Summary of the Russian livestream with Hazel

[Maf 32,300]

I know most of you watched the English livestream with Cedric and Semyon, so you either know all about it and/or are simply not interested in the event as a whole, so I won't refer to that. This topic is specifically for the Russian stream, which, despite having an identical overall goal (answering players' qustions) and having a few very similar questions, was still not the same as the English one. So this for all those curious to know what you've missed :)

 

I'll get straight to the point.

 

Question 1

Why did you do this terrible supplies experiment and are you planning to keep it in the game?

 

This supply configuration will definitely NOT be implemented exactly as it was tested. It wasn't a successful test in a sense that it made gameplay very boring and repetitive. You spawn, you check if your cooldowns have recharged, you attack the enemy base and then you either activate all supplies if you got there in one piece and wreak havoc on the enemy team for 30 seconds (or steal the flag), or, if you got significantly damaged on your approach, simply end that "turn" as is, die and try again. It was the same order of actions over and over, which got really tiresome after a while and didn't help make gameplay more fun. Besides, people were stuck in situations where they spawn next to a "drugged" enemy and have no way to respond to them, which wasn't a fun experience.

 

Also worth noting that when the first "Smart Cooldowns" were introduced, the option to play without them was almost NOT added to the PRO battle menu. Fortunately, this decision changed and now players are able to play either normal battles with standard supply settings, or PRO battles with the "old" supply configuration. Now, whenever a new supply system eventually gets added, we will add another option to the PRO battle menu so that players will be able to choose any version of the supply settings they prefer. The PRO battle menu has been adjusted recently to accommodate a virtually infinite number of settings, so "lack of space" won't be our excuse for not adding certain options to PRO battles.

 

We already started looking for new ways to make supplies work, for example making the cooldowns much shorter. Those will be tested in future experiments. This is a difficult task of finding a compromise between those, who love to use supplies all the time, and those, who don't have enough of them and are helpless against heavy "druggers"

 

 

Question 2

Why don't you carry out these experiments on the test server?

 

Test servers are still there and available for mass-testing, but they are ineffective in collecting feedback about many aspects of a major gameplay update. For example, during the first 4 hours after the release of the clan system, everyone faced massive FPS drops. Turned out that it was because of people posting a lot in the server chats - something that couldn't have been detected on the test server.

 

Of course, it would have been possible to somehow very closely recreate the same conditions on the test server as on the main servers to test every single update, but in that case testing would have taken months, while in this case we just did an experiment for a couple days and not only saw realistic results of the change, but also collected a ton of useful feedback to analyse and improve on.

 

 

Question 3

Why can't you just do another "rebalance" and refund crystals after every major balance update? I'm fed up with the items I bought getting changed to something completely different!

 

The Rebalance of 2012 terribly affected the game's economy and put developers in a desperate situation, since most players kept the crystals they were given and bought more than they had during the winter sales. This resulted in a massive drop in revenue and forced developers to implement updates like reduced battle funds (update 123) and other measures aimed to get money out of players to get the project back on track. So because of that, no more refunds will ever happen after any future updates.

 

As for the constant changing of items, it was also a result of the same Rebalance, which united the two sets of equipment and made balancing of the game a lot more difficult. Instead of 5 turrets and 3 hulls, we ended up with 11 turrets and 7 hulls, and the game simply wasn't ready for such a drastic change. We put in huge amounts of effort and time into making the game balance work, and it took so many years, that we actually ended up with different teams of people working on the problem, which resulted in different ideology and approach to it. And that's why you see items being changed and changed back again multiple times, because decisions made by people some years ago are no longer seen as correct today, resulting in their reversal.

 

The funniest thing is, upon seeing all the negative feedback about the parameter changes, we expected the number of active players and/or the number of hours spent in the game to go down. But it did exactly the opposite. While on the other hand, during the 1.5 years when there were no balance changes at all, the numbers were going down, because people simply got bored and left. And that's the worst thing about this situation - when people don't like a change, they actively complain about it, but when they don't like the lack of changes, they simply get bored and stop playing without letting the developers know that something is wrong. That's why changes are important to keep the game alive - they encourage players to try the new changes, try new strategies and have a new twist in their gameplay experience, causing them to play the game more. Although I must point out that balance adjustments won't happen as often now and the reason why we had some parameter changes happening within a week of one another was because multiple separate plans just happened to come together at the same time and we had to release them then instead of waiting a bit longer because there are other priorities which needed attention ASAP.

 

 

Question 4

When will the Team Kick system be added?

 

This is an even more complicated topic than finding the right configuration for supplies. Here, we need to find the right sweet spot to have the system be effective and at the same time safe from abuse. We realise that at the moment there are often situations when there is a player in your team, who's obviously dragging the team down and deserves to be kicked, but waiting for a moderator is pointless since they pretty much never come.

 

So what we're thinking of doing is isolating the kick system to a particular type of battles. Probably not PRO battles, but something similar to the Clan format battles we have now. Players would enter such battles knowing that they will be able to get rid of mults and other problematic players, but they will also have a risk of getting kicked by abusers of the system.

 

The reason why the first kick system was such a failure and why nothing much was done on that matter after it was removed is actually quite embarrassing. We spent a number of years planning to release a new, better version of the game (be that Tanki 2.0 or "Unity"), so we treated Tanki Online as a dying project, and most of the updates were just a case of "here's a quick thing we made that you can use for the moment, we know it's not perfect but that doesn't matter because we'll all move to the new version pretty soon". That was a terrible approach to the game's development, especially considering that the initial plan got cancelled and Tanki Online is now an independent project that co-exists alongside Tanki X and keeps developing. So now is the time to fix our prior mistakes.

 

 

Question 5

Why do you make changes to turrets and then put the previous version into an alteration that costs and extra 100k?

 

In this case you're mostly talking about the changes to Twins and perhaps also Railgun. Well, what we're trying to do it not make you spend more money, but rather introduce you to new gameplay with the same turret. We're trying to make the game more fun, and we're giving you new mechanics completely for free. Of course you are welcome to buy the alteration and keep playing with the old parameters, but we can see that the way we make your standard settings is best for you and everyone around you, which is why everyone is given a new version of the gun's settings, rather than keeping those new settings hidden in an alteration that few will want to try.

 

 

Question 6

Why are you forcing us to buy alterations to make our turret stronger?

 

Alterations are not meant to make the gun stronger. They are meant to provide an alternative type of gameplay at a lower price compared to buying a whole new turret. We admit that some alterations ended up not fitting in and being too weak or too powerful, but it's all subject to further changes.

 

The motivation for implementing alterations in the first place definitely wasn't the aim to get more revenue. Very few players buy them at full price and most just wait for sales, so in the end they are relatively cheap and do not provide much spending potential.

 

 

Question 7

Why is Tanki lagging so much? Why so many critical errors?

 

We know about all these issues and it's true that for a long time pretty much nothing was done about it for the same reason as the one for the kick system - we expected to release an improved version of Tanki and move all players over to it, at the same time closing Tanki Online. So when it came to lags and other technical issues with TO, we thought "Well, it sort of works now, so we might as well just leave it and let players bear it for a while because the better Tanki will be out soon and there's no point wasting our time on fixing this". And since that is no longer the case, we actually seriously started to work on fixing the problem. We now have a designated team that works specifically on analysing server performance and eradicating issues, which cause the lags and crashes.

 

Critical errors are a completely different topic. Yes, they exist and we know it. A "critical error" isn't just a single problem that requires a single fix. It's simply Flash's reaction to any game-breaking issue, so when it encounters anything that puts it off, the game engine gives up and pulls the kill-switch (crashes). And now we're treating this a lot more seriously, systematically working with the game engine to try and eliminate as many issues as we can to reduce the amount of critical errors to a minimum. And we're expecting to see some real results within a month.

 

Keep in mind that critical errors will never be prevented completely. Some of the issues causing them originate from within the game engine itself, beyond our reach. Those issues can only be fixed by developers of the engine and they are blatantly ignoring them, so nothing can be done about that.

 

 

Question 8

Why are you releasing so many bad updates?

 

The game had very few updates for a number of years and only recently we got a chance to seriously start working on Tanki Online. We have massive plans for improvement in the coming months including a big gameplay update for hulls and other cool stuff. There have also been changes in our view of the game, our plans, the development team itself... I know some of the things we do seem strange now, but just wait and see - it will all make sense relatively soon.

 

 

Question 9

Why are clans so expensive?

 

Well, they are indeed way more expensive than I expected. The initial low price that was predicted was intended for a much smaller clan - maximum of 5-6 players. In the future the price will be reduced, while the initial number of player will also be lower (with option to expand for extra cost), while the players who already bought clans for the high price will get an expansion for free.

 

 

Question 10

Why are paints so expensive?

 

Why the heck not? You don't have to buy them and they don't affect gameplay, so we might as well raise their price and get some more profit out of those, who wish to spend their money on cosmetic items. There's no harm in raising prices for something that doesn't improve the tank's performance, so no one can simply buy their way to victory with expensive paints.

 

 

Question 11

When will the game be transferred to a new game engine?

 

It all started with the "Unity version" of tanki. It was originally planned to be an exact copy of Tanki Online, which would replace the old version and become the new Tanki. All accounts would be transferred to Unity, while the old game closes. You all heard the story. But then it suddenly turned out that Unity no longer works in browsers. That may not seem like a big issue at first, but for a game like Tanki Online it's a massive concern because most players have no idea how to use a client-based game or simply don't want to/can't use it. So by replacing the browser-based Tanki with a non-browser game, a very significant amount of the player base would be lost, which is why the plans had to suddenly change.

 

The new plan was to create a whole new game on Unity and keep it completely separate from the old game. But the problem is that the news about Unity being incompatible with browsers happened when Unity Tanki was fairly close to release date, so the games were already pretty much identical. And now the aim it to take the identical copy of the game and make it different. This has turned into a long and painful process of slowly changing the new game (Tanki X) to be more and more different from Tanki Online. But the process has only just started and the games are still very similar, which is actually why we have a chance to test updates (like the supply experiment) in both games at once and thus potentially kill two birds with one stone.

 

So back to getting Tanki on a new game engine. HTML5 is the candidate to become the next host for Tanki Online. YouTube switched to it, many other games switch to it and are being developed on it. It works great in browsers, so it's the perfect choice. We already have a separate branch of work and a special team that's dedicated to adapting the game to the new engine and converting all the data. And for a game that's 8 years old the amount of this data is mind-boggling. These developers are slowly working on the conversion and if everything goes well, it will happen eventually.

 

The conversion will be a great overall upgrade for the game, because HTML5, unlike Flash, isn't outdated and has dedicated support from its developers. It also provides us with a lot more freedom for developing new features, which were previously unavailable due to Flash's limitations. And generally development should become more efficient with far less issues than what we face when working with Flash. The best thing is that players won't have any issues with this change and will be able to join battles as they used to, so comments like "what is this new thing you made i hate it bring old tanki back!1!!!" won't be seen.

 

 

Question 12

When will Tanki close?

 

The game will work as long as players are interested in it. There are no plans to close the game at the moment. It was considered when Unity Tanki was in development, but since plans changed as they have, closure of Tanki Online is no longer happening anytime soon.

 

 

Question 13

Why did you remove crystal boxes?

 

Simple answer: they were a bad feature which adversely affected gameplay so they were removed and replaced with higher funds. And we know that the reason you (players) keep asking us to bring them back is not because you want the boxes as a mechanic, but because you want crystals. Now, we have all the data we need to understand where player have enough crystals and where they don't. We've already added numerous features which help players get started in the game and not end up with an empty garage at an early stage. We know that it's not enough and there are plans to implement more cool features to help players get crystals. But adding crystal boxes back is not the way to do it. Even adding them as an optional feature in PRO battles can't happen because it's just not worth it. Crystal boxes were removed from the game completely, so adding them back would require a lot of work and time, which is better spent on more important issues.

 

---

 

Those were all of the player questions discussed in the stream. The rest of it was talk about future plans and testing of the Artillery turret, which you can watch in the English stream. I hope this topic answered some of your questions and gave you further insight into developers' minds, which the English stream didn't cover :)

[stanzhang 3,291]

First!

I don't know why, but I fell that same issues had been mentioned in both lives.

Edited February 28, 2017 by stanzhang

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

waw nob stanzhang stole my first

 

Thanks for the summary, Maf. The livestreams were very informative to be sure, but they took a while to look through and the Russian one was quite inaccessible to non-Russian speakers. I'm sure that this took a while, so thanks for the effort. :)

Edited February 28, 2017 by Thekillerpenguin

[Cortana 4,601]

Thanks for the summary, Maf. Some really interesting points in there.

 

Also, has someone already done a summary for the English livestream?

[stanzhang 3,291]

Thanks for the summary, Maf. Some really interesting points in there.

Also, has someone already done a summary for the English livestream?

On of our fellow reporter is working really hard on it ;).

[Maf 32,300]

On of our fellow reporter is working really hard on it ;).

Spoilers  :ph34r:

[stanzhang 3,291]

Spoilers  :ph34r:

?

[Maf 32,300]

Interesting...They've been telling us for years: "You have bad connection or slow computer, try clearing your cache".

That's also true. A lot of the connection issues do happen on the player's side and, as Hazel said in the stream, "we can't provide everyone with good internet". But what he meant by this answer is that they've been ignoring the lag issues for a long time (or at least not giving them enough attention) and now they've really started to work on improvements.

 

Also, the magic phrase "clear your cache" should become history once tanki migrates to HTML5 :D

[Phoenix.Raised 5,992]

That's also true. A lot of the connection issues do happen on the player's side and, as Hazel said in the stream, "we can't provide everyone with good internet". But what he meant by this answer is that they've been ignoring the lag issues for a long time (or at least not giving them enough attention) and now they've really started to work on improvements.

 

Also, the magic phrase "clear your cache" should become history once tanki migrates to HTML5 :D

It was about time, isn't it?

[railguniz4noobz 2,394]

(as requested by riddler_8...)

[Tani_S 736]

Question 9

Why are clans so expensive?

 

Well, they are indeed way more expensive than I expected. The initial low price that was predicted was intended for a much smaller clan - maximum of 5-6 players. In the future the price will be reduced, while the initial number of player will also be lower (with option to expand for extra cost), while the players who already bought clans for the high price will get an expansion for free.

Does anybody know what that means? Will the "old" in-game clans stay with a standard maximum of 12 players or will it be expanded for them like let's say to a 16 player limit?

[Maf 32,300]

Does anybody know what that means? Will the "old" in-game clans stay with a standard maximum of 12 players or will it be expanded for them like let's say to a 16 player limit?

Actually I'm not too sure about this one, but I think they said that current clans will get more stuff for free, while new clans will be cheaper but will require small extra payments to get to the same stage as current clans. And the price will be the same.

[Tani_S 736]

^Alright, thank you for the response and thanks a lot for providing this summary  :) I got another interesting passage tho  :ph34r:

 

Question 4
When will the Team Kick system be added?

So what we're thinking of doing is isolating the kick system to a particular type of battles. Probably not PRO battles, but something similar to the Clan format battles we have now. Players would enter such battles knowing that they will be able to get rid of mults and other problematic players, but they will also have a risk of getting kicked by abusers of the system.

Is Hazel talking here about rating battles or will this mult-free zone be another format?

[Bydo 20,119]

Question 10
Why are paints so expensive?

Why the heck not? You don't have to buy them and they don't affect game play, so we might as well raise their price and get some more profit out of those, who wish to spend their money on cosmetic items. There's no harm in raising prices for something that doesn't improve the tank's performance, so no one can simply buy their way to victory with expensive paints.

 

This one is still not going to be resolved .. basically due to the fact the paint is only a cosmetic look and has no purpose for it , but to make a tanki look pretty .. why have it over priced and useless to even have in the garage .. this still makes no sense ...

I get it tanki wants to make money from them in the shop .. but why have the ones in the garage over priced when you make nothing from them but fake crystals .. i understand the ones in the shop making money .. this needs to be looked at in a different way ...

[Martin 1,203]

Good job, Maf! :) :ph34r:

[lukey0 27,543]

Nice!

[Maf 32,300]

^Alright, thank you for the response and thanks a lot for providing this summary  :) I got another interesting passage tho  :ph34r:

 

Is Hazel talking here about rating battles or will this mult-free zone be another format?

He didn't clarify that. I'm pretty sure they didn't mention these "rating battles" at all in the stream, while this was discussed as a whole new separate kind of battles.

 

 but why have the ones in the garage over priced when you make nothing from them but fake crystals .. i understand the ones in the shop making money .. this needs to be looked at in a different way ...

Most people buy crystals with real money in order to afford those paints, so it's not all "fake crystals" they're making.

[M-axis 589]

D'ya chaps know if theres something like this for the English stream..? Too lazy to watch two hours of talk with an accent :P 

[Maf 32,300]

D'ya chaps know if theres something like this for the English stream..? Too lazy to watch two hours of talk with an accent :P 

 

On of our fellow reporter is working really hard on it  ;).

[BlackWasp777 4,498]

Thanks for that !!

[Gabe2607 499]

D'ya chaps know if theres something like this for the English stream..? Too lazy to watch two hours of talk with an accent :P 

Their English was better than yours... :P

[M-axis 589]

Now that I think about it..thats probs true :P  I've been told I have an American accent, a British accent, an Indian accent, a Malaysian accent, an Australian accent...ugh the list could go on.... :blink: 

 

Once that article is out ca someone either post it here on PM me? Otherwise I'm apt to not be able to find it xD

Edited March 2, 2017 by M-axis

[austen_pierce 1,948]

Wow - great information. For me, new insight into what happened with Tanki and TankiX. I remember when we were talking about TOF and TOU (Tanki Online Flash and Unity respectively). I remember hearing announcements about Unity support dropping from browsers. I also remember the 'No' heard round the world when Alterniva announced there would be no account transfer to TankiX. Until now I had no idea the former directly caused the latter.

 

It is also good to hear we will eventually move from Flash to HTML5.

[Maf 32,300]

I don't know why, but I fell that same issues had been mentioned in both lives.

It's pretty obvious. The streams were basically copies of each other, but aimed at different audiences. The initial questions were somewhat different, but developers' plans for the future and testing of Artillery were, unsurprisingly, almost the same.