Approved. Wow. That was some amazing plot development: a wave of action culminating into an emotional turning point for the story. It has to be one of the best installments of the series, and as mentioned earlier, it will definitely change the direction of the story. I can't wait to see what comes next! Edits: removed a few commas.

Project finished, rankup done like the post now, it's the weekend and I have tons of essays but little homework, so let the approvals commence!

? I'm a big bot now ? ? ? and by the way, just so I don't flex too hard, you don't get to see the front of my lovely tank >:) Thanks @Do.Or.DiE for the lovely spec footage ?

Wow. I never knew titles could be that long.

? Congrats to @Vegas on becoming a full eSports helper. Great work!

Approved. Yessss...another Tankiroll more prank topics to link players to on April Fool's Day Great work, I have to say that this is definitely one of the best parodies (and one of the best songs to parody, by the way) Of course, there were no edits to speak of, being that this is a flawless song parody. My psychic senses tell me that you'll do really well on the next Tanki Parody contest! Edits: None, as stated above.

Congrats @SniperSh0t on becoming RaS candidate. Good luck with your candidacy ?

Hello everyone! Welcome back to another contest - Bracket Masters. Will you be the one to take the grand prize not the actual CCXIII prize pool? Try your luck with this contest! ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I originally didn't think this contest would happen, but thankfully, Tanki Online blessed us with an experiment that delayed eSports for two weeks. So here we have it - Bracket Masters! It's simple: just guess the winner of each match and win some awesome prizes! Task: All you need to do is take a copy of this bracket of mine and fill out your predictions for the winners. This bracket also gives you some directions for where to place each team. Use an image-editing program to write in the names of the teams, for example, the template is attached below. Then once you have filled the bracket in with the winners, just simply upload it to an image hosting service, get the link, and enter it on the Google Form. Rules: 1. Enter with one account only. 2. It's just one rule; please follow it. 3. Joke's on you - I've got one more rule. Enter your response in this Google Form or else your entry won't count. Cheers! Prizes: Each entry adds 7 500 crystals and 1 container into the jackpot. The person(s) who guess the bracket correctly, or is closest to guessing the winner of each match, will receive the total amount in the jackpot (if there are multiple winners, then it is split evenly between all of the winners). Everyone who guesses the winner of the tournament correctly will also receive a prize of 7 500 crystals. It's a quick contest, so remember to turn in your entries before 20 November to be eligible to win these crystals. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Good luck and may the best team win Clan Championship XIII!

Hello, this might be an off topic discussion that shouldn't be happening in newspaper. Regardless, what do you need help with?

That's all for now; I've covered just about anything and everything from this recent livestream. There were definitely some great answers and insightful information, including some development plans, so I hope you'll learn something new and interesting about the game. Be sure to keep up to date on the game to see when some of these changes happen. If you missed out on the livestream or want to watch it again, just simply look down here and catch up on everything: Anyways, that's enough from me; enjoy watching and thank you for reading!

Beep beep boop boop... ?

Miscellaneous As usual, a few questions didn't quite fit any of the larger topics discussed above or were not as significant, but they're still worthy of knowing for a fun fact or two. Nevertheless, they can still be informational, and we do have plenty of them, so check them out. First up: gameplay. Some wondered if another game like Tanki X or Tanki 2.0 would be on the table. But given that Tanki is still actively functioning, there isn't any point of developing a second game so similar to the original. Citing Tanki X's eventual closure, developers noted that this side project didn't end well, so they aren't planning any similar games in the near or distant future. And of course, as we talk about gameplay, why not get into the game sounds. The sounds for Striker and Vulcan seem lower-quality according to players, and melee turret sounds (like Firebird and Freeze) are simply too quiet when compared to louder turrets such as Magnum. Developers mentioned that the producer of these sounds has not changed; perhaps, his tastes in sound has changed, leaving some different sounds for Vulcan and Striker. While for the quieter melee turret sounds, they believe it could be due to reconfiguring the sounds from Flash to HTML5 - these can be easily fixed. Moving from sound to visual effects, Isida's shot effects render its attacking beam a different color, but the healing color stays the same. This is because having a different color for healing effects could be potentially confusing - if an Isida shoots a foreign beam at a player, they'd need to think whether it was a teammate or enemy. Next up, the infamous "Finish in the Top 3 of the winning team" mission, especially the notorious weekly mission, which requires players to accomplish this tough task a whopping 15 times. Developers revealed the intent of the mission was to make sure players go into battle competitively, instead of just mindlessly collecting supply boxes or wasting Overdrives. There's no definitive plan to change this mission as of yet, but hopefully, it might be altered towards Top 3 in any team. Speaking of missions, players believed weekly missions should be replaced with a new one once finished. Developers, however, have their own system - they track when a players starts playing and it resets accordingly. Additionally, the above idea has been tried before, but it caused server instability, so the current system is how weekly missions will continue to work. Up next on the menu, fan paints - this time, not the country paints haunting container drops, but rather the more coveted clan paints, such as "Peppers", "Synergy" or "Vavilon". Unfortunately, they won't be returning to containers - they were only meant to be in the game during Clan Championship season and won't be readily available for players who missed out on them. Also up there with the paints was the addition of more Legacy, Ultra, Prime, and Demonic Skins. Developers said they weren't planning any new ones at the moment, but the idea is there. Finally, players wanted to know what programming languages the developers use, and they are: Java, Kotlin, React + Redux, WebGL / OpenGL. Well, now that these final questions have been answered, let's wrap it up.

Ideas and Suggestions As usual, players had plenty of ideas and suggestions for the developers, and in turn, they have assessed some of the best ideas out there. Some will be coming soon, while others are considered more long-term features, and still others have been declined for some simple reasons. Let's take a look at the ideas and the developers' responses. Planned Improvements/Additions New Hulls New hover hulls are definitely coming - they're one of the higher priority items, especially for mobile players. Tesla/New Turrets Though they are on the list of items to look out for, they aren't going to come anytime soon. There is already a ready concept for Tesla, but given that the priority is hulls right now, it's just going to have to wait. Improved Graphics Lighting effects on maps, such as the one on Rio, will become mainstream. Additionally, once everything there is done, more features will be added, such as shot glow effects, 3D effects, and some other surprise features. Potential Features Exchange of Supplies Mechanism This popular idea, where supplies could be exchanged for other supplies, was revealed to be a potential feature coming to the game, but it's currently in the backlog as more important ideas take the stage. Blocking Flags (Preventing the opposing team from scoring) when one team doesn't have enough players Developers admitted that the idea is much harder to implement in reality than as an abstract idea. However, it is in their backlog of ideas. More Detailed Player Statistics These will likely replace the more outdated ratings page. Custom Modded Interface/Themes for the Interface Developers expressed interest for one of the two; perhaps a custom modded interface if everything is legal. Equipping 2 Hull Augments at the same time Random Effects for Mines Declined Ideas New Supplies (like those from the "Test Box" videos) There are currently enough supplies in the game; however, if you look at today's mechanics, some of the features from these "Test Box" videos live on (e.g. Hovering Hulls; Noob Hat, which allows you to drop a bomb, and now, Wasp drops a bomb as its overdrive) New Maps + Maps from Tanki X New maps will be made at the developers' discretion, while maps from Tanki X were made on a different engine, so they are not going to be easy to adapt to Tanki Online. Voice Chat Though it was suggested as a feature to come, it won't be coming. Discord already takes some time to load, so imagine what it would be like on Tanki, especially for those with weak PCs. For now, using Discord is the only feasible option. Account Merging Developers did think there was some sense to the idea, but given that there could be issues with giving it to mults, hackers, or friends, the idea was nixed. JGR mode in PRO battles The biggest issue was that JGR could be abused in PRO battles as with Fire/Wasp format, so it won't be added anytime soon. The main goal of the developers seems to be further developing ease of access through hovering hulls to cater to mobile players while bringing the quality of graphics up in HTML5, then working on fine-tuning and adding better features. It'll be great to see some of these ideas in action soon. With these out of the way, it's time to break down some of the smaller, additional questions.

Mobile Since its introduction just a couple of years back, Tanki Mobile has become one of the biggest sources of new players as well as a great way to play on-the-go. And in the past year, mobile has become stable, smooth, and much easier to play. However, this lite version of the game doesn’t quite have the full-fledged features of the client. Additionally, it’s been a while, and the iOS version of the game has still not rolled out. For iOS, the issues mentioned previously (needing a new coding language suitable for iOS) seem to be resolved; all that needs to be done is to start working on it. Unfortunately, it won’t be releasing anytime soon as it’s more of a larger long-term project. Expect to see work on the iOS version start sometime next year. Meanwhile, let’s look at how the Android version has changed. One of the two biggest planned features touted in the previous livestream, the battle chat, has found its way into Tanki Mobile. But for PRO battles, given that they are a lot less popular nowadays, it seems like developers are more on the fence about adding them in. The next big issue: further developing the mobile version. In the past year, many of the major bugs and concerns have been addressed; now, it’s time for some fine-tuning. First up, optimized graphics. The game doesn’t quite work on all Android phones at the moment, but developers hope to continue to optimize the graphics. And following the release of 3D bushes on the client, the feature is planned to be added into the game. Next and last, the mobile garage. Though there’s little chance of HTML5 and mobile having the same lobby design as requested, developers are planning to implement some features from the HTML5 version to the mobile version to make these two versions look more similar, but that’s more of a long-term plan. It seems like the mobile version has improved greatly since the last Q&A session with the developers; all that’s left is some minor fixes for the Android version, and hopefully, an iOS version hitting the App Store sometime soon. Moving on, we'll take a look at some features and changes to come.

Economy As always, the game economy is ever-changing. During this past year, we saw some large changes come to the game in terms of the economy recently - Coinboxes, Ultra Containers, the Shop showcase, quite a few big changes to the game economy. As usual, each change with a barrage of player feedback, whether positive or negative. In chronological order, according to the updates, we come to the infamous augments update. This change caused a wave of rage among players when they found out that these anticipated Hull Augments wouldn’t be coming to garages - they’d be placed in containers. Though they were quickly added for purchase, these new augments still cost a hefty sum of Tankoins. Unfortunately for free-to-play players, they’ll always be available exclusively for buyers, but if you cannot afford them, they are available to obtain in the biweekly challenges. Next up, Crisis came, and again, it was placed exclusively into Ultra Containers. Developers reiterated that it was exclusively for containers, so it won't be available, even for monetary purchase, anytime soon. This was done in order to keep things interesting; players show a greater interest in containers if there are hard-to-obtain or even exclusive content inside them. However, don't feel too bad - there may be a slim chance that Crisis may show up as a shop showcase or special offer, but that isn't guaranteed. And with the release of Hopper, players were shocked to see the hull go live on an "Early Access" deal, then right after they had gotten their hands on it, it was sold for crystals in the garage. First up, the dilemma of selling Hopper for crystals: Hopper was made to help mobile players; to force them to pay an outrageous sum just to get better gameplay would be ridiculous. That begs the question: why was it even sold for money in the real place? Developers only had one comment to note, saying that it was just how the early access system worked. In the future, Early Access offers will be here to stay, so if you want some of the hottest new equipment, you'll have to pay a bit, or you can wait it out to get a chance to buy it in the garage. A quick note: to those who may not be aware, crystal boxes have been brought back to the game as highly requested. However, there are a few slight changes: Available at low ranks only - they are in battles where the lowest rank possible is Sergeant-Major. Crystal boxes now replace supply drop boxes in the above battles. Each crystal box provides 10 crystals as well as a comparable amount of experience. And before I wrap it up here, here are just two more small points: New containers - to be added if players want them. Coinboxes - 1 Box for 30 Tankoins option was removed for undisclosed reasons. As the year passes, it seems that the economy has changed greatly in the past year. Some of these changes do cater to people who prefer to buy, but again, developers have reiterated: without buyers, there would be no game. Next up, we'll be covering the changes in Tanki Mobile.

Word on the street is that Marcus has infinite reactions; did you see how many ? he posted? Also, irrelevant but I've gotten more stars than I've ever received in total throughout my entire playing career ?

Matchmaking Balance plays out on the Matchmaking field, and of course, that's where we're headed next. As players grew accustomed to the system, they learned to work with Matchmaking to thrive. However, they still had a lot to say about the most pervasive issues left in the system. Let's hear what the developers have in mind to change some of the most bothersome aspects of Matchmaking. Of course, the most requested feature: removing bad maps and the freedom to choose. Will there be an option to choose a matchmaking map like in CS:GO? Short Answer: Most likely, no. Next up, let's bring up Matchmaking groups. Regular players have faced off against veteran players from First League clans, and that humiliating 0-5 loss was too much to live down. To bring some balance into the match, are there plans to divide Matchmaking into Solo and Groups? Short Answer: Not at the moment, but there may be some balance tweaks regarding groups in Matchmaking to come in the future. Now that the biggest questions are out of the way, let's take a look at some of the smaller changes that might be coming to the Matchmaking system. One of the big issues discussed was the removal of larger maps. While developers were more undecided about it before, they have now launched an experiment removed the aforementioned maps and focusing on 6v6 gameplay as opposed to 10v10. The experiment began 4 November and will remain in effect for two weeks; after this, large changes to MM and game balance are expected to come. There were two smaller ideas and suggestions; let's take a look here: Adding new gamemodes - Declined for now. Developers are split between the decision, but for now, there are currently enough gamemodes. Fixing Overdrive Recharge in Juggernaut - Completed. This error is now fixed. Matchmaking seems pretty stable as is right now, but of course, there are some issues with balance. We'll see how that plays out in the experiment, but for now, let's move on to game economy.

Balance Ensuring game balance is no easy task: with every single update comes a shift in the game, either tipping the scales in favor of a certain "meta" or pushing towards some sense of equilibrium. And let's not add the element of surprise - sometimes, update intended to help a weak hull end up overpowering it, or maybe a new update backfires and makes everything too strong. In short, to hold the game in even a precarious state of balance, is just difficult. There's a lot on our minds as we speak of balance: Augments being overpowered, drones devouring supplies, and of course, the infamous Vulcan-Incendiary Band-Heat Immunity meta. We'll be taking a few big questions and moving on to some discussion about these changes. First off, we're talking about Augments were created to change the gameplay of the turret, so why is the "Adrenaline" augment so powerful and it takes anything away from the user? Same about the hull augments. Short Answer: It is expected; Augments improve your turret, not just change the gameplay. Because of these augments, there's now an overpowered and science-defying meta: Vulcan-Incendiary Band-Heat Immunity. When will you fix it? Short Answer: It's unlikely that it'll be fixed. Developers also discussed changes to hulls: in the short term, changes to Wasp, Titan, and Mammoth are coming, while in the long term, as usual, changes will be happening to every hull as the goal is to retain balance. However, given that there's little known about future updates and even less about the impact on the different hulls, there are no specific hulls set to undergo changes in the long term. Next up, a question posed about drones' supply consumption. Lifeguard is well known for its repair-kit draining abilities, consuming three of them in a single save. Though developers did not explicitly agree to reduce the number, citing that the effect is equivalent to three repair kits, they do believe that each drone should consume the same amount of supplies. That may be a bit controversial, as some drones are much better than others (Saboteur and Miner, for example), which would only decrease the value of these less powerful drones. Another topic on the table was the change of some in-game dynamics. Hulls won't be going any faster, but just this week, an experiment began where the health of hulls doubled, while the damage done by melee turrets also increased, so that's something to look forward to. With balance covered, let's move to the main battleground where it is tried and tested: Matchmaking.

Interface The age-old question: HTML5 or Flash? As Flash dies out, the answer is decidedly HTML5 for most players, but some are still holding on, hoping that the legacy of Flash Tanki will live on. With HTML development plans underway, developers let us know what’s next for Tanki’s future interface. Let's see what they have to say. First up, the biggest question. With HTML5 becoming the mainstream platform for the game, will you add the old interface to the settings? Short Answer: It’s unlikely that it’ll be added. Well, it seems that the HTML5 interface is here to stay. Well, for those of us who can't let go of Flash, will there be closed ahead of time? Short Answer: No. Let's also discuss some smaller fixes and additions that might be added. Players were insistent that even if not all of the features from Flash could be added, maybe some of the smaller ones might be able to be part of HTML5's interface. One of the biggest features was the ability to check missions progress and friends in battle. Developers didn't deny it upfront, but they did mention some concerns about having players being labeled as inactive because they were checking, especially given that battles are increasingly shorter. For now, it's in the backlog; perhaps it will be a feature someday. Now, moving on to some points regarding some optimization, fixing, and new features in HTML5. As of right now, Shaft's controls when aiming is very difficult to get used to on HTML5. Here, the developers admit there are a few problems with the scoping at the moment - they're not behaving as they should. For now, their priority is to fix the mouse controls as it is easier to use Shaft with mouse. However, if you're a fan of keyboard sniping, you may just want to either get used to HTML5 or play with mouse; the developers plan to focus on the mouse controls and it doesn't seem that there will be any fixes to the keyboard controls coming anytime soon. And if you're a parkour aficionado, then you must be familiar with secret rooms - hidden platforms and little rooms in various maps only accessible by a secret formula. A highly requested feature by players, secret rooms are to make a grand return on HTML5 once migration is finished, so keep an eye out for that! HTML5 has improved a lot from the last time the developers had a chat with us, and it seems like it's only on its way up! Moving on, the next biggest issue in the game - the omnipresent issue of game balance.

And we wonder how the project became urgent ?

General As usual, players had some burning questions regarding the game as a whole - and the developers brought us some detailed and in-depth answers. These responses brought tons of insight into the current state of the game, so be sure to check these out. Of course, it may be hard to swallow, so for these bigger questions, I’ll be providing a “Short Answer” section, where the question will be answered in brief. In the spoiler below, you can find the full answer and explanation. Now, enough delaying; here are their responses. When will you remove or reduce the pay-to-win factor? Short Answer: Unfortunately, that simply isn’t possible. When will another WAR like "Domination" or "Stolen Christmas" come to Tanki Online? Short Answer: Not in the near future, but it may return later. Why are you killing Flash? It is very good for weak PCs. Short Answer: Tanki isn’t killing Flash; Flash is highly outdated and being discontinued by Adobe. Why are some augments not working? I bought a Magnum augment a long time ago, it is equipped, but not working. Why does this problem appear and will you fix it? Short Answer: If you’re talking about Magnum: The augment has changed; it is working properly. If you’re asking from a couple of weeks prior to the livestream: There was a problem; it should be fixed now. Will you add a new Zombie gamemode on Halloween? You said you wanted to. Short Answer: No, it isn’t possible yet. Speaking of gamemodes, we really liked the Hopper-Railgun mode. Are you going to add such modes? Short Answer: Possibly. How do you rate the efficiency of a certain update? Short Answer: We use our own analytics as well as players’ feedback. It's not a secret that you receive the majority of crystals/coins,etc. from anything but not the main function of the game - battles. Is it intentional? Is it really how games should evolve? Is it normal that the main part of in-game earnings come from additional things like containers, missions, challenges or it is just a temporary measure to not let the game die? Short Answer: Yes, it was intentional. When will you remove the increased experience in the battles? I am ranking too fast! Short Answer: Not as of now and it is unlikely it will be removed. Why did you destroy PRO battles? Be honest. Short Answer: The majority of resources are given to Matchmaking as they are more popular than PRO battles. However, should they become more popular, more resources will be given to it. Have you ever thought of creating a new hull with wheels, as opposed to tank tracks or floating mechanics? Short Answer: Yes, but we went with hovering hulls. A few questions about Hopper: first, why doesn't mass affect the height of the jump? Also, why is the jump not relative to the map? Short Answer: The finished version of Hopper is different from the original concept. Why did you make the game easier? Adapting it for [young] children? Short Answer: Some of the aspects of the game are difficult to master, so those were made easier. Besides, the game is meant to be played by children as well as adults. These were some very insightful answers, giving clarity on the game situation now and to come. Up first on the agenda, we cover the controversial debate that has been haunting players and developers alike for months - the game interface.

Had some burning questions for Tanki? Well, just a few weeks ago, our CM Marcus took all the biggest queries we all had and gave us the lowdown on some of the hottest questions asked by players all right on a livestream chat with the community. In this two and a half hour long stream, dozens of players’ biggest concerns, complaints, and ideas were answered by the developers, and it’s safe to say we have quite a lot of insight into Tanki’s future. For those of you who might have missed out on the stream or just couldn’t wrap your head around all that was discussed, well, this recap is just for you. If you're looking for a specific section, click on the handy links to navigate there: General Interface Balance Matchmaking Economy Mobile Ideas and Suggestions Miscellaneous

Congrats to @Sacrifice on becoming a proofreader candidate. Best of luck on your candidacy ? We meet again ?️

Again, I hate to ruin the mood, but as of right now, school is quite busy for all of us, but usually, I can manage a few approvals a week. However, I have a very urgent and important project in Tanki, so I will mostly be unavailable to approve articles. Should you need to have them approved, please PM and I will try to get to them within 48 hours. Thanks for your understanding.

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