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Quest for Beta! Raid 115

I have a big announcement to share: I have decided to pursue acquiring secure container beta!!   Yes, I know that's not as impressive as acquiring kappa, or gamma, or epsilon, but I need to set realistic achievable goals.  I could just buy a beta container on the flea market, they were going for about 750K rubles last I checked. But I want to do this properly: barter trade with Peacekeeper.

In exchange for a beta container Peacekeeper wants
  • 3 Iridiums
  • 2 Virtexes
  • 3 Military Cables
  • 1 Tank Battery
That's a lot of military tech, which means I need to go where there are multiple military tech spawns, which means Reserve.  The rules for this quest is that I have to find each of those items in raid, but, for every PMC I kill (starting today) I will allow myself to reward myself by buying one of the items off the flea market.  Also, some of those items are craftable, and if I'm in a bind I'll allow myself to craft them, but only using 75% or more found-in-raid ingredients.  And I reserve the right to make up more rules in the future.  

Raid 115 - First Reserve Raid


The Plan: I have played Reserve offline a few times, I have run some scav runs on it, but I really don't know this map well.  I always get lost in the underground. I get lost in the buildings. I confuse the buildings. I don't have any keys. I don't have a Red Rebel to take the Cliff Descent extract. I don't even know where the military tech spawns are. I think the computer rooms on the first floor of King have military tech spawns. And there is supposedly one on the roof of White Pawn next to the radar dish.  So, today's plan is to go to King and White Pawn and scoop up as many Iridiums and Virtexs as will fit in my rig, and then leave via the Manhole extract. I am taking a backpack in case I encounter a Tank Battery.

Loadout: Class 5 Ghzel Armor, TX-15 DML Rifle with Monstrum 2x scope and canted sight, and one thirty round magazine of M995 and one of M856A1. Meds, ears, grenade. CMS, AFAK and extra M856A1 in my tiny secure container.

So the TX-15 is something new I'm testing.  I'm not sure it'll work out.  I like that it is suppressed, and has very low recoil - makes it easy to spam and acquire target at the same time.  But in offline practice I've been disappointed with the stopping power - unless I get a headshot it always seems to take more rounds than I expect to bring down a target.  Also, the weapon is longer than I'd like, it's awkward in indoors situations. It might not be a good match for Reserve.   Putting the 2x scope and the canted sight on it is dumb - I just did that because scopes are hard to use in Factory. I forgot to remove the canted sight before the raid.  

I spawned in one of the bunkers in the quadrant alongside the train station. Snipers won't be set up on the dome quite yet, the scavs are mostly not spawned - now is the time to move. So I ran.  I headed pretty much straight over to King, stopping only once to catch my breath.  Made it into King. Quiet.  Is there a way to get to the computer rooms without crossing this wood floor? Probably. But I'll just run. Ran to the computer rooms - no one there. Closed the doors, and started looting. Except there was no loot. I know that the loot is hidden by a rendering bug - I carefully examined each and every computer top and the bottom spaces of all the racks. Nothing.  Could someone have been here already? That seems hard to imagine. I went to the next computer room. Same thing.  Well this is disappointing. On my scav runs I usually find an overlooked item - I was expecting more.   Now what?

I have a Prapor quest where I'm supposed to find the bunker and extract. Maybe I'll do that.  So I went downstairs. I heard scav voices as I slowly advanced towards that last staircase that descends into the bunker.  "Hold Position!" -- some USECs were shouting to each other deeper in the bunker. Sounded like a peace accord might be under negotiation.   I took another step forward.  Subtask Complete!  Oh, cool. Great. Just have to extract successfully to complete this quest. And I don't want to go down there.  "On position!"   But maybe I'll give them a parting gift. I threw a grenade down into the tunnels and in doing so I unleashed Eris herself, goddess of Chaos.  Scavs were shouting "граната!!" and weapons were firing like crazy. Temporary ceasefire shattered.  I slunk back upstairs as World War III raged below. 

I went into a side room. There on a table were three pieces of loose loot: a silencer, a foregrip, and a little square box of pistol ammo.  I took the silencer. I went to take the foregrip, but couldn't. The little interaction dot didn't appear. I tried the box of pistol ammo. I couldn't take it either. I backed up, went forward, leaned side to side. Turned on and off my laser. Walked around the table. Nothing. I could not interact with the loot. It wasn't that the interaction dot was appearing and disappearing as I moved - it just never appeared at all.  What is going on? Wait a second - when I was in the computer rooms, is this why I couldn't see/grab anything? Is something wrong with my loot interaction?  Is it this long TX-15?  I don't have any problem opening and closing doors. I had no problem taking the silencer.  But I carried no other weapon - not even a knife, so couldn't test that theory.  Shit. Now what?  Tech spawn on White Pawn?  

As I was about to exit the building I saw a head leaning out of a bush across the roadway. I backpedaled immediately, and returned to the safety of the side hallway just as autofire tore up the place.  Guess I'm not leaving by that door. I need to flank this player. I ran out the other exit, turned right, ran forward - and where the hell am I? where the hell is the player? Well I can't stand here in the open figuring it out - move!! I ran to shelter - I have to worry about that player and snipers on the dome over there.  ... No, the dome is over there. Does the dome move on this map? Had to reposition.  I have no idea where the player originally was or is now. I don't know where I am or how I got here. I looked around, figured out my location, and then made my way to the Manhole extract, killing a scav on the way. My loot: exactly one silencer.   

Time In Raid: 8 minutes, 54 seconds
Exp: 802
Kills: Dron Planchik (scav). Godspeed Dron. 
Ammo Used: 12  Hits: 4  Accuracy: 0.25  Damage to Body: 122 

Mistakes

  • turns out the Prapor quest also requires me to find the control room. So I messed that up.
  • I knew I was click click clicking when I fought the scav, but I didn't realize I used up 12 rounds. That's 30,000 rubles for a single scav kill.  May need to cogitate upon the feasibility of the TX-15.
  • need a better plan for this map. 
  • got lost when conducting combat. 

Successes

  • Survived. Despite myself.
  • Reacted quickly and avoided being cut down by hostile. 
  • killed a scav
  • broke up a USEC love-fest. Damn hippies.
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