Knowing - Raids 83, 84 and 85 - unsolicited commentary - Level 18

Raid 83 - No Raiders, All Trouble

Destination: Reserve
Goal: Kill 2 Raiders. Visit 5 Rooms for Ragman, hoping they are unlocked by someone.

Loadout: New Class 4 Armored vest, Vityaz with many mags of Pst gzh, etc.  But no backpack

Spawned in tank dugout next to train station. Looks like I won't be arriving at the bunker first.  Crossed map, descended into bunker via White Pawn stairs. Someone is moving in the bunker. From the shelter of the white pawn doorway I aimed down sight. A geared player crossed, I fired.  He ducked into the black pawn antechamber. I displaced - moved up to the ramp leading to black pawn. I'll try flanking. I withdrew up the ramp and quietly moved down the hall heading towards the black pawn stairs. The PMC was coming up the stairs  - I aimed down sight again. He started crossing the hallway and I fired - he wasn't expecting that. He spun, fired, and ran back down the stairs.  His aim was true though - BP tore into me.  This hallway is a death trap. I went back to the ramp and started down, bleeding - I healed the heavy bleed. Arm is blacked though. I heard the player gasping and healing in the antechamber. I steeled myself, ready to turn on my light and take him, but I wasn't moving slowly anymore. My footsteps or healing must have been heard. A second set of footsteps was approaching from the big room. There are two?  I quickly stepped behind the sandbags at the bottom of the ramp, a naked player with a mosin stepped into the room. I turned on the light and we exchanged fire. I killed him.  But not before his mosin tagged me.  

Now I was the one coughing up blood - stomach blacked. I started backing up the ramp - used the AFAK in my secure container to address the heavy bleed. I continued backing up - remembered to reload somehow.  Suddenly a storm of autofire tore up the white pawn ramp room. Shit - glad I'm not down there anymore.  It sounds like Player One is healed up and mad. I moved down the hall to the black pawn stairs, still making a sucking sound. Bleed fixed, but otherwise all systems red.  I need to heal.  Instead of flanking and descending into the bunker, I broke off the engagement, leaving Player One at the altar (sorry, can we still be friends?).   Went upstairs, checked the Ragman rooms - they were locked. Took shelter in the unlocked ready room and sewed up my stomach, healed. Conveniently someone had left an MRE lying there. Ate that. 

Now what?  Well, I came here for raiders and there are none. And I checked some of the rooms and they are locked. Mission accomplished as far as I am concerned. So I went out the back of Black Pawn and began to edge my way slowly along the hedges.  This may seem dumb, but it's from offline experience, and it paid off.  One of Gluhars guards came running up. Stepping up to me - stepping into the bushes.  So long as I stay inside the hedge and quiet, he can't see me. I've evaded the guards offline this way. I've even killed Gluhar himself this way.  I was hoping the guard would come up to where I could see him - I don't want to fire without eyes on him, but he didn't. I waited. He waited. Eventually I started creeping carefully through the hedge at my slowest speed. He calmed down.  I evaded him and extracted a bit later via Manhole cover. 

Time In Raid: 19 minutes, 21 second
Exp: 1411
Ammo Used: 40, Hits: 7, Accuracy: 0.15 Damage to Body: 300   No damage to armor (interesting).
Kills: Unknown Level 11-30 USEC.

Mistakes

• not great conduct of combat.  Aiming was awkward. 
• initial shots on Player One were poorly advised. I had surprise, but I wasted that firing on someone crossing my line of fire. The worst possible aiming situation.  Probably should have held my fire and waited or tried creeping
• did not get tags off my kill (can I just buy them?)

Successes

• killed a USEC PMC
• evaded guard
• decision to disengage was probably the right one
• survived

Raid 84 - Return to Reserve

Loadout: same as before, armor freshly repaired, magazines re-filled, meds replenished

Spawned near heating pipe extract. Made my way briskly to White Bishop, arriving unmolested. Entered, turned on flashlight and descended. No raiders on the ramp. Turned off flashlight and crept down to the waters edge. No raiders there either.  Jumped the water, turned on the flashlight. A voiceline from the other side. Are there raiders?  Quickly checked the king antechamber area, keeping an eye out for any PMCs. Entered the big room - there was a scav across the way, near black pawn antechamber. I killed him.  I proceeded to check all the places the raiders hang. Nothing.  Flipped the D-2 switch. No sound of activity. Did a quick check of all the raiders places. Nothing.  Damnit.  Now what?  

I'm going to loiter a bit. Went to the White Pawn stairs and waited.  After a spell a duo entered the bunker, I could see their flashlights roaming - mine was off.  I aimed down sight - waiting for one to approach the white pawn antechamber.  One finally did, but I didn't hold my fire enough - too eagerly I let my rounds go. I hit my target, but not a kill shot. They backed away and started a grenade bombardment, but I was already up the stairs.  I went along the White Pawn bunker hallway to the intersection that leads back to White Pawn proper.  Here I have a right lean if they approach via King, and the more challenging jump across and then right lean if they follow, and a retreat if they pincer.   They approached via the King ramp. I was out of sight - waiting. Their flashlights lit up the hallway, but they didn't advance. They went down towards D-2. 

I bet they are going to move slowly down to D-2, sure that I am camping in front. Should I pursue them? I'm not sure why, but I decided to not pursue. I think this was a mistake.

My plan was silly - hang out in the bunker a few more minutes and then go back to the ragman rooms in Black Pawn on the wild hope that someone unlocked one or both of them for me. 

I returned to the White Pawn staircase. After a bit, someone else came along. He looted a container in the big room. I waited. He approached the next container and I made the exact same mistake as I did before. I fired too eagerly. I don't know if any shots landed. My guest made up a rushed excuse and departed.   

Well, I guess I'm out. I headed up the ramp, walking pretty slowly and quietly. Just as I turned into the Black Pawn bunker hall I heard the sound of someone else down in the bunker. I quieted down and slowly and quietly continued. I'll see if I can sneak up on this guy from the stairs. The hermetic door siren sounded and there were explosions of fighting somewhere outside. I stood, planning on using the noise to cover my steps. But I didn't get far. A PMC coming from outside the bunker (not whoever I had heard inside), swung into my hallway firing. He knew exactly where I was.  I fired in return - what else could I do? He stepped back to shelter and started reloading. I staggered into the little cut-out in that hallway, reloaded and started healing - three bleeds, two of them heavy. And then I died.

Time In Raid: 13 minutes, 8 seconds
Exp: 220
Ammo Used: 60, Hits: 8, Accuracy: 0.12, Damage to Body: 237, Damage to Armor: 128
Kills: Savva Skilopendra (AI Scav)
Killed By: ZHANGZHONGGUO2  .  

Mistakes

• not pursuing the players down D-2
• firing too eagerly - twice. 

Successes

• scaring the duo

Raid 85 - Death to Scavs

Destination: Customs
Goal: Try, for the fourth time, to get the info for Skier

Loadout: beat up Class 4 armor, AK-102, meds, drink, ears.

Spawned in the far corner of the map, at Trailer Park.  Crossed the river via the low land bridge below RUAF. No sign of anyone. Somewhere between crackhouse and stronghold a scav shouted. I followed his voice to him. He wasn't aggro'd to me, it was some player coming in from Old Gas that had his attention. I killed him then backpedaled. I don't have eyes on the player. He probably knows where I am more than I him. I'm not going to make a frontal approach. I flanked the long way round, using my scope to see if I could find him. I never spotted him, nor anyone else, so I continued.  Jumped the wall into the industrial cul de sac.  In one of the buildings I heard footsteps inside. I entered the building and killed the scav in there. I exited and pushed across the industrial area, cover to cover.  A scav shouted and began running my way, I put a big construction container between us, preparing for the fight. But as I rounded the corner there was another scav, his back to me. The first scav is more dangerous but I have a second - I brought up my weapon and fired on the second scav.  Rat-a-tat-tat  - stop.  Why did it stop? Oh, a misfire! Can I just clear this by just reloading? The footsteps of the first scav - they were so close - he fired his shotgun into the side of my head, killing me. 

Time In Raid: 19 minutes, 0 seconds
Exp: 415
Ammo Used: 50, Hits: 12, Accuracy: 0.2, Damage to Body: 476
Kills (AI Scavs): Hariton Ochki and Valera Moskovskiy. Godspeed gentlemen.
Killed By: Feoktist ChPU

Mistakes

• mishandling the misfire. I've had several of them offline, but they never fail to surprise and disorient me. And they always seem to occur at the most inopportune time.
• improper threat priority.  I should not have deprioritized that first scav. I took my eyes off him and gave him his opportunity, which he exploited.

Raid - NO NUMBER

I wanted to jump back in and make another run, but my real world play time is ending. Not enough time to kit out and re-enter a real raid. So I decided to do a scav run, but instead of trying to get goods for converting to money I wanted to try to kill a PMC or two. After all, I need USEC tags and am woefully behind.

Spawned near Construction, 14 minutes left on the clock. Armed with a Vepr Hunter with a dot sight.  This late in, if there are any PMC left they'll mostly be heading to extract. No way will I extract camp, but there are common paths I could camp without it weighing too heavily on my conscience. Near crackhouse there are two shipping containers that make a ninety degree angle guarding a scraggly bush. The containers will cover my back, the bush provides the merest bit of deceptive cover, but the angle is good at this time of the raid. Players leaving the map will go by with their sides or rear exposed.  There are not likely going to be players approaching from the river - and if there are, well, I may not surprise them, but they won't surprise me.  So I set up in my scraggly bush and waited.

This is a dumb idea. Probably all the PMC are gone. I'll probably end up shooting a player scav and losing rep.  But I stuck with it, watching and listening. 

Footsteps approached, moving fast, I turned and aimed down sight. A PMC swung around the corner of one of the containers and blasted me. He knew exactly where I was.

Mistakes

• forgetting to take screenshots of the post mortem screens
• making a plan that relies on the other players not cheating

PostScript  - Frustration with Time Wasting and Cheaters

There are many things I don't like about Escape from Tarkov. The key aspect that underlies all of them is things that waste my time.  I hate the long wait to get matched to raids and the long wait after that but before it actually starts. I dislike kitting out, it takes so long, getting everything ready, assigning hotkeys, going through checklists (got a splint? do I need food and drink now or during the raid?). The whole buying and selling on the flea market is such a chore. I only do it because maximizing money may help me avoid having to scav so often.  

I really don't like scav runs. I used to use them to help learn maps, but I don't know if it's the scav karma changes, or me slowly becoming a better (mediocre) player, but now I find scav runs a chore. I just use them to acquire FIR quest items and things to sell. As a player who is dying a lot lately, I need a lot of rubles and that means a lot of scav raids. Bleah. Even the scav raid cooldown timer is annoying.  If I want to run scav raid after scav raid (and I do not) who cares?

But one thing has really been eating at me and that is the cheating.  Am I just wasting my time trying to compete against a field of cheaters? I worry that I am.

It's the not knowing that drives you crazy. I die all the time in Tarkov. I die to scavs, I die to my own stupidity, I die to my poor reflexes. I get confused, misplace sounds, hit the wrong buttons and keys, panic, you name it. And that's ok. Heck - I even share these foibles and failings on a blog. I get outplayed all the time. GG guys!  No problem. But some deaths are sus, or very sus and the most frustrating part is that you just don't know. Was that really cheating?  Or does that guy have perception level 1000 and heard the crabs in my crotch hairs mating?  That guy that came into the White Pawn stairwell, his weapon already aiming up at me? Was he cheating? What about the two today that ran up and swung around the corner firing on me? Do they just do that to every corner?  What about the one who paused when he approached my trap? Or the one that fired on me through a wall? Or the one who fired standing a few meters away from me, where I could hear his bullets hit the wall, but no retort of any weapon? What about the one who ran around through more than two doors and rooms to suddenly appear in front of me, killing me before I even knew the door was opened? Or who teleported in front of me, before killing me?  

There are a lot of cheaters in Tarkov. More than people think.  Let's say you encounter one cheater every twenty raids. That doesn't mean you had 19 raids without cheaters, it only means you didn't encounter them. To know how many of those raids had a cheater, you have to first calculate the number of players you encounter on an average raid, which is probably two. So out of 40 encounters you had one cheater. That seems low, right? For you as individual, yes. But it's not for the raids, for the community as a whole. Take the number of people in any raid and multiply it by two. Using two encounters per player per raid, that's the total potential encounters for that raid. Now our one out of forty encounters gets used up quick. If the Customs is averaging 10 players a raid, that means a cheater every other raid.  If Customs is averaging 5 players a raid, probably every fourth raid has a cheater. And that starts with saying we are encountering a cheater once every forty encounters (or 20 raids). 

I will say this, I am encountering cheaters more often than once every 20 raids.  Today I encountered 8 other players total across four raids, and 2 of those I encountered were cheating. If that rate is sustained, then that means every raid has multiple cheaters in it. 

Are cheaters wasting my time?  Yeah, they are actually. For a mediocre player like me, todays encounters mean I need to run more stupid scav raids just to replace the equipment I lost. So what with the selling, that could be an hour of my real in-life time that those two bozos are costing me. Partly the blame is with BSG because Tarkov loves to waste my time.

There is some new game out there called The Cycle: Frontier that I've heard a few people say has much less time-wasting. You easily jump into a raid.  I checked out some videos - the players had to walk around a stupid mall just to buy things and in one video the player was using a pick to mine minerals. OMGWTF.  Those two are the epitome of time-wasting activities. I'm not sure if it's worth checking out or not.