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STALCRAFT: X News

Spring updates for the international branch

Content-hungry denizens of the Zone!

Back in our New Year's Eve article on plans for the year, we warned of a lull in January in terms of updates, as all processes had to be put in place to organize the regular release of patches to new regions. As is often the case in game development, a lot of unforeseen issues came up in the process that delayed development, and we ended up finishing only now 😅.

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Various minor changes will be added to the EU, NA and SEA servers tomorrow, and the first major content update has moved to early March - but we promise not to drag it out!

[h2]March[/h2]


The first thing we are expecting is the opening of the paths to the abandoned city of Limansk. This is a location with hardcore and dynamic gameplay, where you need to invigorate all your accumulated skills and experience to survive. New quests, some of which will be a real test of strength, and new equipment in the barter will become available to you.

In addition, the English-speaking servers will finally get the updated Swamps and small changes to the Cordon, which should improve the situation with the campers (leaving the safezone will change servers). Also, more intuitive updated Emissions, and new Anomalous Serum contracts will be added.

[h2]April[/h2]


In April, players of English-speaking regions will be able to experience our traditional spring event - "Anomalous Blizzard" for the first time. This is a very large-scale in-game event, with unique gameplay and a bunch of themed rewards! Usually the event lasts for three weeks, and leaves the participants not only a lot of yummy loot, but also great memories.

We are also preparing the introductory tutorial changes for this month.

[h2]May[/h2]


After the end of the Event, the inhabitants of the Zone should expect a large-scale rebalance of all equipment, which is designed to fix the current problems of balance in Stalcraft. We've been preparing it since the summer - a very useful and important update.

After fiddling with the rebalance, we will roll out the operation "Dead Time" to the new regions. This is a well-proven competitive mode, where two teams of players infiltrate the secret Soviet laboratory. You will have to fight not only the mutants and NPCs, but also interfere with each other!

[h2]The Epilogue[/h2]

In addition to the aforementioned content, various minor updates may get released, which can't be predicted in advance. By the end of spring we'll definitely inform you about our plans for the summer season - most likely it will be entirely devoted to clan activities!

Thank yall for your faith in us and for following our news. Two months is indeed a huge delay, and we will try our best to avoid such pauses in the future.

Always yours,
EXBO Team.

[REPOSTING] Plans for 2023 (EU, NA and SEA)

We accidentally deleted the original post with the plans for the year, which was published on December 31, 2022. So we're doing a forced reposting, so those who haven't read it yet can see it. By the way, we'll be releasing news about the spring update schedule right after that!



Dear inhabitants of the European, American and Asian region! Just a month ago the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone opened its doors to all of you, and you have already managed to surprise us with tons of great reviews and relentless activity!

Some have already noticed that the new regions differ in content from the Russian region ( which has been existing for many years). We purposely cut off all high tier and endgame content at the start, as well as use a different monetization model. In this article we'll share with you our plans for the development of EU, NA and SEA servers – what releases are coming soon and what challenges we have to face.

[h2]Preparing updates[/h2]

On the Russian segment, we release updates weekly, on Wednesdays. Often they contain all sorts of fixes, but the bigger our team becomes, the more often players see truly interesting patches.

This format of updates creates a considerable load on the work processes - everything must work like clockwork, because every day counts. And now we have a task to integrate into these processes releases in English-speaking regions, specifically the connection with the localization studio, additional QA and things like that. To organize everything carefully, we need time – at least a month.

That's why there will be no updates on the EU, NA and SEA servers for most of January. All this time we will be settling our workflow for regular releases.

[h2]High-end content[/h2]


Most of Stalcraft's lucrative mechanics rely on competition between players - in other words, on PvP. The new region servers have only recently opened, and players need at least a couple of months to acquire high-level gear and fill the upper difficulty levels in our distribution system.

We need enough online players to start making endgame activities available, otherwise they just won't work. What kind of activities are we talking about?

  • Limansk – one of the most complex and dynamic locations in the game. It is a full-fledged abandoned city with vertical gameplay and very valuable loot.
  • Clans and base captures – members of the northern factions will be able to create units that participate in the capture of bases in the northern locations. This is a full-fledged clan system with its own economy and wars. And, of course, top equipment in the rewards.
  • «Dead Time» – a unique PvPvE mode, where two teams of players in a competitive mode perform tasks in a secret Soviet laboratory.
  • «Duels», «Standoff» – session modes that will be added very soon!
  • The Backwater – the most dangerous location in the North, which is mainly intended for clans.

We will gradually introduce these activities into the game announcing release dates in advance! For now, we should expect Limansk first, in the first quarter of 2023.

[h2]Events[/h2]


Four times a year we hold major holiday events where you can play unique gaming activities with cool themed rewards. Our customary dates for these events are as follows:

  • End of March ( anomalous storms, in honor of the end of winter);
  • July 10 (Stalcraft's birthday);
  • Halloween (scary modes with zombie players);
  • New Year's Eve (atmospheric activities).

Unfortunately, we did not have neither the technical nor the physical ability to prepare the New Year event for the new regions, so now it is held only on the Russian servers. However, in March we will be fully armed!

[h2]What else can we look forward to in 2023?[/h2]


We also want to share with you our plans for major updates, many of which we have been developing for several years. Some have even started to get ready to be released, but we can't give you an exact date yet.

  • New parkour system – we are almost ready to introduce a completely new system of character movements, thanks to which you can forget about nasty Q-clamping! Also, along with this system will also release 3rd-person animations - the characters will finally be able to move beautifully.
  • Re-playable dungeon – we are going to release the first dungeon with a large and complex system that will randomize its content. This is a full-fledged PvE activity that will allow you to profit without the obligatory PvP.
  • New AI for NPCs and mutants – we've been designing a new AI and navmesh for entities for over a year now, and the release of the whole thing is just around the corner! First, NPCs and mutants will simply get better at navigating and moving around, and then we'll start putting different behavioral addons on this system, like using shelters or throwing grenades.
  • The rebuilding of the Northern locations – our huge level design team has also been preparing updated Northern locations for a very long time. We are using a completely new approach to the design of the levels. Visually, it's going to be a transition to the next level too!

Also, our game designers are prioritizing work on mistakes this year - we'll be fixing broken or just " crappy" game mechanics, like the dailies and weeklies. There is a huge amount of content on Stalcraft that needs the attention of the developers, and it's time to give it!

[h2]The Epilogue[/h2]
We haven't covered all of our plans for 2023, but hopefully you got an idea of the major updates we want to catch up on.

Happy New Year! Whatever politicians are preparing for us in the coming year - it will go great in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone!

Always yours,

EXBO team.

Server Maintenance [22.02.2023]

We will be performing server maintenance in the EU, NA and SEA regions on the following schedule:

[Scheduled date and time]

February 22, 2023
9:00 ~ 11:00 (CET)
AM 3:00 ~ AM 5:00 (EST)
PM 4:00 ~ PM 6:00 (GMT+8)

Schedules may change due to unexpected problems.

STALCRAFT servers will be unavailable during maintenance.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we thank you in advance for your understanding and patience.

If you have any questions, please visit our support website.

Regards,
EXBO team.

Server Maintenance [25.01.2023]

We will be performing server maintenance in the EU, NA and SEA regions on the following schedule:

[Scheduled date and time]

January 25, 2023
9:00 ~ 11:00 (CET)
AM 3:00 ~ AM 5:00 (EST)
PM 4:00 ~ PM 6:00 (GMT+8)

Schedules may change due to unexpected problems.

STALCRAFT servers will be unavailable during maintenance.

The update brings the following changes to the game:
● themed decorations will be removed from the safe zones
● themed armor/weapon paint packs as well as holiday case will no longer be available in the in-game store.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and we thank you in advance for your understanding and patience.

If you have any questions, please visit our support website.

Regards,
EXBO team.

Release of Early Version of Stalcraft API



We're excited to announce the release of the beta version of the Stalcraft API! Using this API, independent developers can access features such as:

• OAuth for secure authentication.
• Extensive item database.
• Access to information about clans.
• Access to in-game auction system.
• And a lot more.

In other words, APIs provide independent developers and content creators with the ability to retrieve certain game information without launching the game directly.

Currently available data is only the beggining, and we will be updating the API in the future based on your feedback.



You can start exploring API possibilities from Documentation page. It provides detailed information and examples to help you get started. Feel free to reach out to us with any questions or comments, either in comments under this post, or via our Issue Tracker.



Access to the API is granted on a request basis. However, we want to assure you that the requirements for getting access are not strict. We understand that many developers are just starting out and may not have a lot of experience. We are mostly trying to prevent potentially malicious use cases, so don't hesitate to request access.

Originally posted by author
How to access the API – http://bit.ly/3ZOzk8F


We look forward to seeing the creative ways developers will utilize the API to enhance the game experience for players.