Not a regular Smoky user :) ? Yes absolutely Autocannon is all about the crits, it is a very RNG dependant turret. I first played Tanki back in (I think) 2016, and at that time Smoky could get a critical on the first shot, and as far as I know on an infinite number of shots in a row if you were lucky enough. So you could sometimes get devastating RNG damage. However because of the RNG dependency of Smoky and how it could either devastate or be useless in a given situation dependant on luck they decided to give it a kind of semi-RNG instead. I don't know the mechanics for sure (others like CongoSpider probably do I'm guessing), and the Wiki page for Smoky seems a bit unclear but I believe it works like this: Wiki stats for Mk8: 20.2% Crit Chance, Minimal Crit Chance -30%, Maximum Crit Chance 100% (it is listed as 1.0 but I am assuming this is 100%?) So basically you have -30% chance to crit on the first shot, -30+20.2= -9.8% on second shot, and -9.8+20.2=10.4% chance to crit on your third shot. I believe this then increases for each successive shot , based on the wiki page to 30.6%, 50.8%, 71.0%, 91.2% and finally 100% respectively for your 8th shot, if you still haven't crit by then. Each time you crit the process resets back down to -30%. So what it means is that you have no chance to crit on the first 2 shots, and in the best case scenario you can crit every 3 shots. You are guaranteed to crit at least every 8 shots in the worst case scenario. Indeed the damage potential if you get lucky is huge! This GIF shows the best case scenario with a crit and then another crit on the 3rd shot, which has a 10.4% chance of occurring. Autocannon has much weaker non-crit shots than stock Smoky, but the same amount of damage on crits - so with its 0.5 second reload time compared to 1.4 seconds for stock Mk8 it does indeed produce almost 3 times the number of critical strikes as regular smoky. As a higher percentage of its total damage is made up of these critical shots which do not lose damage with range, this made it deal superior damage to regular Smoky at long-range in its previous form before the buff on 30th April. However after the 30th April patch which I mentioned above, it became straight up superior in terms of constant DPS compared to regular Smoky, except in "hit and hide" scenarios where you shoot and take cover. Because of the fact Smoky has a very similar crit Chance and crit damage (700 vs 800) at Mk1 and Mk8 respectively the damage of Autocannon for low Mk smokys is vastly more relative to stock than at Mk8 level. Another factor is that Smoky fires faster at as it increases in Mk level although Autocannon has a fixed 0.5 second reload time, which is a big boost for an Mk1 Smoky. Therefore Autocannon is very strong at low Mk level as we can now see after Augments became available for all ranks. Therefore the only true solution to fix the power of Autocannon at low ranks without making it useless at high ranks is to do something to nerf the critical damage at low ranks - hence my proposal in my post above.

Well that is a good point actually - Autocannon does deal substantially more damage for low Mk Smokys relative to the stock version compared with higher Mk, which was never a problem until they allowed alterations (now augments) to be available at all ranks. Making it -85% or -90% would make it quite useless at Mk8 level, though maybe I'm wrong. But then going back to even -80% as it was before it would be still be OP as you say at low Mk, so its a hard problem to resolve. This might be a little complicated but they could do this: For Autocannon critical shots now no longer deal fixed damage but are now regular shots with 30% more damage (compared to stock), and no damage fall-off due to range. [30% is my initial thought - maybe 35% would be better]. What this would mean is that crits for Mk1 would now be dealing 273-429 damage, and at Mk8 we would see 546-845 damage. That is compared to the current 700 and 800 damage respectively - so this would be a vast damage nerf for low Mk Autocannon smoky but only a small one for high Mk, as it should be. This would balance it out for all Mk levels as the problem is that at low Mk crits deal almost the same damage as at high Mk, which results in absurdly high damage in the lower ranks. The only way to balance Autocannon for all ranks because of its dependancy on critical damage - without making it either overpowered at low ranks or underpowered at high ranks - would be to do something to alter the critical strike damage component.

Unless of course the dreaded vampirism self-heal Isida makes a comeback as an augment! That might make sense, if you lose the ability to heal others. But then that is technically healing, just to oneself though. I definitely agree that Isida is all about healing though, that is its unique property. It could only give this up in an augment if it gained self-healing once again, which they probably would never do (then again with all the craziness in 2021 Tanki that probably wouldn't even be that OP at this point).

Perhaps that is the way they are thinking of it, indeed. I think however that we can (should) be able to have one without the other - i.e. hull overdrive scaling without dependency on DD/drones. I think it is a bit weird to have a hull which has an overdrive which is only optimal when used with 2 particular high-level drones. Having considered it, I think this should be scrapped as I say and just have it dealing a flat 6000 damage at Mk8 for everyone. However, maybe this is partly an attempt by Alternativa to try and tempt more people into wanting to buy Ultras to get Crisis? I don't know - I hate to assume bad motives, but with some of the changes in the last year I can't be blamed for it. I wish they would care in general about balance more than short-term $$$, and then if and when the game was both enjoyable and well balanced the $$$ would naturally flow in.

Just saw this post. See my post above. The nerf to Autocannon should absolutely not be a reduction in projectile speed, which would be the worst case scenario as I said above. Autocannon with its focus on critical damage, which is not reduced at long-range, is the optimal long-range alteration for Smoky - that is its niche role. It would be a terrible idea to nerf the shot travel time as that leaves it in a confused role, not really good for anything. Just revert the damage back to what it was and all is well, no other changes needed. Maybe a slight nerf to impact force, sure.

Interesting idea man, however I think what needs to be done to balance Autocannon is quite simple - revert the change that was done before that made it (possibly) too strong. To quote the patch notes from 30th April 2020: So bring it back to 80% damage reduction for non - critical shots and before. This is the simplest and best way to nerf Autocannon. Before this change, Autocannon was perfectly balanced. Autocannon had a niche as the superior long-range Smoky alteration (but inferior at short-mid range) and this is what it should return to. I really hope that when they implement the shot travel time in the upcoming patch that they don't do the same as they did to Sledgehammer rounds Thunder - and nerf it by nerfing the shot travel time, which would totally ruin the purpose of Autocannon. However given the difference in purpose between the two augments - hopefully this is unlikely. (Original patch notes) :

I haven't used Crusader at max rank, only at relatively low ranks - but I've certainly been dominating battles with it. Personally I think the balance is fine, the only thing I would change with it is 1)Slightly more vertical auto aim on the overdrive and VERY importantly 2) The overdrive should deal 3000 damage at Mk1 up to 6000 damage at Mk8 - UNAFFECTED by double damage and drones. It is nice idea to have an overdrive affected by double damage/drones but personally having considered it more I think it is a bad idea - because this forces you to use certain drones with Crusader (namely Booster and Crisis) and also creates potential imbalance issues with the power of the overdrive with those drones. Crusader seems to be to be a true all-rounder hull - just the fact it is a medium hull, and also a hovering hulls makes it good to start off with. Medium hulls have the best balance between health and speed, and it has the "unflippability" of hovering hulls combined with their strafing properties, which enables you to strafe side to side firing in between to do great "hit and hide" tactics just as with Hopper. Its overdrive is useful in every mode that I have seen - very useful offensively and defensively, if you want to kill defenders in Rugby when trying to score, kill targets in Siege, kill attackers in ASL defence - it is a great multi-purpose overdrive. Sure the Viking overdrive is more powerful, but it also has a much longer charge time. Crusader is a great counter to Hopper since it has the same overdrive charge time - the one thing that can stop Hopper is raw damage. Fire a bolt at an incoming Hopper and with the damage and armor penetration you are almost certain to stop them in their tracks. Even if they have AP protection, you will still slow them and can hopefully get a kill before they can cap a flag/ball thanks to that slow effect. Getting multi-kills with the overdrive is mega satisfying. The only thing that could be overpowered is the huge damage the overdrive can do with Booster/Crisis. Personally I would put Crusader in the middle of the pack balance wise, from what I have seen so far. Stronger than Wasp/Mammoth at Mk8 level I would say, around equal with Ares/Hunter, but weaker than Viking/Titan and the mighty Hopper all round.

I have to disagree about Wasp - at high rank it is so much easier to get away in time I find the number of kills with Wasp is greatly reduced. Personally I think Wasp needs a buff at Mk8 level, and the problem is lack of scaling. Scaling is surely an essential in good game design - there is no excuse not to have it where needed, in my opinion. Fair point about the damage being less significant, although I think either activation time or radius should decrease/increase respectively to account for the much greater hull speed at Mk8 level. I think damage at the core of the blast should be for instance: 6000 at Mk1 and 12000 at Mk8. It is very easy to get a clean kill on the Juggernaut at Mk1 with Wasp, the damage relative to Juggernaut's health is much lower at Mk8 so Wasp is much less significant - as well as the fact the Jug will be faster too. Fair point about Ares, its damage is good even at Mk8. I definitely don't think any overdrive other than Crusader should scale with double damage - to be honest I think even Crusader should not scale with double damage - it would be much better if it dealt 6000 damage instead of 3000 at Mk8, unaffected by double damage. I definitely don't think it should be affected by drones either - it is quite bad in my opinion that you are somewhat forced to use Booster/Crisis if you want to get the most out of Crusader, and to be honest I think it is potentially overpowered with these drones. Thanks for raising this interesting point - I didn't really think about that too much as I happen to have neither of these drones. It is an interesting idea to have an overdrive which scales with double damage and drones but really this is an inconsistency - I think it should be changed not to do so, just like all the other overdrives to prevent obvious issues. And another thing - it certainly shouldn't scale with Adrenaline.

Ah that sucks my friend, very unfortunate :( If there was indeed some server instability at the end, send an e-mail to Tanki Tech support and perhaps you could receive compensation - probably unlikely but worth a try. Their e-mail: help@tankionline.com Good luck! I agree that it would be better if we had less of an all-or-nothing mission system so you do get some reward if you manage to finish some of the missions - perhaps you could automatically receive a percentage of the final reward if you have completed say 3/4 tasks for the final supermission by the end of the event. This would be fairer for those that just miss out like yourself.

I think you may have made a typo here? Did you mean to say "I don't think Wasp or Mammoth needs to have mark upgrade"? I assume so - in that case I have to say I don't think originality has anything to do with having scaling properties or not. All Hulls overdrives to which scaling would be applicable, should have scaling properties - this would be proper game design and better for balance. The Crusader overdrive from this perspective is better designed than that of Wasp etc. Wasp's overdrive is vastly more powerful at Mk1 level than it is at Mk8 level, dealing with the same damage and with hulls being much slower at Mk1. Your chance of dying from the wasp bomb even if you are caught in the outer part of the blast radius is much greater at Mk1, and it is much more difficult to get away in time. Equally, for Ares at Mk1 level its overdrive is much more dangerous to Juggernauts than at Mk8, where they can very often manage to survive even a direct overdrive hit since it deals the same damage. Just as with Crusader, the damage and impact force of Wasp's bomb should scale. Debatably either its activation time or radius should scale also. For Ares its damage should scale, it should have double the damage and healing at Mk8 at least as it has at Mk1. This would definitely help balance Wasp, and Ares at all modifications. Mammoth's damage should also scale - but this is much less important since Mammoth deals so much damage if it makes contact, it is almost an instant kill anyway. PS: If I have wrongly guessed your typo, my apologies! But this discussion about implementing full scaling for all overdrives to which need it is valid.

I totally agree that this needs to be fixed, was thinking of posting about this myself although you've done a much better job with all the screenshots etc - I wouldn't have went to all that trouble. Great presentation - you have went to some bother with getting all the damage figures in-game etc. to demonstrate. There is definitely no justification that Adrenaline should work like this compared to all the other damage increase Augments, it is very misleading considering that this different behaviour is not mentioned either in the Wiki or in-game. There is no grounds for such an inconsistency. I was quite disappointed having obtained Adrenaline for several of my alt accounts to find that the damage increase was not as stated, and felt a bit cheated as I'm sure other players will too. However, I have to say I didn't end up bothering to post about it because even in its bugged state Adrenaline is - for most turrets - still quite potent. But all the same, this is a huge inconsistency and needs to be fixed. If Adrenaline would be too powerful if it was fixed (which I think for some turrets, it probably would be), then I think the damage increase values should be changed to the following: Turret Range: Damage Increase: Long + 0 -> 20% Medium + 0 -> 23% Close + 0 -> 26% Melee + 0 -> 29% With an equal increase when under the effects of double damage as when not, I think this would be fair.

Well I definitely agree, I think they should work on adding the Gifts asap. I think Gifts are great because this gave you a chance to message friends when they are offline, especially players who do not usually play in your time-zone, so for the social aspect of the game the present lack of Gifts is a big negative. I would definitely like to see Gifts back, as soon as possible! To those that say there are bigger problems with the game - I totally agree. However, surely working on Gifts would take very little coding time and almost no decision-making, so this is surely a very simple and easy update for them to make which would have little impact on other development. Please bring back the gifts soon ?

Hey OK, fair enough. I just really hate the double XP events because it is sometimes better not to play than to play because of how much damage double XP does to low ranked accounts, you rank up so fast and your hard earned equipment very quickly becomes useless. I really get triggered when I see players actually asking for double XP lol, when so many of us know what a bad change it was when they started doing such events, when that is combined with the huge experience increase change they brought about just after summer. I really hope that they will completely STOP doing increased XP events, even if that means less increased crystals too - because it is literally an incentive for low ranked players to play the game less, if they actually understand about how the game economy works. Indeed, it would be nice to see increased crystals etc, but we have just had a very generous Christmas/NY event which lasted for quite a long time, which also had numerous gold drop events. If we have gold drops and increased crystals constantly, it would lessen the value of such events and make them much less special. I think it is better to have a break from them at least for a while - there will probably be a crazy weekend at the end of January and more gold drop/increased crystals mid-February with Valentine's day events. You are right that these missions are much too difficult for the casual player. It would be nice if they had one or two easy missions that casual players could complete, personally I have not bothered at all to attempt any of these missions as they are not worth it for me - neither Firebird/Freeze/Hornet or Viking are well upgraded in my case and the rewards are too difficult to get and not worth it to be worth using lower modification gear. There is definitely no point at all in buying coinboxes instead of battle passes, if you are a free player earning Tankoins regularly. On average it seems you will lose Tankoins from 30 coinboxes, for 450 TKs, whereas a 500TK battle pass will give you much greater rewards - and rewards you can actually choose somewhat since you can wait for augments you actually want. You could maybe try your luck on coinboxes once in a while but in general, certainly a waste of Tankoins. Also gave buying a few coinboxes with Tankoins from weekly missions a try just to see - but rewards were pretty bad so yes, won't be doing that again! Why would you want to play battles less than before because of this event? It is much easier to get kills than normal - first of all players are using less upgraded equipment as they are forced to use Fire/Freeze/Viking/Hornet if they want to complete the missions, so average Gearscore is lower. Secondly, Fire/Freeze and Hornet are not exactly strong - Firebird is forced to use Incendiary Mix at Legend otherwise it is now useless ever since quite a few players got Heat Immunity, Freeze is a mid-tier turret at best and Hornet is now a bottom-tier hull. And to clarify - while I am not a Legend player I am only 3 ranks off, and ever since they increased the rank spread in mid-December I am playing with and against Legends almost every game. So my gameplay experience is pretty much the same as yours.

Having played with Crusader a bit on my alt accounts, and also against it I think it is a great addition to the game so far - seems interesting to play and not overpowered. Had some very satisfying overdrive hits, and yes it is awesome with Striker in TJR mode. In terms of the meta it is perhaps a slight nerf to Defender drone, and a slight nerf to Titan with its armor penetration - neither of which is a bad thing with Defender being strong overall and Titan strong in Siege. I really like that the overdrive scales with upgrade level, this needs to be done for other hulls too - Wasp bomb should also increase in damage/impact force depending on upgrade level, and possibly vary in activation time or range also, and Ares overdrive should scale in terms of damage and healing. Crusader fills the gap with a medium hovering hull for mobile players and I definitely think it is a good and fun addition to the game from what I've seen so far.

Hmm, perhaps Crusader could do with a slight buff but I think it is best to let players get used to it for a while and see how it will be once people get better at using it. It doesn't seem to be overpowered and I'm very glad about that, I think it is good that they have introduced a new item to the game that is for once not overpowered (a bit like Ares) but interesting to use - and of course it has a very important purpose for a medium hovering hull for mobile players. If Crusader could do with any kind of buff I think perhaps I would give it a better vertical auto-aim, it seems the angle that you can hit from above and below is a bit low considering that hovering hulls don't rock much, but generally I think it is fine. Hunter suffers from the same problem which you talk about with the overdrive firing and "doing nothing" if you die before it activates, and only getting a minimal amount of charge back - or sometimes nothing at all. So I think if you want to buff Crusader in this respect Hunter could do with the same buff. I definitely don't think Crusader's projectile should have any more auto-aim than it has currently - this would make Crusader far too easy to use and possibly a bit overpowered (as you could not try to counter the Crusader by throwing their aim off). I think it is fine the way it is now, you need to have good timing and a good aim to land the projectile and that will differentiate a good Crusader player from a bad one, making it auto-aim will remove the need to be skilled with Crusader and make it less satisfying to play with no skills to learn to master. I like the fact that you can knock off the Crusaders aim to counter the overdrive sometimes, and it is good that this is possible so other players have a way to counter the overdrive. Crusader's overdrive is generally good at mid to long range, and against stationary targets at long-range such as an aiming Shaft - but I don't think there is any reason why it needs to be totally viable at very long range.

Haha this V-Log is awesome, great to see more of the Tanki team :)

This was my first thought when I read about this update, this is definitely an error which must be fixed. I'm not colour blind but yes, many people are - and I know quite a few who are too. Red/green colour blindness is I believe the most common form of colour blindness so for these tankers who is in the enemy / same team will now be quite the mystery. This needs to be hotfixed immediately, I would say. It is good if the mobile version (which I don't use) is now catching up regarding the Hornet radar thing as Maf says - but yes it just can't be red and green unless they add an option to change it to other colours also.

Alright :) Will be cool to see the new hull in action. I wonder how this will change the meta - AP protection will be a lot more valuable now I guess. I don't personally anticipate that this hull will be OP, I think Hopper will still be king for now. Could be wrong but we shall see.

I don't understand why some of you guys are asking for increased xp - you do realise increased xp hurts your account right? (For anyone below Legend that is). It makes you rank up faster while having less crystals to spend on your garage at each rank. No increased exp is GOOD not bad. Increased crystals without exp increase (like we used to have on every event before) on the other hand is great, but please don't go about trying to encourage more increased xp events - after the xp change we already rank up very fast and with 2x xp it is far too fast. Really yes, these missions are quite hard and not ideal for everyone. But we have have had a lot of easy / good / fun missions with cool rewards over Christmas & New Year so I have to say really I don't think we can complain too much, this is just a nice bonus for anyone that can complete it. Not all missions have to be easy all of the time I guess. Sure I would like to see slightly more completable missions, but really as long as Crusader is out I'm not too bothered. EDIT: Just saw that you are indeed a Legend ranked player. OK so that's why you want increased exp :P Please think of the other non-Legend tankers for whom this is terrible for when you are asking for this, and not just players of your own rank.

Thanks to all Snowmen for their hard snowmanning efforts to put this event on for us all :) Appreciated it, had fun in this event and got some nice rewards!

Very nice video & message, cool to see some of the Tanki team - hope you all had a great Christmas and wishing you a (much better) 2021 ?? ? ! God bless :)

Happy New Year to you too, Riddler! Hope it will be a good one for you :) God bless

This is exactly the right and responsible solution for Tanki Online right now. Close the shop until they can think of, and implement the right changes to make the game legal - but allow NL and Belgium players to play in the mean time. Thinking of the right changes should not take too long - it is the right and proper responsible thing for Tanki Online to do to at least continue to allow the NL and Belgium players some of whom have invested years into their accounts, and spent a lot of money on the game (even as recently as Black Friday) to be able to play even without being able to buy anything until changes are made. It should be a priority, and it should not take much effort for Tanki Online to make the right changes to allow the game to legally operate in these countries, as other games have done, and as I say indeed as more countries ban lootboxes (which I think is VERY likely to happen in this coming year) an alternative model of income for Tanki Online must be found anyway, so it is in everyones' best interest that they start work on this now. Help the NL and Belgium players and start adapting to the new reality of the laws coming to gaming, rather than throwing them to the dirt. Requiring players to play on a VPN with the same Shop system in place means that 1) players are required to purchase a VPN just to keep playing, or use "sketchy" free VPNs 2) Tanki Online is actively encouraging people to bypass the laws of their own country, which while I am not certain if there is a law against it, is not morally sound 3) Players playing from NL/Belgium can not make loot box purchases from the shop, and that is definitely 100% illegal - if they are able to bypass the laws then it is just a matter of the ability of their government to somehow find out about it, and someone - whether the player themselves or Alternativa - is going to get in trouble. Just let them play for free until changes can be made, do the right thing Tanki.

Huge congrats man, nice! Merry Christmas to you Riddler and God bless :)

Maybe! Well they already have the premium account and twice monthly battle pass as a "subscription" of sorts - as I say with some changes battle pass can still continue even under a lootbox ban. It is nice the way they allow players to play for free, which they don't have to, but it gives a larger player base and other advantages for the game. They can simply sell the same items as you can get in Ultra Containers/Containers right now individually or in bundles, but as long as you know what you are getting and not paying money for an uncertain outcome (also known as gambling - which is why loot boxes are being banned) there is no problem and no violation of the law. Containers are only a relatively recent addition to the game - it survived for many years before without them and it can still do so,