[Special Review] New Alterations and Turret Adjustments: Patch #439

[Thekillerpenguin 1,731]

    

 

Patch #439, released on the 10th of February, has brought several exciting new features and changes to the game. The most noticeable of them are the changes to Twins and the addition of two new Alterations for everyone's favorite plasma weapons, Twins and Ricochet, but several less noticeable ones have been implemented too. Let's take a look at them and see what this means for the gameplay.

 

New Alterations

 

Prior to this update, Twins and Ricochet were the only turrets that had a single Alteration, as the other established turrets had received a second set in December, barring the recently introduced Striker. Likely because they are both plasma weapons, the Plasma Core Accelerators and Minus-Field Stabilization M1 Alterations that belong to Twins and Ricochet, respectively, have identical effects on their turrets. The developers were initially planning on continuing this trend by giving both of them splash damage Alterations, but in an interesting turn of events they decided to give Twins splash damage by default and an Alteration to remove it- the opposite of what was done for Ricochet, i.e. no splash damage by default and an Alteration to grant it.

 

Let's cover how each of these Alterations work.

 

Twins: Stable Plasma (M1)

"I should stop hurting myself." - Twins

"It's a good thing that he's seeing a psychologist now. Self-harm is a real danger." - Ricochet

"Hey, that's pate- what do you mean, 'plasma stabilization isn't the same as AP shells'? " - Thunder

 

Unlike Ricochet's new Alteration, Stable Plasma is a M1 Alteration. It occupies the same slot as the earlier Plasma Core Accelerators, and as a result, you can't use both of them together. That's alright, however, since they are essentially opposites. PCA increases Twins' medium range effectiveness significantly while lessening its close range potential, and Stable Plasma optimizes it for close quarters combat, a role Twins used to have before the update. Pick one or another based on whether you want to rush your enemies or hang back and suppress them.

 

Conceptually, this Alteration is similar to Armor-Piercing Ammo Alteration for Thunder, but I don't think that the downsides are as apparent. The self damage on Twins is currently quite significant if you choose to use it at point blank range. To be fair, your enemies will suffer more than you in that scenario since they take the full damage of the turret while you will only take the splash damage, but you will still whittle down your health at a noticeable pace. The splash damage can be useful against multiple targets only if they happen to be clustered within a measly 4 meters. For comparison, Thunder has a splash damage radius of 12 meters. Yeah, not especially useful. In my opinion, the only downside to Stable Plasma is the price (50k is pretty cheap compared to high rank equipment, but not insignificant) and the opportunity cost of losing out on Plasma Core Accelerators.

 

If you use or previously used Twins as a close range brawler, find that the update hurt your effectiveness, and think that it's worth 50k or so to remove the splash damage, this Alteration is for you. If you enjoy the new splash damage or don't suffer from it very much, you'd best save your crystals or buy the Plasma Core Accelerators instead. I'd give this a good rating.

 

 

Ricochet: Unstable Plasma (M2)

"REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!1!!!1" - Ricochet

"Rico always was bouncing off the walls, but now he...just explodes." - Psychologist

"First Striker, then Twins, now Rico. Why is everyone copying my splash damage? And now I hear Artillery's on the way. Jerks." -Thunder

 

Ricochet has carved a niche as a very powerful weapon for indirect fire or close/medium range combat on single targets. This Alteration changes the turrets concept entirely, removing its indirect fire capability and hurting its close range usability in return for being able to hose down multiple targets.

 

The splash damage added by Unstable Plasma has a radius of 7 meters, which is unimpressive compared to Thunder but better than Twins' default splash damage. This allows you to hit multiple targets in the central point of Polygon fairly well. While Ricochet lacks the single shot power of Thunder or Striker, it has better damage per second than both of them and as a result can down clustered targets pretty quickly provided that they stay clustered. The loss of the ricochet effect is a bummer if you use Ricochet on maps where it comes especially in handy, such as Silence or Esplanade, but you're not going to miss it as much on Sandbox or Combe. You'll need to stay out of close quarters unless you plan on self destructing, which makes Ricochet less viable on small maps like Noise or Island.

 

Because this is a M2 Alteration, you can combine it with Minus-Field Stabilization for a medium to long range Ricochet. You lose out on the epic bouncing capability of MFS, which is responsible for a lot of interesting strategies, but at least you get multi-target damage to make up for the lower damage per second. Just don't try to stuff Ricochet into the faces of your targets as you may have done before. I guess a silver lining of the MFS is that you won't kill yourself as quickly from splash damage, but don't push it.

 

Your choice of whether or not to buy and use this Alteration depends on whether or not you enjoy using the bouncing effect and whether you play on maps where splash damage would be more useful than its downsides. I don't think that I'd enjoy this very much because I love being able to flush enemies out of cover and evict intruders from tunnels thanks to the ricochet effect and being able to murder a good variety of turrets at close range with Ricochet's high damage per second, but your mileage may vary. I'd give this a good rating.

 

Turret Changes

 

The update has also seen some changes to a few turrets. Besides the addition of splash damage to Twins mentioned before, changes have been made to Ricochet and Vulcan.

                                                                                     

Vulcan

 

When the original announcement came, many players assumed that Vulcan would receive beneficial changes, largely owing to the nature of the previous balance updates. Vulcan had been severely weakened by updates which had affected both its damage output and the time before self-damage begins. So it came as a slight shock to many that the first listed change to Vulcan was a debuff. The Gyroscope effect, which is the ability for the turret to remain "locked on" to a target even after it has suffered a heavy blow from another tank. This was halved, meaning Vulcan is now more sensitive to impact force from enemy shells.

 

The second debuff to Vulcan was to the turret's auto-aim, both upwards and downwards. Vulcan is renowned for its annoying ability to hit tanks at extraordinary angles, and this debuff was implemented to make using a Vulcan more difficult, rather than its gameplay simply being to hold the spacebar, rotate the turret slightly and watch as the stream of bullets connects with an enemy. Both angles of auto-aim were reduced by 4 degrees, and there was talk that it would severely impair Vulcan's ability as a defender on maps such as Noise, as well as reducing its effectiveness in maps such as Polygon, since the downwards auto-aim was critical for its success. However, after repeated testing Vulcan appears to still perform most of its original roles successfully, though granted the user must now maneuver his or her hull more to allow the "lock-on" effect to continue.

 

 

As you can see from the image, Vulcan's ability to "fasten" onto the target has been reduced.

 

Aside from these debuffs, there was also a very important enhancement for Vulcan. Weak Damage is now increased from 25-50%. This means Vulcan performs much better at medium-long range, and this boost aids it in the Deathmatch format, allowing it to cut down approaching enemies before they get too close for comfort.

 

Overall, I believe this update was beneficial for Vulcan, and the positives outweigh the negatives.

 

Ricochet

 

Ricochet has received two fairly minor changes. First off, the maximum number of bounces is now capped at 20 for all modifications. To be honest, that doesn't really mean a lot. Chances are, you're not going to be in many situations where the rounds will be able to bounce 20 times, and if you are, the maximum range will likely kick in and the rounds will disappear before 20 bounces will happen. I think this is more of a formality, or maybe a bug fix. I haven't heard about any situations where the rounds act ridiculous, but I suppose that with a long enough tunnel and the Minus-Field Stabilization alteration, things could get wonky. In any case, don't worry about that.

 

The second change is that the radius of the projectiles has been doubled from 0.5 meters to 1.0 meters. As such, the hitbox is larger and it is easier for you to hit your opponents because less leading is required. It is worth noting that although the overall increase is 100%, the increase is numerically not very significant, so don't expect to hit anything at medium range without aiming properly.

 

The two changes as a whole constitute a minor buff because there are no apparent downsides.

 

 

Alright, that's about it for this article. Hopefully it helped you with interpreting and judging the changes and the new Alterations. Have you tried any of the two Alterations yourself? Do you have any thoughts about the changes? Discuss them below. Special thanks to new Reporter candidate @Savage for contributing the Vulcan section! Thanks for reading, and we''ll see you next time.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Thekillerpenguin

[misafeco 713]

"Overall, I believe this update was beneficial for Vulcan, and the positives outweigh the negatives."

Yeah, it wasn't. I say this as a daily Vulcan user. The gyro loss is awful, the firing angle loss is noticeable. The weak damage buff is good but overall it's a nerf. Ask any Vulcan player if he/she prefers the current or the previous version.

[TheDarkKnight_cool 1]

ok

[Tethorakismeno 28]

Additionally to what misafeco wrote; It is said: "after repeated testing Vulcan appears to still perform most of its original roles successfully, though granted the user must now maneuver his or her hull more to allow the "lock-on" effect to continue."

Have you tried that with mammoth? I guess not. I'm a vulcan-mammoth user (Eyjafjallajokull) and believe me it is VERY difficult to handle after the latest updates. So please try not to mislead us. There is nothing beneficial for Vulcan on any of your updates so far.

[Bydo 20,121]

ok for the 20 bounces that might be a issue for me but will wait and see .. due to the fact i do enjoy a good bounce off the walls and surprise enemy's ... for the rest will need to see what and how it performs in battle ..

[Crip 4,735]

Additionally to what misafeco wrote; It is said: "after repeated testing Vulcan appears to still perform most of its original roles successfully, though granted the user must now maneuver his or her hull more to allow the "lock-on" effect to continue."

Have you tried that with mammoth? I guess not. I'm a vulcan-mammoth user (Eyjafjallajokull) and believe me it is VERY difficult to handle after the latest updates. So please try not to mislead us. There is nothing beneficial for Vulcan on any of your updates so far.

They are not "my" updates, thank you.

 

And please, me and several other players tested the Vulcan pre update and afterwards. Although the auto-aim reduction and gyro effect was noticeable, the increased weak damage was very good for larger maps.

 

For the Mammoth, I used it and you just needed learn your hull better. The auto-aim was far too powerful before the update.

 

 

"Overall, I believe this update was beneficial for Vulcan, and the positives outweigh the negatives."

Yeah, it wasn't. I say this as a daily Vulcan user. The gyro loss is awful, the firing angle loss is noticeable. The weak damage buff is good but overall it's a nerf. Ask any Vulcan player if he/she prefers the current or the previous version.

Oh, I asked several players what they preferred. The gyroscopic loss and the auto-aim reduction aren't "awful", you just need to learn to actually move your tank and use your hull rather than just rooting yourself firmly into the ground and expecting the turret to do the rest.

 

The auto-aim needed nerfing, but actually it wasn't as big of a nerf as I originally thought it needed. Learn to use your hull better, and you'll find that the auto-aim isn't all that necessary :)

Edited February 20, 2017 by Savage

[Defense 25]

VIPER. !!!!!!!!!!

Since when do you do newspaper!?!

[Defense 25]

They are not "my" updates, thank you.

 

And please, me and several other players tested the Vulcan pre update and afterwards. Although the auto-aim reduction and gyro effect was noticeable, the increased weak damage was very good for larger maps.

 

For the Mammoth, I used it and you just needed learn your hull better. The auto-aim was far too powerful before the update.

 

 

Oh, I asked several players what they preferred. The gyroscopic loss and the auto-aim reduction aren't "awful", you just need to learn to actually move your tank and use your hull rather than just rooting yourself firmly into the ground and expecting the turret to do the rest.

 

The auto-aim needed nerfing, but actually it wasn't as big of a nerf as I originally thought it needed. Learn to use your hull better, and you'll find that the auto-aim isn't all that necessary :)

True, the auto-aim needed nerfing. Tbh tanki actually did a good update here. They've been making turrets less noobish, with twins getting splash damage so noobs don't just "put a brick on their keyboard." The Vulcan update is based on the same principle; less noobs can just shoot forever without having to know how to use a hull.

[misafeco 713]

Oh, I asked several players what they preferred. The gyroscopic loss and the auto-aim reduction aren't "awful", you just need to learn to actually move your tank and use your hull rather than just rooting yourself firmly into the ground and expecting the turret to do the rest.

 

The auto-aim needed nerfing, but actually it wasn't as big of a nerf as I originally thought it needed. Learn to use your hull better, and you'll find that the auto-aim isn't all that necessary :)

And what did they say? Did they prefer the new Vulcan? I doubt it.

 

I don't really care about horizontal auto-aim. I need the vertical one. It's not an aiming problem, it's about what I am and what I'm not able to shoot. It's much harder to play on maps with lots of high and low ground. Like Polygon which I play quite a lot. And no, Vulcan isn't OP on Polygon since the December update. But since this update I can barely see any Vulcan player except myself.

 

The gyroscope effect nerf is not a big problem for me but it's still a nerf. And try playing with a light hull (+ Vulcan)...

[Brokkolo 43]

"Overall, I believe this update was beneficial for Vulcan, and the positives outweigh the negatives."

Yeah, it wasn't. I say this as a daily Vulcan user. The gyro loss is awful, the firing angle loss is noticeable. The weak damage buff is good but overall it's a nerf. Ask any Vulcan player if he/she prefers the current or the previous version.

Totally agree. Why should sb use Vulcan in very long ranges? Weak damage is still too high for it. Gyro lost has pretty big impact on me, as I play with dictator. Vulcan needs hire vertical auto-aim, because with other turrets you can time your shooting to make you shoot lower than usual auto-aim, but you can't do it with vulcan effectively, because you miss more than half of your shoots. I can't go to close combat against viking, because I have chance to shoot over him, that's very annoying, when I need to push sb away or to go somewhere.

 

In conclusion, This update was again nerf for vulcan. With every update, vulcan is getting worse and worse. I think that smoky m2 can be better tthan vulcan m3. 

Before that update, vulcan was the weakest m3 with isida to me. Now it is even weaker than isida in m3 ranks. 

 

That update is ok when I am playing in maps like Monte Carlo, In most maps, it is bad I think

Edited February 20, 2017 by Brokkolo

[misafeco 713]

Totally agree. Why should sb use Vulcan in very long ranges? Weak damage is still too high for it. Gyro lost has pretty big impact on me, as I play with dictator. Vulcan needs hire vertical auto-aim, because with other turrets you can time your shooting to make you shoot lower than usual auto-aim, but you can't do it with vulcan effectively, because you miss more than half of your shoots. I can't go to close combat against viking, because I have chance to shoot over him, that's very annoying, when I need to push sb away or to go somewhere.

 

In conclusion, This update was again nerf for vulcan. With every update, vulcan is getting worse and worse. I think that smoky m2 can be better tthan vulcan m3. 

Before that update, vulcan was the weakest m3 with isida to me. Now it is even weaker than isida in m3 ranks. 

 

That update is ok when I am playing in maps like Monte Carlo, In most maps, it is bad I think

Another good point. With Railgun on my other account I can move my tank forward-backward when I want to shoot in a bigger vertical angle. The same applies to Smoky, Thunder, etc.

[Brokkolo 43]

Another good point. With Railgun on my other account I can move my tank forward-backward when I want to shoot in a bigger vertical angle. The same applies to Smoky, Thunder, etc.

That is what I exactly meant.

 

1 parallel comes to my mind: In World War I, machine guns were good in defense(last week of oct in tanki 2016 year). In World War II it was only usable against infarty (in tanki light hulls) Mechanized vehicles with machine guns were beated by tanks(medium hulls and heavy hulls in tanki). And this is similar what is happening with effectiveness of vulcan right now.

Whose gonna go with machine-gun against tanks?

Edited February 20, 2017 by Brokkolo

[Tethorakismeno 28]

They are not "my" updates, thank you.

 

And please, me and several other players tested the Vulcan pre update and afterwards. Although the auto-aim reduction and gyro effect was noticeable, the increased weak damage was very good for larger maps.

 

For the Mammoth, I used it and you just needed learn your hull better. The auto-aim was far too powerful before the update.

 

 

Oh, I asked several players what they preferred. The gyroscopic loss and the auto-aim reduction aren't "awful", you just need to learn to actually move your tank and use your hull rather than just rooting yourself firmly into the ground and expecting the turret to do the rest.

 

The auto-aim needed nerfing, but actually it wasn't as big of a nerf as I originally thought it needed. Learn to use your hull better, and you'll find that the auto-aim isn't all that necessary :)

 

Dear Savage,

 

I know how to play mammoth much better than you can imagine. Try to go fast forwards/backwards with mammoth in order to get better aim without losing your target. A hint? Try that in polygon's tunnel...

 

I can't argue more since you admit latest update for Vulcan IS a nerf. That says it all!

Horizontal aim shot is very related to fire angle specially in close range situations but fire angle has already been lost since speed rotation was reduced when firing so the only left was the vertical aim. But after latest update is -almost- lost that too.

As I and other real Vulcan players said in every newer update Vulcan becomes weaker and weaker. My humble opinion is counterbalance of this tumble can't be just by increasing weak damage rate.

Finally I'd like to thank TO for keep disarming vulcan!!!

Edited February 20, 2017 by Savage

[Crip 4,735]

In response to all above me, I believe that Vulcan (although the auto-aim was nerfed, and the gyroscopic effect reduced) was actually improved all-round by the increase in weak damage. Vulcan was terrible at long range before the adjustment.

 

And if you have a problem with my opinion about Vulcan being improved overall, please respond with all politeness, since it is just an opinion after all.

 

I find Vulcan still relatively straightforward to use (I have it at M3 on my alternate account, from which I spend a lot of time testing weapons and their changes). Complaining because a turret's gameplay has got more difficult doesn't solve anything. You need to learn to adjust your method of playing with a turret if it gets altered.

 

In addition, none of the Reporter team has anything to do with changes in the game.

 

---

 

That will be all. If you are still feeling up for a discussion, feel free to PM me :)

 

Edit: I would also like to say that I'm new to the Reporting business, so please don't judge me too hard ^_^

Edited February 20, 2017 by Savage

[misafeco 713]

In response to all above me, I believe that Vulcan (although the auto-aim was nerfed, and the gyroscopic effect reduced) was actually improved all-round by the increase in weak damage. Vulcan was terrible at long range before the adjustment.

 

And if you have a problem with my opinion about Vulcan being improved overall, please respond with all politeness, since it is just an opinion after all.

 

I find Vulcan still relatively straightforward to use (I have it at M3 on my alternate account, from which I spend a lot of time testing weapons and their changes). Complaining because a turret's gameplay has got more difficult doesn't solve anything. You need to learn to adjust your method of playing with a turret if it gets altered.

 

In addition, none of the Reporter team has anything to do with changes in the game.

 

---

 

That will be all. If you are still feeling up for a discussion, feel free to PM me :)

 

Edit: I would also like to say that I'm new to the Reporting business, so please don't judge me too hard ^_^

I don't think I was rude.

 

I played hundreds of hours with Vulcan. I think I have bigger knowledge about the turret than you. I still think it was a nerf. My performance dropped on most maps and game modes (I'm still good, I don't say it's garbage now). But lets see what the other Vulcan players think about it. I'll create a poll.

[LittleWillie 3,199]

"Overall, I believe this update was beneficial for Vulcan, and the positives outweigh the negatives."

Yeah, it wasn't. I say this as a daily Vulcan user. The gyro loss is awful, the firing angle loss is noticeable. The weak damage buff is good but overall it's a nerf. Ask any Vulcan player if he/she prefers the current or the previous version.

I agree entirely as a daily Vulcan user (on Wasp). The overall effect is a dramatic nerf. And the lighter the hull you use the more the nerf effect.

 

ALSO the author wrote:

 

"Both angles of auto-aim were reduced by 4 degrees, and there was talk that it would severely impair Vulcan's ability as a defender on maps such as Noise, as well as reducing its effectiveness in maps such as Polygon, since the downwards auto-aim was critical for its success. However, after repeated testing Vulcan appears to still perform most of its original roles "

 

I remember the change as a loss of 4% in the vertical aim with the downward aim left the same. Though perhaps that is due once again to unclear writing by Tanki.  At any rate this review is nonsense. The loss of vertical arc is indeed a significant loss of tactical capability. THAT IS WHY IT WAS DONE. I hate these sort of reviews that pretend a change is not really a change at all!  

 

ALSO

 

"Weak Damage is now increased from 25-50%. This means Vulcan performs much better at medium-long range, and this boost aids it in the Deathmatch format, allowing it to cut down approaching enemies before they get too close for comfort."

 

 

Written to sound like someone who never uses Vulcan. or who does not understand Tanki's definitions.  Weak damage does nothing to help at "medium" range. It halps only at extreme ranges. And I do not know many DM situations where a fire tank charges all the way across Kungur to attack that Vulcan on the other side of the map. It will attack someone close tpo it.

 

What tis weak damage boost does is rewards teh Vulcan player who (in the words of the author)...

 

 "simply being to hold the spacebar, rotate the turret slightly and watch as the stream of bullets connects with an enemy."

 

According to the author that is a Bad Thing. But he praises the change that makes this much more likely.

 

Bottom line this last update sux. This change nerfed the vulcan, nerfed vulcan/light hulls, but bootst heavy hulls sitting in one with a brick on the spacebar until they glow cherry-red hot. IOW vulcan has been made more noobish.

 

Accrding to the VLOG, that is supposed to be a Bad Thing. But Tanki did it anyway.

Edited February 20, 2017 by LittleWillie

[Akame 4,578]

 

Thing, which irriates me, is that You call this update good for vulcan. For me it is surely nerf. At least I have felt it. I don't play with Mammoth, but Dictator.

 

In my experience "Overall, I believe this update was beneficial for Vulcan, and the positives outweigh the negatives."

is totally false. 

My problem is that I have only 296k crystals and 45k to marshal. So I can't get other m3's. I have to suffer using vulcan that long. New Vulcan isn't what I thought it is going to be, when I bought Vulcan 2 months ago 

 

Agreed, vulcan has drastically become weaker, I can vouch for it as a regular user of m4 vulcan-titan combo.

[misafeco 713]

Vote here:

http://en.tankiforum.com/index.php?showtopic=350522

[Crip 4,735]

As I have said several times before, my conclusions were based on my own experience after playing with the M3 version for a few hours after the update.

 

It's an opinion.

[LittleWillie 3,199]

True, the auto-aim needed nerfing. Tbh tanki actually did a good update here. They've been making turrets less noobish, with twins getting splash damage so noobs don't just "put a brick on their keyboard." The Vulcan update is based on the same principle; less noobs can just shoot forever without having to know how to use a hull.

If you think changes should make weapons "Less noobish" then you should hate this update. A boost to "weak" damage rewards those players who sit at the back of the map and never move. Vulcan owners, prepare your bricks!

Edited February 20, 2017 by Savage

[misafeco 713]

As I have said several times before, my conclusions were based on my own experience after playing with the M3 version for a few hours after the update.

 

It's an opinion.

You're entitled to your opinion. I still think you're wrong.

[Brokkolo 43]

As I have said several times before, my conclusions were based on my own experience after playing with the M3 version for a few hours after the update.

 

It's an opinion.

I haven't heard from anyone excepr from author of this article saying that vulcan remained same level/ or got better.

[Akame 4,578]

If you think changes should make weapons "Less noobish" then you should hate this update. A boost to "weak" damage rewards those players who sit at the back of the map and never move. Vulcan owners, prepare your bricks!

I could hold my spacebar with my combo as much as i like, as long as I have a budding isida, or supplies :P, only time i stop firing is when i need to turn my turret faster to i.e an enemy from behind

[Bleach 491]

Why was my original post deleted?

 

Criticism not allowed on this forum?

In my opinion, you're not in  the position to comment as you have only used Vulcan M0 for two hours.....Mr-Mult

@Savageis usually wrong, but in this instance, I think you have to make way for the professionals (this is the point where I enter)....

Edited February 20, 2017 by Bleach

[CuT_TheRe_HeaRTs_OuT 640]

#HowToSpin

 

Not only twins users had a bad week due to the horrible twins update, we get a newspaper article rationalizing

The update from the viewpoint of every one but twins users, i have met no twins user who liked the new alteration.

How can you possibly rate the twins update as good ?!!! oh wait you're paid by tanki to say that.