Shaft controls are working fine on my end for some reason. I'm using Firefox, maybe that has something to do with it.

Yeesh, tried out Isida a moment ago. I think it basically lost the "lock-on" capability it had before, which was really useful. I think they should change it so that the Isida beam will "lock-on" to the point that it first touches, at least if that's technically possible. If that's not possible, the change should probably be reverted.

If the feedback on this thread is any indication, I don't think mouse users will have any advantage over keyboard users anytime soon.

Not a big fan of the mouse controls. They seem to be quite buggy, so I think I'll stick to keyboard for now. Something to remember: the mouse controls are optional, and they're disabled by default. If it's glitching out for you or you dislike it, you can go straight back to using the good ol' keyboard controls. That hasn't always been the case. Remember when they first pushed out the system that ends battles earlier and it didn't work well at all? They removed it from the game for tweaking. If this update pans out badly, there's a possibility that they might pull it back to fix the issues.

I hope a 50% sale comes up soon- I really want to get M2 Shaft. It ought to be very good- faster rotation speed, much higher damage, faster reload, and a nice orange color. And I think this is my 2000th post, so yay!

I've seen 2-3 people with the Mosquito kit (they had M2 Wasp at 3rd Lt) so far. None of them knew how to use Wasp at all (I actually question if they've even used Hornet). They didn't turn their turret that much, flipped themselves needlessly, and one guy even drove off the map several times. If those are the type of people that got the Mosquito kit, I wouldn't be too concerned about game balance, tbh.

I've forgotten how fun Shafting can be- just had a quick match on a Highland CTF, quickly became the alpha sniper. M1 Shaft's reload time feels really slow now, but it's nice to quick-snipe people. I tried a bit of offensive Shafting today, and while it's hard, it's very satisfying every time you get a kill.

Tried driving M3 Viking on Skyscrapers during test server open testing. Nearly fell off multiple times. Tried driving M3 Dictator on Skyscrapers during test server open testing. Didn't have any problems.

OK, I took a look at my garage, and it looks like my Vulcan has 10 micro-upgrades on damage (purchased on a sale), so I really underestimated how many upgrades I put onto it. Those 10 upgrades probably aren't a reasonable investment for most people. That said, it doesn't take a lot of them for Vulcan to be powerful. Even a vanilla Vulcan can do some serious damage. Realistically, if you want to get the most bang for your buck, you should wait for a sale and then do the first few on damage, and maybe a little bit on the impact force. They'll make a noticeable difference. A fully micro-upgraded M2 Vulcan would be exceptionally deadly against M2s, but I'm not sure if it would last until Field Marshall, when M3 Vulcan unlocks. tl;dr: wait for a micro-upgrade sale, upgrade the damage a bit, upgrade the impact force a bit, that will probably last you until you're underway in the M3 ranks.

Not really. After the minimum damage range, it uses weak damage, which will taper it off relatively quickly. Thunder's still better for long range combat than Smoky, but it's no Shaft/Railgun.

There isn't a fixed time frame for that.

FTFY

There are one or two other good Red Team Shaft spots on Silence- I like to hang out on the back bridge. You'll have reasonable cover and a clear line of sight to quite a bit of Blue Team's side. There's an area somewhere in the middle of the bridge where you can snipe people going up the 3 ramps in the Blue base.

An added bonus is that the laser sight isn't fully visible until the shot has fully charged up. Quick-snipes are quite stealthy if used correctly.

I don't have the time to look at my garage right now, so I can't give you the specifics, but I put maybe about 3-4 micro upgrades onto the damage. It makes a noticeable difference- before I did the micro upgrades, I had to overheat slightly in order to take down a M2 Viking at close range. I can now do that without overheating, although just barely. Also, note that I mostly meant M3 Hornets by "low M3s". They're not much harder than M2 Hornets to take out with Vulcan, but you can do some serious damage to M3 Vikings with Vulcan if used correctly. I'll get back to you tomorrow with the specifics. :)

I think they need to shorten the range slightly- Hammer's shots can actually land hits at ranges you'd use a Ricochet. The other stats are fine as-is, so I don't see the need to retouch anything else.

StarSeries battles use a special light format, which lacks variety but streamlines tactics. Hulls allowed: -Wasp -Hornet -Hunter (limited to a handful per team) -Viking (only 1 per team, I think) Turrets allowed: -Railgun -Smoky (note that the Smoky they use is a neutered version that doesn't have critical hits) Paints allowed: -Any paint with Railgun or Smoky protection, but your total Railgun protection as a team shouldn't exceed 100%. Smoky protection is unlimited. I don't enjoy watching Starladder matches that much since a lot of the gameplay is repetitive, but I guess it's easier to judge skill- everyone except for the goalies in soccer (football) is supposed to use only their feet to kick for a reason. Unless you have a high account, you were probably using M0 Hunter, which is quite frankly a bad hull. It doesn't have the same handling or speed that the higher modifications have. M1 and M2 Hunter are a very different story- they handle very well and are decently fast. I think that having extra health with Isida is good if you want to focus on healing. Yes, you want to get to your teammates quickly, but at the same time you want to be able to survive long enough to make a difference. Hunter-Isida is a good combat medic- it's fast enough to reach most of your teammates (especially medium/heavy hulls, they'll benefit the most from healing) while still remaining rugged enough to stay alive in the toughest of situations. Well, each to his/her own. If you feel like Hornet-Isida is the best combination for you, by all means go for it.

Not really. I'd say Shafting can help you conserve drugs in a pinch- you're going to be sniping your enemies from afar, and often away from danger, so you won't be popping those health kits or double armors as much as a Firebird player would. Now that I've ranked up, I'm waiting for a sale (hopefully 50%) to get M2 Shaft. Maybe Digital too while I'm at it, since it's a camouflage paint with good stats, but it's not that necessary.

Never heard of it. Does it contain Vulcan? There's also this ungodly-hard-to-pronounce kit:

http://i.imgur.com/2UmcZxA.jpg wooooo Got that ranking kill with Thunder. I switched to Vulcan shortly afterwards, but it did pretty well.

For Noise: Turrets: I recommend Ricochet (range is good enough here, high DPS, bouncing shots are nice), Hammer (high DPS and impact force), or Isida (healing, leeching health from enemies). Hulls: use just about anything you want here, but you're going to want something with good health. For Highland: Turrets: you can use just about anything, but Twins, Smoky, and Thunder work well for all-round combat. Hulls: any hull will work well here. Up to personal preference.

Most of you have a pretty good understanding of how to be a good teammate or a respected opponent in the many battles that we play in, but it's apparent that not everybody knows how you're expected to act on the battlefield. This guide is here to lay down some ground rules that should generally be followed in-game, and it might come in handy for newbies or people who aren't well versed on them. Teammates are very important; even if you're a one-man-army, you can't be everywhere at once, and you won't be able to win against a well-organized enemy team. Because of this, it can be especially frustrating when a teammate isn't following expected conventions. General guidelines: Use your head when deciding what do to. In CTFs, if you see enemies coming towards your base, you should probably stay (or go) back and defend if your defense isn't adequate enough to deal with the threat. It's problematic when a player decides to attack the enemy base when their teammates are having problems back at their own base. This is annoying because your teammates won't have the support they expect from their team. Occasionally, you might be able to pull off a clutch flag grab and force a stalemate, but that's very risky and it probably won't happen. Don't take health boxes if there's a damaged teammate nearby and you don't need it, especially if that teammate is a heavy hull. If you're at full or close to full health, picking up a health box isn't going to do much for you, while it can mean the difference between life and death for a teammate at low health. This is especially important for damaged heavy hulls because they don't have the speed to run away when they're low on health. Try not to push friendly Shafts. It's really annoying to get pushed while scoped in, and I've missed countless shots because a teammate got in the way or pushed me when I was trying to fire. Oh, and it's really a jerk move to push a Shaft off of his/her sniping spot without a good reason- I've gotten pushed off of the Blue Team ledge in Silence multiple times, and it's really, really frustrating. For that matter, don't push friendly Railguns either. Most Railgun players know the inconvenience of lining up a perfect shot, charging it up, and then getting pushed by a teammate at the last second, knocking off your aim and making you miss. General rule of thumb: if a teammate using Railgun is aiming or charging up, avoid bumping into them with your tank. Don't try to block your team's flag carrier in CTFs. A lot of players sitting on top of their team's flags try to push the flag carrier when he/she comes in to capture the enemy flag, since they want to force the flag carrier to drop the flag and then capture it themselves. This is a bad idea for several reasons: 1) You're wasting time. The more time you speed trying to harass the flag carrier, the less time your team has to capture more flags. 2) You're leaving the flag carrier more vulnerable to attacks. 3) Even if the flag carrier does drop the flag for you, you'll only get a tiny bit of XP and score, since those values are determined by how far you carried the flag. So yeah, don't do it. Try not to block the rest of your team either. A lot of heavy hull users unintentionally block their teammates too, thanks to their large size and weight. If a teammate wants to go past you, move over if there's space. Support teammates who need help. In CTFs, if a teammate is trying to go for the enemy flag, give them a hand by escorting them. It's often a suicide mission otherwise. More generally, if a teammate is in a firefight with other enemies and you have nothing else to do, just help out. Even if you can't save them, it shouldn't be too hard to finish off the weakened enemies. People working with a team expect support from a team, and if that doesn't happen, they can be frustrated. Don't be a mult or saboteur. This means not going AFK for long periods of time, not using terrible equipment on purpose, not trying to flip your teammates, and not trying to help the enemy team. Now, let's go to turret-specific guidelines. Firebirds: Try to defrost frozen teammates by torching them for a little bit with your flames if you can spare the fuel. It's not a big deal, but it can save lives, since a frozen target is much easier to hit or snipe. Freezes: Remember to cool down burning teammates- it'll only take a second or two to hose them down to normal temperature. A lot of Freezes seem to forget that they have this ability. It's also worthwhile to stick near a friendly Vulcan if you have nothing else to do. You'll be able to counteract any overheating that they might experience, and because of that they can put out massive quantities of firepower. Isidas: Isidas have a lot of responsibilities. Always try to heal teammates when possible; Isida can be a deadly weapon, but it's still meant for support. It pays off to take a look around you once in a while, since a lot of teammates seeking healing when try to run after you. Isidas are especially important when there are Firebirds or Freezes around, because it's the only turret that can heal and defrost/cool down at the same time. I've encountered several bad Isidas who didn't do anything while I slowly burned to death in front of them- don't be that guy. Isidas can also stick near friendly Vulcans to cool off and heal them, and it's especially nice because Vulcans tend to take a lot more damage than other turrets (inability to take cover while firing, overheating). Hammers: Be careful with your shots, since they carry a lot of impact force. You might flip or disorientate a teammate by accident if you don't aim correctly. If you're emptying your clip to induce reloading, try to aim at walls and not in the direction of a friendly player. I have had my aim messed up by a careless teammate while charging up a Railgun shot, and that's really annoying too. Shafts: You're stationary while sniping, so try to pick a sniping spot that doesn't impede your teammates if possible. If your position is blocking a flag carrier, exit scope mode and let them through. For day-to-day battles, this should be about it. Want to share a suggestion of your own? Feel free to post a comment here. Thanks for reading!

Maybe that 1000000000 mile driven car has better fuel efficiency than your Ferrari. Few people doubt that Ricochet is a good weapon, but you need to know that it's not the best thing around for any situation. You'll get outsniped by Railguns and Shafts at long range, outgunned by Vulcans at medium range, and roasted by Firebirds at close range. It has flaws like any other weapon, something I'm not quite sure you've realized yet.

10/10 would heal teammates again

Did you rank up or buy M2 Railgun?