Monday Musings in World of Tanks

Just waiting for the servers to come back up after the 1.5 update so I thought I'd dash out a quick post.

What Can I Say, Except, You're Welcome!

Last battle of the day yesterday, I took my CromB out on Empire's Border with my 2nd British MT crew just to train them up a bit. I was having a pretty good day, 58% win rate over about 3 dozen battles or so. Soon as the countdown starts the player in the other CromB on my team says "12th straight loss". 

I'm not sure if they're one of those people who thinks their team are losers and feels like they need to say so, but I give them the benefit of the doubt and say "You've lost 12 in a row?" They reply with something about having a 42% WR today and suggest this battle might not be better. I sort of shrug it off; we've all had frustrating stretches. I just try not to pre-emptively take it out on my team.

They then proceed to YOLO into a 1 v 3 and they're the first one dead. I'm starting to understand why they're losing. I, on the other hand, end up with about 2.5k combined (direct and assisted damage), and 2 kills, top of the board by XP. We cap out and win.

After the battle I send them a private message that simply says: "You're welcome."

Which brings me to...

When You're on Tilt..

The player in that battle was pretty clearly on tilt. That's an expression you often hear in poker, though I believe it's origins are in the game of pinball. In pinball if you try to manipulate the ball by physically lifting and tilting the game console, most consoles can detect that you've done that and will throw an error that reads "TILT!" which usually invalidates your score. It's a bad thing. Occasionally it results from a player just getting frustrated and being a little too aggressive with the controls. 

So in pinball it's a reminder to keep your cool and not get frustrated, or else you could "Tilt".

In poker it's more of an emotional tilt. You're frustrated, your angry, you start making overly aggressive, bad, decisions. You're "on tilt" and you're probably going to lose a bunch. We see the same thing in a lot of games, including World of Tanks.

My teammate in that previous game was pretty clearly on tilt. They was frustrated by his losing streak. Either they, or their teams, (or both) weren't playing well and as a result they were fuming, making bad decisions. Mashing down the W key, muttering about "losers", getting into bad situations, frustrated, and it just becomes a self-perpetuating spiral.

It can happen to any of us; certainly happens to me occasionally, though I'm trying to be better about recognizing it.

What to do when you're on tilt?

It's almost impossible to play your way out of tilt. My advice is to take a break. Get a nice beverage, step away from the computer, get some fresh air. Maybe take a walk around the block, or just go out on the patio and watch the birds for a few minutes. Doesn't have to be hours, but give yourself at least 10 minutes of fresh air and breathing in and out. Resettle. Listen to your favorite music maybe.

When you come back to the game, forget about whatever grind or mission you might be doing for a moment. Start off with a battle or three in your favorite tank. Just whatever tank you enjoy the most; regardless of tier or class. Focus on being positive and making good decisions. Don't worry about yout team. Don't worry about winning or losing. Just get your groove back.

Most importantly, remember: It's just a game. Have fun.

If you have ideas on how to get "off tilt" please share them in the comments below!

The 1.5 Patch

I'm still waiting for the servers to come back up so I won't say too much about the 1.5 patch yet. There are two things I'm most interested in seeing though when it does.

New WOT premium accounts

I like some of the stuff they announced for WOT premium accounts. Especially sounds like it will be easier to grind tech tree tanks. Tweaks to the bonus structure, plus the ability to apply an XP bonus retroactively is very cool. It's always frustrating when you're playing a tank you're grinding, your team gets that first win of the day, but you had an awful battle and you've just wasted your x2 (or worse) on a battle where you were in the bottom of the board by XP.

The new system would let you see how the battle goes, and if you have a great battle you can apply an XP bonus to that game. If you had a stinker...hold on to your XP bonus and wait for a good battle.

New Swedish mediums

 I'm not enjoying the Leo very much, but the new Swede medium tanks look interesting. I'm curious to see how the new suspensions work in a medium tank, and the low profile and armor model are intriguing.

I'll do tank reviews on them, of course, but for now here's Wargaming's article about them if you wan more info. https://worldoftanks.com/en/news/updates/1-5-swedish-mt/ 

O.K., I'm out for now. GLHF!