Recently, there was an official EXBO stream with ZIV and TOTOYOTATA, where they addressed the most popular questions from the community that were asked during the stream. Here’s a short summary of the most interesting points.
Enjoy reading!
TOTOYOTATA: Okay, a hot topic is the Encaged event. You played it too. What are your thoughts? You saw the community's reaction, what do you think?
ZIV: As usual: we have different types of players. This mode was most disliked by those who prefer PvP content and rewards.
Regarding content and PvP, there is a part of the playerbase that doesn't want to listen to explanations about development or that we freed up developers for other projects. And that's fair. What matters is the result, and in this case the result is the absence of full-on event. We’re currently working on multiple projects at once, and we can’t exceed our capabilities.
Regarding rewards: for future events like this, our live service team will create a special reward distribution system that will be abuse-resistant and economically balanced — so both donators, esports players, and regular players can benefit.
Player: What's going on with Operations now?
ZIV: The second Operation is being worked on right now, and the whole project is being prepared for release. Once the second Operation is finished, we plan to launch it.
TOTOYOTATA: Tell me, if STALCRAFT: X had one of the existing engines, would it be easier to make PvE content?
ZIV: In the short term — yes. But in that case, we’d be heavily limited by the engine’s capabilities, and adding anything custom would take ages.
Right now, we’re investing a lot in improving our own engine, but in the long term, it’ll pay off and allow us to create unique presets.
Chat: Why can’t we buy artefacts for event currency? Why do all events feel like gambling?
ZIV: If you want rare artefacts with great stats comparable to the ones found in the open world, they need to stay rare.
How to keep them rare?
If everyone can buy them for event currency, they’ll no longer be rare — everyone will have Black Holes. Players will stop farming open world since they can buy a powerful artefact during the event at a fixed price, and other artefacts, like Prisms, will automatically lose value.
TOTOYOTATA: But look, say for a million event currency, which is a lot, you could buy a guaranteed Black Hole. You’ve played a ton and finally earned enough to purchase it.
ZIV: If the game guarantees an artefact, but only after two weeks of playing 20 hours a day with four hours of sleep — that’s unhealthy.
We need smarter systems that account for player effort. We want to work on that, including hidden guarantees that reward players. From a player’s perspective, it still feels like gambling, because they can’t see those guarantees.
TOTOYOTATA: What about Act Tickets? Any alternative ways to get them?
ZIV: We get such suggestions all the time, but adding Act Tickets to non-competitive rewards would devalue them. Tickets as a type of reward should remain very rare and valuable.
Right now, the whole point of Act Tickets is that the player must choose: save up for the Albatross Heavy or give up to other shop offers.
Chat: When’s Crow Arena?
ZIV: We keep Dead Man’s Marathon/Black Raid and Arena of Slavs/Crow Arena in reserve. They’re waiting for their turn — we haven’t forgotten. Their reuse requires more resources than Encaged session mode.
Black Raid might return and take place on Boral Island. Such idea exist, but I can’t say any date yet.
TOTOYOTATA: Any updates on the Wild North locations?
ZIV: Good news — everything goes according to plan. We’ve prototyped artefact spawn installations, reused Murmur spots from the Attack on Perimeter events, and filled the locations with necessary props. Our artists made new looting fillers and new sights. All assets are ready, and the technical game design has made a great progress, locations themselves are already built.
Bad news — to release Wild North, we need to update the looting system. It is outdated and currently being reworked. The update is planned for December. And since winter is already busy with testing and balancing, we can’t fit the release of Wild North in. We’re aiming for January or February for now. The good part is that the delay will let us add more content.
TOTOYOTATA: How will players access those locations?
ZIV: Through a tunnel from the Drunken Geiger Bar, called the Underground. It’ll be available to players with full Bar reputation and completed North storyline. In the Underground will be anomalies that can be rebuilt or changed after eruptions. PvP won’t be available.
Players will exit through a teleport bubble, but this mechanic will be improved to allow more ways to leave the location.
Player: About the clan war rankings, any plans to rework them? Он будет как-то переделываться? It’s so balanced now that there aren’t even two or three strong clans holding B–S rank.
ZIV: Same thing happened with matchmaking. Players complained that veteran ranks were more fun than master ranks, where they faced the same opponents every time. It’s the same with clans. Matchmaking inevitably puts you against familiar rivals.
What to do about it — good question, probably for Kommynist. I can only say we should look into expanding clan activities beyond CWs.
For example, in the Wild North, clans could help each other farm artefacts, or we could think of something with gold drops, adding PvE elements.
As for how to make top clans have more fun with varied opponents — not sure. Maybe try something like a Brawl mode: one top clan vs. two smaller ones.
Player: Will there be hideouts for clans?
ZIV: We like that idea, but it's not in the work yet. It's called clan halls. When we first developed hideout, the plan was for it to eventually evolve into clan halls.
Zub already said he’s reworking crafts from the hideout. Once that’s done, it’ll make sense to move toward clan halls.
ZIV: Encaged was made by the live service team. So where did the other resources go?
We’ve reorganised development into four directions. Each direction relies on its own resources.
Live service — seasons, events, temporary content. Something to keep players engaged between core updates.
Core improvements — mechanics, hideout, clans, etc.
Endgame — new locations, permanent modes.
Onboarding — rebuilding areas and improving conditions for newcomers. As part of onboarding, the Bar is being rebuilt right now, and there’ll be something interesting even for northern masters.
Player: Why does contract provider give so few resources?
TOTOYOTATA: First, there’s a weekly task that motivates people to do dailies. Second, you get reputation.
ZIV: Remember the winter season: we had backpack deliveries that exploded or gave gravity effects. Live service plans to use similar things to make daily tasks more fun, maybe even this season.
Player: About waypoints: I know they can be turned off in settings, but could we have a quick toggle button for that? Метки. Я знаю, что их можно отключить в настройках, но хотел бы увидеть возможность делать это на быструю кнопку.
TOTOYOTATA: Good idea. But new buttons must be really important. We’ll have to check, maybe there’s no free buttons left. For example, Q was recently freed and instantly repurposed for skills. As soon as a free button appear, it gets used for something else.
ZIV: The current HUD is outdated and overloaded. Even the mini-map is questionable — do we really need it in a modern game, especially in STALCRAFT: X? We’ll definitely rework the HUD to make it more relevant.
Player: I’ve often heard you say that forums and fan communities are full of complainers, while satisfied players stay silent. Why not make in-game surveys, like Tarkov does?
ZIV: That’s already implemented and was used during Operations testing. The difference between online feedback and survey results was quite big. We’ll use surveys more often. We just need to set up the process for regular use.
TOTOYOTATA: What about signals?
ZIV: Signals will lead to mini-dungeons. There will be several types, including boss reruns, like the Twins. They’re not full dungeons, more like mini-instances.
New rewards will be added as well, though their variety will start small — we can’t keep adding new guns forever. But the assortment will expand.
TOTOYOTATA: Will there be other ways to get Crimson Casings?
ZIV: We don’t want to devalue CW rewards.
Players need motivation to socialise and join clans to access new reward layers. There was criticism about Operations: modules only dropping there, forcing everyone into PvE.
We won’t make modules exclusive to Operations. Later, we might add them to other activities, perhaps even in clan wars. That’s not a promise, but a discussion we’ve had.
Player: When’s the Wardrobe project coming?
ZIV: The paint removal feature, the core part of the project, already launched this summer.
Now the project's goal is a convenient GUI for switching paints and skins, showing where each one comes from.
Plastinka, you need to find the way to use Stalbucks for the next STALCRAFT: X birthday. But the Wardrobe isn't coming soon.
Player: What’s up with Lyubech?
ZIV: It was planned for next year, but we’re postponing it — something more important will take its place.
Lyubech is a vertical urban location where you can enter buildings. No one wants to see empty boxes as buildings there.
Nearly nine months of work from the entire level design and level art team are needed for a proper rebuild.
We have ambitions for Lyubech, but first, we need to finish the core game before focusing on separate areas.
Jilee, the head of PAWS, joins the stream.
ZIV: About the new clan rules. The most common violation — account sharing during CWs. What actions have been taken already?
Jilee: The claim that we didn’t punish for bug abuse or other CW violations isn’t true. Bans were issued when violations were confirmed.
Formal rules allow us to legally take actions against the whole subdivision.
For example, placing a mobile camp in a no-play zone benefits the whole subdivision. We’ll find the player who did it, but it’s logical to apply sanctions to the entire subdivision since they all benefited from it. We've had to issue such punishments already.
As for account sharing: we’re not executioners. We understand the context, tradition and that CW players are a big part of active players. We don’t want to crush clans with that rule, but repeated violations will be punished to maintain the fair play.
Player: The game feels too easy now, I understand that it’s better for new players. Any plans to make it harder?
ZIV: We do plan to improve the North and add activities for top-tier players so they can make full use of their gear.
Right now, the only place for it is CW, but we don’t want it to be the only option. We’ll add new ways to progress.
Right now, the end of your progression is collecting the full master gear. There are still unused progression types that might look appealing to top players. I won’t go into detail, it's too early for that.
But the new content planned for summer definitely won’t be for beginners. It’ll feature new progression and high-competition gameplay.
Jilee: I have to run, but make sure to read my answers to most asked player questions here.
TOTOYOTATA: So, when are the dance emotes coming to SC: X?
ZIV: The live service team already added profile customisation, so perhaps dances and emotes will come someday.
That’s the end of our summary. We’ve highlighted the most interesting questions and answers. Fully English stream for GLOBAL is coming soon, so stay tuned!
Respectfully,
EXBO Team
