From Harkonnen
Q: Starting with “Sandbox”, what are your goals and plans for now?
A: The Sandbox server was born much earlier than it’s has been available for the players. Around January, we began to work on it. Quite a lot of time was spend preparing it. Now we are testing a new version of balance, this is one of the main concerns players have, and all it involves. Also we are testing and trying to solve the problems with Classes, that is new and confusing to players at the moment. These problems gradually are being solved in the sandbox. So, for now Vehicle Balance, Matchmaking, new maps, etc.
Q: It’s been three weeks since Sandbox test started, what are your impressions so far?
A: It was a bit scary when we started all this. I though that players would play for a couple of days and then throw it away. But no, players are actively playing and giving us feedback – and that’s good. I would like to ask players to play even more, write and share their experiences.
Q: How many people do you plan to add into the Sandbox?
A: The number of applications has been great, and they are increasing every day. We have been adding people as we need, every week now. Currently we are testing Tier X, and this is over we will take a break for a couple of weeks and then begin testing Tier IX and VIII – that’s is where we will need a lot more people.
Q: What changes are planned for Light Tanks?
A: Light tanks, we are working on stretching branches to Tier X, as we mentioned before. This is inevitable and necessary for the new matchmaking to work correctly.
Q: As part of the Sandbox, will we be able to test the new matchmaking?
A: Yes, you will, but for it to work we need a lot more people, so we still have to decide when and how we are going to test it. Some basic game mechanics were changed to achieve the objectives.
Q: Matchmaking 2.0 – common name used. Is there any “sub-tasks” in the Sandbox Server?
A: Yes, several of them, main ones at the moment:
- Increase armour role in the game;
- Fix the Artillery problem;
- Make battles more dynamic;
- Reduce player errors
Q: Tell me about the new artillery mechanics.
A: How it’s in the Sandbox Server at the moment is just am early prototype. It’s the class that received the most changes. The basic goal is to stop the artillery being able to “one shot”. Artillery will become more dynamic: stunning, less damage per shot, increased splash radius – this will allow SPG to play a different role for the team. Now it’s just a class that only deals a lot of damage.
Q: Any other changes for artillery in battle?
A: We still need to experiment more, but we arrived at the figure of 3 per battle. But this depends on how testing goes.
Q: One of the main problems with artillery is the Friendly Fire. Any solutions for this?
A: Of course we don’t want arty to be a reason for negative reactions from players, like when they damage allies. The illumination of fire zones is precisely to avoid such incidents. We will look for other ways of solving this, and this why we test these things in the Sandbox.
Q: A lot of artillery players used Armour-Piercing. There are no AP rounds now, will it be introduced again?
A: At the moment, we do not plan to return AP rounds for artillery. We want artillery to focus on helping the team, and the use of AP rounds were aimed to inflict maximum damage to a single tank.
Q: What about the game economy? Will there be any changes?
A: We are now considering options for introducing a bonus for heavy tanks tanking. We are also thinking on giving some bonus to artillery when they stun, and when allies damage stunned targets. And so on.
Q: On the Sandbox Server, at the moment, Gold Ammo is sold only for Gold. Will it be always for Gold?
A: Until we see how it works. In my opinion, we can give the opportunity to buy Gold Ammo for credits, but we need to limit the number of such shells (for credits). There will be further testing, nothing has been decided yet.
Other information collected:
- Sandbox changes are to be expected every 1,5 to 2 weeks;
- No plans to change the +/- 25% penetration;
- Accuracy while firing on the move will be nerfed;
- Premium tanks won’t be worse. All premium vehicles will become more competitive with the new balance;
- Aim Mod “Battle Assistant” will be introduced in the game;
- Far to many players are sniping on the live servers, reason why accuracy and penetration decreases from higher distances are being tested.
