Sandbox 2021: Try Out Crew 2.0!

Greetings, Commanders!

The crew is one of the most important game aspects in World of Tanks. For many of you, a highly skilled crew is a great source of pride, because training one is a long path that requires commitment.

Considering the high value of the crew to all Commanders, we are introducing a comprehensive set of improvements to the existing system. These improvements will allow each Commander to train their crews in a more tailored way according to their gameplay preferences, and to make interaction with the crew functionality more convenient.

Starting on February 23, we will be launching an open test of the global crew rework on the Sandbox server. All of you will have the chance to check out Crew 2.0, the reworked skill system, and many other important changes, including a system for converting old crew members into new ones.

Your feedback and impressions will determine how Crew 2.0 will be implemented in the game in the future.

Join the test, try out the reworked mechanics, and share your feedback!

TRY OUT CREW 2.0  

CONTENTS

About the Sandbox

We would once again like to draw your attention to the purpose of the Sandbox server. This server is a testing ground where we explore the viability of our ideas and test new mechanics and possible changes to the game together with you. Each test on the Sandbox server should be treated as an experiment. The result of such an experiment is never known in advance.

Your feedback and suggestions are of vital importance. They help us understand whether we are moving in the right direction, and which of our proposed features require further improvement or are worthy of being added to the game. This is the value of the Sandbox—collaboration between players and developers!

Development Objectives

First, let's outline our main objectives in developing the crew system.

1. Improving the user experience of interacting with the crew system in the Garage. In the current version of the game, each vehicle has a crew of 2 to 6 members. The number even varies within the same vehicle branch. For example, the Tiger II and the E 75 have crews of five members, while the E 100's crew has six members. If you want to use the crew from the E 75 in the E 100, you will have to recruit another loader who will be less skilled than the other crew members. When your tank collection in the Garage includes many vehicles, the number of crew members you need to manage can be in the dozens or even hundreds. We want to reduce the number of "unnecessary" operations and improve the user experience of interacting with the crews in the Garage.
2. Increasing the variety of skills and perks. Within the current system, most skills and perks are universal for all vehicle types. As a result, you select the same standard combinations of the most popular skills, sometimes even in the same order. We want you to be able to adjust your crew to suit your individual playstyle while also getting the most out of your crew in battle.
3. Creating an intuitive progression system with clear and achievable goals. To make training or improving new skills an achievable goal with clear benefits, we will improve the current system so that it’s simpler and easier to understand. The impact of adding each Skill Point will be immediately noticeable.
4. Improving and simplifying the interface and crew management tools. To make this possible, we tried various solutions before eventually determining that it was necessary to completely rework the current crew system. Let's take a closer look at the key changes that you can test on the Sandbox server and share your feedback on.

A Single Commander

The crew will be represented in the Garage by a single Commander instead of separate crew members. You can change the Commander's name and surname, as well as their appearance. Other crew members will nominally be present and perform a decorative function. This will simplify crew management and significantly reduce the number of Commanders in the Barracks.

However, in battle, the vehicle will still be controlled by all crew members, and the number of crew members for each vehicle will remain the same. If a vehicle originally had two loaders, it will still have two loaders in the new system. As before, crew members can be injured and stunned, thereby reducing the vehicle’s performance in battle.

Reworked Skill System

One of the most important changes that we suggest is a complete overhaul of the skill system. During the test, each crew will have their own Training Plan that contains five Training Courses:

• Tactical Training
• Gunnery Training
• Technical Training
• Operational Training
• Driver Training

Each course will comprise five skills and two talents (more details about them below). Some of the skills (for example, Concealment or Smooth Turret Traverse) will be familiar to you from the current system, but most skills are completely new. For example, the Concentration skill will reduce damage dispersion relative to its base value. Thus, you can change the random factor and reduce the standard value of +/-25% when calculating the dispersion of damage that your vehicle can cause. The new Rationing skill will reduce the cooldown of consumables.

As you earn experience in battles, your crew will increase their Level and gain one Skill Point for each Level. All skills within the Training Plan are unlocked from the start, and you can choose to invest Skill Points in any skill of your choice.

During the test, the new crew will start from Level 1 with one Skill Point. A maximum of 10 Skill Points can be invested in each skill. As the Skill Level and the number of invested Skill Points increase, the battle performance of the crew's vehicle will improve. However, a crew can earn a maximum of 75 Skill Points.

You will be able to distribute available Skill Points within the Training Plan in any order, thus selecting and improving skills in accordance with your own playstyle. All skills take immediate effect once you have trained them (i.e., invested at least one point into the skill). If you want, you can improve several skills at the same time.

In general, within the new system, a crew will gain noticeable benefits from their accumulated experience and skill training much faster. They will have a significantly higher impact on their vehicle's battle performance as compared to the current system.

To level up a crew faster (i.e., obtain Skill Points), you will be able to use Crew Books and Free Experience. Upon reaching Level 75, Skill Points can no longer be earned, and the Elite Progression (Professional Expertise) will be unlocked for the Commander.

With each new level of Professional Expertise, the crew will receive a small increase to their vehicle handling level. This is the sign of a well-trained crew.

The crew will also receive a special progressive badge that can be applied just like any other. The badge has no national affiliation, but it will change its appearance as the crew reaches each new stage of development.

Talents

Upon investing 30 Skill Points in a specific Training Course, you will be able to choose one of the two talents that are available within that course. These are special skills that trigger when a certain situation occurs in battle and can affect the outcome.

For example, the Active Recon talent will reduce your reload time by 3% and increase your view range by 3% for 5 seconds after the start of movement. The effect is reset upon stopping. The Quick Start talent will increase vehicle acceleration and hull traverse speed by 10%. The effect is removed upon taking damage.

It will not be possible to train all the skills and talents in a single crew’s Training Plan. For each vehicle, you will have to select the ones that best suit your individual playstyle. For the current Sandbox test, there will be a maximum of 75 Skill Points and 2 talents that can be unlocked per crew.

If you want, you can invest points in all the available skills, gradually improving each one. However, this strategy is ineffective for the following reasons:

• Skills with only a few points invested provide an insignificant bonus to battle performance.
• Upon investing 30 Points in a specific Training Course, you will be able to choose one of the two Talents that are available within this course.

If necessary, you can reset all, or redistribute some, of the crew’s Skill Points without losing the experience they have gained. To do this, players will need to use a Retraining Order (see more details below) or pay a certain amount of credits. This will allow you to experiment more freely with various combinations of skills and talents, adjusting crew performance in each vehicle to suit your playstyle.

Crew Training

In the new system, crews currently trained to 50 or 75% will be replaced by crews trained to 100% (for the vehicles they have been recruited for). All new crews will start off fully trained for their chosen vehicles at no extra cost. Once a crew reaches Level 10, you can train it for experience or game currency.

• In the case of free retraining, the crew will lose some of their accumulated experience, and not the experience of their major qualification, as it works now.
• You can opt to pay credits to reduce the amount of experience lost during retraining, or gold to prevent experience loss entirely. If you use gold to retrain the crew, you can also decide whether to reset their skills or keep their current configuration.
• Once the crew reaches Level 10, it will cost experience or game currency to retrain them.

Moreover, players will be able to train a crew to control any two researchable and Collectors' vehicles belonging to the same nation and vehicle type (yes, you read that right—crews will finally cease forgetting their vehicles!). New specializations will be unlocked gradually as the crew levels up and reaches certain levels. Players will be able to unlock these specializations faster by using gold.

We also want crews to be able to control any Premium vehicle of the same type and nation. In addition to unlocking and improving their skills in this area, further leveling will allow a crew to be trained for several vehicles at the same time.

Instructors

All current special crew members (Snow Maidens, Chuck Norris, Battle Pass heroes, etc.) will be converted into valuable new characters: Instructors. They will provide additional Skill Points (on top of the 10-point limit) to the crew and increase the experience earned after each battle. Instructors will have a special icon next to their image in the Garage. You can assign up to four Instructors to each crew in your Garage. This functionality will be unlocked for free at Crew Levels 15, 30, 45 and 60. The more Instructors are assigned to a particular crew, the more experience it will receive after battles.

Special crew members will be assigned an Instructor Class, depending on the size of the bonus they provide:

• Special crew members with one zero perk will be converted into a Class III Instructor.
• Special crew members with two zero perks will become Class II Instructors.
• Class I Instructors will be added to the game later.

You can select one of five certifications that correspond to the crew's Training Courses (Tactics, Gunnery, Maintenance, Driver, Operations) for each Instructor, and one Instructor competence that will provide additional points on top of the standard 10 Points for one or two Crew Skills. The total number of these additional points will depend on the class of the Instructor.

Conversion of Existing Crews

One of our most challenging tasks is to offer you a clear and transparent system for the conversion of existing crews, so we will pay particular attention to it. Any ambiguous situations should be resolved exclusively in favor of the player, and the conversion process itself should be smooth and gradual. Here’s how we plan to implement this.

• When you log into the game, any crew members in Premium vehicles who are not trained for their current vehicles will be sent to the Barracks. Incomplete crews will also be sent to the Barracks. Other crews will remain as they are and can still be sent into battle, but they will not earn experience, and their skills and perks (except for Sixth Sense, which will be available to everyone by default) will not work.
• To take full advantage of the new system and your crew members’ skills and perks, you will need to manually retrain or reassign the crews who remain in each vehicle individually. Rather than trying to implement an automatic conversion rule for everyone, we feel it is best for you to decide for yourself how best to utilize a valuable and hard-earned resource like Crew Experience.
• You will be able to retrain existing crew members to any qualification of any vehicle of the same nation under standard conditions for free, for credits, and for gold. When retraining a crew for free or for credits, it will lose some major qualification experience. After retraining, you can convert this crew to the new system.
• When converting a crew manually, the total experience of all crew members in the vehicle will be divided by the number of members. Thus, the new crew will receive an average value of all experience earned by the old crew. Depending on the amount of this experience, the new crew will immediately receive a certain Crew Level, as well the benefits that correspond to it. Thanks to this procedure, experienced crews will remain experienced in the new system.

Instructors will automatically be credited to your account immediately after logging into the game. You will receive one Instructor for each unique crew member with one or more zero perks. For some Instructors, players will be able to select a nation and certification, which provides a bonus to skills.

Directives will also be automatically converted into new ones at a 1:1 rate. However, the total number of directives for crews will be reduced to 7 types. Each new directive will allow you to invest 2 Skill Points in one corresponding skill within the Training Plan. Bonus points provided by directives are not counted towards unlocking talents.

All crew members in the Barracks who do not have enough experience to train at least one skill will no longer occupy bunks in the Barracks. They will be automatically converted to Crew Books of the corresponding nation, which can then be used to improve new crews. The total number of Crew Books you receive will depend on the total experience of all crew members in the Barracks who have less than one skill. We will make a separate calculation for each nation, and rounding will be made in the player’s favor.

Crew members who have enough experience to train at least one skill will remain in the Barracks. You can assign them to a vehicle of your choice and convert them into a new crew.

Bunks in the Barracks will be converted to Retraining Orders at the following rate: 16 bunks = 1 Retraining Order. You will need Retraining Orders to reset all distributed Skill Points free of charge. They will allow you to experiment more freely with the crews and adjust them to suit your playstyle for each vehicle.

Since bunks in the Barracks lose their purpose in the new system, Dormitories will be introduced instead. Each vehicle slot in the Garage will automatically come with a Dormitory for the crew of its vehicle. If necessary, you can purchase additional Dormitories.

Join the Test and Share Your Feedback

Please note that all of the above is a working concept, so we need you to take an active part in the test and make your contribution to the new crew system by sharing your feedback and opinions. Once the first test is over, we will carefully analyze the feedback and statistics before sharing the test results and conclusions with you.

How to Participate

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

Rewards for Participating in the Test

During the Crew 2.0 test, you will have access to a series of 5 simple missions. The completion of each mission will reward you with 2 tokens. Once all five missions are complete, the sixth and final mission in the series will become available to you. To complete it, you only need to play one battle, which will earn you 20 tokens as a reward. You can complete the entire series of missions three times during the test to earn a total of 90 tokens. The next series of missions will be available on the next game day.

Tokens will be transferred to the live servers some time after the end of the Crew 2.0 test. You can exchange tokens for rewards before the start of the next Sandbox stage. All unused tokens will be compensated at the rate of 10,000 per token.

A unique decal dedicated to each test stage will become available for exchange using tokens in the Store after each Sandbox iteration. All four decals (for the four test stages) will become available, once the last iteration is over.

You will also be able to earn one unique 2D style for participating in two or more Sandbox iterations by completing one chain of missions in each of them.

Join the test and share your feedback, Commanders! Together we can make World of Tanks even more enjoyable!