New Missions, Drones Update

[The_Pakistani 16,768]

Played 3 RGB battles, didn't scored a goal. Wasted 1k again n got score 1500 in ASL? We are reboots? Shame on you... Shame

and on my alt wow.. You want me to play whole day? Shame shame 1500 score in CP &  3 battles in ASL Shame Shame

SHAME

Edited December 2, 2018 by The_Pakistani

[x_Sorinel_x 52]

Another day, another stupid missions... Got earn 200 crystals in CTF, finish 3 TDM battles and score 1500 points in Rugby (really ?).

I used the free change on the hard mission; and guess what. I got score 3 goals for 3150 crystals. Who is making this stupid missions ? I change a Rugby mission to get another Rugby mission ?

Done today just the easy one, crystals in CTF. Not going for finish 3 TDM (just 7 battery reward). No drone, so don't need battery...

[Viking4s 10,791]

I have found my rhythm with the weekly mission. Play as usual during week days (one to 2 daily missions) and do 3 daily missions everyday of the weekend (6-9 missions). Do the 20 weekly missions in two weeks, no need to force this one.

[ByeByeBye 1,747]

BLUF: It is much easier to get first on the losing team than third on the winning team.

 

I mostly play my Marshal account now, Ricosck.

 

M4 Rico-Dic, with 3 good protections and Trooper drone equipped, GS 9007 as configured. Highest GS in the match. (I checked.)

 

Mission for TDM. Battle started out lopsided with multiple Red moving immediately, and only 4 Blue showing on my side, with only me moving. I was 0-4 before our team got going. By the time I was 5-5, our team was down about 20 to 12. It didn't get better. Blue lost at about 7:30, score of 100 to 64.

 

Ricosck had 14 of those kills and lead blue team. Second place had 12, and the five other players listed on the end-panel had 35 kills. So, only three kills unaccounted for. It would seem our players held strong and finished. I assume we only lost the one player. I suspect we had only seven players for much of the time. Hard to tell, even harder to prove while trying to play.

 

Obviously, MM doesn't work. The match was totally lopsided from the first seconds.

 

There were 8 Legends on Red (ranged from level 2 to level 36). The top four each equipped 50% protection against Ricochet. It obviously mattered to them. I led Blue as Marshal, we had four Legends, another Marshal, and a Generalissimo.

 

I looked up our second place finisher, a Legend 5 BP, and our third place was a Viking-Firebird Legend 4, who managed a rather astonishing 0.4 K/D for a third-place finisher (9 kills to 21 deaths). I trust he wasn't an intentional mult. I suspect he didn't have Vulcan protection. (Red had two, and an Isida each.) Our 6th & 7th finishers had 0.4 K/D also. We were woefully outgunned.

 

In looking at details of this particular battle and the profiles of the players, I can see no pattern. I see nothing that would provide a suggestion as to how to actually balance MM battles. Since Ricosck, as a Marshal, had the highest gear score, I again assert that GS is meaningless. It tells nothing useful in typical MM battles.

 

First place on Red was a Legend 36 with Vulcan-Dic, GS = 7955. He had double my kills and less than half my deaths. 9007 - 7955 = 1052. From this single example it would seem that having 1052 lower gear score makes you twice as good. Ricosck had 42% Vulcan protection equipped, BTW.

 

Second bottom line: Regarding match making balance potential, it seems hopeless. MM doesn't work. It cannot be fixed. It must be abandoned.

MM doesn't use GS...at least Tanki has said that they don't and I believe them.  I honestly think MM only uses rank and doesn't pay much attention to that even.  MM looks at the players trying to enter a game, probably grabs one rank initially, maybe even at random, and fills in with equal ranks as much as possible then starts choosing ranks on each side of the original player rank...or even fill in from ranks below the original players rank (I actually doubt this, but it would explain why it seems like I'm always one of the lowest ranked players :) ).  I really don't think there is any real matching in MatchMaking...it's just squirt players from a queue into a battle, done.  

 

As far a luck in Tanki goes, that is mostly all there is now.  70% luck, 20% equipment, 10% skill...maybe even less in skill.  Little kids like the luck aspect and get their parents to fork over cash to buy flash equipment.  Neo-Tanki is a completely different game than the Tanki I was crazy about.  Everything changes.

 

The thing is all this awfulness (and I'm including the future magic hulls update) seems to be working somehow.  Since Halloween Tanki's player numbers have been almost back where they were just after MM was implemented...around 28,000 at peak play time.  It was off a tad today, but overall and consistently they have picked up about 30% more players somehow.  Maybe it is the mobile thing, but that seems a bit unlikely.   Players are coming back, or at least more are online more often.  Maybe the evil mission system plan is working and that is what is bumping up Tanki's player count.

 

Personally, I had an alt account and was playing that until it got to rank 10 where the missions get terrible so I stopped playing it.  I just made a new acct and plan to play that until it gets to rank 10, then abandon it too for another new acct.  I don't enjoy the higher ranks at all.  The game-play is awful and the horrible missions create too much pressure.  At low ranks, the missions are do-able, there are no drones, there is less drug usage, and overall you live longer than a couple of nano seconds after spawning in.  The only disadvantage is many players have fully MUed M1 equipment while I'm still using M0 stuff, but with some skill and cunning it is still way more fun and less frustrating than trying to use ByeByeBye against fully MUed M3 equipment, drones, alterations, and choke drugs.

[OKDad70 862]

MM doesn't use GS...

 

Yes, agreed, to most everything you stated. I emphasized GS because people keep calling for using it. GS is meaningless in comparing tank-configurations. (I've written pages pointing out the whys of it all.)

 

MM cannot make balanced matches. It is just luck. There are a few (between 5 and 10) quantitative parameters Tanki could automate into a Google-like algorithm that could better build teams for MM, but while I'm confident one could quantify the improvement, I don't believe it would be significant. There are still a few subjective assessments that would have to go into balancing teams. Kids on a playground do it. They know what they have; they know what the other team has, and they judge each pick accordingly. As long as there is no single dominant player, even little kids can pick fair teams. It comes down to subjective judgement, and that is not possible in an automated match-making system.

 

I say again, we must abandon the match making system, at least for the most part, at least as a requirement.

 

From the old days, before MM, the primary drive for MM was battle raiding. Some of that was already dealt with before MM. I suspect there is a better way than MM. (The early system was susceptible to all sorts of abuses. That was mostly fixed before MM. I see no real impediment for abandoning it.)

[ByeByeBye 1,747]

Yes, agreed, to most everything you stated. I emphasized GS because people keep calling for using it. GS is meaningless in comparing tank-configurations. (I've written pages pointing out the whys of it all.)

 

MM cannot make balanced matches. It is just luck. There are a few (between 5 and 10) quantitative parameters Tanki could automate into a Google-like algorithm that could better build teams for MM, but while I'm confident one could quantify the improvement, I don't believe it would be significant. There are still a few subjective assessments that would have to go into balancing teams. Kids on a playground do it. They know what they have; they know what the other team has, and they judge each pick accordingly. As long as there is no single dominant player, even little kids can pick fair teams. It comes down to subjective judgement, and that is not possible in an automated match-making system.

 

I say again, we must abandon the match making system, at least for the most part, at least as a requirement.

 

From the old days, before MM, the primary drive for MM was battle raiding. Some of that was already dealt with before MM. I suspect there is a better way than MM. (The early system was susceptible to all sorts of abuses. That was mostly fixed before MM. I see no real impediment for abandoning it.)

It would be wonderful if they would abandon MM since it is 90% of what is wrong with Tanki today.  I do fear that the coming magic hulls might be another debacle almost as gross as MM.  Time will tell.

 

I really liked one of your lines and have made it my Tanki credo:  "Embrace the suck"  ....too funny...ROTFL  If they ever have hulls with lettering, this is going on mine :)

[wolverine848 13,097]

I think I'm going to open a new account and abandon two accounts.

and your username will be "KillTheNoobs" ? :ph34r:

[r_Issimo2 1,495]

and your username will be "KillTheNoobs" ? :ph34r:

There are more pros at beginner's ranks these days but the missions are a lot easier and Drones are not available yet.

[OKDad70 862]

There are more pros at beginner's ranks these days but the missions are a lot easier and Drones are not available yet.

The gripe I have with the low level accounts is how slow everything is. M3+ Wasp on nitro is too slow. M1 Wasp is hard to tolerate. I put up with Viking (and sometimes Titan) because at the slow speeds of the small hulls, they die too fast. My First Lieutenant DH.98 (Mosquito {Wasp-Rail}) used to be quite fun, even though it died a lot. Now, it just dies a lot. One-shots and double-kills are nice, but too infrequent to make up for how sluggish the hull is since The Great Leveling. Of course, playing mostly with heavier hulls, I lose the skills for Wasp. I've started a new account six times. Each time was a bit more tedious, given my experience with the higher ranks.

 

As I rank up and build up Ricosck, if I get too frustrated, I'll give up Tanki entirely. 

[Hancho 3,902]

Tired of missions like these:

 

 

 

These missions are too long and also boring. I remember back in good old days when we would receive free crystals + supplies just for logging into the account after each server restart. 

[wolverine848 13,097]

Tired of missions like these:

 

 

 

 

 

 

These missions are too long and also boring. I remember back in good old days when we would receive free crystals + supplies just for logging into the account after each server restart. 

Just finished the top-3 x15 mission.  What do I get as replacement?  Score 10,000.

 

So for a week that is ~ 1400 per day.  Even at 250/battle that's 6 battles per day.  Yessh.

Edited December 5, 2018 by wolverine848

[Shaftermath 185]

...

The thing is all this awfulness (and I'm including the future magic hulls update) seems to be working somehow.  Since Halloween Tanki's player numbers have been almost back where they were just after MM was implemented...around 28,000 at peak play time.  It was off a tad today, but overall and consistently they have picked up about 30% more players somehow.  Maybe it is the mobile thing, but that seems a bit unlikely.   Players are coming back, or at least more are online more often.  Maybe the evil mission system plan is working and that is what is bumping up Tanki's player count.

...

This isn't because there are more players, it's because each player has to spend longer playing in order to complete their missions. The overall effect is that there will be more players active at any one time.

 

That's all well and good for now, but the novelty will wear off, and players will eventually wonder why they're spending half their lives trying to complete a 15/15 Finish In The Top 3 Places Of A Battle mission in order to win a single container containing 125 speed boosts to add to the 12,388 speed boosts already in their garage.

[wolverine848 13,097]

This isn't because there are more players, it's because each player has to spend longer playing in order to complete their missions. The overall effect is that there will be more players active at any one time.

 

That's all well and good for now, but the novelty will wear off, and players will eventually wonder why they're spending half their lives trying to complete a 15/15 Finish In The Top 3 Places Of A Battle mission in order to win a single container containing 125 speed boosts to add to the 12,388 speed boosts already in their garage.

Yeah... next time one of my accounts gets that stupid finish top-3 x15 missions it's switching to Pro-battles.

[caiosilvac 567]

Finish top 3 on winning team mission must go, it's unfair to have missions that rely on luck.

[ByeByeBye 1,747]

This isn't because there are more players, it's because each player has to spend longer playing in order to complete their missions. The overall effect is that there will be more players active at any one time.

 

That's all well and good for now, but the novelty will wear off, and players will eventually wonder why they're spending half their lives trying to complete a 15/15 Finish In The Top 3 Places Of A Battle mission in order to win a single container containing 125 speed boosts to add to the 12,388 speed boosts already in their garage.

I guess Tanki is hoping that the grind will motivate players to send in real money instead of grinding free crystals.  Maybe they have a big enough player base to support this semi-extortion marketing strategy.  Time will tell I guess.

[N3tralRE 282]

I guess Tanki is hoping that the grind will motivate players to send in real money instead of grinding free crystals.  Maybe they have a big enough player base to support this semi-extortion marketing strategy.  Time will tell I guess.

Most likely Tanki's vacuuming some extra moolah from frustrated players before the next big update.

[DieselPlatinum 5,121]

 

I have found my rhythm with the weekly mission. Play as usual during week days (one to 2 daily missions) and do 3 daily missions everyday of the weekend (6-9 missions). Do the 20 weekly missions in two weeks, no need to force this one.

 

 

And how long ago did you figure this out?

 

I have been doing it since the birth of weekly missions.

[Viking4s 10,791]

 

 

 

And how long ago did you figure this out?

I have been doing it since the birth of weekly missions.

Well done, here is your well deserved star ★

[r_Issimo2 1,495]

Devs like to make complex schemes, like missions where some are easy and some are hard. Why not make a simple system with all missions at medium difficulty? You'd save time yourselves and players would not be frustrated.

 

All I did today was one mission per account where those missions were doable and acceptable, no ASL nor DM, the other accounts nothing. Then some PRO Battles.

Edited December 6, 2018 by r_Issimo2

[Tabish 100]

 

Tired of missions like these:

 

 

These missions are too long and also boring. I remember back in good old days when we would receive free crystals + supplies just for logging into the account after each server restart.

 

 

Isn't it easy for pros like u?

Edited December 6, 2018 by Tabish

[Hancho 3,902]

Isn't it easy for pros like u?

Well yeah, I can do 500 kills in 2 hours. I get around 25-35 kills each battle but these missions are boring. 

[r_Issimo2 1,495]

When you do 1 mission a day, the days you want to play, when you don't have ASL or DM missions, and not worry about the week, you get into this situation...

 

 

Which is okay, seriously. I actually like it. Now 1 account less to play in the following days.

Edited December 7, 2018 by r_Issimo2

[Hall_of_Famer 2,124]

In most of the battle at the end of battle my recharged OD is at 95-99%, just because of 8 minute duration. Adjust the recharge time of  OD with 8 minutes. Because mostly I get (use 50 ODs) weekly mission; and it hurts to end battles at 95-99% recharged OD.

[Viking4s 10,791]

In most of the battle at the end of battle my recharged OD is at 95-99%, just because of 8 minute duration. Adjust the recharge time of  OD with 8 minutes. Because mostly I get (use 50 ODs) weekly mission; and it hurts to end battles at 95-99% recharged OD.

Be bolder ask for more, "Make it one OD per minute please".

[Hall_of_Famer 2,124]

Be bolder ask for more, "Make it one OD per minute please".

What we can expect from TO staff :)