Was that aimed at me? You lose 3 normal containers per week (156 per year) if you're the kind of person who completes all your weekly missions every week. If you complete your missions over 2 weeks, you will lose 4 normal containers every 2 weeks, or 92 containers per year.

Let's do the math. You also lose 3 normal containers each week, or 156 normal containers over the course of a year. An average normal container contains 2888 crystals and 99 supplies (and about 7% of a paint, etc, but let's not go there) Over a year this is 450,528 crystals and 15,444 supplies you no longer receive. So it looks like at 3rd lieutenant, you will gain overall in supplies, but significantly lose in crystals. And as most folks at 3rd Lieutenant have thousands of supplies in their garage they can't use, there's no real gain in that either. This update is designed to reduce the number of crystals in the game.

It's a business. Players who buy are the customers, those that don't are the product. We are here because of our addiction to it (and it always will be addictive as long as we can blast other tanks in different ways). Some players learn how to cure that addiction. They're the ones who leave.

I've spent a lot of time analyzing container rewards since they started, and they haven't changed as much as you suggest. Even though they have introduced many new paints, the chance of getting paint hasn't changed (it's around 7%) We have batteries (7%) and shot effects (2%) now, too, but the chance of getting crystals appears to have increased since October (now 30%). What we have fewer of is supplies (down from 59% to 45%), although I concede it may not seem like it when you get a run of 125xspeed boosts). The big crystal rewards are rare. And now you'll have to play for twice as long to have the chance to win one.

The weekly container change is a real kick in the teeth of the Tanki community, and they know it. When they introduced these new missions in October, they said that the missions would be harder, but the rewards would be greater. Well, that didn't last, did it? Now we'll have the tougher missions, but fewer containers than we used to have before, when all we had to do was complete a mission a day for 7 days. For anyone rank 10 (Sgt Major) or over, three missions are difficult to complete in a day unless you have a dominant tank and a couple of hours to spare. Weekly containers are simply no compensation for it. The only guaranteed way you can earn enough crystals in this game to be dominant is to be lucky with the big reward containers, and this update makes that a lot less likely. So, does this make you all want to go and spend money in the shop? That's what it's designed to do.

*22-1: Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - M - 125 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Gold Boxes - 5 , Paint - Garage (Grasslands) 22-1: Paint - Garage (Tiger) , Batteries - 50 22-1: Crystals - 25000 , Supplies - M - 125 21-1: Crystals - 10000 19-1: Supplies - DD - 125 , Gold Boxes - 5 18-1: Crystals - 10000 , Supplies - M - 125

Ok, we've had mission container rewards in the game for a year now. I've recorded every one of the 836 containers I've opened, so here are some stats. Overall Rarity: 61.2% common, 25.7% uncommon, 9.1% rare, 3.3% epic, 0.5% legendary, 0.1% exotic Overall Type: 54.9% supplies, 26.1% crystals, 6.0% paint, 5.1% batteries, 3.9% gold, 3.1% premium, 0.7% shot effects, 0.1% XT skins Overall Crystals: 2,390,000, comprising 1,885,000 from crystals containers, 300,000 from premium bonuses and 205,000 from gold boxes. This is an average of 2,859 per container Overall Supplies: 83,535, comprising 78,375 from supplies containers and 5,160 from premium bonuses. This is an average of 99.9 supplies per container. But the really interesting thing is how the rewards have changed over the year. There are two events when the Tanki Team significantly adjusted the container rewards. On 7th June 2018, they introduced drone batteries, XT skins and big crystal rewards in some epic, legendary and (new) exotic containers. On 30th October 2018, then introduced shot effects in epic containers. Not only that,but the stats indicate they adjusted the probability of getting other rewards too. We'll call the period up to 6th June as Phase 1 (I opened 246 containers in that period). The period between 7th June and 29th October is Phase 2 (334 opened). Finally, the period since 30th October we'll call phase 3 (256 opened so far). I can't post all the stats here, but the significant changes are these: The probability of getting a crystals reward has increased from around 25% to around 30% in Phase 3 The probability of getting a premium reward was around 7% in phase 1, but it's between 1% and 2% ever since. Surprisingly, the probability of getting a supplies reward has fallen from 59% in phases 1 and 2 to 46% in phase 3. Even though they have added many new paints, there's no significant change in the probability of receiving a paint reward. The current probabilities (phase 3) are: 46.1% supplies, 30.5% crystals, 7.4% batteries, 7.0% paint, 4.7% gold, 2.3% shot effects, 2.0% premium, 0.0% XT skins. If there's any stats you'd like more detail on, please ask.

It's strong if you convert those 560K into something with a dominant assault capability. I'm not convinced Smoky will do it for you for long. Not many good kits available to do that at your rank, though. Stinger's probably the pick of the two WO4 kits (the other, Avalanche won't dominate for long with a Freeze M2). At WO5 you can get Boar (Dictator/ Ricochet M2) but that came up fairly recently. I'd go for Stinger if it comes up, then wait for an M2 Twins kit.

16-1: Supplies - DD - 125 , Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - SB - 125 16-1: Crystals - 10000 , Crystals - 3500 16-1: Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - All - 100 , Supplies - M - 125 15-1: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - DA - 125 15-1: Supplies - RK - 125 14-1: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 13-1: Paint - Container (Pulsar) 12-1: Batteries - 50 , Batteries - 50 11-1: Batteries - 50 , Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - M - 125 11-1: Supplies - M - 125 , Crystals - 3500

A few more containers: 7-1: Supplies - DA - 125 , Crystals - 3500 6-1: Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - All - 100 5-1: Crystals - 3500 5-1: Crystals - 100000 4-1: Supplies - RK - 125 4-1: Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - M - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 , Gold Boxes - 5 4-1: Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Shot Effect (Ricochet - Gold) 4-1: Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 3500 That's the third Crystals - 100000 for one account, all before the rank of Sergeant Major. It's meant it's now bought 3 M1 kits (Firefly, Cupid and Predator) and is pretty invincible. Other accounts I started at the same time which haven't had the big rewards are struggling. The luck of the containers makes all the difference in this game.

I've opened 793 containers, and received only one exotic container (it was a Thunder XT, not the million crystals). I suggest your brother spends wisely, as you can easily fritter away crystals in this game. I suggest he buys kits, and no more than three per marque (i.e. 3 kits at M1, 3 at M2) - different range hulls/turrets, of course - then micro-upgrades each item to 7/10 (he can wait for sales if he really wants to upgrade higher than that). This should keep him with kit whch will dominate battles for longest.

Container time: 3-1: Supplies - All - 100 , Supplies - M - 125 , Shot Effect (Isida - Sun) 3-1: Supplies - RK - 125 , Crystals - 3500 , Batteries - 50 1-1: Supplies - All - 250 , Crystals - 25000 , Supplies - M - 125 30-12: Crystals - 10000 , Gold Boxes - 5 30-12: Supplies - DD - 125 , Supplies - RK - 125 29-12: Supplies - RK - 125 25-12: Batteries - 50 25-12: Supplies - SB - 125 24-12: Paint - Football (Australia) 24-12: Paint - Garage (Hive) 24-12: Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - RK - 125 24-12: Supplies - M - 125 , Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - SB - 125

This week's containers: 23-12: Batteries - 50 *21-12: Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - M - 125 , Crystals - 10000 , Supplies - RK - 125 21-12: Supplies - DD - 125 , Paint - Football (Nigeria) 21-12: Supplies - M - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 , Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 18-12: Paint - Garage (Emerald) 18-12: Gold Boxes - 10 , Premium - 3 , Batteries - 50 17-12: Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - M - 125 , Shot Effect (Shaft - Magma) 17-12: Crystals - 10000 , Premium - 10 , Crystals - 3500

This week's containers: 16-12: Supplies - DA - 125 *16-12: Supplies - M - 125 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 , Paint - Garage (Pixel Heart) , Paint - Football (Germany) 15-12: Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - M - 125 15-12: Supplies - DA - 125 , Crystals - 3500 14-12: Supplies - DD - 125 , Crystals - 25000 14-12: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - M - 125 13-12: Crystals - 25000 , Supplies - DD - 125 11-12: Supplies - M - 125 , Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 3500 10-12: Crystals - 3500 , Shot Effect (Railgun - Snow) , Crystals - 3500 10-12: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Crystals - 10000 8-12: Crystals - 10000

This week's containers: 7-12: Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - SB - 125 7-12: Paint - Football (Peru) , Crystals - 100000 , Supplies - M - 125 6-12: Supplies - DA - 125 , Crystals - 10000 , Crystals - 3500 , Batteries - 50 , Supplies - DA - 125 , Paint - Shop (Drought) 3-12: Supplies - M - 125 , Batteries - 50 , Supplies - SB - 125 3-12: Supplies - DA - 125 , Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - All - 100 That's the third Crystals - 100000 reward in as many weeks. A rank-7 account has two of them It's already dominating with it's fully-upgraded M1 Viking/Freeze, and now I have the luxury of buying another kit to get me through ranks 8-10: any suggestions? I'm thinking Piranha (Hornet/Shaft) if it becomes available, so I can compete on the larger maps like Highways, Brest and Massacre)

This isn't because there are more players, it's because each player has to spend longer playing in order to complete their missions. The overall effect is that there will be more players active at any one time. That's all well and good for now, but the novelty will wear off, and players will eventually wonder why they're spending half their lives trying to complete a 15/15 Finish In The Top 3 Places Of A Battle mission in order to win a single container containing 125 speed boosts to add to the 12,388 speed boosts already in their garage.

Plenty of rarer boxes this week. For the record, the ones marked with * were opened in a batch of 5: *1-12: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 , Supplies - RK - 125 , Gold Boxes - 5 , Crystals - 25000 *1-12: Crystals - 10000 , Gold Boxes - 10 , Paint - Garage (Atom) , Paint - Garage (Soft Flowers) , Paint - Container (Hallucination) 1-12: Batteries - 150 *30-11: Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 10000 , Crystals - 10000 , Supplies - RK - 125 , Supplies - All - 100 30-11: Supplies - DD - 125 , Crystals - 3500 30-11: Crystals - 10000 , Supplies - DD - 125 29-11: Supplies - DA - 125 , Crystals - 3500

It's been a few years since I studied statistics, but the key things here are that a: the reward variance is very high (a container can contain between zero and one million crystals) When they introduced exotic containers and big crystal rewards, they took steps to reduce the amount of crystals awarded elsewhere - generally they've been doing this ever since with additional paints and now shot effects. b: the sample sizes we're talking about (5 or 15 containers at a time) are very small, and not statistically significant. We're only going to be able to predict what's happening with containers if we collect a lot of data over a long period of time. Folks also need to post the bad hauls as well as the good ones. I've posted all my container contents since January. For the first few months I was earning around 2500 crystals (or equivalent) per container opened. This then dropped to around 2000 until last week, when I opened two with 100,000 crystals. The average over the whole year is back up to around 2,500 again.

26-11: Supplies - SB - 125 , Crystals - 3500 26-11: Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - All - 250 , Crystals - 3500 26-11: Supplies - DD - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 , Supplies - DD - 125 25-11: Supplies - M - 125 25-11: Crystals - 10000 24-11: Supplies - DA - 125

Just a general complaint. Everything in Tanki Online without exception is a lot, lot worse than it used to be. In fact, there's not a single thing in the game now that is an improvement on what it was two years ago. Every single thing is much worse. If you agree, please indicate.

You wait ages for a big crystal reward, and then two come along at once: 23-11: Supplies - SB - 125 , Crystals - 3500 23-11: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - SB - 125 , Crystals - 100000 23-11: Supplies - M - 125 , Crystals - 3500 23-11: Gold Boxes - 5 , Premium - 3 , Crystals - 100000 22-11: Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 3500

19-11: Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - M - 125 , Crystals - 10000 19-11: Supplies - SB - 125 , Crystals - 10000 , Supplies - SB - 125 19-11: Shot Effect (Shaft Aqua) , Crystals - 10000 , Premium - 3 18-11: Supplies - DA - 125 , Supplies - SB - 125 I'm convinced there's no difference between opening containers singly and opening them in bulk. It's just a superstition. It would take a fair amount of coding to do any different, and I'm sure they've got better things to do.* * like nerf turrets and change the colour of Holiday paint

18-11: Gold Boxes - 5 , Batteries - 50 , Batteries - 50 16-11: Supplies - M - 125 , Gold Boxes - 5 12-11: Crystals - 3500 , Crystals - 3500 , Supplies - RK - 125 12-11: Supplies - DD - 125 , Batteries - 50 , Supplies - SB - 125 , Supplies - M - 125

Says it all, really. Community helpers, please read this and relay it back to your masters.

One reason could be that this was launched during a star week with double battle funds. Folks got hooked on it, and are now finding they have to play for twice as long to achieve the same level in crystal-target missions as they did in the first week. The longer you play, the more simultaneous players you'll see at any one time.