"Lack of communication" ?

Hello !

/!\ I want to remind you that we are lucky to have a Discord on which we can exchange with GMs which is very rare, when I use the term "lack of communication" I am not targeting them. This topic will not address the issues that servers are currently having, that is not the point.

From my point of view the first thing that could be interesting would be to post at the beginning of each year a calendar of the objectives of the year concerning the changes that Crossfire will undergo for example:

January to April : Work to improve the ranked mode -> Points to improve.

May to August : Work on the Crossfire client / interface -> What will be done.

September to December : Work on X -> What will be done.

The calendar would therefore be indicative to know what will change over the year in the game, as everywhere there can be delays and here it is up to the players to take stock of things and understand that sometimes we can't do everything that is expected !

2. Respond to suggestions.

I suspect that the suggestions are read but you never really know if the suggestion is taken into account because it is feasible or if, on the contrary, it is not feasible which can be quite frustrating. Even giving a very short answer to a suggestion might be nice I think.

3. Live Twitch -> Q&A.

A company does it so I think it is quite possible: Every month there is a live of 1 to 2 hours during which the CM as well as a person working on the development of the game answer the questions of the players in the chat. Obviously the goal is that the questions concern the work of the person. We are not going to ask questions about gameplay improvements to a graphic designer...

These are the 3 ideas that come to mind for the moment, the objective would therefore be to give an overview for the players in order to know where Crossfire is heading without necessarily going into details.

To close the subject, I would like to make a point to show you how important communication between the company and the players is.

There are new maps, new modes it's great but is this really what players expect ? I rather have the impression that it's just window dressing to hide the misery of problems that have existed for a long time but which have not been addressed either because you do not want to see the problems in the face or because you do not not really realize it. Rather than doing things on your own, it would be much more beneficial to do surveys to find out what people would like to be improved.

Just to take examples like this: Client not optimized, menu lousy, 3 types of crosshairs when most FPS offers a crosshair configuration from A to Z. A barely correct competitive mode, full of problems that players complain about again and again. How do you want to attract new players by offering services like this ?

When players talk about a lack of communication, it's not about not having their question answered by a GM, it has nothing to do with it, but simply that there is a huge barrier between Z8 and its community. and that if this barrier were less important we would have a much better game than we have now.
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Comments

  • This is the best suggestion in the forum so far but Z8Games will not do it. If we compare it to the others, it's like that:

    Z8Games
    - Not responding suggestions, just checking them.
    - No Live Twitch, No Q&A anymore.
    - No calendar about what will happen. Wait for future contents. They might be delayed.
    - No survey what the CF community think about modes and maps.
    - No event calendars. Just surprise.
    - Only Content Notes, Secretly removed maps and crates without reason.

    Other game companies
    - Responds suggestions with the developers in discord and forum.
    - Live Twitch for 1 hour Q&A
    - No calendar about what will happen. Wait for future contents.
    - Survey about modes and maps and also give feedback about the contents.
    - New Anticheat. Drop your thoughts about our new anticheat.
    ​​- Event Calendars
    - Content Notes, Removed Crates and Maps. We hide nothing.

    If anybody asks for proof to see that other game companies are doing them, feel free to annoy me in the forum.
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  • In EU we at least had a “GM letter” from time to time addressing issues and developments the community should be aware about. This was already a huge step since what Alduin is saying is pretty much correct. In the end this game could’ve taken a very different turn if community feedback was taken more serious.
  • They only change some things, but in generall all the content is copied from CF China, as the devs don't make specific content for the west market. As long we had GM Saidin back in the day, this version was more unique, balanced and its content appropriate, without dragons, dolls, naked characters. But then VIPs came and Smilegate decided to fire Saidin for whatever reason and from then all they do is money milking and barely put any effort to please other markets instead of the chinese.
  • Hello !

    First of all thank you for your answers, I see that you no longer have the hope of being listened to when you make a suggestion, which is a shame but understandable at the same time. Rather than making a block to answer each one of you I will try to make a more general message which shows that the community is listened to but with several years of delay which is rather strange.

    The in-game reports system that was implemented is very good but the problem is that it was already requested even at the time of CF EU in order to stop with the old report system which was really painful and not at all practical: I remind you that you had to take the replay, make an alt-tab to go to the site, make the report and return to the game as the client is not optimized the game crashed most of the time so had to be restart the game to finally play. The time to do that is easy 5 minutes lost for the player. 2020 finally allows the release of this feature, about 6 years later, which is not normal.

    Another example, there have been proposals for the possibility to kick a player to be implemented for ranked matches in order to kick hackers rather than making players lose points against hackers. The suggestion was refused because: "Yes but no we can't implement that otherwise there are players who will get kicked for no reason." In this case an update of the anticheat would be welcome but it's the same it's been years that it is requested and it has not been done. The problem of hackers has been recurring for years and the work of GMs on it is monstrous, we know it but if it is to come out of the suggestions which date from 2015 in 2021 in this case it was necessary to implement it well before or find an alternative to problems otherwise.

    Concretely the part of the players who want to improve the game find themselves "covered" by the players who do anything. We do not implement a system because x people will do anything and too bad if we punish the players who were going to use it wisely.
  • +1, but they (Z8games) will not do it sadly :(
  • Thanks for you answer Ehad, i swear yep... :'/
  • As much as we need proper communication on how the process of fixing the servers are atm, you know very well that this company won't do that. As much as we want to know what's going on and why the servers are being complete garbage lately, they will never tell us the sole reason why they are not working well.

    With that being said, None of those suggestions you asked won't happen. Smilegate prefers everything to be a mystery to us. From new servers, to content, game balance, bugs, and many more. It's their way of managing a game and you know it.
  • +1 the lack of communication is annoying :(
    They should be way more transparent.
    Also, we should know the win rate of the black market.
  • Hello !

    Thank you both for your answers !

    Waiwio, concerning the outcome of the servers apart from referring you to the subject of the forum which speaks about it I cannot give my opinion on this subject. I returned to Crossfire just a few days ago. All I can say is that personally I don't have any particular problems about these servers problems since apart from blocking access to the Ranked Zombie mode that I would have liked to try it does not prevent me from playing . Regarding the access to the Ranked mode "PvP" honestly block as long as this mode is as much a trash as it is currently the case I do not risk setting foot there again. Copying a ranked system from another game without even hiding it but not being able to do it correctly is quite a shame, just look at the % of players in each rank to see that this mode is neither done nor to be done but hey if it helps to satisfy the ego of the players by reaching a high elo by only needing to spam the games so much the better.

    loller1207, yes unfortunately that I think there is even less chance of that happening than the rest. They are already struggling to reveal the content to come so reveal the majority resource of revenue from the game...

    As a simple reminder in 2014, Smilegate's turnover was 1.3 billion dollars, we can imagine that the following years it was +/- the same but apparently this prevents despite everything from investing a little to buy new servers or to reveal / increase the winrate of crates concerning Cf West.
  • This is such a nice post about what should have been done since day 1 of crossfire so HUGE +1

    So im sorry to say that they will never implement such thing.....

    FeelsBadMan
  • Hey !

    Thanks FeelsBadMan for your answer !
  • I agree with everything what you all said,I would like to see stuff like this in the future ;)
  • +999 indeed, one of the best suggestions in years, too bad it have low to none chances to be implemented.
  • Hello !

    Thanks HeavenCf ! I'll hope too !

    Thanks Winnnetou for sharing the suggestion on discord and for your answer ! As some say above there is little chance that these suggestions will be taken into account although I think it would greatly improve Crossfire West !
  • Obviously, they don’t want to make the game better, just more zp events
  • Played alot during 2015 ish area on EU and GM would actually listen really often was able to even whisper a GM if there was a cheater in the room i was currently in channel name and room id the guy would join cheaters basicly got banned within a minute or two if the GM actually seeing it and guy would even play abit in the room but now days that basicly never happens and reporting is still just a huge issue in general imo.

    Not to mention the game balance is more towards P2P rather then F2P, other version of CF example being CN, VN, PH barret or any sniper would do around idk 2-3k dmg in HMX if you would actually shoot someone in the head but if you try that on here ur doing around 200 if lucky maybe 500 meanwhile the VIP's are actually the ones doing 3 times the dmg.

    Loads of bugs still exist in the game yet reported them about 2 years ago now and they still exist and i would honestly play more if there was way more communication between the GM's and the Players rather then being completly silent and knowing basicly nothing.

    Alsol kinda sad to see Killmark modding support basicly being ruined aswell, so much i could give feedback on but its basicly pointless since GM's really dont give any communication at all.
  • This hasn't been a thing ever since Saidin left.
    The only communication you're gonna get now is when there's a new ZP event. And that only goes for the announcement, not replies.
  • Hi !

    Thank you for your answers !

    Himition, CopyCat3 your opinions agree with other opinions and indeed it is currently. ^^'

    PhoenixTVXD, I remember indeed that we could do that, it was nice. For the rest I sis overall agree with you it's a shame.

    V_sS, your points repeat more or less what I express in my post even if the way of saying it is different. :)
  • One thing i honestly would love the most is the roadmap needs a remake i would honestly rather see the roadmap as like talking about recent patches and how the game will be going forward.

    Give us a tease on when next update will be or upcomming events or anything rather then what they currently are they feel empty and does not say much really and the updates to the game feel grey and depressing really and maybe its just me but id love more interaction with GM's as i said in my other post i have so much feedback to give but i honestly rather not type a massive essay.

    As a ex-GM on a private server of another game we did not have many ''massive'' updates really we had more of small but constant updates and small posts on moving forward with the game and balance.
  • Hi !

    Thanks again for your new post PhoenixTVXD post, let's say that the current roadmap is interesting so that players who come back after a moment of absence can see what they missed but outside of that it's not really "useful" . For a new player, knowing what came out before he got to the game is of little interest and for those who play regularly it is the same.

    I would rather see a roadmap talking about things to come as you say rather than a summary of what happened during the year. As for the interaction with the GMs you have the Discord even if generally when you have proposals to make they will refer you to this forum but there are interactions with them.

    Indeed, the big updates are generally quite rare regardless of the game it is generally small regular additions / changes.
  • its now day 8 ! where the maintenance on mena server start AND where we become unable to play ranked. players (like me) derank for inactivity in snd/td/knife. players will miss the m240b-tesla gold pieces. (that should be discontinued after this zm ranked season) players are again unable to hunt the 250 wins and get a permanent weapon as reward.

    any word from the GM´s about this ? NO !
    are we atleast this weekend able to play ranked? WHO KNOWS?
  • Hello !

    Oggasywe22, as i said in my post we are not here to talk about server issue.
  • Hello all,

    Thank you for your suggestions.

    It saddens me that a lot of our work seems to go unnoticed and we can definitely be more transparent.

    Some of you must have seen me or others comment on your suggestions and we did point out that the Christmas Joy event was mainly created due to your suggestions.

    We hesitate to share plans simply in case that changes at the last minute. This happens more often than you might think.

    If 2020 told us anything then that things can change from one moment to the other.

    Z8Games is a game publisher in the Smilegate family and we rely on most game content on the developers.

    It is not always black and white on what is feasible and with that, we cannot foresee if some suggestion will never happen or just not now.


    It's now almost a year that we are working under special circumstances due to the ongoing pandemic and we will keep doing our very best to make CrossFire enjoyable.

    Keep bringing the suggestions, I promise that we are reading them.

    We will comment where we can, but just because we like a suggestion does not mean it can be implemented.
  • [QUOTE=[GM]Celestine;n6943035]Hello all,

    Thank you for your suggestions.

    It saddens me that a lot of our work seems to go unnoticed and we can definitely be more transparent.

    Some of you must have seen me or others comment on your suggestions and we did point out that the Christmas Joy event was mainly created due to your suggestions.

    We hesitate to share plans simply in case that changes at the last minute. This happens more often than you might think.

    If 2020 told us anything then that things can change from one moment to the other.

    Z8Games is a game publisher in the Smilegate family and we rely on most game content on the developers.

    It is not always black and white on what is feasible and with that, we cannot foresee if some suggestion will never happen or just not now.


    It's now almost a year that we are working under special circumstances due to the ongoing pandemic and we will keep doing our very best to make CrossFire enjoyable.

    Keep bringing the suggestions, I promise that we are reading them.

    We will comment where we can, but just because we like a suggestion does not mean it can be implemented.[/QUOTE]

    I mean it would honestly be really nice to have Q&A or a livestream on twitch for like an hour or something atleast.
  • Hello !

    First of all thank you for taking the time to write us a response, Celestine .

    We know that you have a lot of work, whether it's your obligations or the management of Discord once again the goal of the post is not to denigrate your work far from it.

    I understand that it is possible that your plans change from one moment to another for some reason now is it better to put the plans at the beginning of the year even if it means doing a mini-news to say " Finally we postpone this project for x reason or we replace it with this for x reason. "I think players will always be more pleasant with this way of doing things than "hiding everything".

    We also understand that all the suggestions cannot be put in place from the moment they are proposed or even simply because they are too hard to put in place now I think that we must also succeed in putting ourselves in the shoes of the players especially former players. Crossfire is the game of adolescence for many, some put the money they received on Christmas or on their birthdays to buy crates or a VIP was their way of having fun while supporting the game that they like. But sometimes we have the impression that we are "laughing" at us, there are things that have been problematic for years and that have still not been corrected while sometimes these are things that probably take 5 min to change. The point of the viewfinder "C" which is not in the center of the screen is one example among many others, it is a real shame because you have qualities in the creation of game modes, maps, events but all that is found blackened by other things.

    As I have already said before I think that the majority of us prefer to have less new content like maps etc and that you are working on the redesign of already existing systems which are not optimized or "badly done" cf . -> 64-bit version, redesign of the client in order to improve its quality and make it optimal, review the formulas for calculating ranked points (except if the mode's desire is to bring everyone to the level the highest? but in this case I think the word ranked has no place since the ranking is distorted.) Overall we sometimes wonder if you play the same game as us although your playing hours are probably very limited I mean even when playing 1 hour there are things you can not miss.

    It's not that we don't see your work it's that you invest time and effort on things that we don't actually ask / expect. Regarding the pandemic we understand since many of us are going through the same thing, we support you and we wish you the best on this subject.
  • Thank you for your support - we really appreciate your honest feedback and will implement your suggestions where we can.

    All I want to say is "we hear you", and nobody here is "laughing" at you. Far from it!

    We always put ourselves in the player's shoes since we are all gamers, and we are not happy if we hit limitations and have to find solutions that are less than optimal.

    I think I can speak for all our team members when I say that this is not just a job for us but we work with pride for our players. Many hours are playing the game, going through content, reports, suggestions, etc.

    If there is an issue that can be fixed in 5 minutes, we do that. For example, when I go through the profile page reports on Discord I can sometimes fix missing images immediately. However, if we have to request the image first from other departments, it will take longer.

    When there is an issue in-game, we have to report this to the developers and they have to fix the issue in a build. Depending on the severity of an issue, some minor issues can be on the back burner or the fix might have to wait for the next content update.

    If there are old issues that were reported before but didn't get fixed yet, please keep bringing them up.

    A good example is the inventory search function that was on my personal wish list since day one. It only took a few years but now that we have it, it makes me happy every time I have to check an item.

    We will discuss internally which future plans we can share with the CF community, and hopefully, you will see some soon on the Roadmap.

    Have a great weekend everyone, and stay safe!
  • Thank you for taking the time to respond to this post! This exchange reassures me about certain points and encourages me to believe that communication will be improved over time, which greatly satisfies me personally! I hope that I will not be the only one to have "recovered" a little hope when things to come between the community and "you" and that we will eventually arrive at an optimal version, stable and especially that the reports between the players and the team will be better over time so that together we arrive at a version that satisfies both the players and the team.

    Wishing you a good weekend too!
  • oggasywe22 wrote: »
    its now day 8 ! where the maintenance on mena server start AND where we become unable to play ranked. players (like me) derank for inactivity in snd/td/knife. players will miss the m240b-tesla gold pieces. (that should be discontinued after this zm ranked season) players are again unable to hunt the 250 wins and get a permanent weapon as reward.

    any word from the GM´s about this ? NO !
    are we atleast this weekend able to play ranked? WHO KNOWS?

    BLUEJJ wrote: »
    Hello !

    Oggasywe22, as i said in my post we are not here to talk about server issue.

    this is wel referred to the lack of communication. no one know. if the gm´s are aware of this ranked error or that they try to fix it.
    maybe they disabled ranked on pupose to check if this mode maybe is causing server errors.but at this time. the players know only. ranked is impossible. no one got infos why it is....
  • oggasywe22 wrote: »
    this is wel referred to the lack of communication. no one know. if the gm´s are aware of this ranked error or that they try to fix it.
    maybe they disabled ranked on pupose to check if this mode maybe is causing server errors.but at this time. the players know only. ranked is impossible. no one got infos why it is....

    There is more chance that it is the server problems which cause problems with ranked mode otherwise it would make since the release of ranked that these problems are present. Now I invite you to consult this post: https://forum.z8games.com/forum/cros...nd-mena/page26 on which you have informations concerning the servers and to take note of the posts #382 & #418. The first one informs you of the state concerning the work on the servers and the second one sums up my thought well why it's useless to asking for more information and every day the state of the servers.
  • Kinda sucks comming back after almost 5 months just to see most of this remains the same from what ive gotten to experiance so far