Anyway, if I were to repeat my suggestion of the new Premium Account paint, it would be customizable as follows: (1) You start with 20 points at Recruit, and it increases gradually till 150 for Generalissmo. (2) These points can be allocated into any of the turret protection the player wishes. There is a + and a - button to increase the protection. The following picture is something like that. Except for "Strength", "Dexterity" etc it's now "Twins", "Firebird" etc. (3) When you have allocated your points there is a "Save" button below. Click that and the protection stats will be saved! (4) When you rank up, you automatically receive additional points, which you can add into the protection against the different turrets that you want again. (5) Note that when you save your stats you cannot change it without a cost. You can, however, pay 10 crystals to remove a point from a stat which you have saved (this will return you 1 additional stat point) which you can re-allocate into another stat that you wish. (6) Note that you cannot have more than 50% protection against one single type of turret (same rule applies for all other paints). Now HOW IS THIS GOOD, you may ask? 1. It's a UNIQUE paint that is fully self-customizable, providing players with the ability to re-design their paint to suit their needs. This DEFINITELY APPEALS to buyes. 2. It's not THAT unbalanced (as versus 20% protection against all turrets), now you GET to CHOOSE for SOME turrets. Sure, you can have more than 20% protection against something, at the cost of losing protection against another. I'm sure non-buyers won't complain much about this. It's similar to non-buyers switching paints in battle, but definitely with stronger stats (you already start with 20 points at Recruit rank with the special paint). Sometimes the situation also calls for protection against 2 or 3 types of turrets, which normal paints do not cover against all. 3. Admin gets to earn more income when the players have to re-change their paint stats to suit their needs. If, say, you have 50 points and currently allocated 20 into Firebird, 20 into Vulcan and 10 into Isida. You enter a match where majority of the opponents are using Freeze, and no one is using Vulcan at all. You decide to take out the 20 points in Vulcan and add it into Freeze. That will cost you 20 x 10 = 200 crystals. 4. It forces non-buyers to own several turrets instead of focusing upgrades on one (in case the enemies decide to re-allocate all their points into the turret you're using. Again, more crystals for devs. Devs, please do take some time to think about it... And players, if you like my suggestion please upvote ^^. If you guys have any questions please feel free to clarify them!

I'm fine with the 15% protection paint at high ranks (probably around Lieutenant rank and up, where there are paints that offer maybe 10-15% protection against 2 turrets or so), so we don't lose out too much. We still have to change paints often depending on situations, and stuff like that, so as non-premium buyers we'll be having a lot of inconvenience + less protection against turrets too. But 15% for beginners is just too much. Firstly it's NOT going to be welcoming for newbies at all, which will NOT increase the player base... Imagine new players coming in and getting pwned straight... Just when they are introduced to basic paints that offer 10% protection against ONE turret... The paint obviously needs to be calibrated such that its protection increases as the player increases in rank. As usual, many players have given their fair share of opinions of having modifications similar to that of other turrets or hulls. Another possible suggestion, which could be more difficult to program, but provides better utility and convenience for players, is the suggestion I mentioned on page 39. I'm not trying to protect non-buyers for this post, I'm trying to protect beginners and newbies who are starting out in the game. Unless there is some extent of equal ground for them, people generally lose interest if they have a 0.2 K/D ratio for their first 3 days of playing.

Well guys, let's give some time for the admin / devs to think this through and not pressurize them. We all know that hasty and emotional decisions are always worst off. They have taken the time to painstakingly read many insulting comments, and have given us an answer for now. As Semyon pointed out, let's just wait and see how the new paint goes, and if any further changes need to be done. This is the first step of any successful business. Egos need to be checked. Instead of posting insensitive comments such as a "NOBODY CARES" link to a Spongebob video on YouTube, extra time and care needs to be spent monitoring the situation and comments. I was once a super proud person who wanted no one above me in life. I told my cousin, who was a successful businessman, that I wanted to be a CEO. He scolded me and said, "You're wrong. The higher up you are, the more you have to answer to. The CEO out there has to answer to the possibly millions of people out there, past customers, present customers, and potential customers (who haven't spent a single cent yet). Pride such as 'we do not care' will get you nowhere but hatred from the community. When trust is broken, do not fear. It can be rebuilt again, slowly and steadily, just like how trust the trust we once had slowly faded away. There is no such thing as "Tanki is OVER, let's all leave" and stuff like that. Many of us are willing to give second chances, even third, fourth, fifth and so on. The past updates were examples, where our patience slowly declined. Many tankers were met with disappointment after disappointment, and when their voices were repeatedly not heard, the following result happened over this post. But it can be rebuilt again. A first step is a willing heart to make ammendments and updates, and perhaps an apology to the community out there. One last but most important thing, stop treating us like kids wanting ice-cream. I don't know who taught you that analogy, but firstly it's NEGATIVE EQ in the business world, and will only make you lose more customers. Many of us are FULL-GROWN ADULTS, who are FINANCIALLY INDEPENDENT and able to make decisions on our own. We are also the people that FUND you guys WITHOUT THE NEED TO ASK OUR PARENTS FOR THE CREDIT CARD. Treat us as your CUSTOMERS, give us the RESPECT we deserve, and we definitely WILL GIVE YOU YOURS. Now if you're an admin or mod reading this post and getting all fed-up, you're clearly not learning, because like I said, egos and pride needs to be checked. I'm pretty sure many tankers are equally, if not more, upset over the removal of downvote buttons and the recent censorship of many comments. I've saved a whole copy of this message, delete it if you wish, it will be promptly re-uploaded by me or others who read it. Nevertheless, I have to say that the admin is taking the first step forward, and have responded to some of our requests. There is clearly communication going on between forum mods and the admin, which is good. I also understand full well that not all of our requests must be accommodated, and that's perfectly fine too. Like any business, profits must be considered. But please also do consider everything I've taken my time to express above. We are all learning along the way, step by step.

Yep, you're right about that. The premium accounts only server will then provide a faster track for these players to level up. Well, imagine if premium accounts come out and become too OP, non-buyers will leave anyway. Then we're left with just premium accounts on normal servers. Doesn't that lead to the same outcome? 1/5 of the player population, 10 minutes to find a normal game, everybody has the same 20% protection paint (basically = no advantage over anyone). Then who will continue buying? Everyone will start quitting because no one has an edge over another. And just to clarify some things I've expressed over the past few of my comments: I'm aware that paying MUST give you some sort of an advantage. Obviously I do agree with that, I'm not being overly selfish in protecting the non-buyers. Companies need to earn a living too. If there's no advantage, there is no incentive to pay. But what we're saying is that advantages can come in many, many different ways. We're just asking for buyers to not become TOO overpowered. We already tried to voice out about the 20% paint being far too OP in our opinion. Suggestions include: a) Progressive increments in the paint protection over ranks (it's really not that difficult to program, trust me, perhaps another 2 hours or so given your programming experience and the past templates that you have over the previous M0-M4 equipment upgrades, it's just changing some numbers), or b) Points that can be alloted by the player's discretion (check out my post on Page 39). Other suggestions include cosmetics (which are a really good choice, non-buyers definitely can't complain much for this one as it does not spoil the gameplay, they just have to admire people with nicer equipment). Almost all MMOs sell cosmetics and there WILL be people buying it, even though it does not give any extra stats. Use your imagination for cosmetics! There can be special wheels, different graphic effects for the tanks, killing spree/multikill banners and streak announcements, different icons for drug activations, different turret animation, etc etc etc.

A snippet of the reply by RustyNail included: You say there are some 500.000 active MONTHLY accounts, but in every day's log top is below 80.000. Assuming that most players play at least 3-4 days a week, we conclude a much smaller sum of real physical people playing Tanki. Most of the devoted players, the "every-day-ers" are contributing to the community, they at least read the forum and most of them post a comment for a topic that interests them, weekly v-log included. Thus, the main reaction of forum attendants is both statistically significant and adequate representative for the rest that don't participate to forum. Concluding that forum majority is by no means game minority. ^^^ Now the above by RustyNail is what I call sound statistical argument. Obviously the people voice out when they feel the need to. This doesn't just include complains, but if an update is exciting and contains great appeal to players, they will do the same, expressing positive opinions over that. Check out some of the previous updates if you don't believe me. The number of replies have fallen slowly over the past V-logs, probably showing increasing disinterest in replying to minor updates since there is nothing significant, whereas this update have had a reply count of over 800. Obviously the admin has to realize something wrong is going on, especially if you realize that 95% of the replies are negative. The happy ones (well, not really happy in my opinion, just neutral) are playing the game, you are right, but the proportion of the unhappy ones are increasing tremendously over this update. RustyNail has made an extremely valid comment which I wholeheartedly agree with. By the way, if you guys do need a statistician, let me know. I'm currently learning multiple linear regression in University and would consider putting my knowledge to some use. Flawed survey methodologies and outrageous false statistics simply piss me off.

I've got to admit too that you've got a point in that. I was within top 0.3% of the DoTA 2 population before I decided to take a break from it since I need to study for Actuarial exams. There ARE players who spend on cosmetics. DoTA regularly sells items worth $30 or higher in its marketplace. Rare items can go up to several thousands of dollars. Rare, limited edition items can go up even more. A player bought an EF Pink courier for USD 64,000. DoTA still maintains its player pool by having many players who don't buy items to join the game. I personally didn't spend money in DoTA, but I have brought several friends in and 2 of them are regular customers. If the community builds itself right, the game will get going smoothly. Now back to Tanki. Buyers are already alienated enough in the games. Druggers are despised and often scolded if they drug unnecessarily, unless they're on the verge of capturing a gold box or flag, for example, or if there's a drug war. Some players even leave straight when they encounter druggers. Imagine what will happen if the Premium Account buyers start coming in? The community will be further subdivided, and the buyers might soon have to play by themselves in some special arena created for them. Another possible feature that Tanki could implement is Premium Account-only servers, that contain special fun maps etc for Premium Account members. Perhaps even new modes, destroying "zombie" tanks, or whatever, you name it. There the 50% XP and Crystal bonuses can be implemented etc. It can also be implemented on normal servers as well, but perhaps with less bonuses as I don't think many people like that idea.

Thank you very much for addressing this matter, Hazel. I appreciate your willingness even though it was very difficult and takes a lot of courage to do so, with the players' attitude. This is the first step for solving any business issue. I totally understand full well that sometimes things do not go as planned, and some updates which you guys worked hard on are not well-received by the community. No one can predict the future 100% entirely, and I've seen business managers apologize to people on Facebook over the fault of their very own employees, just to save that customer. If pride takes over you guys, it's going to be a very different story, and boycotting will start very soon. As far as I know, banning players for valid points is definitely not a very effective method in stopping people from growing their hatred. In most places of the world, democracy is being promoted and an authoritarian government despised. So instead, we should take some time to figure out where you went wrong, and how you can change back the heart of the players. I believe many of them are just expressing their pent-up frustration at the upcoming updates, because their voices have been ignored for the past weeks/months. These players will happily continue playing the game, and I believe a certain portion of them will be happy to continue supporting Tanki with $$$. This is NOT to say that players spurting vulgarities and insulting others should not be banned, if it's against the rules and regulations, by all means go ahead and give them a warning/ban. But the whole point of forums is so the admin and players post suggestions and listen to each other, and improve continuously based on constructive criticism. If the admin let pride take over themselves and start banning players, then this will defeat the whole purpose. Now regarding paints, I believe 20% is too OP for beginners. For higher ranked players, this paint might not be OP, depending on the map and playstyle. But imagine starting ranked players, where a 10% protection for a SINGLE turret is ALL you have - compared to a total of 140% protection? I believe that's really imbalanced. As Tanki has released the update logs and will find it difficult to go back on their word, I will give my fair share of suggestions, if the Premium Account paint is to be released: (1) The paint has M0, M1, M2 and M3 modifications, at 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% protection against all turrets and mines respectively. That way, at all ranks the paint won't be too OP, but will still offer decent protection above what people normally would have at that rank. It's similar to a full micro-upgrade of turrets and hulls, which will not upset the entire balance of the game, but definitely provides an edge against many players. OR (2) The paint is customizable with 20 to 150 points (increasing with your rank). These points can be allocated, at the player's own discretion, onto any turret protection he or she wishes. E.g. I am 1st Sergeant, I have 35 points in the paint, I assign 20 to Firebird, 8 to Vulcan and 7 to Isida. These points can be re-allocated in the Garage any time (either for free or a minimal cost - up to the Dev's discretion). The maximum you can allocate for a single turret protection is 50 points. (That way you can't assign all 100 onto Firebird and be immune to it, for example). I'm a regular Tanki player and personally thought through it and believe the paints aren't too inbalanced given either suggestion (1) or (2). (1) seems a lot easier to program (go for it if you want the easy route) while (2) offers uniqueness which currently no paint will have, so I believe (2) is pretty good. If anyone has any other suggestions please feel free to post here and we can discuss it.

Lol erm firstly I don't think I'm that young a person, I was once in a Business University Honours degree. Customers are the core of any business. It seems to me that you are the one not understanding business. Do window shoppers get chased out by the store owners for trying out too many outfits in the fitting rooms, or get scolded by asking too many questions and leaving? If Macdonald's had some space and you sat down without ordering anything and started reading a book for half an hour, do you expect to get chased out? I hope not. (For most businesses, otherwise the bosses don't have a business mind). Because the bosses know that these shoppers will likely: (1) return in the future to buy some stuff if they feel the service is good. (2) decide to spread some good word about the shop and bring some friends in, who MAY start buying stuff or bring even more friends in But chasing these "window-shoppers" away will result in: (1) bad-mouthing the shop in social media sites, leaving negative reviews about service attitudes I'm trying to use analogies as simple as possible. If you're not understanding it I don't know how else to explain.

Okay, I've got to state my opinions on this one. I've played tons of MMORPGs before, and watched them rise and fall. Usually they rise because of the great community established, and this is a huge factor. The great part about communities is that it is a self-sustaining cycle, friends bring more friends into the game, and some of those friends spend money on the game. That's how income is generated. Now MMOs usually fall because the community breaks apart, and that the gap between buyers vs non-buyers become too huge. Non-buyers constitute normally about 70-80% of ANY MMO game, regardless of the nature (except pay to play games). When the gap gets too big, they leave and join other MMOs. It's as simple as that. What do you think happens to the remaining 20% of the players, who now need to spend 5x the time to find a match? That's not to say that advantages must be removed from buyers. I totally understand that every game needs revenue to sustain itself and pay the employees, maintain servers and technical costs etc. This can actually be done in different ways. There are highly successful games like DoTA that net in millions of revenue every month, yet upholds its community of players. Remember, the larger the player pool, the more attractive the game, and definitely new buyers will join. Now instead of a OP paint that gives 20% protection to ALL turrets (this will definitely cause many players to leave I'm very certain), there are many features that can be implemented into the game. Here are some examples: - Premium player statistics only available for buyers (including clearing of K/D data etc and starting all over again at 0) - Customizable hulls, turrets and paints (not too far from the original so we still know what it protects against) - Customizable paints for entire clans (clan leader needs to pay per month to keep the clan) - Premium accounts only match, with drugging cooldown reduced to 10 seconds I know it's simple to just enter "20" and a few other strings into some Python code and watch the premium buyers start coming in, because I've taken computer programming before. But please think of the consequences that could (and in this case definitely would) follow. I can start naming once-successful MMOs right out that were destroyed because of greed. Now if you say that Tanki HQ has fallen on hard times and need the revenue that badly I would understand, but I don't think any of us believe that's the case for now. Many cosmetic skins etc can still greatly appeal. Firebirds can start shooting black flames etc. I don't know - use your creativity. And I believe it's very important to use player polls or surveys before doing updates. It's not just about updating anything you believe is good. Any online game is like a business - players are customers, and they should have the right to choose (to some extent, minimally). And businesses do not discriminate against large or small customers, even non-buyers have a profound effect on all MMOs. I might sound arrogant and frustrated, but all in all I'm actually just very disappointed. Tanki has all along been a great game and was one that I was looking for and believe to have finally "found" it. There is still time before updates start rolling in. This is not just a game that 7-year-olds play. There are many players that actually figure out what the developers are thinking (e.g. removal of dislike button that foreshadows this). Already many of the community members are expressing much disappointment in this update. Please take the time to read the comments and listen to the players.