Guide [Issue 52] The 'Save The Gold' Handbook #1 - Organization and Planning

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

 

You guys might have heard of Save the Gold from #TankiTrends, but there's much more to it. So much more that I almost slapped myself for not thinking of this earlier. Because, this is one trend you need to see for yourself. And believe me, it's scores of fun.

 

Basically, a Save the Gold can be divided into two phases. One the phase before and during the fall of the gold, and the other the phase after the gold is ready to be saved.

 

And since the topic is so diverse, I've actually split the handbook into these two phases. So hopefully you have fun reading this!

 

Oh, and how does a handbook differ from a guide? Step by step instructions, unlike the guide which simply tells you what to do but not when to do the what. But for your purposes, this is just a fancier name than guide. So, ready?

 

Of course you are; I was going to start even if you said no.

 

 

1. THE FUNDAMENTAL QUESTIONS

 

Everyone has them, and Save the Gold is no exception for a topic. So here are the five fundamental questions one might ask about Save the Gold and their answers.

 

1a. WHAT?

 

Save the Gold :mellow:

 

Nah, it's an unofficial game mode where two teams play till gold drops. One team sets mines up everywhere and tries to stop the second team from taking the gold box. The objective of the second team is to take the gold box. The game ends when the gold is taken.

 

1b. WHY?

 

This is slightly tougher to answer. To many, this may seem like a trend without any personal gain. Maybe you could argue that the defenders make a lot of experience points with all the attackers blasting their mines, and one lucky tanker from the attacking team walks away with one thousand crystals as a reward for taking the gold. But apart from that, what's in it?

 

Well, I believe that if you play Save the Gold faultlessly (without ruining it, which, to my disappointment, is common in STGs), you will be branded as a mature and trustable tanker, because half the population of Tanki seems to be satisfied with their lives only if they take a gold box, though the battle fund may be ten times more.

 

And also, you'll earn a lot of experience points, as there has to be some battle played before the gold box drops. This often happens at a fund exceeding 10 000, which I think is enough fund to rack up sufficient XP.

 

1c. WHO?

 

Ah, this is perhaps the most important aspect of a Save The Gold. While you may not require so many trustworthy people once you've finished mining, it is absolutely imperative to make sure none of the people you pick for an STG will take the gold out of greed once it falls. And also, people tend to change combos and drug annoyingly to ruin battles while you're battling it out.

 

And there are also those people who, while on the defending side, suddenly decide to take the gold and run from the battle as fast as possible. So... you need some reliable tankers - an optimal number would be around eight per side. Here's how distribution of tankers would be affected depending on the different kinds of STGs.

 

• 1c(i) INTERNAL STGs

The most dependable kind, internal STGs involve known players occupying both the attacking and the defending section of the game. This ensures that nobody who can't understand your communication enters your game, and you can have a pretty fun contest. However, the one downside of this kind is that after a while, you come to know all the tactics and strategies of your opponent, making diverse gameplay scarce.

 

• 1c(ii) EXTERNAL STGs

This is a rather simple way of putting it. You play till a gold falls, and then, all the players join the team which will be defending. After planting mines, this team either invites people or posts the link in chat; and then you have a cracker on your hands between you and some random noobs people till the gold box is taken.

 

1d. HOW?

 

This is the question that will be answered in the guide that follows, so don't worry! Sit back in your seats, read on and oh, watch out for the explosion!

 

 

2. SETTING UP AN STG

 

Now the fundamental questions are out of the way, it is time to think about where you want your STG to be, and how exactly you want to play it. This may not seem such an important process, and believe me, I don't think so either.  However, you can't play an STG without configuring it first. How to do that? Let's go!

 

2a. THE SERVER

 

The server has a very small role to play in your decision - you may create an STG in any server right from RU1 to PL1. Your choice of server will mainly affect how much you lag, but actually, how I see it is that any friend looking in his list must know that you're in an STG, say, my friend RandomNug123  looks into his friend list, hoping to stalk me in a battle, and finds out I'm in RU23. "Darn," he thinks. "TNT is in an STG. What bad luck."

 

All that apart, don't try doing a Save The Gold in RU1 during the next double fund day, goodness knows how many seconds you'll last before you're chucked out of the server.

 

2b. WHAT MAP?

 

Yet another important part of an STG is deciding what map you play in. For most parts, your choice of maps will affect how long and enjoyable the Save the Gold session is. The flatter and narrower the gold box access points, the better. Let me give you an example.

 

In Madness, all you have to do is jump off a ramp onto the gold box - in most cases. Once you navigate all those mines, no tank can stop you from taking the gold. I guess Save The Golds are mainly driven by the enjoyability factor, hence no jumping off ramps :/.

 

And also, in Polygon. It is deadly easy to take a gold because you can spawn anywhere in the map, and that includes spots right in the enemy base within close proximity of the gold box; and that calls for an easy take.

 

I guess an ideal STG would be around 10-15 minutes long; however, the longer, the better! Here's a simple gallery I've made of my personal favourite maps to Save the Gold in:

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

  

 

However, if you'd have me to choose my favourite map to play STG in, I'd probably choose...

 

 

Edinburgh - With the gold box falling 99.9% of the time in that bridge in the centre, it is incredibly tough to even get through to the spot, let alone take it. Good defenders can draw a battle here to almost half an hour, and even the smartest tacticians have difficulty plotting anything for a situation like this. Extremely high on the fun factor, and a great recommendation to y'all.

 

2c. CONFIGURING THE BATTLE

 

An STG can have many configurations, but this is the optimum way to set it up, so that the battle can go hassle free.

 

Since you have no idea how much time it's going to take you for the gold box to fall, it's best you create a 999 minute-long battle. Or, if you have concerns about fund distribution, scrap the time limit and set a flag limit instead.

 

Now, the battle MUST be PRO, for obvious reasons. You don't want noobs ruining it, do you? Additionally, make it a private battle, so if needed, one person can leave the link in the chat for others to join.

 

In an STG, since you need to use all sorts of supplies and also keep repairing when needed, switch off smart supplies. If you wish, you can also switch gold boxes off, but then, what's the point of calling it "Save the Gold"?

 

Switch off autobalance. This is absolutely necessary, because with it on, it's going to be a nightmare switching teams when gold falls according to your whims. High chance of getting ruined. Also, take care never to enable autofinish when autobalance is on unless you're playing in TDM, or in some very rare cases, otherwise everyone will join one team and finish the battle. Go figure.

 

Pictorially represented, this is what your battle should look like:

 

 

Now your battle is set up and good to go, it's time to get into what you have to do for that elusive gold box to drop - play the battle.

 

3. PLAYING THE BATTLE

 

Obviously, your aim while playing the battle is to make the gold box drop as fast as possible - this is nigh impossible to do when the Gold Box option is switched off.

 

Secondly, you can either do a full blown out drug war, or a simpler, more economical option - Firebird/Wasp battles.

 

3a. FIRE/WASP BATTLES

 

Obviously, everyone uses Firebird and Wasp, the reason being Wasp is the lightest hull in the game and will die quicker, and Firebird can deal lots of damage. Once again, I repeat - if you're doing an STG, your only aim is to increase battle fund!

 

People might take Hornet or a protective paint saying 'My Wasp is M0, man'. This excuse will simply not do. If you want to make a gold box drop, co-operation is essential, and people must realize that the superior aim of taking inferior weapon is to actually have a Save The Gold.

 

3b. DEALING WITH RUINERS

 

If someone ruins the battle by taking another weapon, try and convince him to take the required combination. Calling people "noob" will just not help. Also, you might want to consider including only those with strong moral fibre (strong words lol) otherwise they may threaten to 'take the gold box' when it drops. In extreme cases, just create a new battle and don't invite them; make sure nobody else does either.

 

Oh, and reporting a ruiner to the Tanki administration will not do any good - the offender is not breaking any rules of Tanki Online, and since you have organized an STG yourself, this is an occupational hazard you will have to deal with yourself.

 

4. ONCE THE GOLD BOX DROPS

 

Now that your gold box has dropped, lay mines in the near vicinity so nobody might make a mad dash for it. Kill everyone who comes near the gold as a precaution.

 

Now, you have to decide a few things, and then you have to know how to go about Saving the Gold.

 

4a. WHO DEFENDS?

 

Mostly, this depends on how near to a certain base the gold box falls. If it falls near the red base, that means the red team will defend and vice versa in the case of the blue team.

 

Remember - the team which defends gets the battle fund. This is an unofficial rule which people have been following since kingdom come. If anyone wants to switch roles, first wait for them to switch teams.

 

Then, the defending team captures flags till their flag count is two below the flag cap. This precaution is to make sure that even if someone captures a flag by mistake, there's still one flag left and the game doesn't end.

 

If the flag count is too high? Well, this is where autofinish comes in handy.

 

 

4b. STARTING IT UP

 

Once you've decided who defends and who attacks, one side has to start laying mines. Mostly, they will be laid in the vicinity of the gold box and around it. While a detailed guide to mining and other stuff will come as a sequel to this guide, I can advise the attackers this - stay well away from the point. Don't, even by mistake, detonate a mine or even shoot a defender, because that can rupture their already inflated egos and the whole game will go haywire.

 

It is advised that the attackers change into the combos they plan to equip while the gold is being saved, because if you self destruct after too many mines are laid, chances are you'll respawn on top of one.

 

With that out of the way, let's move on to ethics of an STG.

 

5. ETHICS

 

A Save the Gold is tank-driven; administrators and developers claim no responsibility for whatever loss of crystals one may undergo in the process of one. However, let me tell you that an STG requires loads of discipline, and simply taking the gold out of greed will just make you lose respect in the eyes of others.

 

Another thing? For high ranks, there is just no reason to take the gold box, because the battle fund you get will far exceed the 1000 crystals you earn.

 

Finally, be sporting - play the game according to the rules, and respect the fact that everyone else over there trusts you - explicitly. Nobody likes someone breaking their trust in them, but if you do break that trust, it ain't coming your way again.

 

With that, we come to the end of the first half of this Save The Gold Handbook. In the next half, we'll be discussing mine placements, and strategies for attack and defence. Meanwhile, if you can't get enough of Part 1, or simply can't wait enough for Part 2, I suggest you join the Save The Gold Club, who do STGs every single day.

 

Till Part 2, this was TNT. See you in battle, and explosions out!

 

Edited November 18, 2017 by Flexoo

[Rayyan 3,415]

Why no ray in ? :(

[DragonOfStorms 2,706]

Lovely. Shame there aren't any of these at my rank :/

[I3.R.0 1,700]

Nice :D I am a member of STG club :D

[oOo.Aryan.oOo 968]

Well i am Leader of club XD

 

TNT you did very big mistake

 

 

This is not  right format   .   Auto - finsh should be off

[assolik 134]

Lovely. Shame there aren't any of these at my rank :/

It kinda stinks :mellow:

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

TNT you did very big mistake

 

 

 

This is not  right format   .   Auto - finsh should be off

Not at all, go read the article carefully :P Especially the sentence above the picture of us around the gold box.

[BIZ_THE_DESTROYER 126]

Nice topic TNT.. waiting for part 2 <3  (Obviusly cause finally im in some article of TO newspaper xD)

[Helindu_2014 830]

So that's why you were in RU23 eh?

[Nikosking2000 0]

What were you doing in RU 23? :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

 

lol

[Helindu_2014 830]

^

No lifing

[teejay_tanker 95]

TNT bro 

add the rules about the STG's in the handbook which everyone seems to ponder

like-

what all supplies an attacker can use

what equipment an attacker can use 

if an attacker can shoot the deff. or not 

.

.

there are always fight over this while we are having an STG , might as well add something about it

[TriNitroToIuene 4,765]

TNT bro 

add the rules about the STG's in the handbook which everyone seems to ponder

like-

what all supplies an attacker can use

what equipment an attacker can use 

if an attacker can shoot the deff. or not 

.

.

there are always fight over this while we are having an STG , might as well add something about it

Will be done in Part 2 :)

[Mirsaab707 240]

Nicely written TNT!

 

 

Remember me? xD

[asifmehmood 1,576]

Nice Kid writer 

[DanDaMan_UK 3]

Part two has not yet been released. Is that correct? I did a search and this was the only one that came up.

 

Also great article! Very informative and helpful. :D  

[I3.R.0 1,700]

Well i am Leader of club XD

 

TNT you did very big mistake

 

 

This is not  right format   .   Auto - finsh should be off

Auto Finish should be ON. #STG Rules. I bet TNT did this by mistake tho :P

[CaptainPetter 40]

people that are saving the sit on it without taking it. how can this be?  :huh:  :huh:

[Hate 5,582]

Nice article and very detailed too. Keep it up!

[this_is_the_best 0]

people that are saving the sit on it without taking it. how can this be?  :huh:  :huh:

 Some one tell me how to pleez