Other [Issue 14] [History] In The Beginning Tanki... - Part 2

[hogree 4,179]

 

Remember Update 123? Yeah. Rebalance? Hmm, yeah. Graphics Update? Just about... Shaft Release... urrrr right at the back of my memory... in this series of historical articles, I'm going to be looking out at the days of Tanki's “upbringing”, before it got to the stage it is at today. This issue's article is particularly looking at the first part of 2010.

 

Last issue [Part 1]...

 

The stage was set fine after last issue. We continue straight after the New Year 2010 celebration, with everything set exactly as it was at the end of the previous episode of “In the Beginning, Tanki”. Isida had been released, and Tanki was progressing well. but the developers had a lot of things up their sleeves.

 

2010 began, and the hype after the New Year's celebration started to die down. The developers were considering future prospects, and having their playerbase interested with many fun events such as the New Year's party, they were able to take their time over them.

 

In that time, the developers were able to think of future changes. On January 12^th, the first update occurred in 2010 that PNAU records. The developers, tired of seeing overwhelming amounts of Railguns and Isidas at high ranks, had an idea to buff Twins for a week. Suddenly, a lot of Twins could be seen being used at the high ranks. A risky, but effective update, and Tanki was able to consider future options in the week. On the whole, the result of it led to a great advantage in widespread gameplay.

 

Midway through the month, Tanki tech support team started to step up the pace to keep up with their fellow developers. A stop to the “speed-hackers” was made, with a sensor to check if a tank was moving abnormally.

 

Tanki was planning ahead for some big updates – and the next came a week on. On the 22^nd of January, a group of developers started to consider new updates that the community might like. Since drug battles were currently the only option, every game for the high ranks seemed to cost them millions. All their battles were drug wars, and some of them were getting tired of having to spend all their battle funds on more and more supplies. Thus, what we know now as “No Supplies Battles” were brought into the game for the first time.

 

Twins was re-shuffled back with a bit of a buff from its original self, and a couple of edits in aiming and bullet speed were put in too. Also, the sound of Twins shooting was changed. I personally don't know what it sounded like before, but it must have been pretty different for PNAU to note it down. I must admit, it would be interesting to hear what it was like back in the day... Twins nowadays sounds like an endless bombardment of spitfire laser cannons. High-pitched spitfire laser cannons.

 

A number of chat updates had started to occur as well. Chat automated karma was brought in. Some people, who had only been banned a couple of times, would only receive a warning if they flooded, whilst others, who had been banned far more times, would be given stricter punishments for their faults. Along with this, the algorithms behind automatic bans were changed. Foul language sensors were changed slightly to fit more options, and flood became due to repeated letters in a row. Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, that must been a great update. :D

 

Another great update that we take for granted today was made on this day – anyone remember seeing Connection Closed By Server? Well, before this day, if this popped up on your screen – that was that; you've lost all your points. Imagine being top of your team, and your connection closes? All your points were extinguished. However, now, if you refreshed your page within 2 minutes, you kept your points.

 

This was certainly a big day for updates, for along with this came the release of referrals. You could now pass around the Tanki Online link, with your referral on it, and people who signed up would give your crystals. At this point, there was no way to check your referrals, and how much you had received from your friends - the update of the “Invitation Statistics Button” was added into the interface some time later.

 

A month passed, the tankers enjoying the new relishing of playing NS battles, and getting crystals from their real life friends who they invited to Tanki. The developers, enjoying seeing the success of such a massive update, planned ahead for another big one – which they released to the world on February the 10^th. Major updates included the release of mines and the differing graphic effect of each modification of a weapon. Along with this, came a host of different updates, including the check-in of availability of nicks when signing up [The tick and the cross next to the name, to show whether you can create an account], and the release of Chernobyl. Strategy-wise, now, an Isida healing the player with the flag would receive double points for each second they heal their team-mate carrying the flag. Great incentive to attack for an Isida, I think! :D

 

February passed by, and the playerbase slowly built. Tanki didn't want to re-shuffle too many things, so updates were few and far between till March came, and updates started to pick up pace again.

 

The fifth of March signalled a couple of releases to the garage. Along with other minor updates, the Score Multiplier Pass and No Supplies Battle Pass were added to the garage today. Before this, Double Points was around, but the developers had realised that was too extreme, thus replacing it with the Score Multiplier. Also, for the high ranks who previously had to pay for every NS game they joined, a No Supplies Pass was released in the garage. This slowly increased the amount of No Supply games in the battlefield, as a general rule. Apart from the addition of the two passes, mines were added to Daily Bonus Gifts.

 

Five days on, the developers expirimented with the power of Isida, as they noticed the points for healing with it seemed a little too strong, as Isida users were gaining two times the amount of points healing as they would for killing someone. Developers felt healing with Isida was getting too out of hand, as players were ranking up in double-quick time. Thus, the Isida healing co-efficient was reduced as an experiment down to 1.5 times the amount you would get for killing.

 

It was already mid-March. The developers recognised the need for some proper updates, or at least what the players would call proper. Something that would interest them, rather than update glitches, or the tiny strategy updates. Something which would grab their attention. So 4 days later, another large update hit the road.

 

Before, the only maps you saw were with old props. Take Serpuhov for example. And Tribute. And Boombox. Anything similar between these maps? They all used the old props. And up to then, there was no signs of maps such as Farm, Desert, Polygon... The graphic developers had been working on a new style of props for a while, and the release was on March 19^th.

 

The first map to be released with the new props was Novel. The players went ballistic! Something that looked different was a start - something that looked better was even more awesome! It was a revolutionary change for Tanki, that would change styles of maps all around. The brighter graphic quality and props made for a much nicer-looking gameplay arena.

 

They didn't stop there. Boombox, Sandal and Short Bridge, previously known as the “newbie maps”, as they were only available for the lower ranks, were spread out and given ability to be played at high ranks, by adding the maps Boombox II, Sandal II and Short Bridge II. Firebird was shuffled as well, as for the first time you could see different colours coming from different modifications of Firebird. Now, we again have the same colour coming from all modifications because of the new graphics update, but with this update, you could start to see strange fires escaping the turret, particularly at M2 (Pink), and M3 (Blue).

 

Developers testing gameplay also noticed a flaw in returning the flag. If someone just simply took the flag one metre away from the flag, and you returned, you would get the same amount of points as returning it just as the enemy was about to capture in their base. Thus, they re-shuffled the points system by the distance from your flag when you returned it.

 

 

 

March passed like a lightning bolt. Tanki was growing, and its addicting feature was starting to kick in. The news of the game was spreading. The technical developers worked out lessening the lag, and at the end of March, they sorted out some problems with lag, such as delayed grabbing of flags. The First Stage of Server Optimization was finished.

 

The next day, more bugs were fixed. The second stage was completed in lag reducing. Password changing bugs were sorted out, and a couple of things were added to the interface too. Now, you could see the money you were earning from your friends you had invited. The button “Invitation Statistics” was added to the game. On top of this, the feature of adding purchase or improvement confirmation was put into the game. Before, you press the button “Buy” accidentally, and you've purchased it. Now, for those less confident with their mouse, the feature of confirmation to buy things was added, just in case of an accidental click.

 

As the tank playerbase grew, the developers planned for a big update which would produce something that lasts to this very day - new weapons and new tanks. They considered things that would be interesting and good for players. The strong players were stuck on Fear Machine and Isida now. Gameplay had been exciting for a while, but now it was only the snipers and the healers doing business at the upper end on the battlefield. The developers understood the importance of keeping the high ranks in the game, as they were the most likely to spend money on the battle. They understood also that the upper ranks were getting slightly bored with the current state of weapon variety at the upper end of ranks. So a plan was created to add a new weapon.

 

It came at the latter end of April, in another of Tanki's huge updates. The weapon known as Thunder was added to the battlefield. Not only this, but a hull was added on top of Dictator too. This completely changed the state of things. Dictator had always been the aim for every Tanki player. Now a stronger tank was added to the game. It was called Viking.

 

The hull and weapon overwhelmed the rest of the updates. But they were seriously influential updates. One of the most popular maps of today was added to the game this day. Be quiet as I tell you the name........... Silence. Zone and Industrial Zone were added too, as the new props started to affect the game even more. Some of the weapons and tanks were re-shuffled slightly in price and damage/health too as the gameplay developers began to think of ways to affect the game even more. And that week held far more interesting updates for the pro. FAR more interesting updates.

 

The very next day, the speed tank was added to the game. Hornet was added, and the players went wild! Two new hulls to get in two days! Three days afterward signalled the release of yet another hull. You all know what it is. The big beast. Mammoth.

 

With these four massive releases, Tanki were careful to note the player's thoughts on the weapons and tanks added to the game. If one of these hulls was too overpowered, it could easily cause a lot of people to leave. However, it was generally a very positive response to the release, and there was no need for the developers to do any major shifts to the new additions to the game.

 

Sound affected the interest of players to the game too, and a developer testing his weapons noted that the sound of his Thunder and Twins shooting was too loud in comparison to the other weapons. and on the first day of May, they reduced the sound of Thunder and Twins shooting.

 

It was time for updates to slow down. As the Russians approached holiday period, they decided to plan ahead to a final large update. Small bug updates were dotted around the month of May, but the devs had one big update on their mind.

 

June 4^th was the date set for the update, and it all happened on the day. Most prominently,  large amount of new maps were released - 10 in total: 2042, Island, Combe, Desert, Gravity, Pass, Deck-9, Canyon, Polygon and Plato (Highland) – the majority being made from Figishe, the famous map-maker who is renowned for making some of the most popular maps in the game.

 

Added to this were changes to the format of No Supplies battle prices. Devs could see NS battles weren't selling as much as hoped, so they decided to add a new feature. You could now pay single fares to play a NS battle, and the price was halved for a NS monthly pass.

 

Other additions that live on to this day were the addition of Isida modification colour differences and the worldwide planting of the gold box. By the latter, I mean that there would be the possibility for a gold box to fall in all maps now.

 

Chat was updated too. Now recruit spammers could not use the chat, but rather needed to play and rank to Private before being able to chat. This reduced the amount of flooders on the server lobby. Also, a banned player could now see the remaining time of their ban by typing into the chat. For me, this is really useful considering the amount of times I get banned for flood while typing to my friends. :lol:

 

Finally, the daily bonus system was changed. Developers realised the importance of keeping people logging in, and they attracted more players to log in by offering the possibility of receiving crystals as your daily bonus. Also, to give players unwilling to spend crystals the opportunity to try out in No Supplies battles, No Supplies daily passes were offered out as daily bonus options.

 

And so Tanki moved forward. From next issue, you'll be able to see my own opinions, as I joined in October 2010, so I can talk myself about what was happening.

We'll look into the latter part of 2010 next issue, and also progress into 2011.

 

Thanks for reading!

 

[I.Devastation 2,053]

Great! I was waiting for this. Good Job! Better than the last part :P

[unholycloak5 1,814]

Nice article. 

[RicoPalm 6]

Great Article!

[I3loodShot 3,119]

loved reading through it :D

[Destrod 2,634]

awsome article man! say, was shaft and rico realesed or not 

[Bakker-NL 1]

Great article, and very intresting!

 

But there still are only a few reply's, c'mon Tankers.

Isn't it great to learn about the beginning of this game?

 

B-NL

[Raphael2 3,263]

Very interesting !

[Sachin.raikar 170]

Another great article.

I wish more and more updates like this will be made :) :D

[donut70 97]

this  is going to get great once he starts talking about the uproar of the rebalance(which must be admitted was a great idea, even if they should have multiplied the battlefund immediately).

[hogree 4,179]

awsome article man! say, was shaft and rico realesed or not 

not yet. ;)

[sam131192 113]

interesting article! good job!

[smashman777 104]

Good Job Hog keep it up. Im looking forward to part3! useful 10mins of my life :D

[Star_Pro_Hadi 2]

Yeaaaaaah i am enjoying this article  B)