Sandbox: Field Modification

On June 15, the open test of Field Modification starts on the Sandbox server. This is a toolset that allows you to precisely configure your favorite vehicles depending on their combat roles. Field Modification gives you an opportunity to additionally improve certain vehicle characteristics and adjust them according to your needs and playstyle.

We’re currently developing this feature, and we need your help. We want to demonstrate the idea and its implementation, but we need your feedback on both the concept itself and its implementation in the game. Join the test, and together we’ll decide how Field Modification will be introduced to World of Tanks!

START TESTING!

Your Favorite Vehicles: How to Make Them Better

Which vehicles do you like to play the most? Every Commander can answer this question differently, but even if you have hundreds of vehicles in the Garage, you’ll still have your favorites that you enjoy the most. You’ve fought thousands of battles in these vehicles and earned many epic achievements. You know their technical characteristics by heart, as well as their advantages and drawbacks.

Meanwhile, each tanker wants to personally adjust their favorite vehicles to maximize combat performance. In some cases, they go for directives and different sets of equipment. However, very often, a more precise adjustment is what players need.

Field Modification was developed for such requirements. This is a special feature for fine-tuning vehicles, which will become available once a vehicle acquires Elite status. The feature will allow for more precise adjustment of your favorite tanks by giving you the opportunity to tweak specific technical characteristics. Let’s take a closer look.

General Description and Modification Tree

Field Modification will be available for Tier VI–X vehicles (including Collectors’, special and Premium vehicles), excluding rental ones. Players who have these vehicles in their Garage will be able to try out the new mechanics during this Sandbox iteration.

Field Modification consists of three types of modifications that players can make to a vehicle’s technical characteristics or setup:

• Standard
• Dual
• Special

Together they form the Modification Tree, which depends on the vehicle tier and role. Starting with Tier VIII vehicles, the number of available modifications will increase. Tier X vehicles will have the highest number of modifications available.

Players use Combat or Free Experience to research modifications. Modifications are unlocked one by one. Upon researching and purchasing modifications, you’ll improve your vehicles by slightly increasing their technical characteristics to suit your needs.

IMPORTANT

To get a modification, you’ll also need credits to go with the Combat or Free Experience. Use credits to purchase Dual Modifications (keep reading for details) and perform certain other operations.

Vehicle Combat Role

All Tier VI–X vehicles with access to Field Modification will receive a special new parameter—Role. A similar system (Role Experience) has already been introduced in Ranked Battles.

There will be 15 total roles: Assault Heavy Tank, Versatile Medium Tank, etc. The Modification Tree will be created for each vehicle with regards to its combat role. Respectively, modifications will provide different adjustments to technical characteristics for vehicles that belong to the same type but vary in role (Assault Heavy Tank, Breakthrough Heavy Tank, etc.), since their gameplay differs and so does their combat purpose.

Field Modification: Interface Specifics

To get a better idea of how the new mechanics will impact your vehicle characteristics, during testing on the Sandbox server, we suggest using the adapted vehicle characteristics in the Field Modification window.

Please evaluate all modifications applied to one vehicle comprehensively and in their totality, rather than as a separate stage of Field Modification. This approach will allow you to choose a means of vehicle tuning to suit your needs, taking into account your individual playstyle.

Standard and Dual Modifications

Standard Modifications are unlocked when the Field Modification level is increased. They provide a small boost to one vehicle characteristic, depending on its role. For example, Breakthrough Heavy Tanks (i.e. IS-7, 60TP Lewandowskiego) will receive a few more hit points, and Versatile Medium Tanks (i.e. STB-1, M48A5 Patton) will get a bonus to engine power.

Researching Standard Modifications will unlock Dual Modifications of the same level. Dual Modifications are purchased using credits and affect two groups of characteristics. They allow your vehicle’s characteristics to be redistributed so that it becomes more effective in one aspect, but at the cost of another.

By choosing between the various Dual Modifications, you can adjust your vehicle to your style and make playing it more enjoyable and effective.

For each Dual Modification, you have a choice and can pick one of three options:

• Select the top modification.
• Select the bottom modification, which should have an effect opposite the top one.
• Select neither and proceed with the Modification tree.

However, you can always change your mind and cancel the current modification for free or switch to the other modification using credits. Check it out.

IS-4

Assault Heavy Tank

Reinforced Suspension

Lightweight Suspension

II

or

Parallax Adjustment

Aiming Gears Lapping

IV

or

Direct Injection Nozzles

Periscope Electric Drive

V

or

Reinforced Turret

Lightweight Turret

VII

or

Auxiliary Safety System

Lightweight Mounting Points

VIII

or

Changes to technical characteristics

Vehicle hit points (bonus of Standard Modifications)

+7%

Special Modifications

There are three types of Special Modifications. Only the first two are available for Tier VI–VII vehicles, and all three for Tier VIII–X vehicles.

The first Special Modification enables the Essentials Loadout. This is an alternative set of shells and consumables where you can redistribute shells of different types or replace Small First Aid Kits and Small Repair Kits with Large First Aid Kits and Large Repair Kits, respectively.

At the beginning of the battle, during the countdown, you will be able to evaluate the map, team composition, and the balance of forces before selecting one of two vehicle loadouts that suits the map best. This will help you adjust to the conditions of the upcoming battle and make the most of your vehicle.

For example, if the matchmaker sends you into battle at the top of the list, it would be more logical (and profitable!) to use mostly standard ammunition. But if you are at the bottom of the team list, and the enemy vehicles are one or two tiers higher than yours, it makes sense to select ammunition where special shells prevail.

The second Special Modification provides you with the Auxiliary Loadout, an alternative set of equipment and directives in addition to the Essentials Loadout. You can evaluate the team setup and select a better variant during the countdown before the battle starts. If any equipment or directive is used in both loadouts, the second unit (for example, the second Gun Rammer) is not required.

Let’s see the advantages of this modification. Say you’re in a light tank on Malinovka with three SPGs. On maps open to artillery fire, it’s not easy to play as an active scout. The standard equipment set for light tanks of Coated Optics, Improved Ventilation, and Low Noise Exhaust System is not very helpful here. You might select an alternate configuration: Binocular Telescope, Camouflage Net, and Commander’s Vision System. With such equipment, you can be more useful to your team and play as a passive scout while hiding in the bushes instead of driving around the hills and “green” areas.

On the contrary, if you’re in a heavy tank on Himmelsdorf or Ghost Town where the main fight will take place in the city blocks, enemy artillery is not as big of a threat here, so you won’t get much use out of Spall Liner. In addition to the standard set of equipment for “heavies” (Gun Rammer, Improved Hardening, and Spall Liner), you can create an alternative set where you have Vertical Stabilizer or Improved Rotation Mechanism instead of Spall Liner. It will help you adjust your vehicle for the upcoming battle, increase battle performance, and enhance your chances of success.

Similar examples can be provided for every vehicle for which Field Modification is available.

We heard your requests: After researching and purchasing a third Special Modification, you will be able to assign a category to a second equipment slot. This will help you fine-tune your vehicle for yourself in accordance with its battlefield role. For example, tank destroyers will be able to increase their survivability, and light tanks will enjoy a bonus not only to scouting, but also to mobility and firepower.

Missions

Considering the high importance of testing Field Modification on the Sandbox server, we would like to thank all active players who will take part in the test. We really appreciate the time you devote to World of Tanks.

During the test period, you will have access to special missions on the Sandbox server. For their completion, you will receive useful rewards in the main game client.

Participate and Share Feedback!

Field Modifications should not be considered as compulsory additions to the main Tech Tree. This is a new fine-tuning tool that will help you take a fresh look at the gameplay of your favorite vehicles. These modifications won’t turn your tank into a supervehicle, but they will make playing it even more enjoyable.

Try out this new system on the Sandbox server and see how convenient the tools for tweaking vehicle characteristics are! It is also very important for us to understand whether we have implemented this idea well, and what steps can be taken to make Field Modification even better.

How to Participate

• Download the Sandbox launcher.
• Install the Sandbox client by launching the downloaded file. If you’re running Wargaming.net Game Center for the first time, you’ll have to authorize and restart the downloaded installation file.
• Wait until the Sandbox client is downloaded and installed.
• Open the World of Tanks tab, select World of Tanks Sandbox, and click Play.

Field Modification: FAQ and Live Stream