well, feel free to use an Isida vs a Freeze or Firebird in a drug free szenario (we talk about balance, not about drugging-skills). Try to have a positive D/K ratio vs skilled Freezers and Firebirds.. and then come back and post the screenshots pls. Because I simply can not understand, how a turret that is inferior with damage, should win. There is only a very, very small range of distance between two tanks, in which the firebird can effectively loose to an Isida. If the Isida pilot can keep that distance, constantly, then he has a chance to survive. If his fighting distance is just a little closer.. he is done.

No. Your thunder will reload faster.. but the damage will decrease. the average damage that you deal if you fire constantly is almost the same (talking about direct damage only). You should think of alternations in a way to make a turret more suitable to your playing style. If you play in open defense with a heavy hull and without a wall infront of you, then a lower damage and faster reload is maybe more usefull. If you are a camper that likes to be exposed to the enemy as seldom as possible and deal a lot of damage with fewer shots.. while reload does not matter, stick to the normal Thunder version. Thats the idea (well, part of it.. sure a thunder pro can tell you more).

well thats the point of alternations: they should not make your turret more powerfull, they should allowe you to change the characteristics (like thunder gets faster reload but less damage). At the moment some alternations truely make the turret stronger, but if I may guess this is for two reasons: if someething makes your turret stronger you pay for it. They rebalance it later, after enough players spend crystals on it. Oh no, wait.. this would be cruel. Forget this one. The balance has to be mass tested and will be changed later on to achieve true balance. On no wait.. this sounds to much like a fairy tale :P nah.. to stop kidding: the answer is most likely somewhere in between ;)

Well you can still get it.. it is a nice turret, that makes you think ahead due to the long reload time. You also earn to aim exceletn with it. There usually is a small number of XP/BP sandbox battles for M2's on EN2. You can learn a lot there if you are not familiar with XP/BP at the moment.. but later wehn you play vs the gismos on RU1 it still will be like a whole new world opening up.

I have not tested it, but I see the use of it. If you do the maths and calculate the new max and min damage, you will see that the new average damage is almost as the former average damage. So there is not much benefit to gain. But on the other side, a Rail can 2shot a same-M-level Wasp/Hornet - in _average_. "in average", because there is a chance for the hornet/Wasp to survive: If the railer has bad luck and deals [an average]+[a minor] shot, the incoming Wasp/Hornet will survive definitely. The field stabilisation eliminates this chance

no. before the balance an M2 combo took just 2 shots to kill a M3 combo. Every tank was 2shot by every turret. It was a clear predictable an fair gamemode, where no luck but just skill counted. Almost every M3 players I talked to yesteday, told me he things it is unfair, that M2s have now no chance in mixed XP/BP any more. pls note: I am not complaining about the reload and hull advantages

Yes, at the moment there is a serious issue with M2 in XP/BP a full M2 combo takes 3 shots to kill a full M3 combo. a full M3 combo takes just 2 shots to kill a full M2 combo. At the moment it is highly unfair, and playing M2vsM3 makes no fun at all

When you drive a 90 degree curve, and at the end of the curve take the finger of the button in order to drive straight ahead, then the Hunter continues to spin left. If you turn the hunter around on full turning speed, then relase the the button, it turns for further 90 degrees (!). This is very anoying, if you like precise steering. You just have to learn to take your finger off the Left right buttons earlier. An the amount of "earlier" depends on how fast your hull was spinning. But of course you can get used to that too. But the questions are, - how much fun do you have driving it - and how much additionan "brain capacity" will you have to invest into driving tricky situations, while you could use it to plan ahead your moves, aim or do some other usefull stuff (instead of focus to stear an unprecise hull through your team in order to deliver the flag.. or to itch through the hole in their def to retreive your flag. In both situations a slightly bump into other tanks will mean failure.)

Well, feel free to read the one before as well:

If enough players are on the DM battle ground, Isida will score, simply because it just has to catch a mid/longranger that was distracted. But as I_alreaedy_won and myself already said.. there is basically no single reason, why to run an Isida, if you can use a firebird of Freeze instead. (ok.. maybe for players that can not aim.. but that's a weak excuse :P )

I just had the idea to take an M0 account and check the critical + Range myself (we have damage indicators now :) :) ) Result: > Smokys Critical IS reduced by range. I had to be pretty close to deal full critical damage, and each time I pounded a tank from far away the critical was significantly lower. As I was not very happy about it, I skipped to measure the ranges, damage, and build a mathematical model out of it. If someone wanna do it: all it takes would to be compare criticals to normal damage. From the normal damage you can calc back to the range.. and you're done to find out how it works. I am not surprised, that the critical worked different on the testservers. The Freeze effec was also much, much weaker there, as I checked it first. Seems like they've done some tweaks already during the phase between test and release.

Ehmm.. this was in the ideas section on purpose ;-) This thread has 50 pages withing a few days, you can not expect anyone that gets paid for his time to read through all that and filter meaningfull ideas. And my proposal is not about a minor tweak or something, but a complete different aproach; not touching overal lgame balance, as the solution by alternation does not touch the Rail, Wasp and Hornet in normal battles. I kindly ask you to shift my post again to the ideas section.. thanks a lot.

Hi. I propose to introduce alternations, that ensure that in the XP/BP gamemode all tanks are 2shot. Problem today: M2 kills M2 -> 3shot most of the time M2 kills M3 -> 3 shot almost always M3 kills M2 -> almost always only 2shot This is not fair. This is not predictable. This is simply crap This took out all the fun (remember, fun is why we play - and might pay - for games) I propose to introduce that alternation that changes that. Please also think of lined up shots; an M3 tank should die by 2 lined up M2 shots. bye and thanks for evaluating that. I hope for better times in the meanwhile -.-

I just come from two hours of XP BP My wasp drives like a nug if I had to make sharp turns. While M2's take 3 shots most of the time in XP/BP now... the M3s take only 2 shots to take me out. YEaH... so much for my favourite gamemode.. that always focused on fairness and skill Efficiently destroyed the fun -.-

Why should anyone _purchase_ an Isida now, if he does not want to be only, and only the healer of his team? For any other tanks any other closeranger is suited better. Thats why isida is on the decline. Even those that can handle a DM with an ISida well today, will sooner or later have enough crystals for an M3 firebird.. and switch.

I dont understand this either... Shaft did not look thaaaat overpowered to me. Maybe they needed to create room for an alternation.. ?

you hull does not matter any more, if you have an Isida. nah, kidding ;) You have to be not as slow as a mammuth, in order to reach your defending campers at their defense positions. On the other hand you have need for a certain amount of health/hp/protection, as you are the first tank that is targeted, if the enemy makes it to your base. which again leads to agility.. that enables you to move and hide behind your teams tanks. -> Hunter or Viking. - Viking is very suitable for players that like the drift of hornet, as the new Viking drifts too. - Hunter is suitable for almost each other driver, that liked the former Viking (but beware of its oversteering)

You can learn to use it.. but you will not provide you the level of fun that characterized that hull.

would this feature improove the gameplay (like damage indicators do.. I know if I hit someone on the other end of Parma), or is it pure consmetic and informative?

it has lost it's crispy drive and agile cornering. I started my tanki career with a Hornet. I used only this hull from m0 to M1.. and shortly before I purchased the M2 I tried out a Wasp. Man.. this moment made me smile, even it was only an M0 Wasp at an alt. The perfect cornering.. a hull that drives where you lead it to, and not skidds where it wants to. So awesome. Witch each modification (M1, M2) the smile became bigger.. and it was a serious aspect of having fun in this game. Now.. this fun is gone. It's just a hull.. lost it's precision and agility. I dont mind the speedloss so much, as other hulls are slower too; but the loss of agility is what hurts. During the update the turning acceleration was reduced. Turning acceleration is [not how fast it turns], but [how quickly it start to change to the turn that you desire]. Agility before updata: antilope With Wasp you could drive a slalom. You drive fwd and press left. The wasp starts into the turn almost insantly, and buikd up turning speed (degree per second) fast. You ride a nice left turn around something and then sweep _immediately_ to the right into a right curve.. and it worked great. As it didn't drift it was an awesome ride. Agility after update: spongebob with a heavy cart You drive fwd and press left. The wasp starts into the turn almost slowly... takes time to build up turning speed. Your resulting curve radius is much wider (+100%? 2x as wide curves -.-) you press the right-button and the wasp does slllowly start to sweep less to the left.. and later builds up turning to the right. This curve is even wider. You were able to drive a slalom at full speed.. now cant (or only with much larger curve radius.. feels like 2x the radius). The speed was noticeable decreased, but as all hulls go slower it is not so hard. Except that a M3 Tian on Nitro is maybe as fast an an M2 wasp without (sick). Wasp.. is sooo much less fun now.

interessting thing is that lower ranked players M1/M2 twins complain about the shooting frequency (reload time prolonged). I wonder if this was really necesary.. but anyways.. this is the smoky thread. Has someone in UTC+0..UTC+3 a smoky M3 and would like to test criticals on me? I received some today.. and I cant tell if they were sooooo strong at weak damage range. I had 40% protection + DA.. so my M2 wasp was not even bothered by that M3 smoky. All MUs where off

now you fell for his sarcasm :p

........and how do you like the new XP/BP? Please state if you are M2 or M3 when you reply..

They have an account with a non-gender-indicating name, and just write "Hi I am a girl ! <3". You can spot them by their lack of creativity ;) Foolish kids enjoying the anonymity here in order to play pranks? Feeling more clever then the tricked guy? Not realisiing they most likely would fall for the same simply lines if they are .. ehmm... desperate? (youth proov wording achievement +1 ;)) ah.. and mabye,... the are just.. kids.. you know? ;)

was already proposed 2 years ago. Ask them -.-