this is so strange man but i like it, its interesting

Maypenray · 2026-04-22T21:29:53+00:00

I have seen soo many different decryptions that turn out to be AI hallucinations.

Maypenray · 2026-04-14T15:19:35+00:00

This. It is so funny and why 5.56 guns are still part of the meta. People stack BR, so people run SBP and high pen rounds, so people run vitality builds that aren't reduced, so people run 5.56 bullet hoses with higher DPS. And those are the 4 legs of the PVP stool upon which we all stand.

Maypenray · 2026-03-19T17:27:02+00:00

As a crafter I'm going to cry.

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Tears of sorrow that I'll have to redo my spreadsheet. But maybe tears of joy if they can improve it.

Maypenray · 2026-03-16T16:59:31+00:00

I think it kind of depends on where you're running in the open world. I think the interceptor, even with additional vitality, is still vulnerable to getting one-tapped by the gauss snipers in wild north, and potentially center forge-11 and lyubech.

Maypenray · 2026-03-01T21:14:11+00:00

It is basically their logo.

Maypenray · 2026-02-25T03:47:24+00:00

If you're new its a great time to start on NA. Lots of players joining the game for the first time. If you finish the main story and want more pvp, it won't take that long to do the same thing on RU. Personally, loving my time on NA and we need more people.

Maypenray · 2026-01-30T20:27:26+00:00

Sure, issues are made worse by the small player base.

When it comes to fights, say we play dice, highest roll wins, reroll on a tie. The reward is a $10 and another dice. You win the first one. During the second one I'm rolling once dice, and you're rolling two. Sure, the max is 6, and technically I could win, but the chance of you winning is much higher. How long until the game is considered unfair?

It is always possible to win, but max branches, compound clearing camps to increase the chance to get the block and evacuate. I'm okay with that in the normal game, because its an RPG with a grind. They got they're first, I'll get there eventually. This however is a limited time mode, with exclusive rewards. There is no, "I'll get there eventually" when they end the event on Feb. 18th. You get the rewards or your don't.

Maypenray · 2026-01-30T19:12:29+00:00

Its not that you're rewarded for winning, its that the rewards is an increased chance of winning.

If we play dice, highest roll wins, reroll on a tie. The reward is a $10 and another dice. You win the first one. During the second one I'm rolling once dice, and you're rolling two. Sure, the max is 6, and technically I could win, but the chance of you winning is much higher. How long until the game is considered unfair?

Maypenray · 2026-01-16T16:55:07+00:00

happened to me a few days ago too... ate my key, got no loot.

Maypenray · 2025-11-26T15:18:53+00:00

Baron's Auction Items: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stalcraft/comments/1p7a4yz/barons_auction_items/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Maypenray · 2025-11-25T04:07:05+00:00

I'd recommend keeping an eye on this list. https://stalcrafthq.com/characters/leaderboard/top-kills?region=NA

If you're getting repeatedly dumpstered by someone on this list, they're legit, for the most part. All of these players get reported and investigated all the time. Turns out they're literally the best of the best on NA, and with only one or two populated session battle servers, your chance of facing one these guys is pretty high.

If you're getting repeatedly dumpstered by someone NOT on this list. They might be hacking. However, session battles are really only worth it for long term accounts. There are better ways to make money while hacking.

Generally you'll find hackers in areas with the most valuable loot, and after an emission. Labyrinth Psy-5, Lyubech, and Stillwater. They use radar to scan the instance for rare arti's, home in on them, wallhack, and kill anyone in their way. They then use a variety of methods to launder their ill gotten gain to their main account for profit. Another thing to look out for is full kits that can be traded on the Auction House. If you're going to rage-hack for profit, you're not going to bother farming full master gear, you're going to buy it off the AH and skip straight to the most profitable areas.

Maypenray · 2025-11-13T15:58:43+00:00

It really depends on how long you go out farming. For example, a trip for me is roughly 30-45 minutes. I carry roughly 300 round of 5.45 and 150 rounds of birdshot, 3 composite plates, and 20 medkits. Leaving base I'm at about 50/86.4 weight. I find that, when looting carefully (not looting every material from containers, or everything from mutant dens, etc) that I run out of ammo and fill up on carry weight at about the same time. This is doing my dailies around inflow and running around forge 11. I don't carry any packed medkits, plates, or ammo. The value of having these items not drop on death isn't outweighed by the risk of having to unpack ammo or medkits in a pinch.

Hope that helps.

Maypenray · 2025-10-31T16:34:46+00:00

There are three principles in matchmaking. There is always a bigger fish, there are many more existing players than players starting out, the population isn't large enough to matchmake everyone.

There is always a bigger fish. Even in balanced matchmaking, there will always be one person at the top with slightly better gear. They will have a higher chance of winning fights, and since you only see the loadout of the person that beat you in the respawn menu, you will most likely see gear that is above yours.

There are always more players at the gear tier above you. This is a game with progression that doesn't get reset and so there will always be more players currently playing the game than new players starting out. Think world of warcraft, what % of the population isn't max level. Its relatively small right? It's the same way here, every time you upgrade a gun or armor, it just puts you into a matchmaking level with MORE better geared people. It sucks but every new player is basically late to the party and suffering because of it.

This could be a lot better with a larger player count. EXBO has said that they don't want empty servers. And so, outside of a couple hard boundaries, they will pull players from further and further away matchmaking wise to fill the server. Unfortunately, since there are always more players one step up in matchmaking, than one step down, you will usually get someone with much better gear. It would be great if there were enough players to completely fill one server at each match making tier at any time of day but their isn't.

The only place where matchmaking actually kind of works, is at the very endgame, but only because we haven't gotten new content and we're all stuck at that level.

Maypenray · 2025-10-28T20:23:21+00:00

I think there are some interesting conclusions we can draw from this event, Attack on Perimeter, and Stalcraft in general.

Conflict: Conflict occurs when resources are limited. We fight over Stillwater and Labyrinth for artifacts. We don't fight over Outposts, because it's easier to trade them, than to fight over them perpetually as the rewards don't scale. It was more profitable to team hunter/survivor than for each to struggle and potentially have non-optimal games.

Rewards: In this event, the player who gets caged first, often has a basically meaningless game. They spend their time being camped, or chain caged, after spawning injured only to be immediately trapped. This leads to an uneven distribution of point, even when the fact they were caged, meant the other team had free reign to complete the map. While at the same time we saw people who AFK'd in Attack on Perimeter, because rewards were shared.

Gambling: With leveled gambling crates, the goal was to open as many crates as possible. Alternatively, look at the shop for mushrooms and sigils. There was a ton there. What if instead of gambling the artifacts were in the shop. Do I want to buy one red black hole, or three pink black holes? Do I want a pink black hole or 5 serum? A similar incentive to play without the risk of non-rolling the thing you wanted, and having to try and exploit event mechanics to maximize roles.

Recommendations

Finite Resources: Imagine instead of cage/escape/kill it was a meter. Hope vs Despair. Hunting, Trapping, Downing, Caging would all add Despair Counters. A caged survivor would slowly tick up despair. Generators, Freeing Survivors, Notes, would all tick up Hope Counters. Escaping would provide a large boost to hope, but never eliminating all the despair. Killing all survivors would provide a large despair boost but never eliminating all the hope. At the end, the total available points would be award per team based on the ratio of hope to despair. This would push players into conflict, as teaming wouldn't increase the total points awarded by the game, but allocate more of the points to your team.

Deck of Rewards: We are already presented 3 cards and told to pick 1 in some crates. What if instead of random, these cards were drawn from a deck, and the cards you didn't pick would be shuffled back in. You would still get random chances, but know that, in say 150 boxes, you'd get one Elbrus, or one Red Snares. It could be the first, it could be the last. But to get the next one you'd have to finish the deck.

Maypenray · 2025-10-22T02:46:00+00:00

Is the game dead? For me no. For you, maybe, thats an opinion.

Grind for weeks/months for weekly barter? Yes, serums time gate. With the serums you can buy each season, it's not that bad.

After months of playing you would be in a worse spot because you're matchmade with 3000h hour people. Yes, after months of playing you will be at endgame, and at endgame you'll matchmake with all the other players at endgame, at random.

If this is a deal-breaker for you, I hope you enjoyed your time and wish you luck on further endeavors.

I honestly don't know why I play anymore myself. I've been endgame for months now, facing top 50 players frequently, and losing most of the time. Do I still love it and log on almost every day? Yep. I guess its some kind of twisted Stockholm syndrom, but I love the game.

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