review Alterations and Augments: Then and Now

[Person_Random 4,991]

Alterations came into the world on September 22, 2016, kicking and screaming, and if you’re not already familiar with the story, you’ll know why by the end.

It was always bullied by its counterparts - turrets, hulls, product kits, you name it. Everyone liked turrets - their different shots ruled the nations. Everyone liked hulls - they were the very foundation for the tank. Everyone loved paints - not only were they aesthetic AND had some crucial protections. And of course, everyone worshiped the product kit - they had all three in one! Meanwhile, hardly anyone batted an eye at the alteration. Maybe the antique-hoarding grandma or the rich billionaire would take a glance, but that was it. Easily, the alteration became the laughingstock of the Tankiverse - mocked and alienated for who it was.

But the alteration had other plans. It was tired of being longingly looked at during Tanki window-shopping festivals like a lost puppy and collecting dust, waiting to be purchased. No more of this pain and longing to be bought and used by a tanker. It wanted to be great. It wanted to be popular. It wanted to be revolutionary.

So one night, it wished upon a star… and the rest, as they say, was history.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Okay, fine. I'm sorry for writing such a long intro. But at least it was a good one, right?

We can hardly imagine the Tankiverse without augments or alterations today, but this little piece of gameplay equipment had some humble beginnings. It was introduced sometime in 2016 with the intent to allow players to tailor their gameplay styles, and sure enough, it has managed to accomplish that goal - and then some. Let’s rewind!

 

Chapter 1: The Birth of Alterations

Alterations first came into the game carefully developed, with the full set of alterations being released over a series of updates. The first one of the trilogy brought along a selection of cool alterations we use today, including Firebird’s Compact Tanks, a commonplace Polygon CP tool, Hammer’s Slugger, a favorite for killing Juggernauts even in today’s world, and Railgun’s Shell Stabilization, an eSports classic. All of them were some decent ways to switch up gameplay, all readily available for crystal purchase or cash rent, if that was your thing.

Memories and goals. Bittersweet.
OK WE GET IT STOP CRYING RANDOM

Then the second wave came. More alterations were added - a majority of the turrets (excluding the plasma duo Twins and Ricochet, as well as the brand-new Striker) earned themselves a second set of alterations, while Railgun got a full set of alterations. Then a third wave - Twins and Ricochet finally got their well-deserved alterations after several months of hard waiting. Yep, out came even more alterations. When the alterations stopped raining upon the Tankiverse, each turret had for themselves two alterations - one that they could buy at M1 for 50 000 crystals and one at M2 for 100 000 crystals. (Well, almost. Striker and Magnum were complaining about their missing alterations, but that would come later.)

As I’ve already discussed, several of the alterations we had back with the first release were some amazing inventions we still use today - Slugger, Compact Tanks, and Minus Field Stabilization, just to name a few. But the alteration was still not quite popular for one big reason - the price. The dedication required to purchase alterations was insane. One swipe of the crystal card set players back quite a bit - mind you, they were quite hard to come by back then. Play on the wrong team, have something go awry in the last two minutes of the battle, just fall behind in the match, and there go a good chunk of those hard-earned gems. And finally, when they had saved up just enough, instead of buying a new alteration, players could easily get some modules or get ahead on some micro-upgrades, so alterations were not really for the faint of heart.

Sigh. Tough times they once were.

With these drawbacks forcing a huge commitment factor into the first-generation alteration, it was evident (at least in my poor kid battles) that no one went around sporting these new additions all the time.

But that was to change.

 

 Chapter 2: Growing Mainstream

After a year or so, it was obvious that alterations weren’t doing too hot. Following the initial discussion on the forum and the newspaper, the chats about these novel additions quickly died down - for one, the newspaper never talked about alterations after their release. Maybe one word about a recommended alteration or two on the forum, but after that, the conversation went dry.

Even Tanki Google couldn't come up with enough results...

However, the alteration had other plans. It was tired of being pushed back from the spotlight, and one day, it promised to take back revenge - it just needed to find the right time to strike. And sure enough, during the blessed year of our Lord 2018, there was enough to occupy and anger it - Matchmaking had become the star of forum talk, then the separation of modules and the introduction of drones - there were simply so many new changes come the summer of ‘18 (coincidentally, several months after I came back to the game) that the alteration was ready to let the world know that it had had enough. And, oh dear, did it plan quite the drastic makeover.

Sometime in the fall of 2018, I was discussing Tanki with my friends. School had just started, I was getting into the daily tedium of difficult courses for the first time in several years and suffering from a world of self-inflicted frustration. It was a nice time. During one of these normal days, some of my parkour club mates revealed a sneak peek of new alterations from the V-LOG (or somewhere, I have no idea anymore). We immediately started to speculate what exactly they were, especially about Hammer, one of the club favorites for parkouring.

See us discussing Tanki.
More memories. RIP.

Soon enough, come Halloween, the new wave of alterations released, and we found ourselves with a couple dozen (and then some) of these diverse new gameplay tools (as well as a well-appreciated price drop on the goods, which went for as cheap as 20 000 crystals - in other words, Black Friday material given the sharp price drop and increased ease of earning crystals at the time).

Immediately, we got back into playing, trying to rank up as quickly to pick up the novel alterations - for us, Duplet for Hammer was the ultimate goal as it seemed to unlock new heights for parkour. Another of my friends found Round Destabilization and declared it the ultimate new alteration for Railgun. Then big Tanki YouTubers started making videos about the top alterations left and right, and players began buying alterations such as Uranium, Autocannon, and Duplet left and right as per the recommendations of the pros, greedily stocking up on the new drops during the sales. Seemingly overnight, the alteration went from almost unspoken of to the star of the Tanki show, and finally, it had earned itself the fame it wanted.

A quick search of "Tanki Online Alterations" generates some of the most viewed videos you've ever seen related to TO.

 

 Chapter 2.5: Premium Alterations?

Nothing much happened to the alteration over the next year - either that or I just lost all sense of caring for Tanki after my friends left, crushing me emotionally once again. *cough* Anyways., devs made some changes left and right tweaking the alterations somewhat, balancing out the overpowered new additions and buffing the underperformers, but nothing with a shocking night-and-day difference. With its affordable price and versatility on the battlefield, the alteration enjoyed an (albeit silent) year for the ages.

Even Tanki Google couldn't keep up with the sheer amount of results "Alterations" were getting...

Then, in 2020, Vulcan, which had gotten tired of collecting dust, snuck away on its own agenda and got a revamp, which came along with - you guessed it - a premium alteration, Rubberized Rounds.

It wasn’t too bad. The alteration came and went without much commotion - it wasn’t exactly the greatest one of the bunch - Incendiary Band and Reinforced Aiming Transmission could easily outplay it any day. And so, the alteration breathed a sigh of relief - it was still enjoying the low prices, high popularity. Vulcan’s Rubberized Rounds was just a single mistake. Just one single mistake in the midst of a million successes. Nothing to worry about.

Until one dark quarantine, in the corner of the Tankiverse, baby Gauss - yep, spoiled baby Gauss, with its own Prime skin and the love of nearly all tankers, decided that it wanted an alteration as well. That’s when Electromagnetic Salvo hit the shelves, a premium alteration that charged players a cool $50 USD just to admire and use. And whereas no one really batted an eye at Vulcan’s Rubberized Rounds, players were ready to rip, tear, and kill over the new EMP Salvo - it was next-level amazing in terms of gameplay, ending the drug wars by other players with its sheer supply-deactivating power. Everyone wanted it. No one could easily afford it. The golden name of alterations had just gotten tarnished, but most unfortunately, it was only the beginning. Everything was only about to go down in a way players would not like.

Looking quite buyer, eh? The after-effect of opening 153 Ultra Containers...

 

 Chapter 3: Hulls get A U G M E N T S, Players get A N G E R Y

A few more weeks into the quarantine, it was easily getting boring. The pain in my heart from having a toaster for a computer was beginning to fade away. The wounds instilled in players’ hearts from Gauss’s EMP Salvo were beginning to heal. (And students, with no more motivation to study, were beginning to disappear from online classes. But the sad scene of my 5-person English class is another story for another day.) It was beginning to look like a stretch of good new days.

Players were now awaiting the highly anticipated hull alterations, which had proven to be quite potent and dynamic on the test server. Unfortunately for them, it was not the surprise that they had been waiting for. With the announcement of Patch Update #600, players were shocked to wake up to the new announcement: hull alterations - now rechristened hull augments, were to be only available in containers. Not only that, but turret augments would soon face the same fate and funds were to be removed from XP/BP battles - a triple threat to the players.

When the announcement went live, well, all hell broke loose. The announcements went viral in a matter of seconds. Forum moderators started working overtime to contain the spread of hate on the announcement topics. Players rushed to their garages in a flurry of panic to try to buy the alterations before they were forever gone. And as for the alteration, now known as the augment, it now faced the intense struggle to pick up the pieces of its broken reputation.

Shortly after this entire fiasco, a couple of weeks later, the action was quickly reversed - augments were brought back to garages in an attempt to stop the endless hate flowing in; however, they came back for a price - and a high one at that. It was better than nothing, for sure. But the alteration would never have the praise and popularity it once had.

This message sums it all up: "Comment to Dislike". It will be a day that will forever live in infamy.

 

 Chapter 4: Gearing Up - Adrenaline, Status Effects, and Armor-Piercing

On Tanki’s 11th birthday, augments made the grand return back into the news with the introduction of Adrenaline, a universal augment for turrets. It, well, like most releases, just came and went - it didn’t get any special attention and care, nothing much. For the most part, it’s only been used with a few turrets such as Gauss (for those who weren’t fortunate enough to get EMP Salvo from containers) and as of recent, Vulcan Adrenaline has been picking up steam in the Tanki community.

Once again, augments lay low for another while. Then just four months later, just about two years since the alteration had its own rise to fame, the brand-new Armor-Piercing status effect brought the augment back into the spotlight. However, unlike last time, this update didn’t bring all positive attention. Instead, all eyes were on Hornet’s hugely nerfed overdrive, while the Armor-Piercing augment was just pushed aside - hull augments were already difficult enough to obtain, why even bother about some random augments?

 

 Chapter 5: Help! I’ve fallen into a pile of augments and can’t get up!

With the introduction of the AP status effect (and yes, you guessed it, augments) and the creation of three brand new hovering hulls in the course of several months, the amount of augments available went up by a few dozen yet again, up to the incredibly high total of 168.

But we weren’t quite finished with adding some more just yet - Smoky HD arrived with a set of hot new augments.

And better yet, Railgun HD has been teased (and released) with yep, you guessed it, more augments. Though it’s just a few... We’re seeing a bit of a trend here…

 

Chapter 6: The Future?

At the time that I’m writing this, there are 178 augments - yes, 90 hull augments (as well as a special protection augment) and 87 turret augments. Augments have now grown from just around 20 to almost ten times as many augments, and now, the field has become quite diverse and crowded.

More augments are set to release - I’ve already covered that turrets have been receiving new releases with their HD model touch-ups, and better yet, Tesla looks to be coming by late 2021, which means even more augments - we’re set to cross the 200 mark sooner than later.

Richochet Tesla coming sooOOOOooooooOOOooNnnNNNNNnn??!!!??

Another point to ponder: the container luck for augments has been continually pushing towards the rarer end - new releases tend to be placed in the “Legendary” and “Exotic” Categories rather than the “Rare” and “Epic” categories as the first few hull and turret augments were once categorized in. That’s an alarming new trend that I believe won’t continue to stop spreading, leading to the rarity of more augments. (But no worries… just get them by completing the battle pass amirite)

Comparison: Autocannon (Epic - Garage Obtainable, released 2018), AP Rounds (Legendary - AP Release in 2020), Paralyzing Rounds (Exotic - Smoky HD Release in 2021)

There’s a lot of uncertainty heading into the future development of Tanki - all I can easily tell for sure is that the trend of new and rarer augments will not stop. As for the technologies? Well, I’ve got a feeling that we’ll see more status effects into play - EMP, Stun, and AP, to name a few - as well as basic mechanics changes such as ricochet and splash damage will run front and center on these new augments.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

We’ll not know how the augment continues to develop through the years, but one thing’s for sure - no gameplay aspect has had quite the journey like the augment.

And that’s a wrap! I really hope you enjoyed this historical “blast to the past” journey about one of the biggest things in Tanki gameplay today. It was quite the mental and emotional journey for me to write this (I almost burst into tears several times while looking back at the memories I made as the alteration had its own life journey), so please fund my Kleenex purchases by pressing the like button and letting me know your thoughts on the current state of the augment.

See you around in another article soon!

[Person_Random 4,991]

Augments have become the talk of town with the introduction of so many new releases. But this small piece of gameplay equipment had a humble beginning that ultimately led to its (in)famous reputation today. Join us for the story of the augment's rise and fall through the years with none other than yours truly!

[Venerable 2,970]

LOL

I had fun reading this article! Fun + Funny = Stonks

[Tanker-Arthur 2,971]

Me and my friend can't be the only ones who actually liked the 2016 Alterations, right?

We had our eyes set on a bunch of them, most notably Compact Fuel Tanks (Firebird), High Caliber Ammo (Railgun), High Capacity Drum (Hammer), and Support Nanorobots (Isida).

High Caliber Ammo and Compact Fuel Tanks were the first alterations I ever bought and they were awesome.

 

[Person_Random 4,991]

4 minutes ago, Tanker-Arthur said:

Me and my friend can't be the only ones who actually liked the 2016 Alterations, right?

We had our eyes set on a bunch of them, most notably Compact Fuel Tanks (Firebird), High Caliber Ammo (Railgun), High Capacity Drum (Hammer), and Support Nanorobots (Isida).

High Caliber Ammo and Compact Fuel Tanks were the first alterations I ever bought and they were awesome.
 

Ah yes, the alterations of old - I do admit I liked them quite a bit myself. In fact, I was saving for CFT as I was a Firebird main (*cue handwritten charts with savings plans*). Might have been exaggerating a bit on the fact that they were pushed aside; after all, I (and everyone I knew) was far too poor to even think about owning one... 

[Alklines 1,751]

Interesting read, appreciate the effort. Speaking of augments, I just realized I own every turret and hull augments ever released, except AP immunity for Wasp, Hunter and Mammoth.

[Tanker-Arthur 2,971]

Just now, Person_Random said:

Might have been exaggerating a bit on the fact that they were pushed aside; after all, I (and everyone I knew) was far too poor to even think about owning one... 

Well.....

Kinda ironic that today's alterations cost 145% more expensive than the 100,000 alterations of the olden days XD

 

Also, yes, we were pretty poor back then cause there was no Container to help us out with crystals XD

[Person_Random 4,991]

3 hours ago, Alklines said:

 

Thanks and woah, that is a massive stronghold of augments someone has got there

2 hours ago, Tanker-Arthur said:

 

Tankiflation ecksposed!!!1! New article soon about the Tankiconomy?

Might leave it up to either @kaisdf or @Tidebreaker, our resident econ experts. I know nothing about Macro and won't be able to do a single thing.

 

[Spy 14,736]

5 hours ago, Tanker-Arthur said:

Me and my friend can't be the only ones who actually liked the 2016 Alterations, right?

I truly enjoyed 2016, I remember playing 24/7 back then. 

[artc 1,119]

I still remember when u could get augaments for 20-60k crystals....what happened to the good ol' days?

[Person_Random 4,991]

7 minutes ago, artc said:

I still remember when u could get augaments for 20-60k crystals....what happened to the good ol' days?

Pain. 

Those were some really nice times... I remember just dumping my crystals every which way to get a good load of augments the day before they were hauled off to the containers for solitary confinement. Ended up saving way too many crystals. Ahhh, really miss the times...

[a1653 77]

6 hours ago, Person_Random said:

Pain. 

Those were some really nice times... I remember just dumping my crystals every which way to get a good load of augments the day before they were hauled off to the containers for solitary confinement. Ended up saving way too many crystals. Ahhh, really miss the times...

Honestly, augments today just make the game a downright pain to play. It's not fair for non buyers. Like me. 

[a1653 77]

The prices are just ludicrous. Here's a question: What's better: buying an augment or getting an mk7 turret or hull? If you have the crystals for only one of them and are at, say, the rank of major general.

[Spektrix 440]

legend says that Person_Random is still stuck at Leutinant Colonel

[a1653 77]

Person_Random!!!! Defend yourself!!!! We want to hear your retort!!!!

Edited April 18, 2021 by Person_Random
Removed caps - please refrain from using too many in a sentence. Apparently, balancing caps on the head can be a bit dizzifying ?

[Person_Random 4,991]

2 hours ago, a1653 said:

Honestly, augments today just make the game a downright pain to play. It's not fair for non buyers. Like me. 

I have to agree - they're all crammed in Ultra Containers, which makes it quite difficult to obtain. And when you obtain a new augment, it might not be the one you want. Quite unfortunate indeed.

2 hours ago, a1653 said:

The prices are just ludicrous. Here's a question: What's better: buying an augment or getting an mk7 turret or hull? If you have the crystals for only one of them and are at, say, the rank of major general.

Personally, I would go for improving your current equipment to Mk7 and beyond unless the augment of interest will provide noticeable benefits you really want/need. For example, say, fi you are intent on buying Smoky Autocannon as a Smoky main, sure. But if the augment and turret don't match up or just won't translate into a huge benefit, it's probably better to stick to basics and bring up your equipment.

18 minutes ago, Spektrix said:

legend says that Person_Random is still stuck at Leutinant Colonel

LOL

Well, here I am. I haven't got the motivation to rank up or play as of recent - I've got more exams and some other workflow things to manage recently

[a1653 77]

Just now, Person_Random said:

I have to agree - they're all crammed in Ultra Containers, which makes it quite difficult to obtain. And when you obtain a new augment, it might not be the one you want. Quite unfortunate indeed.

Personally, I would go for improving your current equipment to Mk7 and beyond unless the augment of interest will provide noticeable benefits you really want/need. For example, say, fi you are intent on buying Smoky Autocannon as a Smoky main, sure. But if the augment and turret don't match up or just won't translate into a huge benefit, it's probably better to stick to basics and bring up your equipment.

LOL

Well, here I am. I haven't got the motivation to rank up or play as of recent - I've got more exams and some other workflow things to manage recently

Give us the link to your profile!

[Person_Random 4,991]

3 minutes ago, a1653 said:

Give us the link to your profile!

Pick your ham sandwich:

Forum Profile

Player Ratings

For a life hack on the latter (lIkE anD sUBscRiBe iM a GeniUS), simply click this arrow.

Anyhow, enough of the sandwich talk... we should get back to augments.

[a1653 77]

He is! He's still at Lieutenant Colonel! Why?!

Edited April 18, 2021 by Person_Random
Removed caps once again - the cap store owners might call the forumods on us if they find too many rogue caps flying around here, so please refrain from overusing them ?

[a1653 77]

@Person_Random, you are an elaborate version of At_Shin! And the caps store is in America by the way, for that's an American term, and I'm in New zealand. No cap store here. Why do we have to, to put in At_Shin's simple, robotic manner, "Please refrain from using all capital letters"? What you are doing is bringing back stalin with a purge and purging the english language of it's capital letters. All letters highlighted in yellow have to be thrown into the gaols (stalin's back) and replaced by lower case letters. 

Edited April 18, 2021 by a1653

[Far-away 13]

On 4/18/2021 at 9:13 AM, a1653 said:

@Person_Random, you are an elaborate version of At_Shin! And the caps store is in America by the way, for that's an American term, and I'm in New zealand. No cap store here. Why do we have to, to put in At_Shin's simple, robotic manner, "Please refrain from using all capital letters"? What you are doing is bringing back stalin with a purge and purging the english language of it's capital letters. All letters highlighted in yellow have to be thrown into the gaols (stalin's back) and replaced by lower case letters. 

How's Kane Williamson 

[Tanker-Arthur 2,971]

On 4/17/2021 at 3:36 AM, Spy said:

I truly enjoyed 2016, I remember playing 24/7 back then. 

:D

Same here XD

I miss those days. 

[Tanker-Arthur 2,971]

Not gonna lie, with the exception of the Railgun status effect augments and the critical damage update, Tanki seems to be going down a relatively "good" path with updates this year.

I honestly hope sometime in the future, we will have the original Rare and Epic Augments/Alterations have their original 2018-2020 prices again (20,000 - 235,000 crystals)
If Adrenaline stays, it can retain it's 245,000 crystal price.

And it would be so cool if the premium alterations were added to the garage for the price of, I guess 300,000 crystals, to be fair. (Albeit Smoky's new alterations feel more like the 2018-2020 ones though)



 

[Tanker-Arthur 2,971]

On 4/19/2021 at 11:41 AM, Tanker-Arthur said:

Not gonna lie, with the exception of the Railgun status effect augments and the critical damage update, Tanki seems to be going down a relatively "good" path with updates this year.

Spoiler