Usually if I am defending I'll switch to mammoth with freeze. But I usually don't like something that slow. :)

I use Isida and often times my arrival changes the outcome because the team has no isida - going around and healing people suddenly can turn a losing team into a winning one - especially if I escort the flag carrier as every isida player should. But sometimes people drop out for various reasons - ISP problems or other issues - then nobody joins. What was a winning situation turns ugly as the team balance changes and suddenly it is 5 against 10 - one of the great weaknesses of Tanki. Or, you are on a winning team and then a few people on the losing team drop off and some druggers show up and buy the win.

An example: Right now a 20 minute CTF finished - the blue team won 8-4. Each team had 10 players. Battle fund was 2517. Team distribution: Blue - 2198. Red - 319. Scores: Blue: 2,876 Red: 2,246 Losers got 12.6% of the fund. Losers had 43.9% of the overall score. Winning player on blue had a score of 530 and got 410 crystals. Top player on red had a score of 619 and got only 84. Even the worst player on blue got 76 crystals with a score of 100. It makes no sense that a player with a score of 619 gets almost the same as the worst player on the winning team. I placed 5th and got only 20 crystals. I could have easily picked up more than 2 boxes worth 10 each under the old system. So, tell me - how is the new system of any benefit to me?

I do think the drops staying is better. But I think a wider distribution prevents team players from fighting each other - a single drop in some exact location encourages intra-team fighting - is that what we really want to encourage? Players competing against a team player for a drop didn't really happen with the old random drops - as I mentioned more players in a map meant more drops - it wasn't uncommon to see 2 double armor boxes drop side by side. It was a way to balance against the people who pay to win by purchasing supplies. This way two players on a team got an upgrade instead of only one as it is now.

Here's my solution: 1. Bring back random supply drops. I have witnessed more stalemates on CTF rounds with no time limits now and I think it is due to this (say, a 25 or 30 cap with no time limit). Before this changed two or more players had the chance to get drops if two fell next to each other. Now, players are pushing team members out of the way to grab the one stationary drop. 2. Put the crystal drops into the battle fund but.... 3. Change the percentage of winnings to each team. Even in a 0 flag capture the players should still get a minimum of 50 crystals each since I am sure the average player could have picked this up in the old system. The highest score on the losing team should always get about half of the same score on the winning team. This way it encourages players to keep playing even when they team sucks. It's awful to have a score of 1,000 on a losing team and get 100 as a reward when the same score on the winning team might get 1,000 or more. 4. Go back to the old gold box system - seeing "A gold box has dropped" as it is floating a few feet above the ground is senseless. Whatever they do the predictable crystal drops of high value should not be reinstated.

The problem is that without drops it sort of punishes the good players who get stuck with a group of incompetent boobs. Rarely did I mind losing if I was able to get some pickups along the way. Now being on a losing team stinks - it is not as if you can hold tryouts and get rid of the ones who suck. :) The problem with drops was making them predictable - as I mentioned in testing (which I took part in - the most interesting aspect was trying out all the fully upgraded hulls and turrets) - the players all had unlimited resources. Thus, the developers not only missed that people would camp for large crystal drops but not it happens for regular supplies. The way it was before the predicable update was great. I don't know anyone that complained about that, and, I don't know why it had to be changed. It was the change that brought about all these nasty issues.

Suppose in a game the battle fund happens to be 2,000 and support 500 worth of drops might have fallen for a combined total of 2,500 (common to 15 minute CTF round). In an old round everyone had equal chance to see them and pick them up. No big deal, nobody ever camped out for 10 crystals. We all knew where they would usually fall - as more people player the drop rate was faster. Sometimes 2-3 at a time; sometimes 5 at a time. Fact was this was a boost to lower ranks to help them compete because of weaker hulls or turrets against higher ranking or stronger players. Do the people at the middle to bottom of the teams benefit at all now? No, the payout to them is hardly different. Overall the chance of getting the same as before is probably a lot worse because payout is based on score. 500 in drops "spread" between 20 people is 25 crystals each. Before these changes I could pick up 10 boxes in a round easily. Most of the time on the losing team it matters very little how the additional drops being added to fund - the payout is still a horrible share of the overall fund. Were it not for the losing team playing at all the winning team won't see the battle fund increasing. Having the drops like they were prior to the predictable update makes it more fair. It makes into luck - randomness - the kind of thing with the random drops that made it more fun. And, for a 10 crystal box - nobody drugs for that. They don't need to bring back the 100 crystal drops - these were the ones causing the major problems. Just revert to 10, 20, or rarely 50.

Prior to this change I was getting more because being in the top most of the time I had the skill to earn mine plus get drops. As I mentioned the value of a supply drop is much higher than any 10 crystal drops. But you can't spend supplies or keep them once picked up. Also, I am a fairly successful flag retriever but when half the team is screwing around playing parkour or just getting in the way and failing to protect the carrier the lack of drops makes getting the flag in such circumstances even less inviting. At least with a few 10 crystal boxes lying around on the way back to the flag base if I got whacked or was unsupported by my team and died I didn't feel like my time was completely wasted. During the Halloween period I got almost 6,000 crystals from one single 100 flag session - one pumpkin and most of the rest were drops. Because my team lost the payout from the battle fund to me was only about 400 or so. Because of the drops themselves I ended up earning more than the winning player on the winning team after 100 flags - even when the pumpkin wasn't factored in. Drops help balance out the game when your team stinks. 100 - 150 might not seem like much but in an evening of 10 - 15 rounds it can potentially be several thousand at least. I don't see my take from higher battle funds matching that since the experiment started.

How are there "more crystals up for grabs" when supposedly the same crystals that would drop are instead being put into a fund that gets split by up to 20 people?

If I am a good player and the team is made up of mediocre, poor, or players who join to sabotage then drops are essential Once time I was playing I only needed 30 or so crystals to upgrade to M2 hornet. But because there were no more drops I had to fight through another battle just to get enough to upgrade. Sad thing was that the team was so poor I barely earned enough to upgrade after 20 minutes. Had the original 10 crystal drops been available I would have likely picked up some and then been able to upgrade while in battle. I don't actively hunt for crystals but if I see them and it won't cause me to ignore the team or lose the flag or lose following the opposing flag carrier then I will get them. Really, it is no different than picking up other supplies - in fact the value of other drops is actually 50 - 150 crystals each when you think about how much they cost to buy. See the problem still remains: the losing team in CTF gets jack squat as a reward. More often than not I always got more via pickups than by the distribution of the fund at the end. You don't notice it much when you win but the losers get screwed big time now by not having any drops.

The amount of crystals for those who aren't in the top 2 or 3 of the winning team IS indeed down. I am getting far less now in each battle than I was prior to either the experiment OR the predictable update (and I am always in the top 4-5 of every team I play on - win or lose). The problem now is that everyone in CTF on a losing team GETS NOTHING if the score is 0 - prior to this even the losers had a chance of grabbing crystal drops so there was still some form of reward if the team failed to cap a flag. The worst issue is that when they had testing of predictable drops EVERYONE had unlimited supplies in their garage. When you have 99,999,999 crystals and can buy 10,000 of each supply nobody cares about how the predictable drops factor into the game because there is no reason to waste time on getting drops. This is why the testing was severely flawed from the start.

That's a really good point. With drops of crystals prior to the predictable update there is some reward for effort in case of server problems, ISP burps, or being stuck with lousy teammates. There were plenty of times in heavy battle I grabbed 4-5 boxes of 10 that randomly fell before being killed. As an isida player the random crystal drops are essential at times because your reward comes mostly from picking up 10 crystal boxes while healing teammates. I miss the random drops - it was something that added a dimension of surprise to the game.

Even if you had m3 you would be unable to sell it to someone who doesn't meet the rank requirement.

Agree 100%. Predictable drops have made the game very boring, and, removing any chance of reward makes it even worse.

I've seen that happen quite frequently - if the losing team bails the winning team has no chance to increase the fund. If the losing team got more crystals it would encourage them to stay longer. At least with crystal drops there is the chance of getting something if the score is 0-15 at the end of CTF. When you get nothing for a 0 score there is no incentive to keep trying or to remain in the round.

Now that I have had more time on this I would say the overall concept of predicable drops is horrible. Predictable crystal drops makes it much worse. As was noted during testing the major flaw of testing was that everyone has unlimited supplies and crystals - so the flaws of predictable drops were never seen. Trying playing predictable drops with no supplies and it is horrible.

Sell them but in a way that they are damaged - like a used item. For example a used hull or turret could have something like 10 - 20% of the capabilities reduced.

Another solution would be to give 1/2 to the tanker and 1/2 to the battle fund - that way it discourages camping and harvesting to some degree.

Except that if you get a lousy team or a team of druggers you wind up with nothing.

A solution to the crystal drop problem is have a generic box but with different values - that way nobody knows until they pick it up.

After playing for two days now I honestly hate both updates. The drop system stinks and having no crystals in game means having to wait until the round is over to upgrade. Had there been crystal drops I could have upgraded to m2 Hornet in game. Bring back the random drops and crystal drops - the marked drops stink big time.

So now with no drops everyone is drugging up to buy the win.

The problem isn't the crystal drops but rather they were too large in denomination - the large sizes were the ones causing the distraction. The solution is to end drops over 50, or, make them more rare and more random.

Strategy? Parking a mammoth on a drop spot to mine crystals is strategy?

Love how drops don't disappear now. But people camping for 100 crystal boxes totally ruins the game now. Someone with the flag sees a 100 crystal box drop and ignores capturing the flag now in order to get the drop. Stupid.