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.
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.