Tarkov Needs an "Operation Health" to Survive

(Intro)

The general consensus around patch 0.16 is that the additions and changes, combined with the winter event and bringing back the snow alongside tons of snow camo for gear has been awesome. But that’s only speaking for the contents of the patch. The actual wipe and how the experience has been, is something else entirely. From my perspective, how the performance of the game has been, alongside any crashes, glitches, bugs, network problems; I don’t think the game has run this poorly since patch 0.12 and the addition of Reserve into the game. It’s just a complete sloppy, choppy, framey mess that just gets worse the longer you play it. Granted, the game hasn’t gone down once so far which is great, but the general performance is been awful. Maps that were totally fine previously, have issues with even just a red dot on your gun. And I haven’t even tried Streets because I’m worried my PC might explode if I do. I’m aware BSG right before the wipe happened said their main priority for 2025 is quality of life changes and optimizations, but I cannot stress how much the latter half of that sentence needs to occur. Tarkov needs an operation health series of patches to smooth things out. And while it’s honestly needed this for many years, this might be the worst it’s ever actually gotten.

(Tarkov’s unfortunate history with optimization)

If it’s one thing about EFT that has been true since the beginning, it’s that the game has always had problems with optimization and performance. Granted, some eras of the game were better than others, but in general, due to the heavy load on Unity combined with how ancient the code is for the game, it compounds together to illicit a lot of problems in regards to how the game runs for the general player base. I mean I remember back on my old PC that only had sixteen gigabytes of RAM, I would always be at least a full minute late into any scav run I tried to load into. Luckily, that isn’t the case anymore, however back then I just didn’t know better. But now, while load times have actually been solid this wipe, everything else hasn’t. I imagine the better than average load times are a side effect of having no flea market currently, so the server load has been lessened considerably, but I could be also talking out of my ass. I should clarify; none of this conversation is going to be very scientific. It’s subjective personal experiences; just comparing what the game was like before to what it is currently. Most of it seems like backend stuff. Perhaps some growing pains withing switching to Unity 2022, which BSG had wanted to do a long time ago but couldn’t for one reason or another. But EFT’s history with performance hasn’t ever been stellar. However, I can’t recall in recent memory the last time things just felt this bad. I mean walking around, nothing much going on, and I can feel and see my framerate all over the place. Maps like Customs, and Woods which used to feel spectacular, now feel gross and difficult to even run in some areas. One bright side is that the first few days Reserve felt awful but luckily after some technical updates, the map is much smoother now. Slowly chipping away at the problems is one thing. Fixing them for the future is another.

(They need to do it right, the first time)

BSG wants to spend what seems like a good chunk of this year simply working on the game. No major additions, no new mechanics. Just fixing what’s already in front of them. Good. I hope they succeed in doing so. But not just succeed; they need to get it right, the first time. We are potentially approaching the end game for EFT. Patch 1.0 looms closer with each passing day. Granted, they will release it when they feel the game is ready for it. But there is a growing sense of not only BSG, but especially Nikita simply wanting to be done with this project. I’m not a mind reader, I could be wrong here, but if this sentiment is true, I don’t blame him. I doubt anyone at BSG thought Tarkov would turn into the monster it has become. Would last this long and only continue to grow. So much so that it inspired an alternative mode of play, Arena. What started as a small passion project to break the mold and show the world that people are craving for an immersive hardcore experience, paid off in droves. Potentially too much. Now, EFT has grown into something larger than life. I couldn’t be happier, but at the same time, I feel the desire to take the game truly back to its roots. Before the explosion with Reserve and the first Twitch drops event. But we can’t go back. And BSG know that more than anyone else. So, this entire ramble was to simply say, if they want to focus on fixing and optimizing the game so it’s smoother, more stable, and more consistent, please BSG, get it right the first time. This deep into it we don’t need half-assed decisions that weren’t thought out all the way. I speak for everyone when it comes to the game feeling good to play. Whether it’s framerates, network stability, bugs, error codes, crashes, rollbacks, all that; we just want it to be consistent. Whatever you have to do to make it happen before 1.0.

(More personal lamenting of the game state currently)

This has been a cycle that’s been going on for so long. The entire game at this point can be summarized as one giant band-aid fix. If something is wrong, put a patch on top of it to solve the problem, but not the issue underneath it. At this stage in the game's life, I hate to sound so entitled and like a whiny little shit, but this kind of unoptimized experience is just unacceptable. I love this game so freaking much. But watching it perform worse and worse hurts my soul. It’s so painful to watch them stumble their way through this process in regards to fixing the net code, fixing the AI, trying to fix the sound; so many critical elements to the gameplay experience actually being cohesive and making sense, falling flat on their faces time and time again. Maybe in 2017 this would be understandable; after seven plus years of active development though, the patience from the community at large, including myself is beginning to wane. I know I’m not saying anything new here; most people are probably nodding their head going no shit Sherlock, but I just want to emphasize the point that I want BSG, EFT, and the community to succeed in having an immersive game that we can enjoy even if it was never meant to be fun in the first place. One way or another, millions of players have found the fun in Tarkov, even through all the bullshit that has come with the tumultuous life cycle of the game. I’m seeing Tarkov to the end, but I question whether or not it will be in the state BSG truly wants it to be.

(Outro)

Tarkov is in desperate need of some TLC. I’m glad BSG seems more committed to fixing a bunch of stuff this year more so than trying to add more stuff to this bloated game. My hope is we see tons of little micro patches that slowly chip away at the problem points causing the most trouble that came with this patch and wipe. For me personally, if the framerates get to a point that feel consistent like the previous wipe, that alone will make me happy. Even if Streets still runs like shit, that is a bed I and a good chunk of the community that still can’t run it well, even with the extra option to optimize Streets in game, will just have to lay in. It’s a shame there’s a chance that EFT’s flagship map won’t be optimized for the vast majority of people; it’s arguably the most interesting and engaging map because it’s large and dense. But I’ll just take what I can get. Here’s to hoping many of the issues get resolved within a timely manner, and at the very least we can get back to a point that felt like the end of the previous wipe. Thank you for listening to me rant and for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below how your EFT experience has been regarding performance, bugs, crashes, glitches and the like and be sure to subscribe for more videos lamenting the game we all try to enjoy but end up getting upset over because so much wrong with it is out of our control. I hope to see you in future ones.