1181 replies to this topic

[AngelofAwe]

Image Edited By Moderator

 

Good afternoon/evening fellow forumites, you like me have probably seen the claims like "if only I had premium account, if only I shot premium rounds, if only I had good crews, if only I didn't play stock tanks, if only I skipped tanks, if only I played OP tanks, if only I used mods, if only I platooned ... I'd be unicum too" or perhaps you've even posted something like it.

Now most of us will only laugh and shake our head while clicking the little red neg rep button for this kind of stupidity...

 

However, inspired by the F2P experiment made by another forumite not long ago as well as my extreme boredom and suitable circumstances I decided to do something similar, yet different.

 

I've played this game for quite a while now and I'm pretty much a "low-end" unicum on my first and main account AngelofAwe. I'm far from the greatest player in the server but my recent performance is not bad at all, usually hovering around 3,6-3,8k.

 

Now, what I decided to do in my experiment was make a fresh account (RetardedLion) and play it in as difficult a way as possible.

 

- Completely free to play. No premium time or gold bought (Got 1 day premium from the Christmas event thing)

- Not a single shell of premium ammo or any premium consumables used

- All tanks played stock

- No mods

- 50-75% crews (retrained to 75% for credits at tier 4+)

- 100% solo

- No equipment until tier 5+ (had no credits)

 

I decided to go down the Russian medium line towards the Obj 140 which will be my goal.

The reasons for this are:

1) I like mediums the most

2) It increases the difficulty. TDs or heavies would have been easier in this F2P mode since they have better pen and can rely on range/armor.

 

While this may be enough to answer to most arguments these muppets make I decided to further increase the difficulty by adding bad hardware to the equation.

That is why I'm playing now during the Christmas/ New year holidays.

In my apartment I have a good gaming PC and great internet, however right now I'm visiting my family and parents for 2-3 weeks which means I'm playing on my 4 year old laptop with a 15,6" screen and absolutely horrific wireless internet that I also share with my siblings and parents.

 

 

My laptop has overheating issues which drives my fps into the ground, my ping varies between 100 and 250 and the packet loss is extreme. It's honestly absolutely awful to play on, even my main account loses 1k WN8 compared to my recents.

 

 

T-34 loadout:

Spoiler

 

 

First mark of excellence after 34 battles.

Spoiler

 

 

Some of the highlights in the T-34 come from being underestimated as a "fail reroll" by stat padding platoons.

Met a triple tier 6 EFE platoon last night of which I killed 2 and the third died yoloing me.

Similarly I met a triple tier 6 EXEED platoon of which their KV-2 tried to yolo me and got killed 1v1 dealing no damage after also having failed to ram me. (30k games, 60%+ overall WR player) Though their last remaining player eventually won the game...

 

Tank reviews on the road from F2P view:

 

Tier II - T-26

Pretty decent for it's tier with good pen. Can deal with anything it encounters.

 

Tier III  T-46

Amazing light tank for the tier. Extremely high pen and good mobility makes it one of the stronger tanks in the tier.

 

Tier IV - T-50

Same gun as the T-46 but now meets enemy heavy tanks almost every game. It can beat any other light 1v1 and even bounces their shells quite a bit, however without premium ammo this tank is just bad for carrying. Even medium tanks need to be flanked in order to pen them while heavies will bounce your shells even with their rear reliably.

This tank hurt my rating A LOT, both WN8 and WR. I think it would be a very strong tank with premium ammo loaded though.

 

TIer V - T-34

Awful stock, amazing with the 57mm zis. 112mm pen is enough to deal with heavies of your tier frontally if you know how to aim and mediums are good targets at any range. Almost any tank you meet can be dealt with and the DPM is great.

Best tank so far and carries games easily despite no premium ammo and a bad crew.

 

So... I've tried my best to stack everything against me as much as possible, what are the results?

Wotlabs is lagging behind a lot so I'll give you up to date numbers instead.

Here are my overalls 5 minutes ago after 111 battles played:

 

 

Just below unicum and rapidly increasing.

 

Here's the record of my T-34 session last night:

 

2814 WN8, just below super unicum.

 

And here's my service record, 64% WR.

 

 

So what does this show? Basically only what we've already known, that if you have bad stats it's because you're a bad player.

There is no factor inside or outside this game that will cause you to be a bad player, it's all you.

 

That's it for the midpoint report, I will return again later once I've played more and get to higher tiers.

Personally I only expect my stats to increase from this point on as I get my medium tanks, better crews, equipment and get back to my own PC/internet.

I'm expecting this account will land around 2800 WN8 and 62% WR once I reach tier X. Still completely free to play and following all the terms I've set up.

 

Happy new year forumites!

 

 

----------------------------------------------------------------------

 

200 games played update post can be found HERE

300 games played update HERE

400 games played update HERE

500 games played update HERE

600 games played update HERE

700 games played update HERE

800 games played update HERE

900 games played and final update HERE

Edited by LordAxalon, 08 December 2015 - 06:09 PM.
This post has been edited by a member of the Moderation Team, due to inappropriate content.

[Hullo_Kitty__]

Nice experiment. =p

 

I tried the same when I was in our mountain hut and only had some 400ms mobile internet available. But starting all over, grinding the credits for equipment and getting the crews up to 100% in stock tenks made me rage so hard that I always ended up playing my main instead...^^

 

T-34 is my favourite cute little tenk I think. :3 Enjoy it!

 

Which line will you take for the mid tiers? 416 or T44?

[AngelofAwe]

Hullo_Kitty__, on 27 December 2014 - 02:11 PM, said:

Nice experiment. =p

 

I tried the same when I was in our mountain hut and only had some 400ms mobile internet available. But starting all over, grinding the credits for equipment and getting the crews up to 100% in stock tenks made me rage so hard that I always ended up playing my main instead...^^

 

T-34 is my favourite cute little tenk I think. :3 Enjoy it!

 

Which line will you take for the mid tiers? 416 or T44?

 

T-44 route, i hated the A-44 too much even on my main.

[VendettADutch]

I like..and follow the progression, good luck.

[anfieldminion]

Either you are a total awesome player, or all the green/blue/purple players I meet from at tier 5 spamming gold ammo are just wasting their money.

Your experiment doesn't really prove much. We already knew that skill is the most deciding factor in this game. I consider this a bragging thread.

I am very interested to see if you can sustain your win rate when you get higher up the tiers, where it is more difficult for a single great player to carry a team.

 

Anyway, after you reach tier X, could you please do 100 games in AMX 40 with standard ammo and show your results?

 

 

[RedSox04]

Good experiment. So you are going to resist 330 pen with the T 54? Most people playing it rely on having that available as a last resort.

[thewolfpack]

Great job!

 

+1 / Thank you for doing that!

[thewolfpack]

WulfgarDK, on 27 December 2014 - 01:29 PM, said:

Either you are a total awesome player, or all the green/blue/purple players I meet from at tier 5 spamming gold ammo are just wasting their money.

Your experiment doesn't really prove much. We already knew that skill is the most deciding factor in this game. I consider this a bragging thread.

I am very interested to see if you can sustain your win rate when you get higher up the tiers, where it is more difficult for a single great player to carry a team.

 

Anyway, after you reach tier X, could you please do 100 games in AMX 40 with standard ammo and show your results?

It does prove something:

 

...the claims like "if only I had premium account, if only I shot premium rounds, if only I had good crews, if only I didn't play stock tanks, if only I skipped tanks, if only I played OP tanks, if only I used mods, if only I platooned ... I'd be unicum too" or perhaps you've even posted something like it...

 

He did nothing of that and has a WR of 60% & purple stats without any advantages. How doesn't that prove something?

 

He proved, that the most important & the only thing constant in all matches you play, is YOU.

Edited by thewolfpack, 27 December 2014 - 01:41 PM.

[AngelofAwe]

WulfgarDK, on 27 December 2014 - 02:29 PM, said:

Either you are a total awesome player, or all the green/blue/purple players I meet from at tier 5 spamming gold ammo are just wasting their money.

Your experiment doesn't really prove much. We already knew that skill is the most deciding factor in this game. I consider this a bragging thread.

I am very interested to see if you can sustain your win rate when you get higher up the tiers, where it is more difficult for a single great player to carry a team.

 

Anyway, after you reach tier X, could you please do 100 games in AMX 40 with standard ammo and show your results?

 

I'll acknowledge the compliment in your first sentence and ignore most of the rest.

I have no doubts I'll sustain the win rate, I have over 60% solo WR over the last 3 months on my main account too and I play solo high tier.

 

Amx 40? That's like asking me to commit suicide.

 

RedSox04, on 27 December 2014 - 02:30 PM, said:

Good experiment. So you are going to resist 330 pen with the T 54? Most people playing it rely on having that available as a last resort.

 

Yeah I won't even carry premium ammo in any tank, would make the experiment useless.

I rarely use premium ammo anyway so won't make much of a difference for me.

[Element6]

Interesting experiment. There is one thing you should take into account, and that is Dunning-Kruger. This applies to those that claim they would perform better if X was in place. It also applies to you and your experiment, in that your skill level makes you biased in thinking that what is "easy" for you must also be easy for others.(Effectively denying the bell curve of skill distribution in WoT)

 

Dunning-Kruger describes bias in bot proficient and non-proficient people. Any "experiment" in the game should strive to be as little biased as possible, if it is to prove a point.

 

Will be following with interest.

[TankkiPoju]

So... how much premium ammo did you shoot 

[Dr_LoVe69_makesWoTgreat]

+1 from me for the effort.

But, since I am freeloader too (and better than 98% of players) you could ask me is it possible 

 

PS.

You should used invite code for gold + 7 days of prem + pass change + adding phone number + new year code to boost your account. It is still legit f2p reroll because you did not spend any money on it.

 

PPS.

Two streamers are doing f2p rerolls so you can also check how they are doing.  

 

[Aim_Away_From_Face]

Doesn't really prove too much, yes player skill is the main factor but you have gone down a tank line which, whilst not being OP, is most definitely in the top 3 of tanks available for every tier besides 7 (seriously, without the old gun the T-43 will kill your stats for a few dozen games). If you tried to do this along any one of several other lines which have a horrendous stalling point your ability would not be able to make as much of an impact. For example:

- British TD line, all will be well up to the AT2, lets see what happens between there and the Tortoise.

- USA Mediums, Great until the M3 Lee where it'll drop a lot, then great again until the T20 and Pershing I reckon (I know a lot of people love the Pershing but I can't understand why)

- Russian SPG, no matter how good the SU-122A will utteraly destory any level of stats.

- British meds, utter crap until the cromwell.

- German line using the DW2

and so on. 

 

By choosing that line you've removed a large element of control from the expermient, yes mediums require that extra level of skill but you've chosen a medium line which is the best in the game by a very very long way.

[AngelofAwe]

Element6, on 27 December 2014 - 02:45 PM, said:

It also applies to you and your experiment, in that your skill level makes you biased in thinking that what is "easy" for you must also be easy for others.

 

Oh I've never thought it is or should be easy for the average WoT player.

 

TankkiPoju, on 27 December 2014 - 02:47 PM, said:

So... how much premium ammo did you shoot 

 

 

Spoiler

[Kaffekasken]

Nice post.

I think the F2P works pretty well in low tiers. It gets more difficult as you rise in tiers and you really start to suffer at t8+ trying to play things stock.

[Vestrick64]

I hope you invited your alt, you know, for the T95E2 tank, even if it's not overly good

[Dr_LoVe69_makesWoTgreat]

Yuri_Yslin, on 27 December 2014 - 01:57 PM, said:

I hope you invited your alt, you know, for the T95E2 tank, even if it's not overly good

 

So he can platoon with himself 

[Aim_Away_From_Face]

edger2020, on 27 December 2014 - 02:00 PM, said:

 

So he can platoon with himself 

 

He has a desktop PC and a laptop 

Edited by OldManFace, 27 December 2014 - 02:01 PM.

[Private_Miros]

OldManFace, on 27 December 2014 - 12:56 PM, said:

Doesn't really prove too much, yes player skill is the main factor but you have gone down a tank line which, whilst not being OP, is most definitely in the top 3 of tanks available for every tier besides 7 (seriously, without the old gun the T-43 will kill your stats for a few dozen games). If you tried to do this along any one of several other lines which have a horrendous stalling point your ability would not be able to make as much of an impact. For example:

- British TD line, all will be well up to the AT2, lets see what happens between there and the Tortoise.

- USA Mediums, Great until the M3 Lee where it'll drop a lot, then great again until the T20 and Pershing I reckon (I know a lot of people love the Pershing but I can't understand why)

- Russian SPG, no matter how good the SU-122A will utteraly destory any level of stats.

- British meds, utter crap until the cromwell.

- German line using the DW2

and so on. 

 

By choosing that line you've removed a large element of control from the expermient, yes mediums require that extra level of skill but you've chosen a medium line which is the best in the game by a very very long way.

 

Are you claiming that the T20 and Pershing are bad tanks and/or bad for stats...?

 

I... what... how...

[Element6]

AngelofAwe, on 27 December 2014 - 01:57 PM, said:

 

Oh I've never thought it is or should be easy for the average WoT player.

 

So you have this experiment to prove that proficient players can have good stats in WoT, with pure F2P, in order to disprove claims from tomatoes? I'm not entirely shure then, what is your motive...