Guys I know I just typed a 1.5k+ word essay but I really do care about the game that I loved, and please, if you know a developer who is willing to spend a few minutes reading this and giving it a go, would really make mine (and a lot of other players') day.

TL; DR - There is no such thing as too long when it comes to the future of our favourite game, Tanki Online, so I implore you, whether you are a helper, player or developer, to please read this and consider it seriously. Tanki Online has always been our favourite game ever since we first touched it - If you are still here, you must really love the general concept of the game and enjoy it thoroughly. Whether it be the friendly atmosphere, the explosions or the dashing looks of the Tanks which attracts you to this game, you have found a place at home in Tanki Online. So did I. That was, until I realised the main flaw about this game: THE DEVELOPERS DON'T LISTEN TO THE PLAYERBASE! Now you might say, hey rus0806, of course the developers listen. They host Q&As with the players, and occasionally even implement updates which we like! But note my use of 'Occasionally'. As far as I've seen, in my time at Tanki (Around 7 years), I've never, I repeat, never, seen the developers asking the players to vote on new updates. Sure, there is the occasionally hype when the developers announce some new update which benefits the general player base, but the vast majority of the updates are completely uncalled for and dare I say, disliked by the general community. And you know how I know that? - The drop in the playerbase. The game used to be so fun to play in. All these events with your friends, your clan, your favourite second family. Just think of all the great times you've had playing this game. Why have so many players left? 'Is it because they've grown up?' I doubt it. 'Is it because they've moved on to another game?' Again, speaking from personal experience, I highly doubt that. So why is it that so many players have left the game? Well, the simple answer is, due to the massive influx of updates which no one wanted. Lets start at the beginning: A year or two after I started to play Tanki, the paint-resistance seperation update came along. Personally, I neither dislike it nor like it, but many players ended up hating it. From that very update, you might say, a new Tanki was born, one that began to acclerate downhill, quickly. This new update put many players on edge, as the main mechanics of the game was altered significantly. A few who didn't cope left the game for good, but as a whole, Tanki was at its peak at the time so there wasn't a huge change in the playerbase. Fastforward a year or so, and there came the introduction of containers. As a novelty in the playerbase at the time, many loved it, as it is very similar to gambling. Perhaps players loved the thrill of leaving it all to chance, but it was at first definitely one of the favourite updates at the time. And then it all turned buyer-centric. I get why Tanki Online requires money to support its employees and servers, and I myself, having spent over 1k dollars throughout my entire Tanki career, know that a good game should be supported well. However, running the game purely for benefits is a very hurtful thing to do. Back then, there wasn't a mess of drones, augments, skins and whatnot, and the main thing players complained about was supply users, or what is colloquially known as 'druggers'. However, it was never a big issue - people who spend money, as well as people who save up crystals more efficiently, are always bound to have more supplies than those who are perhaps worse at saving their crystals, therefore there was no solution, nor a major problem, to the issue. The introduction of containers at first completely eliminated that issue. It allowed non-paying players a chance to compete with paying players. But then, when it was available through the shop, buyers started to spend a lot of money on these containers, thus gaining significant amounts of supplies and crystals, completely unbalancing the game. This again caused the playerbase to winge about those who pay to play, but it still hasn't reached boiling point yet... 2018 was definitely an unique year. In that year came many new updates, siginificantly more than the years prior. We got Matchmaking, shot colors, augments, drones and a new turret, causing many players to leave but nothing as significant as what was about to come. 2019... If the previous few years were acclerating down a hill, then the following years, including 2019, is equal to a plummit from the sky. And I'm not even being dramatic. The year started off OK. we then got a whole bunch of updates to matchmaking and many rebalances, which seem to unbalance more than it rebalances. But moving on. The disaster truely comes with overdrives in April. By overdrives I don't mean the blue, activate-all-supplies overdrive, but the updated individual abilities type of overdrives. Overdrives were actually widly anticipated in the community, many loved the idea of this new concept. But I bet this update popped that idea like a balloon. The day before the update, everything was all calm and good, then bam, the server updates, and the entire lobby is filled with craziness. And not good craziness either. In every single battle, it was filled with chaos, and at first it was very funny to watch and try out. However, a week or so afterwards, when people have gotten sick of the novelty, the reality started to sink in - they were stuck with this insane update that completely ruined gameplay. This is probably one of, if not the worst, and most uncalled-for updates in the entirety of Tanki Online. Despite me saying that players were curious about this new feature, I'm certain no one asked for this, and to be honest, if players were given a chance to remove this update, I bet 90% or more of the players would second that. But sadly, only a chain of bad updates follow into 2020, which was one of the most horrific years in our lifetimes, both in the physical world as well as in Tanki Online. The updates list just gets longer and longer, and there are countless updates during 2020. Most of them are disliked by the majority of the Tankers, causing massive amounts of players to leave the game for good. The game then added all these new effects, stuns, emps and critical hits, which completely overcomplicates the game, and as a whole, put the game down the drain. 2021, even though we are only three-quarters through the year, has seen more updates than the whole year of 2020. And I bet there will be much more to come, if the developers do not decide to change for good. I honestly don't know where to start to be honest, the game is a true mess right now and it's causing more and more players to leave by the hour. ______________________________________________________________ But despite ranting about the failures of the game, I'd like to applaud some aspects of the game which I find quite successful. For example, the transition into HTML5 was pretty successful. The new graphics are also extremely nice, and the smoothness of control is unparalleled. Besides that, I really appreciate the work of the Helpers and Admins in the work they do for this game. What I really want, and I'm sure the majority of players want too, is for the developers, the coders and the marketeers of the game to listen to us. If even a single developer sees this, and decide to make improvements, I feel like a great barrier will have been broken through. 1) Please listen to what the player has to say, and read their suggestions. If you (the developers) don't want to spend a long time doing this, just send a monthly forum post out, with a vote for which areas the players wants improvement in. The one which gets voted the most should then be updated to match the players' desires. This would vastly improve the relationship between the developers and players, and create a friendly atmosphere again. 2) This opinion might not be overly popular, but regardless, I'd like to suggest it. Whether you take it, thats your choice. However I'm sure I'm not the only player thinking about this: Remove all the updates which players considered bad in the past few years! If you (The developer) have the guts and courage to do it, I can almost guarentee you that the playerbase will grow back, especially with the new interface. This includes the overdrives update, the new hulls which were added, the augments, and anything that is not cosmetic. Please, make the game simple again, instead of the complex mess it is in right now! 3) Always ask players to vote on new update suggestions! I know it is your game, and you can do whatever you want. However, we players, especially those who support you financially, are using your services, which means we would very much like to have the best experience possible. If you've never heard the japanese phrase 'Customers are god' (okyakusama wa kamisama desu), maybe it is time to learn something new for today. If you genuinely wish the game to improve, as many players and myself included want, please start TODAY. NOW. RIGHT THIS SECOND. It is never too late to change, until it is too late. And dare I say, the end of Tanki will soon come, and if the developers continue their current trance of updating the game every few days with unwanted content, well, I'd just like to remark that I cannot foresee the game lasting to see the dawn of next year. So if you really do want to have a TL; DR for this post, here is the takeaway: Never be afraid to change It's not too late, until it is. Please, PLEASE, I beg you not to let this post become a 'I told you so'...

You can get a rough idea on the decline in the playerbase by looking at the number of announcement views in the forum, it has been in decline for the past 4 or so years. In 2016 the average view per post is around 10k, but now its around 500 views. (Not counting those that were pinned for a long time)

For me, I think that one of the sole reasons why the game is is losing a lot of players is because the devs did not consider the in-game economy while adding the new updates. It all started when the paint seperation update was introduced, where all paints lost its value and became purely cosmetic. I don't disagree with this update because it did give players the opportunity to mix up the protection modules with different paints, but the update also ruined the game economy. The paints lost all of its value, as players saw no reason to buy them. Therefore, virtually all the garage paints were disregarded by the players, and as a result what was once one of the most useful things in the game became nothing at all. Another update which may seem to have little impact to the game was the xt update. By that, I mean removing the ability to obtain XT turrets from the garage and daily missions, and only making it purchasable inside the shop, using real money. Maybe it seemed to the devs that they could make extra money from this, but instead it made the game economy much worse. A rare item is an object that seems to be easily obtainable through normal means, but is instead very difficult to get. The original XT system worked really well, because you were able to obtain the XTs through saving up crystals, or doing one of the hard missions, without spending a single penny. However, when the XT update came along, the XTs lost its value, because it was no longer obtainable by non-buyers (A majority of the game), therefore it became another useless thing that only buyers could get. XTs used to be a symbol of hardwork, but is instead now a symbol of a buyer. Then there is all the new challenges and waves of new paints. Players used to be able to memorise all the paint names, and even all their protections. Now, this is literally an impossible feat, because new paints are literally added every week. Many, many paints lost its uniqueness, not only because there is another paint that looks extremely similar, but also because there are too many paints to choose from. This made each paint become 'unique' itself, which made it lose its meaning as a paint. I don't think the devs knew that in order to have rarity, most things have to be common, and only very few can be rare. With all the new paints that were added, every paint became unique, because there simply isnt enough players for a specific paint to become common. Therefore, paints no longer show status and rarity, completely ruining this whole aspect of the game. The Mk7 update was also extremely ill-planned. There were only 4 modification skins for each turret and hull, but since it was updated to 7, the different looks lost its meaning. 2 Mods now share the same skin, making it not special anymore to have a higher Modification in battle. The same goes with shot colours. It may seem fun to have all the different shot colours, but it would have been much better if the devs just left it alone, since it used to make each modification of the turret look unique. TL&DR: The devs really ruined the game through poorly managing the game economy. Having a lot of something not only makes it all depreciate in value, but it also makes it less meaningful.

rus0806 Hey there! I'm rus0806, and this is my videomakers thread! I am new to making and editing videos, so if you have any tips or tricks, please let me know! 1st Video (Unedited, Without sound) - 2017 2nd Video (Edited, With Music) - 2020 [Upcoming]

So excited ?

Happy birthday Tanki!

From a player's point of view this might be great, but from a developer's point of view it's a complete nightmare.

You have to appreciate that forming a balance is extremely difficult. The key to this is to figure out a way to make sure that while the equipment need to be fair, they still have to have be different from each other, because otherwise everything will be the same and there will no variety.

Suprisingly I don't find myself using drones at all nowadays. Maybe it's because I don't play as often as I used to, but I think it's mainly due to the fact that I haven't got too many crystals to spare on batteries especially when they are used up so fast. Afterall I did consume around 16k repair kits in the period of a month last year, so now I am much more sparing on using supplies when I play.

:( well it's been more than 1 year since anyone said anything here. A lot has happened in Australia during this period of time (and is still happening right now). Hope you guys are safe and staying home, just like Scomo says. :)

They are completely different platforms, both of them have different coding formats. You cannot expect their graphics to be the same because they run differently. Developers can certainly make the graphics better, but they can't make it exactly like flash.

It's inevitable, because this always happens. If tankoins are too easy to earn, buyers will earn them even faster, giving no benefit to non-buyers. Just think of it like age. Say a buyer is 10 years older than you. No matter how old you are, they will still be 10 years older than you, 10 years more advanced than you. Therefore there is no point trying to become equals with them, because you can never achieve it.

Give it time. One day, perhaps soon, the developers will be able to fix all these problems, and everyone will be happy. A good game is not developed in one day, but is refined thousands of times. As long as you are patient, everything will work out fine. People are always able to adapt to new changes, clearly evident in my half-decade long journey playing Tanki Online. One day the HTML version will be just as good, if not better, than the flash version, and you can trust me on that.

Sorry if my idea offended you, as I did not intend to do so. I merely suggested the idea of a newsletter that reported on all the things (Be it news, events, eSports) which happed during the fortnightly period. Collecting the latest news in one article could be really helpful, especially towards newer tankers who might not find navigating through the forum so easy. This will give a player an idea of what's happened that week, as well as what's to come.

I'm think of a newsletter that has only 1 or 2 long feature articles, which come from the reporters. The rest of the news are kept very short, and very clear, rather like a 'TL,DR' version of all the latest headlines. If possible, there will also be votes on upcoming updates which the devs announce, and the players get to decide whether it should be added in or not. With that, comes the possiblities of teasers and sneak peaks being in the news, which will interest lots of players. Developers and players can also communicate and share opinions on such a platform, making the community much closer. Also, I'm suggesting giveaways and activites with prizes, which, although not big, will surely attract tons of attention, especially newer players who need the resources and also need friends to play with.

I've recently had a look at the achievements section of the ratings website, and found that near the bottom of the achievement page there are still achievements like 'Get an M3 Firebird' and 'Have all the M3s in your garage', which no longer exists due to the new Mk7 update. Perhaps you can fix this and change it to Mk7? -rus0806

If I get approval and permission to do this and cooperation from other parties of the game (eg. different helper groups, developers etc), I can make a draft of what it should look like, which can show you just how cool it can be.

This idea has always been at the back of my mind - a Tanki Online newsletter. (Boooring!!! no, no, read on, because I can promise you that you will get excited with this idea.) Now I know, there is already a reporters group which does a fantastic job on writting essays and engaging with the community. But sadly, it does not cover all aspects of the game. However, I propose something a tiny bit different yet entirely new - a weekly/fortnightly newsletter that appears not only in the notification bar in the game, but also as a seperate pop-up that you get everytime you log into the game. If it is successful, it can even be 'delivered' to forum PMs, and Emails. It would be formatted like a real newsletter of course, but instead of it being full of still pictures, I'm thinking of a mixture of gifs, videos and pictures which makes it very entertaining. Here's what I propose: Like any newspaper, there would be a politics section, but instead of real world politics, the Tanki Online news paper talks about what the developers are going to do in the future, and if allowed, gossip between players. There would also be a news and announcements section, where all the latest updates, as well as general news gets announced. Furthermore, there would be an events section, where the events calendar would be listed so more people can see it. Also, pictures and videos of events can be put on there to give players (especially newer ones) an idea of what it's like to participate in an event. Then there comes the eSports section, which replaces the real-life 'sports' section. Select articles from the tankisport website can be posted onto there, where viewer can read about latest matches as well as watch videos and see pictures from the matches. There can also be a challenge section, which is like the Sudoku section for a real-life news letter. However, in the Tanki Online version, there can be tank-related word puzzels, mini-challenges and many more ways of getting the community involved. We can even bring back Marc's thinking challenge game, which was great fun if only there were more players involved. Of course, what news paper is there without the ads? Instead of real ads, I'm think of clan recruitments, helper recruitments and other things, which normally isn't realy advocated in Tanki. This allows people from all parts of the Tanki Online community, whether it be an eSports player, or a developer, to come together and enjoy each other's progress. Perhaps we can even allow a feedback section for both the newsletter as well as any categories (eg. Updates, events etc.). Maybe this new interaction between the players and developers will allow developers to get closer with the players, and update the game to give everyone satisfaction and a great experience in-game. (Sorry if there are any errors with grammar, I typed this in a hurry) Let me know what you think! *edit the newsletter can also be in russian. a translator translates the newsletter, and just like how you can change the language of the tanki forum, a button can be implemented to change the language. Therefore, both russian and english players can participate in the same events, allowing people to make new friends. *also there can be a lottery section, where at the end of every week or every fortnight a winner is selected. the prize can be things like paints, containers or crystals. there should also be a requirement for the lottery to go ahead, where there has to be 1000+ players registered in the lottery for it to operate. -rus0806

I am merely giving my opinion, and you can disagree with it if you like. However, I would ask you to be more respectful and not use offensive terms. For the record, a buyer uses their money to gain an advantage, therefore they are investing more into the game than some non-buyers. This means that the buyers still worked hard for what they bought in real life. And please don't start making comments about how rich kids with parents who let them buy things will get everything, because that is the birth lottery and you can't do anything about it.

The reason these are not called alterations anymore is because they don't alter your turret (etc. upgrade some parameters by lowering others). Instead, they are now augments, which increases your abililty to deal damage by much more without many penalties (hence the name augments). Therefore this is more like an additional 'micro-upgrade' for turrets and hulls, which means it should be priced higher than before. So I completely agree with the current prices because it would prevent people who haven't worked hard in the game from having OP equipment.

This update really has some ups and some downs. If you didn't read the patch update, it basically says that nearly all of the alterations for turrets were improved. This means that if you have an alteration already, it's likely to be better than it was before. As for the formatted Pro battle fund update, I don't really like how they restricted funds, but at least it's not like private battles where you get no experience at all. Therefore it's not as bad as it could be, but we can certainly expect the numbers of people playing in these formatted PRO battles decrease significantly.

I wish I was in the northern hemisphere right now, it's starting to get fairly cold now in early May and my fingers are always getting frozen up.

I wish there was a mask paint as well, a fabric patterned paint would look very cool.

Lets see how lucky I am