Developer’s Diary #12

Hello tankers! We’d like to start by congratulating you on joining us for the beginning of the Tanki X Open Beta Testing!

The game forums are now open to everyone. More importantly, the game ITSELF is now available for everyone to enjoy. So, from now on, you DO NOT need an invite code to register and play the game.

Additionally, Tanki Online players who reserved their nicknames before the 8th of August, can now register a Tanki X account using their registration code, and play with their Tanki Online nickname.

 

A Huge Update

With the start of the Open Beta Testing, we’ve also introduced a very big and important update.

We’ve added the long-awaited Iran map. This small town, built on an oasis, with palm trees surrounding the water pools, will help you fully immerse yourself in a middle-eastern atmosphere, where the wind brings sandstorms, and ancient fortresses can be seen on the horizon. To familiarize yourself with this map, you will need to study it very carefully, especially the narrow alleys and underground tunnels.

Besides the introduction of Iran, the update also brings a selection of skins for your turrets and hulls.

First of all, the requirements for receiving a skin have been lowered. The first tier of turret skins will now be available upon reaching upgrade level 20. Hull skins will become available at level 15. The second tier of skins becomes available upon reaching upgrade level 50. Eventually we will add skins for players who reach upgrade level 80.

Another important thing we did, is the expansion of second tier skins.

These now include 5 hulls: Wasp, Hornet, Hunter, Titan and Mammoth.

They also include 8 turrets: Firebird, Isida, Hammer … Smoky, Twins and Ricochet … and Railgun and Shaft.  Additionally, we now have 3 new categories for skins: Steel, Golden and Legendary. Golden and Steel skins are differentiated by the corresponding metal plates, which will give every tank a unique look.

For now, the only Legendary skins available are the XT Hornet and Railgun combination.

This set gives your tank and equipment a special and extreme look, like that of a tuned sports car, with LEDs, armored plates shaped like wings, and of course, spoilers that spread out when you activate speed boost. With the XT skin your tank becomes unique in every way.

The important thing to keep in mind about “XT”, “steel” and “golden” skins, is that they will not be restricted by upgrade levels. Players will be able to buy them from the shop as soon as they register their account.

 

The New Premium Currency

We’ve established the production and processing of X crystals, and players can now buy them from the shop. Normal crystals —as before— can be acquired by participating in battles… catching gold boxes… and synthesizing X crystals.

The majority of items in our shop can now be purchased only with the premium currency, while some others can be purchased using either normal, or x crystals. For example, two new paints will only be available for purchase with x crystals. These are the black and matte paint called “Coal”, and the white paint called “Polar”.

The Pink paint can be acquired using the normal currency, but the new paint called “Jade”, will be available for either blue or red crystals.

Additionally, X crystals will allow you to acquire new and unique shells for the most popular turret, “Railgun”. One of these is called “Smoke”, and it leaves a bright white trail that takes longer to fade than the standard one. Another one is “Mist”. It leaves a black trail that will fill the hearts of your opponents with dread.

You can find the complete list of changes on our forum, in the “Game Updates” section.

 

Concluding the Closed Beta Testing

Now, before talking more about our future Tanki X development plans, we would like to take a final look at the work we did during the Closed Beta Testing phase. Our development team implemented over 300 updates. Fifty of these introduced new content, while the rest were technical releases.

The first testers and streamers from our community started testing the game back in 2015, even though the official start of the CBT was on the 1st of February 2016, which is when we started to invite other players.

During this time, we received more than 300 thousand Closed Beta Testing applications, but only 63 thousand received beta keys.

Around 100 thousand battles were played, and our players collectively earned and spent more than 10 Billion crystals.

According to our statistics, the most popular hull of the CBT was “Hornet”, while “Mammoth” placed last on the popularity chart.

For turrets, the most used was of course “Railgun”, while “Vulcan” —unexpectedly— placed last, earning the title of “least popular turret”.

Among maps, the most popular was of course the classic “Sandbox”

The most popular game mode was “Capture the Flag”, with “Deathmatch” placing second, followed by “Team Deathmatch”.

On top of that, we worked hard on optimizing the game to ensure that it can be enjoyed even by tankers with lower spec PC’s. And this is only the beginning!

I was lucky enough to be one of the first to work with the Tanki X community during the first active testing stages, and it was a really cool experience. The first beta invite giveaways, hundreds of messages from people offering their help, from fan site creators to people wanting to become moderators. We also received lots of messages from cheaters who helped us find weaknesses in our game. I am sure that with a community like this, we can reach any goal.

 

We’ve managed to run and test several versions of the game balance and game economy, and reach some important conclusions. What the CBT has shown us, is that our main goal should be that of achieving a fair and balanced game.

Of course, we would like to thank all closed beta testers for half a year of patience dealing with balance changes, bugs, lags and cheaters, and for actively testing Tanki X!

 

Even though we are now opening our doors to everyone, that does not mean that the testing is over. In fact, we’re depending on the continued support of our players!

Open Beta Plans

We have a long road ahead of us, but our development team is motivated and positive about our future plans.

The plan is to regularly introduce new content during the Open Beta Testing. In terms of customization, we already have skins, paints and shells, but we want to expand this range further, with elements that will change the appearance of the tank, such as stickers. We also want to add the ability to leave a graffiti on a wall.

We’re also planning on introducing brand new elements — special devices for tanks, which will activate special abilities for turrets and hulls.

Very soon, during the OBT, we’ll be improving the mechanics of battle creation. We are planning on adding “quick battles”, as well as the option to create custom lobbies to play with friends.

These are just a few of the features we plan on introducing before the official release of Tanki X. New maps and other cool things will be added to the game, and we’ll be telling you all about them in upcoming episodes of our Developer’s Diaries.

Additionally, all the latest news is available on our website, and on our forum, which is now open to everybody. Come join us there! Bye!

And of course, to conclude in style, we’ve created a brand new Tanki X trailer! If you haven’t watched it yet, go check it out. It’s awesome!

Bye!