It looks to me like Tanki is getting kinda desperate. They are attracting a few thousand more players than a couple of months ago (9000 at peaks vs today's 11,000), but I think they must be feeling the pinch from massive player base loss. Hard to keep making money from such a small group with virtually no new players. Sure buyers buy, but a large percentage of buyers (and the whales) have probably come close to maxing out their garages, so they buy much much less...if at all. So Tanki gotta motivate the little fish to buy or become buyers...hence "buy a Battle Pass" if you wanna get paints and augments. With a very finite player base, you have to keep coming up with ways of getting fewer and fewer players to send in money. Flash is done, HTML mostly kinda works OK, why doesn't Tanki do some advertising and get some new blood...it just seems obvious to me. So game economy? My guess is Tanki is more than willing to smirge the game economy in the pursuit of sent in cash. They can always try to band-aid any problems later...but they gotta pay rent and salaries this month.

Did they have to replace the paint and augment with friggin batteries on the silver tier? ...ah well, at least it wasn't more mines. It would have been nice to replace them with a gold box or even double damage, but batteries?

It's a lot of money to lay out for a game, but if you want to be a boss and abuse your fellow freebie players, this would be the time to become a buyer I think. A million crystals goes pretty far even at Legend rank...it's a full Mk8 hull and turret if you upgrade on sales...and if you grab a kit you're golden. Plus, with 200 Ultra containers, you are bound to get some pretty cool stuff. I think some great Tanki fun would be had if you started a new account and added this as a jump start package. You would be OP and maximum Micro-upgrades through every rank if you were somewhat conservative with your equipment and didn't over buy multiple combos of hulls and turrets...awesome for the one or two combo player. I would become a buyer with this package and do the new account thing, but based on the past, Tanki will "Update" something or several things and turn whatever you buy into trash, or they will devise some way to further brutalize the game. So, sadly, no sending in of cash for me...I have zero confidence in Tanki devs and don't trust what they will do in the near and distant future. This package sure looks good as the game is today...but tomorrow, well, I'm keeping my cash. I've been burned by Tanki "Updates" so many times over the last few years.

The majority of players will be playing TDM in all modes. This is the exp they should have shorten battles, not the 6vs6. Tedious is the word that comes to mind for this coming exp, but we will see (like it or not). Heavy Netflix for a couple of weeks :)

Burdened with additional XP again (every weekend) and no sale (again) Please bring back the sales every couple of weeks like you did previously...they were very helpful for the freebie players.

Back to overcrowded battles and spawn-die-spawn-die-spawn-shoot-die-spawn. It was fun playing on my higher ranked account for a couple of weeks, but now it's back to boring again. Too bad Tanki experiments with so many changes at one time. So much change that pretty much everyone hates the overall effect on the game. 6vs6 5 minute battles increased armor increased damaged for some turrets reduced number of maps (only small & mid) I didn't like the increased damage for melee turrets, the reduced number of maps, or the short battles, but I enjoyed the 6vs6 very much and the heavier armor was great since you didn't die as quickly. So what if it takes more to kill an enemy...I think that makes it way more intense and strategic.

"Balance" has very little to do with making equipment balance against other equipment. "Balance" for Tanki means changing the parameters of equipment and even the game itself to promote buying. And you are 100% correct, "it's all about the math". Math as related to Tanki's bottom line; kaching. Tanki gotta make a buck (Ruble).

The best thing about this experiment is the fact that you don't get killed as soon as you spawn. I like the game-play of stronger armor...much much more enjoyable than before the experiment. So overall, i like Tanki more in this experimental mode than the previous original mode. I like the 6vs6 instead of the overcrowded 8vs8. I thought I would hate the short battles, but I kinda like them too. The biggest problem with the short battles is they are NEVER even close to five minutes. Most battles are 3:50 minutes by the time your tank is actually ready to start shooting...and most HTML battles end by 7 seconds to as much as 30 seconds early. So even if you get a quick loading and spawn-in, you are usually only in actual battle for about 3 minutes. This is too short. If you decide to shorten Battle length, I would suggest a compromise of 6 minutes. A big problem with the 5 minute battle is that you spend as much time waiting to get into a battle as being in a battle itself. I timed ten battles by stopwatch and I actually spent MORE time trying to get into battles than playing in battles...quite a bit more time waiting than playing actually. As far a equipment goes, the experiment, if implemented, will change the dynamic of almost all turrets and even hulls...maybe even drones (don't use them, so don't know). this seems to be everyone's biggest complaint so far..."my blah-blah doesn't work as well as it did before the experiment". And they are correct, but this is just another way of Tanki creating "The Churn" to sell more/different equipment. I prefer this marketing technique as opposed to the nerf/buff cycle marketing. With a blanket game changer like this experiment, everyone is in the same boat and needs to adjust their garage...ka-ching. Tanki gotta make a buck and there are fewer players to make it from now, so implementing this Churn inducing experiment seems like a more fair, gentle, honest, and considerate way of getting people to buy more/different stuff/upgrades. My fear is that if Tanki implements this, or a close version of this experiment, they will then adjust all the Missions by making them harder like they did when they doubled battle funds...then doubled (and more) floater missions, crystal acquisition in daily missions and even number of boxes and completing battles (yeah we noticed everything got bumped up..so harder). You now spend lots of time trying to get into battles but at least the battles go quickly and you can knock out your missions somewhat quickly. If mission parameters increase with an implemented experimental mode, it will become horribly tedious trying to complete missions with battle after battle after battle. If the mission parameters increase I think lots of players will just call it quits on Tanki...mostly because to all the waiting to get into a higher number of battles. Do you think that there were less occasions when you were destroyed where you spawned and were consequently completely useless to your team? Absolutely...a great improvement to game-play How did the benefit of well-timed overdrives and drones change? Strangely worded question. Proportionately, I guess. How did the importance of team gameplay change? I felt there may have been bit more team work, but not much...hard to tell with mad Hoppers and Ares slamming into everything all the time. I think the change in the star system is what really helped team play, not shorter and 6vs6 battles Could this experiment change your interest in the game? Yes, most definitely. I am even playing my higher rank account now...first time in a couple of years. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve these changes? 6 minute battles. Don't change mission parameters. Keep 6vs6. More maps. Be gentle with the nerf/buff cycle when responding to "balance" if the experiment or version becomes permanent. Find a way to get players into battles more quickly.

OK, thanks...I'll try it next time I'm in a group. You'd think they would have put that option in the "Group" drop down menu...

How do you leave a group in HTML if you are not the Leader? It was easy in Flash, just click "leave group", but I can't find anything in HTML...only the Leader can disband a group as far as I can find.

Now how can you exaggerate like that? "ONLY drugs" ...pfft ? ...There are mines too ?

I'm pretty sure the whole idea is to coerce you into BUYING a flying cheat and upgrading it. The new Hopper is just a new source of revenue...they don't give a crap about game dynamics...they want people to BUY. Personally I think new OP equipment is a much more honest approach to generating income from players trying to compete than the dirty underhanded unethical nerfing of equipment that players already spent their money or crystals on. I'm also pretty sure this experiment is geared towards the same thing...players will buy different equipment and upgrade it to interface with the new type of game-play that this last update introduced. It's similar to the buff/nerf cycle marketing that Tanki previously employed that kept equipment in a constant state of change and chaos. This new game-play is just more chaos to motivate players to send in more cash. The 6vs6 thing is probably to keep MM able to fill battles with the small player base Tanki is now faced with. This small player base also means they need to squeeze more cash from fewer players so their marketing must be much more aggressive...like massive game changing updates that force many changes in players garages. If they can't keep fewer of us buying all the time they are all looking for new jobs. ...Too bad Tanki ran off those several hundred thousand players they used to have before the incredibly bad idea of MatchMaking was implemented.

Question for all: Has Tanki ever rolled back an experimental update before? Anyone remember...I just don''t remember. Or, is "experiment" Tanki speak for "We are going to implement this permanently, but we wanted to smooth the transition"...kind of like the Flash debacle when they said Flash was to be discontinued Dec 1st then, two weeks later, still in Sept, they made Flash virtually unplayable .

I always seem to be the contrarian, but, during my first few battles, so far I like this update....and I was very very skeptical (as usual) before I started playing.. Low rank battles are not so great but higher rank battles are much better than previously...and no one stays in low ranks very long any more with the outrageous XP. My previous problem with higher ranks was the almost instantaneous death as soon as you spawn in. It used to be spawn-die-spawn-die-spawn-shoot-die with no time to drive around. The only driving you could do was to cross long stretches of boring nothing to get to where you would get instantly one-shotted (example: Massacre). Now with this update the higher ranks are more fun to play again. Scores aren't as high, but I don't really play for score...I play to go up against my fellow Tankers and rumble in pixels. I thought the 5 minutes would be terrible, but the battles are more intense with much more brawling...not completely boring one-shotting, so 5 minutes is not so bad and maybe even OK...a few more days of this experiment will tell. I imagine there are several turrets that will get moth-balled if this update becomes permanent...Shaft is going to take the biggest hit. But it happens to us all eventually in Tanki. I use to be a total Twins/Viking devotee then both Twins and Viking were nerfed into trash for the last couple of years....now they are back and it's Shaft's turn to be worthless. So, yeah, so far so good! Although this does smack of a rather desperate kind of move on Tanki's part. I hope the game can stay afloat.

"I would assume they wouldn't upgrade them for a temporary time anyways" OK, so don't have event maps if they don't have the capability of making them run smoothly. But... ...They already have servers that can handle 130,000 players at a time. They had over 100,000 players online at peak times for years and years and somehow the servers handled the load. So why is it now that everything starts to deteriorate every event with a map at only 8000 players online and by 15,000 players, many many lag like issues almost make the game impossible to play? It's 85000 less players than previously! It has something to do with event maps. It happens every single event with a map. Every single one without exception. Maybe it's not servers, maybe it's something else, but whatever it is, the devs should try to fix it. Next event map (Christmas) it will happen again. Get ahead of the situation and fix it before hand, because the exact same problems will happen again. Today the event map is gone and everything is running smoothly....no event map. Servers, bad coding, whatever, it will occur again with the very next event map so find and address the problem that the event maps cause and correct it or don't have event maps.

Every time there is an event map and the player count goes over 8000 things start to slow down. Now with 14,500 online many things have almost stopped completely. It takes forever to get into Garage and changing equipment is very time consuming. Changing missions is super slow and the Showcase requires a log-out/log-back-in to claim a reward...nothing happens with just a click. Claiming a Daily Mission frequently requires this logout/login process...for every mission! if this were just once or thrice, it would would be excusable, but this happens during EVERY SINGLE EVENT when there is an event map! Tanki knows there will be greater traffic. Why not plan ahead and put on more server power? Why compromise the experience of the extra players that log in for events...maybe they might come back if things ran as smoothly as they do normally. Have an event...add more server power. Or, don't have an event map....SIMPLE!

not a lot of information.... ...building suspense I guess

Does anyone else think this is all getting rather complex and chaotic?

Wow, kind of a drag. The micro-upgrade pages no longer have the very handy, convenient, and very useful "calculate" feature. They are just straight info pages with Excel-like cells. Sadly, you can't even isolate individual columns to copy an paste in your own calculation program. The internal "calculate" feature was a very nice feature....please consider bringing it back to upgrade the micro-upgrade pages. Thank you for bringing back the calculator function...it's very convenient. (Previously there was no announcement about maintenance, sorry if I jumped the gun a bit)

Oh boy! Themed decorations!...how exciting! ...oh yeah, 2X XP and no sale. Well, we can still BUY! ...and BUY ...AND we've been given themed decorations!

Great job on making the lobby interface faster. Previously it was mini-torture to click between Garage, Missions, Showcase, and Containers..it took forever especially if you needed to go between them a number of times. It was one of the biggest problems with HTML over the very fast Flash. Now, after after yesterday, the waiting between functions is minimal (OK, lag still happens to slow it down sometimes, but hey). What a pleasant improvement! It makes 95% of the lobby problems just disappear...poof! It's a different lobby than Flash, but now it's just a matter of getting used to it as opposed to the lobby being highly inferior. Now add Mission access from within battles and HTML will have become a viable substitute for Flash. Good work devs!

Great job on making the lobby interface faster. Previously it was mini-torture to click between Garage, Missions, Showcase, and Containers..it took forever especially if you needed to go between them a number of times. It was one of the biggest problems with HTML over the very fast Flash. Now, after after yesterday, the waiting between functions is minimal (OK, lag still happens to slow it down sometimes, but hey). What a pleasant improvement! It makes 95% of the lobby problems just disappear...poof! It's a different lobby than Flash, but now it's just a matter of getting used to it as opposed to the lobby being highly inferior. Now add Mission access from within battles and HTML will have become a viable substitute for Flash. Good work devs!

So the Small caliber charging machine augment is on the Silver Tier for the back half of Oct's Challenge. I looked around for some opinions regarding this augment, but found none. From it's description, it sounds like this augment turns Thunder into Smoky with some splash damage. What do you think about this augment and is it worth going for?

This new star system is the biggest improvement to the game in a very long time. Not only does it allow Freebies to generate income more easily, it may have a big impact on the cooperation aspect of the game. Players need to no longer be totally selfish and looking only for stars since stars now come to them via missions. i think eventually this might even promote teamwork again. Sadly, Hopper is now the cause of chaos in battles because of it's squirrely, bar-of-soap drive control. All the Hoppers are smashing into everything and everybody since it is fast and difficult to control. This causes a complete breakdown of team members trying to be courteous or thoughtful...it's just bash your way through to your own objective regardless if you push a teammate or knock off his aim. This mindset happens because, if there isn't a Hopper (or Ares) mashing through and fouling up your teamie, there will be one fouling him up in another second or so, so why should you try to be courteous or thoughtful? This annoying behavior will start to heal as Hopper's popularity and newness wears off. They may give Hopper a good nerfing also...as soon as they sell a zillion hulls, upgrades, alts of course...and that would thin the Hopper Herd nicely.

more XP ...they don't even say if it is 2X or 3X...just boosted. We get the stick with no carrot...no weekend no sale/discounts. Lame