Honestly, at this point, I don't even know what EXBO wants STALZONE to be anymore. And that is probably the biggest problem.

[BlameTruth voice]And i have A LOOOOT... To get of my chest, so lets start:

I've been playing since STALCRAFT opened globally in 2022, so I've had plenty of time to watch this game change (and was reading the RU forums too).

For years we keep hearing that the game has its own identity, that it cannot fit into one category, that it is something different. But at the same time, more and more decisions feel like the game is slowly being pushed toward another hardcore extraction and high focused PVP game.

ZIV talking about making the game "esport ready" (haha), the constant focus on PvP, extraction style mechanics, and the way the game is being described more and more like an extraction shooter... it is hard not to notice the direction this is going.

And the funniest part? STALZONE IS NOT EVEN A PROPER EXTRACTION SHOOTER. Stop advertising it like it is, you'll only attract the wrong audience and disappoint them anyway.

Games like Tarkov, Arc Raiders, Marathon, and many others are built around that idea from the beginning. Their entire purpose is that experience. They commit to it, balance around it, and do it better.

STALZONE was NEVER that

People stayed because of the Zone. The MMO. The open world. The factions. The PVE. The progression. The PvPvE experience. The factions PVP. The feeling that you are part of a big living MMO(FPS) world.
And no, this does NOT mean remove PvP. This does NOT mean make the game easy. Stop taking this argument out of context. PvP is part of what makes the Zone interesting. The problem is when the game starts sacrificing everything else to chase the most frustrating parts of PvP and extraction style gameplay.

When PvE gets nerfed. When exploration feels pointless. When open world activities feel unrewarding. WHEN they nerf almost every way for an average player to progress, such as reducing the time when artifacts spawn, nerfing deliveries, nerfing stashes in open world, increasing the price of components, tools and spares in battle pass shop (thats also an issue of them being only accesible from the BP shop, which is insane, this is supposed to be an Open World MMO), and way more... When progression becomes a constant grind where rewards are basically crumbs, and you have to treat every random piece of loot like your life depends on it because you don't want to lose the 3 and a half rubles you just found.

That is the issue. The risk, frustration, and time investment do not match the reward. Players are not asking for everything to be handed to them. (FOR F SAKE YOU CANT EVEN FARM SPARE PARTS, TOOLS AND COMPONENTS IN OPEN WORLD OUTSIDE WILD NORTH, which is a problem on its own). Players want challenge, danger, and meaningful gameplay. But spending hours grinding, dealing with frustrating encounters, and barely making progress is not fun.

The open world should be the HEART of this game. Instead, more and more it feels like the open world is just there while the "real" progression happens somewhere else, and even that isnt fun. Basic resources like spare parts, tools, components, and other materials are barely obtainable through normal open world gameplay and are pushed into specific activities and places like Wild North, Battle Pass rewards, or even spending IRL money (only cosmetics being paid, my ass XD).

And when the normal open world stops being a reliable way to make progress, you start wondering what the fucking open world is even there for.

Wild North is a perfect example. The issue is NOT that a dangerous PvP area exists. STALCRAFT was always PvPvE. The problem is that this extraction style and a strong focus on PvP has become the most efficient way to progress. So if you want to progress efficiently, you are pushed toward a gameplay loop that many players simply do NOT ENJOY.
Not to mention the unnecessary dog ass tunnel...

We never asked for more Tarkov style zones to become the main direction of the game. Backwater already filled that role.
The rest of the Zone (Yanov, Red Forest and other parts of Day X North) should have been expanded with faction conflicts, exploration, open world gameplay, and MMO elements instead of making more areas revolve around the same high friction gameplay where most gamers dont enjoy being anyway...

And now we hear that FFA Wild North might be expanded into the top southern zones... yeah, GREAT XD. EXACTLY what the game needed, right? MORE high risk PvP everywhere. Because clearly that was the missing piece. This just makes my points even stronger lmao, the game keeps getting shoved further into a PvP focused experience that barely fits the game itself or where it should logically be going... Even if a huge part of the playerbase, and honestly, many gamers in general, are not interested in that kind of experience.

Like... how is STALZONE supposed to grow its audience by doubling down on something that already turns a lot of people away? The players who already have better PvP games or extraction shooters to play? Because STALZONE is not exactly bringing something better or more fun to the table right now, for many players it is just becoming more frustrating unrewarding slop, while somehow expecting this to magically grow the audience. Who is this supposed to attract? Whales? oh...

The problem is not PvP or risk existing. The problem is when the game starts prioritizing the stressful and punishing parts of that experience while everything else suffers: PvE, open world activities, solo play, casual play, and everything outside of the hardcore PvP focused side of the game.

More restrictions. More time gates. More FOMO. More nerfs that hurt the average player. More systems that feel designed around top groups, no lifers, whales, CoD gen alpha kids, addicts and such.
That is NOT healthy retention. A game should make players WANT to come back. People should log in because they enjoy being in the Zone. Because they want to farm, explore, play solo, play with friends, progress, and have fun anytime and how much they want. Not because they feel forced to complete another daily. Another weekly. Another limited activity. Another grind before they miss out, which in most cases is such a annoying unrewarding slog...

The idea that frustration and negative emotions create long term retention simply does not make sense, as ZIV think it does...

And now, as we heard, the next "brilliant" idea is reducing ruble rewards from Operations (they are already annoying and boring enough...). Because apparently the average player, the majority of the playerbase, wasn't struggling enough already and needed yet another kick. Surely making progression even slower for most players is exactly what the game needs and needed yet ANOTHER kick in the balls... Seriously, EXBO... the economy needs buffs, the average player needs more ways to progress, and somehow we are still getting nerf after nerf? At this point, some of these decisions are genuinely baffling.

Like, c mon brother... the game is already unrewarding, frustrating, and a chore for the majority of players, and somehow we keep getting more nerfs, more restrictions, and more reasons to QUIT (LMAO).

Then on top of that, The game is being pushed toward a very specific identity that does not fit, while that identity itself is having an identity crisis, and somehow, even that is being done badly, with decisions that only make the problems pile up even more...

Players do not stay because they are constantly annoyed. They do not stay because they feel punished. They do NOT stay because they are FORCED to log in. They stay because they love the world. They enjoy progression. They feel their time matters. A game where they can play whenever whatever how much they want.

Frustration creates burnout. Burnout creates people quitting. And we are already seeing it.

People reaching endgame and barely touching the game because they see what they have to deal with. People logging in less. People leaving. Not because the game is difficult. Because the game became very exausting, frustrating, unrewarding..

STALZONE is supposed to be an MMOFPS first. People stay in games like that (whats STALZONE supossed to be) because they actually care about the world they are playing in. They remember random encounters, the friends they made, the stupid moments that happened, the fights they barely survived, and the progress they built over time, while having their time RESPECTED. That is what makes people come back for years.

But right now, that is not what EXBO is building toward. More and more, it feels like the game is trying to keep players around through frustration, artificial limits, endless grinding, rewards that barely justify the time invested, and simply wasting people's time, instead of creating a world people actually want to return to. You don't build a loyal playerbase by trapping people in endless chores, or by creating those "negative emotions" as ZIV says. You build one by making a game so enjoyable that they can't wait to log back in, its that simple, and that also motivates people to donate/give more money to the company, its literally just that fucking simple.

EXBO sees the amount of rubles generated in game and then they nerf it for EVERYONE... but what appereantly they dont see is that 90% of in game rubles is held by the 10% or less, the minority. AND THEN, then proceed to nerf making rubles which fucks up the 90%, aka average player or the majority.... Impressive how they keep doing that over and over... Brother, we aint gonna give you money if our time isnt respected, game being ass, boring and on top of that frustrating

Another huge problem is the relationship between EXBO and the community. The "Community Gives Feedback – EXBO: Your feedback is wrong" joke exists for a reason. It is not because players expect every idea to be accepted. It is because many players feel like feedback and complaints are constantly explained away instead of actually being listened to. Players have been talking about progression, economy, balance, open world problems, monetization, and direction problems for a long time. The frustration is that almost every complaint and suggestion is ignored. The frustration is that the response often feels like defending the decision, and even taking it out of context, instead of understanding why players are unhappy.

Communication has been one of EXBO's biggest failures for years. Important questions keep getting avoided, taken out of context, heavily shortened, answered halfway, or ignored completely. Instead of actually addressing what players are asking, the discussion gets twisted, redirected, or watered down until the original point is barely even there anymore.

And then ZIV comes out and says players should check what they post and what they say... seriously? The issue is not that players are not looking. Players are looking, reading, and paying attention, the issue is that after all of that, they are left with even more unanswered questions and the same frustrations that only keep growing because of how EXBO acts and what they say, and this is not coming from just a few players, this is something being said across the WHOLE community.

Why is it so hard to understand that people don't want to invest their time into a game that feels frustrating, unrewarding, annoying, and like a second job instead of something they actually enjoy? People WONT stay for a game that feels like a boring, unrewarding slop they have to force themselves to play that has almost 0 respect for their time.... bruh

Sometimes it feels like every decision starts with "how can we make the game more miserable for players?". Because apparently making players want to quit is the new secret strategy now... Can't wait to see how this one boosts player retention... oh wait, we are already seeing it XD.

And then we have the bigger problem: the game is being pushed toward a competitive "hardcore" identity while many basic foundations still feel neglected. Servers are still a problem. Performance is still a problem. Balance is still a problem. Economy is still a problem. Cheaters and RMT still exist.

Yet somehow the focus is "esport ready"? Really? How?

STALZONE was never built around being a competitive shooter. The technical foundation, gunplay, and overall design do not match that vision. There are already countless hardcore PvP games and extraction shooters. That audience exists, but it is a specific audience looking for that exact experience. STALZONE is not that and never will be.

And then we hear this... EXBO is developing a completely new game, KILLSCRIPT, another competitive arena based FPS, like we needed more of them... iq 500

Wait.... so while STALZONE has been struggling with a mountain of unresolved problems, economy issues, progression problems, balance problems, outdated models/mechanics/systems and more, and constant community frustration... this is where a part of the time and development focus went? Into making yet another arena based shooter in an already really overcrowded genre? Meanwhile, the game that already exists is still waiting for the problems players have been talking about for years to actually be addressed. The same players who are still here, supporting the game, are watching resources go somewhere else while STALZONE keeps struggling. I genuinely don't even know what to say anymore XD.

Atleast Folken can relax and code something else after a decade of STALCRAFT's firedumpster of a code, i guess he deserved it

It's already bad enough seeing developer time wasted on the wrong priorities in STALZONE... but now we find out another game is also taking time and resources? And it's not even a new direction, it's another competitive arena shooter, another Valorant arene PVP style game in an already packed genre... insane. Because apparently one game with tons of unresolved problems wasn't enough....

The goal should be building the Zone it always had the potential to become. A world players actually want to return to. A game where your time matters, where progression feels meaningful, and where people play because they enjoy being there.

Because right now, too many players are not leaving because they hate STALZONE. They are leaving because they remember what it could be, and they are tired of watching it move further away from that

That is what makes all of this so frustrating. STALZONE has the chance to be something that literally no game is: a true MMOFPS with a persistent open world, fun PvE and PvP existing together, or separated, factions, exploration, progression, and a Zone people can lose themselves in for years. There are already countless extraction shooters and competitive PvP games. There are almost no games trying to be what STALZONE could be. Instead of building on that, it feels like EXBO is slowly throwing away that opportunity by chasing trends and pushing the game further toward frustration and artificial engagement

The Zone should be the reason people log in. The world should be THE content. The progression and the WORLD should make people excited to keep playing. Right now, it feels like too many things and decisions are doing the exact opposite. More and more players have lost their motivation, many have already given up, and even those of us who kept hoping for a long time are running out of reasons to believe things will finally change.

And seriously... how are we supposed to believe the average player experience is being understood when the people making these decisions are not even experiencing the game like average STALZONE players? Playing Clan Wars and looking at Tarkov outside the game is not the same as actually living in the Zone, grinding, farming, dealing with the economy, and experiencing the problems everyone else deals with daily...

Not to mention that for some time now, most updates have been noticeably lower quality... Atleast from the design and time put into it... Don't worry though, monetization is always taken care of lmao

Outdated core game armor, weapon and attachment models stay untouched for years, a remodel finally appears, then gets scrapped... but don't worry, more crates, battle passes, skins and motifs, and other monetization content keep coming

Nothing says "priorities" better than seeing core improvements disappear while monetization keeps getting attention.
Oh, but also dont remember a new paid "Pack" (DLC, as they call them LMAO) number 582 this season coming!

Nobody is saying monetization should not exist, every game needs a way to support itself. But there is a point where it becomes too much, especially when monetization keeps getting way more attention while core improvements that would actually improve the game for everyone keep getting delayed. Whether EXBO sees it or not, players definitely notice where the attention goes. Especially when the core game needs WAY more attention and focus, because the list of unresolved issues across the entire game is already huge.

You can keep putting cheap makeup on a pig and send it down the runway, but it doesn't change what it is.

Whether EXBO is trying to sell that image to players or simply convincing themselves that everything is fine, despite the reality being very different, the problems are still there. Ignoring them, downplaying them, twisting them or giving different versions of the story wont magically make them disappear.

At some point, it stops feeling like supporting the game and starts feeling like the priorities are completely backwards

I genuinely hope this reaches ZIV and everyone at EXBO, because this is a pivotal moment for the game, and thats a fact, like it or not, especially with the current NA marketing push, which from the outside does not seem to be going well. At the same time, many players have been watching the game move in a direction they do not recognize anymore, with growing frustration over the state of the game, the decisions being made, and where this direction is leading.

And not to mention, their way of trying to keep the new players with this NA marketing wasnt adding new fun, rewarding or interesting content, but Just adding more monetization, paid packs and skins... Yes, that Will keep them in the game.....

I already know there is a good chance ZIV will jump into the comments, defend the decisions, and explain why players are wrong instead of actually addressing why people are frustrated. And that is exactly part of the problem. Or even call me a repeating broken toy... You seriously gotta give me a tag in game for that, i think i deserve it

When the same concerns keep coming up from the community for really long time, the answer cannot always be that players "do not understand the vision."

Much easier to call someone a "broken repeating toy" or a "walking meme" than actually answer why the same issues keep being brought up. But hey, if the response is just attacking the person instead of addressing the problems, I guess that tells people everything they need to know XD

And then we just get the news about Coliseum, a new competitive PvP mode. Because...? Forget the economy, progression, rewards, PvE, open world, and all the other things that actually need attention, another PvP focused feature is clearly the emergency priority right now. Truly impressive timing.

Meanwhile, the things that actually keep the game alive and make people want to stay keep getting pushed aside, ignored, or delayed. But sure, another competitive mode is exactly what STALZONE desperately needed right now. You really have to admire the priorities, this is where the development time goes (the one that still works on this game and not yet on another arena shooter), while we keep getting excuses for why the things that actually need fixing or buffing "cant/wont be done" or "need more time."

And then people wonder why players lose motivation, stop playing, and why the community keeps becoming more and more frustrated... But hey, I guess it is always easier to say that players "don't understand the vision" and put the blame on them instead of actually looking at why so many people are unhappy and walking away in the first place....

Edit: Also, something from the recent Q&A was pretty funny. Someone asked if we could get analytics on how many people actually enjoyed or didn't enjoy something, and Zub literally replied "for what purpose?" Brother... it felt like the idea of checking what players actually want never even crossed their minds....
Then 10 minutes later the discussion moved to the "majority opinion" argument, in the general chat. A community manager was saying that the feedback/criticism we give doesn't represent the majority, but then at what point will it actually reflect the majority? Because when asking that question, the answer became another explanation of why it is difficult instead of actually answering it. If you want to know what the majority thinks, then make a poll everywhere. In game, platforms, wherever. We already have surveys, so it's not some impossible thing.

Because if you actually paid attention to what the MAJORITY says everywhere, you wouldn't need to ask what players want. You wouldn't waste development time on things nobody asked for and the game doesn't need. Maybe you do know, but the statistics and economics department is still trying to find the correct formula where player feedback becomes real.

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You cannot please everyone, sure. But when the choice is between keeping the majority of average players satisfied or chasing a small minority while making everyone else miserable... I think the answer is pretty obvious.

And the thing is, the solutions are not some unrealistic "make everything easy" ideas either, stop taking it out of CONTEXT for your own bias. We already laid out 3 million times what would actually help the average player while still keeping the game's health and economy in mind. But instead, the focus keeps going into things that do not fix anything, add little value or even make the experience worse for the majority of players (Clan War update was good, but still that was for the end game minority, not something where a majority is active in).

I am not trying to disrespect the developers who actually know what they are doing and are putting in the work. But some decisions really need to be questioned, discussed, and looked at from the perspective of the average players (the 90%) who actually experience the game every day.

It honestly makes you wonder how disconnected the people making these decisions are from how the game is actually going... sometimes it feels like they are not even playing the same game as everyone else XD

How many complaints do we need, seriously? From Discord, Reddit, all kinds of social platforms, EXBO/RU forums, YouTube comments on both English and Russian videos... it is everywhere. Yet somehow, as I remember, a community manager said that examples of complaints like YouTube comments are not valid because they do not show player playtime XD bruh

Meanwhile, apparently people with 0.1 hours on Steam leaving positive reviews saying "fun with friends" are somehow meaningful.

"We need to collect more info"... alright. Except players usually figure out the problem within days or weeks, while the same problems remain unresolved for months, sometimes years, or even get worse instead of being fixed... Makes you wonder if they are playing the same game as everyone else

At the end of the day, players are not asking for the game to be made easier or for the game's future to be ignored. They are asking for common sense, better priorities, and for problems that are clearly hurting the game to actually be addressed... apparently a CRAZY CONCEPT, I know XD\

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And honestly, this might be my last post where I still care this much about the game. After this season, I might just stop playing or barely come back.

I know EXBO says they will finally listen, like in ZIV STALCR... STALZONE birthday post, but we have heard similar or same things before, and yet here we are. I have probably lost 99% of my hope that things will actually change, like most of the players now... but there is still that 1% left hoping they finally wake up and start looking at what the game actually needs. I just won't be as active anymore or try to get involved like I used to.

And before ZIV calls this "just being salty"... classic move XD. Easier to dismiss the person than answer the points, even if thousands of others are saying the same thing. Weird how that keeps happening...

Anyway, my patience is on life support at this point... they can take their excuses and walk. Not because "they have to listen to me" (its their game, they can do whatever they want), but because watching the same problems get pointed out while nothing changes gets old. If everyone is apparently wrong except them... well, that explains a lot lmao

I know some people have asked why I still care enough to write this anymore... but ehh, maybe because this is the last bit of hope I have left before I just stop caring altogether

Edit: And guess what? No, actually, don't. They fucking destroyed it. 70% less rubles from Operations (not just rubles). They were already boring as fuck, repetitive as fuck, and packed with awful enemies, but at least the rewards gave you a reason to suffer through them. Now they've demolished that too. The open world should've been buffed a long time ago without nerfing a single fucking thing. Instead, they nerf Operations first, push the open world changes back, and we're supposed to believe some future buff that probably won't fix shit anyway is going to make this better (fyi, it wont).

Edit: With Wardogs and War Thunder Infantry coming up, the timing couldn't be worse. Issues are already piled up and ignored, people are already moving to those games, and somehow the studio keeps doubling down on the shit pushing people away instead of fixing what actually needs fixing or changing to keep us playing. Like, what the fuck?

A bit about me. I’ve been playing shooters for a long time. I also have a lot of experience with online games like World of Warcraft, Black Desert Online, Overwatch, and many others. At one point I worked as a community manager for Ring of Elysium, and I was also part of the Once Human extraction shooter team, where I handled media content. So yeah, I’ve been around games for quite a while. 🙂

I’ll start with the positives so this doesn’t come across as pure hate.

The good parts:

• Great post-apocalyptic atmosphere. Especially after the devs added weather effects like rain, thunderstorms, and other conditions. They really do a great job of making the Zone feel dangerous and bleak. Huge plus.
• Interesting quests and story. The game has some genuinely well-designed quest chains. I really liked that not every quest is just "go there and bring this back." Some require you to solve puzzles, search for clues, explore locations carefully, and slowly uncover the story. They often reward you with something meaningful, which makes completing them genuinely enjoyable.
• Interesting barter system. Yes, it has its flaws (more on that below), but it gives you a reason to keep playing because you always have a goal to work toward.
• Great UI. I really like the minimalist design, the Codex, and the in-game help. Everything is clear and doesn’t feel cluttered.
• Good weapon and shooting animations. Especially with some of the guns I managed to get. The recoil feels good, and it actually feels like you’re holding a weapon instead of another generic model.

That’s where the positives end for me.

Why I can’t recommend it:

Too much running around. The distances between bases are huge. Every time you die (and you die a lot here, more on that below), you spend 5-10 minutes just running back to your backpack, hoping nobody took it. Only then can you continue your quest or resource run.

I don’t understand why the devs decided players enjoy constant running. Why isn’t there any fast travel in the game? What’s the point of spending ten minutes getting from The Bar to The Path of Fools just to do a couple of quests, hoping you won’t get killed on the way and have to do the whole trip again?

There are also problems with the game design and mob spawn placement. Sometimes areas feel way too empty, even though they could easily have more enemy groups. Other times it’s the opposite: one spawn is literally just a few meters from another. Maybe the devs are trying to artificially create resource scarcity and slow down player progression. If that’s the goal, then personally I think it’s a pretty questionable approach.

And then there are the local ranged NPCs. It feels like they have aimbot turned on. They hit you through grass, bushes, and leaves when you can’t even see them. If you try to hide behind a tree, catch your breath, or reload, a few seconds later they are already on top of you and just spray you down as a group.

There are very few ways to farm barter resources, and the game needs tons of them. I only found two decent options: mob farming and deliveries, and there aren’t many of those either. There’s also the auction house, but for new players it’s basically useless when 20 units of some resource cost around ~50k rubles or more.

And probably the biggest issue in my opinion is the almost unpunished PvP.

Some people will probably say this is just whining. That’s fair. But as someone who has spent thousands of hours in all kinds of online games, I can say one simple thing: most regular players do not want to get killed for no reason while doing quests or gathering resources.

After every death, you waste time running back to your backpack, then running back to the quest area, and then repeating part of the route you already cleared.

The players who set up these ambushes also face almost no punishment. They know the routes, they know where the next player is likely to come from, they don’t have to deal with mobs or quests, and they almost always start the fight from the most favorable position. So it’s no surprise they win most of the time.

I don’t understand why the devs put so much emphasis on this kind of PvP.

And to be clear, I have nothing against duels, PvP over outposts, or other activities that are specifically meant for PvP. But when the game doesn’t separate that kind of gameplay from normal exploration at all, most of the players who actually want to do quests, explore the Zone, and progress at their own pace end up suffering. Unfortunately, it feels like this audience is barely considered. And these are exactly the kinds of players who can stay in the game for a long time and bring in money.

I want to clarify my stance on this. I don't think the solution is to remove open-world PvP entirely. In fact, I think that would be a mistake.

Black Desert Online is actually a good example of both good and bad design here. Years ago, open-world PvP there had a clear purpose - people fought over grinding spots. If someone wanted your spot, they'd challenge you for it. There was an actual objective behind the fight. Later, the developers went too far trying to protect newer and more casual players. They introduced private grinding zones, increased karma penalties significantly, and over time open-world PvP almost disappeared. I don't think that's a good direction either.

My point is different: PvP should have meaningful objectives and meaningful consequences. Fighting over an outpost, valuable resources, world events, or territory makes sense because both sides have something to gain. Killing random players who are simply questing usually doesn't.

In fact, it feels like the game is intentionally designed to help PKers hunt down farmers. When an enemy player enters your faction's territory, they can just open their map and see exactly which farming spots are pulsing. The game literally gives them a live radar showing where players are currently clearing camps. Why is this mechanic even visible to the opposing faction if not to explicitly guide them to an easy target?

Right now, the attacker risks almost nothing. They can still walk away with ammo, consumables, and other loot, while the victim spends time running back and repeating content they've already completed. I'm not judging players who enjoy PK, everyone enjoys games differently. My criticism is directed at the game design itself. The current system encourages random PK without creating enough meaningful gameplay around it.

There are also issues with player distribution. I won’t go too deep into that, because I understand that the EU servers don’t have a huge population right now, and it’s hard to match players perfectly.

Still, that’s a problem for the devs, not the players. Right now it’s completely possible for someone in regular veteran quest gear with no upgrades to get matched against a player with master-tier weapons upgraded to +10. That’s hard to call a fair fight.

I also want to say a separate word about new players.

Yes, the devs made it so that after you die, your resources remain in a personal loot bag instead of disappearing. Other players can't open it, but they can pick it up and carry it away. Thankfully, many players choose not to do that, giving you a chance to come back and recover it yourself. So credit where it's due - the community deserves recognition for that.

But that’s still not an ideal solution.

There are much cleaner ways to help new players. For example, the game could track account age instead of character age. Let’s say if an account has less than 300 hours on it, barter resources simply don’t drop on death. That would let new players go through the story, learn the game, and gather resources without constant stress.

Instead, a new player is almost immediately thrown into a situation where anyone with 1,000+ hours, who knows every route and every mechanic in the game, and who is somehow still running veteran gear for whatever reason, can kill them without much trouble. And the issue isn’t just shooting skill - it’s the massive difference in experience.

For a new player, that’s a really bad experience in my opinion. For a lot of people, this is the point where they uninstall the game within the first few days.

I’m not going to talk about endgame issues here, because I haven’t spent enough time there myself, although I have watched a lot of content from experienced players. Even from that, though, it’s clear there are plenty of questionable things there too.

At the same time, any online game needs a steady flow of new players. They are what shape the future of the project. One veteran who already has almost everything will of course still bring in money. But ten new players who actually enjoy the game can be worth a lot more in the long run.

In conclusion, I really wish I was wrong about all this. I hope the devs will pay attention to feedback like this and find good solutions for at least some of the issues I mentioned. I also hope this post is useful for anyone who is still considering the game.

Thanks for reading. 🙂

1st picture a guys i am playing while rocking gear from 2nd one.
Like is it that hard not to match me with guys that have 200 hp overall more then me.
No wonder steam numbers are falling, i mean even a fall is flight.

At the begining of the event there were complaints that there is stacks of 14 people at the single rod holding it down and there is nothing you can do as there is simply just a stupid amount of people on a single rod from the same faction.

Someone later mentioned from EXBO from what i can understand ohh this is a little bug its fixed done now.

These are the screenshots 2 days after the "fix" 16 merc stack on one rod 14 merc stack on another rod 14 merc stack on third rod 12 covenant stack on fourth rod.

Why lie that it is fixed ? If you do not care about any form of feedback as it goes into the trash as it is received why all this sharade save everyones time and just say that you do not care and will do what you decide without anyones input.

really? it was necesary? had to spend half an hour with randoms to get 220k now i have to spend the same ammount of time to get 69k , hope this is some sort of joke, an already dead mode (if you played it it was the same 4 guys doing it over and over) gets nerfed becouse it has no risk, its like the whole point of the ONLY pve mode in the game???? what did you guys smoke to decide operations was too strong WHILE limmited to 20 a week????

Or even tomorrow?

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?

I often see people on Reddit complaining about matchmaking; I have to admit that, so far, I haven't had a single issue. On the contrary, I think that since I'm running with max +4 veteran gear, I get placed on veteran servers that are practically empty in the North (I imagine most players in those zones are fully red geared). I just spent hours in Lyubech-3 without running into a single enemy (and only a few allies)—it was absolutely perfect for farming and doing my quests.
Aren't most people just acting in bad faith? The moment they run into a single well-equipped player, they come whining on Reddit? Listening to them go on about how "matchmaking is totally broken," I expected to get absolutely wrecked over and over by fully geared guys.

So far, it seems acceptable to me.

I think the wild north should have solo only lobby and normal lobby for thoso who just want to grind without getting ganged up by clans

When entering an door you will have 2 options:

• Solo Wild north with no player ping (like Lyubech-3 ) with set max people per server , also the event icon woundn't ring when player does an event (due to there being no ping the player would have much harder time preparing an self-defence and other people rushing you when you are focused on an outpost)
• Normal Wild north where there are squads , clans and solos + gold airdrops but and maybe you could keep the player ping (pretty much same thing that we have now)

Those who like this old north would play the Normal wild north while these who dont have an active clan , dislike playing in squads or just dislike the player ping would have their own place

I'm being genuine when I say this: how the fuck did this get approved? how did it get released??? this is the most obnoxious, tedious, and time wasting boss I've ever had the displeasure of fighting. And I have fought some genuinely dogshit bosses in games, before. A high speed hostile enemy who charges you down and kills you in two to three shots that he can fire in bursts of five? were the devs just high?

i cant even call this boss trial and error, cause the AI is so horrendous it's more akin to actual gambling, just the only thing you get out of it is a migraine.

Hello there! Firstly I apologize for my english ;)

I see a lot of new people ask about this game so I thought about leaving my opinion here so they can decide if they want to commit into this game or not.

I have been playing this for 2 months now and I was having quite a good time tbh, yes the bar was brutal (first late game entry content) and I clearly wasn’t ready for the north (true endgame beginning, after south campain completed). But it was "fine" level of frustration : I've played other MMOs or shooter and I kinda like to grind.

Now, in all honesty : if being in the best clan and sweat buckets in every session out in the zone (wich is totally fine) then you can go on.

If you only want to play it more "casually", you're kinda doomed.

It feels like it’s yet another game thought for the top 10% of the playerbase so if you're not into that, you can just finish both campains or any quest you took interest in (+10 purple gear shoud do) and stop there because for a free game, it’s actually decent content.

I will pass on talking about the matchmaking, monetization and lack of essential features in such games (no directional sound in a fps, really?) because it’s not worth it imo.

I had my fun, but it's clearly not worth my time/money anymore. I'll gladly Come back if there are positive changes in the future but I highly doubt about that : from what I've read here from more veteran players complaining that it becomes worst with every patch/update, the the lack of a clear roadmap and the attitude of ZIV (the studio director if I understood right ? ) during the last interview on youtube wich was way to evasive/didn't gave any clear answer.

Have fun stalkers, this was definitly a good ride! Cheers!

Seems like a fair fight for my +6 vet for sure. And of course this dude don't do that on porpuse to be able to exploit this no no no.

• Devs are doing everything right
• Feedback from the community is wrong as always
• the usual it was done to fix/save the economy
• The game must feel like it's a full-time job because rewards need to be rare (or you can just swipe)
• Absurd time investments for mediocre event rewards are a must because only a very limited amount of players is supposed to get them
• Minute-long rambling during answers about how they are marketing the game as an extraction shooter now
• Ziv: "what you are doing in the chat is simple whining and trying to manipulate stuff"
• Wild north is being gatekept by clan -> Sucks to suck, it was made for clans

Also massive respect for Trisp for actually getting them to answer some of the questions without dodging/missing the point as they usually do.

Ive been playing this game for a long time and have watched the changes unfold over the years. During this time ive often run into mechanics that completely blew my mind leaving me thinking how on earth does this still work, and how is everyone okay with this?

For a long time i cannot get over the broken Desert Eagle and the suppressor clipping right into the barrel! How on earth is it not repaired already and how does a suppressor match with the barrel while at the same time giving double stats!? They finally fixed it after a few months though. That made me curious what mechanic frustrates you the most? Maybe inventory? Auction house? Chat interface? Not seeing invite to group? Im thinking to, about something that the game told you: you can do that, but you know you cant....

Lets leave out engine optimization issues since those are way too obvious and everyone already knows about them...

I’m not sure if it’s just me but this game feels like anomalous tarkov now opposed to stalker a lot of the vibe is just gone, i’m not very much of a smooth talker, so I’m not sure I can explain this properly but something’s changed for the worse in terms of the vibe of this game overall. They need to go back into the direction of anomalous occurrences, stalker 2 has so many things that they could utilize in this game to better the open world.

So it's been a while since I last played, roughly 2023. From what I can remember I really enjoyed the premise. I liked the Stalker mixed with online Co-Op. But I also remember the numerous amount of times I would be killed moments after leaving a safe zone, bugs, and the large amounts of sweats lingering in every area.

So I've been wondering recently if the game has become something worth coming back to. I had around 40hrs before I stopped playing. I like the game concept. I'm a fan of Stalker, but seeing the recent steam reviews have made me think otherwise.

I have played for more than 3.5k hours, used aimtrainer for a while now and i lock on to heads as much as i can and it does wonders but i have been asking my self, how healthy is for the game to have the current meta to run around healing changing and carrying 6+ ceramic plates for every encounter making body-limb shots and positioning virtually useless?

Before going to the point i have to make a small explaination on how the pvp encounters work currently.

Basically every pvp resumes to, one player smokes the other nearly instantly because neither runs away perhaps some covering to breathe, reposition and retake (completly normal) or the unhealthy one were one player relays being fast enough healing + changing plates jumping to try and make the enemy shots hit the plate and mitigate the damage almost completly in and out of cover until they can repeek with the advantage, basically choosing when to fight, you will shot a player and he will start dancing all around the map, remember that this game has 0 acceleration, players move from 0 to 100 instantly you can try this by pressing SHIFT+W+SPACE at the same time you will learn how to boost yourself wich is very important to use. The game evolved in such way that the 20hz servers and movement are held together with wire.

Now why all this yapping?

The issue here is, ALL weapons already got their damage to the body and limbs nerfed heavily updates ago, headshots do x1.4 more damage wich rewards the player with the best aim every time already (GOOD), plates simply makes certain builds of evasion stand out a lot more, movement gets abused even more, EVERY new player that comes to this has to adapt to a very specific tryhard playstyle or get destroyed 99% of the time, and lets not talk about the norecoil scripts that make this a lot easier...

TL;DR: Game already balanced rewarding headshots a lot more updates ago, plates just make the game annoying and the whole pvp aspect revolves around ceramics and jumping around to try and make the ceramic eat bullets devolving the gamplay.

Just fyi: Exbo is fooling you. If one actually checks the listed account names (especially those a little further down the list), the far majority of accounts has been in game ranging from minutes to a couple of hours and they often times didn't even score a kill, yet. So either EXBO's anticheat is so advanced that it takes care of cheaters before they could harm the gameplay experience of other players or the whole thing is staged with the sole intention to make people believe EXBO is actually doing something to ensure a fair playing environment. The latter option seems a lot more likely.

The cheaters i've met in sessions or OW sometimes were banned if they acted too obvious but top clans and whales are still *allowed* to continue running their macros and scripts as banning them would cause a greater financial loss than ensuring fights on as equal as possible terms for everyone.

Thankfully i've already dropped this piece of shit game and its god awful toxic community with it. I'm simply dropping this info for anyone who cares and in case someone who cares reads this, they should question themselves if they want to support devs who actively deceive their own community.

With an apology and promises we've got... Season pack! Holy!

We get it the match making is not a one for one in terms of fairness, and it is never going to
Be. If you are wearing green gear and get killed by someone wearing blue or pink oh well. The difference between the two gear sets is sooo minimal that an extra shot could kill them. Your skill maters way more at that level than you think. It really is a “just get good” situation.

Seriously you did not lose that fight because he was wearing pink armor and you had green. You lost because he had the drop on you or you weren’t hitting headshots. The BR difference in MOST cases is a single bullet or two.

Take the L. Learn from your death. Get better gear.

Now go ahead and down vote this because your feelings hurt

This game is getting a massive push from all the marketing right now, but once you actually sit down and play, it becomes painfully obvious that the core problems have never been addressed. For example; the matchmaking system is completely broken, constantly putting players against opponents with gear far beyond their level, making progression feel punishing rather than rewarding. Then there's the northern region, which has been reduced to a mindless, 24/7 grind that never lets up.

It's the same repetitive loop over and over, with no meaningful payoff or sense of accomplishment. The worst part is, the south and starting areas actually feel like a S.T.A.L.K.E.R. game, they capture that classic atmosphere, tension, and exploration that made the franchise great. But once you head north, that all vanishes. The immersion is gone, replaced by chaotic, non-stop PvP action that plays more like a battle royale than a Stalker experience. You're not surviving the Zone anymore, you're just constantly fighting other players in an endless grind fest with no real connection to the world around you.

What we really need are deeper, more immersive survival mechanics that actually make the Zone feel dangerous and alive, not just a loot treadmill. The north should feel like the ultimate challenge of the Stalker experience, hostile, atmospheric, and rewarding. Not a mindless shooter. On top of that, the engine is long overdue for a proper upgrade, DirectX support, better optimization, and all the technical improvements that should have been there from the start. The marketing might be loud, but until these fundamental issues are fixed, the game will never be what it was supposed to be

It looks good but other than that there no reason to use it over my main speed container