I’ve got mixed feelings about this. I have a lot of experience with WoT, have many tanks, quit about 3 years ago, but recently restarted playing it mostly to use as comparison with WT. I recently started WT and am at the bottom tier of tanks. I have about 100 tanks in WoT up to the top tier 10. The difference between these games is drastic.
World of Tanks
War Thunder
Because of my many years of WoT, and I had briefly checked out WT when it first came out, (but at the time thought the maps were too big), started this comparison thinking that World of Tanks would be the more fun, faster moving game. However that might not be the case, the more fun part. Each game has advantages.
Here is the thing, World of Tanks battles are faster moving affairs more like arena combat. War Thunder by virtue of being on substantially larger maps allow you more ways to skin the cat, but the downside as a new player, it takes longer to figure out where the good spots are for sniping and ambush. In WoT, within a minute of the battle starting you can be shooting someone or be shot. A complaint I’ve heard about WT, is that the game frequently involves long drives to be sniped and/or 1-shot and becomes sniping duels against people who know the maps and where the good spots are.
From a damage standpoint in WoT, generally speaking, 1-shots don’t happen although you can lose 50% of your health on the receiving end of a bad hit. You can be incapacitated but not as frequently as in WT and repairs in WoT don’t take nearly as long. I think it’s fair to say once you start taking damage in WT, your lifespan is substantially shorter compared to WoT, however this is mitigated by having 3 tanks you can cycle though in a single battle.
Both of these games can be frustrating. last night I had some good and bad matches in WT. Then I switched to WoT, and on the maps I was familiar with, had an immediate sense of deja vu. Rush to the pass/choke point and then play peak and shoot with enemy tanks or sit at the established sniping spot and wait for a pigeon to show itself. Even though I can get very frustrated with WT, but maybe because I'm new to it, it does not feel like the same routine I am more than familiar with in WoT.
Will I stick with a tank game? Unknown,, but at this point WT is appealing to me more than my established routine in WoT.
Will I ever play WT in Realism Mode? Very unlikely, too much work.
I’ve mentioned World of Warships before, and War Thunder has boats, but I have yet to try WT’s version for a comparison. But I’ll say as a tank and boat veteran, these types of combat are very different, and if tanks don’t appeal to you, boats might, not that boats won’t be any less frustrating.
To summarize the two types of games, tanks are more tactical, ships are more strategic. Tanks require faster reactions (no nothing like an Unreal Tournament) but faster than ships. Ships are much more about numbers 1v1 or 3v1, never 1v3 if you can help it, smart engagements, and staying on the edge of groups of enemnies firing range while applying damage to enemy ships. It’s a completely different vibe, and as a rule you won’t be able to tear through enemy ships like a good tank driver can against tanks, which often become a series of 1v1 encounters. In ships, that does not happen as often and if you drive your lone ship into a group of enemies, you will be destroyed.
World of Tanks
- Damage- Damage results mostly in a health loss, with infrequent mechanicals, injured crew members, and onboard fires. You can supply your tank with mechanical, crew, and anti-fire aides.
- Map Size- Generally, WoT has smaller maps with a few prevalent collision-conflict chokeholds that can be relatively learned quickly.
- View Distance- WoT has a view distance which beyond a certain distance tanks disappear, where in reality you would still be able to see them.
- WOT has a single difficulty setting which is arcade-like tank handling, tanks are much more maneuverable than real tanks.
- Aiming- Lead is on you, but there is elevation assistance showing you where your round will hit.
- Mods- The game also allows mods that provide hit zone skins, indicating where a likely penetration can occur.
- Minimal fog of war- Tank locations are displayed on the minimap when they are sighted by anyone on your team and for a short period of time after they go back into hiding.
- War Gaming, WoT’s parent company offer single arena games, tanks, ships, and airplanes.
War Thunder
- Damage- Damage frequently involves serious damage, one shot kills, and incapacitation, with lengthy repairs, while you sit there and are unmovable. Fast Death is somewhat mitigated by allowing you 3 lives during the fight, cycling through 3 different tanks. There are tank repairs, a fire extinguisher, and incapacitated crew members can be replaced if you are content to sit somewhere out of harms way for a minute timer to complete.
- Map size- WT’s maps are huge in comparison to WoT and take longer to learn where the good spots are.
- View Distance- WT has no artificial view distance, so tanks can shoot you from a longer distance away, even if they are a little dot.
- WT has 3 modes arcade, realistic, and simulation.
- Arcade mode offers even more slippery tank handling than WoT at least it seems that way to me. In addition tanks are faster, with faster rotating turrets than in the other modes. It has elevation assist and the cursor actually lights up green where penetration will occur. Minimal fog of war. When a tank is spotted and for a brief period of time after it gets out of sight, it will appear on the minimap for all to see.
- Realism mode has more realistic clunky tank handling with slow turning turrets. The fog of war is pronounced. You’ll hardly ever see an enemy tank icon on the mini-map, just when an enemy dies. Aiming is done manually with an elevation scale you manually set After estimating distance to a target.
- Simulation mode is for hard core players. I’ve not checked it out.
- WT offers combined arms battles with some combo of tanks, aircraft, and boats
Because of my many years of WoT, and I had briefly checked out WT when it first came out, (but at the time thought the maps were too big), started this comparison thinking that World of Tanks would be the more fun, faster moving game. However that might not be the case, the more fun part. Each game has advantages.Here is the thing, World of Tanks battles are faster moving affairs more like arena combat. War Thunder by virtue of being on substantially larger maps allow you more ways to skin the cat, but the downside as a new player, it takes longer to figure out where the good spots are for sniping and ambush. In WoT, within a minute of the battle starting you can be shooting someone or be shot. A complaint I’ve heard about WT, is that the game frequently involves long drives to be sniped and/or 1-shot and becomes sniping duels against people who know the maps and where the good spots are.
From a damage standpoint in WoT, generally speaking, 1-shots don’t happen although you can lose 50% of your health on the receiving end of a bad hit. You can be incapacitated but not as frequently as in WT and repairs in WoT don’t take nearly as long. I think it’s fair to say once you start taking damage in WT, your lifespan is substantially shorter compared to WoT, however this is mitigated by having 3 tanks you can cycle though in a single battle.
Both of these games can be frustrating. last night I had some good and bad matches in WT. Then I switched to WoT, and on the maps I was familiar with, had an immediate sense of deja vu. Rush to the pass/choke point and then play peak and shoot with enemy tanks or sit at the established sniping spot and wait for a pigeon to show itself. Even though I can get very frustrated with WT, but maybe because I'm new to it, it does not feel like the same routine I am more than familiar with in WoT.
Will I stick with a tank game? Unknown,, but at this point WT is appealing to me more than my established routine in WoT.
Will I ever play WT in Realism Mode? Very unlikely, too much work.
I’ve mentioned World of Warships before, and War Thunder has boats, but I have yet to try WT’s version for a comparison. But I’ll say as a tank and boat veteran, these types of combat are very different, and if tanks don’t appeal to you, boats might, not that boats won’t be any less frustrating.
To summarize the two types of games, tanks are more tactical, ships are more strategic. Tanks require faster reactions (no nothing like an Unreal Tournament) but faster than ships. Ships are much more about numbers 1v1 or 3v1, never 1v3 if you can help it, smart engagements, and staying on the edge of groups of enemnies firing range while applying damage to enemy ships. It’s a completely different vibe, and as a rule you won’t be able to tear through enemy ships like a good tank driver can against tanks, which often become a series of 1v1 encounters. In ships, that does not happen as often and if you drive your lone ship into a group of enemies, you will be destroyed.
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