UTanks
Encyclopedia
uTanks is a free massively multiplayer online game that uses a unique active turn based strategy gameplay created by a 4-person volunteer development team known as Bad Sheep Gaming LLC. Originally inspired by its predecessor Battlefield which was discontinued when its hosting site bonus.com filed for bankruptcy. The stated goal of the project is to create a game that will combine the best elements of classic turn based gaming and modern elements of fast paced gameplay with a unique game-based platform for social interaction and competition. During its 3 year development the game has gone through numerous updates and content changes, and is currently in open beta testing. A blog and news page are maintained to demonstrate project progress and current events involving the development team. The developers are also active on the uTanks forums. The client is maintained and updated multiple times a week for various changes and bug fixes as well as the addition of new content.
The six different types of equipment include armor shield, duel shot, missile shot, homing missile, extra radar and target beacon. All equipment can be toggled on and off at anytime. When activated armor shield prevents the damage of enemy fire for each attack. Duel shot allows two shots to fire at once, enabling double damage. Missile shots are used to fire over mountains or anything blocking your line of fire and does 150 percent damage of a normal shot. Homing missile targets an enemy and hits them regardless of where they move. Extra Radar is used to scan the entire field around you as opposed to the limited regular radar scan. Target beacon is an added feature that was not in the original battlefield. It allows a player to track an enemy once hit with this shot.
Multiple Tournaments are held on a weekly bases for the duration of 1 or 2 hours. Tournament ending results present the top 25 players which is determined by the same ranking structure. Tournaments are very similar in structure as normal play with the exception of timed play, and fuel and equipment respawn reduced, and recruit GEC raised to 65.
Map Editor v2.0 Was released September 14th, 2011 with the tile sheets for Desert, Grass, and Ice.
In uTanks sometimes organized teams form to increase teamwork and effectiveness in raids. A raid consists of two or more players that decide to target another player of an opposing team in an attempt to deactivate the other player using teamwork. There are three different situations that fall under this category: raid taking, raiding another player, and team battles.
There will be times when a player will be faced against two or more opponents. Once you decide to engage these enemies, you will have engaged in taking a raid. Whether it is an organized team of opponents or a group of random players, your objective should be the same: shoot all of your dual shots and stay alive. You should try to shoot as much as possible, letting your fuel get as low as you feel comfortable with, and then teleporting to a new area to look for fuel and begin the process again. You should always be trying to "empty" your dual shots as fast as possible. When you begin playing for the first time it will be hard to judge how low you can allow your fuel to go against different sized raids, from small raids of 2-3 players, medium sized raids of 5-8 players, or on rare occasions, large sized raids of 10 or more players.
Raiding another player is when you join forces with one or more players in an attempt to deactivate a player together. This is a perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged way of deactivating someone. Just remember, if someone has successfully emptied all of his/her duals, the standard practice is to allow them time to refill their equipment before you continue your assault. Most players will notify the raiders when their equipment is refilled and are ready to take the raid again.
An anti-cheating system was implemented on August 12, 2011 to prevent various issues of players using causing artificial lag in-game and disrupting gameplay for others. In addition to the anti-cheating system, there was a free-kill detection system that was implemented in the beta, but was removed shortly after due to the inability to reduce the false positive rate
. On September 17, 2011 the Bad Sheep Gaming Staff began a covert operation set out to detect and log system challenges in an attempt to rid the game of client side hacking. The system proved successful and resulted in the removal of multiple tanks.
The first line of code was implemented on October 29, 2008, marking the starting point of project development. Just under one year later on October 3, 2009, the project began open Alpha Testing. After over a year of testing and implementing fixes the team went into the next phase of development and began overhauling the coding and graphics. With the overhaul came implemented new content, a new client, and a new site marking the release of the open Beta Test which started on May 20, 2011.
On August 18, 2011, four of the developers of the project; Andy Morgan, Stefan Smolen, Clayton Hall, and Kevin Stowe came together for the first time in Ohio and recorded a 3 part video meeting regarding discussions of the past, present, and future of uTanks. On August 27, 2011, they recorded their first podcast
where they discussed the current focuses of the project and development progress. They released their second podcast on September 18, 2011.
Overview
In the beta each player has five tank slots to create five tanks of their choice. Once the player creates a tank name they can select it, then select from one of the four teams, and then select a map. The player's tank will then be placed within the map and will be faced against three other teams in a unique active turn based strategy. The player must maintain enough fuel to attack, move, and retreat at any given time or otherwise it runs the risk of being deactivated.Features
To assist players there is the use of radar, map, mines, and six different types of equipment each holding their own strategic purpose. Radar is used to find equipment, fuel, and enemy mines hidden throughout the map within the visible range of the player. When accessing the map the player can view other players and fuel throughout the map, as well as use it for instant travel. Mines are used to restrict or slowdown opponents from accessing certain areas or retreating from battle.The six different types of equipment include armor shield, duel shot, missile shot, homing missile, extra radar and target beacon. All equipment can be toggled on and off at anytime. When activated armor shield prevents the damage of enemy fire for each attack. Duel shot allows two shots to fire at once, enabling double damage. Missile shots are used to fire over mountains or anything blocking your line of fire and does 150 percent damage of a normal shot. Homing missile targets an enemy and hits them regardless of where they move. Extra Radar is used to scan the entire field around you as opposed to the limited regular radar scan. Target beacon is an added feature that was not in the original battlefield. It allows a player to track an enemy once hit with this shot.
Ranking
Players will compete against each other based on a numerical rankings system. The numerical ranking system is an algorithm that combines the overall collection of points gathered from attacking their opponents and their tanks individual rank. You start out with an individual rank of Recruit and can be promoted to the final rank of General once achieving all goals set for all previous ranks. All players can also be demoted by deactivation. Once deactivated, you must wait 10 seconds before being placed back in game, and will lose 50 percent of your equipment as well as one rank. Each rank has their own General Equipment Capacity (GEC), the higher your rank the higher the capacity. The same concept is used for fuel capacity.Awards and Tournaments
Players can also obtain various awards of accomplishment to be displayed on their tank. The most notable awards are for finishing in the top three of a tournament or winning a community competition. A tier system for various awards has been discussed and created, and is to be implemented sometime in the beta.Multiple Tournaments are held on a weekly bases for the duration of 1 or 2 hours. Tournament ending results present the top 25 players which is determined by the same ranking structure. Tournaments are very similar in structure as normal play with the exception of timed play, and fuel and equipment respawn reduced, and recruit GEC raised to 65.
Maps
There are currently two constant maps, Blitzkrieg and White Sands that were created from within the community with the use of map editor v1.0. On occasion other maps created by the community have entered the tournament rotation for testing, such as Marshland.Map Editor v2.0 Was released September 14th, 2011 with the tile sheets for Desert, Grass, and Ice.
Raids and Teams
| Team Name | Team Map | Team Color | Team Leader |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Gods | Blitzkrieg | Red | Zeus |
| Da JuicEs | White Sands | Purple | ApplE JuicE |
| perfect10ns | White Sands | Red | perfect10n-1 |
| Snakes | Blitzkrieg | Orange | -AnacondA- |
| Jets | White Sands | Red | F-2 Banshee |
| SPECIAL OPS | White Sands | Orange | DESERT STORM |
| Battlefields | Blitzkrieg | Purple | Battlefield-1 |
In uTanks sometimes organized teams form to increase teamwork and effectiveness in raids. A raid consists of two or more players that decide to target another player of an opposing team in an attempt to deactivate the other player using teamwork. There are three different situations that fall under this category: raid taking, raiding another player, and team battles.
There will be times when a player will be faced against two or more opponents. Once you decide to engage these enemies, you will have engaged in taking a raid. Whether it is an organized team of opponents or a group of random players, your objective should be the same: shoot all of your dual shots and stay alive. You should try to shoot as much as possible, letting your fuel get as low as you feel comfortable with, and then teleporting to a new area to look for fuel and begin the process again. You should always be trying to "empty" your dual shots as fast as possible. When you begin playing for the first time it will be hard to judge how low you can allow your fuel to go against different sized raids, from small raids of 2-3 players, medium sized raids of 5-8 players, or on rare occasions, large sized raids of 10 or more players.
Raiding another player is when you join forces with one or more players in an attempt to deactivate a player together. This is a perfectly acceptable, and even encouraged way of deactivating someone. Just remember, if someone has successfully emptied all of his/her duals, the standard practice is to allow them time to refill their equipment before you continue your assault. Most players will notify the raiders when their equipment is refilled and are ready to take the raid again.
Rules and Cheating
There are numerous ethics that are followed and could otherwise be considered punishable. The most serious offenses is the use of any third-party software to gain advantage over other players as well as having multiple accounts, or logging in multiple times simultaneously.An anti-cheating system was implemented on August 12, 2011 to prevent various issues of players using causing artificial lag in-game and disrupting gameplay for others. In addition to the anti-cheating system, there was a free-kill detection system that was implemented in the beta, but was removed shortly after due to the inability to reduce the false positive rate
False positive rate
When performing multiple comparisons in a statistical analysis, the false positive rate is the probability of falsely rejecting the null hypothesis for a particular test among all the tests performed...
. On September 17, 2011 the Bad Sheep Gaming Staff began a covert operation set out to detect and log system challenges in an attempt to rid the game of client side hacking. The system proved successful and resulted in the removal of multiple tanks.
History and Development
The uTanks development team consists of five people, however some implementations in the project are also in part due to the funding and efforts of its community as a whole. Since the game is still in its beta phase, there are still minor bugs that are being addressed.The first line of code was implemented on October 29, 2008, marking the starting point of project development. Just under one year later on October 3, 2009, the project began open Alpha Testing. After over a year of testing and implementing fixes the team went into the next phase of development and began overhauling the coding and graphics. With the overhaul came implemented new content, a new client, and a new site marking the release of the open Beta Test which started on May 20, 2011.
On August 18, 2011, four of the developers of the project; Andy Morgan, Stefan Smolen, Clayton Hall, and Kevin Stowe came together for the first time in Ohio and recorded a 3 part video meeting regarding discussions of the past, present, and future of uTanks. On August 27, 2011, they recorded their first podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
where they discussed the current focuses of the project and development progress. They released their second podcast on September 18, 2011.