Ideas that probably should have been implemented really early

[Loackie 269]

Over a few months, I quit, occasionally skimmed the forums and nailed the coffin on an idiotic post, then I come back to the forums with a more serious attitude and nothing has changed. Literally nothing. There is nothing outstanding that has happened. I don't mean anything like "Tanki Raid Bosses", just an update that will greatly improve the game in the long run. WHY.

 

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1) The user Interface on battle selection screen is very much lacking, and the garage user interface is just garbage.

 

The only thing that I can volunatrily sort on the battle selection is what game modes show. That's it. Here's what's missing and what could be added:

 

-PRO Battle appearance toggle

-Reverse Alphabetical Order or Alphabetical Order (yes, I know it is alphabetically ordered on default)

-Sort by time, both for specific max times, and current time left in game

-Sort by map, or a Map filter for size and/or name

 

About the garage interface, it's terrible. I shouldn't be scrolling multiple mouse wheels to see a new paint's release, or to see the stats on a certain high-rank paint. I also have to constantly scroll multiple times to compare two pieces of equipment. That would be unacceptable in many other communities...

 

If you're going to do nothing else, at LEAST ADD A MINIMIZED LIST OPTION AND A GRID VIEW OPTION. Although if it ever gets revamped, here is what could be added, assuming a minimized list doesn't break the game:

 

- Item comparing (of the same type obviously)

- Ability to see an item's stats with x amount of Micro Upgrades

- Pre-loaded "kits" comprised of a paint, a hull and a turret

 

2) The tutorial is terrible and doesn't even work for its intended purpose.

 

The tutorial doesn't teach you anything except WASD and Spacebar. It also mentions Z and X to turn your turret, but there is literally no point in using that when the tutorial is so artifically easy.

 

The game starts you out in a lonely garage, and gives you a little flash to show you where the controls are. A steam of arrows leads you out the left door in the middle of a double-door section separated by a wall. This is probably one of the only good parts of the tutorial, except that WASD is already so widely accepted as a control scheme it's mildly irrelevant.

 

Once you exit, POOF, an enemy pops out! Again, one of the few non-terrible parts. You have to use Spacebar to fire! I would also assume you were intended to use Z and X, but I highly doubt someone getting into TO for their first video game is going to think that, and instead will think "A and D turns me, so I can use that to aim". The firing part was beautifully done, I will admit.

 

Once you beat the enemy in one shot, a green box falls to the ground. You pick it up and learn that it is a health box. Okay, perhaps the beginning isn't as terrible as the rest of it.

 

Sadly, the quality of the tutorial goes into a spiraling downfall. Once you continue proceeding the game throws at you two enimies that go down in one shot. I guess it could be a way to apply the firing, but that is later followed up by a strange transition involving changing the turret that happens for no particular reason. You get a full pan of the tank, and you should already understand what you're getting once you look at the top part of it...

 

Two more enimies and another perched on top of a hill ambush you, and you just apply what I have learned, nothing new. The player should get the point now, and the hill adds nothing. It's getting redundant, make the pace change.

 

Now you get a Firebird with an uselessly long transition and you just get this strange camera angle plus a narrow hallway and two tanks coming for you. The problem is they die too quickly for you to notice that it pierces enimies.  After this, an arbitrary jumping section with that transition before and after it. Once the jumping section is done, a "boss" comes, and another long transitio comes to where you change into a Thunder-Mammoth. The boss spawns in front of you, so you use the A/D-Spacebar strategy. Then it just suddenly ends.

 

This does not prepare the player for they they are getting into. Four supplies are missing, one of them being far more dynamic than the others, and the player doesn't actually ever need to learn Z and X because the tutorial does a terrible job at trying to teach that control. The tutorial also misleads the player into thinking that there will be PvE combat.

 

The older tutorials did better, you at least got to learn three other supplies and knew that this would be a PvP game...

 

3) The game essentially sells power, making the game "pay-to-win"

 

In this game, power is sold through not only drugs, but kits and all items in general. I go over drugs because that's the easiest way to explain it, and it's one of the more easy parts to remedy if it ever gets changed.

 

I really hope I don't have to state why selling power is bad. JUST IN CASE:

 

Selling power in a competitive MMO (Massively multiplayer online (game)) is bad because players are content in MMOs. Usually, the majority of MMO revenue is from a small but select portion of the community. Obviously, these people will buy as much power as possible, since they can.

 

This heavily disadvantages free players because one of two BAD outcomes happen in Tanki Online:

 

-The free player buys drugs heavily during a certain point in time during the ranking process, and later becomes bankrupt, being unable to proceed in the game and later quits, resents the game and accuses it of trying to force money out of its customers

-The free player gets frustrated with playing with druggers, and simply quits the game, resents it, and accuses it of being pay-to-win (which in this current business model, it very much is)

 

More side effects of this business model is:

 

-Verbal abuse towards druggers, or a resentment towards them

-A possible slow decline in players due to free players quitting

-More that other people could think of, but I think I wrote a good amount (kinda)

 

Also, that hypocritical announcement. Need I say more?

 

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These ideas are not conclusive.

 

The reason I put this as a topic and not a post because I would love to see people make and suggest ideas that will benefit the game long-term. (Or disagree with me on things, because I don't mind disagreeing with intelligent people.)

[Storm_xVirus 20]

Woah.... Gotta give you props for the long post. Everything you said makes sense. This was a very good post and I think things like this should be implemented into the game. I really agree with you on the second run. When every I make a alt acc, I see a lot of tanks just turning their tank instead of moving the turret. I also think they should add moving turret with the mouse in the tutorial so the noobs(lol)could decide whether they're gonna start off playing with the mouse or keyboard. Good topic and I feel like this should be added to the game. :D 

[dilsharox 2,395]

i agree

[iamthebadboy2 168]

I agree, totally. Hopefully I can cme up with some ideas that you have not already taken. Great article, and very well written.

[GHOST68INVINCIBLE 152]

Man u are the best great topic! :D

[MarineMan2 1,164]

You are indeed correct, but the devs do things according to their priority. Things like the game, and logistics come first. Then you have the communications systems and social media. And to follow that, you have the more finite details. But there's been a shift of attention as of late. The developers have focused almost all of their efforts on the Unity version, as putting out more updates here will only slow the release of Unity, and be more to throw away when the new version is released. The developers haven't gotten lazy, just refocused themselves for the true benefit of the community in the long run. (And I recall you saying the long run was what you're really interested in.) Releasing the new version of Tanki will be the ultimate update. An update to put all other updates in its shadow.

[Inducer 12]

MarineMan beat me too it, I was about to say, this is what Tanki says:

Tanki has about 30-40 devs working for them, only 5-10 of them are working on the current Tanki game, and once they finish their anti-cheat systems (for example Fly Hack anti-cheat, you self-destruct when on buildings) and lag problems are fixed, they will move onto the 20-35 strong Unity Development team, which is now the bulk of their developers. Hopefully many of our problems will be fixed then. :)

[genak138 950]

You mention "the older tutorials."

What were those tutorials like?

[DatSniperGuy 23]

 

3) The game essentially sells power, making the game "pay-to-win"

 

In this game, power is sold through not only drugs, but kits and all items in general. I go over drugs because that's the easiest way to explain it, and it's one of the more easy parts to remedy if it ever gets changed.

 

I really hope I don't have to state why selling power is bad. JUST IN CASE:

 

Selling power in a competitive MMO (Massively multiplayer online (game)) is bad because players are content in MMOs. Usually, the majority of MMO revenue is from a small but select portion of the community. Obviously, these people will buy as much power as possible, since they can.

 

This heavily disadvantages free players because one of two BAD outcomes happen in Tanki Online:

 

-The free player buys drugs heavily during a certain point in time during the ranking process, and later becomes bankrupt, being unable to proceed in the game and later quits, resents the game and accuses it of trying to force money out of its customers

-The free player gets frustrated with playing with druggers, and simply quits the game, resents it, and accuses it of being pay-to-win (which in this current business model, it very much is)

 

More side effects of this business model is:

 

-Verbal abuse towards druggers, or a resentment towards them

-A possible slow decline in players due to free players quitting

-More that other people could think of, but I think I wrote a good amount (kinda)

 

Also, that hypocritical announcement. Need I say more?

 

---

 

These ideas are not conclusive. I actually have one more, assuming this doesn't get deleted or buried because my stereotypes of the community are correct.

 

The reason I put this as a topic and not a post because I would love to see people make and suggest ideas that will benefit the game long-term. (Or disagree with me on things, because I don't mind disagreeing with intelligent people.)

Thats because Tanki is corrupt now man, everyone knows even noobs are getting overpowered turrets and hulls cause they know that its so difficult to naturally earn crystals they just give up and fall into Tanki's trap and buy crystals. Its a good system for them and they wont change it even with thousands of people liking and upvoting posts man...

[Loackie 269]

You are indeed correct, but the devs do things according to their priority. Things like the game, and logistics come first. Then you have the communications systems and social media. And to follow that, you have the more finite details. But there's been a shift of attention as of late. The developers have focused almost all of their efforts on the Unity version, as putting out more updates here will only slow the release of Unity, and be more to throw away when the new version is released. The developers haven't gotten lazy, just refocused themselves for the true benefit of the community in the long run. (And I recall you saying the long run was what you're really interested in.) Releasing the new version of Tanki will be the ultimate update. An update to put all other updates in its shadow.

I really hope you're right. Even so, the age of the game isn't short at all, and it's surpising that some of the problems in the game haven't been fixed early. Most notably, I'm referring to a good tutorial. 

 

You mention "the older tutorials."

What were those tutorials like?

They threw you into a Sandbox DM with other players, only recruits could join, and everyone had Wasp-Smoky.

[HillBillyJim 75]

Dang, I remember that! (I know my rank is low but I have been playing for a long, long time). However, my first "recruit" battle was in the Castle map, with Hunter and Smokey.

[viratno2 146]

http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=246957&view=findpost&p=4947453&hl=%2Bdrugs%26%238208%3B+%2Bthe+%2Bonly+%2Bstrategy

for those wanting to see the full problems of drugs, see here

http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=257356&page=5&hl=%2Btanki+%2Bchanges&do=findComment&comment=4915852

for those who want to see why tanki is a bit busy now

[BSG-62 512]

They should put in a gold box, mines and a bit where they show you what power up time is.

[NedFighter 408]

We need the new inbattle kick system or Player's Moderation: Kick2