As someone who only plays Wasp it is crazy to me that Wasp is unplayable without Defender, same thing goes for Hornet but more so Wasp since it is less stable and easier to flip and to impact. it is not the case for Hopper though since it is much harder to hit and it is much more immune to impact force as well, I mean the classic combo of Hopper Freeze Shock with Trickster says a lot in CTF and RGB. This will become even worse for Wasp and Hornet with the drone update. Even the health increase from Excelsior is less useful for Wasp and Hornet since it is percentage based.

Nerf hovering hulls or make a MM mode with no hovering hulls.

To me it does not make sense that only damage can be self inflicted and not status effects when using a status effect augment. This does punish bad usage of augments/turrets which is good design wise. This will be applied to any splash damage turret and Rico's ricochet as well.

nerf freeze

Rico is fine. It has lower DPS compared to other medium ranged turrets like twins. Its DPS is not consistent like other medium ranged turrets. Stats wise it has the same range stats as twins but without the splash damage and with higher reload time. Rico's kill time is high and to ricochet efficiently you need to be in a close range and in certain angles of the map which is far from being consistent or OP. Ricocheting in general require skill unlike splash damage. Rico losses most if not all close ranged combat with other turrets whether due to reload time or lower DPS. The vast majority of Rico users does not really use the ricocheting well, their usage is very limited to certain angles and most of the time they just go forward into 1 v X situation where Rico losses. I think Ricocheting potential is high but it requires skill, Map knowledge and position awareness while keeping safe distance to really reach that potential which most players lack. Something excels with skill expression is a sign of good design, likewise it should suck without skill expression. I don't mind a turret looking like it is OP in the hands of a skillful player as long as the condition that made it OP is the skills of the player. The problem is that Tanki became so easy and very noob friendly with so many things that makes the gameplay easy such as Hovering hulls and other OP augments and some new turrets that plays the game for you such as scorpion's missiles.

The devs added bots to the main servers in the 14th of July 2023 and from then till now bots have not received any meaningful change to improve their gameplay despite the constant feedbacks such as yours. The lack of communication about bots in the V-logs is also telling, despite players always complaining about bots. It does look like the devs wanted to add bots just to fill the gaps without thinking of improving the system later on.

I think the main issue with MM is unfair match-ups not necessarily the OP augments. I always find it interesting reading this loading banner , so I am wondering what is the metric for that? I assume it is GS. Since there is a hidden MMR (Matchmaking Rating) for "reinforcement players" I hope the devs develop an accurate hidden MMR that will lead to more fair match-ups instead of most matches being one-sided which is why most players leave in the first place.

I think for isida it is about other turrets/Augments being too good rather than isida being weak. Freeze has been OP for the last few years and the go to turret for the hardcore players when they really want to win. Both Nanotech and Emitters should do less healing while doing the same amount of damage since damage is not the problem here. Most of the MM map pool is not really for short range turrets.

In the last years we only saw new turrets coming to the game, I do think it is time to add a new hull in every category (Light, Medium and Heavy). Needless to say that all should be tracked hulls.

Aside from Crisis the drones system is just too basic and rigid with no skill expression, all drones do is increasing x percentage by x value, which for a new system it suppose to introduce a new mechanic not to just increase the effectiveness of already existing supplies system. If the new drone system will change that I'm all for it. Drones should affect the way you play thus having more variety in play-style. Crisis still by far the best drone design wise.

You don't know the lore of how isida met smoky?

Huge

This can work too and already implemented in overwatch and it is called Push, just like the normal Payload mode, the Push mode has few challenges to be implemented correctly. - The map has to be symmetric. Both teams share the exact same goal at the exact same time: seize the single Payload and push it toward the enemy base. If one side of the map had a better terrain or a spawn area that was 10 meters closer to the Payload, that team would have a permanent, unearned structural advantage. - Fair Sight lines and Choke points. Because the Payload constantly changes direction in Push, a single lane has to function perfectly as both an attacking lane and a defensive lane depending on who owns the Payload. Making the map symmetric ensures that if Team A has to fight through a brutal, narrow choke to push the Payload forward, Team B will face that exact same brutal choke (same terrain) when they try to push it back. The speed of the Payload is constant, so the speed of those who are pushing is irrelevant (those who are within the radius of the Payload). The Payload speed can be increased based on how many are pushing it. For example, if only 1 player is pushing it the Payload will move at a speed of 10 m/s, but if 3 players are pushing it the speed will increase to be 13 m/s.

The way the Payload mode is implemented in many games, is that the Payload will continue to move if there is one of the attackers team within the radius of the Payload but if there was one or more of the defenders team within the radius of the Payload, the Payload won't move anymore, so the defenders have to engage in a close combat within the radius of the Payload, otherwise the attackers will just keep pushing bit by bit till the Payload reach the goal. The attackers will also have to kill anyone of the defenders within the radius of the Payload, since the defenders can stall and buy time by entering the radius of the Payload. The balancing of this mode is heavily based on the map and the terrains of it just like other modes such as CTF. In Overwatch for example, some maps heavily favor the attackers team, other maps favor the defenders team and some maps are somewhat balanced for each team. Another issue is that the time in MM is constant for every game but the maps are different in terms of size, so the route length in meters is different for each map, for some large maps the time will not be balanced since the time is too short for a long route of the Payload, the attackers will be at a huge disadvantage in this case, but in a small map the time can be way plenty for the attackers so the defenders in this case will be at a huge disadvantage. So is there workaround? Yes but it is hard to implement. - Strict the Mode to a Few maps that are very similar in terms of size. First the devs need to select a group of maps that are similar in size. Secondly, the devs need to choose and measure a uniform length of the Payload route that will fit all the selected maps. Thirdly, the devs need to find an optimal Payload speed that will fit the time reasonably, so the time will be balanced for every selected map in relation to the Payload speed. Keep in mind that this Payload speed is uniform across all selected maps. The downsides of this workaround is: 1- the mode will be playable in only few maps so it will feel boring and repetitive for the players after a while. 2- Since the playable maps are all from the same size, they will have the same number of players, which means some turrets and combos won't be as effective as in smaller, less crowded maps, So the variety of combos in this mode won't necessary be good. Another workaround that is better but harder to implement: - Alter the Payload speed to fit each map. No selection of maps needed. No uniform length of the Payload route needed, since every map will have its own payload route and Payload speed to fit the time reasonably. This workaround needs a lot of testing and experimenting for every single map!! This workaround is the one that the devs of overwatch used to implement their Payload mode to make it balanced. The yap above is one of the reasons why game designers often consider Payload maps among the most difficult to build and balance out of any mode.

I respect the effort, but sadly I do think that this idea will be buried and forgotten alongside other amazing ideas as well. The Payload is the famous escort-style mode found in many games. It was first introduced in the game Wolfenstein enemy territory (2003). Valve brought it to the mainstream in 2007 with Team Fortress 2. I am wondering why did you choose Convoy as a name of the mode instead of the known familiar Payload?