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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 ping. But the other servers, even the ones in the US West region, are difficult. Lots of lag, spikes, disconnects.  I used to play the Seattle server exclusively, even though it meant I might have to wait longer to get into a raid. But the ability to choose by server/city was taken away some wipes ago. Now the best I can do is "US ( West Region )". This is a problem. Arena is just brutal if the ping is high. Moreover, my game is plagued by disconnects and desync.

The other day I was running a raid on Reserve and I sprinted past a player who shot at me in the basement below the Hermetic Door. I ran to the side rooms and went up the stairs, being sure to close the door at the base of the stairs. I knew he'd chase me. I was hidden at the top of the stairs, I heard that door open, and swung on him as he ran up the stairs. I put my laser on him and opened fire, emptied an entire magazine into him. He never fired a shot. And then I died.  On the post-mortem screen I saw that instead of the 30 rounds I knew I had fired, the game said I only fired 11 of those (though all hit). And instead of firing not at all, the game said he fired at me three times with an SVD, and I was dead. Desync. Sigh.  It's like this with every raid. If I go up against a player, even if I have the drop on them, I'll lose the fight.

I can tell when a player is nearby even before I hear them moving. My ping warning flashes some big triple digit number in red when anyone is close. You'd think that'd be an exploitable advantage, but it's really not.   Furthermore, if there are also scavs near, then they become janky when a player is near - this makes them deadlier and harder to kill.

So I finally caved in and bought the PVE expansion.

The Better

I've started to play the PVE expansion. I'm back being a low-level no-flea PMC running a bunch of dumb quests for the millionth time. So that sucks. Everything about that sucks.  And, it doesn't have that same gripping fear when only playing against Scavs and AI PMCs. But, overall I'm enjoying it. I'm enjoying it a lot. We'll see if it holds.  But this world of no cheaters and no desync - it's great. 

So far, I have not had to scav even once, and I'm actively trying to avoid that. 

Suggestions

The AI PMCs don't seem to loot. On shoreline I could see that they had hit the weather station and the pier before I got there, but the safes were untouched.  They should 100% be hitting the safes.

Reorder the quest tree. Maybe if I go 100% PVE this will never effect me again, but, damn I hate these same quests over and over.   The dailies are an improvement, but limited - when I'm playing just an hour or so three or four days a week, it's very difficult to complete any Operational Task in the time allotted.

Thanks

I've often thought that Escape from Tarkov is likely the best video game ever developed. And it's only gotten better. I do wish Battlestate Games could really address the cheating once and for all  (and restore my ability to limit to the Seattle server) but on most other fronts, they've really outdone themselves on this game. Nice work. And thanks.

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