Answers to frequently asked questions from the director of the company “Targem Games” Stanislav Skorb
Please note that the questions are selected by the administration of the Russian-speaking and the English-speaking forums based on their frequency in the threads “Questions to developers”, as well as in discussions of developer blogs and discussions of updates. So, here we go!
Question: Why did you limit the sizes of the friend list and the black list? What can we do about players who spam links to crafts in chat?
Stanislav Skorb: These changes are associated with a number of technical features that force us to limit the amount of stored information about the ever-increasing lists of friends and ignored players. By the way, we can observe this practice in other multiplayer projects. This allows to optimize the load on servers and avoid a number of problems. As part of the latest update (0.9.120), we included the option to completely disable chat, and in the future we also plan to add an option that will turn off the display of messages with links to crafts from the exhibition.
Question: Why do we sometimes observe large gaps in PS in battles among players on both teams?
Stanislav Skorb: From the very beginning of OBT, we gradually made changes to matchmaking algorithms for players of different PS ranges. Today, there are very little issues with low and medium PS values, and we are planning to soon correct the situation at high PS (7000 - 12000 PS). Reality dictates that in a project like Crossout, you can never make dramatic changes to player matchmaking. We need to make gradual changes and carefully analyse the situation, which is what we intend to do in the near future.
Question: When are we going to stop stumbling upon legendary weapons in battles at low and medium PS? Tie the legendary and relic weapons to a certain PS and do not allow crafts with them into battles with players using “rare” weapons.
Stanislav Skorb: Our goal is to make effective crafts with the same PS approximately equal in performance (regardless of the rarity of the weapon used). In the near future we plan to analyse battles, which include armored vehicles with weapons of different rarities, and track the effectiveness of such cars in real battles against each other. After that, we will offer our solution to the problem, based on the received data.
Question: Why do you first introduce overpowered weapons to the game, and then wait a long time before making the necessary changes?
Stanislav Skorb: It's not so easy to make weapons perfectly balanced right off the bat, especially when we are trying to add a variety of types with new mechanics, not just carbon copies of each other. By the way, during the current event, we've heard complaints that the new revolver is too inefficient. In any case, we constantly monitor player feedback and tweak the parameters of the new weapons to make changes that are really necessary.
Question: There is a feeling that the game has too many “paid” parts in the game. Compare, for example, the number of paid cabins and cabins that can be crafted. What stops you from adding a few new cabins that can be crafted? Yes, there is a market where everything can be purchased, but I would like a greater variety among the parts that you can actually craft and not just buy with coins.
Stanislav Skorb: We put out a lot of new craftable weapons. As an example, we can look at the latest knechte visit, where all the items are craftable. During the current event, several modules have also appeared in addition to weapons. We also plan to release new cabins, which you can craft yourself.
Question: When are you finally going to do something about hovers? At low and medium PS levels, hovercrafts destroy everything in sight, and at high PS values this movement part, on the contrary, looks extremely unconvincing.
Stanislav Skorb: Changes to hovers will be made soon. Our current goal is to make hovers more efficient at high PS, and, accordingly, less efficient at about 4000-5000 PS.
Question: when will you return regular rewards in brawls? Fun from the actual gameplay? It's quite a dubious pleasure to play and try “for nothing” in a game where making a craft effective and cool directly relies on farming resources and crafting parts. I see no point in taking part in a battle without rewards.
Stanislav Skorb: The reward is not issued only in those brawls where an “effective and cool craft” is not required. These modes do not share vehicle crafting with the main game, since they come with ready-made armored cars. But we understand that the current rewards may not be enough, and therefore we plan to create a unique reward for these modes.
Question: Why are there no refunds at least for what was bought for real money on hacked accounts, if the developers can see everything that happened in the transaction logs?
Stanislav Skorb: We strongly recommend to enable two-step authentication for all players paying real money. It's in the interests of all parties. But, in any case, we try to solve the problems of affected players. Investigations (via logs) are conducted quite often. But, in order to secure your account and relieve the pressure from technical support (and reduce support ticket queues) — please enable two-step authentication.
Question: When are you going to improve and re-launch ranked battles? You closed them for “future improvements” as early as last year and we haven't heard anything since then.
Stanislav Skorb: Unfortunately, there wasn't that much interest in ranked battles. In the future, we plan to rework the rewards for this mode and, possibly, return it to the game.
Question: On a number of maps (for example, “Fortress” and “Tower”), the relief does not allow you to move normally not only on wheel crafts, but also on hovers, because their noses dive into the ground on declines. Do you plan to fix this someday?
Stanislav Skorb: We are constantly improving the maps in the game, and we will have a better look at these issues. Thank you!