Review Dissected: The Grand Livestream

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Hello tankers! Not long ago, the community manager of our locale, Cedric Debono, hosted live broadcasts along with his Russian counterpart Maksim and lead developer of Tanki Online, Hazel Rah. As the name suggests, these livestreams were quite long and consequently, had some major information in them.

 

We have condensed its details and compiled them down for everyone who missed the stream. Here you will find details about potential upcoming changes, explanations of previous changes, details of how the development process works, and much more. Let's get it on!

 

Contents:

(click to skip to each section)

• General
• HTML5
• Game Balance
• Matchmaking
• Mobile Version
• Economy
• Potential Features
• Planned Improvements
• Declined Requests
• New Features
• Miscellaneous

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General

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Before we get to the list of minor rapid-fire questions, let's cover the major issues discussed in this livestream. These are a number of questions regarding the long lasting topics of debate in Tanki Online. Developers' response for them was quite detailed and sometimes even surprising, so make sure to check out this important section. Without further ado:

 

 

Why is the number of online players still dropping?

 

There's no denying the fact that Tanki Online is getting less popular. It's rare for any video game to stay relevant for over 10 years (*cough* Minecraft *cough*), especially if the game was originally intended to be a software demo for a then-new Flash-based graphics engine that AlternativaPlatform developed. It's incredible that such a basic game managed to accumulate such a massive following, and the player retention has actually surpassed most original predictions that devs made. At the moment the numbers are reducing "at an expected rate", but devs are doing their best to release updates that help keep current players in the game.

 

However, the numbers are declining not because more people are leaving - that number has been more or less constant throughout the years - but because less new players are coming in to replace those, who leave. And the reason less new players are coming in is because of a certain change that was made in 2015 - the game stopped being advertised. Back then the Unity version of TO (now known as Tanki X) was seen as a modernised replacement for the outdated game, which didn't end up being the case for reasons you probably remember. But even though Tanki Online is still Alternativa's "flagship" project, they still don't advertise it, because the faulty progression system and unstable game engine made the game unattractive to new players. Because of how broken Flash is, most players couldn't even register for the first time. As you can imagine, if you're trying to check out a new game you just stumbled upon and you can't even open it, you won't stick around trying to solve the issue.

 

As a result, more money was being spent on marketing than the estimated return investment from new players spending money, therefore the ads were stopped. Developers are working on the HTML5 version of the game, which will hopefully be easier to get started with (less issues when logging in, better performance, etc.) and at that point advertisement can be considered again.

 

With that in mind, moving on to the follow-up question:

 

 

Will Tanki Online close soon?

 

Hazel Rah has been hearing this question ever since he joined the developers' team 6 years ago. Yes, all online projects come to an end sooner or later. But Tanki Online is already way into the "later" stage, meaning that it exceeded all expectations for how long it will survive, yet there are still tens of thousands of active players. As you can see, developers are still actively working on major updates and have a lot of plans for the future, so at the moment the end is nowhere near.

 

 

When will we get the GAME and another big WAR event?

 

The GAME is planned for August or September, and we didn't do it in June because there was already way too much other stuff to do for both - players participating in it and developers trying to organise it. As for the WAR, we plan to do it again and perhaps introduce some new mechanics too, so if the actual process of fighting over territories and devising strategy is something you enjoyed in the first two wars, then you'll enjoy the third one too. 

 

However, if you liked the first two wars only because of the insane amount of containers you got, then you'll be greatly disappointed by the next one, because the rewards will be much, MUCH lower. This is because there's only so many free containers we can give you without breaking the game economy. Before, a big chunk of this "container quota" was given in the two wars, but now they are regularly given in Challenges and the themed "mini-wars", so the amount of containers from a proper WAR will have to be reduced.

 

 

When will you start listening to players?

 

Developers do listen to players, but you have to be aware that collecting and considering player feedback is very different from actually doing exactly what players demand. The reason they can't just do what players ask is because if they did, the game would be a total mess. Moreover, everyone has different opinions, so it's impossible to please everyone regardless of what we do. You'll realise this yourself if you just go around and ask a few people what their version of "good old Tanki" is. 2015? 2012? 2009? Everyone has different opinions, and on top of that different people have different opinions about the same versions, since they were in a different position back then.

 

Another important factor is that developers have limited resources and a budget that constrains them. Even if everyone requests a cool feature that would genuinely improve the game and be great to have, a lot of the time it would be too expensive, too time consuming, or simply impossible to implement due to limitations of the game engine (especially when said engine is Flash). Let's also not forget that Tanki Online needs to remain profitable in order to support the company, so while 100% of players may be in favour of things that economically benefit them (more containers, cheaper kits, selling items, etc.), these things cannot be done to avoid negatively affecting the game. For this reason they really have to carefully select which changes they are able to implement, to have a balance between "quality of life" updates and features that help the economy.

 

 

Can you change the rank system so that bad players stay at low ranks?

 

Unfortunately, the ranks and progression system in this game were poorly designed from the start, and it's way too late to change the system now. As you can see, a better system was implemented in Tanki X, but nothing can be done about it in Tanki Online, but there are other ways to solve the rank balance issues in battles.

 

 

Will there ever be a way to play older versions of Tanki?

 

There won't be a way to just pick and choose which version you want to play on, but developers are actually considering adding a "Tanki Online Classic" kind of limited demo version of Tanki from 2010 that you'd be able to check out. This is similar to what Warcraft has done, to give you an idea of what to expect. If the Warcraft Classic concept proves to be popular in their community, Hazel says he will consider doing a similar thing for Tanki as well. But it does involve basically coding the whole game from scratch again, which requires massive amounts of time and resources, so for all intents and purposes assume it will never be done.

 

 

Why are you making so many paints instead of actual useful features?

 

Paints and game updates are made by different teams. To make a paint, a designer just needs to draw a texture and give it to the programmer, who then adds it to the game within 5-10 minutes. On the other hand, to make a change in-game (like a new supply, or even a small improvement in the interface), a programmer needs to make the code, test it, fix any bugs, test it again and only then release it. All of the programmers are already busy with important updates like HTML5, so they can't just ask the designers to start working on code instead. And that's why simple things like paints are released while major updates are in development.

 

 

Can you add crystal boxes to DM and Juggernaut?

 

Juggernaut - definitely not. As soon as currency starts dropping from the sky, people go and collect it while the Juggernaut lives forever. As for DM, it actually makes sense to add them there, but the problem is we can't just bring back a previous version. All that old code is no longer compatible, so the feature would have to be made from scratch again. It it really worth doing for a single game mode?

 

More importantly, don't think that if we add it you will suddenly be getting tons of extra crystals from DM. In order to balance the economy the battle funds would have to be reduced instead. So some of the crystals you now gain from fighting enemies would then go towards players, who run around collecting boxes all game.

 

 

Why do many turrets have a damage range instead of specific damage? What’s the logic behind making my Magnum sometimes one-shot heavy hulls, but sometimes not one-shot medium hulls?

 

This is a complex theory related to the predictability of a duel. It is done to ensure that gameplay is a bit random and chaotic in order to have some more variety. Studies have shown that without it, people get bored quicker and the game ends up losing players at a greater rate. If you are really interested to know how it works, watch “Randomness in Game Design” on YouTube - it's an interesting 30-minute video about this exact concept.

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HTML5

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As you probably heard of by now (and I'm sure you have, unless you've been living under a rock), developers are planning to convert Tanki Online from the outdated Flash engine to HTML5. This has been in the works for over a year now, and the reason why it's taking them so long is because they literally have to remake the whole game from scratch, which involves not only writing the code, but also testing it and making sure it's flawless.

 

There's also the additional pressure of having a previous version to compare to. People hate change, so if HTML5 is even a tiny bit worse, or the gameplay feels different, everyone will hate it regardless of how many bugs it will fix. Nonetheless, this enormous project is necessary due to Flash becoming harder and harder to use, which you can see happening right now with Google starting to cancel Flash support to discourage people from using it. HTML5 has additional benefits too, allowing a bunch of cool new features to potentially be added due to it being much more flexible and versatile than Flash. It will also be more optimised than Flash due to being designed similar to the Mobile version. So if TO Mobile already works decently on low end phones, then you can be sure that HTML5 will work even better on low-end PCs.

 

During the livestream, multiple players raised their concerns regarding certain bugs and issues in the game, to most of which developers' reply was "It will be fixed in HTML5". So here's a breakdown of the list of things they hope to add with this magical HTML5 upgrade:

• Release of New Maps
  Current maps are being tweaked, but work on developing whole new maps can only begin once HTML5 is released. Remember the map that was announced a while ago but never released? It caused a bunch of performance issues because of Flash, so the HTML5 upgrade might fix those and allow the map to be released.
• "Main" Missions Tab
  It will be functional once the new interface and HTML5 is released. These missions are mostly meant for new players who are getting to know the game, like a tutorial. It will also become an easier way to collect various rewards, like rank-up goodies and Premium Account time.
• Voice Chat
  It's unclear yet whether it will be done, but HTML5 definitely allows it to be implemented with relative ease. Any attempt to add voice chat in Flash would have been disastrous!
• Preset System for Favourite Combos
  Planned for HTML5 interface, and besides speeding up the equipment change process, it will improve other things too.
• New Anti-Cheat
  Current anti-cheat definitely needs updating, but there's no point doing it now. A brand new system with an improved architecture will be developed specifically for HTML5.
• New Downloadable Client
  The existing client could also use some updates, but once again there's no point doing it for Flash, so instead a whole new improved one will be made for HTML5. It might also open up new opportunities, like allowing you to login via Steam (although no plans for this yet).
• New Hull Sounds
  Sounds are already made and just waiting for HTML5, since the game engine deals with sound better.
• Improved PRO Battle Sorting
  Instead of the puny little game mode filter we have now, you'll be able to sort the battle list in a bunch of different ways, making the list convenient and easy to follow.

And a bunch more things hopefully getting fixed:

• Blaze paint's gear score value being wrong
• Critical errors
• Mouse control glitches
• Getting stuck on props (the issue is with physics, which will be redesigned)
• No damage bug
• Infinite loading bug
• Incorrect points in CP

These were just the issues mentioned in the livestream — the update as a whole will fix a LOT more bugs and glitches, even many which you never knew existed.

 

Keep in mind that despite the game code being completely rewritten, devs are trying their best to keep the physics as close as possible to Flash, so you shouldn't feel any difference while playing.

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Game Balance

 

 

Ensuring game balance is not an easy thing. It requires out-of-the-box thinking as well as great game sense and knowledge to know what exactly you need to change to make the game more balanced. In this regard, we have two examples. Firstly, Shaft is not able to move while aiming, and secondly, Viking's Overdrive hinders normal shooting just after it ends. Both of these are intentional features that are placed to keep balance in check.

 

Some people asked the developers to shed light on how game balance is kept in check. Here’s how it works: the turrets are divided into four main range groups – long, medium, short and close range. Each of those groups decides the overall DPS of the turrets, so the DPS of turrets in the same group is almost the same, but it differs greatly between the groups. It differs because turrets with greater range can deal with enemies in a larger area and therefore get lower DPS to give lower range turrets a chance to beat them. But within each group the DPS also differs because each turret has its own specific abilities making it more effective under certain conditions. For example, if a turret has splash damage (like Thunder), its DPS will be greater than a turret like Smoky on maps where tanks often stay in groups and there are lots of obstacles. But if there aren’t many opportunities to use splash damage, the DPS will be lower. The effectiveness of each turret also depends on a bunch of factors, such as game mode, map, enemy player equipment and how well the player is able to use their turret’s abilities.

 

For example, it was thought that Gauss would be too powerful so its splash damage radius was initially quite low, but gameplay quickly showed that it’s not enough, so the radius was increased. Opposite was the case with Magnum – initially the developers made the splash radius massive because they thought there’s no way people will be able to aim accurately, but within a couple months a lot of people were landing shots right on target with incredible accuracy. There was an issue with Hammer too, which had to be nerfed because players were using it in a different way than expected. It’s practically impossible to accurately balance an item “once and for all” because of all the different factors affecting it, as well as a constantly changing environment of different people and other gameplay updates. This is why the developers continue to observe the balance situation and will make changes as necessary. Overall, Hazel’s opinion on balance is: “In general it’s fine, but I’d like to change a few things”.

 

Similarly, the developers were also asked to consider changing the Autocannon, Berserk and Sledgehammer alterations, to which they replied positively, specially in Thunder's case. Wasp's Overdrive is considered to be weak, and developers are considering changing it into a "throwable feature" just like the ball in Rugby. Players also complained about Titan's Overdrive. However, the developers insisted the use of Hunter's Overdrive to make the former one useless.

 

Mines are not that huge of a problem as they can be countered with Mammoth's Overdrive and mine protection, Spider. Last but not least, Vulcan's disadvantageous characteristics like the slow start-up and overheat are intended features put in to counter the absolutely insane DPS. If they weren't there, damage would automatically be reduced and the turret would become lame.

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Matchmaking System

 

 

Moving on from the balance topic, the whole Matchmaking feature closely ties into it. After having been implemented for over a year, the MM system has been responsible for balancing our teams in standard battles. Players seem to have been used to it by now, since not many questions touched upon Matchmaking. Nonetheless, here's some interesting points:

 

Regarding removal of bad maps, developers agree that there are indeed a couple of "bad maps" in the Matchmaking pool right now that can use some improvements. They will definitely be checked and improved but "bad maps" as a whole wont be removed from the pool. This will only be done as a last resort if there are simply too many maps in the pool.
 
Another issue raised was that the Matchmaking System algorithm sometimes puts tier two players against tier fours. Although this large of a rank bracket is not intended, it can happen depending upon some factors, like number of online players and time of the day. If there aren't many players, the rank bracket progressively widens, allowing for more ranks to come in. Otherwise the battle will take ages to start. The system does try to balance the players by equipment to make sure that both teams have equal numbers of strong and weak players, but this is not always possible. Also, it’s not a great idea to always have even battles. If every single battle is an even fight where both teams have to concentrate hard to win, then players will get tired faster, which ultimately results in them spending less time playing, which in turn means the game generates less revenue. The aim is to increase the playtime, and studies have shown that having a mix of even battles, easy wins and big losses is better psychologically than having completely even battles all the time. However, you’ll have plenty of difficult even battles once Rating MM is released.
 
Developers denied the following two requests regarding Matchmaking:

• Autofinish Timer — this is not necessary as the battles are already have very low score caps (thirty kills or five flags, etc.) meaning that an autofinish system wont exactly be that helpful.
• Other Battles — for example an Island 3v3 battle. No, Matchmaking battles are tailored to work well with just the current settings. Reducing the number of players would raise a bunch of balance issues, including group size. For example, a group of three versus a group of two in a 8v8 battle is practically the same, but group of three versus a group of two plus one random puts the latter group at a serious disadvantage. It also means that each individual player will have a greater impact on the game’s outcome, meaning that one person playing badly in a team game will be a much more serious problem in a 3v3 than in an 8v8.

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Mobile Version

 

 

Like Matchmaking, the Mobile Version wasn't discussed much despite being a fairly recent feature that's still facing frequent improvements. One of the biggest questions about it these days is when the iOS version will be released. Well, unfortunately, Tanki in iOS wont be happening this year. This is because the whole game needs to be written in another language suitable for iOS, which takes time. But in the meantime, things will improve in the Android version.

 
Before Tanki Online is released on iOS, battle chat and PRO Battles will most likely be released in the mobile version. Although the developers were hesitant on this one, they felt the need to do it after hundreds of requests. It may be weird to use a big chat on a small screen, but let's wait and see.
 
Correcting yourself from being side-flipped is a difficult procedure in the mobile version. In an upcoming update, this will be changed.

 

Three-finger controls is cool idea that wasn't able to be tested before. Developers are eager to experiment with various configurations and then release completely new or alternate control configurations in the future.
 
Normally, mobile games do not release keyboard support. However, developers consider Tanki Online as a special case and plan to release support for peripheral devices in the near feature, more specifically the keyboard.
 
People also requested that the red outline, that exists while aiming onto enemies in the mobile version, should also be added to the PC version. Developers declined, stating that it would make the game lose its dynamic feel and generally become too easy. The red outline is an intentional advantage given to mobile players in order to compensate other disadvantages.

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Economy

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Oh boy, the everlasting desire to bask in millions of crystals never leaves our brains. Such is human nature, which is why so many questions were in one way or another related to the economic situation in the game. The developers were quite brutally honest in their answers, which was fairly surprising given their understandable conservatism when it comes to being asked about the business aspect of Tanki Online. Let's break down what they said.

 

The first question was, of course, about the ability to sell items. Developers replied that they won’t add it and never planned to add it. Even if they do add something like that, the players won’t gain much. Let’s say you sell an M4 turret you don't want and buy an M3. Then you spend ages upgrading it again and then bam — it gets nerfed. You’ll be upset and as a result you only lost crystals. There's no benefit in it for players, while if there was — the game would quickly lose revenue.

 

Speaking of M3, players often ask why M3 equipment (as well as other modifications) is unlocked at such early ranks. The answer was pretty simple — there are too many ranks and not enough modifications, but they need to sell more stuff.

 

Another complaint was regarding the reduction of rewards in the June challenge. Devs' reply was that he challenge mechanics are still being balanced to fit the economy. The fact that the June challenge was during Tanki’s birthday doesn’t affect the rewards, and they are being adjusted based on other data.

 

While we're on the topic of challenges, it worth addressing a fairly common complaint about them: "they're too hard". yes, they are, because they are meant to be challenging. The requirements are intentionally made to benefit the more dedicated players, while casual gamers, who may only play a few battles every other day, should stick to completing daily missions and treat challenges as an opportunity to get a few additional small bonuses from the first few tiers. But if challenges were easy to complete, they wouldn't give brand new skins as reward.

 

At this point it's worth noting another complaint: why do stars depend on someone's place in the battle, rather than their actual effectiveness. The reason is simply to prevent too many stars from being earned in order to fit with the economic balance. There are no plans to change this system.

 

Moving on, another relevant point is regarding the reduction of "normal" containers in daily missions and their subsequent replacement with weekly containers. The explanation was that these containers were moved into challenges, while the weekly containers are better, since they provide a more reliable and consistent flow of rewards.

 

Now, some of you may remember the events where one could log in to Facebook to receive a reward. Well, the reason that feature was removed is because it served its purpose. The aim was to encourage players to use a different way to enter the game. The result? People logged in to get their reward, then left to go play using the method they always used. Therefore the event was pointless and it didn't bring any benefit to developers.

 

Whew, with the complex stuff out of the way, let's end with some quick questions:

• Why does the supplies kit not include batteries?
  Because adding them would result in its price being increased.
• Will there be another rebalance?
  Not the kind where you get all your equipment sold back and crystals returned - that will never happen again. But there are a couple major gameplay updates planned!
• Will supply prices be reduced for lower ranks?
  No.
• Why is there just one kit available at my rank?
  Because players are encouraged to buy from the Shop using real money.
• Will you be able to buy containers with crystals?
  No point — such containers would have terrible rewards in order to balance the economy, so no one would want to buy them.
• Will there be compensation for challenge rewards already owned?
  Not planned at the moment, but it may change.

And now the big one:

• When will Pay-to-Win be removed?
  The answer? Never. Pay-to-win has been a core part of this game from the moment the first supply and modification upgrade was added by the original developers. Whether or not it was the right decision and whether Tanki would be more successful if revenue was generated by other means is unknown. But what is certain is that the only way to remove Pay-to-Win is to create a separate game without it.

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Potential Features

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A lot of the questions on the livestream were requests to make changes and add new stuff. Kasim and Hazel went through those, explaining what is possible, what is planned, and what is completely absurd and total bonkers. The next three sections of this article will summarise those three categories, starting with a list of potential future updates below and developers' explanation for them.

 

Now, it's important to note that in this list are just a bunch of things that the developers find to be interesting and hope to eventually add to the game. Some have a lot of potential, some are a bit far-fetched. But for most of these features there are no official plans to add them, while for some the devs don't even know if they're possible. Either way, it's fun to imagine what the game may be like in the future.

 

• New Languages
  There are no plans to add whole new communities (with their own forum, CM, helpers, etc.), but translating the game interface into more languages is definitely being considered, especially with the new interface getting released. And it's obviously much easier than creating new communities.
• Better Graphics
  Improvement in the game's graphics is always a good thing, but there are no plans for it yet. However, once the new interface is released, the current graphics will look like ancient relics and the need to improve will become quite apparent.
• New Maps
  Besides small experiments like Archipelago, there won't be any completely new maps anytime soon, but there's potential to start making them again once HTML5 is done.
• New Map-making Tool
  Hazel says that this was needed ever since the first tool was made. For years he's been asking for a new one, but despite all promises of it being made, nothing has actually happened yet.
• Custom Player-made Maps
  Along with a new map-making tool, developers would love to add a way for players to share UGC (User-Generated Content) among each other. This would involve making maps in-game, publishing them and being able to play maps others have made, which is a feature a lot of other games have. But there are no plans for this at the moment.
• Team Kick
  Obviously it won't be added to MM, but it's possible for PRO battles, once PRO battles are worth focusing on again. Hazel wants to turn PRO battles into a neat tool for making custom events, where players make their own rules and the map creator has full control over the battle, including ability to kick people.
• Gift Shop
  Tanki used to have a gift shop, but it wasn't profitable and had to be shut down. There are no plans to bring it back, but they do want to start selling merchandise again, such as official Tanki artwork printed on T-shirts.
• New Content for Profiles and Ratings
  Won't happen until (or rather, if) ratings and profiles are integrated into the game itself.
• "Multiaccount" Feature
  This would be a nice addition where you log in once using a single password and have access to all your accounts. It would require security to be improved, but it's definitely becoming worth considering.
   

Additionally, the suggestions below were mentioned, but no details were given. Most of them are less important things which would be nice to have eventually, or they are impossible to implement right now, but will be considered again once more important updates are released.

• Improved dynamic lighting
• Inviting players directly into your MM battle while playing
• Space mode in MM
• Animated shot effects
• Clan wars
• Accessibility features
• Saved history of your previous battles
• Clan currency
• New turret that blocks damage
• Drone skins

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Planned Improvements 

 

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While the "potential features" are mostly just ambitious dreams which are unlikely to be implemented, a few requests mentioned in the stream actually received fairly certain affirmation from the devs. This is a list of all those things that Hazel Rah mentioned to be planned, although remember to take it with a grain of salt, since plans constantly change and there's no guarantee that the improvements mentioned here will actually happen anytime soon (or at all).

Features implemented as of 08/06/2020 are shown in Green

• More Alterations
  Hazel is pretty confident about this one and it makes sense, since the new Gauss turret is the only one without alterations at the moment. But it's not just Gauss that will be getting alterations - other turrets will get some too.
• Conversion of Supplies
  If you have too many mines and want to exchange them for Double Powers, then you may be able to do that in the somewhat near future!
• Mults in Juggernaut
  Some of you may be aware certain players learned to exploit Juggernaut mode to get an easy advantage using alternate accounts. This was particularly evident during the Tanki Fund event, where the winners managed to get upwards of 4000 crystals by abusing the game mode. The game mode will not be removed, but Hazel proposes to fix this and warns us that we will not like the solution. In fact, in another question he hinted that JGR will become a lot more similar to TDM.
• Garage Navigation
  One of the things that will be greatly improved once the new interface is released is garage navigation. No longer will you have to scroll through a line of 200 useless paints to get to the one you want - it will be made much more convenient!
• Custom Themes in the New Interface
  At first the new garage will only have a dark theme, but developers plan to eventually add custom themes which you'll be able to purchase and apply.
• More People for In-game Clans
  Hazel said that he won't directly add more capacity to clans, but it will be possible to invite more people as a result of another update.... somehow.
• Unique Rewards in Challenges
  Not much detail here, but Hazel said that they plan to add more unique rewards besides just the new paints and skins.
• New Game Mode
  All they said is it might come sooner than you expect.
• Flag Notifications
  Not so long ago we used to have notifications like "X has taken the flag" in the middle of the screen. While they don't plan to bring back that exact system, if you check one of the recent V-logs that mentions the new interface, then you'll see how it might look in the near future.
• Improved Protection Modules
  A lot of you probably find it annoying that in order to protect yourself from an "incendiary" Smoky you have to equip two modules (fire and smoky). Hazel said they plan to change this to make the modules more versatile. If this ends up being too complex to implement, at the very least they plan to add additional module slots in the near future.
• Better System for Punishing Violators
  No details for this, but devs know that the current system is problematic, so improvements are in the works.

Once again, don't take this information for granted, since a lot of these are only plans and there is no guarantee the changes will actually be implemented the way they are described here.

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Declined Requests

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This final section of requests involved those that developers rejected. Most of these requests didn't get much of an explanation when they were brought up, but for the majority of them it was one of three reasons: too expensive to make, bad for economy, or pointless. 

 

Let's just quickly run through the list of things which will NOT be done:

• Juggernaut in PRO battles

• Sale of items (explained in economy section)

• Make Shaft's turret physically move up and down while aiming

• Making new gifts for celebrations

• Fines for leaving a battle early

• Custom battle formats (like Wasp+Fire)

• Map choice in Matchmaking

• Balance M2 in XP/BP battles

• Hull alterations

• Removing equipment change cooldown in Parkour

• Raising the top kill zone in Parkour

• Dynamic weather

• New types of containers

• Animated skins

• New drones

• Alterations changing how the turret looks

• Rare missions with big rewards (these got replaced by challenges)

• Changing supply mechanics

However, some of the rejected suggestions did get a somewhat detailed explanation.

• Birthday Gifts
  It would basically be just extra reward you get once a year. Most people would only abuse it to get a bonus when they register a new account.

• "Sonic" Hull
  This hull, designed by one of the Creative League artists is just an unofficial project, therefore it cannot be used in the game due to copyright. There are plans to add other new hulls though.

• Campaign Mode
  Would be cool to have, but requires a whole separate project to be developed from scratch and doesn't really fit the game. It would make more sense to just produce a whole new game that has its own campaign.

• Detailed GS
  There’s no point. The vast majority of players don’t bother with the numbers at all, let alone checking each individual number of micro-upgrades for enemy players.

• Meteorite Golds
  If meteorite golds become a common thing, then no one will get excited for them during special events.

• Double Damage Bug (if your shot lands after you die, double damage is cancelled)
  Developers are aware that this is a thing, but there are no plans to fix it. If they did end up fixing it, it would cause frustrations in other ways.

• Make it so that Premium helps complete battle score missions like it did before
  The fact that the 50% EXP bonus from Premium helped speed up completion of "earn experience" missions was an unofficial, unintentional advantage. It will not be restored.

• Automatic rewards for doing parkour
  Parkour contests like MoP and similar aren't going anywhere and you can still earn rewards there. But there won't be rewards simply for climbing a building in a normal parkour battle, as that would be too easy to abuse.

• Make golds drop instantly to get rid of "gold hunters"
  Developers have no intention to get rid of such players. Besides, this was already attempted and the reviews were negative, so the current settings were found to be most optimal - not too much distraction, but still enough time to try to "hunt" the gold.

• Competition where the community makes skins/paints and devs add it
  This would be fun, but it causes a whole bunch of issues with copyright, so it's just too much hassle to deal with. Won't happen.

• Modifications for XT Skins
  Hornet and Railgun XT modifications might be added since they already exist, but drawing new XT skins for all remaining turrets just to then give them out for free would be a waste of resources.

[Hex 11,520]

New Features

 

 

Alright, that's enough bad news from all the declined features. Let's bring back a bit of positivity and check out some of the brand new features that we can all look forward to, as developers mentioned them to be planned for future development. Once again, don't forget that all potential future updates are uncertain and subject to change. 

 
First of all, if you remember the Deathmatch Tournaments that existed in the game for a while and liked their concept, you have reason to be excited, because something similar will be coming out in the future. It will be playable with Matchamking, kind of like a ratings battle. Side note from the author's side: This is similar to competitive play in Rocket League or league matches in Tanki X.
 
Something else that will happen in RMM (Rating MatchMaking) battles is the release of statistics, like a win-loss ratio, so that you can track your progress up and down the leagues.
 
Another thing to potentially look forward to is test drives against bots — a cool feature that will allow you to practice using your new equipment against fake enemies. If players want to test something, they can create a PRO Battle and play against these bots. Although this one might be further into the future, as developers have other priorities right now.
 
Now one thing that's much closer on the horizon is the Ares hull. Unfortunately, it will not be coming about before HTML5, because it is built specifically for that game engine. But at this point the massive game engine update is just around the corner, and the release of Ares will mark a new era of specialised hulls, with tanks getting away from old, outdated tracks and fully immersing into Sci-Fi technology. The hull's Overdrive will be a "BFG", as stated by the developers, and apparently this Overdrive will also heal other players.

[Hex 11,520]

Miscellaneous

 

 

Last but not least, listed below are some of the things and features that are not as important as other topics in this article, or simply didn't fall into any other category. Let's take a look.

 

First of all, Master of Parkour 2019. It is highly unlikely that it will happen. It is being considered but could be rejected because it seems pointless. There are no new updates that will change any game mechanics, so it will be the same as the last one, with the exception of a new paint.

 

Speaking of paints, players asked the developers to release a set of "How To Train Your Dragon" paints, to which they replied that they are always trying to create content based on current and relevant movies and media, but they simply can't cover all of them.

 

Players are also eager to know why most of the previous Challenges only sported Viking, Hornet, Thunder and Railgun skins. The simple answer to this is because these turrets and hulls are the most popular in the current meta. However, developers do occasionally release other items, such as Ricochet and Shaft XT, and currently Gauss PR. Another thing that was on many player's minds was the director of Tanki Online. You can find the directors of the game on the AlternativaGames website. However, Hazel-Rah is the current in-charge of the game.

 

Another question was asked that stated to remove the "Finish number of battles" missions as it would further eliminate mults from battles. The developers replied positively but are not sure what kind of mission to replace these ones with, so if you have any suggestions, they're all ears!

 

Hunter's Overdrive can sometimes appear through textures. This is not a bug, but something that is caused by lag. Do note that Hunter is able to hit a hull even if a very small part of it is sticking out the prop it is hiding behind.

 

Implementing new Gold Box drop mechanics is a cool idea. Hazel said it was on his mind to add something like a Grim Reaper dropping a Gold for Halloween, but it would be hard to implement.

 

Now, a little bit about King Hardcore. It's currently in soft launch and the developers plan to release it unannounced in a very small area and then collect feedback from players. If the game is good, they will continue working on it, otherwise the project will be scrapped.

 

Now for some minor things that can be expressed in bullet points:

• eSports paints are not animated because... the developers just haven't animated them yet. Developers also express an eager desire to make even more paints, despite already having hundreds.
• Winter theme from the Stadium map was removed because it got updated with the new props, which don't have a winter version.
• Protection modules' names are random because we generally came up with them for fun.

 

 

Lastly, players requested to know why the camera doesn't jerk to the side when you get shot in the mobile version like it does in the browser version. This minor advantage is greatly compensated by the fact that aiming with the mouse is generally significantly less accurate than with the keyboard. Besides, if the camera gets force-moved when aim gets knocked off, everyone would find it extremely infuriating.

[Maf 32,305]

So there you have it — 228 questions and answers from a massive 3-hour livestream, compressed into a slightly more condensed and hopefully easily readable version. Some of the answers were surprising even to us, and we hope that you learned a few new things about how the game is managed and got answers to some of your own questions.

 

Hopefully this helped many of you understand the development process and what we might expect the future of this game to bring. Remember that your feedback is important, so head on over to I&S and give me some work to do make sure to share your thoughts about new updates and changes so that together, as a community, we can change the future of this great game.

 

Well, at this point I've run out of creativity to continue this inspiring conclusion, so don't forget to like and subscribe check out my balance topic for a more detailed explanation about that part, post ideas in I&S and follow the News and Announcements section to keep track of these changes for when they hopefully get released in the near future.

 

Thank you for reading!

 

 

Written in collaboration by @Hexed and @Maf

 

 

[wolverine848 13,097]

Matchmaker - when player pool is small, it's better to have fewer tanks (6 vs 6) in battle than widening the ranks to have tanks that are too low or too high.

 

Vulcan - spin-up time went from 1 sec to 3 seconds AND damage was increased.  Was fine before - 1 second spin-up and previous damage.

Before you mention the alteration - it ends up with a net loss in damage and still slower spin-up than before the change.

- Don't recall seeing anyone complaining about OLD Vulcan being OP - and the few Vulcans we saw in battle proved this.

 

- Then Vulcan was messed up even more when you introduced incendiary alteration.  -70% damage for ALL vulcan's when they overheat.  As if overheating for stock vulcan wasn't penalty enough.

[Pythor 1,354]

Will be a good reference to look back on in the future. 

[Sacrifice 2,278]

Hexed and Maf thank you so much for

1) Compressing all the information of the 3hours long live stream.

2) for making navigation easy through the article!

Really helpful! Looking forward to the HTML5.

Amazing work as always!

Edited August 24, 2019 by Sacrifice

[BouDy 110]

1. Actually , i hope your plan just succeeds and you implement HTML5 and you start advertising the game again before tanki loses more players and players.

2.Why won't you remove the pay-to-win? It's actually a problem causing players to leave the game and its a bigger problem nowadays , because players are not so much. Actually , it's ok but it's better to  encourage players to play by having a lot of ways to get those " tankoins " 

( NO MATTER HOW MUCH TANKOINS AS REWARDS ) 

 

Thank You For writing all of this important information..... It is actually very important but long and took me some time to read it all ...

[WhoWantTheSmoke 1,984]

Do you think they will start advertising TO again when the HTML 5 is in a good shape?

[BouDy 110]

Do you think they will start advertising TO again when the HTML 5 is in a good shape?

They need to do it .. because they want to continue the game and they don't want it to shut down soon.

So , if they didn't get new players .. The game will shut down.

[Adab 2,898]

The entire live stream compressed into an article, good job! 

 

still reading...dunno when I will finish it but ok...

[SuperNick95 5,312]

Excellent work, a good read for everyone around here.

[lssimo 1,559]

If there's no change to the the direction of the game we'll continue to see the numbers decrease. Numbers don't lie.

[Maf 32,305]

If there's no change to the the direction of the game we'll continue to see the numbers decrease. Numbers don't lie.

HTML5 should be the big change, and might even get the numbers back up again. But without change - yes, numbers will continue to go down.

[Ninja 10,468]

Very interesting insight in to game development as whole.

[RIDDLER_8 5,553]

I am really interested in the development news. I hope that developers will implement all the features that are in active development, plus other features that are considered as under review and valid for future development plans.