[Sandbox] Rebalancing SPGs and Their Shells

Commanders, the Sandbox server will be launched on November 26 to continue testing the global shell rebalance, and will be up until December 9.

In previous iterations, we assessed the changes to all shell types for non-SPG vehicles. Now it’s time to move forward; in the upcoming version, we will retain all the changes from previous iterations. You can read more about them here, here, and here.

This test, however, will affect SPGs, another important aspect of the game that has remained unchanged through previous iterations. Changes will not be made to the economy, Personal Missions, or how players' statistics are displayed – these will be addressed only after finishing the work on shell rebalancing.

Plans for the Test

Under the conditions that have been previously tested on the Sandbox, the parameters of SPGs became completely irrelevant. The results of the previous tests support this conclusion. Thus, they require changes. The main goals of these changes are:

• Adjusting this vehicle type in accordance with the global shell rebalance.
• Adding gameplay variability to this vehicle type. The current SPG shell types actually duplicate each other, which doesn’t provide new tactical opportunities when choosing between them. We want to remedy this situation.
• Decrease the total duration of the stun.
• Decrease the damage share caused by SPGs.

Planned Changes to SPGs

To achieve the stated goals, the SPG shells need to be rebalanced. There will be three types of shells for the test, and the changes will be tested on SPGs of Tier VI and higher. Each shell type will have its own purpose: stun, high damage, or high penetration value.

• Standard shells: HE shells that stun and cause a relatively small amount of damage. The damage values are taken from the live server. It does not consider the increased HP pool of vehicles on the Sandbox server. That means in terms of the percentage of the total HP pool, such shells will cause less damage.
• Special shells: HE shells that have increased damage per shot in comparison to standard shells, but without the stun effect. They have a higher penetration value and a large burst radius. Nominal damage per shot is increased by approximately 15% in comparison to standard shells. The percentage of damage caused by such shells is supposed to be the same as the percentage caused by SPGs on the live server.
• Alternative shells: These shells have a high penetration value and significantly lower, but predictable, damage if the shell penetrates. Basically, they will be like AP shells, but a small share of them can be HEAT shells. These shells will not stun.

Our Expectations

We want players to have a choice. Depending on the situation in battle, players should choose between the ability to stun enemies, cause more damage, or penetrate enemy armor. The possibility of choosing between a shell that causes lower damage and stuns, and a shell that causes more damage but does not stun, should together decrease the share of both parameters: stun and damage. The player’s performance using SPGs will directly depend on the ability to choose a shell type that best suits the current game situation.

Additional Features of the Rebalanced SPGs

• Shells for SPGs will be rebalanced starting from Tier VI.
• If the gun of an SPG is not used on vehicles above Tier V, or the gun does not have a standard stunning HE shell, the gun will not be rebalanced (no shells will be added).
• If the gun uses a special HE shell, then it simply loses the stun effect. All other parameters of such shells will remain unchanged, but at the same time the average damage per shot will increase by about 15% in comparison to the damage per shot of the standard shell. In other words, the previous special HE shell will be brought into line with the new concept (it will no longer stun, and receives increased damage per shot).
• The special ammo of the Premium SPGs are represented by HEAT (for the 105 leFH18B2) and AP (for the Sexton I) shells. The parameters of these shells will remain unchanged.

We want to keep the current HE shell mechanics for SPGs in this Sandbox iteration. This is because the testing of HE shells for other vehicle types is still ongoing, and changing these parameters for SPGs will definitely affect the entire testing environment, due to the considerable difference between the HE shells of SPGs and those of other vehicle types.

Our immediate goal is to check how shell type variety will affect the statistics of SPGs without changing their HE shell mechanics. It is assumed that such a change could not be applied along with the existing changes to other vehicles. The burst radius of HE shells used by SPGs is much bigger, so the focus is not on the damage caused by these shells.

Therefore, at this stage of testing, new HE shell mechanics for SPGs would not be appropriate. Nevertheless, it is still possible that it will be implemented for SPGs, but will require additional testing in the future.

Test Format

The test will be held on the Sandbox server. All players can participate in the test; you just need to download the test client via the link or in WGC.

Join the Test

The server will have accelerated progression and special missions that will help speed up your progression through the Tech Tree.

Battle Results

The revised Battle Results interface will also be available on the Sandbox server.

List of Changes

• The Battle Results are displayed in fullscreen.
• The Personal Score tab has been renamed to Battle Results, and a Personal Score section has been added. This section contains the total values of the following parameters:
  
  • Damage caused with your assistance
  • Damage caused
  • Damage blocked by armor
  • Enemy vehicles destroyed
• The Battle Performance section has been moved from the Personal Score tab to the Team Score tab. Now, when you open the Team Score tab, a screen consisting of two sections (Our Team and Battle Performance) will be displayed by default.
• The Statistics and Time sections have been removed from the Detailed Report tab. The tab itself has been renamed to Financial Report and will contain only finance-related information. The content of the Statistics and Time sections is available only in the Statistics section of the Team Score tab.
• The interface for applying the Manageable bonus has been changed.
• The interface for Reward for Merit progression has been changed.
• The team score can now be sorted according to the following parameters:
  
  • Damage caused
  • Enemy vehicles destroyed
  • Experience

Head for the Sandbox server and test the latest iteration to your heart’s content, Commanders!