I just want to say I'm a big fan of the idea of changing the splash screen for special events and the like ! I hope we get more of that.

Not gonna lie, at first the shift to 15 minutes felt too long. But over time I've grown to like and in fact prefer the longer battle time for one simple reason. In 7 minutes, the outcome of the battles was heavily dependent on luck and required to rush all the time. In 15 minutes, not only does the better team generally win, but the possibility of a turnaround exists.

There seems to be a significant degree of response to the shaft changes. I dare think it's fairly likely that it gets reworked again? Like when augments were removed from the garage altogether and they were added back fairly quickly... these things do happen. One can dream, I suppose. In any case I agree with TheCongoSpider's suggestions. At the very least, arcade shots should be stronger. It doesn't make sense to reduce the power of sniping shots *and* arcade shots at the same time. Sure the range was buffed, but it feels like the turret is underpowered in general, so I don't think the changes were properly balanced.

Ok re-reading myself and now that I think about it… maybe the real difference I’m feeling with shaft is that before you had to choose and commit to either one of two strategies: rush in with arcade shots or stay back with the sniper. Now that choice has been removed altogether. Which makes it technically simpler, even if it’s a challenge of its own.

I mean I agree for the most part it wasn't an issue. With LC the reload felt almost instantaneous with or without arcade shots. But in some cases like close range confrontations or when using Healing Emitters it felt like a problem, where at least in my experience choosing between quick-scope or aracde shots can make a fair difference, plus it requires pretty different tank movements (either stay back or rush in). I don't have any video examples to support my case though. But I agree at the end of the day this only became an issue because of the crazy long reload time. If they had made the change in energy consumption while retaining the old reload time I don't think it would've made a huge difference.

I see it as a benefit because previously the arcade and sniper shots were competing for energy. You had to balance out whether to use arcade shots to finish off an enemy (and wait longer for the sniper shot), or duck and wait for the sniper shot to come back. Now that whole decisionmaking process has been scrapped, arcade shots have no cost and in fact are your only option for 10 seconds. It’s not enough to offset the new reload time, but in itself it’s a benefit and makes the strategy simpler in a way.

Shaft has become a strange turret indeed--I mean it's still the same but the changes really change the feel and approach to it. I'm really happy for the increased range of arcade shots, it's pretty sweet to no longer have to go all the way up against your opponent to do maximum damage. It's kind of surreal to not have to calculate whether it's best to shoot some arcade shots and lose energy or wait for full charge--Now for 10 seconds all you have to do is arcade shots. No decision to make, the scope is charging on its own. It's actually kind of relaxing. As At_Shin said though, now every sniping shot feels extremely precious. I used to do blind scopes a lot before the update (driving to an angle and charging just before you reach it), but I guess we won't be doing that as much anymore. My biggest question now is whether the LC/Shaft/Hornet combo is still viable. I haven't got to try it yet since the update. I'm just not sure whether these change actually help active gameplay or not. It's good to reduce the efficiency of camping shafts, but it also makes quick-scoping and blind scoping not super viable. I'm almost wondering if it would not be worth introducing a new version of Light Capacitor with even lower damage but much faster reload?.....

For me, as others have already pointed out, the strategy has been to capitalize on multiple accounts. I have currently 4 active accounts, 11 counting the semi-active ones. It's the best way I've found to offset 1) the cost of equipment 2) the speed of ranking up and 3) the rate of free containers. And I perform pretty well in general. While we talk a lot about the container-only equipment, the reality is that there are many viable options available for crystals, and you have to capitalize on those. To give an example, when Tesla came out for f2p, I took out this account which previously had been there just to accumulate free containers, and was able to level up pretty quickly and succesfully. Of course the fact I was playing low ranks and the broken turret helped a lot, but it shows what is possible in theory. At the same time, my top 2 accounts are Legend 15 and Legend 5 respectively, and I have container-only augments and maxed out drones and combos on both (while being completely non-buyer mind you). Maybe having access to that reduces the frustrations I'd have otherwise, and someone who's still working to level up might find it much less enjoyable. So maybe my experience is biased. One recent change that's definitively very annoying is the protection slots for tankoins, since it means you have to get the weekly containers and challenge rewards i.e. play daily with the account. I can see that becoming an annoyance when creating a new account now. But it's not insurmountable either, and protections are less important at low ranks anyways...

So at last it has happened. Crisis is the uncontested most powerful drone. No more competition from those pesky free to get drones. This is going to be an.. interesting shift.

My bad, I used the wrong word. I did mean charging time, not reload time.

I don't know if it's only my perception, but it seems like since the reload time was buffed, shaft has become a lot more common. And it also feels like more people at least attempt to do quickscopes and not camp. Those two things have made it more annoying to go against than before. But I don't think it's overpowered, it can be easily countered by mid and long range turrets, if not other shafts. It's just that short range turrets are helpless against it, which was already the case before.

I think some kind of ranked MM would be ideal to address the frustrations of players who try to play the game and are held back by bad teammates, feel like they have no chance and which as we all know leads to runners quitting and unsatisfying battles for those who stay. (of course there is the opposite problem of those who leave any game where they aren't leagues above their opponents--but that's another story). In my opinion though a ranked MM should not incorporate GS altogether. It's not fair to stop players with a strong garage from using it. More importantly, GS is not a measure of how good a player is, and anyone with experience in current casual MM knows there are 9000s out there who are campers or complete trash and 6000s who manage to compete with Legends. I think there should just be an allocation of points and levels like you propose, but without taking GS into account. This way players end up being paired with players whose combination of equipment and skill makes them equal. I'm willing to bet though that ranked MM will never happen, because it would be the equivalent of creating addtional game modes, and we already know the devs are reticent to this because there isn't a large enough playerbase to split people more...

If it gets upgraded with Wasp’s upgrades then it can work. But if the OD becomes an independently upgraded parameter in addition to upgrading Wasp, then it would be a problem. It would be yet another thing we’d have to invest crystals in, and another disadvantage for f2p players. Right now ODs have the distinction of being one of the few things (if not the only) all players get equally, buyers and non-buyers alike, and I would obviously prefer that not to change.

A bit of a general comment, but while I agree it's important to take part in multiple communities so as to not get too bogged down or affected emotionally by a single one, just because you think there are more worthwhile games out there doesn't mean someone else cannot find this game fun, so I wouldn't say playing Tanki is part of the original poster's problem.

There’s one thing I didn’t understand well in your comment. Are you saying that the community is bad only on the non-Russian side, and that it’s fine on the Russian side?

I would suggest instead start at the level of the lowest player at the time of joining. This way the new player doesn't get an unfair advantage over someone who was already in the game.

One question, if a player is selected to play in the battle, do they have to equip the “for players” paint, or can they have the “for developers” paint? :P

Cool. Even if the chances of being of those selected will be very slim, I suppose a prize of 1500 tankoins is a good reason to sign up regardless.

My opinion is if you've played the game last year you know what to expect overall, but it will feel more chaotic. To me, the biggest changes are shards, container exclusive augments, and the drones. - Shards enable you to get so much more crystals and supplies than before, so much that if you don't play a lot (i.e. just doing the missions) you will have a lot of them at all times, even at low ranks. - The philosophy of augments and by extension gameplay has changed a bit.. Some turret augments can cancel your protections, stun you, or remove your supplies. There are also ultra rare augments. All of these are explicitly overpowered, but you can only get them by luck. The game is basically relying on their "rarity" to keep them "balanced". - It's now mandatory to have a drone if you want to perform, as tanks without a fully upgraded drone are literally weaker. In short, the requirements to move up the ranks are tweaked (easier crystals but mandatory drone) bur still achievable imo, but some equipment you will have to resign not having unless you are a mega-buyer (container exclusive augments). Again, I think if you were playing last year you may not have that big of a shock overall.

Before I got a legend account, I was scared of legend players. Now that I have three legend ranked accounts, they don't really scare me anymore. If anything, seeing how bad teammates and campers exist even at the legends ranks kind of make it look much less glamorous. Now I enjoy going up against legends in my lower ranked accounts, to see how much I can compete against them with a handicap.

I have about seven accounts or so, so... yeah. :P To be fair, I usually only do the missions and play in different accounts each day depending on my mood. Some combos are a pain to use on certain maps for sure. I have one account that's a vulcan/hunter main and whenever Highways comes out in JGR mode, I cry (actually whenever I have JGR missions in that account I cry). And yeah, I've found having a heavy hull as main isn't really feasible. Something I used to do was have two hulls one light and one heavy to be more versatile, but now with the drone update I don't think I could do it anymore...

We had a period where the devs were incredibly nice to us with the challenge format, and now that period has ended. When I think where the game was when I joined 1 year and a half ago and where it's now, the key takeaways are more normal containers and more things only accessible through basically gambling. Overall I like that we get more containers because when I started out supplies were a huge issue for me. But I do think things are more P2W than a year ago. If I had to summarize, the basic game is more accessible than before thanks to regular normal containers, but there are more mechanics (i.e. status effect augments) that require a lot of skill to counter and luck to get yourself. Well there's always the solution of having multiple accounts... and in my opinion learning to specialize in one turret is not necessarily boring.. It's what I did at least.

As I've said before, as much as this sucks (and it does, a lot), it's a return to form. It was nearly impossible to complete the challenge for non-buyers before the last change, and now we're back to that. A bit worried how feasible it's going to be to keep up now since ultra container augments and hull augments have become so critical, but we'll see.

I think the fair way to implement this update would've been to block the purchase of the next Mk until you have completed all your unfinished MUs, if you have any outstanding. The way it's set up right now just creates a time constraint where you have to somehow manage tp get enough crystals to complete all MUs before you get too much XP and rank up... which is very hard to plan out, especially when the rank where the next Mk will be unlocked isn't indicated. I imagine it would also be confusing for new players, who might innocently start micro-upgrades and then before they know it, they invested all those crystals for naught.

As much as I will regret not being able to get the battle pass anymore, it's a logical change given how the changes to the challenges made last Fall made it a lot easier for F2P players to get the battle pass. But if you look at the big picture, this just brings things back to how they were before last Fall, where challenges were completely inaccessible to F2P players (only way to get it then was to accumulate tankoins from weekly containers and get premium by chance, which happened like once a year). So yeah, Tanki was nice to us for a few months. I guess it was good while it lasted, haha. Now it's back to the "good old days". Do we know when the change to the new challenge format is going to happen? Is it safe to assume it's going to be as early as the next one?