Good question. I'm not a developer, so I don't know what the decision making process for Isida's alterations was. I just hope that they are improved in the future or that better ones are in the pipe of development somewhere.

If you see a hacker, I suggest first using the /vote command to try and summon a battle moderator. If that doesn't work, record the hacker in action (as you did here) and then submit the footage to the Game Violators section of the forum, where moderators will look things over and take appropriate action. The game's anti-cheat has improved in recent years, but keeping hackers out is a continuous process.

It's the rate at which the rocket can change its angular motion. In layman's terms, it's basically how well it can turn and track targets. Since it has been increased, the lock-on missiles now have better tracking, which will be useful at longer distances.

Woohoo! M3 is properly reddish now! I've missed the old colors for a while. The developers rolled back the colors by 1 modification after the laser sight update; I remember my M1 Shaft being slightly orangish before the update and then having its color changed to the flat yellow of M0 Shaft afterwards. M3 Shaft had the orange muzzle flash of the M2 Shaft, so the red color was gone from the game.

Huh. I've yet to test the arcade damage myself, but the bell curve makes sense since Shaft doesn't have a range parameter (Railgun doesn't have one either). I didn't think of that, thanks for sharing. :)

I think the Shaft update was a net buff. Another change I noticed is that arcade shots have had their damage dropoff added back, with the maximum damage being raised to compensate. My Shaft has arcade damage listed as 602-684 instead of the flat 634 it had previously. This means that it will have problems 3-shotting enemies at extreme distances but will be more fearsome up close. The Assault Emitters alteration will come pretty close to 2-shotting a Hornet now, although still not quite enough.

I'm seeing a lot of interesting ideas in here, it's just that I think a lot of them would be overpowered. I think the M3 alterations will be drastic changes to the turret, maybe adding new capabilities, but not at the cost of wrecking game balance. Or at least I hope they won't.

Heavy Capacitors is great in parkour mode because it can bypass the health kits that everyone spams and you can spam all the repair kits you want while charging up, but in practice you'll probably die and/or your target will run out of your vision before you can fully charge up. You can only catch your targets totally by surprise if they are oblivious to the fact that a Shaft is aiming at them for a good 5 seconds or so or if you charge your shot in advance. If you're not camping, I don't think it's worth it. Against druggers, I typically shoot an arcade shot first to take out a chip of their health, then fire a fully charged scope shot to destroy them. Almost nobody feels the urge to activate a repair kit if they've only taken a tiny bit of damage. It's still fast and allows me to not stay in the same spot for so long. Yes, it's not an instant kill, but most of the time, I'd rather reliably get a kill and survive rather than sometimes getting a one-shot kill and then the other times getting stomped on.

Heavy Capacitors is tricky to use, and using it for your playstyle would be suicide. It's horrible for reactive sniping, i.e. zooming in when you see a target. It's designed to give you some extra punch if you tend to hide in your base with a heavy hull and charge up before you see any enemies around. Take Stinger's advice and just ignore it for now- unless you plan on getting a Mammoth soon. If you don't charge up in advance, the extra power isn't worth it. I'd rather use the arcade + scope shot strategy with a normal Shaft. It certainly feels quicker.

Yes. I almost always equip Shaft protection, but I make sure to equip either Griffon T-A or the legacy Jade module when using Hornet. Getting Railgunned or Shafted in the middle of a nice sniping spree is a killjoy. I usually stay out of the way of enemy Shafts, and if I have to engage, I try to shoot first and then retreat. Heavy hulls are too slow for my tastes. Heavy Capacitors has worked well for me so far, so I don't think I'll be making the switch to Titan anytime soon. I have noticed that Hornet-Shaft has gotten more difficult as the ranks go by, so I'm planning on mostly using Hunter-Shaft in the future.

I'm planning on getting M3 Hunter as soon as I rank up and can afford it. I sometimes use Dictator-Shaft because it's highly stable (especially important if I'm using Heavy Capacitors) despite its large hitbox and provides a height advantage. Hornet-Shaft is still my go-to these days since I like to play as sort of a scout sniper.

Good hunting. To be fair, I was camping and a lot of my kills came from lower ranked players, so it's not quite as impressive as it seems. My D/L in typical battles around my rank is usually around 2.1-2.5. I've recently gotten a new laptop and it plays much smoother than my old one, which is good for sniping since I don't get any untimely FPS drops. Unfortunately, the external keyboard I'm using has some pretty bad issues with ghosting, which impedes my sniping a bit.

Raiden is a good all-round kit designed for medium range combat and crowd control, great for Polygon CPs. Paladin can be used similarly but is geared towards close encounters, so it is better for more offensive use. Refrigerator is good on smaller maps and is great for defense in CTFs, but may struggle on larger ones due to Freeze's short range. Master of the Taiga is great for sustained combat at close to medium range and can be useful at longer distances if you equip the M1 alteration for Twins. Jackhammer will wreck targets up close and is more versatile, but it has issues dealing with multiple targets and supposedly struggles against M3 opponents with micro-upgrades. Rock Climber is a slow but powerful option for defense and midfielding, although Ricochet is a bit tricky to use and is not effective at a distance unless you equip its M1 alteration. Personally, I think that Paladin, Raiden, and Master of the Taiga are your best options out of your list. A look at your profile shows that you mostly use long range weapons; Paladin and MotT will allow you to play at both close and medium range to cover the "gaps" in your ranged ability, and it's just hard to go wrong with Raiden. I would recommend considering the other kits in the garage as well. The new Striker kits (Justice, Challenger, Cosmonaut) look pretty good and would be good choices if you like Striker, and the Hunter kits (Turtle, Prometheus, Vandal, Redneck) are comparable to Viking kits and are extra versatile, if slightly more expensive.

How old is your version of the client? If you have the original version from when it was first released, it will not have the refresh functionality. In that case, you will have to download it again (after uninstalling your copy*) from the Tanki website. *I'm not sure how the Tanki client handles reinstallation. For some programs, you can just run the installer without removing the program first, and it will update the program, but that may not work with others. You can try skipping the uninstall and just installing the latest version in the same place.

I'm debating on whether or not to get the Minus-Field Stabilization alteration for Ricochet. I haven't tested it myself very much, and as a result I'm not sure if it's worth the crystals or not. It seems to have good reviews and is identical in effect to the Plasma Core Accelerators for Twins (which are highly rated), but I'm wondering if the doubled range and velocity is worth the lower rate of fire. PCA is good because it helps you hit your targets consistently at a distance and Twins has infinite ammo, which both help make up for the 20% reduction in DPS. Ricochet is a bit easier to use at medium range, so I'm not sure if the benefit is as great. Any thoughts?

For the most part, Hunter is more stable than Viking now. Hunter is considerably heavier and is more "centered" in terms of shape; it's not as easy for a Smoky or a Hammer to aim at a corner of a Hunter, and you will be rotated less upon impact because the edges are closer to its center of gravity. It is easier to "rock" your tank with Hunter than it is with Viking, which is helpful with weapons like Railgun, and Hunter has better handling and acceleration than Viking. Viking is good for players who generally want to play offensively because of the better top speed. Hunter is good for players who are more inclined to midfield or defend because of the weight and acceleration.

Wasp-Twins, probably.

I tried it out the last time the test server was open. The faster rate of fire was fun and it was more effective at closer ranges (still 3 shots to kill a light hull), but the splash damage isn't quite as useful as the normal version (most players aren't clumped up for long, you'll want as much damage as possible in one shot) and it's less handy for fighting people at a distance. If you have an extra 50k (sales!) lying around, it's fun to play with, but it's not an alteration that feels like an upgrade over the stock version (unlike Compact Tanks or Plasma Core Accelerators), so you may be better of MUing your stuff instead.

The rotation speed penalty usually isn't a huge deal if you're using a hull with decent turning speed. Regardless, Slugger gives you a lot more flexibility in engaging targets from afar, so you won't need to worry much about the rotation speed if your targets can't even get close. You might be outmaneuvered by a Wasp on N2O every once in a while, but that doesn't feel so bad when you can send them sprawling with a well placed shot. Your mileage may vary when using Slugger, but I'd consider it to be an improvement over the base Hammer on a lot of maps.

Looking at your profile, you already have enough turrets to cover the entire close-medium-long range spectrum. In the close range department, you have M3 Hammer and Isida already, so I think that getting M3 Striker would be a bigger change of pace for you. Still, M3 Firebird is reliable and performs well, so if you're not feeling very adventurous, it would be a better option. I'd personally take M3 Striker because I've been having a lot of fun with it on my alt and feel like it can do very well once you get the hang of it, but it's not for everyone. If you decide to get it, your first few matches will probably be a bit awkward. Still fun though. Getting both would be the best of both worlds, but that wouldn't leave you with much for micro-upgrades or alterations. You should have around 100k left over after buying just one of the two turrets, which is enough for an alteration (if you're interested in any of them) and a good number of MUs.

Tell your friend to contact help@tankionline.com regarding the issue if he hasn't already. If changing his password doesn't work, then securing his account is outside of his ability and he will need the help of tech support (or maybe even the developers) to solve the problem. In the meantime, don't worry too much. Having an account stolen is horrible, but there is nothing that a hacker can do to it that can't be reversed by tech support, which is why seeking help via email is important in all cases of account theft. The tech support employees do not read these forums, so creating multiple topics about your problem here won't solve your problem. I hope your friend can get his account back. :)

At the M0 ranks, everyone is using Striker these days. You know, I initially thought that Vulcan was the best turret for Blue team players on Tribute to use. Now, it seems like Striker is just as good, if not better. Of course, at M0 ranks, a lot of players don't know how to run, but I can imagine that it would be easy to shut down the entire map with a Blue team composed of Vulcans and Strikers.

Striker doesn't have any alterations yet. It's fun to think about the possibilities, though. Aerial Strike- Missile salvo is fired at an upwards angle instead of straight forwards. Can pass over cover and is harder to dodge, but not as good for direct combat. Twin Rockets- Arcade rockets are fired in pairs. Reload time doubled and velocity lowered by 25%.

I wouldn't know, since I'm not a developer (none of us Reporters are), but I think they will come in the future. There wouldn't be any reason to give alterations to all turrets except Striker.