Review [New Year Special] New Year's in Tanki Online

[Yisroel.Rabin 16,224]

It's that time of year again; New Year's! Come and join me as I dive through the past years of New Year celebrations, try and speculate what will happen this year, and ask a handful of community members what they want this Christmas from Tanki!

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History of New Year's in Tanki Online

 
2010
Not much happened the first time Tanki celebrated New Year's. All that happened was turrets sprayed confetti, but that's all.
 
2011
The second time around was a bit more notable than the last. Tanki changed the flags to look like Christmas trees, crystal and supply boxes looked like wrapped presents falling from the sky with a decorated parachute. Billboards were also changed to fit the festivities.
 
The New Year map was basically Boombox, only with a giant tree in the centre instead of a building. Crystal boxes often rained around the tree. There was also a dark blue holiday paint with bright lights on it as decorations.
 

The 2011 New Year's celebration Holiday paint.

 

The festivities lasted until November 3rd.
 
2012
On December 31st of 2011, the Developers decorated the game with classic Christmas decorations. The special Holiday paint remained the same as the previous year's paint. The special map was based off the modern day Sandbox, except it had no walls to block players from falling off the edge, so players fell off a lot. There was a big Christmas tree in the centre, where crystal boxes dropped more often. 
 
During the celebrations, there was a 'New Year's Quest', which was basically an older version of 'The GAME'; a series of riddles which players needed to solve to get to the final answer. The winners of a the '20 Seconds To New Year' and 'TO Postcards' contests had the privilege of testing out a fun new turret called 'Snowman'. It had the same rotation speed as Smoky (back then) and looked like this.
 

2013
Ah, the first New Year's celebrations after the rebalance, which happened only a few days earlier, on December 17th, 2012. There were discounts from December 30th until January 2nd. There was an icy looking Holiday paint in honour of the holidays.
 

The 2011 New Year's celebration Holiday paint.

The special map was different this year, rather than a simple copy of other maps. It was a yard with a hill in the centre, with four ramps on either side to climb the hill. The ramps were topped with banners, three saying 'Happy New Year!' in different languages, and one saying 'tankionline.com'.
 
At the top of the hill was the annual Christmas tree, where present-like boxes rained. There were two kinds of Gold Boxes throughout the celebrations, one worth 100 crystals, and another worth 200 crystals.

      
The special gold boxes which fell during the 2013 New Year celebrations.
 

2014
2014's New Year celebrations was the first one I personally ever experienced, so I could dive deeper into them. Semyon Kirov was the Community Manager back then, and I remember a video he made for the community thanking them for such a good year:
 

 
Gold Boxes were increased up to 3000 crystals, as well as another gold box worth 2014 crystals. The game was decorated once more with special flags, billboards, and boxes getting a new holiday themed look. I remember tons of golds, and ending up with around 90 000 crystals, which was a crazy amount for my rank. I remember bragging to my real life friends, who thought I was hacking.
 

      

The special gold boxes which fell during the 2014 New Year celebrations.

 

Starting from December 24th, new toys were added to the Garage each day, leading up to the 30th. Players had to buy them each day to get a special prize before the toy disappeared the next day. I remember buying every single one.

 

All the toys players had to buy to get a special prize. Cost: 100 crystals per toy.

 
There was a 50% slash on all items in the garage excluding product kits, which lasted until January 2nd. To end off the festivities, The GAME was introduced to Tanki Online.
 
The New Year map was what most people know today as the 'Aleksandrovsk' map. However, Tanki didn't base their New Year map off Aleksandrovsk, they based Aleksandrovsk off the New Year map. It was first introduced in a winter night mode, which a large Christmas tree in the centre, which is replaced in the Aleksandrovsk map buy a tower.
 
The map was showered with amazing feedback, so the developers brought back the map the next Near Year's celebration (along with another map), before eventually just sticking it into the game permanently as Aleksandrovsk.
 
There was of course a special holiday paint, which was a dark royal blue background with a bunch of snowflakes on it. The paint was later available for purchase for real money in a special holiday bundle and was renamed 'Snowflake'.
 

 
2015
The 2015 New Year's celebration started on December 24th, and being Hammer was only just added to the game a few weeks before, the Developers had to give a great discount on it. There were 50% off sales on all items in the garage. Here's what the calendar looked like.

  • Turrets sales  |  December 24
  • Hulls sales  |  December 25
  • Paints sale  |  December 26
  • Supplies and Passes sale  |  December 27
  • 50% off Micro-Upgrades and 80% off Speed-Ups  |  December 28
  • Double Battle Funds  |  December 29 - December 31
  • Gold Boxes valued at 2015 crystals dropping  |  January 1st - January 3rd
  • A New Year racing map  |  January 1st - January 3rd
  • A New Year Quest  |  January 1st - January 7th
 

The New Year Racing map.

 
The New Year Racing map was introduced to the game on December 31st, and stayed in the game until January 15th. Although it supported all game modes, it was meant for CP. Players were meant to spawn at the starting points and race to the one CP point at the top to capture it. The map was very large and had many obstacles along the way to the top.
 

The special gold box which fell during the 2015 New Year celebrations.

The 2015 New Year Holiday paint, which was later introduced to the garage as 'Sweater'.

 
But let's not forget the cool 'Frost' paint. 2015 was the year the 'Frost' paint was introduced to the game. But it wasn't just some 650 000 crystal paint. It was special. It was available for rent along with Railgun and Hornet XT (which was also available for rent at any modification). The XTs had better perimeters than their originals, and the Frost paint had 20% protection against all turrets, as well as mines.

2016
The New Year map for 2016 was a decorated version of the Yorkshire map, which was added to the game this past year with the introduction of the Matchmaking System. It also came with a new game mode, Assault, which has also since been added to the game as an official game mode. Special Daily Missions such as 'Earn experience points on the New Year map' and 'Catch New Year Gold Boxes'.
 

 
New Year 2016 was the first time 'Gifts' entered the game. There were four gifts which you were able to send your friends in the garage; a 'Christmas Tree', a 'Snowman', a 'Smoky+Wasp', and a 'Christmas Toy' gold box.
 

Gifts which were available in the Garage during the 2016 New Year's celebrations.

 
There was also a colourful gold box worth 2016 crystals.
 

 

And besides the standard holiday paint, which was a red background with white snowflakes, the classic premium account paint also got switched to a nice light blue paint.

 

The 'Holiday' paint and the 'Premium Account' paint during the 2016 New Year festivities.

 
2017
Last year's celebrations last from December 25th all the way until January 29th! The event was accompanied by the annual decorations. Flags, parachutes, boxes, and trees and pushes were all decorated for the holidays. Gold Boxes looked the same as they had the previous year, though. There were three Gifts released for the celebrations; a 'Candy Cane', a 'Snow Globe', and a 'Gingerbread Cookie'.
 

Gifts which were available in the Garage during the 2016 New Year's celebrations.

 

There were also three new paints available. Tankers had the opportunity to buy the Holiday paint to keep even after the event was over, which costed 150,000 crystals. Tankers also had the option to purchase to special Shop paints; 'Spangles' and 'Snowflake', which was a copy of 2014's holiday paint (as mentioned above).
 

The 'Holiday' paint during the 2017 New Year celebrations, as well as Spangles and Snowflake.

 

The was an improved version of the previous' year's map. There were now two Assault points (as appose to one), and three flags (as appose to one). The map was also much larger than the original, and hence had room for more spawn zones, drop zones, and more dynamic routes. The additions of two new reg flags proves successful, and now not everyone was crowding around one flag. The map was available to play on in DM, TDM, and ASL.

A view of the improved New Year map of 2017.

 

 

Expectations For This Year

 
Now that we've went through a brief history of every New Year celebration in Tanki Online, and using our own intuition, let's speculate over what will happen this year!
 
Themed Decorations and Special Map

Well, there's obviously going to be themed decorations. I'm assuming the Developers will just reuse the old decorated bushes and trees. Billboards will definitely have the banner on them, and I don't know if there'll be a new design different from previous years, but boxes will also definitely get a makeover.
 
I'm hoping for a new original map, seeing there's no point in having the old one from the past two years, seeing we have Yorkshire now. We probably will get some sort of new map, and I hope it isn't based on another existing map. There'll most probably be some benefit of playing on the map during the celebrations, like higher funds or gold boxes, but that's a discussion for later.
 
For some reason, in the last celebration with a special map, which was Halloween, the Developers didn't let players create their own game on the map. I hope they reconsider that this time around and allow us to create New Year maps.

 
Discounts and Sales

Seeing this is the biggest event f the year, discounts are undoubtedly going to be, but the question is, how big of a discount are we getting? I'm expecting a 50% off discount on all Garage items (except for Product Kits) including Micro Upgrades, and probably the classic 70% off discount on Speed-Ups, as well as a big discount going on in the Shop.
 
Discounts will probably be spread throughout the days of the event; turrets on one day, hulls on another, and so on.

 

Gold Boxes

2018. Gold boxes worth 2018 crystals are a guarantee. They might not be around for the duration of the entire event, but they probably will rain in the New Year map on New Year's day and maybe a few days after that.
 
Besides for that, the regular gold boxes as well as the special ones will undoubtedly be decorated just like the rest of the boxes which will fall throughout the festivities.

Special Offer

Like with every other big event, there will most probably be a version of the Holiday paint available for purchase in the Garage, for what I assume will be 120 000 crystals. Besides that, there will probably be some special bundle in the shop, where you can get a cool paint (which'll probably be animated this time around).
 

Other Exclusive Features

• Special Daily Mission are going to be a thing for sure. Harder missions like 'Earn 3000 experience points on the New Year map' with bigger prizes such as Gold Boxes (or crystals for the lower ranks).
• Containers have recently become an essential part of celebrations, so I'm expecting there to be Containers up for grabs as well.
• Another addition to The GAME will for sure roll out, so sharpen your mind if you plan to participate.

 

 

Players' Opinions

 

Now that I'm done rambling, let's here the thoughts of some of the community's well known players!
 
Question 1
Based on past years experiences, what do you think this year's New Year's celebration will be like?
 
Question 2
Was there anything you had in previous years that you particularly liked, and would like to see in this year's celebrations?
 
@Magenta
 
Question 1
What will this new year be like? Well, you see, it all depends on the paint, the map and the Gold skin. If those are good (last year was awesomous-o-saurus), there will be a festive environment. The chat will be full of 'Happy new year!' and gifts will fly. But if the map is not good, if the paint is ugly, the gold skin is re-used - stuff which we can proudly rely on Alternativa to do - the chat will be full of 'Tanki P2W :'(. If the map is eye-dazzling and so is the paint and the Gold skin, there will be rank up parties and Gold rains, most of which will go to YouTube, and that's business for Tanki and a happy time for Tankers. What I'm saying is, I expect ugly stuff, but I hope for good stuff. It all depends on Hazel now.
 
Question 2
Hmm, I would like to see this counter go soaring again, like it used to in the glory days. Without enough people to celebrate with, no celebration suffices. Answering as you expect me to, well, it will be good to see the containers dropping again, but admin pls remuv 125 speed pls kthnx kys we peeps with 125kbps internet don't wanna lag on potato computers (no offense, leader potato) and catch Gold with difficulty only to get 125 speed no pls thnx kys. 'Tis my death which, please, remove the x125 speeds from the containers.
 
NOTE BY REPORTER: .-.
 
@Marc
 
Question 1
Well, if I'm being honest and blunt, I'm expecting a really cool New Year's Map with pretty stale gameplay; that's how it's been most of the time. The sales are usually awesome, increased Gold Boxes (usually equivalent to the approaching year) and some new props/festive decorations. I'd love to see heightened funds and Gold Box drops over the course of a few days (hopefully even a few weeks :x).
 
Question 2
I've liked the fact that there's usually a custom Map for the celebrations, I'd like that but since they've really pushed the case for Yorkshire, a watered down version of the old New Year's Map, I'm not really expecting a new one, simply remaining hopeful. I'm also really hyped for THE GAME, that's pretty much the best thing about the festivities in my opinion. :D
 
@Penguin40
 
Question 1
I don't really know to be honest. Pretty easy to expect containers or more Gold Boxes, decorations (obviously), special missions and a New Year map. Also special contests! And a special Newspaper! (Wait isn't that what I'm talking for?)
 
And since Assault's in permanently, there could be a brand new mode. It would be nice to have some new stuff we haven't seen before, but I doubt that. 
 
Question 2
Anyone remember 2014's XT Hornet, Railgun and Frost paint renting? Or the racetrack map in the same year? I really miss that map. If only they'd do something similar to that, 'cause that was one fun map. Maybe they'd make a similar one? Heh, one can dream.

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That concludes this piece. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Tell me what you think in the comments down bellow. While you're at it, also tell us what your plans are for this New Year.
 

 

[Russty 4]

Well, that was interesting to know and to everyone

 

Happy new year!!  :D  :D  :) 

 

​Nice report btw  :ph34r: