What was that? You couldn't rap for the life of a gnat. I've got some homework to do, and it looks a lot more interesting than you.

My favorite number is 60. Do I need to explain the other part?

You are failing so miserably at this, I'm not sure if you can be banned for trolling.

Haha, the days before mines were so much more simple...

And in the 'prohibited' section of the game rules:

There will be an article on the update in the coming edition of the newspaper.

They are not offline. In order to access them, you must manually type a server's address into your URL bar.

Guess who cares. Edit: apparently, you do. Thank you for removing.

Quit with the trolling, bub. If you read the rules, you will know that it is AGAINST them to be doing this.

My # Rating has decreased by 1000, so I suppose that is good. However, why does the number next to it glow red after I make a kill? I believe that number should be going UP, not red/down.

I have experienced but a single lag today. That is about 100 times less as was the norm. I can't help but wonder if the developers let lags occur so often beforehand, just so we could all be so happy now, and praise them like programming gods. :rolleyes:

Really guys: just manually input the server links. Not too difficult.

Excellent work!

Less than a quarter of all staff members have spectator mode enabled on their accounts. Why should the average players be treated any better than the 75+ percent of the project helpers?

And the only funny thing about all that is, that the parents of my friend helped start Oovoo. :mellow:

Guys, there will be a very explanatory article on this in the coming edition of the newspaper.

Smoky XT Chronicles: Confrontation ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I, having convinced my self that I was experiencing a software glitch in my thought processor, ignored the mysterious voice coursing through my circuits, and continued my trek up the hill. I have remained silent since the beginning of our vertical assent, and Milan has mirrored my persona. We are nearing a hill on our vertical ascent up the mountain's long, grueling slopes. As we roll over the apex of the small protrusion, we are met with the horrifying sight of hundreds of alien tanks, hovering to and fro in massive color-coded platoons, each being led by a lone grey strategist, whose weapons of choice appear to be very similar in style to the <<Ricochet>> gun. But that is not the current object of my companion and myself's attentions. In the middle of the enemy encampment rests a small circular area, distinct from its surroundings by being inhabited solely by dirt. In the musty ring, I could clearly make out the figure of a red-coated alien with a weapon that bore resemblance to the <<firebird>> turret hovering triumphantly around the crippled figure of --by Maksim's smooth head -- a dictator and thunder-equipped tank with the Champion paint! Painstakingly, I am apparently the lone member of my group able to pry my optics away from the nearly impossible figure a hundred or so meters before us, and take note of his advantageous adversary taking what appeared to be a victory lap around the dirt-boded ring. After his (or hers, or maybe its) circuit was completed, the thing slowly returned its gaze to it helpless prey, whose self-healing nanobots were failing to compensate for the constant damage being inflicted by the smoldering flames on nearly every surface of the golden warrior's chassis. On a moment's impulse, Milan and myself activate full sets of supplies, leap over the ridge of the hill, and fire simultaneously at the lone offender, who is conveniently isolated from the rest of his race. My shot, coming a moment before my partner's, tears a rather large gap in the starboard plating of the reddened alien armor. Following my shell, Milan's double powered shot pops neatly inside the hole, and explodes on contact with the most externally protruding object in the gap. The result is a momentarily flaming, and now exploding hunk of molten slag. The slag, being ejected from its former coordinates, is sent flying in two directions, each path being traversed by either the remnants of the turret, or the fragments of the hovering chassis. The latter, after flying over a few squadrons of enemies, lands amongst a large collective of boxes, most likely a storage facility of some alien sort. A flame reaches out, and contacts one of the containers in its proximity, causing a massive, cascading explosion amongst all of its brothers and sisters. A good third of the army is engulfed in the explosion and annihilated within ten seconds. Knowing that we still have two thirds to battle through to obtain our golden prize, my accomplice and myself dash into the somewhat chaotic crowd of flying crafts, at what would be a V-shape, if mapped out. Activating case after case of nanobots to fix our ever-collecting damage, we deal twice as much damage as we are sustaining. I guess the reason for this insane success up to present must be due to the fact that we are charging through mostly, black drones, who all require complex commands in order to function as a formidable fighting force. Any variants of the color become primary targets, thanks to the helpful consulting of my combat computer. About halfway through the now-organizing mass, Milan and I angle our paths toward the enter, and likewise, the dirt ring, and more importantly, the reason for our idiotic assault. Quickly rolling the swarming rows and columns, I can gun down a good many of them in seconds. Before a gap could be filled by replacements, I am able to catch a glimpse of my desired location and its inhabitant. That anonymous, legendary machine seems to be advantage of its temporary freedom from the army's attention, and is letting his small robotic aides do their work. At the next possible glance, I can see the beaming gold paint that I have grown used to over the past few weeks, in all of its protective glory, change orientation along with its bearer's tank and turret, which are currently in a combative mode. Within a few more dirty, loud, and hectic seconds, I finally reach the central area, and Milan joins the vicinity in just a few short moments. For the first time since our second ascent up the mountain, he spoke; and in a rather bitter manner. "I thought you were dead, you traitorous piece of slag!" His apparent friend responds reassuringly, "Yeah, well today must be your lucky day, because your wish might just come true if you keep up that talking!" "Lunga help us..." is my only thought. _____________________________________________________________________ Next Issue: Reunion _____________________________________________________________________

Some Russians have gotten in the mid-1000's, with no deaths. Good luck matching that.

tanki rulez, forget about the rest, join the game.

Haha, I understand now. I shouldn't be posting at 2 in the morning. =)

How, according to your post, OP, are mammoths a cure for insomnia?

Me, myself, and I.

Second Server Platform In the game, in the forums, in a Russian video blog ... In every corner of our many-sided game, you can hear the phrase "Second server platform." So what is it? Why do we need it? Let's see in detail... Today I want to talk to you about the second platform for the game's servers. No, this is not Tanki 2.0, which all of you should forget about by now! - It is no longer relevant! In spite of the same number "two" in the title, this development is of a different nature. I am going to discuss two things about this new innovation from our developers: Why we need it, and why there is so much discussion about it! The average player has grown accustomed to updates that he can visibly notice and try out for himself. The upcoming update will not be like that at all. Why? Let's divide the game into two parts: client and server. The Client The client, in this case, is you--the player of the game. Not as much you, really, as much as your computer, which sends requests and messages to the Tankionline servers, and processes the servers' responses to your computer screen. This development includes an array of data that is downloaded onto your computer when you first login to the game: the interface, the body, gun, paint, textures, props (the buildings, walls, and trees that make up every map), - in short, there will be no need to download everything every time you enter a battle. As mentioned in the video blog, the main feature of the second server platform will be the nearly instantaneous loading of battles, after you load all the game textures and data a few times. (Meaning, that after the update is instated, your first few battles will take a bit longer than usual to load.) Though inconvenient in the short term, you should be praising the developers by the end of the first few weeks. The update will load all the game's basic information (all battle data, other than that of your opponents) onto your computer's hard drive, so that it will not need to reload every time you enter a battle; thus resulting in very short waiting times in between vigorous battles. Note that the client is still somewhat dependent on the server - a computer only displays what the server tells it to. The Server The server is the home of the game -- its core. The server component receives a request from a computer player, performs the necessary calculations, and sends the correct response to the client, resulting in your ability to play the game. For example, you press the space bar on your computer: The signal from the keyboard goes to the computer > the computer sends it to the game servers via the internet > the server you are currently on acknowledges the signal, and translates it to a request for 'shooting' > The computations are made in an instant > The response is sent back to your computer > You see your tank firing at an object in the game. All of this happens within mere fractions of a second. This end of the game is responsible for the calculation of all data for all players in real time. This is the part which should ensure fulfillment of millions of transactions every second. Any delay in this process results in the internationally nefarious "lags," that all tankers have come to know and dread. Up until now, most updates to the game have improved or changed the client's side of the game. Being improved to such a degree (such as the new graphics), more and more requirements and computations are needed by the game servers, necessitating a drastic change. That's where the second platform comes in - to improve the server-side of the game. The new platform is designed to build server capacity in order that we may, in the future, have more quality game updates frequently. It is designed to speed up the game, and make the connection between your computer and the server more stable, reducing the number of "lags" tremendously. Also, the coming of the new servers will herald an era in the game where restarts will be needed less frequently, and the servers will be able to comfortably hold 5000 players at any given time. The coding of the second platform was completely redrawn from scratch by a team of 12 programmers at TO Headquarters in Perm, Russia, in the form of the game's old running engine. This eliminated many minor glitches from gameplay. It is not surprising - since switching to the old engine, programmers are pretty adept at editing the game's code; they gained experience, and reviewed the corner-stones of the old platform. In addition, the new engine has opened the way for the implementation of the innovations that, in the old game, were simply impossible: socialization, clustering, searching for battles under certain parameters, and even new effects - and that's not all! Let's make a conclusion: despite the fact that this update can not be very well physically noticed, it is very important; without it, the further development of Tanki Online would be impossible! Thanks to Mysleslov, for the original article, found here, > http://news.tankionl...naya-platforma/ Translated & Edited for fluent English by :

Madness was temporarily removed from the battle selection list due to some technical and graphics-related issues. If the developers did not like how people could easily obtain crystals there, they could have easily changed the drop points, or reduced how many there were on the card/map.

True, but they won't stop it from coming. :P