Awesome. Congrats DD. IC will be next.

I'd also point you guys over to http://alternativaplatform.com/en/demos/crash/ and http://alternativaplatform.com/en/demos/arena/

I didn't forget them. I was planning on including a few - and then I realised that the deadline was getting close, so on the uncertain positions (wingers, etc) I just stuck in some staff members... :s

1. This was a history of Tanki from my point of view. I picked and chose the events that mattered to me, the key events that affected Tanki in my opinion. Shaft's rebalance was one which I ignored. 2. Yes, I did - in fact my youtube video of myself flying in madness has around 2000 views, I think. When Space Madness originally came out, everyone expected it to be temporary - so I joined in with everyone in creating youtube videos of myself being part of "the fun" 3. Train station, yes, that was a map. 4. View "1". That was a trial which took place once, I can't remember when. I wouldn't say that there was a great outpouring of wrath, the fact that everyone knew it was temporary meant that it was just respected as a trial which failed. 5. That was the case at times, yes. 6. I quite enjoyed that. Those were the perfect times to capture flags. I once finished a game on 703 fund, capturing the final flag before the gold box fell. It's fair to say that that wasn't the most popular thing I've ever done. 7. I'm ashamed to say that I forgot that. Yes, I should have mentioned it, what you said is completely true. :) 8. Hah. Thanks.. P.s. http://playtanki.com/photo/tanki_online_20_pre_release/early_screenshots/6

Might create a topic sometime.

^Agree, only one tank is silly. I've made many paints in my time and some of them have looked EPIC EPIC EPIC on a certain tank/weapon combination but on all the other ones it is ugly. The rule should be "At least two tank/weapon combinations"; certainly not "only one". But hey. Anyway, I've applied. My paint is beast. Fact. If I don't win it will be clearly because of unfair judging and disgraceful bias. :P

Just remember, anyone who applies will be taking up my mantle, as I am resigning from the team... no pressure.

That doesn't count, you can hardly claim Thumper to be your "homie" then.

"Bliss"

How long ago was the last time you went to James Stewart's place, bro?

Beautiful. Uncertain of whether to accept the greatness though. Some part of me is holding me back.

Like I said, we've always wanted to do that. The only probably is that our access to the blog, where we intended to post interviews, was rescinded just as we restarted interviews. We do have one or two stored up. :3 So ya. :( Hopefully the newspaper team will re-start, and there is one coming up next issue, maybe a couple. This article was written in a hurry, we didn't have time to get a picture out.

So, you've heard about what the English community would be like if it was a company. You have read inside information about how the English reporters work. You know from your own experience how the staff work. But what if the English community was a football [“soccer”] team? Who would be in what positions? How would they play the game? The Owners. Pretty obvious to be fair. The owners of this “English Community Football team” - let's call it “Tanki Online United” would be none other than the Tanki Online developers. They would be the ones in charge of the club. But what kind of owners would they be? Would they be rich, bankrolling the club all the way to victory? Or would they be the passionate fans, giving their all into the club which they have supported and loved all their life? Would they even just be owners simply trying to sleaze money out of the club? Or would they be the owners of nightmares, the ones who do nothing but lead the club into financial despair? I expect that the most likely kind of owners which they will be is probably the second one – the fans of the club which they have loved all their life. After all, this is the game which they have created, and if it became a football club I'm sure they would love it and support it with all their heart. At least, you would hope so. The Manager. Again, this one is fairly obvious – in fact, his real job description in Tanki contains this word anyway. Our community manager, Bruce Lunga. He would be the one faced with the responsibility of the whole team ticking over, making sure that everything works together just like a well-oiled machine. As a manager, I can see Bruce being very meticulous and very results-orientated – as long as the team is winning, it's okay. His tactics, I reckon, will be very straight-forward and easily understandable by the players, who will be able to relate to him. Whether he would be a master tactician, I'm not sure. However, what he may lack in tactical nous he will certainly make up for in passion and being able to convey a message. I think that he would be a very good manager, if not the greatest of tactical geniuses. The Goalkeeper. The goalkeeper, for those of you unfamiliar with football, is the final line of the defence – the man standing in front of their team's own goal trying to stop the ball from going inside it. They can use any part of their body to stop the ball, but have to be willing to put themselves on the line in doing so. Immense bravery is required. So, who fits the bill the most in our English community? Well, I think that, whilst there are no particularly exceptional candidates, one person does stand out above all the others in terms of being willing to stop anything trying to get past the posts, and that person is SuperNick95. Putting his credibility and his all at risk, he works tirelessly to stop any inappropriate topics in the forum that pose a threat of “scoring a goal” against him from existing in public. He takes risks, is bold, brave, and does, like any good goalkeeper, make the occasional howler – but all in all he is the one in our forum who fits this role perfectly. Goalkeeper: SuperNick95 The Centre-Backs. In front of the goalkeeper are his two fellow towers in defence, the central defenders. For those of you unfamiliar to football, they are the ones who try to stop anything from even getting close to the goal. They try to clear the ball any time it gets close to their team's own goal and are the pinnacles of the defence. No matter how good the goalkeeper is, if they have useless defenders in front of them, they have no chance of keeping the ball out of the goal for ever. So who fits the bill the most out of all the people in the English community? Again, this one is quite hard to think of, but I say that there are two people who probably do the most in this respect. Who are they? The first centre-back in my team is FederalBureauFBI. Like him or not, there's no doubt that he works hard to minimize any “threat to the peace” which comes up. He tries to make sure that everything is according to the rules and that there is no talk about dissension. He's a no-nonsense, “if it poses a threat get rid of it”, style person – the perfect central defender. The other centre-back is a far more difficult pick, but eventually I decided that BarbaFenner98 would be the best pick for this role. Just like the Federal, he always tries his hardest to remove any threat before it rears its head. Together, they form a formidable team, and I expect that they will be equally formidable in my football side. FederalBureauFBI and BarbaFenner98 are my centre-back pairing. The Wing-backs. The wing backs are my next pick – the two defenders who play to the right and the left of the central defenders. They have to be intelligent and astute, making sure that they see any players coming at them who could pose a threat to the team. They also need to have good defensive nous and be aware of what will be threatening and what will not. So who fit the bill the most out of our English community? Well, for me there is one role which suits the role of the wing-back the most – that of the reporters. We need to be of at least reasonable intelligence to write articles, as well as being astute enough to realise what subjects are interesting and what are not. And we also need to be aware about what is constructive criticism and what is just pure trolling... So yes, I think that we reporters are the wing-backs. To be fair, any of us can be in the role, but I would not include myself as I am writing this and so my wing-backs will be Lhamster and Tommy60, the two most senior current reporters excluding myself (Also excluding conanthedestroyer, who is our editor.). For this purpose, let's put Tommy60 as Right Wing back and Lhamster as Left Wing back. The Central Midfielders. So who next? How about the Central Midfielders? In football, Central midfielders play in many different roles, with different teams using them differently. But in the Tanki Online team, let's use them in the typical way – two players who control the play, creating a link between attack and defence. So what do we need? We need people who are good organisers, people who can lead and take a strong grip on things and control the flow of everything. Who fit the bill the best in our community? I think one is very obvious. He may also be the manager, but surely he has to take the role of player-manager in our team? Bruce Lunga is my first central midfielder. He would certainly do the job well of “enforcer” in the midfield, holding play together as he tries to inspire everyone onwards. But who should be the other one? I think that the other person in our community who does a lot of organisation and that like is ShadowVisions, and so he is the second Central Midfielder. A pinnacle of the community, getting stuck in to the dirty work of keeping things running is something which he has to do and so he would be a perfect fit as Central Midfielder alongside Mr. Lunga. The Wingers. My wingers are the next two players to be featured. In football, they are the players who are very skilful and tricky, very difficult for defenders to catch. They need to be sharp and have the ability to get the ball into the goal area for attackers to fire shots at goal. So who fit the bill in our community? To me, the answer was difficult to think about, but eventually I realised that the most suitable for such a role are the cybersport DJs and commentators. They need to have a lot of skill and be able to seize up a situation as it happens, as well as being tactically astute. They also need to keep sharp-witted and seek for the perfect opportunities to crack a punchline and/or a genius tactical hint. They would make the perfect wingers for my fantasy team of our English community. Again, any one of the cybersport DJs would fit into this role. I'm going to put the two most recently active cybersport DJs into this position, PistolenPaultje and GeneralVeers. General can go on my right wing and Paul on my left as the tricky, dangerous and skilful players ready to cause a threat to any opposition defence. The Strikers. And what about forwards, or strikers? In football, these are the ones tasked with the most important job – that of scoring goals and giving the team the score that could win the match. They have to be sharp, quick and accurate. If they make too many mistakes, it can cost their team the game – and themselves the game. So, who fits the bill in our English community? For me, there is only one clear option – the moderators. They have to be accurate when they hand out bans, but handing out bans is very important and keeps the community running well. They have to be very quick to react when an indiscretion is committed and have to know how to react to it. They have to be “sharp-shooters” - just like a striker in a football team. So who is the fulcrum of the attack for this team? As Supernick95 is the goalkeeper, then the two moderators who I will choose to lead the line in our community's team will be MizARee and FlipSquad. They will be the ones who take the game to the opposition and try to score the goals which will bring victory. So there's our team. SuperNick95 – Tommy60, FederalBureauFBI, BarbaFenner98, Lhamster – GeneralVeers, Bruce Lunga © ShadowVisions, PistolenPaultje – MizARee, FlipSquad. Pretty formidable. But who are they going to play against? Maybe someone else can create a team to play against them? Do you think that they would win?

That is the rating. :) That is a figure worked out through a confusing calculation including total earned experience, crystals, kills, deaths and Kill-death ratio. The other number, what is commonly described as "rating" is just your global position in the rating - for instance, if your number is #104,215, then 104,214 people have a higher rating than you. And so forth. :)

At least spell my name correctly... and I was just replying to the annotation. :)

That one being this one?

It does not sound better in HD. #triedandtested.

Muahaha. No question is easy, dude... there was a reason. Hint: There was also Boombox II and (I'm pretty sure there was this too) Sandal II.

:3 Yes, it's exactly the same as a picture of the current Sandbox. :) Think...

I love the modified map. It is so much better than the old - although I do think they should have kept the old one and brought the new one out called "Bobruisk II" so players can play on whichever they like.

Wait, what? How do you know what the experience of killing one of your own kids is like?

Ya, I know. I just couldn't resist the rant.

I'd recommend reading the article. This is for suggestions to the newspaper, not the game. ;)

As some of you already know, this issue will be my final issue as a Tanki Online reporter. I have been playing Tanki Online actively for almost three years now, being part of the forum community and a member of a clan for the majority of that time period. As this is likely to be one of my final articles, I thought that I would educate you readers (most of whom I expect will have registered more recently than I have) about the history of the game, particularly from my perspective. Like I said, I joined the game nearly three years ago, on my birthday in May 2010. I had heard about Tanki from a friend and decided to give it a go and see what the game was like. I enjoyed it and began to play. I joined around a week after Thunder, Viking, Hornet and Mammoth had been first released, the first of the “Tier Two” garage items to be produced. This meant that I never was able to experience the “Railgun-Dictator” gameplay which other players who were before me enjoyed so much. Soon after I registered, the 300,000th account was created. For reference, there are now over 22 million accounts, of which over 90% would have created their account after I did. Awesome, huh? When I was a younger player, gameplay was very similar at the low ranks to how it was before the rebalance, which most of you will be aware of. There were three weapons to choose from – Smoky, Firebird and Twins – with Railgun unlocked later on at Staff Sergeant. It was similar with the hulls – Wasp, Hunter and Titan were three choices with Dictator unlocked at Master Sergeant. It took me a long time to rank up, as I was not able to find too much time to play (it must have been about four months before I reached master sergeant). I was, however, able to earn crystals very quickly, using referrals and daily bonuses, and I never had a problem in achieving a enough crystals for my next upgrade before the rank where that upgrade is unlocked. I chose to use Firebird and Hunter, it being an extremely useful combination for me in Highland Deathmatches and Ping-Pong team matches, the two grounds I loved most to play in. I also got Railgun M0, M1 and M2, so by First Sergeant, and that, combined with my M3 Firebird, M2 Railgun and M3 Hunter (a net worth of around 2000 crystals) I was set. I bought crystals and got M3 Railgun, which I used for a long time. Whilst I was at First Sergeant, Freeze and Ricochet were released, out of the blue. There had been no rumours leaked, so when the two weapons were released everyone was surprised. I remember searching around to try to find my first glimpse of Freeze or Ricochet. (I got my first glimpse of Freeze in Fort Knox II and Ricochet in Madness, if my memory serves me correctly) The two weapons brought balance to Tier Two and gave variety to the game which had been sorely lacking up till that point. That was, however, the only major update which took place whilst I was in the sergeant and early Warrant Officer ranks. A few paints were released, the hall of fame was removed, a few different ways to buy crystals were released, a few maps were released, but nothing dramatic. No ground-breaking or earth-shattering update which changed Tanki. Smoky XT was around for a while, but that was a novelty rather than a large change to how Tanki was played. The reason? At that time, the big fuss in Tanki was about v2.0, which the developers were working on. It was originally planned to be released in late 2010, but the release date was continuously delayed. The original game, 1.0, was left predominantly alone whilst development took place on 2.0. Unfortunately, however, 2.0 was continuously delayed. Originally we were told it would be released in August, then September, then October and into the new year of 2011. 2011 was said to be the “Year of Tanki 2.0” but even that failed to materialize as the official release (set for June 4th that year) was cancelled, despite a Beta test server, v2.tankionline.com, being released temporarily. Whilst that was all going on, I was progressing in my Tanki career and the community was flourishing. The first English moderator, koolwalky, had been appointed and he had been followed by a few more, including dingus and Slickdc. The first English clan championship (albeit unofficial) followed soon after, which was entertaining (in part) for those involved, although it had a number of unfortunate problems with scheduling. Despite that, the community had been growing and the first few English community contests were started, beginning with “Artist of Tanki Online”. As the year progressed, it became more and more clear that 2.0 was way behind schedule and was not going to be released on time. The first actual gameplay videos we received were in march, and when the beta testing server was released in April that year it was apparent that a lot of work remained for 2.0 to be fully functional. It was not released on June the 4th that year, apparently delayed. The first Russian competition which included the English clans also took place (although the two English clans which entered performed very poorly), and our community was growing. Meanwhile, I was progressing through the Warrant Officer ranks (slowly). I had left the first clan which actually meant something to me, Shadow Strikers, and joined the clan which I am currently a part of, the Ironclads. I was performing admirably with M3 Railgun and M3 Hunter, both of which I enjoyed playing with very much. I then bought Mary paint and M0 and M1 Viking, intending to use Railgun until I had M3 Viking. At this point in my career, I liked Tanki very much. It was a good game. I knew that it could be improved – most notably in the graphics – but it was entertaining and a worthwhile play nonetheless. I enjoyed the variety in the game and gameplay especially, and I had made friends in the game. I found Tanki to be a very enjoyable leisure activity. But whilst 2.0 was not released, Shaft was, which is still the latest addition to be made to the weapons and hulls in the game. I bought it the day it came out, just for fun, and whilst it was not a weapon suited to my style, I did use it a number of times and found it very enjoyable. Along with Shaft, there was also a shift as the amount of updates to 1.0 increased as 2.0 became less and less likely to be released. Towards the end of 2011, there was also another change that changed the English community for ever – Bruce Lunga became the English community manager. He revolutionized the English community, creating contests, organising teams of consultants and moderators, and changed a lot for all of us. One of the big changes for me happened in one of the contests. It was “Mr Tanki Online” - and there were only five entrants! Fortunately for myself, I won, and that gave me enough crystals to buy myself M3 Thunder, which was soon followed by M3 Viking. From just being a typical Tanki player who enjoyed being part of the forum and clan community, I became famous, and not just that but also had extremely good weapons and hulls in relation to my rank, which was still a measly Warrant Officer Five. Meanwhile, big changes were happening, both in Tanki and in the English community. That New Year (2012 new year) period had amazing New Year celebrations, with a host of holiday paints and such, but there was more. We had a large array of new competitions, and the first few cybersport competitions. At first, they were only single-person competition, including the Mosquito battle, a railgun-wasp tournament, which I took part in. It was very entertaining, although a large number of the participants didn't take part and there were times in which I got a “bye” straight through to the next round because too few players had qualified. I managed to qualify for the final and finished fifth, which was quite good going, I thought. It was at least pretty good fun. There was also in the start of 2012 a new aspect of the English community – two in fact – one of which would complete radicalise my Tanki life. The first was the Tanki Online radio and cybersport channel, run by Snyper22. That was, for the first few months at least, a great place to hang out and listen to cool music and have Tanki-related competitions and chats. It was later replaced by the more efficient cybersport channel we have now and the “Tankionline forever” skype chat, but in the early days of 2012 that was the place to hang out. The other new community feature was the newspaper. I had had some vague ideas about an English newspaper for a time, after reading (via Google translate) the Russian equivalents, so when Tommy60 and Bruce asked me whether I would like to join the English newspaper, I jumped at the chance and never looked back. The first issue was a small one, with only four reporters (including conanthedestroyer as editor) but we, as a newspaper, gradually expanded and continue to try to bring out as high-quality produce as we can (and the rest of the newspaper will continue to do so after I leave). Since then, the newspaper has expanded and I have been a part of it ever since. It's been a fantastic experience and a great way to learn and practise my writing skills, not to mention meeting some great people in the reporting team. Over the summer of last year, there were a few special events - “Best of May” and “Euro 2012 gold boxes” were the two most high-profile, as well as the start of the cybersport events in the English community, the World Cup being the first. I was the leader of “Team Great Britain” during that tournament, and, whilst we performed extremely poorly, it was good fun nonetheless. The concept of the tournament, particularly, was great, although some of the implementation was not foolproof. As the year progressed, I increased my Tanki Online garage. I bought M3 Freeze, M3 Hornet, Needle and Rock (both of which were 10,000 crystal paints at the time). I enjoyed using a variety of weapons and hulls to suit different occasions. Freeze-Hornet was probably the combination which was most suited to me. As the year progressed, more and more began to be built up towards what everyone knew would be a series of big updates towards the end of the year. Tanki had quite a few lags and new graphics were planned. 2.0 had been permanently cancelled and now the developers were focusing all of their attention upon updating the existing version of the game, 1.0. The first of these updates came in September, being the new graphics and the Control Points game-mode, update 1.100.0. It completely changed the game, decreasing lags but, in the opinion of many people, coming at a cost of decreasing the allure of the game. Personally, I really enjoyed the Control Points release, and, whilst I probably preferred the original graphics to the newer ones, I did not care. The gameplay is what counts, graphics are secondary! Towards the end of September, there was also the first ever English Clan Championship. It had been something which I had been waiting for for a long time, and I was anticipating great things. It, as a whole, was a very well-organised and well-oiled Championship. Apart from a few uncertainties about the streams, the championship went very well (although, again, the performance of my own clan did not live up to expectation) and was an overall success. After the championship, the big news was the build-up towards the so-called “rebalance”. I, for one, was really looking forward to it. I was beginning to find the four-weapon (Thunder, Freeze, Ricochet and Shaft) gameplay of Tanki monotonous, and I was looking forwards to a greater variety. I tested the rebalance a few times in the Test Server, along with everyone else, and had high hopes. Unlike other people, who said that “if it isn't broke, don't fix it”, I believed that the original Tanki, whilst maybe not “broke” as such, was boring and monotonous and required a change. I expected the rebalance provided that. When the rebalance was released, I was both disappointed and pleased. Pleased that there was sufficient variation in hulls and weapons to make the game exciting; disappointed that I would have to buy a large amount of experience to get an M3 weapon or hull. I was uncertain what to do, but eventually, in the hope of getting an M3 weapon and hull to be an able performer in Clan Wars, I bought experience up till the rank of “Commander”, where I got M3 Firebird and M3 Viking. After the rebalance, I found gameplay refreshingly new and interesting. It was more varied than it had been before the rebalance, and some of the older and more enjoyable, maps were being played a little bit more as well, which I appreciated. Which brings me to where I am now. I have enjoyed my time at Tanki. It's been a great experience so far, and I will still play the game for entertainment – it is a good game, after all, otherwise I wouldn't be here. I will no longer be part of the reporting team though, and I wish them – and you readers all – the best of luck in the future.

I'm sorry about this but I'm going to begin a rant here. Anything "sexist" is anything demeaning towards a certain sex, talking about them as if they are inferior to the other sex. Too often people claim it's "sexist" when you mention their sex. Doing so isn't sexist, something only becomes sexist when you say that a certain sex is inferior. That meme isn't sexist, all it does is point out that the middle person is not a "guy" but a girl. I agree with your other two points though. /rant Sorry about that. I got carried away. I know you didn't mean it in that way, but... I couldn't hold myself back.