[Special Review] The Clan System

[St.Guardian 514]

Salutations, curious tankers! The eagerly anticipated in-game framework for clans has finally materialized and there are all kinds of discussions about it already. The clan system will undoubtedly gain more utility as future iterations take shape and while it isn't really replacing the clan arrangements in our forum, it certainly seems to have its advantages. Continue reading to learn all about these and more!

 

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Background On The Subject

It surely goes without saying that the Developers have been working on this for quite a few months now. To make this

even more evident, notices on the Wiki of this ongoing work to the Clan System were there since around November

2016.

 

Presently however, the Clan League system has been released and become available to all tankers but prior to this, only a small circle of experienced clans were testing, which allows tankers to ask themselves why the developers would so such a thing. Why did the developers not want to make it public initially? In a short answer, they distributed clan 'passes' to the most experienced clans for reasons relating to the fact that these clans would use the system to its full potential -such as the private clan chat and the mechanics of clan vs clan battles- and they would also know what to test for and be most proficient in identifying bugs/inconveniences in the system.

 

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The Mechanics- How does it work?

 

Clan Ranks and Hierarchical Powers

To put it briefly, there are seven different ranks a member of a clan can have. In order of ascending authority and ability:

 

Novice- A new member to a clan who does not have any powers and can not play in PRO battles without a PRO pass, but will become a Private automatically within 24 hours of joining.

Private- Does not have powers except for the joining of PRO battles without a PRO pass.

Veteran- Has the powers of a Private, but can also invite players to the clan.

Sergeant- Is identical to a Veteran, just has a higher profile through recognition/name.

Officer- Has the same powers of a Sergeant but can change a member's rank, expel a member from the clan or accept/reject requests to join the clan.

Commander- Essentially a Co-leader; has the same abilities of an Officer but can edit the clan's profile.

Supreme Commander- The founder of the clan and a position that can not be obtained even through promotion; has the same powers of a Commander but is superior in that they can end the clan.

 

Clan Enrollment

 

 

All right, so with the clan system being extremely new to the game, some players may not be quite adept at deciphering how to use this system properly. Firstly, only leaders must pay the 36 USD to initiate a clan; not every single member. All invited and accepted members will get into the clan for free so don't fret, you probably will not have to bust your Dad's credit card or pledge "it's not a lot of money, please Mum!!". It should also be noted that a tanker can only purchase a Clan License if they are not in a clan, and one Clan License = 1 Clan created. What this means is that only one clan can be created with one Clan license. Thus once you have already purchased a License and have disbanded your respective clan, you will need to purchase a new Clan License to create a new clan. Lastly, when you create a clan you must provide: a clan flag (often decided by the main nationality of its members), a clan name no longer than 20 characters, and a clan tag no more than 5 characters.

 

Finding A Clan's Profile

A clan's page can be found by clicking any of the clan's member's names and selecting "Clan profile menu" as in here:

 

 

Currently, the page can not be found by attempting to search a new clan as it will show the clan's name that you are sending a request to and not much more.

 

'Clan Vs Clan' Format Battle

 

 

In creating a "Clan vs Clan" Format battle, the battle creator has to be a member of a clan (duh). Also, as stated by Developers, once a player joins on one side of a Clan battle, only their fellow clan members can join that team and vice versa. This principle will be very effective if members of a clan wish to to perform a public 'inter-clan' battle, because a member can post the link and once two of his clanmates are on the Red and Blue side, only players of that single clan can join. It may hold potentially unstably though, if a public and not privately arranged Clan versus another Clan battle wishes to be played, because a Clan with only 6 members is not prevented from joining a Noise 8v8 drug battle against another clan.

 

Clan Statistics

 

 

Another interesting aspect of the Clan System is that it allows players to collectively see a clan's overall number of

tanks destroyed and overall number of tanks lost and moreover, a clan's D/L. This proves practical and worthwhile 

because after all, a clan's team play is only as strong as its weakest member, right? A few things can also be inferred 

from data like this, such as if a clan's members prefer careful/risky gameplay or whether they like to defend or make 

the most of their respawns. So this feature is very much tactical as well as it is applicable for pride and 'bragging rights'. 

 

Member's Loyalty and Activity Credibility

 

 

There is also the universal ability to check a members's last login time and amount of time spent in the associated clan, which is shown on a column on the clan members table. Basically, this was a marvelous idea on the Developer's part. Not only is this handy for players to check if a player is active enough to stay in the clan, but it will allow clan members to distinguish/prioritise between certain members for their time spent in the clan; although this should not be abused or used unjustly.

 

The Clan Chat

To get to the Clan chat, a player can click the 'Clan' icon at top-right side of their screen and it will isolate them from the public chat which will be replaced by a 'Clan Chat'. Additionally, the majority of the right side of the screen will show the Clan Profile and these descriptions can be seen here:

 

 

The benefits of such a mechanism would be that clan members could communicate through different servers and the time of each message is shown, making for a more user friendly interface. Tankers should also take heed that although Chat Moderators can not see a Clan Chat unless they are in the clan, bans on the public chat do apply to the clan chat. As stated before, you are separated from the public chat when entering the Clan Chat, so messages from one to the other will not work.

 

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Advantages and Disadvantages

 

Now that all of the Clan System's dynamics have been discussed, the pros and cons of this new update should be assessed, right? Here is a compilation of all the advantages and disadvantages of this system being introduced into the game:

 

Advantages

-Basically all members get a free pass into PRO battles, resulting in saving 5,000 crystals every month and 60,000 crystals saved each year.

-There is a private chat for efficient communication between members, and this will provide a second source of connection besides Skype. This could imply that players would not have to leave Skype open when playing in normal battles, resulting in a reduction of lag. Also, a private battle link can be posted in chat for all online members to see.

-Such a system provides undisturbed and fair clan versus clan battles and in theory, should stop mults and saboteurs.

-The introduction of a Clan tag next to players' nicknames, besides being aesthetic when looking at a battle scoreboard, will allow members of a Clan to be easily identified. Furthermore it will let players know when they really are playing against a clan and it should prevent cheating in tournaments (where players belonging to one clan sometimes secretly play for another clan).

 

Disadvantages

-It is quite apparent that lag has been exacerbated by this update, with the two primary Russian servers either preventing some players from logging into them or causing a few battles to be so laggy that even the Tanki creators would rage.

-There are still ways to bypass the anti-mult system; there will always be players who relish in ruining others fun.

-This begs the question, is the 'prefect' mechanism that only allows members of the same clan to join the special battle practical? In truth there probably have not been many circumstances so far in which a battle goes stagnant because no other members are there to join. However, what would happen if one or two members, who are the only ones online, join a 6v6 Clan battle without noticing that it is, in fact, a clan battle?

-Indirectly, it could decrease the currently massive presence of public Xp/Bp battles, so clanless tankers or those who are not in the game frequently would not have as many battles to choose from. 

 

Those are just the present and possibly not so noticeable aspects. Perhaps more of each will appear with future optimization of the system.

 

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Speculation Regarding The Future

 

It is probable that a Clan ratings system will be implemented, assessing win/loss rates against other clans and applying

points to a list based on that. The data would then be sent to a table of all the clans in the game and this is what

players would be able to see and make their judgement on. Also, there might be a monitored clan logo permitted and it

should cost a lot of crystals to the person changing the logo, to which would be allowed about one change per month.

This would prevent troll clans with inappropriate logos from originating, and if this "Logo System" was implemented,

only the Supreme Commander or Commander would be authorised to change their clan's own.

 

In addition to these, just maybe in future, clans could 'own' a map as they did in the elder days of Tanki, and this could

be based on the number of wins they have on the certain map. This would have to be be calculated systematically and could be shown to give the chance for a clan to choose which side to start on during a clan war in a tournament. Lastly, it is possible that a private clan notice board is administered. It would have to be under the clan profile description and it could state anything from upcoming clan wars to documentation of past clan trainings to the date/timetable of future trainings.

 

 

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Who knows, this update could be one of the best things that has happened to eSports in Tanki since StarLadder. Maybe this will be the revolution in which clan versus clan battles systematically credit to tankers' opinions of who is really better. But for now, thank you for taking the time to read this article. Have fun!

Edited February 8, 2017 by St.Guardian

[ZeusVinsi 84]

Perfect

[SulfuricAcid 504]

awesome

[LittleWillie 3,199]

Well well well, official acknowledgement that the clan system has caused exponentially more lag.  Up to now I've been told I was just making up these complaints as Tanki did not have a lag problem. Well well well.

 

So we have a clan system which is worsening everyone's gaming experience... in exchange we got a very expensive clan system that allows clan chat (if you turn it on) and clan battle (if your clan ever manages to find a matched opponent).  

 

As for protection from mults and sabotage? That will be $36 please. I

Edited February 10, 2017 by LittleWillie

[Viking4s 10,791]

Well well well, official acknowledgement that the clan system has caused exponentially more lag.  Up to now I've been told I was just making up these complaints as Tanki did not have a lag problem. Well well well.

 

So we have a clan system which is worsening everyone's gaming experience... in exchange we got a very expensive clan system that allows clan chat (if you turn it on) and clan battle (if your clan ever manages to find a matched opponent).  

 

As for protection from mults and sabotage? That will be $36 please. I

lol, There is a cause linked to an effect.

It's not the first time Mr Lag visit the game after an update, however all the time the effect has been reduced to normal in all the cases. The good thing is I had the lag for FREE, I didn't pay for it.

[Crip 4,735]

As for protection from mults and sabotage? That will be $36 please. I

You don't have to pay 36$ to join a clan you know...

[Capable 4,614]

Good

[SHADES-OF-WAR 3]

ive been playing tanki now for almost 3 years.  the biggest problem in the game ......L A G  everything (updates new turrets etc) should be secondary to finding a solution for the most annoying and disruptive feature in the game. it totally ruins any battle i join and since this clan system was introduced ive had lag all day every day. it is pointless joining a battle, i cant move and i cant fire my gun. i get killed by players who actually think they have got the better of me (whatever) ADMIN you seriously need to tackle this problem otherwise what is the point of the game when u cant play it. theres an old saying...if its not broke dont fix it. tanki is in the sights of the biggest mother of all m4s and you have just pulled the trigger. get back to basics .... i struggle to even do missions now, and as for joining a clan on my legend account lol<<<<----- thats what any clan member would do after seeing my performance in battle because of L A G. you have put together a truly great game, for the benefit of every player who has spent TIME EFFORT and MONEY please put all of your expertise into solving this problem. we love the GAME we hate L A G .

[Daithi 96]

1. There was a time when you could simply click on a Mult name and report. Bring this Back! 

    The /Vote system takes way too long and cumbersome for long complicated nicknames, that you can't even see when /voting.

2. Even when you do /vote for a Mult, calling for a Mod, NOTHING happens!! Reported Mults (from several players) need to be banned from play for a least a week.

3. Clans / (organised groups) raids using Mults are rampent. This is why I can only play 15min battles. I suggested long ago - No new entrants to a battle after 1/3 of battle. This would end Clans raids. At least make this an option when creating a battle.

 

This along with lag issues (every day) is why I will not / cannot recommend Tanki to my frends.

[CPYT 5]

Great idea, I am glad that you finally listened to what the tankers actually want. The price is very expensive however, and I think that was a very greedy move by Tanki, so fingers crossed the price will be significantly reduced to an acceptable one. I'd also like to add on another advantage which I don't think was actually mentioned clearly. 'A clan license is not needed to join a clan.' The disadvantage of that is that 'A very expensive clan license is required to create a clan.'

[KILL_BILL_CHAUHAN 2,505]

what if  Supreme Commander leave the clan ???

[LittleWillie 3,199]

You don't have to pay 36$ to join a clan you know...

Somebody does.

 

Do you not think that all players deserve a game that cracks down on cheating without paying for "protection"?

[St.Guardian 514]

what if  Supreme Commander leave the clan ???

A supreme commander of the clan is disallowed from leaving the clan, they don't even have any "buttons" that would give the chance to do so 

[KILL_BILL_CHAUHAN 2,505]

A supreme commander of the clan is disallowed from leaving the clan, they don't even have any "buttons" that would give the chance to do so 

what if the supreme commander got blocked or ban?( I am just curious)

[St.Guardian 514]

what if the supreme commander got blocked or ban?( I am just curious)

It's not a problem that you're curious :P

The supreme commander getting blocked or banned -from the game or chat for that matter- should not have a drastic effect on the clan, because they will have a co leader with almost the same abilities and will most likely be communicating with their members through skype.

 

Edit: if you're referring to a leader getting banned/blocked from the clan itself, this would be an almost impossible circumstance as no moderators can currently do this; it would have to be directly from a developer/admin who has the powers. Even if the admin/dev banned the supreme commander, they would have probably selected a new temporary supreme commander.

Edited February 10, 2017 by St.Guardian

[KILL_BILL_CHAUHAN 2,505]

thankyou :)

[CaptainFirearms 10]

Anybody have good clan I can join?

[RIDDLER_8 5,553]

I need help to join a clan. Can someone on this newspaper help me join a clan by inviting me to their clan.

 

Please can I join?

[Jwimmer 2,835]

I would like to see logos, clan paints, and a message area that only members could see implemented. Of course, I would also like to see the member limit raised up to like 20.

[St.Guardian 514]

I would like to see logos, clan paints, and a message area that only members could see implemented. Of course, I would also like to see the member limit raised up to like 20.

The message area that is in the game right now is one that only members can see, and I think the developers mentioned in a recent Vlog that they would allow clans to extend membership in a bit of time.

[Jwimmer 2,835]

The message area that is in the game right now is one that only members can see, and I think the developers mentioned in a recent Vlog that they would allow clans to extend membership in a bit of time.

Do you mean the chat area? Of course it is, but oftentimes, any annoucements get pushed away by other messages. Maybe a way to pin announcements at the bottom of the chat window. As for numbers, it would be best for them to be higher sooner than later. My clan has actually lost a few members that did not make the first 12, because they don't want to wait till the next update to be in the in-game clan.

[luetao123 1]

i think the clan system is good overall but the problem i have is that the liscense is way too expensive and that if Tanki Online would just lower the price a little i would really appreciate it

[thundertank765 32]

:) hello nice :)

Edited February 16, 2017 by thundertank765

[Spinister 1,192]

what if the supreme commander got blocked or ban?( I am just curious)

The Clan Will Be Blocked If The Leader Got Blocked (Happened With my Clan)

[davidjudah 41]

I don't get it...what does tanki WANT from us $36 just for a clan license? That sound pretty much off the charts.Nobody's going to buy it, $20 seems like a normal price, or maybe it should be 3 clan licenses, First one for $10 with only 5 members or so and limited battle options, $20 for 15 and not so much restrictions for battles $35 for 50 members and unlimited battle options or something like this. You get the idea, not $36.