Hello, in the light of the recent recognition in the news that the current anti-cheat mechanisms still require further improvement I have one question. How can the players remain sure that during the battle critical hits of any given Smoky are both random and within the limits of the weapon specification? I mean apart from Smoky every other weapon inflicts damage within the much narrower margins, hence a lot easier to notice any suspicious tampering with the code. Smoky at any moment may deal any arbitrary number of critical hits, which may equally be a perfectly fair behaviour, or an outright cheat. Obviously the current need for the anti-cheat system improvement is a clear evidence that just the word of the developers cannot always be trusted 100%. They also are human beings, their knowledge is not absolute and they can make mistakes just like anyone else. I'm looking for proof with facts, not hot air marketing promises. 1. How the other players are supposed to see now that any given Smoky is playing fair (e. g. critical shots are 1 in 12, not 1 in 5? or maybe 50% of the shots were clean misses, but critical shots always were on target suggesting that they were not dealt randomly after all)? 2. How the other players will be able to see that any given Smoky is playing fair after the new anti-cheat mechanism is in place? TIA :tank:

From now on I hold the marketing department of TO directly responsible for the abysmal failure of popularity of half of the gun stock: Ricochet, Firebird and Shaft. Until now it was just an obvious miscalculation of the rebalance designers. An understandable human error partially corrected by the subsequent adjustment of the powers of Freeze. Now with the help of the "professionals" the mistake is made into an official policy of disservice to the project and its community. Very disappointing.

Out of 30 million registered players only a negligible fraction voted and suddenly Railgun is so much ahead. I have little doubt that the marketing department behind the scenes is hard at work making the fixed result look so realistic, so believable... keep doing the good work! :)

Hi, I think that this voting idea is a sign of something going very-very wrong somewhere. In my opinion diversity of styles and tactics is the cornerstone of the game. If some hull(s) or gun(s) [or paint(s)] are too popular across the entire community, this means first and foremost that the others are not good enough for the game, the balance is poor already. Now on top of that you're offering a discount to exacerbate the disbalance even further. What kind of logic is that? Just my 2 cents :tank:

The resolution can never be the moderators for 2 very simple reasons: Moderators are humans. Humans make mistakes, loose interest, get prejudiced, need to sleep, etc. The moment one brings in humans the system immediately requires a whole enchilada of arbitration to make sure these humans actually do bother to stick to the rules at least occasionally. Only fanatic humans are maintaining order just for its own sake. The lesser mortals have to be paid for the time on the job. In one way or another the moderators have to be paid. It's no longer cheap when it goes month after month, year after year. It's cheaper to have 2 developers running their anti-cheat code on all the servers 24*7, rather than having on each game server 21*8 hour moderator shifts a week. Cheers :tank:

Looks like they're incriminating you profane language. Oh well, cheer up mate, consider yourself just a chosen one :-) It's just inability to chat and create new battles. One can survive that much just fine (unless in a hurry for one's life, but then this is the least of one's worries).

Well, my friend, if we measure not from the bottom up, but from the top down, then El Cheapo is at his limit of brain capacity like nobody else here! He beats us all in this respect :-)

Are we expressing here our boundless gratitude for the wonderful opportunity of being guinea pigs in a series of double blind experiments? :wacko: :wacko: :wacko: Can anybody point me at any official announcements on this site of the 2 abovementioned fund cuts committed earlier? :blink:

Hello, There was more to the story of Shaft wasn't it? Or have you given up the weapon after it was rebalanced the first time? Also, what about flying in Madness. Thought it became extremely popular at some point in time. Haven't you ever joined in the fun? I think that the new map introduced during the 2011-1012 festive season (called something like "Station" or "Railway station") is also worth mentioning. It was great fun. Too bad they've given up on fixing it and withdrew altogether. I'm still missing that one. And what about that change when they stopped displaying supplies? Hasn't it produced the strongest outcry of protest in the community? Also that neverending war against cheaters is definitely worth a separate mention: at some point in time there barely was a battle without at least one cheater engaged and it was lucky if he was just sitting quietly on some roof waiting for the gold crystal to fall. It looks like a distant history now, but I'm sure that at some point the game was losing that battle qite seriously. Which reminds me that until gold crystals were made falling at random there was a whole sport for players joining in any battle and drugging like hell just for the sake of sitting in the spot waiting for the gold and then leaving the game. When I was playing Shaft these moments were quite some turkey shootouts! :-) Wouldn't you agree that the gameplay has changed considerably since the time the rank limits were introduced? Previously it was all to easy for the higher ranks to score easy kills against some weaker sergeants of the opposing team. Now the higher ranks were forced to play against each other, which was a whole quantum leap more challenging. A number of maps suddenly lost in their popularity to the point, that now the usual choice is quite different from what it used to be a year ago (as one can see in your RIP articles). A part of history also worth mentioning IMHO. How come you haven't mentioned your roaring success with the last year predictions? If there ever was one single reason for me reading the community blog it was just that one great article :-) Cheers :tank:

With an M3 chassis it's different indeed. Also M3 guns are shooting noticeably faster, so with experience the battle situation becomes much more dynamic. Especially on large maps. I's just that you've got a long way to get there and it's not exactly easy at least in times... Cheers :tank:

As long as there does exist the word "barrack" probably on the part of the author it was a deliberate allusion rather than a typo? I'd love to see an editor who needs every single figure of speech explained in layman terms... Wouln't it be better to leave it up to the professionals? :wub:

You just don't know it yet: Shaft was designed able to penetrate weak obstacles. A part of an enemy tank protruding through an obstacle is a sign of the weakness. If shaft hits the spot all the damage goes to the enemy tank. I like it better the way it is now. :tank:

The changes are a complete disappointment I didn't have any problems driving around the trenches Enlarging the passage previously available only to Hornet and Wasp just made the gameplay more primitive without adding any real value I agree that the developers better focus their efforts on making new interesting maps or at least developing CM mode for more maps, rather than spoiling waht was good already in the first place. :tank:

Another totally pointless change. Not as bad as the blur over distance though. A yet another addition to the bells and whistles if only for impressing gullible newcomers deficient in substance their judgements based on first appearance entirely. A creativity crisis among the developers?

Umm, I'm not sure you checked the meaning of a kiss-up yet. Here it comes matey, don't you worry :wub: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kiss-up

Probably this is the way he is dealing with it? At least he is not asking for a napkin or something, just expressed his opinion and gave his reasoning... :-?

Strangely the Railgun is the absolute favourite here, while in battles these days I encounter a lot more Isidas than Railguns or any other weapons. Sometimes Isidas grow so numerous, that they form attack trains of their own... I'd even go as far as stop giving these insects any points for their healing at all! :tank:

Flower is just a regular troll. No need to worry. Simply relax and enjoy... as long as one remembers to wash his hands afterwards of course! :tank:

Check how good you are with an old calculator :P Mrs. Jones was 55 years old and went to the doctor for an operation <punch in 55> The doctor told her they were going to use 37 stitches on her <punch in 37> However the operation was going to cost her $8008. <punch in 8008> Now the question: how it left her?

Kissing up for one. For the other rigging any polls in favour of you know what... :rolleyes: Come to think of it to any unprepared mind out freedoms here are truly truly staggering! :ph34r:

Way too cheap Plastic! B) They really do love you... BUYERS at McDonald's right? :rolleyes:

In my opinion one of the fundamental purposes of the rebalance was to allow some popular guns way too much power (e. g. before the Railgun took on average 3 shots to finish off an M3 Viking, thus allowing the Viking ample time to do some real damage to the opponent, now the Railgun finishes in just 2 shots just about any chassis except for the most slow ones), thus inducing gamers into spending as much crystals as possible on all kinds of protective paints. Also, as long as tournament winners are getting paints with 20% protection for any weapon, it makes sense to have on sale something better still. :tank:

200K crystals is a good approximation indeed and a very long way to go. By the time I earned 1 million points and bought an M3 combo in my garage I still was a good deal below 200K. Unless you fancy paying real money for the hot air my advise is wait wait and wait until discounts. A 25% discount would mean that e. g. after a year of playing you're 3 months ahead into your own future. As for Shaft... the most popular combination I notice is Mammoth. Especially if speed comes second. If you want both health and speed, then Dictator looks like a more attractive option, but why would you want speed? At close quarters Shaft is possibly the weakest weapon. For any reasonable opponent it's obvious that Shaft cannot be allowed to get away alive, So if you rush ahead, then you become the bomb magnet with very little opportunity to retaliate. If you run away, you will be chased until you're finished. The best strategy for Shaft IMHO is to hide out of view as quickly as possible and remain concealed there as long as possible. If you know places, then even Wasp is quite enough. Too bad maps like Camp, Highways and Lost Temple are no longer popular. HTH :tank:

No, nope and triple nay. But yeah, don't give up, keep on doing the good work, you're an inspiration to us... whatever... -_-

Landmines and what? Freeze or another Isida with protective paint?