[Declined] Improved Standard Battle Settings for Fair Gameplay

[VaudeVille 1,428]

With the new alternations update, all the big supply kits were taken out of the garage.

As has already given a critical analysis of the likely outcome of taking out the supply kits from the garage, I don't have too much to add.

's analysis:

 

Developers say that every single item that affects gameplay is available to free players in the garage. This is somewhat true, because indeed it's not like there are special supplies in the Shop sold for only real money which give you 2x more power than normal supplies. But let's face it, there is no way a free player is able to compete with a buyer who has practically limitless supplies.

 

A Generalissimo may get about 100 supplies a day from daily missions. That's if they are really lucky and they don't go for crystal missions (which is in fact what most players want). So to complete these missions the player needs about 30 minutes of intensive gameplay. During that gameplay he will die on average about 50 times and therefore have the opportunity to use 150 - 200 supplies (or 40 of each). He may get around 1000 crystals from the battle and if he spends those on supplies again - it will be just about enough to buy more supplies and cover the expense of the 30 minute battle.

 

So the result is that to be able to compete with a buyer who drugs non-stop, the player is only able to play for 30 minutes a day and get absolutely no extra crystals for anything other than supplies (alterations, MUs, equipment, etc.). And that's on a good day. Someone who wants to get crystals and plays with wasp will end up getting 30-50 supplies per day and using over 50 in a battle (since wasps die a lot), so that kind of player will run out of supplies in no time and what then?

 

And it's not like buyers aren't affected by this too. Unless they play only DM mode, the player will constantly encounter players without supplies in their team in normal battles. And it's not exactly pleasant to have a situation where you drug like crazy, bring your team out of a hole towards the end of a match and when some noob picks up the winning flag you drop when you got killed, he loses it because he doesn't have a DA or repair kit to use when he gets attacked. And the battle is lost.

 

The lack of balance between buyers and free players when it comes to supplies has been like a rotten limb for Tanki ever since they were introduced. The smart cooldowns update helped a little bit but not enough. And now with the removal of big supplies kits from garage free players are left with no hope for fair battles.

 

In my honest opinion, this will only worsen the game in the coming future unless tanki does something to stop it.

For example:

• Make supplies completely free for everyone to use and 100% skill-dependent. Buying more supplies than another player should NOT give someone an advantage.
• Move the no-supplies setting from PRO battles into normal battle settings. This will at least give free players a chance to re-stock on supplies by completing daily missions and earning crystals without using their supplies to do it.
• Limit the number of supplies which can be used in normal battles. Allow something like 5-10 of each supply in a 15 minute battle. This will force players to at least be more careful with supplies and use them only when extremely necessary. (Although this can be abused with use of alts)
• In addition to at least one of the above, reduce power of the Repair kit and make it less OP. Reduce its duration to 50% (from 2 seconds to 1) and make the cost the same as all other supplies. At the moment the repair kit is what makes hardcore druggers so unbalanced and fights between players - annoyingly lengthy.

---

 

The variety you get when trying to find a good PRO battle is miserable. Right now (pretty much the peak online times) there are around 260 PRO battles for my rank. Sounds like a lot? Well let's narrow it down:

- 150 XP/BP battles (78 of which are on Sandbox, 21 on Zone and 15 on Polygon CP, while half of the remainder are duels/tandems)

- 17 are Parkour format

- 20 are Polygon CP

- 15 are Arena CP

- 21 are a 2 player Arena DM (so most likely power-leveling)

 

So that leaves me with 37 proper battles to choose from.

Remove all the Polygon/Sandbox battles, all the 1v1 battles, ridiculous battles (1 minute/kill or 999 flags/minutes) and battles with supplies turned on and you're left with 5 at most.

 

So if I want to play a PRO battle with no supplies, using any combo, on a non-mainstream map, with a sensible limit, I'm left with a choice of up to five battles, 2 or 3 of which will be on the same server, if I'm lucky. I don't consider that a good alternative to the choice of non-PRO battles (which is still quite limited, but nevertheless at least 10x more diverse).

 

And that's for a generalissimo who has a full M4 garage. Think of anyone below the maximum rank - all PRO battles from Major and up will never be limited to their rank so they will be forced to play against generalissimos (and obviously being called a "mult"). PRO battles with no MUs are also pretty much non-existent. And I'm not even talking about ranks below Major - finding a good PRO battle there on ANY server can happen probably once a month at most.

 

That's what I thought too, but see my calculation above for supplies used by the average player. The game works in such a way that you can't get more supplies by putting in more time and effort because you use more supplies during the time you spend to get those supplies back. It's a never-ending cycle that puts any free player into a massive hole. And in order to get out of it the player is forced to either pay real money or leave and find a better game.

 

---

This is my honest feedback to developers about what they've been doing with the game by incorporating supplies and now, making them extremely hard to get for free players. I hope they see this comment and take appropriate action. I'm all for adding more buyer-only cosmetic features and fancy stuff. Heck, I wouldn't even mind if devs added brand new exclusive turrets and hulls only for buyers (as long as they are not OP), but all I'm asking for is to keep the gameplay balanced between buyers and free players.

 

 

With regard to the fact that most non buyers no longer have access to supplies the way buyers do, I've thought of a simple solution to this problem.

For standard battles, simply allow the user to toggle with the following 3 battle settings:

• Turning Supplies on/off
• Turning Auto balance on/off
• Turning MUs on/off

As mafioso said and even I've tried looking for battles across servers, it's next to impossible to find a suitable non format pro battle. I've created battles with friends in crowded servers and waited for people to join but we just end up waiting for far too long. I have a pro pass on me at all times but most people don't and even if they do, they don't join.

 

Players who don't have a ton of supplies or MUs installed on their equipment should also get a fair chance.

I personally have a considerable amount of supplies with me along with decent MUs on my M3 equipment and under these circumstances I probably shouldn't have any problems with game-play but I still do.

 

This is because when I do enter a regular battle, even if I have enough supplies, often other team mates who enter don't and nor do they have decent equipment or MUs which results in the team performing poorly against buyers.

Having the ability to turn off supplies and MUs in standard battles makes the game-play fair for everyone.

 

These options in standard battles will stop multing and sabotage in regular battles to a large extent as incompetent players wouldn't feel the need to cheat.Turning off the Auto balance would also allow us friends to play together as team in regular battles as many people don't join pro battles.

 

This idea is extremely simple and will likely improve game balance and game-play in a very big way. In case you want new and old players alike to continue playing this game, It would be wise to implement this soon.

 

In this topic, I'm speaking on behalf of every tanker whether you're a buyer or a non buyer.

If you feel that you're unable to compete against non-stop drugging M4s, if you feel that this could reduce sabotage and if you feel that you cannot find a suitable battle to play, leave a like and some feedback.

 

Thank you

[Maf 32,314]

Under review

[btpt]

Funnily enough, developers actually did an experiment a few years ago, where no-supply battles were made free for a week. And the results showed that the increase in amount of no-supply battles that people created was negligible, suggesting that players didn't even want to play without supplies. Although times change and the situation is different now, so it would be nice if developers would, at the very least, repeat the experiment and see what players want now.

 

Edit:

Declined

 

With the complete removal of the option to create a non-PRO battles, this idea is no longer applicable.

[DageLV 940]

This game will never be balanced. Could you fight m4 thunder or isida at my rank? No you cant fight it but well, we, buyers can get it. I have 20/50 isida m3 and 14/50 thunder m3 and thats way too OP for free player.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

As mafioso said, times have changed and with supplies being available only to buyers, people will likely be creating no supply battles.

As long as there is an option for regular players to turn off supplies/MUs in standard battles, they wouldn't have much reason to complain.

Drops would still be on the way it is.

[austen_pierce 1,948]

These types of battles might be more popular if they were easier to find  :ph34r: .  That is, we need better search tools and visibility across servers.  I have posted this in I&S already.

 

That said, NS battles 'should' be popular.  I would play them, definitely.  +1

 

No MU battles - not as sure.  MU-ing equipment is a painstaking process.  People aren't going to want to play battles where they can't use them.  I would see them as battles started by newly ranks M3 types, then raided by experienced players who can use their skill even without MUs to wipe the noobs off the map.  I could be wrong though.

 

What is Auto-balance?

 

.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

^ While u may have m4s, you will likely lose to a team full of m3.5 if the majority of your team consists of m3s.

It would definitely be nice option to have that some people might want in case they don't have MUs.

[Phoenix.Rising 2,519]

You can actually find all those battles with a Pro Pass, usually for Polygon CP No-Supply but MUs are on. However, I acknowledge that they can be created by regular players without pro pass. It would make things easier.

 

But battles are not a matter of equipment too. Raiders are commonplace.

[varraccio 44]

.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

You can actually find all those battles with a Pro Pass, usually for Polygon CP No-Supply but MUs are on. However, I acknowledge that they can be created by regular players without pro pass. It would make things easier.

 

But battles are not a matter of equipment too. Raiders are commonplace.

Poly CP isn't the only map and game mode.

Most non supply battles that I've found are island, polygon, arena CP and it's monotonous beyond description.

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

Funnily enough, developers actually did an experiment a few years ago,

When exactly? :huh:

[Phoenix.Rising 2,519]

Poly CP isn't the only map and game mode.

Most non supply battles that I've found are island, polygon, arena CP and it's monotonous beyond description.

That was just an example xD And to me, i will never find them boring! Indeed, Tanki should increase the popularity of uncommon maps other than for DM tourney.

 

But the need for crystals are probably too great, that's why those are popular.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

When exactly? :huh:

Even I wanna know

[timothy13 104]

I kinda miss it too. Even though I have my thunder to be m3.8 (40\50), I always lost to other buyers with m4 xt. And they are crazy druggers. It would be much balanced and fair to players that want to save their supplies to enable no battle supplies for free for regular battles.

 

Pro battle can keep format battles,no MU, Private and auto balance and friendly kill

[kayitsiz 621]

Under review

[btpt]

Funnily enough, developers actually did an experiment a few years ago, where no-supply battles were made free for a week. And the results showed that the increase in amount of no-supply battles that people created was negligible, suggesting that players didn't even want to play without supplies. Although times change and the situation is different now, so it would be nice if developers would, at the very least, repeat the experiment and see what players want now.

It might be because many players are too lazy to make a battle. Non-buyer players tend to play casual, so don't really care about creating battle, but buyer ones wanna more hardcore, so creates his own situation.

 

Just a theory :)

 

 

Anyway, I would play no-supply off :) Also, please add "No drop" option. It usually gives players to random move around and breaks down campers' gameplay.

 

You can actually find all those battles with a Pro Pass, usually for Polygon CP No-Supply but MUs are on. However, I acknowledge that they can be created by regular players without pro pass. It would make things easier.

 

But battles are not a matter of equipment too. Raiders are commonplace.

 

I don't remmeber any raid on supply-off batles.

 

However, about MU-off, I completely disagree. M3s are not balanced without MUs. How will Thunder M3 play against Smoky M3? How will Viking M3 compete with Dictator M3? What makes supplies annoying is the "losing" feel it gives. MUs does not work that way.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

As for MUs, it's just an option ↑

Regarding what you said about thunder, the effectiveness of every turret,hull or combo will vary depending upon the situation.

[Maf 32,314]

When exactly? :huh:

I think I actually either missed it or was too noob to realise what it was. I was told years later that is was a thing that happened. So, some time before 2012.

[VaudeVille 1,428]

I think I actually either missed it or was too noob to realise what it was. I was told years later that is was a thing that happened. So, some time before 2012.

That's really long ago, they really need to do something soon otherwise most non-buyers will quit as soon as their supplies are exhausted and there would be no one left to play with.

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

I think I actually either missed it or was too noob to realise what it was. I was told years later that is was a thing that happened. So, some time before 2012.

Oh nevermind, I wasn't born yet :lol: 

[AhmadBinTahir 186]

Really man, I don't play Tanki a lot anymore because I am always overpowered by M4s and one can never have enough drugs to combat them. This is soo right...

[Cpt.Mad 21]

Fully agree with all said here....

[i200000 717]

Although times change and the situation is different now, so it would be nice if developers would, at the very least, repeat the experiment and see what players want now.

They must be afraid of the result huh

[VaudeVille 1,428]

They must be afraid of the result huh

If they don't do something about the way supplies are sold now, the result will be far worse.

Last year during this time of the year, I used to see over 70k players online. Now I can barely see 40k players.

Most of the updates that came along didn't affect me much but now since supply kits have been removed altogether and made it less than ½ the price in $$, it will only result in a terrible increase in disparity among buyers and non buyers.

The reason why every buyer should also be worried about this is due the fact if all non buyers leave, buyers will have no one left to play with.

[dan146_tanker 770]

Non-buyers don't have as much supplies as buyers. I'm not saying make all supplies free, but I do think there should be a limitation on how many supplies can be used per player per day/battle.

[basenji7 1,199]

Under review

[btpt]

Funnily enough, developers actually did an experiment a few years ago, where no-supply battles were made free for a week. And the results showed that the increase in amount of no-supply battles that people created was negligible, suggesting that players didn't even want to play without supplies. Although times change and the situation is different now, so it would be nice if developers would, at the very least, repeat the experiment and see what players want now.

But like after the tankipocalypse (I'm pretty sure it was then) recently they gave everyone free premium for a short amount of time and I saw a lot more supply-free battles than I usually do, and there were actually people playing good games in them. 

[VaudeVille 1,428]

But like after the tankipocalypse (I'm pretty sure it was then) recently they gave everyone free premium for a short amount of time and I saw a lot more supply-free battles than I usually do, and there were actually people playing good games in them.

Even I played a few of them. I'm pretty sure that if they introduce these options in standard battles, it would solve many problems.