That's ironic considering your profile name :)

Tanki is becoming less a game of skill and more a game of buying. Today, I was in a CTF game. 10 flags to win the game. We were leading 7-0. Then, some druggers come in and capture a bunch of flags and the score was 7-6. We finally won 10-9 but this game is getting ridiculous. Of course, it suits Tanki fine because they profit from it but they should at least cut the BS and stop acting like this game is all about the players. Say it like it is. It doesn't take much skill to win at Tanki now unless you call hitting keys 1, 2, 3 and 4 a skill. Of course, you can enter a pro battle but that costs 5000 crystals and do you know how many MU's I can do with 5000 crystals??? For it to be truly fair, pro battles should be free just as the battles with drugs are free. Or just say it like it is without any BS and there will be more respect.

They probably read this thread during their free time or when they're stressed and have a good laugh lol

Yeah, Shaft is a great weapon for massive D/L's :) I'd say M1 is 10-40 D/L on a regular day and you could be immortal on a good day. I tried Stadium once but didn't like the fact that there was no cover but I'm going to take your advice and try it out along with the others.

The thing is, on bigger maps, like Silence, you can pull D/L's from 10-40. I use a Titan M2 hull and my turret is a Shaft so I'm a pretty slow moving tanker and respawning far away from where you'd like to be can be a little annoying :) I guess I should have asked what are the big maps that are good for Shaft? I've honestly only played in a few maps and don't know them really well. I really wish there was a way for us to explore maps without playing...even a blueprint image, so we can plan our game. Now what happens is you go to a map that's new to you and you can hardly figure out your environment because you'll be destroyed if you venture too far.

What are some good maps for the Shaft, in your opinion?

As a Shaft, the best position on the blue team in Silence, IMO, is the red pipe on the top ledge. I'm talking about the end of the red pipe that is furthest away from the flag. Make sure you lay a mine on the ramp on the far end so that no one sneaks up on you. From that place, you can see tanks coming up from the lower ramp as well as the ramp in the middle and even the red teams area where the red container is behind the red shaft camping spot. Also, if you go forward and peek around, you can even see the high ramp and the flag which means you can defend the flag. From that spot, you can virtually see every inch of the blue map with minimal movement.

If you're talking about the red team camping spot behind that wall, just stick a mine or two on the other side of the wall, near the opening. If you position them right, even a freeze won't be able to get to you. It's only the longer range weapons like Thunder, Smokey, Rail, Shaft, Rico, etc. that can hit you from the ramp on the left...but they are also sitting ducks at that position :)

I don't understand what the loading bar does. I clicked on the 'Garage' button at the top and was watching my network traffic and saw no inbound/outbound traffic, at all. If the loading is done internally, then it's taking an unreasonably long amount of time and is poor performance.

It's probably going to be slow the first few times. Once your browser begins to cache the page, it will probably load as fast or faster.

Isidas and Freezes usually destroy me because of the slow rotation. I have no idea how to get around a Freeze, apart from destroying it from afar...you could also use a paint to protect against Freeze. As for Isida, I figured something out: For the Isida to attack you, the turret needs to be pointed almost directly at you. If your hull is perpendicular to the Isida and the Isida is very close to you (almost touching), just move your hull back and forth, at random. The Isida is going to have to turn the turret to point it at you. During that time, your Shaft will reload after which you can shoot again and, hopefully, destroy the Isida.

He's probably just one of the developers with an account that has special privileges. Did any of the developers actually deny knowing about this tank?

Lol there are some shaft haters. More often than not, there'll be a member of my own team who comes up to me and tries to push me or just be a general nuisance...no idea why. I love when this happens in Silence because I have a little trick up my sleeve: 1. I let them come close to me. 2. When they begin to push me, I push back till I have them up against a wall. 3. I then aim for the top of the turret and shoot. 4. Since the shaft has a powerful impact force, the front of the hull (if it's a light hull) will elevate for a second because of the impact of the shot. 5. As the hull elevates, I quickly move forward so that the hull is now perpendicular to the floor and parallel to the wall so the hull can't move. 6. I let my turret reload and then as soon as I move back a bit, the hull starts to fall but before that, I aim and shoot at the tip of the hull. 7. Now, the hull is stuck in that position and he can't usually do much and most often will have to self destruct so that he can respawn. Shaft is such a cool weapon. So many hidden tricks because it's such a versatile gun. The above is hard to explain so I've tried to illustrate this with text, below :) | = wall - = floor < = your hull ^ = your own team members hull who's trying to mess with you | | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ | ^ <<<<<<< |----------------- That is how it will look like at step 7 (as detailed above).

Oh yeah, that happens very often too. I wish the developers would change that because you have to wait for 8 seconds till you can get off your next shot. Thanks :) The fact that it's a fun game is a huge incentive.

You know what really pisses me off? Railguns on your own team who keep bumping into you. They don't understand that when you're in sniper mode, the turret moves super slow so if a Railgun or any other player bumps into you, you lose your aim and it takes a long time to get back to the target. I've had so many chances to destroy flag stealers but other players have knocked me off my aim and we've lost...ugh.

Railgun's are a bit more easier to tackle than a Thunder, in my opinion. Thunders are difficult only because of the splash damage because they can get you using that while you're reloading. Railguns usually take a second to fire the shot. What I do is, I time it so that just before the shot is fired, I hit the top of the turret which causes the rail gun to lose target and shoot elsewhere. This is why when I upgrade my turret, I make it a point to also upgrade the impact force of the Shaft, it really helps when the Railgun user is using a heavy hull. A Railgun (or any turret) with a heavy hull can be hard to kill when there's a good Isida right next to them though. In such cases, I usually go for the Isida first. In general, whenever I play, I always go for the Freeze or the Isidas first. They are the most threatening turrets to a team.

If you click on it, it should enlarge. I had 99 kills and one loss. M1 Shaft and M1 Titan. I completely agree. When playing CTF, if the opposing team is stronger, I usually just protect the flag. I sit far away from the flag so no one suspects I'm defending the flag and the moment the opponent comes close, I destroy them. There were a few games where I was more or less the only one guarding the flag and we've won. I do sometimes use mines with the Shaft because the turret is so slow, I place mines in my blind spots.

It really does depend on the way you play. I'll admit that there was a bit of camping involved in the attached image but even if I don't camp and move around but hide after I shoot (as a sniper does), I will typically have a D/L of 15-30 and be among the first 3.

I definitely feel this, as well.

True, it's about your style of play. One other reason I like impact force is, if you play CTP on the Silence map, and you're on the blue team, when an opponent grabs the flag and tries to jump off the ledge, just shoot the top of the hull as he goes off the edge and he's almost always going to land upside down, giving your team mates enough time to get to him, destroy him and restore the flag.

I'd place impact force at #2 just because if you've got another long/mid range weapon aiming at you (like a rail or thunder) and you hit their hull at a corner or the top, you can mess with their aim when they're trying to shoot you and in doing so you can probably prolong your life a little. I also like to snipe from afar so rotation speed isn't a huge deal to me. I guess it all depends on your style of play.

Heavy hulls are not terrible if you're in the mood for some hide and seek :) Apparently, I'm not allowed to attach images that don't have a file extension :/

I completely agree. For hide and seek, the new shaft is incredible.

The Titan can be pushed away? After the new physics, I believe the Titan is the most powerful tank. Apparently, it can now push away the Mammoth. Were you referring to the Titan? I had the same problem in one game. I had a nice D/L and then I got kicked saying "Foul play was discovered"...I came back to the game and obviously lost all my stats so I didn't get many crystals :/

I used to use a Mammoth with a Shaft. Now I use a Titan. When I was on a Mammoth and a team mate bumped into me while I was in scope mode, I didn't move much but on the Titan, the whole hull moves and I lose aim and sometimes even come out of scope mode. That's extremely annoying :/ What is a rank up party? I hear that a lot.