34) Fri., 3 Nov 2017, about 14:00 IST Holiday DM map, non-pro (doing missions). Long time no gold box... M4 Viking, M3 Freeze 8/20 (or maybe M4 Isida?), Cherry LGC-49 9/15 protection, Black (or maybe Noob green) paint. Just pushed my way into the crowd, firing away, and lucked out. Forgot to check crystal count, but later calculations show I got the 1000 crystals. Generalissimo (but you can call me Gizmo) Zev_merkava

knowing tanki, more likely even harder... :(

Now that there are going to be separate chats, how about allowing low-rank players (below Master Sergeant) to join the "New Players" chat? Or maybe make a separate chat that they can join? When I started, I learned a lot abut the game from chat, talking with high-ranked players, and it seems unfair to deny new players the same opportunity. As for how this update works out technically and practically, well, let's wait and see...

33) Wed., 16 Aug 2017, about 23:00 IDT Alexandrovsk CTF, don't remember which team, non-pro (doing missions - including "finish first", so I had chosen this battle because it was almost empty). M3 Viking 19/20, M3 Railgun 8/20, Tundra LGC-26 15/15 protection, Noob green paint. Siren sounded, started looking around, found the box sitting on the bridge and grabbed it. No one near. Forgot to check crystal count. Commander Zev_merkava

32) Fri., 11 Aug 2017, about 15:00 IDT Kolhoz TDM, blue team, non-pro (doing missions) M3 Viking 19/20, M3 Isida 19/20, Cherry LGC-49 8/15 protection, Noob green paint. Siren sounded, drop zone at bottom of small cliff, waited until I saw it dropping, jumped off cliff onto drop zone, onto another tank (which got blown up - don't know by whom), waited for the box and saw my name at the top of the screen. Was duly credited by TO with 1000 crystals. Commander Zev_merkava

31) Sun., 16 Jul 2017, about 00:20 IDT Not even two days later... :) Alexandrovsk CTF pro, during 3 hr. premium reward for mission (again...). M3 Viking 17/20, M3 Isida 17/20, Storm LGC-14 10/10 protection, Noob green paint. Siren sounded, drop zone on the long bridge, blew up some poor enemy tank and waited, unopposed, for the gold box. Saw the crystals number flash, but didn't catch the numbers... I assume Tanki gave me the right amount. (Do you get double crystals for gold boxes in premium?) Commander Zev_merkava

30) Fri., 14 Jul 2017, about 16:40 IDT After a four month drought... :) Polygon CP XP/BP pro, drug-free, during 3 hr. premium reward for mission. M3 Hornet 17/20, M3 Railgun 7/20, Tundra LGC-26 15/15 protection, Noob green paint. Siren sounded, drop zone at the little bridge, got blown up, came back, pushed and shot my way toward the drop zone, and, somehow, my name showed up... :) . I was so surprised I got it, I said "how? :)" in battle chat... Forgot to check the 1000 crystal uptick (again...). Commander Zev_merkava Quote MultiQuote Hide Edit

Using Logitech K120 keyboard... QUIC BRO FOX US OVR LAZY DOG

29) Sat., 11 Mar 2017, about 22:00 IST Fort Knox CP. M3 Viking 35/50, M3 Railgun 6/50, Tundra LGC-26 11/15 protection, White paint (don't remember if winter map, or this was just left over from another one). Siren sounded, drop zone right near me, shot into the crowd and shoved my way onto the drop zone, and saw my name displayed :) . Forgot to check the 1000 crystal uptick (again...) but calculations show i probably got it. Field Marshal Zev_merkava

28) Sat., 4 Mar 2017, about 23:00 IST Island CTF. A friend and I both had "collect gold box" missions, so I dropped one for myself and one for him (I got the droppable boxes from missions and/or some tanki promotion). Got the 1000 for the box, plus 4500 for the mission. Good thing I wrote this up now, because it reminded me to claim the mission reward... :) Marshal Zev_merkava (47 xp to rankup! :) )

27) Thurs., 9 Feb 2017, about 15:30 IST Wolfenstein DM (winter). M3 Viking 32/50, M3 Freeze 5/50, Storm LGC-14 10/10 protection, White paint. Siren sounded, no one else in the area, a short sprint to the drop zone. Remembered to check the 1000 crystal uptick and i got it. Marshal Zev_merkava

26) Sun., 22 Jan 2017, about 14:50 IST Siege DM. M3 Viking 31/50, M3 Railgun 5/50, Tundra LGC-26 11/15 protection, good old Noob Green paint. Siren sounded, drop zone right near me, one other tank nearby... opened fire and shoved my way onto the drop zone, and saw my name displayed :) . Forgot to check the 1000 crystal uptick (again...) but calculations show i probably got it. Marshal Zev_merkava

25) 29 dec 2016 thu 21:00 ist placeholder gold box. wave ctf. missions completed - dd boxes and finish first. when box dropped, my team knocked off the opposition we pushed and shoved each other, and i got lucky... :) M3 Viking 26/50, M3 Isida 26/50, don't remember what protection or paint. Forgot to check crystal count again, but calculations indicate that tanki paid off on it as expected... :) Marshal Zev_merkava

24) 23 dec 2016 fri 01:30 IST placeholder gold box. polygon cp. up on that little place past the opening in the wall, where you sometimes spawn but almost never go.. finishing up 50 kill mission. M3 Viking 26/50, M3 Freeze 4/50, Storm LGC-14 10/10 protection, noob green paint. just joined the crowd - mostly from my team (it was a lopsided win - i actually came out of it with something like a d/l or 2.19 for the game...) and pushed my way through, and say my name at the top center. :) Forgot to check my crystal count, but later calculations indicate i got the 1000 cry. Marshal Zev_merkava

Charley - you will be missed. Words fail me.

apparently your recruit experience was quite different from mine - 500 cry was an awful lot to me back then, and is still a significant amount. my main point is that i don't like things being taken away from me without even talking to me about it first.

when i do 1 v 1 to get a "finish first" done, i usually use CTF. That way, you can shorten the game if you can cap 10 flags. :)

No, that wasn't me - I'm just starting the K's... :)

You're right - 500 for a recruit - which makes my argument even stronger... Railgun is good, but hard to learn. It would be nice for players who are now skilled with it to remember what it was like when they first used it, and give us rail newbies some slack.

This is terrible. Tanki is basically soaking us for crystals for something that had always been part of the game (at least since I joined, about two years ago). The less-commonly-used maps are now doomed to total obscurity. I have been slowly working my way alphabetically through all the maps. Now it looks like I might not be able to afford even that. The only decent thing about this change is dropping the price for the lower ranks, although 150 cry is still a pretty stiff bite for a recruit. To be fairer to the lower ranks, the rise in price should be exponential, like most prices in Tanki, and not linear. There are all sorts of situations where I want a small battle with a friend, and now we each have to blow away more than 4000 cry, at my present rank, to be able to do that. What's next? Are they going to make Pro Pass a real-money-only thing like the user-dropped gold box? (I know - I shouldn't give them ideas like that, because they're likely to implement them...) I've used pro pass a few times. One thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was the rudeness of some of the players. Things like being told to leave an xp/bp battle because I'm not yet an expert with railgun. Sorry, but where am I supposed to learn how to use railgun other than xp/bp battles? These were pick-up games, open to anyone with Pro Pass or Premium and the proper equipment. If you want to pick and choose your teammates, create an invitation-only battle, or join clan games. The last series of "updates" has, for the most part, been pretty bad, and this one is among the worst. How about asking us what we think before dumping this stuff on us? Marshal Zev_merkava 23 Nov 2016 19:30 IST

23) 5 nov 2016 sat 21:30 placeholder gold box during extra day of 31 october celebration (they gave an extra day to compensate for technical problems during the main celebration last week). 31 october map, M3 Viking 19/50, M3 Isida 19/50, Tundra LGC-26 11/15 protection, black paint (night map, so good camouflage). Saw the box coming down, shot at whoever was in my way, and, for once, got the box (pumpkin, to be more precise...). Forgot to check the 1000 crystal uptick... but calculations show i probably got it. General (four star, with no qualifications - you can read that either way... ;) ) Zev_merkava

22) 20 oct 2016 sun 00:40 placeholder about a week ago(?) got a gold box someone dropped... didn't get around to writing it up until the details are a distant blur... what i do remember was that i saw the drop zone, and there was little or no competition in the area.

21) Fri. 23 sep 2016 appx. 16:00 placeholder i think this was just use of a reward gold box to complete a "collect gold box" mission

20) Wed., 7 Sep 2016, about 17:30 IDT Serpuhov CTF, about 10 v 10, on the bridge (near blue side). M3 Viking 14/50, M3 Isida 14/50, Storm LGC-14 10/10 or Tundra LGC-26 10/15 protection (don't remember which - most likely Tundra), good old Noob Green paint. I needed the gold box for a daily mission (5th day of the mission). I usually trade out "collect gold box" missions, but this time I let the 4350 crystal reward seduce me. Remind me not to do that next time... After days of several friends helping me try to get a gold in 1 v 1 battles to no avail, and maybe a few near misses in other battles, I joined this battle for my other missions - experience on Serpuhov, and capture two flags. I was the second-highest rank allowed in the battle, so I figured I would get the two flags fairly easily. Didn't happen - got them someplace else. Just joined the crowd shoving toward the box, saw my name displayed, and noticed that the mission-completed indicator was on :) . Forgot to check the 1000 crystal uptick... but calculations show i probably got it. General (four star, with no qualifications - you can read that either way... ;) ) Zev_merkava

19) Tues., 16 Aug 2016, about 19:20 IDT (16:20 UTC) Alexandrovsk DM, M1 Railgun 1/50 (free mu during sale... :) ), M3 Viking 8/50, Storm LGC-14 protection 5/10, Green paint (the stuff you get for free as a Recruit - good camouflage). I was trying to learn how to use rail effectively, as I'm hoping to get the M3 during Tankers' Day, so that getting Pro Pass will make sense. I usually avoid DM, but I was in it because it's not considered fair to use M1's in team games at this rank. Total noob perfomance - maybe 3 kills in a 15 minute game, way down at the bottom of the scoreboard. The siren went off, and I started looking for the drop zone, ignoring the supposed "no-kill" rule (see no-kill during gold survey: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=305255&hl= ). Some mammoth was sitting on the drop zone. I shot my little railgun, and, surprise, surprise, actually scored a kill. Then it was just a matter of pushing through the wreckage of the mammoth before the rest of the gang, and watching my name up at the top of the screen. Again I forgot to check whether I actually got the 1k for the gold box, but some quick calculations indicate that I did get it. :) And I now have the "Gold Box?" medal! Lieutenant General Zev_Merkava, posted Tues., 16 Aug 2016 18:00 IDT