Tarkov’s Transit Points are Awesome but Poorly Executed

(Intro)

Everyone has mixed feelings about the hardcore wipe so far. But most people seem to agree that the forced transit points to get to the other maps, was a stupid idea. On paper, it’s an interesting concept. With the marathon challenge, the ability to go from one map straight to another without offloading whatever gear you have on you was introduced. A new way for players to engage with the maps and overall, having to think about Tarkov differently whilst in that separate game mode. And once the event was over, the ability to transit was simply added to all maps after one minute of being in the raid. It’s a genuinely cool concept. And while I still personally am on board with it being the main way we get around this hardcore wipe, there are some obvious growing pains that need to an addressed soon. But before we get into what’s wrong with the transit system this wipe, let’s reflect on the marathon mode, when transit was introduced, what happened after the event, and the very recent change made to transit that can make it a viable playstyle should BSG nail down some of the problem points with the system as a whole.

(It was never really popular, even with marathon)

Marathon was an event added into the game and by selecting that mode from the Tarkov map menu, you were forced to start on Ground Zero and from there, work your way across each location one by one until you got to Shoreline and earned the achievement. On paper again, this is such an interesting way to play the game. Not only do you need to think about the map you are on, but you also need to prepare for potentially up to nine other maps you will travel through. Extra ammunition, food, and even protection was a wise idea because you could quickly run out of supplies even after just one transit point. What unfortunately soured this mode of play was learning that even if you were playing marathon, the other PMCs in your raids could just be people queuing onto that one map. It would’ve been so much more interesting to only be playing with other marathon players. That way, you knew if you got to Lighthouse and came across another PMC, you know they’ve made it through seven or eight maps as well. Regardless, marathon was their attempt at adding a new way of moving around the locations for two reasons: the first was to prepare for the eventual 1.0 release, where getting to each location will not be simply clicking on the map and going there. It will initially be a much more linear experience as you explore the entire region and find your footing in all the different locations. The second reason is because BSG must’ve realized at some point that open world in EFT is simply out of the equation, which is sad to think about. Having a world like DayZ where we can get from one location to another simply by walking there would’ve fundamentally changed not only Tarkov but this entire genre as well.

But the main problem is that marathon was never really popular to begin with. Sure, lots of people tried it and thought the idea was interesting, but unless you were trying to get the achievement or even worse, challenging yourself to go through each map starting with literally nothing, the mode quickly fell out of any interest by most players. Once the event was over, they ended up adding the ability to regular raids after the first minute of a raid. But even still, it wasn’t popular; there was no major incentive to going from one map to another, especially if you had completed a couple of quests and just needed to extract. That transit points wouldn’t count as a survive so if you died on the second map, you’d have to do the quest all over again, which was enough for people to not engage with the mode at all. What would’ve made sense then if this was BSGs plan all along, was to look at the transit points and the mechanic in its entirety, revise and iterate upon it and make those changes front and center for people who were worried that this was going to ruin the hardcore wipe. Sadly, none of that happened; the mechanic hasn’t changed since it was introduced with one major exception. Now, if you transit to another map and a quest requires a survive status, it will now count that transit as a proper extraction, so you will be able to turn the quest in even if you die on the next map. That is genuinely a huge positive chance for transit, but it’s not enough.

(What would need to change to Transit?)

The mechanic people are almost demanding be changed is the transit points. They just want to be able to queue onto whatever map they like without question. And BSG has already said they will be slowly rolling out maps in the next coming, well, they didn’t give us a timeline, but I would have to imagine week or two. It won’t be like this forever. But that begs a good question: if it was to stay like this for the whole wipe, what would BSG need to adjust for players to be more satisfied with transit being the main focus of the wipe? No matter what they do, they will never please everyone, and while I personally have been enjoying the forced transit points, it’s certainly not perfect and some tweaks and iterations could be made to enhance the experience to be so much better. First and foremost, making the transit points work would be great. There have been a lot of players running into errors and crashing whenever they try to go to another map. So, simply making them work all the time would be the first and most logical step. Next, and this is something they have already addressed is expanding the spawn locations for people using the transit points so that players aren’t spawning on top of each other. Nothing ruins a raid more than dying because you literally spawned in front of someone. And this is something that was happening way before this wipe; with the transit points just being usable in regular Tarkov. It’s not acceptable and should’ve been fixed a while ago if they planned for the transit points to have a major role in this wipe. But after that, what else could they do? Well, let’s rapid fire some ideas and see if any of them sound good. Whatever maps that we have to start on, those maps can access all the other locations through transit points (except maybe labs). Maps you transit to are still available to load directly into for a few raids after the first. Using transit points creates a stacking experience multiplier, rewarding those who use the transit points more than once, playing into the idea of risk and reward. Certain flare colors can be used while on a map to open a random transit point for a certain amount of time. These are just a few ideas off the top of my head as I am writing this, and I can also immediately find issues with all of them, but I’m sure the community could come up with some interesting changes that would make transit points better as a whole but also respects the hardcore wipe.

(It’s going to change)

This doesn’t need to be said, but for anyone who is upset right now and unhappy with how things are, it’s going to change. In fact, it already has. Not just the transit points but the entire hardcore wipe as a whole. BSG is now allowing many more items in your first special slot. Some that maybe shouldn’t be allowed, but hey, they are giving us some of our power back but not scaling it a point that ruins the wipe’s hardcore identity. I bet by Monday; there will be another round of small touch ups such as lowering insurance costs and bringing some more maps into the pool. Just be patient, everyone. I know you’re up in arms about how this has all gone down, but there are still many people who are having fun and enjoying. There are still good reasons for hardcore to stick around. And while I and most of us are open and welcome to iterations on the current formula I just hope they don’t go too far and back down on this being a hardcore wipe. I’ve said this several times, but the game needed a shakeup on this scale. People are being vocal about it and BSG is very active across social media trying to listen to all feedback. Would rather have them just use the survey function in the game, but I’ll take what I can get at this point.

(Outro)

Tarkov’s forced transit points really pissed the community off, and I understand why. It’s a half-baked system that was never iterated upon after it was launched and is now one of the biggest reasons players were so unhappy. But there is still time to adjust it and make it better for everyone. While I am having fun and enjoying the challenge and difficulty, many are not, and while this wipe should stay hardcore, if there is a unanimous agreement that things are in need of some change, then a change should be enacted. Like I said, things are going to get better; things are going to get easier. The insane rigidness of this wipe will begin to smooth out. My only hope is that BSG doesn’t smooth out too much, because then we kind of have a neutered version of the regular game. And this is supposed to be about the hardcore experience. So, preserving as much of that as we can while also respecting the player is a delicate and tough balance, I hope they can nail down. Thank you very much for taking the time out of your day to watch this video. Let me know down in the comment section below your thoughts on the transit system currently, how you would improve it, or would you simple remove it and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the changes that came with this wipe and some more potential ideas that could make the overall experience better without ruining the hardcore identities of this wipe. I hope to see you in future ones.