Hi everyone,

Herewith the Q&A from yesterday's Facebook Live video in text format. For those of you who wish to watch the video, you can do so here. Enjoy!

1: Will the killcam be improved so it doesn't confuse players? At the moment it does not compensate for the “delay” in the game.
The killcam shows the game from the eyes of your enemy. The reason why you may experience a delay-related problem is basically due to the fact that between you and the other player there is always a time “distance” from you to the server and from the server to the other player. It’s impossible to remove it, yes. But generally speaking, the lower the ping difference between you and the other player, the less delay issues will be experienced. Previously we had the delay as fixed parameter, and that caused a lot of complaints, especially from low-ping players. Now we have it set to be dynamic and the number of delay-related complaints has been substantially reduced.

2: A lot of players use no recoil macros; will you do something about this?
We’re ready to deal with this issue. At the moment though we don’t understand how critical an issue it is in the game. We’d appreciate if you could provide us with more information, such as reports, videos etc. of people you suspect may be using macros. This could help us prioritize the task properly.

3: Will 3D rendered scopes be returned to the game?
These were never been removed. All the scopes in the game are in 3D.

4: Why did you decide to remove squads from the ranked matches?
That was made due to severe imbalance issues which occurred in the ranking matches. Therefore we decided it would be fairer to have individual players compete in ranking matches. In the meantime, we plan to introduce a special team-play mode to the game to support clan- and squad-play in the game.

5: Why weren't bots used as a replacement for people who leave the match or go afk?
Currently bots are inferior to players (we are improving them all the time) and cannot perform all the actions available to human players.

6: When will we have a real statistic collection for players, counting only player vs player interaction without bots?
We’re already working on a solution to reduce the effect of the bots on player stats. Not sure that we can neglect bots completely as they still pose a challenge to the player and are a vital part of the game development going forward.

7: In its actual state the spawn protection is hurting the battery game mode. Will you remove it from the battery mode?
We plan to add changes to the Battery Retrieval and Artifact Hunt modes to prevent players abusing the game mechanics. Expect that to be added with one of the next updates.

8: When playing with a high ping the delay goes even higher. Can you explain why?
Delay = Ping + time to resend messages when packet loss occurs. Which therefore means it will never be lower than your ping.

9: When will the middle anomaly on Tarakanovsky Fort work the same for both renders?
The plan is to continue improving the functionality of the new renderer by gradually adding features from the older renderer. Ultimately we want to only have the new renderer. But it should have all the functionality to make the game look very good on high-end systems. At that point the anomaly will look and work exactly the same.

10: There are fps drops with the new render (low end PCs) and even on good gaming PCs; what causes this and are you working on a fix?
Try playing with the latest 0.44d update; it contains a number of fixes which improve that. We expect, if not all, definitely the majority of players who had such issues before to notice performance improvements to their game.

11: Are there plans to add pistol stocks?
We are considering expanding the system of gun modules in the game. We’re not ready to comment on pistols yet, but we’re happy to consider that option.

12: Any new game modes coming?
You can expect to see a mode encouraging squad/clan play soon! We are also considering some other exciting ideas!

13: How's development going with the new character controller?
Currently it’s put on hold, primarily for the reason that we’ve already managed to speed up the current character controller significantly by other means. Another reason why we wanted to implement a new character controller was to remove places on levels where the player can get stuck. This is a fix we’re going to do nevertheless. So even without the new character controller integrated at this point, players can already experience performance improvements which the new character controller was designed for initially.

14: Is it possible to add a notification under a user in your friends list showing when they were last online?
Thanks for the idea, will be considered.

15: In terms of game development, are we close to a final product?
No, don’t think so. Although much has been done, there are still a lot of ideas that haven’t been integrated as yet.

16: Will you add more WW2 era weapons to the game?
There’s a decent arsenal of guns in the game already, our first priority would be to fill in the ‘gaps’ for example, with pistols, having said that, new weapons, including those of WW2 era could make it to the game as well.

17: Why do all the weapons look brand new? In the post-apocalypse, everything should be broken, scratched and dirty.
This most likely relates the new renderer for low-end systems where we had to remove all effects of scratches and wear for performance reasons. If talking about the primary (old) renderer, we have that all in place.

18: Will the Treasure Hunt offer rare equipment and not just weapons?
We’re working on improvements to that system. Currently it’s in its initial implementation, but we see the room for improvement. Certainly equipment is not excluded.

19: What do you think of announcing the winners of the ultra-rare weapons (M82, Jackhammer and such) in general chat?
We have been considering a system to inform players of important things happening in the game, especially when it refers to your friend list. There are pros and cons though: If messages appear often, there’s a risk you’d feel spammed, so you’d rather want them to be switched off. But we are happy to consider a solution to make the game more informative and social.

20: Is this possible to make the old lobby an option for players to choose?
I don’t think it’s possible, since we are talking not only about background design, but also the layout of menus, buttons etc. We’d rather be open to improvements of the current lobby. We still haven’t forgotten the idea of several lobby designs based on the faction you align with, it’s more that we haven’t had the time necessary to integrate those.

21: Does VG have a philosophy of covering most players vs. those who invested time (2+ years or so)? A clear answer would be appreciated. If yes, and the policy is to bring in new players, have them pay, are disappointed and then repeat the whole cycle again - at least this should be mentioned clearly.
In a nutshell, the philosophy is roughly as follows: improve the performance and player experience with the game for all the players; make the game smoother for newcomers; provide ‘old’ players with new experiences and content.

22: Is it possible to make the gear belonging to your current faction have lower replenishment / purchase / repair cost?
If your question relates to creating an incentive for the player to use gear from his faction only, yes, we are thinking of ways how this could be improved in the game.

23: These days, everyone seems to play TDM - the fastest match search + most frequent mode played. Could statistics confirm this?).
Currently we have two modes which are most popular: TDM and Research. We plan to add changes to the other modes in an effort make them more interesting for players.

24: Is it possible to return counters - like, how many players are in queue in which tier, in which game modes etc.?
We’ll discuss this idea, thanks.

26: Is it possible to apply different reward rates (multipliers) for different modes? E.g. TDM to have the highest rewards for kills, high KD, accuracy and least number of deaths, Research; highest reward for capturing a point alone, Batteries and Artifact hunt, on top of rewards per battery / artifacts brought, should have bonuses for killing those who assault your fellow team mate who carries the item.
Good idea, appreciated. In general, your ideas on how to make the game modes more balanced and interesting are welcome.

27: The game is unfair on all high ELO players and basically forces them to lose 70% of the time by giving them teammates with low a very low ELO. Would it be possible to tone down the meaning of ELO in matchmaking?
Yes, and we already have a solution for that. But to make it work we need more players online! Spread the word!

28: Do you think, in the future, we'll have some sort of e-sport tournaments in Survarium?
We’d love to, yes!

29: I would love to see more methods of earning spare parts in the game. We used to be able to break down items for parts but that was removed since it was too easy. Is a new system coming into place allowing for more spare parts to be earned?
We’re not ready to comment on this one yet, but we have some ideas. Stay tuned!

30: Is it possible to make more pre-sets available for saving? I don't mean having them available in-game - the premium profile philosophy is pretty clear and having 3 profiles available per match is fine. My point is enabling 3-4 to be saved per tier.
That’s already available in the game.

31: What's the story element behind player keeping an artifact once he respawns?
The artefact is usually not easy to get in the game. Also, since combos have better effect we need to have the player preserve it and be able to combine. At least while we have the current system of anomalies and artifacts in the game.

32: Will it be possible to select the maps you want to play?
For now we don’t plan to add this functionality in Random and Rank Matches. But you can do it in the Training mode.

33: Is it possible to make artifacts spawn more often and/or in places rarely visited? Their locations are too predictable.
Not without redesigning the current artifacts/anomaly system.

34: Why are oxygen tanks automatic? Applying the same logic, the medkits / bandages or painkillers should administer automatically as the character receives gunfire or explosive damage.
We used to have it activated by a hotkey. Later this was made automatic as it was inconvenient to many players. I’d say such changes need to be considered only in the context of general redesign to how the anomalies work in the game.