It's really disappointing to see updates like this. It's blatant Pay-to-win mechanics. You literally cannot get this without paying money, or as has been described in detail, playing every single day for 18 months. This is the type of update that makes players no longer want to play because it helps the buyers get stronger. Truthfully, it wouldn't even matter if the buyers got stronger, except for the problem that Tanki incentivizes players to only play MM. The reason everyone used to enjoy Tanki was because you were not locked in to playing match making. But if you want to earn crystals, or complete missions, you have to play MM, which is dominated by buyers, which is what makes it unenjoyable. This update just drives home a further point that goal of the new development cycle is to encourage people to purchase things within the game, and not to actually improve the gameplay mechanics. It started down this path with drones, went further down this path with hull augments, and now is just driving the point home with these latest updates and new augments you can only get from ultra containers (which you can't get without either buying, or playing absurd amounts of hours). Very disappointing to see. There is no skill gap any more, balance is non existent. Better equipment and augments always win.

I really do try to give every update a fair chance, but this update has been particularly frustrating for me. Firstly, with every turret getting crits (which realistically removes the only purpose of using smoky), it enables them to basically 1 or 2 shot you with most turrets if they get a crit (which the rates are way too high for), it is so frustrating to try to play an objective based gamemode because you get killed so quickly. On top of that, there are now ridiculously overpowered railgun alts that are only available if you get extremely lucky from the few ultra containers (which you can only get if you buy them or if you play the game for hours on end to get enough experience to complete the tasks). I tried to keep an open mind with them, but particularly the stun version of railgun is impossible to play against. There is a 50% chance of you getting stunned, and if you're playing an objective, it is impossible to carry the ball or flag. Truthfully, the april fools joke update of the new supply was the best idea I have heard from the devs in a long time. It was an update that didnt affect balance, but rather just was something new and fun that could be added and played with. Instead, what has been added are different alts that the average player is unable to attain, that severely unbalance the gamemodes. It was bad enough when it was just gauss with EMP (which still sucked, but at least was only 1 alt to protect against), but now there are all these alterations that are only available in ultra containers (which again are largely unattainable for the casual player, and even the semi-constant player) that completely destroy the balance of the game. With more updates like this, I don't see myself sticking with this game, and I think a lot of other players largely feel the same way.

Personally, I have found the Hopper OD to be much too strong. It allows tanks to jump, which enables for easier flag captures (because you cannot block or mine that), as well as hoppers getting to places that are impossible to reach (such as the castle above Wolfenstein), where they cannot be killed, but they can drop magnum shots on a team for the entire game. This also has basically ruined the experience of going for golds, because 3 or 4 tanks with hopper will jump for it, so anyone without hopper has no chance to even get it (a point that has only been driven home further by the mission this week). In addition, the OD allows for stuns, which means they can make any player drop the flag/ball, or stop shooting at them until they're able to accomplish their goal. And as if that isn't enough, it also does fire damage. While I personally think this is too much for a single OD, and it would be better to drop the stun aspect, the biggest problem I have with it is that it is the fastest OD to get. Which makes no sense. If it is so immensely strong, and can completely turn the tide of a battle, I think it should be collected far less. Hopper jump is so much more powerful that a Viking OD, but it takes approximately half the time to get it. Particularly when as you use the viking OD, any actions taken do not count towards your next OD, while hopper actions do. It's extremely frustrating when there are situations and missions where you're supposed to do something like catch a gold box or defend a flag, and you see 3 to 4 other players jump before it even hits the ground. You have no chance to get it because the Hopper players don't need to wait or use their jump tactically. They know that they will get another OD in a minute or so of gameplay, so they can use it constantly. As someone that plays assault, it has also been extremely frustrating because if the hopper uses an OD to capture a flag, they are already halfway to the Next OD (75 * .7 = .52), + any kills they may have gotten from the fire aspect, + 6-7 seconds to respawn, all of a sudden they just used their Overdrive and their next one is 75% there as they respawn. So I would really appreciate it if this OD was nerfed in some way, whether it be losing the stun, charging much slower, something. Thank you.

This does not seem to have ended. Wasn't it supposed to end with the restart?

Truthfully I have found this experiment just as bad, if not worse than the last one. The trouble with these updates is that they have no regard for different game modes. For example, it was clearly never considered that in assault, the offense would have to avoid 16 defenders. Or in siege, there are now 16 people on the other team to keep from getting inside the capping range, because only 1 opposition player is enough to stop you from capping. Or in CTF and Rugby, that you need to get past 16 people to get to the flag, and then get back past all 16 to get it to your base. It is quite clear that the gamemodes have not been considered with this update because they are all broken and unenjoyable. The only players that are capping are players with defender drone and hopper, and even those are few and far between. It is particularly noticeable in the assault gamemode. On offense, there is no point trying to cap because there are too many defenders to get past. And on defense the top of the scoreboard is continuously isida dictators with mechanic drones, just spamming repair kits because you get a ridiculous amount of points. There is honestly no point to playing assault at all. It has devolved into TDM, and the defense always wins. The one positive out of this was definitely having new maps in the pool. I wish that Tanki would have put a bit more thought into certain aspects of the maps, like the assault capture points are impossible to get to (though this could just be a factor of 16v16, and less so the maps, tough to tell), but overall it was quite enjoyable to play on new maps.

I definitely agree with the consensus, that size of the map should determine the player count. 16v16 is reasonable for the large maps, but a lot of smaller maps are still in the pool, and 16v16 on maps like 2042 and desert are just overcrowded and not enjoyable. It makes more sense to have the player count for the map dependent on the size of the map. My major problem with this update is that with overdrives, it is impossible to capture anything unless it is done in the first minute. With 16 opponents, at least 2 or 3 of them have overdrives ready at all times, and with that it is impossible to capture flags and/or goals. The only chance that this happens is if the teams are overbalanced (which happens an enormous amount of the time). Assault is unplayable - with so many defenders the match only lasts 4-5 minutes because they kill 70 too quickly, and there are too many defenders (overdrives) to be able to capture flags. The same goes for CTF and Rugby, where there is too much space and too many defenders to get close to the base. Truthfully I enjoy this update even less than the last one (which was also horrible), just because there are too many people in battles. It's impossible to finish top 3 without having a top GS tank and drone. It's impossible to use close range turrets because with 16 enemies, you get noticed long before you get to the enemy base. I understand that Tanki needs to artificially increase the player count, but this makes half the game modes obsolete. It has been nice having new maps in the pool because the old ones were getting stale. I would love to have more maps included in matchmaking, since Tanki basically forces players to do matchmaking. The bigger maps are nice, but there are still so many maps that are not used that could be viable options.

While I do see your point that it can be more fun to be able to capture flags and other objectives with this new update, I think this actually speaks to why I don't personally like this update. What made objectives such a fun challenge previously is that you would have to continue to win fights as you attempted to capture the ball or flag. With the double health points, you now have so much health (particularly against turrets that require reloads such as railgun, hammer, thunder, and shaft) that you can just avoid the fight altogether and just keep driving. It takes the fights out of the game. With 4000 points on the weakest tanks, the fights take too long to finish and are therefore best to be avoided at this point, so that you can focus on capturing the objective instead. While I value objective based gameplay, the fights in a gameplay need to end relatively quickly so that the player can continue on. I've run into this problem particularly in assault, where 2 players attempting to cap can beat 6 defenders simply because they have so much health. I also have to disagree with your point on overdrives. While overdrives are interesting and do add to the game in many ways, this update basically makes entire games dependent on overdrives. Siege points cannot be won unless multiple people have overdrives saved up. Flags cannot be defended unless the defenders have EMPs or stuns. While I do appreciate your opinion, I just don't think that Tanki can be very successful if more than half of the turrets are effectively useless because it takes them 15-20 seconds to destroy a single opponent. This could work in games with more communication, but Tanki's level of communication has not achieved that level. Particularly when you also consider Tanki's weak ability to team balance. But I wish you the best of luck with everything! If this update stays I hope you are able to enjoy it, but if not I hope you are still able to have fun!

Do you think that there were less occasions when you were destroyed where you spawned and were consequently completely useless to your team? I felt that there were ironically more occasions that I was completely useless to my team. With the extra health, I could take more damage, but everyone else also had more health, and basically I would spend even more time fighting a losing battle (because they would have full supplies, while as I spawned in I could only choose 1 at a time), which would then cause me to take even more time having to respawn again. I also faced many more battles where I would spend around 20-30 seconds just holding space against an opponent, waiting for them to die because with extra health, we both just kept firing with no quick resolution. Gameplay was much slower. How did the benefit of well-timed overdrives and drones change? The use of drones did not change at all. You still have the same major drones being used in Miner (For people that camp) and defender (for people that attack). There did not appear to be any changes in that regard. As for overdrives, they were affected in several different ways. In assault, CTF, Rugby, you were basically forced to use hopper or hunter on defense because you needed the ability to make tanks drop the flag. With the extra health and fewer team members, defenders had no way to kill enemy tanks before they could make it to the capture point Viking OD is simultaneously too powerful due to the extra time, and yet takes too long to charge with the shorter gameplay. Titan's dome made everyone in it basically invincible. Particularly with hornet's update, there was no way to kill tanks in a dome without an EMP or Wasp bomb already charged up. It basically further encouraged the absolute necessity of hunter in other game modes. Siege was basically unplayable because tanks would not die, so unless you had a complete lack of balance in the game (which happens quite frequently) the game would end 0-0. It was completely dominated by titan and dictator-isidas. How did the importance of team gameplay change? This update puts enormous value on team gameplay, which is just not smart because there is no way to effectively communicate unless you are in a group call with friends. With less players and more health, teams need to be able to focus on 1 enemy at a time, and destroy that one before moving on to the next, or organize how they are going to attack/defend depending on the gamemode. Tanki is not at the stage where it has the ability for team gameplay. Due to the only way to communicate being typing in chat, you have to choose between helping in the battle, or giving instructions. That is also without even considering the team balancing, which is very rarely even. Almost every game is completely unbalanced, with players that don't have appropriate skill or equipment for the level. Could this experiment change your interest in the game? If this experiment stayed in the game, I would definitely no longer play Tanki. Do you have any suggestions on how to improve these changes? First and foremost, 2X health with no damage increases is impossible. Particularly when combined with shorter battles, you just spend way too long on each fight, and any sort of flag based gamemode is impossible. At most, perhaps 1.5X increase could have been interesting to try, but even then some turrets would need buffs. By updating the health, any turrets that are single shot turrets are basically useless. The entire purpose of long range turrets is to be able to 1 shot, or almost 1 shot, their targets. This update made shaft, railgun, magnum, gauss (except for emp gauss (PTW)), and hammer all completely useless. All of these weapons are designed to do massive damage, and then reload while you find your next target. This does not happen because it requires too many shots to kill. Particularly when you take into account that the original disadvantage of short range turrets was getting to the long range turrets before getting killed. With double health, that is no longer a concern. So I would suggest nerfing the health to 1.5X (or preferably even just back to where it was, I did not have a problem with it), as well as buffing the damage of long range/single shot turrets. I view this aspect of being able to kill people instantly as the skill gap that exists in tanki. Tanks that are able to destroy others instantly are usually the better tanks, and they deserve to be rewarded for that. I do like getting rid of some of the larger maps. Stadium, highway, and massacre in particular were not very enjoyable for me. 6 on 6 does work in the smaller maps, but the combination of less people and more health absolutely destroys several of the game modes. Particularly with the shorter time, there were more and more people leaving with the spaces not getting filled. Thus what was a 6v6 quickly transformed into 6v4 and 6v3 once a team got behind. I personally think that 7 or 8 minutes would be a better length of time for the battle because it gives people time to get invested in that battle, rather than already looking to the next one. There is no incentive for people to stay and try to win the game once a capture is made because with only 2 minutes to go, the game is basically already over. I don't like to keep harping on one point, but it is extremely important to take the health back down, or nerf turrets. This update severely slowed the game down because so much time had to be spent focusing on the single opponent. Particularly in conjunction with the shorter battle time, this was just a dreadful combination for interest in the game. What makes the battles enjoyable is their speed of the gameplay, and this drastically decreased the speed. The other suggestion I have is to improve team balancing. I would approximate that about 10% of my battles have teams that are even, while the other 90% have 1 team that dominates. Some of that is due to imbalances in the maps themselves, but they are largely due to the better players being placed on the same team.

I've only been in game for 25 minutes and I can already tell that this update is not going well. The huge problem here is that every weapon basically got a 50% nerf. Due to this, it is extremely difficult to destroy tanks. For that reason, it is nearly impossible for defenses to win playing assault, it is nearly impossible to even score a point in siege, and everyone is able to pick up the flag with ease in CTF. Particularly due to the time of battle being so short, it is virtually impossible to actually score in a lot of these game modes. Assault in particular is basically destroyed, because you actually have less people, and they do less damage, so you cant even play defense. The additional energy for some turrets is nice, but there is no damage increase at all, so you're just stuck in longer gunfights. Combined with the shorter battle time, you end up with much less tanks killed overall, which in turn greatly decreases the battle fund. While it is nice to no longer have the large maps, it basically ensures that there is no reason to use long distance turrets because they do so little damage now. A M7+ railgun would now take 4 full shots to destroy a M7+ medium hull. There is simply no point to use it. This effect is basically doubled by drones. Once a tank activates a defender drone, they basically become invincible because even a light hull has effectively 12000 health (4000 to start, plus half damage for the shield, plus an additional half damage for the drone). I feel even more useless to my team now, because I will spawn in and be alive, but not be doing any damage to other tanks. If this update were to stay in the game, I almost definitely would no longer play Tanki. This is the kind of update that in my opinion, would likely kill the game. The biggest area that this update could be improved is by increasing turret damage. I understand that this was implemented because some people felt they were destroyed too quickly, but that is part of the game. If it takes a long time to destroy a tank, then particularly in combination with shorter battles, you just don't experience very much during a battle. While I spend less time respawning, I also spend too much time involved in the same fight. I know this was a very negative post, and I apologize for that, but this has been extremely unenjoyable for me to play with this update. I am excited for the juggernaut DM mode, so hopefully that turns out well. But this update as a whole has been extremely disappointing and it has not been fun to play with.

There are 3 things that I have noticed in HTML 5 that I thought could be changed. 1.) In the battle list, you no longer show the map that the battle is being played on. This means that as I go through battles to join I see the name, and if it is in English it will sometimes have the map name, sometimes will not. But most are in Russian, so I have to click in to the battle to see what map it is on. So being able to see the map on the list of battles would be a huge plus. 2.) I do miss the big notifications in the middle of the screen that flash had. If I have the sound low or off if I am listening to music, I will frequently miss notifications of flag pickups or goldboxes. 3.) I personally also miss the flashing flag from Flash, where if you were playing CTF and someone picked up the flag it was flashing, and if it was at base then it was not flashing. It was an easy way to tell if your flag was at base or not. Now you have to look around the battle to see if the flag is where it should be, or if it is not. Thanks!