Yeah my "two minute overview" was really me just looking for the word "opinion" in any of the AWG topics lol

Its always been there. Just scroll over one to the right, using the arrows at the mid right of the page

Jwimmer's Opinion on XP/BP Battles After looking through the Amateur Writing section of the forum for a solid two minutes, I realized that it is lacking in 1 type of writing- opinion pieces. I will attempt to fix this, by adding some opinions of my own to the section. My plan is to make this a series, but we will see how this one goes. In these columns, I will look at different aspects of the game itself, and will analyze smaller factors of those aspects. For my first one, I will focus on xp/bp format battles. The aspects of these battles I will look at is the battles themselves, their differences from normal battles, gold hunting, and the community. Because there are only 4 criteria, just one of them being good or bad can make or break it. To start is the battles. Most of the time, they are (as you know) Sandbox CTF or Polygon CP. Strangely enough, while seeing a battle other than these on RU1 is a rarity, there are a lot of differences between the two. Sandbox battles are almost always slower and more tactical. In these types of battles, a missed shot can make a massive difference. However, Polygon CP battles are a whole lot different. It is constant shooting and dying, and a D/L above 1.5 is rare. Staying alive in the center for more than 5 seconds is an impressive feat, because people from both teams are constantly shooting, almost blindly, into the mosh pit. Suffice to say, there is not much strategy in these games. And now, my opinion. I love both Sandbox and Polygon (mostly). Sandboxes offer a change in pace from a normal battle, along with being a place to showcase any skill using Railgun (haha Jwimmer has skill with Railgun? yeah right...). Polygon battles are just crazy, and the lack of druggers makes it pretty darn even. However, I would like to see more maps used. There is the occasional Desert DM, and sometimes a long, 20 flag game on Courage. Both of these are quite fun to play in, but there is a disappointing lack of battles available. Now on to the differences between xp/bp battles and regular battles. The main difference between the two is supplies. They oftentimes make games lopsided, and also make it fairly easy to have a D/L above 3. Another key difference is that regular Sandbox CTF games are not too common, and xp/bp Noise battles are almost nonexistent. To extend this contrast, there are generally more maps played with normal equipment than xp/bp. This means that there is a good variety of battles, which makes the game overall more interesting. However, making things different is not the purpose of xp/bp battles. In my humble opinion, the difference between xp/bp and regular battles is night and day. I more often prefer normal battles, and a main reason behind is that I really like the Viking + Thunder combo. I also like having the option to make myself deal 2x more damage available, even though I do not use it too much. While you will occasionally find me in a xp/bp battle, I prefer to have more variety and drugging available. I have decided to set aside the differences in gold hunting from general differences because we all love gold boxes, and they deserve their own paragraph. So basically, the method behind getting a gold in xp/bp battles and getting a gold in regular battles varies a lot. In normal battles, people most often hit a double armor, then find the drop zone. Some people even switch to dictator or titan during the first 10 seconds. After people find the drop zone, they nervously huddle around it, hoping that nobody will fire. However, if someone does, people can always just heal themselves. Once the gold start falling, the best thing to do is to get on top of the pile. Of course, there is always a hint of luck involved. On flipside is gold hunting in xp/bp battles. Here, it is best to self-destruct to clear any damage. Then, once a tanker finds the drop zone, it is best to hide. In xp/bp battles, a person shooting is out of the question, because it ALWAYS happens. Getting on top of the pile here is only possible if you die, so the best method is to wait until the gold is almost on the ground, then drive in full speed while shooting any enemies. Here, getting a gold is pretty much completely driven out of luck. I prefer to gold hunt in regular battles. While I don't often switch to Dictator, I have the option available. It is more about skill than luck, and my luck is iffy. Along with this, most of my golds have come in regular battles. I simply do not get lucky enough to get golds in xp/bp matches. And finally, the community. As I hinted at in the introduction, one bad thing about xp/bp battles can complete ruin it, and the community is what does this. Here is why- people play games when they are 4v2s, people are generally horrible to talk to, XT users oftentimes think they are better than the layman, among other factors. I, honestly, despise playing in xp/bp battles because of this one reason. Multiple times, I have missed a shot across the map, and have been told to leave the game by my own teammates. It is an unforgiving bunch of Neanderthals, which is really unneeded in a free, online game. This is the reason why you will almost never find me playing in good ol' RU1. However, there are some ways to bypass this. The first is to play with friends. This is a simple solution to make sure that, if you are called a noob, it is only in a joking manner. The other solution is to turn off chat. However, this means that you can miss the "ro" command, along with not being able to see a valuable "f1". Turning off chat really hurts your team, and is not a very effective way of dealing with the awful community. Please keep in mind that I am not making a shot at anyone when I talk about the community here. Hopefully I did not offend anyone, but I am sorry in advance if I did. To recap, xp/bp has most things going for it. It provides a continuity among players, making everyone equally important on a team. It provides a change in pace from normal battles, along with eliminating a need for supplies. While gold hunting is all about luck in these battles, it is really only a small part of the battle style. However, unfortunately, the one bad thing about these battles is unchangeable. The horrible community surrounding these battles makes them unbearable, and messes up anything good that would come out of xp/bp battles. Thanks for reading! Feel free to suggest aspects of the game for me to share my opinion about in the future. This ended up being much longer than I had planned, but I did not want to cut anything out. - @Jwimmer

8/10

I don't know where to post this, but--- how is this account possible? http://ratings.tankionline.com/en/user/Basta/ He has mammoth M2, yet he does not have rustle or thunder (fortress kit) Also, it says he has 49 xp earned, but 0 hours played with mammy m2.

lol Flexoo's comment has more likes than the actual post

1) Mr. Sarcastic said that that is his alt 2) The "evidence" was posted after the original post in this topic.

I like it, but completely disagree on MLMCORE not being a mult. When using dictator, while he has alot of xp, he only earns 434 xp per hour. Most people can get this atleast above 1k per hour. In fact, Homie averages around 2k xp per hour using dictator. Another thing about that account is it is played by multiple people in different timezones. This means that it is almost constantly logged on and in games. Otherwise good article.

Here was a fun one. The game was a wasp/fire, and the 2 members of the other team got the first 2 golds. So, for the third one, we decided that me and my teammate would sumo fight (using wasp and hammer). The first person to flip or push the other on the map got to take the gold. I immediately flipped him... all the way over. He was on his side, and I shot him right when he shot to flip up, so he flipped. You can see im in the background of the screenshot.

Sorry for the double post here. This problem is more broad (in my mind) than just keeping the forum alive. It has to do with keeping the game alive. It is no big secret that, on normal days, servers are becoming less and less populous. I know that, last year, I could find plenty of games after 11 pm EST, but now, a year later, and the only games at that time are lopsided (no exaggeration here). The game and the forum are pretty connected. For the number of new players coming into the forum to go up, the number of people going into the game has to go up (see my post above).

Very interesting data. I wholeheartedly agree on the fact that Tanki needs more marketing. I do not know much about World of Tanks, but I do know 2 things- 1) It has a larger playerbase than TO, and 2) I have seen countless advertisements for it (mostly on youtube, etc). On the flipside, I have yet to see an advertisement for TO on any website. It could be that Tanki is saving money to advertise for TX, but even advertising for TO today would mean more transfer players over to TX. I will also look back on the reason why I began playing tanki. I was in a class, sitting at a table with 3 of my friends. 1 of them told us about TO, so we started playing against/with each other in class (when we were not working on stuff, it was an easy class). However, I am the only person out of that original 4 still playing. To extend this, TO was a game played by a larger number of people at my school (this was all last year), and to my knowledge, I am the only person still playing it regurarly. Looking at WoT and my personal experience, word of mouth is an ineffective way of spreading games, while advertisements are. Unfortunately, TO is falling back to the easy route of hoping that we will spread word to our friends.

By "PILLS", I am assuming you are referring to drugs/supplies. It seems that the mistake is on your side- you are not completing missions, thus losing your streaks. However, you will not recieve new missions until you finish the current ones. Daily missions are not meant to give free crystals, you will have to play some to get them.

Bloodshed Chapter 2: Thoughts of a madman The only other thing that I remember about that day was hearing gunshots down the hall. I looked out of the cell, and saw that Stefan was shot. Unfortunately, the judge did not believe my story. There were no video cameras in the cell, and I was the only person to come out of the room alive- Maximus was deemed dead by the first responders. The blood on my hands was DNA tested, and it turned out to be Liam's. Along with this, my broken ribs were, according to the judge, the result of a fistfight. The judge also deemed that, during this hypothetical fistfight, I killed Maximus by a heavy punch to the head. The final decision by the Jury was that Stefan and I worked together to kill my colleagues. From what I remember, none of what the judge decided was true. I have already explained the events exactly as I saw them. There is so much from that day that haunts me, while I sit in my jail cell. The first of which is the fact that I am sitting here, in jail, for the rest of my life, off of an incorrect series of assumptions by the judge. The other has to do with what Stefan's last words were. I have had five years to think about what he said so far. The only things that I have decided so far are that I had seen Stefan before the confrontation. Of course, I could not tell you when or where, but there was something familiar to his face. If I can figure out where it was that I saw him, I think I can figure out what he was talking about. These words are eternally repeating in the back of my head. While a normal person saying "I was there" is not anything out of the ordinary, there was something haunting about Stefan. He was laughing hysterically after killing two men, and about to kill a third. Only a madman can do that. Only a madman can pass on hysteria to another. I have been almost constantly thinking of those words for my five years in jail. There is no way I will ever find out what Stefan was referring to, and there is no way I can get help from another person to figure it out. I had a great life, I was at the top of my police force, and had an amazing family. My life could not have gotten any better. There was nothing I would have changed, because I was living the dream that was often romanticized about in High School. I lost it all. An incorrect assumption. There is nothing that I can do about my situation, yet I am the only person who can solve Stefan's riddle. I can't do anything, yet only I can do anything. I do not deserve this fate, I do not deserve to have such a horrible life. I cannot think straight about anything except for what Stefan's last words were, and I have no escape from this haunting fate. I worked hard, I deserved anything but what I am now. There was nothing I could do about this- how do I deserve this?

11

Yes!!! The tourney thing looks awesome! So excited.

Was it still effective at captain? Also, I'm assuming by go for a kit, you mean don't get stinger, and get Northerner or Atlas instead

My alt is a third lieutenant (@jwimmer2). It has M1 twins, hammer, smoky, titan, and hornet. I want to eventually get a kit with m2 smoky (northerner or atlas). I have 110k-ish cry rn, should I get the stinger kit when it is available, or should I just use what I have all the way through to captain (when northerner and atlas are available)? Of course, being OP is important on my alt. Twins is starting to diminish in effectiveness when playing higher ranks, while I know that Isida M2 is one of the best early M2s.

Seems to be a #TBT today

Ya see, if you look at the top of the page (the main post), the answer to your question will be described, in detail, with evidence. It helps to actually read stuff...

There is a speed hack. A few months back, I got guy banned twice (different accounts), and someone else got him banned once. He was using a combo of jump and speed hacks to repeatedly cap flags, and was literally unstoppable. He was using viking m0, but had the speed of a wasp m3, and was glitching over/through/under walls.

Rick Ro$$

Too bad I joined late :( also too bad we lost

High rank vs. Low rank gameplay Low rank gameplay is vastly different from high rank gameplay. There a number of factors that leads this, and here, I will list out the different factors, and attempt to analyze gameplay around the Warrant Officer (WO) ranks to gameplay above the rank of General. Luckily for me, I have an alt that I just managed to get up to third lieutenant, @jwimmer2, and of course, this account. To minimize variables, I will compare the two levels hypothetically thinking of Polygon CP battles, because those are plentiful at both low and high ranks. Characteristics of low-ranked gameplay -Comparatively slower M1 tanks are simply slower, and M1 turrets reload slower than their M3 counterparts. This means that there is less shooting, and slower driving speeds. -More clueless people While this may not seem like too big of a factor, it actually is. People often do not go to the point, which can really hurt a team. Furthermore, there are also more people who have not figured out the whole turret-rotation thing. If these people are on your team, too bad; if they are on the other team, good for you! -A large divide between overpowered and underpowered tanks. Most players around the WO ranks either are smart and buy kits, sometimes with M2s, while some, as stated before, are clueless, and instead are still using M0s and a few M1s. There is not much of an in-between that has developed here. Unfortunately, alot of the time there is quite a bit of polarization between teams, or one team just has more OP tanks. -Fewer heavy druggers This is due to the fact that people really have not had time to accumulate large amounts of supplies. However, there will almost always be people on their incredibly overpowered alts that seem like they have an infinite supplies pass. This factor really can only be good or neutral to you- if you do not drug, it is good; if you do drug, you will be on top of the game anyways. -Smaller funds, and fewer gold boxes At WO ranks, a good portion of the fund from a 15 minute Poly CP can be as low as 400 crystals, compared to 800 or so at high ranks. The slower growth of the fund (and slower game speed) both contribute to a small amount of golds. ***See spoiler below*** -The ability to take over a game by oneself If a person has a good combo (basically anything with twins mounted on it) and plenty of drugs, they have the ability to completely change the way a game goes. This can be quite annoying- say you are playing a game of Noise CTF, and the battle is close, but your team is winning. If just 1 person with viking twins m1 and drugs joins, they will easily be able to cap around your best defensive efforts (unless your team is drugging). -More little kids There is a larger number of younger tankers at low ranks. In most cases, any lengh more than half a year is enough for a game to get boring, and for younger, less commited people, to quit. However, these ranks can easily be reached in less than half a year. This means there can be alot of pointless jibberjabber in chats, and it also is a part of the larger number of clueless people. Characteristics of high ranked gameplay -Fast gameplay M3 tanks are fast, and M3 turrets reload fast. More shooting and faster tanks combine to make gameplay itsself much faster- and more exciting. -Most people know what they are doing While there can be some exceptions, by the time people hit the M3 ranks, they know what to do in a Poly CP. Along with this, there are not as many little kids. Tankers are old enough to know what a team is, and how to be a good help. -A larger amount of druggers People have had time to get large amounts of supplies by this point, so drugging is seen more often. Opposite last time, this can only be neutral or bad for you. If you drug, you will be on top; if you don't drug, you will struggle. -A wider range of skill levels Players can range from Majors with 4 months of experience to Generalissimos with years of playing under their belt. This is really good for newer players (major-ish ranks), because they can both see good tactics, and get taught how to play better. However, in a competitive match, getting a major on your team is not a good thing. ***Example of fund differences*** Analysis -In my opinion, gameplay at lower ranks is better. While funds may be smaller, tanks are cheaper as well. I have both Twins and Hammer M1, which are both quite strong, and I prefer to be one of the better players in my game. Along with this, I am not a drugger. At higher ranks, the only way to be at the top of a team (in most cases) is to drug, and I simply do not have the supplies needed to drug heavily. As I said earlier in the article, lower rank gameplay does not require drugs to be at the top of the team. -In the case of a heavy drugger/buyer, I would say higher rank gameplay would be preferred. Since a drugger can expect to be at the top of their team in both low and high ranked games, the higher funds, faster gameplay, and ore golds easily tops low-ranked gameplay. Conclusion -The key difference between low and high ranked gameplay is equipment level. Gameplay speed is something that really drives along the rest of the game, so the vast differences in game speed works to make a vast different in the feel of gameplay. -Nowadays, you will find me playing on my alt more often than my main. Because I like being on top of the scoreboard, I find it worth the slightly slower gameplay. My combo on my main is, unfortunately, not M4, so I do not have much of a chance of finishing really high up on the scoreboard. - @Jwimmer

For simplification, I will assume you were referring to technology as in products with circuits in them, namely computers, phones, tablets, and smart watches. The way I see it is that there is nothing wrong with using more technology. Along with making our lives easier, it makes medical technology better. There is no reason to have a reserve on assimilating technology, because there is not much to it that is bad. The problems happen when they start to take over not a person's body, but their mind. If a person cannot get technology off of their mind, that is where problems occur.

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