What Is Your Opinion About the Current State of Tanki Online?

[Positive 1,136]

On 5/13/2025 at 12:57 PM, Maf said:

We've had the billboards discussion many times over the years. The reason they're not used for real ads is because no one actually pays attention to them in-game. It would be a terrible ROI for advertisers to pay to have their ads displayed that way.

Didn't real know about these discussions, but real life billboards also mainly rely on visibility and subconscious exposure. They're proven to work even if people don't actively engage in them. Wouldn't the in-game billboards have the same effect? It's an interesting idea imo, Fifa for example also uses billboards around the pitch.

[Jeers4U 665]

On 5/13/2025 at 7:17 AM, Maf said:

Perhaps, but are you saying that this is a sign of greed?

Alternativa is a for-profit company, and it operates like one. If you were running a grocery store and people kept coming and buying from your store despite other nearby stores having the same items for less, would you lower your prices anyway?

Not sure I have ever said 'greed', but I could be wrong. I understand that it is a business and have said so many times. Even had to remind congo that--despite his time and emotional investment in tanki--they don't care about player satisfaction.

The grocery store you mention above is real. The people buying from the store in your example are of lesser intelligence and higher emotional volatility than someone who knows how to use their buying power to their advantage. There are a whole range of other (mostly) negative behavioral generalizations to be made about that demographic, but my post will probably get deleted for making someone cry. So, you'll have to just infer.

 

BUT... when game integrity is compromised for the sake of money, that's SOMEthing negative.

Proof (among the thousands of other things): current tesla.

 

And it still has to fail before it gets better. 

Just like that grocery store. 

No one buys from it, prices come down or the merchandise gets better to compare with the price charged.

 

Why pretend you didn't already know this?

Edited May 13 by Jeers4U

[Gabe2607 215]

On 5/13/2025 at 6:57 AM, Maf said:

We've had the billboards discussion many times over the years. The reason they're not used for real ads is because no one actually pays attention to them in-game. It would be a terrible ROI for advertisers to pay to have their ads displayed that way. And I'm guessing that selling only cosmetics doesn't work in Tanki Online, because new skins are too slow to produce, while shot effects and paints aren't desirable enough to generate enough revenue.

Thing is, while I don't have insights into TO's financial situation and I can't guarantee for sure that owners aren't "greedy", the reason I disagree with that sentiment is because the game continues to exist after almost 16 years. If the owners were truly greedy, they would squeeze every last cent out of the project during its peak years (around 2014) and not focus on long-term development.

Obviously you are not a salesman. And TO sales are managed by a software engineer. A technical mind is notoriously opposite to sales concepts. 

A person does not have to pay attention. The continuous ad will work anyway, as it has been proven a century ago. And even if it would not work, a proper salesman would still sell the idea.

Anyway... I understand your heart is in the game. Just ask yourself: would you recommend this game to a "mature" (30yo+) friend of yours that has never played it before? Would you not tell him that he would need to spend money? And after you told him that, would you still expect him to play it?

[Maf 32,300]

On 5/13/2025 at 4:49 PM, Jeers4U said:

they don't care about player satisfaction.

But they do, because they have to. Just like with the store example, if customers keep buying from you despite cheaper alternatives being available, you have to make an effort to retain your loyal customer base while also attracting new customers. But for Tanki Online, it's a balance between monetisation and QoL features, which is why we get things like OP augments and overpriced events (like space race), but we also get plenty of freebies like limited time modes with equal equipment and increased gold boxes.

So, relating all this back to the original point, major decisions (like whether or not to continue development of Tanki Classic) are absolutely driven by money, but it doesn't mean that Tanki Classic will be created for the purpose of directly generating cash flow.

On 5/14/2025 at 3:43 AM, Gabe2607 said:

Just ask yourself: would you recommend this game to a "mature" (30yo+) friend of yours that has never played it before? Would you not tell him that he would need to spend money? And after you told him that, would you still expect him to play it?

I don't recommend this game to anyone. I've had a few people interested, and while I do tell them that I like the game and it has fun gameplay, I always follow it up with warning them that it's P2W with a high spending threshold for comfortable progression.

[POWER-OF-ONE 163]

TCSOTO.

Well Gauss is still self destructing.

It "STILL" deals no damage after self destructing, which means you have to "SELF DESTRUCT A G A I N" just to put things right.

0.5/10

It gets half a percent because I like my paint. 

[Jeers4U 665]

 

On 5/13/2025 at 6:57 AM, Maf said:

Opex said it himself - the shop in TO is extremely overpriced, but prices are so high because people keep buying stuff anyway. And if sales are good, why would they lower the prices?

 

On 5/14/2025 at 2:04 AM, Maf said:

you have to make an effort to retain your loyal customer base while also attracting new customers.

 

On 5/5/2025 at 6:51 PM, TheCongoSpider said:

I want to play but knowing what I have to go through turns me off of playing.

 

Edited May 14 by Jeers4U
connect the dots, bro.

[Frylock 1,617]

Decided to touch this game after 7 months because I wanna take a break from competitive gaming especially from R6 siege because of consistent cheaters.  And holy heck, so much new augments and stuff ive never seen before. And so far I am just disappointed how lighthulls has been more thrown under the bus. Cant even play MM with a light hull without being one shotted. As much as I hate sweating in a casual game sometimes, I do not like how light hulls aren't getting the proper attention in the game. I guess you can solely say its augments but I still feel like light hulls should get somewhat of a buff since there are too many one shot options. I know some will say but "oh theres lifeguard". True but I think light hulls just need a slight HP buff. Just my opinion

Edited May 15 by Frylock
Grammar

[Jeers4U 665]

Hahahahahaha!!!!

Oh man, getting perpetually one-shotted by teslas.

I love watching the people come here and talk about which turret or hull they should buy.

Tanki buyers are the equivalent of people who believe the earth is flat.

They debate and haggle over which one is better or worse as if they've forgotten that it only lasts until the next terrible update.

Edited May 31 by Jeers4U

[ok_hand 95]

anyone else been noticing increased health/invincibility cheats?

[EagleChappie 581]

On 6/8/2025 at 4:48 AM, ok_hand said:

anyone else been noticing increased health/invincibility cheats?

no?

[POWER-OF-ONE 163]

On 5/14/2025 at 7:00 PM, POWER-OF-ONE said:

TCSOTO.

Well Gauss is still self destructing.

It "STILL" deals no damage after self destructing, which means you have to "SELF DESTRUCT A G A I N" just to put things right.

0.5/10

It gets half a percent because I like my paint. 

You can now add striker and scorpion to the list.

My personal opinion why this is happening-because of the augments attached to these turrets, without which the turrets would be severely underpowered.

Scrap augments.

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

On 6/7/2025 at 10:48 PM, ok_hand said:

anyone else been noticing increased health/invincibility cheats?

There are different ways players can achieve the illusion of increased HP in recent times. You have the Lifeguard augment that allows a tank to survive fatal damage once per spawn. You have the Excelsior augment (currently only available for Viking) that gives 30% more HP. You also have ranged healing augments such as Healing Emitters and Nanotech Shells whose presence may not be immediately felt because Shaft's shot effect may be hidden within the general explosions and other visual effects happening around you, and Thunder for the same thing, as well as it being projectile so there is always a chance that the Thunder projectile doesn't impact the enemy on your screen.

There is the Engineer augment that heals 1000 HP when the tank picks up a drop box, and this augment is quite common at random seeing as it is in the rare section of containers and in the garage. Another thing that's more recent within the past year is the visual feedback you get from a quickly interrupted repair kit is much less clear than before for some reason. I instinctively look out for such things and even I have a hard time noticing it when that happens. 

 

Every time over the years someone claims there are HP hacks in MM it was always a case of legitimate mechanics being misinterpreted as hacks, either because the player making the claim did not have the knowledge of the mechanics, or if they did have the knowledge, they didn't have the necessary visual feedback of the mechanics in motion when the suspicious interaction occured. 

[Jeers4U 665]

On 6/8/2025 at 7:43 AM, TheCongoSpider said:

Every time over the years someone claims there are HP hacks in MM it was always a case of legitimate mechanics being misinterpreted as hacks

 

I'm not so sure that is an accurate statement.

Especially when this is your comparable time frame:

 

On 6/8/2025 at 7:43 AM, TheCongoSpider said:

 increased HP in recent times.

 

And also especially how the reporting system for hackers evolved (or rather devolved) over those years.

Edited June 10 by Jeers4U

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

On 6/10/2025 at 10:55 AM, Jeers4U said:

Especially when this is your comparable time frame:

He asked if anyone else has been noticing an increase in them. He is asking this after certain things have been made more prevalent to the playerbase during this year. 

 

1. Excelsior Viking, 30% more HP on the most popular hull in the game. Lots of out-of-the-loop players have already made complaints about HP hack Vikings since that event started. 

2. Lifeguard, more prevalent as players have been opening more containers since its release. Many of the sweatsquads have and still are using this augment with their other equipment. 

3. Nanotech Shells had its aiming mechanism fixed this year and it is now an overtuned ranged healing option that has either been collecting dust in certain players' garages, picked up by other players who chose it in previous events last year or randomly getting it from containers. What it and Healing Emitters have in common is that they sometimes are not easy to spot in the heat of an engagement. Whenever I used Healing Emitters, I always used the Eclipse shot effect because it's less immediately noticeable that someone is being healed if the VFX for the Shaft shot isn't standing out. The VFX doesn't last long and can be hidden in certain other turrets' VFX like Gauss, Thunder, Twins, Firebird, Freeze, etc. You can even possibly mistake it as your own Shaft on your team helping you out with killing the enemy. 

What makes Thunder similar but different is that Thunder is a projectile turret, not hitscan. As such, there is always the possibility of the Thunder shot not impacting the enemy on your screen. So you could be fighting a medium hull, and from your perspective, this medium hull seems like it has 5,000 HP instead of 3,000. But that's only because you didn't get any visual feedback of them being healed by a faraway Thunder, because the shot missed them on your screen. 

 

4. Engineer, one of the upsides of the transition to HTML5 on mobile is being able to see at any time what augments players are using. Something that caught me by surprise was how many players at random were using the Engineer augment. This heals you for 1,000 HP when you pick up a drop box. I've gotten into many situations both on Android and HTML5 where someone took 1-2 shots more to kill in certain engagements but it always added up to about a repair kit's worth of extra HP. After I die I realise that we were fighting near a drop box zone and that they were picking them up. They received 1,000 HP in that moment and allowed them to triumph. From the loser's perspective, they gained extra HP out of nowhere and will thus accuse them of hacking. 

 

Extreme example being this battle: 

 

 

 

5. Defender drone, 90 more units of armour enhancement, effectively a 31% spectrum module. Combine that with their own modules and everything mentioned above and the perception of the amount of HP the player you're fighting has becomes worse. It's quite prevalent right now, which I'm not surprised. They made individual modules cost too many crystals where it's economically better to upgrade Defender drone instead. 

 

6. Repair kits, this here was the only time I was briefly confused as to why people were taking longer to kill than visually appeared. Whenever an activated repair kit was instantly interrupted, I would be able to confirm with my eyes that that was the case. I would briefly see the repair kit status icon flash as well as clearly see the Polarization icon at the far right end. At some point they changed this and it is less clear to see when it happens. It took me having to record videos of my gameplay to catch it. And wouldn't you know it, around the time I noticed this, some players were complaining about people having more HP than usual. And if this player is using the Mechanic drone, then their HP will immediately go back to 100% when this happens. 

 

Even if you have all of this knowledge, this here is the most important part:

On 6/8/2025 at 7:43 AM, TheCongoSpider said:

or if they did have the knowledge, they didn't have the necessary visual feedback of the mechanics in motion when the suspicious interaction occured. 

I do not doubt that there are sophisticated hacks in the game. The nonsense that goes on in Parkour lobbies attest to that. But I'm always interested when someone claims there are subtle or blatant HP hacks in MM because it is very easy for a random player to miss the legitimate explanations for it in the heat of battle. 

Edited June 11 by TheCongoSpider
Added images, no spoiler available when editing

[Jeers4U 665]

On 6/10/2025 at 11:46 AM, TheCongoSpider said:

I do not doubt that there are sophisticated hacks in the game.

On that we agree.

And the best hackers are never caught.

[Jeers4U 665]

On 6/10/2025 at 11:46 AM, TheCongoSpider said:

The nonsense that goes on in Parkour

But lets be honest. This thread is titled the current state of tanki. And you know it sucks.

You.

Know.

It.

[Tekken 374]

My opinion about current state is that we need actual balance in game. We need game issues to be fixed and not just switching meta by making more absurd  augments than ones before.  

 

 Hull overdrives are outdated in this meta, 

• titan OD suffers because of grenades
• mammoth OD suffers because of blasters and crusader can kill it now
•  dictator OD has been always weak with the very few exceptions where supercharge is handy. 
• Hornet OD is just for campers and besides wallhack its value is not as significant as for Hopper or Wasp (both better than hornet for actual light hull gameplay)

     Sadly its only track hulls because those were in game first, imo they deserve huge update. I have suggested few changes for dictator/titan and mammoth ODs in the past.. its possible and it can be done way better  than it is now. 

 

Some of the Status effects are OP 

• Freeze status effect, not only it removes DD it also slows down hull speed and turret rotation, there is another issue with it, after using Repair kit to get rid of it there is like 5s interval where movement speed is still slowed down despite the fact that freeze effect was removed. Freeze effect should either slows down or remove DD not both and issue with slow gradual gain of speed after Freeze effect should be fixed asap. (it works only when you remove freeze effect with mammoth OD, so there might be intention behind it but I cant find any good reason to keep freeze effect more OP than it is)
• Jammer - its not OP, but there is bug or similar issue as with freeze effect,  when wasp bomb hits you and you have jammer , after using repair kit and  using for example double armor with defender drone, you wont have bonus from defender , game behaves like you still have jammer or something.

some Turrets are either dead or absurdly unbalanced 

• Isida , what else to say, its just dead and needs back healing.
• Gauss - this turret is absolute grabage that does not require any skill

                    -Status effect augments have guaranteed AoE status effect !! Not only target you hit will have status effect, but all of the enemies in certain radius, this is super broken and I wonder why its still in game, IMO only shaft sniper mode should have guaranteed status effect and nothing else. Salvo for gauss should have certain chance to apply status (not crit related) and either disabled AoE status effect or  gradual decrease of base chance  by distance from primar target.   

                    -Nemesis, another absurdity that require no skill yet can kill heavy hull and ofc it has AoE dammage so if by accident you are close to someone who is careless, you are dead too, another reason to not play siege mode. Just compare it with Shaft Quasar, With Nemesis you will always hit target (if you have sucesfull lock on),  your reload is same as stock gauss and you deal massive dmg to whoever is close enough.  With shaft there is chance to miss due to impact force, skill or ping, you have 22s reload, you can kill maximum 1 target and  dmg is just slighly better than Nemesis (which does not even matter because 4K is all it needs to kill heavy hull without prot and defender or light hull with 50 % prot against it )

 

Hover hulls are superior to track hull 

•   its  very hard to flip them upside down. (even by enemy shots or impact force)
• They can dodge way more shots by strafing and thus make themself survive more
• Impact force is way better absorbed than by track hulls
• You can maneuver, accelerate or stop moving with them in midair  which is super OP
• and few more like balance on edges or ability to move on narrow surfaces...

 

 

 

Edited June 11 by Tekken

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

On 6/11/2025 at 5:56 AM, Tekken said:

Jammer - its not OP, but there is bug or similar issue as with freeze effect,  when wasp bomb hits you and you have jammer , after using repair kit and  using for example double armor with defender drone, you wont have bonus from defender , game behaves like you still have jammer or something.

That's not a bug, that's how Jammer works for drones. It has two effects. The first is preventing you from activating your Overdrive while the Jammer is still active. Repair kit removes the Jammer allowing you to remove this effect. The second effect is that it forces non-passive drones on a cooldown equal to the duration of the Jammer application. If the Jammer application is 3 seconds, it forces the drone to be on cooldown for 3 seconds. If the Jammer application is long, like Wasp's Overdrive at 9 seconds, it forces the drone to be on cooldown for 9 seconds. You cannot activate a drone when it is on cooldown. 

[Jeers4U 665]

On 6/11/2025 at 5:56 AM, Tekken said:

My opinion about current state is that we need actual balance in game. We need game issues to be fixed and not just switching meta by making more absurd  augments than ones before. 

Except that balance in the game doesn't make money.

You know what makes money? Absurd augments that people keep buying.

[Tekken 374]

On 6/11/2025 at 12:40 PM, TheCongoSpider said:

That's not a bug, that's how Jammer works for drones. It has two effects. The first is preventing you from activating your Overdrive while the Jammer is still active. Repair kit removes the Jammer allowing you to remove this effect. The second effect is that it forces non-passive drones on a cooldown equal to the duration of the Jammer application. If the Jammer application is 3 seconds, it forces the drone to be on cooldown for 3 seconds. If the Jammer application is long, like Wasp's Overdrive at 9 seconds, it forces the drone to be on cooldown for 9 seconds. You cannot activate a drone when it is on cooldown. 

Fair enough, did not know about this,  then I think it would me more than fair to have some visible jammer icone/animation for drones being on cooldown, I wonder if that cooldown works on crisis after repair kit, 

[Tekken 374]

On 6/11/2025 at 2:35 PM, Jeers4U said:

Except that balance in the game doesn't make money.

You know what makes money? Absurd augments that people keep buying.

Thats true, but overall good balance will contribute to good fair battles , less frustrated players = higher chances for them to spend money on game they enjoy also if its fair its more likely for people to invite their friends to play with them, meaning it could be indirect advertisement

Absurd augments do make money but its short term profit and it is making players being angry and worried at game... nobody wants to join battle against 2 long range healers and 3 teslas with shock therapy (pre nerf), I remember there was multiple occasions for players creating topics demanding this augment to be nerfed, they knew its OP but they had to milk it... so they kept it OP at the expense of healthy MM... with marketing strategies like this no wonder players will give up playing this game only sweaty tryhards will stay, thats for another topic because such playerbase will create hostile and toxic enviroment , which is then another good reason for normal players to leave... this is reason many players waiting for tanki classic, because its  just sweaty tryhards with insane augments and toxicity over simple things... there is no room for casual gameplay which is missing more than ever in this game... I can observe myself.. If I want to play outdated/crystal augments I am suffering, If I am not playing hover hull its harder to fight against, I cant just join battle and shot mindlessly for 12min , I mean I can but results will be terrible, we need "Classic" gamemode without augments and drones , not pro battles , regular MM modes like siege, ctf, cp but classic version. I know thats utopy but it could exists with some restriction like limited crystal and exp gain per day , but you could complete mission here and get stars.  

[TheCongoSpider 8,942]

On 6/11/2025 at 10:41 AM, Tekken said:

Fair enough, did not know about this,  then I think it would me more than fair to have some visible jammer icone/animation for drones being on cooldown, I wonder if that cooldown works on crisis after repair kit, 

Crisis and Oracle are passive drones. Their extra "boosts" are built-in rather than externally activated. They will lose the boost on application but they will gain back the boost when the Jammer duration ends, whether that be naturally or forcefully with a repair kit. 

[Jeers4U 665]

On 6/11/2025 at 10:59 AM, Tekken said:

Thats true, but overall good balance will contribute to good fair battles , less frustrated players = higher chances for them to spend money on game they enjoy also if its fair its more likely for people to invite their friends to play with them, meaning it could be indirect advertisement

 

I do not disagree with anything you have said.

Unfortunately every excellent point you have made does not make tanki money.

Or else they would have implemented it.

 

[Jeers4U 665]

Everyone getting their crayons ready to figure out the massively kooky voting strategy?

 

[The-Operator219 88]

After relapsing again I can say it's a lot better off than when I left. No more constant Wasp bombs killing you as soon as you spawn, supplies are kept in check by that new drone, crystals and supplies are impossible to run out of...

 

I still miss a lot of things:

Mines killing everything that isn't a heavy hull for sure

Buying equipment directly instead of it being gachaslop

Longer battles (which seem to be a thing once you reach a certain rank thankfully)

And of course the old art style. Not the OLD art style but the one from around 2012.