I was in an Industrial Zone TDM earlier today. There was one Shaft on the opposing team (he started out with M1 Shaft/M1 Hunter, switched to Viking for some odd reason), so I decided to pull out Hunter/Shaft/Dirty. From that experience, I learned: Shafts in scope mode are oblivious to the laser sight if they're not looking your way. Really easy to catch them off-guard. There are several spots on Industrial Zone where you can hide your laser sight, giving you a big advantage. If you snipe people quickly and when they're not looking your direction, it's harder for them to find your position. Camouflage helps here.

Nice! I'd recommend using imgur for pictures in the future; it has no advertisements (tinypic has a lot) and it's a lot faster to load.

Light Hulls-How to Choose, How to Use Hornet and Wasp are currently the only 2 light hulls in the game. It should be no surprise to anybody here that there is a huge debate about which is better. A surefire way to start an argument is to say "Wasp sucks, Hornet is better" or "Hornet sucks, Wasp is better". Let's go into detail with these two rival hulls, and see if we can settle this debate once and for all. Wasp and Hornet seem pretty similar at first glance. They're both fast with low health and stability, since they're light hulls. As such, they're often interchangeable on the battlefield; a Wasp can fulfill the same role that a Hornet can. The difference between the two hulls boils down to their health, speed, and handling. Wasp is the fastest hull in the game, and it has excellent maneuverability at the cost of low health and weight. Hornet is a bit slower than Wasp, but it makes up for this with increased durability and more weight. Hornet users argue that Wasp is simply too fragile and unstable when under fire, and Hornet is more manageable. Wasp users argue that Wasp's agility allows the user to avoid taking damage, which mitigates the unimpressive health and stability, while Hornet ends up taking more damage because of its lower agility. Both sides have a point, but I think it's safe to say that they're both equally effective in the right hands, and the choice between one or the other is personal preference. Let's talk about Wasp first. Wasp If you want to take a look at Wasp's statistics, they're in this spoiler. Wasp is very popular with low-ranking players, since it's cheap and quite effective. It becomes more rare as you go up the rank ladder; I've seen only a handful of M2 Wasps in my Tanki career. In CTFs, Wasp is the premier flag-capturing hull, thanks to its unsurpassed speed and maneuvering. You can run into an enemy base, grab the flag, and get out before anybody knows you're there. It's also good for attacking in any battle mode, since you can get to the front lines quickly and keep the pressure on the enemy team. Wasp is better suited for navigating tight spaces than Hornet, since it has a fast turning speed and little drift. It's a bit easier to drive overall, which can help if you're trying to run away or attack quickly in cramped spaces. Wasp's full potential comes in large maps, where you can take advantage of the speed. Small maps, like Duel or Island, are typically more suited for heavier hulls. Wasp's weaknesses come in the form of the low health and low stability. It can't survive long under heavy fire, and it's easy to mess up the aim of a Wasp with a weapon like Smoky or Railgun. This means you generally shouldn't attack enemies from the front; instead, try attacking them from the sides or from the behind. Take advantage of any cover you can get when driving; doing so will significantly improve your survivability. On Wasp, the turret is mounted near the back of the hull. This means it goes well with the peek-a-boo tactic that many Railgunners use, as long as you poke the back end out and not the front. This also means that you might have trouble attacking enemies when rounding corners. As a result, a large number of Wasp users drive their tank backwards. While it may look a bit odd, it can make targeting more convenient. Wasp is cheap and early-unlocking at M0 and M1. At M2/M3, it unlocks late and is more expensive, meaning it's more of an investment. Only go for M2 or M3 Wasp if you know you're going to be satisfied with it. tl;dr: If you're confident in your ability to avoid being hit and enjoy unsurpassed maneuverability, Wasp is the way to go. Hornet If you want to take a look at Hornet's statistics, they're in this spoiler. Hornet generally unlocks fairly early at each of its modifications; this is especially true with M2 and M3, where it's the first hull unlocked. This, and its low price, contributes to its wild popularity at ranks both high and low. Popularity isn't necessarily equivalent to quality, however; while Hornet certainly is a useful hull, it's not a perfect hull that makes everything else obsolete. In terms of use, it's like a more rugged, but slower Wasp. You can use it for anything you'd use Wasp for, like capturing flags or simply being a very nimble combatant. The speed is still very good, but you will occasionally lose flags that you might have captured with Wasp. Hornet is more suited for straight-up combat than Wasp, so in a sense it's more versatile. To put it simply, Wasp is better at doing what it does best, but Hornet is better at doing what it doesn't do the best. Hornet has its fair share of weaknesses too. Many complain about Hornet's drift; it tends to slide when making tight turns. This means that you'll often bump into map objects (or even fall off the map) if you're in a hurry. It gets even more pronounced if you use Speed Boost. You'll get used to it after a while, but most maps are still easier to navigate with a Wasp. Another complaint is the stability; it's more stable than Wasp, but still not exceptionally so. Combined with the drifting, many players end up flipping or falling off of maps due to a combination of instability and enemy fire. These issues can be mitigated by practice, making Hornet a very deadly hull in skilled hands. With Hornet, the turret is mounted in the center of the hull. While this means you won't have to drive backwards for convenience, this also means more of your tank will be exposed when doing peek-a-boo tactics. Take this into note if there are Shafts around, since they can snipe even a tiny sliver of your hull. As I've stated before, Hornet is cheap and early-unlocking at all of its modifications. It's very good if you use it at the rank it unlocks, but it starts to lose some ground as you rank up. You can mitigate this with micro-upgrades. If you're tight on crystals, then this would be a good choice at M2 and M3. tl;dr: If you feel the need for more health than Wasp but still like speed (or want to play XP), use Hornet. I hope this article helped you out. Feel free to give feedback by posting a reply. Thanks for reading!

If you aim correctly, you can throw off the aim of a M2 Hornet with an M1 Smoky. I've done it before.

I don't know why Monte Carlo gets so much flak. I think it's a good map.

Agreed. I personally think the old one looked better.

I don't think anybody could/would play for 24 hours straight. It would be extremely hazardous to your health; sleep deprivation is NOT a joke. I think it lasted 24 hours since it was created right after the server restart, and people kept on joining whenever someone left.

The Ideas and Suggestion section rules say this: "Ideas regarding refund and / or selling items are not accepted."

Good luck with that. Note that it has to be perfect Russian, which takes a long time and lots of effort to learn.

....I get the feeling you want to be a tester because you can play with M3 Hulls. Here are the requirements (copied from the info page in the FAQ about the test server): Only Russians can become Testers. What? Racism? No, it's not that. It's because the game is Russian, the Developers are Russians - and the Testers must be able to communicate with them, meaning that they must speak perfect Russian. The most important thing you should know if you want to become a Tester: Never ask anyone/anywhere the question 'How to become a Tester?' If you do this, you will be denied forever and you won't become a Tester. Why? Because a person who wants to be a Tester must know all the Rules and FAQs. If you ask anyone/anywhere the question 'How to become a Tester?', it means that you couldn't find the answer to this question yourself (the answer is this topic that you're reading at the moment) => so, you couldn't find this topic yourself => you don't know all the Rules and FAQs => so you do not deserve to be a Tester => you will not become a Tester. Another question that you should never ask, whether you want to become a Tester or not, is: "Can you give me an Invite code?". Never ask that. People will just laugh at you... An Invite code is composed of several letters and numbers: every tester has its own combination, and it can't be disclosed to others. After entering the code, the tester needs to log into his account: so, even if for some lucky reasons you manage to get a code you still won't be able to get the password. Now you understand that being a Tester is a huge responsibility. It's not just fun - buying all M3 stuff and ranking up. Being a Tester is a hard job.

You just noticed? Thanks, anyway!

That's actually not that far from the truth in my experience, since Twins has more impact force per second than Thunder. I find it hard to get a bead on a Twins user if I'm using my Railgun on a light hull, while Thunders usually don't have enough impact force to mess up my aim much.

Smoky has a faster reload, so you'll be less likely to be caught reloading when screw up a Railgun's aiming. I've tried many times to do that with Thunder, and it hasn't worked out well. When I do use Railgun, Thunder is often my least concern.

Staff are given avatars, but that's it. There's no option to set a custom profile picture.

There is no official M4 modification, but people call fully micro-upgraded M3 equipment M4s.

My M1 Smoky has more impact force than a M3 Thunder k

I don't like the "only PRO battles can be made private" idea. This would mess up a lot of private parkour matches; not everybody wants to or is able to afford a PRO battle pass (or pay 500 crystals), and public parkour matches almost always just become combat matches. It's also a problem for clans. Otherwise, the updates are good.

I use Shaft with Hunter now. It's mobile, but has a lot of health. If I use Dirty paint, I have more health than a Dictator against Shafts.

There's something weird; my M1 Shaft is shooting completely yellow shots, the same color as M0 Shaft, when it should be yellowish-orange. Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Thanks to Greyat, I've figured out the visibility of the laser pointer. The bad news is that the enemy can see it if you're pointing it at or near them. The good news is that it's hard to see if you're not pointing it directly at an enemy. This means if you want to retain your stealth, you should not directly aim at your enemies when charging up; keep them on screen, but don't point the laser close to them. When you're ready to fire, make it quick.

The laser sight is out now, so I think us Shafters should adjust our tactics. Hazel-Rah put together a list of tips a Shafter could use; here's they are.

First page! OK, my feedback so far: I'll have to get used to the laser sight. It's fun to scare enemies with it, but my camouflage strategies are a lot more difficult to pull off now. I will do my best to adapt and survive. Who knows, I might be even more effective since my enemies won't expect being sniped without a clear warning. Night mode is great! I think it's been handled quite well, as it gives a new dimension to combat in the game. It facilitates more stealthy and covert tactics, which are not used in day maps for obvious reasons.

Ricochet gets a bad reputation because a lot of less-skilled people manage to do somewhat well with it. A skilled Ricochet is FAR more dangerous than a one who hasn't figured out how to turn his/her turret. I intend to get skilled with Ricochet when I acquire it.

Hunter's quite agile at M3. Especially if you MU the turning speed. Drifting stops being an issue at M2 and up from what I've seen. Not sure how you can call it fat when it's thinner than Viking and Dictator :/