World of Tanks 1.10 goes live with Polish mediums, reworked equipment system, and more

Since World of Tanks 1.9 arrived, enjoying low tiers was a real pleasure once again. I never bothered much with the top tiers - except various special events for clans, although I happen to own some tier IX and X vehicles, but even high tier battles proved to be at least bearable lately when platooning with the right people. Unfortunately, World of Tanks 1.10 came and ruined the entire game experience for me.

Before moving on to the parts that made me uninstall the game, let's take a closer look at the stuff that I enjoyed seeing added to World of Tanks: the six brand-new Polish medium tanks look interesting, although the gas-turbine engine part is far from being a game-changer at first sight; the return of the gorgeous Pearl River map; new UI graphics — at least most of them.

The reworked equipment system is, in my opinion, a complete disaster. I will not get into this deeper than mentioning that standard camo or telescope equipment can no longer be removed for free — I am sure there are many others who, just like me, used to move the telescope, camo, or toolbox between tanks as needed. Even worse, there are some class-dependent bonuses for certain pieces of equipment, so a telescope will be more effective on a light tank than on a heavy one. Used to have fun in tier II and III battles mounting ventilation, camo, and the telescope? Not anymore, because now there is a single slot for tier II and two for tier III tanks!

Now, the last part that I have to mention today - bonds. In the past, a player was able to get bonds for various achievements in lower tiers, although the amount was pretty small. After the introduction of World of Tanks 1.10, the only way to get bonds is to play tier X vehicles, but there's even more to it: a limit of 100 bonds/week/vehicle. This seems like a move with a single goal: to force people to play top tiers more. Playing top tiers comes with a severe silver coin penalty, even in decent winning battles, so most players would be forced to get a Premium account, convert gold coins to silver, or just purchase gold/silver coin packages. I can only hope that I'm wrong, so please drop some comments with your post-1.10 release stats and prove that if that's the truth.

All in all, World of Tanks 1.10 comes with severe penalties for the average Joes who used to enjoy the game from time to time without spending a dime. Maybe the next update will fix some of the bad ideas implemented in this one, especially since we're talking about the summer that marks this title's 10th anniversary.