I literally haven’t played in… oh… like 2 months.
I haven’t really been playing any games.
Alas, I have a little more free time & pondered re-downloading XO.
Anyone wanna give me the Cliff’s Notes version on the progress of the game?
Did they give rewards back to solo players, or are we still funneled into groups?
Thoughts?
Thx.
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No returned badges.
Made Helicopters permanent but to have anything decent you need higher rarity blades from the new battlepass - mode is polarising.
Selling Athena blueprints in the last level of a mini battlepass using all pack only items again.
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Same here Roopull. I returned after a few months of other activities to find a “new norm” of some odd changes not for the better at first glance. Still adjusting & not happy with such.
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Have also been on somewhat of a break. I drop in about 2 times a week to check on my clan, but haven’t had any real time to try out the new season. As such, when I do drop in to check on the clan, and also running battles with them, I’m SUPER rusty…or at least not as skilled with things (due to buffs/nerfs currently in play).
I plan on fully returning in Jan, so, I’m hoping I’ll be able to skill-up with all the new stuff…if it turns out that all the current buffs/nerfs keep me from skilling-up, I’ll certainly be giving my Smely Opinion about it.
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Nope, dont bother. Try Zomboid or Armored Core.
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Same here, i went for vacations and only resume playing a few weeks ago.
I’m usually kinda of disconnected of what’s going on so, that didn’t change .
A bunch of people flying around ( but that was the same in the propeller event a few months ago).
Instead of wheels i now have tracks, a few new toys of yester years, some I’m enjoying .
harder economy.
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Monkey’s AWOL.
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Lots of cubism going on, but without any of the glory of Picasso.
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Players are fleeing like rats from a sinking ship. Queue times might be long for some modes.
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Game is somewhat dominated by META, probably due to the reinvigorated interest in Clan Wars.
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The New maps are cool, mostly, the copters handle well, and the controls seem intuitive. That update seems to have gone well.
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They are continuing to lean into the pay to play aspect a bit, as mentioned (pack part crafting).
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It’s still the best game I ever hated.
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Let’s not jinx it
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I’ve been doing well collecting badges, even moreso when my clan cooperates a bit.
Crafting anything is nearly pointless, since the sell prices are still down over 25% from this past spring.
Levi battles have become easier, since the helper bots were removed, so at least I’m making some coins farming copper.
Copters may be a wonderful novelty but are damn annoying. I’ll play one on bedlam maps every now and then just to be in with the bedlam regulars, but they just don’t belong in the game (in my opinion). I’ve only used them in battles if a challenge required it, and so far that’s been very seldom (happy to say). They should have left them as a recurring but temporary mode (in my opinion).
Retention of new players still…sucks. Still flushing my friends list of departed players every once in a while. Sigh…
With all that said, I’m really not interested in getting into any other games at this point, so I’ll be staying here. It’s still a great game.
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Oh the joy of returning only to find the blueprints that worked well for you are now defunct. Knocking one’s enthusiasm in the dirt. Bedlam. yes the click of clients that use it that don’t take well to the occasional visitor. Long Q time, Its a scourge… One would believe that the “bread & butter” for the publisher & developers personal income would be of interest as of why client numbers are dropping so rapidly . And why do they not listen to the clients whom are the paying customers as of new ideas ? A few thoughts come to mind. As I was taught that some things are better left unsaid… “Changes in attitudes, Changes in latitudes nothing remains quite the same. Through all of our running & all of our cunning if we couldn’t laugh we would all go insane” *Jimmy Buffett (RIP)
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Maybe Monkey finally gave up trying to convince everyone the playerbase is growing. 
Zomboid looks fantastic… very much my taste in gaming.
Alas, I really don’t have the time or desire to learn a game that in-depth and complicated. I’m not knocking the game. It’s probably the most interesting game out that I’ve seen. I wish I did have the free-time for it, though.
Yeah, I didn’t think so.
I poked around on Reddit, Discord, and FB, but didn’t see anything promising.
I think I’ll leave it un-installed.
Oh… I kinda’ lied. I have been playing ONE game. I found GTA2 online for free from RockStar. It’s terrible. It’s hilarious. It’s awesome.
Plus, too, and also, you don’t really have to LEARN anything to play. It’s about as simple as it gets.
If you need me, I’ll be mowing down 64 bit pedestrians.
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As far as the question of whether the game is losing or gaining players, I noticed something yesterday.
I have been mainly playing air battles because I like the big maps and I like the mixed battles. But the queue times are long, and there are too many bots most matches.
This was making me feel like maybe the game is dying, and that made me sad.
But yesterday I decided to play more ground-only matches, and I was surprised by how quickly matches were loading, and how few bots there were.
At least on PS4, there seem to be more players overall, and from what I’ve seen while trying to recruit for my clan, a lot of them are either new players or casual players.
I’m not going to speculate on the long term health of the game, but I am pleased that I’m not actually seeing the big decline other people are so certain about.
This game has been bouncing off the bottom since it started. It has more or less always been dead.
The game play is always so bad when it gets low like it is, though, and with all the events running, I wonder what it is that they could do, at this point, to get those numbers back up again. The helicopters seemed to have bought them a lot less good will than I would have expected. Once that novelty wears off, then what?
Those numbers look poised to start dipping below 4K soon. I’m on PC, so I reckon these numbers don’t effect you much, but here it’s like all the casual players have gone, and it’s left the rest of us with a condensed population of the more serious players and META users.
The fact that they have updated Clan Wars and made it central to overall progression has stressed this dynamic too, I think. The META is thick, and it hasn’t really even settled in yet. There is still some disambiguation happening over what the current META actually is. MudnBeer knows what it looks like though, I think.
Anyway, point is: It’s hard to improve those numbers and make it attractive to new players when it’s so brutal and over-complicated like it is. That feeds the Melee META (it simply wins, and wins simply) and that makes it even worse, I think, and so I wonder, considering all the gimmicks they have running at once right now, what are they going to do next? How are they going to get those numbers up to where the matchmaker doesn’t have to either sit you in a queue for several minutes at a time, or skew (mis)matches so bad that nobody wants to play? What rabbit are they going to pull out of their hat next?
Give back non clan related badges… that was massive income for people…
Maybe give out more FREE stuff… WoT gives our free tanks now and again just for being a loyal long term player… No harm in showing you give a F about your players.
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The thing is, the game has changed a lot over the years, but the core mechanics are the same and always will be.
Those mechanics aren’t for everyone, and never will be. Crossout will never be a mainstream big budget game, and we need to accept that.
When I started playing, there were definitely a lot less players than now, and I didn’t really expect the game to grow as much as it has. So I’m not convinced that things are broken, or at least not in a way that can be fixed without breaking everything else.
You mention melee being too strong, but I think most would agree that’s only true in low PS. It doesn’t take long to get out of low PS, but then you end up in mid-PS, which I know you don’t love because of too many gadgets and too much degunning. I guess what I’m saying is that anyone who is going to stick with the game is going to have to be content with both the mindless melee aspect and with the overly complicated module-heavy sci-fi builds.
And while many seem to hate the helicopters, they are a way for people to bypass the threat of melee (and some other weapon types).
Could the game be made more friendly to new players? Sure, but I also don’t think it’s as unfriendly to new players as people say. If someone likes the basic mechanics, they’ll have plenty to do, and the early game grind is actually better than it has ever been.
I know you guys don’t like to hear anything about Rough Monkey, but I saw what he was able to do with his PS5 account in a very short amount of time. Yes, he knew all the shortcuts and most efficient ways of doing things because of experience, but the speed at which he grinded out a competitive build tells me that the grind isn’t as big of a barrier as people say.
I’m not saying the game has no problems, but I am saying that if someone is having no fun playing it then it’s probably just not the game for them (or they haven’t figured out that they can ignore all the parts of the game they don’t enjoy).
My take on this is that legendary modules are the high points you see in the game. The game peaked earlier this year because people wanted the Thor generator and the Pegasus was a big seller. People come back to the game to get groundbreaking gear that will change their lineup. Also, Gerrida was a big hit, both because it is a groundbreaking movement part and because it looks cool.
The problem with this is that legendary modules are divisive. Old friends come back to play, and suddenly realize they need a set of 10 Gerridas for 2000 coins each, a Thor for 20,000 coins, and a Omamori for 15,000 coins just to update theiir old Punisher Humpback spider, and they check out again.
The other problem with this is that working the market in the current climate encourages checking out the game for long periods. For example, it has been 2 months since the last battlepass was over, and Gerrida legs, which started at 1,500-1600 per leg now cost 2,200 on the buy it now price. They are going to go to at least 2,500.
Likewise, Pegasus engine, was at 5K now costs nearly 7k and crucially, there are more buy orders than sell orders. In another month, Pegasus will be through the roof as the supply is strangled.
This encourages ratholing behavior, where if you have some coins, invest them in crucial limited time gear, forget about the game for 6 months, you will make a fortune.
It doesn’t encourage consistent log on play both because the price of regular items is deflating as badges are easier to get, and also because the lighter/bearing/minipass system has taken the pressure off of resources as the only source of fused gear.
You don’t need to log on every day to get a 3 set of fused Helios. You just pay $100, wait deep in the bp hit level 140 and its yours.
For these reasons, the game doesn’t incentivize consistent play anymore. The people who still consistently log on are the hardcore folks who aren’t in it for new gear and just want to blow up cars.
I get way more badges now than I did before the changes.
Seems to me the only people making less badges now were the rare grindaholics who used to complete every raid challenge on top of all the mission challenges.
An average player in an average clan should be making more badges now. We also get way more free stuff now, but it mostly comes in those free packs that appear occasionally. I know those occasional free untradeable parts we used to get meant nothing to me at the time, especially in terms of keeping me interested.
You get more because you’re in a clan that does the challenges, they shouldn’t force this kind of clan philosophy so hard as it can easily make for toxic clan environments… like the game isn’t toxic enough already.
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The majority of the badges I get are solo badges. Yes, the clan tops that up, but there’s nothing particularly toxic about that.
I just set up a “no pressure” clan, and invited a bunch of randoms. Hasn’t added any toxicity to my playing routine, and also hasn’t changed my routine.
I know that serious clans who are invested in CW can be toxic, but no one needs to do that.
Anyway, you are the last person who should be talking about making the new player experience better. You’re a highly skilled and experienced player who chooses to play in PS ranges where you are more likely to obliterate new players.
I’m not calling you a seal clubber, or implying to that you play in that range to have easier opponents: I also prefer mid-PS as well. But I’m not nearly as good or competitive as you are, which means you are definitely scaring off more new players than me (and also more than most members of the forum).
I am not suggesting you should inflate your PS. You should feel free to play whatever feels good. But you can’t turn around and act like your primary concern is not scaring off new players.
You know that isn’t true… solo you can only get up to the 5000 rep level and there are barely any badge challenges for it compared to before.
What crack are you smoking? I plat 8999 or 9750, what new players are you seeing here in my lobbies?
Don’t act like I’m scaring off anyone, if you can’t play 9-10k+ then stay out of there, the real problem is the 2499 people. Those people really do ruin new player experiences as well as 4699 players etc. To even try and lump me in with those kinds of players is the biggest stretch imaginable.
I don’t play anything under 9k and my highest is 13k.