Welcome, tankers, to the Newspaper's New Year/Christmas Special! To celebrate Christmas, the Reporter team decided to host a Secret Santa event. Each Reporter was randomly assigned someone whom they were responsible for giving a gift to. Of course, this is a hypothetical piece. Without further ado, let's get right into it! ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Blackdrakon30 (@Flexoo was their Secret Santa) I have this policy of giving nice and useful gifts but since Marc literally held me at the gunpoint to pick something in less than five minutes, I had to pick two less elaborated gifts, one nice and the other one helpful. So the first gift is this drakon model because one does never have enough drakons, amirite? And the second gift is this wonderful correction tape, which Drak will certainly find useful next time he approves topic in the AWS: Our dear Admin seems to be ever-so-subtly suggesting something! Destrod ( was their Secret Santa) I would get him something comic related. Probably a comic guide because I feel like he would be good at creating comics and after all, writing is his passion and so is humour. I would also get him crayons because he acts like a kid sometimes (jk love you). I would buy him a book with the best jokes since he needs new ones likes to make them and I feel like he could spice things up a bit: Just another satisfied customer as a result of this wonderful event. Flexoo (@stanzhang was their Secret Santa) I met Flexoo a year ago, exactly a year ago in December, when he interviewed me for an article which was [Holiday Special] Winter Holidays around the World. A few days later, my application as a Reporter was successful and I was accepted among them. Quite a coincidence. ^_^ Firstly, I knew him as a Reporter, and now he is our Admin. He always uses Bender as a profile picture on Skype, so for Christmas, I decided to make him a handcrafted Bender costume as a present, I hope it suits him (get it?): PS: you should wear it today because today is a gift, that's why we call it the present. Hexed (@Yisroel.Rabin was their Secret Santa) I don't really know Hexed well, so, for that reason, I'll get him a pair of pink, polka-dotted socks because that's what you get for people you don't know very well. :wacko: Nothing quite signifies a close relationship like custom made pink-polka dotted socks! Marc (@Hexed had the almighty honour of being my Secret Santa) I'd give Marc (the legendary) some balloons so he can celebrate something like his birthdays or special occasions anywhere, anytime. These balloons will encapsulate his moment and make it as lovely and colorful as possible. Honestly, a needle for the scares won't be that bad either! As a token of my appreciation, I popped the absolutely horrible very thoughtful gift straight away. Nyx (@Blackdrakon30 was their Secret Santa) Well, considering I don't have to actually give them the gift, I'd give her a penny 'cuz I'm a tightwad piece of my mind because she's new and needs experience. She can have my frontal cortex, considering I'm doing so bad at maths right now, anyway. :c Yes, our loyal team of hunters successfully managed to find a piece of BD30's brain. And yes, that may or may not be a potato. stanzhang (@Marc was their Secret Santa) I have seen that Stan seems to be quite the drone enthusiast, so I'd give him a brand new drone (top of the range). Then, I'd give him some exclusive Parkour lessons with yours truly :rolleyes:, topped off with a new Skype profile pic because his current one sucks: Unfortunately, a new drone would break my non-Admin bank too much, so had to settle for a pro pic instead tweezers (@Vikingsrallentando was their Secret Santa) I'd gift tweezers a pair of toenail clippers. He seemed kinda lonely this year. You rarely see a good personal grooming set that is without a pair of tweezers and a pair of clippers. I hope this will fill any voids in his life and set him up for a fantastic 2018! Lethally precise tools, these don't come cheap! lucky Admin is rich Yisroel.Rabin (@tweezers was their Secret Santa)I would get a bunch of giant letters as a message to him. First, I'd get him: An "M" to symbolise his massive skill; A "U" to symbolise his unlimited supply of jokes; An "L" to symbolise his love for writing and; A "T" to symbolise the truth in the articles he writes for the Dictator. Then, what I'd do is, I'd take those letters and line them up on his lawn, so that every time he goes out, he's reminded of all his talents by the giant letters spelling "MULT" on his lawn: @Marc for Newspaper Designer Candidate? Vikingsrallentando (@Destrod was their Secret Santa) With Flexoo's gradual rise to power within the Reporter Team, a once powerful Viking has been sent to the corner. I am pleased to announce that all these problems will come to an end. Presenting, a real Viking's Helmet. This piece of wonderous metal is a renowned object, necessary for restoring the Honor of a forgotten Viking. Why is it necessary you say? I shall elaborate with the words of every concerned parent on Earth: 'You need a lot of iron in your diet, or else you won't grow strong.' We have retrieved an exclusive image of V'entando trying on his powerful helmet for the first time and a very threatened Flexoo can be seen in the background. Well that was it, tankers! Merry Christmas Happy Holidays, we hope you have a great festive season! That's me done, over and out!

18 hour sleepover? :blink: If you can't make the Quiz, you can't make the Quiz. I purposely made it with an 18 hour window because 24 would be too large and people would easily share answers, causing heaps of extra entries.

The Quiz is open for 18 hours, which seems to be enough. 24 hours is only for Specially Themed challenges. Your school + tuition = 11 hours. Presuming your travel / recreation is 3 hours (being generous here), you still have 4 spare hours to do the Quiz. *goes out for dinner* *returns 18 hours later* Kinda unlikely, isn't it? IRL commitments are important, too.

Easy and will stay open for 18 hours. :)

As cool as the idea and GIF is, I think this would only be bad. It would only keep people in the chat for longer, trying to get the emoji they want, etc.

Oh, alright, I'll leave that if it happens again. I edited a sentence where an "and" was used before the last item in a list. The comma, I can't remember but I think I did.

It depends on the context but is generally not required.

I don't remember confirming that you got everything right? You did get 11/12. You got the Overdrive question wrong. You chose "6" instead of "7." Also, could you please stop with the sarcastic replies? It really is not appreciated, you can ask politely like everyone else is doing, you don't need to belittle people who make mistakes trying to judge hundreds of entries per week, choose the winners and make the next Quiz. This isn't an easy job, contrary to what you guys may think and I am thus prone to making mistakes out of my control.

Approved. Good stuff! Interesting read, good expression. Only a couple of constant mistakes I picked up on - when using quotation marks, it is best to put the comma inside of them, as opposed to outside. For example, “noob,” vs “noob”, It’s grammatically correct to use the first one, I believe but it was so minor that I didn’t touch it. The only other thing was your use of “and.” In some sentences, you made a list where you put “and” before the last item in the list. I fixed it up so it’s all good but just a minor thing. Also, in one sentence you said something like, “it will boost both apprenticeships and science, mathematics, technology and engineering.” I’m assuming you were only going to list two things then went on to list more. Oh yeah, also, don't use commas before a conjunction like "but" or "and." There were also some basic corrections like "star ship" to "starship," "earth" to "Earth," etc. TL:DR; good read, interesting concept and very few mistakes but you had one really big issue that kinda stuffs up your entire piece:

Timing’s a bit strange, isn’t it? Also, that’s a massive income for a single 15 minute battle with 970 score.

There will be but not next week’s challenge.

Stan, heightened funds don’t count.

Just for kicks now?

Well, it felt as though you were forcing yourself to keep writing, instead of just letting thoughts naturally come out. Look, I'm no pro when it comes to writing stories but I'd say there's one of two ways you write a story: You plan it out. Think up a general plot, climax and solution; those are the essentials. You think of a concept, trial it with an introduction and then just let your mind do the rest; just let the ideas come naturally. Both are good options but the second has the most potential. It feels as though you got stuck at some points and ran out of ideas so improvised. If you don't know how to progress through the plot, just take a small break and think it out - don't force yourself to write something else. Anyways, just suggestions, feel free to not take it onboard, I could be completely wrong. :)

Oh God, that green text. It hurts my eyes. :unsure:

Yeah, that can also be done with sentence structure and/or using toned-down alternatives, such as "goon, fool, etc." It's not encouraged to use insults but we don't wanna be too suppressive on creativity. "Crap" is alright but seems somewhat immature, always look for other alternatives if in doubt. :)

There are many, many, common misconceptions regarding our mutual best friend: lag. As a self-proclaimed "lagger," I can certainly vouch for the fact that lag is mostly uncontrollable and almost entirely a disadvantage. My Scenario Living in Australia has many perks but holds one very fatal flaw for playing Tanki Online. Even with a really good quality Internet, the best I can and will ever achieve is a lowest of 155 PING (in Tanki). Generally speaking, my PING stays somewhere between 160 and 175, rarely dipping to 155 and having occasional peaks of 190+ under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, this is completely out of my control. I have played in places with horrible internet, places with brilliant internet, in several different suburbs but still, haven't experienced any major change in the PING. Basically, lag is a concoction of two primary factors: distance from Tanki servers and quality/stability of your gaming platform. The former mostly affects PING whilst the latter mostly affects FPS. I can run Tanki with a steady 58-60 FPS but can never seem to break lower than the 150 PING threshold. This severely affects my gameplay in ways that prove to be unimaginable for one who has never witnessed a PING that steadily remains above 120. Lag is a two-way street Somehow, many believe that I strategically elevate my PING in order to gain an advantage in battles. A PING ranging between 100 and 300 is considered to be minor lag which predominantly affects the user, not enemies. Whereas on the other hand, a PING of 400+ causes heavy disruption, meaning that the disadvantage can potentially be mutual. Whilst lag affects every single form of gameplay, XP/BP is probably the hardest to play with minor/major lags. There are two fundamental forms of lag: FPS and PING lag. FPS-Related Problems FPS issues can be frustrating to many who do not have a good PC, but it is possible to improve FPS, unlike PING. FPS is the frame rate that the computer is displaying your game at. The more powerful the computer (in terms of your graphics cards, RAM, Processor Speed), the more frames it can render per second. Lower display settings (mip-mapping, shadows, lighting) all make it easier for the computer to render the frames, so the rate goes up. Server problems can cause you to move from one frame where a Railgun is facing you and in the next frame, they've already shot you. Another common example is the Twins/Ricochet projectile "glitch" caused when you suddenly jump from one frame to a later frame, causing half a dozen projectiles to hit you in a few seconds. Sometimes, when Tanki itself is witnessing heavy traffic, players' FPS may be normal but the game experiences server problems commonly seen with low FPS. An example of low FPS affecting gameplay is shown below: Excuse the different filters, this was taken from an old edited video of mine As you can imagine, when these things happen in important moments, it can be extremely difficult to pull off a shot as you do not see the enemy moving normally. What you are witnessing is an unrealistic delay in between events, where frames are missing, so you don't get to see the entire picture. This could be compared to looking at a semi-complete jigsaw puzzle with pieces missing and trying to put it together. FPS is affected by a number of variables, including the graphics enabled, additional programs running in the background on your device and the computer's processing power. To run Tanki smoothly, you need to know how to balance your needs and wants with practicality. You may need to cut back on certain aspects such as graphics, Mip-Mapping and Skyboxes in order to make gameplay smoother. Yes, this can cause the game to look ugly, very ugly in fact, but you need to make sacrifices according to the limitations of your platform. Some computers can easily run several programs at a time, without any kind of issues. This is because of RAM (Random Access Memory). If you have a high amount of RAM installed in your computer, you can run several programs in the background without affecting the speed in which your computer processes actions. However, if your computer's RAM is inadequate when compared to the tasks you are forcing it to run, it will simply fail. It is like asking a person whose maximum workload is 100 kilograms to lift more than 100 kilograms -- it just will not work. Finally, the computer's Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) is another critical factor that affects FPS. If your computer's GPU is insufficient, you will not be able to have uninterrupted play. A good way indicator as to how your computer is handling playing Tanki is to check your FPS count at the bottom right hand of your screen. The FPS spectrum ranges from dark red to light green. Dark red shows that your FPS is critically low, whilst dark green shows that you're in the clear. PING-Related Problems PING issues are very different, however. PING lag is different to that of FPS lag. FPS lag only affects the user witnessing the problems whilst PING can be mutual. A PING in between 100 and 300 is notable, but minor. Minor PING lags mostly affect the user experiencing the lag, as people with a low to medium PING have a massive advantage over them. XP/BP frequently disadvantages players with a PING of 100 - 300. In almost every single battle I play, I am shot through walls, in a location half a second prior to where I actually am, can only deliver flags a few seconds after actually passing the flag, unable to knock off enemies' aim, unable to flip enemies, get shot by enemies first (despite having actually shot first, myself), et cetera. If you just read the list of frustrating situations I mentioned above and thought "hey, that isn't sooo bad, those noob high-ping players should stop complaining," well, hate to disappoint you, but that was just XP/BP battles. All the aforementioned points also happen in non-format battles and many more. I am not even joking when I say this: every single turret can hit me behind a wall. Yes, even Striker and Magnum (though it's much harder with a Magnum). Below are just two examples of me being hit by turrets whilst being "safely" hidden behind a wall (or so I thought): Yes, those shots did do damage and no, it isn't photoshopped. As I mentioned, those are just two examples. Shaft is arguably the most annoying, due to the huge amounts of damage it does. Elaborating on the points above, as you can see in the previous image, I sometimes take damage from a location that I was some time ago. Even though it's maybe a 0.2 - 0.5 second delay, it's a huge difference that has accounted for thousands of my deaths. This may seem rather confusing, so if you still don't understand, refer to this fantastic GIF for a great explanation (not my GIF, I don't take credit for it). Additionally, due to my distance from the servers, even small things such as capturing/returning flags is delayed by a fractional, but crucial few seconds. I've slowed the GIF below down for you to see how long it takes the capture to actually register. Note the fact that I am nearly past the flag when the capture registers. Yes, it is just a few seconds of a delay but that is more than enough time to change the course of a game in leaps and bounds. It could decide the match-winning (or losing) capture, you get the point. Of course, this not only applies to flags but even Gold Boxes, the Rugby ball, other tanks... and so on. To conclude, I'd like to acknowledge that some people do intentionally do things to hike their PING in order to gain an advantage but that doesn't mean that every single person with a PING higher than 100 is doing it intentionally or trying to gain an advantage. I hope this article successfully managed to debunk any myths and misconceptions about lag or laggers. I hope this article clarified and shed some new light on the controversial topic of lag. I hoped you enjoyed this piece, and, as always... later, mults!

It is not supposed to be ending anytime soon.

Approved. I was rather reluctant to approve this piece due to the amount of swearing in it. Yes, we were a bit lenient on the swearing with Hippin's previous article but I think this profanity was too blatant. Anyways, there were a few corrections: Text changed to Trebuchet MS 14 (standard text) One instance where you said "MC fell backward" should be backwards. I would avoid saying "even God couldn't ..." because that's just not right. I changed it to say "he was unrecognisable" One sentence read "he ducked behind a tree" which doesn't quite make sense. I instead said, "he managed to find cover behind a tree." I understand that this kinda kills the hype but if you really wish, you can change it to something like, "he leapt for cover and hid behind a tree." There were quite a few sentence rephrases as there was quite a bit of swearing. I replaced some words with milder alternatives, such as "goons." Onto the piece itself - it was alright but felt somewhat forced. The expression in the text sometimes just didn't seem right. I'd have completely rephrased a lot of it but then that would be me doing the piece, not you. Also, I'd avoid going with names like "MC" and stuff because it just doesn't feel right calling someone by an abbreviation. Unless it's supposed to stand for something important?

There's another easy way to fix this issue. This issue always happens with Google Docs to Forum, I've not a clue why. Just paste everything as it is (presuming it's only text, pictures won't work well if copy-pasted, they first must be uploaded to an image service) and then press the eraser icon on the post box, it's the second icon from the top left. It will change everything to "normal" text. By "normal" (aka. default) we mean the generic grey which can be done by going to the colour button on the post editor (the button next to the smiley face) and clicking the grey next to "Automatic." However, I'd strongly recommend simply using the "Clear Formatting" Forum tool:

Completely forgot about this topic lol

Also, no one is actually forcing you to read it. If you’re an easily scared person just don’t read it. :d

Yup. There will be an increase. I knew the amount of 12/12’s and stuffed up counting the 11/12’s then just subtracted their totals. I’ll fix later, not major. Btw, you got everything right, just unlucky not to get picked.

And TTC Official. :ph34r: It'll be difficult, no doubt but where's the fun in not having a challenge? ^_^

Well, I've finished one article already and drafting two more. Regarding AWC, not sure, still undecided but Flex and I are coming to an agreement. As of now, I'm just in-charge of Proofreading and normal Reporter Duties. ^_^