Skip to main content

Complaint About Load vs Play Times

I haven't been playing much Tarkov the last couple weeks. That's fine - was doing other things.

And I generally don't have a lot of time to play. I know many players put in a couple of hours daily, but I can't keep up with that.  For awhile I was able to carve out a two plus hour time slot about every other or every third day and played then. But lately, my time slots are perhaps more frequent, but shorter. Like 45 minutes or an hour.

If I only have 45 minutes to play, this is a problem. The bigger maps (like Shoreline) simply require more time, plus the long raid loading time, and the ex-mortem time. And if I survive, then there is loot to be sold, armor repaired/replaced, ammo replenished, grenades and meds re-purchased. That takes a lot of time.  God forbid I should die, because then a whole loadout needs to be replaced which likely means shopping on the flea market and getting all the minutiae needed ( ears, food, drink, backpack, rig, headwear, eyewear).  

So if my available time is short, this likely means there is time for just one factory raid. Or maybe a quick offline raid to warm up and then a single factory run.

Or a second strategy, which I've sort of fallen into unawares: keep the character raid ready. Run a scav run, but be sure to die. Then do an offline raid to practice or learn a new map while the scav raid timer counts down. Leave that raid early if necessary.  Then finish with another scav raid that ideally ends in death. 

Scav raids generally load faster, scavs start later so they are shorter, and if I die there is no question of loot transfer and selling stuff. And since my character is kept raid-ready, but the raids are offline, I never have to re-supply or re-kit.  Plus offline raids load faster.   So that's three raids in an hour or under, and I'll be just as ready tomorrow.   I'm playing more by risking less. I don't like it. 

The scav timer exists to encourage players to play their main PMC, not hide behind scav raids. I think that's a good goal and a smart approach. But something has to be done on the PMC side. There is too much impedance.  What I wouldn't give for a "respawn" button.  No, I don't mean respawn into the same raid like other games. I mean, "just get me back to the action" button.  I don't care about late spawn - I'd be happy to join a raid with only 15 minutes on the clock.  

I read some advice that players should set up raid backpacks that have everything for a single raid in them. So you grab a backpack and gear up with its contents. Seems like a good idea.  One could just grab the backpack and load into a raid - and finish dressing once you spawn.  Like jumping in the car in your bathrobe, clothes in your briefcase.   Maybe I'll try it out - except it'll undoubtedly take me a full game session to get those setup.  So another day without playing.

Frankly, if I could just tell the game: here's 300K rubles, kit me out with some shit and get me into shoreline ASAP, I'd do it.  I mean, it's not that different than the time saving scav runs I'm doing now. 

Ultimately, my point is that if you don't have hours long stretches of time to dedicate to the game, then the incentives and impedances are mismatched. The game rewards more playtime with less risk. 

PostScript

It's easy to complain, hard to come up with useful suggestions. Here are a few candidates:
  • "Flea This Shit" - allows me to automatically list a whole bunch of stuff on the flea market.  Each item is automatically offered at 1 ruble less than the lowest single-item (no packs) offer presently on the flea. 
  • "Duplicate This Shit". Given a backpack of stuff, makes an identical backpack of the same stuff. First pulling inventory from my stash, second buying from traders/flea if I don't have it. It would be up to me to decide whether to put an entire loadout in there, or just some incidentals. But a quick way to get a loadout ready.  Might be good to have a maximum spend setting, because sometimes a forgotten weapon attachment can be super expensive. 
  • "Late Spawn OK". Let my PMC spawn into a raid like scavs do - with the raid halfway done and an exfil that's not necessarily across the map.
  • post-mortem Therapist Healing option includes food and drink (extra charge OK).
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Field of Fire of Emplaced Weapons at Lighthouse USEC Base, for BEARS

On the new Lighthouse map, the USEC rogues are very aggressive against BEARS and will sight on you out to 300 meters or more, and will fire on you far quicker than they will on a USEC PMC.  The fixed guns are particularly dangerous as they can kill you with a single hit when you might not even realize you are close to the base. I made a map with some fields of fire noted on it. There are two mounted machine guns on building 1 , two mounted machine guns and a grenade launcher on building 2 , and a single machine gun on building 3 .  Plus there is a mounted machine gun and grenade launcher on the southwest corner of the base (lower right on this map).  I have noted the general field of fire of each of these weapons on the map. Obviously, there is a lot of cover, so just because you are standing in a red zone on this map doesn't necessarily mean you can be seen and hit. BUT, if there is any sort of line of sight (including through trees, bushes, walls and vehicles) and you are BEAR, t
Post a Comment
Read more

Counting Cheaters - Part 4

Methodology Because of this blog, I have a record of the name of everyone who kills me, as well as a mostly complete record of the name of everyone I manage to kill.  Every two months this wipe (12.12) I look up all those names in the in-game chat tool.  The presumption being that if a name is no longer in the chat tool then either that person changed their name, or they were banned for cheating.   It is not a perfect methodology nor do I have a lot of data, but it's far better than just going by feel, which is what most people do. The arguments about cheating on Reddit are mostly silly as people just try to generalize anecdotal experiences.  My Anecdotal Experience Since I broached the topic, here is my own anecdotal experience. Before I started doing this I didn't feel like I had encountered many cheaters in Wipe 12.12.  Just a couple.   But since I've started tracking, my view has become more jaundiced and now I have more suspicions. BUT, overall this wipe, I feel like I
Post a Comment
Read more

On "The Video"

 No doubt, anyone following Tarkov has seen the video from Goat:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5LfGcDB7Ek If you've read my blog before, you know I've tried tracking cheaters in the past by checking all my kills and killers in the in-game chat tool over time. I made several posts, the last of which was this one:  https://itarkovpoorly.blogspot.com/2022/06/counting-cheater-part-4.html My take on the video?  The reason it's called "The wiggle that killed tarkov" is because if cheaters are signaling each other via wiggling, it means there is a CULTURE of cheating and cheaters. And that's the shocking thing. It's not just "some people cheat", it's that there is a whole CULTURE of people cheating, with their own set of spoken/unspoken rules, behaviors, norms and manners. And if you've got a whole culture around something, then it's likely widespread and endemic. And disappointing.  Someone made the remark on Reddit that watching the vi
Post a Comment
Read more