[Issue 14] Staff Interviews : Consultants

[Raphael2 3,263]

The Consultants are part of the Tanki Online Staff, they are volunteers who love to help others, a job which requires them to be active and a good knowledge of the game. They must keep their calm, and help the newbies or anyone who may have a question. They are asked the same questions hundreds of times which is quite boring, but they are never rude to others. This important job includes a lot of activities, including help in the forum, help in the game chat and moderating it (they have small moderator powers), creating guides, and new FAQs; and to provide any kind of assistance needed (they can help in lot of different ways, for example, SuperNick95 helped me with SonyVegas Pro like a boss, he called me and showed me what to do while screen sharing on Skype).

The first ever English consultant is SuperNick95, who became a consultant on the 1st June 2012. FederalBureauFBI is the second oldest consultant who is still active, he became a consultant at the end of August 2012.

In fact, everyone knows about consultants, but no-one know them exactly, fully understand their roles, what they do, who they are, how they play, etc..

I asked a few questions to each of them, I hope you will enjoy this article, this colour is for questions, this colour for answers, and this colour is for my notes. Enjoy the article !

You are the oldest Consultant here, how do you feel after more than a year as a consultant?

@SuperNick95 : How do I feel? Like a granny man who has travelled a lot and spends his time recounting his adventured to a group of young sailors.)

@FederalBureauFBI : (FBI is not the oldest consultant here) The feeling is great. I love the job, helping people, dealing with minor chat offenses and reporting the bigger and more serious forum/chat ones to the Mods. I do this every day (here's a little secret, I'm the only Consultant that hasn't missed a single day of work). During those months I became more experienced and more careful.
Some players still think I'm too direct, maybe even rude - all I can say is, I'm sorry, but I like being direct and objective, and that won't change. Who doesn't like it is free to complain to help@tankionline.com, or to the Boss (@MizARee). I wish you luck :P

What do you do exactly as a consultant?

@Shar0n : Helping people, answering questions, keeping order in chats.
I actually prefer being in servers and helping players in real time than answer questions in forum, not sure why...

@loktinho : I am present in chat and the forum as an active individual to help with any problems the players may have with the game, or just problems in general. I work to keep chat clean and find answers for questions that have no known answer.

You are still a candidate consultant, do you enjoy working as a consultant at the moment? (He is now an official consultant :) )

@vilmos98 : Yes I do indeed enjoy my work as a Candidate Consultant. My work includes helping people and answering questions on the forum; also to watch the chat, and report people who do not follow the rules. I think it is important for me to do this, because there are no Moderators who speak Hungarian, which is what I am mostly going after, so it's nice that finally those Hungarian rule-breakers can't get away anymore. :)

You are the DJs master, do you prefer being a Consultant or a DJ? Why?

@vilmos98 : I am not sure what you mean by the "DJs master"; just to avoid confusion, I was the Head of CyberSport for May, which means that I am not anymore. Now, to be honest, it is hard to decide between the two jobs. CyberSport hasn't been so active recently, but I have a history there. I started from the bottom, which was the lowest position back then, "DJ Agent". I had to work very hard to get to where I am now. Consultant is similar, I was told a several times that I have no chance at all, but I never gave up, and even though it took me a few months, now I am finally here.

Do you get 'really' valuable information? Who supplies it?

@SuperNick95 : Yes of course. As staff members we are in direct touch with the administrators and they are always ready and happy to answer our questions. So that's a first source, the second is my own knowledge of the game.

@Lhamster : We occasionally get told about upcoming things in advance. Usually it's Bruce or Semyon who tells us.

You just became an official consultant, do you enjoy the avatar, the powers and paint?

@icerugby : To tell the truth I enjoy the paint and avatar, however I don't enjoy the powers. As in I don't just ban because it is fun. I only ban when necessary.

@haimel : Sure, I enjoy the avatar, and the powers too, because these powers help us prevent rule-breaking. The paint is awesome, but unfortunately doesn't give you a protection advantage in battle!

---

You are working as a Forum moderator and a Consultant at the same time, can you deal with it easily?

@BarbaFenner89 : Working as a Forum Moderator and Consultant at the same time is not easy, but it's really useful being able to operate and work on both structures of our Community: in-game Chat and Forum.
I got used to it after a month and now I work 2-3 hours/day every day on the Chat and Forum both at the same time: it's great!
Being able to help and stay in contact with a big amount of players at the same time is the best aspect of this work and thanks to this I got used to my job and I really love it !

---

Do you enjoy microchip paint?

: Yes, I do enjoy using the Microchip Paint. Regardless of whether is has protection or not. I use it all of time (It automatically became my favorite paint to be honest), usually people ask me "Where did you get that paint?" or "Are you staff?" Then when they figure it out, everyone puts the battle on the hold to observe what they've just discovered. Sometimes they block me from moving just so they can either take screenshots, or just look at my tank. :lol: Also, if they've got questions, concerns, etc. I simply love helping them out, which really goes back to why I wanted to be a Consultant.

@FederalBureauFBI : It's CHIP, noob -.- (yes I did spell it microship when asking)
Anyway, yes, I do. Firstly, because it looks awesome, secondly - because out of 29 million players, only around 40 have it. It's a great feeling to have something special.
Of course, the fact that Microchip, like all the other Staff paints, doesn't have protection, is a bit sad. But it's understandable - if Staff paints had protection, it would be unfair to other players.

How did you became consultant? What was the process after filling the application form?

@haimel : I became official consultant when my friend asked me why I didn't send application to be consultant and I thought about it; and I sent an application to be a consultant. Then the admin answered me that the application was accepted; he added me in Skype and explained to me how it is going on.

For how long have you been playing?

@Lhamster : In September I will have been playing for 3 years, so at the moment just over 2 years and 9 months.

: I've been playing Tanki for a good year now, I've been a Consultant since the middle of March.

@loktinho : I've been playing for about 9 months, give or take.

For how long you want to stay in Tanki? To stay as consultant?

@splitterpoint : I don't really know the answer to that question. As long as this game and everything in it doesn't bore me, I will stay. And I really enjoy my time here being a consultant, so I can't really make an indication either. :lol:
 
@husto : I want to play as long as I can, and once I'll leave my Consultant job I'll leave Tanki. 

You are a former DJ, what did DJs broadcast gave to you?

@shadybig : DJ gave me an insight on what being staff was like in a rough way. True, I wasn't DJ long because of the idea being new to everyone and consequently being poorly organized, so I lost my position until the system was replanned. Later I was a DJ again, but my computer was too slow for the program it used and that was the end of my DJ career.
Do you prefer DJ or Consultant?

@shadybig : I prefer the position Consultant because I have a bigger role in Tanki, I can finally make a difference in the chats and games that most others that aren't consultants can't.

You are not a very active poster, tell us a bit about yourself. When did you start playing Tanki?

: That is true I am not very active in my posting. I like to play Tanki a lot. I started playing back in March 2010.

If that is not indiscreet, what do you do in real life?

@husto : I studied economy, I've done one year in the university. My dad has a restaurant and I work there whenever I need.. I also go to the gym and I take it seriously because one day I want to become a gym instructor and have my own gym, but to do that I firstly need to study more, and I am not so motivated right now   :wacko:
 
@FederalBureauFBI : Hm... At the moment not really much :D School ended a week ago, all I do now is eat, sleep, meet friends and of course, work in Tanki.

@splitterpoint : Outside the game I enjoy making photos. Several of them can be found on the forum here.
I've been playing the drums for a long time, and learning the Piano and Guitar since May this year.
I live on a Farm, so I have to some chores there as well. I can say that the work never really stops. Now, neither in this game anymore. :lol: Ahh well, I still have a lot of spare time in the evening, and on Sundays.

Which Combo do you prefer using in normal battles? And in No-Supplies battles?

@SuperNick95 : Normal battles it's probably Mammoth Smoky/Freeze, in NS I'd go for Hornet and Railgun.

: Freeze or Rail or Smoky and Viking or Hornet. In NS I use Freeze or Rail and Viking. Sometimes Hornet.

@Lhamster : In normal battles (i.e. Drug War) I'll use Mammoth and Twins. In NS I use Smoky Hunter, although I'll probably prefer Firebird and Hornet when I get that combo M3.
 
@husto : I like using Mammoth Thunder, and in no supplies battles I use Mammoth Shaft, and sometimes Viking Rail :)

@shadybig : I mostly use my M2 Mammoth with M3 Freeze and either Inferno or Rustle, I also prefer Normal battles.

@FederalBureauFBI : Thunder/Mammy. When on drugs, you're indestructible.
For NS - I don't play much NS's, but when I do, I'm usually Thunder/Viking, or Twins/Mammy.

@Shar0n : I have two tanks M3 at the moment, Viking and Hornet. I mostly play with Hornet because Viking is too slow for me. Hornet is my favorite tank for NS battles, as it's stable - unlike wasp, and still fast enough.
In my opinion, Hunter is the ideal tank for NS battles, it is kind of in the middle between Hornet and Viking, fast enough and a lot of HP. If it is more about drugs, then I prefer Viking or Mammoth, depends on what kind of game is it. (DM, CTF etc..)

@haimel : I prefer using Rail, Hornet or Viking, with Prodigi.

@BarbaFenner89 : I usually play all battles (normal or NS) with Hornet M3 / Railgun M3 / Prodigi since I can easily win without drugging (for normal battles). You might find me playing with Titan M2 / Twins M3 / Prodigi since I love to relax shooting randomly to all the players on my way to the flag :D

@splitterpoint : Well, since I've upgraded Wasp to M3 recently, I can say it's my favorite hull. It's so fast. It's just the speed, the health is worse. it's also not really great for capturing flags in drug wars. But oh my... how useful it is in NS battles. Mammoth and Smoky will always be my favorite in normal battles.
Smoky is already great at M2, so I can say that's my favorite gun. It used to be Thunder for a long time. Though there's not much difference between Smoky M2 and M3, I do think that the M3 version will be even more fun to use. There are Micro upgrades coming, and they give really nice options for Smoky.

@vilmos98 : I've got to be honest, my favourite combo is Hornet and Isida, and I think it is great. I didn't really like Isida on M2 level, so I kind of hesitated to upgrade it to M3, but on that discount where we had something different on sale for a week, I was really temped to. And you know, as it turns out, M3 Isida is way better than M2, so there is no doubt it wasn't a mistake to upgrade.
Now, for No-Supplies, I've got to say that I don't play it often. I did buy a No-Supplies Battle Pass recently, but I didn't really get a chance to use it yet, since I was busy, and I didn't play a lot in the past weeks either. I will have to say, that the perfect combination of tank and hull depends on the map, and the game mode you are playing.

@icerugby : I have my Mammy-Twins combo for small/medium maps, but Wasp-Rail for large/medium maps. But, I enjoy Wasp more because it is fast.

@loktinho : I prefer using Twins Mammoth in Normal battles, because of its great power with drugs. I don't play NS much, but I use a variety of weapons for NS depending on the map I would be playing on. Most of the time, I use Thunder or Rail with Hornet.

: I'm a Mammoth and Thunder user, I'm all for that specifically in any Battle Type, including NS.

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I hope you enjoyed this big interview; thanks to FederalBureauFBI, shadybig, Shar0n, haimel, KidVegito, loktinho, icerugby, Lhamster, splitterpoint, vilmos98, yoshi1, husto, SuperNick95 and BarbaFenner89 for answering my questions.

If you have any questions about consultants feel free to ask them in this topic - I'm sure they will take pleasure answering you.

 

Next group interview: Chat moderators

 

 

 

Edited November 30, 2013 by Raphael2

[I.Devastation 2,053]

Nice. I have more posts than alot of them :P. My faviroute article so far this issue; Good Job!

Lhamster-I'll probably prefer Firebird and Hornet when I get that combo M3.

vilmos98-My favourite combo is Hornet and Isida

Good 2 people with similar combos with me. Other than the M of course.

Edited August 2, 2013 by I.Devastation

[FederalBureauFBI 2,881]

Good job :P

[icerugby 1,886]

Man the grammar in my response is bad... thought you would edit the grammar so it sounds better. Anyway its good :)

P.S I use wasp smoky instead of rail now ;)

Edited August 2, 2013 by icerugby

[Raphael2 3,263]

^ True, haven't checked answers.. at least not all ^^

[r_yoshi10 124]

Good Job. I like the way you set it out. 

[CooperO 7,956]

Funny how most consultants play with Mammoth.  :lol:

[Guest]

Funny how most consultants play with Mammoth.  :lol:

I'm not one of them, I use Titan  :ph34r:

[Raphael2 3,263]

^Its best if you want M3 quickly :)

[shadewarttt 3,350]

I don't have any idea about the rating system. There's a part that turns red when I am playin bad and green for the oppossite case. What does that mean??

[r_yoshi10 124]

Very good 

[Shar0n 1,345]

Like

Edited August 7, 2013 by NostalgicShar

[canucks3 1]

Nice job.

 

Ps this is canucks1-2 Cause I'm Banned on both accounts.

[Dragon-Judgement 1,529]

Not bad... I like how this came out. Keep up the good work! :)

[Pabloblue 21]

How many hours per week do you work at tanki??

[Beerme 106]

How annoying do u think you are to players?

[FederalBureauFBI 2,881]

How many hours per week do you work at tanki??

Around 13-18, depends

 

How annoying do u think you are to players?

Are we?

[Beerme 106]

Well thats what u are meant to answer

[donut70 97]

I don't have any idea about the rating system. There's a part that turns red when I am playin bad and green for the oppossite case. What does that mean??

I want to know as well.

[FederalBureauFBI 2,881]

Well thats what u are meant to answer

Usually players get annoyed from us because they expect us to ban hackers, open test server, unblock accounts or give them 999999999 cry.

[Beerme 106]

can u give me 999999999 cry then? :P

[Eragon 13,876]

nice topic!

[FederalBureauFBI 2,881]

Do I look like a person that will do that?

[Remaine 4,687]

Funny, I only see like 5 of them actually doing their "job," if you will.

Nice interview.

[FederalBureauFBI 2,881]

Maybe you don't know but our job isn't only forum.