The Impact of Tarkov’s Most Controversial Addition

(Intro)

Tarkov has had a large variety of additions to the game that depending on who you asked, were either good for the game, or controversial at best. EFT is an immersive extraction shooter and from the get-go, it always wanted to lean into the difficulty and the grittiness that comes from being in the middle of a fictional war-torn city. But sometimes, they perhaps leaned into this a little too much; and that was reflected in both major and minor additions to the game that ultimately changed how the community both played and talked about it as a whole. Whether it was mechanical, weapons, balance, and anything else in between there have been moments where the community collectively looked at what was being added and was worried it might negatively impact the game, so much that it would ruin the game and drive players away. Today, we’re going to break down a variety of things that have been put into EFT, see what the initial reaction was like and then how much of an impact these changes had on the game as time went on.

(Explosives of any kind)

The first additions to the game that always made people sweat when they saw a new version of it being added was explosives of any kind. For a game so focused on gun play and the nuances around different weapons and calibers, explosive ordnance has been something of a mixed bag in EFT. In the right hands, under the right circumstances, explosives can be insanely powerful and turn the tide of a fight to outright winning it before the fight even begins. Normal grenades with different fuse timers are one thing; grenades that explode on impact is something else entirely. Sure, there is an argument that it would equate to being one-tapped by any weapon in the game. But those weapons can take out a five-man squad in one action. You’d have to spray the entire squad down and maybe use more than one magazine to get the job done. But an impact grenade? Just throw it, hope it leaves your hand before you fall over, and you might just wipe out a team in one fell swoop. Luckily, they have been generally tame across the game as a whole. They’re not super easy to get your hands on outside of events or special occasions, and their lethal radius is only a couple of meters; much less than traditional grenades. But it isn’t just impact grenades that people thought would be problematic; trip mines was another serious concern from people.

There was a chance that these would genuinely ruin the game. Because at least with grenades, you need to throw it and potentially expose yourself to danger during that process. But mines? Just set it and forget it. Someone isn’t paying attention, walks over the live wire, and boom. Easy, free loot for you. Especially considering they are sneaky and tough to spot if you aren’t looking for them. And there are a lot of locations across Tarkov where these kinds of traps can be extremely lucrative. But for the most part, again, these have been relatively tame after their introduction. You need to do a couple of quests before you have access to them, they can be bought from traders but in small batches per reset and are somewhat costly. And their implementation was smart; they only last ten minutes before automatically being disconnected, you can defuse them, and how long it takes for the mine to go off depends on the fuse time of the grenade used. So, a decent number of safeguards to prevent them from ruining the game. Does it still suck to die to one? Of course. But when was the last time you ran into a mine that was placed by a player and not Partizan? I genuinely can’t recall. So, while certainly not perfect, trip mines could’ve been added in so many worse ways that we’re kind of lucky they work the way they do.

(Scav Karma)

Scav karma is a really interesting change for EFT. Scavs essentially being the backbone for many different players; allowing them to either cool down after a successful or unfortunate raid and just hang out and mess around with friends. Tarkov would be such a different game without the ability to scav, and BSG knows this all too well. For years, it was simply eat or be eaten. Sure, you could try to work together with random other players you come across, but before VOIP was added it was difficult to try and coordinate anything. So, the combination of VOIP and scav karma together forever changed how people engage with their disposable character. Now, there is incentive to try and work together and not just shoot on sight. Or worse, work with someone to take out the scav boss of that map and then have them stab you in the back because they wanted all the loot. Granted, that still happens but now there is a penalty for it. Karma as a system is still controversial and hasn’t been fully flushed out yet (at least from what we know). But on paper, the idea is sound and makes sense. Work together, trade items, and don’t shoot each other as scavs. But there are still some people who miss the old days before it was added. One component I do miss personally, is being able to fight the bosses and not lose karma. It was genuine fun to try and take a crappy scav kit and take out an entire boss squad, especially on Reserve. But now, we can’t do that. It would also be nice if since we aren’t allowed to fight them, maybe don’t make the boss hostile to us immediately. Please?

(Lightkeeper)

Lightkeeper is the first in world trader to be added into the game. We’ve been teased with Prapor having an actual 3D model and voice lines, but Lightkeeper was the first true test to see if they could actually do it. Low and behold, they got him working in the game. His placement is… interesting, to say the least. Located on Lighthouse, if you want to go and talk to him, there is a lot you need to do before you can have access to him. Tons of quests, pre-requisites, and grinding to be allowed access to the actual Lighthouse Island. Keep in mind, when the map was first released and Lightkeeper was not on it yet, we had access to the island. There wasn’t much to do or reason to risk crossing the insanely exposed bridge to get there, but you could if you desired. Now however, access to the bridge has been blocked by not only claymores that one-shot you, but Lightkeepers protector, Zyriachy. Unless you have the signal transmitter active, if you even try to cross the bridge he will take you out. Once you do, it’s as simple as crossing over, climbing the stairs and talking to him. For a while now, he is only someone who gives you more quests; he has no inventory or store to engage with, which is ultimately what BSG said he was going to be at some point. Most likely he will provide us with the highly sought after and exclusive items, such as powerful ammunitions and most forms of explosives outside of regular grenades. But he still doesn’t have that implemented yet. He only provides quest. Initially, people were very much intrigued how he was going to work. But once he got added and we had a clear understanding how to get to him, interest quickly fell off. He’s too hard to get too; not so much because of the quests, but how much luck you need with finding a variety of items to build the components necessary to see him. I agree that we shouldn’t be able to just walk up to him whenever we want, but how they’ve gone about adding him and his requirements is a little ridiculous. At least not everyone is trying to reach him. There are plenty of people myself included that saw what needed to be done and simply said, I’ll pass. So, while this addition could’ve been disastrous, it seems as though only the ardent of player will eventually see what’s behind that grate.

(Inertia/weight system)

If it’s one thing players of EFT hate, it’s when the movement of their character is messed around with. And we had two different instances of exactly that happening. First was the weight system; a means to slow down players who were carrying potentially hundreds of kilos worth of gear on them and still moving at full speed. BSG didn’t like that there was basically no penalty for being heavy, so they introduced a system that made your character slower the heavier they weighed. And while the idea is sound on paper, it’s implementation at the start was completely wrong. This might be the only mechanic on this list that was justified in having the player base retaliate against it. The values were too low, the penalties too high and at one point the head bob was so egregious that people were getting motion sick playing the game. Luckily, it didn’t take too long for BSG to reign in the values at the start and then slowly tune them to the point where we have it now. But it’s still talked about as something that we potentially never needed to have added into the game in the first place.

Inertia is the second round of messing with player movement. This entire mechanic was added to tackle the instant-ness of some player actions. Such as peeking around corners and holding angles. Now, things take time; acceleration kicks in so you slowly move in and out of cover instead of it happening in a few frames. You can also feel it more when you are heavy; watching as you character almost slides down to a standing position. Again, this is another mechanic that had a decent amount of pushback. Mainly because it wasn’t and still technically isn’t player movement that’s the culprit of the game feeling so weightless. It’s the server infrastructure and how long information takes to get from one player to another. This hasn’t changed in years and is still the main reason why we lose fights around corners sometimes. But both changes have had some of the most direct impact across the game as a whole. Now, players need to be careful with how much they want to get out of a raid. Otherwise, it’ll take them over ten plus minutes to do so; constantly throwing their bag on the ground, waiting for their stamina to come back and trudging along to extract. Many players still hate both changes, and I kind of see why.

(The overall theme of these changes)

You may have noticed that throughout us talking about these changes and additions, a lot of them don’t have the impact we all may have initially thought they would. Again, while some of these mechanics were more impactful than others, there wasn’t one that completely ruined the game permanently, or that wasn’t addressed within a timely manner. As time has gone on, it seems as though BSG has been much better at bringing something new to the game and having fill a rather niche role without being overtly busted or broken. For years, that wasn’t the case; BSG however, has matured and gotten older. Their knowledge and skill of how to make this game and what should be powerful has been dialed in. Even the newest explosive addition, the rocket launcher, while most likely bugged whenever it interacts with the BTR is locked behind a tricky quest of taking out thirty-five PMCs with explosives. Is it the most robust way to balance powerful items like the RPG? No, but it’s better than having it available to everyone and people just blowing up servers left and right. I’d rather tale the lazy and safe approach of locked behind annoying quest than giving free reign to all. But again, reflect on everything we’ve mentioned; all the mechanics and additions that felt they would be game-changing, but to just be this extra thing you can do if you put the time into it. It’s been a long time since something has come into the game and just ruined the entire balance of it, not since season two of Tekken 8 that’s for sure.

(Outro)

Tarkov has added a lot of mechanics and items that had people sweating when we ever saw them being worked on. From explosives to mechanics and new trader interactions, nothing in recent memory has been released that was so unhealthy for the game that it required immediate and swift action from BSG to be reeled in. We’ve been lucky; there were numerous times where I saw something and went oh no that’ll ruin the game, and to my surprise, it ultimately didn’t. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when we get to 1.0 and how much might potentially change. We’re not out of the woods yet; they can still screw it up. But some for reason, I have sone level of confidence they won’t. Here’s to hoping that ends up being the case. Thank you very much for taking the time out if your day to watch this video. Let me know in the comment section down below your thoughts on controversial mechanics in Tarkov, what you thought would ruin the game, whether it did or didn’t and be sure to subscribe for more videos about the roller coaster like journey that BSG has taken its player-base on over the years. I hope to see you in future ones.