Other [Issue 32] [History] In the Beginning, Tanki... - Part 10

[hogree 4,179]

 

It's been a year. A year since the longest series ever to appear in the Tanki Online English Community Newspaper finished. "In the Beginning, Tanki" was done. Completed. Supposedly. 2014 has now come and gone, and the fondness of the memories many have had over the past year left to slumber. It's time to once again resurrect those glorious days of old. Join me as we travel through the first half of 2014 - yes, "In the Beginning, Tanki" is back!

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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)

Read Part 9 Here (July 2013 - December 2013)

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As I begin to compose this article, a year after I thought I had finished it for good, I am surprised by how much I look forward to once again researching, reminiscing and reminding not only you readers but also myself of all that has happened this past year in Tanki. Once again, I'm sure many of you will remember events far clearer than myself. But after requests from a number of forumers, I've decided to continue the series. Well, let's not waste any time. We kick off straight away on the first month - the first day - of 2014.

 

How about some context to get us going? Micro-Upgrades had entered the game just a couple of weeks before, accompanied as many would remember by the influx of crystals that came with the "Crystals for Ranks" update. Just a week before that, Tanki had welcomed in the New Physics, most remembered for reducing the once-deadly Freeze effect and giving Ricochet a boost which would catapult it from what many called "a shadow of its former self" to a favourite at not only the low ranks, but also the high. Not just for the weapons, the update was primarily aimed at re-working the hulls and is also remembered for starting off the decline of Mammoth, as well as introducing the Drift which has made Hornet the far-and-away favourite hull to a significant number of players.

 

Well, now was the New Years, and we all know what that means. A special discount. How about 50% on everything? For many players, especially more experienced ones, this discount was the most memorable in their Tanki history. Why, you ask? Well, let's just remember that two weeks ago, Crystals for Ranks had been released. Result? It meant that players who were Generallisimos at the time of the update would receive a colossal 314,000 crystals. Yeah, you heard that right! And with the New Year around the corner, the majority of players saved and were rewarded with what is rumoured to have been the biggest post-refund spending spree of crystals Tanki has ever had. That's what you call a late Christmas present!

 

A December full of change was to take time to adapt to, and the month passed with players getting used to the New Physics and their new equipment. With the Visual Rank-up effect also recently added, players were having some extra fun with their rank-up parties; and the new turn-off-crystal-boxes feature in Pro Battles was good news for the many gamers who wanted bigger funds in their serious XP Battles.

 

It was the end of the month where the first release of the month came- well I say release, perhaps that might not be the best word. The return of Madness! It had been 2 years since many players had played on their favourite map of old days, and after a sneak-peek of it's work in progress a couple of months before, it finally hit the servers in a big update named "Reworking of maps".

 

The update is also memorable for low ranks at the time for another reason - suddenly the rank limits for all the maps flew down. By the time a player reached WO4, he would have unlocked every single map in the game - a serious change from the days when you had to rank all the way to General to unlock a couple of the maps! Maps changed too - Silence was most famously re-shuffled, with the "Silence II" version exiting the game; similarly maps like Highland and Brest were merged and their second version was removed from the game.

 

A period of change was not deterring activity on all forms of social media. The forum was busy to say the least, with the famous "Photo of the Day" topic at its peak times - sometimes, 10 Pages would fill up each day. Names like FatalTank, sky128 and Aklism were becoming well-known faces; the forum was packed with contests such as the "Guides" and "Rusty Barrels" as well as one-offs such as a demonstration of the dynamic lighting in the "Come to Light" Facebook contest.

 

It was February all too soon, and an interesting update would be released to enhance log-in and account security. With Facebook becoming a key platform for the majority of Internet users, the ability to log on via Facebook was released, enabling fast log-ins as well as extended security for accounts.

 

Undebatable, that update of course. Just a benefit. However, Tanki would have a couple of debatable updates that month. Just a couple of days later they pulled out a bombshell. In a list of several maps, they announced that they were to remove all but two of the maps due to "lack of playing time". Some of these, such as Hill, Courage, Arena and Deck-9, were extremely popular. Thankfully, Tanki turned back on their decision even though Deck 9 and Canyon, two stalwart smaller old maps, would be removed later in the year to the disdain of many players.

 

It would get even more debatable. There was to be more controversy in that month rooted from the decision of the developers. In February 2014, two words were literally all I would have needed to start off a heated debate on a lobby chat. Any guesses? Yep. Product Kits.

 

The situation didn't help by an accidental error making the kits prices originally higher than they should have been. However, it swung both ways. Some thought that creating kits so expensive was favouring buyers. Others thought that the reason for new kits had been to stop the product kits for Marshal-unlock paints such as Prodigi being included in Second Lieutenant+ kits. However, it was backfired - the Paint Kit M2 would contain Prodigi. 

 

On the other hand, this update would hold the most popular kit of all time - the Brigadier Railgun-Hornet kit. This was the beginning of many XP players, and the Railgun-Hornet combination hit new heights at the higher levels.

 

An interface change later in the month for the homepage was eye-catching as the Tanki site was refurbished with a "new look" gracing the homepage. I'm sure most of you remember the old homepage with the news feed running down the side, like me. I do miss the old homepage, but the large consensus was positive as Tanki turned up the heat on their Public Relations frontier.

 

A stalwart event which gripped many players in 2014 would soon begin in February - the days of double funds. Although the first was due to the Data Center being successfully moved, and gifted for a week, it would begin the rampant double funds - so much so that it got to a stage when nearly every week had a day of double funds for a period.

 

March was on the doorsteps as developers began work on the Unity Version of Tanki that we still await. A couple of sales and a few other tweaks but overall, the community was satisfied and the game was growing nicely. A key update during March would soon come. The removal of the Team Kick.

 

Mixed opinions again. Many players were glad - they had been kicked out just because players wanted their friends in - or even wanted to take more funds for themselves. But at the same time, the ability of mults sabotaging a team suddenly grew significantly. Players could no longer kick them out but they would have to wait for a moderator who would have to go through a process which could take a while, or even be impossible due to a low rank sabotaging the team by playing to their full potential but with poor equipment.

 

Thankfully, a week later, an update came out that in my opinion was one of the brightest moments of 2014. The long-awaited ability to change equipment inside battles was finally released to the public to a wave of appreciation. Finally, players wouldn't have to quit a game to get that paint they needed and then wait outside till a space was opened up. Gameplay became so much more dynamic, teamwork took on a new level as players considered what combinations would be most suited to the situations. An absolutely vital update, and with the installed time limits, it was executed to perfection.

 

Another memorable moment of the year would be on its way. The release of a map. Yep, that's right! Rio was out, and with it a uber-cool contest offering 1 million crystals to conquer the peak of the Building. An incredible video from the German Parkour team won the plaudits, but most players were just appreciating the beauty of the map. Combined with the coming release of Tanki Online Brazil, Rio was a new step in the graphics of the game with a skybox to put your heart in your mouth.

 

It was soon April - the month where Tanki Online Brazil would be released for our South American friends. Built up to say the least, and the publicizing of the event certainly kick-started the game as players begun to join from parts of the globe where the breakthrough had not yet occurred. And meanwhile, in our neck of the woods, events were flying.

 

Over on Social media, Video of the Week and particularly Question of the Week was thriving and Tanki's Facebook page was getting more and more popular. As for the game, a number of discounts graced the game. Within two weeks, Viking had a 50% Discount as did Micro-Upgrades and all the Medium Hulls. As well as this, there were discounts on buying crsytals, as well as the removal of SMS Commissions which would stay on in the game. And I can't forget - one of the most popular Holiday paints since Tanki began them in 2010 was established for the Cosmonautics Day. Here's a picture; beautiful huh?

 

Discounts would often disguise dubious updates however, and certainly at the end of April, a major re-balancing of turrets and hulls hit hard as players began to unscramble the changes. A video detailing the changes can be seen if you are interested in remembering it. There were positives however, and soon players weren't complaining - as normal, the update just had taken some time to get used to.

 

Meanwhile, The Newspaper was going through a rough time. It had just been moved away from the Press Forum to in-game occasional articles in April. Without much writing going on and no issues, it was difficult to produce much, and it would soon head back to its home here on the forum.

 

Fair to say that 2014 was buzzing along nicely for players. Discounts and Double Battle Funds paved the floor with gold as players began to take the gifts for granted. The May Holidays popped up with only 25% off everything just a couple of weeks after 50% had covered a number of products causing some players to rant about the lack of a 50% Discount.

 

But, even if they were being spoilt, Tanki didn't seem to mind. The 5th Birthday of Tanki was celebrated in style at the end of May, with a week full of 50% Discounts, Double Battle Funds and 3000-crystal gold boxes sounding like one pretty serious party to me! Along with this came a surprise mid-year "THE GAME", most memorable for the Ping Pong Secret Room with "The Rock" pinned to the wall.

 

May did hold some twists and turns however, and near the end of May saw the heralding of a major Map Update. The release of Rio had seen the first map with "self-destruct zones" added to the game, and now Tanki would introduce this on significant numbers of other maps.  For example, Silence was made a lot larger, and self-destruct zones were added in many areas of the map. This update wasn't primarily to change gameplay but rather for visual enhancement, so that some of the maps didn't appear to be "floating" at the edges, but rather went on further into untouchable land.

 

And the summer approached already. It was soon June and another popular update was on its way. Firstly, and most significantly, it's aim was of a revitalisation for the CP Mode. CP had gone from quite popular at its entrance to certainly the least played game modes. And Tanki knew the potential this had to create dynamic gameplay and enjoyment for players. So they added the ability of CP Mode to every single map and also made Point-Capturing give players much higher scores. This added to the intentions of the players to capture a point making for much more intense fighting.

 

Along with the CP Update came a number of small tweaks. For example, the Gold Box Notification was turned Orange due to Visibility problems; and Chat would now only be unlocked at Gefreiter. All round, no complaints from players. An update fixing and not creating problems. Just as the devs intended.

 

As the game was getting along, so was the community. Tanki signed a Contract with "Starladder" in late May, meaning that the Cybersport World was preparing for the beginning of Starladder in Tanki in a revolutionary change to Tanki eSports. As for Semyon's work - well, June heralded the start of the weekly VLOG. A fantastic introduction, it kept players up to date with news and it's fair to say that Semyon's rep went up among all of the community.

 

Anything else in June 2014? Of course! The FIFA World Cup! Tanki followed in with the rest of the world by creating paints for each of the teams in the Cup. Players who bought the paint of any of the Top 3 Finishers would receive prizes. Most of the players chose Brazil. What a shame...

 

And fittingly, there goes the half-time whistle. Believe me, the next half is absolutely packed. Stay tuned for next issue as we - once again - reach the end of ITBT for now! 

 

Thanks for reading!  ;)

[I.WalkAlone 548]

A very well written article, but... I don't know, somehow it wasn't as interesting or intriguing as the earlier parts. Probably has to do with the fact that I already know all of this. Anyway, a job well done. Future tankers will love it.

[jazz20 1,181]

I remember when the old-home page showed many many pictures of marshal battles wrecking it out on maps like polygon, boombox, and sandal. It blew me away when I saw one picture of a player with 8 million crystals in his garage before crystal inflation took place. It was obviously photo-shopped but back then, I was just wowed by the amount :P

[TankDestroyer890 135]

^ I remember the old home page I miss it and I miss the old sign in with no loading thingie

[lukey0 27,543]

Nice one Hogree.

 

Also Tanki's B-Day had 5000 Golds not 3000 ones. ;)

 

I sure miss that old homepage.

[emrakul 7,801]

^^ +

Well done! Good article

 

Most of the players chose Brazil. What a shame...

I was thinking about Brasil or Germany... I was very very angry and sad when I saw what happened... (the main thing: I bought M3 heavy kit, and few MU's etc, maybe about 490k spent... whyyy? just +245k -_-)

Edited March 1, 2015 by emrakul

[best_perfect 29]

The secret room in ping pong have 'The Rock' photo!!

If yaa....... Smell!!! What the rock is cooking!!

[Lord-of-the-Snipers 1,620]

Thanks for refreshing memories! :)

 

The next one will be about updates, updates, updates and etc......?

[craeee 43]

Tanki had so many sales then. Now? We are begging for 25% sales, and dreaming about 50% sales. Pathetic. But, other than that, article was done very good, and it told me what all I missed when I quit in 2013 and when I came back in late 2014.