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PVE Scripted Monster Boxed?

Before the current Halloween event I was pursuing the Punisher quest line and trying to level up Mechanic and Peacekeeper, which meant I was running a lot of raids on Shoreline. In several of my raids the weather station was the first real hot spot that I encountered. Sometimes in the first minutes after spawning, sometimes a bit later. But in four of the times that has happened, I have encountered a trio of PMCs at the weather station - them having gotten there before me.  Once I engaged and got killed. Once I approached very cautiously and killed them. And twice I approached cautiously and watch them leave the area, heading toward power or the resort.  And on one of those two occasions where they were leaving, I tried to follow them, hoping to snipe them from behind. But when I got to the edge of the weather station cliffs, looking over where they had just departed seconds before, there was no sign of them.  Did they vanish? Were they removed by the game, or did I simply not see them
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Recent posts

Halloween

Apocalypse  EFT has a new Halloween event: Zombie Apocalypse.  Cool concept, but has been decidedly "meh" for me.  I have yet to survive a single raid. During this event PVE is no longer using local servers, but the official remote ones. The whole reason I play PVE is to avoid those servers. Unsurprisingly my first raid had a Disconnect after I killed one zombie and then the game was aborted. Nice.  I've tried this several times, but it mostly hasn't gone well.   Lately I've been running a very high ergo AK-105. That weapon has been great to me, and I can easily stock up on good ammo on Reserve.  I never run scav runs ( I hate those ), instead I occasionally run Reserve looking for Raiders and ammo.  It's been good, and in PVE mode, D-2 is a safe easy extract. But for the zombie event, the AK-105 just isn't cutting it. I load up HP rounds, which, in theory, should have plenty of flesh damage but I'm just struggling.  Maybe it's because of the remot
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Hubris

 In my last post I boasted how the "E" in PVE stands for "Easy".  Tarkov is showing me the error of my ways. I've been dying left, right and center since making that post.  Punisher Part 1 I want to finish the Punisher quest line. It's something I've never done, and I've always wanted the larger secure container than my little four slot alpha.  First up: kill 15 scavs on Shoreline with an AKM.  Shouldn't be too hard. First raid goes well, moving around the map, killing scavs. In the last battle I run into a PMC, who messes me up a bit, but I prevail.  It's getting late, my meds are low, my food and drink are low. Let's call it. Plus, I have a daily to extract alive. In the post mortem I see that I got 8 of the 15 scavs.  Nice. Tomorrow I'll finish this out. For the second raid I'm also trying to do Anaesthesia and Scrap Metal. So I have 6 markers on me, to mark tanks and Sanitars lurking spots. Best get to it. I move out, marking
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PvE - the E stands for Easy

As mentioned in my previous post, I started playing Tarkov again after a long break.  It was going as it ever did: lots of death.  The desync was becoming very trying and after a particularly frustrating fail I went and bought the PvE expansion and have been playing that now instead. At the time of the switch, I was level 16 or so in PvP mode, with maybe 300,000 rubles in cash, and exactly 0 PMC kills. A new record low.  Even when I started playing EFT four years ago and was an absolute noob I had more PMC kills than that by the time I reached level 16.  Of course, Arena makes me level up faster, so the comparison is not equal.   Nikita, if you are reading this, please bring back the ability to choose an individual server. Or at least give me the choice of prioritizing low ping at the expense of a longer wait time.  So I've been playing PvE.   It's fun. It's far better than simply dying every time I draw near another player. But it's too easy. As of today, I am Level 20
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Return To Tarkov

 Some years ago I stopped playing Escape from Tarkov.  I switched to DMZ for awhile. Then I dropped that and didn't play anything for a long spell. But I followed developments from afar. Arena, the Unheard Edition, the introduction of a persistent PVE mode, new bosses, map expansions, improvements in performance, etc.  Finally, when patch 15 dropped I decided to return. I purchased Arena and started playing again. The Good Arena is great. Not only does it let me practice my PvP, but it provides XP and rubles. I ended up reaching level 15 after ignoring most of the beginner quests I've done too many times. Got the bronze pocketwatch, but didn't even try Delivery from the Past. Haven't bothered to give Mechanic any gun builds, still haven't found salewas for Therapist.  Haven't had to scav too much, money being somewhat easier to come to. The Bad I don't live in a city with an EFT server. The closest to me is Seattle, to which I consistently have a good low pi
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DMZ - Nonstop Fun.

I have started playing DMZ. I think it's full name is Call of Duty Modern Warfare II Warzone DMZ, which is ridiculous. The game is worse than Escape for Tarkov in many (so many) ways, but there are a few notable things it does better than Tarkov, so I thought I'd call them out. much better network (for me) most of real world game play time spent in raids no downside to dying  doesn't waste my time way more fun Network I don't live near any EFT server site, so playing EFT has always been dicey.  The difference in game performance offline vs. online has always been marked for me.  But with DMZ, while I have the occasional rubber banding and dropped texture, it mostly plays very smooth.  Nice. Out of Raid Unlike Tarkov, there is practically nothing to do in DMZ if you aren't in a raid. You can change a few skins, do the bare minimum of weapon mod, review and select some missions, change a device in a slot or two when kitting out. But that's it. There's no craft
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Labs - Greatest Raid Ever

Customs  I've been playing Customs a lot this wipe. For every spawn I have either a destination to rush where I can hopefully catch other players when they are moving, or a place to hide and wait for five minutes, so the scavs can spawn, the players can move.  Either way, I often spend the first part of the raid just sitting. I haven't died to an AI Scav in a long time. But I still die a lot. And on customs that death is usually just me walking by a bush or a dark corner and getting blasted unawares. Probably half of my deaths I don't see my assailant, and maybe in a quarter of them I don't even hear them beforehand.  While I've had a lot of fun raids, it is tiring doing nothing at the beginning of the raid for five minutes and then getting killed later without much warning - without conducting a "real fight". Factory So I started running Factory, a map I normally don't like. It's been awesome.  I'm still dying. Killing too. Surviving a bit.  B
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