Other [Issue 21] In The Beginning, Tanki... - Part 9

[hogree 4,179]

 

We've finally reached the end. The finale. Eight months after the beginning of this series, it's time to close the longest series ever to grace the Tanki Newspaper. Finally overtaking the epic Smoky XT Chronicles with 9 Articles, we've finally reached the final bunch of months with In the Beginning Tanki, racing up to just a couple of months ago. Lets begin the last edition of In The Beginning Tanki...

 

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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)

Read Part 7 Here (July 2012 - December 2012)

Read Part 8 Here (January 2013 - June 2013)

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The feeling of recapping the last few months in In The Beginning, Tanki is something that feels quite different from all the previous articles. I feel as if many of you readers will be far more competent at remembering the recent history of the game, and putting it into words. And yet, I can't leave it hanging off in the middle of 2013. We'll definitely finish this, whether with a hop, skip and a jump or with a slightly deflating brake.

 

July 2013, just nine months ago. Let's put ourselves into context. We come in straight after the recent Masters of Parkour Contest, the removal of Crash from the game, and the start of the first Lucky Seven Clan Tournament. The game is still moving forward at a fast pace. Much is in the same situation as we find it now, though there are a few momentous updates to greet us as we catch up with time.

 

Tanki is still rumbling when we break in at July. The game is spreading, and nearly a million players are joining each month.  Since the events of the rebalance (which already feels like years ago), people had been originally unimpressed, particularly when the battle funds were dropped in Update 123. As the year had progressed, however, there was no doubt that the players were slowly beginning to appreciate the updates a bit more, particularly when the battle funds were raised again in Update 144.

 

In late June, the dreadfully painfully long Freeze effect was nerfed – perhaps connected to the weather, as the temperature begun to rise in Perm. And as we move into this period of time in latter 2013, it was time for the minor activities and tweaks to take more of a prominent role and the substantial updates to take a seat back - well, for the time being.

 

The start of July heralded a couple of minor, yet significant updates related to paints. The Lucky Seven and Glide Paints were added into the battlefield for the winners of the Lucky 7 Tournament and the Parkour Tutorial Crew respectively. There was also an update on the description of Zeus. Sounds boring? Actually, there was a lot of talk behind this. Many of the Arab players had been complaining about certain phrases used referring to the player looking “like a god” on the battlefield. After months of campaigning, the Tanki team changed the description on the 4^th of July.

 

The forum was also going through a series of changes. It was in late June that the "Voting Up and Down" system was added. It included a karma on people's profiles of the votes they had received on their posts, which was later removed because of its encouragement for trolling. Early July also signalled a number of cool new things. These included the splitting up of the Complaints section, the creation of a Forum Games section and a new section for the Discussion of Contests. This was the start of many sub-forums and new forums appearing in the forum. Soon afterwards, the popular "Your Creativity" section began, with players like gromatom coming to the limelight in their new topics. Elsewhere on the forum, the "Photo of the Day" topic was really kicking off, with players such as Lankbouv, haider19505, mkkmkk999, Remaine and flae99 becoming commonly seen faces around the area.

 

It was in mid-July that another incredibly influential face in the History of Tanki resigned from his job. Bruce Lunga officially quit his role as community manager, after a couple of months of being too busy to keep his job as an important enough focus in his life. An incredible man, his effect on the community will not be forgotten.

 

We discussed last issue about the way Tanki was changing its business view. Instead of cheap buying of crystals and low prices in-game, they had reverted to a discount-friendly expensive game style. This was showing. The main thing at the time, to be quite honest, was a sudden influx of seriously big discounts. At the end of June, a 50% discount on all paints appeared to the public. Just a week later, Isida was put on 50% off. And just a couple of days later, Tanki were clearly setting up for players to try out their new combos in summer as they started a 50% discount on Viking and Hornet. Somewhat puzzling to me since Isida, Hornet and Viking had already been three of the cheapest and most popular pieces of equipment in the game. However, later in the month, they made up for it with the other hulls being given the opportunity to take a discount. Tankers were to vote on whether Hunter, Dictator, Titan, Mammoth or Wasp would go on discount. Unsurprisingly, Mammoth won, with Wasp in a close second and Dictator stealing third place.

 

July was not near over yet. The friend's adding system made its first appearance on the interface of the game. Though later tweaks would occur, this would be the start of what I think now is one of Tanki's greatest additions to the game.

 

The addition of three new maps peeked through the windows as the summer reached its peak holidaying time. The “Looking for a Level Designer”, inspiring many tankers to take up map-making brought out three new maps for the game, in replacement of Crash and Gallery which had been taken down. These maps, Future, Factory and Platform (which was later taken down) are now the only 3rd-generation graphic maps apart from the recent re-release of our old friend, Madness.  

 

August continued the flowing stream of discounts, as Tanki's devs took a summer break with the updates. During the month, The "Vote Percentage Turret" Discount occurred giving Railgun a huge 65% Discount; later in the month, there was once again a 50% off for paints, 25% on buying crystals and also 50% on Firebird and Hornet. It was a good time to be playing Tanki...

 

The social activities in the English side were flying onwards. Tanki gave the first real life prize out in an English Contest when the Mr Tanki Online Contest started with a Samsung Galaxy S4 on offer for the winner. On Facebook, activities such as "Question of the Week" began during April, and the occasional deathmatch was organised too, following the theme of the Wolf Battles. As for the forum, the TOF Solo, Classic and Tandem was starting for the first time over on the English Community!

 

Nothing is recorded to have been added or updated during August, apart from the release of a couple of new special paints for members of staff like Helios, the paint for members of the Creative League. The recently released Platform was also removed from the battlefield.

 

It was September all too soon, as the summer gaming months passed too quickly for many hardcore tankers. It was time for the developers to prepare forward for two momentous updates near the end of the year. The New Physics was going through testing over on the server as players became shocked at the change it looked like it would make on gameplay. Its fair to say that some thought it would be amazing, but others were disgusted with the new speeds the hulls would be having. To see a few of the opinions at the time from pro Russian testers, read ArchangeI's article here which translates a Russian article displaying the views of the players on the testing.  As for micro-upgrades, they were also in testing. Players were particularly disappointed at the fact that there was a planned option to have the chance of a failed update. This was later removed from the plans by the developers, after listening to the players' complaints.

 

And surprise surprise, another discount followed - but no ordinary one. For Tankman's Day, Tanki weren't even satisfied to 50% a couple of things. Setting some relatively simple tasks for players to do in sharing certain things about tanki, they knocked up a stonking 50% Discount on every single item in the garage. BOOM! That remains to be the joint-highest discount of all time! The time also included a special "Going for Gold" contest for those who collected a gold box with the holiday paint on to win crystals.

 

A few tweaks to the buying system was made during September. There were bonus crystals given out to PayPal users, as well as another discount for buying later in the month. Most prominently, Buying Crystals became fixed through all mediums at the end of the month. All mediums would offer the same amount of crystals, except SMS payments which remained to be more expensive. This helped players avoid hassle of searching for the cheapest method of buying, but rather go with the simplest, and most relevant for them.

 

As always throughout the year, there were English activities still going on. Over on Facebook, the English Tanki page notched up a substantial 100,000 likes. Meanwhile, over on Tanki, a year after the original "Kasim vs Sun" Battle (which Sun co-incidentally won), the Tanki developers were warming up for a tandem battle where Kasim and Sun would face two Russian players. The devs and players both had a "paint", and buyers of the winning paint would be given a share of the prize fund. Though both players were Second Lieutenants, they won as I predicted! ^_^

 

It was at the end of September that a very controversial update made its appearance on our gaming screens. The infamous product kits were added to the game.

 

Previously, the only product kits had been for M0's, which had made little difference for players, but now all of a sudden product kits were brought in for high ranks. The idea behind this was fine, most people agreed, but what was particularly worrying was the low ranks that the kits were available at. Suddenly, First Lieutenants could be found with M2 Viking, M2 Thunder and Emerald - a combination that many Brigadiers would be glad to own! Prodigi, a paint that could only be unlocked at Marshal, could also suddenly be unlocked at the rank of First Lieutenant - and Inferno, one of the best paints in the game among Generallisimos could be gained at a staggering Second Lieutenant if bought in a kit. These were problems that ran under much fire from the players in the first few days.

 

The devs, however, stuck to their guns. Though the kits did unbalance play quite a lot more, the developers certainly gained more from this update; and it did not seriously affect the Tanki playerbase. It was another step to encourage players to buy. However, it did sprout a lot of anger, particularly from committed non-buyers, in its first few days. (Recently, the product kits for M3's were changed again - if you want to see what they were previously, please check this topic.)

 

And thus, Tanki moved on into October with buyers hungry to try out these new over-powered kits!  Early in the month, one of the most popular maps in the game had a goodbye event. Quite a substantial goodbye event, I must say. It was time to say goodbye to Moon Silence. 

 

This map had been a key part of many newbies' first days in the game. The low gravity, and the very low unlock rank had made it an ever-present sight among the first few games for a young player. However, it had always had an unreliable vulnerability to being prey to hackers due to the gravity it offered. And thus, Tanki planned to remove it. Before they did so, they had a week of craziness over there. The chance of a gold box dropping in Moon Silence was doubled, and a 3,000 Gold Box was added over there. Not only that, but the first 3,000 Gold Box that you have collected would give you 50 of each supply! That's no small amount. The two players who collected the most Moon Silence gold boxes in the week (a staggering 22) - not only did they get 66,000 crystals; but they also were gifted an iPad Mini from Tanki for their labours. And at the same time as that, if they had screenshotted every single one of the Gold Boxes they collected in Moon Silence and tweeted them for a special Twitter Contest at the time, they would have received 82,000 more crystals. Imagine that! 148,000 crystals and an iPad Mini for one week's worth of Gold Boxes! Decent... :o

 

Lets catch up with the social times in Tanki again, shall we? Over on Facebook, ArchangeI was beginning to make his claim for community manager as he started doing his Parkour Tutorials as well as his incredible V-Logs! To watch his first one, please watch this video. At the same time, the second Lucky 7 Tournament was starting - the later winners of which were Noob Army, who hammered Vengeance in the final. Contests were also flying in, with probably the simplest contest of all time, the Slogan for T-Shirts Contest, being added on the forum - of which the winner "Blow 'Em Up" is currently sitting on my Tanki T-Shirt upstairs! On the forum, some new reporters were added to the team, including old forumer Fjelstad1678, DJ VIkingsrall and the aforementioned ArchangeI. The report button was added on the forum to help players report bannable offences on the forum in an easier and quicker way. There had been a recent uproar among members about certain moderating decisions, and so Semyon also started a Feedback on Staff topic. The ability to like staff members' posts was also added later in the year, something I appreciate very much! *hint hint* ;)

 

What happens in October? Of course, it was the annual Halloween celebration once again at the end of October. 13% Discount was offered - mainly for the creepiness of the number - and a 3000 Gold Box was once more added into the battlefield. A HALLOWEEN map was also added (Yup, in full caps :L), which was really just a darkened version of Highland with random pumpkins sitting around in the middle of the course. Halloween also had another Twitter contest where players had to create a picture, gif or video that was themed in the Halloween map to win crystals.

 

Recapping the month always looks back on the discounts; and apart from the small Halloween discount, there was also a 25% on Isida and Thunder. On top of this, there was a discount on buying with prepaid cards. 

 

Tanki rolled on into November, smoothly preparing for the upcoming big updates. The Helper Paint was added to the battle, after the introduction of a "Poll to see the best staff member" was added for October Staff Members. In later months, the best helpers were chosen rather by the admins of each section. To see more on the beautiful Helper paint, read this article. Later in the month, the protections of Acid and Champion, two special tournament-winner paints were also given minor changes.

 

The month flew forward as the developers focused on perfecting micro-upgrades and the new physics in particular. The devs who sorted out the graphics were also preparing for a new look into lighting that would come soon. If you are wondering if there haven't been many updates yet, you'll be surprised as we approach the final month of the year how much is still set for happening...

 

A couple of events worth mentioning occured during the month. Firstly, there was a 25% Discount on all hulls. Decent. Secondly, there was a 90% Discount on mines and 25% Discount on Paypal payments. Awesome! Thirdly, Tanki won the Game of Runet Prize - and thus battle-funds were doubled, there was a 50% Discount on weapons and there was a bunch of free crystals chucked out to those who logged on on the three days over one Weekend. No, I'm not joking. It seriously happened. They weren't joking when they called it an epic weekend! An update worth mentioning also came at the end of the month - the addition of the ability to invite a friend to battle!

 

There was also a different event that happened in November. A Tanki Online Tournament over in Perm was held. Players met up in real life over in Russia to have a tournament where winners of an awesome DeathMatch would receive real money. Wish I could have gone! These two recent events of them winning the Runet Prize as well as the tournament in Perm perfectly shows how much Tanki had grown in the time that we've been looking over it in this series...

 

It was already December and though the temperature was dropping, things were really heating up for some big releases over in Perm. The first of these major updates occured on December 4th. Update 200.

 

Update 200 was the release of Dynamic Lighting and a new dimension of graphics in the game. The quality rose immensely, the beauty too as players gasped at the new colour sensations they were receiving on their screens. There were, however, a few problems some players experienced with the new colours not working. Thus, Tanki helped out by providing an "anecdote" to the issue that seemed to be rising particularly on Google Chrome. If you suffer these problems, you may also want to check it out over here.

 

The continuing of these updates wasn't going to stop yet. The feature to invite friends to battle was updated on December 9th, and on December 11th, the much awaited Update 205 came out. We welcomed to Tanki the New Physics!

 

Like so many substantial updates in Tanki, the first thought was to say "Don't change something that doesn't need changing". Well, it was definitely for me. But, now, looking back, I'm really loving the new physics. Offering more speed and drift for the faster tanks, they added a new dimension to the game. Suddenly, joining a Silence CTF wasn't ONLY going to have all Mammoths. With it came a bunch of tweaks to weapons as Ricochet and Shaft were buffed and the Freeze effect was smallened once again. I must admit, I LOVE this update!

 

Events were flying in all over the place. The "From Christmas to Christmas" event where players had to complete tasks like sharing posts on different social networks, and taking pictures of them catching the festive 2014 Gold Box. (See what I mean by this Gold Box being constantly raised thing?  :huh:) There was a 60% raise in Battle Funds over Christmas period due to a number of tasks being completed. The 15 Seconds of Fame contest was started again, typically won by the modern gamepiong of contests, ArchangeI! Another Twitter Contest started - a simple way to win 20,000 crystals in the "Where have I seen that" Contest. And over Christmas to New Year, the "Decorate A Christmas Tree" contest came on, with seven crystal daily bonuses given to those who collected all the seven presents from the garage.

 

But no there was no holding up. The updates were coming thick and fast too. On December 14th, a couple of New Product Kits came in. These were particularly for lower ranked buyers. A few days later, the most ground-shaking update of them all started. Update 208. Most prominently, It was time for Micro-Upgrades to say hello to Tanki.

 

I'm sure many of us would have been more unhappy with MU's if it hadn't been for the fact that Tanki also brought out the Crystals for Ranks feature in the same day. That meant that so many of the players who had been playing for yonks got this massive boost in crystals. With this update also came the awesome yellow light that rises above the tank when you rank up. A massive update - and so many people took a lot of time to take in all that had happened. As a result, a couple of useful guides for Micro-Upgrades was uploaded by... guess who.... ArchangeI after the release! You can watch them here.

 

The annual New Year's Celebration began as Tanki's players got ready for it excitedly. The New Year's Map came out on cue, with some cool dark effects and a Christmas Tree in the middle. The 3,000 Gold entered. And most awesome of all, the annual New Year's Discount this year was brought up to a massive 50% off all items! What made it even more awesome is that everyone had just got their Crystals for Ranks cash too. People cashed out. It was really a time to celebrate.

 

I think its fitting that we end on a satisfying note with the discount bringing some smiles to our faces after going through an endless pile of ups and downs as we've explored in depth the history of Tanki Online. What a story we've discovered to bring Tanki to where it is to this very day.

 

 

And there ends In The Beginning, Tanki. For those who have read these articles from the very beginning up to now, I hope you've enjoyed coming with me on this trip through the legendary days of this wonderful game. Once again, thank you for reading this. I've really enjoyed writing; and I hope you feel the same way from a reader's perspective! Please feel free to share this series, even as the months roll forward - and may Tanki live on! ^_^

 

As I conclude this series, I would like to give a list of credits to those topics and pieces of information that have helped make In The Beginning, Tanki possible. Thank you so much to all those who have helped me compile information into these articles!

 

Behind the Breaking News

Breaking News/Daily News Posts

Developers News Archive Forum Section

Contests Forum Section

Patch Notes and Updates

Tanki News Feed

Tanki old Blog Feed

Tanki Facebook Page

Tanki General Forum Archive "Start Date" Feature

Tanki Off-Topic Forum Archive "Start Date" Feature

And Last But Not Least:

Google's "site:tankiforum.com" feature!

 

And for the very last time, Thanks for reading!  ;)

 

Edited July 31, 2017 by Hexed

[Valletta 834]

A great series. It was delightful following it ^_^

[jordan61 120]

nice bro

[I-Iero 823]

Awesome, sad it has to end.

[ArimaKishou 21]

Nice :D

[Beerme 106]

Great series why u no continue for the first 3 months of 2014 :P

[D1E 257]

he two players who collected the most Moon Silence gold boxes in the week (a staggering 22) - not only did they get 1,100 of every supply and 66,000 crystals; but they also were gifted an iPad Mini from Tanki for their labours. And at the same time as that, if they had screenshotted every single one of the Gold Boxes they collected in Moon Silence and tweeted them for a special Twitter Contest at the time, they would have received 82,000 more crystals. Imagine that! 148,000 crystals, 1,100 of each supply and an iPad Mini for one week's worth of Gold Boxes! Decent...  :o

Hmm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pretty sure that's incorrect.  If you caught one 3k gold, you got 50 supplies, but you didn't get another 50 if you caught another gold, I may be wrong though.

Great article though, and epic series :D

Edited March 3, 2014 by D1E

[GoldRock 6,165]

A really excellent end to an awesome series. No more needs to be said, really.

[DynamiteBang 119]

I luv this article :3

[Raphael2 3,263]

A really excellent end to an awesome series. No more needs to be said, really.

I can't find other words.

[The.lukey0 24]

 WOW! Awesome series hogree! ;) I've read every series and I enjoyed everyone of them! :lol: Sad it has to come to a end tho. :unsure:

[hogree 4,179]

Thanks guys. And sorry about the mistake, Lank, just edited it~

[D1E 257]

No probs hog, as I said, epic article and one of the best series.

[pwhite 120]

Nice. My first goldbox was a 3000 haloween on Fort Knox.

[hogree 4,179]

Just compiled the whole In The Beginning, Tanki series for all who have followed it!

 

Do read over here: http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=193021

[r_SpiderPig12 98]

C'mon, it was so awesome that you can't stop here!

[LividTanki 7]

Good series you can do the next three months then don't stop!