[PC Game] The Crossout Thread

Yes, I realize I'll probably be the only person posting about this game here. Everyone has their own Blood Bowl, I suppose.

So what's Crossout?



Well, it's a builder (like Space Engineers or Empyrion)-based vehicular combat game that reminds me a lot of the vehicle quests in the original Borderlands. There is a campaign of sorts (much like Starcraft or Warcraft had), but most of your time will be spent queuing up for battles to acquire resources, either with/against other players (for Scrap, Wires, or Batteries) or doing missions against the AI for coupons (and Copper, Plastic, or Electronics). You then feed these resources through the in-game crafting system to make better weapons and other parts (engines, wheels, RADARs, weapons, etc.) to construct your dream vehicle, and then the game kinda plays a bit like Overwatch. Want to build a Reinhardtmobile? Pack on the armor and shields. Wanna be a Sombra? Install cloaking modules. Yes, there are also turrets/drones/mines, so the Torb/Sym players won't be left behind, either. And so on.

You start with a pretty basic setup...a basic cab, basic guns, a set of basic wheels, and you work your way up from there. As you level up, you unlock additional structural parts that function as your vehicle's frame & armor and you are allowed to use more of them to surround and protect the other expensive, explode-y bits. Which parts you get (and which parts you can craft!) will depend on which faction you align with, but this is not as much of a limitation as you might think, since you can switch factions once every 24hrs without penalty. Your crafted parts are arranged in five* different tiers, much like just about every MMORPG out there: White/Common < Blue/Rare < [Cyan/Special]* < Magenta/Epic < Yellow(ish)/Legendary < Orange/Relic. Higher-level parts either consume or provide more points of Energy, which is the mechanism that limits just how much dakka can be stacked onto a single vehicle. All vehicles heal fully after each battle, so once you acquire/craft some primo parts, they're yours to keep in storage until sold/salvaged. If you don't want to climb the crafting ladder, there is also a market where resources and parts can be traded for in-game currency ("Coins"). Ah yes, Coins. This game is FTP, so of course that means once you start clawing your way out of the common zone, there's a lot of grinding involved to accumulate resources, coins, and fuel, and that also means there are just as many opportunities to shortcut this process... for a dozen or more real-world dollars, that is.

There are plenty of YouTube tutorials, but I feel like the one below (even though it is dated--Fuel is probably no longer the "best" way to farm coins) gives a decent idea of what you would be in for:



Ultimate Beginners Guide -> Part 2
Ultimate Beginners Guide -> Part 3

He also has a sort of Mythbusters series where he does some experimentation to find out exactly what's what.

Once you get those basics under your belt, you've gotten a goodly ways into the campaign, and you're able to build a decent car in the 2000-3000 Power Score (PS) range (individual components have their own PS rating, the PS rating of your overall vehicle is calculated by summing the PS of all its parts -- this is the number used for matchmaking), that's when you might start asking whether one blue saw is better than another blue saw, and fortunately there is another channel that goes into depth on all that. Spreadsheets, demos, research, graphs, he's got it all, and he even posts his data and code on GitHub for you to peruse yourself. He also decided to continue Gromek999's "Mythbusters" series (with Gromek999's permission, even).

So feel free to drop in and blow up some(one's) car(s). It's cathartic, and they do tend to make a very satisfying KABOOM when they hit the (desert) floor. I'll keep posting in this thread until I get bored of the game, but I probably intend to give it at least a year of my time.



--Patrick
*Big changes are coming in an upcoming patch. They include the addition of a new equipment tier (the Cyan/Special tier) and a reorganization of Energy distribution, as well as some changes to hovercraft.
 
Yes, I realize I'll probably be the only person posting about this game here. Everyone has their own Blood Bowl, I suppose.
This reminds me of Car Wars, a Steve Jackson pen-and-paper/miniatures game I played a lot as a kid. Definitely looking into it.
 
played 3 matches. Definitely reminds me of car wars. It took me one match to realize that where I aimed mattered--I didn't destroy a single vehicle on the first match. But then when I realized I could take out wheels or weapons, I ended up getting good kills and assists in the next two. I'm liking it.

1579966843276.png
 
Last edited:
There are players out there who complain that it's no fun once you reach a "runaway inflation" point where you're forced to start climbing the blue/magenta parts in order to stay competitive, but what that means is that they are just not paying attention to their Power Score. There's no bonus to experience reputation for fighting against harder/higher level opponents, so it's entirely feasible to grind faction ranks in a vehicle made of 100% white items IF you don't unnecessarily inflate your PS by immediately gluing every new component you unlock onto your vehicle. The matchmaking system will try to place you against opponents of similar power score, which means I usually see opponents/teammates with PS of +/-500 or so in my games.

A tip: Physics matters far more than you might expect. Cannon shots will drop over distance, accuracy will go down with sustained fire, and cover matters. Learning the maps can make a huge difference.

Another tip -- the points you are awarded at the end of a match are calculated by how much you "do" during a match, which means you get noticeably more points/exp for undressing your opponents, knocking off armor and wheels and such, than you do for the elimination itself. If you mouse over the score that appears under your portrait, it will give you a breakdown of how your award was calculated.

Also, unless they specifically say otherwise, the daily quests can be completed in the "Patrol" AI battles, which are frequently easier than live opponents. The AI is dumb and always goes straight for your cabin, which is a behavior you can sometimes take advantage of.

--Patrick
 
Last edited:
There was an early computer version of AutoDuel (?) for I believe the C64/Amiga. I remember a friend of mine had the game, using it to play a Car Wars type scenario.

---

Onto another topic: someone tell me a good reason why I should jump on the CNY sale of Cities: Skyline from Steam.
 
So it looks like the Crossout team is having a sale on in-game currency ("Coins") over the weekend.
I'm sure they're all good at computer programming and modeling and such, but someone may want to check their math:

crossup.jpg


So their biggest pack is on sale for $50 (instead of the normal $100), and gets you 7500 coins.
...but this is the exact same quantity you would get if you just bought 50*$1 packs.

The other deals are even worse.
Get 3500 coins for $25...or buy 25x$1 packs and get 3750.
Get 1650 coins for $12...or buy 12x$1 packs and get 1800.
Get 875 coins for $7...or buy 7x$1 packs and get 1050.
Get 350 coins for $3...or buy 3x$1 packs and get 450.

I mean, I don't actually plan to waste IRL money buying in-game currency, but COME ON...

--Patrick
 
Yup. Even on stuff like cereal you'll often find the bigest packs of boxes aren't actually cheapest option these days.
 
They do this everywhere, because people are trained to think buying bulk means savings now.
Yup. Even on stuff like cereal you'll often find the bigest packs of boxes aren't actually cheapest option these days.
Oh, I know, and I'm used to seeing it at the grocery store, for instance. But online? With imaginary money? Please.
I mean, at their regular prices, the larger bundles are a better deal, but someone clearly didn't think about what effect chopping all their prices in half would halve have.

--Patrick
 
Oh, I know, and I'm used to seeing it at the grocery store, for instance. But online? With imaginary money? Please.
I mean, at their regular prices, the larger bundles are a better deal, but someone clearly didn't think about what effect chopping all their prices in half would halve have.

--Patrick
If all of them were halved, there'd be no difference. The cheap one has been reduced by 2/3rds, which is where the problem comes from. The $12 one has als obeen reduced slightly more than 50%, but that doesn't really make a difference.
 
If all of them were halved, there'd be no difference. The cheap one has been reduced by 2/3rds
Right, because whoever decided to halve them decided to INT() only some of the prices first before halving them.
Like I said, someone needs to have their math examined. Unless this is just a plot to sell a big pile of $1 bundles, that is. In which case, congrats.

--Patrick
 
If your goal is to convert non-spenders into spenders, making the cheapest bundle look like an amazing deal seems like a good way to go about it. Then you just have to convince them that they want more than that single pack!
 
Well, the new update is in. New parts, new faction, new rarity level, and tons o' tweaks.

Current ranking:
Engineers: 28
Lunatics: 5
Nomads: 6
Scavengers: 10
Steppenwolf: 0
Dawn's Children: 0
Firestarters: 0
Founders: 6

Some of my blueprints are now broken. That is, some of the vehicles I made to caaarefully stack up against certain Power Score limits have now changed. My favored vehicle, one I created specifically to have a PS of 2998 and come in juuuust under 3000 has had its base cabin score adjusted which now puts its aggregate at 3348, so matchmaking frequently puts me up against things with a score of 4100 or so, which can make for some pretty one-sided battles. Give me time, though, and I'll adapt.

The new faction, the "Founders," has some nifty new parts and items that aren't available from any other faction, but of course since this is a FTP game, this faction won't be around for long (just 2 and a half months or so), and to get all the parts (right away) will require the purchase of a "Battle Pass," otherwise you will have to wait to acquire/build these things some other way at some indeterminate time in the future.

Some game mechanics have changed. Seems people were bolting on tons of cheap, disposable "fluff" to the exteriors of their vehicles to catch incoming shells, making the most successful vehicles more resemble huge dandelion puffs or Volvox colonies than armored trucks/cars/etc. The new mechanics have incoming shells not detonate until they pass through most of the outer fluff, which should hopefully put an end to this katamari-esque meta.

Other than that, the graphics engine seems to have been tuned a bit. I get better FPS than I did before, or at least I get less stuttering (most of the time) and the game no longer quits with an error if I activate my zoom scope on certain maps (that was certainly annoying). Also we now get time-of-day on maps, so maps will be daytime, nighttime, raining, sunset, etc. It's not a game-changer, but the variety is welcome.

--Patrick
 
I admit to bolting lots of stuff on the outside of my vehicle as kind of an ablative armor :D
The whole while, singing to myself "Tamatoa hasn't always been this glam..."
 
Current ranking:
Engineers: 30(1*)
Lunatics: 5
Nomads: 10
Scavengers: 10
Steppenwolf: 0
Dawn's Children: 0
Firestarters: 0
Founders: 35

I was lax and didn't report that they were giving +50% bonus reputation last weekend.
...but that's ok, because they're doing it again this weekend!
Also, due to some server issues, there are "gifts" waiting worth a couple days' worth of premium access, which gives an additional +50% reputation bonus. In other words, this weekend is probably a great time to craft your favorite faction's flag (to add 25%-90% on top of that) and rise rapidly in rank.

Again, it's (usually) quickest to complete the challenges in the "Patrol" mode against bots, but you get the biggest rewards (reputation and resources) by fighting in the brawls and missions. If you haven't already completed the Adventure mode, you probably want to work your way through that as soon as you can. Not only do you get plenty of rewards for doing so, but it's great shooting practice.

--Patrick
*The game lets you gain "prestige" levels once you hit a particular faction's level cap: 30 for Engineers, 15 for everyone else but Founders. Founders is a special event-related faction with a climb to level 75 (easily achievable in the 75 days of the event if you play every day and do the challenges).
 
Well, it's been a whole week! Time for an update.

Current ranking:
Engineers: 30(2) [15*]
Lunatics: 8 [1]
Nomads: 10 [15]
Scavengers: 10 [8]
Steppenwolf: 0 [0]
Dawn's Children: 0 [0]
Firestarters: 0 [0]
Founders: 47 [-]

So lately it looks like they've been doing something every weekend. This weekend it's free rental of the Rare (blue) and Special (cyan) workbenches. Also there's some kind of in-game holiday right now where if you log in before 9pm tomorrow night (I don't know what time zone, though), you can get another free day's worth of Premium and stuff.

See, every time you want to craft an item, not only do you have to have the materials available, you also have to pay a fee for the privilege of crafting that item. I know it's just some F2P BS designed to make you crack open your wallet to hurry things along, but it is what it is. White (common) items are always free, but to make any of the colorful things you must "rent a workbench" (i.e., pay a fee). Renting a workbench costs a fixed amount of coin and gets you a set number of uses of that specific color of workbench with that specific faction. Buying in bulk will save you money, so renting a workbench for 10 parts will be cheaper in the long run than renting it for 5 parts twice. You still will have to wait out the manufacturing period (15min for Rare, 2hrs for Special) unless you want to spend even more coin to "rush" the job and have it done immediately. And if you decide to switch to another faction before you've used up all the parts you rented, it's fine... they carry over and will be waiting when you switch back. In fact, for some of the really expensive, lengthy parts, people will start them manufacturing and then switch to another faction so they can have two factions' worth of stuff assembling at the same time for pickup the next day when they switch back.

Of course, many Survivors shortcut the entire workbench process by buying and selling through the in-game market purely through coin... in fact, there are spreadsheets you can find that detail the cumulative cost (including the rental and cumulative prerequisite item costs) so you can see whether it's cheaper to just buy something off the market than it would be to scrounge up the materials and wait out the time, or whether it might be better to build stuff and sell it for more coin than it cost to make.

Factions:
A note about my list where I detail my ranking with the factions, and a bit of an expansion on the footnote in my previous post. Everyone is always a member of the Engineers faction, but then you choose from one of the others to be your "secondary" faction. At first, you only get to choose from the Lunatics, Nomads, or Scavengers. You can't pick one of the "elite" factions (Firestarters, Dawn's Children, and Steppenwolfs) until you've reached level 10 in each one's junior version: Lunatics -> Firestarters, Nomads -> Dawn's Children, and Scavengers -> Steppenwolfs.
  • Lunatics/Firestarters: Lightweight, fast vehicles carrying short-range shotgun, melee, and/or explosive weaponry.
  • Nomads/Dawn's Children: Midrange vehicles carrying energy and/or robotic/drone weapons. Also OP hover jets.
  • Scavengers/Steppenwolfs: Heavy, slow vehicles with heavy armor and/or treads carrying BIG F'ING CANNON.
  • Founders (limited time): Construction-themed vehicles, parts, and weapons also THE MOST OP DRONES OMG.
You are of course free to mix and match parts and modules from any of the factions on every vehicle you build, but your pool of potential parts grows only as you unlock levels in each faction. Also, each faction (except Founders) will provide you access to a different Co-Driver when you join. Co-Drivers can be leveled up from 1-16 and provide a bonus of some sort. The Scavenger Co-Driver is named "Hans" and boosts the effectiveness of your mounted cannon, the Firestarters Co-Driver is named "Misty" and boosts melee, shotgun, and fire damage (no word on whether she has red hair, though), etc. Each Co-Driver's bonuses tend to follow that faction's philosophy on weaponry and such, so picking the proper Co-Driver to match your theme can make a noticeable difference in a vehicle's performance, so choose and level one appropriately.

--Patrick
*Oh, and I know I'm level 10 in two factions but haven't unlocked their corresponding elites yet. I'm waiting until I'm level 10 in all three before I move on to any elites because I'm just like that, is all. Also, I'm working on leveling the basic Co-Drivers, leveling each faction's Co-Driver up to the level in [brackets] in the header.
 
Time for a Coronavirus Crossout update:

Engineers: 30(4) [15]
Lunatics: 10 [1]
Nomads: 10 [15]
Scavengers: 10 [14]
Steppenwolf: 0 [0]
Dawn's Children: 0 [0]
Firestarters: 6 [0]
Founders: 75(max) [-]
More Balance Changes! Especially as regards explosive shell weaponry.

Most everything that does/did explosive damage has been reworked, which would be everything in the class of "Cannon," "Turret Cannon," and "Missiles," but apparently NOT the class "Auto-cannon." Previously, these things would detonate on impact, and then the explosion would cause shrapnel ("Blast") damage in a radius. If I'm reading this right, however, this has been split/reworked so that the impact of the projectile itself causes some kinetic "Bullet" damage, and then the explosion causes the rest. In game mechanics terms, this means the damage has been changed from consisting of 100% "Blast Damage" to some combination of "Bullet Damage" + "Blast Damage," and the item descriptions have been updated accordingly.

Damage types in Crossout:
"Blast Damage" (shrapnel/explosion) - Auto-cannon, Rockets, etc.
"Bullet Damage" (kinetic impact of a projectile) - Machine Guns, Shotguns, etc.
"Contact Damage" (ramming, grinding) - Chainsaws, passive Melee parts (bumpers), etc.
"Energy Damage" (heating*, electricity) - LASERs, Tesla coils, Plasma Guns, etc.
"Thermal Damage" (fire*) - Flamethrowers, "Puddle-makers**," etc.

Some types of damage are more/less effective against certain types of targets, which is why this matters. Just like your average MMORPG will have resistances/vulnerabilities to fire, lightning, or ice damage, the same holds true in Crossout.

But that's not my favorite part of the patch.
No, my favorite bits are two other things.

1) You no longer have to manually fire charged weaponry (e.g., Plasma Guns). Previously, these weapons had to be fired by repeatedly holding down the assigned fire key. If you just held it down, it would charge up and fire just one time, then wait for you to release the fire button in order to begin a fresh charge cycle with another press, BUT releasing the fire button early would cancel the entire firing cycle. This meant that using such weapons was a frustrating exercise in timing your button press/release cycle to synchronize with the weapon's charge/fire timing. The computer opponents had no such issue, of course, because they're bots and can start charging the weapon the millisecond it becomes ready, which meant that bots essentially had a 15% increase in attack speed when using such weapons against human players.

2) Everyone gets 2 more blueprint slots! Originally, you could only have 4 slots for "saved" vehicles (with the option to buy more, of course). This meant you could keep 2-3 of your favorite vehicle designs warmed and ready to go, but didn't leave much room to try and experiment with any new construction or with modifying designs downloaded from the Exhibition. Now everyone gets a base of 6 slots.

Also the brawl right now is ridiculous. Ever wonder what would happen if you mounted a one-ton cannon on top of what's essentially a wheelbarrow with a lawnmower engine? Well now you can find out!

--Patrick
*"Fire" and "heating" are NOT the same thing. Fire ("Thermal") damage is exactly what it sounds like--fire is applied to a vehicle, cooking it and causing damage. Heating, however, is a status effect applied to a component, causing that part to take additional damage while it is heated. And while Thermal Damage can cause Heating, Heating does not always cause Thermal Damage.
**Some weapons leave behind a "puddle" of burning fire which will damage and heat vehicles that drive through it.
 
Last edited:
the brawl right now is ridiculous. Ever wonder what would happen if you mounted a one-ton cannon on top of what's essentially a wheelbarrow with a lawnmower engine? Well now you can find out!
kaboom.gif


(EDITed to replace 15min video with more relevant 3sec GIF)

--Patrick
 
Last edited:
Engineers: 30(5) [15]
Lunatics: 10 [5]
Nomads: 10 [15]
Scavengers: 10 [14]
Steppenwolf: 0 [0]
Dawn's Children: 0 [0]
Firestarters: 8 [1]
Founders: 79(max) [-]
...turns out you can still gain levels in Founders even after 75, you just don't get any more rewards.
Well, today is the last day of the ridiculous brawl. It's been a blast. One of the challenges is to shoot the duck decoy off the enemy vehicle. This one took a while, but I finally managed it. You don't really get anything for it other than a decal you can apply to your vehicle, but hey I did it.

Not much else to report from my end, as I haven't really made that much progress since my last post, other than leveling up my reputation with Firestarters and my Lunatic driver.

This week's promotions are a 1/2-price sale on some of the Premium membership tiers (if you're into that), and a 2-day special on upgrades.

What's an upgrade? WELL, remember how components come in different levels of rarity? If you have three of an exact same component that are NOT of "Common" (white) rarity, you can combine those three together to end up with a single item with boosted stats. Boosted stats might be Extra Durability, Lighter Weight, Better Accuracy, etc. None of the upgrades are game-breaking by themselves (usually 5-10% or so), but once you start using multiple upgraded parts, all those little upgrades start to add up to a vehicle which might be more nimble, tougher than expected, or pack an unexpectedly bigger punch. The current special is that instead of needing 3 to combine, you only need 2, and it is only for parts of type "Cabin."

What's a Cabin? Well, every vehicle has to have a Cabin (or "Cab" for short). The Cabin is the thing that affects your build more than just about any other part. Here's the info page for a Cabin:
WWC.png


The above picture was taken before this Cab was officially added to the game, so some of the stats have changed, and it has a name now: The "Werewolf." Most of the stats are pretty obvious...speed, mass, durability, but I'll focus on the non-obvious ones:
Mass Limit: Build a vehicle that exceeds this total mass, and it can't move.
Tonnage: The point where the vehicle's mass starts to affect its acceleration. Can be boosted by adding add'l wheels, but at the cost of total Power.
Power: How easy it is for the vehicle to ignore its own weight when accelerating. The higher the power, the more nimble your vehicle will be.
Energy: Limits how many guns/components you can add to the vehicle, in total. Each gun/drone/engine/whatever costs one or more points of energy. This is what keeps someone from building a vehicle entirely out of guns, for instance. Sorry, Borderlands fans!
"Perk:" This is the thing at the bottom. Most Cabs have a specific perk, and this perk usually determines how you build your vehicle. Some Cabs have a perk that enhances energy damage. Some boost melee damage. Some give you extra ammo or speed, or faster cooldowns. It all depends on your build.
Power Score: This is just the "ranking" of the Cabin, used in matchmaking. Upgrading a part does NOT change its PS, btw.

Anyway, since a Cabin is such a crucial part of a vehicle, being able to smoosh only two of them together (instead of three) in your quest for your ideal stat upgrades means it's much cheaper/faster to do so. Acquiring the extra Cabins you will need in order to sacrifice them together on the altar of upgrades is still up to you, of course.

--Patrick
 
Engineers: 30(6) [15]
Lunatics: 10 [10]
Nomads: 10 [15]
Scavengers: 10 [15]
Steppenwolf: 0 [0]
Dawn's Children: 0 [0]
Firestarters: 10 [1]
Founders: Completed [-]
So the Founders event has been completed. They extended it an extra day for anyone who had any last-minute stuff to do (and to lengthen the window for buying the packs associated with it, I'm sure) but I finished with a high enough level to have access to everything they had to offer because I played over enough days to not have to buy into any of the stuff I was missing. The Drone v. Leviathan event has also completed (it was a lot of fun!).

The current event is something they call "Spring Mayhem," which is one of their periodic "Capture and hold 3 bases" events that put you in the driver's seat of one of about a half-dozen premade vehicles along the usual sorts of characteristics: Slow&Tough, LightArmor&Fast, Slow&Artillery, etc. Then you go out onto a battlefield and try to hold onto a majority of capture points with those vehicles. When you die, you get the option to pick a different vehicle for your respawn if you think something else will do better against the current enemy team, and so on.

So nothing particularly spectacular, aside from the above the only other thing I've noticed lately about Crossout is that it's been showing up more in my ads, which I assume is the result of Google associating this household's IP address with Crossout-related things.

A little bit of warning, though. Now that the Founders event is over, that means bots can now come equipped with Founders-related components, which means a little more variety in your CPU opponents. Possibly more than you want, if you weren't expecting it.

--Patrick
 
Well, it's time for the next seasonal event, and that means it's also time for another update.

Engineers: 30(9) [15]
Lunatics: 10 [15]
Nomads: 10 [15]
Scavengers: 10 [15]
Steppenwolf: 9 [7]
Dawn's Children: 0 [0]
Firestarters: 10 [1]
Founders: Completed [-]

This Summer's event and update is something they are calling the "Doomsday Cars" event. It is going to work similar to how the Founders event went (level up to 75, get parts and stuff, etc), but there is no new faction. Instead, the parts will be new and/or upgraded versions of parts from the existing factions. It will also be the first time they have introduced any cabins in the Legendary tier. There are three, and they come from the three "elite" factions (Firestarters/Dawn/Stepp). There are also balance changes and some patches...and the loss of built-in voice chat capability. FINALLY! No longer will I have to deal with someone blaring Rick Astley or whatever during a match. They've released a video:




Okay, the video looks pretty professional and all, but... just who is this guy they got to do the narration? He sounds like SUCH a nebbish. But those new cabins look pretty sweet.



The balance changes have moved around a few item weights, which threw off a couple of my builds, but nothing really significant. It just neutralized a bit of the advantage I got from using some of the higher-level parts.

--Patrick
 
Last edited:
Top