14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that Wargaming's massively multiplayer online vehicle combat game World of Tanks is a worthy eSports contender has been long known, and the developer has always been dedicated to improving the title’s competitive potential since abandoning all instances of pay-to-win content.
Unfortunately, although the game is pretty engaging, top-level confrontations are far from being enjoyable to watch, as most of the times the teams rush to some pre-determined locations and then wait out the entire round, with many of the matches ending in draws.
This happens mainly because camping is a very profitable strategy, especially when there's money on the line. Players usually wait for around 8 of the 10 minutes a round lasts, attempt to storm an enemy's position and, should the attack fail, make a run for the hills hoping that the timer will expire with at least one tank alive, making the round end in a draw.
"We're aware that teams camp in our game as a strategy. We're getting to the point where everything is destructible. It changes the whole strategy for teams, they can't hide behind things," says Mohamed Fadl, Wargaming's head of eSports.
Wargaming hopes to fix the issue with the World Of Tanks 9.1 update, which will introduce the much anticipated enhanced physics engine that allows players to destroy buildings and other in-game doodads generally used for hiding.
In addition to this, the overhauled physics engine allows tanks to move at steeper angles and through shallow water, features that players are already making use of in order to attack their enemies in new and unexpected ways, such as driving up slopes at weird angles in order to flank them.
Unfortunately, the mechanics were also used by scouts to hide in shallow water and wait out the remainder of the round, hoping they would score a draw for their team if things went south during the match.
The next round of updates should fix this, introducing a slew of changes for the better, such as the ability to blast holes in buildings and see if there's a line of tanks waiting for the right moment to strike.
This should severely reduce the degree of camping in World of Tanks, as now scouting methods also include leveling entire buildings and other such objects that could potentially harbor pesky opponents.
"The destructive places that you can get through and see through are going to change the meta for the game. We are seeing today that players are taking positions that they could not have taken before and it's going to be the same again," explained Frédéric Menou, Wargaming's managing director for EMEA and North America.
Being able to destroy cover means that defenders will have to stay on the move in order to avoid being detected and, most importantly, in order to stay outside the range of the enemies' guns. Attackers will be able to force defenders to abandon their positions, and strategies will most likely rely on mobility much more than on camping out and waiting for the enemy's mistake.