I would be completely okay with a nominal price increase with the release of the Unity platform. From what I have seen it may be a huge advancement in gameplay with improvements across the board. As with any software development there i a great deal of upfront and ongoing investment to create the product, maintain it and incrementally improve it. If Unity devliers in the promises it’ll be worth a bump in cost. What I don’t want to see is a pattern of price increases for existing garage items unless there’s an improvement that justifies the price. As an aside...It’s bad enough when the development team “rebalances” turrets and hulls. I bought an m3 railgun whose impact force is now dramatically reduced all in the name of “rebalancing”. Rebalancing is a polite way of saying development might reduce (or increase) the effectiveness of our turrets and hulls but they’re not going to compensate us if there’s a loss. Imagine the amount of crystals and time it would take to microupgrade that turret…..a long time and many tens of thousands of crystals. Players aren’t getting refunds for the reduced functionality of a turret in which they’ve invested a significant amount of crystals. Another example...I paid quite a bit for my m2 shaft…..I didn’t ask for the ridiculous laser to be added months later. Instead, it was forced onto us….and now I have a weapon that I paid for that I would never have bought today knowing that it has a laser. It’s also why I’ve not upgraded to the m3 shaft. Another couple hundred thousand crystals wasted. Anyway, I digress…. If there’s a price increase for an existing item, there had better be a corresponding improvement to its effectiveness or functionality. Otherwise, it’s a rip-off know matter how Alternativa marketing spins it.

Those of you in disagreement repeatedly focus on one thing: a sale/discount. Where in my post did I mention that the discount is not enough? Nowhere because I never suggested that the discount was not enough. You completely miss the point of my post. It has NOTHING to do with wanting a deeper discount. Absolutely nothing. Are we clear on that? I even CLEARLY state in the very first post that "it’s still a decent deal if you buy supplies on a regular basis.” I could not have been any more clear. The new “70% off sale” price for the 1000 kit was raised from 99,999 to 104,999. A 5k increase (of the discounted price) for ZERO added value. If a non-virtual business decided to do the same thing, you can bet consumers would be upset (despite the fact that physical goods have very real marginal costs to produce). Inflationary pressures aside, prices generally trend downward over time, not upward in the “real world”. It’s the reason you could buy a 50” Samsung LCD TV 2 years ago for $2000 and today you can buy the IDENTICAL model tv for just $500 (that’s retail price, not “on sale”). Yet here in virtual Tanki world, we’re subject to Alternativa’s bizarro economics. Prices trend upward, not downward, even before discounts are applied. This despite the fact that Tank deals in VIRTUAL goods that have no marginal production cost, and no external pricing pressures. If you still don’t get it….well….I’m not here to explain basic economic principles to you. Once you’ve had sufficient education in both business and economics, and once you’ve spent some time in the workforce gaining practical experience about how the world works (outside the world of academics and gaming), then you’ll have a foundation upon which to base your opinions. My suggestion, if you’re a relatively young person talk to your parents about what I wrote. Ask them to read my posts and explain them to you. Ask them if they agree with me. I can guarantee you they will not share your opinion.

The fact that there is a sale is irrelevant. You both have either missed the point or chosen to ignore it. Have you never studied economics? Do you not understand how companies set pricing and price increases for goods and services? This is a virtual game offering virtual goods. It’s one thing to set a price for a new virtual turret, hull or supply because there’s a cost in its development, distribution, marketing and sale, as well as any future enhancements to it. It’s another thing entirely to set a price for a virtual good, then raise the price of that good as if there’s a corresponding increase in the operational or capital expense associated with it. The cost of a “producing” another virtual mine is zero. It costs Tanki nothing to “manufacture" another 500 million or 500 billion mines. It’s simply a numerical counter in your garage and mine. An additional 5k in virtual cost translates to around $3 US in actual cost for no additional value added…nothing…nada….zip. These aren’t enhanced supplies…they’re identical to the supplies that once cost 5k less. The company is certainly free to set whatever prices it likes. And free to offer whatever discounts it chooses. But raising the price on a virtual item for which there is no marginal production cost and no value added…that’s just greedy no matter how you slice it. I’m not here to debate economics with you. If you view the world in the context of discounts rather than total cost of ownership, well, good luck with that.

For those of you who’ve played long enough to know….the "1000 pack" of supplies is back in the garage. Apparently those who set “prices” in Tanki felt the need to hike the cost of the pack from 99,999 to 104,999. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s still a decent deal if you buy supplies on a regular basis. But why the increase, even if it’s just 5%? Seriously. These are virtual goods. They cost $0 to “manufacture” and $0 to “distribute”. The marginal cost of making another 500 billion supplies is $0. There’s no impact from rising raw material costs. Basically, there’s no good reason for increasing the cost of the kit. Yet there it is….another 5k bump in the price. I’m sure if I looked hard enough I’d find other examples of the virtual price creep. Shameful Tanki, just shameful. Ok I feel better now. I’m done with this morning’s rant….

Fantastic….make the Firebird even more potent. As if it wasn’t enough of a nuisance before ;-) Thanksfully I use mostly mid-to-long range weapons and often mine the paths to the nest.

I can understand why the developers thought fixing the aim would be cool. It’s not. How often do your opponents stand still? New players….too often. Experienced players…almost never. So training this weapon on an opponent is a trick proposition and takes practice. I easily defeated it on the test server most often by taking advantage of two important factors: 1) it takes time to spool up before firing and 2) the turret turns slowly enough that fast hulls such as the wasp can outrun its turn-rate. So something as ridiculously simple as wasp/twins can take out a vulcan/mammoth. Will you do defeat it every single time? Of course not. But it’s definitely doable. I’m sure with enough time we’ll find a thousand ways to frustrate vulcan users. Frankly, I would rather NOT have it stay in a fixed position. That severely reduces the level of control. Something tells me the developers did this to purposely handicap the weapon - it’s not the “feature” benefit they claim it to be.

A.K.A Another Crappy Update Fantastic! So, all the existing high-end paints received almost no hammer protection at all. 10%, 15%? Really? That isn’t protection, especially when the equipment is m2/m3. One basically has to buy a lower end crappy paints OR seriously compromised high end paints (i.e. so-so hammer protection but virtually no other decent protection) to get better hammer protection. Unless I’m playing a field full of Hammers, that’s pointless. And major paints like Prodigy and Needles, both of which I have…..both cost a fortune….and not even a tiny bit of hammer protection was added. That, my little Tanki admins, is just fantastic. Yes, you can’t please everyone all the time. But with these last few updates you’re doing an excellent job of abandoning the more serious players who have invested significant time (and in many cases money) into the game. World of Tanks is looking better with each passing day.

Thanks for the input all. I'll also take a look at that browser AO. Blue, yes two states. New England is such a tiny area compared to, say, Texas or California, that you can drive through 6 States in just a few hours. I happen to live on the border of two.

I invested quite a bit of time and money into this game. What's the deal with lag these past 5 days? I'm up in New England (USA, UTC -5). I've tried multiple connections from high speed fiber to cable, multiple locations in two States, multiple browsers, and the best I've been able to manage is 5-to-8 fps. The only common denominator is that I've been using the same Macbook for all tests. However, this is the same Macbook, same configuration, same software (nothing newly installed, including no new revs of any software) that I have been using since I began playing Tanki in March 2014. Since March 2014, I've been able to consistently get 25-50fps. I find it extremely strange that the past 5 days have been sub-10fps. At this rate, first multiple terrible "updates" and now consistently poor server response time for several days, I might as well look into World of Tanks instead. Tanki has turned into a wasted investment of time and money. Tanki Support, any ideas? Are you throttling server performance based on IP addresses or regions?

I'm still fuming about the shaft laser....but I did have an opportunity to test m0 and m1 for the Hammer. I used an m0 twins/wasp combo to defeat 3 hammer/wasp m0s very easily on Combe map. I attribute most of that to the skill of the players, not the weapon's capabilities....they just didn't have the hang of the new turret. Then I used an m1 Hammer with both an m3 hornet and an m2 mammy hull on island CTF. Granted it was just an m1 turret but it was a pea shooter compared to my other turrets. Even at close range it just felt underpowered. I absolutely hated it. Then I had the opportunity to try the m0 twins/wasp combo again in an Arena match against a player using an m0 hornet/hammer combo and who definitely had used the hammer for some time now. He wasn't new to the turret. No idea if he had any upgrades, but he was definitely not just a sergeant as his rank implied either. He was definitely much more effective with the hammer the the previous players. And it proved quite a bit of a challenge. He had just enough hull to keep him alive. S/he was one of the more difficult to kill opponents and I have killed many noobs with just a baseline m0 wasp/twin combo. So, as of now, without having yet used the m2 Hammer, my assessment is that the weapon has potential with practice. As a matter of personal preference I'll probably never use it. Or use it only occasionally as I do with the Bird and Freeze.

"funnily enough" you cannot see the actual beam from a typical laser sight unless the conditions allow. Ordinarily you'd see only the dot at the target. Three primary factors affect beam visibility: frequency, strength and the Rayleigh scattering due to air impurities. The reason snipers use plain ol' high powered optics is to.....wait for it....wait for it.....not be seen at all. No chance of it. They do, however, make use of laser rangefinders (which is what you're probably thinking of) but even those beams are typically of wavelengths invisible to the naked eye. You'd need IR, UV or other detection to see the beam pulse (which I suppose Tanki could offer as turret upgrades). And some military gear does provide countermeasures such as a high powered return laser to blind the enemy's optics (another possibility for future Tanki upgrades). However, I maintain what I wrote in several earlier posts....the visible laser has no place in the primary role of the shaft which is sniping. A projected dot would be a compromise if the naive young Tanki developers insist on adding unnecessary features, but an experienced sniper wouldn't want that either.

Rather than trying to justify why the existence of the laser is not an issue, ask yourself if such a feature would be used by any modern military for the purpose of sniping. The answer is no, of course not. It's an ill-conceived idea that has absolutely no place in sniping designed by developers who have never served a single day either in the military or as actual snipers (and if they have, shame on them for allowing such a feature into the game). I'm not expecting Alternativa to create a 100% realistic tank game (if they had there'd certainly be no respawning, isida healing, etc which is part of the fun of the game), however it would be nice if they'd at least make some attempt at accuracy with regard to actual combat applicability. And a visible laser is not, nor has it ever been part of a sniper's arsenal....for very obvious reasons.

Another mostly crappy update. Two in a row now - congratulations AlternativaPlatform! This has clearly become a trend indicating that: AlternativaPlatform is most certainly NOT LISTENING to its Tanki members. Telling us they listen isn't the same as actually listening. We know they aren't listening. They know they aren't listening....why bother making the claim? Shame on AlternativaPlatform's executive team. The execs running AlternativaPlatform and Tanki development have begun to lose touch with reality. It seems this happens whenever a game reaches sufficient popularity - it simply wanders off into la-la land with unwelcome updates. I have suggested in the past that any *potential* updates be released as "experimental" until such time that membership has determined which features are worth keeping around. After a week or two, eliminate the least popular features. The company needs to invest in fresh resources (especially in positions overseeing development) that have actual military experience. The BS naive inexperienced development talent has already begun to show its limitations. They may know how to design a fun paint scheme or an interesting turret shape, but they do not understand the military tactics and strategies of tank crews/platoons/clanks (a laser on the shaft made this point painfully obvious). And if they have hired such talent - fire them and find better ex-military talent....they're obviously not the right people for the job. Sad, very sad. We're witnessing the slow death of a historically popular game. Unless AP gets its act together quickly I suspect this game will lose its luster and membership over the next 24 months.

Tanki Dev team, Want to provide valuable battle information? Tell us the mX/hull/turret/paint combo of each player in a "more info" panel so that we can see what we might face in the battle, before we enter it. Nothing worse than joining only to find that there are 15 players from the sisterhood of Freezepops playing the map. It's not like it takes 2 seconds to join and leave. From my location (hi speed network, gaming Mac) it still sometimes takes 20+ seconds just to join the map, and about the same to leave it or to go to the garage to change weapons because you're not dressed appropriately for the party. I'd love to see what the players are using before making a decision to join.

:-) Now that suggestion is both funny (because no serious experienced shaft user would ever waste crys on the laser) and excellent (because everyone else would buy it thinking it's cool). We can add it to the list of how to spot an unskilled tanker: 1. Which way to the flag? 2. Left, right, back forward...round and round in circles....excuse me excuse me....sorry am I blocking you from returning the flag? 3. My isida can heal my teammates? I didn't know that. I thought it was a bug zapper. 4. Stop shoot move....stop shoot move.... 5. oh I can turn my turret? I didn't know that. My hull is my turret. and now... 6. look at my cool laser scope! Bam....dead.

I have to agree with this as well.... Talk about making it easy to spot a large majority of the tanks on the battlefield even in the darkest conditions....the bars and supply info are just too bright in night mode. It's like driving around with a neon sign above your tank that says "shoot here please". Of course I use this to my advantage every time....I can quickly plan a no-brainer attack route around a map such as Barda based solely on the most efficient covered path to kill the most tanks....thanks to the huge neon signs hovering above them. I love night mode...but the super bright info really dumbs down the battle. I can see it quickly becoming a crutch, a substitute for pushing one's skills to the next level.

In my experience your observation is incorrect. I thought the exact same thing initially....it seemed as if the railgun could hit tanks that were at its side. However, as I experimented with this further it became clear that the physics/mechanics of the rail is correct, but the amount of delay/lag of the player's display makes it appear otherwise. Watch the path of your tank versus the position of the railgun turret of your opponent. If your hull and/or your opponent's turret are aligned for a "hit" when the weapon is discharged then it's a legitimate hit. By the time your display catches up with the action (even if the lag time is only milliseconds) it appears as if the shot was fired late (even when it was not), or that it missed you (when it did not) or that the turret was not pointing at you (though it was when the shot was fired). From your perspective it seems like an impossible hit.....but it's an illusion created by even the slightest lag in the time it takes to draw the next frames in the display.

That tells us more about your skill against shafts than it does about the overall impact on shaft's effectiveness as a turret. And my D/L record is 243-0 shaft/mammy/prodigi 100 flag CTF Stadium....that's out in the wide wide open (no hiding beneath ramps)...I know a teeny tiny little bit about sniping...just sayin. The laser needs to go. It unfairly draws players' attention to tanks they might otherwise overlook while assessing the battlefield especially when a sniper is "hiding" in plain sight.

Scares the enemy? No, never. Only in the imagination of the developers. In fact, last night I played Silence night mode as a shaft/mammy just to see the impact of the laser on a smaller map. Not only does it not scare anyone....it draws a straight line back to the sniper's position. It allows noobs (and unskilled players) -- assuming they are not complete morons -- to completely avoid the snipers' paths. It also gives noobs and unskilled snipers with 20/200 vision a big old neon arrow that says "shoot here". This is a clear sign to me that the developers are either young, or have no military experience, or perhaps both. No military strategist or weapons developer would say let's take this slow turning, slow loading, terrible short range weapon and add a laser beam for the enemy's benefit to counter it's primary purpose in battle. Might as well sit in a circle, hold hands and sing Kumbaya. My suggestion to place a red laser dot on the target surface makes 1000% more sense and is more true to life without being a dead giveaway designed by people who lack the expertise to know any better. I'm not a fan of the laser dot either...but if the developers really really really feel the pressing need to give hints to opponents, then that's the way to go.

FAIL The whole point of SNIPING is to not be seen. You've just completely stripped that away with this update. Probably the most ******ed turret update since I began playing in March 2014. If you want to give a "hint" to make things "fair", then show an illuminated dot on the target's hull or on objects nearby. At most perhaps show a tiny red dot on the sniper. But to show a laser from point A to point B is idiotic. Tanki developers needs to rethink this one. Absolutely stupid! For the naysayers I add...shaft is already purposely disadvantaged in close quarter combat. The turret turns relatively slowly, arcade damage is significantly lower, and reload time is fairly long for sniping. There was absolutely no need whatsoever to further handicap the turret with this update. Experienced players know how to deal with snipers. This is what happens when you let young developers who have ZERO actual military experience make unrealistic tactical changes to a game that is based on....wait for it....military weaponry and tactics. My guess is they thought the laser was "cool". Thankfully they do not design actual military equipment. What's the next update? Perhaps we can have an avatar that pops up with helpful hints such as: "shhhhh the enemy is hiding right around the next corner on the left...it's a thunder/mammy/prodigi combo...you might want to switch to your rico with needle paint. Proceed with caution". Just give me back the shake (which was never an issue for me), and get rid of the stupid laser. WIN On the other hand, I have been waiting for a night mode to finally be released. I haven't tried it yet but I am sure it's fantastic. The next thing on my wish list is weather conditions such as rain/snow/thunder. Night mode is a huge win. Tanki developers...you got this one half right. Obviously noobs who hate snipers are going to love the dead giveaway (might as well hold their hands and help them drive their tanks while you're at it) ....but any player with experience knows where to look for snipers and doesn't need a laser beam "hint".

I do not agree with this list at all. I appreciate the time taken to create a list for others, but most of these are horrible sniper spots for anyone who likes to camp-snipe. I've played the role of sniper on silence many many times. The absolute most effective red team sniper position is the lower left corner of the map, behind the shipping container. Some tips: 1. If you're using mammy as I often do, stay as close as possible to the back side of the container with your hull positioned parallel left to right. Be aware that taller hulls such as a Dictator/Shaft combo can still snipe you from the left rear ramp, center ledge and right rear wall. Your hull will be too big to hide from the taller tanks due to their higher line of sight. They can clip the edge of your hull easily. 2. Use a smaller hull (I sometimes use hornet) and you'll be hidden from all snipers up in blue territory. Obviously pay attention to the angles....if you position even a small hull near the right or left edges of the container you'll be an easy target for a decent sniper....especially a shaft. 3. Either way you'll need to practice coming out from cover to take the shot for most sniping. You have a clear view of the left ramp, center ledge and field, right-center short wall mid field, and rear left wall. Additionally, you can snipe anyone coming in from the middle alley or far right front corner. It's a great location from which to snipe opponents who think they've safely grabbed the flag (one of my favorite things to do on this map). 4. I like to keep the display angle about 30-45 degrees up from horizontal to give me a clear view of the back field as well as near field, especially tankers who think they're clever hiding on the other side of the container. 5. Speaking of tankers on the other side of the container. Place one or more mines between the edge of the cliff and the left side of the container to prevent those heroes (you know who you are) from creeping around behind you. 6. You can place mines directly to the right of the container as well and even on the ramp or platform behind you. But your biggest concern will be mid and long range opponents who come from the far right front corner opposite your position. Unless you have the support of an experienced team (good luck with that these days) then they'll inevitably not watch the right front corner. Which means you need to keep an eye out for attackers who will attempt to fire and cover from behind the far right front building. I like to make sure I continuously sweep the turret from the upper left rear ramp to the right front corner, and back again looking for anyone that breached red team territory. 7. I enjoy using this position to take out tanks that snipe from almost all of the OP's suggested locations. ;-) With great team support to allow you to focus more on sniping and less on having to deal with attacks from behind, this is the absolutely best sniping position on the map. Even with a crappy team, you can do quite well from this location. You'll just use more supplies. The OP's suggestion for location #7 would be my second choice..and that is a blue team location. I've had success there as well. Good luck tankers!

Though I would not have said it quite the same way, I share your opinion of the server lag...it seems to have worsened in recent months. I suspect Tanki isn't keeping up with demand. Keep in mind however that sometimes it's a server-side issue and sometimes it's a client-side issue. For example, when I play on a laptop and the laptop's battery drops below 10% charge, the game begins lagging....if I have no power source to plug into the game quickly becomes unplayable by 5-6% charge. So sometimes, but not all the time, lag can also be a client-side issue for many different reasons.

Finally an update, or more accurately a revision of previous changes, that makes more sense. Frankly I wish drop markers would just go away entirely after Gefreiter. Experienced players shouldn't need markers. I suppose making marking a settings option is better than making them visible to everyone at all times. Love love love that gold boxes will no longer drop in just one predictable location. Love even moreso that they will occasionally drop near flags (for those who play defense and almost never get a gold box). I am thrilled the crystal box concept has been eliminated. Who cares what the noobs think....they're just crystal hunting half the time. I could care less about crys boxes. The other thing I despised is how players would join a game, hunt for crystals for a while without ever really helping their team, then leave long before the game ends...so they occupied a team position that could have been held by a more serious player. By then it's too late...team turnover was so high that there's no chance of winning the battle. Bravo and good riddance to crystal boxes! The game is called Tanki for a reason, not Crystal Hunter. Slowly we move in a better direction. I believe all future updates should be rolled out as "experiments" first. That would make the change more temporary pending final statistics and member feedback.

Tanki could care less about even the players who DO spend significant money on the game. I wish I was wrong, but I'm not. I spent quite a lot on the game from rank WO5 on up. And after a couple crappy updates this summer I completely stopped buying crys. And you're right, they could care less if one or even a thousand players leave. They'll not be missed. So rather than leaving, I play but now I play for free.