Jun 1, 2021

[Stories] Guiding star: Touching the underside (Part 3)

Crossout - XO_Team

You may check out the second part here.

The turret of the combat-deady grenade launcher turned towards the rusty armoured car. The shells broke out its black barrels with a predatory whistle, and a few seconds later there was an explosion — a tsunami of fire and shrapnel swept across the deserted range. After glancing at the flying tire, Seeker Ochre listened to a rumbling echo. There was no need to worry that the noise would attract someone’s attention — the Nomads chose the most remote places to test their weapons.

— It’s been a long time since I saw you working, Jeff. What do we have here? Rate of fire, running caliber, perfect handling at medium range… Have you really reached the top of your craftsmanship?

Ochre approached the figure wrapped in a faded robe. The chief gunsmith of the Nomads was already standing on the proving ground next to the experimental target. He concentrated on studying the gaps in a half-destroyed hull, assessing the firepower of the development.

— Not for me to judge— Jeff didn’t react to the question right away. — The device is not ready yet. I’ll make it lightweight, reliable and quick to manufacture. And I will send such weapons to all the wandering Sanctuaries. Then the Lunatics will stop bothering us, I hope.

Ochre looked back at Jeff’s development — a double-barrelled grenade launcher patiently waited for the master’s hand in position.

— What do you mean? Did you run into any of the gangs?

— There was one... incident, — Jeff muttered. — The truth is that the Nomads have become more vulnerable against the uninitiated. All we want is to preserve the peace of the disappeared world, and sometimes it makes us forget about the danger.

Ochre curiously listened to the gunsmith. Very few managed to learn anything specific about the way of thinking, the worldview, and especially about the fears of Nomads. Apparently, Jeff decided to make an exception for the Seeker, but instead of gratitude, she suddenly felt anxious.

— How bad is it?

— The Lunatics are not our main problem — the gunsmith shook his head. In the end, their pathetic life is just a short leap from hatred to oblivion. That day we repelled the attack, forcing them to turn around. Much worse is what turned out later.

Jeff turned his face covered by a gruesome leather mask, toward the Seеker. It washed the human traits away: from beneath the folds of the shabby turban, it looked like a glance of a dried-up millennia-old lizard. An eye with a thorn was visible through the crack of the mask — he stared at Ochre without blinking.

— I’ve known you a long time, child of the Fallen Star. And I understand what your mission means for everyone who survived Crossout. I think you should be prepared for the upcoming events. Come with me.

Following Jeff, the Seeker headed for a complex of nearby buildings. Apparently, it used to be the range’s control centre, and now the Nomads have stayed in its empty walls. Inside, Ochre slowed her pace: the barred windows barely provided any light, and the equally sullen corridors were twisting ahead. Nomads with shapeless shadows slid over them, as if not noticing the guest.

When the door of the former control room appeared ahead, Ochre’s eyes already got used to the darkness. Having barely crossed the threshold, the Seeker saw the square workbench of another weapon — it looked naked without the crowning barrel on top. There were two craftsmen working on the shutter mechanism.

— This is the first prototype,— Jeff nodded, intercepting Ochre’s gaze. — We never liked to spill blood. But there is nothing more important than our purpose, and we will protect the ruins of civilization from the encroachments of the fools until the very end. The new weapon will serve us well. But it’s not why I brought you here.

Having passed the tables with piles of blueprints, Ochre found herself in the center of a hall. Here, under the bright lights from the lamps, separated from other things and tools, laid the fragments of a strange design.

— Do you know whose drone it is? — Jeff asked.

Ochre shrugged, studying the remnants of the device.

— We took it down a couple hours before the Lunatics’ attack. No one would have remembered this incident if one of us hadn’t gone missing. He didn’t die of visceral anger, didn’t hide in the Wasteland, but perished right in the thick of the battle.

Jeff became silent, but soon continued in a nonchalant tone. His voice, muffled by the mask, vibrated hoarsely.

— Poor brother had not lived to see the Ascension. But thanks to this machine, we know how his journey ended. The drone, of course, was damaged by the hit, but it could still be operated with the recording device. We’ve recovered the last few minutes. Do you want to take a look?

Jeff turned to the blinking panel and played the recording. A blurry image of a sand quarry flashed on the screen. The camera shaking in the wind captured the kevlar pods of the Nomads’ wandering “isle”. Despite the digital noise, the neon armoured car and a fighter located nearby were clearly visible.

— The vehicle of the eastern clan... The Syndicate, isn’t it? — Ochra squinted. – Were they following you? How did they figure out the route of the Sanctuary?

— My job is to keep the peace in the Wasteland and hide the underside of reality from prying eyes. Yours is to gather information about everyone living in the Valley. I thought you were going to tell me why the Syndicate knows our secret paths and how they dare to use us in their attempts to access the wisdom of the world.

Ochre waited silently.

— The Syndicate tortured one of us, — the gunsmith was indignant. — Our brother’s pain echoed in every Sanctuary. When we contacted the kidnappers and demanded his release, he was already dead. A nomad can’t be forced to part with his essence.

Jeff stepped back to the table and straightened out a large blueprint. Looking over his shoulder, Ochre distinguished the scheme of the frontal machine gun’s steel barrel box.

— The truth is, child of the Fallen Star, that the Syndicate is upsetting the delicate balance. It wishes to touch what is inaccessible to the mind of a human, — the gunsmith concluded. — Even the “Dawn's Children” didn’t go that far: they always kept the boundaries that we have outlined. The Syndicate is stubbornly invading the sacred territories. Teasing the true inhabitants of the Wasteland…

The last sentence sounded quiet, but firm.

— The Nomads will not allow another disaster.

— I also have something to show you, Jeff, — Ochra replied. — I’ve heard the Syndicate recruits mercenaries and sends them south. And I talked to those who participated in these raids. They described horrible things, and I had to go there myself before I believed them…

The Seеker wrapped herself tighter in the folds of a gray robe.

— What I found there is truly disturbing.

After the gloom of the corridors, the dim sun in the clouds seemed to burn out the retinas. Ochre led the gunsmith to a powerful armoured vehicle parked in the far corner of the range. The Seeker's car resembled a majestic land liner. The steel-lined ark clearly survived more than one journey through the lifeless desert.

Ochre opened the cargo bay doors hidden between the huge wheels. She pointed her hand at the burned out cabin.

— Just your normal tin can, right? If it weren’t for the distinctive oculars. This is a Ravager module, no doubt. But I’ve never seen them paired with hovers. Especially with such cunning weapons: check out how the manipulator works.

The Seеker was waiting for Jeff’s reaction.

— I didn’t have time to study the find. But, according to the mercenaries, even a single copy can be deadly to survivors. I have to admit: the Order has no data on the modernization of the Ravagers. Didn’t the Engineers deal with the lair on the Foothold?

— It’s time for survivors to stop pushing their fate, — the gunsmith cut off. — It’s no wonder they’re suffering hoping to change things. I guess you captured Lloyd’s toy… Another reckless fool who can’t accept the rules of the game!

The Seеker bitten her lip thoughtfully.

— Former member of the Dawn’s Children? What does he want?

— Lloyd’s been acting alone for a long time. We no longer do business with him — after he decided to pave his way into the heart of the Wasteland with our hands. Obviously, the hopeless idea does not leave him... Once we’ve retaken the borders from the Syndicate’s clutches, all that’s left to do is take care of the scientist and his creatures.

— But aren’t Looyd’s experimentations a bigger evil? — Ochre said in a distrustful way.

Jeff looked at the Seeker’s figure with a disapproving glance.

— Lloyd’s gonna have to face reality. The laws of matter can’t be changed by an ordinary man. Even Ulysses has no power over the wonders of the Wasteland — and he lived near the Mortuary from an early childhood.

The gunsmith raised his hooky finger up.

— Remember: anyone who tries to touch the underside must pay a decent price. In their desire to go the way of the Nomads and save what we have lost, they condemn themselves to misery. Soon the insane ones will pay for their foolishness. Believe me, child of the Fallen Star, you’ll see it.

For more information on Crossout, follow these channels:

May 26, 2021

[Update] [PC] Crossout 0.12.65. Crossout Day

Crossout - XO_Team

We wish all the survivors of the Wasteland a happy “Crossout Day”! This update introduces a special mode with commemorative rewards, the ability to exchange non-tradable parts for upgrade stabilizers and the return of raids with the Scavengers!

Crossout Day

Attention! The event will last until June 6 inclusive!

This year, to celebrate the 6th anniversary of Crossout, we’ve prepared a special mode that incorporates your favourite moments from different brawls:

“Crossout Day” is a confrontation similar to the “Free for all” brawl, where the player has no allies. You are surrounded by enemies and you need to destroy as many of them as possible!
Players participate in the battle on pre-prepared cars, but these cars are special this time. All armoured vehicles in battle were created by the players, by both individual masters and game communities.
Just like in the Winter and Spring mayhem or in the “Dronopocalypse” brawls, you can choose the vehicle on which you will continue fighting: there will always be 3 random, blueprints to choose from.
Many blueprints will still have the nicknames of the authors and original build names! You can see all this information on the blueprint selection screen.
The battle takes place on a special map that was created specifically for this event.

Commemorative rewards for participating in the brawl

You will receive memorable stickers and a unique hologram for completing the following tasks:

Participate in the “Crossout Day” brawl 6 times. Reward: 1 unique sticker “Crossout day 2051”.
Deal 36,000 damage in the “Crossout day” brawl. Reward: 1 unique sticker “Craft Ride Destroy”.
Find yourself among the top 4 players in the “Crossout day” brawl for 6 times. Reward: unique hologram “Crossout”.

Free gift

In addition to a special mode, each player who enters the game during the week will be able to get a new unique attraction for the range, allowing you to measure the damage from your weapons (yes, the analogue of useful and already familiar “Absorption sphere”) as well as 3 days of premium subscription!

Attention! To receive the gift you need to enter the game from May 27, 07:00 GMT, until June 6, 23:59 GMT, and accept it in a special window in the right corner of the screen!

Exchange of non-tradable parts for upgrade stabilizers

Now each survivor can exchange unnecessary non-tradable parts obtained from containers for upgrade stabilizers.

To obtain a stabilizer instead of a non-tradable part, select this part in your storage, open the context menu and select the “Salvage” tab. Salvaging process does not happen automatically - before it begins, you will be able to see what you will get as a result and confirm your decision.
The stabilizer obtained for salvaging corresponds to the rarity of the salvaged non-tradable part. For a rare non-tradable part, you will receive one rare stabilizer. For a special non-tradable part, you will receive one special stabilizer, etc.
Please note that non-tradable decor, paints, stickers, parts of “common” rarity, as well as parts that have been restored to your account via technical support cannot be exchanged for stabilizers.

Missions

Based on the players suggestions, additional armoured vehicles were added for raiders in battles for 10,000+ PS.

Raids

Raids with the “Scavengers” have been returned to the rotation.

Now in the graphics settings, you can enable/disable traces of shell marks on environmental objects (the “Shell hit marks” tab).

Improved the “Tank headlight” decor painting mask.
“Tank track” was added to the auto-assembly function.

Fixed a bug with the disappearance of a part of the location “Syndicate garage” when some of the tall builds exited the garage.
Fixed a bug with incorrect value of the penalty to power in the possible results of fusing chassis.
Improved a number of texts, descriptions and icons.

For more information on Crossout, follow these channels:

May 25, 2021

[Developer blog] New parts for the upcoming season (continued)

Crossout - XO_Team

You can familiarize yourself with the first part of the blog about the new season here.

Hello!

We continue to explore new features for the upcoming season! Last time we learned that there would be two new cabins, a grenade launcher and a frontal machine gun waiting for us. And that, of course, is not all. Let’s move on to other new features!

We remind you that all the new features described in the “Developer blog” are not final and may be changed before they are introduced into the game or may not make it into the game at all. This applies not only to information about possible unique features of new parts, but also to the appearance of the parts themselves.

Legendary autocannon

Let’s start with the autocannon that we showed before everything else, but we didn’t describe what it would be on the battlefield.

All of those who guessed and hoped for it to be the continuation of “Whirlwind” — well done! You are absolutely right. The autocannon is a continuation of the epic “Whirlwind”, but it has a number of unique features. Its rate of fire is lower than its epic counterpart, but the successful hits will deal more damage. Average parameters of mass and durability will allow to use this weapon on various types of vehicles.

And its perk will allow you to attack unexpectedly and will force the opponent to guess where the shells came from. It is planned that shots from this autocannon will take the owner of the car out of invisibility with a certain delay.

Epic course shotgun

Supporters of the Lunatics, rejoice — the continuation of “Goblin” is coming!

Everything is exactly as Psycho Pete likes: decent shell damage and high resistance to contact damage, which allows you to perform ramming maneuvers. The part also lets some of the damage through itself .

But now you can combine bullet and contact damage even more effectively, because the shotgun is planned to have the perfect perk for this! After you deal contact damage with the shotgun, its bullet damage will be increased for a certain time. No time for doubts, time to ram the enemy!

Special weapon reload booster

With the plans to redesign the perks of the engines and strengthen their connection to the chassis and other vehicle parameters, this module will be just right. Some engines with changed perks will be useful for the majority of vehicles, regardless of the weapons used. And if you need to speed up the reloading — the special module will be ready for use. The appearance of more effective similar modules of other rarities is also not excluded.

Freight train plow

Well, we couldn’t miss this opportunity to show you one of the new structural parts, which raised so many questions and suggestions! Look at this beauty! And with the start of the new season, you will be able to get this plow for yourself.

In addition to the new parts that we have already shown in the development blogs, other vehicle parts, as well as new structural parts may be included in the season, along with other new features. Stay tuned to make sure you don’t miss anything new!

For more information on Crossout, follow these channels:

May 21, 2021

[Mass testing] Torque. Updated version

Crossout - XO_Team

Hello!

We have reviewed your feedback after recent testing of the torque mechanics, checked and addressed a number of important points. We are ready to give you a chance to test the updated version of the changes.

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 make it into the game at all.

You can read the announcement and information regarding the first testing here.

What has been changed? (im comparison with the 1st testing)

First of all, we changed the power parameters of the cabins. This corrected the excessively fast acceleration of heavy cabins and builds based on them. On the other hand, it slightly increased the dynamics of vehicles with lightweight cabins.
Wheel grip with different surfaces has been improved. The main results of this change are:
- A slight increase of drifting during turning, which all the fans of spectacular driving asked us to do.
- A general decrease in the feeling of driving “on the rails”, which is not typical for vehicles with wheels.
Increased maximum hover speed. Now these chassis will get more advantages when used in conjunction with lightweight cabins.

We invite everyone to evaluate the changes on the test server today. Don’t forget to share your thoughts and impressions with us in a special thread after the testing!

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, May 21, 2021: from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT time)
- Saturday, May 22, 2021 from 13:00 to 19:00 (GMT time)
- Sunday, May 23, 2021 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).

You can report all issues found on the test server here.

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.

For more information on Crossout, follow these channels: