It's probably because Smoky has the ability to piss off the most kinds of turrets. Magnum isn't that big a deal for short-range turrets, but Smoky hurts everyone. The impact force prevents fast tanks from getting to it before they are killed and also knocks sniping guns off aim, while able to compete in DPS with everything in-between.

False PUM dressed up for Halloween.

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So they will reduce and change large maps to make them 10 players max? What a terrible idea- is this change confirmed?

Really? Change "hard" to impossible. Twins has such a higher dpm and you would die faster than you could reload a second shot, not to mention the delay as you try to make sure your aim is on-target I suggest you run a simulation of this using turret and hull stats. Even most 1 v 1s involving a Shaft on ANY map result in a loss for the Shaft. The reason is that Shafts rely on their team for protection. They allow their teammates to engage you first, making approaching them virtually impossible. So if you play 1 v 1 with a shaft against equal level equipment, you will always win unless you have a short-range turret. It can only point its turret in one direction. It has to aim and steady to hit you, and does not have good vision while doing so. If you find yourself unable to beat a Shaft in 1 v 1 on a medium-sized map, you don't have a good understanding a strategy and cover. Most times if you can find it you will win. Fighting Shafts is all about strategy. Don't keep approaching from the same route and/or side. Following this simple advice will enable you to avoid being hit most of the time. That's why good clans use Shafts to "shut off" portions of that map rather than for kills, because they aren't actually that effective for the latter. Against good opponents in a normal battle it's hard for a Shaft to maintain a 2 k/d. As soon as they scope in everyone hides from their laser. Then as soon as they move it, somebody seizes his chance, peeks out, and fires. It's all about quick-scoping.

I would disagree here. Magnum is doubtless a potent turret if it hits you from across the map, but I think that it's effect of you not being able to hit back elevates its position and strength in your mind. You remember more when you are killed by it, see what I mean? Shaft- not too hard to knock off aim with smoky or rico. I would prefer the alteration to be the standard, but oh well, you can't have everything. Isida- I agree. Damage is too high. Why in the world did they take away the self-healing in favor of increased damage? It has a niche role and overlapping that with Freeze (which has a useless effect against M4s) was not a good decision.

Nobody can tell you that. It's completely random and generated by the game as you shoot. Of course, this only applies within the maximum damage range, but as you get further out from that limit both the minimum and maximum values go down proportionally. This means there is actually less variation between damage values the further away you are, but it's still random and you cannot predict it. For effective game simulation purposes just use the average damage values; it comes out to the same thing in the end. And P.S. "Percent loss" doesn't have to do with anything. The guns have different damages, but not only that, they have different brackets for variation.

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Yup, that was the point of the alteration thing. It seems to be successful at least in this regard. Railgun doesn't need a buff in and of itself. The hulls it's mounted on need a bit of a stability buff. The railgun/hornet player will often miss over 50% of his shots because a skilled smoky/rico user knocks him haywire. The other problem is the tendency of players to gravitate towards small maps. I've always said, mindless crystal-grinding in box maps kills the game through lack of variety. But the players don't really have another option, because large maps give too little crystals. And we come back to Tanki's greed. This is really the only game where if you make one purchasing mistake, you're going to be behind for a long time.

I'll admit the noobs in the low ranks. There's plenty. Here, I'm talking about the higher ranks, at least Major and up. What I'm saying is that it's quite difficult to actually play to Major and not pick up the basic skills and strategy. And some factors can completely handicap players and make them look as noob-ish as a Sergeant.

I agree with both you and LW. On one hand, striker gameplay is, while not a handicap, an obvious disadvantage for most . On the other hand, I don't think the problem is with the turret- I think it's with the hulls. Hulls in general are too easy to knock around and consequently disrupt the aim of the turret mounted on it. The medium and light hulls especially should get a little stability buff. This would remove unrealistic obstacles for striker aiming and also address a lot of the other underpowered combinations, while avoiding the dreaded "freeze and firebird buff" that is only an issue with lighter tanks.

Again, perhaps they have an issue with the sticky keys where they can't hold down more than a few keys at the same time. Or maybe they're trying to eat at the same time. (Admittedly selfish, but doesn't equal unskilled.) Give them the benefit of the doubt, because you'd like them to offer you the same chance.

This response illustrates the horrid incompetence of the developers. Perhaps if they considered a large reward for those who were affected by the drug experiments, it would have received a more positive reception. But they just couldn't bring themselves to do it, right? On a broader scale, the fact that such experiments were even needed in the first place was the issue. They're trying to fix a mechanism that is inherently broken. It started when they designed the game in such a way to make players reliant on equipment and complete seal-clubbing of casual players instead of skill. There isn't enough variety and expansion, they can only go up and up. If a game can't make money without constantly increasing the equipment powerhouse ceiling, it's already failed. It's why the players are leaving in droves and they AREN"T COMING BACK. With another game, you can leave for a while and come back for a casual spot of entertainment when you feel like it. With Tanki, everyone who comes back has a FEAR of what Tanki has done to their account and game that they loved so much. And it's this fear that keeps them away.

Who exactly is "we"? I've been on the receiving end of complaints and boasts myself, so while you claim to be able to tell the difference, there are many out there who can't.

I find that a lot of the players who come across as "unskilled" in battles are suffering from intense lag. To be sure, at WO4 there are a lot of genuinely unskilled players. But it's actually quite hard to make it to a high rank such as General without picking up the general strategy and tactics of the game. I've experienced this myself. On a smooth computer/ good day, I can maintain at least a 2 k/d and a nice top spot in a battle full of druggers. When the lag is really acting up, I find myself bumping into walls, missing shots, and generally underperforming against weaker opponents. I struggle to keep a K/d/ of over 1 and stay in first place, even against non-druggers. And I know what many of them are thinking: "Yeah, there's that hornet-freeze dying again. He's got a little skill, but he's not as good as me." *mental pat on back for skill as well as benevolent display of pity* So next time you see this struggling player who keeps missing his shots, give him a little benefit of the doubt before you start calling him out in the chat. :)

Now, posting your best battle isn't that hard. ;)

@TakeAShower: It's true mammoth has been nerfed and is no longer an HP God, at least without drugs. But I find that as the ranks progress, and as weapons gain impact force and heavy tanks get faster, they [heavies] become a more potent force on any map. Honestly I think that light hulls are more fun to play regardless- so to increase game diversity the designers make heavies more powerful.

Isida really was quite balanced before.....seems very OP now. The rest of the changes are great, especially the stock Firebird buff.

I just thought of another reason why this is not a good idea. Will the matchmaking differentiate between map effectiveness? For example a hornet-rail player can be very good on large maps but is very weak on small and medium maps. Will the matchmaking system be aware of this trend or send him indifferently to random battles? Because the hornet-rail player does not have fun if he plays in a polygon CP and neither do his teammates.

And why exactly is this needed, instead of the dozens of smaller-scale solutions to multing, drugging domination, etc.? it seems that the "smart" matchmaking system serves to give both teams equal amounts of mults. Oh well, someday tanki will learn that players don't like more and more freedoms being taken away. :rolleyes:

This is my fifth account. :mellow: Why the sarcasm?

Great article! :) really nice to see it all in text instead of watching for an hour and a half. The one thing I would like to point out is that cedric's reason for not increasing the battle fun in bigger maps makes no sense. bigger maps have more players but that does not mean the battlefront grows faster because those players actually interact with each other less and so the battle fun does not grow as fast . when I look for a battle and I'm sure this is something a lot of people experience this small maps require less work for more crystals. Sorry for all the typos this is from my phone.

Dante - How to compensate? That's easy- 100,000 crystals and 100 of each supply in total, divide by number of steps proportionally. Some people are saying the total cost is the same but most non-buyers do not use speedups and those are the people this update is targeted at. And as for the problem of expecting compensation in the future, I don't consider that a problem- they should receive compensation when compensation is due. And please understand I don't want everything easy and free -I just like to see a fair game. Sometimes I do sympathize with the buyers and high-end players after all.

Very pointless and annoying. What if I like a certain hull because of it's speed/hp ratio, and another for it's ability? Why not just add hull alterations? Or perhaps even revert to the way it was before. I hope at least the abilities won't be something too strange and overkill; minor power-ups are good enough for me.

Great update in and of itself, but players who bought M4s prior to this update should get some sort of compensation. I don't think it is quite fair that they had to pay much more. Anyway, this is good :) , it should help solve the buyer/non-buyer issue that seems to ruin standard battles for high-rank players.