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[Mass testing] Balance changes and improvements to existing mechanics


Hello!

Today we would like to share the information about the changes that are planned for the next update in December. And at the end of the week you will have the opportunity to test them on a special server and share your opinion.

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.
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[h2]Tonnage recalculation mechanics[/h2]
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Currently in the game, only armoured vehicles with legs can effectively use other types of movement parts as armour, a source of additional tonnage, or an additional perk that amplifies the armoured vehicle.

We agree that this is a serious problem, especially in “Clan Wars” as well as in battles at high PS levels. Today, we want to present you an option that will fix this problem. This solution will reduce the effectiveness of such use of additional movement parts and will not lead to severe limitations in the constructor.

With this mechanic, the movement parts will be grouped according to their “height” above the surface:
  • All movement parts, except mechanical legs and hovers (and, obviously, rotors). We will conditionally refer to them as “low”.
  • Legs and hovers are “high”.

Such simple grouping facilitates the work, because the changes will not affect assemblies that shouldn’t be affected. So, for example, a car on “Bigfoot” and “Hermits” will not suffer in any way, even though these wheels have some difference in height.

Now, when mounting movement parts from different groups on the vehicle, only the ones belonging to the “high” group will give a constant tonnage. Bonuses from “low” movement parts only apply when these parts come into contact with the surface:
  1. Tonnage recalculation occurs with a 2 sec, delay after the “low” movement part contacts the surface or breaks away from the surface.
  2. Recalculation doesn’t occur if all movement parts do not touch the ground (if the car is in flight after a jump or is upside down).
  3. The perks of such movement parts are enabled and disabled synchronously with the recalculation of the tonnage.
  4. When you lose “high” movement parts, the “low” ones and all their parameters and bonuses start to work permanently.

In this state, such mechanics:
  • Do not affect the majority of armoured cars.
  • Due to points 1 and 2, they shouldn’t harm “inclined” vehicles with Bigrams.
  • Do not prohibit the use of “low” movement parts as armour on vehicles with legs and hovers, but should reduce the effectiveness of such assemblies.
IMPORTANT: due to the introduction of this mechanic, the forced disabling of hovers when mounting other movement parts has been removed.

[h3]Interface[/h3]

If the movement parts of different levels are mounted, then:
  • The “Low” ones are highlighted in orange.
  • In the vehicle characteristics, the word “Tonnage” is highlighted in orange.
  • When you hover your cursor over it, the amount of tonnage they do not provide will be displayed on the movement parts.
  • An additional line of explanation appears in the tooltip
.

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[h2]Improvements of the “anti-wedge” mechanics[/h2]
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Now, when applying additional mass from an enemy vehicle, the amount of movement parts detached from the ground is also taken into account.

For example: if a car has 10 wheels, it hits another car and 4 wheels go off the ground, then the car will apply only 40% of the additional mass relative to what it would have applied on the current game server. Hovers and movement parts that don’t give tonnage (mounted as armour and do not touch the ground) don’t participate in the calculation of the coefficient, that is, only the movement parts that initially got the vehicle above the ground are taken into account.

Accordingly, if after the contact not a single movement parts came off the ground, then the mass won’t be applied.

This should eliminate the situations where contacting a higher enemy part resulted in outweighing (and immobilization). In general, the calculation of the applied mass and the mechanics itself will become more fair.
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[h2]Balance changes[/h2]
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[h3]PU-1 Charge[/h3]
  • Mass reduced from 576 to 445 kg.
Comment: the change will simplify the assembly of a vehicle with “Charge” and will increase the demand for this generator relative to “Ampere”.

[h3]Goblin[/h3]
  • Damage reduced by 5%.
  • Rate of fire reduced by 19%.
  • Now lets 30% of damage through instead of 40%.

[h3]Gremlin[/h3]
  • Damage reduced by 10%.
  • Now lets 30% of damage through instead of 40%.
Comment: in current realities, both shotguns have inflated damage to energy ratio and an overly high survivability.

[h3]Kapkan[/h3]
  • Vehicle capture time reduced from 7 to 6 sec.
Comment: a player who is caught in the “trap” essentially becomes defenceless and only in rare cases has the opportunity to escape. We believe that 7 sec. of such a state in conditions of fast battles is too much.

[h3]Expanded ammo pack[/h3]
  • Mass increased from 288 to 408 kg.
Comment: it’s no secret that these ammo packs are used not only for additional projectiles, but also as armour, due to the rather forgiving mass of the module relative to its durability. In most cases, only one or two modules are used for additional ammunition. The change will not greatly affect such assemblies, but will be noticeable for vehicles that were armoured with these modules.

[h3]Miller[/h3]
  • Mass increased from 495 to 565 kg.
  • Added the ammunition parameter. Base value: 310 pts.
Comment: this minigun is highly effective in battles (8000 — 10000 PS levels). Vehicles with Millers consistently stand out not only for their high durability, but also for the amount of damage inflicted per battle. Increasing the mass of the minigun will reduce the overall durability of such vehicles, and the limited ammunition will add an element of control and make the effectiveness of the minigun more dependent on the player’s actions.

[h3]Gerrida I[/h3]
  • Tonnage reduced from 1600 to 1400 kg.
Comment: at the moment, this is the “strongest” movement part in the game. It allows you to assemble very durable and fairly fast and maneuverable vehicles. At this point, we wouldn’t want to limit the main features of these mechanical legs (speed and mobility) in any way, so we decided to make changes to their tonnage and make vehicles with them lighter and more vulnerable. The edit comes on top of the above changes to tonnage recalculation and the use of additional movement parts on the car.

[h3]Blight[/h3]
  • Perk damage bonus reduced from 40% to 35%.
  • The distance required to charge the perk increased from 300 to 500 m.
Comment: right now the cabin provides an excessive bonus to vehicles that use fire weapons. The change would make the ratio of the bonus itself to the frequency of its use more fair.

[h3]Astraeus[/h3]
  • Reload time increased from 4 to 5 sec.
  • Damage reduced by 10%.
  • Perk damage bonus reduced from 60% to 50%.
Comment: the overestimated effectiveness of “Astraeus” is observed over a wide range of PS levels (from 7000 to 14000). Often the damage dealt by these weapons outperforms the damage dealt by ranged weapons of higher rarities.

[h3]GL-55 Impulse[/h3]
  • Durability reduced from 192 to 171 pts.
  • Projectile speed reduced by 10%.
  • Reduced accuracy:
  • The effect of vehicle speed on accuracy increased by 30%.
  • Increase in spread after the shot increased by 17%.
  • Aiming speed reduced by 25%.
Comment: the previous adjustments to this weapon proved to be excessive, and increased survivability and damage dealing too much. We are partially reversing the changes made in the “Depths of the Wasteland” update, but would like to note that the final parameters of the grenade launcher still remain higher than before those changes were implemented.

[h3]Cerberus[/h3]
  • Added 30% explosive damage resistance to the front of the cabin. Resistance to ram damage also applies to the front of the cabin.
Comment: thanks to the change, the built-in melee weapon becomes similar to other melee weapons, and the cabin is not as vulnerable as before.

[h3]Werewolf[/h3]
  • Now, after the cabin is destroyed, a drone with a “Fafnir” shotgun remains for an unlimited time.
Comment: this change is aimed primarily at increasing interest in using this cabin. A controlled drone with an unlimited “lifetime” will make the game more interesting even after the main vehicle is destroyed.

[h3]Ghost[/h3]
  • The cabin’s perk now starts resetting after taking damage (not ramming damage), not after exiting invisibility.
Comment: the cabin’s perk was too dependent on invisibility modules. The edit gives the player more control over the implementation of bonus damage.

[h3]Caucasus[/h3]
  • Vertical aiming angles changed from +40/-20 to +20/-10.
Comment: the weapon becomes too effective when it is mounted on armoured aircraft. The change should result in target locking being dropped more often in aerial combat when manoeuvring. In ground battles, “Caucasus” rarely uses such vertical aiming angles, and therefore the adjustment should not have a noticeable effect on them.

[h3]Pyre[/h3]
  • Optimal range reduced from 300 to 200 m (the distance from which damage begins to decrease).

[h3]Hurricane[/h3]
  • Optimal range reduced from 300 to 200 m (the distance from which damage begins to decrease).
Comment: the changes should reduce the effectiveness of these rocket launchers in air battles that take place at greater distances than between ground vehicles.

[h3]BC-17 Tsunami[/h3]
  • Reload time reduced from 7 to 6 sec.

[h3]ZS-46 Mammoth[/h3]
  • Reload time reduced from 6.6 to 6 sec.
Comment: both “Tsunami” and “Mammoth” have an excessively long reload time, which (taking into account the type and characteristics of the weapons) doesn’t fit into the current pace of battles.

[h3]Athena[/h3]
  • The number of shells in the burst increased from 7 to 10.
  • Damage and heating from each hit in the burst reduced by 30%.
  • Now the spread increases more as the burst is fired, but it stops increasing when the weapon is rotating.
Comment: the effectiveness of the revolver is too high. The edit preserves the possible total damage, but stretches it to a larger number of projectiles and complicates its implementation (including the perk that requires hitting all projectiles in the queue).

[h3]Spark III[/h3]
  • Damage frequency reduced by 25%.
  • Damage increased by 46%.
  • Negative effect of the perk reduced from 7.5% to 4%.
  • Negative effect stacks up to 15 times (instead of 8).
Comment: now “Spark” is more often used in a single copy (as an auxiliary weapon that quickly inflicts the maximum negative effect on the enemy). With these changes, we want to make this weapon more independent: it will now take longer for the maximum negative effect to be applied, but the damage will be significantly higher during this time.

[h3]Apollo IV[/h3]
  • Durability increased from 363 pts. to 427 pts.
Comment: edits are related to the fact that the generator is destroyed much more often than the “Thor-6S”, which affects its demand and effectiveness.

[h3]Reaper[/h3]
  • Added perk: after 7 hits on the enemy, fires an armour-piercing projectile that penetrates up to 3 structure pins without losing damage. Each miss reduces the number of accumulated hits.
  • The mechanics of firing without overheating have been preserved.
Comment: the weapon’s effectiveness is insufficient when compared to “Miller”. The special projectile, as in the case of the “Miller”, has an increased impulse.

[h3]Kronos[/h3]
  • Charge consumption now stops/doesn’t start if there is nothing to restore (i.e. all attached parts have full durability, or there are none at all).
Comment: thanks to this change, the cabin’s charge will no longer be wasted.

[h3]Muninn[/h3]
  • Now the cooldown time of drones that had the perk active at the time of destruction is reduced by 35%.
Comment: with this change we compensate for the lack of efficiency of the cabin in conjunction with the drones.

[h3]CC-18 Typhoon[/h3]
  • Reload time reduced from 7 to 6 sec.
  • The negative effect of the perk is now 30% (instead of 40%), and its duration is 2.5 sec. (instead of 3 sec.).
Comment: the reasons for changing the reload time are similar to “Tsunami” and “Mammoth”. A slight weakening of the negative effect of the cannon’s perk is related to the fact that it will now be applied more often.

[h3]RL-9 Helicon[/h3]
  • Now, instead of seconds of projectile flight (0.75 sec.), the meters travelled by the projectile (180 m.) are used to activate the perk.
Comment: the change should make it easier for the perk to interact with the projectile speed upgrade, as well as with the perk of the “Steppe spider” cabin.

[h3]Flash I[/h3]
  • Damage frequency reduced by 25%.
  • Damage increased by 46%.
  • The negative effect of the perk reduced from 5% to 2.5%.
  • The negative effect now stacks up to 24 times (instead of 12).
Comment: these changes are similar to the changes for “Spark”.

[h3]Ripper[/h3]
  • Now the weapon does 3.5 times more damage to bumpers and passive melee weapons.
  • Fixed a bug that caused the disks to disappear when they hit the water.
Comment: melee damage type is a feature of “Ripper” that allows it to deal full damage to parts that let damage through. Because of this feature, it loses too much in effectiveness when its disks hit bumpers and passive melee weapons that have high resistance.
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[h2]Optimization of bonuses for the part upgrade system[/h2]
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Made numerous changes to the “Power” and “Handling” upgrade categoriesto make the possible bonuses more useful. A number of bonuses were replaced with new ones, and those that were insufficiently effective were amplified.

  • The improvement in tonnage of all movement parts increased to +10%.
  • Mass limit upgrade from engines increased to +10%.
  • Recharge boosters: added effectiveness improvement (+10%).
  • Cabins:
    • instead of damage from self-destruction, added a bonus to the built-in radar and radio: +200 m (for the “Hippogriff” cabin — +15% to all radar parameters).
    • instead of the explosion radius from self-destruction, a added a new bonus: +3 km/h to speed.
    • the reduction in time to self-destruction is now -30%.
    • upgrade to the cabin tonnage increased to +15%.
  • In all weapons, unless otherwise noted:
    • Reload time upgrade increased to -10%.
    • Rotation speed upgrade increased to +30%.
    • Ammunition upgrade increased to +50%.
    • Hit impulse upgrade increased to +50%.
  • Added the “spread stability” upgrade: this includes the old “spread increase” and “aim speed”, and also affects the increase in spread from speed and turning.
  • The logic for the “time to overheat” upgrade has been reworked: it no longer affects the maximum time to cooling.
  • “Vector”, “Sinus-0”, “Spectre-2”, “Aspect”, “Punisher”, “ST-M23 Defender”, “M-25 Guardian”, “M-29 Protector”, “M-32 Vindicator”, “ST-M26 Tackler”:
    • replaced “spread increase” with “spread stability +12%”.
    • replaced “aim speed” with “scatter -17%”.
  • “M-37 Piercer”, “M-38 Fidget”, “M-39 Imp”: replaced “aim speed” with “spread stability +12%”.
  • “MG13 Equalizer” and “MG14 Arbiter”: replaced “aim speed” with “barrel spool-up time -35%”.
  • “Miller”:
    • The damage upgrade now also affects blast damage as well.
    • replaced “spread increase” with “projectile speed +15%”.
    • replaced “recoil” with “barrel spool-up time -35%”.
  • “Reaper”:
    • replaced “barrel spool-up time” (moved to the “handling” category) with “penetration ability +20%”.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “projectile speed +15%”.
    • replaced “recoil” with “barrel spool-up time -35%”.
    • players who had an upgrade for barrel spool-up in the “power” category will receive a replacement — increased damage in the “power” category and barrel spool-up in the “handling” category.
  • “AC43 Rapier”, “AC50 Storm”, “AC72 Whirlwind”, “AC80 Stillwind”:
    • replaced “spread increase” with “spread stability +12%”.
    • replaced “recoil” with “projectile speed +15%”.
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +15%”.
  • “AC62 Therm”, “AC64 Joule”, “Cyclone”, “AA Gun-4 Starfall”:
    • replaced “recoil” with “projectile speed +15%”.
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +15%”.
    • “Tempest”, “Whirl”: replaced “recoil” with “rate of fire +15%”.
  • “Sledgehammer”, “Mace”, “Thunderbolt”, “Hammerfall”, “Breaker”, “Spitfire”, “Leech”, “Rupture”, “Gravastar”: replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +15%”.
  • “Goblin”, “Gremlin”: replaced “recoil” with “rate of fire +15%”.
  • “Judge 76mm”, “Prosecutor 76mm”, “Executioner 88mm”, “BC-17 Tsunami”, “CC-18 Typhoon”, “AM-5 Avalanche”:
    • replaced “blast radius increase” with “penetration ability +20%”.
    • replaced “recoil” with “spread -17%”.
  • “Little Boy 6LB”, “ZS-33 Hulk”, “Elephant”, “ZS-34 Fat Man”, “ZS-46 Mammoth”, “ZS-52 Mastodon”: replaced “spread” with “spread stability + 12%”.
  • “Nagual”:
    • the damage upgrade now also affects blast damage as well.
    • replaced “blast radius increase” with “penetration ability +20%”.
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “range +15%”.
    • replaced “spread increase” with “spread stability +12%”.
  • “Median”:
    • replaced “impulse from hit” with “penetration ability +20%”.
    • replaced “recoil” with “spread stability +12%”.
  • “Yongwang”: replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +25%”.
  • “GL-55 Impulse”, “Retcher”, “Thresher”: replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +15%”.
  • “Wasp”, “Pyralid”, “Locust”, “Cricket”: replaced “ammunition” with “rate of fire +25%”.
  • “Snowfall”:
    • replaced “blast radius increase” with “charge time -20%”.
    • replaced “spread” with “rate of fire +25%”.
  • “Waltz”:
    • replaced “blast radius increase” with “charge time -20%”.
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +25%”.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “rocket rotation radius -20%”.
  • “RL-9 Helicon”:
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +25%”.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “spread stability +12%”.
    • “projectile speed” upgrade increased to 25%.
  • “RA-1 Heather”: replaced “rotation speed” with “projectile flight speed +25%”.
  • “Nest”:
    • replaced “blast radius increase” with “charge time -20%”.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “rate of fire +25%”.
    • replaced “Max. projectile life time” with “time until projectile self-destructs -15%”.
  • “Spike-1”: “impulse from hit” increased to 30%.
  • “Toadfish”:
    • “impulse from hit” increased to 30%.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “rate of fire +25%”.
  • “Varun”: replaced “impulse from hit” with “reloading time -40%”.
  • “Ashbringer”:
    • Now the upgrade increases not only the damage of the puddle, but also the damage from the projectile explosion.
    • replaced “spread” with “fire puddle lifetime +2 sec.”.
  • “Mandrake”:
    • The damage upgrade now also affects the damage of the fire puddles as well.
    • replaced “spread increase” with “spread stability +12%”.
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “projectile flight speed +25%”.
    • replaced “recoil” with “fire puddle lifetime +3 sec.”
  • “Emily”:
    • replaced “spread increase” with “spread stability +12%”.
    • replaced “aim speed” with “projectile speed +15%”.
  • “Corvo”: replaced “aim speed” with “rotation speed +30%”.
  • “Summator”, “Argument”: replaced “range of fire” with “projectile speed +25%”.
  • “Astraeus”:
    • replaced “impulse from hit” with “penetration ability +20%”.
    • replaced “spread” with “spread stability +12%”.
  • “Kaiju”: replaced “reloading” with “penetration ability +20%”.
  • “Scorpion”:
    • replaced “impulse from hit” with “projectile damage loss rate -10%”.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “spread stability +12%”.
  • “Thyrsus I”:
    • added the “penetration ability +20%” upgrade to the “power” category
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “rate of fire +25%”.
  • “Porcupine”:
    • the damage upgrade now also affects the damage of the fire puddles as well.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “fire puddle lifetime +2 sec.”
  • “Ripper”:
    • replaced “spread” with “lifetime of a stuck disk +3 sec.”.
    • replaced “ammunition” with “rotation speed +30%”.
    • “Projectile speed” upgrade increased to 25%.
  • “Aurora”:
    • replaced “barrel spool-up time” (moved to “Handling”) with “damage +5%”.
    • replaced “rotation speed” with “barrel spool-up time -35%”.
    • players who had an upgrade for barrel spool-up in the “power” category will receive a replacement — increased damage in the “power” category and barrel spool-up in the “handling” category.
  • “Blockchain”: replaced “aim speed” with “spread stability +12%”.
  • “Athena”:
    • the damage upgrade now also affects blast damage as well.
    • replaced “spread increase” with “spread stability +12%”.
    • replaced “aim speed” with “parts heating rate +30%”.
  • “Assembler”:
    • added the “penetration ability +20%” upgrade.
    • replaced “range of fire” with “spread -17%”.
  • “Skinner”: “cable wind up speed” increased to 50%.
  • “Fortune”: replaced “ammunition” with “rate of fire +25%”.

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After testing the changes, we invite you to leave your constructive feedback on the planned rework in the comments to this news.
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[h2]How to get to the test server?[/h2]
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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, December 1, 2023 from 13:00 to 20:59 (GMT time)
    • Saturday, December 2, 2023 from 13:00 to 20:59 (GMT time)
    • Sunday, December 3, 2023 from 13:00 to 20:59 (GMT time)
    • Friday, December 8, 2023 from 13:00 to 20:59 (GMT time)
    • Saturday, December 9, 2023 from 13:00 to 20:59 (GMT time)
    • Sunday, December 10, 2023 from 13:00 to 20:59 (GMT time)
  • Any progress you make on the test server will not be transferred to the live game servers (INCLUDING ATTEMPTS TO BUY PACKS).

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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.
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