I don't know as I'm not a developer. if I were to guess, I'd say it helps generate revenue. Honestly, some of the augments (such as Smoky EMP) are pretty balanced. It's things like EMP salvo which really throw balance out the window.

TL;DR: Yes, but the problem isn't heat immunity it is the way incendiary band works with it. If that gets changed, the augment will once more become alright to deal with. making these augments would fundamentally change the way turrets have to be used in some cases. With Firebird and Freeze this isn't a problem because your strategy is not likely to change depending on whether or not your enemy uses certain augments. In any case, with Firebird you should be going for Incendiary mix regardless, while with Freeze the effect isn't particularly strong to begin wtih. The issue with adding some of those is that their effect would also have to transcend just the turret, or it's basically turret immunity (which makes no sense). In the case of a turret wsuch as Firebird, you're still able to deal damage regularly. Take Thunder for example. With an augment such as Splash immunity, you can (with relative peace of mind) take on Thunder, Striker, Twins, Magnum and Gauss and not ever worry about splash damage scratching you. With something like Shell immunity, that would also have to extend over to Thunder and Smoky (in effect, a god mode on module). That's what Splash immunity implies. For the sake of argument, let's say that they function exactly as you specify. Nanobot resistance and pellet resistance are basically 50% Hammer and 50% Isida modules. Plasma splash immunity would do literally nothing. The only Ricochet players I see are the ones who use viking, never turn their turret and cannot hit something 2 metres away, so that won't change anything. While we don't have critical hit immunity, we do have the new Armadillo module which gives 50% protection. Splash damage immunity for Thunder would change the way it is played, so you'd likely have to aim directly (which is a large majority of shots anyways). Immunity to striker's salvo means you'd have to use Striker only in arcade shot mode, and the same applies to Gauss. As for Magnum, I doubt it would matter much anyways because most hits are splash damage. Lastly, with scope immunity, you'd have to use Shaft in arcade mode. The problem with these augments is that they fundamentally alter the way a turret has to be used. For example, Thunder would wind up being a direct hit turret when it is intended to be used to inflict splash damage, and turrets such as Striker, Gauss and Shaft would have to be used in a fundamentally different manner. As go Firebird and Freeze, the plan for using either of these turrets is essentially the same regardless of whether or not the enemy is using Heat/cold immunity. Go up to them and attack them. That's basically it. Back in the day, circle strafing was a thing, but these days circle strafing with Freeze doesn't do much because your target still shoots at you, while for Firebird it wasn't that important to begin with. With Firebird, the simple solution is to use incendiary mix which you should be either using/saving up to buy if you're a Firebird main anyways because it's by far and away the most deadly augment. As for Freeze, the ability to freeze targets is seldom used as it seems to be intended (to defend), and offensively freezing enemies isn't that useful. Thus it doesn't really matter. In the case of Freeze, it's not that you lose any additional damage either. Yes, the freezing effect is lost, however offensively it never really matters that much, and Freeze is rarely used defensively. Now of course, we could also have augments that make these difficulties possible to work around (such as an augment for Gauss which lets you shoot only in arcade mode but increases damage) but it would still mean that your turret gets altered in a fundamental way (you cannot use a turret intended for sniping to snipe enemies and must resort to using it like any old turret). Thus, it would make the whole game immensely more complicated.

The problem here is incendiary band, not heat immunity. If anything, the only thing that'll save you from an Incendiary band vulcan is heat immunity. It's not really the best way to deal with the problem though. Just because it interacts with 1 turret in a way to give it infinite ammo doesn't mean that it has to be deleted. I don't think any nerfs are needed for heat immunity. Yes, it nerfs certain turrets and augments, but so does every other immunity. To make one of the immunities weaker so that using those turrets is easier isn't really a great solution because then you should also be nerfing the others.

If Tanki sold you a bundle (containing EMP salvo) and then nerfed it, then I suppose it could be somewhat unfair, but in fact you didn't pay for EMP salvo. You paid for the containers, and you got what you paid for (the 200 containers). Thus, I don't see how it can be unfair.

Not everyone can get the augment, and without it EMP salvo means certain death. It used to be broken and needed to be balanced.

I'm sure you'd enjoy it (and to be honest, so would I if I had the augment) but it's simply not fair to other players, who repeatedly get their supplies removed and are fish in a barrel for players to destroy. It shouldn't have had that massive radius for deactivating supplies in the first place if you ask me. It definitely doesn't need to come back, because Gauss EMP is no longer easily one of the most (if not the most) powerful augments in the game.

Well, I think that it should have splash radius for damage, but EMP splash radius doesn't need to come back. Even if you can only EMP 1 target, I think that's pretty fair and balanced to be honest.

Quite sad to see EMP salvo get a buff. I really hope the splash radius just relates to damage (and is half of what it was pre-bug), and that the EMP splash radius isn't back once more. The celebrations are nice though, The new modes are a great idea and quite a bit of fun!

I think it would be interesting if this effect were to temporarily weaken armour by 10-20% and reduce turret damage by 10-20%. Not like AP, but instead you temporarily lose 10-20% of your health, and the same for damage.

hmm? No, I mean if you look at the hull closely in game, you will notice that it never touches the ground (unless hit by Hunter's OD or destroyed). So, it's always hovering. Note that you can control Hooper and move it in whatever direction you please while it is hovering. Thus, you can move the hull mid air (right, left, forward, backward) but you can't fly.

Hooper technically hovers, so even "on the ground" it's still technically in the air, which means that you can move it around in the air because simply put, instead of being a tiny distance above the ground, you are now a few metres above. With Viking, there's no such functionality, which means you can't change direction mid air.

Indeed, it was an elaborate prank. Unfortunately, I can't help you get Viking Legacy. Good luck in getting it!

True, I'm just mentioning what would hypothetically also have to happen.

I'd like to say that if they were hypothetically removed, you'd also have to get rid of things like EMP salvo, AP augments and paralyzing augments, because otherwise these things will be impossible to counter. I don't know that IB vulcan would stop being a thing because players can simple group together, using mechanic, Dictator and Titan being hard to stop at least. Additionally, you'd have to get rid of Heat resistance (and likely add that aspect back to Firebird protection). I'm assuming critical hits won't get removed for all turrets, so there will still be an aspect of luck to things. Frankly, I've never bought a hull augment in my life, and I've still got many of each type, from challenges (which I grant you is more for those who can buy) but also containers. I imagine that if challenges no longer had hull augments, they might not sell as well as they do now. Certainly, I would likely not bother with challenges too much because it's not really a better situation. I wouldn't be thrilled if this does happen, because I did spend some time getting some of these augments, and also tankoins. I'd like to be able to completely ignore that 5000 GS Firebird Wasp user who manages to somehow nearly kill you, or the player who cannot turn their turret but has EMP salvo for example. Ultimately, if you just get rid of Hull augments, a whole lot of other mechanics would also have to be thrown out. I believe it would likely mean that OD's become the new and best way to do well. Lastly, consider getting Incendiary mix for Firebird. It's the best augment, and straight up able to ignore protection modules. You lose afterburn, but you'd lose it most of the time anyways. As for Freeze, corrosive mix is great, and I hear that so is High pressure Pump.

Yes, an unfortunate consequence of the critical hit update. I doubt they'll go ahead and change anything about it though. To be honest, Autocannon is a lot of fun to use.

Thanks! Yeah, smoky's been changed since the time of writing. I think Paralyzing rounds would now be ranked higher.

Yes, that's one of the tasks.

It was an April Fool's day joke my friend! There are no real prizes for you to win in this contest. If you want some crystals though, take a look at the Play to Win contest.

Those battles are definitely not fun, I concur. The best battles are the ones where you're on the edge of your seat the whole team, not the ones where you can see from the start which team is likely to win. Well, now that it is in the game, hopefully Tanki continues to tweak the balance until the equipment is well balanced. I do believe they will try and balance the game better and better, we'll just have to wait a bit.

Yeap, and hopefully we see more doing this! We need more such players!

No joke! This is a contest, winners will get real prizes!

April fool's day is now officially over, so don't worry, it's a legitimate contest! I'm not gonna wait until the end and then say "haha April Fools even though it's like the 30th of April!" Thanks for pointing that out. I believe it's corrected.

Well thank you. All I'm saying is, instead of posting here, why not go on and do something you truly enjoy? I don't imagine you enjoy spending time on the forum that much. Personally, I'm not trying to say Tanki's decisions are right, the end. Some updates being released confuse me too, but what I will say is that the situation is likely more complex than I can see, as I don't have any of the data, numbers or so forth required to obtain a true interpretation of what the game is. I believe they are trying to make the game a little better balanced than it was before. Does every update make it so? No. Does every part of some update make it so? Maybe no also. But, there are good things happening I definitely think. For example, patch update 642 (once again not all good changes I feel) but notably, AP augments apply the AP effect on critical hits (except for a few I think, I'm not entirely sure which ones work as before and which've changed. Freeze AP works the same way (and I think that's how it should work). Even in the critical hit update which wasn't particularly popular, EMP Salvo, EMP Railgun and Stun Railgun were nerfed. Gauss as a whole lost it's splash radius when using sniping mode. So every update can't really be classed as "bad" or "good" entirely. There are things which aren't great, and then there are things which are great. Such is the case with most updates. Now for example the critical hit update may be passed off as "useless" at first thought. But, given the augments smoky and railgun have gotten (EMP and stun) it seems that devs want to bring in EMP and stun augments for every turret. So, instead of making a firebird that stuns with each tick or a Thunder which activates EMP on each shot, adding it only on critical hits makes it far more balanced, yet this had the downside of critical hits. But, if they didn't add any protection whatsoever, protection modules would lose some portion of their usefulness, so they instead decided to add the (rather expensive) module into Ultra containers. The effects of this are likely well known to you, but it's not just bad. Good things also came from the update. The point I raise, is that they could easily have decided to just make for example Thunder with EMP and sledgehammer reload. They didn't. They wanted to add it, but they know that if they did that, it would throw a wrench in battles. I'd like to think they also knew that the Railgun EMP and Stun augments were too overpowered, and needed a nerf, and so they came up with this. Thus, it feels fair to say that things are getting more balanced I think. They're heading in a better direction, where buyers get their powerful augments but they're not broken and non-buyers can hope for more balanced matches.

To clarify, this contest is not an April Fool's joke, so if you would like to win prizes be sure to submit screenshots to win some crystals.