I'd like to give my thoughts on this matter and critique a few arguments I'm seeing here. Please read the entire thing (yes, I know) before you respond to make sure this won't turn into a flame war. -Not everybody who complains about supplies is a low rank player. I see a lot of medium ranks and quite a few high ranks who like this update or can live with it. -I don't play with ranks significantly higher than me (I wouldn't even think of joining a battle with Brigadiers and up), yet before the smart cooldown update I saw mindless, compulsive drugging even in Warrant Officer battles. A lot of those aforementioned compulsive druggers weren't that skilled when their supplies time out either, so I don't think the "drugging shows skill, drug wars always are based on skill" maxim applies to a large proportion of battles. -"If you don't like drugs, play PRO battles". There's quite a few people out there, like me, who want to be able to occasionally use supplies when needed, but don't want to fight full-scale drug wars where 234 is as basic as driving your tank forward. Smart Cooldown accommodates us very well. -Keep in mind that even if players are a lower rank than you, they're still people. I've seen a lot of "the people complaining are all low ranks, so their opinion is inconsequential". -I understand that buyers need to be able to get an advantage in-game, since there wouldn't be as much of a point in buying otherwise. The issue was that people who were able to purchase the most supplies and the best kits were able to win almost every battle. There's always a gap between buyers and non-buyers. It was too wide before this update in my opinion. It might be a little bit too narrow right now, but it's a lot closer to balanced than it was before. That said: -I understand why a lot of people here enjoy drugging. Drug wars are fun if every participant knows how to drug well and has abundant supplies. It's just not fun when some (or most) players don't have abundant supplies; if/when they run out, they're not going to have much fun. -I fully support having an extra option in PRO battles for players to disable Smart Cooldowns. I myself probably won't use that option much, but it would satisfy most of you heavy druggers. If you have enough crystals to buy lots of supplies, you should be able to pay for a pass, right?

I'm fairly certain a large proportion of the people who said they would quit haven't quit yet. I don't care that much if they leave or stay, but if you make a promise, you should keep it. ;) Anyway, this sale is nice. The Mammoth and crystal discount isn't going to help me that much, so I await the Isida/Isida paint sale. Hopefully I can rank to 3rd Lieutenant soon; that's the rank where M2 Isida unlocks, and it'll be a great healing tool and close range weapon for a while.

Game_Over I don't know if that's taken or not.

I disable everything except for the skybox. With mip-mapping off, it's easier to see enemy tanks at a distance, since they aren't blurry. I keep the skybox on since it looks pretty.

They're still going to have to remove the hull kit, you know. Everything inside it is unlocked much later than the kit itself, so it has to go.

I wasn't aware this was the "talk about the drug update" thread.

I don't care about Alien's looks that much, but I would not want to be caught dead with Safari. It's just too ugly.

IYD hasn't unlocked Electra yet. You can get it on Trom and Vette, it seems.

Alright. Current shopping list: M1 Isida/possibly M2 Isida Alien (still tentative on this one; does 23% protection make a big difference?) If I buy M2 Isida, I'll be broke, but crystals aren't that hard to earn if you have good equipment.

This is why Dictator-Thunder is currently my favorite combination. http://i.imgur.com/M6FKnim.jpg Throughout the entire match, I used only M1 Dictator/M1 Thunder/Tundra. It lasted for almost an hour, and I became the highest scoring player in the last 30 minutes. For the most part, I charged head-on into the enemy base, since Dictator-Thunder is meant for that kind of gameplay. I ended up earning a lot of crystals (this is the most crystals I've gotten from a game so far) and a lot of XP. The guy named 1killers right below me on the scoreboard was using M1 Viking/M1 Thunder and had been in the game longer, so I think it's safe to say that Dictator-Thunder is as good or better than Viking-Thunder. If I can earn XP at this rate, I might be able to snag M2 Isida on Saturday.

What do you think I should get on the sale? I'm getting M1 Isida, since it's the stepping stone to M2 Isida. I'm (probably) not going to rank quickly enough to snatch M2 Isida (I wish I could). Since the Isidapocalypse will commence soon, I might need to get a paint. Would Alien be a good purchase?

Both work pretty well, but I prefer my system. Wasp doesn't lack in speed, but it does in health, so I pop DA first so I don't get mowed down as the gold falls. Dictator doesn't lack in health, but it kind of does in speed, so I pop a Nitro so I don't get beaten to it first.

Remind me to never engage that account with Wasp. Ever. Twin's knockback seriously messes up with Wasp's handling and speed. It's hard to even move forward if there's a Twins firing in your direction. Fortunately, Dictator-Smoky can deal with Twins fairly easily.

Best of luck for that. It's still a long way from M2 Smoky for me. My M1 is good, but I think I'll need to practice more with it so I can still compete with M2s.

"M2 and M2" You might want to fix that.

I'm not really a fan of Twins right now. I liked Rico quite a bit when I was using it in the lower WO ranks, but I haven't been using it at all lately.

Get M2 Smoky. You will not regret it. If you think Smoky is only good because of the critical hit, you are severely underestimating the potential this weapon has. It fires quickly and has very high knockback. There is almost no better weapon for messing up the aim of an opponent, especially with Railguns. If you can utilize the knockback well, you can be an almost unstoppable fighting force on the battlefield. The catch is that mastering the knockback takes a lot of practice, i.e. learning to shoot the corners of tanks at the right time and under stress. That's the skill component. Even I'm not perfect with it. M2 Smoky is good enough by itself that you can practice your Smoky skills while still doing very well. One day, you'll meet a Smoky user who will prove to you that Smoky is not a noobish turret.

Depends on what hull I'm using. If I have Wasp, I pop a Double Armor first and then a Nitro if I have the time. If I'm using Dictator, I use Nitro first and then Double Armor.

..did you miss the entire point of the topic? In the light format for Starladder, each team gets one Smoky. They're a very unique part of the team. Tommy decided to interview a few of them about what it's like to be the team Smoky.

Not yet. I'm not quite old enough. Can you rank to Generalissimo using only M0 Hunter/M0 Smoky/Green?

I'd be lying if I said I liked it. It's far from what I think is the worst submission on this page (*cough cough lance armstrong story cough cough*), but still.

To be honest, this is a pretty poor article. It's just randomness and potty humor. I'm pretty sure most of us don't like reading neon colored text either.

These types of questions belong in the Questions and Answers topic in the FAQ section, just FYI. 1) That's Generalissimo. It's the highest rank in the game. It's on the list, just look for it. 2) The test servers (there are 6 of them) are servers where Testers (players testing new game mechanics), well, test things. In that server, testers can do pretty much anything they want; they can add crystals to their testing account, add XP, etc. Since you're not a tester, you're not allowed to enter the test server. However, occasionally the developers will open up the test servers for "Open Testing"; you can then register an account on the test server, play, and give feedback. During Open Testing, your account will be a Generalissimo, and you will have 1 billion crystals. 3) An XP battle is a PRO battle where all players use Hornet-Railgun. Supplies and Micro-Upgrades are turned off. In addition, there are restrictions on paints. See http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=188485&hl=+xp&page=1 for more information. I find it strange that a Captain like you wouldn't know this stuff by now.

This isn't the question of the week, OK. Also, you haven't unlocked the M2 Medium Kit yet. There is no way you can have it.

It mostly depends on you. Get paints that protect against the turret you hate fighting against the most. I'd also only recommend buying paints with more than 20% protection against the turret you want to protect against; anything under than that isn't going to help much, and you're better off saving the crystals. I make an exception for Forester and White; they're both quite cheap (500 and 100 respectively) and are great for camouflage (Forester in shrubby areas and White in winter maps).