I Tarkov Poorly

Before the current Halloween event I was pursuing the Punisher quest line and trying to level up Mechanic and Peacekeeper, which meant I was running a lot of raids on Shoreline. In several of my raids the weather station was the first real hot spot that I encountered. Sometimes in the first minutes after spawning, sometimes a bit later. But in four of the times that has happened, I have encountered a trio of PMCs at the weather station - them having gotten there before me.  Once I engaged and got killed. Once I approached very cautiously and killed them. And twice I approached cautiously and watch them leave the area, heading toward power or the resort.  And on one of those two occasions where they were leaving, I tried to follow them, hoping to snipe them from behind. But when I got to the edge of the weather station cliffs, looking over where they had just departed seconds before, there was no sign of them.  Did they vanish? Were they removed by the game, or did I ...

 In my last post I boasted how the "E" in PVE stands for "Easy".  Tarkov is showing me the error of my ways. I've been dying left, right and center since making that post.  Punisher Part 1 I want to finish the Punisher quest line. It's something I've never done, and I've always wanted the larger secure container than my little four slot alpha.  First up: kill 15 scavs on Shoreline with an AKM.  Shouldn't be too hard. First raid goes well, moving around the map, killing scavs. In the last battle I run into a PMC, who messes me up a bit, but I prevail.  It's getting late, my meds are low, my food and drink are low. Let's call it. Plus, I have a daily to extract alive. In the post mortem I see that I got 8 of the 15 scavs.  Nice. Tomorrow I'll finish this out. For the second raid I'm also trying to do Anaesthesia and Scrap Metal. So I have 6 markers on me, to mark tanks and Sanitars lurking spots. Best get to it. I move out, marking ...

As mentioned in my previous post, I started playing Tarkov again after a long break.  It was going as it ever did: lots of death.  The desync was becoming very trying and after a particularly frustrating fail I went and bought the PvE expansion and have been playing that now instead. At the time of the switch, I was level 16 or so in PvP mode, with maybe 300,000 rubles in cash, and exactly 0 PMC kills. A new record low.  Even when I started playing EFT four years ago and was an absolute noob I had more PMC kills than that by the time I reached level 16.  Of course, Arena makes me level up faster, so the comparison is not equal.   Nikita, if you are reading this, please bring back the ability to choose an individual server. Or at least give me the choice of prioritizing low ping at the expense of a longer wait time.  So I've been playing PvE.   It's fun. It's far better than simply dying every time I draw near another player. But it's too easy...

 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 pi...

I have started playing DMZ. I think it's full name is Call of Duty Modern Warfare II Warzone DMZ, which is ridiculous. The game is worse than Escape for Tarkov in many (so many) ways, but there are a few notable things it does better than Tarkov, so I thought I'd call them out. much better network (for me) most of real world game play time spent in raids no downside to dying  doesn't waste my time way more fun Network I don't live near any EFT server site, so playing EFT has always been dicey.  The difference in game performance offline vs. online has always been marked for me.  But with DMZ, while I have the occasional rubber banding and dropped texture, it mostly plays very smooth.  Nice. Out of Raid Unlike Tarkov, there is practically nothing to do in DMZ if you aren't in a raid. You can change a few skins, do the bare minimum of weapon mod, review and select some missions, change a device in a slot or two when kitting out. But that's it. There's no craft...

To Not Lose Goat released a second video discussing cheating.  The part that I found the most compelling was the interview with one of the anti-cheat devs who work on The Cycle Frontier.  He made the comment that while RMT was definitely a motivator for cheating, their experience suggests that "most cheaters cheat to win. Or, more specifically, to not lose." I feel like that's the crux of it right there, and it aligns with the various comments I've seen elsewhere on the internet from people who admit to cheating.    People cheat to not lose .    Frankly, I'm sympathetic.  Tarkov is difficult and has often crossed the line from grueling to grinding. As a casual player myself, who still hasn't even reached the flea market (where the game becomes an entirely different game), I can understand the motivation.   But if "to not lose" is the main motivator, that's entirely within BSG's control.  Here are some suggestions.  Lower the Flea M...

 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...

Last wipe I focused on questing and avoided scavving, preferring loot runs so as to optimize any experience gained, since scav XP does not count toward the PMC. It took me about 50 raids to reach level 15 last wipe. This wipe it took 81, plus a whole lot of scav raids.  In part because I did not really focus much on questing, and when I finally did I was already 20 raids in.  Looking forward to the new game that is Tarkov with the flea market. Not sure I'll do many quests after this. I never did complete the Punisher series, and that nags at me, but I just don't see it in the cards, especially if the next wipe were to come around Christmas time again. I may just try out some weapons and runs raids for fun.   I have a bunch of AKs in my stash. Maybe I should just sell them to Mechanic and buy something I really want. Not sure. But what does it matter? The important thing is that with the flea market, the game becomes simpler - now it's just a matter of garnering ruble...

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, overa...

 Maybe this will only be useful to me, but this is a series of shots with the 4x handheld rangefinder, the naked eye, and the 2x monstrum scope. 34 meters 35 meters 43 meters 50 meters 61 meters 96 meters 118 meters 140 meters 193 meters 270 meters

Update: I check this every two months. My latest (June 2022) can be found here:  https://itarkovpoorly.blogspot.com/2022/06/counting-cheater-part-4.html How to estimate the number of people cheating in Escape from Tarkov?  I have discussed this twice before ( here and here ) .  The last time there was a ban wave I went through all my raids in 12.12 and gathered up the names of all the people who had killed me. Then I went to try to look them up in the Chat/Friends tool in EFT.   I had been killed by 14 people before the February ban wave, and 4 of them could no longer be found in the Chat/Friends tool.   Another ban wave was announced this week.  So I went and checked again, re-auditing all my killers (where two more were discovered no longer in the Chat system).  It's not a lot of data, and I'm reluctant to draw conclusions from it. But it's some data.  PMC Who Have Killed Me since the last time I checked, I have been killed 10 more ti...

During wipe 12.11 I had a number of very suspicious encounters that I found very discouraging. I strongly suspected cheating. I even wrote a bit about it and ways to possibly estimate the numbers of cheaters:  knowing   But so far in wipe 12.12 I've only had one that strongly struck me as cheating at the time, and another occurrence that seemed coincidental, where I was pretty sure there was a cheater on the map but didn't necessarily think that my killer was the same.  Overall, a much better wipe than 12.11.  I read on Reddit at the beginning of the month that there had been a ban wave (  ban_wave_today  ). I didn't think much about it at the time, except "good riddance".  But today I started thinking about something. When you search for a tarkov username you can see their current level - but if they no longer exist in the system, there is no match.  Now the question is "why might someone not be in the system anymore?"  There are a couple po...

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 a...

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 ...