Getting killed on Customs all the time was fun for awhile when getting in some PvP fights, but just dying all the time takes the shine off that. Plus, I only have Level 2 traders and now with some of the latest flea changes, I'm having equipment acquisition issues, so back to questing. I have several quests on Lighthouse, going to try to run them all simultaneously.
Raid 158 - Lighthouse Troubles
Loadout: The fancy SR-25 I took from a PMC awhile back on Shoreline. Class 4 armor, and 5 markers (one for a helicopter, four for vehicles). Meds (including a CMS kit in my secure container)
Spawned near the road, underneath the resort. Made my way to the Stryker vehicle and marked it. A scav at the resort shouted at me, but didn't fire. I couldn't get eyes on him, so I just avoided him. Visited the lost party for Therapist.
Made my way south towards the Stryker at the south of the map. After I mark this I may just grab some loot and dip, that'll complete one quest and I'm getting low on funds. But suddenly someone started shooting at me with a suppressed weapon, directly ahead. I ran, taking more hits, but I managed to zig zag, put a bit of distance behind me and timed my run to collapse, exhausted, behind the hard cover of a small car in the road. What a mess. I started patching and healing, keeping my eye on the periphery where he might try to flank. Drank some filtered water. Should I try to take him?
I don't know where he is. I don't dare peek from behind this car. I could run and flank, maybe? But I could also just try killing some rogues or some scavs on the road, or mark more vehicles in the base. So I evaded and headed north again, risk averse.
I made my way up the map to the construction area, approaching it from the side. As I approached a scav shouted. I moved to cover and started firing on him, but I was having difficulty landing shots with the SR-25 and blacked arm. The scav moved to cover. Another scav started coming around the equipment. Player scav. I turned and put a bunch of rounds into him. He went down. A third scav started creeping up on me from around the rock pile. I rotated, came around, but fumbled slightly with the weapon - couldn't get my shots lined up. One blast from his shotgun and down I went. On the post mortem I couldn't quite figure out how the damage worked out, as I had fully healed my thorax and head after my sniper encounter and one pellet in the thorax shouldn't have killed me. But so it goes in Tarkov.
Time In Raid: 22 minutes, 28 seconds
Exp: 426
Kills: Vadimka Gruzin (player scav)
Shots: 19, Hits: 7, Accuracy: 0.21, Body: 498
Killed By: Rusya Vodolaz ( Reaper3666 player scav). GG Reaper3666
Mistakes
- forgetting I had a CMS and not healing my arm. D'oh!!
- should I have tried to flank and take that player? I had an SR-25 with a good scope.
Successes
Raid 159 - Rogue Down But Not Out
Loadout: A high ergo ADAR I built on a lark. One magazine of M855A1 and one of M856A1. Plus the usual, and four markers.
Spawned at the southern roadway. Convenient. Marked the Stryker. Continued north. I found a Class 5 armor set in a stash and killed two scavs on the way up the beach. One thing that happened that is worthy of remark is that when fighting one of the scavs my PMC grunted, like when a shot lands on his armor and THEN the sound of the scav weapon fired, a half second later. What's up with that?
Nobody at the construction site. Ran up to the bus in the roadway, the rogue on the grenade launcher started firing - but his shells can't reach me. Went prone and left leaned on that rogue. And I realized my mistake - I had put the Monstrum 2x scope on this weapon, and that scope is really hard to hit the distant rogues. This first one is at 150 meters and I can't really see him - just his weapon flash.
But, it's not a big deal - I've run this scope on the Ash-12 many times in offline Lighthouse raids. It's tricky, but not impossible. So it took some rounds, but the AGL quieted down. I moved further to the left - if he's still up he'll fire at me with his assault rifle, but no shots came. He must be down.
Switched to the other side of the bus and slow leaned the machine gun at the intersection. Also 150 meters, but a much easier shot. Took him down. Nice!
I ran down the hill head to go under the bridge when the grenade launcher started firing. OMG - he's up! And I'm down.
Time In Raid: 21 minutes, 30 seconds
Exp: 1103
Kills: Arsen Izhevchanin (ai scav), Parfeniy Lavanda (ai scav), Sly (rogue)
Shot: 25, Hits: 10 Accuracy: 0.32, Body: 361
Killed By: Denver (rogue)
Mistakes
- bringing the wrong scope to this map
Successes
- marked another vehicle
- killed a rogue
Raid 160 - Rogue Down But Not Out, Part 2
Loadout: Ash-12 with Valday scope. Vehicle markers, etc.
Spawned on the beach, cleaved to the hillside and began to make my way north. Just as I reached the gulley underneath big tree someone began firing on me from ahead. Sounds like an unsuppressed SR-25. Fuck! Multiple bleeds. No eyes on my assailant. I ran as fast and as far as I could into the gully and dropped behind the hard cover of an abandoned car. Fortunately for me, scavs began firing and shouting at the road, but not at me. But their shouting is probably misleading my assailant - he'll think I'm there, not here. Fixed the bleeds, but not before my arm went black. I'm in a bad way.
I quietly moved away from the car into some bushes directly below big tree. If I had to guess, my assailant is right now crossing over by the merin car, looking for me at the road. Suddenly shots rang out directly above me - an SR-25 on big tree. I looked up but couldn't see anything. Answering fire from a different SR-25 from the area around merin car. I stayed put. Let's see how this goes. Those two fired a bit at each other, but no death rattles reached my ear. It got quiet.
Now what? Am I just going to sit here with this sniper directly above me, assuming he's still alive? What's the play here? The sniper moved - his footsteps moved away - probably going for his kills, but flanking wide. I moved over to the merin car area, finally healed my arm with the CMS and took some nourishment. What's the score here? Wait for the sniper to come this way? Is there even a body here?
I was tired of waiting around. I moved over towards construction, looking for scavs, looking for a PMC. But it was dead quiet. I went up the road. Neither of the southwest rogues were up. Continued around via the shoreline and the little grotto. The rogue on top of building one was still alive. Nice. That's a 90 meter shot from here. I ranged my scope, aimed, and dropped him.
Then I tucked down into the building one parking lot. Automatic weapon fire over near the helicopter area. I moved into building one, looking for loot. Didn't get much. Footsteps outside the building, on the road. I moved north, the footsteps followed, moving north, keeping pace with me. No doubt he can hear me just as well as I can hear him. Well, if I approach him, I'll have the right hand lean - so let me try taking this bozo.
I moved out of the building, right leaning - he stopped short, not advanced all the way to the corner. What cover does he have over there? I couldn't remember. I advanced to the corner and right leaned it, but I stepped out too far. No problem - I wasn't aiming down sight. I put the laser on him and fired off two smart shots with the Ash-12 and ducked back behind the wall. That first shot should have killed him. He started making a sucking sound. Hmm - I must have shot out his stomach. I stepped out again to finish the job, but was killed instead. I did get some shots off, but apparently none landed.
Time In Raid: 31 minutes, 9 seconds
Exp: 321
Shots: 10, Hits: 2, Accuracy: 0.2, Body: 170, Armor: 35
Killed By: Prov Vorobey (Arcticxs) . GG Arcticxs
Mistakes
- the rogue I killed on the roof of building one was not in my kills list. How did that happen? It's the easiest rogue shot on the whole map and I didn't whiff it. Because of other activity I even moved off looking for a PMC and then came back and saw the position was still empty before going down into building one. There is no question that I killed him.
- Didn't handle the right lean correctly. It's harder when you don't know exactly where the target is, but I should not have stepped out so far. And, what's more, I definitely shouldn't have stepped out the second time - that was hubris.
Successes
Raids 161 and 162 - Shoreline Loot Runs
Need funds.
Time In Raid: 25 minutes, 11 seconds
Exp: 742
Time In Raid: 32 minutes, 4 seconds
Exp: 1297
Postscript
The new flea market fees are really hitting me hard, making things very difficult. Back when I started punisher I built up my hideout: meds, lavatory, workbench and nutrition center all level 2. By running crafts on these when playing (or practicing offline) I was able to bank about 140K rubles an hour, plus another 140K when I turned off the generator and just crafted until the next time I came online (the next day, or later). And that income helped keep me afloat even when I was dying and losing equipment.
But now, with the new flea market fees, only three of the stations have crafts that are profitable and total profits are floating at 70K an hour and often a lot less. I had three and a half million rubles at one point, but now with my constant deaths and the new fees, I'm down to 600K.
For my loot runs, fully half of the loot I brought in made more money when sold directly to the traders rather than on the flea, solely because of the steep flea market fees. Moreover, with only a few exceptions, I notice that the new flea fees seem to make the max profit on any item converge to "trader plus 5K" no matter the listing price. "5K above trader" plus a two item listing limit (for me and most players) simply means that the flea market is mostly not worth troubling about too much. It's a lot of effort for little reward.
And sure enough, it seems to me there are far fewer items on the flea now generally. I haven't seen Ash-12 magazines listed at any price in weeks. I have a whole bunch of PS12B ammo I laid by, but without magazines I won't be running that weapon.
I guess I had better reevaluate my Level 2 weapon choices because if that last Ash-12 and its magazines don't come back on insurance, I'll be moving on.
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