Jun 25 2013
War Thunder – Still Plugging Away
I haven’t talked about War Thunder since April. It’s been almost three entire months. I’m still playing it. I still love it. The developer continues to play with the flight models and game economy as they try to please people, but there’s still a ways to go.
For me the most frustrating thing about the game is the lack of players. Since I began playing War Thunder, the number of active gamers hasn’t increased by very many. I’m not going according to what the company’s internal numbers may say. I’m just going by the number of active users I see whenever I’m on.
One other thing I find myself doing is continuing to play the lower tier planes. Well, actually they’re mid-tier, now that I think about it. The game has tiers up to 20. I’m no higher than 9 in any of the nations. The highest tier plane I fly on a regular basis is 7.
Why, you may ask? Well, anything higher is very expensive to buy. Even though Gaijin, the game’s developer and publisher, recently lowered the prices on a lot of aircraft, the prices can still be high. This is especially true when there are multiple variants of a particular plane and in order to fly the one you want, you have to buy the six previous variants. LOL.
Also, there’s repair costs. The higher the tier, it seems the longer it takes for the planes to repair as you crash/get shot down. It costs a lot of Lions to repair them. And if you want to wait for a free repair, it will literally take a week or so for some planes. It’s just stupid. I can’t imagine waiting a week for a plane to repair itself. One of the reasons I quit playing Battle Pirates was the insanely long build times (weeks for single ships). War Thunder had better see that as a cautionary tale.
I find myself playing the Germans most of the time. I love the BF 109 variants. Their engines give them plenty of power. They’re fast and reasonably agile. Their guns are very nice. They make for a great boom-and-zoom plane.
You’d think I’d love the Americans because the bulk of their plane inventory is of the boom-and-zoom variety, but I don’t care for their flight models or their guns.
The flight models are atrocious. The Kittyhawk, for example, is unflyable in my opinion. How do you aim that thing?! It’s like the pilot had an all-night bender and you’re waiting for him to sober up.
And the guns are weak. Despite there being a lot of 50-caliber guns on the American side of the war, the guns seem rather weak in Arcade Battles. Their bark is much worse than their bite. They sound serious, but it’s like a peashooter.
Also the American cannons that I’ve encountered just don’t do it for me. They fire really slowly. I much prefer the faster-firing German 20mm cannons.