The Complete History of Tanki

[hogree 4,179]

In the latest issue of the newspaper, I concluded my series on the complete history of the game from an English player's perspective. A number of you will probably have seen it, if not read one of the articles at some point. I thought that it might be nice to put it all in one article for you people to read in case you are interested in seeing what happened over the old times. Thus, in this article I have compiled it. If you are interested in seeing each section separately as they are, please click the links below.
 
Starting from the very beginning of Tanki till the more recent history of the game, these articles combine a mixture of mentions of English Community events, the Forums, the game itself, Updates and even some names of active players are mentioned throughout. Though the first few articles, in my opinion, are quite low-quality in terms of writing, it does improve - and the whole series is able to display what has happened throughout every moment of the history of the game.
 
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Read Part 1 Here (Beginning - December 2009) PUBLISHED July 2013
Read Part 2 Here (January 2010 - June 2010) PUBLISHED August 2013
Read Part 3 Here (July 2010 - December 2010) PUBLISHED September 2013
Read Part 4 Here (January 2011 – June 2011) PUBLISHED October 2013
Read Part 5 Here (July 2011 – December 2011) PUBLISHED November 2013
Read Part 6 Here (January 2012 – June 2012) PUBLISHED December 2013
Read Part 7 Here (July 2012 - December 2012) PUBLISHED January 2014
Read Part 8 Here (January 2013 - June 2013) PUBLISHED February 2014
Read Part 9 Here (July 2013 - December 2013) PUBLISHED March 2014
Read Part 10 Here (January 2014 - June 2014) PUBLISHED March 2015
Read Part 11 Here (July 2014 - December 2014) PUBLISHED April 2015 
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However, I'm sure many of you readers will prefer to read it all together than having to keep flicking through articles - if maybe not for reading's sake but even to find information about Updates you have heard of in the past. Therefore, I have devised a scheme underneath this spoiler under which is the compilation of all the information found in my articles. To put it bluntly, I've put all the articles inside one! For your reading benefit! Woop de Woop!
 
Warning: Underneath this spoiler is a massive amount of words. You were warned. To be precise, the amount of words under here is pretty substantial. Don't say I didn't warn you.

 
Part 1 [beginning - December 2009] ~ 2025 Words
 
As I start this newspaper series, I want you to know this will simply be a read. No more, no less. I'm not doing any of my fancy points – I'm just going to tell you all my experience and my knowledge of what happened in the first few months of Tanki.

Back when the game was first developed and when the only Tanki players were Russian game-designers looking for glitches and prospects in the game, none of them could have expected the huge database of a project that has grown from 100 people up to 20 million, and all in under 4 years. The success of the Tanki Online game is un-debatable. However, what brought it up in its first few days?

Thankfully for me, in writing this article, I have the handy help of a friend I call “PNAU”. More specifically, Patch Notes and Updates. He will be your guide on this trip of the early history of Tanki.

The first thing PNAU has to tell us about dates back to September 1^st 2009. Tanki dates even further back though, the creation of the game began before PNAU was able to record it. Even it cant remember when the whole thing was created. In fact, Wikipedia itself can only hazard the guess at the date of “mid-2008”. Little would I know, back when I was an innocent boy of 9, how much this game would influence my growing life as a kid.

Let's jump forward past the first few days, when the first designs and updates were occuring in the game, and the first maps coming out, and get to when PNAU was born. We start as in the first situation of proper Tanki, with Smoky, Firebird, Twins and Fear Machine (now known as “Railgun”) available as weapons, and Wasp, Hunter, Titan and Dictator as tanks. This started in the beta version of Tanki Online, which was released on May the 8^th 2009.

Tanki held few players back then, just a handful, and they knew they needed new things to keep the influx of players in. It wasn't only glitches solving. There needed to be new strategies – new things to bring players in and keep them interested. A week after PNAU was born, it started. More maps began to be added to the game, and now, Private Battles were available – and flags appeared on bases for the first time in CTF mode. Imagine approaching a base which didn't have a flag? I can't. And that's barely the start. Tanki was a really weird game back in the day.

September flew by quickly for the devs, but they had one last thing to show about, which PNAU prioritizes on the 28^th. The release of Isida. I went through the whole history of Isida on my Isida guide, so if you want to read about that, head over across the grounds. However, not only did they do that, but some awesome Tanki developer managed to fit the server for 2000 people. Now, that is some nice work. And the Fear Machine changed not only its design that day, but also its strategy, as its ability to shoot through dead tanks sat quietly among the things, underneath the massive discussion regarding the release of the dreaded Isida.

But the devs weren't finished yet. On the first day of the next month, they released the first official protection paint!! Woohoo! Even PNAU couldn't believe it, so it was slightly unsure when telling me whether they actually had done it. But it seems so. For the first time, those Fear Machine – Dictator players, who had already spent their beloved cash on this game, would be able to defend themselves from the pesky enemy Fear Machines that ruined their game.
The day after, the devs had a bad day at work. Dunno whether they didn't catch some sleep, but for some reason, they decided to add the feature that Isida could self-heal without a victim!! They could LITERALLY press space bar and get life. Bit dumb, isn't it? Thankfully, the devs removed this a couple of weeks later, when their brains had returned.

During these two weeks, little happened as their brains were on holiday. But a week after the developer's Isida mania began, one developer had a masterclass idea and players started to receive what we call nowadays... *drumroll*.... Daily Bonuses! Finally, players were given gifts to encourage them each day to log on, and collect their daily gift. I must admit, I'm seriously glad of that developer's brain, as it had cleared in enough time, so we got my daily bonuses today, which I sure don't take for granted (considering I generally have under 0 drugs at the start of each day).

The following day, one of the developers was sitting down at their computers and noticed that an Isida was using “Double Damage” to heal his team-mate. “Double Damage? He's not even damaging him!” he thought. Thus, bringing it up to his fellow developers, they re-named the Double Damage to the new name of Double Power. Just because of that Isida's healing ability. Isida was really causing a lot of changes at this point!

The following day, Isida was shifted in its power again, as developers began to realise that it was now overpowered. They eventually, four days later, removed the self-healing effect and only allowed self-healing when attacking an opponent.

Now, it was proper time for the developers to get going! Pleased with their decision to remove Isida's self-healing-no-enemy effect, the developers decided to add some new maps into the game. Duel, Magistral, Lost Temple, and........ Dusseldorf (sigh), were added into the game. And not only that, but on the same day, Fear Machine was renamed to Railgun! Now, why was that? Mainly because it wasn't feared any more. Isida was arguably better, and Railgun had only “feared” properly, when only it and the Tier 1s had been out.

Some more strategic updates that day, were points given out for returning flags, and double points for killing enemies with the flag. And an object was added to the garage! “Double Points” were given as a card which you could buy which would give you double points for either the next 6 hours or the next 72 hours. This was, however, as you may have noticed, changed to score multiplier pass 6 months afterwards, when score multiplier was released.

After such a stressful update as that, the developers took a break – I expect some of them went on holiday to the Caribbean maybe – but for sure, there was not much more after that for another month. A few glitches were solved, FPS was upped, but no strategic changes in particular. Until December.

You can understand if the developers wanted to do some stuff to excite the players, as the updates had not been rolling in recently, and the players were interested in leaving; but what they did next, was surely a bit over-the-top? The developers brought in the 1000 gold box.

Now, don't think this was normal. This was a 1000 gold box. Before Update 123. This was falling in 700-fund battles, and now, players were on the mad craze for one of these. Picture it – you pick up one of these, and you practically get M2 Railgun right away. You pick up 4, and you're well over the amount needed for M3.

Inflation rose, and the developers knew they needed to stop it, as 1000 was far too much for a gold box to be sensible, and they reduced it a week later to the 100 gold box. The players moaned, but it was, as a lot of the updates are, best for the whole of Tanki in general.

Along with this, on December the 3^rd, the Tanki developers added Serpuhov, Siege, and Short Bridge into the game. And the sky box was changed. And, as if you didn't believe it, the 'Pause' feature was also added into Tanki, so now, you could take a toilet break during a Deathmatch and not worry about giving your enemies kills, while away, but rather stay as a ghost all the time, until you were kicked out for inactivity 5 minutes later. Of course, hopefully, you would be back within 5 minutes. Otherwise, there would be no point in using the Pause mode.

A week on, the developers changed the 1000 gold to 100 gold, as I mentioned above. And they also made a move to stop the profanity-lovers on the server chats, as they improved the use of auto-censoring in the cases of people swearing publicly on chats. They also re-changed the Nitro look on your tank when equipped, and re-opened the Hall of Fame.

I may not have mentioned the Hall of Fame, before, but it was a list of all the Tanki players, listed by their rating, which was sorted by their rank, crystals, D/L ratio, and their Tanki results. However, it had to be removed afterwards, as the database began not to be able to cope with the amount of Tanki players coming in to the game.

As I approach the end of 2009, you might not think Tanki had a lot left in store for us, but boy, did they! Another week on, on the 18^th of December, Tanki brought out a number of new updates. Five new maps were added, including the old Fort Knox (which was recently removed), and Bobruisk. They also made sure that you could not use a First Aid when you had full health (Another thing that I take for granted – I mean, I can't count the amount of times I've accidentally pressed No. 1 on my keyboard but not used an Aid due to full health!). They made sure you could not equip drugs while being in “ghost” mode as you are respawning, and they changed the look of your own tank. As you drove, now, you could not see your rank and name above your health and turret loading speed. You only saw those two familiar green/red/blue and yellow bars.

The devs weren't satisfied, and they wanted to finish the year off on a high. On the 23^rd, two days before Christmas, the devs changed a couple of things, to start off, a common festive theme that has lasted through the Tanki New Year's. The flag was changed to fir trees, and Tanki released – for the very first time – winter maps. They also added the feature of changing caps in writing to lower-case automatically in certain circumstances, which lives on, affecting the lives of caps spammers, to this very day. :P

And they continued working on Christmas Day, as they improved the looks of the winter maps, with shadows coming in, and the flag design changing.

You might think it would be high time for the devs to take a winter break, but they weren't close to done. They updated their SMS payment system to 67 countries on the 29^th of December, along with redesigning the section for buying crystals. The following day, Isida was re-shuffled from healing in “Percentage terms” to “HP” (read “History” section on my Isida guide”), and an option to enable/disable chat inside battles were added.

The developers weren't even done yet. On Christmas Eve, they suddenly released an update that not even PNAU was sure about. To put it in his own words: “It's the New Year's Eve, and all the guns have gone crazy!” He didn't know what was going on, and I was going to give up on my search for the truth. But my colleague, Lhamster, saved me by finding information for me somewhere. On this day, though it may seem impossible, that year, the Firebirds shot coloured papers, Isida shot fireworks, Smoky fired snow balls, and Railgun shot some long coloured lollipops! That must have been some party! I can't remember that, to my shame, but I can just imagine how fun that must have been for the first Tanki players. The devs had not failed them; and the game would continue to grow throughout the next year...
 
Part 2 [January 2010 - June 2010] ~ 2397 Words

The stage was set fine after last issue. We continue straight after the New Year 2010 celebration, with everything set exactly as it was at the end of the previous episode of “In the Beginning, Tanki”. Isida had been released, and Tanki was progressing well. but the developers had a lot of things up their sleeves.
 
2010 began, and the hype after the New Year's celebration started to die down. The developers were considering future prospects, and having their playerbase interested with many fun events such as the New Year's party, they were able to take their time over them.
 
In that time, the developers were able to think of future changes. On January 12^th, the first update occurred in 2010 that PNAU records. The developers, tired of seeing overwhelming amounts of Railguns and Isidas at high ranks, had an idea to buff Twins for a week. Suddenly, a lot of Twins could be seen being used at the high ranks. A risky, but effective update, and Tanki was able to consider future options in the week. On the whole, the result of it led to a great advantage in widespread gameplay.
 
Midway through the month, Tanki tech support team started to step up the pace to keep up with their fellow developers. A stop to the “speed-hackers” was made, with a sensor to check if a tank was moving abnormally.
 
Tanki was planning ahead for some big updates – and the next came a week on. On the 22^nd of January, a group of developers started to consider new updates that the community might like. Since drug battles were currently the only option, every game for the high ranks seemed to cost them millions. All their battles were drug wars, and some of them were getting tired of having to spend all their battle funds on more and more supplies. Thus, what we know now as “No Supplies Battles” were brought into the game for the first time.
 
Twins was re-shuffled back with a bit of a buff from its original self, and a couple of edits in aiming and bullet speed were put in too. Also, the sound of Twins shooting was changed. I personally don't know what it sounded like before, but it must have been pretty different for PNAU to note it down. I must admit, it would be interesting to hear what it was like back in the day... Twins nowadays sounds like an endless bombardment of spitfire laser cannons. High-pitched spitfire laser cannons.
 
A number of chat updates had started to occur as well. Chat automated karma was brought in. Some people, who had only been banned a couple of times, would only receive a warning if they flooded, whilst others, who had been banned far more times, would be given stricter punishments for their faults. Along with this, the algorithms behind automatic bans were changed. Foul language sensors were changed slightly to fit more options, and flood became due to repeated letters in a row. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, that must been a great update. :D
 
Another great update that we take for granted today was made on this day – anyone remember seeing Connection Closed By Server? Well, before this day, if this popped up on your screen – that was that; you've lost all your points. Imagine being top of your team, and your connection closes? All your points were extinguished. However, now, if you refreshed your page within 2 minutes, you kept your points.
 
This was certainly a big day for updates, for along with this came the release of referrals. You could now pass around the Tanki Online link, with your referral on it, and people who signed up would give your crystals. At this point, there was no way to check your referrals, and how much you had received from your friends - the update of the “Invitation Statistics Button” was added into the interface some time later.
 
A month passed, the tankers enjoying the new relishing of playing NS battles, and getting crystals from their real life friends who they invited to Tanki. The developers, enjoying seeing the success of such a massive update, planned ahead for another big one – which they released to the world on February the 10^th. Major updates included the release of mines and the differing graphic effect of each modification of a weapon. Along with this, came a host of different updates, including the check-in of availability of nicks when signing up [The tick and the cross next to the name, to show whether you can create an account], and the release of Chernobyl. Strategy-wise, now, an Isida healing the player with the flag would receive double points for each second they heal their team-mate carrying the flag. Great incentive to attack for an Isida, I think! :D
 
February passed by, and the playerbase slowly built. Tanki didn't want to re-shuffle too many things, so updates were few and far between till March came, and updates started to pick up pace again.
 
The fifth of March signalled a couple of releases to the garage. Along with other minor updates, the Score Multiplier Pass and No Supplies Battle Pass were added to the garage today. Before this, Double Points was around, but the developers had realised that was too extreme, thus replacing it with the Score Multiplier. Also, for the high ranks who previously had to pay for every NS game they joined, a No Supplies Pass was released in the garage. This slowly increased the amount of No Supply games in the battlefield, as a general rule. Apart from the addition of the two passes, mines were added to Daily Bonus Gifts.
 
Five days on, the developers expirimented with the power of Isida, as they noticed the points for healing with it seemed a little too strong, as Isida users were gaining two times the amount of points healing as they would for killing someone. Developers felt healing with Isida was getting too out of hand, as players were ranking up in double-quick time. Thus, the Isida healing co-efficient was reduced as an experiment down to 1.5 times the amount you would get for killing.
 
It was already mid-March. The developers recognised the need for some proper updates, or at least what the players would call proper. Something that would interest them, rather than update glitches, or the tiny strategy updates. Something which would grab their attention. So 4 days later, another large update hit the road.
 
Before, the only maps you saw were with old props. Take Serpuhov for example. And Tribute. And Boombox. Anything similar between these maps? They all used the old props. And up to then, there was no signs of maps such as Farm, Desert, Polygon... The graphic developers had been working on a new style of props for a while, and the release was on March 19^th.
 
The first map to be released with the new props was Novel. The players went ballistic! Something that looked different was a start - something that looked better was even more awesome! It was a revolutionary change for Tanki, that would change styles of maps all around. The brighter graphic quality and props made for a much nicer-looking gameplay arena.
 
They didn't stop there. Boombox, Sandal and Short Bridge, previously known as the “newbie maps”, as they were only available for the lower ranks, were spread out and given ability to be played at high ranks, by adding the maps Boombox II, Sandal II and Short Bridge II. Firebird was shuffled as well, as for the first time you could see different colours coming from different modifications of Firebird. Now, we again have the same colour coming from all modifications because of the new graphics update, but with this update, you could start to see strange fires escaping the turret, particularly at M2 (Pink), and M3 (Blue).
 
Developers testing gameplay also noticed a flaw in returning the flag. If someone just simply took the flag one metre away from the flag, and you returned, you would get the same amount of points as returning it just as the enemy was about to capture in their base. Thus, they re-shuffled the points system by the distance from your flag when you returned it.
 

 
 
March passed like a lightning bolt. Tanki was growing, and its addicting feature was starting to kick in. The news of the game was spreading. The technical developers worked out lessening the lag, and at the end of March, they sorted out some problems with lag, such as delayed grabbing of flags. The First Stage of Server Optimization was finished.
 
The next day, more bugs were fixed. The second stage was completed in lag reducing. Password changing bugs were sorted out, and a couple of things were added to the interface too. Now, you could see the money you were earning from your friends you had invited. The button “Invitation Statistics” was added to the game. On top of this, the feature of adding purchase or improvement confirmation was put into the game. Before, you press the button “Buy” accidentally, and you've purchased it. Now, for those less confident with their mouse, the feature of confirmation to buy things was added, just in case of an accidental click.
 
As the tank playerbase grew, the developers planned for a big update which would produce something that lasts to this very day - new weapons and new tanks. They considered things that would be interesting and good for players. The strong players were stuck on Fear Machine and Isida now. Gameplay had been exciting for a while, but now it was only the snipers and the healers doing business at the upper end on the battlefield. The developers understood the importance of keeping the high ranks in the game, as they were the most likely to spend money on the battle. They understood also that the upper ranks were getting slightly bored with the current state of weapon variety at the upper end of ranks. So a plan was created to add a new weapon.
 
It came at the latter end of April, in another of Tanki's huge updates. The weapon known as Thunder was added to the battlefield. Not only this, but a hull was added on top of Dictator too. This completely changed the state of things. Dictator had always been the aim for every Tanki player. Now a stronger tank was added to the game. It was called Viking.
 
The hull and weapon overwhelmed the rest of the updates. But they were seriously influential updates. One of the most popular maps of today was added to the game this day. Be quiet as I tell you the name........... Silence. Zone and Industrial Zone were added too, as the new props started to affect the game even more. Some of the weapons and tanks were re-shuffled slightly in price and damage/health too as the gameplay developers began to think of ways to affect the game even more. And that week held far more interesting updates for the pro. FAR more interesting updates.
 
The very next day, the speed tank was added to the game. Hornet was added, and the players went wild! Two new hulls to get in two days! Three days afterward signalled the release of yet another hull. You all know what it is. The big beast. Mammoth.
 
With these four massive releases, Tanki were careful to note the player's thoughts on the weapons and tanks added to the game. If one of these hulls was too overpowered, it could easily cause a lot of people to leave. However, it was generally a very positive response to the release, and there was no need for the developers to do any major shifts to the new additions to the game.
 
Sound affected the interest of players to the game too, and a developer testing his weapons noted that the sound of his Thunder and Twins shooting was too loud in comparison to the other weapons. and on the first day of May, they reduced the sound of Thunder and Twins shooting.
 
It was time for updates to slow down. As the Russians approached holiday period, they decided to plan ahead to a final large update. Small bug updates were dotted around the month of May, but the devs had one big update on their mind.
 
June 4^th was the date set for the update, and it all happened on the day. Most prominently,  large amount of new maps were released - 10 in total: 2042, Island, Combe, Desert, Gravity, Pass, Deck-9, Canyon, Polygon and Plato (Highland) – the majority being made from Figishe, the famous map-maker who is renowned for making some of the most popular maps in the game.
 
Added to this were changes to the format of No Supplies battle prices. Devs could see NS battles weren't selling as much as hoped, so they decided to add a new feature. You could now pay single fares to play a NS battle, and the price was halved for a NS monthly pass.
 
Other additions that live on to this day were the addition of Isida modification colour differences and the worldwide planting of the gold box. By the latter, I mean that there would be the possibility for a gold box to fall in all maps now.
 
Chat was updated too. Now recruit spammers could not use the chat, but rather needed to play and rank to Private before being able to chat. This reduced the amount of flooders on the server lobby. Also, a banned player could now see the remaining time of their ban by typing into the chat. For me, this is really useful considering the amount of times I get banned for flood while typing to my friends. :lol:
 
Finally, the daily bonus system was changed. Developers realised the importance of keeping people logging in, and they attracted more players to log in by offering the possibility of receiving crystals as your daily bonus. Also, to give players unwilling to spend crystals the opportunity to try out in No Supplies battles, No Supplies daily passes were offered out as daily bonus options.
 
And so Tanki moved forward. From next issue, you'll be able to see my own opinions, as I joined in October 2010, so I can talk myself about what was happening.
 
Part 3 [July 2010 - December 2010] ~ 1708 Words

Tanki was in the midst of some completely game-changing updates as we enter this issue's edition of “In The Beginning Tanki”. Just at the end of last issue, we saw a massive amount of new maps released, as well as the release of Thunder, Hornet and Viking just a couple of months back.
 
With a few big releases just behind them, the developers prepared for some more large updates to come. It was approaching summer – gaming period for many people, and they would need some real attractions to reel them into Tanki. All the developers throughout Tanki were working on their own part of a new update to come, one of those massive ones that they were known to release.
 
The date of the release was the 8^th of July. Most prominent among the updates were undoubtedly the release of two new weapons. The names? You can guess yourselves. Freeze and Ricochet.
 
The two weapons released were to change gameplay forever. Up to this point, the only gameplay style that was suitable at the high ranks was separated by large distances. Railgun and Thunder were definitely the most commonly used weapons, and Isida was the only short-range strong weapon, which was primarily used for healing at any point. To see two new weapons, far more deadly at short range, was a big update, and extending to a part of Tanki that the developers had not been able to accommodate beforehand.
 
Accompanying the mass-attack short-range weapon release, and to get the use of the new weapons higher, came the release of the majority of today's popular small maps. Farm, Noise, Station, Massacre, Atra and Ping Pong were all added to the battlefields today. The addition of these and the new weapons made a much different and much more fast-pace battling experience on the battlefield. On top of this, there was a change to flag indications as the warnings such as "#Playername has taken your flag" which had previously appeared in the centre of your screen (like it does now), was moved down to the corner, next to the flag score. This was one of Tanki's more unsuccessful updates, and later they changed it back, as they realised the players generally disliked the change.
 
And it didn't stop there. Today, weight was introduced to all the hulls. Now, Wasp was more easy to turtle than mammoth because of how light it was. This was a large update for the developers as statistics were less important, but rather also, the “safety” and weight of the hull. Along with this, the new hulls (Hornet, Viking and Mammoth) were granted different looks at each modification, to distinguish the different levels of the hulls.
 
Chat was changed too. Battle links were now clickable on the lobby chat to find battles in a much quicker way. Battle links with profanity in their name were also automatically deleted. And finally, a few of the important words in battle were edited too. In battle, the terms Killed, Died, and Suicided were changed into Destroyed, Lost and Self-Destructed, to distinguish them from human terms.
 
The hidden side behind the interface wasn't going to be left out, and lags were reduced, and server speeds optimised, as the other major updates occurred on the scene.
 
The update set the scene of Tanki for summer, as people grew accustomed to the changing gameplay with the new weapons, and new maps.
 
A few in-game problems were sorted out later that month. For one, the flag indicator was brought back into the game but with a fade to clear the words at the top of the screen now. Freeze and Ricochet were messed around with a bit, as modification shots were seen differently, and Freeze's freezing ability was changed with each modification. However, most prominently, at the end of July, were the release of a number of new paints, mostly with protection, including Loam, Mary and Python. These gave a new sense of variety in the game. These were mostly to cover the release of the new weapons, and give the players something to protect from the common threats at the high ranks.
 
A day later, on the 30^th of July, two more maps were added. Opposition and the famous Madness were brought into the game. Madness was a map like no other, with its bottom and top completely different from all other maps, particularly in CTF mode. This was an exciting map, and very common to find in the battlefield, when it was released.
 
The summer passed through August fast, as players settled back into life after a hardcore gaming period during the summer months. Increase in players came up to a high of 400k players during this month, which was a large landmark for the Tanki developers.
 
The end of the month, however, held a few interesting updates including the release of the pre-rebalance 7k and 10k paints (Cedar, Taiga, Sandstone, Rock, Clay and Prodigi), and many of the cheaters were stopped and fined. Along with this, came a change in the way the First Aid Box gave health, as it would now give you 50% of your hull's original HP. And luckily for many of us English players, the Russian and English chat were also split up this day. This means that we wouldn't be constantly surrounded by Russians on our chat, giving us more freedom to chat with other people.
 
Another month went by before the next updates, and updates began to slow down for the rest of the year. You see, the more updates there were, the more gameplay would change. And happily, the developers were satisfied, to a certain extent, with the current condition of Tanki's gameplay.
 
September passed with little more than minor graphic updates catching the attention of PNAU. However, I feel that now would be a good time to introduce me onto the scene. I created my account, hogree, in October, but from before this, I had often watched my brother, skitee, playing the game, and I had a strong knowledge about what was going on. I must admit, my memory isn't strong enough for me to remember every little detail of what was going on those first days of Freeze and Ricochet's release, but I remember my excitement whenever I saw a glimpse of one of those weapons, which were very rarely seen at that time, and at my brother's low rank.
 
The beginning of October held an interesting updates, as Freeze's strength was changed and freezing speed increased. This was so potentially large that for a few days, Freeze was removed from the garage and crystals that you paid for Freeze refunded back to you. Three days later, the familiar sight of Freeze returned to players' garages.
 
Two maps were released also in October, in Camp (which was recently removed from the game) and Garder. Along with this was the obvious but clever update that one developer spotted needing changing, in automatically deleting messages whenever an auto-ban for flood occurred. I must admit, I have often been annoyed with people flooding constantly while I have been having a chat with someone on the server lobby, and I even have the privilege of seeing their messages deleted from cyberspace at a ban. I can't imagine how the old players were able to handle it! :lol:
 
Tanki Online's areas of influence wasn't only through word of mouth. Tanki was entering itself into a few award contests, to boost its name among gamers. A fantastic result for the developers was gaining the position of 10^th place at the end of November in the Runet Awards, a renowned games award in Russia. It was also entered for the Mashable Awards in December where it gained a good result.
 
Winter was approaching fast, and the developers were ready to notice it. On the 1^st of December, they released winter modes once again for the maps. The graphic qualities were also improved this year from last year's winter mode, but this wasn't to be the main event of the winter....
 
Grabbing the headlines in December was the awesome news that Tanki had received its millionth user! For the developers, this must have been a dream come true - to overhaul the landmark of a million was something many games didn't manage! To celebrate, they gifted the lucky player who had created his account a Tanki online flask and T-Shirt. Along with this was the release of the Holiday paint - to celebrate the winter!
 
As the New Year was approaching, Tanki planned for a big celebration to greet their players with the Christmas season. As Christmas approached, the developers released the map Old Silence (Silence nowadays) before a new holiday paint hit the scenes at Christmas.
 
Just before the New Year, Tanki gave their players the first ever discount. 25% on all garage items was offered, and the players went crazy! It was truly spending season, as players started donating their Christmas cash into Tanki.
 
However, undoubtedly the main event of the season was once again, the New Year Celebration. This year, I can remember clearly exactly what happened - and I even can find a video showing what happened. You can watch it here. The map was square, like Sandbox, with a Christmas tree in the middle, and round it, loads of boxes fell. The clever thing about this year's celebration was the fact that you didn't know what box you were getting - it could be any supply, a crystal box, or even a two, five or ten crystal box! It was a crystal machine, and some players even stayed up overnight just to get the full blessings of the New Year Map. However, it was definite that the season was truly alive in Tanki.
 
Looking back on 2010, we see so many new updates. Many of the big releases occurred during this year, such as the release of all the "Tier 2" weapons and tanks. Many of the legendary English community members joined Tanki this year too, including Lhamster, AdvocatusDiaboli, hotwheel, MadDog21, skitee, cheese3000 and, of course, me. However, what Tanki were planning for next was something embedded in the history of Tanki as the biggest Tanki saga of all time.. it was Tanki 2.0.
 
Part 4 [January 2011 - June 2011] ~ 3216 Words
 

It was now 2011. The New Year party had just finished, though the 25% discount had run on into January. Though it was still Christmas season, developers weren't taking a rest yet. Definitely not.
 
New Year's Day. Chill out right? Well, tankmen were able to celebrate the new year in style, as not only was there the midnight party, but a couple of new maps hit planet Tanki too. Valley, arguably the least-played map ever was added to the game (I mean come on guys, who, apart from Tanki addicts, can remember what Valley even looks like, let alone remember playing it?), as well as Courage, which could probably be a good fighter for second place, especially since the map rank limits recently set put Courage as a map only playable for ranks General+. (Saying that, as I was writing this bit, I just popped onto the server, and saw a Courage. Oh well.)
 
Though the first day of January signaled a release of a couple of maps, it was a relatively quiet month in regards to game news. However, a few things were updated such as the return of the “Search System” in the Hall of Fame, the return of the “Bonuses” button when creating a No Supplies Battle (allowing freedom in creating a NS battle as regards to allowing drops or not), an update on Battle Creation form, and problems were solved regarding email, private battles and referral links. On top of that, the end of the month signaled the release of the epic “Update 1.50”. To be honest, nothing really happened, apart from basic solving of lags. But it was still a good landmark for the devs to make.
 
The month quickly passed as the cold of the winter kept people indoors playing Tanki, and the player base grew. So much so that the Hall of Fame began to store too much information, and the developers needed to change the searching system on the Hall of Fame on the 1^st of February to help keep it running up to necessary speeds.
 
The temperature was warming up (well, at least, in the West), and so too was the Tanki updates, as February arrived. A couple of days after the Hall of Fame changes, a big update hit the blocks for Tanki. Among this update were the typical reduce-lag-speed-up-Tanki updates, but also, a few relatively interesting things were added to the game. One of the more prominent updates of the day was the release of the “Buy” button. The “Buy” button at the top of your gaming screens before this didn't exist. I remember the days when there was just a tiny Shopping Cart, next to your crystal allowance for you to click when you wanted to buy. However, the developers realised that wasn't so visible, so they decided to add a clear “Buy” Button in replacement.
 
As well as this came large updates to the rank-up process. Ranking up now would bring up a huge message on your screen, signaling your new rank. Before this, there had just been a yellow flash on your points bar, and no message on your screen. I remember the first time I ranked up after this update (at Master Sergeant), and the massive words that filled my screen! Later, the words were shrinked to stop hindering game play so much. I'm sure we all also know the experience of leaving a battle after ranking up and having a pile of weapons, tanks and hulls we can now unlock chucked at us in a list on the lobby. This list of “new stuff” was added on this day so that players could see what they had just unlocked.
 
The days stretched past in the Tanki departments, as players started to get back to “Summer” mode again, as the Christmas decorations, flags and supplies were changed back to the original summer look. On the 11^th of February, another few updates hit Tanki.
 
Most prominent among these was the release of a new Daily Bonus gift for players. You probably can guess. The infamous Double Crystal Card. Though the release led me to get my first and only purchase of crystals in my entire Tanki career, it was greeted by mixed reactions by everyone, and still is. However, there's no doubt that its a very useful gift for buyers.
 
Along with this was the release of a new holiday paint for the upcoming holiday Valentine's Day. My brother, skitee, co-incidentally was infatuated with this paint. You can probably guess the colour. Pink. Lags, once again, were reduced (you can tell the Tanki Tech support weren't holding back with their lag reduction at this point) and a few in-game glitches solved.
 
Two days later, there was an introduction to the game that was something quite unique in the entire history of Tanki. Introduced into the game was a weapon like no other, a weapon of epic proportions. The greatest weapon ever, introduced into the battlefield. Some will know it, some won't. But we all know it as the one and only Smoky XT.
 
To sum up Smoky XT in one word, it would be this – Over-powered. The weapon was brought out, with an alert that it would only be around for one week, however, and that there would be no refund for crystals spent on it. It had the damage of an M3 Thunder and the reload of a Smoky however, and its power was unbeatable. But the price tag of 3950 crystals (39,500 in today's currency – and remember that that many crystals in the old days were very special, especially considering the unlock rank of Smoky XT was at the minute rank of WO2.) steered people away from it. Only the few rich buyers decided to cash out on it.
 
However, the developers noticed the problem, and two days later, upped the already over-powered damage from 16-36 damage per shot, to 26-46! Now people seriously considered getting the weapon. For a week, Smoky XT's everywhere dominated the higher-ranking battlefield in particular. To catch some game play of Smoky XT, watch a video here showing the power of this weapon.
 
As a Smoky XT craze was passing through Tanki, the developers were changing payment systems slightly, and preparing for two main updates that were in their plans, and they had told the players were coming soon – the new weapon, Shaft, and Tanki 2.0. On the 17^th of February, they also changed registration systems in the game and also on the forum, as now players under the rank of Gefreiter could no longer post on the forum.
 
The 23^rd of February celebrated a special holiday in Russia, the “Defender of the Fatherland” Day. In honour of the day, a 23% discount landed on Tanki (due to the date), bringing joy to most of the players, and annoyance to the noobs who wanted a 25% discount, and weren't happy with 23%. A new Holiday Paint also joined the game. There was also a new incentive for people to buy for the first time, as there would be a 100 crystal bonus for the first-time buyer. That may sound like very little, but for a noob rank who could pay only a minute amount for their first purchase and receive almost triple the amount they paid for, it was a very welcome update. This too, was an incentive, for me to buy crystals, so after this update, I immediately purchased some crystals, my only buy in my three years of playing Tanki.
 
February passed by, after a busy month, and Tanki entered March as its player base grew. On the 4^th of March, the Tanki developers realised that their player base was getting so large that they needed extra servers, so four new servers were launched.
 
The same day held another couple of updates as the Nitro effect on frozen tanks was enhanced so that people under the effect of Freeze would be able to feel a speed boost, even before their freeze ran out. Also came the new Holiday Paint for the International Women's Day, which was coming up on the 9^th March. Specially for the day, every tankman was given a Double Crystal Card. It was quite a novelty back then to get a DCC, as it was a rare Daily Bonus, so, believe it or not, there was a happy reception to the free DCC given out to everyone.
 
Apart from that, March was a month of little activity as for game news. However, the build-up to Tanki 2.0 was reaching boiling point. Pictures had been released of the new look, and the people who would come with the tanks, and the likes of this. Also, the Google sketchup map-making was on a thriving at that time on the forum, as people began to create map ideas for 2.0 plans.
 
On the 16^th of March, Tanki celebrated their 2^nd million player. Again, the lucky player was given a free T-Shirt and mug to celebrate the landmark they had made. Little would they know that only 30 months later, they would have reached nearly 35 million players!
 
Towards the end of the month, minor updates to the registration form, and small changes to the map Courage were noted down by PNAU, but April quickly approached.
 
The first things of notice occurred midway through April. Two main events occurred on April 11^th. The one that is most significant and most prominent in Tanki News was definitely the release of a map like no other. Madness had been mad enough, but this was on a level of mad, which didn't even compare. Space Madness.
 
Now, you guys might think, “Well, maybe its just a bit like Moon Silence, except its Madness.” You couldn't be more wrong. Space Madness. The game play was completely absurd. But fun! The zero gravity feel to it left many players kicking their keyboards in annoyance, but it was exciting in its own way too. And it made for some awesome kills. One of the best Tanki kills I have ever seen in my whole Tanki history recorded can be watched here – one of my best friends in real life videoed the moment. ;) However, this map was not around for that long, only a few months before it was taken down. Anyway, it wasn't for serious battlers, just for a bit of fun.
 
Along with this, was perhaps a more monumental moment in Tanki's English history. The clan “Dare Devils” was created on April 11^th 2011, that very day, by Molina, a pre Shadow Strikers members who had a vision that splitting up could lead to the first proper clan wars in the history of Tanki. Before this, it had only be Shadow Strikers as the sole clan. It was successful. DD flourished (probably because I joined right near the beginning :P) and clans begun to slowly grow in the Community.
 
The next updates were on April 21^st, as Massacre's player availability grew from only 3 players per team to 5 players per team, creating a more exciting gamep lay arena for the players. Many players started to play Massacre, as the flags in the centre of the map and having the enemy flag in your side made for quick captures and exciting game play. Also, a couple of glitches were sorted out, such as taking a flag beneath you from a level above (i.e. taking a flag on the ground from on top of it on a bridge.)
 
May hit the scenes, and the excitement rose for the release of 2.0 on June 4^th and similarly for the upcoming release of the new weapon, Shaft. On the 9^th of May, however, another famous holiday lit up Tanki – the yearly Victory Day celebration was to be celebrated with a special new temporal drop box. The 50 crystal box was added to the game, which would drop each about every 200-300 fund. This was at the time of the 700 Gold Box, so it was great for players who didn't play such long battles to be able to get the chance to hunt down a box in smaller battles. Along with this came a neat-looking Holiday Paint to celebrate.
 
Tanki progressed through May and the 16^th of May held a big update to game rules, as moderators began to press on their dictatorship on Tanki. As the summer approached, another clan that has lasted through the years appeared on the scene. On the 20th of May, The Ironclads was created as an unofficial clan, by chriswu, and it lives on to this day, like Dare Devils. I joined from day 1 of IC, and still am in it to this very day. That's probably the reason why its still alive, to be honest :P This was during the influx of "Unofficial clans" on the forum, as people who were lower ranks and wanted a clan started to create clans and grow. Only a couple of the unofficial clans actually managed to thrive for a while - The Ironclads and C00kies Cr3w.
 
All the same, Tanki in-game updates were getting serious too. Three days later, on the 23rd, a few large updates hit Tanki. Most prominent among these were the additions of two new maps. Atra II (Who even plays that), and Rift, both made by Flanagun, the Russian administrator, were added to the battlefield. Rift, in particular, in its first few days was extremely popular.
 
Keyboard controls also had an update on this day, as the function of using “Q & E” as controls for camera view was added to the game for the first time. This was an extremely useful update, as many players had struggled to use Pg Up and Pg Down on their keyboards as a control for camera view.
 
The following day, Tanki gained a fantastic award in gaining “Best Technology Award” for their AE3D8 engine, which they were using to create 2.0, at the Russian KRI 2011 Awards. A video showing the graphics they were planning for 2.0 can be watched here. The irony came when the news hit three days later... but I'm not going to spoil it for you. Read on.
 
Now, for a proper update as you players might call it. A garage release was on its way, and players celebrated! 26^th May, a couple of days later, was the set date, and it arrived right as planned. Three of the most renowned paints from before the rebalance, and still after the rebalance, entered the battlefield. They were each to give massive protections on the main three weapons of the day at the latter end of the ranks – Thunder, Freeze and Ricochet. Their names? Emerald, Inferno and Zeus.
 
These paints gave a new sense of rivalry in the upper-rank battlefield - as the best paints in the game, there was suddenly a more intense battlefield, and the brilliant looks on them, particularly Emerald in my opinion, made for new paint goals in the future.
 
The happiness of the news that they had three new paints only managed to last with many of the players for one day, as horrific news reached players' ears on the following day. The news on 2.0 had been quite little the previous month, so players were getting unsure about the release, but it was announced that the inevitable had happened.
 
Tanki 2.0 had been postponed.
 
The players disappointment was evident, as the delay stretched on for the 2.0 they had seen videos about, and looked forward to so much. However, to brighten up the players' spirits, Tanki released pictures of the coming weapon, Shaft, at the end of May - the weapon which was set to come out in June. Players' excitements grew as they waited to see the new game play it would bring.
 
Another celebration came on June 4th, as it was Tanki's second birthday! The developers celebrated by throwing out double daily bonuses for three days, and even doubling the gold box value for the celebrations. It was a happy time for the players.
 
Now, contests had always been few and far between for players on the English side of Tanki. There had been an interesting sort of competition during 2010 in the English side of Tanki, trying to get players to spread the news of Tanki over Forums, and the like. Players were given 300 crystals (3000 in today's currency) for each different forum they posted a topic about Tanki in, for up to a maximum of 10 forums each player. More information about this interesting contest can be found here. However, that had not been really any contest for the English players yet in 2011. The English players were envious of the Russians, who had epic contests such as Tanki "trailer" contests, and even the competition going on at that present time in the Russian side - the famous "Miss Tanki Online 2011". However, English people were to get contests soon, but not as yet... the first contest was in July 2011 for the English players, so there was still a bit more of a wait left...
 
June speedily passed, as the player base grew in the game and in the forum. However, right at the end of June, just before the midway point of Tanki, a massive update hit Tanki. Most notable among the updates was the huge release of the ultimate weapon. You all know it. Shaft.
 
Shafts release was exciting for many players, but to most it was a let-down. The power and ability of the weapon wasn't strong in comparison to the other M3 Weapons, and they were disappointed at the release they had looked forward to for so long. Tanki were to update the weapon later on in the year, but we'll find out about that in next issue's edition of "In the Beginning Tanki".
 
Buried under the news of Shaft release came small updates. For one, Daily Bonus was edited so it could be given out to all ranks, right from the very beginning. Also, Sandbox was added for high ranks as well as low ranks, as previously Sandbox had only been a map for newbies. This was a big update, considering the way that Sandbox is all so popular at the high ranks nowadays, rather than the low ranks. 
 
And we close off this issue's edition of In the Beginning Tanki there, just a couple of days after the release of Shaft, as the second part of 2011 begins. To finish this historic article, I find it necessary to find a good video to show you about Tanki in this period. Though me and my brother made a video for a video contest right at the end of 2010 (you can watch THAT here), the second-position video was a fantastic example of game play in this period. I probably should have posted it in last month's edition, as it was published at the end of 2010, but its still a great video that relates to this period of Tanki as well.
 

 
Note: I mentioned lots of Holiday Paints in this article. If you want to look at lots of the ancient holiday paints, feel free to check out this topic which shows many of the holiday paints in 2010 and 2011.
 
Part 5 [July 2011 - December 2011] ~ 4030 Words

The release of Shaft was still shaking the grounds of Tanki when July hit. The forum was full of very mixed opinions. Some were extremely disappointed at the power of the new weapon, whilst others were entranced and couldn't get their fingers off it. However, the Tanki developers had to admit that Shaft was a bit too weak for its current accomplices Tier Twos. But it was not to be re-shuffled as yet.
 
To be fair, the Tanki team in general were focusing on a rather important release in the next few days, so they couldn't spend so much time focusing on Shaft. And no, it wasn't another piece of garage equipment. It was something monumental, something different from all normal updates. It was the release of German Tanki.
 
To have something new on this scale was something that can only be compared to back when Tanki was released, at the "beginning of time". This was much looked forward for, especially for German players of course, but also for other people from foreign countries playing Tanki, as it gave hope for a different language of Tanki to be released. The German players were created on the same database as the English and Russian players but they had a seperate server at the end of the servers which could not be seen on the other homepages, but could be URL'd (I believe it was Server 26) which was made particularly for Germans.
 
The craze then was, of course, for the look-out for more different languages of Tanki. Though this was a great landmark for Tanki, many players were disgruntled at how Germans had received the next edition of Tanki, especially the many Arabs who spent a large amount of money on Tanki, and had hoped for a release of an Arabic Tanki. There was, however, never a release of Arabic Tanki as hoped for in the future. That didn't significantly detriment the playerbase of Tanki, as there are still a large amount of Arabs but how many more Arabs would have joined if Arabic Tanki had been brought about, we will never know.
 
July was the summer, and the Tanki developers had to spark something up to liven up gameplay during the summer, and that event was, to put it bluntly, awesome. A week after the release of German Tanki, something known as the “Secret Gold Box Event” was announced. Molotov. 1000 Gold. Small Bridge. Ring any bells?
 
If you can't remember this by any chance, you missed out big time! The gold box event originally was set out secretly so they said that on one map (which nobody knew) the 1000 gold box would drop at around 1000 fund. This was 10,000 in today's currency, and this would have bought you an M2 Railgun by itself back in those days pre-rebalance and pre-Update123 so this was an opportunity like no other for players. It was soon discovered to be Molotov, and the players bombed in for Molotov matches, hunting down the special gold.
 
Now, remember that this was back in the day when there was no alert that popped up like “such-and-such has taken the gold box”. This was simple battling where you had to see the gold or you would never know if it had dropped. I found a video on Youtube showing a player getting a Gold Box which you can watch here to see the mad rush. There was also the legendary picture of two old DD legends, Kozayya and NLT, who were both in the same real life room, hammering their keyboards as they raced for the special box as it fell in between them. I believe NLT got it in the end! :lol:
 
The Molotov craze lasted a week, buying some extra time for the developers to warm up the English community. Noticing the frustration of some English players at the lack of activities to compete in in the English section, the developers created the first ever contest in the English forum – Artist of Tanki Online, on the 21^st July. There was definitely a pleased aura surrounding the English community as they prepared for their first contest, particularly as it involved time and skill. To see the winners of the contest, click here.
 
Its actually rather interesting to note that this contest was brought out just a couple of days after an unofficial contest, started by whitemark7 (now Whitee), was released on the Off-Topic. He was searching for a player to make a picture for his clan, and he was ready to offer crystals for the contest too. It was a massive success. Many entries flooded in, led by the "dominating" moderator, koolwalky, and the contest was eventually won by neo9xt, followed by chriswu (both co-incidentally former leaders of the Ironclads), with kool sneaking in at 5th place. I was slightly disappointed, since my entries didn't win a prize, but it was great fun, and perhaps led the way to the idea of an official contest being hosted on the forum. If you wish, you can see exactly what happened regarding the contest here.
 
Before they knew it, it was already August, and well into the summer. The 2^nd of August heralded a minor update on the Forum, as they re-adjusted the forum and alerted it for players to come and check on the Tanki news feed. And it was definitely a good time to join the forum - in my opinion, this was the peak of the forum. The majority of posters were serious and fantastic reads, and there was always a great discussion on Tanki or not on Tanki going on around the forum. Famous old players such as koolwalky, MonkeyMagic, NoblePlatOne, chriswu, cablaz, Tommy60, Contaminated, eessydo and even DaSpamer at their prime were a pleasure to read in the forum and led for fun, but serious discussions.
 
Four days later, another landmark was announced on Tanki, as the playerbase reached 4 million players. Once again, the lucky 4 millionth player got a mug and a T-Shirt as a celebration for the event, as Tanki boasted in the news feed how they had now overtaken the population of “Puerto Rico”.  :lol: However, the main preparations in Tanki's blocks were for a big update to come up later that month.
 
Before that, however, the English Community was in for a fantastic surprise, that would liven up the community no end. A Community Manager was brought into the English game, for the very first time. You all know his name. If you don't, you should. Bruce Lunga.
 
All players who have been around for a decent period of time will remember Bruce and the amazing efforts he put into the game to make the community more enjoyable for all of us. All the contests, the fun discussions, the blogs, the videos – and just the fact he was there to listen made for a very pleasant environment! Bruce was a hero for the English side of Tanki, and everyone acknowledged his awesome work.
 
Now as for that massive planned update, well, Tanki News announces it on the 23^rd. However, there's no doubting this was one of the most update-filled updates in Tanki update history. If that makes sense.
 
The update was mainly changing the way newbies were brought into the game. If you joined after this update, after clicking 'Start' on the Tanki homepage, you would have been brought into battle immediately, with a nick of “Recruit#####”. Before the update, you would be forced to create an account before you start playing. This was done for players to “test out the game” before they actually joined it and started playing for real. They were only offered to fill the registration form out and create an account after they became a private.
 
Another great update for newbies was the addition of game achievements for new players. Players would be given bonus crystals for their first purchase in the garage, first battle they joined, and first crystal purchase they made. This was to encourage new players to continue playing with extra crystals to cash out on new weapons with. Similarly for new players, an update was also released to simplify the registration form, only asking for “Username” and “Password” to create an account. Before this, it was necessary to give your email, but now it was optional in-game.
 
Just to warn you that I've barely covered anything of this update, and I've already filled a good couple of paragraphs. Let me slim down on stuff that have been updated. Well, most prominently in my memory of this update, was the release of a new “loading” signal for players, as they joined. Let me quickly explain what I mean. Before, when loading a battle, a series of green lights would come up and flash before the battle loaded (see picture here). Now, you would see what happens nowadays – the picture with the loading artillery gun moving underneath to show the aspect of “tanking” better. I was very supportive of this idea when it was released, but I have had a growing fondness as time passes of the “good ol' green lights”, which I have begun to miss.
 
Other smaller updates were added. The Double Crystal Card now changed the picture of the “Buy” button to a special Red “x2 Buy” button. Now, the player who created a No Supplies battle could join it for free, even without a pass, encouraging people to create No Supplies battles. Paypal payments were temporarily removed from the battle too. The famous Hall of Fame had to say goodbye this day as well, as it was causing too many lags in the game.
 
Paints had updates too. Moderators got their own special paint, Alligator. Champion and Acid, the paints for the TOF and Clan Tournament winners, were given Shaft protection, with the release of the new weapon previously meaning they were lacking in protection of it.
 
And as if you didn't think that was enough, there were many glitches solved too. Problems in Scope and Noise were fixed, and a glitch where you could shoot from under a bridge through the slope of a bridge was also solved. Shaft's visual look was slightly edited, as the pesky long barrel was shortened as per the players' requests, and the German Tanki was released in completion and players begun to start playing on http://tankionline.com/de. And, finally, the rating system was edited so crystals bought wouldn't count towards your rating, leading to more focus on skill in contrast.
 
Whew! We're finally done. Now, if you didn't think that was a long update, I don't know what you think is long. However, we're not done for that day yet. The same day heralded a couple of new contests for the English forum to enter in – Mister Tanki Online and Miss Tanki Online! Bruce Lunga was already making his mark on the game. I'm sure some of you won't remember these, so I'll quickly sum them up. Miss Tanki Online was an epic failure – only two people entered, leading to public outrage, particularly from cablaz who had been looking forward to the photographs.
 
Similarly, Mister Tanki Online had only six entries, but was actually a great success, as the viewers' choice was honest and fair, unlike many more recent viewers' choice entries, with many many votes raining in, especially after a Russian girl suddenly got a massive crush on one of the entrants, Tommy60, and started spamming the Russian forums for them to vote for Tommy.  :P Tommy did eventually win the viewers' choice due to his fans' support, but the victor in the Developers Choice was skitee. Oh well, I can't be better than my brother in everything!
 
Two days later, a couple of updates to consolidate the previous huge update was done, as the registration form was optimized, and the loading screen picture was changed to a constant picture of the Tanki logo. This remains to this day, but now many other loading screens come alongside it, particularly when loading battles. Also, the newbie battle creation was limited so that newbies' battles would be more full of players, and thus provide more exciting gameplay for new players.
 
August was up, and the holidays were over. To top off the month, Tanki gave a small discount on credit card payments for crystals (I believe it was the first discount on buying crystals in Tanki history.)
 
September began with a couple of updates to payment for crystals as Paypal payments returned to the game, and payment systems were slightly changed.
 
As the month progressed, Tanki noticed a problem with their big update on newbies – as they realised some newbies might want to create an account name without having to go through the fuss of ranking to Private before they could create an account. Thus, they gave an option for you to skip the battle proccess, and automatically create an account after joining the game. This was particularly useful for those wanting to create dupe accounts, as they wouldn't have to go to the fuss of ranking to Private before creating the account. This was a week later.
 
At a similar time, the Tanki blog started on the homepage, as Bruce started to warm up the activity in the English Community. The first blog was simply links to wallpapers, but soon he would bring out video blogs which were an unprecedented success. The blog lasted for a good period of time, and had massive popularity as it was quite significant and visible on the homepage.
 
Two days later, Tankman's Day in Russia brought on another happy celebration for the players. An interesting quest was introduced for players, as they would go round searching through maps, eventually finding a secret hidden Youtube link, which was shown to the people who found the link on the map. To see more about what happened in the quest, check out the blog post. On another blog post, also posted that day, the release of the planned new ranks, “Field Marshal”, “Commander”, and “Generallisimo” were announced on the blog. Just imagine – if we didn't have those ranks right now, I would be the top rank in the game. Me – Top Rank? Yup, it does sound pretty incredible.
 
Now, lets quickly move ourselves back to the game. Playerbase was growing as always, and many people moving in to join the already-large English community. However, the Tanki dev's were only worried about one thing at that moment, and that was Shaft. After noticing the player's unsettled response to the new weapon, the developers realised that it needed a few tweaks. Thus, on the 22^nd of September, they completely re-shuffled Shaft. The concept of a sniper weapon was still the same, but gameplay was given more of a boost as Shaft could now be used without scope too. I'll let PNAU sum up the update for you, and what the new Shaft would bring.
 
“-- simplified control;
-- added possibility to shoot without using scope;
-- added possibility to stay in sniper mode as long as you want with fully charged gun;
-- removed black filling in scope mode;
-- visually enhanced the scope;
-- changed boxes and flags displaying in scope mode — now they become semitransparent to simplify aiming.”
 
The old Shaft was taken from garages, and refunded to players, and a fondness to Shaft grew rapidly after this update. People even started to claim it to be “overpowered”, and soon, the fondness would go as regards to the people facing the Shafts, as they started to dominate the battlefield. But I'm jumping ahead far too quickly.
 
This wasn't just an update on Shaft too, as four of the most renowned paints in the game made their way onto the battlefield. We welcomed the sights of Irbis, Jade, Lead and Needle to the battlefield. This was to bring Shaft protection paints in, but also to give a slightly larger range of paints at the higher ends of the ranks. Not only was that added, but so was Highways, a popular map from one of the English mapmakers, MonkeyMagic, as well as the release of a map called Labyrinth was later removed from the battlefields.. This gave a lot of hope to the popular English mapmakers, such as cheese3000 and Vikingsrall – but none of them were able to get their maps into the game, which was a shame due to the amount of work some of the maps had put into them.
 
Meanwhile, contests were flowing in fast and furious on the forum, as Bruce started to warm to his role of community manager, and make up for lost time over the Russians, who had had so many more contests. The 300 Tankman Battle (A random draw battle, where 3 lucky players would be drawn from 300, to fight the developers. The players won, naturally.), and Sniper Tanki Online (A Contest where the person with the most kills in a deathmatch would win.) were both introduced in September, even after the Mister and Mrs Tanki Online contests. The Sniper Tanki Online winner and runner-up was the same person, getting a massive 4147 kills (Picture here) and 3891 kills to claim the top and second spot, after playing two 999-minute battles, after the server restart, to claim tons of kills. Yup, that is very sad. But he did it, and was rewarded for his efforts.
 
It was very soon October, and Bruce was, once again, busy. Another new contest came, just a week after “Sniper Tanki Online” was released – it was “Tanki Online Model Maker”, a contest which was inviting people to show off their design skills in real life of a tank. Meanwhile, the blog was in full swing, as he begun to release some video blogs and started a “Before and After” Blog – showing the comparison between the graphics at that time and the planned 2.0 graphics after the release, which never came out. However, the Graphics Update of 1.100.0 did bring it closer to the plans of 2.0's graphical plans.
 
During the month, Tanki had to switch off gaming servers for a couple of days to fix some bugs, but they gave the players “compensation” (in the form of extra bonuses) to apologise for the time they took from people playing. Just a week later, on the 14^th October, the Tanki players had another reason to celebrate. They had reached 5 million players! An incredible landmark that any game would be ecstatic to make. But Tanki had much bigger plans...
 
The developers tweaked with Shaft later in the month, to help the “wobble of Shaft” at full load to drop slightly and make gameplay easier for those sniping. This once again boosted the use of Shaft on the battlefield, and satisfied the Shaft players' hunger for domination.
 
November arrived on the scene quickly, as people settled down to get used to the common appearance of Shaft on the battlefield, and build their ranks as they remained to prepare for the plans of 2.0. Another rocking contest for the hardcore Tanki players appeared for the players, later that month, called “Crystallizer”, a contest inviting the players to get as big a battle fund as possible and comment “Crystallizer” in the battle chat, then post the picture. The winner got an incredible totatl of 8,300 crystals, worth 83,000 in today's currency! If you don't believe me, check out the picture for proof. (I doubt that anyone has got over 80,000 fund post-Update123 – especially after the game limits were limited down to maximum 300:00 minutes.)
 
It was finally time to take a break as slowly, the developers begun to wind down the updates, and let the players enjoy the game that was already ruminating success. After all, there seems no point to change things randomly when there is success already.
 
You guys would probably want to know by now what the situation was regarding Tanki 2.0. Well, it had slowly leaked into the English Community that Tanki 2.0 had been cancelled, and that the updates for Tanki 2.0 would be added progressively by the developers. This was true, sourced from a forum topic from an admin in May 2011. It slowly sunk that 2.0 was not going to come. However, this was not all sad and downhill for some – as the game was so good at that point that people were almost glad it was going to change drastically, in case it failed and spoilt the fun they were having in Tanki.
 
The month continued, with another awesome contest that was an epic success at the end of the month – The 20 Seconds to New Year Contest. There was tons of entries, and Bruce was feeling kind, so gave out millions of consolation prizes! The winner was gamepiong (The king of contests in the old days), with a stunning 20-second video, you can see it here.
 
The end of the month signalled the 6 millionth player – just a month after 5 million. This was a perfect example of the incredible success of Tanki at this period. People were joining like mad, and sticking around too. The game's growth was super-fast.
 
December begun – and preparation for the end of the year celebration once again hit town. However, Tanki made a bad mistake they would later rue during the early period of December. Must have been the winter blues settling in.
 
Have you ever imagined what it would be like to play against tanks which had drugs on but you couldn't see them equipped? For a couple of weeks, this was in Tanki. And no, it wasn't a hack. It was purposeful. Now, nobody could see if the enemy had drugs equipped – they had to guess. The idea was to encourage people to drug, as no-one could see – but it was an epic fail. Tanki even apologised for introducing it into the game, and listened to the players' requests by removing it as soon as they realised the situation the game was turning into.
 
Meanwhile, Bruce was moving on from community to clans, as he started to get the clans moving in the game. I haven't really been updating you on the situation with clans, so I'll quickly get you back updated. Shadow Strikers and Dare Devils were still flying high. Clans like Soldaty, which later became Domination Clan, and Lightning, which was formed of players which later became KOT, were formed earlier in the summer. German clans like “Best of German” were also created in 2011, as well as other clans that have built their way into the English Community.
 
However, the event that was set up was not a clan war tournament, but rather a Clan Dance competition, inviting clans to work together as a team to create something creative rather than skillfull. I'm glad to say my clan (The Ironclads) won this, even though I was just a couple days late in ranking to Third Lieutenant, and thus failed to get crystals, since Third Lt was required to become an “official member” in the clan. I forgot to mention that there were only two entries, since most of the clans couldnt be bothered to do the effort required for such an ordeal as making a clan dance. Feel free to watch the winning video here.
 
Tanki slowly geared up for the Christmas and New Year Celebration, and it came right on hand. There was a 25% discount as per norm for players, and another new year's celebration like last year! However, this year there was no more unknown drop boxes, but rather plain “2 Crystal Boxes” that fell as well as the Crystal Boxes round the tree. It was another fantastic celebration, for a fantastic game that the players loved. You can watch it here.
 
And so Tanki moved on into 2012. As we come to the more recent history, perhaps this will be the last one some of you will have not remembered in Tanki. However, I hope you found the article a good read. Feedback appreciated as always! Thanks for reading guys. I hope you enjoyed it. Bring on 2012! ;)
 
Part 6 [January 2012 - June 2012] ~ 4024 Words

Lets picture it. At kick-off, 2012 has just begun, and we're stuck in the middle of the 2012 New Year Celebration. The 25% Discount was still rolling, and around the battlefield, there were also snowman guns popping out around the place, guns which had been given to a couple of recent winners of contests around the communities, including our own English contest-powerhouse, gamepiong. Some claimed these were just another show-up of Smoky XT, just in another costume. Anyway, to see it on a tank, check this image out, and the stats can be seen here.
 
A couple days on from the special New Year's celebration as the gamers begun to test out their new purchases in the discount, players also started to discover a quest flying around Tanki. In different maps around the game, hints were given to direct them elsewhere, until finally, they were shown the link to a special wallpaper via a special “reversed” video by Bruce Lunga which was found by the hints in maps. To see the FULL explanation of the quest, check out the blog linked here.
 
There are such good memories for me looking back at Tanki in its prime. The 7 millionth Tanki player made an account on the 4^th of January, prompting celebrations in the developer rooms. Its probable that a couple of bottles of vodka were popped open then, as the Devs enjoyed their winter break, the mods doing their jobs as always, keeping the community in order, while the Devs planned for a larger release at the end of the month. Bruce's departure from the forum for a couple of weeks, on his holiday, led to a few players getting a bit fidgety waiting for his return, prompting wonders of how the community had survived without him....
 
Unfortunately, a growing hit on Tanki's player base was going to grow at this point in time. A thing not even the best players could overcome. The cheating scandals had begun.
 
Games such as this begun to appear all too commonly on the battlefield – the problem was growing. This extended not only to battles, as players started learning how to do flag hacks, but also steal gold boxes. Videos like this one were recorded and many pictures taken of hackers stealing golds from innocent players. It was starting to become too much for some annoyed players, including many famous players from clans like SS, as their frustration begun to lead them to find another game, like World of Tanks or League of Legends, with less “cheaters”. However, the Devs were working their socks off to try and defend the game from the cheat engines all over the Internet, which the hackers were using. If they didn't act, and act quickly, the developers knew the possible result. With hackers, players would leave. Eventually, the player base could become so low, that the income Tanki were taking would be too little to keep it running, and that faced the probable likelihood of Tanki closing.
 
It was on the 27^th that the first prominent update of 2012 occurred. And at the time it was pretty necessary. Firstly, and 100% most seriously, came a much-awaited anti-cheat system created to foil the hackers' attempts to ruin the game even more. It was an unprecedented success – for a good couple of months, there were no hackers in sight. Along with this came a fantastic surprise for winter lovers, as tons of the most popular maps in the game were given a Winter Mode, which lives on to this day in all the different maps.
 
Meanwhile, on the forum... ahhh the forum. The drama days of the Tanki Forum were in full flow. Well, I say that. Lets mention a few names. Perhaps some of you guys will remember them, they were pretty famous at the time... or should I say infamous? AwesomeBlake33712, nuclearbom, reecerandcharlie... ring any bells? At the same time as the flood-galore wannabe mods takeover was going on, there were still popular trends for map-making, Custom Made Paints, a craze on “Vote if you think ---- is such-and-such” threads on Off-Topic, and a growing sensation of “Ask me anything” threads too. Meanwhile, the newspaper was slowly beginning to be planned too!!
 
Before you ask me, no, Bruce had not given up on his contest spree yet. It was time for a contest, a bit different this time, directed at the skilled players in the community. Mosquito Battles was its name; its intention was to find the best Railgun-Wasp by doing a pile of Desert DM's to narrow down to the best sixteen, and then the top two winners from each side of the contest. An awesome video on the final by Reiki12345, winner of the A-Q section, can be watched here.
 
February struck, and believe it or not, another million players had joined in under a month. 8 million players by February the 3^rd, and clearly the hackers hadn't steered too many people from creating new accounts!
 
Now, can any of you think of a renowned worldwide “special celebration day” in February...? Yup, it was Valentine's Day again. A holiday paint was brought out for the occasion, as tankmen and tankladies around the world shared their greetings. But the hype was building up for the promised discount coming up on the 23^rd...
 
A 25% discount on guns was on hand, as the Defender of the Fatherland Day in Russian prompted celebrations by the Russian players, but worldwide, the players were glad for the first discount of 2012 since the New Year, and spent their hard-earned crystals on the guns they had been saving for.
 
Little events in Tanki were worth mentioning in February, as the Tanki developers started working on future updates. The game celebrated its 9^th million player at the latter days of February, as the time for a million players to register begun to shorten to under a month, as Tanki's renown around Russia and worldwide grew!
 
And, of course, we can't forget Bruce's constant work on contests. The Mosquito Battles hadn't even finished ye and Bruce started the Deja Vu Contest! I decided to plunge in for this one, and I was actually reasonably pleased with my entry which earned 1k crystals, as a consolation prize. Check it out if you like! Meanwhile, on the Facebook page, he started his work too. It was time for the Royal Rumbles to begin! Occasional Death matches with extra prizes for the winners went on offer as the Facebook page grew massively, and likes rocketed! The first battle ended like this as the Royal Rumble, which would continue to attract players, begun on a high. The Tanki Online Facebook is still flying to this day, with many contests, as I'm sure you all know.
 
It was March all too soon, as Tanki's settled back into games with less hackers. However, problems still ran rife, especially around the high ranks. Mults were all too common in battles, and as the hackers were stopped, it seemed the problems would never stop! Throughout the history of Tanki, there has always been players trying to spoil the game for others, which is a sad truth about many online games. But Tanki was too good a game for most of the players to drop, and they carried on committed in their gaming.
 
The Tanki Devs had another update up their sleeves. To be fair, everything updated was just enhancing updates, with nothing particularly “out-of-the-world” as regards to updates. Along with a few glitches being solved, there was one particularly notable update. The release of the Gold Box “Notification” was added. Now, it was shown when a player had caught a gold box. This was particularly useful for later times in games, since the 700-730 fund radius meant that at about 4900 fund, it was any time for another 200 fund that the gold box could fall, meaning that the players could easily find out if the gold box had been taken. Also, in close gold box fights, it clarified who had actually won the gold box! Remember, this was back in the day of the 700-fund gold box, making it slightly more interesting.
Happy days for the players these were, as the day later, the developers splashed out on a 25% discount for all paints and hulls in the game. Spring had well and truly started! Players dug into Tanki gaming for a good period of time with their new purchases hitting the popular maps like Madness, Silence, Massacre and Farm as always, and familiarising themselves with game play with their new hulls!
 
Meanwhile, on the forum, the first Unofficial Clan Tournament had been well and truly kicked off! Famous clans that live on today, like Cobra's Poison, The Ironclads and Dare Devils competed, as well as the big guns of the old days – clans like Shadow Strikers (whose leaders organised the tournament) and Domination Clan. It was a great success – this really gunned off the time of clans getting well and truly stuck in in the game. Clans begun to grow and new clans were created like hardware. If you want to see what happened in the tournament, feel free to check out the forum thread here.
 
Now, it was quite true that Tanki game play had been flying high and enjoyed by all at this period of time, but one thing that the developers noticed lacking was the graphical quality. It took a decent period of time for the graphic developers of the Tanki crew to get to completion, but at the end of March, the hardware acceleration update hit Tanki with force – and it was probably one of the most successful updates Tanki has ever had.
 
The qualities changing exponentially. Players who had been having 5-10 FPS suddenly joined battles and got massive speeds of up to 60 FPS. Players who had been slowing falling away from Tanki due to lag were re-ignited with a passion to play! As Supernick said, at the update, following up with most of the English players minds, “Bruce Lunga rocks, no doubt.” There was no doubt that the English Community manager was already becoming an absolute Tanki legend among the players.
 
It was almost April, and we all know what that means! The April Fool's Day Celebration of 2012 heralded another interesting arrival to the garage, following last year's 100,500-crystal-priced blue sphere, which remained a mystery to a lot of players. However, this year's mysterious gift was miles cheaper. Priced at 20 crystals, the green triangle gave nothing away. Some players risked buying it, others didn't want to waste their crystals. Eventually, a few days later, the Russian CM, Ksenia, announced that the players who had bought the blue sphere would get 10 First Aids! Just a shame that I was one of those that didn't take the risk :L
 
The Developers weren't done with sorting out the hackers, and they developed an update to foil the flag hackers who were capturing flags quickly, with a “defense system” built against super-quick capturing of flags. They also uploaded some proof of hacking diminishing in the game, as they continued on their aim to block the cheaters for good.
 
The 12^th of April was Cosmonauts Day, celebrating the day Russian Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space! Thus, a new release was added.. or should I say new map? The one and only.... Space Madness ^_^
 
Space Madness was a map like no other. A map on a different level. Literally. The complete diminishing of gravity helped the feel of space open in the game, and whats more was the incredibly tough game play in the map. It was so hard to get kills that when you actually did kill someone, it was something to be seriously celebrated. I may have linked to this in a previous version of “ITB, T”, but this is seriously worth seeing – one of the most awesome Tanki kills ever, videoed by my friend, in Space Madness – Linked Here. Unfortunately, this map was removed from the game later, along with its former version, Madness, many old players' favourite map. This was due to the “hackability” of the map, due to its different layers. The Holiday paint for the Cosmonauts' Day was also very popular at the time.
 
With the hardware acceleration and the stopping of many of the cheaters, you would have thought the developers had done more than enough to earn the players' praise – but kind as they are, on April the 18^th, they gave the players a special “apology” due to the amount of problems that had been caused by the hackers during their time of domination in Tanki. “Let's share the confiscated goods” was announced by the Devs – and for five days straight, players logging on received a crystal daily bonus for their rank in addition to their normal bonuses. Great news for the players, and happy times for the Devs too – the game was seriously reviving once again!
 
Updates were raining in on Tanki too. Like, for real. Tanki was really getting moving. The developers edited the maximum time possible to spend in a battle to a limit of 300 minutes, with 100 flags and 999 kills also set as a limit to stop too long games from causing lag in servers. And another very interesting update was announced later in the month.
 
The logic of gold boxes, crystal drops and supplies drops had been previously always decided by a set fund and time. Crystal boxes all dropped every 6 funds, and supplies boxes all dropped together, after a serious period of time. Now that would be shuffled. Most significantly, however, the gold box would now also be changed. Now, it would not be at every 700 fund for gold box hunters – but rather, gold boxes would drop at any point in the game! Note that this was before the “Gold Box will be dropped soon” alert was introduced – thus meaning that gold boxes were completely reliant on luck. Players just had to hope for the best that the gold box would fall when they were near it.
 
This caused a lot of mixed reactions. Some were happy, as the gold box hunters at 700 fund had been ruining the battles, but others argued that it was worse now, since some people just camped in battles the whole period of the games waiting for the gold box to drop! But Tanki stuck on with it – I personally was one of those not so in favour of this update.
 
Meanwhile, contests, contests, contests! Newby Deja Vu, a version of the Deja Vu Contest, but requiring online pictures, rather than hand-made pictures was introduced on the forum by the English moderator, koolwalky, which went rather well. However, another interesting contest was started in the whole of the game called “Best of May”. Rather than requiring the tankmens' genius and skill, this was encouraging the Tanki players to play more. Different categories such as “Tankman who catches most golds in May”, “Tankman who buys the most crystals in May” and even “Tankman who gets most Double Crystal Cards in May” would all win awesome prizes, like game consoles, gaming keyboards or even phones/tablets for their money and time spent playing.
 
Not only that, but also, balloons were temporarily added in the game for a special category of the contest which would give a special prize out to the players who bought the most balloons! Costing 15 crystals each, players would take a risk on how many to cash out on, as they were not told what they would do in the garage. In the end, however, for each balloon bought by players, they were given a full set of supplies in reward for the risk they took. And just so you know, the winner of the most gold boxes in May was a player who got a stonking massive 39 Gold Boxes. Lets not forget that this was not during the period of “Gold Box will be dropped soon”. What a lucky fella!
 
Moving on swiftly, we have a lot to catch up on. Most importantly, the very Tanki Online newspaper you're reading right now was introduced at the end of April. An awesome event for the community, and one that I'm very proud to be part of today. Cablaz, Tommy60, conanthedestroyer and Skitee started it off with Les_Alterman guiding them, before Conan took over the editing later, and soon players like Lhamster and chriswu joined them, as the newspaper grew larger, to the state it is today as you read it!
 
It was May. I'll speed you up with the news. Anti-cheat system was once again improved by the developers. The Devs were happy to announce that since April 10^th, 486 accounts had already been blocked from cheating, as the developers continued to take extra levels to slow down cheating. And meanwhile, two of the biggest things in my memory of Tanki begun to grow and begin flourishing.
 
Firstly, it would be right to mention the main cause. I hope most of you reading can remember this. It was the all-famous Tanki Online World Cup!!!!! And this ran straight in hand with the second thing.... the Tanki radio!!
 
Great memories for me here, listening to Snyper's old shows on the old old old Tanki Radio, with his awesome contests. The original. Whilst watching Bruce stream World Cup battles, driving about parkouring with his Ricochet Hornet, before Spectator Mode was introduced into Cybersport! All the same, it was a great success.
 
I'm sorry that I don't have time to go through all the ins and outs of the World Cup here – it seriously deserves more time, but I don't have it in this article. The games were all drug wars, with different representatives from different countries coming together to battle it off in an incredible face off of battles. Drugs were given out for free to those who managed to hold on to “factories” that they placed gambles on when they challenged each other in a battle. Though I didn't actually play for the GB team, it was a great experience watching the battles, and merging for the first time with the other members of the English Community in a chat-style base on the World Cup stream! A very useful video to find your way about what actually happened in the World Cup can be found here.
 
At the same time as this, Tanki was continuing its booming updates. The gold box position in maps started to change as optional gold box drop areas were added to the game to make less people stay in one “gold box” position hunting the gold, and make more variety, requiring more luck, and encouraging people to actually play rather than “mult”, waiting for gold. Many other edits were done, including the addition of spectator mode, and updates to the map 2042.
 
Well, June was very soon on its way. Tanki English Community was seriously flooded with activity. The Tanki Online Cook Contest was in full stream, as players went out of their way to cook awesome dishes showing their love for Tanki Online. Also, Euro 2012 had begun! And Tanki weren't going to let the opportunity go amiss for another celebration. They added a 200 gold box instead of a 100 in the game, as a special celebration. This later extended to 300, 400 and then 500 on the Euro 2012 Final match day! For more information on the Euro Golds, check out Raph's article on the history of the gold box.
 
It was June... and Tanki's third birthday celebration was on the orders. It was peak times for the developers – players were joining by the double, triple and quadruple! The contests were flying in too. The Best of... 2012 Contest was created in June, as well as the Euro 2012-influenced 1000 footballers' battle. The Best of Contest was definitely one of my happiest memories in Tanki, compiling my Firebird video, which won Dev's choice AND viewers' choice thanks to clan-mates on xat who spam-watched my video for me!! :D You can also check it out here if you so desire, seeing the OP'ness of the pre-rebalance Firebird!
 
On June the 18^th, there was another significant update. A couple of things particularly stood out as important. Polygon had always been a popular death match map in Tanki, well at least for a good year or so, but tankmen had never had the experience of trying it in team-mode! Tanki introduced the Polygon TDM and CTF at this time, in an attempt to get game play well and truly livened up in the map!
 
For a week, Polygon CTF existed, having a very very very high amount of popularity on servers, as players fell in love with the quick-points style of the map, which favoured both short-range weapons AND snipers! It was brilliant, but Tanki soon realised that the points it was getting was too quick – like the old Massacre with the two flags in the middle had been. Thus, they removed it. This was very sad for me – I have very good memories of playing in Polygon CTF with my clan-mates. :)
 
Also, significantly, came another couple of updates at this time. For one, private battles which had been glitching up a lot recently, and causing lots of problems in organising private clan wars and World Cup Battles, which were going on at the time. They solved this by making it visible for those who had accessed the link in the battle list.
 
June 26^th held the other two. Firstly, a product appeared in the garage for the noob ranks. They would have the opportunity to “buy experience” up to Master Sergeant. Though this was a rather pointless update, since most players up to Master Sergeant, would not even consider buying experience, it did lead up to more interesting things, particularly when experience was brought out for all ranks after the rebalance! However, for me, the next update was absolutely massive in the way Tanki changed afterward.
 
Many newbies may not know this, but before this update, in all battles, points for each kill and capture would be worked out by the ratings of the enemies on the enemy team. Your rating is the number next to your up-down arrow on your Tanki interface. For example, for me, killing a Marshal at my rank of First Lieutenant at the time, I would have got about 18 points for a kill. The Marshal, on the other hand, would have got about 4 points for killing me, a low rank! The update was the same for Isidas. Healing high ranks with Isida would give you far more points than healing low ranks. This was one of the primary reasons why this was changed.
 
The power of camping Isidas healing the pwning Shaft-Mammoth Marshals with high ratings was getting so overpowered, that the points system had to be changed for Isidas to stop winning the battle every single time! Thus, Tanki decided to take a jump into the open, and make every single kill equal. 10 Points for a kill would always be, and capturing flag points would be decided by the amount of enemies on the other team. Now, TDM points system is different, which is directed at the amount of damage done on the enemy, rather than whether you get the kill, but at this time, it was all the same! Even though I miss the days of getting millions of points as I pwned high ranks, I must admit that the update was useful for Tanki, as Isida's “overpowered” nature died down in battles.
 
Whew! We're done! Wow, the first half of 2012 was absolutely chock-full of events in the English Community – and to be honest, the second half will be more full of updates that would make their mark on Tanki. Next issue, we will be looking at the second half of 2012, and exploring what happened to Tanki then! Thanks for reading, and please give your feedback!
 
Part 7 [July 2012 - December 2012] ~ 4868 Words

July. Holidays. Tanki. Three words that are probably made for each other. And boy, as we tune in to this issue of In The Beginning, Tanki, you must be prepared to notice that we are surrounded on every side by events and updates of all shapes and sizes, especially in our English Community – for after all, as we enter this issue's edition, we are deeply embedded in the “Bruce Lunga Era” of the English history of Tanki. Looking back from where we are now to the situation back then, just the little matter of one and a half years ago, its hard to comprehend the amount the game has changed in that time. I would like to remind all the readers, as we start, of where exactly we are in the history of Tanki.
 
To sum it up in one sentence, the basic scene of Tanki as we begin this issue in July 2012 was as follows: pre-rebalance; old graphics; pre-Update 123; unalerted random gold box; and highest rank of Marshal. (Linked on each are little explanations which can help you if you do not understand the terms) However, occurring at the time also were special events, especially for the English Community, of which most prominent were the “Best of...” guides contest, Euro 2012 special golds and the Tanki Online World Cup.
 
I mentioned the Euro 2012 Tanki Celebration in last issue, but its worth mentioning in this issue too since it ran on to July. Like much of Europe, the Russian developers were gripped by the Euro 2012 Football Tournament, and to celebrate, they raised the gold box worth gradually, till the day of the final, the 2nd July, where the gold box was worth a staggering 500 Crystals (5000 in today's currency). Nowadays, us tankers are getting spoiled – what, with the 2014 Gold Box lasting for all of December, and now the New Year's 3000 Gold Box too: well, I'm starting to get used to such a novelty as a raised gold box worth. However, in 2012, it was the first time ever for the Gold Box worth to be raised, and players round the world couldn't help getting excited, and more fervent in their search for the gold - especially with the new format of “random” falling of gold boxes in battles. If you wanted to take a glance at the beauty of the Euro Gold, take a look here.
 
It was the summer – and the developers had much reason to be relaxing and taking a break from their hard work through the year to bring the game up to the peak of its condition. The summer held little updates, but Bruce Lunga, the English Community Manager, wasn't holding back in his onslaught of community events and contests: if anything, the summer brought a raise in events.
 
On the 3rd of July, a couple of notable updates dropped into the game, as Tanki begun to slowly improve the graphical experience in the game. The first glimpse of shadows in the game were introduced. Simple though it was, it was one little step to the new graphics that would change the look of the game forever. The developers wisely allowed players to “block” shadows if they wished to, because they knew the lag that it may cause on less capable computers. Receiving positive feedback, the devs had a fantastic platform to build upon towards the new graphics that were being planned...
 
Another feature that would grow to be a prominent part of battles was introduced on the same day – the voting ability. Announced to players was a new nifty thing that would help signal moderators to your battle, if for example, a player was sabotaging in it. If 25% or more of the players in the battle used the “/vote” feature, moderators would receive an alert showing the sabotaging player and the battle they were in. There were, however, many serious shortcomings with this update. Primarily, moderators weren't always online on many servers, which left the large majority of reports untouched. Also, often the damage was done too soon for players to be able to react and the moderator to come.
 
However, most prominent among the problems was the largely unnoticed way the feature was introduced. Though a minor notice was announced, the fact that most players quickly forgot/ignored the "/vote" feature meant that even when serious sabotage was occurring, often it went unalerted, due to the lack of “voters” in the battle. The developers did note these problems though, and they gradually begun to improve the “voting” system to get it to the stage it is today.
 
Bruce's work on the forums was still moving forwards, and quite swiftly too. Not only were the aforementioned contests still flying forward at a Ferrari's pace, but also the Tanki newspaper was growing quickly. The third issue was introduced in July, proudly heralded by the expert designer Les_Alterman, which included a new contest by the name of “Designer of Tanki Online”, interviews with some of the famous current clans at the time like Best of German and Cobras Poison, as well as a number of stories, boasted by the legendary reporters, chriswu and Tommy60.
 
July was flying past, as gamers once again entered their “summer holiday gaming zone”. A couple of minor glitches were solved but the developers were beginning to be focused on a couple of future updates that would revolutionise the tanks and hulls in the game, in both gameplay and graphics. Time and preparation begun to be put more and more into it, as many of the Tanki developers started to prepare for what I would call two of the biggest events, if not the very two biggest, in the history of the game – the graphics update and the rebalance.
 
Moving on to the English Community, Bruce was still fervent as ever in his attempts to build the English social side up to the standards of the Russians. He continued uploading his video blogs, and publicizing the forum on the Tanki News, as well as posting actively on Facebook. As well as the Scavenger Hunts and Spot the Differences, the Facebook Royal Rumbles in particular were really starting to kick in with famous old players like BigWar and Reiki12345 commonly winning prizes.  Bruce was also using the Facebook page to reveal cool pictures and secrets to get people involved on the page. And it was working. The EN Tanki page reached 30,000 likes in September – an impressive feat for the short amount of time Bruce had been working on it.
 
And of course, we can't forget his contests. The Best Of... Contest, which finished in July, was an epic success – and there's no way we will ever forget the Tanki World Cup. The teams were knocked out until the three original favourites were left: KSA, which was formed of many of the old KOT players; India, formed of the old Dare Devils Members; and Russia, which consisted of a Russian clan who moved over to join the contest. If you are interested to watch the incredible gameplay that the World Cup offered, being a drug war, feel free to watch one of the matches here. Bruce followed this all up with another contest over the Olympics period, following a similar theme to the 1000 Footballers battle, with Players VS Staff battles offering prizes to the winning players.
 
The devs rolled through August quickly. Only small updates occurred, as the developers were focused on bringing out their 1.100.0 update that would hold a mighty lot of changes - one that would bring many mixed reactions to the players. For the English players, there was still a mighty lot to take part in. One particularly enjoyable release for the English community in August was the Wolf Battles. Normal battles, hosted by the Cybersport Channel, run by many of the famous old DJ's such as ShadowVisions, BarKode and Arya777, were introduced with different themes each day of the week. There would be DM, CTF, CP and Parkour battles throughout the week for low ranks, middle ranks, and the upper ranks - and members of the winning teams would receive an awesome avatar on the Forum for a week, as well as bonus crystals.
 
The Members of the English staff were multiplying too! Consultants were flying in, as more and more players started to follow SuperNick95 in the job of Consultant. A new designer, dimmy, was also hired by the English Reporter team, and the Chat Mod and Forum Mod groups started to grow to accommodate for the rapidly increasing player base.
 
At the same time as this, the first ever OFFICIAL clan championship commenced on the forum! The incredible growth of clans were evident as 25 clans entered, forcing a qualification stage before the group stages began. Hosting many different game styles, including a final in CP battle mode and battles with banned weapons, it was a great success. Won by Dare Devils, with unknown clan Georgian Clan Crusaders coming an unlikely second, many of the top English clans begun to reel in their hold on a lot of the higher ranks in Tanki.
 
It's incredible, looking back, how many official awesome games there actually were in the latter part of 2012. What makes it all the more stunning (and yet heartbreaking at the same time) is that they were all streamed, commented and packed up for video watching that I would be able to show you right now in this article... if the Cybersport Channel still existed. A few months afterwards, the infamous cybersport saga occurred, and as a result, all of the database of the legendary Tanki recordings were wiped from existence. To be honest, that was, in my opinion, one of the saddest things that has happened... ranging from the awesome Best of Winners Vs Devs battle, the most awesome Wolf Battles Parkour and Royal Rumbles, and even the legendary clan war where TMM shocked the champions, DD – all gone, and never to be seen again. However, they remain to be memories, cherished by many.
 
September begun, and the tension/excitement rose as the 1.100.0 update approached ever so slowly until it hit planet Tanki on the 5th. Packed all in one was a massive pile of new graphics as well as the much-awaited-for new game-mode... Control Points!
 
The potential graphics had had very mixed reactions among players. Many players loved the soft new look, while others thought the tanks looked too “cartoonish” (a thought that the developers clearly wanted to remove). There had been an open testing in April that had shown many players the potential new look of the graphics. One video displaying what it had shown is linked here. After looking forward to the “Tanki 2.0” demos that Tanki had been currently open testing, which can be viewed here, it definitely seemed massively different to what many players had been expecting – as you can see. Many players were quite dissatisfied at the way Tanki were changing the graphics – preferring the “harder mature” look of the tanks to the almost “fake” way the tanks and props would now be displayed.
 
However, at the release of the graphics, there was a general consensus of content – even though many players were unhappy. One of the main reasons of satisfaction was due to a fine political plan by the Tanki devs. In bringing out the long-awaited CP battle mode at the same time as the new graphics, which they knew were not wholly popular among all the players meant that those dissatisfied with the new graphics were almost “appeased” by the CP battle mode. Not only this, but they added a discount just afterwards to keep many of the "old-graphic-lovers" in the game. At the same time, the new graphics meant that a lot more players would soon join due to the higher quality look. This same kind of move has actually been repeated quite recently, with the controversial but long-awaited micro-upgrades addition at the same time as “Crystals for Ranks”.
 
To be fair, it was a seriously big change of graphics: too much for some players. At this point, I'm sure some of you readers would be interested to see the complete differences in the graphics. I would seriously recommend reading this awesome article by Raphael2 displaying the graphics update in pictures. Showing off the transformation, the article also shows how the graphics have changed since the 1.100.0 update... but we'll get to that.
 
As I mentioned earlier, it was just a couple of days after the update that another 25% discount was added in celebration of the Tankmen's Day. Time sped through the rest of September, with players settling into their new tank equipment. Tanki reached a stunning 15 million players through the month, as the game begun to improve and increase in popularity more and more. The Server loading reached an all-time-high.
 
But meanwhile, on the Tanki English Forum was beginning to move into the more recent days a lot more of us will recall. A few names will help recall the Tanki forumers that were famous during that time... players such as cheap_plastic_flower, FederalBureauFBI, Selena12121, HichigoShiro (now Makarov.Dreyar) and Contaminated begun to appear on the scene and make a name for themselves (often by a well-known method known as posting a lot); whilst less popular players like latvian_killer, kilaz and TRUNKS285345 were around too, more than often making a nuisance of themselves. All in all, however, the forum was growing – and quickly.
 
October came, and a couple of interesting updates with it. Most notable was the interesting addition of a new points system for TDM Game Mode. Now, points in TDM would be separated by the amount of damage dealt to an opponent, making points given out more fair. I, personally, was not a great fan of this update, even though it made things more fair, due to the fact I am a professional kill-stealer. :P All the same, it did stick with TDM to many players' delight, even though I'm glad it hasn't spread over to CTF and CP.
 
Also, another incredible graphic update was added. Described as “eye candy” by one of the over-excited forumers, the dynamic shadows were added to the game. However, many players did find this too laggy to be able to play to their full potential, and thus switched it off. There were also notable changes on Freeze, Ricochet and Shaft's looks after the Update 1.100.0 had made them look a bit bland. Some cool colours were added back from before the update including the wheel at the back of M2  and M3 Freeze, and the green electronic “board” at the back of M3 Ricochet.
 
With the growth of the forum, the developers had also been thinking of improving the database to provide a more appealing and detailed forum – and so, at the beginning of October, they moved everything across to a new forum (the one we use to this day). One particularly awesome update was the addition of ranks next to names on the forum, so that players could automatically know one's rank when they posted. Even though, as a very avid user of the forum back then, I was largely uncomfortable with the new forum, I have got used to it – and even begun to prefer it – even though that tongue smiley will always annoy the life out of me. :P For a simple look back at the basic look of the old Tanki Forum, do check this picture out.
 
I believe its high time for another recap of Bruce's contest regime, as contests begun flying in and out of the English game. The Wasp and Railgun Tournament, following the lines of the previous Mosquito Battle tournament, but rather focusing on duels, was won by ADVOKAT_444 in early September. Again, if the old Cybersport Channel still existed, I could link to some of the awesome battles publicised during the tournament, but sadly I can't. The 2 Minutes of Fame was also introduced in September – a video testing commentary skills, of which the winners would earn a candidacy place for the Cybersport Channel. One winner was PistolenPaultje, who later became one of the most awesome Tanki DJ's of all time. Other contests worth mentioning were the Tanki Photojabba Contest, where players were told to edit a photo humorously to win crystals, and the Plasma Fights Contest, where players used Ricochet and Twins, in a format of a similar ilk to the Wasp/Railgun Contest. The latter provided fantastic viewing, particularly in the latter stages, where players had to take full advantage of the Ricochet effect to land as many shots as they could whilst protecting themselves, demonstrating some incredible skill. Most of the players who reached the semi-finals were members of the Dare Devils clan, and eventually the final was won by CRAZIER, one of the legendary old ex-DD members.
 
What happens in late October... you know it. The annual Halloween celebration started, with special 305 (worth 3050 crystals now) Gold Boxes landing in a special HALLOWEEN map. (Yup, it was titled in full caps. Ban the developers! :P) There was also a small 13% discount available on M3's in the garage – mainly for “freaky” reasons with the unlucky 13, even though there were the expected complaints by some of the dissatisfied tankmen.
 
It was already November, and the developers took a slow-down for the year, after the importance of dealing with the new graphics and the CP battle mode. Though minor tweaks were done, it was time to plan for the future. And, to be honest, there was good reason to. The majority of them were building up for what would be a completely revolutionary update, which would hit Tanki at the end of 2012 – the legendary rebalance.
 
Throughout the month, Bruce continued his mini-contests, either via his DJ's on Radio Shows, through Facebook, or his re-invigorated interest in the Tanki Blog. There was a Consultant's battle in the Russian forum with which players could buy a paint to support one of the contestants, and the players who picked the winning paint would earn a large prize fund. Having Green, Blue and Pink paints obviously meant, with a mainly male game, that Pink gained the least buyers. However, it came as a surprise to many that KALASH86RUS, the bearer of the pink paint, won – and thus giving a massive prize fund of over 800 (8000 in today's currency) crystals to each of the buyers! There was also a Parkour contest during the month, which gained some impressive synchronisation from a number of winners.
 
During the month, three updates occurred to the “newbie's” experience in the game. Firstly, the Tanki Tutorial was added. Now, players would go through the motions of playing against AI's in an interesting “guided” tour of a map, instead of entering the battle immediately. I'm sure many of you newer players reading this will have experienced this before you joined the game. (I love this. Gives me a sense of being overpowered, and I can actually kill tanks for once! :P) Secondly, newbies were given more protection to their account, including necessity of getting a safe password, as well as the backup email being used for protection, due to the increase of hacking. And finally, there was the addition of a new video for the Tanki front page demonstrating some awesome gameplay, and showing off the new graphics. Tanki had really wanted to change this since the current video at the time had shown only the old graphics – which had seriously changed, and was giving a false picture of the game. The new video has stayed on the homepage to this day.
 
I thought it would be interesting to note that this was also the point when Tanki begun to start doing many discounts on buying crystals. PayPal had a 25% discount for Tanki buyers during November, and from then on, there would be a discount on buying crystals through different means nearly every month!
 
It was December all too soon, and the tension was rising as players waited with bated breath for the Rebalance and Refund that would shake the Tanki world upside down. Tanki revealed what it would be as the date approached; and since some of you readers wouldn't know, I'll quickly sum it up for you. Since the beginning of the game, there had been tiers in Tanki. Firstly, for the beginners, there been the first three weapons and hulls – Smoky, Firebird, Twins, Wasp, Hunter and Titan, the ones you could unlock at incredibly low ranks and get all of them to fully upgraded by the tiny rank of First Sergeant. Then there had been a “middle tier” consisting of Railgun, Isida and Dictator. These were not as powerful as the “Tier 2” equipment but very strong when someone owned them at the low ranks. Finally, there had been a Tier 2, which was formed of the most powerful weapons and hulls in the game – Thunder, Freeze, Ricochet, Shaft, Hornet, Viking and Mammoth. Tanki had been moving along fine with this, but there had always been a problem – it was too limited!
 
At this point, players playing in small maps would nearly always only use Freeze, as it was the only mass-destruction close range weapon which was useful at the high ranks. Similarly, Shaft dominated longer-range battlefields, even though Ricochet and Thunder had their powers too. On top of this, the gap between being able to get M0 Thunder, and then M3, was only three ranks – and that was WO1 to WO4. Barely any difference for a serious Tanki player. There were often M3 Thunders bullying little M0's in battles, and there was an “unbalanced” nature about some of it. That was where the rebalance fitted in. With a bigger range of weapons available at all ranks, longer-stretched upgrades, and addition of new ranks, the game became more balanced at ranks, as people used similar equipment, as well as giving a diversity in weapons and hulls. This would shake Tanki so much that the developers opened big Q&A sessions about it beforehand, as well as open testing.
 
Through the month, as the excitement grew, there were minor events still occurring. Most interesting was the release of two new maps, Gallery and Crash. Though removed from the game now, these maps contained the props that we now see in maps such as Future and Factory. Displaying the “third-generation” graphics, these brought a new level of graphical quality into the game.
 
I'm also happy to say that it was in December 2012 that I was accepted as a reporter into the newspaper team, in which I am happy to be serving you in to this day. ;) The December Issue also heralded the entry of ShadowVisions (ISI BROS 43V3R) into the newspaper team, as the Tanki staff grew from strength to strength. Forum Mods and Chat Mods were being searched for as well; and we can't forget the consultants who were beginning to dominate the forum and chat, helping newbies from every angle!
 
Finally, on December 17th, the rebalance was released. All players received their crystals back, and players took their time to accustom themselves to the new statistics in the game. Some players immediately bought some new weapons and tanks, dying to see what they did in the game. Others knew that the New Year's Sale would approach later, and passed the time with M0 Smoky and M0 Wasp as they prepared for the upcoming sale and slowly took in the news around them of what was the best weapons and hulls to buy.
 
With the release, however, came many other things that have made a big impact on the game. With the rebalance came the addition of three new ranks to the latter end of the game. These were Field Marshal, Commander and Generallisimo. This update was due to the growing amount of Marshals – and Tanki wanted to stretch out the ranks, not only to give players more aim, but also to add higher unlocking levels for some of the M3 Equipment.
 
Another revolutionary update was the addition of buying experience, which came with the rebalance. Yes, I know this is hard to take in – this is what I'm meaning by a big update! 1000 Experience cost 100 crystals (1000 today), which made it a very tempting buy for players. For me, this was completely awesome. I loved it because I could buy my way up to M3 Equipment, which I would never have been able to play up to. I immediately bought my way up from Major to Colonel, before eventually buying myself up to Major General, so I could get an M3 Set. There was a sense, however, that this unbalanced the game, as many tankers at the higher ranks lacked the skill that before they had required. This also made them lose some encouragement to play their way up to the high ranks, and rather bought their way up, making many of them waste crystals, and thus, leave the game. This was later removed for some of the reasons mentioned above, but not before I had taken full advantage of it. ;) I personally am very glad I managed to use it before its removal, since I would definitely not be in possession of as many M3's as I own now if that experience buying feature had not been added!
 
The rebalance did, of course, have mixed reactions... even though sadly, the large majority of players disliked it from the start. For many players, it was too much to take it all at once – and having played Tanki for so long and being so used to the current situation, they weren't ready to take the changes in. There were, of course, the natural problem, of price. Price had been upped massively with the rebalance, with things costing far more than before. Many players with previously full M3 garages, could barely buy two M3 combos now! It was hard to take in for some that their investments in buying an M3 Thunder could now barely buy them M2.
 
However, there were a minority of players who supported the decision, the idea of bringing more balance to the games. There is a sense of irony that many players who disliked the rebalance now dislike the idea of bringing product kits – even though product kits brought the game back closer to the way it was before the rebalance, when buyers dominated even more than they do now. It was one of those things, however, that many players started to appreciate after a period of time – even though many of the old players nowadays would say that they preferred the old days better. To be honest, one of those reasons might be the fact that it was “the old days” since it is scientifically proven that we reminisce upon the old days better than they actually were. :P
 
The rebalance was enough for the year for many players, and for me, I didn't play much Tanki myself for the rest of the year until the New Year Sale when I bought my new equipment - after all M0 Smoky/M0 Wasp isn't the most awesome combination to be using against Majors! The annual 20 Seconds to New Year (now 15 Seconds of Fame) Contest of 2012 ended later in the year, just after Christmas, as Tanki prepared for the New Year Celebration once again.
 
Tanki must have realised the feeling of discontent lying around many of the players at the rebalance, and so, for the New Year, the players were treated with the biggest discount that Tanki had ever given out so far. 30% Discount was alerted to all players across the news and Facebook, as players celebrated and many “savers” including me cashed in their refund money on their m3's at an awesome discounted price. Tanki also gifted players with a gold box doubled in value for the New Year Period. And of course, the unforgettable annual New Year Map. This year heralded a change, as the New Year Map was done completely differently, hosting a large climb up to the “top of the mountain” where a Christmas tree was. Though not holding the same feeling as the 2011 and 2012 New Year maps, it was undoubtedly popular among many, giving a fresh feeling to the battlefield.
 
I think its fitting to end this article with the final update of them all in December – from the complex rebalance to the simplicity of the editing of the starter hull. Wasp had always been the beginning hull for players. Now, it was time for Hunter to take over. Having more balanced stats, it offered players the option of gunning for a faster hull, instead of starting with the fastest. Though some players were reported to have thought they were hacked when they logged in to see an extra hull in their garage, the festive gift of M0 Hunter was a fitting way to close what I would call the busiest and most impressive year in Tanki's history.
 
Part 8 [January 2013 - June 2013] ~ 2966 Words

“Happy New Year” goes the cry as 2013 starts, a new year dawning on Tanki Online. But for quite a number of players, saying HAPPY New Year would be pushing it. The rebalance had taken Tanki by force less than a month ago, and to say that it had come as a bit of a shock to the system would be understating it. For some of the players, who had been playing Tanki for 2 years +, it was an unwelcome entry.
 
Now, why, you may ask? After all, rebalance may seem to many of us now like one of the best Tanki updates of all time. It gave a new sense of balance and variety to the battlefield - and suddenly, there was a lot more to aim for in regards to buying and goals for players. But lets traverse back in time to what we thought when it came out. Maybe you weren't there, but I'm sure you can imagine. Just think of it this way.
 
Ever since Tanki had begun, there had been Tiers. Everyone had always had a goal - whether it be M3 Thunder, M3 Freeze or M3 Rico - and those were the main focuses of the players. The rebalance completely shook this outlook on things. Suddenly, everything was equal. Most players couldn't wrap their head around it. For months after the update, players always referred to Ricochet and Shaft as the "best weapons", and still didn't manage to latch on to the fact that now, they were no longer the best. The turrets had all become equal. Just think - all those re-thought goals, the whole idea... it was a lot for players to take in and consider.
 
This, unfortunately, was a big blow for many of Tanki's veteran players. For many, they couldn't be bothered to take in the changes and moved off to other games. I was one of the relatively few 2010'ers who stuck around at this point - though the rebalance nowadays is attracting tons of players to the game, it actually was a key reason to a lot of old players leaving. It's fair to say that the rebalance heralded the beginning of a new era.
 
The cold was still rushing by, as players settled into their post-NewYear discount equipment. The rebalance was still causing many players to consider what was best on the battlefield. Its fair to say in the first few days that Thunder, Twins and Isida were certainly the most common weapons on the battlefield.  Isida's massive power raiseled people to go crazy at the amount of damage it could weald. Thunder was mass-power and people from before the rebalance were sticking with it too  - and Twins seemed to be much better than Ricochet in the early days. And as for tanks, the majority used Mammoth as the Rebalance started to make its effect on gameplay. The health was just massive - too massive to ignore.
 
It was mid-January that the first main event for the English Community begun - the infamous CSL 1 started. Now when I say infamous, I mean infamous infamous. This was what I would certainly class as the biggest saga of all time in the English side of Tanki.
 
The Cybersport Team, at that time, was run by moderator BarKode. Bruce Lunga, the community manager, was getting more busy with real life activities (which was a reason he had to later quit his role as manager), and so BK had a primary "boss" role in the Cybersport Business. With his DJs including ShadowVisions, Arya777, AnuBoi, PistolenPaultje, GeneralVeers and Vikingsrall, Cybersport was thriving - though people questioned BarKode's leadership, and rightly so.
 
BarKode had his own clan - called Sinister (later known as Syndicate), and they were entering the CSL. Dare Devils had been dominating all the clan contests at that point - and BarKode didn't want that to continue. Using the argument that he wanted it to be more interesting, he purposely rigged the contest so that Sinister would avoid meeting Dare Devils right until the end. 
 
This didn't mess up the CSL much at the time - as Sinister eventually came out quite early, and the main famous event was when The Mighty Midgets beat DD in an incredible showdown to state their claim for the Number One spot in the history of clans. It was only after the CSL was over, and as CSL Season 2 was beginning that the truth was unfolded. BarKode lost his job, role and status, which led to him quitting Tanki.  With this event, the shaky floor beneath Cybersport collapsed - and the whole previous Livestream Channel with all the incredible games of old times was obliterated. For someone who has followed clans for a long time, it was an incredibly sad but dramatic time.
 
Meanwhile, there were still in-game tweaks occuring. With the rebalance, there had come in a new burst of cheats and lagging - which the developers were seeking to fix as quickly as they could. To fix the lags, what was coming was a new server platform - an update not to be understated in its effect on us nowadays. It entered the game in late January. As well as fixing glitches, the platform enabled far more players to join each server as well as reducing lag.
 
There is no doubt in my mind that 2012 heralded the greatest improvements as for the community side on the English side of Tanki. However, Bruce was doing his best to keep things moving in 2013. He was compiling a few funny Video Blogs, as well as some simple Breaking News posts (which co-incidentally are helping me a lot in organising this article). The Artist of Tanki Online Contest also returned in January. An incredibly successful contest with a fantastic organisation, the contest format was done by selecting the best 8 entries, and then doing a "play-off" stage till the final following different themes which gave a great sense of theatre to the contest.
 
For the developers and players, it was soon February as the Russian winter blues started to melt away into Spring, and players got settled into a new arena that the rebalance was offering. Players were beginning to warm to the rebalance ever so slowly, but certainly one of the most unsatisfactory updates was going to hit sooner than the players wanted.
 
And of course, I'm jumping ahead of myself. Issue 8 of the Newspaper was released in early February, featuring one of the best and longest articles of all time written by ShadowVisions (Yes, even longer than mine!) - the Shopper's Guide to the Rebalance. The rebalance clearly wasn't stemming the new accounts - if anything, it was speeding up the growth of the game, as Tanki hit 20 million players!
 
It had already been a decent while since the New Year's Discount and devs were starting to realise the weapons and hulls that were completely dominating the battlefield. What may come as a surprise to you readers now is that one of the least popular weapons at the beginning of the rebalance, if not the least popular, was Smoky. Yes, what some people class as the "most over-powered weapon by far" was largely unseen in the first battles, particularly at higher ranks. This was probably a main factor in the idea behind discounting it at 50% early in February! Smoky fever grew, and I got M2 Smoky too mainly due to the fact that I thought Smoky was less mainstream, and I wanted to be epic hipster. However, I never settled into the Smoky gameplay, and now its sitting, dust settled all over it in the garage.
 
It was only a couple of days later that the foretold update was added to the game. I'm sure most of you know what I'm talking about. Unfortunately, I will have to say this - but on the 13th of February entered the infamous Update 123.
 
Now, there was at heart nothing wrong with this update - in fact it was great! The crystal collection was a wonderful change - as it spread out crystals more fairly. As all crystals were alloted x10, not only did players seem to get a lot more cash, but most significantly, beginners begun to get a fairer share of funds. So what was the problem?
 
Ultimately, the problem cut down to this - the funds had been drastically decreased. Suddenly, funds were incredibly hard come by. What had used to be a simple 100 fund in 30 minutes became a struggle to even make 500 (previously worth 50). And, as you can imagine, players weren't happy. It was hard enough to get funds at the time - now crystals would be hard come by. It was the beginning of a struggle to generate quick crystals in the game, steering many people to quit.
 
It seemed at this point that Tanki were slowly beginning to take a different political look on the game. Gone were the days of cheap buying and easy-to-earn crystals with very occasional sales - and coming in was the Tanki we see today - more expensive and harder to earn, but more sales. And boy do we see that! Firebird sale entered for Valentine's Day, just a couple of days after Smoky, another largely unseen weapon on the battlefield. And later in the month, just at the end of February, all the hulls were reduced by 25%. Though this did quite a lot to appease some of the unhappy players, it wasn't ideal, and the developers were searching for a way to keep players playing but also keep the money flowing in.
 
March came, and the internet craze of the Harlem Shake was starting to make its move into Tanki. Not only did the Tanki developers make their own and Bruce make his own V-Log dedicated to it, but they opened up a clan contest for people to do an "organised dance routine" to the soundtrack of the Harlem Shake. Clans all over made their own video, and in a crazy vote-to-the-death, Behemoth edged Kings of Genocide to become the winners at the tightest margin to be possibly thought up.
 
A number of updates joined Tanki in March including a number of new or updated maps, as well as a new "sort through battles" interface and some serious graphic updates. Firstly came a few tweaks to maps. Fort Knox was removed, and Fort Knox II renamed to it. Fort Knox III was tweaked with and re-named Edinburgh. There were minor updates to other maps with glitches and/or uneven teams.
 
The Interface Sorting-through-game-modes system joined Tanki first in March. As shown here, players were able to find their mode of choice easier by selecting what type that wanted to play. Tweaks were later added to the system to make it what it is today. 
 
Graphics in Tanki had been a major update of the past months, and joining Tanki in March were some new graphic updates. Dust underneath tanks were added to give a new more natural feeling and shadows were given some more detail. The game was improving in looks as the days flew past. 
 
Bruce hadn't finished with contests or clans yet - The Dusseldorf Royal Rumble, a massive Deathmatch where representatives from each clan came together each week to fight for prizes began in March. As for contests, the Tanki Online Body Art contest also begun which got a surprisingly huge amount of entries, players all over participating to win the crystals that had become so recently tough to find.
 
Spring was approaching the game, and developers were warming up for two of what I would call the happiest updates during my Tanki history. The month, however, was scattered with updates. A substantial, but controversial update was brought to light that month, as developers enhanced the Tanki team-kick system with the "Thumb-down" Arrows coming in. Though this has caused a number of players to be kicked from battles even after helping their team to quite a high amount, I personally love it, as you so often find low rankers joining a high-rank game and refusing to leave, which makes for a lopsided battle often spoilt by that fact. The Team Kick System also helps to get rid of sabotagers quite effectively.
 
The first product kits also entered the game in April. Though people were found to be quite wary of this update since it gives a large advantage to buyers, it has been quite a success for the developers as it encourages the players to spend on crystals to get a massive, but not too overpowering, advantage in battles.
 
It was later in April that I'm sure one of the happiest updates many of us will recall occured. The devs surprised us with an awesome 60% permanent Fund Raise, after seeing the problems that the low funds had been doing to their playerbase. It was a great encouragement for players to join back - what I would call a definite success... well certainly for us tankmen!!!
 
The month wasn't over; not near it. A fantastic update near the end of the month, at least in my opinion, was the addition of a "Gold Box will be dropped soon" signal. I'm sure many of us will have seen this; doesn't it set your heart wild! Before this, there had just been a random drop... I personally think it lost the point of a gold box hunt. The previous way of dropping also had meant that a lot of players had been sitting in certain positions waiting for the gold since it could have fell without alert at any time period. The new way of doing things was a big hit on success as the epic feeling of the gold rush slowly returned to the game!
 
Later in the month, another controversial feature in the game was put to rest. Since the rebalance, the possibility to "buy experience" had been available for all ranks. This had been great for people like me who were seeking for M3 weapons and hulls immediately and had lots of crystals to spend, but it was leaving many aspects to the game decidedly unbalanced. Players were getting to Generalissimo with minimal skill, and no longer could you look at a rank and be certain of the experience of the player. There were, as with many updates, disadvantages and advantages. However, there were only few people using this update and Tanki decided that it was causing more problem than solve. They did, however, give a warning before removing it, enabling me to spend that little bit more cash to rank up to Lieutenant General!
 
The English community was still thriving. Embedded in what I would call the "Contaminated days", the forum was moving forward quickly with mods and consultants joining often. During the month, another serious influence on the Community joined... in Perm. We know his name. Semyon! Semyon joining started the fading effect of the incredible 2012 Community Manager, Bruce Lunga. But I definitely will never forget his work in helping me really enjoy the vibrant nature of this community...
 
May was soon upon us. Players were beginning to truly appreciate the rebalance gameplay, people were joining by the quadrillions. The annual May Holidays began, with the Russians celebrating the annual V-E Day celebration with some tasty discounts and the first raised worth of the Gold Box since Update 123. 
 
The updates were gradually coming to a halt, as Tanki developers slowed down for the summer. May passed, people as always settling into their post-discount combinations. The month did hold a couple of contests. After the successful "Best of Guides" Contest in 2012, they re-did it in May 2013, earning a great number of applications with the new range of weapons the rebalance offered. 
 
A staff vs players game was also introduced for the English Community. The map Moon Silence, a take on Silence as you can probably guess, had been introduced and the developers were keen on having a cool battle called the "300 Astronauts" Battle. Though I didn't play, as a staff, I needed M3 Smoky and M3 Wasp in case I was going to play, and so Tanki made my rank Generallisimo for about a week. I must admit, I did enjoy that feeling! :lol: The battle did go well, the players putting up a fight, but the staff overcoming them.. as we always do :P
 
June. It was already mid-2013. The Devs weren't holding back with the discounts though with early June boasting an awesome "Discount Week", where Tanki discounted seperate parts of the garage throughout the week, before ending it with a massive 90% off the Score Multiplier - irresistible, even for some Generallisimos!
 
During the month, there was a largening of battle creation, as players were able to start to stretch the limits to enjoy a more variable battle experience. WO5s now could play Generallisimos... even though thats nothing compared to the good ol' days when a Private could kill a Marshal!
 
It was time for the summer to settle down. Crash and Gallery, the two future-gen maps were removed, with preparation on the scenes for the future new maps coming out. The paint Traceur was added to the garage for the Masters of Parkour Contest. Though promised to be removed, it never has - players still using it at low ranks and in XP-K Battles. Cybersport was also starting to get moving again with the Lucky Seven Tournament starting later in June.
 
Only half-way in the year... I'm sure you'll now understand what I mean by it being a rather influential year! And there's so much more to discover... stay tuned for next issue, what will be the final look-back on the History of Tanki!
 
Part 9 [July 2013 - December 2013] ~ 3672 Words

The feeling of recapping the last few months in In The Beginning, Tanki is something that feels quite different from all the previous articles. I feel as if many of you readers will be far more competent at remembering the recent history of the game, and putting it into words. And yet, I can't leave it hanging off in the middle of 2013. We'll definitely finish this, whether with a hop, skip and a jump or with a slightly deflating brake.
 
July 2013, just nine months ago. Let's put ourselves into context. We come in straight after the recent Masters of Parkour Contest, the removal of Crash from the game, and the start of the first Lucky Seven Clan Tournament. The game is still moving forward at a fast pace. Much is in the same situation as we find it now, though there are a few momentous updates to greet us as we catch up with time.
 
Tanki is still rumbling when we break in at July. The game is spreading, and nearly a million players are joining each month.  Since the events of the rebalance (which already feels like years ago), people had been originally unimpressed, particularly when the battle funds were dropped in Update 123. As the year had progressed, however, there was no doubt that the players were slowly beginning to appreciate the updates a bit more, particularly when the battle funds were raised again in Update 144.
 
In late June, the dreadfully painfully long Freeze effect was nerfed – perhaps connected to the weather, as the temperature begun to rise in Perm. And as we move into this period of time in latter 2013, it was time for the minor activities and tweaks to take more of a prominent role and the substantial updates to take a seat back - well, for the time being.
 
The start of July heralded a couple of minor, yet significant updates related to paints. The Lucky Seven and Glide Paints were added into the battlefield for the winners of the Lucky 7 Tournament and the Parkour Tutorial Crew respectively. There was also an update on the description of Zeus. Sounds boring? Actually, there was a lot of talk behind this. Many of the Arab players had been complaining about certain phrases used referring to the player looking “like a god” on the battlefield. After months of campaigning, the Tanki team changed the description on the 4^th of July.
 
The forum was also going through a series of changes. It was in late June that the "Voting Up and Down" system was added. It included a karma on people's profiles of the votes they had received on their posts, which was later removed because of its encouragement for trolling. Early July also signalled a number of cool new things. These included the splitting up of the Complaints section, the creation of a Forum Games section and a new section for the Discussion of Contests. This was the start of many sub-forums and new forums appearing in the forum. Soon afterwards, the popular "Your Creativity" section began, with players like gromatom coming to the limelight in their new topics. Elsewhere on the forum, the "Photo of the Day" topic was really kicking off, with players such as Lankbouv, haider19505, mkkmkk999, Remaine and flae99 becoming commonly seen faces around the area.
 
It was in mid-July that another incredibly influential face in the History of Tanki resigned from his job. Bruce Lunga officially quit his role as community manager, after a couple of months of being too busy to keep his job as an important enough focus in his life. An incredible man, his effect on the community will not be forgotten.
 
We discussed last issue about the way Tanki was changing its business view. Instead of cheap buying of crystals and low prices in-game, they had reverted to a discount-friendly expensive game style. This was showing. The main thing at the time, to be quite honest, was a sudden influx of seriously big discounts. At the end of June, a 50% discount on all paints appeared to the public. Just a week later, Isida was put on 50% off. And just a couple of days later, Tanki were clearly setting up for players to try out their new combos in summer as they started a 50% discount on Viking and Hornet. Somewhat puzzling to me since Isida, Hornet and Viking had already been three of the cheapest and most popular pieces of equipment in the game. However, later in the month, they made up for it with the other hulls being given the opportunity to take a discount. Tankers were to vote on whether Hunter, Dictator, Titan, Mammoth or Wasp would go on discount. Unsurprisingly, Mammoth won, with Wasp in a close second and Dictator stealing third place.
 
July was not near over yet. The friend's adding system made its first appearance on the interface of the game. Though later tweaks would occur, this would be the start of what I think now is one of Tanki's greatest additions to the game.
 
The addition of three new maps peeked through the windows as the summer reached its peak holidaying time. The “Looking for a Level Designer”, inspiring many tankers to take up map-making brought out three new maps for the game, in replacement of Crash and Gallery which had been taken down. These maps, Future, Factory and Platform (which was later taken down) are now the only 3rd-generation graphic maps apart from the recent re-release of our old friend, Madness.  
 
August continued the flowing stream of discounts, as Tanki's devs took a summer break with the updates. During the month, The "Vote Percentage Turret" Discount occurred giving Railgun a huge 65% Discount; later in the month, there was once again a 50% off for paints, 25% on buying crystals and also 50% on Firebird and Hornet. It was a good time to be playing Tanki...
 
The social activities in the English side were flying onwards. Tanki gave the first real life prize out in an English Contest when the Mr Tanki Online Contest started with a Samsung Galaxy S4 on offer for the winner. On Facebook, activities such as "Question of the Week" began during April, and the occasional deathmatch was organised too, following the theme of the Wolf Battles. As for the forum, the TOF Solo, Classic and Tandem was starting for the first time over on the English Community!
 
Nothing is recorded to have been added or updated during August, apart from the release of a couple of new special paints for members of staff like Helios, the paint for members of the Creative League. The recently released Platform was also removed from the battlefield.
 
It was September all too soon, as the summer gaming months passed too quickly for many hardcore tankers. It was time for the developers to prepare forward for two momentous updates near the end of the year. The New Physics was going through testing over on the server as players became shocked at the change it looked like it would make on gameplay. Its fair to say that some thought it would be amazing, but others were disgusted with the new speeds the hulls would be having. To see a few of the opinions at the time from pro Russian testers, read ArchangeI's article here which translates a Russian article displaying the views of the players on the testing.  As for micro-upgrades, they were also in testing. Players were particularly disappointed at the fact that there was a planned option to have the chance of a failed update. This was later removed from the plans by the developers, after listening to the players' complaints.
 
And surprise surprise, another discount followed - but no ordinary one. For Tankman's Day, Tanki weren't even satisfied to 50% a couple of things. Setting some relatively simple tasks for players to do in sharing certain things about tanki, they knocked up a stonking 50% Discount on every single item in the garage. BOOM! That remains to be the joint-highest discount of all time! The time also included a special "Going for Gold" contest for those who collected a gold box with the holiday paint on to win crystals.
 
A few tweaks to the buying system was made during September. There were bonus crystals given out to PayPal users, as well as another discount for buying later in the month. Most prominently, Buying Crystals became fixed through all mediums at the end of the month. All mediums would offer the same amount of crystals, except SMS payments which remained to be more expensive. This helped players avoid hassle of searching for the cheapest method of buying, but rather go with the simplest, and most relevant for them.
 
As always throughout the year, there were English activities still going on. Over on Facebook, the English Tanki page notched up a substantial 100,000 likes. Meanwhile, over on Tanki, a year after the original "Kasim vs Sun" Battle (which Sun co-incidentally won), the Tanki developers were warming up for a tandem battle where Kasim and Sun would face two Russian players. The devs and players both had a "paint", and buyers of the winning paint would be given a share of the prize fund. Though both players were Second Lieutenants, they won as I predicted! ^_^
 
It was at the end of September that a very controversial update made its appearance on our gaming screens. The infamous product kits were added to the game.
 
Previously, the only product kits had been for M0's, which had made little difference for players, but now all of a sudden product kits were brought in for high ranks. The idea behind this was fine, most people agreed, but what was particularly worrying was the low ranks that the kits were available at. Suddenly, First Lieutenants could be found with M2 Viking, M2 Thunder and Emerald - a combination that many Brigadiers would be glad to own! Prodigi, a paint that could only be unlocked at Marshal, could also suddenly be unlocked at the rank of First Lieutenant - and Inferno, one of the best paints in the game among Generallisimos could be gained at a staggering Second Lieutenant if bought in a kit. These were problems that ran under much fire from the players in the first few days.
 
The devs, however, stuck to their guns. Though the kits did unbalance play quite a lot more, the developers certainly gained more from this update; and it did not seriously affect the Tanki playerbase. It was another step to encourage players to buy. However, it did sprout a lot of anger, particularly from committed non-buyers, in its first few days. (Recently, the product kits for M3's were changed again - if you want to see what they were previously, please check this topic.)
 
And thus, Tanki moved on into October with buyers hungry to try out these new over-powered kits!  Early in the month, one of the most popular maps in the game had a goodbye event. Quite a substantial goodbye event, I must say. It was time to say goodbye to Moon Silence. 
 
This map had been a key part of many newbies' first days in the game. The low gravity, and the very low unlock rank had made it an ever-present sight among the first few games for a young player. However, it had always had an unreliable vulnerability to being prey to hackers due to the gravity it offered. And thus, Tanki planned to remove it. Before they did so, they had a week of craziness over there. The chance of a gold box dropping in Moon Silence was doubled, and a 3,000 Gold Box was added over there. Not only that, but the first 3,000 Gold Box that you have collected would give you 50 of each supply! That's no small amount. The two players who collected the most Moon Silence gold boxes in the week (a staggering 22) - not only did they get 66,000 crystals; but they also were gifted an iPad Mini from Tanki for their labours. And at the same time as that, if they had screenshotted every single one of the Gold Boxes they collected in Moon Silence and tweeted them for a special Twitter Contest at the time, they would have received 82,000 more crystals. Imagine that! 148,000 crystals and an iPad Mini for one week's worth of Gold Boxes! Decent... :o
 
Lets catch up with the social times in Tanki again, shall we? Over on Facebook, ArchangeI was beginning to make his claim for community manager as he started doing his Parkour Tutorials as well as his incredible V-Logs! To watch his first one, please watch this video. At the same time, the second Lucky 7 Tournament was starting - the later winners of which were Noob Army, who hammered Vengeance in the final. Contests were also flying in, with probably the simplest contest of all time, the Slogan for T-Shirts Contest, being added on the forum - of which the winner "Blow 'Em Up" is currently sitting on my Tanki T-Shirt upstairs! On the forum, some new reporters were added to the team, including old forumer Fjelstad1678, DJ VIkingsrall and the aforementioned ArchangeI. The report button was added on the forum to help players report bannable offences on the forum in an easier and quicker way. There had been a recent uproar among members about certain moderating decisions, and so Semyon also started a Feedback on Staff topic. The ability to like staff members' posts was also added later in the year, something I appreciate very much! *hint hint* ;)
 
What happens in October? Of course, it was the annual Halloween celebration once again at the end of October. 13% Discount was offered - mainly for the creepiness of the number - and a 3000 Gold Box was once more added into the battlefield. A HALLOWEEN map was also added (Yup, in full caps :L), which was really just a darkened version of Highland with random pumpkins sitting around in the middle of the course. Halloween also had another Twitter contest where players had to create a picture, gif or video that was themed in the Halloween map to win crystals.
 
Recapping the month always looks back on the discounts; and apart from the small Halloween discount, there was also a 25% on Isida and Thunder. On top of this, there was a discount on buying with prepaid cards. 
 
Tanki rolled on into November, smoothly preparing for the upcoming big updates. The Helper Paint was added to the battle, after the introduction of a "Poll to see the best staff member" was added for October Staff Members. In later months, the best helpers were chosen rather by the admins of each section. To see more on the beautiful Helper paint, read this article. Later in the month, the protections of Acid and Champion, two special tournament-winner paints were also given minor changes.
 
The month flew forward as the developers focused on perfecting micro-upgrades and the new physics in particular. The devs who sorted out the graphics were also preparing for a new look into lighting that would come soon. If you are wondering if there haven't been many updates yet, you'll be surprised as we approach the final month of the year how much is still set for happening...
 
A couple of events worth mentioning occured during the month. Firstly, there was a 25% Discount on all hulls. Decent. Secondly, there was a 90% Discount on mines and 25% Discount on Paypal payments. Awesome! Thirdly, Tanki won the Game of Runet Prize - and thus battle-funds were doubled, there was a 50% Discount on weapons and there was a bunch of free crystals chucked out to those who logged on on the three days over one Weekend. No, I'm not joking. It seriously happened. They weren't joking when they called it an epic weekend! An update worth mentioning also came at the end of the month - the addition of the ability to invite a friend to battle!
 
There was also a different event that happened in November. A Tanki Online Tournament over in Perm was held. Players met up in real life over in Russia to have a tournament where winners of an awesome DeathMatch would receive real money. Wish I could have gone! These two recent events of them winning the Runet Prize as well as the tournament in Perm perfectly shows how much Tanki had grown in the time that we've been looking over it in this series...
 
It was already December and though the temperature was dropping, things were really heating up for some big releases over in Perm. The first of these major updates occured on December 4th. Update 200.
 
Update 200 was the release of Dynamic Lighting and a new dimension of graphics in the game. The quality rose immensely, the beauty too as players gasped at the new colour sensations they were receiving on their screens. There were, however, a few problems some players experienced with the new colours not working. Thus, Tanki helped out by providing an "anecdote" to the issue that seemed to be rising particularly on Google Chrome. If you suffer these problems, you may also want to check it out over here.
 
The continuing of these updates wasn't going to stop yet. The feature to invite friends to battle was updated on December 9th, and on December 11th, the much awaited Update 205 came out. We welcomed to Tanki the New Physics!
 
Like so many substantial updates in Tanki, the first thought was to say "Don't change something that doesn't need changing". Well, it was definitely for me. But, now, looking back, I'm really loving the new physics. Offering more speed and drift for the faster tanks, they added a new dimension to the game. Suddenly, joining a Silence CTF wasn't ONLY going to have all Mammoths. With it came a bunch of tweaks to weapons as Ricochet and Shaft were buffed and the Freeze effect was smallened once again. I must admit, I LOVE this update!
 
Events were flying in all over the place. The "From Christmas to Christmas" event where players had to complete tasks like sharing posts on different social networks, and taking pictures of them catching the festive 2014 Gold Box. (See what I mean by this Gold Box being constantly raised thing?  :huh:) There was a 60% raise in Battle Funds over Christmas period due to a number of tasks being completed. The 15 Seconds of Fame contest was started again, typically won by the modern gamepiong of contests, ArchangeI! Another Twitter Contest started - a simple way to win 20,000 crystals in the "Where have I seen that" Contest. And over Christmas to New Year, the "Decorate A Christmas Tree" contest came on, with seven crystal daily bonuses given to those who collected all the seven presents from the garage.
 
But no there was no holding up. The updates were coming thick and fast too. On December 14th, a couple of New Product Kits came in. These were particularly for lower ranked buyers. A few days later, the most ground-shaking update of them all started. Update 208. Most prominently, It was time for Micro-Upgrades to say hello to Tanki.
 
I'm sure many of us would have been more unhappy with MU's if it hadn't been for the fact that Tanki also brought out the Crystals for Ranks feature in the same day. That meant that so many of the players who had been playing for yonks got this massive boost in crystals. With this update also came the awesome yellow light that rises above the tank when you rank up. A massive update - and so many people took a lot of time to take in all that had happened. As a result, a couple of useful guides for Micro-Upgrades was uploaded by... guess who.... ArchangeI after the release! You can watch them here.
 
The annual New Year's Celebration began as Tanki's players got ready for it excitedly. The New Year's Map came out on cue, with some cool dark effects and a Christmas Tree in the middle. The 3,000 Gold entered. And most awesome of all, the annual New Year's Discount this year was brought up to a massive 50% off all items! What made it even more awesome is that everyone had just got their Crystals for Ranks cash too. People cashed out. It was really a time to celebrate.
 
I think its fitting that we end on a satisfying note with the discount bringing some smiles to our faces after going through an endless pile of ups and downs as we've explored in depth the history of Tanki Online. What a story we've discovered to bring Tanki to where it is to this very day.

 
Part 10 - 11 [Added in Separate Spoiler due to overload of words]

 

 

Part 10 [January 2014 - June 2014] ~ 2291 Words
 
As I begin to compose this article, a year after I thought I had finished it for good, I am surprised by how much I look forward to once again researching, reminiscing and reminding not only you readers but also myself of all that has happened this past year in Tanki. Once again, I'm sure many of you will remember events far clearer than myself. But after requests from a number of forumers, I've decided to continue the series. Well, let's not waste any time. We kick off straight away on the first month - the first day - of 2014.
 
How about some context to get us going? Micro-Upgrades had entered the game just a couple of weeks before, accompanied as many would remember by the influx of crystals that came with the "Crystals for Ranks" update. Just a week before that, Tanki had welcomed in the New Physics, most remembered for reducing the once-deadly Freeze effect and giving Ricochet a boost which would catapult it from what many called "a shadow of its former self" to a favourite at not only the low ranks, but also the high. Not just for the weapons, the update was primarily aimed at re-working the hulls and is also remembered for starting off the decline of Mammoth, as well as introducing the Drift which has made Hornet the far-and-away favourite hull to a significant number of players.
 
Well, now was the New Years, and we all know what that means. A special discount. How about 50% on everything? For many players, especially more experienced ones, this discount was the most memorable in their Tanki history. Why, you ask? Well, let's just remember that two weeks ago, Crystals for Ranks had been released. Result? It meant that players who were Generallisimos at the time of the update would receive a colossal 314,000 crystals. Yeah, you heard that right! And with the New Year around the corner, the majority of players saved and were rewarded with what is rumoured to have been the biggest post-refund spending spree of crystals Tanki has ever had. That's what you call a late Christmas present!
 
A December full of change was to take time to adapt to, and the month passed with players getting used to the New Physics and their new equipment. With the Visual Rank-up effect also recently added, players were having some extra fun with their rank-up parties; and the new turn-off-crystal-boxes feature in Pro Battles was good news for the many gamers who wanted bigger funds in their serious XP Battles.
 
It was the end of the month where the first release of the month came- well I say release, perhaps that might not be the best word. The return of Madness! It had been 2 years since many players had played on their favourite map of old days, and after a sneak-peek of it's work in progress a couple of months before, it finally hit the servers in a big update named "Reworking of maps".
 
The update is also memorable for low ranks at the time for another reason - suddenly the rank limits for all the maps flew down. By the time a player reached WO4, he would have unlocked every single map in the game - a serious change from the days when you had to rank all the way to General to unlock a couple of the maps! Maps changed too - Silence was most famously re-shuffled, with the "Silence II" version exiting the game; similarly maps like Highland and Brest were merged and their second version was removed from the game.
 
A period of change was not deterring activity on all forms of social media. The forum was busy to say the least, with the famous "Photo of the Day" topic at its peak times - sometimes, 10 Pages would fill up each day. Names like FatalTank, sky128 and Aklism were becoming well-known faces; the forum was packed with contests such as the "Guides" and "Rusty Barrels" as well as one-offs such as a demonstration of the dynamic lighting in the "Come to Light" Facebook contest.
 
It was February all too soon, and an interesting update would be released to enhance log-in and account security. With Facebook becoming a key platform for the majority of Internet users, the ability to log on via Facebook was released, enabling fast log-ins as well as extended security for accounts.
 
Undebatable, that update of course. Just a benefit. However, Tanki would have a couple of debatable updates that month. Just a couple of days later they pulled out a bombshell. In a list of several maps, they announced that they were to remove all but two of the maps due to "lack of playing time". Some of these, such as Hill, Courage, Arena and Deck-9, were extremely popular. Thankfully, Tanki turned back on their decision even though Deck 9 and Canyon, two stalwart smaller old maps, would be removed later in the year to the disdain of many players.
 
It would get even more debatable. There was to be more controversy in that month rooted from the decision of the developers. In February 2014, two words were literally all I would have needed to start off a heated debate on a lobby chat. Any guesses? Yep. Product Kits.
 
The situation didn't help by an accidental error making the kits prices originally higher than they should have been. However, it swung both ways. Some thought that creating kits so expensive was favouring buyers. Others thought that the reason for new kits had been to stop the product kits for Marshal-unlock paints such as Prodigi being included in Second Lieutenant+ kits. However, it was backfired - the Paint Kit M2 would contain Prodigi. 
 
On the other hand, this update would hold the most popular kit of all time - the Brigadier Railgun-Hornet kit. This was the beginning of many XP players, and the Railgun-Hornet combination hit new heights at the higher levels.
 
An interface change later in the month for the homepage was eye-catching as the Tanki site was refurbished with a "new look" gracing the homepage. I'm sure most of you remember the old homepage with the news feed running down the side, like me. I do miss the old homepage, but the large consensus was positive as Tanki turned up the heat on their Public Relations frontier.
 
A stalwart event which gripped many players in 2014 would soon begin in February - the days of double funds. Although the first was due to the Data Center being successfully moved, and gifted for a week, it would begin the rampant double funds - so much so that it got to a stage when nearly every week had a day of double funds for a period.
 
March was on the doorsteps as developers began work on the Unity Version of Tanki that we still await. A couple of sales and a few other tweaks but overall, the community was satisfied and the game was growing nicely. A key update during March would soon come. The removal of the Team Kick.
 
Mixed opinions again. Many players were glad - they had been kicked out just because players wanted their friends in - or even wanted to take more funds for themselves. But at the same time, the ability of mults sabotaging a team suddenly grew significantly. Players could no longer kick them out but they would have to wait for a moderator who would have to go through a process which could take a while, or even be impossible due to a low rank sabotaging the team by playing to their full potential but with poor equipment.
 
Thankfully, a week later, an update came out that in my opinion was one of the brightest moments of 2014. The long-awaited ability to change equipment inside battles was finally released to the public to a wave of appreciation. Finally, players wouldn't have to quit a game to get that paint they needed and then wait outside till a space was opened up. Gameplay became so much more dynamic, teamwork took on a new level as players considered what combinations would be most suited to the situations. An absolutely vital update, and with the installed time limits, it was executed to perfection.
 
Another memorable moment of the year would be on its way. The release of a map. Yep, that's right! Rio was out, and with it a uber-cool contest offering 1 million crystals to conquer the peak of the Building. An incredible video from the German Parkour team won the plaudits, but most players were just appreciating the beauty of the map. Combined with the coming release of Tanki Online Brazil, Rio was a new step in the graphics of the game with a skybox to put your heart in your mouth.
 
It was soon April - the month where Tanki Online Brazil would be released for our South American friends. Built up to say the least, and the publicizing of the event certainly kick-started the game as players begun to join from parts of the globe where the breakthrough had not yet occurred. And meanwhile, in our neck of the woods, events were flying.
 
Over on Social media, Video of the Week and particularly Question of the Week was thriving and Tanki's Facebook page was getting more and more popular. As for the game, a number of discounts graced the game. Within two weeks, Viking had a 50% Discount as did Micro-Upgrades and all the Medium Hulls. As well as this, there were discounts on buying crsytals, as well as the removal of SMS Commissions which would stay on in the game. And I can't forget - one of the most popular Holiday paints since Tanki began them in 2010 was established for the Cosmonautics Day. Here's a picture; beautiful huh?
 
Discounts would often disguise dubious updates however, and certainly at the end of April, a major re-balancing of turrets and hulls hit hard as players began to unscramble the changes. A video detailing the changes can be seen if you are interested in remembering it. There were positives however, and soon players weren't complaining - as normal, the update just had taken some time to get used to.
 
Meanwhile, The Newspaper was going through a rough time. It had just been moved away from the Press Forum to in-game occasional articles in April. Without much writing going on and no issues, it was difficult to produce much, and it would soon head back to its home here on the forum.
 
Fair to say that 2014 was buzzing along nicely for players. Discounts and Double Battle Funds paved the floor with gold as players began to take the gifts for granted. The May Holidays popped up with only 25% off everything just a couple of weeks after 50% had covered a number of products causing some players to rant about the lack of a 50% Discount.
 
But, even if they were being spoilt, Tanki didn't seem to mind. The 5th Birthday of Tanki was celebrated in style at the end of May, with a week full of 50% Discounts, Double Battle Funds and 3000-crystal gold boxes sounding like one pretty serious party to me! Along with this came a surprise mid-year "THE GAME", most memorable for the Ping Pong Secret Room with "The Rock" pinned to the wall.
 
May did hold some twists and turns however, and near the end of May saw the heralding of a major Map Update. The release of Rio had seen the first map with "self-destruct zones" added to the game, and now Tanki would introduce this on significant numbers of other maps.  For example, Silence was made a lot larger, and self-destruct zones were added in many areas of the map. This update wasn't primarily to change gameplay but rather for visual enhancement, so that some of the maps didn't appear to be "floating" at the edges, but rather went on further into untouchable land.
 
And the summer approached already. It was soon June and another popular update was on its way. Firstly, and most significantly, it's aim was of a revitalisation for the CP Mode. CP had gone from quite popular at its entrance to certainly the least played game modes. And Tanki knew the potential this had to create dynamic gameplay and enjoyment for players. So they added the ability of CP Mode to every single map and also made Point-Capturing give players much higher scores. This added to the intentions of the players to capture a point making for much more intense fighting.
 
Along with the CP Update came a number of small tweaks. For example, the Gold Box Notification was turned Orange due to Visibility problems; and Chat would now only be unlocked at Gefreiter. All round, no complaints from players. An update fixing and not creating problems. Just as the devs intended.
 
As the game was getting along, so was the community. Tanki signed a Contract with "Starladder" in late May, meaning that the Cybersport World was preparing for the beginning of Starladder in Tanki in a revolutionary change to Tanki eSports. As for Semyon's work - well, June heralded the start of the weekly VLOG. A fantastic introduction, it kept players up to date with news and it's fair to say that Semyon's rep went up among all of the community.
 
Anything else in June 2014? Of course! The FIFA World Cup! Tanki followed in with the rest of the world by creating paints for each of the teams in the Cup. Players who bought the paint of any of the Top 3 Finishers would receive prizes. Most of the players chose Brazil. What a shame...
 
Part 11 [July 2014 - December 2014] ~ 2238 Words
 
Kick-off in July, and Tanki's World Cup Celebrations are in full swing. Brazil paints everywhere (7-1 plz) and a pleasant atmosphere in the game. Only one month after Tanki's memorable birthday celebrations and as always, players were glued to Tanki, unknowing that the next six months would hold some seriously major changes.
 
Just two days into July and a chunky balancing update hit the game. Among updating stats to ensure balance was better between hulls and weapons, the Tanki team also introduced the ability for Isida to remove Freezing and Burn from both its team-mates and itself when engaging in healing. Healing was clearly on the developers' minds as they also updated the First Aid to speed up the effects of it and also enable it the ability to remove the Freeze and Burn effects. On top of this, the delay of mines was reduced to one second and a penalty feature was introduced for self-destructors. Although that wasn't the greatest news for Thunders, it meant that players would think twice before jumping off the map to avoid being killed.
 
It was still the season of Double Battle funds with weekly treats being handed out the players' way including regular discounts on equipment. As August approached, even more gifts would be given out as the players with the Germany paint were rewarded handsomely and the first season of StarSeries came to a close with NooBest coming out champions. Strangely, a glitch in the system rewarded several players who had bought paints with tons of supplies which was taken in good heart by players, believe me!
 
The year was progressing quickly and Tanki were starting to make evident their plans. The announcement that Smart Cooldowns were being developed was met with mixed reactions from players including some rather hostile pleas that drug wars would remain from a few of the older players. As for other things, the in-game Server Switcher was in development - an update that was certainly less dubious. It was preparation time for the developers as the summer drew to a close and the working year started once again.
 
And so September dawned, the start of what would be four of the busiest months in Tanki's history. The speed of the updates was frightening - it is no surprise that 6 of the "Most Memorable Moments of 2014 in Tanki" which I published a couple of months ago occurred in the final four months of the year.
 
The first update took place mid-September when the awaited Server Switcher was released to the public. On top of this came a new URL system and dedicated EN Servers for the growing English community. Taken in good spirits naturally, as the developers also assured players that the Fatal Error problem had been reduced. 
 
However, a week later, it was to become mayhem in Tanki as one of the most controversial updates of time hit the servers - the long-anticipated Smart Cooldowns. An update that would ruin druggers and bring an equality to the battlefield that some adored and many despised. The announcement was met with largely negative reactions from the playerbase although many showed support for the decision. The difficulty was that Tanki had completely deleted one thing from the game - one thing that was keeping many players interested. Drug Wars. Many threatened to leave, particularly from the Arabic community, and several did.
 
Smart Cooldowns was accompanied by an "appeaser", just like Micro-Upgrades had been released with Crystals for Ranks the previous year. Each player's supplies were doubled and several large gifts of extra supplies were given out. However, that wasn't going to make players satisfied like free crystals had done with Micro-Upgrades - particularly in the light that the use of drugs had just gone out of the window! On the other hand, several newbie battles were improved as not only were drugs used in limited number but drugging buyers did not dominate the battlefield in the way they had once done.
 
The transition into October was riddled with people getting to grips with Smart Cooldowns. However, the devs weren't holding back. Immediately, a number of other updates were added to the game including added security for accounts and a change to the appearance of Team Chat. A week later, a smart "New-Look" Gold Box was added to the game, after the Gold Box released with the "new-look drop boxes" added at the Smart Cooldowns update had been slated for looking too similar to the Nitro box. This white Gold Box was clear, visible and a popular design which would remain in the game.
 
It seemed like Tanki was flowing from positive to dubious as once again, they attempted to change one of the most controversial inventions since the beginning of Tanki - product kits. New kits were added with less variety and a time limit which would show how long the kit was available in the garage. The attractive names of the kits caught the eye but most players were unimpressed with the lack of variety - this opinion would change though when new kits started replacing the old.
 
Of course, let's not forget the community and what was going on outside updates. The Battle of Rusty Barrels was brought back just after the summer and the V-LOG was still in full throttle each Friday. And let's not forget the institution of Brazillian Tanki which took a stand in BGS 2014 as the playerbase grew in South America. As for discounts, need I say anything? Any of us who can remember the golden days remember expecting a discount on some equipment each week. It was a staggering level of opportunities to save crystals - so much so that very few high-ranked players bothered buying equipment unless under an offer of over 25%. Some players were even annoyed at the "meagre 31% off everything" when Halloween struck at the end of October! The cheek of it!
 
If you've thought September and October have been busy, the updates in November take things to a whole new level. The news of the upcoming release of two new weapons were setting hearts racing but before that, another controversial update would hit the servers. The introduction of Predictable Drops.
 
At heart, this was a great plan. Making sure players knew where the drop boxes were falling to increase planning and strategy in games. However, the thing that got it really fired up was the change in the Crystal Boxes that accompanied this update. Not only were the spots for Crystal Box Drop Positions marked out in the game but there was a new mechanism. For the first time in Tanki's history since the Happy New Year 2012 Celebration, there would be a different number of crystals in each box, ranging from as low as 1 to as high as 100.
 
Again, it sounds good. But the saboteurs were having an absolute field day. While others were working hard around them for flags, they were camping for crystal boxes, not helping their teams and making a profit for doing so! On top of that, the mechanism for the Gold Box was smashed up to nearly three minutes between the alert and drop. And with the marking on the ground clarifying to players the whereabouts of the Gold, it was another reason to sabotage and led to less skilful gold catches. It wasn't improving gameplay - players were all starting to move back to their Mammoths and camp at Crystal Box Spots!
 
Tanki saw the problems this was causing - players were no longer fighting for the reasons that Tanki had been so popular in the past few years. Battles were no longer fought to be won; the aim was simply to grab some crystal boxes. Thus, they took action immediately. What was labelled the "experiment" was brought out to the audience. Its main feature? No more crystal boxes.
 
When I say many players actually cried, I'm not joking. Some were stricken by the loss - on the other hand, many were pleased. Battle Funds would grow higher, Gold Boxes would be more common and the "distraction" of crystal boxes no longer was an issue. The +73 on the topic showed the general consensus of positivity at this change but to many, it was the end of an era. As for the experiment's other features it included a strange test of a Gold Siren sounding at the exact moment the Gold Box appeared in the sky. Unpopular but Tanki would take action soon.
 
And so, in a week, the experiment came to a close, and Tanki made their final long-term decisions in an announcement of epic proportions. Crystal Boxes would say Farewell. Funds would be increased. Gold Boxes would have a twenty-second gap between alert and drop. Funds would be split more evenly between teams. Kills on enemies in CTF and CP would have shared points by damage given. Non-Pro Battles would be only allowed simple time limits. And my favourite - Drug Wars would return.
 
The response to this update was mixed but I was joyful. One update I can say I truly loved. Drug Wars returned in Pro Battles and with that, an area of the game that had been missing for a couple of months. Also, funds were larger and Golds were common. Great times. Predictable Drops, in my opinion, had been perfected.
 
The community events were thriving too. Over in Russia, the StarSeries Lan Finals were taking place - an incredible climax ending with Arcade (previously Noobest) grabbing the title once again. As for our side of the game, it was jogging along as usual. Contests in the newspaper were becoming more popular whilst a new generation of forumers was growing up in our midst.
 
And the events were honestly only just heating up. Another major update was released on the visual aspect of things as December dawned. Night Mode was added to a number of popular maps and players were stunned at the brilliant lighting in the dark. On top of this, Shaft was given a laser scope to add to the skill needed to wield it - and to dodge it - as players could see the Shaft's light shining upon them.
 
Personally, I believe December 2014 was the busiest month in Tanki's history. Just the depth of things that happened was absolutely incredible. Players were invited to take part in choosing the name for the upcoming two weapons as both releases approached. Testing was opened as the developers tried to involve their customers as much as possible. 
 
Dubious updates always get a field day on ITBT, and there was one just coming along. An Updated Battle List was added to the game. Removing the old "Names" added to Battles, this list would be sorted in a completely different way - by alphabetical order of maps. However, there were sincere problems. Firstly, players would no longer be able to distinguish between standard battles and XP Battles; and it was also causing problems all around for low ranks as Private Battles were only given availability to those with Pro Battle Passes.
 
Tanki knew things needed to change - 282 Negative Votes was not something they could take with a shrug of the shoulders. So they quickly got working on their Format Battles and made the Updated Battle List more user-friendly a couple of days later. But they couldn't spend too much time focusing on it - they had a new weapon to release! And that they did -  Hammer was released in mid-December to the delight of players.
 
Of course, I reckon everyone can appreciate the happiness of tankers. For many veterans in particular, who had been around at the release of Shaft back in 2011, this was glorious news. 3 Years of a lack of new Tank Combinations was finally over. Players got settled, and those waiting for a discount were rewarded as Tanki announced a superb "New Year Promo Calendar" for all players to enjoy. A week after Hammer's release, all turrets were put on Half Price giving many players extra incentive to test out this new weapon.
 
And the end of December approached and the discounts were rolling in as the New Year grew closer. However, Tanki weren't taking a break yet. A couple of days after Christmas, they added a feature which would make Battles end sooner if the game was already decided. This was approved by the majority although changes to this in the coming future would mean that they would have to tweak with it later on. And the long-awaited Format Battles were also added, to the joy of the large XP playerbase. It was back to Railgun-Hornet games as XP once again went wild on the servers. Along with this came a special option for Parkour Battles which would not be able to be ruined by those hunting crystals among parkourists.
 
Not done yet! The release of an Elite Tank for Rent flashing back to the old days of Smoky XT was a pleasant surprise for many as a unique Railgun-Hornet XT Combo with a beautiful "Frost" paint was added for a temporary period with a price that reduced as the days passed. And as always, a special New Year Map crowned off the year in style. New Year Celebrations - a great place to finish after an absolutely mad final few months. A year of ups-and-downs - typical Tanki, huh?
 
And there ends In The Beginning, Tanki. For those who have read these articles from the very beginning up to now, I hope you've enjoyed coming with me on this trip through the legendary days of this wonderful game. Once again, thank you for reading this. I've really enjoyed writing; and I hope you feel the same way from a reader's perspective! Please feel free to share this series, even as the months roll forward - and may Tanki live on! ^_^
 
As I conclude this series, I would like to give a list of credits to those topics and pieces of information that have helped make In The Beginning, Tanki possible. Thank you so much to all those who have helped me compile information into these articles!
 
Behind the Breaking News
Breaking News/Daily News Posts
Developers News Archive Forum Section
Contests Forum Section
Patch Notes and Updates
Tanki News Feed
Tanki old Blog Feed
Tanki Facebook Page
Tanki General Forum Archive "Start Date" Feature
Tanki Off-Topic Forum Archive "Start Date" Feature
And Last But Not Least:
Google's "site:tankiforum.com" feature!
 
And for the very last time, Thanks for reading!  ;) 

 


 
After a staggering 33,435 words, there ends my History Series. Feedback anytime, and please share this with anyone who asks about the history of Tanki. Because thats what its for! Enjoy all, and don't get too bogged down with the text walls!
~Hog

Edited April 2, 2015 by hogree

[Remaine 4,687]

Gud - all the epicness in one thread.

[Raphael2 3,263]

Yay, time to read it again! :lol:

[Aero.v2.0 1,456]

Nice job Hogree.

 

Clicked the spoiler....died :P

[Beerme 106]

wow not even 30k words thanks hog

[Shadow_Error_X 50]

Very well written, good job. :)

[Farhan55 82]

Well done. Maybe if i get free time i will read.

[Irontank1v 836]

:mellow: :mellow: :mellow:  I clicked on the spoiler..

[D1E 257]

:mellow: :mellow: :mellow:  I clicked on the spoiler..

[sre123 595]

Player sre123 has been banned for a week. Reason: Profanity, insult p.2.1, 2.2, 2.4, ••>> Rules

[HarshRocks1 1]

if anyone wants to suicide click on the spoiler xD. by the way this article was very gud :)

[Amagi 1,728]

Try reading this article while listening to Minecraft's "Calm 1" for extra effect. :)

Edited March 8, 2014 by Stinger911

[MA3CTPO_HA_XAHTEP 832]

Good job, dude! ;)

[hogree 4,179]

:mellow: :mellow: :mellow:  I clicked on the spoiler..

Er yes. That was the intention of this post.

 

For you to click the spoiler.

 

So yes, you are very clever to have clicked on the spoiler.

 

Well done. Much Cleverness.

[Doems 10]

Well Done

[Playep 355]

Well Done.

[crackgold2 399]

Clicked the spoiler....died :P

[Royalworld 1,269]

Nice articles, read 2 parts.

[Fjelstad1678 186]

I'm kinda glad I read this is segments as it came out, because that looks so intimidating, I don't think I would even dare start.  :D

[Irontank1v 836]

 

Well done. Much Cleverness.

i hope i could have said same for you, better luck next time ;)

[ExtremeKiller26 443]

Rather than 1 huge spoiler, put it in small 7 spoilers. One for each.

I read it as it came out, very good!

[flae88 948]

Me liked this series

[McMacklemore 39]

It's so great. that I though I was here before the rebalance. :D

[hogree 4,179]

i hope i could have said same for you, better luck next time ;)

Yeah my dry humour really needs working on. L:

[r_BurningLegion0 71]

No one is going to read such a long story, it takes too long and boring! No of fence bro