Review [Issue 56] The Gold Box Supply

[Flexoo 6,980]

 

Tanki Online hinted at the possibility of a brand new supply in the game with not-so-realistic test boxes shown in early V-logs. A couple months later, we witnessed the addition of the 'Gold box' supply striking the everyday battlefields and enlarging the rather small supply family. With this information in mind, let's get straight down to business and dissect the new supply.

 

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Basics

 

The Gold box supply is a new Garage component that you can find under the Garage sub-section 'Supplies' (as the name itself implies). When you'll check it out, the missing crystal purchase button will probably be the first thing that will come to your attention. As said earlier in the V-logs, the Gold box supply won't be purchasable with in-game currency (crystals) like rest of supply family. This regulation sets the limit for purchasing the supply. It's basically a preventive element to retain the special status of a gold box.

 

Another important thing that needs to be cleared up right away is the value. Gold box as a supply will always hold the standard 1,000 crystal value. It means this supply won't be affected by increases and changes to normal gold boxes dropped by the wheel of fortune. Consider it another limitation restraining excessive gold rains and crystal harvesting in battles.

 

Additionally, you can adjust an option to reveal the owner of the supply drop. If you mark this option, whenever you use the gold supply the notification will say 'Your_Name has dropped the gold box'. If you turn it off a standard 'Gold box will be dropped soon' notification will appear. The ability to disguise this supply comes in handy when you are constantly bombarded with bothering messages and appeals.

 

 

Obtaining the Gold Box Supply

 

For the time being, there are only two ways to get yourself the Gold box supply;

 

Purchasing with real money

 

The Gold box supply can be bought in newly- established section. Once you click on it, you will open the tab and recognize familiar crystal and premium account offers. Down below, you will also find new Gold box supply offers. At the moment, you can purchase just one or buy a package of 5 or 10 with minuscule bulk discount. When it comes to a price, one Gold box supply will cost you 1 Euro/Dollar.

 

When we compare prices, crystal and premium account purchases appear to be a better buy. For one invested Euro/Dollar you can get approximately 2 000 crystals or a day of premium. Naturally, new supply is not meant to be a source of crystal income, it's more of a fun element livening up the gameplay. Since gold boxes represent a game feature that should remain special, a higher price for the Gold box supply seems reasonable.

 

Daily missions

 

 

You will occasionally get Gold box supplies as rewards from daily missions. For now, daily missions stay the only free way to acquire this supply. These missions unlock at Warrant Officer 1 and can be classified as rare (personally, I would compare the rareness level to the 'Collect the Gold box' mission), usually offering one, two or three Gold box supplies as a reward depending on the mission's difficulty.

 

Moreover, super missions awarding this supply were added as well. The 99 999 exp. mission awards you 67 Gold box supplies, while the harder one of the two, the 9 999 kills mission adds 83 Gold box supplies to your garage upon completion. Both missions are available for Generalissimos only.

 

 

Functionality

 

Before we advance to further examination, take a look at a video that will acquaint you with the functionality of the Gold Box supply in battles.

 

https://youtu.be/orzIvcsq1jw

Video credits: and @Pizzarrific

 

I hope this clip shed some light on the functionality, but I will further elaborate on the matter. The Gold box supply activates by pressing the 6 key as shown in the video. Interestingly enough, it doesn't affect, nor is affected by the cooldowns of other supplies. In contrast with other supplies, the interval between use of the same supply in the Gold box supply's case only five seconds.

 

Upon activation, the Gold box supply does not differ at all from the standard Gold box. More precisely, it mimics the functionality of classic 1k crystal container - it drops after 30 seconds from the activation, it appears on the same gold box drop locations and the drop spot is marked with same gold-colored squarish emblem.

 

I also can't omit the insignificant curiosity I had about a certain aspect when this supply was added. If you noticed, once you run out of certain type of supply, the icon remains on its rightful place showing 0. But, if you do not own any Gold box supplies, the icon won't be present on your battle screen. I am just guessing here, but the developers probably decided to save some screen space - and unless it was intentional, perhaps they failed to notice when they eventually implemented the changes.

 

 

Strategic Use

 

The appearance of orange-tinted notification is usually accompanied by eager tracking of drop spot that distracts players from the basic aim of battle. Herein lies the opportunity of using the Gold box supply for strategic purposes. The probability that a decisive majority of team players will abandon their posts when a gold box is about to drop reaches sky-high numbers. If used right, it can be utilized for both defensive and offensive purposes.

 

However, I won't lie to you. Utilizing this potential effectively is just as hard as persuading @Night-Sisters of Blue paint's ugliness. (Don't even try the later part of previous sentence, YOU ARE DESTINED TO FAIL!). Before you use the Gold box supply as a strategic lure, evaluate your economic return from this investment. Bear in mind the battle fund value. If the fund doesn't go well over 3,000 - 4,000 crystals (this fund borderline should be even higher if it will be distributed among a large number of players), your 1,000 crystal investment won't be repaid by the battle reward. The second thing you should evaluate is battle situation. When your team is losing by 15 flags, one or two extra flags captured while others hunt for the gold box won't change the outcome and will most likely cost you more than you gain. Lastly, be aware of time constraints. You have just 30 seconds till the gold box is delivered, so think about how you'll advance with just half minute at your disposal.

 

Once you assess all the chances, you can proceed to activation of the Gold box supply for either offensive or defensive purpose. In both cases, the idea is to sidetrack your opponent.

 

 

Picture above projects the potential of the Gold box supply as strategic component of decisive importance. In this model scenario, the gold box drop spot is situated under the ramp pathway. Since a gold box naturally draws tankers' attention away, it is more than likely that most of the Blue team will have their backs to the Blue flag, standing near the yellow square. Thus, a Red team attacker can creep into enemy base via the route marked with green arrows, take the flag and return to the base to deliver it. This is an example of offensive application.

 

But the Gold box supply can be used for defense as well. It runs on similar principle as offensive application, but the difference lies in fact you are trying to distract the opposing team from attacking your flag. This distraction tactic can also apply to other battle modes like CP and DM, but I'm inclined towards the opinion that highest likelihood of profit lies in the CTF mode. Naturally, the risk that the gold box drop spot will appear at an unfavorable place or the fact that tankers might give priority to the battle objective must be taken into count.

 

 

Save the Gold and Other Events

 

We covered the fiscally convenient use of the Gold box supply, but it appears tankers like to press the 6 button mostly for fun in organized events and sometimes even in normal battles. Perhaps the most affected Tanki trend is 'Save the Gold'. Save the Gold events, commonly known as STG, caught on in recent years and became a well-established pseudo-mode where a team of defenders protects the the gold box while other players try to take it.

 

So, what has changed with introduction of the Gold box supply in STG? If you are familiar with these events, you must know the only way to make a gold box drop before was to beg admin play till fortune took mercy on you. With a chance of only 0.01%, it sometimes took hours for a gold box to drop, which extremely prolonged the whole event. Furthermore, mining the drop location (standard defensive maneuver in STG) posed a problem, as covering all the map drop locations generated a huge consumption of mines. Things have changed with the Gold box supply in the game. You can drop the gold box at the very start and create a mine field only around the strategically important places near the drop spot.

 

However, STG is not the sole positively affected thing. Doors flew open to other possibilities and we can already witness new utilization in the form of gold box giveaways or mass gold box rains for friends. I can even imagine contests with gold boxes as reward, and I am confident we'll be seeing other ideas as time goes by.

 

 

Status Symbol

 

We in the Newspaper have fought the 'admin-pls-gold' rumor for many years now. This sentence always aroused discussions, but was never based in fact. I must confess I thought this will never change... but the reality is, that mini-gods can now run around the servers and drop the Gold boxes instead of certain retired administrators. It even appears we can expect a decrease in usage of the infamous phrase that will very likely be replaced with appeals containing names of renowned Gold box supply users.

 

The best marker of prominent Gold box supply users is the Ratings page, which shows how much of each supply has been used by a player and also contains the controversial Gold hunter rating. With the Gold box supply in the game, this rating definitely lost the purpose of presenting the 'best' Gold hunter - as some tankers can simply join battles of their choosing, use Gold box supplies and climb the way up the ladder.

 

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That's all I have for now. The Gold box supply has definitely stirred up the dynamics of Tanki Online gameplay, and I find that really interesting. However, I also want to know your view. Do you like it? Do you view it positively or negatively? Be sure to leave your thoughts by posting below. I hope you enjoyed reading... peace out!

 

Edited January 3, 2018 by Yisroel.Rabin

[Ninja 10,468]

So has Godmode ON retired? I'm referring to a certain piece of itallic text.

[Hex 11,520]

Admins could drop Golds infact. F.O.R.T.U.N.A dropped 10 even before the supplies thing was added but I think her account was used to test this gold box supply.

[MrCheezyPotato 850]

                                                                  gold pls

Edited September 2, 2016 by MrCheezyPotato

[omrot 2,327]

Now we have '+' instead of 'admin gold pls'

[Benefactor 6,888]

                                                                  gold pls

What are you talking about?

[omrot 2,327]

What are you talking about?

The fact that you used more goldboxes than speed boosts

 

[Benefactor 6,888]

The fact that you used more goldboxes than speed boosts

 

No I don't...  :mellow:

[Benefactor 6,888]

Stop that. I can already fill up an empty battlefield wherever I go....

[truewinner 0]

I have one question: can I choose where the gold drops?

[Benefactor 6,888]

I have one question: can I choose where the gold drops?

No. It drops in random drop zones.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Benefactor

[jdrjdr 7]

I never get gold boxes so this update does not matter much to me, no one givesany gold boxes anyways :(

[Guest]

NOOO!!! Admin gold plsssss! Never give up! Admins has gold box supply too! 

 

"I wanna scream and shout and let it all out
And scream and shout and let it out
We sayin' admin gold pls gold pls gold
We sayin' admin gold pls gold pls gold
I wanna scream and shout and let it all out
And scream and shout and let it out
We sayin'admin gold pls gold pls gold"

[omrot 2,327]

^

'Hy6 nub admin gold plz' shall never die

[dan146_tanker 770]

Either you give us golds to us without us having to pay real money or you keep hearing; ''Admin gold plz''. Lots of low ranks haven't even ever got a gold box. I mean what do you expect they're gonna  beg unless you give it to them. Getting rid of gold beggers is impossible. Just something in Tanki we have to deal with.

Edited September 6, 2016 by dan146_tanker

[dan146_tanker 770]

I never get gold boxes so this update does not matter much to me, no one givesany gold boxes anyways :(

 

Even high ranks don't get much gold boxes. If you have supplies at the time or super skilled or if luck is in your favour then gold is yours. If not then guess you have to deal with not getting any golds. Tanki only made this update to get money off us. Always same people getting the golds :( Tanki we want golds too not just the gold catchers -_-

[master_crafter 420]

Now we have '+' instead of 'admin gold pls'

ikr RU1 is flooded with "+" I have to go to a different server just to talk to someone.

[dan146_tanker 770]

ikr RU1 is flooded with "+" I have to go to a different server just to talk to someone.

lol just try en3 we get flooded waaay more than just a simple + :D

[peter2003tankist 17]

AWESOME ;)

[vecky 86]

This does not mean much to me, but what I found to be interesting

year after year You introduce a various innovations, but a simple

problem that lasts here for 5 years  You can not or don't want to

solve.

A problem is when the player during the game go into the garage

in order to change weapons upon returning to play game, the

turret stops to spin and weapons can not shoot. The problem at

the moment.

The problem can be overcome immediately solved with two

consecutive pressing the ESC key, in as much as you are not the

target of the enemy or run away from you with the flag, it's all

right, otherwise you lose the battle because you are already dead.

 

So in the name of fair play and IN THE NAME OF THE GAME

SOLVE THE PROBLEM AT LAST.

 

BYE

 

P.S.

I just wonder if it just me only rooster whos early sings here or is it really all in a row hear in tanky, but then with me something is very wrong.

Edited September 7, 2016 by GoldRock
Please don't use a large font size for extended text, thanks!

[r_captain_rex1 0]

:D  :D  :D  :D  :P  :P  :P  :P  :P  :ph34r:  :ph34r:  :ph34r:  :)

[RIDDLER_8 5,553]

I am very happy that the gold box supply is available as a super mission. Players now have a chance to earn free gold boxes in rare super 9999 kills mission and super 99999 XP mission. Thank you very much for the free gold box supply for players like me who cannot afford to spend real money for buying gold boxes.

[CabbageRoll 3,018]

admin gold pls

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

This does not mean much to me, but what I found to be interesting

year after year You introduce a various innovations, but a simple

problem that lasts here for 5 years  You can not or don't want to

solve.

A problem is when the player during the game go into the garage

in order to change weapons upon returning to play game, the

turret stops to spin and weapons can not shoot. The problem at

the moment.

The problem can be overcome immediately solved with two

consecutive pressing the ESC key, in as much as you are not the

target of the enemy or run away from you with the flag, it's all

right, otherwise you lose the battle because you are already dead.

 

So in the name of fair play and IN THE NAME OF THE GAME

SOLVE THE PROBLEM AT LAST.

 

BYE

 

P.S.

I just wonder if it just me only rooster whos early sings here or is it really all in a row hear in tanky, but then with me something is very wrong.

[scralnax849 19]

lol just try en3 we get flooded waaay more than just a simple + :D

+