. I just finished a game as a top tier heavy tank with a 3,949 purple WN8. And for the bottom tier games in which your side gets totally overrun, premium ammo is still the difference between getting a WN8 of 0 or 500. And apart from all the external rewards, shooting at an enemy tank and actually damaging it is obviously a lot more fun than shooting it to no effect.

From a game design point I still think gold ammo is a bad idea. It simply creates a two-class system of advantaged paying players vs. disadvantaged free players. But me giving up on normal ammo is probably exactly the reaction that Wargaming wants, because it makes them more money. However for every free player pushed to pay, there are probably a bunch of free players pushed out of the game, which isn't a good idea.

Labels:


Comments:
I thought wargaming said they were going to remove gold ammo from the game? Here is link from last year: https://thearmoredpatrol.com/2018/02/25/wot-wg-conference-premium-ammo/

For the sake of playing devil's advocate if everyone is using gold ammo then it is more of a "pay to play" rather than a "pay to win". I assume there is a practical limit on how much ammo you use in a given match and that buying more than that doesn't really increase your chances. You therefore need to consider that amount of gold ammo as the cost of playing a competitive match.
 
They only removed the possibility to buy that ammo directly with gold. You can now only buy it with silver (credits). However, if you are a free player, you won't have enough silver. If you buy gold, you can buy the premium account subscription that gives you more silver per fight, enabling you to shoot premium ammo. Or you can convert gold into silver. So although it isn't strictly speaking "gold ammo" any more, in reality it is still ammo mostly available to players buying gold.
 
Be careful with gold ammo: your actually hindering your own development if you simply spam it at everything. Learning WHEN to use gold is a skill to master as is learning to aim at weak points. By all means carry it (all my tanks do) but dont go full 100% and just keep it in mind that its a tool with a purpose: it lets you fight when bottom tier without as great a disadvantage. Spamming it at the paper armoured bottom tier medium with your top tier heavy is just bad practise and ultimately is teaching yourself bad habits that will be hard to break later. Remember when you get to t10 you cant use prem ammo as a crutch for not knowing how to aim any more. Learn no while your at t5/6 (or whatever Tier your currently on)
 
Post a Comment

<< Home
Newer›  ‹Older

  Powered by Blogger   Free Page Rank Tool