Tarkov Has Graced Us with Another Roadmap (July/Quarter 3 Roadmap)

(Intro)

It wouldn’t be an ordinary day for Tarkov without going over another newly released roadmap for the game that showcases upcoming changes and additions for the foreseeable future. And while the focus is specifically on July, at least that month seems rather jam packed with tons of new content and a major addition to the game that will allow players to fundamentally experience a different kind of Tarkov. If you’ve watched any of the previous videos going over the roadmap, you know how we’re going to do this; let’s talk about the roadmap as a whole, go over most of the items listed across the panels and see what’s in store for the game. And then after just have a conversation about the potential impact these changes will have on the game as a whole and whether or not we will even see most of these changes make it into the game. It’s the same song and dance every single time, but at least we get to see different things that battle state wants to add into the game. Whether they manage to actually do that, well that’s a different story entirely.

(The entire roadmap [it doesn’t seem like much at first glance])

The roadmap itself mainly focuses on the entire month of July. Granted, we aren’t given specific dates or times frames within July as to when this stuff is going to be released, so we’ll just wake up one day and it’ll be patch day. But before that, a couple of things that are leading us into July is the introduction of the expansion hub inside the game, which allows players to buy stuff with I believe and don’t quote me on this, either real money, so you don’t have to go through the website which is kind of a nice change so purchase can be made more easily, but also with the new currency being added, Tarkov coin. What this does exactly or how you acquire it exactly isn’t known as far as I can tell from looking on forums, but a new currency that allows people to buy stuff will certainly be interesting to see the long-term impact it has across the game and ecosystem if there even is one. I imagine it’s a rare drop from marked rooms and such, but we’ll probably get more details when the patch drops. And right before the start of the month, we are getting a new event called blackout, which if I had to take a guess involves a stronger emphasis on night raids or at the very least a larger use of night vision, which I am super down with. Night raids can be incredibly immersive and fun under the right circumstances. For the longest time, night raids were kind of associated with a higher chance of running into cheaters and the like which I kind of get. Less people in general run night raids because of the hit to general visibility, so cheaters running amuck in those time zones doesn’t surprise me. And I’ve always advocated that as a game; we need to interact with night raids more often. Even if that means players who don’t have access to any kind of night vision need to run just flashlights and make it work; it’s a part of the game you kind of need to actively opt into which is fine, but it would be more interesting if sometimes we didn’t have a choice and needed to adjust both our play style and gear according to the time of day. Hopefully this is what the event turns into; we’ll just have to wait and see, but after that July is pretty jammed packed.

Firstly, and probably the biggest introduction into the game are seasonal characters. Something many have wanted for a long time and are finally getting to see how battle state implements them. We have some good ideas as to what they will look like, but we still don’t know the timeframe each season will last, or the kinds of universal modifies that might impact the game across the board. Either way, I am very excited to see where this goes; good or bad, it’s nice to see them add something as drastic as seasonal characters. Lots of optimization and performance changes to make the game run better; that’s just par for the course. Adding the ability for your squad to contribute to your quests which will be great when everyone needs to hunt scavs and the like on the same map. I actually thought this had already been added, but it’s coming soon. A rebalance of insurance and hideout progression. This could either end up being really nice for the community or a classic case of one step forward and two steps back. Expanding interactive elements on maps I think means stuff like the BTR, which as someone who recently has dealt with him for icebreaker, I am certainly interested in what this could be. I would love to see him on other maps or at the very least having a one hundred percent spawn rate, but maybe it means more parts of maps that require his services to visit them, who knows. It’s fairly vague in the description so it could mean things as simple as the mounted turrets which would be a huge let down. New weapons gear and character customization are always appreciated. And the last notable inclusion is the observer camera or as we always called it the death cam. Now this, as simple as it sounds if done correctly, which is a huge asterisk, could be really cool to see. My hope is that it’s very similar to what the newer Call of Duty has done when spectating your teammates, which is to give you a helmet cam. It sounds to cheap and tacky, but it’s really cool and might lend itself to more cinematic moments. Sure, we all just usually share our screen on Discord anyways, so it does feel kind of moot, but the more features injected directly into the game that don’t require third party software to do the most basic tasks that should be in the game, the better.

After July they have a list of additional things coming in quarter three of this year which we can go over quickly. Ranked leagues are coming which I would guess are associated with the seasonal characters, so it gives the sweats something to grind and work for. Unlike that crappy leaderboard that was hosted on the official battle state website that was filled with cheaters way back in the day, it sound like this will be visible in game and something you can easily keep track of which is nice for those that wanted something like that. Finally, and I mean finally, they are addressing Lighthouse as a map and are making changes to it. When exactly again we don’t know, but at the very least it is slated for later this year, and I think many of us are looking forward to that. Nikita had posted some teasers of what the expansion looks like, and it seems rather substantial. But I’ll take anything at this point for that freaking map. Terrible. The ability to skip prestige’s with huge in-game fees is coming. Now, this feels like a band aid fix to what they have already done to the prestige system not that long ago. They made it easier across the board, which I always thought was kind of counter intuitive for what prestige in this and many other games was supposed to be. Something long term for players to work towards with larger-than-life requirements. I guess they wanted more people to engage with the system because they lowered it rather substantially, and now they are just allowing players to skip prestige levels entirely. It feels like they don’t know exactly what they want out of this system, but I can guarantee you it’ll easily be half a billion rubles or something to skip levels. It isn’t going to be cheap. A simple GPS system is coming which very much like the compass has been a long-requested addition, so people have a better idea as to which direction they are going or even just facing. My hope is that it’s like a battle royale compass where it’s at the top of your screen if you have a special item on you, and it has the numbers and cardinal directions there. Would be such a breath of fresh air to call out exact positions with numbers than trying to elaborate a specific tree out by the water away from the sun. That’s a skill in itself. A rework of available extractions is coming. Now this one also piqued my interest because it can mean a lot of different things. Does this mean we are getting more ways to leave maps? Less? Are they going to have more restrictions on them? Maybe a time gate before you can use them like the transit points? They could take this a ton of different directions, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens. A rebalance of both the trader system, which I would guess, means their inventories as well as their reputation. Again, something I think has been a long time coming. Because any owners of edge of darkness and above, have such a massive head start, they don’t need to quest technically until level fifteen which is insane. But whatever this ends up being, hopefully the acquiring of higher tiered traders feels more natural and smoother. Alongside their inventories feeling like smaller bumps in power instead of hitting level three and basically having everything you need. Lots of blackened changes like upgrading the Unity engine, better reconnecting systems, and more upscaling and super sampling options to again hopefully provide tools to increase performance for those that can take advantage of it. Those are all the highlights from the roadmap itself, now the million-dollar question: how much makes it into the game? How much actually benefits the game? And how much do they get half right or worse?

(The reality of these roadmaps)

The roadmaps as interesting and insightful as they are, are only so effective at conveying with the community what the future of the game looks like. We’ve had plenty of maps where there are promising changes, or things we’ve wanted for a long time that either come out half-baked or never release at all. I usually end up looking at these with a grain of salt unless we see things in the works on top of what is being relayed through these roadmaps. So, things like seasonal characters could be dope it just depends on how everything is being implemented. At least we know it’s happening because they’ve shown us user interface elements that go with this addition. But things like knocked out states and body dragging have only ever been mentioned on livestreams and never really developed further than that. My hope is that all of these goodies end up making it to the live game when they are listed here, but it’s difficult to trust battle state with that task when they have failed it so many times in the past. Ultimately, all we can do is wake up one day, see they put out a patch, check out the notes, and update the game when the time comes. Either way, at least the next few months look promising for Tarkov, if they can deliver everything in these notes.

(Outro)

It’s roadmap time once again, and while this one isn’t as robust as previous ones with only one month being the major focus and a vague ideas into the future of what else is coming down the line, I do appreciate that we get these every now and again because it gives us at least an idea of what battle state is currently working on, where their head is at, and what their major focus is. Whether or not they deliver is something else entirely. I am looking forward to seasonal characters, and all the little bits and bobs being changed in the coming month and beyond. We will be going over most of these major changes in greater detail as they release, so look forward to that. But for now, I’ll see everyone for season one of Tarkov’s newest ways to play the game. 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 this roadmap, what you are most excited for if anything, if you think battle state will blunder this opportunity and be sure subscribe for more videos about changes, additions and upcoming major inclusions into Tarkov that we’ve wanted for many years. I hope to see you in future ones.