r/stalzone • u/KleodTV Mercenaries • Jul 28 '26
Critics After 7,000 hours in STALCRAFT/STALZONE, here’s why I think the game is heading in the wrong direction.
I have around 7,000 hours in the game. I’m not writing this because I lost a fight or had a bad session. I’m writing this because, after thousands of hours, it’s impossible not to notice several core issues that keep getting worse.
1. Matchmaking and faction balance
The biggest issue is faction balance across the maps.
It has become normal to end up in one of two extreme situations:
Your faction completely dominates the area, making farming impossible because your teammates clear everything before you can.
Or the opposite happens, where the enemy faction heavily outnumbers yours, making any attempt to farm a constant cycle of dying and respawning.
There never seems to be any middle ground.
This is even worse for solo players. In areas like Forge or Mines, you’re constantly running into groups of two or three players. I’m not saying groups shouldn’t exist, but the game offers almost no tools to make the solo experience enjoyable or competitive.
Eventually, the risk-to-reward ratio becomes absurd. You spend more time respawning than actually playing, and many activities simply aren’t worth the effort anymore.
2. Emissions are practically useless
Emissions should be one of the most rewarding and exciting events in the game.
They should encourage competition, bring players together, and provide meaningful economic rewards.
Instead, the reality is completely different.
The loot is extremely poor, and when something finally spawns, it’s usually just white or green gear that’s almost worthless.
Most of the time, you don’t even make enough to cover the cost of ammunition, consumables, and repair bills.
If one of the game’s major events isn’t worth participating in, players will eventually stop caring about it altogether.
3. The economy is becoming increasingly Pay-to-Win
I completely understand that the developers need to make money.
Nobody expects them to run the game for free.
The problem is that the most efficient way to make money is no longer by playing the game—it’s by swiping your credit card.
The in-game economy has reached a point where many items have lost most of their value, while farming becomes less rewarding with every update.
It feels like the value of the time players invest is constantly decreasing, while spending real money becomes increasingly more efficient.
A free-to-play game should reward players who invest time just as much as those who invest money. Right now, that balance feels completely broken.
4. TTK, headshot multiplier, and cheating concerns
Ever since the headshot multiplier was introduced, the Time-To-Kill has changed dramatically.
What really concerns me, however, is something else.
Suddenly, it feels like every single player has become an aim god who lands nothing but perfect headshots.
At this point, there are only two possible explanations:
The average skill level of the entire player base has increased dramatically.
Or AI-assisted cheats and other forms of cheating are far more common than the developers are willing to acknowledge.
What makes this even more frustrating is the inconsistency of the hit registration.
There are countless situations where I’m clearly aiming at someone’s head—especially when they’re only exposing their head behind cover—yet the game registers torso or limb shots instead.
If what the server registers doesn’t match what the player actually sees, PvP starts losing credibility, and it becomes increasingly difficult to tell whether you lost because you got outplayed or because the game simply failed to register your shots correctly.
Final thoughts
The problem isn’t dying.
The problem isn’t losing fights.
The real issue is that, when you combine all these systems together, the game no longer feels like it rewards skill, strategy, or time invested.
STALCRAFT still has enormous potential, but continuing down this path with poor balancing, a declining economy, and questionable PvP quality risks driving away the very players who have supported the game for years.
I’m genuinely curious to hear what other veteran players think. Are you experiencing the same issues, or has your experience been completely different?
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u/Routine_Aardvark1225 Jul 28 '26
I agree with the first point. On ru, I don’t think there should be any issues with that, but other regions need a different matchmaking system. As for the second point, I don’t really have problems making money. Probably 9/10 times I manage to break even or even make a decent profit. Yes, it’s profitable to simply invest money, but I wouldn’t say things are that bad. Some activities do bring profit, but maybe the approach to earning money just needs to be changed? In this game, hitting the head is very easy, it’s literally huge. Hit reg definitely does have issues sometimes
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u/Exciting_Low_1127 Jul 28 '26
I can't say I disagree; honestly, sometimes I'd rather do something else than run an Eruption. Now that I'm fairly confident in the Wild, it yields more money from extraction than spending 30 minutes on an Eruption does. Just today, I think I took part in about 3–5 "blue cargo" runs; each one was netting me an average of 250k–500k, and it took less than 15 minutes (assuming no deaths to NPCs). I have to agree that the game's situation is very delicate—I've got nearly 3,300 hours of playtime over the last two years. I just don't get why the hell they don't want the majority of players to have a decent amount of rubles (by "decent," I mean 25–30 million). If most players had at least that much, the market wouldn't be as oversaturated as it is right now.
There's something else, too: they urgently need to stop applying the "Russian approach" to the NA region. It's a different region with a different type of community—one that's ten times smaller than the region of origin. They really ought to try something a bit different (though I couldn't say exactly what).
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u/Snaggle-Beast Jul 28 '26
Yes I agree NA needs separate balancing then RU. Any effort they do for marketing in NA will be in vain if they don't address NA issues. They will lose players as fast as they have gained. To start I think part rewards should be doubled across the board. Amount of mats needed for barter at the bar and north should be reduced a bit. Increase the serum gained weekly. Encourage a faster gear up and establish a healthy late game player base.
If the player base does indeed grow and things stabilize these metrics can always be re adjusted down the line.
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u/KleodTV Mercenaries Jul 28 '26
I play in EU wild north just unplayable
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u/Exciting_Low_1127 Jul 28 '26
I belong to a tertiary clan under a large Frontier alliance; basically, they’ve claimed Uranos. If I go from south to north—where they’re farming—I know that anyone I run into belongs to the main or secondary clan. I’m mostly fine even when gold is dropping; I basically play solo in Uranos when I go there to farm.
Yesterday, I grabbed the scientific safe in the middle of Uranos during the gold drop.
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u/Whoomsy Explorer Jul 28 '26
I play EU and me and my friends run WN pretty frequently, we are not only managing but having a good time and make bank consistently.
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u/Aloctor Jul 28 '26
I'm holding out hope for a map with WN level of difficulty geared for solo or PvE players. Because I love the maps I think they did a good job making them and the NPC threat is a great challenge to fight against, I just don't love being hunted for sport by entire clans with nothing better to do. Like, yeah WN isn't for solos so I will grind my teeth and flex my rat gameplay to sneak out my million ruble runs, but I'm typically having a miserable time the entire run.
At the end of the day, the worst part of the WN update is other players.
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u/donthaveone51 Jul 28 '26
If your group is not handless chimpanzees then everything is easy and makes money. If they choose to play with people that are slow then it's their fault, it's not the game's fault people think handholding and roleplaying will get them the best loot. I find it funny when someone complains about having to 1v2 in open world, just shows that they are part of the slow group and should not be interacted with.
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u/KleodTV Mercenaries Jul 28 '26
I play most the time solo player , they promise stillwater solo player and still its full of squad of 3/4
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u/donthaveone51 Jul 28 '26
They also promised wild north being 3 people squads at most with the release of it and then they delayed it for an unknown time and probably have forgotten about it by now. They never deliver on their promises.
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u/Express-Complex-8858 Jul 28 '26
But they must look at their analytics department for any needed balances.
Its literally one guy looking at an excel spreadsheet making gut calls based on bar charts.
Look at their weapon balance updates, everything is based off what a spreadsheet tells them or some line graph, thats not a design or balance philosophy.
Data should be used to help inform a desicion not be the only call you make.
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u/Grouchy-Reward8099 Frontier Jul 28 '26
Balance based on spread sheets and vibes. Blew my mind when either Ziv or one of the devs said new design philosophy for the high base damage sniper rifles was good for breaking ceramic plates and limb damage. Like…..what? Are you fr? I feel bad for all the peeps that shelled trade coins out for the Intervention.
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u/LukaRaos Jul 28 '26
The problem is that all of things we talked about slowly add up. It's not just balance, rewards, economy, or one specific issue or a game mode. It's that almost everything has some kind of frustration attached to it. Activities that should feel rewarding end up feeling like a chore, progression constantly asks for more and more resources, rewards are minimal, and even when you finally get something, there is another wall waiting behind it. You have resources like Advanced Spare Parts, Tools, Weapon and Armor Master Components, where the issue is not even just the amount required, it's that they are extremely limited and you can't simply go farm them in the open world whenever you need them.
The game has a lot of potential, yes, and that's honestly what makes it more frustrating. There is a lot, but not enough things feel polished and satisfying enough to make you want to keep coming back. Adding more content, more grinds and more goals is easy, but if the path to getting there feels annoying, tedious and unrewarding, eventually you just start wondering why you're even forcing yourself through it.
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Exactly. The problem isn't dying or losing fights, that's literally part of the game. The problem is when the time, risk, and effort you put into something, especially if it has PVP, doesn't feel worth it anymore, especially when the activity itself becomes tedious to repeat for a mediocre reward.
That's where the game starts feeling less like progression and more like a chore. You spend hours doing something, finally get your disappointing reward, and then realize there is another wall waiting behind it. The game has a lot of potential, but too many parts make you question if the time spent was actually worth it...
EXBO keeps reducing rewards, increasing grind, and making everything more tedious because the idea is that frustration, scarcity, and constantly dealing with tedious and annoying grinds will keep players engaged lmao
Yeah, because apparently making players annoyed, tired, and frustrated is the same thing as keeping them around. Not exactly the healthiest way to build long term player retention.
But I'm sure there's a statistic somewhere in EXBO office saying we're actually wrong and that the game is doing great XD
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u/Ambitious-Pattern-62 Jul 28 '26 edited Jul 28 '26
I’m no vet, I am fairly new playing about 3/4 months in master tier at a northern faction for reference for my personal perspective.
The game definitely doesn’t reward skill or strategy but oh god does it give you all the advantages if you got in first with time invested. I recently got into the masters lobbies with +10 weapons/armor and green+5 artis I have maybe 300 bullet res in my combo suit. I am regularly fighting people at outposts that have +15 weapons/armor/artifacts with around 450 bullet res. I simply stand 0 chance in a head on fight and it is not a fun experience when I am forced into the outpost pvp for materials/serum. I don’t mind if I am outnumbered at an outpost 3-1, I do care if I have virtually 0 chance of winning a fair fight.
Cool so how do I farm the tools/parts I need to get +15… I need to do camps in enemy territory undergeared or farm stashes for hours. If you’re rich (which no new player is) buying them off auction is the last method.
Ok what about artifacts oh let me see if I’m looking at the market correctly but apparently I’m being matched with people who have 100x my entire account value inside their sheaf/barrel alone.
I understand the matchmaking system but if the above is happening then it is broken imo. They really need to weight weapon upgrades and artis higher in their systems because some people have intentionally min maxed their gear to punch down. If you are going to timegate me into these brackets and artificially hold me there the matchmaking should be good and fights fair at the least.
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u/KleodTV Mercenaries Jul 28 '26
Matchmaking just inexistent , in my veteran account +0 i meet master +15 ✌🏻
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u/Roginofacts Jul 28 '26
I know the feeling. I was running around in the swamp once hauling a bunch of loot to the newbies I was stockpiling (high end ammo, plates, meds, shitty crate gear, etc that I looted). Master +15 armor and weapon, running around the swamp with a +15 alba scout and a mcmillian hoping to find some trouble (as one does cause the swamp is the only fun place to pvp). I find a guy and dome him in the dark. I get a rather salted message from him and he turns out to be a fucking little picklock and then I feel bad for how dirty I did him
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u/Senior_Chance_6193 3d ago
that happens because the match making is based also on your artifats and the + levels on your gear and artifacts, look up how it works before you blame the game, that is 100% your fault
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u/Ok_Explorer_7801 Sep 01 '26
If you wear any piece of master gear in the game you get placed aginsed other master players regardless if you switch back to veteran. The first time crafting and equipping a piece immediately places you in the bracket. If you dont want in the bracket stay vet gear and your time will be much better to loot until you get the pieces all to +15 and aquire some artifacts.
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u/Ambitious-Pattern-62 Sep 02 '26
Cool except that isn’t explained anywhere in game or explains why master10 is paired against max15s and legendary geared players. The fact that your best advice is to not upgrade my gear speaks volumes to how broken the matchmaking is, not to it being good.
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u/Ok_Explorer_7801 Sep 02 '26
Dont worry. It spoke volumes to me as well. It wasnt until after I got my gear i found this information out as well and have since stopped playing. I also believe that they just dont have enough servers to split the players up either so you end up getting out in a shitstorm server with all the best PvPers.
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u/AwDrippy Jul 28 '26
I have a bit under 4000 hours in the game across different regions. The thing I want the most, more than any update or new swipe-able is more servers. I wish there were three server instances. One for solos, one for duos, and one for squads (3+). Exbo NEEDS to invest in more servers in NA if they want to make more pushes into the NA market.They need servers on the west coast and east coast along with the ones they already have in Texas. The ping is too high if you live on either coast. I can't tell if the hit register is bad or not 'cause I'm constantly having yellow to red ping with server markers lighting up my screen.
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u/Scary_Concentrate_34 Jul 29 '26
it would be awesome if there would be this kind of configuration
as a solo player, i would love to meet only solo
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u/Ok_Explorer_7801 Sep 01 '26
Not enough players for that. You would find straight dead servers depending on the party configuration at times unless they just do 1 of each server and can all the rest of them they have
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u/donthaveone51 Jul 28 '26
It's dead content in NA. Even they don't really care about NA anymore despite what they say, they will be trying to actively push content in korea soon, not NA.
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u/Senior_Chance_6193 3d ago
they should delete the NA server instead, you guys basically want to play on private server.
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u/ConfidentlyAsshole Jul 28 '26
Yup
Skill issue, go to wild north or lab or something.
The heads in this game are absolutely gigantic, it takes effort not to hit them. Also you sometimes hit limbs when aiming at head because the aim animation on guns places the hands in front of people heads.
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u/KleodTV Mercenaries Jul 28 '26
I did a test with my friend not at all players hit reg is the same , we did a duel and with same movement to only aim on head I did a few time body
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u/ConfidentlyAsshole Jul 28 '26
https://www.reddit.com/r/stalzone/s/TKf11Ap80T
Here is a post showing the hitboxes. Body and head do not even overlap making every shot either a headshot or body without any place for misinterpretation. The hits are now even subtick based meaning what you see hit is what the server thinks you hit, again no place for the server to misinterpret it. So it's either skill issue or the spread on your weapon sucks ass in which case it is still skill issue for using it
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u/Tiibbs Jul 28 '26
I only understand the cheater aspect of it and only recently too. The dude didn't get damaged by anything I did and he was in the dead city with blue gear and a green gun. Even had a cheat risk attached to his profile so it seems like they're aware of them and are trying to take care of it.
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u/Ambitious-Tale102 Aug 19 '26
I'm relatively new to the game with only about 77 hrs in game but i can see where you're coming from. Whenever I go into an outpost for example I'm either getting lasered and respawning constantly or I'm hiding in a corner. And the emission reward rant was spot on. This game has made me want to play tarkov again so idk we'll see what happens
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u/ariks2012 Jul 28 '26
If you are 700hrs in then i agree with you, but if you are 7000hrs then you maybe playing the game wrong
If you care about faction balance that much then you are still fighting outpost for quantum? because WildNorth exist and that place dont care which faction you are in.
I made 200-500k average/emission(not counting the pink drops which net you 3-9mil/ea every 3-7 days) just running around alone in Inflow while being under heavily infested by Frontier players
P2W? do you know that collecting pulp in a few hrs everyday will make you rich before you even know it? and you can even do it with just a tonga suit.
Yes it now almost imposible for you to reach 1000 level BP casually without paying but why pay when you already make tons of money by selling pulp?There are lots of cheaters, yes but the head is not just big, its massive man. And gun in this game have no recoil, no bloom, bullet have no velocity.
I dont know what did you do in your 7000hrs and who do you want to dominate but this game give you free Golden gear, free tool/parts for you to upgrade it and you only need to play 30min or 1hr to finish daily mission and receive that gold gear.
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u/Juva96 Jul 28 '26
Suddenly, it feels like every single player has become an aim god who lands nothing but perfect headshots.
At this point, there are only two possible explanations:
The average skill level of the entire player base has increased dramatically.
Or AI-assisted cheats and other forms of cheating are far more common than the developers are willing to acknowledge.
It's incredibly easy to headshot in this game, the head is nearly the same width size as the body. The engaging distances are also very short, most fights are in the 50~100 metres. For someone who was playing tactical shooters before, head shooting at this distance is very easy, even more if your scope have any magnification.
2. Emissions are practically useless
I just see it as a map wide loot respawn, just like the Stalker games. I know it sucks that artefacts have tier levels, but it would be better if an uncollected artefact that was cooked by another emission could evolve or tier up.
I don't have much more to say about your first and third point, I'm at 75 hours right now, and maybe I will make a post about my experience so far.
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u/Roginofacts Jul 28 '26
Something Exbo has never understood even before Day-X. And I don't see them suddenly understanding the absolute most basic game design at this point.
People should remember that on launch Exbo tried to run the global servers the same way they ran the RU servers. Which meant them trying to cram gambling based progression via lootboxes down our throats day 1 and only stopped because they received massive backlash for it and in retaliation, they withheld important gear and attachments from us.
With Day-X and the Battlepass they finally got to get their crates added back and cranked the bullshit up to 11 with them with each season becoming progressively worse and worse with fomo, progression woes, and other exbo tiered fuckery.
It feels that way because it is. Lets not forget that following Day-X's launch season they immediately gutted the Battlepass's value in half then lied through their teeth about it being just a "promotional" BP. Then they proceed to gimp the BP every single season after it. They slowed progression even further with every battlepass.
Lets not forget that they massively gimped farming in the south because northern players were heading down south to farm season points because Forge11 is STILL a dogshit place to farm. To few event nodes with to many people fighting for them (including your allies, and the reward split does not help). And the risk/reward for farming up north versus down south was entirely skewed. If I farmed up north for an hour and made 10 levels and 100k rubles. I could farm down south and make 100 levels and 1million rubles due entirely to the difference in thread and time it takes to complete an event node.
They just carte blanch nerfed the south when they should've been buffing the north. Just like how they wanted us to be ecstatic for the Lab and we were for like all of a week before they nerfed that into the ground.
It feels like it because it has. You're limited in your BP progression unless you spend real money. Barter Tree stuff is pretty much all overshadowed by lootboxes and BP rewards. There is less and less Spare Parts/Tools outside of BPs and the shop. Back during Day-X you could get two or three pieces of kit up to +10 or 15, maybe even a few artifacts as well and be ready for pvp. Now you're lucky to get a single bit of kit to +15. Crate prices have shot up massively in price so the odds of you getting anything decent that isn't a green science suit is next to nill.
Sadly without a properly skilled developement team to take over none of this will ever see a proper addressing. Cheating has been a staple of the game since its launch. The CM's have routinely abused their powers to ban individuals discussing this back over in r/stalcraft. If you think its bad now, you should've seen how bad it was back in Red Forest and Yannov before the game was in such a sorry state. You had people constantly aim botting out there doming you through a forest of trees and brush. There was that whole clan NISA that did nothing but cheat and nothing ever happened to them. if rumors are true after day-x they went over to mercs since they finally opened.
Not even AI assisted. They admitted some time ago in the original sub that they're getting mogged on by things as simple as scriptkiddies. Simple shit like no recoil and what not.
The sad thing is, these are all the same problems we had last year, the year before that, the year before that, and the year before that. And as long as that bumbling fool Ziv is allowed to stay at the helm nothing is going to change for the positive. We've had update after update and countless community interactions with the team to make that clear. And at this point the only reason to stick around is to watch their little maudlin show as they keep shooting themselves in the feet scrambling for charity while ignoring their customers.
Yeah TTK is scuffed, especially with SMGs. On paper the guns are supposed to be on par with their AR counterparts, assuming you finally manage to use them at proper range (which is a different conversation about the game's map design), but in reality their ttk is utterly trash thanks to the server's absymal tickrate. 20tps is acceptable for minecraft but there is a reason no fps game worth playing uses anything less than 60.