18) Sun., 14 Aug 2016, about 02:00 local daylight savings time (Sat., 13 Aug 2016 23:00 UTC) I don't remember too well what equipment I was using - probably Isida M3, Viking M3, but that's not too relevant, as you'll see... Yet another annoying "collect a gold box" mission. With a trusted friend (thanks!) in an Island 1 v 1 CTF, I dropped the gold box I had received as a reward for a mission about a week before. He let me take it, and the mission registered. :) I then abandoned the game, it being crazy o'clock. Be aware that the gold box may count toward the mission only if you have competition (similar to the way supplies don't count in scavenger hunt missions if you don't have competition). For more details about dropping gold boxes to complete missions please see http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=329329&hl= I forgot to check whether I actually got the 1k for the gold box, but I did get more than 4k for completing the mission. :) 1 more to get the "Gold Box?" medal? Lieutenant General Zev_Merkava, posted Tues., 16 Aug 2016 01:05 IDT

I now have a bit more experience... I recently got a mission requiring me to collect a gold box. Considering that I'm usually lucky to get one gold box per month, I tried using one I had received as a mission reward, with the help of a trusted friend. He had told me that he had tried using a user-dropped gold box for a mission without success, and I pointed out the possibility that mserbia mentions above - he didn't remember if he had been alone on the map at the time, so I decided to take a chance and create a 1 v 1 battle and invite my friend. It was late and I was tired, so we agreed that I would just drop the box and grab it, and abandon the battle. It worked! The mission registered as accomplished (reward of over 4k cry), and I got to go to sleep... :) I didn't check to see that I got the 1k cry for the box, but I assume that Tanki did that correctly.

About question of the week for vlog 100 - The way the answer was presented in vlog 101 was a bit confusing. The recap of the question in vlog 101 deals with how many mines it takes to destroy the mammoth, but the question in vlog 100 was how many it would survive (there's a difference of one mine between them). The answer was correct, though.

I have the same question, with a bit of a twist... Can I use the new user-dropped gold box to complete a "collect gold box" mission? Can I drop it myself? If I collect a gold box on a map with no competition, does it count toward a "collect gold box" mission? Bear in mind that, if you have a mission like "collect 5 double-damage boxes", it doesn't count if there is no one on the enemy team, or no one else in the deathmatch. For example, can I create a private battle (using pro pass or premium), invite no one else, drop a gold box I got as a mission reward, and collect the gold box to gain 1000 crystals AND complete that annoying "collect gold box" mission? And while I'm at it - I wish there were some way of protecting the 6 key from accidental use - sort of the way military hardware often has a cover of some sort on really dangerous buttons...

17) Thurs., 14 Jul 2016 Isida M3 (5/50) on Viking M3 (5/50), Tundra paint (2/15). Rio CTF. The box fell near the beach on the blue side. A few other tanks were close to it, but they got blown up, so I cruised in and got the 1000 crystals. 2 more to get the "Gold Box?" medal? Lieutenant General Zev_Merkava, posted Thurs., 14 Jul 2016 01:55 IDT

on old dell inspiron 1100 laptop,windoze xp: THKBNFJSTHLAYDG yes, I did type all the letters... :) Lieutenant General (at this writing...) Zev_merkava

On borrowed hp ProBook: THCE ZQMU<ICEK BVR>OXWN F>OXW JMUMU?PS >OVRCEVR THCE LAZQY D>OG Actually, it's even worse, because double-shifted space seems to "select" the text just written, causing it to be erased on the next keystroke. I worked around it by using the arrow keys (unshifted). I would have though "High-Price" would have handled it better... Lieutenant General (at this writing...) Zev_merkava

Just throwing my two cents worth into this issue... One thing I noticed in this thread is that the people who are directly affected - the low-rank players - are not (directly) represented here. (Some have written regarding their low-rank alt accounts, but using higher-ranked accounts, which makes sense because using multiple accounts in the forum is probably more of a headache than it's worth...) I have just this one account (Major General at this writing, for whatever that's worth...), so I don't really know what it's like to be a new player here under the new rules. Each player has their own skills, and for a lot of us, it is not all that quick and easy to rank up, especially when we're new to the game. Merely doing the daily missions and a little (ok, too much...) chat takes a fair amount of time. I do remember trying to find my way around tanki when I first started, and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all there was to learn. I did learn a lot from the wiki, and I joined the forum somewhere around WO2, but a very large part of what I learned came from chat, especially server chat. There's something important about being able to ask questions and get answers quickly... much like the difference between having a good textbook and having the textbook plus a good teacher. The latter situation is much more efficient. I can imagine a lot of new players, who now have no access to chat with more experienced players, just giving up in frustration. It's pretty sad that some number of rogue players have forced the management to take these measures. I would certainly prefer something a bit less draconian, but I understand why they've done it. Perhaps the developers could come up with a less drastic solution, such as making it easier to toss obnoxious players from chat? A suggested solution: Setting up an automated "/vote" system in server chat - if enough users "/vote" a particular player, the player is blocked from chat for some amount of time automatically, without the need for human intervention. This could be set up so that only lower-ranked players can be tossed this way. Yes, there is potential for a system like this to be abused by bullies, but it would give access to chat to a large majority of the players who now have none. Your comments welcome.

16) (Wed., 8 Jun 2016) (Tanki's 7th birthday celebration)... Isida M3 on Hornet M3 (starting micro-upgrades), Tundra paint. Esplanade CTF. I had created the map as part of my slow alphabetical tour of the various maps in the game. It was a "Pro" battle - I had bought my first pro pass without realizing that my M1 Railgun would keep me out of an awful lot of Pro battles (xp, bp...) and I wasn't about to blow 96k to get M2 to justify buying a 5k pass... If I do get an xp/bp qualified Railgun, I'll probably wait for the M3, and that's likely to take a back seat to mu's of the M3's I already have... There was only one other player, who kept joining and leaving - I guess they were having computer problems. The battle fund was a whole 8 crystals - probably from a flag I had captured. But that was enough to cause a gold box to fall. I heard the siren, and started scurrying around trying to find the drop zone. I finally saw the box falling on the large open area of the map, with the other player heading for it, much closer than I was. And then they left the map again, just short of the gold box! So I went ahead and grabbed it. I remembered to check if the 1000 crystals registered... and they did. There was some sort of glitch, and I ended up with zero points in the game, so when it ended, no one got any of the 8 crystal battle fund... Oh, well... :) 3 more to get the "Gold Box?" medal? Major General Zev_Merkava, posted Wed., 8 Jun 2016 21:40 IDT

15) Gold box mission (Mon., 11 Apr 2016)... Firebird M1 on Wasp M2, plain green paint. Island 1 vs. 1. (OK, I had help on this one, yet again - you know who you are and I thank you... :) ) Yet again I traded into a gold box mission (the one I traded had a 3 hour premium reward), with a reward of 12 repair boxes and 40 dd boxes. Forgot to check if the 1000 crystals registered... but I assume they did. This time, both players had gold box missions, and almost immediately after I got mine, he got his. :) And we both got lots of xp and crystals. 4 more to get the "Gold Box?" medal? Brigadier General Zev_Merkava, posted Mon., 11 Apr 2016 19:45 IDT

Where are the rules for this contest (Fool's Gold video, 1 April 2016)? Everything that looks like a link to the contest rules seems to link to the announcement of the winners, but I want to see the official announcement of the rules. EDIT: the reason I wanted to see the rules (which seem to have been hidden...) was that I also noticed the extra 6 seconds in the winning entry, and wanted to review the rules. Of course, this topic is now locked, so instead of replying to those who discussed the extra time, all I can do is edit my own comment. Please see the comments in this topic that I "liked". The extra time is a nit-picky issue, so I guess it's something of a judgement-call...

Semyon - Sorry to see you go - you were always a highlight of the vlogs. Best wishes in all your endeavors. Zev

Technical note: just inserted missing question mark at end of first poll question. I'm amazed at how many people have participated in this poll - please tell your friends about it. Thanks to all who've participated, and keep those votes and comments coming! For my personal gold box history, start here: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=268424&do=findComment&comment=4770602 14 GB's so far... :)

Hi - T(h)anks for your great articles (and the rest of them, too... ;) ). Good luck. You and your writing will be missed. By the way... any relation to the Bragg of x-ray diffraction and crystallography fame?

14) Gold box mission (Wed., 9 Mar 2016)... Firebird M1 on Wasp M2, plain green paint. Island 1 vs. 1. (OK, I had help on this one, too - you know who you are and I thank you... :) ) Yet again I traded into a gold box mission, with a reward of 3825 crystals... and it was the last day of the Women's Day 3000 crystal gold boxes. So I went for it. This time I actually remembered to check the crystal meter before the catch, and it registered my 3000 crystals correctly. :) Brigadier General (yay! flag rank!) Zev_Merkava, posted Thurs., 10 Mar 2016 01:25 IST

I started this survey because I could see both sides of the issue and I was curious about how other players felt. I was rather surprised to see the opinions of those who said that not shooting during the drop constitutes sabotage/treason, but I see their point. Based on what I've seen here, I've shifted my behavior toward shooting, but I still hardly ever get the Au box... Enjoy your hunt for the elusive cube... Colonel Zev_Merkava, Tues 23 Feb 2016 18:15 IST

13) Gold box mission... Freeze M2 on Wasp M1, Tundra paint. Island 1 vs. 1. (OK, I had help on this one... :) ) Usually, I trade away gold box missions, especially if the reward isn't crystals. Today, all my missions had non-crystal rewards, so, as usual, I traded away the one that offered the fewest drugs in the hope of getting something with crystals. Well, I got a crystal reward... 3600 of them. The catch was I had to get a gold box, which, as you know if you've been following me here, would take about a month... trading would have cost me 600 crystals, so I decided to try for a GB today, and if that didn't happen, trade it tomorrow for free. With a little (OK, a LOT) of help, I got the Au box and the reward. And I still forgot to check the crystal meter before the catch... :/ Colonel Zev_Merkava, Tues., 23 Feb 2016 17:55 IST

Assuming that chintu849 is correct, and referring to the Wiki, it would be somewhere between 10.79 and 11.85 m/s. I tried jumping the bridge with my M1 Wasp without speed boost, including approaching the ramp at an angle, and consistently ended up in the drink. If anyone else can confirm that M2 Wasp can do the jump undrugged (and any other hulls/mods), I would greatly appreciate it. While I was looking up the stats, I noticed that Wasp M2 and better can pull more than 1g, as can Hornet M1 and better. That would be pretty amazing for a race car, let alone a tank! We are definitely playing in a fantasy world... :) Colonel Zev_Merkava

Hi, Night-Sisters - T(h)anks for this article, and the one about female tankers in the same issue of the newspaper - both well-written and informative. I've seen people do the jump of destiny, or variants thereof. Maybe now I'll try it myself. BTW - maybe Vulcan and Shaft could be added to the list of tanks that can do the JOD? (I haven't tried it with them, just a guess based on their high recoil.) I've loved Monte Carlo since I discovered it, although I've suffered plenty from saboteurs. It's a great place to use Shaft. I haven't succeeded at it often, but the thrill of grabbing the enemy flag from their base and running it all the way back to my own for a capture is amazing. More often, it's losing the flag somewhere in the middle, and cheering on a teammate who completes the cap, or the other way around. One thing that seems to have been neglected in the article is the role of Isida. (NamesAreForNoobs, comment #20, does mention it.) I often play Monte Carlo as an Isida (lousy d/l to prove it...), and pick up lots of xp and friends by keeping the long-range weapons humming. They sustain a lot of damage, so there is usually plenty of work for an eager Isida driver. Has anyone come up with a list of hulls that can jump the bridge gaps, and under what conditions? As far as I know, only Wasp and Hornet can do it, and then only with speed boost, although Just.A.Ghost's video (comment #17) shows a Hornet (don't know which mod) making the jump without drugs (I'm guessing it has to do with approaching the ramp at the edge at an angle... I still haven't tried it myself). Thanks again, Colonel Zev_Merkava

12) A new gold box for my small collection... Brest CTF. Shaft M2 (I try to do about 200 xp/day with Shaft to justify all the trouble I went through to get the rank and crystals to buy it at the year-end sale - and it's fun) on M2 Hunter, with Tundra paint. The siren went off, and I decided to wander around a bit to see if I could find the drop zone, and there it was! No one else was around, so I just tried to be inconspicuous and wait, and it came to me. Again, as usual, I didn't have the presence of mind to look at my crystal count before to verify that Tanki actually gave me the 1000 crystals - but I did see my name at the top of the screen, so I'm happy this time too... :) Colonel (that's right, the whole chicken!) Zev_Merkava, Mon., 13 Feb 2016 23:20 IST

The-Operator219 banned for using an uncalled-for capital "M".

On Lenovo B50-70 laptop, suffering from Windoze 8.1: HE QUIK BROWN FO JUPS OER HE LA DOG HE QUIK BROWN FO JUPS OER HE LA DOG Also not great, but at least it did the spaces... Maybe this is why I hardly ever get gold boxes... :) I've been a bit amazed to see the lousy results a lot of very high-ranked players got on this test. I guess skill and persistence can compensate for some hardware flaws. On the other hand, I followed the link posted by someone whose keyboard performed this test flawlessly, and found that it's in the 100 to 150 Euro price range. I guess I'll just have to make do... LTC Zev_Merkava

Thanks to all who participated in the poll and/or left comments. You seem to have confirmed my observations - lots of people don't care for or respect this supposed rule, but a significant minority do. (Reminds me of dating - everyone seems to have their own unpublished set of rules they think everyone else should know and respect, and woe to anyone who doesn't guess correctly...) My personal opinion on the no-kill rule? It's a lot like my opinion on drugging in the game. If it can't be enforced in the software, all it takes is one rogue to ruin it for everyone, so we might as well just allow killing as part of the gold box chase, and use of whatever drugs anyone can afford. That way, it's a lot like real war, where all sides take unfair advantage of any edge they have, be it natural resources, economic power, propaganda, or whatever. Nasty, but realistic. (As an example, IMNSHO the USSR collapsed because central economic control hamstrung its productivity, so that it couldn't compete with the economic might of the US (e.g. SDI, aka "star wars"), despite the high quality of Soviet military personnel and hardware.) Your further comments welcome.

I like the basic idea, but I think it will have to be carefully monitored to prevent abuse. Also, I would still like to have the ability to direct a message to a particular person in open chat, with the highlighting that the old system provides (provided?) And while we're at it, I would like it if our own messages were highlighted in the open-chat window - although the eye is pretty good at recognizing one's own name, it would make it a little easier for those of us with short memories to recall what we had just said. :)

dilsharox has been banned for having attained the rank of Gizmo.