Dear Battlestate Games, (An open letter)

I want to reinforce this before we get into the weeds of this discussion: I don’t want this to feel like I’m dogpiling on issues that the community at large knows about already and how they are severely affecting both the game and community as a whole. I also don’t want to make it sound like I’m raising the alarm and that Tarkov is on death’s door. It's not, and in the long run the game should be fine. I am simply trying to collect issues that we (and in some cases I personally) have currently with the game and present them in a way that is digestible and that people can freely think for themselves and either agree or disagree with the points I bring up. I am not the first person to raise awareness to these issues, nor will I be the last. I simply would like to express my thoughts and feelings towards them and how I have perceived what has been going on recently. This will be coming from someone who loves this game, and wants to see it all the way through to completion. I am in BSG’s corner 100%. However, that doesn’t mean they are immune to constructive criticism delivered in such a way that hopefully what I say comes off as concerned and not entitled or scornful. I am not a game developer; I don’t know how hard it is to make a game. But I can imagine it’s very challenging. I am just a tiny fan who has been trying to be creative with this game for the last almost year and a half now. But I am a fan who, again is concerned for the future or this game.

Dear Battlestate Games,

Escape From Tarkov is a life changing video game experience. It has truly broken the mold with the vastly different ways the team has tried to differentiate itself from other games in the same genre. Others are now trying to take a stab at being Tarkov-like; that’s a good thing. It means the industry has seen what this game has done for it and how much people love the game. I am glad Tarkov has gotten the recognition it deserves. As someone who has been playing it for almost 5 years, I am proud to have been able to see the game grow, evolve and change over the course of its life. The game we have now is objectively better in every way compared to its 2017 counterpart. It continues to iterate and improve upon itself with every major patch release and I can’t wait to see what else they have in store for us in the future.

But right now, we have a problem.

We have a lot of problems, actually. Their speed for development has slowed down. A lot. Which makes sense because the game has gotten so big over the years, that their plans for the game and what comes first on the priority list has changed probably many times. But what concerns me are the features and changes that may be getting pushed back or outright scrapped. One example that has had me scratching my head recently is with this wipe. We got the expansion for Lighthouse, but where’s Lightkeeper? It seemed like he was guaranteed to come with this patch, and then it was changed to be shortly after this patch, and now I wonder where is he? As the first in-game trader to come to Tarkov, I can only imagine the technical hoops they had to jump through to make it not only just function as they intended, but in such a way that makes sense for the game of Tarkov. But with the biggest addition to the patch being moved back until further notice, the rest of the patch was nice, but it left me feeling a little empty. So, I hope that any setbacks they have encountered with this addition are resolved and we get him in the game sooner rather than later. I am very interested so see what it’s like to actually walk up to a non-hostile NPC and be able to buy and sell things with him.

Balance is another point of contention. And this one has been beaten to death on more than one occasion. It’s better, and it continues to get better with weapon and armor balance, but there are still some areas that I hope are improved over time. 762x39 is still arguably the most reliable and consistent round, and has been for about 3 wipes now. It would be nice to see it toned down just a tiny bit. Whether that’s just more raw recoil on the actual round itself or perhaps the guns get just a touch more recoil. I’m talking single percents here, nothing crazy. They made it harder to get this patch by locking it behind grenadier instead of punisher part 5, but even then, it feels really strong and like ol’ reliable. Other ammos have gotten a lot of love which is wonderful to see, but daddy BP is still king when it comes to ammo.

And when I say balance, I don’t just mean ammo, AI and bosses especially have been under a lot of scrutiny lately. The new Rogue bosses being the antithesis of why people are so frustrated with the AI as a whole. They are flagrantly over tuned and not fun to fight in any capacity whatsoever. In fact, you don’t fight them. You usually die before you see any of them. And if you survive the initial barrage of bullets and launched grenades, you can just cheese them. Because like most AI in the game, they fall apart in certain situations and are vulnerable. There’s no middle ground with these guys, or any of the bosses, really. The Goon Squad got I think it was two paragraphs worth of lore on how they work together and use radio and comms to talk to one another, and that shit means nothing with how they engage the player right now. It’s so sad that they would put the effort in to help ground them into the world of Tarkov, only for them to be god tier slayers. I’d argue Reshala is the “fairest” boss in the game, and Tagilla before his AI got runied somehow and he kind of became stupid. But Sturman, Glukhar, Killa? They all suck to fight. Better pray you see them before they see you, otherwise it’s a quick head, eyes back to your stash. It sucks; they should be challenging and engaging. Constantly changing their strategy and methods of attack. But they just stand there and point shoot their guns with extreme accuracy. Maybe one day they will be difficult for the right reasons, but as of right now, they are just tanky aim bots and it’s sad.

Progression is something that has personally burned me for some time now. What for a while felt like a smooth and interesting progression of the game and its mechanics and options for gear, has slowly turned into a rat race to get to max level traders and kappa as fast as humanly possible. I can’t listen to my own advice; don’t pay attention to streamers and people who can play more than you. It’s not their faults by any means; it’s just a by-product of how much people enjoy playing the game. And while BSG has done many things to slow down how fast people fly through the game, their efforts are still not enough to REALLY slow people down. And the only way I can think of accomplishing that, is to exp cap people on how much they can earn per day. Now let me clear with this idea: it’s a dumb idea, I don’t want them to do it. But I can’t think of any other way of slowing people down who can get to 42 in roughly 72 hours. I just can’t. Again, it’s an extremely drastic and stupid idea that alienates people who can play the game more. But if BSG whole-heartedly want to stop people dead in their tracks, an exp cap is the only way I can think of going about it. But it’s frustrating to watch the community get all excited for a wipe, schedule time off and get all prepped and ready, only to have people absolutely blow through the game, as if there is something at the end if you win and are first. There’s nothing there; you just go through all the content and end up with end game gear before everyone else. I’d actually love to hear people's perspectives on why they grind through Tarkov as hard as they can. Other than doing it because they can or it’s their livelihood, I’d be super down to hear some other takes on this matter.

And of course, the biggest issues right now are cheating and the impact it is having on the community at large. Everyone has been affected by cheating one way or another. Some more so than others. It can be difficult to call out actual cheaters in the game because of other issues such as de-sync and other bugs currently in the game. As well as any exploits or unintentional features that people have discovered. But cheating, is legitimately ruining this game. I won’t say killing the game, at least not yet. But this is something that BSG needs to be put to task for and called out on. They have anti-cheat, but some say it basically does nothing. Some are being targeted by groups of cheaters and griefed, while others don’t see any for 20 raids in a row. Who you ask and when you ask will give you a large variety of answers, but there are cheaters in the game and making it worse. What makes this situation even more ludicrous than it already is, are fairly high-profile players who are even apart of either the sherpa or emissary programs being caught either using or playing with people who cheat. That’s probably the worst thing to come out of this; you don’t know who to trust anymore. It’s already hard enough that it’s difficult to figure out whether someone was cheating from the information the game gives you, but now it feels like anyone can be a cheater. I’m not trying to make this dramatic, but it sucks not knowing how you died and whether or not the person on the other end is legitimate or not. Either way, I wish BSG was a little more transparent about the situation, but I understand why they wouldn’t want to be. It may promote more people to look into cheating in some way, shape, or form. I just wish they were willing to take that risk. They of all people should know how much bigger their game is now versus two and a half years ago. It’s a different game, honestly. And with that, comes more attention. And with that, comes people trying to not only ruing the experience, but profit using illegitimate methods of playing the game. If it upsets you, don’t worry. We’re all upset at this, and are hoping changes will be made to try and combat this as best they can. BSG and honestly any company will never be ahead of cheating; it’s impossible. But if they are always at their heels, it can be enough pressure to maybe make them slow down or look for another game. Everyone’s experience will be different; some better and some worse. Take it on a case-by-case basis, and try to draw your own conclusions from your time playing the game again.

Escape From Tarkov is one of the greatest games I’ve ever played. That goes double for multiplayer games; there isn’t anything on the market like it, and that’s why so many people are attracted the game in the first place. The game has cemented itself as an important and integral step in the evolution of first-person shooters. But the game is not perfect (no shit). Tarkov has come a very long way from its humble beginnings, but the road ahead is still vast, with a lot of twists and turns into areas we don’t know about. Whatever BSG wants to do with the game, I’m all for. However, I hope deep in my heart and soul that issues we are talking about today will be resolved eventually. We don’t know if cheaters will be brought down to a level that is acceptable, because they aren’t going away that’s for damn sure. We don’t know if the game will ever be balanced enough that everything has a chance of killing everything. We don’t know if all the connection issues, de-sync, stutters, glitches, bugs, and backend errors will go away. We just don’t have the information to make those conclusions. And while this video may have been kind of a Debbie downer, there is still a piece of me that has a strong hope that things will turn out okay. That the game will reach the finish line, and be the true vision that not only BSG and Nikita wants, but the entire community as a whole. We know the game has the potential to do so. Lead the way BSG.

Sincerely,

A concerned fan from a concerned community.

I know this video was kind of a lot. It was mostly me speaking from the heart, and how I am indeed genuinely concerned with the issues brought up in this video. I’m not trying to blow this out of proportion, but more so address some issues that I’ve had with Tarkov, as well as the community at large. If there’s something in the video that rubbed you the wrong way, I do apologize; the intent wasn’t to start any kind of heat arguments over the game. I just wanted to express my personal perspective on what’s going on and what I think of everything. This was more of just a venting session, so if you made it to the end, I really do appreciate you hearing me out. You’re more than welcome to sound off in the comments and give your impressions: good, bad. Do you agree? Disagree? Sound off down below.