Escape from Tarkov: Controversial balance change after fan criticism weakened

 With Patch 0.12.4 got Escape from Tarkov some map changes to Interchange and two new gameplay mechanics and a skill reset - but no character-Wipe - donated. The fans found one change so uncool that the developer Battlestate Games immediately reversed it - at least partially.

Battlestate listens to its fans & offers compromise

Update 0.12.4 was originally supposed to increase the level to be able to use the flea market to 15. Previously, rank 5 was enough to access loot that players had put up for sale and offered for sale.

Fans criticized the increase in flea market access so harshly on Reddit, Twitter and the official Tarkov forum that Battlestate Games was now persuaded to weaken the change: After patch 0.12.4 was deployed, the developer announced on Twitter that that the flea market will now be accessible from level 10 - and not only from level 15.

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A compromise with which fans can apparently reconcile: The excitement about the raised flea market level seems to have subsided, instead other aspects of Update 0.12.4 are being discussed: For example, the new weight mechanics are being criticized. How satisfied the fans are with the interchange changes remains to be seen.

Why players criticized the later access to the flea market

Not all, but many players weren't too happy with the initial increase in Flea Market access from level 5 to 15. The community criticized, among other things, that the entry hurdle for one or the other Tarkov newcomer could be "too high" if the game itself is already very difficult and demanding.

As a result, it was stated that you only get access to "really good weapons and equipment" when the flea market opens, whereas previously you had to fall back on goods from relatively low-level dealers. Too high a level for the use of the flea market would create a "gap between players with high and low level" - as described by player Spoona8, for example.

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However, not every member of the Tarkov community shared this opinion: th3_ghost reported, for example, that in the course of various quests level 15 "can be reached in around five hours of play", while for MattyB-02 a difficult entry "simply belongs to Escape from Tarkov "would.

For the new Escape from Tarkov feature, your skills will be reset

 With update 0.12.4 Escape from Tarkov gets two new features that make the survival shooter more realistic and thus even more difficult: fatigue and overweight. And while fans are currently waiting for the next character wipe, it will probably not be there for the time being.

Strength & stamina of your characters back to zero

Developer Battlestate Games announced on Twitter that with patch 0.12.4 there is still a wipe, but on a much smaller scale. In order to implement the new weight system from Escape from Tarkov, two skills of your character will be reset to zero: Endurance and Strength - i.e. endurance and strength.

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Players who have already leveled their stats to the max will no doubt be disappointed with this news. However, you have to keep in mind that Escape from Tarkov is still in beta and therefore there are regular resets - about every six months, for example, a complete character wipe.

In addition, resetting the two stats Endurance and Strength is important for both the developer Battlestate Games and the players in order to get a feel for the new weight feature of Escape from Tarkov: Does the new feature work properly? Where is there potential for improvement? What do players think of the new feature?

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After patch 0.12.4, the weight of your equipment, weapons and the loot you carry will have an impact on a number of aspects: For example, your own noise level increases if you carry too much stuff with you. The movement speed of your own character is also restricted, while certain actions require more stamina.

What does patch 0.12.4 change to Escape from Tarkov?

Patch 0.12.4 for Escape from Tarkov was deployed on March 12, 2020.

As already mentioned Escape from Tarkov gets two new features with the fatigue effect and overweight. In addition, the popular Map Interchange has been revised to counteract the problem of so-called "extraction campers". By the way: In the GameStar community, the Customs card has turned out to be your most played favorite.

Update 0.12.4 also brings a balance change that divides the community: In order to be able to fall back on the flea market, players should first reach level 15 with their PMC. Battlestate Games has already responded to the criticism of the fans and announced on Twitter that the required level for the flea market would be set to 10.

Invisible cheaters in Escape from Tarkov steal your inventory empty

 In Escape from Tarkov, cheaters are increasingly up to mischief who use a kind of invisibility hack and steal your inventory without noticing. Several posts are making the rounds on Reddit that deal with the issue.

Here you can see how one of these cheaters suddenly appears out of nowhere when his invisibility apparently quits their service for a short time:

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A player also complained about his suffering on YouTube. His modded M4 was stolen from the poor guy's hands by a brazen cheater in the middle of the raid. We have embedded the video for you:

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Developers are on the trail of hackers

Meanwhile, the head of Battlestate Games developer, Nikita Buyanov, has commented on Reddit about the recent problems with cheaters. Accordingly, they have already "initiated countermeasures" to banish the cheaters on one hand and to fix the causes on the other.

"We are aware of the problem, the situation is being monitored and all necessary measures are already being taken. All these fraudsters will be banned and we are preparing additional measures against such exploits."

Much increased interest

The increasing number of cheaters is also likely to be related to the increased interest in hardcore shooters since the beginning of the year. After a successful promotion, Battlestate Games stated that Escape from Tarkov now has hundreds of thousands of competing players, which in turn caused server problems.

Escape from Tarkov has had problems with cheaters in the past. In order to create more transparency about the measures taken against fraudsters, in 2019, for example, the developers published a list of cheaters that were banned in the official forum.

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Meanwhile, an upcoming change in Escape from Tarkov, also related to dishonest intent, is dividing the community. To combat bots more effectively, access to the flea market has been increased from level 5 to 15. Players criticize that this could widen the gap between beginners and professionals.

New balance change in Escape from Tarkov divides the community

A change in patch 0.12.4 for Escape from Tarkov does not exactly cause enthusiasm in the community. It's about a balance adjustment at the flea market - the player-centered economy in the survival shooter.

Specifically, the upcoming Tarkov update contains a change in access to the flea market: In future you will have to reach level 15 with your PMC in order to be able to trade on the flea market. So far, level 5 was sufficient.

We asked for your opinion on the change in our Escape from Tarkov forum thread. A rather negative picture emerged.

That's what the GameStar community says

Opinions about the upcoming update for Escape from Tarkov are not positive. For GameStar user Robbsen2992, the flea market implemented at the end of 2018 was a real relief:

"The flea market was a real blessing for me because I do not play that often and so far I've seen level 5 as the first important stage, after which the game became much more fun for me."

User Spoona8 fears that the higher flea market level "could widen the gap between players with high and low level". This would make it difficult for newcomers, as they would have to fall back on relatively weak weapons, ammunition and armor from low-level dealers. Meanwhile, players with access to the flea market can theoretically buy anything and are therefore better equipped.

"It will be very frustrating, especially at the beginning, when you can hardly do PMCs with mid to high gear and are killed by PMCs and Scavs with a bullet because there is no suitable armor."

Player noe12372 thinks "it takes too long to get to level 15":

"I am currently lvl 15 and have 135 hours of play. Certainly it is much faster, but a beginner will also need so long to be able to unlock the flea market and that is a bit too long in my opinion. However, I did not do any quests because I just do not feel like it and find it boring. "

The experienced player th3_ghost counters this by stating that "level 15 can be reached in around five hours of play" by completing the quests. That makes the missions indispensable for new players or after a wipe:

"Quests are compulsory. Level 15 can be done in a good 5 hours."

Logically, experienced players can reach the flea market faster after a wipe than someone who has never been to Tarkov before and has yet to learn all the mechanics.

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That's what other players say

On Reddit there are also voices who do not find the higher entry level for the flea market in Escape from Tarkov bad. So a difficult entry is simply part of it for some fans. User MattyB-02 writes:

"Honestly, lvl 15 isn't too hard to get to. One week of quest hunting and this should be done. I agree it will be tougher for newer players, but that could be a positive change in my opinion."

What do you think of the planned change to the flea market level in Update 0.12.4 for Escape from Tarkov? Write us your opinion in the comments!

Escape from Tarkov will be even more difficult with patch 0.12.4

 Escape from Tarkov is notorious for its merciless level of difficulty and its high demands on realistic and immersive gameplay. With Patch 0.12.4 two new features coming in the Survival shooter that again promote this principle to the extreme: The mechanics "overweight" and "fatigue".

The two new systems in patch 0.12.4

1. What does the new fatigue effect entail?

The fact that characters have a stamina bar that is emptied by actions such as sprinting or jumping is not something new in Escape from Tarkov or video games in general. For patch 0.12.4 developer Battlestate Games came up with a new trick.

Escape from Tarkov divides your stamina meter into "arms" and "legs". Actions such as aiming, throwing grenades and close combat empty the arms bar, while jumping, sprinting and changing body positions affect the legs bar. As soon as the arm stamina is used up, the leg groin also begins to wane.

The fatigue effect takes effect when the endurance of your character is kept at a low level for a longer period of time: the higher the fatigue effect, the further the energy consumption of your actions increases - a vicious circle of efforts.

2. What does being overweight entail?

The principle of overweight in Escape from Tarkov should be familiar to players of titles like Fallout 4 or The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim: If there is too much stuff in the inventory, running and sprinting are no longer possible, comfort functions such as fast travel are also deactivated.

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In Escape from Tarkov, certain weight values ​​for weapons, equipment and loot with patch 0.12.4 also bring effects that are far more serious: For example, your own noise level is increased if you carry too much stuff around with you. The speed of one's own movements is also restricted, while the consumption of endurance skyrockets.

Incidentally, these are not the only major changes in Patch 0.12.4 for Escape from Tarkov: We recently reported that developer Battlestate Games is making important changes to the popular Map Interchange with the new update.

The patch notes for update 0.12.4 at a glance

Patch 0.12.4 for Escape from Tarkov currently has no release date. Developer Battlestate Games has not commented on it either in the livestream or in the official blog post.

All of the official patch notes for Update 0.12.4 are as follows:

Added

Interchange has been revised.

The light on Interchange has been updated.

New interactive objects, new extracts.

Various issues with culling, physical collisions have been fixed.

New mechanics, obesity. The character gains various negative effects or properties while carrying a certain weight (increased noise level of the equipment, limitation of movement speed, increased stamina consumption, etc.).

Added the fatigue effect that occurs when the character keeps stamina at a low level for a long time. The energy consumption increases with this effect.

The character's stamina display is now divided into "arms" and "legs". The endurance of the arms is used up when aiming, throwing grenades and in close combat. The endurance of the legs is consumed when sprinting, jumping, changing body positions, etc. Leg stamina also begins to wane as arm stamina drops to zero.

Trade, Flea Market, and Inventory buttons have been added to the bottom of the user interface for quick access.

New hand grenades based on the prototypes VOG-17 and VOG-25.

The resolution of the screen is determined automatically when the game is started for the first time and adopted as the default setting.

New weapon mods.

New outfits for character customization

New BEAR top called "Telnik"

New BEAR pants called "Tiger"

New USEC upper part named "TIER2"

New USEC trousers named "Commando"

New SCAV top named "Russia Olimpic Jersey"

New body armor, tactical vests, backpack, helmet, active headset

Grenade box.

New barter items and new trading options that require this loot.

New options for crafting in hiding.

New quests with new outfits as a reward.

optimization

Minor light optimizations.

Small optimizations of the decals.

Various optimizations for server stability.

Fixed

Fixed a bug where saving the weapon preset, all inventory and trade actions could freeze.

Some of the errors in the inventory display at a screen resolution of 2k (or 1440p) have been fixed.

Fixed an issue where AI corpses could disappear after or during a reconnect.

The display of notifications when receiving weapons from a SCAV box has been corrected.

Fixed a bug that prevented the production timer from updating when the generator ran out of fuel.

Fixed a bug that made it impossible to enter the hideout after transferring graphics cards from the Bitcoin farm.

An error has been fixed where the context menu - for objects brought in by SCAV - did not appear.

Fixed a bug that caused the item not to be