I agree that the Poll questions I asked would likely be an embarrassment to Tanki, because a vote for change implies Tanki must do something to keep in step. I.e. no company likes to be pushed nor do they like it's dirty washing exposed in public. I think we have to conclude that sales of 'Supplies Kits' are vital to the survival of the current version of Tanki and we will have to live with it. It's impossible for Tanki to admit this in public for fear it would put off new users. On the other hand, a 'fit of honesty' from Tanki will stop so many players complaining about this. However, we are left with the imbalance that ruins so many good battles when one side uses more drugs than the other. For now we can only focus on suggesting alterative revenue sources to remove the need to sell 'supplies kits': Tanki seems unusual to me in that I see no advertising anywhere. I would have thought advertisers would be falling over each other to gain access to this group of global users? A simple advert on the billboards in Tanki should bring in the required income. Why has Tanki not tried this? As long as the advertising is not obtrusive to the game then no-one will complain. The only issue I see is that many potential advertisers may not like the game pushing a 'drug culture' - it sets a bad example to be associated with (even tobacco companies don't like to be seen as pushing an addictive drug (and they appear to have been banned from placing global adverts!) We do know that most people can play conventional sports without needing a drug culture mechanism (advertising pays much of the costs). One of the reasons I like options in the game (tankers choice) is because most tankers do not take part in this forum. I.e. ALL the players get to take part in choosing what they like and the Tanki statisticians can analyse the trends. I appreciate that the standard game should not be fragmented too much - hence, Tanki has to watch the trends and try various experiments - even better if they announce the experiment in advance so we can predict the outcome. My sales school taught me that most unhappy customers do not say anything they just walk away. Hence, the comments in the forum are gold dust to a business. Happy tankers are more likely to be buyers (MU and tank combinations and any personalisation bling you can dream up). I personally would buy 'non-performance enhancements' because I don't want to 'buy' an advantage over anyone else e.g. for a few dollars per month I could 'rent' my own 'colours' each month on smallish sections on each side of the tank. These could even be clan colours or clan supporter colours. To avoid extra lag in the game - some of these personalisation's could just shown on each tankers profile page. Note that uncertainty about the 'preservation of wealth' in the move to Unity will mean less investment of tankers cash in the old game.

For Wasp users especially - we need to be able to lower the weight whenever we choose. As Rohrmaster pointed out: too much weight prevents some jumping and shooting options. A keyboard option to raise and lower the weight withing your limits in the game would be even better. This will also help with Parkour.

Once again - thanks Damn_Slow You're a fine ambassador for Tanki, you restore my faith in the ability for Tanki to listen. I agree it's always hard, if not impossible, to please everyone. Even better you see the potential for an easy access eSport - I feel Tanki can easily be up there with the best. I have had some of the best fun in Tanki compared to any participation sport /game you can mention, long may it continue. I agree that players do not like being embarrassed - that's why ultimately we need larger numbers of players so Tanki can afford to give the sportsman players a level playing field separate from those who need the help of power ups. By the way, Pro Mode does not offer a mode to 'reduce' Garage Supply use (you have to set it to zero and just keep air drops on) - I would find it valuable to allow say 3 mines per 15 mins and 3 health packs per 15 mins to give me a chance at Gold box time (somebody often shoots before the gold box arrives!) This is why I don't like zero garage supplies battles - I want 'reduced garage supplies' battles with equal amounts per side. On SCD (Smart Cool Down) parameters (which are easy to adjust in view of Unity dev.) - I don't agree that the balance is right for the majority of Tankers. The balance is right for encouraging the purchase of supplies kits which suits Tanki finances. If Tanki let Tankers choose the parameters then the majority would vote for longer SCD times. Why not try this as an experiment each week and see what we prefer? - say 4 options over 4 weeks and then give us a vote. I have bought my Pro Mode pass for the last 6 months - but cannot use it on the maps I want to play on and yes I have sat on my own on Kungur - or fighting only 1 or 2 tanks. This is because very few people own a Pro Mode pass. I agree at Brigadier rank and above it's not expensive - it costs me about 3 hours battling per month. It's 'chicken and egg' - no-one will buy a Pro Mode pass until there are plenty of battles to join. RU2 is mostly small maps, all Gismos or Parkour. You did not answer my question on why we cannot have a vote to see how many players would like to see a level playing field regarding the use of power ups in the standard game. The question I would ask is: Do you believe the over-use of garage supplies is causing too much imbalance in Tanki - YES / NO? Then I would ask: Are you prepared to pay a monthly fee to have the number of garage supplies balanced to equal amounts per side YES / NO? To do the latter will probably need 4 times the population of tankers to cater for both Free to Play user and Subscription users. Needless to say, my personal answer is YES to both questions. and you won't get 4 times the number of tankers if too many potential players keep being blown away by heavy supplies users. I still feel the reason why Tanki will not allow these questions to be asked is because Tanki fear a loss of revenue from Supply Kits. Who is the person in Tanki who really knows the answer to this question? It's a Yes / No question. I understand from a Vlog that Unity may have an alternate financial model - I had better watch the last 3 Vlogs to see if anything has been said?

Thanks for the response from Damn_Slow - an example of how to respectfully answer our concerns - I thank you Sir. Probably the number one reason I choose to chase this 'imbalance problem' is because I believe that any successful company needs to listen to it's user base - and when I saw how a large group was effectively being ignored to the point of annoyance - then it made me curious which planet the leaders come from. Sometimes I find it's because the middle management think they're doing the senior management a favour. Then when a senior person eventually gets the message they wonder why it took so long to get through! My book on sales technique tells me to always speak to the Managing Director - because he's (or she) is the only one that makes big decisions. (Some companies make it easier to get to the MD than others.) Two changes that have no effect on the game mechanics: 1. Double the smart cooldown time (this is only a parameter change) - Tanki have already adjusted the smart cooldown time on Health Packs - they can do the same on the other power ups. 2. Show the total amount of supplies used by each tank each game on the score board. We know that Tanki already keep these totals - but if shown on the scoreboard this will embarrass 'many' players into not using so many! Plus we get to know who has skills and who is being assisted by power ups. In a 'vacuum' of response the best guess we can make is that TO management will not do either of the above (even as an OPTION) for fear of losing income from Supplies Kits. If TO Management can confirm this then we can focus all our effort on helping Tanki find alternative income streams. I welcome the news that more competitions are in the planning - especially those which are not just XP/BP. Light tanks / medium tank / heavy tanks all these make sense. Please remember that many of us just play 'as and when' and cannot commit to a clan. I.e. we need some sort of random competitions in which players gravitate upwards based on results to some sort of final. The UK Squash league mechanism shows a way that this can be organised. (Maybe we can put our name forward for an hour timeslot and the machine randomly puts you in a game). Also remember that it's not good putting e.g. Generals against Gismos - we need 'gradings' of equipment to help level the playing field - or perhaps some sort of 'booster' where players with lower equipment can use more power-ups per game. Also remember that Tanki have been 'unwilling' to hold a poll on how many of us are annoyed by the imbalance of supply usage. It's quite possible that > 80% of tankers are annoyed by this from time to time. That's a big number and should be properly tested (and I think best if we can choose what we want in the game, so we can vote with our feet which includes those who don't use the forum.) (In practice, Pro Mode is not usable - except for Parkour, XP/BP or small maps. On the other hand many of us have found ways to deal with Tanki games: 1. Treat the game like a 'dog eat dog' world - "nobody said life had to be fair" (i.e. small fry must hide from the powerful and the killers can simply crush everyone!) 2. Treat all standard games as a training ground from which to graduate to eSport when the opportunity arises (hopefully made accessible to more ranks?) 3. Declare in the chat that some games are 'low drug use' or 'full drug only' games and complain to anyone seen breaking the rule. 4. Choose battles carefully - the druggers are easy to spot by the high scores. 5. Have fun. On the Kick2 process - I appreciate that any 'kick' mechanism is a potential minefield for many reasons - but the least Tanki could have done is say they're aware of the requirement and have not been able to implement a solution at present (however, will keep under review.)

It took me about 3 hours to read this far on this topic (and I do note we have a great many good people making contributions. (Surprised not to see Brubook and RustyNail here.) And I do think it worth pointing out that even with the game as it is, many of us get good 'crossings of the bridge'. All we're trying to do is fix some of the 'bad crossings' that waste our time. And most of us really do want the 'bridge company' to do well - the alternative 'ferry' is not so perfect either. Myths and rumours answered It's great that this topic actually gets some responses from TO - it's the most 'hope' I've seen in a while. Short summary (because my output gets a bit long.) Second only to 'Kick2' - why does Tanki management simply ignore this massive thread?: Please answer. : ideas and suggestions > Drugs - The only today Tanki strategy to win a battle: Some of the brightest and best brains (and biggest Tanki supporters) have been hard at work in that thread trying to help resolve the problem of why Tanki allows one side to use more garage supplies than the other - which imbalances team games (and DM) (and also ruins the stats). (Any fool can get a bigger score using permanent DD or DA.) Star Series does not allow use of garage supplies because of the imbalance they can cause (see how most of the HardStyle battles quickly became one-sided.) (HOWEVER, WE'RE NOT ASKING FOR SUPPLIES TO BE REMOVED FROM THE GAME - that's never going to happen.) Imagine we could setup games where only 1 of each supply was used per tank per 15 minutes. Then imagine we can choose x amount of each supply that can be used per tank per 15mins - then WE get to choose what we like best and NOT Tanki. (Air drops are fine as they are). (And don't say use Pro Mode because we have that pass and cannot use it because too few games have been setup.) More detailed part: Simply give us the right to choose the 'supplies balance' - then all this shouting of 'drugger' can go away and we all get a more level playing field. Please note 'buyers' will still buy supplies and MU upgrades etc. (and I suspect even non buyers like me will feel they can now buy!) Tanki will find many more users are happy with the game and they will see user numbers going up. The end result is that more 'bums on seats' means more money to Tanki which is good for us all! The biggest Mythical question to me is why Tanki Management is unwilling to admit they have allowed this huge imbalance in the game (caused by no control preventing one side using more garage supplies than the other.) Semyon must have seen this for himself and yet everyone in Tanki authority seem to have been 'silenced' and we have been told it's 'futile' complaining about it. If Tanki let me hold a poll on this - I'm sure over 80% of tankers would agree with me! (As a quick 'partial fix': it's a simple addition to the game - just showing how many supplies each tank used on the score board - this would help a lot in identifying the best players and easy to program). All we're trying to do is make this more of an eSport - similar to playing cricket or football or any other well established game. All we can do right now when a battle becomes imbalanced by the over use of supplies by one side is to quit 'that' game - which is a waste of time and some crystals. Imagine. if the 'away' football crowd saw that the 'home' team had legally given themselves 2 more players than the 'away' side - they would probably tear down the stadium in disgust and the newspapers would make such a 'scene' all of football would have been brought into 'disrepute' for ruining the balance of the game. Tanki has a perfect right to decide the rules as they think fit - just in the spirit of 'glasnost' (and showing that you care) - if TO management really believe that sales of Supplies Kits is really critical to the survival of the game - then why not say so publicly? Then we can focus on how we can help Tanki find alternatively ways to gain this money. When we fix that (and we have suggested many ways (and been ignored)) - then we can have our 'level playing field' please :0) Please note it's to Tanki's credit that we have not been 'silenced'. I feel a nameless senior TO person still thinks this game 'imbalance' as described above is a 'necessary evil' - who is this person or persons and why can't we talk directly?

New stats: Generally very good - but a few things of concern: Revealing how many hours someone has played Tanki each week is really private information and could get some people in trouble and get banned from playing Tank! If someone spends 119 hours per week on Tanki - that's crazy and will make your eyes go square - this should not be encouraged by the scoring system. The solution (as others have said) is to measure (and show publicly) e.g. how many Crystals earned per hour - this is a much better measure of someone's performance. Add to this number of Gold Boxes per hour. and XP gained per hour. These 'per hour' ratings would replace the existing Top 100 score listings. 'Per hour' ratings effectively hide the total amount of hours being played. Or maybe Tanki is keen to help players 'face the facts' about being far too addicted to Tanki? Note, to help identify the most skilled players we need to identify the highest scores achieved per hour without the use of garage drugs (maybe max 10 of each supply per week) - please could Tanki provide a measure for this (i.e. any fool can kill loads of tanks while using DD which distorts the stats.)

At first this looked a significant change in favour of buyers - but the more I thought about it, very little has changed. For those below Gismo - 50% more XP and 50% crystals just accelerates progress up the ranks - I have no problem with that for the small numbers that will buy it. In fact Tanki should have given 50% more XP and 100% more crystals - the way it is now you will rank too fast and not have enough crystals to keep up with the 'arms race'. The normal 'daily route' - gives you crystals from each daily mission - that allows you to keep up (and a bit of skill). I.e. not much point in buying a premium account for most users. For Gismos it means more crystals = more equipment. Weaker Gismos will buy more garage supplies (however, I always find it amazing that even some strong Gismo players still depend on the over use of garage drugs. Buying the XT versions are fine if you wish to contribute to Tanki funds - which I do support, especially if it helps Tanki build a better eSport environment for us all. My complaint with TO management is they don't get it that in team games (and to some extent in DM), if one side can afford to use more garage drugs than the other, this is unfair and ruins the balance of the game. Both sides should have equal amounts of garage drugs to use. If you ever remember the game on TV called Jeax Sans Frontieres - each side was given one Joker each - which gave double points to be used on your best event. This was fair and involved good strategy to make best use of it. If Tanki allowed each tank a max of 10 garage drugs per 15 minutes then this would reduce the tendency for one side to dominate the other. (Very few on the losing side will use garage drugs because it's a waste.) This will also stop the daily arguments about who was using too many drugs (= "Drugger"). If ALL tankers could rally around this request - hopefully TO management will see the sense in it. Happy tankers will pay more money to Tanki - at present many are dispirited with what they see in many games on the battlefield. I will happily pay Tanki for such an update. What I will never do is buy an advantage for myself on the battlefield - this is cheating in my book. Luckily by choosing games carefully it's still possible to find balanced games - e.g. TDM on Kungur was very good today. 2 possible unintended effects of these Premium Account changes: 1. We could all choose to use the same Premium Account paint - which would have a levelling effect which might be good for Pro Mode 'format' games. However, it's likely that most users (over 90%) will not buy a premium account. 2. We could make it a rule that all 'druggers' must have a premium account with the 'status' indicator switched ON - this shows clearly if you're a drugger or not. Anyone seen drugging too much and without a premium account status 'on' can be told to switch it on. I know that some druggers like to play 'full drug' games and this indicator will help keep the non-druggers out. On the other side the non-druggers will find it easier to spot the druggers and avoid those games. I do like the fact we could now have more Pro Pass users - meaning we should get more Pro mode games to choose from - and hopefully some not allowing garage drug use! we shall see. By the way nearly all my 'Lag' problems in Tanki went away now that I have BT Infinity (90% fibre) 30Mbps down and 7 Mbps up! I now see 7 to 12ms ping rates most of the time, this gives me an edge on positioning my Wasp M3 and not tripping over other tanks so much. I can also better predict and avoid an enemy railgun shots etc. My old ADSL2+ had 2.5Mbps down and 0.33 Mbps up - I had lots of complaints from other tankers that I was 'jump hacking' caused by my long ping times > 300ms at times! (however, this 'jumping' did help me avoid being shot!) I hope all TO users can find an opportunity to use very fast internet access with low ping rates (you may try your local cybercafé etc?) This way hopefully you can see the difference, and not blame TO for your slow internet connection. We shall have to wait and see what performance Unity requires. I also fixed my keyboard cursor key 'lockup' problems by slowing my keyboard repeat rate.

Early game end mechanism: Because all Dev effort is in Unity we accept that only simple tweaks can be made to the old game. Having now played small, medium and large maps CP and CTF - had Tanki chosen a 100% increase in the limits we would not have seen such a backlash. Thanks to Semyon for responding so quickly and agreeing to this fix to be installed ready for tomorrow. Tanki maybe should play safe and increase the numbers by 150% or even 200% - this will still allow us to end a game early that is unbalanced. The problem is that Tanki should have let players decide what the limits should be and not the Tanki devs. Last October 2014 when creating 'Standard' matches we could set the flag limit etc. - we should not have to use a Pro Pass to do this. I don't think this change will increase Pro Pass sales until Pro Mode battles are more common, which won't happen until Tanki promote the Pro Pass by giving discounts or possible giving some away in the daily missions.

This is why the Players that prefer lower garage drug use (I call them sportsman players) need a way to keep separate from the ones that like using drugs. Pro Mode would do it. However, Tanki know that if they make Pro Mode 'free' then 80% of players will use only Pro Mode = proof that 'standard mode' is flawed. Currently Tanki refuse to make Pro Mode popular. We will have to wait for Unity before Tanki will be popular enough to have higher usage of Pro Mode once again. Please note, there is still no Pro Mode that allows 'limited garage drug use' - it's either on or off or 'fully' on (with SCD removed). By 'limited garage drug use' I mean max 3 of each garage drug per 15 minutes. The reason I like limited garage drug use is so that at Gold Box time we can use health packs - I don't like all that 'bleating' about 'no kill...'. Also Mines are a 'fiendish' tool - about 3 per 15 minutes is fine. It must be said that Wasps and Hornets suffer the most from the over use of garage drugs while Vikings benefit enormously - which is exactly what we see on the battlefield today. A Wasp M2 has about 140 HP - an M2 Rico takes about 5 hits to kill (28HP per shot). A Viking M3 has about 230 HP - an M2 Rico takes about 8 hits to kill. Put both on DA: Wasp now has 280HP - an M2 Rico takes about 10 hits to kill. Viking now has 460 HP - an M2 Rico takes about 16 hits to kill. The Rico has to re-load after 10 shots costing about 4 secs (while hiding). Hence, Vikings on constant drugs are so hard to stop. Vikings constantly on DA can easily ignore Mines and directly 'trample' all over Wasps and Hornets = no fun and is the main reason I believe so many users have quit Tanki to find a better sport.

I quite like doing my daily missions - saves me having to log into my 6 accounts each day to get my free gifts. It does mean I only use my main account now. (I used my lower accounts more for practice - but also because I found it easier to deal with druggers at the lower levels. Skilful druggers at the high levels are a bit like having a T-Rex in the park = no 'sport' in that. The Devs / Management now have massive control over Tanker behaviour - I bit like a master feeding his dog (pet poodle). I.e. Tanki can now reward good behaviour - but if all they aim to do is encourage garage drugging the game sinks to new depths. As a 'sportsman player' - I cannot use garage drugs when my team is leading (= cheating in my book) and prefer not to use them when my team is losing (except to kill a few druggers). (I use health packs only at gold box time and a few mines for self defence and the occasional bit of fun.) What Daily missions now means is that many player are using more garage drugs to achieve their mission. I.e. this has made the frequent occurrence of 'druggers' worse. Because the occurrence of druggers is not controlled in any way - then an imbalance in the teams soon takes place - thus 'ruining' any sport in the battle. Most sportsmen tankers know the best battles occur when only limited drugging is taking place plus air drops. I propose that the daily missions include a target for getting to first place WITHOUT USING ANY GARAGE DRUGS. This should have twice the rewards because it's so hard but so much more satisfying! Doing this would show that Tanki: 1. Tanki is listening 2. Tanki recognise that those of us who can fight without 'performance aids' are superior to those that over use them. Same for gaining experience on each map or fight mode - you can provide bigger rewards for those of us achieving the target using no garage drugs. You might even have a reward for using a Pro Pass battle :0) I have no complaint about the 'mix' and amounts of rewards - this seems well thought out. If Tanki do not provide any incentives NOT to use GARAGE DRUGS (as exampled above) then we will see 80% of tankers over using garage drugs resulting in too many imbalanced battles - I reckon 90% of us hate imbalanced matches. And even if you're on the winning side in an unbalanced match, this often causes the losing side to quit - so we all lose. I do like the extra reward for 'winning' on the 'losing side' this encourages more to stay on the losing side to the end.

As predicted this was a good idea and fun to watch. and as predicted it was highly likely the Helpers would win because it was highly likely the best payers would NEVER get selected by the randomiser. Therefore it is unfair of the 'Tanki headline' to say this settles the position of Helpers being better than Players. All it says is that the helpers were better than this set of players. Statistically it is highly likely that the best players will beat the best helpers. If a DM knockout competition could be organised where ALL applicant players could take part then we will get much closer to the best set of players. Not sure how 'Rusty Barrels' was organised? However, I would agree if the best players always win then the contest is not so interesting. It would be very good if ALL players and helpers had to use M1 only equipment with no MU and no paint protection. This would allow LU2 and above to take part on a level playing field - this would be very interesting. I repeat that TO should consider setting up a 'league system' as used by UK Squash clubs (this self administers to a large degree). This would be good at finding the best players at each rank. (Please will Tanki respond to the huge forum thread named: ideas and suggestions > Drugs - The only today Tanki strategy to win a battle: - the game balance is once again being ruined by a few druggers. Tanki has become "Druggi Online" and there are NOT ENOUGH Pro battles.) All I ask is that the smart cooldown parameters are set longer to reduce the abuse of drugs in the game. Ideally the leading team would be get longer smart cooldowns the more their score gets ahead of the losing team - this helps the balance and makes the losing team more attractive. Try it for one day and see the improvement. At present most matches are badly imbalanced.

A very good update, It does mean the small percentage of 'crystal buyers' in the game can gain more advantage sooner - but because they are probably weaker players and only a few of them then no problem with the balance in most battles. and we do agree that Tanki needs these buyers - so I support that. (Please will Tanki respond to the huge forum thread named: ideas and suggestions > Drugs - The only today Tanki strategy to win a battle: - the game balance is once again being ruined by a few druggers. Tanki has become "Druggi Online" and there are not enough Pro battles.)

Great idea and should be fun the watch. (Funny how this endorses 'no supplies' as best for good competition, while 'Hazel Helper' still thinks 'no supplies is not interesting' or at best has been unable to solve this riddle despite being told new ideas many times - see the other massive threads on why over garage drug use is bad for the game balance - especially when done by the leading team - just extend the smart cooldown times - it's only a parameter!) However, there is a problem for this new competition: Since this is a 'lottery' for the 'Players' to get into the first round - then it could be that very few of the 'Players' selected have M3 equipment and a high chance that these 80 are not the best Players! (In my book, this lottery idea is a fine for a first attempt at this new competition, see other ideas below. **) I do think it likely that all the Helpers are Pros and I presume they all have M3 equipment? If we get M3 v M1 (or M2) = no contest! Only if all 8 'Players' have M3 equipment in the finals do the 'Players' stand a chance. Normally the best 'Players' would beat the best 'Helpers' as they did last time - but this time the odds are stacked in favour of the Helpers - i.e. most of the 'best Players' will not get through the lottery stage! I suggest if you're a Player and do not have M3 equipment then do not put your name forward and just hope some good M3 Players can get selected for the first round to give them a chance. Hence, I will NOT BE APPLYING as I only have M1 and M2 equipment at my rank! Even though my M1 Wasp and M2 Rico is perfectly capable of beating many M3 players, I will have no chance against the M3 Helpers. To make this a LEVEL PLAYING FIELD for ALL participants (L2 and above) Tanki should have allowed only M1 equipment with no MU's (and no paint protection) - that would have been much more fun to watch - i.e. potentially seeing L2's beating Generalissimos! If it was a level playing field then I would most certainly be applying. ** Maybe a better method to find the best Players for each community is to arrange some 'skill tests' relevant to the map to be used. Then we can ALL participate - e.g. automatically set the tank to be any M1 Max for the combination that you own and with no MU and no paint protection - then we have a level playing field. Then the top 80 scorers go into the first round as Players (take a look at how they do this on the VRC Pro game). For future competitions then more ways can be found to 'test skills' to gain competiton entry: I agree best to use DM matches as a knock-out competition to weed the numbers down. Also consider using a skill judging 'league system' as used by UK Squash clubs (this self administers to a large degree).

I read this too late for May 9th! "Here's a hint: always get the DD (3) or DA (2) *before* you drop a mine, otherwise the cooldown screws you over. And don't drop a mine if you think you're going to need a Repair (1) in the next 30 seconds." I had never noticed the Mines cooldown messing up the use of the other drugs until May 9th - because I don't use drugs if I can manage it - except for Gold Boxes, getting revenge or when I'm on the losing side. I can see why Tanki had to stop too many mines being placed all over and I'm glad they did (I hardly ever seen them when on nitro). By the way I never use any drugs when my team is leading - I see that as unsporting (we already have the best team - so why rub it in). The great thing about the unlimited drugs day is no-one complained about 'druggers'. The sad thing was I noticed a massive increase in the number of frustrated tankers. Lots of swearing and lots of unhappy tankers. This maybe because it is will take more than one days to use the 1 to 5 keys reliably. Too many times I had to take my eyes of the screen - usually with disastrous consequences. However, my big compliant remains that too much drug use unbalances the game and this prevents it being an interesting sport. My analysis is that too much drugging causes unbalance on several levels: 1. Unlimited drugs meant the strong got stronger and the weak get weaker. I.e. most games were heavy defeats for the losing side - I saw hardly any balanced matches - which are my favorites. The reason is that the weak sides cannot stay alive long enough to get the second health pack on! While the leading (stronger) side has the luxury to be able to stay alive almost indefinitely (unless shafted). If you don't die then your mines stay alive. I did it myself and proved the point and completely mutilated the weaker team - no fun to me or them (very little skill involved). 2. The amount of one shot kills to the losing side is 'decimating' to the point of being NO SPORT. At this point the losing side just quits. If your side quits, you have to go and find a slightly better game (winning side) or use an account at lower ranks where pure skill can still over-come raw power). On my lower rank accounts I use hardly any drugs, I ALWAYS join the losing team and can nearly always turn that team into a winning team by skill alone - (annoying to the team that was winning - but you can't please everybody!) Conclusion: as I predicted 'unlimited drugs' would be fun for a test - but no good long term (makes the game into a 'shoot-em-up' for the winning team and ruins the sport). I was wrong about too many mines ruining the games, I did not realise how effective the mine smart cooldown was. The long term answer to give us more balanced games is simply to lengthen the smart cooldown time (maybe double, or triple etc., let this be a controllable OPTION on the game setup so Tanki does not have to 'guesstimate' what we like the best.) Even better if the leading team is prevented from using garage drugs - this helps the losing team (weaker team) catch up and makes for a closer battle and better share of funds. I.e. I believe we can live with drugs 'as is', by simply further restricting the frequency of garage drug use, this stops them being so over-powering. Just like air drop drugs are no problem because collecting them takes time and this slows down their use and makes them interesting. (Dare I say it, that by slowing down the opportunity to use drugs then Tanki could even put the price of drugs up! At last, this would be one decision that would please Free to Play users - because the cost of drugs causes FTP players no harm.)

Ever since the mouse control update - my Shaft account has the same problem that others report - i.e. the turret gets stuck turning (I can fix it by pressing ZXC keys several times) . This obviously spoils my shooting so I no longer use my shaft account anymore - except to test weekly to see if the bug has been fixed. The turret can also get stuck going upwards (not allowing 'down') - when this happens I now abandon the game - and go to another Turret / Tank combination which have been working fine. First it would be good if TO devs could acknowledge this is a common problem - it would even help to know if some Shaft uses are NOT seeing this problem - then I would know it may be worth testing various combinations of Browser and settings to try and solve it. Second if the Devs could confirm when they have done something about it then I won't have to waste time testing. I use flashplayer_11_sa.exe on an Alienware Laptop - Windows 7. TO do seem to have fixed some issues: I note I'm no longer seeing Fatal Errors even on big maps - and my other tanks are no longer getting cursor key 'lock ups'. (Solved by pressing each cursor in rotation a few times - but usually after I had turned upside down!) Nor does my tank ever become indestructible / not able to kill anything!

Use Google Chrome - seems to be good at automatically translating into English - maybe other users can say how well Chrome can convert English into Turkish etc.

AZ uses an M3 Hornet and Rail in most of his videos I have seen. I thought most 'tournaments' used Hornets and rail guns. Would be nice to see some tournament 'highlights' in the v-log each week. I would rather battle than watch a full tournament. I think the biggest problem with 'jumping around' is the lag on the internet - if your ping rate is worse than 100 then you have a problem or the other tank user has a problem. My ping is between 38 and 72 and everything works well at high speed with a Wasp. My FPS is steady from 58 to 60 - I use an Alienware laptop and a Mac keyboard. Your graphics card / pc will affects the FPS rate the most. Turning off some graphic effects can help. My aim is to be Generalissimo and still use Wasp / Rico :0) Probably be using Unity by then and maybe we all have better PC's and internet connections in 2017! When I shoot with a my other tank account (Hornet / Shaft) it can still feel like 1 second before the target blows up! I have to be patient. :0) Shooting with rico never seems to have much delay. (For those that need a spell checker I use Word and copy and paste into the forum.)

I do agree we are now seeing more big tanks - so Tanki have made a difference with this update. This mostly means on CTF less tanks found in the middle of the map and fewer doing flag runs - which means more points for the wasps and hornets remaining who manage to run a flag :0) As ever just needs a rethink of strategy - taking out the big tanks is now a bigger part of the game. It might be that the 'publicity' about this change has caused more people to try out their big tank again - so we will see how long this phase lasts. I still find killing big tanks reasonably easy with my wasp / rico - it just takes a little more skill and a little more MU on my gun - otherwise a 10 clip can fail to kill a Mammoth. On my second account I have been using a shaft and hornet and find this fine for killing the big tanks. Using a Shaft taught me that driving up point blank to a Shaft is not good - if they'ree patient enough they will kill you with a scope shot. As some shafts are so keen to get close - point blank - I drop a mine and reverse a bit - this works 90% of the time with most tanks - but no good for freeze, firebird or hammer - just keep shooting until you die! Try to 'wedge' a Freeze so it can't move - but mostly if freeze, firebird or hammer get close you're dead. If a rico or twins can stay about 20 to 40 meters head on from a shaft and keep blasting away, the buffet effect makes it very hard for the shaft to 'release' on target. If attacking a big tank with Double Armour then either go away and come back in 40 seconds or go around the back and move each time the gun comes around. Watch out if they now try a nitro to move the turret faster!

This is how I kill the heavy tanks: Heavy tanks are very slow - they are 'sitting ducks' in my book. Shafts are often so buried in their scope that they do not see you coming. A light tank with a gun like ricochet, twins or thunder can sneak up as close as possible and then maybe dash right across the front of a Shaft and if possible down the side and maybe behind them. Try seeing what this is like by using a shaft yourself and you will see how hard it is for the shaft to let go of the trigger at the right time (partly because the lag on the internet will cause the shaft to miss). Now you have your light tank down the side of the large tank turn your turret and kill it (you only need to aim at a small part of it - the back tread will do). If necessary as the turret comes round move to the other side and repeat. The golden rule with shaft is never to cross the laser line more than say 10 meters from the tank. This is like a hair trigger and you will die. A good tactic is to wait until the shaft has fired - it then takes about 4 seconds before it can hurt you. It takes my M2 Rico 5 seconds to kill most Mammoths. Twins and Rico can take on Shaft head on - the buffet from each hit will prevent them shooting back accurately. The proviso is that you get in front while they are reloading. If the Large tank has an Izzy supporting it then you must to kill the Izzy first from a distance or wait for a Shaft or Rail to do it for you. Rico can use bounce tactics to kill the Izzy first. Or if you're lucky enough to have a freeze or a firebird with you (my son aged 12) - these can take out the Izzy and help damage the big tank. Vikings, Hunters and Dictators are most easily taken down from behind, but be prepared to hide once they turn. Railguns reload so slowly (7 seconds), you can wait for it to shoot - then hit and hide and repeat until dead. Dealing with a Thunder is probably the hardest because their turret moves fast and they reload fast (about 2 seconds - not enough time to hide). The only way I know is using Rico bounce tactics. Also Thunders will self destruct if you suicide on the front of them especially if they have double damage on. Then after the re- spawn try and kill them while they 'lumber' back to their camping spot. I have rarely seen a big tank go back to the same site 'of death' more than twice! I think they get such a 'mauling' from my Rico that they don't want 3 times in a row. Izzy, Freeze, Hammer and Firebird can all do the above if they can get close enough - perhaps by following another tank. If big tanks have double damage or double armour then keep away for 40 seconds until it 'wears off'. If you see serial drugging going on then use the other side of the map if possible or maybe quit that map. or as I do sometimes - I spend the entire game persecuting them - and if I can get in the spawning sites then I kill them from behind. Alternatively - put a shaft on a Hornet and kill big tanks from distance (it might take 3 hits at full power). The hornet hull allows you to keep moving and find more cover spots. If you sit in one place too long they will kill you. It's possible that Tanki will now find more Hornet's in the game then ever before - driven by the desire to kill big tanks for fun! and more big tanks will quit or change to hornets! However, I use M1 Wasp / M2 Rico - because this can kill anything (including its-self!) - let's see what happens when I get M2 Wasp next month. My second favorite account is my Hornet / Shaft and I still do the flag runs with this!

Tanki make various changes about 5 to 10 times per year with the best of intentions. We all know that 'adjustments' will occur from time to time to try and keep a general 'balance' - and we all know that's it's impossible to keep all users happy ALL of the time. Each time an update occurs we all have to adjust our tactics a little or a lot as best we can - a bit like formula1! This may mean I have to abandon certain maps or tank combinations that are not working well enough. This is why seeing the Tanki stats and trends in those stats - this may help us make the best choice. On the other hand if we knew which combinations are scoring the most points and which are the worst - then this may cause massive changes of equipment. Maybe if the worst scoring combinations were given proportionally more battle crystals this would create an automatic balance? Worth a try I would think. I like AZ comments - because he covers the top end of the game very well and can show graphically how things look on the battlefield. I find above 'Captain' level battles are much more 'brutal' - if you cannot stomach a good scrap then you're in the wrong game. I love it. Or you can start a new account every time you get to Captain level and beat up some noobs. Although I find lots of top players are doing exactly that - so you get good battles down at that level. You can easily spot the top players with new accounts: they can move the turret 'usefully' and score 4 times as much as anyone else. AZ shows very well how unfair 'unbalanced' drug use can be. If every tank were allowed to use the same number of drugs per hour - maybe that would solve it? It's our job in the forum to point out (as truthfully and unbiased as we can) what the consequences of each Tanki update has been. For me as a Wasp / Rico pilot - this change has made very little difference. I do not want my own tank combination to be OP as this would be very boring. I use Wasp / Rico - because I like using speed which I think is the most fun and has the most creative possibilities. Plus I have the feeling of being the 'underdog' and snatching victory from the jaws of death - this makes me sweat the most! I find the more I practice, the more tactics I develop and the more fun I get from this great game. Not everyone can do this. Sime simply do not have the skills or the brain power. Some days all goes well and some days all goes wrong - that's how the 'cookie crumbles'. It just makes me try harder - that's my personality. I never grumble - I just try and make things better. In CTF - it's obvious that 'team play' can make a huge difference. A single tank cannot take on 2 tanks at once (occasionally rail, shaft and thunder get lucky!) But 2 tanks working together have a good chance of knocking out 3 'independents' for little loss of HP - that's where 'synergy' is the magic ingredient that can be found in Tanki - it's the holy grail for me. Occasionaly I get to work with an Izzy or a Freeze when attacking an enemy base. Weaken the defence with long range shots or ricochet shots - this makes them easier to kill when finally closing in. If you kill the enemy too soon, they will re-spawn and be back 20 to 30 seconds later. Shafts and railguns on your own side can do some long range defence weakening. If flag capturing was too easy it would be no fun! Each enemy team and each map has it's own pluses and minuses - this keeps Tanki interesting. Plus these are real people we're fighting - not AI machines - outwitting them is part of the tactics - and never forget 'chance' plays it's part. And by the way - Tanki does take account of 'partial kills' in this game - I feel the Tanki points total is a very fair indication of how well you've been doing versus the rest. Capturing the flag or carrying the flag or returning the flag are all good point earners. The shafts have to kill a lot of tanks to get a good score in CTF. Which is why if I'm capturing lots of flags I drop approx. 1 in 4 of my flags to the defence team as a thank you. It amazes me how much variety we do get in Tanki - nearly every battle is a different combination. I do wish we could have 'random maps' as an option at the end of every 2 battles for a bit of extra variety. I agree with those that point out the 'paint' system is now 'messed up' ever since adding Hammer and Vulcan - it's now impossible to protect with all the combinations needed. I wish I could have decent protection from BOTH Hammer and Railgun (chainmail is no good against Railgun and even Tiger is no good to me!). So I'm forced to use Tundra paint with protection from Railgun (otherwise Railgun kills me in one shot = no fun) and I have to try and avoid going near any M1+ Hammer (not always possible!) If I could combine paints myself - that would solve it. But as you know I prefer not to have any 'paint' protection - just allow us to use or buy any paint colour we like and then let us buy MU 'protection' against any turret we wish in any combination we choose - that would fix it. and we can use 'holiday paint' without losing vital protection. Regarding sound in Tanki - I play without sound - simple! (I need to hear if anyone calls me out of my study). This does mean I usually miss when gold is dropped because the sign is not big enough to catch my attention while driving fast. One 'glitch' and I'm on my back! However, I do find I can capture the flag while everyone has gone running off to get the gold! This gets me more crystals than my futile attempts to catch the gold in a Wasp! Gold does not drop in enough random locations for me to have a chance and big tanks just push me out the way!

It's great to hear opinions from paying customers and fellow parents - obviously Tanki, like any business, has to care about where it gets it's money from - one day I hope we get advertising in the game (on those bill boards so Tanki gets loads of money and less pressure to take money from players!) Please note I'm a free to play (FTP) player and will not buy crystals for my main account to prove to my wife that it can be done and to all those tankers who wonder if it's possible! I limit my drug use to the ones provide by signing in each day - highly recommended! (I note Tanki have recently stopped giving out heath packs! - bummer.) However, I do buy crystals for my son to help him keep up with me (and because he likes to experiment.) (I would like to 'buy' my own paint for my tank but that's another story in my previous posts.) I now have 6 Tanki accounts because I found this the best way to keep each tank 'pure' for faster (FTP) progress. That's how I find out what each tank / gun is like and what their weakness are. I love the variety in Tanki and to my mind Tanki have done a better job with this multi-user game with real opponents than ANY other game - not an easy feat. Plus I love the V-logs. I'm looking forward to what Tanki call the 'unity platform' so we can get away from the bugs and weaknesses in Flashplayer (keyboard locks and fatal errors). I do like the fact that Tanki care very much to keep the variety in the game and to try and regulate the balance as best they can - this is such a hard job to keep everyone happy because there are so many types of player. Responding the Forum and watching the stats is the key to getting the balance right. I do look forward to those stats being shared. In this instance of heavy tanks not being popular enough, I believe Tanki are wrong to assume heavy tanks will become more popular by having more HP. Hornet will always remain the most popular unless Tanki slow it down. It is too close to Wasp in speed - also a Hornet goes to M2 much sooner than Wasp - why is this? I believe this makes Wasp less popular - hence, you get more Hornets! If you slow down Hornet then many will swap to Wasps - they will not go to heavier tanks. 'Speed' on most maps is much more powerful (and exciting) than HP (hiding behind a wall gives infinite HP!) I can't speak Russian and I have no idea what the Russians say in their forums and how they compare to the EN servers or Brazil servers for that matter (which I have never seen). I can only say what I see on the battlefield. One side of me says that people are the same all over the world - a percentage are positive people and another set are negative people and everything in between and depending on the day! I do recommend everyone try using the Russian servers sometimes - I seem to get a higher percentage of what I call good battles (closely fought). Please note the 'score' often does not represent the quality of the battle taking place. What I find on Russian servers is the Russians 'hang in' even when they're losing, while on the English servers a losing team quits very quickly! I suspect caused by a typical bunch of English complainers and cynics! I suspect they leave to go and find a winning side - because they prefer to get crystals. I find that fighting on a Russian losing team can be more fun than on the winning team! Sadly such behaviour is not rewarded in Tanki - and to keep up with the 'arms race' as a free to play player - I also have to jump ship from time to time and go and find a winning side! See my previous post for solutions to this. (By the way I never change sides once I begin a battle that would be dishonourable and I rarely see anyone doing it.)

Sorry my posts seem to get longer and longer. Most users do not seem to realise that Tanki has a Pro mode - this allows battle settings to create a more 'level' playing field (mostly no drugs) - just what I see many of us asking for If Pro mode was free - then I think nearly 100% of battles would be Pro mode and this is what a few people in Tanki managment fear! Hence, Tanki has made Pro Mode too expensive and only a small percentage of users buy it - mostly high up ranks. At only 5000 crystals per month it's cheap for me - at my level I earn this every 5 hours play. But because hardly anyone uses Pro mode at my level - I cannot find any Pro battles I want to join. Tanki needs to get real and make Pro mode cheaper and then regulate the price each month so that approx 50% of battles are Pro mode at all levels. At that point we all get to choose what we like best and Tanki don't have to keep guessing on preferred setups because they can see the stats from the pro mode users. I.e. I still feel it's important to have the standard 'arcade mode' which is great for 'variety' and I still get many very good battles out of it despite the Druggers and Mults. ('Mults' is the short Russian word that has been adopted for tankers exhibiting 'delinquent' behaviour (pushing team mates off ledges, hiding the flag, infighting and generally messing about.) As I get to higher ranks I find less Mults and lots of very skilled players and even 'kindness' on the battle field - helping friend and foe alike (mostly tanks stuck on side) - melts my heart :0) (As Roald Dahl put it 'Kindness' is the greatest of human qualities.) Also higher ranks are more likely to co-operate in team play (which is the holy grail of fun IMHO) - and this helps beat some of the Druggers and Mults. However, you will note that most battles at all levels get one sided very easily - 1 or 2 players working together can completely turn a battle round and 'rout' the opposition and why we have now got this elaborate early game ending mechanism - which is too 'trigger happy' at present - but Tanki will fix it. At present about 75% of crystals are given to the winning team - hence, most skilled payers will wait to join a winning team - and sadly this makes the imbalance worse! 2 things could be done about this: 1: I would like to prevent the leading side from using any drugs - to help the losing side catch up and this is why Kill to Death ratio must never be counted in the 'stats' - the only thing that is important is 'points earned per hour'. 2. I now think that that crystals should be shared almost equally between winning and losing side (perhaps 55% to 45%) - so it does not matter if you fight on either side - I believe this will produce more even sides and better battles. Of course we will still try to win for the 'satisfaction' - but 'winning' should not count in the stats - otherwise we will stay as we are and the best players will only join the winning side! Try it, Tanki, for a week and you will see an improvement I'm sure of it - i.e. give equal crystal funds to both winning and losing side - or simply give 1 crystal for every point earned and then adjust the points earned to suit the balance of crystals in the game or similar - I'm sure Tanki can do it. Right now if you want a good battle - I find it best to join the losing side and convert it into a winning side - even better when my son and I work together to do this. There is currently no mechanism to try and balance out the sides - other than number of tanks per side and a 6 rank level range. One day I would like to see 'tanker stats' used to help decide which side you must join and this should take account of trying to keep 'friends' on the same side. This is a complex problem but I'm sure Tanki could work out something - if not ask the forum for suggestions. But first we need to see the stats on each player - Tanki is still working on this. I hope Tanki will let us comment on the new stats plans before release?

RustyNail and others are right that Tanki should really allow discussion of many of the changes before they're made. Many of the problems that arise from updates are predictable. E.g. Tanki were good enough to admit that because they play with unlimited supplies - they have a problem appreciating what it's like for free to play users. I.e. we still have the concept of 'druggers' who can ruin the balance of some of the games. Some of these druggers must have large supplies of health packs because every flag run they do they use a health pack! Smart cooldowns did solve most of the problem - but I would still like to see all players limited to say 4 of each garage drug per hour. Only free to play users like me know about this problem and Tanki do listen to what we say - I would like to think some of the testers are now attempting the free to play route themselves? By the way Tanki do listen to what we say and there have been many examples of this and many improvements have been made to the game. Right now the game play is very good - only Hammer is causing me a few problems - because drugged on Double Damage (DD) is kills me first shot. Being one shot'ed like that is clearly very boring because I don't feel I can do much about it other than wearing Double Armour all the time! which is expensive - or looking round every corner - too boring. I can't get decent paint protection against both Rail and Hammer. If I could this would fix my problem. With this change of HP for the heavy tanks - this will not make the heavy tanks more popular. Tanki should have told us they wanted to find ways to make the heavy tanks ,more popular and I would have told them more HP will not help. If after listening to all the comments Tanki still go ahead and then find it makes no difference to the population of heavy tanks then maybe they could reverse it back? I think the reason Hornet is so popular is because most tankers like moving fast and without toppling over (Wasp). Try reversing off the side of Rio - the Wasp ends up on it's back while the Hornet does not. The Hornet will usually kill a Wasp in a head to head while is only a little slower. Plus some people including my son love sliding round corners with Hornet! To make Wasp more popular you need make it even faster. I like Wasp because I like speed and get very little fun from the big tanks. To make the big tanks more popular you could have tried making them faster - although I still see them as sitting ducks. Another way to make heavy tanks more popular is to find a way to give them more crystals in battle - this will definitely make them popular. I.e. you can adjust these extra 'battle crystals' up and down - you can make many things more popular (or less popular) if you wish - just as 'market pricing' works. and for that matter to make Pro battles more popular you could adjust the price of the Pro pass up and down until about 50% of the battles are Pro battles. I.e. I think Tanki should encourage more use of Pro battles - because this gives us what we want - I.e. control over how the battles are setup. This way 'we' decide what we like best and not have to wait for Tanki to make some adjustments. The more options we're given the better. It would be good in Pro mode if we can choose which hulls and which guns are allowed in the battle. This way we can choose the balance we think is best for a good battle. And in Pro, I really want to control the 'protection' that the tanks can have and allow ANY 'paint' to be used = more colourful. I.e. the protection control is to help 'level the playing field' and be set carefully for each hull to prevent one shot kills - except by shafts. It's no surprise that most Pro battles have drugs turned off. However, all this 'Pro mode' talk is no use until Tanki can make Pro mode more popular by adjusting the price. By the way I continue to like the standard 'arcade mode' as Tanki attempts to keep it balanced - this is most important in allowing easy access for large numbers of players who want to get instantly into a battle and see a lot of variety. To me Pro mode is all about trying to make a more level playing field - so it is skill rather than buying power that makes the difference.

Thanks - excellent write up on my favorite gun. I originally swapped to Rico from Twins after finding Rico's so annoying to deal with - 'if you can't beat em, join em'. Since, then I'm frightened to admit how powerful the Wasp and Rico combination is in case Tanki feel the need to nerf it! Right now a 10 clip 'take down' of a Mammoth from a Wasp is most impressive. M1 Wasp and M1 Rico is 'boss' on almost any map in the right hands and I have started some new tank accounts just so I can go back to the fun I had with that. I.e. when I collect a field dropped 'nitro' - I shout 'show time' and then wreak havoc in the enemy base! Also having nitro means it's easier to catch the other field dropped supplies and get fully drugged up at no cost to myself (crystals). (However, I sometimes get 'shafted' or a Rail flips me and I end up upside down with half health and a full set of drugs - bummer!) M2 Rico is known to be weak against M2 Thunder and M2 Twins - but by using 'cover' on the Map, a 10 clip can help resolve this. Obviously the Map helps a lot in providing cover while reloading and making use of vertical walls for bounce effect. Even firing into ramps is devastating and when on Gravity shooting downwards and into the ramps I can take out half the enemy team all by my-self - which sadly causes the enemy to surrender! On Madness - the gun is fantastic for controlling the big drops. I've even had top score on Massacre and once got a gold box while lying upside down on the Massacre battlefield - wish I had a video of that! That Map is so much fun. Rico can self-right a Wasp or Hornet on it's side - this is clearly a life saver on many attacking campaigns or rubbish driving! It's also good for putting teammates back on their tracks - this can make some good Izzy friends that way! Also regular flag running can mean you can drop the flag to some of your defender team mates - and thus some shafts may even friend you! Wasp and Rico effectively have infinite HP when hiding behind a wall while reloading or shooting bounce shots. Even in DM: 'ambushing' is very effective - Dusseldorf is great for this. Taking on 'shorties' head on at close range usually ends in defeat - a very good tactic is to drop a mine and reverse out and shoot from range if the mine does not kill them! Practice finding ways to find that 5 key in a hurry. Hornets with double armour will need double damage (DD) on the Rico to kill them quickly enough. Always keep some DD to hand for these situations - or simply run away and shoot from distance. Even if a Wasp / Rico loses a head on fight - they can re-spawn and be back at the battle scene quicker than any other tank and thus kill the weakened tank that just killed you. Hence, better than 1:1 K/D ratios can be achieved. Although constant flag running will hurt your K/D ratio. I sometimes have to go and kill a few shafts in revenge! (Which sadly can cause the shafts to leave the game because being killed by a Rico is brutal and is a relative slow death at about 6 seconds!). When the enemy has laid lots of mines around the flag I put on DA and can take out 2 mines at once as a sacrifice to help the team! The following is not something I use very often because I'm normally to be found in the enemy base till I die - but once in a while this is an advantage. A Rico on low health can shoot its-self and hence quickly return to a spawn point - 20 seconds later you're back in action with full health - this can be very good while sitting in defence waiting for the next attack. (Thunder can do this too.) If you MU enough then an 80 meter range on the Rico can do more damage than you might think - all from relative safety. With Rico on a Wasp aiming with the Tank is best - mainly because the Wasp turns faster than the gun until you get to M2. However, turning BOTH turret and tank is fastest and can even kill a few freezes this way. I use an Apple keyboard on my Windows PC because the cursor keys are the 'dogs bollocks' for controlling your tank. It's a very good tactic to drive right past the enemy (or sometimes over them if you have a ramp) and then turn both gun and tank on them as fast as you can. I can slam round the back of a mammoth and kill it before they can shoot me. Hence, I agree, learning to control the turret instinctively while driving is a valuable skill. I have spent many hours practicing turret control on my own - I used to use 'private' map settings - when Tanki stopped this - I spent 2500 xtals on a discounted Pro pass but could find no battles to fight in! Most tankers will not buy Pro passes until more tankers can get Pro passes cheaply so we have more Pro maps available at all levels. Right now I have to practice on little used servers and leave if anyone joins! I also practise with my alternate tank accounts against noobs! That's why I want a 'Jolly Roger' flag on my tank when I do that - so they don't get dispirited. I know this is a Wasp bonus - when running with the flag - go down an alley and turn on the spot - then come back out where you just went in - this confuses the hell out of the enemy - and next time you do it halves the defenders you have to deal with because they cannot predict where you're going. But Rico helps with this because you can shoot as soon as you see a small part of the enemy - no delay. Note as I'm a Free to Play player I reduce the use of garage drugs by only using them when my team is losing. I wish this was 'enforced' in the game rules so that the losing team gains an advantage - but I would accept this messes up your K/D ratio - on the other hand this rule would encourage good tanks to join the losing side - so maybe there is something in this - make it a setup option and see how popular it is? I'm hoping in the new 'Stats' the K/D ratio is not an important factor - because K/D ratio favours Shafts and not 'flag runners' like me. What does matter is the number of points scored. I think Tanki should show up to the minute stats of the points scored at each rank level - obviously as you rank up, you go to the bottom of the list. But that's fine - what each user should see is constant improvement until they next rank up. I would also like to see how many crystals each tank earned while at that rank and how many they bought (= unfair advantage) and how many gold boxes they captured - however, I accept this may encourage people not to buy crystals (but Tanki could get advertising money instead and keep this game as low cost as possible).

I've been experimenting with various combinations of tank by starting off some new accounts - this gives me a feel for what it's like when under attack from my main Ricochet weapon! Hence, I know that being a heavy tank is bad news at present. More annon... First up - by starting new tanks - I can see the extra battle crystals at the lower levels are very good news - thanks. By the way - I note many skilled tankers seem to be doing the same as me by starting off new accounts! I.e. these tankers stand out by scoring 4 times higher than anyone else! The good news from this is that I get some good battles even down at Corporal level. However, it does worry me what effect this has on noobs? Maybe we could make it clear to all noobs that they up against a senior tanker (who is starting a new tank) and allow tankers to switch on a 'jolly roger' sign (or something) on top of the tank so they know what is hitting them and not to worry about it too much! It might also be useful to allow all tanks owned by one person to be linked in some way - maybe by email address? This will help Tanki count the number of unique active tankers they have. I now own 6 tanks. One other thing I note at the lower levels - they are using many more maps - I find at my main tank level (around Captain) I never get to play some maps anymore, which is a shame - hence, my previous post on making 'random' maps available at all the levels. Regarding why heavy tanks are not popular: Simple: they are 'sitting ducks'! They simply cannot move out of the way while they reload - hence, most Wasps and Hornets with a bit of skill can kill them say 75% of the time. This update simply means it takes one more shot to kill them - which is a good try by Tanki - but this just hurts the Wasps and Hornets a small amount - this change will not make heavy tanks more popular - it just takes a few more seconds to kill them. What I think will make a difference is if all tanks can 'swap' guns quickly at just a key press (no need to go to the garage and lose a life (and time) in the process). However, give us 2 months notice of this change - so buying decisions can be adjusted - but swapping guns should level the playing field a fair bit - (and we will need more crystals from battles to keep 2 guns fed!) Right now a Mammoth with Shaft cannot defend themselves very well against the 'shorties' (Wasp, Hornet with (Hammer, Thunder, Smokey, Vulcan, Izzy, Freeze, Flame, Twins and Ricochet)) unless they can keep the enemy at a long distance (not possible on most maps), (or have a nice Izzy with them). I've not seen that many friendly Izzy's when I want them, plus that 'ties up' a tank!) Hence, the big tanks need this better way to defend themselves. If they swapped instantly to a Hammer or Thunder or Twins then they have a better chance of surviving. I know Tanki have talked about having fast gun swapping - maybe on the G key (Gun) or H key (less likely to hit the F key!) In the garage you would set up the combination you take to battle. It would also be nice to swap paint in the same way on the P key! (If you see a railgun - swap in Tundra or Prodigi - see a Ricochet - swap in Lizard etc.) (This also helps make more use of all those expensive paints!) Although I would really prefer to remove the 'link' between paint and protection - i.e. allow any paint to be chosen up to your rank and simply buy 'protection' via an MU process. Then we can buy a bit of everything! AND use holiday paint and still have protection! In summary - online fast swapping guns like this, makes for fast paced tactical decision making - exactly what I like about Tanki and all hulls could better defend themselves with a bit of skill. Tanki is like a complex and much more interesting form of Tetris - and even more addictive. (In retrospect we will all probably use Freeze as our second gun! Tanki will have to test this!)