Review [Special] The Game Balance Update

[Chaos1997 4]

Nope, you're right with your assessment.  I've just had a chat with @Issho_Fujitora to follow up this matter, and he's confirmed your correction is valid, so that row of the table will be changed to green. 

 

However, I would say that while it sounds like a huge buff, I'm not sure the buff is actually that huge. The turret's Freeze effect is currently pretty weak, so I think that buff is at least intended to make it more effective rather than overpowered. Although in practice, it may turn out to be a bit over-the-top - Freeze used to be OP back in the ol' days when its freeze effect was much stronger, for example! But we'll have to wait and see, really. Either way, at least its somewhat balanced out be reduced ammunition and slower turret-turning.

 

Thanks again for pointing this out!

Hmm, it still sounds pretty scary, since 7 seconds of energy is not that little if you think of it, regenerating 1 second each 1.2 seconds.

CTF could become stale with a freeze in defense. Luckily I play mostly CP :D

[prototipe19999 33]

Nice

[swede1 1,726]

Thanks for all the positive feedback, guys!

 

@swede thanks very much!

 

As for the motives of the development with this balance update, Cedric and the development have been saying on the V-LOG topic that the main motive is gameplay-oriented. I would personally believe that we're not being lied to as such, but that 'revenue restructure' may be another motive as well (the motives of developing gameplay and generating revenue are hardly mutually exclusive, and are in fact linked).

 

Although perhaps they're looking to do so from more satisfied players getting stuck in to what they presumably hope will be higher quality gameplay, rather than in a damaging way. We'll have to wait and see!  

 

You're quite welcome, Good luck with Oxford fingers crossed

 

What I don't like about this re-balance / revenue restructure update and previous ones is that they spend all of their resources on devising new revenue streams from the existing veteran players who had already paid their dues for years acquiring the best equipment and protections.

 

In reality when you look at the costs they place on the veterans to continue as was the case when they added MUs to the game, you are in fact obligated to spend as much to return to your previously enjoyed position and reputation in the game each time they develop a new re-balance / revenue restructure update.

 

This game is no longer a "Free to Play" game, it is in reality a "Free Trial" game.

 

The developers had to, and  continue to increase the cost vs in game rewards to such an extent that new players must spend or be faced with having inadequate equipment by the time they reach Marshal, or they become a saboteurs, mults, noobs, farmers, power levelers or any other name referenced to about players that try to keep playing with M1, M2, limited protections, and supplies in the M3 / 4 arena.

 

The first thing this does is make the veterans bitter and spread bad publicity about the game, driving away any new players from wanting to trying it out.

 

Existing players rising up the ranks lose any incentive to progress in the game, which is where the imbalance really comes from.

 

The Veterans, well they just leave, stop playing as much or continue to feed the people who just keep making them pay to stay with fewer and fewer people to play with.

 

The Developers are stabbing themselves in the back because the revenue will just continue to decrease without new players registering, participating, and staying in the game.

 

The multiplying of parameters by 10x is no different than the one they did with crystals, it is just a way that they can increase costs more by giving less and adding room to add new revenue streams on the players in the future.

 

If the developers didn't focus all of their energy on generating revenue from the existing dwindling veteran players who have supported the game from the time the registered on this game, and spent time optimizing maps and communication between client and server to reduce lags, create new battle modes, and maps, marketing the game to generate a vibrant new player base, and building a community to truly make this game a "Multiplayer" experience, they would generate much greater revenue, without making existing veteran players rebuild what they worked and paid for every 9 months or so, existing players would actually start marketing the game for them, creating even larger player base.

Edited October 4, 2016 by swede1

[AlphaNinjaGirl 537]

With every update, there's something that I like and something that I don't like, so... here's my humble opinion:

 

STUFF THAT I LIKE:

 

Vulcan's impact force being nerfed. I mean... holy crap, that thing was a beast to go against. Thanks for ending the nightmares.

Supplies receiving a nerf (even if it's a small one). To be honest, supplies are overpowered as crap, so this is a step in the right dirction.

Freeze being able to freeze quickly. I didn't like it when Freeze was nerfed originally, and thought that it took way too long to actually freeze someone.

 

STUFF THAT I DON'T LIKE:

 

Firebird's updates in general. The burn time was already nerfed long ago, and now it's receiving more of a nerf. Firebird was always meant to be a hit-and-run weapon, what's with this?

Isida healing slower. M2 Isidas already have a tough enough time healing M2 hulls, I don't understand why this was made harder.

Hornet not drifting. Come on, that was the ONE thing that made Hornet distinct from Wasp. Not cool.

Speed boost being buffed to 40%. I'm more 'eh' on this one, but I can imagine that a lot of heavy druggers are going to be using Speed Boost a lot more now, which... really isn't a good thing.

Supplies cooldowns being buffed. Again, supplies are OP, come on guys...

 

STUFF THAT STILL NEEDS TO HAPPEN:

 

Drugs need to be nerfed. I mean... come on.

In my opinion, gold boxes are really really expensive. I'd love it if they were a lot cheaper...

How about bringing the hammer down on hackers and mults, or some anti-lag stuff? Anyone?

[Duchess 741]

What a great article!

 

I must say this has definitely helped my mind, these updates can be quite confusing! So BIG thanks to the writer for that. I was surprised to see some changes, especially firebird and freezer. I am slightly sad about that being a firebird lover. Also I think we will see a lot of freezers in CP than firebird. Kinda looking forward to it.

[Sign.Of.The.Cross 86]

...

 

My basic overall assessment of these changes are a leveling of the playing field such that good skilled players cannot find niche expertise. These changes will bring the good down and let the poor look better, especially if they are willing to part with cash for 1500-supplies, especially at the lower ranks.

 

The scheme changes the game. It takes much and gives nothing. Specialization not only looks impossible, it looks to be actively quashed.

 

Let mediocrity rule.

...

  Very good analysis of this update. 

 

  "Let mediocrity rule!" seems to be the new motto of Tanki devs and staff and the essence of their updates in the last year, since the micro-upgrading system was changed, removing the possibility to micro-upgrade each parameter separately. It looks that they have a pleasure to mutilate their own creation. Horrible! 

 

  With this successful update, TO staff announced a sale and an increased battle funds for few days, for all kids enchanted by every update of this game, no matter how worse it is. "Panem et circenses!"

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

Gold wrote something, he like actually literally wrote something :O

 

---

 

My feedback:

I enjoyed reading it and it's a lot clearer than the wiki article and the V-LOGs explanation of it all. Of course that's no surprise as the V-LOG just gave a brief description and the wiki article is all statistics (which is quite boring), but this is quite nice. Good job GoldMult. :)

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

Wow :o that was fast :o haha good article :)

He, like most other staff members, knew about the rebalance beforehand. Staff have a tendency to know stuff before regular players. It's annoying, I know.

[SorcererSupreme21 0]

Didn't the Tanki team announce some time ago that they would update the game to include what I think they called "Alterations", which would allow tankers to modify their turrets (and eventually hulls) to fit their playing style (e.g. sacrificing some firepower for rotation speed and vice versa, etc.)? That would be much better than forcing all of these pre-determined modifications onto all players. #MakeTankiGreatAgain

[Kurt_KurtDGreat 2,259]

He, like most other staff members, knew about the rebalance beforehand. Staff have a tendency to know stuff before regular players. It's annoying, I know.

 

Aaaa right :/

Didn't the Tanki team announce some time ago that they would update the game to include what I think they called "Alterations", which would allow tankers to modify their turrets (and eventually hulls) to fit their playing style (e.g. sacrificing some firepower for rotation speed and vice versa, etc.)? That would be much better than forcing all of these pre-determined modifications onto all players. #MakeTankiGreatAgain

They're already in the game :p you need an M1/M2 version of the turret you want to have an alteration to tho (some turrets require M2, some turrets require you have it at M1) This is just for now, eventually alterations for all Ms will be implemented

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

 

Didn't the Tanki team announce some time ago that they would update the game to include what I think they called "Alterations", which would allow tankers to modify their turrets (and eventually hulls) to fit their playing style (e.g. sacrificing some firepower for rotation speed and vice versa, etc.)?

Alterations are already in the game. Currently, there is one available for every turret (50k or 100k each), and a number of them do have significant gameplay changes.

 

 

He, like most other staff members, knew about the rebalance beforehand. Staff have a tendency to know stuff before regular players. It's annoying, I know.

We (or at least I) didn't get the scoop on the update until it as announced, so unless Gold and Bry are secret psychics, they didn't get any forewarning for it. They really did just write it quickly. ;) Edited October 5, 2016 by Thekillerpenguin

[GoldRock 6,165]

He, like most other staff members, knew about the rebalance beforehand. Staff have a tendency to know stuff before regular players. It's annoying, I know.

This is false - we found out on Friday, and I wrote this article on Sunday. Helpers are players, we just volunteer to help in the community too.

[r_PRO_PAKISTANI1 0]

please offer all the turrent m1 m1 m2 m2 m3 m3

[Quarks 2,255]

This is false - we found out on Friday, and I wrote this article on Sunday. Helpers are players, we just volunteer to help in the community too.

I actually do have secret psychic powers :p

[Keanne 0]

It's great guys.  :D

[Amagi 1,728]

All the salt of the Earth cannot compare to the salt generated by Tankers after the update.

P.S.

 

Great job Goldie :D

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

This is false - we found out on Friday, and I wrote this article on Sunday. Helpers are players, we just volunteer to help in the community too.

Sorry about that then, it only seemed probable. But by saying this, do you deny that staff know anything before players (excluding staff confidential matters which would never be released to the public anytime)? Because I don't know, maybe you guys don't know about official game updates, but things like the photoshoot with Cedric, it just seems like staff would know about it beforehand.

 

I'll even bring some source of backup to what I'm saying. TX forum moderator, beaku knew that there'd be a new map added to TX before anyone else. Maybe TO and TX run more defiantly than I thought.

[Viking4s 10,791]

deleted

Edited October 6, 2016 by Viking4s

[Supernatural 2,053]

Let's make players spend all their money on MU's and new stuff, then nerf everything considered strong (clap)

Just TO things.. Good thing I kinda quit

[XxPAXIxX 14]

Do something about isida, don`t let go such great weapon!     #SaveTheIsida

[tankerkuldeep 739]

Let's make players spend all their money on MU's and new stuff, then nerf everything considered strong (clap)

Just TO things.. Good thing I kinda quit

I like your username.

Pls give it me, if you quit...:D

[GunslingerMongoose 198]

I'm not a fan either of the damage indicator (DI) but some people expressed some interest. I only hope the DI would be an option in the setting windows and not forced upon. And certainly not like the disastrous r/v key. :angry:

Maybe by default the first time you load the updated game, and then you can switch it off (an on in an unlikely moment of weakness).

 

Good luck for Oxford.

I also agree with the DI... The UI for gameplay is already cramped by long player names, and lags quite a bit on my computer due to excessive resources being used to load animations for freeze, fire, vulcan, twins, and rico. :/ I would love to play the game with the DI for an hour or 2 to see how well it was implemented, and also to check the average dmg of my railgun, etc. (Excuse me for saying, but the rail seems to have very low, sketchy dmg rolls sometimes [i.e. 3 shots kills an M0 non MUed wasp, which is BS, but it still happens]) Averaging out my rail dmg would help to make sure it remains somewhat effective, plus gives me something to do. The last thing that TO needs to add... Is the doom of any player at any rank. A legitimate Health bar, giving away your HP in total, allowing people to prioritize that M3 Hornet with 300HP over there (Excuse the bad use of ingame speak, I'm bad at that kind of stuff) and have the M3 rails absolutely monster that hornet alone. -.- The R/V key wasn't disastrous, but could've been designed better.... I.e. the key could've been an easily accessible key, instead R/V... I use Arrow key/ZXC controls (Right handed controls, for all purposes) and trying to press V while engaging is painfully annoying. But, yeah... 

[5150sombody 2]

great update

[Phoenix.Raised 5,992]

As far as I can see, this "balance" is a crisis. A large crisis. In fact, if you got a moment, it's a twelve-storey crisis with a magnificent entrance hall, carpeting throughout, 24-hour portage, and an enormous sign on the roof, saying 'This Is a Large Crisis'. A large crisis requires a large plan. Get me two pencils and a pair of underpants.

[Sign.Of.The.Cross 86]

Hornet XT M3+ on Forest map after the global update this month: