The game might be losing players, I don't have any record of it but it does seem like there are fewer people online at the times I play than this time a year or even six months ago. Which wouldn't make sense considering it is summer break for a lot of people. That said server size is a bad measure. The size of a server is only limited by its bandwidth and hardware. Each time they reduce the total number they say they increase the capacity of each remaining server accordingly. If they wanted they could hide which server a game is hosted on from the end user and display a single list of all currently available matches across all servers.

Mostly I just wanted to restate it in a way that emphasized the fact that ranks are the one thing that can not be bought.

More likely the devs discretely updated some code to break all the extant hacked clients. They'll be back and in greater numbers and the devs will fix things again. It is the cycle for all multiplayer games. I'm just glad the devs are still trying, under similar circumstances in almost every other game devs would have let things get messed up in order to focus all of their resources on the unity version.

The existence of ranks are the only thing that keep this game from being completely pay to win. They limit the gear you are allowed to purchase until you are more experienced. They have the added benefit of shielding you from most of the noobs, hackers, scammers, and other riffraff at ranks one can achieve in a weekend with a throwaway account. My only suggestion would be to remove the bonus xp cards from the store so that rank at least is still earned rather than purchased.

One surprisingly common application of fly hack that I have seen is to become unflippable. Players using this will immediately right themselves when flipped over. Railguns turning completely around from upside down in less than the time it would take to charge a shot. I've seen players do this repeatedly in maps, usually jumping around carelessly. It sucks because it is so subtle that you don't notice the majority of the time it happens. Unfortunately I think a lot of the hackers at higher ranks exclusively use stolen accounts. The account owner probably does not even know the account is compromised. You see it a lot of the time when someone you know stops moving their turret or misses easy shots, probably a noob at the helm that managed to crack the password. A lot less to risk, and usually these same scammers brag about the accounts they have and beg to share yours.

A working kick system Getting rid of gold boxes but increasing the battle fund proportionately Being able to directly buy crystals for other people Any of the new supply ideas.

Was playing madness, using viking. An opposing player using a hornet lagged under me and lifted me up, no big deal they were inflicting trivial damage. When suddenly I self destruct out of nowhere. Presumably new death zones slightly above the map cause it, but the way it is now it can radically alter the tactics of the game.

Even as it is now this is worth it. I hope they narrow it down soon to cut back on the random self destructs though

At least they are making changes to weed them out. It'll always be an arms race and you can never get 100%, even steam with invasive programs proactively searching for hacks can't, but you can stop the 95% who are just average people who just download something. I am pleasantly surprised, I was a bit afraid that they'd let the game go to pot and concentrate the entirety of development resources on the switch to unity. However we've had both balancing and anti hack updates recently, so they are still working hard for the flash community.

Close matches where both teams stay and genuinely try.

I agree, if only because everything moves and turns slower.

If I am understanding this correctly you want a mass unbanning of players who had their accounts banned for hacking and other violations? If that is the case I could not disagree more strongly.

I use xsplit since I have it for my other hobbies. I'd suggest obs as a free alternative. It is pretty simple and straightforward if you are familiar with rtmp streaming.

Not just a liability but it is not usually fun for the low ranking person either. Granted it must be hard to level up using wasp exclusively given the large level gap between up m1 and m2. Towards the end you can be easily one shot by thunder without drugs, so your best strategy may actually be to stay stationary and heal a small number of people from cover. Still it is more efficient to pick levels where you are as close as possible to the high range of the allowed spectrum. Occasionally you see people who are not mults 7-8 ranks below the maximum, either drugging heavily to keep up or losing terribly.

@smokeyh2 Mostly I am afraid that it will become too popular and anti thunder paints will be even more popular. It will get nerfed in the near future but all the players who invested heavily in expensive paints will still wear them. Aside from that balanced gameplay is in everybody's interest. Most people aren't looking for an advantage.

I don't like the idea of a complaint book. It is important for players to feel they are part of a community in which devs listen and respond to their opinions. It makes them stay longer and pay money more often. Condensing grievances into a single thread makes it even easier to prune complaints made elsewhere and force players to dump them all in some long thread that no one will read. As long as it isn't spammy it'd be better to let players voice their complaints and proposed solutions in the appropriate section.

Flash is certainly able to do this. Despite its poor reputation flash is still one of the most reliable and versatile engines out there. Red5 and tinychat show that flash voicechat is simple and has been around for ages. That said it would lag slow computers even more and probably would not be useful for most players.

m3 Thunder is comparatively weak because it is one of the earliest m3s to be unlocked. This is why the MUs improve it so much by m4. It definitely seems OP at my rank, not sure about endgame although I am only about halfway to m4. One shotting medium hulls seems a bit excessive. Best counter I've found is MU'd prodigi since people don't seem to notice how much thunder resist you have until it is too late. I'd also say the rebalance changed the character of the turret. Higher burst damage with a slower rate of fire impinges heavily on rail's play style, and the splash damage nerf reduces the most unique feature. At any rate I'll enjoy the buffs while they last.

Probably aren't even ignorant. You see it across all ranks and you see people continually try and correct them. I think it is a meme that spread through the community. Some find it funny, some find it lucky, while others hope it will distract the enemy team by making them feel compelled to reply to it. Just like those guys that drug but accuse everyone else of drugging.

The only reason I will ever stay in a badly losing battle is because I buy crystals. If a free player stays in hopeless situations the reward for losing is so trivial they won't be able to afford gear. In fact to earn crystals quickly being able to predict the winning and side of a battle and join it is probably more important than playing well. There remains an inadequate reward for the losing team and it creates an imbalance in games, a majority of maps end prematurely when a team quits.

In game voice chat is a horrible idea. It works alright in something like dayz but that is it. Organized players already have vent, teamspeak, mumble, or skype. Unorganized players won't benefit from it and probably speak four different languages on any given team anyway. So the result is extra bloat and conflicting key bindings.

Item descriptions used to have character. While they weren't as practical as the current descriptions they were interesting and gave you a feel for the mindset behind the game.

The players are just acting in their own best interest. Why stay and get farmed just to drive up a battlefund that you will only receive a small part of when you can find a map where you will either win or is close enough to have a proper game. The rewards could be tweaked to provide enough incentive for players to stay.

The min/max damage thing when they released the balancing notes really surprised me. I had never realized that you really do not do the amount of damage listed in the stats. It'd be logical to assume an even distribution, but look at the notes the devs posted for the update: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1zpPsJqEZ6NaPXbXC3r1u9SmdnzMzCCvqARgld7kmVZE/edit?pli=1#gid=0 So all along there has been a hidden category for each gun for the percentage of shots that do minimum damage. For Thunder 50% of shots do the minimum. For smoky it is 10%, for vulcan it is 30%. So when comparing thunder on paper it'd be best to remember the actual damage distribution within its range.

I am not sure how much more strongly we can condemn the actions. Maybe there will be a votekick or more sophisticated timed kick in unity that they are waiting to roll out. Until then the best you can reasonably do is to adapt your behavior. Leave losing battles rather than drive up the battlefund. Selectively play shorter battles where mults are not economically viable.