Other [Issue 19] In the Beginning, Tanki... - Part 7

[hogree 4,179]

 

6 issues after I begun this detailed series exploring the incredible history of Tanki, we have finally reached one of the most popular,

and yet hotly debated periods of time in Tanki history, of which many of you readers will remember. Flying from awesome highs to

serious lows, we start off in July 2012. Stay tuned for some serious action!

 

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Previous articles in this series:

Read Part 1 Here (Beginning - December 2009)

Read Part 2 Here (January 2010 - June 2010)

Read Part 3 Here (July 2010 - December 2010)

Read Part 4 Here (January 2011 – June 2011)

Read Part 5 Here (July 2011 – December 2011)

Read Part 6 Here (January 2012 – June 2012)

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July. Holidays. Tanki. Three words that are probably made for each other. And boy, as we tune in to this issue of In The Beginning, Tanki, you must be prepared to notice that we are surrounded on every side by events and updates of all shapes and sizes, especially in our English Community – for after all, as we enter this issue's edition, we are deeply embedded in the “Bruce Lunga Era” of the English history of Tanki. Looking back from where we are now to the situation back then, just the little matter of one and a half years ago, its hard to comprehend the amount the game has changed in that time. I would like to remind all the readers, as we start, of where exactly we are in the history of Tanki.

 

To sum it up in one sentence, the basic scene of Tanki as we begin this issue in July 2012 was as follows: pre-rebalance; old graphics; pre-Update 123; unalerted random gold box; and highest rank of Marshal. (Linked on each are little explanations which can help you if you do not understand the terms) However, occurring at the time also were special events, especially for the English Community, of which most prominent were the “Best of...” guides contest, Euro 2012 special golds and the Tanki Online World Cup.

 

I mentioned the Euro 2012 Tanki Celebration in last issue, but its worth mentioning in this issue too since it ran on to July. Like much of Europe, the Russian developers were gripped by the Euro 2012 Football Tournament, and to celebrate, they raised the gold box worth gradually, till the day of the final, the 2nd July, where the gold box was worth a staggering 500 Crystals (5000 in today's currency). Nowadays, us tankers are getting spoiled – what, with the 2014 Gold Box lasting for all of December, and now the New Year's 3000 Gold Box too: well, I'm starting to get used to such a novelty as a raised gold box worth. However, in 2012, it was the first time ever for the Gold Box worth to be raised, and players round the world couldn't help getting excited, and more fervent in their search for the gold - especially with the new format of “random” falling of gold boxes in battles. If you wanted to take a glance at the beauty of the Euro Gold, take a look here.

 

It was the summer – and the developers had much reason to be relaxing and taking a break from their hard work through the year to bring the game up to the peak of its condition. The summer held little updates, but Bruce Lunga, the English Community Manager, wasn't holding back in his onslaught of community events and contests: if anything, the summer brought a raise in events.

 

On the 3rd of July, a couple of notable updates dropped into the game, as Tanki begun to slowly improve the graphical experience in the game. The first glimpse of shadows in the game were introduced. Simple though it was, it was one little step to the new graphics that would change the look of the game forever. The developers wisely allowed players to “block” shadows if they wished to, because they knew the lag that it may cause on less capable computers. Receiving positive feedback, the devs had a fantastic platform to build upon towards the new graphics that were being planned...

 

Another feature that would grow to be a prominent part of battles was introduced on the same day – the voting ability. Announced to players was a new nifty thing that would help signal moderators to your battle, if for example, a player was sabotaging in it. If 25% or more of the players in the battle used the “/vote” feature, moderators would receive an alert showing the sabotaging player and the battle they were in. There were, however, many serious shortcomings with this update. Primarily, moderators weren't always online on many servers, which left the large majority of reports untouched. Also, often the damage was done too soon for players to be able to react and the moderator to come.

 

However, most prominent among the problems was the largely unnoticed way the feature was introduced. Though a minor notice was announced, the fact that most players quickly forgot/ignored the "/vote" feature meant that even when serious sabotage was occurring, often it went unalerted, due to the lack of “voters” in the battle. The developers did note these problems though, and they gradually begun to improve the “voting” system to get it to the stage it is today.

 

Bruce's work on the forums was still moving forwards, and quite swiftly too. Not only were the aforementioned contests still flying forward at a Ferrari's pace, but also the Tanki newspaper was growing quickly. The third issue was introduced in July, proudly heralded by the expert designer Les_Alterman, which included a new contest by the name of “Designer of Tanki Online”, interviews with some of the famous current clans at the time like Best of German and Cobras Poison, as well as a number of stories, boasted by the legendary reporters, chriswu and Tommy60.

 

July was flying past, as gamers once again entered their “summer holiday gaming zone”. A couple of minor glitches were solved but the developers were beginning to be focused on a couple of future updates that would revolutionise the tanks and hulls in the game, in both gameplay and graphics. Time and preparation begun to be put more and more into it, as many of the Tanki developers started to prepare for what I would call two of the biggest events, if not the very two biggest, in the history of the game – the graphics update and the rebalance.

 

Moving on to the English Community, Bruce was still fervent as ever in his attempts to build the English social side up to the standards of the Russians. He continued uploading his video blogs, and publicizing the forum on the Tanki News, as well as posting actively on Facebook. As well as the Scavenger Hunts and Spot the Differences, the Facebook Royal Rumbles in particular were really starting to kick in with famous old players like BigWar and Reiki12345 commonly winning prizes.  Bruce was also using the Facebook page to reveal cool pictures and secrets to get people involved on the page. And it was working. The EN Tanki page reached 30,000 likes in September – an impressive feat for the short amount of time Bruce had been working on it.

 

And of course, we can't forget his contests. The Best Of... Contest, which finished in July, was an epic success – and there's no way we will ever forget the Tanki World Cup. The teams were knocked out until the three original favourites were left: KSA, which was formed of many of the old KOT players; India, formed of the old Dare Devils Members; and Russia, which consisted of a Russian clan who moved over to join the contest. If you are interested to watch the incredible gameplay that the World Cup offered, being a drug war, feel free to watch one of the matches here. Bruce followed this all up with another contest over the Olympics period, following a similar theme to the 1000 Footballers battle, with Players VS Staff battles offering prizes to the winning players.

 

The devs rolled through August quickly. Only small updates occurred, as the developers were focused on bringing out their 1.100.0 update that would hold a mighty lot of changes - one that would bring many mixed reactions to the players. For the English players, there was still a mighty lot to take part in. One particularly enjoyable release for the English community in August was the Wolf Battles. Normal battles, hosted by the Cybersport Channel, run by many of the famous old DJ's such as ShadowVisions, BarKode and Arya777, were introduced with different themes each day of the week. There would be DM, CTF, CP and Parkour battles throughout the week for low ranks, middle ranks, and the upper ranks - and members of the winning teams would receive an awesome avatar on the Forum for a week, as well as bonus crystals.

 

The Members of the English staff were multiplying too! Consultants were flying in, as more and more players started to follow SuperNick95 in the job of Consultant. A new designer, dimmy, was also hired by the English Reporter team, and the Chat Mod and Forum Mod groups started to grow to accommodate for the rapidly increasing player base.

 

At the same time as this, the first ever OFFICIAL clan championship commenced on the forum! The incredible growth of clans were evident as 25 clans entered, forcing a qualification stage before the group stages began. Hosting many different game styles, including a final in CP battle mode and battles with banned weapons, it was a great success. Won by Dare Devils, with unknown clan Georgian Clan Crusaders coming an unlikely second, many of the top English clans begun to reel in their hold on a lot of the higher ranks in Tanki.

 

It's incredible, looking back, how many official awesome games there actually were in the latter part of 2012. What makes it all the more stunning (and yet heartbreaking at the same time) is that they were all streamed, commented and packed up for video watching that I would be able to show you right now in this article... if the Cybersport Channel still existed. A few months afterwards, the infamous cybersport saga occurred, and as a result, all of the database of the legendary Tanki recordings were wiped from existence. To be honest, that was, in my opinion, one of the saddest things that has happened... ranging from the awesome Best of Winners Vs Devs battle, the most awesome Wolf Battles Parkour and Royal Rumbles, and even the legendary clan war where TMM shocked the champions, DD – all gone, and never to be seen again. However, they remain to be memories, cherished by many.

 

September begun, and the tension/excitement rose as the 1.100.0 update approached ever so slowly until it hit planet Tanki on the 5th. Packed all in one was a massive pile of new graphics as well as the much-awaited-for new game-mode... Control Points!

 

The potential graphics had had very mixed reactions among players. Many players loved the soft new look, while others thought the tanks looked too “cartoonish” (a thought that the developers clearly wanted to remove). There had been an open testing in April that had shown many players the potential new look of the graphics. One video displaying what it had shown is linked here. After looking forward to the “Tanki 2.0” demos that Tanki had been currently open testing, which can be viewed here, it definitely seemed massively different to what many players had been expecting – as you can see. Many players were quite dissatisfied at the way Tanki were changing the graphics – preferring the “harder mature” look of the tanks to the almost “fake” way the tanks and props would now be displayed.

 

However, at the release of the graphics, there was a general consensus of content – even though many players were unhappy. One of the main reasons of satisfaction was due to a fine political plan by the Tanki devs. In bringing out the long-awaited CP battle mode at the same time as the new graphics, which they knew were not wholly popular among all the players meant that those dissatisfied with the new graphics were almost “appeased” by the CP battle mode. Not only this, but they added a discount just afterwards to keep many of the "old-graphic-lovers" in the game. At the same time, the new graphics meant that a lot more players would soon join due to the higher quality look. This same kind of move has actually been repeated quite recently, with the controversial but long-awaited micro-upgrades addition at the same time as “Crystals for Ranks”.

 

To be fair, it was a seriously big change of graphics: too much for some players. At this point, I'm sure some of you readers would be interested to see the complete differences in the graphics. I would seriously recommend reading this awesome article by Raphael2 displaying the graphics update in pictures. Showing off the transformation, the article also shows how the graphics have changed since the 1.100.0 update... but we'll get to that.

 

As I mentioned earlier, it was just a couple of days after the update that another 25% discount was added in celebration of the Tankmen's Day. Time sped through the rest of September, with players settling into their new tank equipment. Tanki reached a stunning 15 million players through the month, as the game begun to improve and increase in popularity more and more. The Server loading reached an all-time-high.

 

But meanwhile, on the Tanki English Forum was beginning to move into the more recent days a lot more of us will recall. A few names will help recall the Tanki forumers that were famous during that time... players such as cheap_plastic_flower, FederalBureauFBI, Selena12121, HichigoShiro (now Makarov.Dreyar) and Contaminated begun to appear on the scene and make a name for themselves (often by a well-known method known as posting a lot); whilst less popular players like latvian_killer, kilaz and TRUNKS285345 were around too, more than often making a nuisance of themselves. All in all, however, the forum was growing – and quickly.

 

October came, and a couple of interesting updates with it. Most notable was the interesting addition of a new points system for TDM Game Mode. Now, points in TDM would be separated by the amount of damage dealt to an opponent, making points given out more fair. I, personally, was not a great fan of this update, even though it made things more fair, due to the fact I am a professional kill-stealer. :P All the same, it did stick with TDM to many players' delight, even though I'm glad it hasn't spread over to CTF and CP.

 

Also, another incredible graphic update was added. Described as “eye candy” by one of the over-excited forumers, the dynamic shadows were added to the game. However, many players did find this too laggy to be able to play to their full potential, and thus switched it off. There were also notable changes on Freeze, Ricochet and Shaft's looks after the Update 1.100.0 had made them look a bit bland. Some cool colours were added back from before the update including the wheel at the back of M2  and M3 Freeze, and the green electronic “board” at the back of M3 Ricochet.

 

With the growth of the forum, the developers had also been thinking of improving the database to provide a more appealing and detailed forum – and so, at the beginning of October, they moved everything across to a new forum (the one we use to this day). One particularly awesome update was the addition of ranks next to names on the forum, so that players could automatically know one's rank when they posted. Even though, as a very avid user of the forum back then, I was largely uncomfortable with the new forum, I have got used to it – and even begun to prefer it – even though that tongue smiley will always annoy the life out of me. :P For a simple look back at the basic look of the old Tanki Forum, do check this picture out.

 

I believe its high time for another recap of Bruce's contest regime, as contests begun flying in and out of the English game. The Wasp and Railgun Tournament, following the lines of the previous Mosquito Battle tournament, but rather focusing on duels, was won by ADVOKAT_444 in early September. Again, if the old Cybersport Channel still existed, I could link to some of the awesome battles publicised during the tournament, but sadly I can't. The 2 Minutes of Fame was also introduced in September – a video testing commentary skills, of which the winners would earn a candidacy place for the Cybersport Channel. One winner was PistolenPaultje, who later became one of the most awesome Tanki DJ's of all time. Other contests worth mentioning were the Tanki Photojabba Contest, where players were told to edit a photo humorously to win crystals, and the Plasma Fights Contest, where players used Ricochet and Twins, in a format of a similar ilk to the Wasp/Railgun Contest. The latter provided fantastic viewing, particularly in the latter stages, where players had to take full advantage of the Ricochet effect to land as many shots as they could whilst protecting themselves, demonstrating some incredible skill. Most of the players who reached the semi-finals were members of the Dare Devils clan, and eventually the final was won by CRAZIER, one of the legendary old ex-DD members.

 

What happens in late October... you know it. The annual Halloween celebration started, with special 305 (worth 3050 crystals now) Gold Boxes landing in a special HALLOWEEN map. (Yup, it was titled in full caps. Ban the developers! :P) There was also a small 13% discount available on M3's in the garage – mainly for “freaky” reasons with the unlucky 13, even though there were the expected complaints by some of the dissatisfied tankmen.

 

It was already November, and the developers took a slow-down for the year, after the importance of dealing with the new graphics and the CP battle mode. Though minor tweaks were done, it was time to plan for the future. And, to be honest, there was good reason to. The majority of them were building up for what would be a completely revolutionary update, which would hit Tanki at the end of 2012 – the legendary rebalance.

 

Throughout the month, Bruce continued his mini-contests, either via his DJ's on Radio Shows, through Facebook, or his re-invigorated interest in the Tanki Blog. There was a Consultant's battle in the Russian forum with which players could buy a paint to support one of the contestants, and the players who picked the winning paint would earn a large prize fund. Having Green, Blue and Pink paints obviously meant, with a mainly male game, that Pink gained the least buyers. However, it came as a surprise to many that KALASH86RUS, the bearer of the pink paint, won – and thus giving a massive prize fund of over 800 (8000 in today's currency) crystals to each of the buyers! There was also a Parkour contest during the month, which gained some impressive synchronisation from a number of winners.

 

During the month, three updates occurred to the “newbie's” experience in the game. Firstly, the Tanki Tutorial was added. Now, players would go through the motions of playing against AI's in an interesting “guided” tour of a map, instead of entering the battle immediately. I'm sure many of you newer players reading this will have experienced this before you joined the game. (I love this. Gives me a sense of being overpowered, and I can actually kill tanks for once! :P) Secondly, newbies were given more protection to their account, including necessity of getting a safe password, as well as the backup email being used for protection, due to the increase of hacking. And finally, there was the addition of a new video for the Tanki front page demonstrating some awesome gameplay, and showing off the new graphics. Tanki had really wanted to change this since the current video at the time had shown only the old graphics – which had seriously changed, and was giving a false picture of the game. The new video has stayed on the homepage to this day.

 

I thought it would be interesting to note that this was also the point when Tanki begun to start doing many discounts on buying crystals. PayPal had a 25% discount for Tanki buyers during November, and from then on, there would be a discount on buying crystals through different means nearly every month!

 

It was December all too soon, and the tension was rising as players waited with bated breath for the Rebalance and Refund that would shake the Tanki world upside down. Tanki revealed what it would be as the date approached; and since some of you readers wouldn't know, I'll quickly sum it up for you. Since the beginning of the game, there had been tiers in Tanki. Firstly, for the beginners, there been the first three weapons and hulls – Smoky, Firebird, Twins, Wasp, Hunter and Titan, the ones you could unlock at incredibly low ranks and get all of them to fully upgraded by the tiny rank of First Sergeant. Then there had been a “middle tier” consisting of Railgun, Isida and Dictator. These were not as powerful as the “Tier 2” equipment but very strong when someone owned them at the low ranks. Finally, there had been a Tier 2, which was formed of the most powerful weapons and hulls in the game – Thunder, Freeze, Ricochet, Shaft, Hornet, Viking and Mammoth. Tanki had been moving along fine with this, but there had always been a problem – it was too limited!

 

At this point, players playing in small maps would nearly always only use Freeze, as it was the only mass-destruction close range weapon which was useful at the high ranks. Similarly, Shaft dominated longer-range battlefields, even though Ricochet and Thunder had their powers too. On top of this, the gap between being able to get M0 Thunder, and then M3, was only three ranks – and that was WO1 to WO4. Barely any difference for a serious Tanki player. There were often M3 Thunders bullying little M0's in battles, and there was an “unbalanced” nature about some of it. That was where the rebalance fitted in. With a bigger range of weapons available at all ranks, longer-stretched upgrades, and addition of new ranks, the game became more balanced at ranks, as people used similar equipment, as well as giving a diversity in weapons and hulls. This would shake Tanki so much that the developers opened big Q&A sessions about it beforehand, as well as open testing.

 

Through the month, as the excitement grew, there were minor events still occurring. Most interesting was the release of two new maps, Gallery and Crash. Though removed from the game now, these maps contained the props that we now see in maps such as Future and Factory. Displaying the “third-generation” graphics, these brought a new level of graphical quality into the game.

 

I'm also happy to say that it was in December 2012 that I was accepted as a reporter into the newspaper team, in which I am happy to be serving you in to this day. ;) The December Issue also heralded the entry of ShadowVisions (ISI BROS 43V3R) into the newspaper team, as the Tanki staff grew from strength to strength. Forum Mods and Chat Mods were being searched for as well; and we can't forget the consultants who were beginning to dominate the forum and chat, helping newbies from every angle!

 

Finally, on December 17th, the rebalance was released. All players received their crystals back, and players took their time to accustom themselves to the new statistics in the game. Some players immediately bought some new weapons and tanks, dying to see what they did in the game. Others knew that the New Year's Sale would approach later, and passed the time with M0 Smoky and M0 Wasp as they prepared for the upcoming sale and slowly took in the news around them of what was the best weapons and hulls to buy.

 

With the release, however, came many other things that have made a big impact on the game. With the rebalance came the addition of three new ranks to the latter end of the game. These were Field Marshal, Commander and Generallisimo. This update was due to the growing amount of Marshals – and Tanki wanted to stretch out the ranks, not only to give players more aim, but also to add higher unlocking levels for some of the M3 Equipment.

 

Another revolutionary update was the addition of buying experience, which came with the rebalance. Yes, I know this is hard to take in – this is what I'm meaning by a big update! 1000 Experience cost 100 crystals (1000 today), which made it a very tempting buy for players. For me, this was completely awesome. I loved it because I could buy my way up to M3 Equipment, which I would never have been able to play up to. I immediately bought my way up from Major to Colonel, before eventually buying myself up to Major General, so I could get an M3 Set. There was a sense, however, that this unbalanced the game, as many tankers at the higher ranks lacked the skill that before they had required. This also made them lose some encouragement to play their way up to the high ranks, and rather bought their way up, making many of them waste crystals, and thus, leave the game. This was later removed for some of the reasons mentioned above, but not before I had taken full advantage of it. ;) I personally am very glad I managed to use it before its removal, since I would definitely not be in possession of as many M3's as I own now if that experience buying feature had not been added!

 

The rebalance did, of course, have mixed reactions... even though sadly, the large majority of players disliked it from the start. For many players, it was too much to take it all at once – and having played Tanki for so long and being so used to the current situation, they weren't ready to take the changes in. There were, of course, the natural problem, of price. Price had been upped massively with the rebalance, with things costing far more than before. Many players with previously full M3 garages, could barely buy two M3 combos now! It was hard to take in for some that their investments in buying an M3 Thunder could now barely buy them M2.

 

However, there were a minority of players who supported the decision, the idea of bringing more balance to the games. There is a sense of irony that many players who disliked the rebalance now dislike the idea of bringing product kits – even though product kits brought the game back closer to the way it was before the rebalance, when buyers dominated even more than they do now. It was one of those things, however, that many players started to appreciate after a period of time – even though many of the old players nowadays would say that they preferred the old days better. To be honest, one of those reasons might be the fact that it was “the old days” since it is scientifically proven that we reminisce upon the old days better than they actually were. :P

 

The rebalance was enough for the year for many players, and for me, I didn't play much Tanki myself for the rest of the year until the New Year Sale when I bought my new equipment - after all M0 Smoky/M0 Wasp isn't the most awesome combination to be using against Majors! The annual 20 Seconds to New Year (now 15 Seconds of Fame) Contest of 2012 ended later in the year, just after Christmas, as Tanki prepared for the New Year Celebration once again.

 

Tanki must have realised the feeling of discontent lying around many of the players at the rebalance, and so, for the New Year, the players were treated with the biggest discount that Tanki had ever given out so far. 30% Discount was alerted to all players across the news and Facebook, as players celebrated and many “savers” including me cashed in their refund money on their m3's at an awesome discounted price. Tanki also gifted players with a gold box doubled in value for the New Year Period. And of course, the unforgettable annual New Year Map. This year heralded a change, as the New Year Map was done completely differently, hosting a large climb up to the “top of the mountain” where a Christmas tree was. Though not holding the same feeling as the 2011 and 2012 New Year maps, it was undoubtedly popular among many, giving a fresh feeling to the battlefield.

 

I think its fitting to end this article with the final update of them all in December – from the complex rebalance to the simplicity of the editing of the starter hull. Wasp had always been the beginning hull for players. Now, it was time for Hunter to take over. Having more balanced stats, it offered players the option of gunning for a faster hull, instead of starting with the fastest. Though some players were reported to have thought they were hacked when they logged in to see an extra hull in their garage, the festive gift of M0 Hunter was a fitting way to close what I would call the busiest and most impressive year in Tanki's history.

 

And so we finish 2012. What a year. And there's more to come. Two more issues left till we finally get to the end of In the Beginning, Tanki and up to where we are now... New Year 2014. Thanks for reading y'all. Feedback, as always, appreciated. ;)

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[Raphael2 3,263]

Seventh part and still incredibly complete. Amazing article once again!

[KisaraKodithuwakku 4]

1 st 

 

yay

[lordmostafa 3,821]

2nd really nice news

[SpHryfBoss 573]

0_0 cant. get. enough. must. read. more!!! 

 

 

hope u get my message from that :P yes i put the tongue face on purpose. umad?

Edited January 11, 2014 by SpHryfBoss

[hogree 4,179]

0_0 cant. get. enough. must. read. more!!! 

Glad that people still appreciate this. Thanks. :)

[HirunMeepage 763]

These articles are awesome. Keep it up bro. It would be better if you make the white letters big or something cauz its current format sometimes, rarely hurts my eyes while reading.

Edited January 11, 2014 by HirunMeepage

[hogree 4,179]

These articles are awesome. Keep it up bro. It would be better if you make the white letters big or something cauz its current format sometimes, rarely hurts my eyes while reading.

Will try a less painful colour next time. Thanks for the feedback.

[SpHryfBoss 573]

Glad that people still appreciate this. Thanks. :)

i wanted u to see the tongue face

[gazatron30 513]

Amazing job man! Keep up the awesome work!

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

The bump is real.