I've just come back to Tanki today after a long break and met the Magnum turret. I have to ask - is this at all influenced by my suggestion back in 2015: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=214823&page=411&do=findComment&comment=4297089 ???

I don't think it would be too difficult to have the timer threshold change depending on the map and time limit, as well as how fast they're getting flags or points or kills. I'm not saying I could do it myself but it should be relatively simple for the proffessionals at Tanki, if that's the route they want to go down, so it's not as if it always has to be based around scoring ten times more than the other team. With that said, if players stay in a game and just try to kill people on your team, giving up on getting any more flags, then that's up to them - it's not like they're no longer playing - so there shouldn't be any issue with continuing, even though the dynamic of the battle will clearly have changed and some players may dislike that. You're right that what started off as a perceived problem/bug has turned into a suggestion so I probably will post it in Ideas and Suggestions. Thanks for the interesting discussion. If a mod wants to lock this now, there's nothing more to discuss here as far as the Problems and Solutions subforum is concerned.

Don't get me wrong here, I'm in favour of having a countdown timer to shorten games that are clearly one sided. When I said that it the timer could be started when one team no longer has a possibility of winning, I was just being hypothetical with that one extreme example. Of course it would probably be better for the devs to pick a point when they think it's highly unlikely that the other team will come back, even if it's technically possible. I realise I said ten times more rather than ten times faster in my post; that was just a slip of the tongue due to me being tired, sorry. I do understand that you're saying it's ten times faster. Perhaps I can rephrase what I said to make more sense. What I'm saying is that whether or not the timer is activated should not be down to anything other than the game score, which is different to the individual kill and capture scores. If one team is capturing flags in CTF ten times faster than the other team then the timer should activate. If they're scoring kills ten times faster but are only one flag ahead then the game should proceed as normal, since the 'faster scoring' team hasn't actually translated that into putting what is actually being played for - flag captures in this format - beyond doubt (either absolute or reasonable).

I see what you're saying joker, but if the goal of the game is capturing Flags or Points then it shouldn't matter if one team has ten, twenty or even thirty times as many kills as the other, as long as both teams are close on FLAGS or POINTS. In a DM or TDM the current system obviously works fine, as kills are the object of the game. In any other format (leaving parkour out of it) kills should just be a means to an end (flag and point captures) and a way to help rank the players and sort out their share at the end - they shouldn't have any effect as to whether or not the game is close themselves. It should be the case, in my view at least, that it can be mathmatically calculated (by the server/game) whether or not it's still possible for a team to win the round in the time they have left, by either kills, flag captures or points from point captures and holds, in DM/TDM, CTF and CP respectively. If it can't be done then the timer should be started to end the round. If it can be done - if both teams could still potentially win - then the clock should continue as normal. That would actually do away with the need for the countdown timer altogether, since as soon as we know only one team can win you may as well stop the game then and there, so perhaps it would be better if the timer came up two minutes before a team is going to reach this threshold to give them a chance to pull things back. It definitely shouldn't be the case, again in my view, that a team can be timed out for lack of kills in a CTF or CP match when they're otherwise doing all they need to do to keep the game alive. There's more to tanki strategy than simply killing as much as you can (though that definitely doesn't hurt).

That's why time should also be taken into account. Whatever equation they use to work this out should be based on the difference in flags/points/kills and the amount of time left in the game. Looking at your perfectly legitimate 'Think about the other team' argument I would also have to reply that this goes both ways. If people are managing to stay close or even ahead on Flags, despite heavy losses, why should they then be penalised? It might even be part of a team's strategy to go all out on the flag captures, knowing many of them will be killed in the attempt, just so that one person can get through, grab a flag and get it back to their base. I realise that it might not actually be as simple as that and the flag may pass through several people's hands on its way to being captured but you understand the point.

I see. That seems odd to me because I would have thought the timer would be based on how much a team/individual was ahead of the other team/individuals based on the criteria for winning whichever game they're in (flags, points or kills) rather than on how fast they get kills, no matter the format and how close the actual game is - presumably this would have happened even if they were losing on flags? Well if this is intentional then it's not a bug or a mistake. However I think that this should absolutely be changed to reflect the format of the game being played at the time. I guess this explains why I've been in CTF games with scores of 30-1 and had no countdown timer...

As I understand it, the countdown timer is only supposed to start if one team is far ahead of the other depending on the format - Flags in CTF, points in CP and kills in DM/TDM. Today in Monte Carlo CTF, shortly after 17:00 UTC, with three other players (two on each team) the two minute coundown for the end of the match started due to our (red) team apparently being far behind. That would be normal except that the score was only 5-3. The score was soon narrowed to 5-4, where it stayed until the end of the match, but the countdown timer kept going. I noticed when the breakdown screen came up at the end of the game that the other team had far more kills than us and wonder if that might be what the score difference was being measured against, instead of the kills (I joined the battle late on so I didn't realise the kill difference before). As you can see in the screenshot below, the blue team have a combined twenty-one kills to our zero but are only one flag ahead and yet the red countdown clock has been activated. This screenshot is from the end of the round. I won't bother posting my own OS and browser version etc, as it's clearly not an issue effected by my system (nothing to do with speed or connectiveity or resolution or anything like that), though if you do feel you need them then I'm happy to oblige.

I have Windows 7 on here, so I can't use my own screenshots, but I'll grab some stuff online. First step... Step 1: Open the Control Panel - from Windows 8 help pages: To open Control Panel Open Control Panel by swiping in from the right edge of the screen, tapping Search (or if you're using a mouse, pointing to the upper-right corner of the screen, moving the mouse pointer down, and then clicking Search), entering Control Panel in the search box, and then tapping or clicking Control Panel. Control Panel Control Panel includes some additional settings that you might use less often, such as customizing the desktop. Step 2: Click on the Hardware and Sound option. Step 3: In the next window, click on the 'Sound' option, which is the third option in the list. I can't find a suitable screenshot for that but it's fairly obvious. That will open the Sound window. Step 4: The window shown below should look like it does there, though your speakers and digital audio option will probably be a different brand. If the speakers don't have the tick by them then click on them and click the 'Set Default' button near the bottom. Step 5: If that didn't work, try going through this tutorial: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/no-sound-help#no-sound=windows-8&v1h=win8tab1&v2h=win7tab1&v3h=winvistatab1&v4h=winxptab1

Depends which version of Windows you have. Are you on Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8...? This is why that template in the first post is useful. :D

Assuming you're using Windows, go to: Control Panel > Hardware and Sound > Sound On the window that opens, go to the 'Playback' tab (probably already selected when the window opened) and make sure that your Speakers are set as the default device - they should have a green circle with a tick/check mark in it. If the Speakers aren't the default device then you need to click on them and then on 'Set Default'.

Check nobody has plugged some headphones/earphones in without you noticing.

1. When near the end of a Serpuhov CTF game toaday, I suddenly received the message 'Fatal Error. Resource id: 5005530, resource version: 1417690021827 Error #2032' after dying and respawning. Screenshot: 2. I do not know what caused the bug. 3. OS Name: Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate Version: 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601 Other OS Description: Not Available OS Manufacturer: Microsoft Corporation System Name: CDFBROWN-PC System Manufacturer: Alienware System Model: M17xR4 System Type: x64-based PC Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3610QM CPU @ 2.30GHz, 2301 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s) BIOS Version/Date: Alienware A12, 17/05/2013 SMBIOS Version: 2.7 Windows Directory: C:\Windows System Directory: C:\Windows\system32 Boot Device: \Device\HarddiskVolume2 Locale: United Kingdom Hardware Abstraction Layer: Version = "6.1.7601.17514" User Name: cdfbrown-PC\cdfbrown Time Zone: GMT Daylight Time Installed Physical Memory (RAM): 12.0 GB Total Physical Memory: 11.9 GB Available Physical Memory: 7.95 GB Total Virtual Memory: 23.8 GB Available Virtual Memory: 18.9 GB Page File Space: 11.9 GB Page File: C:\pagefile.sys Internet provider: Plusnet Download limit: Unlimited Connection type: Wireless Network type: Access point Network availability: All users Signal Strength: Excellent Browser: Firefox version 35.0.1

He's saying he DOESN'T use shaft, so the laser is helpful for him because he can see it coming. Basically what those of us that disagree with the update are complaining about.

I haven't come across any night maps yet so I can't comment on them too much, though judging by the comments here that seems to be bad luck on my part rather than people not using them when they make a game! I know I enjoyed the halloween map so I imagine I'll like this. As for the shaft update, I'm afraid I don't like it. Shaft has always been the sniper turret. A sniper is meant to remain hidden (where possible) and to be able to take their time over a shot that the enemy doesn't know is coming. Until now shaft did this very well but this new update completely does away with all of it, making the turret (and as such the tank) easy to spot and predictable and forcing tankers to rush their shots because they know as soon as they enter sniper mode they're a target. I don't personally think that the shake was much of an issue - it served to balance the turret within the game and could be adapted to with patience and experience. As someone that regularly uses twins, I've never found shaft to be an insurmountable problem, just another type of turret to adapt to playing against - it's just about thinking tactically. I very much appreciate the work that goes into the game and to this update but, in my personal view, it makes shaft a slightly lesser turret compared to the others in terms of game balancing, especially since you HAVE to enter sniper mode to get a full powered shot - perhaps that last point could be addressed. Thank you for reading.

Thanks. I didn't have any problems with the servers when I was playing earlier today, aside from one 'Fatal Error' and I'm there now without any problems so it's fine from my point of view in the UK.