Hard Choices: Results

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Hello everyone,

this is the followup on and conclusion of the Hard Choices article I posted earlier. As was written in the article, I opened up a poll. To this day, over 11k people voted. Based on FTR reader statistics, roughly 20 percent of readers are from the US server, the rest was from EU. Obviously, with only 11k voters, the impact of this is not as high as I would want it to be (a damn shame too, given the fact the daily visit count is 5-6 times as high, occasionally 10 times even).

As you can see from the poll itself, the European Tree is an overwhelming winner with 40 percent, followed by the Sturmtiger branch and the British branch. The French tanks are not that far behind, while the British TD and medium line are sitting on the bottom, along with the Japanese tank destroyers.

Well, I guess I have some bad news: from what I have seen, the development of the EU tree has not started yet. I mean – at all. There probably is some general idea how to do it, but no research has been conducted. Given how long it took to research the Japanese tree (believe it or not, there is like a year’s work behind the single branch appearing in 8.10), I think it is quite unlikely with all the rest of the work going on (vehicle remodelling for the HD client) for the EU tree to appear in 2014. My chance estimate? 10 percent. However, the entire tree is very requested on EU server and Polish plus Czechoslovak playerbase are still waiting for their vehicles (while statistically insignificant Japanese playerbase already go theirs), so I think this might also play a role.

Storm wrote not so long ago that there will be a longer brake between the Japanese branch and next branch to come (my guess again: at least 2-3 months). I think that’s a good thing, because the playerbase seems currently over-fed with new tanks (with attractive stuff like German TD’s and Japanese tanks coming close after each other). But Storm also wrote that next to come might be the British mediums. I mean, Firefly is cool, but according to the poll, it’s at the bottom. And there are also the Frenchies.

It will be a tough choice indeed. My personal vote was: EU tree (duhhh), British heavies (Chieftain) and German TD’s (Sturmtiger) – the top 3 slots according to the poll. We’ll see how it goes.

54 thoughts on “Hard Choices: Results”

    • so true…
      but french & Uk MTs (or more precisely – MBT) might be very interesting after some lines.
      I remind, in WoT we have some MBTs lines:
      -Comet + (and higher tiers)
      -Conqueror (yes, from HTs) +
      -Indien +
      -T-54 +
      -Obj 140
      -WZ-120+
      -Type 59 (or more precisely – chinesee soviet-made T-55)
      -Pershing+

      And IMHO they are the best type of tanks in the game. Propably they can dominate CWs.

  3. Hmm this is interesting. I personally voted for the German TD(strum) branch and the two japanese ones, but only because i like everything japanese :P
    I presume the US medium line won’t appear anytime soon, so ye, I think that the british meds will come next.

    PS: have they figured how to implement the different crew nation problem with the EU tree? My idea is to choose at tier 1 which EU nation u want for your crew :P

  4. Personally I voted for the British HTs. I believe the current British lines really fail to represent the magnificent British armor.

    • Srsly ? The churchills ? The Sweet Prince with his armor and unique for a heavy high RoF gun ? The Caernarvon with his all-roundness ? Conqueror the hunting hound of those pesky IS-3′s ?

      Well the FV might not be so magnificent but such a huge chunk of metal with such precise gun does have a niche. I mean there surely are players who appreciate the play style of this tank and really kick ass.

  5. Personally i have no idea why people want the EU tree so much. It will be unintresting copies of current tanks to satisfy the ego of nations that really weren’t big enough to build their own tanks and they had to borrow others. While pushing back tanks like the chieftain and intresting gameplay choices like the sturmtiger and the British TDs.

    • Because

      a) you are wrong, some of the tech is very original and interesting, see the Czechoslovak tree in the history section of this blog
      b) because we want OUR crews too

      • Gee, any wonder why the EU tree showed such a strong result, when 75% (you forget there are those from SEA that read this) are from EU? Biased poll is biased.

        Myself I’d prefer tanks that promote different gameplay or at least new twists on the originals. Sturmtiger line would be different.

        Just my 2 c

        • ^This. Ask a generally European audience what they want and of course they’ll answer with Euro tanks. And just because the Japanese are “statistically insignificant” doesn’t mean they are less deserving of being put into the game than the EU designs.

    • honestly i think people like you just dont care and therefore have not looked into the possible european tanks, sweden, sweitz, hungary, italy,czechoslovakia and so on can all make their own lines up to tier 7-10 without including things you have seen before in other trees.
      of cource most of these countries did use licenced verisons of centurions, t55s etc but those do not and should not be the focus of the european tree, atleast when indigenous designs are available.

      here you can take a look at my personal take on the eu tree
      http://forum.worldoftanks.com/index.php?/topic/284927-european-tank-discussion/
      and as you can see i dont include many licensed tanks, and those i do include are modified

      • Im all for new tanks . Just not retarded stuff like the wtf tractors … Also kinda why im hoping the sturmtiger is postponed … until the assault gun mechanic is perfected.

  6. “while statistically insignificant Japanese playerbase already go theirs”

    While you may not believe it, Japanese gaming market is one of the biggest in the world and actually breaking through in it is very important for a real international company. It’s pretty much the same as in audio and movie industry – early releases with extras in Japan to check for success.

    • I believe it is. BUT: there is no Japanese server and Japanese players count in thousands, maybe around ten thousand, while there are tens of thousands of Czech, Slovak and Polish players.

      • WIth bigest noobs ever, who cares about CZ, PL, SH (mean shit)? How terrible thanks god WG dont listen to morons. I image PL voice over, at begining of the figt ” SIEMAAAA KTO PL, JDAEM DO CENTRU< NOOB TEAM" :D

      • Japanese may be low in number, but my understanding is that they disproportionately spend large amounts of money on the game compared to other regions.

        • Of course, what any company wants the most is a swelling bank account, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Japanese tree was fast tracked once they realised the potential profits of expanding the Japanese market (I’m a little surprised it took so long).

  7. I voted for the Japanese HT, the British MT and the European tree. but SS, you state that the amount of visitors on the page are sometimes 5-6 to even 10 times higher then the amount of people who voted on the poll, is that individual IP’s or just how many times the page itself is being requested?

  9. As cool as the Sturmtiger is, excessive alpha shits on gameplay because the first guy around the corner gets instagibbed, thus encouraging camping.

    What I want most is a Walker Bulldog line (voted for US meds as the closest equivalent), followed by Euro tree (potentially lots of interesting stuff there), and French conventional heavies (speed + frontal armour + weight = lulzy rams, and they might be quite comfortable).

  10. I’m most interested in 2nd American medium line. The others are European tech tree, 2nd British heavy and medium lines and after that goes the 2nd French heavy and medium lines. Don’t really care for Japanese or Chinese. TDs of any nation are also indifferent for me.

  11. I’m surprised there weren’t more votes for the French mediums. As it is right now the French only have one medium tank that would be recognisable to the other nations as a medium tank, the Lorraine 40t. Up til then you’ve got to play light tanks with harsh matchmaking and after that you’ve got the Bat Chat, which is effectively just a fat AMX 13 90. Just from a gameplay perspective there’s a massive gap that needs to be filled in the French tree, by a traditional medium line.

  12. Voted for EU tree even though I’m not even from europe, because I want italian tanks (if they want historical battles then shouldn’t italian tanks be in them?) also voted for japanese heavies and TDs. british mediums would be cool because I want a firefly, and their heavies too maybe, I don’t play french sadly but maybe in the future, for german strumtiger? well we did just have their WTs recently, and I hope I never see a US tank added in the game :D

  13. I voted for the French non-auto-loader heavy tree, Japanese heavy, and British Turreted TD trees because:

    1) I hate auto-loaders and cannot wait for the french non auto-loading variants.
    2) The Japanese tech tree is coming with only a full medium branch and a partial light tank branch, I would like to see them flesh out that tree a bit before moving on to other large scale projects.
    3) Turreted TD’s are the only ones I don’t suck in.

    I was actually quite surprised that, that many people voted for another German TD line, since we did literally just get a brand spanking new German TD line in the last patch.

    Geez, can’t you people give them a chance to put other things in?

  14. Voted American Mediums, Japanese Tank Destroyers, and British Mediums….and they’re in the bottom of the bunch…My dreams crushed like ants by the footstep of a young toddler…

  15. I voted for the 3 british lines what could I say I really like them and I want to see more canadian tanks

  16. I vote us med, and uk heavy and med. I want to see a new med from US, not that medium w/ growth hormones and I hope it’s a better one. I also want new UK med, hoping it’s a better one and hopefully a new tank viable for CW. UK heavy because I’m curious about that chieftain that everybody loves to discuss. Lastly I don’t like a new German TD’s for now, since new line came out last month and I’m so fed up eating their 6shot burst