That's the 10 second analysis yes.If one sp Anyone who spends a full minute thinking about the actual situation though, one wonders how the buyer will "always win" if the non buyer can obtain the same equipment? Buyers have the advantage of getting new equipment faster, of a more varied garage, and of the luxury of waste. But no buyer can but more MU steps than anyone else. Fact is TO does a very good job of giving non-buyers fair competiton against buyers. As far as drones go I suspect they will not be a major factor except in clan wars where the3ir types selections can be coordinated.

Isida chains are just a tactic. Finding good tactics is ta goal in any game. The Isida chain can be broken because that tactic is a gambit. It sacrifices all damage for maximum survivability. That allows the chain's foes unimpeded fire to disrupt the chain, Best team wins. TO's change seems to be to be very informed. THose two turrets were presented difficulties in that situation no other turrets faced. This chance is surgical. It corrects the special issues with Fire and Freeze but leaves the rest of the game intact. In the world of design this is called elegance.

Salvo has its uses. It's actually more useful at short range than long. Or if you see an enemy looking to charge you lighting him up with the laser can get him to abort the charge before it gets going. :) Small tip: Launch your slavo. Whilein flight if it loks like it is gong to hit, press your DD. The hits will be 2x even though the missiles left the tubes at 1x. If te salvo is a miss you save the DD and keep the cooldown active. The very absolute most fun use for the salvo does not happen too often but satisfying when it does. You light up an enemy who runs for cover. Also behind cover are 3-4 of is teammates. The target arrives at the same moment as the salvo and everyone is invited to the splash party.

Another option is to learn how to adapt to this extremely adaptable change.

I use Titan with Smoky and Striker and I agree it is nimble enough esp on SB. I'll keep that in mind when it comes time to buy a 2nd hull for my Vulcan. But ATM this account has been designated my Drone Tester so no new hull for a good while. Seem to me a doctor that can keep you alive until the fever breaks is extremely helpful. Plenty of games have a primary healer type with some healing roles assigned to secondary types. TO is doing nothing unusual here. Adapt or die, up to you.

That's one side of te coin, sure. The other side is, many gaming companies do not have so many recurring quality problems. These guys want to sell me gaming services for cash remember. They might be interested why they keep failing to close the sale.

Major against Marshal is an extreme example but against Generals at least 1-3 star Generals you should be competitive. (Depending on your turret hull types.) LTCol or Col you should be able to play all Generals even Marshals. I have a Col account that does. In this new system players have to anticipate they will get these high ranked opponents during lower times of player activity. That means today it is vtal to MU your gear. The old way of doing things - to save up for a kit - that way is obsolete. The goal for lower-ranked accounts is to unlock their m2 versions them MU it to 10/10 ASAP. Once you have m2+10 gear your foe cannot have anything more than m4 gear which is only some 10%-15% better than m2+10. But Generals in general will not have m4 gear. So once you get to m2+10 you have a fighting chance in most any game.

It may turn out to be possible to thrive with never having a drone. But if you are a daily mission player you will pile up the batteries. At some point doesn't it make sense to buy a drone to get SOME value out of all those batteries? The nice part about the drones themselves is they are inexpensive to own at the lower end of the MU scale. So even the stingiest daily mission player can buy some sort of Drone for occasional spot use. That seems to be the case. It will be quite interesting to see if Phase III raises the purchase cose or if it raises the MU costs. Or if it does both. There are 6 more Drones to come. Guesses: Bug Zapper Drone: When it pulses it disables/disrupts enemy Drones w/in a certain radius. Dracula Drone: Vampirism aka Self-Heal returns to all turret types in TO via Drone. Twist: It shares the healed HPs with allies w/in radius. Under-Driver (and proud of it) Drone: re-sets/delays enemy OD timers' w/in a radius. Modules Schmodules Drone: Your turret is briefly unaffected by enemy Protection Modules . Tweeking Turret Drone: Increases your rate of fire briefly. Iron Nuts McGullicuddy Drone: Pulses +% point adds of all 14 resistances to nearby allies.

It did iomprove the balance of the games as my 1st post detailed. What your OP complains about is that it did not make every single game a 7-6 nail biter. It cannot do that. What it van, and does, do is gather the available player poll at any given moment and starts a game with as closely matched teams as the available players allow. Capicje? It cannot make an 8x8 game of all Colonenls when there are only 3 Colonels looking for a game at that moment. As for new player cannot possibly enjoy the game ... that is something you have pulled out of your as I was going to say out of thin air. You are not a new player so you have no idea how they are thinking. And as I mention in my 2nd post, the new economics means a new account hcan in point of fact afford to diversity. You entire premie is bunk. You don't like MM? OK, fair enough. So what are you going to do? "Thirdly, I prefer to use my combos to my full advantage in maps which are best for my combos." You have Fire, Twins, Shaft, Hunter and Wasp all at m2 and you cannot find a combo that works on any MM map? SMH. I played until Marshal with nothing but Smioky/Viking. (I just bought Titan on the B0Day sale.) The problem you have can be seen in the mirror. Despite being a full General you've never pushed yourself to learn how to play well. Your efficiency rating reflects that. You shouyld be glad for MM. It will make you a better player. Adapt, die, or move along Those are your choices.

This is definitely untrue for - at minimum - some map/mode combinations. e.g ASL mode had a lot of bad maps. OTOH part of this patch was to move bases and the like on some maps. I know the bases on Bridges for RGB were moved. So maybe the overall situation is better now. I do agree with you in the sense all basic battles are on a limited set of maps designed for the purpose. Most every hull/turret mix can find a role. We have no idea how much the efficieny rating is used in MM. But you state as fact things you cannot possibly know. I have not looked at the efficiency rating too much but it does not seem to have anything to do at all with time played. It seems influenced up by Cry/Exp earned. But noit one of us knows what calculations it uses. Funny I use Titan / Smoky every day on every MM map and thrive. Just like 90% of today's players I played 95% of my Pre-Marshal time with one hull and turret. And guess what I did not play on just 3 or 4 maps. I played on any map I could find a viable game. There's nmo basic MM map that you cannot find a way to contribute. MMis forcing some players out of their very narrows comfort zones. These players are having to learn how to play under different conditions. The good players will learn to adapt. Actually with the new economic sstem of greater weekly mission rewards, contianer rewards, and now more exp / rank ... the new account now can afford to buy a 2nd hull or turret or invest in more modules. New accounts have more flexibility today than 18 months ago. This whole thread boils down to the OP not liking MM. So say that instead of trying to prove MM does not do what it was intended to do. Adapt, die, or move to a new game.

MM did not promise to end blowout batttes. MM did not promise to fix the balance and map flaws in the game. It couldn't fix them. All it can do is round up the available players at any given moment and set up a game with reasonably even starting teams. After that it is up to the players. It does in fact create more battles that are not blowouts and that play to the end. This is simple fact. This critic like almost every MM critic forgets just how many battles were unplayable under the old system. If 30 CTF battles were going at a given time, 26 of them would be blowout wins with room only on the losing team and the other 4 would be full with no room to join. So players would hover over the battle list waiting for one spot to open up on a winning team or one of the full games. MM is clearly better than that except for the lack of map choice. In MM I get a new game in less than 1 minute 75% of the time. And far more MM games are played to the end with full teams than we ever saw before. Of course some of that is diue to the new battle fund calculations.

You have two choices. Do missions and use them only when they can help the most, or, pay $9 US for every 12 hours you play to have constant battery use. Seventy-five cents per hour is not an outrageous price for an entertainment option, when you get down to it. TO screwed me out of over $#0 Us worth of Containers in the War vent so they will not be getting money from me. So for me it will be a case of learning how to get the best Cry value out of what missions allow. I do not mind map power-ups. That means the map has several strategic points other than just the flag bases or CP points. But the fact is looking for a non-drug game in the Pro section is like looking for a needle in a haystack. Or maybe for a needle in Sandbox?

I agree about SB. DD cancels DA and vice versa but SB means you go faster always. :) I use Wasp Vulcan but now at MajGen light hulls get swatted to fast to often as I rank up. Plus the constant tip overs gets under your skin some days no matter how Zen you try to be about it. (It is hard to understand why TO built one hull that tips over to very much compared to all other 6.) I was thinking about a Hunter 2nd hull eventually. Both there the non-drift drivers so I figure the techniques I use now will transfer best to Hunter. But I cannot imagine being the immobile heavy hull vulcan type. DRiving and meuver is too much part of the fun for me.

Yet another day with lag so think you canoot damage other tanmks or even pick up boxes. What a POS this product is.

Here we have a clear MM failure. Even though there were enough players to fill the 8v8 red got all the stasff officers (red stars) and vlue got nothing but general officers. Red got two LtGen but that does not come close to averaging out the ranks. Of course there is probably more to the formula than just rank. But whater it was did not work. Red was under-ranked and on its hels all game long. (O took this screenie during the battle not at the end as in previous SS.) In a differnt game a few days ago I was in a game that started like 4 tanks v 5. That's OK. But then I saw the enemy get a 6th tank before we got a 5th. So it was 6v4 at that point. MAybe that evened out moments later I do not recall. But it seems an eror to me. Also in yet a different game I entered an on-going game that ended literally 3 seconds after I went solid. At the time I thought why would MM pout me in a game with 3 seconds on the clock. But it might be a case of the 7th flag capture ending the game. I forgot to check at the time. So here are some examples of true MM system FUBARS. There is not doubt TO can tighten up the MM calculations to give better results. But I see more reasonable matchups than errors by far.

Some of us play games for a hobby. Hobbiests enjoy talking about the hobby and learning how to mater their skills. Quit TO already you've threatened to so it for months.

I've said as long as I've been playing TO shows the signs of a company with poor management. As the OP points out the creative team is just given too much to do. That's on management, really, though we tend to blame "the devs".

You're saying the same thing more or less I am. It is easy to burn up 500 Cry in Supplies wwhen winning 250 Cry from the battle fund. But players do that because that is what the mission rewards are for. In essence by playing the game you convert your stockpile of supplies into Crystals. The more Cry you get from your stockpile the more efficient you are. Batteries are no different. If they are not needed at teh moment don't use them. Just like you probably do not use an RK when you're at 99% health.

Drones are here. We've seen batches I and II now. Batches III & IV are bound to contain some doozies. (Does self-heal return in Drone form???) It will take months if not over a year to understand the full impact of this new system. But it is here as a part of TO. Playing fro now on will mean understanding Drones. Might as well take the first baby steps. General Thoughts Drones are designed for a low buy-in cost. A new drone and a few MU steps does not cost much in comparison to a full MU Drone. The true cost of Drones is the Battery cost. Non-buyers need to find the most cost-efficient ways to use their mission Batteries. Buyers want to find the most powerful uses. Some Drones seem more for solo players in pick-up games. Some clearly open the door to coordinated clan war strategies. I have not done the math yet but I think two general trends can be counted upon. All Drones (so far) will always use more Cry value in batteries than they return in extended Supplies Cry value. Most Drones become reasonably cost effective by this measure only after many MU step investments. Since both release I and II Drones have the same MU cost the 30k difference in purchase cost is negligible. Specific Drones Again, the math has not been done so no real conclusions can be drawn about the bottom-line efficiencies. These are early and short first impressions. Trooper: Simplest Category of Use. The advertised spawn-killing role does not seem viable. Hey I am getting crushed time to use up expensive batteries? Does not make much sense. However for DM mode(s) it might be useful. Engineer: Moderate Category of Use. Even at 0 MU this Drone delivers a significant bonus. At upper MU levels it more than doubles map pickup duration. All signs point to a value Drone for the budget tanker especially fast hulls or drop-spot campers. Assault: Difficult Category of Use. At high MU it has the potential to keep one set of Supplies active an entire 10-minute game! In that sense it might be the most powerful of the six. Tailor made for the aggressive pick-up game. Driver: Difficult Category of Use. The team-based companion to Assault gets the most by having allies around. With good teammate Driver is probably more powerful than Assault. Mechanic Moderate Category of Use: For light hull and high MU the instant heal effect from an RK will restore almost all health. For heavier hulls the main benefit comes from shared healing in teams. Supplier Moderate Category of Use: This Drone cries out for heavy MU investment. Maximized. for solo use it can double the duration of any active Supply. But it really shines in team play where it acts as a pulsing short-term OD. Clan Wars For strong team-oriented clans Drones offer some compelling possibilities. This is especially true for deep-pocketed Clans willing to MU their Drones and keep a constant supply of Batteries. Drones might offer a performance boost in pick-up games. In Clan Wars they can lead to a much more powerful synergy. One example to illustrate. Consider a Clan team built around 4-tank Fire Teams. Isida w/Healing Nanobot Alteration and w/Mechanic Hard Hitter I w/Supplier Hard Hitter II w/Supplier Fast Hitter w/ Driver I am not sure which turrets you want most with this but for example think of HH1 = Rail, HH2=Thunder and FH = Vulcan. All hitters are there to attack of course but the Fast Hitter hopes to kill-steal as much as possible from HH1 and HH2. Each Supplier pulses a +5 second duration boost to DD/DA/SB once / 10 seconds. Two of them pulse +10 seconds every 10 seconds. Guess what this adds up to? The Mechanic pulses out 500 points of heal once every 30 seconds to bolster the Isida's DD-boosted alteration-extended healing. The Driver restores everyone's DD/DA/SB several times plus drops mines and heals everyone. A 4-tank Fire Team thjat can coordinate like this theory seems (in theory) ready to kick major ass. 12 Member Clan; 3 Fire Teams; Long Range, Mid-Fielders, Attackers. Tanki Online: It ain't 2017 no more people. It's a brand new day. Adapt or Die

My Isida account has 48 containers 250k cash and nothing to spend it on from 2-star general until reaching Marshal. So I thought about the drones. Two of the new ones bascialy mean 2x your supplies duration at full MU. But you need to invest 10-12 mus steps at least to stt getting good performance. That's like a quarter million even waiting for 50% sales. Amd all that time eating up batteries unless you go to the garage back and forth. So I think you are right. This system really is not fun-playable until there is a live in-battle battery on/off toggle. I can spend the same amount an get an m2+ Freeze. That is easier to use and will likely have a bigger impact. I was just having a little fun abut keeping Smoky on the QT. :) Yeah I do not like 50% smoky modules thankfully that is rare. Sounds like we are fellow travelers. Yes when you find an enemy team playing well there is often an oversight position you have to crack first in order to rout the enemy setup or otherwise turn the tide. Yeah that often means reaching the magnum or shaft or vulcan causing hell from their hidey hole. I find that respawn drone a cruel joke too. Here: Buy this thing that costs you 300 Cry per minute while you are getting tent-pegged into the ground. It might be OKish in DM. But when a team is being spawn camped that means many enemies firing at you as soon as you go solid. DA doesn't do much but jeep you alive 1-2 seconds longer. Of course some players will. OP fans care about OP not map role. I disagree completely that making a special case reduction in healing for one teammate turret type is better than a direct change to teh root cause of the Isida comnplaint. What TO did was an elegant design change. Making a special case exception for one turret type is ham-handed by comparison. Just like the +30% DSP add to freeze was ham-handed. TO is 1 fer 2. Now the afterburn and thawing medical functions have been off-loaded to two other turrets. That makes life a bit more interesting for those players. Isida's role remains vital because in the end it is all about having > 0 HP. The calls to nerf Isida have been answered in a way that does not really nerf Isida per se.

I do not hear Smoky's name dropped in the OP turret category too often. Let's keep it that way. No need to push against the CW. Move along folks. Nothing to see here.

The optimum MU path is to MU as fast as possible w/o paying too much. The early steps are worth paying 100%, middles steps 75%, and the uppermost steps 50%. Waiting for at do all steps at 50% off sales takes a long time. The sooner you can MU the sooner you get the benefit of the better performance. The new module system has put a strain in the MU budget. So players have to be more frugal. But there are MU steps worth buying at 75% depending on your situation.

I agree with you on all points. I too use that break the chain by driving into the chain tactic when I can. I agree the chains were breakable w/o the nerf. And I too use vulcan at close combat too. :) OTOH I can see how fire and freeze had a hard time against the isida chains more so than our vulcans or smokys. They could have nerfed Isida a lot harder. This is more a nerf to Isida's team mates than Isida. That's good info, thanks. I peeked at the Russian Wiki and they did not have the new drones yet. Is it? TO is not World of Warcraft. Every tank is faced with the primary need to destroy the enemy. Healing teammates is its specialzed effect like dire afterburn, freezes slow. Tehe ae no teammaters to heal in DM or JN. Comments of what a turret role is supposed to be melt in the face of player choice. If one turret is markedly OP the player base WILL flock to it. If the new Isida cannot fight against the new Freeze get used to playing team modes w/o Isida support... but with a lot of immobile tanks on the field.

(I guess it is because of you you are after all.)

Thanks for the tip. I just bought the healing nanobots alt at teh last sale. I used it during an ASL game yesterday but I forgot toe look at the exp after the game! Heh, well I will keep an eye out and learn eventually. Crazy is as crazy does. This next box of chocolates could well cost 2mil to MU. TO might be building a BIG OL' Cry sick in this new system. That's not a boost that's revolutionary. I already done Freeze modules when I see one on the enemy team. This new Freeze ... well I hope you are right. Maintain range! Yikes. (I figured I'd buy my Isida account a freeze if I ever got it a 2nd turret. Now I half wish I had bought it on TOBDay sale)