Sometimes I don't even know what to say...

I'm sure pixo knows all about them, golden clients they are called

Please don't take this as a criticism of the content of this thread. This is just my trouble shooters observation of the game. It is applied to finding faults and fixes for nearly any situation.

From what I have observed for the last 4 years it's not the players. It is entirely the game.

First let's just accept that everyone knows that there will be players that exploit every advantage that they can in the game. In any game for that manner. It's just a given. If the developers at PIXONIC are gamers themselves then they knew this as well when they created these "leagues". And yet they didn't build the game so that rank movement exploitation would be impossible or even mildly difficult. They actually made it the complete opposite. They made it extremely easy to exploit the game in this manner and in more than one way.

So it's easy to conclude that rank movement must have been a deliberate consideration by the developers. That it was something that they wanted players to be able to do. Now I don't know if they took all aspects of this fully into consideration. Because I usually have a lot more facts and other information provided by the company and the people most closely involved in it use and development.
If they had done so then that means the game was deliberately built broken with a specific purpose that we have all been attributing to the developers for a while now. To create anxiety and frustration in their free-to-play player base in an attempt to try and pry money from them so that they believe they will be capable of competing with these exploitation players in some degree.

We also have to remember that the game was originally a strategic combat game. Exploitation is a valid strategy in combat. So actually in that regard it is still living up to its game description.

That's basically my point: If you leave openings for people to take advantage, they will - because human nature is ?poo-poo?ty. And, as we the players are seeing every day, War Robots players are taking advantage and will continue to do so until the openings are closed. That needs to be a priority more so than tinkering with weapon/bot rebalancing, IMO.

P.S.

I think one of three things is going on:

1) Pix employees don't play their own game, so they don't know how bad it is (and don't take player feedback seriously); or,

2) They know how bad it is and just can't fix it, because tech or perhaps because the player base is too small to strictly separate leagues; or

3) The conspiracy theories are right and everything is working just how Pix wants it because it drives revenue.

Bottom line, my opinion is that if Pix is sincere about making a course correction, it starts with eliminating or at least severely restricting the ability to tank. That first, before anything else.

The "leagues" are a big part of the problem from what I can see. I have never liked nor have I paid attention to them as an actual player ranking because they are actually meaningless except where PIXONIC uses them to match players by those arbitrary rankings. I'll use myself as an example because of this if that's alright because I'm not trying to maintain any particular rank and I simply couldn't care less about doing so. Because it actually is meaningless as far as showing player skills and that's what is important to me.

I have a lot of equipment in my hanger. And I certainly make use of it as I see fit. So that means there are times that I am running what some consider a "tanker's hanger". And if I run it for a certain amount of time then I am very likely, nay certainly, going to lose those ridiculous league points and drop through the rankings. And that's whether I would be trying to do so or not.

For example if I'm running a beacon capper hanger my damage per match is going to drop. Therefore my final position in the after match reports is most probably going to be in the lesser three instead of the upper three. If I get caught in a greater series if losses then I'm positively losing more ranking points than I gain even if my win rate goes up. You can almost never win 7 matches to 1 loss and that's what a -22 point loss at the bottom of the list forces a player to do. Because you're only getting +3 points for a win if you are bottom listing. So anywhere in the bottom three for a period of time will definitely drive your ranking down.

So there comes a point where I've run my beacon capper hanger until I've gotten bored with it. My ranking has dropped from Diamond 2 to Silver 1. But my win ratio is 60% or better. I know of this because I've done it several times. But now I'm wanting to play with my brawlers, the ones that took me to Diamond 2. But I'm in Silver 1. I'm supposed to limit myself now? My brawler equipment is at the exact same upgrade level as my beacon capper equipment. But now I'm suddenly the bad guy for simply playing through my hanger? I've already stated the rankings don't mean anything to me.

Another example. Last time I used my main Android profile I was exclusively squading with Bui Dui for a week or two. His ranking was two-three levels above mine so we were seeing full squads of better equipment than my own most of the time. My ranking went from Diamond 2 to Silver 3 and I was busting my 「bum-bum」 just to get the #4-5 position in the after battle reports. We were even getting more wins than losses but it wasn't overcoming the point losses for myself. Bui Dui kept moving up while I kept sliding back. It doesn't sound right but that is exactly what happens to many squadmates too if they do so extensively.

Without doubt there are a lot of real tankers out there who are deliberately exploiting the system to their advantage. But there are also a large number like myself too.

Claiming someone doesn't belong in a tier for equipment reasons just doesn't cut it for me anymore. I've run rampant in the Amazon servers with 4/4 equipment right into Champion league. Still there running the same Leos and Griffins that got me there taking on Mk2 12 ST dashbots on a more or less regular basis. Recruits play with Champions in every match and it is awesome. PIXONIC should do the same to the Android and iOS servers. 1-2 Diamond-Champion players on each team and a mix of other players. Sounds like a nightmare to many but the good players quickly realize that they can easily rank up if they play smart and tactically. Screw the 「smart person」es. They're just cannon fodder until they quit. Who cares about the players that can't comprehend the meaning of getting the beacons anyways? I sure as hell don't.

Probably being naive, but when I heard about Adrian's trip, it gave me a little smidgin of hope that positive changes could be ahead.

I will take number 3 Alex..........

PIXONIC has never cared that there are tankers. That is certainly a given. The report form does work however. It is just that PIXONIC isn't using it for what we wanted to believe they are.

If you see someone self-destructing at spawn to then drop their last bot and go kamikazi then PIX will actually do something about it. If you see someone only drop one bot in the match and you see that player get killed early on and they never re-spawn they will do something. But only if it can be proven.

I used to report these kinds of players regularly. I would record exact times and dates along with screenshots and player IDs. I would track these players in the game and watch as their activity dropped dramatically as they hit the Low-Priority Queue.

But...never once has any completely obvious super-tanker that I have reported ever dropped off in activity. Not even once.

I'm fairly certain that PIXONIC is using the tanker reports as a sort of monitor to gauge player reactions to the new league dynamic. They have fully expected that there were to be players rampaging through Bronze-Gold with 12/12 hangers since they started the "leagues". Now it is just even more pronounced. I'm of the opinion that they actually expected all of the older players to move on so that newer players coming in were not made aware of the changes though.

It's not conspiracy theory, that's pretty much known truth to anybody who has spent a day working in a corporate world. Gather people around who work 8-5 and ask them simple question: what do you prefer, have balanced gameplay and make x or push these aggressive sales tactics and make 50% more? Which one do you think people will chose? If you were working there which one would you chose?  

And this is, after all, video game. What about similar thing in pharmaceutical industry? They have life-saving drug and all of sudden they jack up the price by few hundred percent. 

His ancile is not mk2, so this doesn't make him a whale or a tanker...

just kidding

You may say that it is the game...
But WHO is actually the one who is tanking? The game isn't - it's the PEOPLE!

I have never had any regard for the "leagues" nor the ranking associated with it for it has no bearing whatsoever on player skills. It's been consistently regarded as a measure of equipment by the very statements made by so many complaining about tankers running their Mk2 upgrades in Bronze-Masters. So I have always run my hanger according to what I want to play. I think most players do this but maybe not to the degree that I do. I pretty much keep my most used equipment on an even keel. I'm a little OCD and disorder gives me the heebee-jeebees.

I took an Android profile to Diamond 2. Did it with 6-10 equipment throughout my hanger. But if I use my beacon capper hanger with the same upgrade levels for an extended period I tend to lose more ranking points than I gain due to less damage potential and placing 4-6 on the after action reports. Any point losses always outweigh the gains in these end of match placements. And at a 50-60% win rate you still lose ranking points even if you are gaining Au.

So I drop from Diamond to Silver, maybe even Bronze if I run this beacon capper set up for any length of time. I'm gaining a lot of Au. I've even got a pretty fair win rate. But my losses are canceling out my wins by up to 7 to 1. That's hard to overcome. That means I must average 4-7 wins for every loss to just maintain my points standings and retain my "league" ranking. Ain't going to happen. Especially not if I keep playing my full beacon capper hanger. So I'm now tanking my ranking. Not deliberately. Remember, I'm still winning more matches than I lose. But because game design I'm still losing ranking just because I choose to run a certain hanger set up. Guess what happens when I switch back to my brawler hanger set up once I get bored chasing beacons. Same upgrade averages but my damage potential has suddenly gone up dramatically. I'm not only a tanker now I'm a clubber as well.

Yes, players exploit the game. That's what humans do. Survival of the fittest in all things, even gaming. It's how we've managed to be top animal on this ball of mud.

PIXONIC has all of the responsibility to control every aspect of this game. Especially tanking because they have allowed it to continue for well over a year now without doing a damn thing about it. Putting it off on the players is a weak cop out by PIXONIC. Worse, some actually believe it.

Just wanted to ask. Has anyone tried starting a GoFundMe page in attempt to play War Robots properly?

I too don't let any of the over 70 bots in my garage rust away in there, but I have never in all the months since Jan 2017 drifted farther than 1 league level from where I was initially placed and I still get to play what I want whenever I want. I also ceased upgrading my heaviest gear then, as I realized that the leagues were a joke. Capping your way down to Bronze and then brawling your way back up to Diamond 2 when it is in your power not to simply means that you are a tanker. You should embrace it then, as you seem to. You certainly are not helping to make the game better for other pilots who mainly wish for good competitive matches and you are most certainly not sticking it to Pixonic in any way, unless you feel that driving new players from the game will help Pix realize the error of their ways. 

Well, as you say, we are all free to do as we wish.