http://warthunder.com/en/news/350/current/?nocache Developer's Diaries: New Progression System Update 1.37 will introduce new progression system: to get an access to the new plane a player will just have to research the previous one in the line. Besides that number of ranks will be changed to 5 and they will be based on the actual periods of the aviation development. We planned the system from the very beginning, but we are introducing it just now, when modification system is implemented and number of available aircraft in the research tree is close to the release tree. We are certain that with this new system the game will become more entertaining and varied both for experience players and new ones. What is the new progression system? All aircraft (as well as forthcoming ground units and ships) are now attributed in 5 ranks. When deciding whether an aircraft or a tank belongs to a certain rank, we consider its battle efficiency in the game and periods of aircraft development in real life. Thus later but «weaker» machines may be attributed to a lower rank and vice versa, but mostly one rank corresponds to a certain period of aircraft development. To purchase a new plane from now on you should meet several simple requirements. Let’s us take F4U-1d Corsair as an example. To get it you need: 1. To research a certain amount of modifications of the previous aircraft in our example it’s F4U-1a. Please note that research of all modules is not required, several modification from a certain tier is enough. Purchasing the modules is also not required. Modification menu. Pay attention that to research new aircraft in the line you don’t have to research all the modules. Also some experience gained from battles on this plane is spent to research «Engine» modification. 2. To unlock the rank the chosen aircraft belongs to. Thus F4U-1d belongs to rank III, which means we should unlock and purchase 3 planes from rank II. Let us choose, for example, F4U-1a and F6F-3a from the same branch and premium A6M2. 3. And finally before we can take F4U-1d into flight we should research the plane itself choosing him from the other aircraft available for research. The process is similar to researching modification, but research points from all the planes of the chosen nation you fly will be used for research of the chosen aircraft. USA ranks. To unlock rank III you will have to unlock any 3 aircraft of the previous rank. Currently F4U-1d (rank III) is being researched That all means that experience gained for succesfull actions in combat gives access to new modifications of the plane a player is currently flying and brings him to closer to unlocking another plane a player has chosen. We wanted to make the introduction of the new progression system non-problematic both for new and experienced players that is why all achievements, obtained modifications, purchased planes will remain. But please be noted that planes that are unlocked but not purchased will have to be reasearched once again in 1.37, because the whole system will be completely different. So you have some time to purchase aircraft you are interested in! What are the advantages of the new progression system? First of all a player may focus on the branch he personally prefers and move quicker down that branch. Previously to access a new rank pilot had to gain enough experience to unlock all the planes of the rank. From now on unlocking the next aircraft requires less experience which means that progress to the top aircraft of the branch is quicker. With a new system player won’t have to leave the plane where he already has maximum experience and experience bar is full. Those who have low and mid tier premium aircraft will be even more satisfied — the may use those planes to research any planes they want without limitations (though if rank difference between planes is more than 1 research will be a little slower). Finally we got the opportunity to provide better match-making and balance. Previous system took only planes’ rank and individual player’s efficeency into the account, from now on balance will be affected by the aircraft chosen and its effieciency in a certain game mode. Previously players had been divided into 3-7 groups by rank (depending on the amount of players and chosen game mode), now these groups are clear, players maybe certain that no planes from 3 different ranks will meet each other in the battle, only 2 and the whole match making is much more accurate. And one of the most important advantages of the new system: due to forthcoming release of ground forces we thought how to level the playing ground and most experience players won’t gain to big an advantage. New system grants that opportunity. You are looking forward to testing new aircraft and new opportunities? Then see you in the skies of War Thunder!
I panicked at force-fed my germans gold until I was 17 and got a volksjäger. We'll see just how much I'll regret that after patch...
They already made some changes to that system, from dev server patch notes: "to unlock next plane in line you don't have to unlock modifications anymore" this means its allmost the same as now, you can skip planes you dont want to fly. Im hoping they wont change it anymore.
I think you still have to unlock the plane and some of the modifications but not all of them anymore. and you should be able to use points earned on a premium plane to unlock stuff (but I'm not 100% certain on that)
