Review [Issue 15] [History] In The Beginning, Tanki... - Part 3

[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 looking at the latter part of 2010.

 

Tanki was in the midst of some completely game-changing updates as we enter this issue's edition of “In The Beginning Tanki”. Just at the end of last issue, we saw a massive amount of new maps released, as well as the release of Thunder, Hornet and Viking just a couple of months back.

 

With a few big releases just behind them, the developers prepared for some more large updates to come. It was approaching summer – gaming period for many people, and they would need some real attractions to reel them into Tanki. All the developers throughout Tanki were working on their own part of a new update to come, one of those massive ones that they were known to release.

 

The date of the release was the 8^th of July. Most prominent among the updates were undoubtedly the release of two new weapons. The names? You can guess yourselves. Freeze and Ricochet.

 

The two weapons released were to change gameplay forever. Up to this point, the only gameplay style that was suitable at the high ranks was separated by large distances. Railgun and Thunder were definitely the most commonly used weapons, and Isida was the only short-range strong weapon, which was primarily used for healing at any point. To see two new weapons, far more deadly at short range, was a big update, and extending to a part of Tanki that the developers had not been able to accommodate beforehand.

 

Accompanying the mass-attack short-range weapon release, and to get the use of the new weapons higher, came the release of the majority of today's popular small maps. Farm, Noise, Station, Massacre, Atra and Ping Pong were all added to the battlefields today. The addition of these and the new weapons made a much different and much more fast-pace battling experience on the battlefield. On top of this, there was a change to flag indications as the warnings such as "#Playername has taken your flag" which had previously appeared in the centre of your screen (like it does now), was moved down to the corner, next to the flag score. This was one of Tanki's more unsuccessful updates, and later they changed it back, as they realised the players generally disliked the change.

 

And it didn't stop there. Today, weight was introduced to all the hulls. Now, Wasp was more easy to turtle than mammoth because of how light it was. This was a large update for the developers as statistics were less important, but rather also, the “safety” and weight of the hull. Along with this, the new hulls (Hornet, Viking and Mammoth) were granted different looks at each modification, to distinguish the different levels of the hulls.

 

Chat was changed too. Battle links were now clickable on the lobby chat to find battles in a much quicker way. Battle links with profanity in their name were also automatically deleted. And finally, a few of the important words in battle were edited too. In battle, the terms Killed, Died, and Suicided were changed into Destroyed, Lost and Self-Destructed, to distinguish them from human terms.

 

The hidden side behind the interface wasn't going to be left out, and lags were reduced, and server speeds optimised, as the other major updates occurred on the scene.

 

The update set the scene of Tanki for summer, as people grew accustomed to the changing gameplay with the new weapons, and new maps.

 

A few in-game problems were sorted out later that month. For one, the flag indicator was brought back into the game but with a fade to clear the words at the top of the screen now. Freeze and Ricochet were messed around with a bit, as modification shots were seen differently, and Freeze's freezing ability was changed with each modification. However, most prominently, at the end of July, were the release of a number of new paints, mostly with protection, including Loam, Mary and Python. These gave a new sense of variety in the game. These were mostly to cover the release of the new weapons, and give the players something to protect from the common threats at the high ranks.

 

A day later, on the 30^th of July, two more maps were added. Opposition and the famous Madness were brought into the game. Madness was a map like no other, with its bottom and top completely different from all other maps, particularly in CTF mode. This was an exciting map, and very common to find in the battlefield, when it was released.

 

The summer passed through August fast, as players settled back into life after a hardcore gaming period during the summer months. Increase in players came up to a high of 400k players during this month, which was a large landmark for the Tanki developers.

 

The end of the month, however, held a few interesting updates including the release of the pre-rebalance 7k and 10k paints (Cedar, Taiga, Sandstone, Rock, Clay and Prodigi), and many of the cheaters were stopped and fined. Along with this, came a change in the way the First Aid Box gave health, as it would now give you 50% of your hull's original HP. And luckily for many of us English players, the Russian and English chat were also split up this day. This means that we wouldn't be constantly surrounded by Russians on our chat, giving us more freedom to chat with other people.

 

Another month went by before the next updates, and updates began to slow down for the rest of the year. You see, the more updates there were, the more gameplay would change. And happily, the developers were satisfied, to a certain extent, with the current condition of Tanki's gameplay.

 

September passed with little more than minor graphic updates catching the attention of PNAU. However, I feel that now would be a good time to introduce me onto the scene. I created my account, hogree, in October, but from before this, I had often watched my brother, skitee, playing the game, and I had a strong knowledge about what was going on. I must admit, my memory isn't strong enough for me to remember every little detail of what was going on those first days of Freeze and Ricochet's release, but I remember my excitement whenever I saw a glimpse of one of those weapons, which were very rarely seen at that time, and at my brother's low rank.

 

The beginning of October held an interesting updates, as Freeze's strength was changed and freezing speed increased. This was so potentially large that for a few days, Freeze was removed from the garage and crystals that you paid for Freeze refunded back to you. Three days later, the familiar sight of Freeze returned to players' garages.

 

Two maps were released also in October, in Camp (which was recently removed from the game) and Garder. Along with this was the obvious but clever update that one developer spotted needing changing, in automatically deleting messages whenever an auto-ban for flood occurred. I must admit, I have often been annoyed with people flooding constantly while I have been having a chat with someone on the server lobby, and I even have the privilege of seeing their messages deleted from cyberspace at a ban. I can't imagine how the old players were able to handle it! :lol:

 

Tanki Online's areas of influence wasn't only through word of mouth. Tanki was entering itself into a few award contests, to boost its name among gamers. A fantastic result for the developers was gaining the position of 10^th place at the end of November in the Runet Awards, a renowned games award in Russia. It was also entered for the Mashable Awards in December where it gained a good result.

 

Winter was approaching fast, and the developers were ready to notice it. On the 1^st of December, they released winter modes once again for the maps. The graphic qualities were also improved this year from last year's winter mode, but this wasn't to be the main event of the winter....

 

Grabbing the headlines in December was the awesome news that Tanki had received its millionth user! For the developers, this must have been a dream come true - to overhaul the landmark of a million was something many games didn't manage! To celebrate, they gifted the lucky player who had created his account a Tanki online flask and T-Shirt. Along with this was the release of the Holiday paint - to celebrate the winter!

 

As the New Year was approaching, Tanki planned for a big celebration to greet their players with the Christmas season. As Christmas approached, the developers released the map Old Silence (Silence nowadays) before a new holiday paint hit the scenes at Christmas.

 

Just before the New Year, Tanki gave their players the first ever discount. 25% on all garage items was offered, and the players went crazy! It was truly spending season, as players started donating their Christmas cash into Tanki.

 

However, undoubtedly the main event of the season was once again, the New Year Celebration. This year, I can remember clearly exactly what happened - and I even can find a video showing what happened. You can watch it here. The map was square, like Sandbox, with a Christmas tree in the middle, and round it, loads of boxes fell. The clever thing about this year's celebration was the fact that you didn't know what box you were getting - it could be any supply, a crystal box, or even a two, five or ten crystal box! It was a crystal machine, and some players even stayed up overnight just to get the full blessings of the New Year Map. However, it was definite that the season was truly alive in Tanki.

 

Looking back on 2010, we see so many new updates. Many of the big releases occurred during this year, such as the release of all the "Tier 2" weapons and tanks. Many of the legendary English community members joined Tanki this year too, including Lhamster, AdvocatusDiaboli, hotwheel, MadDog21, skitee, cheese3000 and, of course, me. However, what Tanki were planning for next was something embedded in the history of Tanki as the biggest Tanki saga of all time.. it was Tanki 2.0.

 

Can you remember any of these events? If you were around in 2010, tell me your interpretation on what you can remember happened during Tanki in 2010. Read more about the history of Tanki next issue as we look at the first part of 2011!

 

Thanks for reading!

 

[Destrod 2,634]

awsome article hog! as always

[sam131192 113]

fantastic article about tanki's journey from its inception to present....enjoyed reading it very much!

[Raphael2 3,263]

That New Year celebration should have been awesome..

 

Really good article !

[ammar.salame 2]

awsome article hog! as always

^ Looking forward to part 4

[ben171270 132]

Camp has been removed :-( was always my favorite map :(

i learned to railgun there :(

Edited September 1, 2013 by ben171270

[jhon4545 2]

good one for :tank:  :tank:  :tank:  :tank: men

[datie9 72]

Yes, I remember these! :D

 

EDIT: I joined october 2010, during the Halloween, I remember the new year event and all. And, I joined the forum in 2011.. I really loved it! :D

Edited September 7, 2013 by datie9

[iact0 2]

i joined in 2011.

who was the millionth player?

[hogree 4,179]

i joined in 2011.

who was the millionth player?

Boyko_yaroslav.

[Bakker-NL 1]

Intresting article, I still follow those :)

Looking forward for the next article!

 

B-NL

[magnaboy2 656]

You know.... These sort of articles make me play TO again,and again  ^_^