Q&A with ZIV [12.08.2024]

Greetings to our beloved Global community, we haven't forgotten about you! I'm really sorry, I haven't been active in the Discord channel for a long time — we're extremely busy with marketing stuff and all the big release fixes. Anyway, let's keep in touch in this Q&A way.

This time we had three times more questions comparing with the last time, thank you so much for being that active! We tried to choose all the questions that would be the most interesting to the community.

So, let's start!

Note to all new readers: one of the main STALCRAFT: X problems is the current matchmaking system's imperfection — it is not transparent and forces players to fight against much stronger opponents.
We plan to replace it with an open system where players can choose the matchmaking level when leaving the safe zone. However, this is a huge and complicated project, because it changes some game basics and can easily break the game.
For example, it can make the Master servers empty, and we need to make sure that there won't be just some clans running around. It also gives abusers more opportunities, so we need to figure out how the new matchmaking will affect the PvP. And of course, all the new mechanics and the progression should harmonise well with this new system, cause we will be literally creating several games inside one.
Currently, we are in the documentation and prototype stage, so we can say that we're just starting to develop this system. For now, we don't have any particular perspective on what exactly this system will be, and that is why there is no point in talking about any specific deadlines. It depends on how many mechanics we will need to change or even create some new ones for this system. 

There are no plans to add new master attachments, we've left them for future end-game activities.

We've been trying to bring replayable dungeons back into the game for some time, RU-community even makes memes about it. We've created several failed prototypes in the last few years and it ultimately came down to a lack of content, and new AI for NPCs and mutants. We've been getting our ducks in a row for some time with “Crow Arena” and “Arena of Slavs” — they've been created to try out the mechanics for dungeons.
Now we have both new AI and enough content, moreover, in February we had internal prototype tests, which although sent to rework, but is still a bit of progress, cause its predecessors went to the ideas' garbage bin. All in all, our first dungeon is in active development. This mechanic will be called “Operations”. 
Limansk (Lyubech-3 now) will be reworked but only in the next year. We plan to make it more sessional, with our references being Tarkov and other similar extraction-shooters. We have very interesting plans for this scientific city. 

We don't plan to create any exclusive in-game items for certain regions, just because it doesn't make sense. The fact that RU has content unavailable in other regions — is not some kind of tricky plan, but just a result of the RU servers being open since 2014, and having different events and paid offers in these 10 years ending up with rare items in the players' personal storages that are unavailable for the new players.
Now all the regions have the same content and still it is not 100% true that this or that skin or gear from the BP that are available now will be still available in a year.

These tokens are planned to be used with the “Operations” release.

In the foreseeable future, we don't plan to reduce the amount of required serum, for now, they meet our requirements of the time the player needs to progress in barter. Don't forget that the serum is also purchased by the clan members for crimson casings, and reducing these costs will strike the players' motivation to join the subdivisions.
Talking about the “changing serum” and reset essence — these are valuable items and their cost doesn't exceed any norms. If there are too many of them, it will damage the economy and devalue rare artifacts.
When we will refine the artifacts upgrade mechanics and this sphere in total, this might change. 

You're probably talking only about the PvP activity participants, while in the open world, people create carry weight builds, and even for speed there is more than just the bracelets.
Combo armours are still in great demand, and it is thanks to various builds that the players adjust them for their needs. In some time, when we have dungeons, the laceration builds that now are asleep will find their niche.
In general, there is no use for now to add the artifacts with new features, regarding the fact that not all the existing have found their use field.
For example, those with the resistance to anomalous damage. For now, the artifacts' main issue that is to be primitively solved — it is an ancient UX and adding more easy ways to farm the artifacts for newbies. 

Bench system for CW is in the development queue for some time, and probably comes in the foreseeable future.

Thank you for such kind words! Let's remember that what differentiates STALCRAFT: X most from other MMO-shooters is that the players have many opportunities to affect each other experience, negatively as well. For some huge game dev companies, this feature would be something wild, but this is our thing that is keeping STALCRAFT: X from fading into the background near such big games like "Destiny 2".
Why do we play games? To get some emotions. What gives you emotions in STALCTAFT: X? Adrenaline when you're running from a raid with loot. And it comes not from anomalies or mutants, but from the enemy players. We're trying to smoothen the complexity curve one way or another to give the players safe (or almost safe) zones as it is done in the new North. We're going to separate the stalkers' and the bandits' paths even more in the South so that the newbies would dive into the PvP fights gradually rather than abruptly.
However, even the domestic locations should have an open PvP and the player killers should have an opportunity to trespass into the other factions locations and crash the party. Otherwise, this wild and living world of our game will turn into a soulless grinder, where finding an artifact won't give you any emotions. 
There is also no point in making multiple versions of STALCRAFT: X for different regions, we can just create more activities for all the categories of players so that everyone would do something they like. Yes, now we lack PvE-activities, but we're working on that.

Compared with session shooters, STALCRAFT: X has one major issue — every new region for us is a new Exclusion Zone which we are to fill with enough amount of players to ensure the operation of economics and main game mechanics. Opening is easy, but closing the server due to the lack of online means that you need to somehow compensate players' farmed stuff and transfer the data somewhere.
Currently, the NA server is located in the city of Austin, near the Mexican border, so the ping should be more or less okay. There's nowhere to put hosts further south for NA region.
Generally speaking, we're preparing the release of Spanish localization and after that, there will be trial marketing campaigns in the LATAM, which will help us do some research and see, whether the game is interesting for people in this region. Based on the data we will collect, we will decide whether we should launch another server or not.

We want to start with reworking the basics of obtaining and storing the paints. Because now it is just a huge scrapyard in the personal storage willed with a bunch of wasteful skins that the player doesn't dare to use because they're not reusable.

Well, there's a time for everything. For now, we are going to focus on increasing the South Zone location's quality to the quality level set by the northern locations and building the missing North locations between Frontier and Mercenaries, Covenant and Rise.

Yes, we're planning an event with similar gameplay this autumn, but it will have different lore and visuals. But, let me warn you that we don't devote a lot of resources to it because we want to focus on the “Operations” development. 

Our main source of the data is statistics on how high the demand for these suits is between the players. Currently, both suits are worn by quite a lot of players, so there is no confirmation of your subjective opinion.
Keep in mind that every gear element has its pros and cons, and often the gear owners can't accept the cons and keep asking to make their suits become meta. 

There are no plans to increase SR3M modularity, but there are plans for new NATO guns. AR-15 new line is in progress, but we lack free hands to do the rest. When we have new specialists in the team or someone else from the team has some free time, we will work on expanding the range of NATO guns. 

Unfortunately, this field is not really our priority, but someday we will get round to at least polishing the guitar's mechanics. For now, even the guitar itself is rather raw and needs to be reworked, so we can't really even discuss the new instruments.

That is all for now with your questions. Thank you once again for being that active, passionate and caring about our game. We hope in the nearest future we will be able to make the “Q&A” a monthly thing and invite other developers to participate and get closer to the Global Community! So, stay tuned.

Respectfully,
Community managers