Marek Rabas, the CEO of MADFINGER Games, has published an open letter on social media addressing all the concerns players have with the latest update, Rogue Ops, which was unlocked as a preview just days ago. Tomorrow, October 22nd, it goes live globally, but those with earlier access were quick to point out some worries.
Many of them have been addressed or will be, but the slew of complaints warranted Mara taking to Reddit to set the record straight and let the team’s voice be heard. In my opinion, Rogue Ops is a phenomenal update and one of the greatest leaps forward in the game’s 2.5-year history, and I can’t wait to see further improvements land.
‘Zero Problems with Harsh Feedback’
Gray Zone Warfare’s development team has long professed transparency and community involvement in every step of piecing together this ambitious and intriguing open-world tactical shooter. The most recent update, 0.5, takes the game from pre-alpha to alpha, introduces a stack of endgame content, more locations, weapons, and fresh ways to play.
It’s called Rogue Ops, and it follows on from the success of Spearhead, the 0.4 update that dropped before the summer, altering the entire face of the game for the better.
In his recent open letter on Reddit, Marek Rabas, MADFINGER’s CEO, felt the need to address concerns players have about the 0.5 update.
He said:
I understand you wouldn’t bother voicing your opinions if you weren’t passionate about the game, same as us, but please remember that your words carry real weight. When the public narrative turns into overblown, emotional outcries over basically a bunch of numbers that simply need more tuning, it creates an impression that the whole game is a total disaster.
This scares away players, affects the game’s growth, and ultimately hurts the very community you are invested in.
First up was weapon durability. Players were of the impression that weapon durability had been ‘nerfed’, making your guns break faster after 0.5. But that’s not the case. Mara explained that they increased baseline durability by 40%, but an earlier bug that wasn’t reflecting accurate damage distribution or visual effects when a weapon was damaged by gunfire was fixed.
Following the preview deployment of 0.5, another update was pushed out containing additional work in this space.
Then, Mara addressed the weight system and encumbrance. Fair enough, the new hideout mechanic means that you need to haul back some damn heavy stuff to construct and upgrade work stations, and that was a problem. But Mara explained how this isn’t an arcade shooter where things weigh nothing, and there must be a trade-off and some realism there.
How much do you think it would weigh, picking up a pile of steel plates or some complex mechanical component for a large generator?
He explained:
In 0.5.0.1, we acknowledge that certain items were overtuned. We are reducing the weight of stackable resources and select consumables so looting materials doesn’t immediately encumber you.
Update 0.5 also added more than half a dozen new weapons to the open world of Lamang, but that too was a problem for many. They didn’t want to need to find these weapons in the wild, and they wanted to be able to buy them at a requisite vendor reputation level. That’s not the case, of course.
Mara explained that point too:
In 0.5.0.1, we decided to change it based on your feedback, and unlockable versions of new weapons can be earned by completing specific tasks. We are not going to list which ones, so you can go out into the world and discover them yourselves.
It’s the best of both worlds. You still need to put some effort in, but there are now guaranteed ways to access these new weapons.
Additionally, the team has addressed bleeding in 05.0.1, which Mara admits was ‘overtuned’ in the 0.5 update. He apologized, and we move on from that one.
Finally, the game’s soft wipe was noted. This has always been a point of contention with extraction (and extraction-adjacent) gamers, as nobody really likes a wipe under any circumstances. The team at MADFINGER knows that, but a lot of Rogue Ops was based around the in-game economy, so an economic reset was needed.
We chose a soft wipe with the best intentions. We reset the economy and wiped lockers back to default gear so we could properly test the new systems, while intentionally preserving your task progression and operator levels, so you wouldn’t have to repeat the early-game grind all over again. However, we are still seeing players complain and leave negative reviews simply because their locker was reset.
Mara admitted that trying to ‘find a middle ground was a mistake.’ Effectively, you’re now a high-level player with a zeroed stash, which does not sit well with gamers. Next time, the CEO said, they’ll opt for a full, hard reset.
He wrapped the open letter:
Please tell us what is broken, tell us where the balance feels off, and help us make this game great with constructive reports. Version 0.5.0.1 will be ready for the main launch, and we truly appreciate everyone who continues to test and build it with us.
Have you been playing Gray Zone Warfare’s 0.5 update yet? Let us know your thoughts on the Insider Gaming Discord server.
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Grant has been gaming for 30+ years and in the industry for 10+. You'll probably find him playing a post-apocalyptic game or an extraction shooter somewhere.
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