[Special Review] Last Look: New Year Map

[Viking4s 10,791]

We haven't told you everything about the New Year 2017 map! Admittedly, the first special review on the map was rushed to share as many available details as possible. With a bit more time to cherish the map under everyone's belts, it's been clear that this one in particular was a real winner -- from the gameplay itself to the special events played on it, this map was considered a thriving success. So without further ado, let's take our last look at one of the many gifts from the development team, Happy New Year 2017.

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Introduction

 

It is true that the developers provided some great gifts to Tankers this year, and the New Year map was one of them with worthy incentive for the community to play on. The map is well-structured, sports organised setup of buildings, and features a unique battle mode. However, this vessel remains empty without us, the players, and we are the one that gave this gift its vital force. We pumped fresh blood into the map with our fast beating heart, unified and amplified when the Gold Box hunt was started. We animated it and brought it to life with tanks circulating within the narrow alleys between the timbered houses.

 

At first, we were stumbling with the new battle mode and its unknown potential, but as we played more and more we became more confident and started owning the map, its layout, and the ASL core mechanism. We also donated an emotional share to the map, while hard battling with or against friends, clan mates, or other random tankers met during the festivities and events. Strangers became less estranged as we worked together to defeat enemies, letting the battle go on with successful or disastrous outcome. We embedded the map to memory with our own pictures and videos of our finest moments, the most enjoyable battle scores, or sometimes the biggest fails. All of it now is immortalised in the forums, Wiki, and other pockets of the Internet. The map is gone, but we are still here. Let's take a scalar and expansive review of what we've done with the developers' New Year present.
 

Firstly, we will have a look at results from various ASL gameplay on the Happy New Year map, a deep and very insightful review from @Shedinja. Secondly, I will present my take from what you guys (the EN community) have been doing with and on the map during the festivities.

 

 

Gameplay (with Shedinja)

 

While both Viking4s and Vikingsrallentando of the Reporter group have already produced extensive articles on the topics of the New Year Map and its corresponding Assault Mode (feel free to have a look at 'em here and here, respectively), I still felt I may as well cover my experiences with the gameplay.
 

 

As it's been made well aware by this point, the New Year map features the standard play styles, but the unique aspect the map contributes without even taking a look at the level itself is certainly the Assault Mode (AS) playstyle. An unusual conglomeration of CTF and CP features, it sports set alliance color roles -- the red team will always have the objective of carting three red flags to the two points on the blue alliances' side. Obviously, the blue team's goal is to hold off the red team's perpetual siege. For every ten seconds that the match goes on, the blue team earns a point, whereas the red team must earn three of them manually through delivering one of the three crimson flags.

 

Bearing this in mind, the blue team needed to lay mines pretty much everywhere around their bases and within their fortifications. It was almost similar to a Massacre CTF in that respect, where mid and long ranged weapons were the most effective for their ability to do something about enemies scouted from a distance. If they got tired of simply flicking away Wasps gunning for their crumbling outposts, there was always the opportunity to press forward and move the front lines closer to the red spawn point. More often than not, this came with little effective resistance when played right, albeit their flag-halting abilities would often suffer in the process should a crafty red player slip by between buildings or just out of sight behind cliffs.

 

The red team, unless the blue team had an absolutely poor defense, would constantly be trying to fight an uphill battle in getting their flags past enemy gates. Ranged resistance would have to be skilled with quick and pinpoint targeting in order to tackle defenses such as Shafts, Railguns and Strikers. These three would often scan the indented sections of the arena constantly, a lethal force positioned in the rookeries that enforced their anti-trespassing policies with all the shells they could afford to launch. However, unlike the blue team, close-ranged combat seemed worlds more feasible, with skilled users of Firebird, Freeze and Hammer slipping between the buildings completely unnoticed until they drifted dangerously close to enemy bases. Freeze was particularly effective in stripping away the speed of defenders that relied on medium ranges themselves, their speed plummeting to near zero and making the task of flag delivery a simple matter of skating around the paralyzed foe.

 

 

Being a team player at heart, Isida was also considered a valuable asset on the map, but more so for the advancing red team than the passive blue team (relatively speaking, passive. They have next to no motivation to go to the other side of the map, since there's no wait for them to earn points besides waiting). While the blue alliance definitely makes grand use of them by letting them play doctor with the heaviest defenders and mine-layers they have available, they're still at maximum only one more body to block an entrance. Typically, not a heavy one, either --  since the New Year map is quite expansive, even the distances from delivery point to delivery point are considerably large, and more often than not don't permit slow hulls to function to the best of their ability unless they're defending one specific point. (Even so, there's still quite a lot of ground to cover within the fort itself, and chances are they'll wind up sitting on the point and waiting for their enemies to come to them. Support Nanobots, anyone?) In a nutshell, it's rare to find anything but Hornet or Wasp/Isida in a given blue alliance's lineup.

 

The same could be said for the red team's Isidas in that they usually wouldn't be caught dead in a heavy hull. However, unlike plainly the extra body the blue side gains, an Isida could pump another teammate with enough heath to survive an onslaught and push forward around opposition, offering that last extra push that could earn them points. (This again resonated as oddly familiar to me, remembering FTC play styles.)  Since the blue team gathers points in a trickle, the values of offensive pressure don't exist around them; thus, as stated before, they're just another body to duck around, which isn't that mighty of an obstacle to conquer for a skilled and practical tanker.

 

The benefits of being an Isida on the red team, besides being held responsible for point output rates, was their free reign to pretty much anywhere on the map. While the blue team, with only the motivation of supply crate control, usually confined themselves to a particular territory, a red Isida coupled with a capable teammate was granted the universality of being able to work anywhere on the field that so suited them. Since they usually sported quicker hulls as well, there were many chances for one to help push a flag-toting teammate forward in the face of considerable flak. However, in my experience, it was best to keep a fair distance at times to avoid being struck by whatever the blue alliance is throwing at the flag holder (Thunder's splash and a discerning Ricochet user were greatly threatening to support units), and to have a feasible health barrier in the event that the Isida eventually runs out of charge while their teammate suddenly perishes by the hand of a scouting Shaft.

 

Ultimately, the team that was able to establish a foothold in an opposing fortress would be the winner. Numerous Double Armor, Double Power, and Repair Kits spread across no-man's-land meant that whoever had control of the central segments would have easily accessible supplies, and therefore an easily accessible victory. As a rule of thumb, the blue team, with some communication, made consistent wins not by the advancement of their team, but through the successful repellent of the opposing team. A careful lookout group with access to numerous supplies made the different between multiple flags scored and multiple flags deposited in the smoking wreckage of the owners before making it past the great tree. If there was any motivation for the blue team to do anything besides passively crouch behind stone walls, it had to have been the "offensive defense" that supply control would offer. That being said, it was just as easy for red members to slip through blue defenses and nab extra sustenance along the way, especially if they kept to the buildings and prey off of the Double Armor and Power crates that fell in alleyways.

 

I won't go into much further detail about gameplay, since both of our beloved Vikings have already gone in-depth on these topics. (You can find their articles in the links listed at the top of this section, in case you've forgotten about 'em.) Perhaps maybe we'll see AS mode again at some point, who knows; it seemed to be fairly popular with the community, so I wouldn't put it past developers to give this another shot.

 

 

The EN Community Events around the New Year map

 

The happening of a new temporary map is always, for the EN community, an opportunity to try something new or to organise a more spirited version of an existing event. Below are some events that occurred publicly or privately that you might have been involved directly or indirectly.

 

► TO Racing Club Race #15

The TO Racing Club , which is leaded by @D_A_R_K_F_I_N, have been established since June of 2016. Albeit the young age of the club, it has been quite active and has already ran 15 races on various maps. The ultimate pleasure of these speedy tankers is to feel the powerful vroom vroom of their nitrogen enhanced motor, encased deep within their fiery hulls.

 

The full video of the New Year map race #15, available below, was recorded by @TS7StudioHD and commentated by @GeneralVeers.

 

The principle of the race is simple: cross the finish line first. The tankers are geared with only Hornet (M2 & M3) and mounted with either Isida, Firebird or Freeze turrets. Prior to the race, racers performed "Time Trials", which then determine their future "start position" for the main race. To prevent cheat, and facilitate the racing event, all racers compete in the same team with the CTF battle mode so they cannot be tempted to kill each other. The organiser set up the pitch with live mines placed in strategic corners alongside the official racing road. Consequently, if a racer drives on a mine and, either dies, flips or falls out of the track, he will be disqualified on the spot. To finish, the following supplies are allowed during the race: Repair Kit, Speed Boost and Double Armour. All the races are recorded and commented.

 

The race track across the map viewed from above:

 

The 15^th race on the New Year Map took place on the first of January 2017, with 8 racers (in the order of the starting position): @Earth, @Rad-Powered, @M4ShermanUSA, , @L.I.I3.3.I2.T.Y, , @GrenLantern, . The drivers need to complete 3 laps across the map. The starting line is on the Highest Bridge, then the tanks drive through the South Fort, over the Cyan Hillock, around the Pine tree in the Vintage Village, up the Carmine terrace and the last corner on the top of the Bloody Motte.

 

After the loss of three racers, here is the three top finishers: 

1^st – Rad-Powered

        2^nd - Puffie                                 3^rd – GrenLantern   

 

Congratulations to @Rad-Powered, finishing first of the first race of 2017. All the best for this club, wishing them all the best and a prolific Year 2017.

 

► Photo Album New Year 2017 by YR

As a ritual for the last six TO holiday celebration (New Year, Valentine’s day, Tanker’s Day, etc.) reporter @Yisroel.Rabin has been organising a non-official Photo Album Project and time has finally come for the Happy New Year 2017 map to combine its beautiful scenery with proud tank’s owner. Albeit the fact that he always claims he has not time to organise such a tedious task, he somehow cannot help himself. To him, it’s all about the magic and love of photography. So once more, YR will scout the New Year map in the search for the singular spot, scrutinising the skybox for the appropriate light, calculating the special cosmological alignment between the tank and the stars . . . euh, What do I know about photography?

 

                                       Click here to access the album.                            

 

YR operates with professionalism, skills, and the simple but effective "Spectator mode" using the camera settings and the different TO graphics settings. First, the photographer announce the opening of event on the forum in order to collect a list of willing volunteers and there skype details. Once first contact made, date and time are agreed and set for the grand day picture taking. Finally, comes the moment when the wait stops, and you are summoned to the map with your favorite tank combo readied and wearing one of the unique following paints: New Year 2017 paint or one of the special ones obtained from the Shop: Snowflake and Spangles.

 

 

After the event, all the photo taken are assembled in an photo album which is posted under the forum topic “Photo of the Day - Have any?”. Click here.

 

“le Photographe” himself portrayed

 

 

 

► Drop the Gold events

The Unofficial Player-created 'Drop The Gold' Events were created in the early days of September 2016, a little while after the implementation of the Gold Box supply update. The newfound power to drop Gold Boxes removed the never ending battle chat plea: “Admin Gold please!”. (Shedinja, cutting in again: This is definitely not true. In fact, now that admins do have the potential to drop golds, along with everyone else, the phrase has only grown to include 'pls gold buyer'.) Unfortunately, in parallel, in every serve the lobby started to be flooded with links luring people to battle with the promise of Gold drops by kind tankers; however, most of the time it was all deceit. In order to avoid this misfortune, some people bring a bit of organisation to the process to such an event and guarantee the completion of the Gold Drop. A select few of these got together with a common goal of creating a specific topic, and before long,  the “Drop the Gold - Player-created event” topic was born. It was originally created by Tanker @falcosenna1, and now it is in the good hands of Tankeress @delnina2 (Tanker + Princess).

 

Credits to @Phoenix.Raised

 

How does it work? Well instead of creating a battle and pasting the link randomly in the lobby chat, with little hope to get good numbers, you can announce in advance by posting in the dedicated forum topic, the details of the battle: date, time and the battle requirement. Once the event time comes, you create the battle (private or public) in the game, copy the link and finally post it in the club topic.

Two DTG events, organised by Delnina2,  occurred in December on the New Year map with: no limitations on equipment, Pro Battle pass and open to tankers with rank from to - .

 

The first event took place on the 28^th and four Gold Boxes were dropped by four different Tankers: @delnina2 (1), @Phoenix.Raised (1), @jdrjdr (1) and @tankerkuldeep (1). The lucky takers were @jdrjdr, @tankerkuldeep, @kousGR_02 and @Captain.x.

 

The second event, again organised by @delnina2, occurred some time later. Seven Gold Boxes were dropped by: 3 from @delnina2 and 4 from @Phoenix.Raised. They were taken by: (3), (1),   (1), @Captain.x (1) and @delnina2 (1).

 

Event DTG #1

 

Event DTG #2

 

 

 

► Private Gift giving, Rank up, selfies and other delicacies

Tanks to the Striker contest, which included the possibility to win from 3 to 10 Gold Boxes Supplies, thousands of tankers seize this opportunity to collect the precious supplies. What would they do with them? My guess was that it would give them the opportunity to celebrate in a pure spirit of this Season’s Greetings, albeit the fact they spend countless hours to reach up to the ultimate 1000 kills in a day. And I was not far from the truth as for most of the people I know, they offered those Gold Boxes supplies back to friends, clan members or even family relatives. In a large proportion, they did it in the Happy New Map, in which if you were lucky the Gold Box would have fallen close to the Christmas tree, the perfect spot for a good photo-shoot souvenir before the take.

 

In addition, other types of private events happened over the span of the celebrations. I am talking about the ranking parties, specifically; this year would have probably seen more of these parties thanks to another TO update form 2016 (again): the newly recurring Legend rank. Remember, that once you reach Gismo rank you are reaped from any new Ranking (and ranking reward), but now this new celebrative moment is unlocked and you can rank to Legend over and over again (every 200 k experience). Some others just enjoyed keeping a selfie souvenir and doing some Photoshop artwork on it (and other pictures). Other tankers had a go at Parkour, taking the most of the map that they could before its disappearance.

 

All the pictures and videos below in the photo gallery have been taken from the following forum topics: Tanki picture of the day- Have any?, Tanki Video - Have any?, Gold Boxes! and Clans pages.

 

 An assortment of Gold Box Selfies alone or in group:

Gold Box selfie alone

 

Gold Box selfie in group

 

Rank up followed by a private Gold Rain

 

Private gold rain by TOR clan with a TO record: Most similar names in one battle 17 names

 

 An assortment of rank up: 

 

Parkour pictures:

 

Other pictures:

Skewered Noobs on the Drawbridge

 

Great Love

 

Bonfire By the Xmas Pine Tree

 

 

Conclusion 

 

We believe that being somehow forced to play either defence or attack a full game on the ASL mode provided you with the opportunity to improve both your defensive organisation and communication, and your attacking and surviving skills. We are hoping that you will put to good use those new teachings (both Shedinja’s and your own experiences). We had an enjoyable time playing on the map, and I'm certain you did too; alone, in group, in clan, or with new friends as the numerous clues left on the forum pointed out.

 

And to finish, the best image I found, while roaming the ever growing forum pages in search of the New Year spirit, a strong and wishful message for the New Year: Peace, Joy, Happiness and Good Health 2017 (from @monkeyburn).

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There is nothing left to be said, nor written, by us until the next festivities. Now, it is your turn to give us feedback, if you wish. In addition, we would be very grateful if you could let us know your sentiment about those specials editions/reviews that have been peeking out for 2 months now.

 

Shedinja and VKG4S at your service.

 

See you later Laggers
                          VKG4S

 

[Shedinja 1,488]

Fresh from the printers, one last look at the New Year map and all of the lovely festivities bestowed upon it by the community, written by @Viking4s (plus a brief section on the gameplay from myself). Enjoy!

[Tofu 6,773]

Well I am featured ;3 Glad u didn't mention that I came last in that race :P

GR8 Aticle tho m8, i r8 8/8

[Viking4s 10,791]

Well I am featured ;3 Glad u didn't mention that I came last in that race :P

GR8 Aticle tho m8, i r8 8/8

TY,

There is more race to come this year, good luck and just win one :)

[Tofu 6,773]

TY,

There is more race to come this year, good luck and just win one :)

Highly Unlikely

[NikaAgla 0]

Fresh from the printers, one last look at the New Year map and all of the lovely festivities bestowed upon it by the community, written by @Viking4s (plus a brief section on the gameplay from myself). Enjoy!

good

[Phoenix.Raised 5,992]

I like this article. Especially the part about Unofficial Player-created 'Drop The Gold' Event. I actively follow and participate in this topic from the very beginning and I'm glad that our events nicely presented in Tanki Online Newspaper.

 

PS: There's a small typo. delnina1 should be @delnina

[Viking4s 10,791]

I like this article. Especially the part about Unofficial Player-created 'Drop The Gold' Event. I actively follow and participate in this topic from the very beginning and I'm glad that our events nicely presented in Tanki Online Newspaper.

 

PS: There's a small typo. delnina1 should be @delnina

Thanks.

Edited January 20, 2017 by Viking4s

[falcosenna1 8,320]

Awesome to see the Unofficial Player-created 'Drop The Gold' Event being mentioned in the TO Newspaper!! :D

 

By the way, there'll be an event this Saturday. :)

Edited February 1, 2017 by falcosenna1

[Viking4s 10,791]

Awesome to see the Unofficial Player-created 'Drop The Gold' Event being mentioned in the TO Newspaper!! :D

 By the way, there'll be an event this Saturday. :)

No problem! I don't see why we could not talk about unofficial player created events in the newspaper!

 

I'll try to join (I'm desperately in need of free crystal :D ), but this is bad timing for me.

 

 

Edited February 1, 2017 by Viking4s

[r_lezy2 22]

good luck