Other [Issue 35] Back in Time: Scythe

[S.C.Y.T.H.E 1,072]

Back in time: Scythe

 

 

Hello Tankers! This is Scythe, and this article will mostly be me rambling on about old times shall cover my life as a tanker, from day one until now! 

                                                                                                                                          

 

Ancient Scythe 

 

First of all, how did I come across and begin playing this game? My story is probably quite similar to most people, in that I was invited by my friends. I was at a Christmas party during late 2009 or 2010 (I can’t even remember), and several of my friends were playing a game on their laptops. For several minutes I watched them, wondering what they were doing. Something I still laugh about today was that I couldn’t tell that the game involved tanks. Their flashy paints, hulls and strange “lightning turrets” did not resemble a tank to me in any way at that time. Not to mention that the map they were playing in was the late Madness Space, which appeared to be a giant three dimensional maze with zero gravity. Magical boxes seemed to randomly fall everywhere, and I was quite confused yet intrigued by this mysterious Tanki Online. After a while, my friends helped me set up my first account, namely generalfrandsen12. I finally learned that this game was a tank game, and I took a look at the garage. I was quite excited by the fact that turrets and hulls were interchangeable, although since I was a Recruit I used M0 Wasp and M0 Smoky. 

 

The first map I played was a Sandal DM titled “For Newbies”. I still remember that map, due to the fact that I drove into a hole in the ground and was stuck for more than a minute. I remember my friends laughing when I tried to avoid taking Double Damage boxes, since I thought they would make my tank explode. (Come on, it had a radiation hazard sign!) I probably ranked up to Private in this battle, but my memory is foggy. 

 

The day later was a Saturday, and I remember playing the game in the morning and showing my siblings. They were equally as interested as I, and my younger brother Moses created an account called “Mosey8”. That day I believe I bought the paint Black, and another turret Firebird. Over the next week I played the game pretty intently, and acquired the turrets Firebird and Twins, along with the hulls Hunter and Titan. I also got the paint Red for no particular reason. 

 

As I took a look at the garage, there were several items of equipment that I set my heart for. First and foremost, the hull Viking. Back then, Viking unlocked sometime during the Warrant Officer ranks, but I still wanted it badly (mostly because it looked cool). I also wanted the turret Isida, as I thought that Isida would also be triple barreled and shoot like a Twins, which was then my favorite turret. (Back in those days Isida had three prongs). But after a week or so, I largely forgot about the game. Though, my brother continued playing for a while.

 

 For longer than a year, I don’t think that I ever entered the game. At least a year later, a different friend and I were bored, and looking for a cheap online game to play on miniclip.com. I saw “Tanki Online” listed, and I immediately recollected the game from a year before. My friend and I tried to enter the game with my old account, but I had since forgotten the password. So, we decided to create a new account that we would share. My friend came up with the ingenious name of Sneaky. However, Sneaky was already taken, so we tried Snakey, which was taken as well! Finally we settled with the name Snakey123. I also created another account, Razorcat, so that both my friend and I could play at the same time. A few days later, after school, I remembered my brother’s account (Mosey8) and I logged into it, and found that it was the enormous rank of Master Sergeant. The account contained Isida and Hornet, two hulls that I had never used before. To my dismay, Isida now had two prongs and was not like a Twins in any way. But I still liked Isida, though I hated hornet after a bad experience in Monte Carlo. After which I decided never to never use Hornet again.

 

My friend and I continued playing, and I settled with the familiar combinations of Titan/Twins and Hunter/Firebird. I became accustomed with the map Boombox, a map which I enjoyed in all game modes but especially DMs. During this time in my career, I played almost solely DMs, and TDMs when I could find them. Also, I was quite a nub. I never turned my turret. I knew the keys that would turn my turret, but I never used them and never felt the need to turn my turret! Almost no one else turned their turret either. One thing that I did was put a dictionary on the spacebar when I used Titan/Twins, a trick that many other tankers have done as well. And, I never devoted any attention to garage statistics. Once, I tried to make sense of the random numbers and symbols that appeared on the description of equipment, but I didn’t understand any of it except for protective paints. So, all of my purchases were solely decided by the way the equipment looked and if I had spotted other tankers doing well with it. Me and my friend made some somewhat useless purchases, but in all I believe I had a nice garage.

 

After a few weeks, I had Firebird M3 (beloved blue flames and all!), Hunter M2, Titan M1 and Twins M2, and Smoky M3. The only protective paints I had at the time were Flora and Forester. I mostly played the maps Sandal, Boombox, Polygon, and Bobruisk. 

 

Medieval Scythe

 

I believe I was nearing WO1 when my friend moved away to a different state. After this, I never really played the game for quite some time. At some point during a summer before the first major rebalance, my friend returned to visit where I lived for a few weeks. Apparently he had been playing on our account while he had been away, and we were the rank WO3. That day, we bought Viking M0, Freeze M0, and we already had Hornet and Thunder M0. 

 

I still rarely turned my turret, and really didn’t understand the game mechanics. Very rarely I saw Goldboxes, but I didn’t understand why they dropped. Nine tenths of all my crystals came from catching crystal boxes, as it was very rare for me to actually finish a battle and receive battle funds. The game was still quite exciting, however, once again, I did not stick long to this game.

 

I played inactively for quite some time, only logging in for a short time every few weeks. I didn’t follow any of the Tanki Online news, and I never entered the forum. Probably now or before this I actually registered my forum account, but it wouldn’t be till more than a year or so later that I actually made a post. 

 

Surprisingly enough, I still never used Hornet. Also, Railgun was still M0 for me, and I really disliked the turret due to its long reload and difficulty to aim. About now I began hearing about certain events, and I became aware of the concept of clans. I also became aware of a new version of the game, then to be titled “Tanki 2.0” and I was quite excited for it. I don’t believe I had any friends in the game, and I can’t remember a single name of a player from that time. Perhaps because I had no friends, wasn’t a part of the community at all, nor followed any of the news made the game not as enjoyable is it is now for me. 

 

But anyways, around the same time, I logged into the game during late 2012, to find an update on the front page of the game, listed as update 1.100. This update changed all the graphics for practically every piece of equipment, and this got me playing more actively (since my M3 Firebird was swag, still with blue flames). A few weeks later I also bought Ricochet M0 for the first time, and was very impressed with Ricochet. After five minutes of using my M0 Rico/Viking, I caught my first Goldbox. For the record, this Goldbox was in a Polygon DM, on the short bridge. However, literally the next day update #114 was released. This was the first major rebalance and really stands out in my mind. Now I had all the crystals that I had ever earned, and I could spend it to buy almost everything I could have dreamed of. At my lowly rank of Warrant Officer Three, I now had the ability to buy Shaft or Mammoth, something that couldn’t have taken place before. Update #114 really changed how modifications of turrets worked, and now they made a massive difference. However I didn’t realize this, and wasted a lot of my crystals on cheap M0s directly after the rebalance. However, I still ended up with Viking M1, Ricochet M1, Freeze M1, and Dirty. 

 

After this rebalance I played fairly frequently for a few months. But I was disappointed in all by the rebalance, as I had lost all my M3s and even M2s, without any hope of getting them back unless I played like mad. Several of my real life friends quit the game at this time, since they were Lieutenants with several M3s and were suddenly reduced to a few M1s and M2s.

 

 So, I was largely inactive for all of 2013 especially because other games attracted my attention, especially Civilization IV and Sim City 4. Also, none of my siblings played this game any longer so I lost some interest. Near the end of 2013, I discovered another tank game, World of Tanks, and I was hooked for several months. But I eventually gave up on that game, and sought a less pay-to-play game. During the summer of 2014, my main friend who helped me start Snakey123 visited me for a few days, and I remember me and him logging into Tanki after nearly a year of inactivity, and playing almost all night. 

 

Modern Scythe

 

After this all-night marathon of TO playing during the summer of 2014, I finally began to play Tanki Online more actively. I finally purchased Railgun M1, and ranked to Warrant Officer Four. Over the summer I went from WO3 to Second Lieutenant and purchased my first M2, which happened to be Freeze M2. Freeze M2 was very handy for a few ranks, but it soon became obsolete. At this period of time I had stockpiled a large amount of crystals, and after only spending a few actual dollars purchased the Heavy Kit M2 at Third Lieutenant. Ricochet M2 was very useful and times were very easy with my overpowered equipment. 

 

During the late summer of 2014 I reached a few milestones. I made my first post in the forum (in the Ideas and Suggestions section. I am proud to say my first post was more than 1K words). I recieved my first upvote (from ) and joined my first clan.

 

 My first clan was named Dark Flames, and I mainly joined because it had a cool sounding name and a nice logo. After a very, very long period of time (One day, to be exact) I was promoted to leader of that clan, but shortly after entirely ignored it, although never forgot it.

 

I also met my first friends, notably JabinatorIsAwesome, Lookthe2015, and Poly_the_cool, and DarthVaderJonGTR (I doubt he remembers me, but I do :D), and somehow I became acquainted with SpaceCowboy18, though I know he doesn’t remember me at all. Lookthe2015 and Poly_the_cool are still active friends of mine. 

 

School started up, and I was fairly busy so it wasn’t until October that I reached First Lieutenant. During this period of September to October-November, several things stand out to me. I really enjoyed the 70% sales that seemed to occur every three weeks. I also remember a speedy output of exciting updates that kept me hooked to the game. About this time I met several excellent tankers, including General_Abrams and Maestro.Italiano, Hell_Under_You, Fly-Wheel, Bemwarobenkiro, Achilles_the_pro, Jazz20, Duck100101, and especially DaVinceFTW. 

 

I also became aware that there were different ‘staff’ positions and I remember being slightly intrigued by the avatar with “Press” on it, though it wasn’t until later when I learned what a Reporter actually was. Some staff members that I remembered looking up to were TheKillerPenguin, Micah and LethalJ. 

Also, during this time I actually learned how to decipher the garage statistics and I read all I could in the Wiki. During the ensuing months I became much more adept at playing the game and knew almost everything there was to know. I also discovered the Newspaper and the helper position Reporter. I wondered if I could ever become a Reporter as well, and I was determined to apply as soon as Applications were opened once more. 

 

I acquired about thirty posts on the forum near the end up the year, almost solely in the eSports and Off-Topic sections. During the Winter Sales and Holidays I accrued a quite decent garage, and the game seemed to only get more interesting. During winter break I ranked up to Lieutenant Colonel. 

My plan for the coming year was to reach the rank of Colonel, and then start an alternative account and reach Colonel as well, and repeat. However this never happened, and I just kept ranking up. I actually began writing practice articles for the Newspaper during December, so that I would be prepared as soon as Reporter applications were re-opened. But after a month of the applications never being opened, I decided to start my own (nub) writing group initially called the Unofficial Newspaper. Our first members were Me, Duck100101, Raredust, Bluelight1209, mcmonkey25 and iCarefree. During the month of February I changed my nickname from Snakey123 to S.C.Y.T.H.E, and started my creativity topic. I also wrote the best article ever, my Guide to Eating Chicken. 

 

Several tankers during this time stood out in my mind, including iCarefree, Jazz20 and Yisroel.Rabin.

After a month or two, Reporter applications were finally opened. I put a lot of detail into my application, but I was very doubtful whether I would get accepted due to my age and Karma. However, after what felt like months of painfully waiting, I was accepted into the interview stage of recruitment, and I began to wonder if I had a chance. Somehow, I was accepted as one of the four new candidates. To be honest, I am still baffled that I made it. I remember logging into the forum to see my name in orange, just before I checked Skype and realized I was officially accepted as a candidate. 

 

A lot of  updates have been introduced from the Summer of 2014 to the summer of 2015. I believe that Micro-Upgrades were finally released sometime during the summer of 2014, and this update definitely dwells in my list of favorite updates. Another update that I really appreciated was the update in CP and CTF modes. When you and an ally both work together to destroy an enemy, both of you receive experience. It was incredibly, incredibly frustrating to have your kills stolen before this update, and this update made many turrets more effective. The ability to change equipment while in battle was essential for gameplay, and I really appreciated this update as well. Finally, the addition of Format battles is probably at the top of my list for favorite updates this past year. Other small but important updates that included the ability to auto-aim at someone's turret, Night-Mode, changes to Shaft. Probably the biggest and most controversial update of all was the removal of crystal boxes, a topic that I am still rather ambivalent about.

 

Over the next months, I played the game a ton, and I never created a real alternative account that reached above Master Corporal. Instead I just used my main account, and with the enormous help of 100% score multiplier passes went from Brigadier to Marshall in what felt like a blink. I made several awesome new friends, particularly TheTitaniumFalcon, xxEchoEchoxx, Electro9876 and many others. I finally reached Commander in the first few days of May. Hopefully I will reach Generalissimo during the first week of June!

 

Future Scythe

 

I happen to be fortunate enough to own a time machine, and this is what happens to me in the future: Oops, this information is classified. You never read this sentence  :ph34r: . 

                                                                                                                                                                                                

Edited July 30, 2017 by Hexed

[deadtoyou 2,502]

Nostalgia. :wub:

 

Can't wait to see the Future Scythe with M3 Dictator. :ph34r:

[Darren4Turbo 4,913]

Nice Article about yourself  :P  :)

[asghar-1 15]

Nice :D

[Quarks 2,255]

You can buy all three passes for a whopping 180% increase, you would be generalissimo now with that probably.

[anshi_bringitup 16]

Hey that was really nice ..!!

[liverpoolaum 811]

nice

[depredatorshark 3]

mmm...

[1stsuperwhitedragon 408]

Nice.

if I tries to do that it'll take me for days to remember that -,-

[tuntematon1234567890 23]

where can I find your best article ever about eating chicken I really need some help in that :D :D :D

[Gunslinger300 45]

I like it

Edited June 3, 2015 by Gunslinger300

[r_Mr.Greenmachine0 0]

This a very interesting article, well written, and did you really make a guide to eating chicken?

:)  A+