It's basically better than Thunder in every way so yeah it probably is OP including range

Ok this may be a bit hard to understand, since you missed the entire thing with protection modules. Paints do not give you protection against turrets anymore. They are purely for looking good. Now there is a new thing called "protection modules". Each of these have M0, M1, M2, and M3 versions, and microupgrades, just like turrets and hulls. Each of these gives you protection against ONE turret (there's also one that protects you against mines). You can equip 3 of them at once.

Well that's not a supplies problem but a problem with the spawning system.

No, it takes % of the damage you WOULD'VE dealt without dropoff. Example: M1 Smoky does between 259 and 405 damage. You fire a shot, and the game randomly chooses for you to deal 300 damage. But your target is beyond your min. damage range so you'd deal 150 damage (50% weak damage). Then you fire another shot, and the game chooses 350 damage. This would become 175 damage due to range dropoff. I still cannot believe they buffed the weak damage to 50% though. Smoky is now better than Thunder in basically every single way. Impact force, damage, reload are both better than Thunder. And now the range is the same (heck it might even be a bit better since Smoky's crit doesn't even have dropoff). Considering that Thunder is already most likely OP...

Simply said, the Fire buff was quite ironic because it significantly buffed the turret's killing power, yet it also made it EASIER to fight back against it. It's just that you'll die afterwards as well

Firebird right now is actually less OP than the overbuffed Freeze imo. The overbuffed freeze was able to kill as effectively as the current firebird but also take very little damage in return. Firebird cannot do the latter, particularly since its normal damage got nerfed, ensuring that even a Railgun can usually turn 180 degrees and get a shot off before dying.

So my main issue with the crit right now (at the lower ranks) is just how much damage it deals. At these ranks it's like 2x normal damage, and that's really devastating. Smoky's regular shots are already quite good, so these crits are basically just added OPness. My idea was that instead of giving the crit a major damage advantage, we give it some other advantage. I'm not sure what though. Additional impact force? splash damage? And should the infinite range thing stay? idk.

God no. I'd much rather have an occasional long-range Smoky than a perpetual one.

AVERAGE damage. But what about burst damage? And also it's a lot more than 9% once the normal shots start to lose damage from range.

Agreed. I think the main advantage of crits should be their infinite range, not their damage. I mean Smoky has quite enough damage already with the regular hits and the impact force

4 seconds

so evil tbh

Faster Horizontal Tracking?

That's good tbh because of how Freeze can backstab and lock down the enemy, thus taking minimal damage in return. This is something Firebird can't do.

Supplies are fine because they're readily available for everyone, so it's balanced. also there's already the option to disable supplies when creating pro battles.

So right now, in the Matchmaking menu, you can do two things to get into MMS battles: You can select a single game mode that you want to enter. You can click "quick battle" which basically means "I don't care what mode, just get me in fast". Let's say I feel like capturing some flags today. Maybe I have a mission for capping flags. So I want to do CTF or ASL, whichever one is faster. But I don't want TDM or DM or CP or RGB. Now, the best way to do this would be to have a way to say "Place me in a CTF OR an ASL game. Just whichever one has me waiting for less time." But there is no way to do this; I can only wait for one mode at a time. (Also I can't just do "quick battle" because I don't want any mode except for CTF or ASL) How to solve? Behold, the matchmaking menu! And ignore the Star Hunt thing! My idea is that instead of having a "Play! " button next to each mode, you have a checkbox. By default, this is not selected. You check each mode that you want to play. The "Quick Battle" thing is replaced with a "Battle! " button. When you're ready to enter battle, you click that button. You'll enter the queue and wait. Whichever game mode (that you've checked) becomes available first, you get placed into that one. Example: I checked CTF and ASL. If an ASL game becomes available first, I go into that one. If a CTF game becomes available first, I go into that game. How will this work with Groups? When the group leader (or whatever that guy who gets to click the "Battle! " button is called) clicks the "Battle! " button, all the group members' selections are counted. So if a group member checked DM, the group is eligible for DM. Likewise, if someone checked ASL, the group is eligible for ASL. Example: Group of 3 people. Person 1 checked DM, CTF, and RGB. Person 2 checked DM. Person 3 checked TDM and CP. The group will enter the queue for TDM, DM, CTF, CP, and RGB. Alternately, we could make it only count the group leader's selections. Idk. What would this accomplish? I can now select multiple acceptable gamemodes instead of either choosing one or all. This helps reduce your wait time if there's multiple game modes you're OK with playing, and also gives players more flexibility. (Also this would probably help alleviate arguments between group members about what mode they should play, since instead of only being able to choose one mode you can choose multiple.) What do you think of this idea? :)

You can already do this through many services like Skype and Discord though.

So the thing is, Shaft's scope mode is really really powerful (from my own experience and also that of my similar-ranked friends). So even though yes, Shaft is now limited to camping, it's so good at it that it's still really powerful. So something needs to be done about the OPness of the scope mode before any buff to arcade shots.

I think it's basically always worth it.

Smoky is so OP at mid-range though, did they really need to also make it good at long-range?

I really like this idea

tfw when the devs buff already good turrets

That was sarcasm because enri_chill was pointing out that arcade shots should be as powerful as Smoky shots, and I was trying to sarcastically point out that Shaft has quite a few advantages that Smoky doesnt have.

They said putting the unlock rank on Groups was a temporary solution while they put in proper rank restrictions. The rank restrictions were implemented yesterday. Isn't it time now that the unlock rank on Groups be removed?

One that was never needed and also to the one part of Smoky that needed a buff the least but ok