After reading some of the responses, one thing occurs to me... When there is a gross imbalance of strength/power, you have clear winners and losers. In fact, you have a massacre. If there is a balance of power/strength, you end up with nearly a stalemate. In the case of balanced power, the only variables are skill, and rank. (where rank can be the same as more advance hardware which = advantage). My example of balance strength/power is a game of chess. Each player has exactly the same strength and game pieces at the start of battle. There is only one advantage at the start of battle, and that is which side moves first. (this can also be a disadvantage) One player may win or lose over the other by a small or large margin. However, the only variable in the game of Chess is each player's skill level.

AvenTis, This brings up a good point. Basically, any player will fall under one of the following categories: (let me know if I missed anything...) 1) The Cheater/Hacker: You want to win, without regard for anyone but yourself, and you refuse to "Donate". The Result: You level up quickly, earn thousands of crystals and can upgrade your tank to anything you want. You NEVER lose. 2) The Donater: You spend a lot of actual money on the game. The Result: You level up quicker than most, and earn an above average amount of crystals per battle, and can upgrade your tank to anything you want. You RARELY lose. 2) The Drugger: You spend a large amount of your crystals on power boosts. The Result: You level about the same rate as the majority of players. You OCCASIONALLY win. 4) Straight-Edge & Honest: You are not a "Donator" and you don't buy too many power boosts (Drugs), but you may use them in a game if they fall in front of you. The Result: You NEVER win. So, if you are mostly a Straight Edge player but occasionally donate, you are a chump. You are also a chump if you donate at all, because you can't beat a hard core cheater/hacker/drugger or even a hard core drugger/donater. You cannot win. It would be interesting if power boosts and cheating/hacking didn't exist, and crystals were not for sale. Skill alone earns you crystals in battles only, and use those crystals upgrades your tank. I've seen many posts about this, especially eliminating drugs altogether. However, donating and drugging is the only defense against cheaters/hackers at this time. Just like in real life... war and arms escalations. If you enemy can kill you, you need to be able to kill them twice. If they can kill you twice, you need to be able to kill them 4 times... and so on. Interesting.

I am flipping tired of hackers! BAN player 45c Isida user name 45c can now shoot across the map (far in excess of M3 Isida Range) and through buildings and walls. Additionally, 45c is using a Dictator tank which performs faster than an M3 Hornet on NO2. I have seen some of the valiant efforts by some honest players to bust hackers/cheaters but I feel at this point, there is no justice. I refuse to spend any real money on this game with all the hackers. It's a waste. Mods & Developers... I hope you understand this. Your revenue stream is drying up. Hackers = no money spent = no income. I am also tired of taking the time to capture screen shots to get hackers banned. It isn't worth the time anymore, and this game is no longer any fun. Soon... honest players will completely lose interest and the nice folks at Tanki will go out of business.