Announcement: Planned Balance Changes

Discussion
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Planned balance changes

Hello!

Today we would like to share with you a full list of balance changes that are currently planned for the next major update along with the new season. At the end of the week, we will launch a special test server so you can try out these changes and share your feedback and impressions.

Please note that the in-game text strings and descriptions will not be updated on the test server. All relevant information is presented in this news.

We remind you that all the new features described in this news are not final and may be changed before they are introduced into the game or may not be implemented into the game at all. You can learn more about all the planned changes on the special test server!

Movement parts

Interaction of hovers with other movement parts

  • Now the flight altitude of hovers is reduced when there are other movement parts used together with them.
  • Mechanical legs are now included in a separate group of “the highest” movement parts (not including rotors) when recalculating tonnage.

Comment: with both adjustments, the cars with mechanical legs will get extra tonnage from mounted hovers only if they are low enough above the surface (and not in any case, as it has always been the case with a combination of legs and hovers). This way, we would like to make sure that the tonnage of all vehicles is provided by their main movement parts.

Changes in controls of tracks, Rolling-based movement parts and augers

For all tracks, rolling-based movement parts and augers:

  • Reduced friction parameters.
  • Increased maneuverability of vehicles with these movement parts.
  • Changed the speed of rotation on the spot.
  • Added the ability to quickly switch to rotation on these movement parts (previously it was only available after the vehicle had come to a complete stop). To do this, you need to completely release the gas key and press only the turn key.
  • Improved suspension.

Wheel PS

Now the PS of all wheels from “common” to “special” rarities is:

  • Common light — 40
  • Common medium — 50
  • Rare light — 60
  • Rare medium — 70
  • Rare heavy — 80
  • Special light — 80
  • Special medium — 90
  • Special heavy — 100

Comment: the power scores of the wheels were brought to a single format to simplify their further balancing and to exclude illogical situations (such as the same PS value of the “rare” “Large wheel” and the “special” “Double wheel”).

Structural parts

Updated the parameters of resistance to various types of damage for structural parts:
image

Comment: lightweight parts now have the best durability to mass ratio. The “heavier” the faction parts are, the lower this ratio is. We’d like to correct this situation in an indirect way, because the same ratio can either severely weaken vehicles with primarily lightweight parts, or conversely, greatly strengthen heavy builds.

Now, the “heavier” the faction, the higher the damage resistance values of its parts. This way, lightweight parts have a good ratio of durability (and bonus to cabin durability) to mass and approximately the same survivability against different types of damage. Heavy parts, on the other hand, have a lower durability to mass ratio, but will be a better choice against different types of damage.

Changes in parameters of parts and co-drivers

Lupara

Damage reduced by 15%.

Comment: the efficiency of this weapon is too high for its PS indicator. The shotgun was almost identical to the “Sledgehammer” in terms of damage dealt.

“Ammo pack” and “Expanded ammo pack”

Now ammo packs don’t increase the amount of fuel in the boosters. With the next update, it can be done using a special module.

Icarus VII

  • Increased inertia when turning.
  • Speed reduced from 90 to 85 km/h.

Icarus IV

Increased inertia when turning.

Comment: the increase in inertia should reduce turning sharpness and make a vehicle with hovers more difficult to control. Reducing the speed of “Icarus VII” is aimed at making other “epic” movement parts more competitive against them.

Gerrida I

  • Speed reduced from 70 to 65 km/h.
  • Reduced surface grip. Now the car with these legs has become easier to push.
  • Increased inertia when turning.
  • Durability reduced from 450 to 410 pts.

Comment: “Gerridas” have completely replaced the other legs and are currently the strongest movement parts. These changes, as well as corrections to the interaction of legs and hovers on the same car, should help correct the situation and bring the effectiveness of those legs up to the expected level.

ML 200

Durability increased from 750 to 790 pts.

Bigram

  • Durability increased from 600 to 660.
  • Added 25% resistance to explosive damage.

Comment: relative to the already mentioned “Gerridas”, “ML 200” and “Bigram” demonstrated rather low own survivability and were more often destroyed in battles, which we aim to correct.

Atom

Power penalty reduced from 17% to 15%.

Comment: the change is a small bonus to the changes to the control physics of a number of movement parts described above.

Bigfoot

  • Durability increased from 565 to 730 pts.
  • Mass increased from 280 to 350 kg.

Comment: the change is designed to increase the rather low survivability of the wheels. We significantly increase the durability of the “Bigfoots” in exchange for making them noticeably heavier. We’d like the “heavy” and large wheel to be durable and playable on more than just fast cars.

Omni

PS increased from 250 to 300.

Comment: the reason for increasing the Power score is that the efficiency of movement parts is too high in battles at 4000 — 7000 PS.

Small track

  • Speed increased from 90 to 95 km/h.
  • Power penalty reduced from 12% to 9%.

Reinforced track

  • Maximum speed increased from 75 to 80 km/h.
  • Power penalty reduced from 22% to 17%.

Sleipnir

  • Speed increased from 80 to 85 km/h.
  • Power penalty reduced from 20% to 15%.

Armoured track

  • Speed increased from 65 to 70 km/h.
  • Power penalty reduced from 40% to 30%.

Tank track

  • Maximum speed increased from 60 to 65 km/h.
  • Power penalty reduced from 55% to 42%.

Goliath

  • Maximum speed increased from 55 to 60 km/h.
  • Power penalty reduced from 70% to 55%.

Comment on all tracks: it’s the least popular class of movement parts. The change is additional to the aforementioned physics and control changes, which are designed to increase the dynamics of tracks.

Catalina

  • Reduces the damage of all mounted weapons by 15% (instead of 17% previously).
  • As damage is dealt with any weapon, the weapon’s maximum damage increases by 7% (instead of 8% previously).
  • The perk’s effect stacks no more than once every 4.5 sec. (instead of 4 sec. previously).

Comment: high efficiency and versatility of the perk. Now the damage of the weapon will be higher than before, but only up to the moment when 3 “stacks” of the perk are accumulated (up to the moment when the bonus is summarized 3 times). After that, the overall damage will be lower relative to what it was before the change. Also, the bonus damage accumulation will take a little longer.

Blight

  • The perk now also adds 0.5% to the parts heat level from flame weapons.
  • The distance required to charge the perk reduced from 500 to 300 m.
  • Perk damage bonus reduced from 35% to 20%.

Comment: with this change, we would like to remove the cabin’s status as a non-alternative cabin for flamethrowers (largely due to its high bonus to fire damage). In return, the perk now additionally increases the heating of parts. Please note that “0.5% to heating level” means that if a flamethrower heats a part by 0.5% for a single infliction of damage, it will heat it by 1% in the same amount of time under the effect of the “Blight” perk.
We have also increased the damage of flamethrowers so that their damage remains the same when affected by the cabin’s perk.

Cerberus

Added perk: while the cabin’s built-in melee weapon is active, the damage of the other saws mounted on the car is increased by 25%.

Comment: before the change, the cabin actually didn’t have its own perk. With this change to “Cerberus”, we would like to increase its demand, which has remained low for a long time.

Icebox

  • Increased the damage bonus for weapons with limited aiming angles from 15 to 20%.
  • Added a 40% bonus to the rotation speed of such weapons.

Comment: the cabin’s demand among the player is low. Increasing the rotation speed will make playing with weapons with limited aiming angles more comfortable.

Huginn

  • Power reduced by 9%.
  • Mass increased from 2202 to 2720 kg.
  • Mass limit increased from 17000 to 17600 kg.

Comment: previous parameters of the “Huginn” allowed to build vehicles on its base that were too mobile and durable for relatively low PS indicators.

Yokai

Damage increased by 12%.

Comment: in the current realities, “Yokai” loses to other epic weapons. Increasing the damage will increase its attractiveness and effectiveness.

Quasar

  • Added hit damage (65pts.) and 50% penetration ability.
  • Durability increased from 693 to 748 pts.

Comment: adding hit damage will help ensure consistency in damage dealt and increase the effectiveness of the plasma cannon.

Acari

  • The effect of the perk now deals damage only to structural parts.
  • Damage increased from 0.6% to 1.2%.
  • The durability of the part, after which damage stops being dealt, has been reduced from 25% to 10%.

Comment: “Acari” is an extremely effective weapon and it’s fairly simple to use. After the changes, the ballista will remain effective against strong vehicles in terms of armour weakening, but will no longer affect their “important” parts (cabin, modules, movement parts, weapons).

Pyre

Reduced the optimal distance to 200 m.

Comment: this change should reduce the effectiveness of the rocket launcher in modes with armoured aircraft, where battles take place at long distances. It was announced before the “Rise of the machines” update, but was postponed due to technical reasons.

Remedy

Damage increased by 13%.

Comment: the damage of flamethrowers has been increased due to changes applied to the “Blight” cabin.

FHT-3 Flock

  • Durability reduced from 105 to 41 pts.
  • Added 65% resistance to explosive damage.
  • Ammunition increased from 50 to 70 pts.
  • Active range increased from 9 to 12 m.
  • Comment: It’s no secret that “Flock” was more often used not for its intended purpose, but as a good option for armouring a vehicle. With these changes we increase its effectiveness against homing rockets, but remove its “armour” status, for which this part was not intended in the first place.

Thyrsus

  • Damage increased by 8%.
  • The number of charges increased from 7 to 10.

AA Gun-4 Starfall

  • Damage increased by 10%.
  • Durability increased from 608 to 652 pts.

Comment: the changes to “Thyrsus” and “Starfall” are being made due to their lack of effectiveness compared to other weapons of legendary rarity.

B12 Dove

  • Energy drain reduced from 7 to 6 pts.
  • PS reduced from 2800 to 2400.
  • Damage increased by 25%.

Comment: initially, the minelayer was a rather highly specialized weapon that should not be effective at all times, but even in the situations for which it was designed, its performance left much to be desired.

RA-1 Heather

  • Cooldown increased from 10 to 16 sec.
  • Projectile speed reduced by 10%.

Comment: “Heather” is significantly more effective than “Mandrake”, which is its closest analogue of the same rarity.

Mandrake

Reloading time reduced from 1 sec. to 0.3 sec.

Comment: this will improve the usability of “Mandrake”. Reloading now takes the same amount of time as when using “Heather”.

Assembler

  • Charging time reduced from 2 sec. to 1 sec.
  • Reloading time increased from 0.2 sec. to 1.45 sec.

Comment: the changes will make playing with “Assembler” more comfortable and, at the same time, will not affect its damage per second.

Pulsar

  • Added hit damage (78 pts.) and 50% penetration ability.
  • Durability increased from 693 to 748 pts.

Comment: these changes are similar to the changes for “Quasar”.

Hurricane

Optimal range reduced to 200 m.

Comment: similar to the changes to “Pyre”.

Draco

Damage increased by 13%.

Comment: the damage of flamethrowers has been increased due to changes applied to the “Blight” cabin.

Yokozuna

  • Speed increased from 65 to 67 km/h.
  • Mass reduced from 4500 to 3500 kg.

Comment: “Yokozuna” is far from the most popular legendary cabins. With these changes we develop its original idea as a cabin for durable and relatively fast heavy vehicles.

Firebug

Damage increased by 13%.

Comment: the damage of flamethrowers has been increased due to changes applied to the “Blight” cabin.

Co-driver “Grizzly”

  • The talent is now activated after 2 hits to the cabin (instead of 3 hits to any parts of the vehicle previously).
  • The effect lasts 6 sec. (instead of 4 sec. previously).

Comment: the talent of “Grizzly” is the most effective and easily used among all other talents of the co-drivers. The changes have 2 goals: to make the talent more specialized and suitable for vehicles with not fully armoured cabins, and to give the enemy a chance to prevent their opponent from activating the talent of “Grizzly”.

How to get to the test server?

If you have already participated in testing on a special server, then it will be enough to start the Launcher from the folder with the test client and wait for the update to complete.

  • Create a new folder for the game on your hard drive.
  • Download the Launcher from this link. The file name should not contain numbers indicating that the file is a duplicate. Please note that you should launch the file that does not contain any digits (1), (2), etc. in its name. If, when starting the installed launcher, you get to the live game servers, you need to delete all downloaded launchers from the download folder and try again.
  • Start the Launcher and install the game to the folder you created (for example: D:\Public test\Crossout).
  • After the installation is complete, start the Launcher and enter the game with your username and password.
  • The whole progress of your main account will be transferred to the main server (including parts in storage and levels of reputation in factions).
  • After logging into the server, to transfer progress from your account, press the “Esc” key and select “Copy account data”.
  • Please note the schedule of the test server:
    • Friday, January 26, 2024 from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT time)
    • Saturday, January 27, 2024 from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT time)
    • Sunday, January 28, 2024 from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT time)
  • Any progress you make on the test server will not be transferred to the live game servers (INCLUDING ATTEMPTS TO BUY PACKS).

After testing the changes, we invite you to leave your constructive feedback on the planned rework in THIS THREAD (it will open a bit later after the launch of the test server).

The public test server is intended only for testing of the upcoming update, and may not accommodate all players without exception. However, absolutely anyone can join the server, as long as there are free spots.

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Can someone explain to me how a 40% bonus to the rotation speed to weapons that don’t have rotation speed (really) is going to work?

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Because they do have a very limited firing angle, which in turn acts as their “rotation”. So I’m guessing you’ll be able to aim faster within that limited angle.

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I mean, yes? But the MG and Shotgun limited angle weapons are essentially instantaneous anyway. So this so-called “bonus” to rotation speed is basically no bonus at all. This might be a translation thing though.

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A lot of big changes here, and many are things we’ve been talking about here.
Excited about the track and roller movement changes, but lots of other good things here.

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looking forward to the movement changes, hope to see more diversity of legs and tracks being used

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Hopefully that will add some fun back into the tracks and augers. I do kind of wish they would have been a little more specific with some of these changes. Like I wonder if the reduced friction is aimed more at some than others.

The quick rotation ability I think will be nice especially for limited angle weapons. That power reduction should be really nice for the tracks too.

This will be nice, glad I bothered to upgrade them. :slight_smile:

This is kind of interesting watching the market react on this one. If you know how the perk is worded the 25% they mention is the amount of durability left on parts after taking damage. So they are giving a 15% bonus to total damage to the structure parts and letting it do the damage at 2x the current speed. In exchange for not damaging the cab, weapons, movement parts, and hardware which it previously did. So the 2k durability + cab dur car turns into a 200 durability +cab dur car that keeps it’s mobility and offensive capabilities dmg (change this case would be 50 dmg increase across structure parts).

This kind of makes me a little sad as that special module is probably going to be a pain to get after the BP. Though I guess we’ll see less rocket pigs for a while too.

Your neglecting to think about the cannons and dumb rockets, which many are limited angle as well. Like the snowfall has a lot of lag in it’s turn speed.

I think they had a different code hook for aim speed, which is when the targeting reticle shrinks. This would just be barrel speed in general I think.

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Balancing their own nerfs isn’t balancing the game… :rofl:
tenor

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How many times a year does a player have to relearn a game? Not changing my builds again. :unamused:

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Crossout: “I’m sorry, baby. Please come back. I promise I’ll be good this time.”

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Half the people here scream about how the devs don’t care enough about balance, the other half cry about every balance adjustment.

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I like the balance update, personally, but I think MudnBeer’s right; they are just rolling back things they screwed up in the first place, and many of us said so when it happened.

I’m glad to see tracks get buffed and Hovers get that speed reduced, etc (not on board with making them unstable again though), but this feels like being jerked around a bit.

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thx for nothing as always…what is going on in your head to just start typing random thoughts ? :crazy_face: :rofl:
'no need to ask me i’ll tell ya…i got beer n weed… :kissing_heart:

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I’m not sure I see the problem with rolling back previous balance changes that went too far, or that didn’t have the intended effect.

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I’m pretty sure you are the king of random thoughts on this board, but I’m flattered that you think I could approach your level.
I quit drinking last spring though, so I don’t have the same advantage that you do.

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The problem is that people end up chasing the wind, and that costs them money and time, and it’s frustrating. This beta testing is getting old…and maybe a little senile?

For example: increasing hover speed to 90kph (or whatever) was obviously stupid, but they did it anyway. Then people went out and bought them, because playing Crossout without them basically meant getting pwnd constantly by people who had them…now they are reducing that speed back down to nearly what they were in the first place, and screwing up their handling characteristics too…so, for some that seems like a waste of money or resources to have chased that back around in a circle, and it’s by far not the only example of this behavior.

Some of us would suggest there is a pattern.

That’s probably true. Don’t tell him I said that, though :wink: I like you both despite the disagreements.

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Hovers have been the dominant movement part since they were introduced. They didn’t need to raise the speed to make them more attractive. And besides, the fast ones are craftable, so it was clearly not about selling packs.

They made it pretty clear that they were trying to do something about the big sideways spaced armour hover meta, and try to make hovers more like their original vision: highly mobile but fragile.

Of course that did not go as intended for very long, as the horseshoe meta emerged not long after 2.0.

But then Gerrida made spiders relevant again, and they are arguably the best movement part currently.

Sorry to be so longwinded, I just have a lot of thoughts about how the game continues to change and grow.

Edit: forgot to mention my actual point, which is that chasing the current meta is never a good idea, unless you are obsessed with being competitive in CW. Better to learn everything and accumulate a lot of options, so that you can easily adapt to changes without having to sell off your inventory.

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“Long-winded?” This is me you’re talking to. While MudnBeer may indeed be the King of random thoughts, I am certainly the King of long-winded (and hyperbolic) posts. No problem. I read well beyond the Twitter character limits quite easily.

I think you’re right, this is a good update (mostly), and I would welcome a better year for Crossout than the last, and to me, this looks like a good start…but EasyAntiCheat is probably going to ruin that for me anyway, so whatever.

A lot of what’s in this update would improve my particular corner of the Wasteland, like the wheels and track changes, for example, and I hope they can solve the EasyAntiCheat issue in an amicable way, but I bet they don’t, and this is probably the end of the line for me.

Word. I did forsake that path in my travels (travails?) through the Wasteland for precisely those reasons. I did not however invest in a wide variety of gear though, as I felt like it was chasing the wind to eat it, in regards to the competition for relics and Legendary gear.

I’m happy at PS 6K, and can’t for the life of me understand why I would leave that residence and chase the META. I’m content to hang out with Mad Max and company, but I’m not afraid to open up the wallet when they offer something along those lines that expands my reach into that genre either, and they do periodically. This update will feed that niche for me too, I think…but I do understand why some people might feel jerked around.

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I like how they are buffing the mostly unused movement parts and some guns, but honestly it does not feel like they are addressing any of the actual issues with the balance. Like buffing structural parts, ok I guess, it’s not like I have problems with structural parts being instastripped by DPS rather than guns so who really cares.

And all they pretty much are doing is buffing the Starfall so it too can join the OP DPS meta along with Cyclone, whopee and such.

Icebox second perk is just the usual devs have no idea what they are doing. Really, buff movement of guns on the cabin that uses guns that don’t really move, how awesome, clap clap on that brain fart.

Heather is just going to be absolutely killed off like artillery in general is in crossout, if you’re running something like heather and mandrake at least the faster reloading heather gives you a bit of a fighting chance in this gerrida DPS rush build facehug state but even then just barely. Now it’s just getting absolutely killed off. Astraeus nerf 2.0 smoking some dank sheit in the office boogaloo

Honestly this balancing is just not worth being excited over, as it genuinely does not balance the things that need to be balanced (nerfed) at all so honestly Whopee Quasars do a bit more damage it’s still going to be the same old bullet spam meta it already is that was old very long ago already

They need to genuinely balance the game for once rather than pretending they give a flying shit with these fancy long posts of “We ain’t nerfing shit here’s a buff to 2 forgotten weapons also look at this chart where we buff all structural parts so in essence the part that got shot off fast compared to other parts, still gets shot off fast when compared to other parts because all parts were slightly buffed”

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The heather is only effective if you manage to hit something. The mandrake is more effective because of its AOE damage, it’s an incendiary weapon. I feel like this will make the heather even harder to play than it already is.