Crime Boss: Rockay City News

Hello, Bosses! In this blog, you’ll find a list of questions from the community and answers from the developers from our latest Q&A stream, hosted on Thursday, March 20, 2025. This followed the launch of Update 14 on March 11, 2025. As future updates roll out, some answers may change, but we always follow updates with a new Q&A to ensure players have the latest information on Crime Boss: Rockay City.

Additionally, we’ve included some extra answered questions that we couldn’t cover during the live stream, as they were received just before or during the broadcast.

If you’d like to watch the stream, you can find it on Twitch or YouTube.


Thank you for watching, reading, and most importantly, playing Crime Boss: Rockay City!



QUESTION: Will there be an upcoming hotfix to address issues like the Ranger mission door bug?

ANSWER: The just released 14.1 patch has fixed this problem. Thank you for your patience.

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NOTE: If you want to see the full list of fixes in the 14.1 patch you can see them HERE.

QUESTION: Is there an option to switch off crossplay?

ANSWER: Yes, in the options menu under ‘Game’ settings. Scroll to the bottom to enable or disable crossplay. While we encourage using this feature for a broader player base in co-op mode, you can disable it if you prefer.

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QUESTION: Is it just me, or is the ping really high for this game?

ANSWER: Since multiplayer is peer-to-peer, ping quality depends on the host’s internet upload speed. Many home connections have solid downloads but insufficient uploads, leading to higher ping. To improve your experience:

Use the session browser to find a server with better ping.
Host the game yourself.
We continue working on reducing network traffic with each update, though it’s a long process.

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QUESTION: I played through the new Rumble map. Has anyone else had issues with randomly not being able to ADS or shoot?

ANSWER: This issue is not common. If you’re experiencing it, please ensure you’re not using third-party software like aimbots or autoclickers, as we’ve seen such software cause problems before.

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QUESTION: My friend experiences a freezing bug after loading into a map. Any fix for this?

ANSWER: This is likely network-related and should be reported to customer support. To help diagnose the issue, please provide:

Whether this happens consistently. If the issue occurs when your friend hosts instead. The player’s ping and other network details. Whether verifying game data has been attempted.
You can submit a ticket for customer support HERE.

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QUESTION: Any chance of getting XeSS 2 support soon? The SDK was just released, and the game has an Intel Arc logo at startup.

ANSWER: We are reviewing it but haven’t made a final decision yet.

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QUESTION: Is cross-progression coming to the game? I’d love to continue playing on PC after hitting platinum on PS5.

ANSWER: Cross-progression is not planned.

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QUESTION: Are there any PS5 Pro enhancements?

ANSWER: We can make some small adjustments to optimize settings for the Pro console, but this is not a major priority right now.

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QUESTION: This update is great, but there’s still no public Lobby chat.

ANSWER: We initially removed Lobby voice chat due to technical issues with the on/off setting. We plan to resume work on this feature.



QUESTION: Any plans for modifications to the map? Such as more enemy spawns, less ammo, or higher enemy health? What about a new difficulty setting?

ANSWER: We launched with one difficulty level and later added more. While additional difficulties are easier to implement, mission-specific modifiers are more complex. We are considering this, as such additions would significantly improve replayability.

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QUESTION: Any chance of New Game+ for the campaign? Where players can keep money and unlocks, but the game gets harder?

ANSWER: Not a top priority, but we are exploring customizable difficulty options that allow players to make the game easier or harder, including restrictions on boss cards and other settings. This is in the design phase with no ETA yet.

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QUESTION: Would you consider bringing back Wiz’s secret mission chain to the roguelike campaign?

ANSWER: No promises, but the full Wiz story is still present in the Standalone plotline of Hidden Vault.

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QUESTION: Any plans for new factions or expanding Rockay City, like introducing Yakuzas or adding a countryside location?

ANSWER: We would love to add new enemy bosses (Italians, Yakuza, Triads, Cubans, Colombians), but for now, the priority is expanding levels and adding new enemy archetypes (e.g., Butcher, Minigunner, Special SWAT). Something new is coming in Update 15.



QUESTION: Will we get a chat wheel 2.0 with more lines? I’d love to apologize when I mess up stealth.

ANSWER: We are analyzing its usage and open to suggestions on what to add. Let’s discuss this before development.

You can tell us your ideas in the suggestion channels on the official Discord!

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QUESTION: Will the progression system be expanded so we always have something to work toward?

ANSWER: We learned a lot from our current progression system, introduced in Update 8. While we don’t plan a major overhaul, we are working on small improvements and new content like boss cards and single-player assets.

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QUESTION: Could Boss skins locked behind Campaign wins also be earned in Multiplayer? I gave up on the campaign because I can never win thanks to the cyborgs.

ANSWER: We are exploring ways to make this possible. Meanwhile, you can try eliminating Cagnali sooner or limiting police investigation to improve campaign difficulty.



QUESTION: Will you tweak the dialogue? The characters sound flat.

ANSWER: Unfortunately, no. Existing dialogue recordings are final. Each character has over 2,500 lines, making re-recording impractical. However, we continue adding new VO for mission planners, guards, and SWAT lines.

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QUESTION: Any updates on Nasara and Casey’s voice lines?

ANSWER: Yes, we should address this, but it’s lower on the priority list.

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QUESTION: Will NPC-exclusive weapons like the Minigun ever be unlockable?

ANSWER]: Unlikely for now, but variations of existing guns are more likely to be added.

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QUESTION: Could we get more free Boss skins like Teresa and Vamp?

ANSWER: We can’t confirm anything but check the public ROADMAP—there may be hints!

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QUESTION: Could players carry more than four bags?

ANSWER: Four is the max with the mule booster equipment and the Mule Booster perk in the ‘Jupiter Character Pack’ DLC.




QUESTION: I wanted to ask if there are plans to add more diverse game modes like Rockay Rumble, which changes the main gameplay.

ANSWER: There are no plans for additional game modes in the near future. The focus is on improving existing content, especially multiplayer. However, some improvements and modifications may feel like new modes… We can’t say much more than that for now.

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QUESTION: What about the Nasara Revenge DLC? Is it still planned? Maybe next year?

ANSWER: This DLC is not planned, as it was designed as a series of small linear missions in a detective/thriller style. IGS is focused on creating larger missions that can be played in both MP and SP. In Update 15, new missions will appear as both standalone MP missions and a new Urban Legend. These will also be added as plotlines in the SP campaign, along with the addition of Cold Strike. The concept of Nasara Revenge doesn’t fit into this approach.

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QUESTION: Can we get an update to pick up bodies rather than placing them in suitcase-sized body bags? It would make the game much more immersive and higher quality!

ANSWER: Realistic corpse handling would be nice, but we don’t have it. Adding it is not a priority now. We have a long list of perks, abilities, equipment, and other gameplay improvements that seem more important.

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QUESTION: Do AI companions not use their skills?

ANSWER: No, AI bots do not actively use their equipment. We experimented with this, but it caused more problems than it solved. In Crime Boss, AI bots only shoot, revive, and transport loot—which is already more than what is standard in the heisting genre. However, players can switch between characters and use AI equipment or skills manually.

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QUESTION: In the Gold Cup heist, can all the trucks arrive?

ANSWER: If you are referring to the stealth version of Gold Cup, the truck arrival mechanics have already been changed. However, for loud gameplay, this is not the case.

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QUESTION: Three requests: customizable weapon skins in the campaign, bring back the Italians, and let us play as Chuck in a police campaign flipping the script!

ANSWER: Unfortunately, there isn’t much good news regarding these requests:

Italians won’t return unless we decide to introduce additional gangs, which is unlikely for now.
Weapon skin customization is not planned for single-player.
As for playing as Chuck Norris, that would be a cool idea! A Crime Boss: Ready or Not style game could be fun, but for now, we’re focusing on heisting. Maybe we should pitch it to 505 Games!
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QUESTION: Any plans for armor? You die so easily! Also, any future outfit changes for characters, including henchmen?

ANSWER: If you have game balance suggestions, we recommend joining the official Crime Boss Discord and discussing them with other players and developers. We have dedicated sections for suggestions, and we actively incorporate ideas into the game. Any help is appreciated!

[h2]Fixes:[/h2]
• Ping warning is now shown from 150ms and higher. It was previously shown at 100ms.
• Rockay Rumble window where the player was able to fall from the map was fixed.
• Respect screen headlines in the campaign no longer repeat the same text twice.
• Revives from the Comeback perk and the Comeback King boss bonus now correctly add up.
• Players with the maximum boss level can now correctly end the campaign.
• SWAT should not stop speaking entirely after some time in a mission.
• Ranger #2 (Danger Close) issue when players would get stuck has been fixed.
• Fixed an issue with a duplicated lobby code.
• Bots should not enter restricted areas unless commanded to.

[h2]Known issues:[/h2]
• Some users may experience issues on game startup. It seems MSI Afterburner causes a crash for some customers. Please turn it off in case of issues.

Update 14 adds crossplay, AI improvements and a new Rockay Rumble map!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



[h2]OVERVIEW[/h2]

• This update introduces CROSSPLAY between all platforms. You can customize this feature in the settings.
  
• Revamped AI BOT functionality with a focus on bug fixes and more logical behavior.
  
• ROCKAY RUMBLE gets a new layout in honor of the New Lunar Year. Enjoy the new map and higher difficulty.
  
• Earning respect in the campaign is now better visualized and rewarded with BOSS POINTS during your campaign run.
  
• Finishing the CAMPAIGN will be rewarded with money in CO-OP PLAY. For both successful and unsuccessful runs.
  
• Network status indicator added in missions in Multiplayer.
  

[h2]UPDATES[/h2]

• Added a new Rockay Rumble variant celebrating the New Lunar Year.
  
• In Gold Cup, players can now deliver all the loot into the 3rd truck while playing the mission in stealth.
  
• Inverted order of weapon scrolling.
  
• Added option to choose the weapon scrolling order.
  
• Added a few new mission bonus objectives.
  
• Team composition bonus objective in the campaign.
  
• Kill at least X enemies/gangsters bonus objective (where appropriate).
  
• Enabled all six eligible mission variants for the Armored Convoy mission in the Hauling Ash urban legend, instead of the previous count of one.
  
• The Progression screen now groups melee weapons into categories.
  
• The Progression screen now displays all tiers of a perk together.
  
  Bot improvements
• Significantly improved behaviour of bots. They should care about surviving more.
  
• Bots have improved perception of nearby enemies.
  
• Bot behavior in stealth should improve while following the player.
  
• Improved ability to automatically deliver loot to designated areas.
  
• Increased weapon ranges for Shielder, Shock Trooper and Heavy.
  
• Ranger now has the “Gun Nut” perk instead of “Ghost”.
  
  Weapon updates
• Desert Eagle is slightly stronger.
  
• Urban Striker damage was increased by +5%.
  
• Tweaked reload speeds – Tactical reload (reload with ammo remaining) is faster than empty ammo reload, especially for SMGs.
  
  Perks and equipment
• Sturdy perk lvl. 2 and 3 have a slightly bigger bonus now (increased by +2% / +4%).
  
• The Medic perk has a greater bonus when the owner is being revived.
  
• Changed the description of the Vigor (health regeneration) perk to clarify its effect.
  
  Campaign
• Earning respect in the campaign is now more prominently displayed and awards boss points.
  
• Respect tiers have been renamed as part of this change.
  
• Earning respect now refreshes the black market, characters and soldiers for hire, and the available money-making missions.
  
• Finishing campaign runs (both succeeding and failing) will now award money in Multiplayer.
  
• The end sequence has been reordered as part of this change.
  
• Baker will now start the campaign equipped with “Baker’s Bearslayer” secondary weapon for the owners of the Baker’s Bundle DLC.
  
• Escaping the Sheriff after maxing out the investigation yields a slightly higher score and rewards than dying in the mission.
  
• The campaign’s hire soldiers screen will now accurately display the maximum number of soldiers you can hire during the day, not only those you can currently afford.
  
• Increased the reward from the King’s Crypt Gold Cup mission.
  
• Campaign final grade now slightly improves with difficulty.
  
• Overhauled the random event offering new characters for hire to make it more viable. The option is now cheaper, the characters are displayed in the preview and may come at a higher level or with better weapons than usual.
  
• Added an opening choice cutscene to the Strong Arm Dollar Dragon for Money.
  
• The planning cost of “weaken gang” missions has been lowered overall.
  
• The planning cost of a “weaken gang” mission that results in the capture of multiple turfs is higher than in the case of capturing only one. Its difficulty as well.
  
• Turf war reward weapons may now also be rare (blue).
  
• Improved the “Plus One” boss bonus description to give a better idea about its progression.
  
• The Stash tutorial now appears when visiting the Stash screen for the first time, not when running low on funds.
  

[h2]FIXES[/h2]

1. Enemies and civilians should no longer trigger alarm or suspicion based on a throwable being used. This sometimes manifested as enemies (or civilians) seeing ziptied or deceased enemies through walls or in other unexpected places.
   
2. Fixed various instances when the displayed “Expected value” of missions wasn’t accurate and the actual earnings fell outside that range.
   
3. The “Pay with luxuries” option of buying trucks in the Gold Cup plotline now properly subtracts luxuries, not cash.
   
4. Prevented some cases in which a new big heist plotline would not start for several days after wrapping up the last one.
   
5. Fixed various issues with truce.
   
6. Attacking, but failing still ends the truce.
   
7. Breaking a truce with someone breaks the truce with everybody.
   
8. Fixed a case when “Dismiss character” would fire the first person from the list instead of the selected character.
   
9. Gang “Hostile” relationship takes precedence over “Unfriendly”.
   
10. Roidiac Jupiter and Jupiter shouldn’t be encountered in the Team at the same time anymore.
    
11. Character names should no longer be displayed in cutscenes when they don’t say anything.
    
12. Prevented several instances of overlapping popups in the campaign.
    
13. The “Disrupt Khan’s activity” mission incorrectly mentioned vehicles.
    
14. The Gold Cup plotline and “Strong Arm Dollar Dragon for Money” are now mutually exclusive because one rewards the player with a truce, and the other requires no truce. That caused issues when both were started simultaneously.
    
15. Hiring army is now enabled in the Dragon Dogs standalone plotline.
    
16. Items recently unlocked via the progression magazines now correctly appear in the campaign’s blackmarket.
    
17. The “First Day” goal in the campaign’s first run now ends immediately on Day 2 (not after seeing all pending tutorials).
    
18. Special loot notifications (i.e. artifacts and paintings in Dragon Dogs) are now correctly aggregated to avoid a flood of notifications after certain missions.
    
19. The day summary board should now be visible during players’ first campaign run.
    
20. Fixed a few cases of overlapping tutorial popups with other elements.
    
21. Weapon skin generation setting in the campaign – if disabled – should now correctly prevent skins from being applied to new turf war reward weapons and the loadout of generic characters for hire.
    
22. Clients were sometimes unable to deposit pocket loot into the van in specific cases.
    
23. Fixed multiple issues with subdue not working as intended.
    
24. Rare case where player icons appeared corrupted for some clients in 4-player Co-op games.
    
25. Money Train – Loot bags incorrectly replicated for clients after joining in progress.
    
26. Bots could get stuck inside armored vans while looting.
    
27. SPX Grenade – Wrong crosshair displayed after reloading until switching weapons or fire mode.
    
28. Micro SMG Gal and STGW 51 incorrectly shared the same ammo pool.
    
29. Urban Legends – Invite button incorrectly available during active gameplay.
    
30. Steam Deck – Touching non-interactive areas could cause loss of input focus.
    
31. Subduing a guard behind another guard could break the subdue action.
    
32. Minigunners sometimes stopped reacting in the final Khan turf war.
    
33. Main Menu – Incorrect background loaded first on fresh saves if DLC was enabled.
    
34. Zipline – Pressing ‘E’ mid-ride caused animation issues.
    
35. Clients did not see the distraction magazine effect above guards/police heads.
    
36. Shields did not display hitmarks when shot with penetrating weapons.
    
37. Several typos.
    
38. Bank Money Maker – Chopper Bags – If you switched characters, the mission ended.
    
39. Fixed various crashes
    

In IGS, we are fully aware of how essential AI companions (bots) are to the overall game experience.

Some squad games address this issue simply placing the responsibility either entirely on the player or on cooperation with multiple human players in co-op mode. Consequently, bots are, on the one hand, immortal (to prevent their death from frustrating players), but on the other hand, their ability to assist is very limited.

In Crime Boss, we have multiplayer co-op heists, but we let players play them offline with bots. You can choose what bots and how many of them.

Experienced players can play our roguelite single-player campaign. This mode is a bit complex as you need to manage the whole team, including their equipment and survival. This is an essential part of the roguelite mode economic loop. Taking bots or not is affecting the difficulty—a full team of capable heisters/bots can defend themselves well, even in situations where a lone player would struggle to survive. This serves as a clear motivation to save limited funds for hiring and equipping them.

By design, the loss of a heister during a mission can have a significant impact on the entire campaign. This reinforces the roguelite aspect of the game and increases gameplay tension (in a good way). For this reason, we chose a more challenging approach—making bots vulnerable and mortal while simultaneously enhancing their ability to assist, creating an alternative to human companions.

As a result, we occasionally receive negative reviews from players regarding AI quality. Yes, we hear you. And you are right. We understand that losing them due to AI imperfections can be frustrating for players. We could improve the bots by simply dumbing them down and making them invulnerable. "Those who do nothing make no mistakes." But this wouldn’t be helpful for the game, given the above context. So instead, we take this feedback seriously and are tirelessly working on improving the artificial intelligence of both friendly and enemy characters.




Creating “smart” companions is a challenging task for several reasons, often involving conflicting requirements. Let’s take a glimpse under the hood, to understand how the AI of the AI bots and enemies is done in Crime Boss.

[h3]Pathfinding[/h3]

Spatial awareness, which comes naturally to humans, is a significant challenge for AI programmers. The fundamental requirement is a well-defined space that bots can navigate, avoid dangerous areas, and perform special actions (such as climbing or unlocking) to progress. This involves processing vast amounts of data to find the optimal path, which is computationally intensive, especially as the target distance increases. Now imagine that not only are multiple bots performing these calculations, but also numerous enemies, all in real-time. Additionally, paths may need recalculating due to in-game events (e.g., an exploding car blocking the way).

[h3]Enemy Awareness and Cover[/h3]

To protect themselves effectively, bots must locate cover that shields them from all known enemies. With potentially dozens of cover options, the AI must evaluate and select the best one based on specific criteria. However, this is complicated by the dynamic nature of enemies—positions constantly change as enemies die or new one’s spawn from various directions.

[h3]“Task Competition”[/h3]

Bots must balance multiple tasks: staying near the player, finding effective cover (which may be far away), collecting loot, engaging in combat, reviving teammates, and more. AI code must carefully evaluate and prioritize these tasks to ensure the overall behavior feels intelligent and helpful.

[h3]Bugs[/h3]

Complex missions with intricate graphics also present pathfinding and cover-definition  challenges. Issues may arise, such as bots failing to find paths or missing cover where it should exist. Such bugs can originate in the mission itself, the game code, or even the game engine. These errors are often dynamic and difficult to reproduce, making them tricky to resolve. Additionally, it can be challenging to distinguish whether an issue lies in a subsystem bug or overall, AI logic shortcomings.

[h3]Performance Impact[/h3]

AI tasks “compete” with other game processes for CPU resources, impacting fps and overall game smoothness. Achieving intelligent AI behavior requires significant computational power, yet it’s crucial to minimize performance impact. Balancing these demands is inherently contradictory, underscoring the complexity of the task.





In this update, we focused specifically on improving bot behavior, particularly their ability to survive in dangerous firefights.

[h3]Bot Survival[/h3]

To enhance bot survivability, we introduced new behaviors and integrated them into the existing AI model:
• If a bot has sufficient health, it behaves as before—engaging enemies, looting, or transporting loot to designated areas.
• If a bot’s health drops below a certain threshold, it retreats to safe cover while continuing to fight during the retreat. Often, they either defeat the enemy or regenerate health during the move, then return to their original behavior.
• For critical cases, we defined “critical health” at approximately 30% of total health. For characters with low base health, this threshold is a fixed value to ensure timely activation of retreat behavior. At critical health, survival becomes the absolute priority. Bots sprint to cover and kneel to reduce their chances of being hit. They only return to normal behavior once fully regenerated. In our original design, bots prioritized combat—inflicting damage over self-preservation. Strict proximity limits to the player and other factors also hindered their ability to find effective cover when injured.

In the new update, we grant bots greater movement freedom and prioritize finding high-quality cover. Once fully healed, bots attempt to return to the player if they are too far away. If a cover is compromised (i.e., the bot takes additional damage), it is invalidated, and the bot immediately seeks new cover.

[h3]Cover Scoring[/h3]

When searching for cover, we implemented a scoring system where each cover option is evaluated, and the highest-scoring cover is chosen. Scoring criteria include:
• The number of enemies blocking the path to the cover (ideally zero).
• How well the cover protects against known enemies' fire.
• The distance from the nearest enemy (the greater, the better).
• The distance the bot must travel to reach the cover (shorter is better).

Each parameter has a specific weight, carefully balanced for optimal results. To ensure the best outcomes, bots will now know the positions of all living enemies purely for cover selection. Enemies are dynamic—new one’s spawn immediately as others die—so this prevents bots from being sent to unsafe locations, which players would find frustrating. In all other systems (e.g., target selection), bots rely only on information gathered during gameplay.





Overall, the game after Update 14 should have much smarter and efficient bots. Is the work on AI perfect and finished? No. We will keep testing and writing down problems. We will also listen to your feedback. Based on this, we will continue to improve specific problems and behaviors. We are also planning to investigate how bots behave in stealth. Right now, it’s safer to let them wait and act as a backup if alarm is triggered. But we would like to improve the follow mode in stealth, so bots can be more useful. We will see how it goes and keep you informed about future changes and fixes.

Thank you for reading and we look forward to your input. We are sure that this update will make for some engaging and dynamic combat experiences. Good luck and have fun!

Tomáš Stepanek
Principal Gameplay Designer