Tanki Online War: Complete Review

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

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A Look Back On WAR: From Start To Finish

 

The past month has indeed been exciting. An eagerly anticipated, brand-new, global event sparked excitement across every community. Yes, I'm talking about War! In this review, I'll be covering everything from the very first announcement of this event- all the way to the handsomely rewarded winners. So sit back and enjoy as we dissect the first ever Tanki Online War.

 

This review includes how EN prepared for the War (including what happened behind the scenes), turn-by-turn analysis of tactics, concerns, suggestions for the future and even exclusive interviews. As a result of how comprehensive I aimed the review to be, it turned out to be fairly long detailed. So get comfortable!

 

Before we start, some (yes, I'm talking about those Isida pacifists) have wondered why this War was even introduced in the first place. The Tanki big-shots have failed to answer this simple question, but an expert team of tankers have cracked it long ago. Read more about it here!

 

> Announcement <

 

31st Jan 2018- Tanki Online revealed an upcoming event that would be the first of its kind. This teaser certainly lived up to what it was. Just a teaser. The event promised that the winners would be rewarded with crystals, containers and rare paints, but as for how to win these prizes, we were left in the dark.

 

The concept was interesting in that the four communities (EN, RU, DE, and PL) would have to battle each other is some sort of way to win this virtual War.

 

Very much lacking information, more questions were created than answered and all we knew for certain was that “War was coming...”.

 

2nd Feb 2018- The first issue of the War Herald was released and I think it's fair to say...it was confusing. The concept of how to play was difficult to grasp initially despite the Helpers' best efforts in answering the multitude of questions that had started streaming in. 

 

I won't go into full details as to what each issue included as you can check it out yourself and this is a review, but the issue was an overview of how the War would work with details on the Strategy Phase specifically.

 

The details were fairly vague which brought many queries most of which were left unanswered as it hadn't been covered yet. RU was already cast as the favourite to win due to the larger team size and the greater number of “pros”. Boy, were they wrong.

 

9th Feb 2018- Issue 2 of the War Herald was released. The issue covered a recap of the Strategy Phase and more details were disclosed regarding the Battle Phase.

 

The release of this issue finally brought some understanding of how the War would play out. It was clear the Developers had worked hard in trying to balance out the factions as much as possible by making sure that team size did not influence the outcome when two factions went head to head- yet many went on to disagree (which I will address later).

 

The key to winning the War was collecting Survey Data and Rocket Fuel...

 

13th Feb 2018- The big question was finally answered in the 3rd Issue of the War Herald. What are the prizes? Here is a quick recap of what the issue stated:

- Each turn completed by a player will be rewarded with 3 containers.

- Capture of one-time bonuses will earn the players participating in that turn 10 or 20 containers.

- Players of the winning faction will earn 3 additional containers for every turn they took part.

- All players of the winning faction who took part in 5 or more factions will win an animated paint and enter a giveaway tow win a Dream Tank.

 

It goes without saying, but the War Spoils were decent and definitely worth the kills needed to be made- even if your faction doesn't win. There was pretty hefty rewards, and everyone knew it. I don't think many complained that the “developers are stingy” or that the rewards should be increased, so from the prizes angle- "dem devs have dun well". Players who took part in 5 or 6 turns of the winning faction had the potential to win more than 50 containers. This is by no means a petty prize, even if it meant you had to grind out those 200 kills.

 

14th Feb 2018- Finally on Valentine's Day, the fourth and final War Herald was released and it revealed the all important dates in order for mults like me to plan which turns they would participate in.

 

19.02.18 – Faction Paints become available in Garage.

22.02.18 – Launch of the special site.

22.02.18 – War Begins (Strategy Phase, Turn 1)

 

14th Feb 2018- War ROOM Opens

 

The War Room - a special section in the forum for players to discuss voting tactics and strategy. Clearly, a useful tool and one that would prove vital for the faction that wants to become victorious in this war. I will discuss more on how EN used the War Room to support its campaign later in the review.

 

 

> Concerns <

 

Inevitably, the arrival of the War brought along a few concerns BEFORE the War even started which I will briefly outline.

 

The primary issue raised by the players was how much of an issue “multing” would be. Just to explain to those who still live in the stone age, "multing" is a term used to describe a player who is essentially making their team lose- in this case on purpose. Would rival factions be able to use alts to sabotage another faction? Initially, I assumed that the 200 kills barrier in the Strategy Phase would ensure that multing would be at a minimum. Who would spend time making 200 kills just to destroy their K/D the next day for the small chance that their own faction might win? Apparently quite a few people. Common sense dictates that time would be better spent making 200 kills for our own faction and delivering a good K/D. Unfortunately, some players in Tanki lack common sense still resorted to sabotage. 

 

@You.Have.to.die kindly showing us "multing" behaviour...

 

There were some rumours floating around that the developers had “anti-multing” measures in place. Supposedly, if someone made 200 kills for a faction with a solid K/D in the Strategy Phase (as would be required to even reach 200 kills in the first place), then if their K/D in the Battle Phase turned incredibly low, it would be discarded by the developers. While I struggled to find any evidence that backed up this “anti-multing” system, it must be noted that the developers have never revealed the measures they have in place against hacking, so it makes sense that they may not disclose the measures they have in place against this type of sabotage.

 

For whatever reason people were concerned about how the War would be fair with the greatest number of “pros” in the RU faction. This led to many stating that they will buy the RU paint because “RU always win”. Well we know how that worked out. It should have been noted from the start that this War included the entire faction which meant that everyone (pros and noobs less-skilled players alike) would have played. Since RU was the biggest faction, this also meant that they had the greatest number of these lower-skilled players. As a result, since a region being attacked by 2 or more factions was decided by K/D, it did not matter how large the faction was. What mattered was the faction average. As the War went on, however, new concerns started to emerge about how RU were the most disadvantaged faction. There is no winning with RU. I'll touch on their reasoning behind this later.

 

Finally, there were still some significant questions which had not been answered by the developers during the announcement and was not mentioned in any of the War Heralds. To start with, it was not clear how many kills would have made a player's K/D valid in the “Destruction” scenario of the Battle Phase. Would not doing anything in the Battle Phase still qualify you for the rewards? Or was there a kill quota in place? Of course, the answers to these questions were worked out by the players themselves when the War started, but it would have been nice to know in advance and something which I think was overlooked in the War Heralds.

 

Some minor worries were also expressed on how this War would ruin game play. Players would be more focused on killing and maintaining a high K/D rather than focus on winning the game. Essentially, the worry was that team gameplay would be ruined. However, it is important to remember that this type of event does not last forever. Whatever impact the War had, it will simply not be an issue once the event finished. Moreover, standard non-pro battles are usually one-sided regardless (due to unbalanced teams). If a player was interested in intense gameplay, then PRO battles are still available to them.

 

Taking this opportunity to show off my pro camping skills :ph34r: ...

 

Overall, I think the announcement of this event was handled well. The opinion of some was that the build-up had dragged out, but personally, I think this was the best choice. It was clear that many players were confused as to how the War would work and what you needed to do to win. Keeping that in mind, would it really have been wise to just release just one announcement outlining everything about the War? 

 

The fact that the details of the War were spread out over 4 issues of the War Herald, accompanied with information in V-LOGs, meant that the players were able to get their head around how to play. Of course, there were still some players who didn't have a clue how the War worked even when it was all over but noobs will be noobs.

 

 

> Preparation <

 

Each community had a few days to prepare before the war kicked off. The community that utilised this portion of time in the most efficient way would already start the War with an advantage. I will be looking at mainly what sort of an approach EN took in preparation for the War and how it descended into a dictatorship. Just kidding of course. Lots of love EWC. <3

 

The EN War Room became busy with activity. A lot of the threads towards the start were perhaps... not so useful, and better for entertainment purposes. Despite the name, the thread “Creative Room (a.k.a. Propaganda Cell)” shared some vital intel on why you should join EN, the most accurate of which I've put below. Please note this is absolutely NOT propaganda!

 

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@Viking4s was the first to get down to business and started a thread, called “The Strategy Map Room”, in order for fellow EN tankers to discuss tactics. It didn't take long for people to start suggesting strategies. 

 

@LittleWillie constructed a detailed guide based on the sample map to display how the perfect War would be played out (“Example War Demo: Complete Start to Finish”). Unfortunately, things didn't work out quite like that. While the demo was superb to demonstrate how the War would actually work, the guide was based on several assumptions which made it unlikely (and did make it unlikely) to be accurate for the actual War. First and foremost, the sample battle map (obtained from the V-LOG) was not used in the real War. Ignoring this, the demo assumed every faction would prefer to avoid conflict with each other for as long as possible (and we know that this is far from how things worked out). 

 

An idea was proposed by whereby a sole or group of strategists should analyse the final map and give his/her verdict and the rest of the EN community should make the according votes. This was followed up by @TaffyTank who quickly identified that there needed to be a group of players who were able to relay the correct votes based on the strategist's decision. Hence the creation of the thread “EN Volunteers Corner” in order to rally these Communication Volunteers. The 4 tankers (@Viking4s, @LittleWillie, and @TaffyTank) promoted themselves and formed the EN War Council. Or EWC for short.

 

 

> Paints < 

 

On February 19th, the paints were available in the garage. I have to say they were all very...standard. The paints were literally the flags slapped on a tank. To be fair though, they didn't look as bad as they could have.

 

 

For some reason every time I see the EN paint, I feel very patriotic. Many did point out that not all EN players were from the United Kingdom, but since it is THE English-speaking country in Europe, this flag was chosen. This paint stands out the most out of all the faction paints but you need to equip a medium/heavy hull to get the full effect.

 

 

The RU paint didn't look as bad as I expected to be honest and since the colours actually go together, it was visually satisfying...but that's pretty much all. Probably since so many players wore it, the paint wasn't really eye-catching for me.

 

 

The DE paint looks fairly nice. The colours aren't bad and it works well on any hull. Not much else I can say really. So yeah...

 

 

In my opinion (different people interpret things differently), the PL paint on a tank simply makes it look like a candy cane. I'm not dissing the Polish flag in any way (many people including myself are passionate about candy canes) but I think a little bit more thought could have been put behind this and the other faction paints to make it more than just some stripes. But for War purposes, it'll do.

 

 

> Battle <

 

So we've talked about everything...apart from the War itself. Let's get to it!

 

The battle map was released on the Strategy Phase of Turn 1. It seemed a little unfavoured for EN, to say the least. It was clear all the other factions had a better supply of resources near their Capitol. Although, perhaps the fewer resources gave EN less of a choice on their route which could be considered better than having a vast range of options.

 

Each faction had easy access to a big bonus region (i.e. 20 containers) as this was positioned well away from the other factions but also well away from any resources. A subtle trick by the developers to provide a dilemma within the communities. Should the faction head for the resources to win the war or go for the massive 20 container regions? Additionally, there were also small bonus regions for each faction to take. The positioning of these regions was a little more tricky as the 10 containers were essentially located between 2 factions. The route to each 10 container regions was favorable as they held resources along the way...all except EN. An example of how the EN faction seemed to be disadvantaged. This meant that EN could potentially have come away with the smallest loot out of all the factions if they didn't win the War.

 

Meanwhile, the positioning of the PL capitol on the Battle Map meant that they could get away with 40 bonus containers (i.e. 1x 20 and 2x 10) quite easily but doing so may risk winning the war.

 

Turn 1- 

As mentioned in the first Daily Herald, Turn 1 was hardly a surprise for any of the factions. Each faction decided to capture a region which held a resource. There was no conflict between any of the factions. Not that there should be of course.

 

EN- Captured Rift and Espanalade. Defended Capitol.

RU- Captured Silence and Massacre. Defended Capitol.

DE- Captured Lost Temple and Parma. Defended Capitol.

PL- Captured Wave and Short Bridge. Defended Capitol.

 

An early glitch on the War site which lasted for several hours prevented many from registering, and since it was unclear whether you needed to register before making the 200 kills, it left many frustrated and unable to vote. Thankfully, the developers ticked the turn as complete for anyone who tried to register into the site. 

 

Overlooking this, the first turn went without a hitch for EN, with the votes confirmed as the ones the EN War Council advised. There was a moment of panic for many tankers when the EN kill quota in the Battle Phase seemed to take forever to complete. RU and PL had stormed to completion while EN and DE lagged behind. 

 

At this point, RU players had gotten extremely cocky making it their duty that night to remind EN every 5 minutes that they will never the war and how even PL are better than us. It's fair to say that karma is a...well.

 

 

Turn 2-

The first bit of conflict. Once again all factions headed for resources in this turn again. However, this time it looked as if the unclaimed territories of Sandbox and Brest would need to be fought for. Initially, it seemed that EN and DE would have to fight each other for Sandbox while RU and PL battle it out for Brest. 

 

PL made a risky move going for Brest rather than Camp which held a resource and provided them a route to the one-time bonus region of 10 containers. It paid off however as PL maintained a higher K/D than RU, successfully capturing Brest while wasting RU's attack. EN had a consistently high K/D which pretty much never dropped below 1.10 but PL wasn't far behind also sporting a K/D above 1. It seemed RU had a challenge on their hands...but they responded. In the evening, RU boosted their K/D to bridge the gap to a mere 0.03. Just when things were looking up, their K/D plummeted again and they eventually failed to capture Brest. RU had essentially been taken down a turn from winning the war and became 1 step behind every other faction.

 

DE chose wisely considering how much higher the EN K/D was and voted for Skylark. This provided them a route to Ping-pong which held the one-time bonus of 10 containers. Meanwhile, EN had taken Sandbox unchallenged. Another success for the EWC.

 

EN- Captured Sandbox and Iran. Defended Capitol.

RU- Captured Barda. Defended Capitol.

DE- Captured Duality and Skylark. Defended Capitol.

PL- Captured Brest and Tribute. Defended Capitol.

 

 

Turn 3-

PL had tasted RU blood and they wanted more. Apparently, PL had decided to forge a path straight into the RU capitol. They launched an attack on Massacre which was being defended by RU simultaneously. Another K/D battle played out. While PL had a ratio consistently above RU for the most part of the day, it was RU who had the last laugh this time, successfully defending Massacre by the skin of their teeth. RU had a final K/D of 0.95 as opposed to 0.94 of PL.

 

RU's attacks were diverted to taking the 20 containers in Gravity as well as bordering the missile by taking Industrial Zone. Meanwhile, PL decided to go for Hill and border the missile too. DE continued to avoid conflict and attacked Serpuhov and Ping-pong in order to make a move towards a second 10 container region.

 

For EN things started to get a little...interesting. The EWC made the surprise announcement that all attacking votes should go to the missile province and Fort Knox. Many were outraged at such a move and claimed that the EWC had gone crazy with power. While correct It seemed that the War Council were trying to capture the 20 containers in Solikamsk early to remove the distraction later on. Additionally, even though EN did not have enough resources to launch the rocket just yet, capturing the missile province early did open up a lot of options.

 

Nevertheless, anarchy descended. Various players had decided to argue their own strategy and had taken it upon themselves to convince others to change their votes and capture more resources. Particularly DE resources. Even YouTubers had descended into scrutinising the EWC strategy proposing that we should tear the Germans apart instead. The EN community had gone mad with the knowledge of their K/D.

 

Regardless, the EN War Council prevailed and the votes went in favour of the regions they advised.

 

I would also like to add in the initial 2 turns, the votes could have been made randomly as they were all pretty logical votes requiring little common sense. However, Turn 3 was more of a surprise so the fact that the votes did indeed go as planned, proved that the EN War Council held the cards and had majority support of the EN community.

 

EN- Captured Nuclear Rocket and Fort Knox. Defended Sandbox.

RU- Captured Gravity and Industrial Zone. Defended Massacre.

DE- Captured Ping-Pong and Serpuhov. Defended Lost Temple.

PL- Captured Hill. Defended Brest.

 

 

Turn 4-

Events were approaching their climax. Currently, only PL and RU had been involved in scraps with each other, both claiming a victory apiece. But things were about to get even messier.

 

The EWC made the call for Solikamsk and Industrial Zone in an attempt to push RU away first from the missile while also taking the 20 containers in this turn. Not much of an uproar this time but the occasional voices who wanted to attack elsewhere could still be seen...heard...you get what I mean. Then for the first time, the votes went the other way and Hill was voted- a territory being defended by PL. It wasn't as problematic as it could have been since PL didn't attack Iran so we still had contact with the missile.
 

Meanwhile PL attacked Camp to make a move for their second 10 container region as well as Tribute to pick up another resource. DE attacked Deck-9 to finally claim their second 10 containers and Island. RU launched an attack on an empty Molotov but also Duality- which was being defended by DE.

 

EN once again dominated in K/D and took Hill from PL while RU were staging what seemed to be a comeback into the War by successfully taking Duality.

 

EN- Captured Solikamsk and Hill. Defended Nuclear Rocket.

RU- Captured Molotov and Duality. Defended Industrial Zone.

DE- Captured Deck-9 and Island.

PL- Captured Camp and Tribute.

 

 

Turn 5-
Things were heating up. With DE and PL no longer owning a region next to the nuclear rocket, it fell on RU to try and slow down EN who had victory clear in their sights.

 

EN attacked Duality and Industrial Zone- both of which were RU territories- in order to make sure they only faced 1 faction in the final turn of the War. RU knowing that they may not get another chance at challenging the missile, attacked the Nuclear Rocket to try and somehow stop EN. Unfortunately for all the factions, EN successfully captured Duality and Industrial Zone and simultaneously defended the Nuclear Rocket wiping RU out with their K/D.

 

As expected, PL claimed the 10 containers in Year 2042 and also attacked Hill which was undefended by EN, to try and border the missile once more so that they could attack the missile in the next turn. The last turn.

 

EN- Captured Duality and Industrial Zone. Defended Nuclear Rocket.

RU- Captured Island.

DE- Captured Sandbox. Defended Parma.

PL- Captured Year 2042 and Hill. Defended Short Bridge.

 

 

Turn 6- EN's Last Stand

 

EN had finally reached the final lap. Since DE and RU were not in a position to challenge the Nuclear Rocket, I will not comment on their activities though both factions did attack Duality and Industrial Zone respectively to try and border the missile again in case EN lost grip of the rocket. But the hopes of the other factions were on PL...

 

EN v PL. Victor or Doom? The final battle. Anticipated perhaps from the start when it became clear EN and PL had the highest K/D. EN would be trying to defend the rocket for one full turn in order to launch it and win while PL would be attacking it to try and prevent EN from winning.

 

 

The mission was simple. Maintain a high K/D. In an unexpected turn of event, EN had voted to attack Sandbox and Hill- both completely against what the EWC advised. This was a massive mistake. Essentially if the battle against PL to defend the Nuclear Rocket was won, then the war was over and EN would emerge winners. BUT, if EN did lose the K/D battle then a Plan B would be needed to have a platform to attack the Nuclear Rocket again. This is why the EWC instructed Combe and Magadan- both unclaimed but bordering the rocket. Hill was being defended by PL and therein lies our mistake. If we lost the battle for the missile, then simultaneously we will fail to capture Hill too. Moreover, Sandbox was completely irrelevant as no more resources are required.

 

It was a shaky start for EN with PL for the first time sporting a higher K/D by 0.01 straight after the server restart. Gradually, EN got going and raised their K/D while PL's plummetted. This eased some of the panic and EN sailed over the finish line with a respectable distance on PL.

 

EN trolling PL at the start with their K/D before racing away and leaving them in the dust...

 

 

EN is victorious...

 

> War Conclusion <

 

To summarise, it was pretty clear why EN won. Yes, to win the War you need the highest K/D and yes you need to be able to maintain this K/D throughout the War. But a team with a high K/D could also just be running around in circles claiming random territories.

 

You need voting tactics and communication.

 

EN without a doubt had the best communication out of all the factions and this is why by Turn 2, I and many others, were confident that EN would win. 90% of the credit should go to the EN War Council. Their threads, including “EN turn-by-turn Voting Instructions”, was updated daily and was essential in spreading the word on which regions to vote for. We had the right tactics and even with all the arguments and contrasting opinions, the community was able to pull through.

 

However, it needed to be better. Towards the end of the War, things started to fall apart and the voted regions were completely opposing what the EWC advised. This left a lot of “What ifs?” lingering in some players' minds. What if we had lost the missile against PL? Would we have been able to make a comeback having voted completely randomly? Would the community have fallen apart? None of this matters now of course but it is something to think about in the next War.

 

The other 3 factions could have played their tactics a lot better. Initially, RU seemed to be going for the win and so were not focusing on the 10 container regions- a very similar tactic to EN. The difference? Our K/D. Considering both PL and DE were moving towards RU, it meant they were too late in securing at least one 10 container region. PL and DE meanwhile made catastrophic mistakes. Well, I guess this pretty much sums the results....

 

 

It became clear quite quickly that the war would be won by EN as our K/D never seemed to drop. Both DE and PL should have made moves for the 20 container regions which were left untouched rather than only secure two 10 container provinces.

 

Looking back, considering we had the highest K/D consistently throughout the War (despite the last turn scare), it might have been possible to try and attack the 10 container region of Year 2042 rather than securing the missile province early. This is since PL made a very late move for it. Additionally, this may have also prolonged the War for a couple of more turns which meant that more containers could have been gained. We could have even stopped defending the nuclear missile every other turn to try and reach the maximum 100 containers. But this would have required an immense confidence in our K/D and without a doubt would have been insanely risky. Ultimately, the EWC promised EN players at least 45 containers should the players follow their votes, and they have fulfilled their promise.

 

EN wins the first Tanki Online War!

 

> Interview with EN War Council <

 

The EN War Council. 

 

The name alone sends shivers down my spine and makes He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named sound like a kitten. While others interview Helpers, I have decided to stray down the unbeaten path and reveal the dark secrets of the dictatorship that is the EWC...well kind of. 

 

Unfortunately, @Viking4s (Council Chair) was unable to take part in the interview for unknown reasons. Additionally, @TaffyTank (Volunteers Leader) was too busy due to "work". I don't know who they're kidding. It's pretty clear that they're both working out a plan to overthrow the rest of the EWC (@LittleWillie and ) and claim total domination.

 

Anyway, we can't have a comprehensive review without having some very very very short answers from our EN War Council (or what's left of them)- who by the way should be applauded for a job well done. 

 

I lied. It turns out it wasn't very very very short. I'm not pointing any fingers *cough*EWC*cough* but I've had to make a whole new topic for it. Again nobody's fault *cough*EWC*cough*.

 

Check out the interview here!

 

 

> Interview with Nives <

 

Upon winning the War, I managed to grab a few words from our dearest EN Community Manager- i.e. Da One and Only Knives with a silent K.

 

Me: Hello Nives! You must be incredibly pleased with the result of the War. How are you feeling?

KNives: Hi! Oh I was very happy with the results, because I know first-hand how much the English faction has put into winning the War.

 

Me: Did you take part in the War?

KNives: I voted and played for several turns, but in the middle of it was somewhere in the mountains  :ph34r:

 

Me: Not suspicious at all. Be honest. Did you think EN would win?

KNives: I had high hopes for our team, because early on we organized much better than other factions.

 

Me: Why do you think EN had such a glorious run in this War?

KNives: Glorious is a great compliment, but it was always a close call till the end, and I would attribute the win to RU and PL going at each other while we managed to avoid conflict with DE.

 

Me: Finally, very quickly, who do you think is going to win the next War?

KNives: If I was to take a guess, it's Team Poland. Holy smokes are they pumped to win it.

 

Me: No faith, huh? Thank you for answering my questions!

 

> Prizes <

 

Since EN won the War, all EN players who took part in 6 turns of the War won a whopping 56 containers! Players who took part in every turn in all the other factions still won 38 containers. Not bad hey?

 

On top of this, EN players who took part in 5 or 6 turns of the War won an animated paint. The paint had been anticipated for weeks by many players until it was finally released... and you can see the results for yourself.

 

 

I'm going to be brutally honest here. It is common knowledge that the developers have been working on the paint for weeks on end, so naturally the players' expectations were high. Clearly, this expectation has not been met in any shape or form. It is simply the War EN paint, but with the 'Flow' animation. The animation is barely visible, and I actually mistook it for the normal EN paint until I realised what they did. The reactions to this paint's release have not been good at all, so I hope the developers respond to this in the next War.

 

The final prize for the winning faction was entering the Dream Tank giveaway. The winner was finally announced on the same night Godmode_On made his/her return I ain't sexist bruh. Congratulations to the winner @getwr3ck3d. You beat 1570 others to it!

 

 

> Feedback and Improvements <

 

The paints should be removed from the garage when the War begins. This will reduce 'multing' significantly as players will no longer be able to buy a faction paint on their alt to sabotage another faction. To further reduce the impact that saboteurs have, there should also be an individual kill quota in place for the Battle Phase. To give an instance, even having a required 100 kills in the Battle Phase will make it EXTREMELY hard for someone to 'mult'. This is since having to make 100 kills will undoubtedly mean that a saboteur cannot deliver as poor of a K/D as he/she may have intended. For example, we have all seen screenshots of players wearing a faction paint and making 1 kill while dying 54 times (0.0185 K/D). But if they have to make 100 kills to contribute to the turn, the player would need to die 5400 times to maintain the same low K/D. Not so easy unless you're willing to invest 12 hours of your life just to deliver a poor K/D for the slight chance you lower the entire faction's K/D.

 

Many have requested that the kills for the Strategy Phase should be lowered to 100 or even 150 so that more players can participate. I disagree with this view. It takes less than 2 hours to complete the 200 kills if you can play efficiently. Considering the number of containers that the War offers, 200 kills in 24 hours is completely fair. Essentially a turn offers anywhere between 3-26 containers. Less than 2 hours of playing for that sort of bounty seems more than reasonable. Additionally, this kill barrier, again, significantly reduces 'mults' from other factions sabotaging another faction.

 

Obviously, it goes without saying, but all bugs and glitches associated with the War site need to be smoothed over BEFORE the next War starts. Updates to the site should have been made before this War began rather than during it. Many players missed out on a turn or two because their kills were not counted in the Strategy Phase. This without a doubt would have left anyone feeling cheated.

 

The War site should be updated more frequently (preferably as you play) to cease concerns over whether a player's vote was confirmed. Ideally, the War site should update as you make the kills and there should be a tracking feature on the site stating how many kills you have made or how many kills are left. Players should not have to wait an hour or two after the 200 kills to find out.

 

 

 

Some players reported completing the 200 kills close to the server restart but the site not having confirmed the vote and hence they missed out on a turn.

 

The War ended within 6 turns and there were not as many K/D battles between the factions as I was expecting. Many of the regions were unclaimed and each faction pretty much had an identical number of resources. To make the War more interesting, the number of resources required to launch the rocket should be increased. If instead of 10, maybe 20 of each Survey Data and Rocket Fuel needed to be collected, the War could last a few more turns. This would ensure that the factions would meet each more often and would make it more difficult to predict who would win. 20 resources would only extend the War for (approximately) an additional 3 turns. This would add a bit more action on the Battle Map without dragging the War out.

 

Percentage of kills or even the raw number of kills required in the Battle Phase should be shown so that players can track their faction's progress. Otherwise, we are pretty much killing blindly. This is not the most necessary improvement that needs to be made, however it would improve the players' War experience. Likewise the Battle Missions should be more specific to each faction (i.e. there shouldn't be a mission stating "Maintain a high K/D" if the faction is not in the Destruction Scenario).

 

Bonus containers captured from one-time bonus regions should be given out to players of the faction who have contributed to 5 turns of the War but may not have participated in that particular turn. I have seen instances where players were not able to take part in only one turn of the War but it also happened to be the turn when their faction took a big one-time bonus, thus missing out on 20 containers despite helping their faction in every other turn. It's difficult to imagine how they feel...

 

 

 

You may remember me stating at the beginning how players (let's be honest only RU players) were adamant on how RU seemed to be the most disadvantaged faction due to its greater team size. The reasoning behind this was that it is more likely that an RU player will kill another RU player than any other faction player thus canceling each other out. Therefore, some players have suggested making the team sizes more balanced. However, as V-LOG #164 correctly pointed out, killing a player of the same faction will INCREASE your team's overall K/D. If you don't follow me, open the spoiler below and I'll talk you through it.

Let's give an example. A player has 7 kills and 10 deaths (clearly not an EN player :P). This is a K/D of 0.70. Now let us imagine this player only has 1 teammate and so the team size is merely 2. This is to simplify matters. His teammate/friend has just joined the battle today and has currently contributed 0 kills and 0 deaths to the team K/D. Therefore the team K/D is currently 0.70 too (from the first player).

 

If this player kills his teammate of the same faction, then the team TOTAL will increase by 1 kill and 1 death. This is now 8 kills and 11 deaths.

 

And hey presto the team now has a K/D of 0.73. Magic!

 

So killing a teammate will actually increase your faction's K/D which is contrary to the popular belief that it “cancels out”!

 

It is likewise important to note that EN is a massive faction in comparison to the likes of PL and DE yet still have a significantly higher K/D. So the size of a faction is not really a significant issue.

 

#MathsGetRekt

 

Of course many will now argue that RU inevitably have more 'mults' in their team as approximately 52% of all participants in the War are indeed RU players. Thus, it has been predicted that EN will lose the next war when these 'mults' join the EN faction in the next War. In fact, this is a theory called “The Frontrunner effect” proposed by a player in the War Room. While the reasoning is logical, unfortunately, nothing can be done about it. These 'frontrunners' are players whose intention is not to sabotage a faction but join the winning team. As a result, Tanki cannot exactly stop these players from taking part just because they are less skilled than others. Every faction has 'mults'. In fact, due to the size of the RU team, it can even be suggested that the K/D of these 'mults' will have less of an impact than if they were in a smaller faction. Besides, if the suggestions to reduce sabotage (which I have outlined above) are put into place then this “Frontrunner effect” will no longer be an issue in the next War.

 

To summarise, the War, in my opinion, was a decent concept and for the most part, was executed fairly well. However, there is a vast range of improvements that MUST be made before the next War. In any case, this is the first event of its kind so issues are to be expected. It is addressing and fixing those issues that will move the event forward. But if these issues persist in the next War, then it will become a different story...

 

So congratulations EN players! You claimed the first victory. However, if you were in another faction, don't worry! The clock is ticking until the next War...

 

If you are dying to have your voice heard, then good news. You can! There's a topic the War Room dedicated to gathering feedback! Do you think the War went well? What are your predictions for the next one? Comment down below and let us all know!

 

Credits:

[1] Header created by @Merovingian

[2] GIF Created by @TaffyTank

[3] K/D graph created by @Viking4s

[4] GIF Created by @FelRigge63

Edited March 24, 2018 by Blackdrakon30

[Blackdrakon30 2,943]

- A few really minor sentence structure changes ("A hefty loot, and everyone knew it." -> "There was pretty hefty rewards, and everyone knew it." Sentence changes like this just to streamline things.). These just work to clean things up.

- Altered some verb tenses (Was vs were) to make sure they fit the sentences they are in.

- A few other assorted minor edits. (But far from everything, since I'm far from being a perfect editor.  :ph34r: )

 

Approved

 

Great article! It was really informative, and I feel like you definitely covered all the key points worth focusing on about this event. My main critique would be to work on formatting. The writing quality itself was very good (I just made edits to streamline the language quality; don't be worried. I do it with almost everyone), so I think that your area with the most room for improvement is visuals.

 

Having a visually pleasing article is of the utmost importance, and is what distinguishes a good article from an amazing one. Your organization is workable as is, but I recommend playing around with titles, font colors, fonts, and dividing lines more, to make it feel less like huge blocks of text. There's not much I can advise you on from here, since each person can have their own style for organization in an article, but just giving some thoughts since there's a whole world of options our there!  Here's a link to one of my favorite articles formatting-wise, written by Ninja and Viking4s. It might make a nice reference for some ideas. Of course, you don't have to change anything. Just my thoughts.

 

Ciao!

[Viking4s 10,791]

Nice review. Well done.

As BD30 highlighted, you will gain clarity and ease of read by using sub separation in your different chapter. For example in the > Concerns < chapter, you would have split into 1/ Sabotage, 2/ concern 2 3/ ... it looks simple and useless, but it is very easy to do and very effective, and it helps you to during the writing process.

 

Unfortunately, Viking4s (Council Chair) was unable to take part in the interview for unknown reasons.

Classified information :ph34r:
 
Also you didn't cover the huge work and patience from the forum helper team. As usual they have to cope with the different crisis (log on the site and other bugs...) on very short noticed and  answer a billions of silly questions that can be easily answered by just reading the freaking rules and information post (RTFM boys).
Without them the EWC would had spent and lost time on this rather than elaborating strategy and planning the next moves.

 

So thank you Coopero and Magh, magg40-oli the guy with the Islandic volcano name... Momo and the rest of the team  :D

Edited March 24, 2018 by Viking4s

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

 

 

- A few really minor sentence structure changes ("A hefty loot, and everyone knew it." -> "There was pretty hefty rewards, and everyone knew it." Sentence changes like this just to streamline things.). These just work to clean things up.

- Altered some verb tenses (Was vs were) to make sure they fit the sentences they are in.

- A few other assorted minor edits. (But far from everything, since I'm far from being a perfect editor.  :ph34r: )

 

Approved

 

Great article! It was really informative, and I feel like you definitely covered all the key points worth focusing on about this event. My main critique would be to work on formatting. The writing quality itself was very good (I just made edits to streamline the language quality; don't be worried. I do it with almost everyone), so I think that your area with the most room for improvement is visuals.

 

Having a visually pleasing article is of the utmost importance, and is what distinguishes a good article from an amazing one. Your organization is workable as is, but I recommend playing around with titles, font colors, fonts, and dividing lines more, to make it feel less like huge blocks of text. There's not much I can advise you on from here, since each person can have their own style for organization in an article, but just giving some thoughts since there's a whole world of options our there!  Here's a link to one of my favorite articles formatting-wise, written by Ninja and Viking4s. It might make a nice reference for some ideas. Of course, you don't have to change anything. Just my thoughts.

 

Ciao!

 

 

 

Nice review. Well done.

As BD30 highlighted, you will gain clarity and ease of read by using sub separation in your different chapter. For example in the > Concerns < chapter, you would have split into 1/ Sabotage, 2/ concern 2 3/ ... it looks simple and useless, but it is very easy to do and very effective, and it helps you to during the writing process.

 

Classified information :ph34r:

 

Also you didn't cover the huge work and patience from the forum helper team. As usual they have to cope with the different crisis (log on the site and other bugs...) on very short noticed and  answer a billions of silly questions that can be easily answered by just reading the freaking rules and information post (RTFM boys).

Without them the EWC would had spent and lost time on this rather than elaborating strategy and planning the next moves.

 

So thank you Coopero and Magh, magg40-oli the guy with the Islandic volcano name... Momo and the rest of the team  :D

 

 

Thanks for the feedback. I'll keep it in mind if I write something like this in the future.

 

The main worry I had from spacing out the article further was that the length of the piece would become never-ending. But looking at some of the other reviews, I don't think this should've been a concern. But I agree, there were other ways to structure some of sections here.

 

The Helpers were indeed a massive part in helping the community to understand the event, and I briefly mentioned it in the "Announcement" section, so massive shout-out to them!

[You.Have.to.die 519]

Nice review! Room for improvement in formatting. I can always give you some tips.

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Nice review! Room for improvement in formatting. I can always give you some tips.

Thanks I'll keep it in mind :D Edited March 26, 2018 by GrandExecutioner

[T.-029 0]

Good article! Good luck to the author in his work! :)

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Good article! Good luck to the author in his work! :)

Thank you for the kind words!

[arnav0506 2,777]

Wow man, well done. Since I did not participate in teh war, this really sums it up. Thanks!!

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Wow man, well done. Since I did not participate in teh war, this really sums it up. Thanks!!

:wub:  :wub:  :wub:

[nimna1234 203]

wow job well done on the article! answered a lot of the unanswered questions regarding the war  :D

[Ishrak 932]

> Preparation <

I will be looking at mainly what sort of an approach EN took in preparation for the War and how it descended into a dictatorship. Just kidding of course. Lots of love EWC. <3 

:ph34r:

An idea was proposed by whereby a sole or group of strategists should analyse the final map and give his/her verdict and the rest of the EN community should make the according votes.

And he also decided it would be best to gather those sort of people in a private group so that spying was somewhat lowered. :P (You can rephrase it the way you want or not include it, upto you)

 

 

> Interview with EN War Council <

I lied. It turns out it wasn't very very very short. I'm not pointing any fingers *cough*EWC*cough* but I've had to make a whole new topic for it. Again nobody's fault *cough*EWC*cough*.

Would've needed two topics for one interview if the rest of the EWC hoped in for the interview.  :ph34r: 

 

Very very well detailed, definitely a good read for any participants of the war that wants to sip a cup of tea (literally what I'm doing rn) while reading about a long recap of the whole event. :P

Edited March 29, 2018 by Ishrak

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

wow job well done on the article! answered a lot of the unanswered questions regarding the war  :D

 

Very very well detailed, definitely a good read for any participants of the war that wants to sip a cup of tea (literally what I'm doing rn) while reading about a long recap of the whole event. :P

Thank you!!!

[LittleWillie 3,199]

This was a very nice article written with just the right amount of tongue in the cheek.

[TaffyTank 1,890]

Excellent Article....enjoyed reading that, Well done!

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

This was a very nice article written with just the right amount of tongue in the cheek.

Excellent Article....enjoyed reading that, Well done!

<3

[Nine 693]

Omg can long u did so well

[arampage 58]

Excellent article , written in clear concise language even us noobs can understand together with some interesting solutions to hiccups that may have occurred.

 

Tbh I was one who didn't understand what was occurring but I guess hindsight gives 20/20 vision because your article certainly clears up the posturing of the sides involved. 

 

Great job!

[Hex 11,520]

Excellent article, very well done and really amazing quality. Enjoyed reading this for some research about something else.

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

Excellent article, very well done and really amazing quality. Enjoyed reading this for some research about something else.

Plagiarism Glad I helped.

[Viking4s 10,791]

So where is this huge Interview?

[GrandExecutioner 1,403]

So where is this huge Interview?

I'm not exactly sure what happened. I posted it after the review but it never got approved. Honestly clueless as to what happened with it.

Edited April 29, 2018 by GrandExecutioner

[thunderousrailgunner 1,934]

Thank you !! I understood it now completely.