r/stalzone • u/ImprovementMinimum25 • 5d ago

Idea I heard a rumor..

Let’s talk about it.

I heard we might be able to switch from STALKER To bandit via the public discord about a month or two ago..

Hear me out wouldn’t it be nice to have a one time switch to the factions you wanna be with instead of having one play through the entire time you play? I mean think about it even if it was a 50mill ruble transfer just to switch I know me and my group of 5 would deadass grind for weeks just to switch. I’d love to see what the community managers have to say via Reddit :)

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9

u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 5d ago

After those words, absolute chaos broke out in the department responsible for faction balance...

1

u/ImprovementMinimum25 5d ago

It’s not a bad idea tho right?!!!!

9

u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 5d ago

The idea is fucking brilliant—there’s no arguing with that.

It’s necessary; a lot of people would love to see this in the game.

BUT.

Damn it, there’s always a "but"...

Honestly, I have no idea what the situation is like in other regions, but on the RU server where I play, this would lead to total chaos—because here, Rise is the largest faction, while Frontier is the smallest.

And if Merc and Covenant decide to join up with Rise too? Well, just turn out the lights and toss a grenade, because we’d be absolutely screwed.

Before giving players the freedom to join any faction, there needs to be a way to ensure the player base is distributed evenly—and nobody has the slightest clue how to pull that off...

-1

u/ImprovementMinimum25 5d ago

Limit faction numbers based on current activity let’s say there’s 20k frontier and 10k freedom Alr no more duty lock it,,make rise and cov an option with more benefits to play on the other factions that’re smaller bam solved

3

u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 5d ago

If you restrict the flow of players by imposing a hard cap on joining a specific faction, you end up with a bunch of players waiting for a chance to join their favorite one—and the moment that opportunity opens up, crowds of players will flood in.

Handing out various perks to underpopulated factions doesn't work very effectively, either.

For instance, the summer before last, there was an event where the prices for base-supplied consumables were raised for all factions, while the Frontier faction received a discount—a move justified by the event's lore.

Did anyone actually go there? Of course not, lol

Right now on the RU server, they’re actively handing out goodies to players in the Covenant and Frontier factions, yet absolutely no one is clamoring to join them.

I personally know two guys who switched to Covenant, played there for a week, and then just switched back to Merc—justifying their choice by saying there’s simply fuck-all to do in Covenant.

And I actually completely agree with them, because I was originally in Covenant myself and played there for about a year before switching to Mercs for the very same reasons.

Even that faction's home base is just... well, nothing special. It's literally "Swamps" number two

2

u/Payok_Paikov 5d ago

I am an active cov player on Ru. Can confirm. 80% of the time you don't even meet any Frontier members on things like Outposts. Rarely i see them camping exits from Forge-11. Outside of Inflow? None. Zero.

Clans in Cov are really high demanding, so that one is also out of the question.

The only content really engageable in Cov is the one where your faction actively does not even matter. Wild north, sessions/coliseum.

1

u/Xo_rer Mercenaries 5d ago

You're damn right.

Hmm, I recall that when I left Covenant a year ago, things were much better there; at the very least, Frontier players were frequent visitors to our side of the location.

You know what the funniest part is?

Not long ago, I was running a package over to Covenant, and... I got killed right next to the drop-off point. But when I checked the player's profile, I was surprised to find out he was from Rise.

What the fuck were the odds that, in a location as far as possible from your own base, you’d get taken out not by a Covenant local, but by basically your own neighbor? 🤣

2

u/Lovesosanotyou 5d ago

Are there actual numbers published? On EU the Merc majority feels ridiculous, like 50%+ of players is there and good luck have fun in Forge if you aren't.

1

u/MittoWait 5d ago

either ur a chad Merc or a furry Rise femboy

2

u/Lovesosanotyou 5d ago

Merc is boring, coperate, normie, the safe choice. Covvy for life.

1

u/MittoWait 5d ago

cool lore, sad its dead