Everything Wrong With Tanki and How to Fix it

[X_Death.By.Me_X 1,503]

 

 

Why am I writing this article?

 

This game has been my favorite for quite a while. I see a lot of potential in it. For such an amazing game, the player base is just too less, which is just happening due to the developers not thinking from the player's perspective.

 

Who am I to find faults in Tanki?

 

I have been playing the game since 2011, from multiple accounts. I have seen the ups and downs of this game. I have also played multiple F2P games. I understand what makes a game successful and attractive to gamers.

 

Is there anything wrong with Tanki? How can you say so?

 

Yes there are many things wrong with Tanki, the falling player base, the number of people playing everyday is decreasing.

 

Is there anyway Tanki can recover?

 

Yes it can. Though the measures that the developers will have to take would be drastic and may seem counter intuitive at first.

 

Things Wrong with The Game and How to Fix Them

 

 

~Reducing player base

 

The Problem-

 

If you ever make an account, you will see tonnes of people at low ranks who can't turn their turrets. What does this mean? There are many people discovering this game everyday, but they do not make it through to M1s, let alone M3 or M2. 

 

The Solution-

 

The developers must think through the perspective of a new player who has just discovered the game. In the initial stages of playing the game, there is some motivation to keep going. Yet the truth is, most of these players quit pretty soon. I myself have tried to get some real life friends to play TO, while they did appreciate the game for good graphics, they did not last long and quit saying that the game was pretty hard and got boring. The hard truth is that it is very difficult to get through the beginning ranks without a thorough knowledge of having a good EXP/CRY ratio. Which most newbies don't even know the meaning of. They generally use Micro Upgrades thinking that it is the only way of getting better at the game, which further weakens their garage.

 

Crystals are also very hard to earn at these ranks, the rate of increase of the battle fund is painfully slow. The EXP:CRY ratio is not even 1:1. This leads to players having very few crystals when they reach the M1 ranks, they have to face players with M1s who know how to play the game with their M0's with a few micro-upgrades. They are at a huge disadvantage and they eventually quit the game. The solution here is to make earning crystals at these ranks a lot easier, removing MU's at these ranks since the button "Upgrade" is very misleading and leads the player into wasting their crystals.

 

The Problem-

 

Even the players who got through the hard M1-M2 ranks and make it through to the M3 ranks are quitting the game. This is because of stale gameplay. Everyday, they log into the same CTF/DM/CP battles to do the same thing. It gets quite boring at some point. This also contributes to falling player base.

 

 

The Solution-

 

There is only one obvious solution to this. Adding something new to the game every once in a while. Here, I will take the example of Clash Royale (I'm sure many of you have heard of it). Clash Royale regularly has weekly events, which lets the player try out something new, their are challenges, there's a lot of diversity and variety in the game. New game modes need to be added. For this, developers should be looking into the I&S section where pretty creative ideas have been suggested. Such as an idea where, everyone starts out with random equipment everytime they spawn.

 

~Esports

 

The Problem-

 

There is not any problem that I know of with eSports other than one issue with the Junior DS held in 2016. The purpose of Junior DS was to give rewards to M2 clans. Not clans full of alts of members from Vavillion, AK (etc). The team HellGirlz which won Junior DS was a clan full of alts. Doesn't this ruin the very purpose of having an M2 DS? Some players with experience and alts who can't win M3 DS, win M2 DS just because of more experience compared to actual M2 clans? 

 

The Solution-

 

Barring any clans made right after the announcement of DS to participate. These people make clans only for the purpose of winning DS. 

 

~Ignorance of I&S section

 

The Problem-

 

Their are quite a few year-old ideas in the Ideas and Suggestion section on forum. These are pretty basic and useful ideas which wouldn't take much time to add (I'm a programmer myself). For example: The basic option to add a textbox to an invite, which would hugely help many people. In the recent stream by Hazel, I remember him saying that the players do not know what they are talking about. I was actually quite shocked.

 

The Solution-

 

A bit more attention to I&S section would really help.

 

~The Youtube part

 

The Problem-

 

The youtube content that is produced by Tanki youtubers is pretty much repetitive, Gold montage, Gold rain, OMG FULL MAP GOLD, clickbait etc. No creativity whatsoever.

 

The Solution-

 

The youtubers themselves aren't completely at fault here. As I said before, new content has to be added to the game. Even previously, whenever something new was added to the game, it was immediately followed by new content. 

 

~Game balance

 

The Problem-

 

The game balance of the game is fine in my opinion. The thing that is a problem are the drastic changes. Every once in a while, Tanki changes the parameters of a hull/turret drastically. The reason why a player opts for a particular combination is because the player is used to that particular combination. The changes in the TO are not slight changes frequently, they are huge changes that happen less often. It only makes sense that TO should be giving each player to chose another turret of their choice after each update.

 

The Solution-

 

Garage reset after every huge update. For example, the recent change of hulls. Some players might have chosen Hornet before the update, but after it, they might have wanted Wasp but they could not since they had chosen the pre update Hornet and didn't have enough for Wasp again.

 

~Attitude of players towards the game

 

The problem-

 

Just have a look into the duelist section. Arguments are common. Players have no idea how to take a loss. They will argue, they will cry, they will lie. But they won't take a loss. They are taking the game way too seriously. After all it is just a game, doesn't matter if you lose or win. I haven't seen this attitude of players in other games. Unfortunately there isn't any solution to this. People don't know how to consider this as a game. And no-one is clean on this. I've seen the best duelists make excuses.

 

Edited March 20, 2017 by X_Death.By.Me_X

[Crip 4,735]

Approved.

 

 

Edits:

 

- Corrected a few typos.

- Restructured 1 or 2 sentences.

- Your formatting was inconsistent, some was Trebuchet, some Arial. I changed it all to Trebuchet MS, size 14.

- Do not use bright colours (or try not to). Changed White to Lavender Blush, and removed the solid blue from the main text.

- Corrected inconsistent sub-headings.

- 2 Grammar edits.

 

While I think your way of expressing your opinion is sound, your point of view is skewed (and even wrong) in some cases. While Tanki aren't perfect, they have been making an effort lately. Here are some answers to your arguments.

 

 

 

Reducing Player Base

 

You talk about removing Microupgrades at low ranks. Well, Tanki have massively improved them for new players just last week. Microupgrades for M0 Hulls/Turrets now cost the same overall as the M1 Modification, making microupgrading much more worthwhile.

 

For higher ranks, you mention that new updates/additions need to be added to keep players interesting. Well, we've had two new Turrets (Striker and the Artillery), large events, supplies experiments for players to test, promises of more Hulls in the future. Hazel also mentioned that they are refining the "Assault" format, ready to be introduced into the game.

 

Personally, I don't believe M3 ranks find the game boring at all. It's at the mid-ranks where players seem to struggle the most.

 

Esports

 

I agree thoroughly with you here. There is absolutely no point in an M2 tournament when a load of eSports winners' alts are simply going to come along and win it. I actually really dislike the fact that many clans are made overnight, then are broken up the next day. I think a cooldown would be beneficial, and maybe the clan couldn't be officially closed for a certain length of time.

 

Ignorance of I&S

 

Well, I think you're wrong here. Hazel frequently views the I&S section, and actually many of the ideas which may seem good will have damaging consequences for the game in the future.

 

Game Balance

 

Nope. Players must simply learn to adapt. Life isn't a cruise, neither is Tanki. If your Turret/Hull has been changed, learn to use it again.

 

Attitude of Players

 

Well, I must agree that the attitudes of many players are pretty pathetic most of the time. But what can Tanki do? They are not their parents, and they're here to run a game, not bring up a child.

 

[X_Death.By.Me_X 1,503]

Approved.

 

 

Edits:

 

- Corrected a few typos.

- Restructured 1 or 2 sentences.

- Your formatting was inconsistent, some was Trebuchet, some Arial. I changed it all to Trebuchet MS, size 14.

- Do not use bright colours (or try not to). Changed White to Lavender Blush, and removed the solid blue from the main text.

- Corrected inconsistent sub-headings.

- 2 Grammar edits.

 

While I think your way of expressing your opinion is sound, your point of view is skewed (and even wrong) in some cases. While Tanki aren't perfect, they have been making an effort lately. Here are some answers to your arguments.

 

 

 

Reducing Player Base

 

You talk about removing Microupgrades at low ranks. Well, Tanki have massively improved them for new players just last week. Microupgrades for M0 Hulls/Turrets now cost the same overall as the M1 Modification, making microupgrading much more worthwhile.

 

For higher ranks, you mention that new updates/additions need to be added to keep players interesting. Well, we've had two new Turrets (Striker and the Artillery), large events, supplies experiments for players to test, promises of more Hulls in the future. Hazel also mentioned that they are refining the "Assault" format, ready to be introduced into the game.

 

Personally, I don't believe M3 ranks find the game boring at all. It's at the mid-ranks where players seem to struggle the most.

 

Esports

 

I agree thoroughly with you here. There is absolutely no point in an M2 tournament when a load of eSports winners' alts are simply going to come along and win it. I actually really dislike the fact that many clans are made overnight, then are broken up the next day. I think a cooldown would be beneficial, and maybe the clan couldn't be officially closed for a certain length of time.

 

Ignorance of I&S

 

Well, I think you're wrong here. Hazel frequently views the I&S section, and actually many of the ideas which may seem good will have damaging consequences for the game in the future.

 

Game Balance

 

Nope. Players must simply learn to adapt. Life isn't a cruise, neither is Tanki. If your Turret/Hull has been changed, learn to use it again.

 

Attitude of Players

 

Well, I must agree that the attitudes of many players are pretty pathetic most of the time. But what can Tanki do? They are not their parents, and they're here to run a game, not bring up a child.

 

 

 

Thanks! I'm still a mult :D

Yes, I did face some problems with fonts. The font system is a bit inconsistent, I have to set the font and size again every time I go to a different paragraph.

 

How do you ensure that the font is consistent? For example, when I set it to trebuchet, I write a whole paragraph, then press enter and go to a different line, it simply changes back to default settings and have to do it again. Is there anyway to fix this or do you have to deal with the same problem?

 

 

 

Reducing Player Base

 

You talk about removing Microupgrades at low ranks. Well, Tanki have massively improved them for new players just last week. Microupgrades for M0 Hulls/Turrets now cost the same overall as the M1 Modification, making microupgrading much more worthwhile.

 

Yeah, I should've done more research on this. My bad ^_^

 

For higher ranks, you mention that new updates/additions need to be added to keep players interesting. Well, we've had two new Turrets (Striker and the Artillery), large events, supplies experiments for players to test, promises of more Hulls in the future. Hazel also mentioned that they are refining the "Assault" format, ready to be introduced into the game.

 

Personally, I don't believe M3 ranks find the game boring at all. It's at the mid-ranks where players seem to struggle the most.

 

*Promises of new hulls m8*. Supply experiments don't necessarily bring something new or fun. Sales are common and don't contribute to enjoyment factor. Though this might be my own opinion, all I see are Sandbox XP/BPs, Polygon CPs, Noise ctfs, a few more maps here and there. It's boring.

 

Esports

 

I agree thoroughly with you here. There is absolutely no point in an M2 tournament when a load of eSports winners' alts are simply going to come along and win it. I actually really dislike the fact that many clans are made overnight, then are broken up the next day. I think a cooldown would be beneficial, and maybe the clan couldn't be officially closed for a certain length of time.

 

Ignorance of I&S

 

Well, I think you're wrong here. Hazel frequently views the I&S section, and actually many of the ideas which may seem good will have damaging consequences for the game in the future.

 

Yes, I have seen  him visit I&S section. Though some basic features like an invite text box, a button for removing all friends. These ideas do not have damaging consequences. 

 

Game Balance

 

Nope. Players must simply learn to adapt. Life isn't a cruise, neither is Tanki. If your Turret/Hull has been changed, learn to use it again.

 

But this contradicts the reason for which the Rebalance garage reset was done. For instance, people bought hornet because they liked the drift feature. After removal of hornet's (sorta) defining feature, shouldn't there be a garage reset so as to give the players to choose something else now that their hulls/turrets have been changed?

 

Attitude of Players

 

Well, I must agree that the attitudes of many players are pretty pathetic most of the time. But what can Tanki do? They are not their parents, and they're here to run a game, not bring up a child.

 

Yes, I have mentioned that this problem cannot be solved.

Edited March 11, 2017 by X_Death.By.Me_X

[Kurt_KurtDGreat 2,259]

'There is not any problem that I know of with eSports'.... no comment :lol:

 

But you're right on the rest, agree with you :)

[Tofu 6,773]

Good article

[DageLV 940]

Totaly agree with you on Youtube Part.

There is NOTHING to make videos on tanki. 

The only good TO videos on YT was Viper's "If i was admin" videos, TO v-logs and new turret showcases.

[arnav0506 2,777]

Oh dbm dude..

Great article first thing.. I totally agree with the YouTube, attitude and esports part! You justified yourself :)

Second, you're extremely skilled man why did you have to do this :c leave your friends and baes and leave :c Felt nice to 'train' with you :d

What can I say :( sad to see you go plx be active on Skype later :)

PS. Thx for making that pic your trademark™™™

Edited March 11, 2017 by arnav0506

[Viking4s 10,791]

I disagree with your view on the youtube part.

How come the lake of creativity of the youtubers falls on the responsibility of Tanki Online?

Things might be repetitive on youtube, but you should blame the enormous quantity of material with the lake of quality associated.

If we didn't had video of the week and other contests that push people to do quality over quantity, they would be basically nothing to watch.

[X_Death.By.Me_X 1,503]

'There is not any problem that I know of with eSports'.... no comment :lol:

 

But you're right on the rest, agree with you :)

I know of the problem of DE community giving out free paints. But I felt that Lankbouv covered it better in his topic. And I don't think I should be saying anything about other eSports events since DS was the only one I took part in. :)

 

Good article

Ty

 

Oh dbm dude..

Great article first thing.. I totally agree with the YouTube, attitude and esports part! You justified yourself :)

Second, you're extremely skilled man why did you have to do this :c leave your friends and baes and leave :c Felt nice to 'train' with you :D

What can I say :( sad to see you go plx be active on Skype later :)

PS. Thx for making that pic your trademark™™™

My pleasure. ^_^

 

I disagree with your view on the youtube part.

How come the lake of creativity of the youtubers falls on the responsibility of Tanki Online?

Things might be repetitive on youtube, but you should blame the enormous quantity of material with the lake of quality associated.

If we didn't had video of the week and other contests that push people to do quality over quantity, they would be basically nothing to watch.

TheThreeWishes has done great videos on this. The youtube part of any game has a huge role in the popularization of any game. Most other MMO games that I've played promote youtubers that make videos on their game. The repetitive-ness of TO youtube content is also an indicator of the fact that the game needs something new. The moment something new is added to the game, it is followed by new type of youtube content based on it. I disagree on the video of the week part, the contest nowadays is just about getting a high score, doing something with some goddamn paint on. What I really think it should be is like: "Get to the top of the building on skyscrapers in the most creative way possible", "Do parkour with vulcan". The last time I saw some genuine creative content on TO was during the MOP 2016, F&F should've won that due to their creativity. Yeah so TO needs to give Video Of The Week award to some creativity. ^_^

[X_Death.By.Me_X 1,503]

@Vik

This video:

[DageLV 940]

I disagree with your view on the youtube part.

Say me any unique video you can do releated to TankiOnline?

Edited March 11, 2017 by DageLV

[Viking4s 10,791]

Say me any unique video you can do releated to TankiOnline?

Say what?

Edited March 11, 2017 by Viking4s

[DageLV 940]

Say what?

Idea for unique video which havent been made like 10k times already.

[Kurt_KurtDGreat 2,259]

I know of the problem of DE community giving out free paints. But I felt that Lankbouv covered it better in his topic. And I don't think I should be saying anything about other eSports events since DS was the only one I took part in. :)

 

 

Ty

 

 

My pleasure. ^_^

 

 

TheThreeWishes has done great videos on this. The youtube part of any game has a huge role in the popularization of any game. Most other MMO games that I've played promote youtubers that make videos on their game. The repetitive-ness of TO youtube content is also an indicator of the fact that the game needs something new. The moment something new is added to the game, it is followed by new type of youtube content based on it. I disagree on the video of the week part, the contest nowadays is just about getting a high score, doing something with some goddamn paint on. What I really think it should be is like: "Get to the top of the building on skyscrapers in the most creative way possible", "Do parkour with vulcan". The last time I saw some genuine creative content on TO was during the MOP 2016, F&F should've won that due to their creativity. Yeah so TO needs to give Video Of The Week award to some creativity. ^_^

Nahhh I wasn't referring to the DE problem, I'm referring to the fact that from now till this time last year there's only been 1 tourney held fully in EN. We all had to use google translate to take part in other tourneys, and some communities didn't even let us take part! Shame this is the 2nd biggest community and DE have a lot more tourneys, for their players only... ah well :(

[NewbieCake 3,067]

 

 

 While Tanki aren't perfect

 

 

Nor is that sentence :P

[QuinnP 105]

Really! Stupid

[I3.R.0 1,700]

Nor is that sentence :P

He's talking about the Devs overall..Or you can say - The Management overall..So you can use the word "Are" 

Peace.

[X_Death.By.Me_X 1,503]

Nahhh I wasn't referring to the DE problem, I'm referring to the fact that from now till this time last year there's only been 1 tourney held fully in EN. We all had to use google translate to take part in other tourneys, and some communities didn't even let us take part! Shame this is the 2nd biggest community and DE have a lot more tourneys, for their players only... ah well :(

True. e_e

[Viking4s 10,791]

TheThreeWishes has done great videos on this. The youtube part of any game has a huge role in the popularization of any game. Most other MMO games that I've played promote youtubers that make videos on their game. The repetitive-ness of TO youtube content is also an indicator of the fact that the game needs something new. The moment something new is added to the game, it is followed by new type of youtube content based on it. I disagree on the video of the week part, the contest nowadays is just about getting a high score, doing something with some goddamn paint on. What I really think it should be is like: "Get to the top of the building on skyscrapers in the most creative way possible", "Do parkour with vulcan". The last time I saw some genuine creative content on TO was during the MOP 2016, F&F should've won that due to their creativity. Yeah so TO needs to give Video Of The Week award to some creativity. ^_^

Is the Striker turret, and now the Magnum turret and the next 2 coming hulls not providing enough material for new video?

I think you can now understand why i disagree with you on the TO not doing its part.

[Suspect 1,252]

Good article i like it :D

[Akame 4,578]

Is the Striker turret, and now the Magnum turret and the next 2 coming hulls not providing enough material for new video?

I think you can now understand why i disagree with you on the TO not doing its part.

The striker hype barely lasted long, even with an XC mode which is not even used as much likewise with the DR format, Magnum wont be much different. As for parkour, both can be used, but tanki really doesn't have much going on until special events, i.e the upcoming fools events which most will look to. Tanki movies sound pretty good, although concept ideas depend on the director ofcourse, but i would love to see some when I get time.

[N221 597]

i thought you were actually gonna leave bro

[N221 597]

Im so happy that you thought twice before leaving this game xd

[skills_from_Shallum 170]

Ya pretty much Agreed about Duelist and Youtube section.

Well written bro :)