Oh - and for the record, I do finding fighting the new Freeze specifications tough, however I'd rather continue to find ways to beat them at their own game, than give up and call for the rules to change.

Advertising is tough because of the varying international rules on it; the adverts couldn't be "click throughs" either so it woudd be hard to monitor performance as they do other web-based marketing. However - treating it like sport (event sponsorship) might be the way to go; companies sponsoring a map, a server or a competition for example, which would make it a bit more compelling that the usual "click throughs" based approach. You could extend this by having *companies* sponsor specific developments - new servers, new maps. You could actually go full out on the sports idea, and have specific product sponsorship paints that players get crystals for wearing - just like F1 racing, tennis, soccer, Tour De France - in fact almost all sports; companies could pay for this, and the $$$ go towards NEW SERVERS and LOWER LAG. Interesting.

Actually my enjoyment of the game comes from coming across difficult situations and developing strategies to overcome/defeat them; I like the balance between shoot-em up and strategy, and I'll quite often join the "losing" side to try and see if I can come up with a way to win. The "freeze" players you comment on have a different enjoyment of the game too, as do those I dislike, like the "Shaft" campers and the "supertank" players who seem to think every battle is The Somme. No class, in my opinion, but that's just what I think. Suggesting a rule change every time you encounter difficulties playing the game how *you* like to play it might not be a good long term approach; if it works, you can bet that others wil adopt this approach against *your* winning tactics before too long. And if you like any kind of game, discussion, fight, battle or argument, I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" and assume you have nothing to learn.

If you were packing Freeze, Isida or Firebird and tried to "charge down" a Shaft, Railgun or Thunder across a long distance of open terrain and expect to get away with it? So why do you expect to go into the "kill zone" for the short range weapons and not have the same thing happen? If you have seen three railgun players "working" one end of The Desert map efficiently this creates the same "deadly ambush" senario; decent players that know their weapons well, and understand the other's capabilities can always get a good "kill zone" set up for much the same effect. Nothing new in this - in fact its very, very old advice: "Knowing the other and knowing oneself, In one hundred battles, no danger Not knowing the other and knowing oneself, One victory for one loss Not knowing the other and not knowing oneself In every battle, certain defeat."

I would assume that they look *very* carefully at the "spend demographics" - after all its the heart of their economic model. Google and facebook do the same, but have to do so in public as they are publically traded. I would also suggest that the "shape" of the rebalance is in part about encouraging low-ranked payers to stay (and pay) - the reduced rates on cheaper protection paints, M0 weapons and hulls, for example. Either way, I would suspect the "lag" issues are not an easy/cheap fix, or they would have done it; its probably hardware and software related, and hard to test internationally; sometimes what seems like a simple "user story" for a fix actually requires a massive rewrite of the core code/engine, and a lot of companies crash and burn at this point - their sucess kills their original engine, and they don't have the finances to pull off a 2.0 version. (Hmm - sound familiar?)

When I logged in the type was on the main Tanki Online page, the OP was quoting that. At least that's what I saw - not really worth a post though.

You can buy rank, if you want (directly or via drugging) but then you will find yourself in high-rank games with people who *fought* their way up. And they will eat you for breakfast. Build up your skills on the lower levels, with easy opponents and lower-powered tanks. Rush into the high levels and you won't have the space to practice. At first : - stick to edges and walls, not the middle as its harder to sneak up on you - fire and move, don't stay in one place or position for too long - use your turret; scan around all the time for opposition - use paints that match the background - with "obvious" weapons (twins, rico, rail) don't fire unless you need to - it gives away your position - don't underestimate how useful mines can be - practice; look how higher ranks play, copy them

I'm in NZ - makes it easier to play at certain times of the day, but when the US is online you get lagged like crazy. I've spent a total of maybe US$30 (always with a double-up card!) and under the old scheme used that to get a few toys like the M3 Railgun - that was enough to get me "out of a hole" (which was probably caused by the lack of balance in the weapons/ranks) Bottom line is that if you take the number of players at my rank or above (~138,000) and assume they drop say $30/year average (US$4.4m) this is pretty low revenues; that might get you running a team of 20-30 people plus infrastructure, but not much left for investment. On the other hand, if you can get some of the 5-10,000,000 lower ranks drop $5/year average you make five+ times this (US$25-50m); and new players are far more likely to spend US$10 on a game as they get into it. So - you not spending any money is not as much of an issue as the millions of other, lower ranked players. At least, that's how it looks to me. If they don't fix it? Games come and go...

There's about 18,000,000 Tanki players right now. 0.5% of this is 90,000. So - if you are ranked 90,000 or lower, then 99.5% of players have a lower rank than you. I'm only a 3rd Lt and I'm at rank 138,000 (so 99.2% of players are lower rank than me) I suspect the demographics are heavily skewed towards the lower ranks.

Can you define what "anti-game" means for you? I'm guessing the freez players woudl disagree. Me, I find "scope camping" boring, and I'm grateful the rebalance has diminished the value of this as a tactic. Anyway - with a "good team" and the right combination of hulls/weapons in "wingman pairs" you should be able to break any deadlock. How well does the firebird defrost after the rebalance???

Hey, if it was a democracy, we could all vote, all 18,000,000 of us. Wonder how many low ranks and noobs would vote for the rebalance? Because, you know, things like critical hit level it out. I'm betting the "old hands" are less than 0.5% of the "Tanki" population. :)

I thought he was just pointing out they said "but" instead of "buy"; prices are all down by 30% if you saved all of your rebalance refund, it would go 30% further. You all saved it, right?

Oh - and I'm currently ranked 138,410 at the moment - I'd guessing some of you guys are higher. But that means that 99.2% of players are lower rank than me. So if some of the top 0.8% (who have spent their money already) leave, what are the consequences for Tanki, and for the lower ranked players (including me!)? Exactly. I hope your game tactics are somewhat better thought out.

If it was truly communist, we'd all have the same good, cheap, well designed tank in huge numbers (like the T-34), and it would be free, but there would be no upgrades. You are getting all confused with monopolising capitalists, like Rockerfeller or Henry Ford. Can't think where the Russians got those ideas from..... :)

Tanki now has 18,000,000 members. At most 70,000 can be online at once (2500 x 28 servers.) We see the results of this - sever reboots, lags and just issues logging in. Something had to radically change to keep things going; the number of players/server and even servers has increased at the pace of signing up. I'm guessing that "ranked" players spend a lot less money that "ranking up" noobs, especially if they can modify the game to easily add another 10,000,000 players and retain/improve service levels. I, for one, am hoping that the rebalance (and the added scope for new players to spend money and rank up will: lead to infrastructure investment that helps the game to scale and grow without these issues and give me a lot more high-rank, low skill buyers to act as cannon fodder when I feel the need for a slaughter-fest :)

ReBALANCE - emphasis on the balance. So you are saying : "I used to be able to kill freeze players easily, and now its kind of hard..." Yup; so the game is more BALANCED. A decent long range weapon chews up the freeze or Isida player at a distance, but let them in close (especially with that big ol' thunder) and you are in trouble. Get new tactics; go in with backup that has decent short-range offensive power, get new paint, and maybe even (gasp) buy a Freeze! No gun should be perfect, or overpowered. We should regularly see all guns (and hulls) on the battlefield. Then the game is *balanced* We didn't used to see much variation - so the game was *unbalanced*

Um - I'm guessing that noobs spend more $$ on upgrades than "pros" Right now there is about 52,000 players online out of 18,000,000; that's under 0.3% of players than can get access. They need to have a huge investment if they are to grow (add more servers, beat lag), and of course offline players don't spend money. I suspect that, as it stands, the Tanki Online model (like a lot of cloud-computing, SaaS set ups, which all MMOs are) needed an overhaul if it was to continue to grow as it has. Hence the rebalance (which yes, favours new players buying over established ones, and encourages them to stay and spend more.) Most companies that fold do so because they can't "scale up" from thousands, to millions to tens of millions to hundreds of millions. And had Tanki folded, we all lose.

I wonder if the rebalance was needed in part for economic reasons; the game has grown very rapidly and I suspect the infrastructure is struggling. To get the investment money for the hardware CAPEX and software upgrades needed for money players online at once - which has to be in Tanki's interests - they had to create a situation where they could generate more money. Its not unusal for a SaaS "cloud computing" play (which is essentially waht all MMOs are) to hit "scalability" issues and need its entire economic and business model to be overhauled. In other words, I suspect they needed the rebalance to get the investment to fix the lag.

Um - before complaining about someone else's spelling - or perhaps a mistype - make sure your own use of the apostrophe is correct :-)

Most of us have seen enough of your posts to understand your point of view, and we don't all agree with you. The game has changed. It is not changing back. Complaining about it will not change it back, nor will complaining about those who are tired of your complaints, and make their feelings known. As with many changes in life, you can dwell in the past reflecting on old glories, you can adapt and create a new world, or you can move on. If you chose the former, don't expect any respect from me, no matter what rank you are.

I really love the posts saying "XXX is now too powerful after the rebalance". Translation #1 : Some low rank took me out because I'm still playing the way I used to, and haven't learned any new tactics yet Translation #2 : I bought - not fought - my way to my rank, and spendign $$ for a better tank no longer gaurantees victory Sure - getting taken out by a Master Sgt with Isida or Smokey is a bit embarrasing. Time to start demonstrating *how* you earned that high rank with your skill...

Some nice ideas but : 1) I like swapping between game types, so segregated servers wouldn't suit me 2) Marked zones might be okay - but in what language? 3) Changing weapons in a battle? Don't like this at all; you can - with the right tactics and skill - take out pretty much any other tank with a given weapon/hull combinbation, if you play to your strengths and their weaknesses. Having to leave the battle and lose your score is a key part of the game. 4) I suspect the point of the rebalance was to get to a point where the lower ranks were not just out-classed with the higher ones by weaponry, not skill. A skillful player with M0 or M1 weapons can now take out low-skill, high rank players. Which, IMHO, is as it should be. I also suspect the economic model they had was broken, and didn't scale well so that.. 5)... they needed to generate more money to keep the investors happy, so they can expand both technology and support staff. Getting an econmic model right that works with the demands of say 500,000 people, and still works up to 11,000,000 is pretty tough. 6) Agreed! My understanding is that it was too hard under the old scheme to introduce new weapons and hulls without thowing the whole game out of whack; Shaft and Isida seriously changed the game. Lets see, on my shopping list are: - tesla cannon: fires electrical discharge that can jump from tank to tank, extending its range (but discharging faster) - sonic disruptor: creates a mini-earthquake causing damage and making a tank harder to steer; shakes people off structures etc. - quad mounted chain guns: similar to twins, but longer range, lower damage and harder to spot The main thing I would like to see is some additional supplies that could be used: i) JSTAR/AWACS uplink - creates a map that shows the location of friends/foes for the duration it is active; cost maybe 10? ii) STEALTH module - adaptive camoflage unit that makes the tank semi-invisible by painting it with the background at that location from every point of view; cost 20 iii) Hellfire fire-and-forget missile - hold down key to activate graticule and aim (like shaft); hold in graticule for 2 seconds to get "lock" (with a nice tone!); damage as per mine (cost 20) iv) Jump rockets - very high speed, very temporary speed boost to aid in jumping/pushing. v) Smoke mines/granades. Does what it says on the tin(!) - increases the "fog of war" and tactical options vi) FLIR (Forward Looking Infra Red) : "heat vision" that highlights all tanks, even those with adaptive camoflage vii) targeting laser. Places a red dot on the current "aim point" for long range shooting. viii) air strike. Weapon becomes a laser designator for a PGM-type bomb. Hold down fire button and aim for 5 seconds, bomb drops, keep target illuminated for another five seconds ix) Mortar. Like a mine, but is "lobbed" at a 75 degree angle in the direction of the turrent so it can be thorwn over obsticles. Explodes if it hits a tank, or acts as mine. Oh - and while we are in the subject, lets make the self-destruct a little more, well, damaging to those around you!

Could you maybe expand on what aspects of the game are "ruined" for you? I can see how people whose rank was largely linked to the tech they had bought (for $$) instead of their skill at playing would be upset. I can also see how those who basically had one tactic - the head on charge, all guns blazing, while drugging like crazy - might have suffered. I can also see how your pride might be dented when low ranks can suddenly take you down, armed with new weapons and paint. Personally, I'm enjoying the rebalance. There's new stuff to learn, which is always good. And it allows Tanki to add new weapons and hulls, easily, keeping the game fresh. The lower base price on paints, hulls and guns makes more options, more challenges, more excuses to show your skill - if you have any, that is. Leave the game, or learn how to play again - like so much else in life.

1) A well mixed Mohito, if we are going alcoholic 2) L+P if we are not (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemon_%26_Paeroa )

Depends how you play; Dictators always remind me a bit of a WWII Sherman - tall, and hard to hide - but if you go in all Twins blazing in Deathmatches you won't care and it will serve you well. Hornets are more like a JPz IV - small, low profile and fast - you have a good chance of getting your shot in first, dodging faster than some turrets can turn at close range, and even getting "under the guns" of a Dictator close up - but in a open map slug fest it can be hard to survive. Hornets are also best suited for dramatic "charge of the light brigade" CTF runs into a blaze of shaft and richochet fire flat out, ideally over a bridge or open ground into the jaws of death. :D