[Special Review] Update: Patch #451

[Crip 4,735]

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Aye, it's been only a week a while tankers! I'm back again, with a new Patch Review. This time however, I have a most capable assistant in the form of @Thekillerpenguin. Today, we will explore the most recent Patch Update and discuss each separate section and how each will effect the game. Compared to the last update which saw the Artillery enter the game, this update has not been received so well.

 

Read on!

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Introduction

 

After #450 was released last week, not many expected another update so soon, especially one so large. We saw the release of the long awaited Artillery turret, "Magnum", as well as some other smaller changes in the previous patch and many must have concluded that Tanki were finally done altering the game for March.

 

Not so.

 

is churning out new updates at a terrifying rate and it seems like he is thrashing every ounce of energy out of his developer team. We have had so many updates and releases this month, from the start till the end. And here I am again, with a new patch to write about. There has barely been time to get used to Magnum before more changes have hit, in the form of Patch #451.

 

In this patch there were many interesting inclusions, but some were extremely surprising and even irritating. The microupgrade changes that were added for M1 and M0 were applied to M2 and M3, Battle auto-completion system was altered and Daily Missions were changed. This last change has sparked much annoyance among the Tanki Community and we shall find out why in the following sections.

 

 

Changes to Microupgrades

 

Taken from the Vlog, this picture shows how the micro-upgrade steps have been reduced.

 

M2 and M3 micro-upgrades have seen a reduction in their number of steps, similar to what was done to M1 and M0 micro-upgrades. This is intended to make each upgrade more meaningful in terms of benefit and perhaps make the process simpler.

 

M3

 

The total number of micro-upgrade steps on M3 turrets and hulls have been reduced to 20, instead of the 10 steps seen on other modifications, probably to pad out the time it takes to fully MU a piece of equipment to keep high rank players more occupied.

 

Current upgrade steps are roughly equivalent to 2.5 upgrades in the old system. This means that they change the statistics of your equipment more noticeably, rectifying a previously common complaint. However, this means that each step costs a lot more. For example:

 

 

47,980 crystals is a pretty tall price for a single micro-upgrade. It's almost the cost of a M1 Alteration. You can also see that the speed ups have been lengthened significantly, in this case to almost a week and three days!

 

The advantage of these fewer, more significant steps is that if there is a MU sale, you could buy a single upgrade and accomplish the work of 2.5 MUs in the old system without any waiting time, which could be beneficial if you don't have the time to wait around and/or the sale is very short. The downside is that you can't buy MUs if you're really poor, so you may not be able to take advantage of the sales if you're short on crystals.

 

M2

 

M2s have been changed in line with their lower modification brethren, having 10 significant but costly steps whose prices add up to the cost of the M3 version of the turret or hull. This has similar effects and implications as those earlier changes, making it easier and more economical overall to upgrade your stuff. If you're fine with paying the full price for your equipment, you can micro-upgrade yourself to M3 levels instead of buying the M3 modification, if that's your thing.

 

Unfortunately, this update makes it easier for players to buy M2 equipment and pay a boatload of crystals to get to M3 statistics due to the reduced complexity and lower overall cost. It is possible to buy M2 Freeze at Warrant Officer 5 and upgrade it to a M3 level to massacre M1 tanks, and you may now see a few more people like that.

 

This kind of tank with fully-micro'd M2s will be much more common.

 

 

Daily Missions

 

Unexpectedly, Daily Missions are now unable to be completed in PRO battles, so it's harder to ask a friend to help you with a daily mission. The rewards have been increased by 10% as a condolence.

 

The mission on the left would previously be essentially free crystals. Now, one has to work much harder to achieve the reward.

 

Previously, many people with missions such as "Finish 1st in a battle", "Collect [supply] boxes", or "Capture flags" would make a private battle on a suitable map, invite a friend to populate the battle, and then do whatever the mission needs. Now, you will either have to work on your missions while playing normally in public battles (which is what I would normally recommend) or enter a public battle in a quiet server (i.e. one with almost no people of your rank) with the Battle button, repeat until you get a map you like, and invite your friends. The Tanki Developer Team explained why they had included this change in the latest VLOG. Hazel stated that the method in which players completed the majority of their missions did not agree with them and that many "took advantage" of the system.

 

Two examples of the type of Super Mission that should now be completed. Ignore weak ones containing Mines/Speed Boosts.

 

This has raised several large issues for many tankers, particularly the higher ranks. Legends and Generalissimos will now struggle to complete their "Super Missions", since the kills and experience required will only count if they are earned in a regular battle. Even larger missions such as "Earn 1000 Experience in [battle] Mode" will be much tougher to complete, especially as one is almost certainly required to use supplies (since they cannot be disabled during normal battles) to gain the experience necessary. Players who previously focused on XP/BP will suffer the most here, as they may not be adapted enough to complete missions outside of dedicated XP/BP battles.

 

 

 

Auto-Completion System

 

Then, there are a few modifications to the "Autofinish" for battles (Regular and also Pro Battles where it is turned on). Before this update, a battle could not automatically go into autofinish mode unless 3 minutes had passed since the beginning of the game. The autofinish time itself was actually changed, being reduced from 30 seconds to 15. Also, the cooldown before the battle "checks itself" for auto-completion was reduced from 25 seconds to 10.

 

This will be a much more common sight. New battles will end soon more frequently.

 

Interesting changes. The new autofinish time was actually marginally annoying to deal with at first, because you couldn't capture that last flag for instance in 15 seconds. However, with the changes made to Daily Missions, this is actually a very positive update. If one can only complete missions in Regular Battles, then these new auto-completion changes are very helpful (you won't have to wait ages for the battle to complete to finish 1st for example).

 

Quite helpful, but they definitely do not compensate entirely for the Daily Missions changes.

 

 

 

Other Changes

 

Finally, we come to several smaller tweaks and alterations to the game which were also released in the #451 patch. These aren't deserving of their own separate sections, but they are important enough to be worth mentioning. Here we will briefly have a look at them.

 

Battle Rank Brackets

 

A small change to the game, simply modifying the rank bracket for all ranks. For example, Legends can now play Captains , rather than the lowest playable rank for them being Lieutenant Colonel . Essentially, most of them were increased by two. This now means (according to the Tanki Developers themselves) that finding battles will be much easier. This hasn't been the case so far in my experience. In many cases, players that can now play against the top ranks are now simply joining the Legend battles and not creating their own. This is creating situations where players are almost required to play these higher ranks, or there will not be sufficient players of a similar rank to form a game with.

 

I can now create battles down to 3rd Lieutenant, whereas before I could only create to 1st Lieutenant.

 

Mults around higher ranks are a common problem, especially lower ranks wielding M2s. Now that the rank bracket has been extended further, many more M2s will be present in higher-rank battles. This will be true in regular battles, where they are automatically set between and when the Battle button is pressed by a Legend.

 

Now, some people could take this as a positive (low ranks have better access, therefore the teams will be equally balanced with these lower ranks) but only time will tell.

 

Magnum Bug Fixes

 

Of course, any new addition to the game will not be 100% perfect. The new turret "Magnum" has had one or two teething problems and these were stated as fixed in this patch update. There have been complaints about ineffectual splash damage from Magnum users and hopefully this update removed annoying bugs such as this.

 

"Critical Error" Update

 

Due to the number of critical errors in the game, Tanki's error "catching" group decided to take an interesting step. From now on, when bugs appear in battle, the "Critical Error" will not be triggered. Instead, one can keep playing with this bug present and report it to Tanki in this special topic. A positive move, showing that Tanki are keen to make the game experience better.

 

From now on, you won't see this error flash up if a bug appears in the battle.

 

 

Conclusion

 

So there you have it! Yet another patch update successfully covered! Patch #451 had its positives and negatives, but the Daily Mission changes have to be among the worst rated updates this year. Hopefully tankers will be able to adapt and keep their mission chains alive. But we also had the M3 and M2 microupgrade changes, which are very positive additions in my opinion.

 

What updates are planned for April? Only time shall tell. Thanks for reading!

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Was Patch Update #451 a success? Do you like the new Daily Missions system or was it a step too far?

We want to hear your opinions!

 

 

                                   

Edited April 7, 2017 by Savage

[Crip 4,735]

Slightly later than I would have wanted, but here it is. Happy reading!

[r_I_already_won0 2,339]

Daily mission update was TRASH.  All they had to do was leave it alone. How much thought and programming does that require, hmm?

 

 

 

Good article. :)

 

 

Edited April 5, 2017 by r_I_already_won0

[arnav0506 2,777]

Oh, even if you hadn't written a review, Savvy, the update is SO controversial that EVERYONE now, knows everything about it XD But thanks for writing it out in detail with all those pics and stuff, you did work hard. Thanks!

[Tofu 6,773]

Beaut

[ZeusVinsi 84]

Thanks For Explaining Deeply!!

[Unbeatable_en 50]

#RemoveMissionUpdate

 

Btw I think #GreedyDevs also increased Speed up cost and micro upgrade time in this update.

 

Edited April 6, 2017 by Unbeatable_en

[Crip 4,735]

Btw I think #GreedyDevs also increased Speed up cost and micro upgrade time in this update.

 

But the actual cost for the Micro-upgrade step is cheaper, so if you're patient you can get an M3 from an M2 for the same price as the stock M3, rather than paying twice as much like before.

[Unbeatable_en 50]

But the actual cost for the Micro-upgrade step is cheaper, so if you're patient you can get an M3 from an M2 for the same price as the stock M3, rather than paying twice as much like before.

I was talking about muing m3s and it still cost same and speed up cost increased almost 4 times.

And very few players mu m1 and m2.

[Crip 4,735]

And very few players mu m1 and m2.

After this update they will. Mued M2s and M1s will be much more common.

[Viking4s 10,791]

I was talking about muing m3s and it still cost same and speed up cost increased almost 4 times.

And very few players mu m1 and m2.

Now more player will take the strategy to MU fully their M1s and M2s, otherwise they loose the crystals they used for Muing.

Nevertheless, you still need to be smart on what to Mu: before you would have finished with one turret and one hull at M2, now lower M1 and M2 cost so you can buy more Hull and more Turret giving you flexibility in equipment.

If you have Mued your M2 10/10 you would only be able to automatically convert it at Marshal rank, and then you would be able to start Muing. While if you wait and save for M3 equipment kit available at Lieutenant-General you will be able to Mu them directly without waiting to reach Marshal.

 

At M3, the system in place is  clearly to slow down the increase of power for everybody, even now the cost of speed up will slow down frantic buyer. Unfortunately the people that are already M4 will be longer at an advantage, however other player which form the peloton will grow in power at the same rate and that's what everybody wants. The only way to avoid M4 to play against M3 would be a matching system, which has been promised.

If you play xp/bp this changes nothing.

 

[I..drone1 0]

Hate The mission update #RemoveMissionUpdate

[rommel91644 5]

About that critical error change; far from being eliminated I seem to be seeing it more than ever. Some maps (Tribute and Chernobyl come to mind) are almost unplayable but I'm seeing this everywhere. I was in a CTF on Serpuhov yesterday and about halfway through a 15 minute battle (at which point I was in 1st or 2nd place) the error message threw me out about every 30-45 seconds. After five or more tries (and having moved well down the leaderboard) I quit in frustration. So what's going on with this?

Edited April 7, 2017 by rommel91644

[inferno601 5]

well every upgrade  is good 

[r_sg971 163]

Nice article.

I am happy you did not praise the developers in it, and instead voiced the opinion of majority players.

 

Thanks for the information though, I did not know about the auto finish feature adjustment.

 

Also, regarding the error update, the only thing that has changed for me is that the error message, instead of appearing at the center of the scree, now comes on top right.

It still happens quite often though, and very annoying in polygon xp/bp, when you're finishing on top and get kicked from the battle by the time you re enter the game.

Edited April 7, 2017 by r_sg971

[Crip 4,735]

About that critical error change; far from being eliminated I seem to be seeing it more than ever. Some maps (Tribute and Chernobyl come to mind) are almost unplayable but I'm seeing this everywhere. I was in a CTF on Serpuhov yesterday and about halfway through a 15 minute battle (at which point I was in 1st or 2nd place) the error message threw me out about every 30-45 seconds. After five or more tries (and having moved well down the leaderboard) I quit in frustration. So what's going on with this?

It shouldn't do that any more. The message will appear in the top-right of your screen, rather than in the centre. It is also now possible to ignore the warning and continue, but there will probably be a bug present in your battle that will be noticeable.

 

Maybe you're getting Class Registration errors instead?

[niharagarwal 0]

if daily missions is only able to complete in regular battles and the n.o of regular battles should be fixed they are more n.o of pro battles almost 4 times more whereas regular battles are always full how can we even get a good battle

 

tanki should automatically create more non-pro battles and they should do some thing that more players should will to join regular battles

[Heroic 53]

 

 

#RemoveMissionUpdate only 9999 kiils and 99999 xp   for the player i legend in generalismo is imposible for finish 

Edited April 7, 2017 by Heroic

[shafter9 156]

^use shaft. Kill-steal from a distance, drugging isn't necessary when you do so much damage per shot.

I like the update in a way, in that it has made the game more challenging.

[shafter9 156]

#KeepMissionUpdate

[C-H_A-M_P-I_O-N 10]

I believe the UPDATE  with the *NEW MISSIONS* should change, it way too difficult for high ranks to complete super missions in regular battles.

Therefore. I propose, you decrease the mission rewards and keep it possible in pro-battles.

[jjg_the_dark 455]

Slightly later than I would have wanted, but here it is. Happy reading!

"Hazel-Rah is churning out new updates at a terrifying rate and it seems like he is thrashing every ounce of energy out of his developer team." So this is the name of the guy who is responsible for trashing Tanki. Good thing this so called "developer" does not work for me! In my 25+ years of IT career, I have fired much more competent developers than this pretender. One thing is for sure:  If I ever see on a developer's resume "worked for Tanki Online" I can guarantee you, that resume will go directly to the trash. Along with lack of serious programming skills, this guy has no creativity and no imagination whatsoever.

[tankionline5787 1]

I HATE the micro updates now because now for my m2 rail i now have to pay almost 15,000 crystals for 6/10 upgrade but i used to only pay for the rail 6,000 crystals. Also, now there will be a huge disadvantage for people who cant buy crystals because they dont have a debit or credit card to buy. (That's MY opinion by the way so dont steal it!)

[Crip 4,735]

I HATE the micro updates now because now for my m2 rail i now have to pay almost 15,000 crystals for 6/10 upgrade but i used to only pay for the rail 6,000 crystals. Also, now there will be a huge disadvantage for people who cant buy crystals because they dont have a debit or credit card to buy. (That's MY opinion by the way so dont steal it!)

You don't understand.

 

Those 16 000 crystals for a single upgrade (from 6-7) is the equivalent of FIVE microupgrades previous to the update. So you're saving 50% of the crystals, because they are effectively half price. Just learn to save for a little longer.

[n66b 0]

The missions patch was, at best, a mistake.  Together with the expanded ranks, it creates far (far, FAR) fewer useful missions.  I have been on servers with a  mission like "Capture 3 Flags" where there were over 50 battles going on.  Only 5 of them were non-pro CTF.  Three of them were complexly filled, and the remaining two were populated by tankers who were FIVE LEVELS above me.  

 

How long would it take those who DESIGNED this mess to capture 3 flags against a team of 8 tankers who were FIVE LEVELS HIGHER in rank?  How about "forever"!!??  Why would the developers be so stupid as to design "daily" missions that take a WEEK or more to complete?

 

The elimination of PRO battles to complete missions is quite possibly the DUMBEST update I've seen since I started playing Tanki.