Участник:Pavlyusha
On July 11th, 2021, development for ProTanki began. Many important things have happened since.
The beginning
- «ProTanki» development started on the 11th of July, 2021, and the game later released on the 27th of December. To participate in the newly-developed project, all the player had to do was simply download the client from the game's «website».
ProTanki has since gone through various updates and changes that have fundamentally altered the overall state of the project to resemble the beloved version of the game that existed from 2014 to 2017. The project developers shifted their focus towards a community-oriented approach, starting with the launch of the game's official Discord server.
Year 2021
As the year comes to an end, the project has received numerous updates, some of which have been major game-changers. With the recent 2021 Winter patch, a few bug fixes were made. This patch addressed a bug that caused players to purchase turret upgrades at an incorrect price, and any incorrectly purchased upgrades were deleted, with the crystals spent on these purchases returned to the players. Additionally, new methods for purchasing crystals, including Freekassa, Interkassa, and PayPal, were added to the in-game shop. The patch also improved the stability of the connection to the server, reducing the average ping, and made several other small fixes.
Later on the same day, the developers patched:
- Bugs related to experience received when returning a flag.
- Bugs with the "Control Points" battle mode.
- Overlapping of battles.
- Issues with inverted tank controls.
- Processing errors for payments made to the game's balance.
These updates have aimed to improve the overall player experience and resolve any issues that may have been hindering the enjoyment of the game.
Year 2022
January
This year turned out to be even more eventful and innovative than previous years. The year started with the traditional Christmas festivities, which were warmly welcomed by the then-small community of players who had just discovered the project.
Some might say it was an easy year, but for us, it was challenging and wonderful at the same time... However, just 4 days ago, a New Year's miracle happened - ProTanki is now open! That's why we want to congratulate you with all our hearts on this wonderful holiday and, of course, wish you a Happy New Year! May it bring us all the goodness and strength to move forward.
To celebrate the project's opening and the traditional holiday, there were major discounts offered. These included individual sales on each section of the garage: turrets, hulls, paints, and supplies. The sales started from December 31st, 2021 to January 7th, 2022. Gold boxes also received a decorative texture and an increased value of 2,000 Файл:SmallCrystal.png. Additionally, a special winter Christmas effect was added for rank ups.
Along with these exciting festivities, the map "Happy New Year! (Race)" was added to the game. There were issues with "Control Points" battles not accumulating funds, but this was quickly patched.
The new server platform offered several improvements, including easier updates to new versions. Towards the end of January, the game received its first major update, which was a turning point in the project's history. The update brought several changes, including:
- Improvements to the anti-cheat system, making it more effective.
- Brazilian localization has been added to the game, along with a dedicated community.
- A pause limit of 5 minutes was implemented, so if a player is inactive for more than 5 minutes, they will automatically be kicked from the battle.
- Overhauled the battle list, giving players the ability to select the battle modes they want to see in their list.
- Players names in the lobby have now become clickable.
- A rank limit was added, as requested by players to reduce the pressure on less advanced players from high-level players.
- Localization of the news displayed in the client when entering the game was also included in the update.
- Slightly improved the physics of the hulls.
- The battle fund now grows faster with an increase in the maximum number of players on the map. This is not based on the player-chosen parameter in the battle settings, but on the maximum number of players allowed on a given map. This change will make large maps more relevant, rewarding players for spending more time to reach the combat area from their respawn.
- For team kills, more crystals are now added to the battle fund, similar to points.
- Points are now given not only for delivering the flag, but also for assisting in the delivery.
- Fixed some bugs with props and drop zones on maps.
- Fixed a bug with captcha.
- Fixed some minor bugs that aren't worth mentioning (but sometimes so annoying...) such as invisible ranks of players in your friends list.
In addition to the mechanical updates, a major part of the updates included a much-needed re-balancing of turrets and hulls.
- The recoil of the Smoky and Twins turrets was reduced. The issue was not with the turrets themselves, but with the fact that the hulls did not react appropriately when affected by the turrets. This problem is not easy to fix and we are unsure when we will be able to solve it, so for now, we have temporarily weakened the recoil of the Smoky and Twins turrets, as they are turrets that rely on their recoil as one of their strengths. The rest of the turrets were not critical, so they were not changed.
- The points that Isida received for healing were significantly reduced. The previous scoring formula was flawed and did not match the one that Isis had in the old tanks.
- The melee turrets were re-balanced. The damage reduction at range for Freeze and Firebird was significantly weakened, making them more enjoyable to play. The range for Isis was slightly reduced, but the change is so subtle that you may not even notice the difference if you did not know about it.
After an eventful month that went well, and a grandiose avalanche of updates and re-balances that helped polish the newly-launched ProTanki, January ended with one final surprise, one of the first major events for the game: Helpers vs Players. The event took place on the in-game map Berlin, with 18 players facing off against 18 helpers. The event started on January 28th, at exactly 7:00 PM Moscow time. The battle was played in CTF, meaning the players had to capture the most flags in order to defeat the helpers. The helpers played on the red team, while the players played on the blue team.
In the end, the players emerged victorious, with a score of 3-2 in favor of the blue team. The event was a huge success for its first of its kind, marking the pathway for other major events to follow.
January was marked by the addition of product kits into the game, which was the most highly anticipated event since the launch. In addition to the kits, several other changes were made to the game:
- Upon re-entering a battle, one death is now added to the player, making it useless to try to re-log into a battle to maintain a positive K/D ratio.
- A bug with crystal and gold boxes in "Control Points (CP)" mode was fixed.
- Overhauled paints. Both their protections and prices have been adjusted to more reasonable values, as well as the ranks from which they are available. The average price, especially for high-level paints, has been greatly reduced. Paints that were moved to lower ranks, which resulted in them becoming nerfed and their price dropping significantly, will be removed from players' garages and their full price, which was prior to the update, will be fully returned. The affected paints are Tundra, Love, Savannah, Python, and Taiga.
- A pop-up message now appears when a player receives a gift.
- When earning points for a kill, the enemy hull is now taken into account. For shooting down a light tank (Wasp or Hornet), the player now earns 20% less points and experience, and for shooting down a heavy tank (Titan or Mammoth), on the other hand, 20% more. The same applies to the growth of the battle fund.
- Linking one's in-game account to their Discord account to receive a role and access the rest of the Discord server is now available to players who have achieved the rank of Master Corporal.
- The dependence of the battle fund on the map size (maximum number of players) has become even greater, albeit slightly.
- The Railgun and Freeze turrets have been slightly altered at upgraded levels M1 and M2, with changes to their specifications, price, and the rank from which they are available.
- Isida has again received a significant decrease in the points its owner receives for healing team members. This may not be the last change, and further adjustments may be made until Isida no longer dominates team battles.
- All M3 equipment has moved up one rank, with some even moving up two ranks. The progression now resembles a flat and linear progression, whereas previously it was purposely convoluted to Marshal due to the lack of kits. Now, with their release, this is no longer necessary.
Along with the aforementioned updates, gifts were introduced to the game, further enhancing all sections of the garage.
Due to the lack of a parkour mode, a rule has been added to aid players during parkour events. This rule can be found in the "#game-rules" channel on the Discord server, under the "Gameplay" section at 2.1.9.
Despite the numerous events and updates in January, there were still some issues that needed to be addressed. For instance, setting enemies on fire with the Firebird turret still doesn't work correctly, making the burn effect too weak. The developer responsible for fixing the Firebird was said to be away for a prolonged period of time and did not make it in time for the update's release. Additionally, some persistent bugs remain in the game, but the development team is aware of them and is working on releasing patches to fix these bugs as soon as possible.
February
February started off relatively calm compared to January, which was filled with a lot of mechanical and quality-of-life updates. However, this did not mean that the development had stalled.
- On February 6th, a quick patch was released that addressed some minor bugs, such as the issue of "infinite duration" of supplies and bugs related to mines. The friends list was also updated, fixing some problems in the "incoming" and "outgoing" sections that were not displaying correctly.
- Additionally, when making an in-game purchase, players now receive a notification instead of an empty message.
- The chat ignore list has also been improved and now functions as intended.
Nine days later, on February 15th, the development team announced the arrival of Valentine's Day festivities. The event included:
- Paints were discounted with 35%.
- Three new Valentine-themed gifts: Valentine, Cupid, and Golden Harpoon.
- Themed decorations.
In addition to the festive decorations, the game also received a major update to the product kit system, with the introduction of the rotation system.
- The developers announced that 10 new kits were added, and the randomness of the kits was adjusted. Now, getting a rank doesn't reset the timer, but gives the player one random set from the newly opened sets, without removing the previous ones from the garage. Kits now become unavailable for sale one rank lower, making it less likely for players to see irrelevant kits for their rank. The M0, M1, and M2 kits now unlock one rank later, making it easier for players to save up for the desired kit and reducing the advantage for donors. The range-limit of many kits was significantly narrowed, meaning that at each particular rank, the kits will be available less frequently, making it easier for players to get the desired kit. The timer is not reset with the rank, which means players will receive the new three sets much more often.
Along with the update to the product kits, the developers also released a comprehensive list of every available kit.
There were a few other minor changes that were included:
- A new settings menu has been introduced, with sections divided into tabs for ease of navigation. The control settings section allows players to customize mouse sensitivity and key bindings, and the option to disable "show damage" has been added.
- Improved the anti-cheat system.
- Game errors will now appear less frequently.
- Fixed several minor bugs.
- Control Point (CP) mode has been added to all maps, excluding Duel, Ping-Pong, and a few others.
And while not all of that was as eventful as January, the Valentine's Day celebration was still loved by many as the second major event held in ProTanki. It contained regular holiday-themed discounts and decorations that helped establish the festive atmosphere.
However, there was more exciting news from the development team. They announced a major update to the Repair Kit, which now allows both Isida and the Repair Kit to remove the burning effect caused by Firebird and the freezing effect caused by Freeze.
A little historical background: February 23, referred to as Defender of the Fatherland Day, was once called Red Army Day. Where there is an army, there are tanks. Consequently, all tankmen can rightfully consider this date their holiday, even if their tank is just an image on the screen of their monitor.
During the holiday, the chances of gold boxes dropping were doubled, meaning they were twice as likely to drop. There were also a plethora of new themed gifts within the garage, festive decorations, and regular discounts of 30% on all turrets.
This briefly concludes February and marks yet another milestone in the history of ProTanki.
March
March in ProTanki started off rather normally since all the developmental issues and other bugs had been taken care of, leaving little behind for the developers to catch up on. However, that didn't necessarily negate the active development that was still happening behind the scenes. Exactly 8 days into March, the game received a major update to polish the overall product, alongside the celebratory theme of International Women's Day.
- In honor of International Women's Day, the development team had prepared something special for the players:
– 35% discount on hulls. - Holiday-themed gifts.
The major update, which the team announced, included:
- Improved game pause. Players' tanks won't spawn in battle until the pause is removed.
- Changing equipment in battle is now possible, and players can move from a battle to the list of battles or garage.
- Players can now log in using their attached email when entering the game.
- Fixed minor bugs.
However, as pleasant as that patch was to the player base at the time, there existed an inconvenience that left the players a bit perplexed.
Due to the collapse of the ruble exchange rate, the development team was forced to raise prices for donations in Russian rubles.
- So far, despite the fact that the rate has already collapsed by as much as two times, prices have been increased by only about 30%, but in the future, depending on the situation, this may change.
With that aside, the game had a steady pace throughout March, with "International Women's Day" being its only celebratory festival at the time, with no other remarkable notes...
Until April arrived - and it did so in full swing, approaching the players with a month packed with surprises and other pleasant contests and events that would compensate for the then uneventful March.